Kisten jerked forward, catching the man about the throat. The man’s eyes bulged in fear as he struggled for air. The pistol dropped, his hand hanging useless. Kisten’s shoulders tensed, his aggression shining from him. I couldn’t see his eyes. I didn’t want to. But the man he held could, and he was terrified.

“Kisten!” I shouted, too afraid to interfere. Oh God. Please no. I don’t want to see this.

Kisten hesitated, and I wondered if he could hear my heart pounding. Slowly, as if fighting himself, Kisten pulled the man closer. The witch was gasping, struggling to breathe. Headlights glinted on the spit frothing at the corner of his mouth, and his face was red.

“Tell Saladan I’ll be seeing him,” Kisten almost growled.

I jerked when Kisten’s arm thrust out and the witch went flying. He landed against a defunct light post, and the shock reverberated up the pole to make the light flicker on. I was afraid to move as Kisten turned. Seeing me standing in the falling snow lit by the car’s headlights, he paused. Eyes that awful black, he brushed a spot of dampness from his coat.

Poised and tense, I tore my gaze from him to follow his attention when he glanced over the carnage, brightly lit from the three pair of headlights and the one streetlamp. Men sprawled everywhere. The one with the dislocated shoulder had vomited and was trying to get to a car. From down the street a dog barked and a curtain fluttered against a lit window.

I put a hand to my stomach, nauseous. I had frozen. Oh God, I had frozen, unable to do anything. I had let myself get stupid because my death threats were gone. But because of what I did, I would always be a target.

Kisten strode into motion, the ring of blue around his black pupils a thin rim. “I told you to stay in the car,” he said, and I stiffened as he took my elbow and led me to his Corvette.

Numb, I didn’t resist. He wasn’t angry with me, and I didn’t want to make him any more aware of my pounding heart and lingering fear. But a tingle of warning brought me stiff. Jerking out of Kisten’s grip, I turned, eyes wide and searching.

From the under the streetlamp the broken man slitted his eyes, his face ugly in pain. “You lose, bitch,” he said, then mouthed a savage word in Latin.

“Look out!” I cried, pushing Kisten away from me.

He fell back, catching his balance with his vampire grace. I went sprawling when my boots slipped. A raw scream shocked through me. Heart pounding, I scrambled up, my eyes going first to Kisten. He was all right. It was the witch.

My hand went to my mouth, horrified as his ever-after— smeared body writhed on the snow-covered sidewalk. Fear slithered through me as the kicked-up snow took on a tinge of red. He was bleeding through his pores. “God save him,” I whispered.