"Then keep it well away from me." He touched his finger to his lips, eased open the door. For a moment, there was no sound, no movement but the rain. Then Cian was out, a blur of dark in the dark.

Even as he stepped out to follow, he saw Cian snap two necks and behead a third. "On your left," Cian said quietly.

Hoyt pivoted and met what came at him with steel, and with fire.

Upstairs, Glenna knelt within the circle she'd cast and chanted. The silver around her throat, on her finger glowed brighter with every heartbeat. Moira crouched to the side of the open doorway, a quiver at her back, a bow in her hand.

Moira glanced back at her. "The shackles."

"No, that was for something else. I'll start that now."

"What was it... Oh." Moira looked back into the dark, but now thanks to Glenna, with the vision of a cat. "Oh aye, that's a right good one.

They've archers back in the trees. I only see six.

I can take six."

"Don't go outside. Don't go out until I'm done here." Glenna fought to clear her mind, calm her heart, and call the magic.

Out of the dark, like vengeance, came a gold horse. And the rider on its back wielded death.

With Larkin at a gallop, Blair swung the torch, striking three that burst into flames and took two more into the blaze with them. Then she heaved it, spinning destruction through the air, and flashed a fiery sword.

"It's now, Glenna!" Moira let the first arrow fly. "It's now!"

"Yes, I've got it. I've got it." She grabbed the ax, and a dagger, at a run.

Moira's arrows were winging as they both sprinted into the rain. And the things that were waiting rushed them.

Glenna didn't think, only acted, only felt.

She let her body move into that dance of life and death, striking, blocking, thrusting. Fire rippled over the blades as she swung.

There were screams, such horrible screams. Human, vampire, how could she tell?

She smelled blood, tasted it; knew some of it was her own. Her heart beat, a war drum in her chest so she barely registered the arrow that whizzed by her head as she plunged fire into what leaped at her.

"They've hit Larkin. They've hit him."

At Moira's shout, Glenna saw the arrow in the foreleg of the horse. But it ran still like a demon with Blair raging destruction from its back.

Then she saw Hoyt fighting fang and sword to get to one of the prisoners.

"I have to go help. Moira, there are too many down there."

"Go. I've got this. I'll lower the odds, I promise you."

She charged down, screaming to draw some away from Hoyt and Cian.

She thought it would be a blur, just madness rushing over her, and through her. But it was clear in every detail. The faces, the sounds, the scents, the feel of warm blood and cold rain running over her. The red eyes, the terrible hunger in them. And the horrible flash and screaming when fire took them.

She saw Cian break off the end of an arrow that had found his thigh, and plunge it into the heart of an enemy. She saw the ring she'd put on Hoyt's finger burn like another fire as he took two with one blow.

"Get them inside," he shouted to her. "Try to get them inside."

She rolled over the wet gra.s.s toward the girl Lora had tormented. She half expected to find her dead. Instead she found her showing fangs in a grin.

"Oh G.o.d."

"Didn't you hear her? He doesn't come."

She pounced, knocking Glenna onto her back, then threw back her head with the joy of the kill. Blair's sword cut it off.

"You'd be surprised," Glenna returned.

"Inside," Blair shouted. "Back in. That's enough of a G.o.dd.a.m.n statement." She reached down to help Glenna mount behind her.

They left the field flaming, and covered with dust.

"How many did we kill?" Larkin demanded as he collapsed on the floor. Blood ran down his leg to puddle on the wood.

"At least thirty-d.a.m.n good ratio. You've got some speed, Golden Boy." Blair looked straight into his eyes. "Winged you a little." "It's not altogether too bad. It just-" He didn't scream when she yanked the arrow out.

He didn't have the breath to scream. When he got it back, all he could manage was a stream of shaky curses.

"You next," she said to Cian, nodding at the broken arrow protruding from his thigh.

He simply reached down, yanked it out himself. "Thanks all the same."

"I'll get supplies. Your leg's bleeding,"

Glenna told Blair.

"We're all banged up some. But we're not dead. Well." She sent Cian a c.o.c.ky grin. "Most of us."

"That never gets tired, does it?" Cian speculated and went for the brandy.

"They weren't human. In the cages."

Moira held her shoulder where the tip of an arrow had grazed it.

