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“What the hell?” Ethan gasped.

“Innocente, watch out!” Pete cried out in terror.

Stumbling forward, Innocente met the girl in the midst of the broken tombstones and dry grass. The slender young thing fell into her embrace, clutching her tightly. Enclosing Bianca in her arms, Innocente felt the vampire trembling.

“It's okay. Just help us escape now. . . ” Innocente whispered in her ear. “Bring the dead up, but have them protect us!”

“Bianca!” Rachon roared in anger. “Bianca, come here!”

Prosper was closer, so he stomped toward them. “I told you she wasn’t right in the head, Rachon. ”

Bianca twisted in Innocente's arms and flung up one hand. The dead shot out of the ground, cutting off Prosper. Gasping, he stumbled back, surprised by the turn of events.

“Good girl!” Innocente said with delight.

Bianca raised another hand and more dead sprung up between them and Rachon. The vampires stared in surprise at the young woman.

“Bianca, obey me!” Rachon said, moving to rip the dead apart and descend on them.

“Pete, come here,” Innocente said. “Hurry!”

Ethan moved to cut him off, but more dead burst forth from the ground. The dead creatures grappled with Ethan, allowing Pete to slip past them.

“Good girl, Bianca,” Innocente said proudly. “We need to get Sergio, then we can go. ”

“I’ll get him!” Pete dropped into the grave where Sergio had collapsed earlier. “He's still alive!”

“Hurry, Pete!” Innocente cried out.

Rachon lunged forward, her hands shredding the corpses, but more sprang up to block her way. This time they attacked her, wrestling with her.

“Rachon!” Prosper leaped past the dead impeding him to rush to her defense.

Nearby, Ethan struggled with the corpses trying to wrest his gun from him.

Pete dragged Sergio out of the grave, grunting. “I need help. ”

The power around Bianca was growing. Innocente could feel it swelling as the girl faced the people who had kept her trapped for so long.

“Bianca, raise the graveyard,” Innocente instructed. “They will be too busy with the zombies to come after us. We have to help Pete with Sergio. ”

Pivoting toward Innocente, the glowing white eyes of the young woman seemed to grow brighter. Innocente felt her own power mingling with that of the necromancer vampire. Bianca's appearance was deceiving, for Innocente sensed the great dark majesty of the girl’s power expanding over the graveyard like a great cloak. Her appearance spoke of fragility and innocence, but her power was vast, great, and. . .

Innocente gasped.

…evil.

Bianca smiled.

“You!”

Bianca tilted her head, her fingers grazing Innocente's cheek. “No one defeats me. No one lives who defies me. ”

Innocente tried to jerk away, tried to scream a warning to Pete who was still grappling with her unconscious grandson, then she felt the delicate fingers of the girl's hand grip her arm. A gasp erupted from her lips seconds before she was tossed through the air, her body suddenly weightless. The world whirled around her, the cloudy sky tumbling about with the earth. Then she was falling, her body crashing through branches, her body spinning about. As the ground rushed up to meet her, she saw her husband standing in the darkness below her.

“Everything is going to be all right,” he said.

The earth met her with an agonizing embrace that devoured her last thoughts and extinguished her life.