When all seemed lost, here came two forms swooping from the sky.

One I immediately recognized as Brandon. The other, maybe due to the shock of seeing him, took me a moment longer to register.

But without a doubt, it was him.

It was Christian, swooping down onto the rooftop like an avenging angel.

A strip of gleaming metal was clutched in his hand.

A sword.

Shocked back into a sense of consciousness, I watched and cheered as Christian rounded on a guard, lifting him into the sky and letting him drop from an incredible height to his doom.

He seemed all powerful.

This time, no one could stop him.

Beside him, Brandon attacked the remaining guards head on as they scrambled to fight back, clearly taken by surprise.

"Rodrigo, whatever you do, do not let them through. It's almost complete."

A jolt went through me that shoved me back several steps deeper into the darkness.

I kept my metaphorical feet rooted in the dark ground, every fiber of my being fighting to stay awake and not succumb to the darkness.

Carlos chanted louder now, voice ringing with authority and power.

My soul poured out of me in giant streamers of light and color -as if there were a never ending supply of it- and into Elizabeth.

But there was no unlimited supply.

And soon I'd be dead.

Christian and Brandon's battle cries sang out, drowning the sound of Carlos' voice momentarily.

For a fraction of a second I lost sight of Rodrigo as he disappeared through the balcony doors. He came back out mere moments later, carrying an intricately carved bow and a quiver, fully loaded with arrows strapped to his back and began shooting quickly and efficiently toward the stars.

Horrified I slammed a thought at Christian as fast as I could manage but it only came out as a distorted.

Arrows! Behind you.

Why I was helping him, after what I knew about him, I didn't know.

He turned and twisted his body in the air, each arrow narrowly missing its target.

Rodrigo growled as Christian swept over him and caught Christian with an arrow in the shoulder.

Christian snarled in response and broke the arrow without so much as a grimace.

Get back into your body, girl! Come on, you can do this.

It was exhausting, like trying to walk through a storm.

My feet drifted away from the fog and I began to float up into the nighttime sky. My hands grasped at the air, not catching onto anything.

This was not the end.

It couldn't be.

This couldn't be all that life had in store for me.

With an ear splitting shriek, and a great deal of effort on my spiritual part, my soul snapped back into my body.

There was a sense of being home.

Of everything being right with the world for a millisecond before the pain settled into every fiber of my being.

I gasped and cried out, the tug on my bones crushing.

Something was killing me from the inside out and that something was Elizabeth.

A stubborn fierceness crawled into my body, taking over. Some of my spirit and soul fought against the pull the other woman had on it and shoved its way back into me.

It was not enough that I felt whole but it was enough so that it provided the exact amount of strength I needed to open my eyes,

I watched Christian, just as an arrow clipped him in a wing, fall from the sky, pirouetting toward the rooftop.

Determined, my eyes darted between me and Carlos.

His eyes were closed as he chanted but that strange pull his words had once evoked in me was dim and distant.

He thought he could kill me so easily.

He did not know how stubborn I could be.

I was a cockroach.

That's right, I was a beautiful, mesmerizing pest that would not be squashed, especially not by him.

The broadsword was lying in the open, resting beside the bloodied edges of my dress. I reached for it with what felt like sluggish speed.

Glancing behind Carlos' shoulder, I saw as Christian landed on the roof-top, body slumped in a bloodied heap, like a bird shot out of the sky.

In less than a second, I had made up my mind.

There was not enough room for me and Carlos on this terrace.

I stood, unsteady, and shouldered the weight of the sword. I braced my feet and drove the sword through his chest over the place where his heart should be.

His eyes widened in surprise.

My stomach curled and as I gagged but shoved deeper, getting past his rib cage and all the sinewy muscle.

"I think you'll find that..." I gasped, feeling faint. "A silver sword works just as well as a stake. Less. Messy. Too."

His eyes met mine and I watched, with a sort of satisfaction as his surprise dimmed to nothingness.

I let the sword slip from my fingers but they had already been coated in warm blood.

