Dragomir added his advice. Don’t look directly into their eyes. Don’t allow their blood or saliva to touch you. If you have no choice, make certain it touches only where the oil covers you.

The ancient had Georg on the ground and was trying to extract the vampire’s heart. She could see that both vampires had slammed their fists into the chests of the hunters and it was a fight to see who could take the heart first. The sight sickened her. Although she couldn’t feel Tariq’s pain, she knew he felt it, because he was blocking her.

Charlotte’s heart stuttered as the first of the hounds came into view, pounding toward her on gigantic clawed feet. Teeth filled his open mouth and saliva hung in poisonous strings. Eyes glowed a terrible, hideous red, looking only at Tariq. Behind it, four more of the beasts broke cover and pounded toward them. One had three heads.

She stepped toward the leader and raised her bow. Her hand shook. The knowledge of how to use it was in her head, pushed there by the two ancient hunters. Taking a breath, she let the arrow fly. It missed the hound’s eye and lodged in the massive neck.

Instantly she let a second arrow go, not looking at the other hounds or how close they were to her. The hound was nearly on Tariq when it suddenly screamed, slid to a halt and staggered. Her arrow had hit true. The beast shook itself and slowly turned its head toward her. Time slowed down. She could hear her heart thundering in her ears, roaring so loud it drowned out every other noise. As the hound changed direction, leaping toward her, she let the third arrow fly.

The hound pulled back his lips to reveal massive, dripping, razor-sharp teeth. She could see its canines were like those of a saber-toothed tiger of old. The beast took a shuddering step toward her and then collapsed.

Charlotte knew time had slowed down for her, but while she’d been concentrating on the leader, the other four hellhounds had almost reached them. She began shooting arrows as fast as she was able. Another hound skidded to a halt, shuddered and went down. That was two out of five.

One got past her and leapt at Dragomir, trying for his back. While the hound was in the air, she flung the entire bucket of hyssop oil over the beast. At once his fur began to smoke and fall to the ground. Giant blisters appeared all over the hound’s back and sides. It dropped away from Dragomir and turned toward her. Charlotte shot it through one eye; the arrow quivered, not penetrating deep enough for the kill shot, but then she had to turn toward the one coming at her.

She managed to get off one shot before the hellhound leapt, taking her down to the ground. The hound’s breath was horrible. She dodged the stream of venomous saliva and plunged the arrow deep into the beast’s eye, using every bit of strength she could muster. Rolling, she got to her feet and ran toward the oil bucket, wanting to douse herself. Before she could get there, the last hound, this one three-headed, leapt at Tariq, red eyes glowing with evil intent. Clearly directed by Fridrick, it sprang on Tariq’s back, tearing at his flesh with the hideous teeth of one head while the other two heads reached around to sink teeth into his arms.

She couldn’t see more than one of its eyes. She ran at it, shooting the arrow into the one eye she could get to, close range, scoring true, but the hideous creature didn’t even flinch. She had to get it off of Tariq.

Charlotte envisioned a sword – a long, lethal sword with the sharpest blade imaginable. The hilt fit into her hand as if made for her. She gripped it with two hands and ran to Tariq’s aid. He was utterly calm, intent and focused on extracting Fridrick’s heart. He didn’t try to escape the savage teeth of the hound, or let on that the poison dripping in long threads from the three mouths burned through his skin straight to his bones.

She sliced through the massive neck of the head that was attacking the arm Tariq was slowly pulling from Fridrick’s body. The head dropped to the ground, those vicious eyes suddenly focused on her. Taking a deep breath, she sheathed the sword and let loose two arrows, right into the eyes that stared at her from the ground.

Lightning forked through the sky and laced the clouds above. Fridrick shrieked as Tariq pulled the heart from his body and tossed it beside the severed head of the beast. The hellhound went into a frenzy, ripping at Tariq to try to kill him. Dragomir tossed Georg’s withered, blackened heart down beside that of his brother. Even as Fridrick’s heart rocked, and then slid toward Fridrick as the vampire slumped to the ground, lightning struck fast, incinerating both hearts and the head of the hound.

The second head of the beast chewing on Tariq’s arm lifted to let out a howl. The third head didn’t seem to notice, teeth still tearing into Tariq’s back. Because Tariq was covered in hyssop oil, the fur on the hellhound began to smolder and slough off. Blisters covered the thick, bumpy skin. Tariq reached back with his bare hands and caught the beast’s massive head and, spinning hard, broke its neck. Startled, the creature fell back to the ground. One head cocked awkwardly to one side, the other head down low, eyes focused on its intended victim. The hound scrambled to its feet and began to stalk Tariq.

Movement caught Charlotte’s eye and she spun around to find a hound stalking her. One arrow protruded from one eye. It had its head cocked to one side and it stared at her malevolently. She hadn’t killed this one, only made it very, very angry.

Charlotte backed up, tripped and went down hard on her bottom. She slashed at the monstrous hound with the sword, drawn a bit awkwardly from the scabbard. The blade sliced through the massive throat and black blood poured onto the ground. At once the asphalt smoked and hissed.

Everything happened so fast she didn’t have time to be afraid. She had to keep moving or the thing was going to kill her. She couldn’t get up. Her feet slid in the oil that was splashed on the ground and she couldn’t get a good purchase on the asphalt. Then Dragomir was there, shooting the beast in the eye with an arrow and slamming a bolt of lightning into the carcass before it even hit the ground.

He yanked her to her feet and both turned to find Tariq, torn, bloody and triumphant, the three-headed hellhound at his feet.

Val fought his way through the wall of puppets. Fridrick would sacrifice them to stop the hunters from getting to Liv before the hybrid could kill her. He kept his gaze glued to the cage, where the child lay curled in a tight ball, in the fetal position, her hands clamped over her ears and her eyes shut tight. There was blood on her clothes, up high by her shoulder. Some in her hair. A steady stream of tears tracked down her face, but she wept silently.