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“That should keep him out for the count,” the evil wizard said just before Fluffikins hurled into him like a blazing comet, and the cat fight resumed.

I watched them for a while, but it was impossible to tell who was who in this nighttime battle of magical black cats. The only saving grace was that their magic sparked in different colors. I wondered why Merlin’s matched Dash’s green and not Fluffikins’s pink.

“Merlin?” I cried out, remembering my cat was still here somewhere, too. “Merlin, are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” he said, sounding groggy. “But I still can’t escape.”

“Did Dash take any of your blood yet?”

“N-no, I don’t think so.”

“Then we’re not too late.” We could still do this. And now that the infantry had arrived, we would do this.

“The sun will rise soon. We don’t have much time,” Merlin warned.

“As long as we can keep Dash from getting your blood, we’ll be okay,” I promised, hoping that it was one I’d be able to keep.

The two black cats hissed and growled as they rolled about the mountaintop, locked in their magical battle. Dash was much stronger than either me or Merlin, but Mr. Fluffikins could easily hold his own.

My eyes darted from them to Merlin to Drake, waiting for the perfect opportunity to present itself. Somehow or another, we would win. We had to.

The cats tumbled into Dash’s glowing cauldron, knocking it over. The swampy liquid sloshed out and seeped into the ground.

“You’re too late,” Dash boomed in that strange deep voice of his. “The sun is upon us. I just need one last ingredient and Excalibur shall be reborn.”

Sure enough, the sun now peeked over the horizon. I’d never been so unhappy to see the dawn of a new day, but now, if we survived this, I would always view the sunrise differently. As a possible end rather than a promising beginning.

Fluffikins glanced up toward the sun. Only for an instant, but it was enough.

As soon as his opponent was distracted, Dash charged for Merlin’s cage, ready to steal his blood and bring the cursed artifact back to life.

“No!” I screamed.

But Dash was already at the cage, fiddling with the lock. Although he kept his black cat form, he bespelled one of his claws into a key that fit the lock in question perfectly, no doubt.

Merlin pressed himself against the back wall, trying to put as much distance between himself and the dark wizard as possible.

From the corner of my eyes, a blinding shot of pink streaked across the summit and slammed into Dash like a speeding freight train. It didn’t stop with impact, but kept pushing, charging straight off the mountaintop and out into the pre-dawn sky.

The ball of pink magic curved, reversing course and whipping back toward us. It stopped at Drake’s side, and the magic faded to nothingness.

“What happened?” I asked Mr. Fluffikins.

“He wasn’t paying attention, so I pushed him off the mountain,” the big boss cat said, his chest puffed with pride.

“And you are so going to regret that,” the dark wizard’s voice boomed as he crested over the mountain. But he wasn’t a cat anymore, nor was he a hoary-bearded human.

An enormous dragon now treaded air before us.

And he did not look happy.

23

I stared at the monstrous green dragon with my mouth hanging wide open. I’d witnessed a lot of magic in the past few months, but none of it had shaken me quite like the sight of the awful behemoth flapping its wings before me now.

Dragon Dash roared and unleashed a torrent of flames that charred the grass at my feet.

“What’s happening?” Drake shouted, finally waking up and scrambling to his feet. “Whoa, cool special effects.”

The dragon puked flames and sent them weaving toward Drake.

“No!” I screamed just as the inferno enveloped my poor friend.

The dragon laughed and moved on to his next victim: Mr. Fluffikins.

I stared at the pillar of fire, still burning bright several paces away. Sweat beaded at my brow and above my lip. There’s no way Drake could have survived that.

And it was my fault. I’d brought him into this.

In the distance, the cats resumed their battle. Although Dash’s new form greatly outweighed the little black cat, Fluffikins did not back down from the battle. He launched himself straight at the menace and picked up the fight exactly where they had left off.

I left the cats to it and hung my head in remembrance as the fire burned itself out.

“Ouch, that was hot,” Drake murmured, and when I glanced up I saw him stepping away from a scorched mound of earth. He didn’t have a single burn on him. Not even a smudge of soot.

“Drake,” I whisper-yelled, when I was sure the two witchy cats were fixated on each other and not paying attention to us.

When he looked my way, I nudged my chin to the side to motion for him to come closer.

“Aren’t my new vampire powers awesome?” he asked with an enormous smile. “I literally just walked through fire.”

“Yeah, super great.” Of course, I had a billion questions to ask about that, but something told me Drake didn’t have any of the answers, either. Besides, we had more important things to focus on right now.