Rules of Nightfall

POV: Astrid

Looking up into the wide grin of the hulking vampire I’ve just run into, I brace myself for an attack. My boots slip in the slick mud as I stumble backward, my hands coming up in a desperate attempt to shield my face. I expect the tearing of claws or the crushing backhand of a royal monster whose patience I just shattered. But the strike never comes. I take a ragged breath and blink t