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her wondrous face, shining brighter than the moon.

    “Lucian!”
    An insistent hand tugged at his shoulder, rousing him from dreams of Sonja. Blinking in confusion, he lifted his head from his straw pallet to find Nasir, another household servant, shaking him frantically. Consternation marked the other lycans features. Lucian knew at once that something was very wrong.
    “What is it?” he demanded.
    “Mortals!” Nasir gasped, his cobalt eyes wide with alarm. A swarthy complexion betrayed his Turkish ancestry. “The mortals are attacking the castle!”
    What?
    Lucian leaped to his feet, instantly alert. He hastily pulled on his boots, then threw a woolen jacket over his plain brown doublet. He thrust an iron dagger into his belt. “Show me!” he commanded Nasir.
    Already, his keen ears caught the unmistakable sound of combat. Angry shouting and screams of pain penetrated the cold stone walls of the castle. He smelled fire and blood. Alarms rang out from the bell tower, calling every able-bodied lycan to action.
    Following Nasir, Lucian rushed out of the servants’ quarters into the great hall. Brightly colored tapestries adorned the walls, while shuttered windows kept out the sunlight. Dried rushes carpeted the floor. The undead masters of the castle were nowhere to be seen, having retired to their private chambers at dawn, leaving the protection of the fortress to their faithful lycan guardians.
    Lucian and Nasir ran up a spiral staircase, taking the steps two or three at a time, until they reached an arched doorway that led to the battlements overlooking the front of the castle. Throwing open the door, the pair bolted out onto the ramparts, which were already occupied by a throng of lycan defenders, engaged in battle against a foe Lucian had yet to behold.
    Sunshine poured from a blue and cloudless sky, momentarily blinding him. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the sudden glare, but when his vision cleared, he found that Nasir had spoken truly.
    Castle Corvinus was under siege.
    A mob of enraged humans assailed the castle, yelling furiously and shaking their weapons at the mammoth stone fortress. From their crude attire, Lucian judged the men to be primarily peasants and villagers from the surrounding countryside. Pitchforks, scythes, and flesh hooks waved above the crowd, along with a surfeit of crosses and wooden stakes.
    “Death to the demons!” a strident male voice called out, and dozens of other throats took up the cry.
    “Death to the demons!”
    Lucian cursed under his breath. It was just as Lady Ilona had feared; the marauding lycans had driven the victimized mortals to rise up against the immortals in their midst. Damn those savages!
    Their unchecked appetite for human flesh has brought this calamity upon us.
    Even as he looked on, taking stock of the crisis, long-bowmen below unleashed a volley of flaming arrows that came hissing through the air like a swarm of irate hornets, forcing the lycans on the ramparts to duck behind the rectangular stone merlons jutting up from the battlements like a bottom row of teeth. Nasir tugged on Lucians arm, yanking him behind the safety of one of the merlons before a lucky arrow strike could deprive the lycans of their leader. Unlike the sleeping Death Dealers, the lycan sentries wore no armor.

    “Take care, Lucian!” Nasir warned. Fear showed on his swarthy features. “The mortals mean to kill us all!”
    So it seems, Lucian admitted. Peering around the side of the hefty stone block, he watched the determined humans press their attack against the fortress. Under the cover of the archers’ fire, more peasants poured from the woods surrounding the castle, carrying scaling ladders long enough to reach to the very top of the battlements. Bracing the wooden frameworks upon the rocky hillside at the base of the castle, they angled the ladders against the sturdy ashlar walls. Shield bearers positioned themselves around the foot of the frameworks, protecting