Declan stopped to give her a kiss and Mack turned away, putting his hands in his pockets, making a show of pretending to be uncomfortable by their public display.

Stacia sniffed her mate, a troubled look on her face. “Mothballs? Where have you been? A consignment shop?”

“His new professor is kinda a relic,” Mack said.

“Well, maybe she knows her stuff because she’s got experience. Learned it firsthand instead some young punk professor who just knows what he or she’s been taught in school. Although I have to say… her scent is off, even accounting for the buckets of mothballs that she must bathe in. Diseased or something. Learn from her quick, Witch boy, because she might not be long for this world,” Stacia said with a grimace of distaste, grabbing his hand and turning back downhill toward Arcane.

Chapter 25

The speed at which violence erupted was terrifying, most of the vampires being old and therefore exceptionally powerful.

Tanya brought up both hands in time to deflect a sword-wielding guard, ducking past him with a partial turn to jab the bladed fingers of one hand into the back of his skull as she went by. Plucking his modern katana blade from his suddenly limp hand, she continued on her path to get to her grandmother’s side.

Mausya and Tzao had both attacked Senka, the table in front of them exploding into splinters as they just moved right through it. Senka disappeared in a gust of air, appearing inverted overhead, her feet stuck to the eight-foot-high stone ceiling of the chamber. She stepped three fast paces across the stone before twisting and coming down behind Mausya. The youngest elder spun around so fast it made the air snap, just in time to block Senka’s fist, which rammed at her with the power and density of a jackhammer chisel. As the blow rocked the new Elder, Tzao ran up onto and around the sidewall to attack Senka from the side, but found Tanya there, her borrowed sword dripping blood from the two guards unlucky enough to get between her and her grandparent.

As she stepped forward to engage Tzao, Tanya could feel the others behind her. Some part of her knew that Galina and Lydia were back to back, Lydia fighting a blade-wielding guard with two of their table’s four legs, escrima style, while Galina fought hand to hand with Sun. Across the chamber, the other Patrons had fallen back against the wall, staying out of the general melee, not picking a side—yet.

Tiny Tzao was old, fast, and ferocious, even if she was only the size of Lydia. Tanya had sparred with her when she was younger, still a teen. At that time, the Elder had been beyond her in skill and power. But much had changed in the last decade, at least for Tanya.