Objections rang out from the group around her, but she snapped her fingers, effectively silencing them.
“Lavinia is not a vampire,” she spoke again. “As a hunter, you took an oath to protect humans against the threat of those monsters. If you no longer wish to do that, then you’re welcome to go below with the children.” When nobody moved, she continued. “We have prepared for this moment for weeks, since we’ve been here. You all know what to do now.”
I pulled myself from Jameson’s hold and grabbed Ruth’s arm. “What was that?”
“Now isn’t the time. If we survive this, then I’ll share what I know and teach him to use his blade properly.” She nodded toward Jameson. “Solomon should have done a better job of preparing him.” Ruth walked away, and I turned back to the others.
Jameson’s face creased in concern. “What was she talking about?”
“Something happened when she cut me.” I glanced down at my hand that was already healed. “The blade glowed red.”
“Well, whatever it means, it was good enough to get her fully on our side,” Nathan offered. “Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth. We have a vampire to kill first.”
Jameson opened his mouth to say something but closed it just as quickly. I went to his side, wrapping my arms around him. “Everything is going to be fine.”
He nodded stiffly, then turned toward where Ruth had gone. “We should follow her.” His voice was clipped, and I hated to see him so upset when I was unable to do anything about it.
We moved after Ruth and followed her down to the cellar area. At first, I was confused, thinking that we were going to hide out and hope the vampires left, but then she took a door I hadn’t noticed until it was opened.
“Where does this lead to?” Nathan asked.
“This farm used to smuggle items through the port. It’s why we chose it over any other. There are tunnels down here that we’ve created exits out of in various places around the island. We won’t be walking out the front door. We’re going to come up behind the vampires, and hopefully mask our scent with the ash from the dead ones.”
I shuddered at her words. I didn’t want to be covered in the remnants of dead vampires, but it made sense. I would do whatever it took to beat Pierce. I refused to be his prisoner again.
Nobody else asked questions, and we headed down the narrow tunnel in rows of two. There were no oil lamps, so I held on to Jameson next to me and reached for Alice’s shoulder ahead of me. Another hunter and Nathan were behind us, and he grasped on to my shoulder.
On the way, we passed by several of the exits. Ruth explained that four to six hunters at the end of the line would stop and stay at each one. She carried a horn in her pack that she would sound through the tunnel when it was time to exit.
The further we went along, the more impressed I was with their setup. When we came upon the next exit, Ruth halted everyone. Jameson stiffened next to me but stayed silent. Just as I was about to ask him what was happening, I heard him.
“Whoever grabs Lavinia, and can bring her to me without a scratch on her, will get first feeding on the people here,” Pierce instructed from above us. “If you harm a hair on her head, I will break every bone in your body. Do I make myself clear?”
Shuffling feet could be heard, but no responses.
“Very well,” he continued. “If they don’t send her out within five minutes, we’re going in. I’m done waiting for my bride. We have a wedding planned with Prime.”
Jameson hissed behind me as we continued walking. There was so much I wanted to say in response to what Pierce had declared, but keeping quiet was more important at that moment. The ash they had spread at all the exits was doing a good job of hiding our scents, but it wouldn’t help us if we were too loud.
When we arrived at the final exit, Ruth passed out sacks that contained the ash we needed to put on our bodies. I cringed and stuck my hand in the bag, then gagged as the smell of burnt flesh assaulted me. There wouldn’t be enough baths in a lifetime to make me feel clean after this, but hopefully, I’d still be alive at the end of the day.
“Draw your weapons and prepare,” Ruth whispered once we were situated. Her message was passed on to all who stood behind us. I had no idea how many people were there, but it was definitely more than the four-to-six that was left at all the other stations.
Ruth blew the horn, then pushed open the hatch. Henry and Alice went out after her, then we followed. We came out inside a storage room with one window. Ruth was already posted at it, waiting for us to come up.
When everyone was out of the tunnel, she faced them. “Things are going to move quickly from here. Stay in groups of no less than two, but preferably three. If you don’t have a hunter’s blade, then cut their heads off and separate it from their body as far as you can. The few of us with hunter’s blades can kill the body. Do not wait before moving on. If you’re injured, make your way back to a tunnel entry as quickly as possible. Blood will only cause the vampires to become more volatile. The nearest group is only twenty yards out. Watch your backs and decapitate as many as you can.”
She took two steps to the door, then glanced back at me. I thought she was going to say something, but she didn’t. Instead, she opened the door and there was no turning back. I followed Jameson as he went out after Nathan, Henry, and Alice.
Chaos broke out all around in mere seconds.
Vampires and pirates charged toward our group. Some appeared without us even seeing them move, but others ran, and I realized they either weren’t all turned or not all vampires received super speed. I focused on the slower ones, counting on Jameson to have my back against the faster ones.
My body hummed as my adrenaline increased. The feeling was familiar now. Whatever extra abilities I had were waking up, and I was as ready as I could be to fight back. Alice and Henry were to my left, fighting one vampire, while Nathan was to our right with a pirate.
Jameson grunted as a more mature vampire slammed into him. “Give us th’ lass.”
