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Wary nods.

One asked, “Are you a vampire? Haven’t seen a female vamp in centuries.”

“I am,” Mina said without shyness, though these nymphs were no foes. Maybe her time observing their sisters had truly emboldened her. Or maybe the entire world had just become one big training yard—where everyone was an opponent. Her arm ached, signaling another possibility: the rabidity of the plague already affected her. “Do you know where Loa might be?”

“Yeah, she’s meeting with a Valkyrie at Cemetery Number Three,notNumber One.”

“Can you provide directions?”

“Just follow the scent of lightning and bat. . . .” The nymph trailed off. Then in a burst of speech she exclaimed: “Whoa oh my gods your eyes flickered really red did you just cop a look at my neck?”

“Actually, no, I don’t drink from others.”

In unison, they all screamed, “Bloodlust!” They fled into the river, becoming one with it.

“I would never hurt you—” Mina’s hands flew to her neck as theránascalded her throat. Because shewouldhurt them? Gasping, she said, “I would never . . . consciously want . . . to hurt you.” At last, the burn eased, but disbelief gripped her.

This is happening. I’ve been afflicted.If she couldn’t get help, she would become a monster.Focus, Mina. Follow your new lead.

With no time to waste, she sorted scents and homed in on a trail of concentrated lightning. As she followed it over miles, the streets grew darker, the mortals fewer in number.

Ominous pressure settled over the area as some kind of supernatural force closed in. Though she was a vampire, typically the hunter in the night, she felt decidedlyhunted. Her hand rested on the hilt of her sword as the tiny hairs on her nape rose and her breaths condensed in puffs of smoke.

An inebriated human paused at a nearby lamppost to throw up. Vomit spewed—then slowed until it hung suspended in the air. All around her time stopped.

A time freeze? She’d read about these! She drew her sword, her pointed ears twitching.

Fourspectral males materialized atop eerie steeds not twenty feet from her. Clad in ragged black cloaks, they resembled decomposing reapers. Their eye sockets were empty, but they gazed right at her.

One’s head dipped. Was he “looking” at the clawed arm she’d concealed?

Comprehension.These creatures have arrived for me, a plagued vampire.Maybe the Horde hadn’t killed off their own females. Maybe these reapers had.

Mina sensed that tracing wouldn’t help her escape them. No more running. She raised her sword and gave them fair warning: “Continue on your way, sirs, or I will be forced to hurt you.”

One waved his rotting hand.

Her sword and scabbard disappeared. She could still defend herself, had trained all her life for this. “You won’t take me without a fight!” She assumed a strike pose, readying to rain hell on these villains.

Another wave of that reaper’s hand; Mina’s body went from strike pose to limp. Her face met the ground, and her thoughts faded to nothing.

Four

Nightside

The only thing that could make hell worse? Withdrawal. It hit Silt hard and fast.

The Gaolers had forced him to Nightside, dumping him in a mountain cave surrounded by plains of fire. They’d removed his shackles, then disappeared. Silt had no food, no water, not even boots. He’d been delivered to hell with only a pair of breeches. He heaved, barely tamping down the contents of his stomach.

When he’d first awakened here, he’d limped to the entrance of the cave, surveying the landscape in disbelief. This elevation offered a view of a floodplain spreading in all directions below. A distant volcano spewed rivers of lava across it.

No stars or moon lit the sky, which was just a dome of black. As Silt’s gaze swept the horizon, the impulse to sayfuck it allhad taken him by surprise.

But vengeance gave him a reason to fight. He would get free of this place and make those hunters pay. Every second of this agony could be laid at their feet, especially the Dacian’s.

Silt tried to recall anything he’d ever heard about those “mythical” vampires. They lived inside some hidden mountain range kept protected by magic. Stronger and faster than Horde vampires, they were said to worship cold intellects with their cold hearts.

An unusual Dacian skill might explain how the hunters had gotten past Silt’s barriers. But what had they done to Sequara? The scorpion would have given her life to protect Silt.