Bloodfire (Empire of Fangs)

by Andrew Domonkos

  She clung tightly to him. He looked at her with his tired eyes. His face was battered and she could tell he was half blind in the darkness.

  “C’mon,” she said, wiping a tear from her eye. “This shaft leads to a way out.”

  31.

  They walked in total silence for a long time, climbing over earthen obstacles and ducking under the low ceiling. Eventually they reached a ramp that took them up out of the mine and back topside where they could see the night sky.

  Twig was relieved to be out of the claustrophobic space. He sat down on the ground on a carpet of pine needles and sighed.

  “They escaped again,” he muttered.

  Zara remained standing and looked up at the sky thoughtfully. “They got a few scratches though. Abby isn’t going to win any beauty pageants anytime soon.” She laughed and looked down at her nails, blackened from dirt and smoke and blood.

  Twig looked up at her with an annoyed look on his face. “You think it’s funny? Both our father’s are dead. All those kids are dead,” he lumbered to his feet and stormed up to Zara, who eyed him indifferently.

  “Is this who you are now?” Twig shouted.

  Zara stared coldly at Twig. She brushed a bloody strand of hair from her face. “Maybe I am whoever the hell I want to be.” She gave him a light shove and he went flying back. He landed on his back and immediately pulled a stake from his belt.

  Zara grinned. “I knew it,” she said. “Everyone defaults to their true nature eventually.”

  Twig held the stake in front of him for a moment and then dropped it. “Please Zara,” he said in a low tone. “I’m sorry.” He moved towards her. “I won’t fight you. You are all I have left,” he said in a whisper.

  Zara turned away from him. “I’m sorry too, but for your own safety you have to let me go. I can’t be near you anymore. I will find Damon and take what is mine.” She was seething again, her voice strange and alien to Twig.

  “Zara, would you listen to yourself?” Twig pleaded, keeping his distance. “You sound like him! I won’t let you become them!”

  Zara laughed again and turned swiftly. Twig felt his body almost freeze when he saw the look in her eyes. He could see fire in them, swirling and consuming.

  “So that’s it,” he said sadly. “We’ve lost.”

  Zara hissed and barred her fangs suddenly. “You can never know unless I show you. It’s the only way!” her voice was now booming and rumbled through the forest like thunder.

  Twig took a deep breath. “The sunlight in my blood…you know I can’t be turned.”

  “Maybe not by them,” she said flatly. “But I’m only half a vampire, remember?”

  Twig braced as she moved closer, swiftly.

  He let the stake fall to the ground.

  Shadows twisted all around him and all he could see was her eyes, both wild and hungry and swirling with the colors of fire.