“Over my dead body, parasite.” Jameson thrust his dagger out but missed the heart. They battled back and forth, moving further away, toward the sandy beach. I didn’t like being separated, but I also promised to stay away from the main action, which appeared to be on the beach.
I turned my attention back to the front just in time to see a pirate racing toward me. His head was shaved and his clothes tattered. He smelled heavily of fish, making me want to vomit.
“Yer me ticket to freedom, wench.” He grinned, showing very few teeth. “Com’ here and ye won’t be hurt.”
“I’d rather be dead than go with you.” I raised my sword but hesitated. He was just a man wanting more from his life. He wasn’t choosing the right way to get it, but I was having a hard time justifying that it was fine for me to hurt him. No, not just hurt him. Kill him. He was still human.
He took another step toward me, but I still couldn’t strike him. Instead, I ran away as fast as I could. I didn’t have it in me to kill him.
Jameson was still battling with the first vampire but seemed to have the upper hand, so I didn’t step in to help. Another one was moving in behind him at a slower pace, but still faster than a human. I felt more confident in my ability to take him down than a human.
I sped ahead, blocking the vampire’s path to Jameson before he stepped foot in the sand. “If you want him, you’ll have to go through me first.”
The vampire chuckled. “Bringing that one’s head to Pierce would have given me more gold than I’ve ever owned, but taking you back will give me all the jewels I could ever want. I’ll happily deal with you first.”
I noticed he didn’t have the pirate drawl and wondered where he was from, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. He moved in without a second thought. I drew my rapier defensively and concentrated on the swirling of energy within me—I was counting on whatever extra strengths I had to get me through.
He drew his own sword but didn’t move to attack. I remembered P
ierce’s earlier threat about them not being able to hurt me and hoped I could use that to my advantage. I swung my blade down, and he blocked me but didn’t counter.
I hurried around him, hoping to catch him by surprise with my speed, but it didn’t faze him. We continued to go back and forth until I began to tire.
“I can do this all day, lass,” he taunted. “You’re only making this harder on yourself.”
He was right. I needed to pick up my speed and strength, or I was never going to make any progress. I would just make myself useless. I lacked sufficient skill and had to rely on my minimal training with Alice.
Letting my motivation fuel me, I charged forward, calling on my speed.
I would not go back to Pierce.
I would never be his wife.
A scream of frustration erupted from my throat, feeling the change in me as soon as it happened. The vampire’s eyes widened as I closed in on him, but he never had a chance to move before I sliced my blade through his neck.
Chapter 16
His head slid off his shoulders when his body collapsed to the sand. Blood pooled around the detached head and upper body while I watched in horror at what I had done, unable to look away.
I had killed someone.
Granted, it was a vampire and he still needed to be stabbed with a hunter’s blade, but I was the reason he wouldn’t see tomorrow. He might have tried to take me, but it still didn’t make the guilt ease inside me after taking a life, regardless if it had meant keeping myself safe. The first vampire I had killed had been trying to take Jameson’s life. I hadn’t had a choice, but this one wouldn’t have hurt me. He was only doing what he was told to do by Pierce. Even though it was the wrong thing, I couldn’t stop the emotions that flooded through me.
My stomach roiled, and I was afraid that I would lose what little food I had managed to eat at dinner. Bile coated my throat, burning as I tried to swallow it down. How had this become my life? Killing vampires and pirates alike? All because a mad man had laid claim to me, even though I was never, and would never, be his. My jaw clenched at that final thought. This started and ended with Pierce.
He was the reason my family was dead; he gave the order.
He tried to turn me, then tried to kill the only other people that I had come to care about since this all began.
Memories flitted across my mind as I recalled Nettie twirling in her new dress. How Jameson’s eyes looked into mine, and it felt like he could see inside me. The look that Henry would get when he was watching Alice, without her knowledge, crossed my mind. How Nathan interacted with Nettie, with love and tender care. To them, I was not a beautiful woman they could use to make other men jealous. To them, I was so much more than a pretty face.
My hand tightened around the hilt of the sword as my gaze lifted and I looked around, trying to find the man who had started all of this. The man I was going to kill before he could hurt my family or me again. I was going to end him and the waking nightmare he had created. Then, maybe I could dream again.
The beach in front of me was a combat zone. Hunters and vampires were engaged in a dance that only ended when one was dead. Silvery daggers glowed along the beach, and I was happy to see that the vampires and pirates were fewer in number now than those who had fought in the fields in front of the manor had reached the beach.
Ruth caught my attention, and I watched as she weaved between the hunters and vampires, slashing and thrusting her blade with expert movements that made it look so simple. Clouds of ash surrounded her as she took out vampire after vampire. Anyone who got within range of her dagger was quickly cut down or turned to dust. The way she moved and held her weapon was poetic and almost effortless.
Alice stepped into my line of sight, her daggers cutting and slashing at a vampire while Henry beheaded another. Ruth stepped in, stabbing the body with her hunter’s blade, finishing off the monster.
I darted forward to Alice, my speed bringing me quickly behind the vampire. My sudden movement distracted him, giving Alice the opening she needed to stab him in the chest with both daggers. Once she withdrew them, she dropped to her knees just in time to avoid Henry’s sword as it swung around and removed the vampire’s head.
