The woman is closest, so I do her first. I don’t miss. She screams and falls to her side, turning to dust at my feet. A rush of power hits me, and for a second, I think it’s just that I’ve done it with my own hand—killed a creature with the same murderous heart that killed my mom—but no. It’s real power that’s flooding me, the same intoxicating sizzle as applause, but it’s different, too. There’s a wildness to it, pushing harder against my insides than normal.

But I don’t have time to think about it. The other vampire’s rising. Roman’s on his knees between us, and I have to lean over him to aim for the heart. The vamp catches my wrist right before the stake can puncture. Grinning, he squeezes it so hard that I’m sure my bone will turn to dust like one of them.

I gasp. I can’t hold on. The stake falls from my grasp right into Roman’s waiting hand. He plunges it into the vampire’s chest so quickly that the vamp is still smiling when he starts to combust.

I don’t watch this time. I kneel down by Roman and examine the streams of blood trickling down both sides of his neck.

“I’m all right,” he says. “Give me a minute.”

He closes his eyes, and I watch as the wounds stop bleeding and then heal over.

When his eyes open, they seem softer than usual, more vulnerable, but maybe almost dying does that for a person.

“You saved me.” He sounds confused.

“Just paying you back. You trained me for this,” I add, but in truth there’s nothing in the world that could have trained me for this.

His eyes zero in on my neck. “You’re still bleeding.” He reaches for it, but I stand, glancing around.

“It’s over, Ava.” He rises to his feet.

But my blood’s still pumping too fast, and my magic still feels like it’s pushing against my veins.

“What was that?”

He glances around like he’s missed something.

“I felt something when I killed that vampire.”

Roman grimaces. “I thought you knew.”

I’m getting tired of the things I don’t know—both the things I’m searching for and the things everyone forgets to tell me. At least Roman doesn’t wait for me to ask the question.

“If we kill a vampire, we take their power.”

“We take the blood magic,” I clarify.

“Yes.”

“I don’t want it.”

“You take a life, you take the magic. That’s just how it is.”