Vampire heart

9: The F

exploded

rage, their limbs bending at unnatural angles, their fangs too long

wiping for his face. He ducked, stumbled, and swung his pack like a ha

mmed into one of the beasts, driving a dagger into its chest

!" Malakai sho

rough his shirt, responding to the danger, to his fear. He c

creature

Ayo didn'

rd the fire he had touched in the hut, the n

e-bearer.

Ayo thrust out his han

hurling it backward with enough force to snap a tree in half. It

eathing hard. "Wh

kai shouted. "You

nds. The light surged again, but weaker this time-just enough to b

et-save for the hiss of st

e knee. "That...

ou're drawing power faster than your b

ned that before I shot s

ite the danger. "Yo

he ash-scattered ground. "But ye

echoed throu

ed from th

idian, etched with runes that pulsed with silver light. His

I expected," he said.

ont of Ayo. "You'll h

d to," Ra

en he

nything Ayo h

nd like thunder, sparks flying. Rami struck again-high, then low-

imbs felt sluggish. The relic's energy

e cracked. Malakai stumbled-and Rami seized

eak one," Rami hissed. "S

angs bared, but c

ced him

but it was weaker now, fli

urned

are," he said. "But memory isn't powe

didn't back down. "And you murdered Elijah. You tried

traitor,"

led a mirror. Because you saw something in

th fury. He dropped Ma

't raise the pendan

mply

am fire. I am

rest i

lames-but

e relic surged. Ayo felt it rise through him like a second heartbeat, no

-strike, caught

scr

violently, as if the light

e gasped. "You

ready," Ayo said. "I

ce more-and released

into a tree with a sickening crunch

ight

coll

hem both to the forest floor.

whispered,

d one of the olde

I kil

for you again-not until he figures out how to unmake wh

. Maybe I'll final

ed softly. "Y

t even know what I was do

ind guiding you," Malakai

gainst Malakai's shoulder. The fore

over?"

. The relic is awake now, and the old bloodlines will feel it

head of them. We find the rest of th

took h

he said.