Magic Nights Read Online Free PDF Page B

too.
    She pushed down the fire bubbling inside of her—which was screaming to be unleashed once more, whispering seductive promises into her ear. Fire was a powerful but unruly ally; it wouldn’t help her here. In fact, igniting the air again would only make things worse. So she reached past the fire and found ice. Cold magic poured out of her, biting at her skin. It streamed toward the pink mist, a silver twinkling ribbon of magic. And like a gigantic set of icy jaws, it chomped down on the cloud, swallowing it whole. The air stilled for a second, then, with the crack of an avalanche, the frozen crust shattered and poured to the ground in a shower of pink-silver shards.
    Naomi landed softly beside Sera. “When you said you were going to do something, you weren’t kidding. That certainly was something .” She looked at the pile of unconscious vampires. “Holy crap, Sera. Where did you learn how to do that?”
    “Kai.”
    A smile twitched on Naomi’s lips. “There’s a real beauty to the dragon’s magic.”
    “Yes.”
    “And yours too.”
    “Thanks.” Sera drew her sword and stalked toward the vampires. “But now comes the not-so-pretty part.”
    Naomi grabbed her own sword from the ground, her face as glum as Sera felt. Neither of them was looking forward to what they had to do next, but they couldn’t leave the vampires to come after them later, even if it meant killing them while they slept.
    When it was done, Sera turned her back on the vampires and closed her eyes. She felt out with her magic. She shifted past groups of vampires, searching for the fairy-mage boy in this maze. She found a twinge of familiar magic, so like Naomi’s and yet smaller. Younger.
    “I found him. He’s—” Sera gasped when she located a second familiar twinge next to the first. And a third. One by one, they slammed into her magic, a cascade of fairy-mage power.
    “What is it?”
    “There are more of them.”
    “How many?”
    “A lot,” Sera said. “At least a dozen. All hybrid children.”
    Naomi tugged on her arm. “Then let’s go get them.” She frowned at Sera when she didn’t budge. “What’s wrong?”
    “The children are surrounded by vampires.”
    Naomi glanced back at the dead vampires. “We don’t have a choice. We must save those children.”
    “I know.” Sera sighed and wiped down her sword. “Follow me.”
    They ran down the halls, not bothering to be quiet anymore. All the vampires were moving in the same direction: toward the children. Their magic was heavy with compressed violence, the stench of it nearly smothering the children’s magic, which was tingling with anxiety—an anxiety that was growing with every passing second.
    “I think the vampires are moving them,” Sera said.
    “Then we’ll have to get to them first.”
    Nodding, Sera sped up, sprinting down the halls. She was pushing herself so hard that her muscles burned. Her lungs puffed out in protest, screaming for air. She would be in sorry shape when they got to the vampires. It wasn’t like she had a choice, though. If they didn’t hurry, there wouldn’t even be a fight. The children and vampires would be gone.
    She blasted open the door before her, the last one that stood between them and the children. The ball of wind magic ripped the door clear off its hinges, slamming it into the vampires she’d felt on the other side. She burst into the garage and ran over the downed door, trapping the vampires beneath. Every head in the garage snapped toward her. Sera caught a glimpse of a group of children huddled together in the back of the large truck before the vampires closed the latch. Five broke off from the main group and headed for her.
    “Stop that truck!” Sera shouted back to Naomi, then blasted the five vampires against the wall.
    Naomi streaked past her. She was faster than Sera, closing the distance quickly. By the time the truck pulled out of the garage, she’d hopped onto the back.
    Sera spun to face the three