He said nothing, unmoving. Not even his tail snapped back and forth to betray his anger. We stared at each other and I struggled to hold eye contact, unwilling to concede.

His arm swept out, nearly knocking me off my feet—and suddenly, I was behind him. He backed into me, pushing me into the wall. I was too short to see over his shoulder so I squeezed sideways to peer around his arm.

Two new arrivals stood just inside the front door, one propping a sledgehammer on his shoulder. Two pairs of ravenous black eyes, red rings glowing eerily around the white irises, were fixed on us, and the newcomers’ fingers were already extending into long, sharp claws.

Two more vampires had just crashed our party.

Chapter Eight

I pressed my hands against Zylas’s sides as though holding on to him would steady the swirl of confusion and fear in my head. What were more vampires doing in Claude’s destroyed townhome?

The taller vampire cocked his head. “Recognize the girl?”

His comrade nodded. “The niece, right?”

“Seems so. We should take her alive. Might be useful.”

“Fine with me.” The shorter vampire ran his tongue across his teeth, the pink tip resting against one curved fang. “Don’t want that demon vanishing on us before we get a taste.”

Zylas stiffened.

The short vampire swung the sledgehammer off his shoulder like it weighed nothing. “This is going to be good.”

Zylas stepped sideways, pulling me with him, then pushed me toward the hall with one hand. I understood. He wanted me to get clear.

The short vampire gave the sledgehammer one more swing, then launched across the kitchen. Zylas sprang to meet the charge, sliding past the sledgehammer’s heavy metal head. His claws caught the vampire’s chest, tearing through clothes and flesh. The man twisted frantically away.

Zylas spun on the tile floor, slashing at the stumbling vampire. Halfway through the motion, the demon ducked and the other vamp’s talon-like fingers just missed his head.

The three combatants whirled through the tiny kitchen in a confusing blur of limbs. Zora had warned that vampires were faster than humans, but these two were almost as fast as Zylas.

He dove away from another sledgehammer swing. Landing on his hands, he kicked backward, catching the vampire in the jaw and nearly snapping his neck. Zylas pivoted in a handstand and his spinning kick smashed into the second vampire. With a flip, he was on his feet again, claws shredding the tall vampire’s arm.

But flesh wounds had no effect on vampires.

Zylas leaped sideways to evade the sledgehammer—and hit the kitchen table. Thrusting his arm up, he caught a vampire’s fangs on his metal armguard, then rammed his fist into the vamp’s ribs, bones snapping loudly.

The sledgehammer swung again. Zylas darted away, and the sledgehammer split the table in half.

The other vampire tackled Zylas to the floor. Straddling the demon’s chest, the vamp grabbed Zylas’s wrists and pushed. The demon’s muscles bunched with power as he pushed back—and neither creature moved. Zylas’s eyes widened with shock that the vampire could match his strength.

Grinning, the shorter vamp pulled his sledgehammer out of the floor and prepared to swing it down onto Zylas while he was pinned.

I ran out of the hallway. As the vampire raised the sledgehammer over his head, I grabbed the end with both hands. The sudden addition of my weight tore the tool out of the vampire’s grasp. I dropped to the floor, the sledgehammer smashing the tiles between my feet.

The vampire whirled on me. I stumbled backward. My heel caught on the trim where the tile floor transitioned to the hallway carpet and I fell on my butt. The vampire stood over me, smirking hungrily.

Zylas!

He was across the room, pinned under a vampire. He’d never reach me in time—not without teleporting to my side. The vampire reached down, grabbed my jaw, and wrenched me toward its fangs.

Daimon, hesychaze! I screamed in my head.

Zylas’s body turned to crimson light and shot out from under the other vampire. The blaze flashed across the kitchen, hit the infernus on my chest, and rebounded.

Zylas reformed from the light, claws flashing as he lunged. Glowing talons sprouted off his fingers and he rammed them deep into the vampire’s chest. As the vamp fell back, Zylas tore his claws free. The other vampire was still scrambling to his feet as Zylas slashed his hand sideways. Crimson runes blazed up his arm and a blade of power flashed out. It whipped across the kitchen and hit the cabinets, shearing through the wood.

The second vampire’s severed head tumbled off its body and both fell to the floor with sickening thuds.

I panted for air, still sprawled on my butt, a dead vampire lying just beyond my toes.

Zylas’s crimson eyes swept over me. “So helpless, drādah.”

Great. A new insult. I wondered what this one meant.

“I helped,” I said stiffly. “Or didn’t you notice while that vampire was holding you down?”

His tail snapped side to side. “The female hh’ainun said vampires are not strong.”

“She did.” I winced as I pushed to my feet, fighting my squirming stomach as blood pooled across the broken tiles. “These vampires looked pretty strong.”

The stairs creaked and I whirled around, stepping sharply backward and bumping into Zylas. Amalia peered around the corner, her face white.

“Is it over?” she asked.

“Yeah. Thanks for your help.”

“Like I would’ve been of any use.” She sniffed, descending the last few steps. “Robin, did you hear what they said? They recognized you as ‘the niece.’”

“Wait, as in Uncle Jack’s niece? How do they know Uncle Jack? Unless—”

“Unless they’re also looking for my dad. There was a vampire at our house too. They’re searching for him. They beat us here and—”

I glanced at the sledgehammer. “They searched this house for clues about Uncle Jack’s location, just like we wanted to. But what would vampires want with a demon summoner?”

“I don’t know,” she said quietly. “But there’s a real good chance they might find my dad before we do.”

Perched on a stool at the Crow and Hammer’s bar, I sipped my glass of water. Why did it feel like we were further from finding Uncle Jack and the Athanas Grimoire than when we’d started?

Uncle Jack’s disappearance. My mother’s letter and the unknown danger she’d feared. Claude, who was missing as well, and his illegal demon. And now vampires.

Vampires. It didn’t make any sense.

Zylas was, in my biased opinion, nearly unstoppable. With his speed, the only opponents who presented a real threat were unbound demons like him, and even if an enemy could neutralize that advantage, Zylas had demonic strength that far outstripped any human’s.

But what happened if Zylas’s adversaries were almost as fast and almost as strong as he was?

That was a big problem, especially if they outnumbered him. As he’d shown at the townhouse, his magic could tip the scales, but he had to be very careful about using it. If anyone witnessed his magic, it would mean a death sentence for us both.

I pulled my glasses off and rubbed my face.