"No. I couldn't tell from in here. Too many of them to separate the scents. It was smart." Blair nodded, a grim acknowledgment.

"A good way to engage us and not waste any of their food supply. b.i.t.c.h has a brain."

"We didn't get Lora." With his breath still heaving out of his lungs, Hoyt eased down. He had a gash on his side, another on his arm. "I saw her when we were fighting our way back into the house. We didn't get her."

"She's going to be mine. My very special friend." Blair pursed her lips when Cian offered her a brandy. "Thanks."

Standing in the center of them on shaky knees, Glenna took stock. "Blair, get Larkin's tunic off. I need to see the wound. Moira, how bad is your wound?"

"More a scratch, really."

"Then get some blankets from upstairs, some towels. Hoyt." Glenna moved to him, knelt, then just took his hands and buried her face in them. However much she wanted to fall apart, it wasn't time. Not time yet. "I felt you with me. I felt you with me every moment."

"I know. You were with me. A ghra." He lifted her head, pressed his lips to hers.

"I wasn't scared, not while it was happening. I couldn't think to be scared. Then I reached that girl, that young girl, and saw what she was. I couldn't even move."

"It's done. For tonight it's done. And we proved a match for them." He kissed her again, long, deep. "You were magnificent."

She laid a hand over the wound on his side. "I'd say we all were. And we proved more than being able to hold our own. We're a unit now."

"The circle is cast."

She let out a long sigh. "Well, it wasn't the handfasting celebration I was looking for."

She struggled to smile. "But at least we... No, no, d.a.m.n it, we didn't. We didn't finish. Just hold everything." She shoved at her dripping hair. "I will not let those monsters ruin this for us." She gripped his hand as Moira rushed down with arms loaded with towels and blankets. "Are you all listening? You're still witnesses."

"We got it," Blair said as she cleansed Larkin's wound.

"Your head's bleeding." Cian pa.s.sed Moira a damp cloth. "Go right ahead," he told Glenna.

"But Glenna, your dress."

She only smiled at Moira. "It doesn't matter. Only this matters." She clasped hands with Hoyt, locked her eyes with his. "As the G.o.ddess and the G.o.d and the old ones... "

Hoyt's voice joined hers. "Are witness to this rite. We now proclaim we're husband and wife."

He reached down, took her face in his hands. "I will love you beyond the end of days." Now, she thought, now, the circle was truly cast, strong and bright.

And the light glowed warmer, a wash of gold when their lips met, when their lips clung in hope and promise, and in love.

"So," the old man said, "with the handfasting complete, they tended to their wounds and began the healing. They drank a toast to the love, the true magic, that had come out of dark and out of death.

"Inside the house while the rain fell, the brave rested and prepared for the next battle."

He sat back, picking up the fresh tea a servant had set beside him. "That is all of the story for today."

The protests were immediate, and pa.s.sionate. But the old man only chuckled and shook his head.

"There'll be more tomorrow, I promise you, for the story's not finished. Only this beginning. But for now, the sun is out, and so should you be. Haven't you learned from the beginning of the tale that light is to be treasured?

Go. When I finish my tea, I'll come out to watch you." Alone, he drank his tea, watched his fire.

And thought of the tale he would tell on the morrow.

Glossary of Irish Words,

Characters and Places a chroi (ah-REE), Gaelic term of endearment meaning "my heart," "my heart's beloved," "my darling"

a ghra (ah-GHRA), Gaelic term of endearment meaning "my love," "dear"

a stor (ah-STOR), Gaelic term of endearment meaning "my darling"

Aideen (Ae-DEEN), Moira's young cousin Alice McKenna , descendant of Cian and Hoyt Mac Cionaoith An Clar (Ahn-CLAR), modern-day County Clare Ballycloon (ba-LU-klun) Blair Nola Bridgit Murphy , one of the circle of six, the "warrior"; a demon hunter, a descendant of Nola Mac Cionaoith (Cian and Hoyt's younger sister) Bridget's Well , cemetery in County Clare, named after St. Bridget Burren, the , a karst limestone region in County Clare, which features caves and underground streams cara (karu), Gaelic for "friend, relative"

