“Our last shot failed,” I murmured, then tilted my head up to look at Stefan, who was standing behind me. “We’ve reached our last resort.”

“The Stain.”

I raised my hand to him. “I’ll help you.”

Stefan’s long cool fingers slipped around mine in a slow caress before he pulled me back to my feet. He stood holding my hand in silence for just a breath of time before releasing me. “Preparations need to be made,” he said. “The perimeter needs to be walked. The—”

“It will be handled.” I suddenly cut him off, fully aware of all that needed to be completed in an exceedingly short period of time. “Danaus, go find Shelly. Tell her to put Cynnia into another sleep spell. It’s the only way we’ll be able to protect her.” The hunter seemed to hesitate and I didn’t blame him. The naturi were lingering just beyond the protective wall of blue flames, the sun would soon rise, and I was attempting a strange spell with a nightwalker I wasn’t particularly fond of. But in the end Danaus disappeared inside the lodge to find the earth witch and the naturi princess.

Turning to my left, I let the fingers of my right hand dance through the flames as if I were running them through falling water. At the same time, Stefan took my left hand in his hand as we strolled together around the perimeter of the flame-enclosed area. Naturi fighters paced us as we completed our walk. If someone drew too close, the fire between us would flare and snap at the adversary until they backed off again.

As we walked, we trampled the fragile orchids and thick ferns that filled the garden area. We walked everywhere that the fire touched, our individual power from blood magic filling the air as we established a perimeter we hoped the naturi would not be able to cross when the sun finally slipped back above the horizon.

“You realize what this entails, don’t you?” Stefan asked as we neared our starting point.

“The spell will leave a marker on my soul,” I said with nod of my head.

“A stain for all the bori to see,” he said in an ominous tone.

I flashed him the smile that he was trying so hard to win from me with his dramatic tone. The spell we were attempting was technically called a Soul Sucker. It had been created centuries ago by nightwalkers to protect their daytime lair from any naturi that might happen by. Any creature that moved within the set perimeter had the energy drained from its soul until it finally died. The spell fed upon itself—the more souls it took, the stronger it became. In this case, we were counting on that, considering we had a number of naturi waiting to attack the moment the sun rose.

The spell had garnered the nickname the Stain back when there were bori still on the planet. The more that were killed by the spell, the more souls drained, the darker the stain left on your own soul, marking you to the deadly bori as a powerful nightwalker. There was also the theory that the originator of the Stain spell also got a boost of power from the souls of the dead. The creator of the spell became a storehouse for the soul energy, something the bori not only craved, but survived on.

When the bori roamed the earth, the Stain was a spell of last resort. It was cast when you were completely desperate, fearing discovery during the daylight hours. Because while you might protect yourself during the day, at night you could find yourself under the dark gaze of the bori, and that was something no nightwalker wanted. No one wanted to be faced with their creator and the leash they held.

But then, it had been a long time since it was last used. We stopped when both the bori and naturi were locked away and we could find more adequate and safer means of protecting ourselves during the daylight hours. There was also a danger to the Stain spell—it wasn’t particular to the soul it attacked. It attacked anything that happened within the perimeter—naturi, animal, or human.

Now, when we closed the perimeter, Bertha stepped over, with George hanging just behind her shoulder. “They say you’re performing a Soul Sucking spell,” she said, her eyes slipping down to our joined hands for a second.

“It’s the only way to protect us during the day. We can’t leave here now. Sunrise is less than an hour away.”

“What if they set fire to the place?” George demanded.

“I’ve got something for that too,” I replied, catching sight of Shelly coming out of the front of the lodge, with Danaus following behind her. “Can I leave you to prepare?” I asked, looking up at Stefan. “I have a couple of things that need to be taken care of.”

“I don’t understand what you’re going to do with him,” Stefan said, sliding his hand out from mine. “Drain them both and pray they don’t move until sunrise?”

“Not quite,” I sneered, then walked toward the lodge where the others waited.

The tension in the air grew thicker with each passing moment. The sun was creeping close to the horizon, and all of the nightwalkers could feel the coming death of the night. Naturally, those that survived the initial attack of the naturi had begun to wander closer to the lodge, as it offered cover from the rays of the sun, even if it was a deathtrap in itself.

At the same time, the naturi had pulled back their ranks around Rowe, who stood several yards away from the flickering blue flames. His eyes never wavered from me as I moved about the small enclosed area. I wondered if he knew what I was planning. Had he ever seen a Soul Sucking spell? Even if he had, was he willing to throw every naturi he had at us in hopes of killing us when we were at our most vulnerable? I prayed he wasn’t. The kind of power created by the spell would undoubtedly shine like a beacon to something dark and scary that lingered on the earth.

Shelly was pale and trembling in the cold night air when I finally reached her side. The nightwalkers that passed her watched the earth witch with slitted, hungry eyes. It had been a long night, a long battle already, and she represented a quick, warm meal.

“Cynnia is safely asleep in the basement,” Shelly said. “I thought it best if we put her as far from their reach as possible.”

I shot her a wry smile and nodded, resisting the urge to pat the witch on the shoulder. Between the fight at Ollantaytambo and now the war zone that surrounded her at the Sanctuary Lodge, I was willing to bet that she was already on overload. “Good. Don’t worry. Your job is almost done. I just need you to complete a couple more tasks for me.”

“And then what?” she demanded, taking a step back, so she was partially hidden behind the hulking figure of Danaus.

“And then you get to sleep. Just sleep. It’s been a long night and you’ve earned a little sleep,” I soothingly said. My voice dipped down into hypnotic tones, embedding the thought of sleep into the deepest reaches of her brain. I knew I would need to call on that suggestion later that night.

“Oh.” The single word escaped her in a whisper, but I noticed that she still didn’t move out from behind Danaus’s form.

“I need you to do a protection spell over the entire Sanctuary Lodge. I need you to make sure that it won’t burn,” I said. “I’m assuming you know that spell.”

“Of course.” Shelly stepped closer again, her chin raised a little higher at the idea that she might not be familiar with one of the most basic of spells. It was simply a couple of magic words and a symbol written in ash over the place you didn’t want to burn. It was so basic that even I knew how to perform it. All nightwalkers did. The spell wouldn’t allow a structure to burn.

“Good. Go over the entire lodge, from top to bottom. Get a few nightwalkers to help you. We need this done quickly,” I said, raising my voice a little so I would be heard by any nightwalker within a few feet. “Don’t worry. No one will touch you.” At least, they wouldn’t now that I’d thrown that promise into the air with an edge of a threat.