I had not two seconds to think and dwell upon the death I'd just caused when there were two piercing screams.

One came from behind me, from Elizabeth.

She ran to her husband's side, looking healthier and more lethal than ever. The other manlier scream had come from the boy with sympathy in his eyes.

Oh, but there was no sympathy now.

He drew back his bow, an arrow poised for the kill.

"I tried to make it painless for you!!" He screamed. "I did everything so you wouldn't suffer and now you've murdered my father!"

"It was me or him." I said, my hands trembling. "You would have done the same."

"Now it will be both of you." He growled.

Wide-eyed I stared, not knowing what to say. I suspected there was nothing I could say to appease him anyway.

I'd just killed his father.

Rodrigo released his grip on the bow, letting the arrow spiral out toward me, aiming straight for my heart.

There was a low whistling sound, a whoosh and then something huddled but fast dashed by, lifting me into the air with it.

"Looked like you could use a hand, little hybrid." Brandon chirped.

"He's got a bow!" I exclaimed

"I saw that."

He released me near the place that Christian was crouched down in, wing torn and bleeding.

"Aimee—"

My first instinct was to kick him but then we'd all be dead.

So, without a word, I decided I'd heal him only to kill him later.

Except, Elizabeth beat me to him.

Christian stood, his sword ready to drive into her. Elizabeth expertly escaped him, doubling back until his back was to her. She climbed onto his shoulders and bit his neck.

"Hey, Lady Leech. Isn't it me you want? Seeing as I'm the one who dispatched your deranged husband from this world. "

I saw her out of the corner of my eye, her eyes spark with blood lust.

She barred her teeth at me.

I ducked beneath the stoned table just as she charged me.

"Get back here!" She yelled, her fist coming down hard on the stone, making it shudder and tremble before it crumbled, the giant marble pieces missing me my mere inches as I clambered away.

She emerged on the other side so fast I barely had time to blink. Her fingers tangled into my hair and she heaved me up, baring my neck in the process.

It took both Christian and Brandon to peel her off of me.

What in the hell made these Soulsuckers so much stronger anyway?

She was sent flying into the air where her wings unfurled. She landed back on the rooftop, her feet leaving massive indentations in the concrete, making the rooftop unstable.

Elizabeth glared at me, her eyes like two daggers.

"He's not dead!" She wailed. "Not yet and you're going to bring him back you wretched Changeling! You're going to bring him back now!"

"You'll have to go through us first."

Brandon and Christian both came to stand protectively in front of me.

Elizabeth's face twisted in response to the challenge and she appeared almost delighted by their words.

"Oh, this will be fun."

"Enough!" It was Rodrigo's voice that traveled down to us.

As our heads snapped to him.

Brandon doubled over with a gasp just as I spotted the source of his pain, an arrow that pierced his stomach and came out his back with a pop

His blood spraying my dress from the impact and I sucked in a hard breath.

Not Brandon.

All he'd done was try to help me.

He at least, had always been honest about his intentions, pushing me to trust no one.

"This ends now!" Rodrigo exclaimed.

Elizabeth went for the stronger of the threats—straight for Christian.

Miffed that she'd find him more deadly than I, I switched my glare to Rodrigo.

My magic was coming back, I could feel it, and as Elizabeth and Christian sparred, I felt the fury build, stoked the fire quickly until I felt consumed by it.

Rodrigo fixed his sights on me.

I was now standing right in the cross-hairs of his bow.

But he didn't know that he was standing in mine.

Swinging my arms out, I let the all-powerful bolt of power race out of me and into him.

It curled around him, lighting him up like a torch just as it had done to Stefan.

He screamed and slapped at his body, trying to put the flames out. He went back, back until he'd gone too far and his body fell over the edge of the rooftop, still burning.

Elizabeth let out a wail that filled the night, seeming to go on forever.

Her red eyes left Christian and focused on me, her rage all consuming.

God, if looks could kill...

But her one moment of distraction proved to be fatal.

For her.

Christian rose into the air, managing it somehow on one wing, gripped the back of her head, twisted and snapped her head clean off.