“I’ll be sure to let the huge dude with the weird constellation tattoo know that you were too scared to find him!” I called sarcastically.

The hunter shot me a look just as a glowing circular portal appeared in front of him. Then, he stepped into the hole and disappeared. The self-conjured portal vanished, swallowing the Fire Wolf inside of it. I ground to a halt, my anger and newest sarcastic quip dying on my lips when I realized what he’d just done.

“Holy shit,” I said. “He conjured a portal out of thin air without using a portal key. And what was that crystal thing?”

“No idea. I thought I’d imagined it,” Prisha replied.

I gazed at the empty space where the hunter had stood only a second ago. And then it hit me.

The Fire Wolf was gone and my sister was still missing. And if the SF psychic wasn’t free to corroborate my story, I’d be left with no choice but to reveal the depths of my magic and the one secret my dead parents had begged me to keep.

“What am I going to do?” I doubled over, my eyes burning.

“We’ll find another way.” Prisha’s hands closed around my upper arms, hauling me up. “But this isn’t the place to figure it out.”

A scuffle of tiny feet came from the alleyway off to our right. A herd of jurats huddled around something on the ground. Red flashes and puffs of scarlet clouds formed around the magical rodents. They were feeding on something.

My feet moved of their own accord toward them, but a part of me knew what I’d find beneath the repulsive creatures.

So when I saw pant hems, the same pants that the half-demon who had been pummeling the Fire Wolf had worn, I wasn’t surprised.

Three bodies lay sprawled in the alleyway, unseeing eyes gazing skyward. Given the state their bodies were in, the jurats had been feasting on them for a while.

“He killed them. All three of them,” I said in disbelief. “Before he even came inside the Underbelly. But why? And how? And why did he let them beat him up in the first place?”

“I’m not sure we’ll ever know, babe.” Prisha guided me away. “Come on. It’s late. And this place is getting worse with every second that passes.”

She wasn’t kidding. On the streets and sidewalks, more supernaturals prowled around than had been there previously.

It had to be around three in the morning. The witching hour had arrived, and the devil’s creatures were out to play. Prisha was right. Despite our combined powerful magic, this was no place to hang out. Especially when my magic might be on the fritz.

“Hello there, sweet ones,” a man hissed behind us.

I didn’t have to spin around to know that he was a vampire. I swallowed down my earlier fear at what was happening to my sister and turned to face him.

He stood by himself just off to the side of the alley, the lone streetlight’s weak illumination highlighting his gaunt cheeks and pale skin. His nostrils flared. It looked like he hadn’t fed in a while. It also looked like he wanted to feed on me.

Sure enough, his lips curled in a predatory smile. “You smell delicious.”

“Too bad I’m not on the menu.”

He chuckled. “Oh, but you could be.” He took a step forward, moving at lightning speed, then he stood right in front of me, his arm snaking around my waist.

Prisha hissed, then whipped out her blade so fast it was a blur before she slashed, aiming precisely for his throat. His eyes widened, and he deflected in a rush, but the weapon nicked his skin, her magic flowing into him.

He grimaced and staggered back, but he still held onto me, his arm tightening. Crap, so he was an old one. A moment of fear slammed into my gut that I’d have to once again call upon my unreliable magic, but I quickly pulled myself together.

I summoned a binding spell and blasted it toward him, but at the last moment he disappeared, moving in a flash of vampire speed despite Prisha’s toxic magic soaking into his cells.

He tsked when he reappeared three yards to my right, his feline grin growing despite the blood trickling down his neck. In my next blink, his skin had sewn shut, but an angry red and festering welt remained.

“Oh, this will be fun,” he taunted, his gaze sliding between me and Prish.

“I couldn’t agree more.” Prisha lunged, her glowing blue blade slicing through the air, moving like lightning, but the vamp disappeared again.

Gods, he was fast.

I summoned my magic, calling upon a shield spell and arcing it around me and Prish. The hazy dome fell over us, like a cloud of protection, just as the vamp appeared again, his eyes sparkling with delight. But when he dashed toward me again, he collided with my shield and let out a howl when it repelled him in a blast.

I had more spells ready, a binding one followed quickly by a telekinetic rush, and they left my fingertips before the vamp hit the ground.

But just as the whispered spells departed from my lips, a flash of power rolled into me, slamming me in its intensity—speed, insatiable hunger, heated arousal, the strength of a hundred men. It hit me so hard that I doubled over and staggered back.

“Tala?” Prisha was at my side in a second, sheathing her blade before she caught me from falling.

My witch magic gushed to the surface, just as the foreign power started to ebb. In the next moment, the tidal wave of foreign hunger and speed was gone completely.

“What the hell is going on with me?” I whispered.

Worry puckered her features. “I don’t know, but we’re leaving.”

The magic I’d let loose, the binding and telekinetic spells, had thrown the vamp twenty feet into the air. His entire body was as stiff as a board, but I knew he would have gone farther if that foreign power hadn’t rendered me stupefied.

I tethered my magic, calling upon it despite my trepidation over what had just happened. Weaving my fingers, I maneuvered the vamp to the end of the alleyway. He landed in a heap, my binding spell still in place which prevented him from moving. Depending on how powerful he was, it could take him minutes to an hour to break through it. In the meantime, the jurats hissed and a few scampered toward him. Obviously, somebody was happy about the new meat.

“Are you going to leave him like that?” Prish asked.

I gave a hasty nod. “He’s strong. He’ll probably be free within ten minutes. Let’s go.” My hands were shaking when I hesitantly called upon another spell, a cloaking one.

It descended around us, making it appear as though we’d vanished from plain sight. Powerful supernaturals that were close to us would be able to see through it, but most wouldn’t. If nothing else, the spell would help protect us until we reached the portal, because I didn’t trust my other magic to get us there safely. Hell, I barely trusted this one.

What the actual fuck is going on with me?

Prisha guided me toward the street. “Are you okay? You seem . . . off tonight.”

“I’m fine. Let’s just get out of here.” I didn’t have the energy to explain the foreign feeling to Prisha. Not that I could explain it anyway, since I didn’t understand it myself.

We headed onto the street and away from the alley. The supernaturals that had been loitering outside of the Black Underbelly, and had seen my magic unleashed, were all looking around, as if wondering where we had gone.

Some of them possibly sensed us when we passed, knowing we were close, but with my cloaking spell in place, we were invisible.

“Maybe it’s for the best that we stay hidden,” Prisha said quietly. “Even though this is the most fun I’ve had in months.”

“Agreed.” My magic crackled, more of it writhing beneath my skin. I hesitantly felt inside for whatever that foreign power was which had hit me, but it appeared to be entirely gone. Nothing felt out of the ordinary or new.

I let out an uneasy breath and left my magic humming along my skin, my cloaking spell firmly in place. We jogged back to the portal, keeping an eye out in case anyone strong enough appeared to see through it, but luck seemed to be on our side for once, because nobody bothered us before we leaped through the portal and left the Shadow Zone behind.