“Hang close, Jenks,” I said, and he alighted on my shoulder. Everyone had slowed, the original vampire guards making a front at the base of the bridge. I didn’t like that half of the second group was jogging around the small lake to encircle us. Worried, I scanned for Bis. “Come on. Let’s get into the line before they make it around the pond.”

Trent nodded. What did they think I was doing out here? Having a picnic? “Stop her!” one shouted. “She’s almost at the line!”

Okay. That was enough for me, and I grabbed Trent’s elbow to run for it. Nina, though, had turned to face them, shaking in anger.

“You fools!” she shouted, feet spread wide. “She isn’t fleeing. She could have done that from her church. Interfere, and Cormel himself will tear his revenge from your skin!”

“We don’t work for Cormel,” one shouted back, and I heard a crack as someone broke a tree branch for a makeshift club. “Stay out of that line, Morgan, or Ivy dies!”

Suddenly it was making a lot more sense. Great. We were right in the middle of a freaking vamp war. Apparently Trent wasn’t the only one who thought giving the undead their souls might be a bad thing. “Come on,” I whispered, tugging at him. “We have to get into the line.”

“And I thought the press was bad,” Trent muttered as he started to jog beside me. “What is the line doing over there? I thought the tail of it was in the water.”

I flushed, looking up for Jenks. “I accidentally moved it.”

“You moved it? How?”

“By accident,” I said again, not wanting to talk about it. “Nina!” I shouted. “If you’re coming with us, let’s go!”

The soft give of the grass became the hard thump of concrete, and I spun as the warmth of the line cascaded over me. Trent slid to a halt beside me, eyes bright and a smile lifting his lips. Nina was slower, backing up as she glared at the vampires jogging to a slow stop before us. Bis landed on the statue of Romulus and Remus. At the bridge, a pitched fight had broken out, but some were wading across the shallow pond to join the few who’d run around it.

“Don’t do it, Morgan,” a vampire threatened, dripping from the pond and stinking.