Burning Up

had; only her Blood Rose speed and agility had kept her alive.
    The thought of Amaris made his gut coil into a solid knot of anxiety. The last he’d seen of her, she was fighting her father. Yet he couldn’t see her now.
    Unfortunately, he couldn’t help her until he’d taken care of the Varil.
    An axe thunked against his shield with a force that drove him back on his heels. Damn, the bastards were strong. He spun away from the blow, using the momentum to launch an attack at the other lizard. His blade crashed against Blue Stripe’s axe, skidded along the steel, and bit into a scaled shoulder. The Varil hissed in pain and rage, jerking away as green blood flew.
    Unfortunately, it was a shallow cut, not enough to disable the big lizard. And Raniero had collected some ugly wounds of his own, despite his stolen armor. His hands were slippery with blood, and a wound on his thigh throbbed in time to his pulse. His sword was growing heavy in his hands, and he knew he was slowing down.
    And that could be the death of him, because vampire speed was all that kept him alive. He had to keep moving, or the lizards would trap him between them.
    So he retreated, dancing away from his foes, darting in and out between them as he hacked at any target the Varil presented. He knew he had to wrap up this fight before Amaris or her sister died.
    Then, as he ducked the brutal swing of a spiked tail, he glimpsed Amaris on her knees, her father’s sword rammed completely through her body. And his heart froze in his chest.
    It was a lethal moment’s distraction. The two Varil saw it and lunged forward in simultaneous attack, one great axe swinging for his head, the other for his torso.
    He sensed the twin attacks more than saw them. Throwing himself forward into a long, flat dive, he felt one blade skim past his ass as the other scraped one kicking armored shin. He landed in an acrobat’s tumble and came up just in time to hear an anguished roar.
    In missing him, Blue Stripe’s axe had buried itself in his partner’s chest. Cari’f fell, tail lashing in death throes.
    Taking Blue Stripe’s axe with it.
    Blue Stripe lunged for Cari’f’s axe, grabbed it out of the convulsing clawed fist, and whirled.
    Too late.
    Raniero heaved his great sword in a flat, furious arc that chopped into the reptile’s thick neck with a meaty thunk . But even as he died, the raider swung his axe. Raniero deflected it with his shield, but the massive blade still struck his thigh a glancing blow. Blood flew, bright scarlet mixing with Varil green as Raniero went down.
     
    “ I ’ll wager that hurts,” Tannaz purred as Amaris panted in anguish down on one knee. “Now, don’t you wish you’d been a loyal daughter instead of a treacherous little bitch?” He levered up on the sword he’d driven between her ribs and hip.
    The pain was a blinding scarlet screech that forced Amaris to her feet again. She dropped her sword to grip her father’s wrist, trying to keep him from hurting her further.
    He grinned down into her face. “Nothing to say, daughter? No viperous accusations, no vicious insults?”
    “Why bother?” she managed as pain rippled through her side in nauseating waves. Her left hand groped for her belt, found the hilt of the slender knife she wore there. Her right hand spread against his armored side, found the chink just beneath his ribs. “You know what you are.”
    Rage lit his eyes, and he twisted the sword, ripping a scream from her lips. “And I know what you are—a whore, just like your mother.”
    Not close enough. She forced herself another inch up the blade, stepping full against him as she drew the knife from its belt sheath. “But did you know how I’ve met the sun every morning I’ve been your captive?” With a quick twist of the wrist, she drove her little knife right into the chink in his armor into the flesh beneath. It wasn’t a deep wound given the length of the blade, certainly nothing that would kill him. Not by itself. Her lip curled in satisfaction. “Burn, Father!”
    Before he could jerk away, she cast the spell that released all the morning sunlight she’d stored in her dagger for just this moment, sending it pouring into the knife wound on a river of magic.
    Amaris jerked back, forcing herself back the length of the sword, reeling backward as Tannaz went up like a torch. The vampire howled in agony, the light pouring from the dagger to devour his magical flesh. He blazed bonfire bright until the