“But I guess it’s her choice,” I said, mostly to myself.

“Maybe,” Kieran replied. “Maybe not.”

I glanced over my shoulder, watching Nicholas lead Solange away. Everything felt wrong. I should be going with them, not back home with a vampire hunter. And I shouldn’t be trusting that vampire hunter more than my best friend. I didn’t know how to help her.

She looked back at me once, then drooped, as if she were wilting.

Chapter 21

Christabel

Hel-Blar stampeded through the field above us, and when the wind shifted it was full of rotten mushrooms and slimy pond water. I heard them shoving to get through the narrow opening to the maze.

I ran faster, clutching the back of Connor’s belt. He was moving so quickly that I was like those cars using the wind drag behind transport trucks on the highway. We went left, left, came up against another dead end, doubled back, went right, then left again. I felt the Hel-Blar closing in. Fear made my heart feel like it was too big for my chest. My stomach hurt, my lungs tightened, my legs tingled. I could almost feel their decayed breath on the back of my neck. I tried but I couldn’t run any faster.

And then Connor suddenly stopped and whirled around me, as if we were dancing, blurring around the edges as if he was smoke. Later I’d be impressed by that. He ended up behind me just as a Hel-Blar leaped to clamp its jaws on me. Connor pushed me back with one arm and threw the Hel-Blar with his other. I stumbled and tried not to stab myself with my dagger. I turned just in time to see a billow of ashes.

“They’re coming,” he said. “How’s your aim?”

“How the hell should I know?”

“Well, we’re about to find out. We’ll have to make our stand here.” He nodded at the torchlight. “That way you can see better than they can. These Hel-Blar don’t like light. When we’ve got a chance, we can make our way to the next torch. Stay back behind the barbed wire there; it’ll narrow their way in to us.”

“Connor?” My palms were sweating around the knife hilt and the stones from my pocket.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for coming to get me.”

“You’re welcome.”

“And I’m sorry you’re going to die horribly.”

He actually grinned. “We’re not going to die, Christa.”

“We’re not? Maybe you’re not paying attention. The monsters are about to eat our brains.”

“They’re not zombies.”

I actually reached out and pinched him. “No geek semantics. I’m trying to say I’m sorry I got you into this.”

“You didn’t.” He turned and dragged me forward, his hand closing around the back of my neck. He kissed me hard and quick. “Are you ready?”

“Hell, no!”

And then there was no time left to talk.

We were seriously outnumbered.

The Hel-Blar bottlenecked between the two hedge walls with the barbed wire. Blood dripped onto the ground from their cuts, from their mouths.

“Don’t get any on you!” Connor warned me. He caught one under the jaw with his elbow and then used his stake when the Hel-Blar reared back. Ash made me gag and cough. Another came through the opening. He snarled at Connor and threw a stake at him. It whistled as it whirled toward Connor’s heart.

Wait, they had stakes, too? Not just teeth and contagious bites?

That was totally unfair.

I choked on a warning yell. Time was soaked in honey, slow and sticky. Connor leaned sideways and the wood grazed his arm, like a bullet. That’s how fast it was traveling and how strong the Hel-Blar was who’d thrown it. Connor was faster, though. Even as he leaned away, he used his foot to kick at my knee, knocking me out of the way. The stake went by me, so close that I could see the grooves from the knife that had whittled it in the torchlight.

“Christa, don’t freeze on me!” Connor yelled, jumping back into the fight.

Right. Standing there waiting to be eaten was bad.

And Connor was tiring. I’d always scoffed at those girls who waited around to be rescued. I hated that in books. So I should do something. Anything.

I tried to pretend I was back at home, maybe riding the subway alone too late at night, or crossing through a dark parking lot. I’d dealt with scary people before and I never froze. I’d kicked Peter when he tried to grab me, didn’t I? I could do this.

I threw stones like they were grenades. I think I was even yelling. My aim wasn’t great, but I was persistent and annoying. It distracted them just enough for Connor to get the upper hand. And when they got close enough that I saw saliva gleaming on their creepy teeth, I kicked out with my combat boots. I heard a shin bone snap when I caught a leg at a particularly good angle. It was mostly luck, but I wasn’t going to get picky about it.

Luck damn well owed me.

One of the rocks bounced off a Hel-Blar’s shoulder and caught Connor in the cheekbone, drawing blood.

“Sorry!” I threw another stone, more carefully this time. Connor staked another one, and I grabbed the torch and waved it threateningly. The two closing in on us hissed.

That gave me an idea.

I patted my coat, frantically searching for the flask Saga had given me. It was full of that nasty grog, and I was pretty sure only rubbing alcohol had a higher alcohol content.

“Behind me!” I told Connor. “Now!”

I took a big mouthful.

It always worked in books.