Even Marris, stubborn and battle-hardened, was barely holding on. She swung her axe with brutal force, roaring curses as she carved through the enemy.
But there were too many. They swarmed her like a tide of black insects. One caught her arm, another tore into her back. She kept fighting until they tore the weapon from her hands and brought her to her knees.
Selis screamed her name.
Marris final act was defiance—spitting blood into a vampire's face before they sank their teeth into her throat. Then she disappeared beneath a writhing pile of bodies.
Selis stood paralyzed. Her legs refused to move. Her weapon trembled uselessly in her hand. It was over. This was it. They were all going to die.
The last stand of Delta Squad, nothing but a sad, bloody smear on the chapel floor.
It was her time too, and she would pay ten stars to the system again just to revive into this world.
But then—
The vampires stopped.
