Two nights later, cornered in a rail yard, Lena's bag tore open. The artifact — a dull metal sphere they'd carried since her mother died — rolled across concrete. A vampire lunged for her.
Lena screamed and grabbed the sphere. It answered.
Light, raw and white, exploded outwards and sent three vampires flying like rag dolls. The blast melted the skin off one's face before he even hit the ground.
Lena stared at her hands, shocked. "What… was that?"
"No time," Arian said, yanking her up. Sirens were already coming. Human police couldn't see what happened here. They ran again, this time to the only place Adara said would be safe: the old Saint Augustine's Church, abandoned since the 1990s