POV: Nixie
The forest breathed the same way I did.
Golden eyes—Hunter's—burned across the night on my left. Crimson sparks—vampires—glowed on my right. The clearing was small enough that their odors were twisted together in the cold air: iron, ash, wild musk. My heart knocked so hard I could taste it in my teeth.
Vlad slid silently, placing himself between me and both threats. "Stay behind me," he said once more, low and firm. His voice barely broke the cold quiet.
Hunter snarled, a rumbling vibration that trembled the ground. Two of his wolves stepped out from behind the trees to stand at his shoulders, hackles raised in bristling white flame. They formed a half-circle, fangs bared at the vampires, but I sensed—and knew—their actual target was me.
I was the prize. The traitor. The wo
