A roar of pure fury leaped from my mouth and I threw myself across the room. The vampire wrenched his fangs out of Riley's throat and shoved her at me. I spun out of the way, using my own momentum to slam my heel into the vampire's chest. Briefly, absurdly, I wished I was wearing stiletto heels so I could stab the bastard in the chest. Of course, if I'd been wearing stiletto heels I wouldn't be able to walk, let alone execute a high kick, but that wasn't important.

The vampire fell onto Ethan's bed. I stabbed down, but he rolled out of the way and my knife plunged into Ethan's mattress. The vampire whirled and aimed his own kick at me, but I skipped backwards. I had to let go of the knife to do it, but thanks to Clara I had plenty of spares.

I pulled another from my belt.

Riley pulled herself to her feet, one hand pressed against her neck. Her eyes were wide with shock and when she spoke, her voice was shrill. "He bit me. I can't believe it – the bastard actually bit me."

Hanging out with vampires wasn't enough to prepare a person for the reality of actually being bitten. My own scars throbbed sympathetically, remembering the awful violation of someone drinking my blood. Luke had taken the edge off those awful memories through the two times he'd fed from me, but both times it was to save his life. Absolute trust was required.

"Are you okay?" I asked, keeping my knives and eyes trained on the vampire in front of me. He prowled the space in front of Ethan's bed, sizing me up. Now he knew I wasn't such an easy target, he was exercising more caution.

"I'm fine," Riley said.

I'd got to her in time. The vampire hadn't had time to drain her or rip out her throat, and the fang marks would heal with no lasting damage.

"Get out of here, Riley," I said.

The vampire growled and advanced a pace, testing my reactions. I swiped at him with the knife, the blade missing his throat by a whisker.

"No way, K-girl, I'm not leaving you." Her voice trembled but there was conviction in her words.

Despite the danger, my heart swelled at her bravery. But bravery wouldn't keep her alive – not in this situation where she was in completely over her head.

I sensed rather than saw the second vampire come into the room. It slunk in behind me, silent as a hunting cat, but awareness pinched and pulled at my skin, instinct kicking into overdrive.

Pushing Riley out of the way, I spun and plunged my knife into the vampire's chest. But I misjudged the timing and my aim was off, sinking into the vampire's chest but missing her heart. She howled with pain and backhanded me. I stumbled. A rush of air at my back preceded the male vampire's attack; I ducked, twisted in a crouch and plunged my knife into his leg.

"Riley, go," I yelled over the vampire's shrieks of pain.

Finally she listened, bolting out of the door, her feet pounding down the stairs. The female vampire watched her go, but didn't chase her. I was the prize here, not Riley.

I wrenched my knife out of the vampire's leg and aimed a stab at his crotch, but he saw me coming and sidestepped. His knee clubbed me on the side of the head. Carpet bristles scraped my face as I fell.

I tried to roll over but one of the vampires – I couldn't see which – was already on me, pinning me down. Fangs scraped the back of my neck. I threw my head back, my skull colliding with the vampire's face. A female shriek filled my ears.

She fell away from me and I rolled over just in time to bring a foot up into the male's stomach as he attacked. It only bought me a second or two, enough to scramble to my feet, but not enough to keep the female vampire from seizing me from behind. Her arms wrapped around my chest, trapping my arms at my side. I writhed, my hands making useless little gestures with the knives, but there was no room to move or gain momentum.

The male advanced on me, grinning. I kicked at him but he batted my leg aside, his grin stretching even wider. They had me trapped and we all knew it. I couldn't break free and my knives, still in my hands but trapped at my thighs, were useless.

The bedroom door banged off the wall as a shape charged into the room, and something big and heavy hit the male vampire from behind with a terrible crash. He gave a choked cry and crumpled to the floor.

Riley stood over him, breathing hard, her hair like some brightly-coloured bird's nest. She held a chair in both hands – the chair she'd just smashed across the vampire's back.

The grip on my arms slackened, the female vampire so shocked that she stopped paying attention to me and focused instead on the crazy-haired girl with the chair.

I seized my opportunity, whirling around and sweeping my arm up to plunge the knife into the woman's ear. Vampires could heal a lot of things but a blade to the brain wasn't one of them. She dropped to the floor, blood pulsing out of her ear and soaking into Ethan's carpet.

"Kiara, look out," Riley screamed.

My knife was already up as I turned, ready to plunge into whatever part of the male vampire I saw first, but he shoved me aside and put his fist through the window behind my head. Glass sprayed into the back garden.

"Now," the vampire roared. "Do it now."

Breaking glass sounded downstairs and my heart turned over. "Elena," I whispered.

The vampire laughed. "It looks like my friends are here."

I should have known that Rachel would have more than four rogue vampires under her thumb. I shouldn't have been so stupid to think it would be this easy.

The vampire laughed again, but it was cut short when I plunged my knife under his chin and into his brain. He crumpled, lifelessly, to the floor.

"As soon as we get downstairs, get out of the front door and run," I said, pushing a knife into Riley's hand.

She handled it with plain unfamiliarity, her eyes wide and scared. She was untrained when it came to any kind of weaponry, but at least she was armed.

"What about you?" she said.

"I'll be right behind you." After I've gone back for Elena.

We ran for the stairs. My foot had barely touched the top step when the acrid smell of smoke invaded my nostrils.

"Oh my God," I said, remembering the breaking glass that had followed the male vampire's shouted order. I'd thought it was his friends smashing into the house to come after me. Apparently they'd gone down a different route. "They've set the house on fire."

Riley gripped the banister with one hand. Her other hand, the one holding the knife, trembled.

From where I stood at the top of the stairs, I couldn't see actual flames but their crackle and snap drifted from the living room, carried on plumes of grey smoke. I leaped down the stairs and wrenched open the front door.

Out on the lawn, illuminated by a clashing contrast of silver moonlight and flickery orange firelight, dark shapes were locked in battle. A lithe shape flashed past, wielding a knife; I recognised Clara's blonde bob.

My friends had followed me out of the woods only to be ambushed by Rachel's vampires before they could get inside the house.

"Stay away from the fighting," I told Riley, pushing her onto the doorstep. "Run as fast and as far as you can, and don't look back."

This time she obeyed without question.

I went back for Elena.

A crash sounded from the kitchen and I barrelled in just in time to see Elena throw another vampire against the cabinets. The fury in her eyes blazed as bright as the fire that was starting to take hold on the kitchen, hot tongues of flame licking along the walls. The rogues must have doused this place in petrol or something to get the fire to spread so quickly.

Elena swayed, putting a hand on the table to steady herself. The blood she'd consumed earlier had kick-started the healing process, but fresh gouges marred her chest and throat, inflicted during her fight with this latest intruder.

The vampire picked himself up. He snarled something obscene at Elena and I charged, actually leaping into the air so I could plunge my knife into his heart with as much force as I could. My hands were slippery with blood and I almost lost my grip on the hilt, but the damage was done. The vampire stared down at me with a look of abject surprise and pitched forward. I jumped out of the way to avoid being flattened.

Wrenching open the fridge door, I grabbed as many blood bags as I could carry and stuffed them into Elena's arms. If the whole house burned down, there'd be no blood left to help the vampires heal.

"Come on, run," I cried.

Tears swam in Elena's eyes as the walls of the kitchen blackened under soot and smoke, but she didn't waste time lamenting what would probably be the loss of her home.

We both ran for the back door.

Elena made it out first, bursting into the shadow-cast garden beyond, her arms full of blood-bags. I was a heartbeat behind her but, as my foot touched the lawn, something grabbed my hair and yanked me back into the house.

The back door slammed shut.