Free Blood, Smoke and Mirrors (2010) by Robyn Bachar

terrified out of my wits as I walked through the door of the Three Willows. There were no less than five vampires out there waiting for me in the dark, ready to tear me apart and bleed me dry, just as they had my mother and Maureen, two women who were by all accounts much stronger and more knowledgeable about their arts than I. The door shut behind me, and I shivered with fear. I was outside neutral ground. I was fair game.
    "C'mon, let's go," Lex said. I obeyed, following behind him. He turned in the direction of my apartment, thankfully, and I hurried to keep up. It's damn hard to move and shield at the same time, and because it takes a lot of concentration it slowed me down.
    The silence frightened me the most. A Saturday night in the city should be louder, full of urban noises like cars and cell phones and televisions, but here there was nothing, not even the rumble of an approaching train on the tracks. A slight breeze brushed my face and I caught the scent of vampire magic. It's a peculiar but memorable scent, the smell of the last dying ember clinging to a candle's wick, refusing to be snuffed. Really, that's all vampires are, that last spark of life clinging like hell to this world, terrified to give in to what lies beyond. I knew that smell all too well, remembering how it had mixed with the fear and death in my mother's house, and I panicked. Something squealed high and hideous just out of arm's length, and I turned as a small, skinny woman recoiled away from me, her pale hands smoking where they had touched my shield. Glaring at me from beneath her black bangs, she hissed and snarled something that was either incoherent or a completely foreign language, possibly both, and launched herself at me again. The woman bounced off my shield and was thrown backwards like she'd leapt onto a trampoline, a much louder electric sizzle scorching the air.
    "Not real bright, are ya?" I smirked, suddenly feeling much braver than I had any right to be. A small crowd of vampires circled around us, and a quick count revealed a few more than we'd expected, nine attackers in total.
    "They really aren't the smartest breed, cousin," Tybalt commented. The faerie brushed his disguised white-blond hair out of his face and eyed the mob.
    "Settle down now," Lex warned them. "This woman is under my protection, so you'd better head on home."
    "You said there were only five."
    "There are," he replied. "The rest are just necromancers."
    "Oh great, I feel so much better now."
    "Go on, get out of here," the guardian repeated to the crowd, as though scolding a disobedient puppy. They ignored him.
    "Step aside, Duquesne, you have no business here," said the vamp who'd bounced off my shields. The overly goth outfit she wore made me wonder if the vampires had lowered their standards for membership. She would blend in perfectly with the late-night Denny's crowd. It was damn hard to take her seriously.
    "Now, Merrideth, I just told you that this young lady is under my protection, so if you and your people don't turn around and walk away, we're going to have a problem." Lex slipped his hands into his duster, reaching for whatever weapons he had concealed beneath it and sending a clear message to the crowd that he meant business.
    "Maybe I should kill one, Duquesne, just to set an example," Tybalt suggested.
    "Don't even think about it, Silverleaf. Just cut 'em off at the knees, that's always fun."
    Apparently they took offense to that idea, and without another word they attacked, moving in a dark blur that was hard to see. As the vampires swarmed him Lex drew his weapons in a quick flash of bright metal, swinging a short sword in each hand. Guess that answered the question of why wear a long black coat in June, because swords were a tad hard to conceal without it. The guardian moved with inhuman speed as the fight boiled into the street. I couldn't spot how he was wounding them, but I smelled the stale scent of vampire blood in the humid night