Ceara , one of the village women Cian (KEY-an) Mac Cionaoith/McKenna, Hoyt's twin brother, a vampire, Lord of Oiche, one of the circle of six, "the one who is lost"

Cirio , Lilith's human lover ciunas (CYOON-as), Gaelic for "silence"; the battle takes place in the Valley of Ciunas-the Valley of Silence claddaugh , the Celtic symbol of love, friendship, loyalty Cliffs of Mohr (also Moher), the name given to the ruin of forts in the South of Ireland, on a cliff near Hag's Head "Moher O'Ruan"

Conn , Larkin's childhood puppy Dance of the G.o.ds, the Dance , the place in which the circle of six pa.s.ses through from the real world to the fantasy world of Geall Davey , Lilith, the Vampire Queen's "son," a child vampire Deirdre (DAIR-dhra) Riddock, Larkin's mother Dervil (DAR-vel), one of the village women Eire (AIR-reh), Gaelic for "Ireland" Eogan (O-en), Ceara's husband Eoin (OAN), Hoyt's brother-in-law Eternity , the name of Cian's nightclub, located in New York City Faerie Falls , imaginary place in Geall failte a Geall (FALL-che ah GY-al), Gaelic for "Welcome to Geall"

Fearghus (FARE-gus), Hoyt's brother-in-law Gaillimh (GALL-yuv), modern-day Galway, the capital of the West of Ireland Geall (GY-al), in Gaelic means "promise"; the land from which Moira and Larkin come; the city which Moira will someday rule Glenna Ward , one of the circle of six, the "witch"; lives in modern-day New York City Hoyt Mac Cionaoith/McKenna (mac KHEE- nee), one of the circle of six, the "sorcerer"

Isleen (Is-LEEN), a servant at Castle Geall Jarl (Yarl), Lilith's sire, the vampire who turned her into a vampire Jeremy Hilton , Blair Murphy's ex-fiance King , the name of Cian's best friend, whom Cian befriended when King was a child; the manager of Eternity Larkin Riddock , one of the circle of six, the "shifter of shapes," a cousin of Moira, Queen of Geall Lilith , the Vampire Queen, aka Queen of the Demons; leader of the war against humankind; Cian's sire, the vampire who turned Cian from human to vampire Lora , a vampire; Lilith's lover Lucius, Lora's male vampire lover Malvin, villager, soldier in Geallian army Manhattan , city in New York; where both Cian McKenna and Glenna Ward live mathair (maahir), Gaelic word for "mother"

Michael Thomas McKenna , descendant of Cian and Hoyt Mac Cionaoith Mick Murphy , Blair Murphy's younger brother Midir (mee-DEER), vampire wizard to Lilith, Queen of the Vampires miurnin (also sp. miurneach [mornukh]), Gaelic for "sweetheart," term of endearment Moira (MWA-ra), one of the circle of six, the "scholar"; a princess, future queen of Geall Morrigan (Mo-ree-ghan), G.o.ddess of the Battle Niall (Nile), a warrior in the Geallian army Nola Mac Cionaoith , Hoyt and Cian's youngest sister ogham (a-gem) (also spelled ogam), fifth/sixth century Irish alphabet oiche (EE-heh), Gaelic for "night"

Oran (O-ren), Riddock's youngest son, Larkin's younger brother Phelan (FA-len), Larkin's brother-in-law Prince Riddock , Larkin's father, acting king of Geall, Moira's maternal uncle Region of Chiarrai (kee-U-ree), modern-day Kerry, situated in the extreme southwest of Ireland, sometimes referred to as "the Kingdom"

Samhain (SAM-en), summer's end (Celtic festival); the battle takes place on the Feast of Samhain, the feast celebrating the end of summer Sean (Shawn) Murphy , Blair Murphy's father, a vampire hunter Shop Street , cultural center of Galway Sinann (shih-NAWN), Larkin's sister slainte (slawn-che), Gaelic term for "cheers!"

slan agat (shlahn u-gut), Gaelic for "good-bye,"

which is said to the person staying slan leat (shlahn ly-aht), Gaelic for "good-bye,"

which is said to the person leaving Tuatha de Danaan (TOO-aha dai DON-nan), Welsh G.o.ds Tynan (Ti-nin), guard at Castle Geall Vlad , Cian's stallion

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