Silvie spat to one side.

“Your water is useless now,” Alucard said. “You’ll see that. I promissssss.”

“We have no choice!” Silvie whispered, but her voice carried all too well in the stone chamber. “He’s bluffing about the vow! We have to take our chances now!”

Johnis rubbed his submerged fingers together, considering. But his mind wasn’t working as quickly as it had only minutes ago. His vision shifted, showing doubles, and he blinked to clear his head.

“Maybe . . .”

Alucard was suddenly a blur, launching himself from his corner faster than Johnis could have imagined. Unless he was imagining it.

One moment the Shataiki hung dumb; the next he was behind Johnis with a single talon hooked around his neck, ready to slice his jugular.

“Am I a fool?” the Shataiki hissed.

A dozen options slogged through Johnis’s mind. None of them were immediately useful. The creature was right: their water would only keep them alive so long. They were doomed here in this lair. The only thing they could hope for was to take this prince of darkness with them.

“And the books?” Johnis asked.

Silvie seemed to understand. “We’ll have to leave the mission to Darsal and Billos,” she said. Then she reached out and touched his hand. Her voice trembled when she spoke. “I love you, Johnis.”

He glanced at her misted eyes. But he saw something behind her that made him start. Peering through the gate was a sea of red eyes. Not normal Shataiki, but larger beasts, like Alucard. A dozen were on each side of an even larger beast, who drilled Johnis with a glare that seemed to reach into his eyes, down his spine, and to his knees, which began to shake.

Teeleh.

Silvie saw his look and spun around. The sight of so many larger Shataiki staring with such purpose changed everything in Johnis’s mind. It was as if the beasts had expected this. Or at the very least, they were taking advantage of a situation they knew could only end well for them.

“Kill me, and there are a thousand who would take my place,” Alucard said.

“Kill him!” Silvie screamed, and flung a fistful of water directly at Teeleh.

The water hit his chest and sizzled. A few drops splashed onto the bat to his right; he began to tremble.

Johnis learned two things then: The first was that these Shataiki didn’t die as easily as the smaller variety. The second was that Teeleh was hardly affected at all.

His mangy coat smoldered and quivered but otherwise showed no indication he’d been attacked. His eyes held steady, slicing through Johnis like bloodthirsty daggers. The Shataiki next to him was now shaking badly. It can be killed with the water, Johnis thought. But he didn’t know how much it would take.

All the while Johnis remained still. The talon at his neck suddenly lifted from his skin, and Alucard stepped back.