The Vampire's Concern

Dmitri POV

The scent of dimensional magic hit me like a slap across the face as I ran through the trees toward the chaos. Three hundred years of life had taught me to recognize that particular smell - like burning copper mixed with the emptiness between stars. It meant someone was playing with forces they didn't understand.

I burst into the area just as Caleb's anguished howl echoed through the trees. What I saw made my dead heart clench with old fear.

Lily was flickering in and out of existence like a light in the wind. Her body phased between solid and transparent, and I could see the obvious shimmer around her edges that meant dimensional displacement. I'd seen it once before, two centuries ago, when a witch tried to open a portal to the shadow world.

She'd been lost forever.

"Get away from her!" Caleb snarled at me, his wolf form bristling with protective rage.