Adrien turned in a circle, holding Lily against him. How the hell was he supposed to fight thirty vampires?

He knew the men in front of him lacked battle experience by the way they moved, the way they held their blades and battle chains. Several began to spin the long six-foot chains, hoping to catch either him or Lily about the neck and end things quickly. The long chains also had razor-sharp points at the tips, as many as six at one end, which could do a tremendous amount of damage.

He spoke into Lily’s mind. In order to keep you safe, I have to get a wall behind us. I’m going to swing you up onto my back. Wrap your arms around my neck, your legs around my waist, and pin yourself to me like a monkey.

A monkey? How inelegant, she responded. But she made him smile.

Ready?

Do it.

Using his left arm, he reached for her left arm, dipped, and with a swift, smooth jerk flipped her into the air, turning her at the same time, until she slid down his back. She locked her arms around his neck, her legs around his hips. With two of his own chains spinning and with speed just short of altered flight, he moved backward, past the nearest fanatics. He heard the cries of those men who got cut by his whirring chains.

Lily’s arms and legs clung to him like a vise. He dropped his chains and drew two blades. “Slide down my back and make yourself small. I have some deviants to off.”

He felt her drop to the smooth crystal floor at his feet. He moved with lightning speed, so that those who reached him first had little chance against his trained reflexes. He caught the first of the long chains, above the whirling points, gave a jerk and brought the assailant to him. He drove his dagger into the back of his neck so fast that as he let the man go, the last word the vampire muttered was, “What?”

Before the first man hit the crystal floor, Adrien sank the blade in and out of the throat of the closest vampire to his left, then his right, grabbed another chain, jerked, sank another blade into yet another neck. The fanatics fell, grabbing at their throats and moaning.

But the bastards kept coming, stepping over the dying bodies so that Adrien was forced to inch backward, closer and closer to Lily. As fast as he killed, two more launched at him. He shunted one body aside, then another.

His speed made the kills a simple matter, but at some point, either he’d be overwhelmed by sheer numbers, or someone would get behind him and slay Lily. 

The thump of Lily’s heartbeat drowned out the sounds of the moans all around her, one small mercy. She met the gaze of the nearest fallen vampire, blood oozing from his mouth as he blinked. His eyes seemed to clear for a moment as he met her gaze and said, “Sorry. Not my fault.” Then he was gone.

Not his fault? He’d come here to kill her but it wasn’t his fault?

Lily knew she had maybe thirty seconds left to live. Adrien fought cleanly and efficiently, but where the wall curved to each side of her, several fanatics were moving in close, stealing in behind Adrien.

She had to do something, but what?

On instinct, she put her hand over her chain, and despite the desperate nature of the moment, her revisiting power called to her. She let it come, the edges of the horror-filled room beginning to swirl so that an entirely different image of the same space opened.

She felt the time sequence: one hour earlier. She saw the same vampires sitting in easy groups around the crystal floor, chatting, some playing cards, rolling dice, a friendly scene, in fact, not fanatical at all.

Then Silas entered the vaulted cavern from the middle tunnel and with strange, stiff movements, one by one, the men rose to their feet and stood at attention. But there was nothing normal about what they were doing as they packed up their dice and cards and donned the robes that Silas passed out to them.

Their lethargy helped Lily to understand that these vampires weren’t acting on their own.

Not my fault rang in her head.

Then she got it and everything made sense.

Adrien, she said forcefully, mind to mind. Silas enthralled these vampires, all of them. I’ve just seen it in a revisiting vision. They didn’t know they’d come here to fight.

Fuck, came back to her.

Blood now pooled in too many places over the beautiful crystal floor. Adrien was about to slice open another throat when he stopped suddenly and held his arms wide. The vampires closest to him launched then seemed to be repelled away from him at the exact same moment.

Even the vampires sneaking in from the right stopped moving and looked around, horrified at the fallen near Adrien.

“My God, what’s going on here?” one of them said.

“You’ve been tricked.” Lily waved a hand in Silas’s direction, “By that man.”

She watched the vampires struggle, shake their heads, take a step toward her as Silas tried to regain control of them.

But Adrien battled only Silas right now, his body rigid, all his attention focused on the Ancestral.

Lily felt the need to support him, so she rose up from the floor, moved in behind Adrien, and surrounded him with her arms. The chains began to shake against her body this time, responding to Adrien’s concentration. She could feel him battling Silas for control of the men.

She relaxed and let her thoughts flow with his, binding her mind to his. The moment she did, she felt the boost in power—but the experience hurt her, that rush of energy like molten lava through her mind. She wanted to pull away because of the pain, but she knew Adrien needed her.

She held fast. Though she could see little of the cavern, she sensed that the vampires began to fall back then fly out of the cavern using altered flight.

The moment broke suddenly, the pain in her mind flashing bright then winking out. Adrien relaxed and she released him. He had won the battle with Silas.

Of the living and uninjured, only Silas remained; the rest of the vampires had escaped. The ones on the floor were dead or dying.

“It would seem you’ve won the contest, for now, but only because of the support of the woman.” His light blue gaze shifted to Lily. She felt him try to pull her in, but once more Adrien’s mind slipped into hers and blocked him.

Silas shrugged, and in a blink of an eye he was gone again. But just as fast Adrien moved to stand beside her, two blades drawn, his flecked teal eyes fierce and almost glowing.

“You think he’s still here?” Lily settled a hand on his arm.

“Just want to be sure.”

Lily, however, could feel that the Ancestral was gone for good, so she wasn’t surprised when Adrien, breathing hard, slid his arm around her and walked her to the curved wall, pulling her down to sit beside him. “So many unnecessary deaths. How I hate that man, that he would hide behind religion and cause this disaster.” His gaze moved slowly over the slain, now in an arc in front of them.

Lily avoided looking at the number of dead, but turned toward Adrien to focus, if for just this moment, on him. His sweat had a metallic smell, yet underneath was that rich scent that she loved. “Thank you for saving my life. Again.”

He shifted to look at her, leaning his head against the smooth, polished crystal wall. “I’ll say the same thing because that boost of power made it possible for me to defeat Silas. I honestly don’t know how long I could have held him off, then you were suddenly there, and in my mind as well.” He put his hand on her knee. “But I felt your pain when you helped me. I’d do anything if you didn’t have to feel that kind of pain.”

Lily stared into his eyes, startled yet again by who he was, his compassion for her. He just wasn’t what she’d expected from a vampire. She drew in a ragged breath. “Hey. We’re both here right now. That was a small price to pay.”