It rolled into the sand, and Henry stepped forward to kick it away. I followed the head’s trajectory, then spotted Jameson making his way down the beach. His hunter’s blade flashed silver in the darkening day as he fought. As if feeling my gaze, he turned to search his surroundings. When he spotted me, his shoulders relaxed slightly at seeing me unharmed and with the others. He nodded once before turning to back hand a vampire, throwing him ten feet away from him, then stabbed another that was following behind the first.
A shout from my left drew my attention, and I saw Nathan gripping his forearm with his hand as blood seeped through his fingers. The vampire he was engaged with stood over him, sword raised above his head, ready to deal the killing blow. I saw his nostrils flare as he caught the scent of blood, and he hesitated.
Before I knew it, I was practically flying over the ground, moving faster than I ever had. When I reached the vampire preparing to kill my friend, I grabbed his shoulder to hold him still while I thrust my rapier into his chest. An unexpected glee swelled inside as I withdrew my sword.
The vampire sank to his knees and I knew he was a newly-made one. If it was a seasoned one, he would have turned to face me, but this one was stunned that I had stabbed him. So much so, that he fell to his knees in a very human way. I sliced at his neck next and watched as his head fell along with his body. One of Ruth’s people with a hunter’s dagger raced by, completing the kill.
“Thank you,” Nathan rasped, wincing as the cut on his forearm continued to bleed.
“Let me help you.” I pulled him to his feet and let him lean against me while we slowly made our way back to the building that housed the entrance to the tunnel.
“I can still fight,” he protested.
“You are bleeding, Nathan. You’ll attract more vampires at once than we can handle as a group. Get patched up and then we can talk.”
He nodded, either seeing things my way or the pain was getting to him. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. He didn’t argue any further. I made sure Nathan got into the tunnel and someone was there to attend to him before I turned around, ready to return to the battle.
A hand grabbed the braid of my hair, and the training that Alice had pounded into my head so many times over, rushed back to me. Instead of tipping my head back, trying to release the pain like my body wanted to do, I tucked my head to my chest to protect my neck from wandering teeth. Then, with my arm, I knocked the hand grabbing my shoulder away.
I twisted, seeking the leverage I needed to thrust my sword up into my attacker. I didn’t have to worry about my strength, because my vampire-like abilities did not fail me. The sword buried itself into the man who attempted to capture me with so much ease that my eyes widened in surprise while his widened in shock. His hand loosened in my hair, and I pulled away, withdrawing the sword. While gripping it in both hands, I swiped the blade at his neck and watched the flesh split like butter.
Disgust at what I had done swelled inside me again, and the same savage glee from before followed. I pushed both aside and tried to reorient myself, so I could join the fight again. I didn’t have time to dwell on how taking a life made me feel. Too many others were on the line. I’d just have to count on there being a “later”, to sort through my conflicting emotions.
“Lavinia!” a voice called, and I quickly scanned the beach, looking for Jameson.
I spotted him about fifty yards from me, and just the sight of him had a smile spreading across my face. We were all fine, and it appeared we were winning against the vampires and pirates. It faltered, however, when I noticed his stricken expression. Before I could glance around for what had caused the look on his face, an arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me back against a hard chest.
“There you are, darling,” Pierce drawled in my ear as
he knocked my sword away.
He ripped the chainmail away from my neck, then plunged his fangs into my neck while the hand that had knocked my sword gripped my jaw, making it impossible for me to pull away.
Liquid flames raced through my body until I was sure I had been lit on fire. I screamed with pain, my blood flowing freely while he drank with greedy gulps. The swirling power inside me surged when I tried to get away, but Pierce’s strength was superior to my own.
Tears streamed down my cheeks while he continued to drain me. With blurry eyes, I watched as Jameson raced toward us, as if he was running through quicksand. I wondered at his sudden lack of speed, but I lost the thought when my lungs filled with another scream at the agony that consumed me. Before I could let the shout loose, Pierce’s hand that held my jaw jerked my head to the side. I heard a crack as the fire inside me died.
My eyes were open, but when I tried to blink, nothing happened. My body sagged. I couldn’t move. Terrified, I held my breath, listening internally for the sound that told me I was still human, but all was silent.
My heart was no longer beating.
Despair engulfed me, but there was nothing I could do.
“You bastard,” Jameson yelled, and I tried to move anything, but again, nothing.
Something moved away from my throat, but I felt no pain as my body was turned around and then pressed against a chest like a doll.
“She will turn now,” Pierce cooed with a sinister tone as he stroked my hair. “Prime told me how to turn her fully, and this time she will be mine.”
Disgust and loathing filled me, but there was nothing I could do. He had drained me, then broke my neck. I could feel my bones shifting around as he continued his ramblings, touching me with his cold vampire fingers and making me wish that I had control again, so I could vomit properly.
I felt a hand caress my jaw and pull my head around to its normal position. I winced internally when my bones and sinew shifted. There still was no pain, which concerned me. Last time, the pain had been excruciating, but feeling absolutely nothing scared me more than having my neck broken.
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