by Jack Knight
“Gen!” Asher interrupted as we all started sprinting up the stairs in single file. “Digest version.”
“I’m super smart!” she finished with a laugh.
Gen led the way as we made it to the second floor and sprinted toward the only door in the short hallway. Right before Gen reached it, she threw out her hand and said, “Recludo!”
The door flew open just in time for all of us to run through. I was ready to attack, just as much as I was to see the entire room empty. I was unprepared on both counts.
The room looked very different from the last time I had seen it. All of the maps and papers were gone. All the bottles and colorful liquids had been replaced with cardboard and plastic boxes. It looked like it was in the middle of being packed up and emptied.
We weren’t the only ones in the room, either. Torn was on the same side of the room he had been the first time, but he was standing next to a bunch of open boxes instead of sitting in a chair. He looked up at us when we entered the room, and then glanced at the vampires he had standing around him.
Just like last time, his bodyguards were wearing black, button up shirts and jeans. In fact, they looked almost identical to the vamps I had killed in the large, empty room. It seemed that Torn had a type. The only difference was this time there were five of them.
“Well, I had hoped that Atasha would keep you occupied a little longer,” Torn said with an almost bored tone. “No matter.”
Torn stood up straight and turned to face us, sliding his hands into his pockets as he did. At first, I assumed he was reaching for a weapon, but I realized there was no point with vampires surrounding him. He was just that at ease.
“We’ll stop you, Torn,” Asher said quietly. “You betrayed the Reapers, you’re killing people. Taking you down is our job.”
Torn cracked a smile and looked at Asher for a few seconds.
“Really, little dhampir?” Torn asked. “You do remember that I taught you magic. I taught you everything. Do you think you can do much of anything to me?”
Asher didn’t respond, which I took as a bad sign.
“Alright, bitch, how about me?” I yelled as I started running toward him.
Torn just waved a hand, and one of his bodyguards ran toward me.
Hoping the vamp wouldn’t be invulnerable again, I stabbed at his stomach, and my knife sank into him. It didn’t seem to matter, though, it was like it didn’t cause the vampire the slightest bit of pain. He just grabbed both my arms, lifted me off my feet, turned in a quick circle, and threw me so hard that it hit the wall opposite where Torn was standing before I fell to the floor.
“Protect yourselves!” Magnus yelled.
I got a quick glimpse of the room. The rest of the vampires had attacked at the same time. Gen and Asher were still close by, but Matt was in the middle of a fist-fight with two of Torn’s vamps. Magnus was carving a sigil into his arm with one hand and tossing fire at the vampires with the arm he was currently cutting up.
At Magnus’ shout, Gen and Asher ran toward me. Matt threw both of the vamps he was fighting off their feet and ran toward us so fast I could barely see him moving. All three of them crashed to the ground right in front of me, huddling together like we were trying to share body heat.
Gen threw up her hands and said, “Protego nos!”
A tinge of green colored everything around us. There was just enough time for me to realize Gen had thrown up a bubble that covered all four of us, and then, green flames filled the room.
It wasn’t a flash of fire, like when I had cast my first spell in the church. This wasn’t like when Asher held a fireball in his hand to scare the vampire in the Hunter’s building. The green flames filled the room and didn’t disappear for a full minute. The heat from the flames penetrated the bubble, even though the fire itself couldn’t, and I felt like I was being burned alive.
When the flames finally died, Gen lowered her hands and the bubble disappeared. Flames, normal red ones, filled the room, burning boxes, still smoldering on the ceiling, and cooking the charred, blackened bodies that laid all over the room. It occurred to me the fire had probably been red, I just thought it was green when seeing it through Gen’s bubble.
Then, a much more important thought occurred to me. I couldn’t see Magnus.
Gen and Asher jumped up immediately and ran over to the burning bodies one at a time. I tried to get up, but Matt grabbed my arm and kept me still.
“Maddi, there’s no way he survived that, take it easy a second.”
I ripped my arm away from his grasp and stood up. “There are only five bodies, moron.”
It wasn’t hard to count, when they were spread out around the room and still burning, the flames flickering across their corpses acting as beacons. There had been five vampires, which meant that both Torn and Magnus were missing.
“Oh god!” Gen practically screamed.
It took me a couple of seconds to run to where she was standing, I got to her the same time as Asher did.
Behind a long table that had been knocked over, Magnus was lying on the ground, like he had tried to dive out of the way of the fire he had let loose on the room.
It didn’t work.
His entire body was red and glistening. His clothes had been burned off, so had most of his long, white hair. His eyes were fluttering, but he didn’t look like he was actually conscious.
“Heal him!” I shouted at Gen.
She turned to me with tears in her eyes and shook her head. “I can’t do anything that big.”
I turned to look at Asher. He met my gaze with his own for a second, and then turned away.
“Get him...” Magnus croaked.
“Oh, shit, he’s awake,” I whispered to myself in surprise.
“He got away, as I knew he would. The vampires should be gone. Get him.” Magnus’ voice sounded much deeper than usual, and so dry it was like his throat had turned to sandpaper. It was horrifying to hear, but I got the message.
Magnus knew that Torn would escape, he wanted us to stop him when he couldn’t use bodyguards to do his fighting for him. It was smart, but I was pissed.
“You did this on purpose?” I screamed.
It was insane, absolutely impossible, but I swear I saw Magnus’ mouth twitch, like he was trying to smile.
That bastard.
“Gen, Asher, get him out of here. You need to figure out a way to buy him some time, at least. Matt, with me,” I commanded as I ran toward the door.
“Wait!” Gen gasped. She still sounded like she was trying not to cry, but at least she sounded confident.
I stopped and turned, wondering if she had a genius idea as to how to find Torn that I needed to hear.
“New guy, you’re a vampire!”
Matt was halfway between me and where the Reapers were grouped together, he looked back and forth between us, frozen in indecision.
“I don’t have much blood,” Matt finally told Gen. “He starved me.”
Asher’s face was set and determined when he replied. “You’ll take a little from each of us,” he said with authority, “then give Magnus enough to save his life. Maddi,” he turned his gaze to me, “go kill that bastard.”
I nodded, and ran as fast as I could.
Obviously, I still had no idea where to go, but Torn didn’t seem like the running or fighting type. He had other people do his dirty work, chances were, if I could just catch him, I could kill him in seconds.
I heard a loud clang, like something heavy and metal had fallen to the floor. When I made it to the bottom of the stairs, I saw Torn directly in front of me, carrying a large stack of metal bowls, one had been left behind him on the floor. He ran to the door that the vampires had shoved me through to meet Matt, punched in a code, and ran inside.
“Got you, bitch.”
As fast as my body would allow me to move, I followed Torn. When I reached the door, I yelled the same spell Gen always did to open doors, knowing that I was hurt badly enough from slamming
into the wall to pay whatever sacrifice was needed.
The door burst open, and I made it inside.
Just in time for something to wrap around my throat.
The world blurred as it spun around me. Then, cold, hard concrete slammed into my back. I was sure the dizziness and nausea that hit me in that second weren’t good things.
Slowly, the blurry image around me solidified into the room where I had found Matt. A vampire was standing in front of me, his hand around my neck. He was holding me against a wall, in the air so my feet couldn’t touch the ground.
A few feet away, Torn was standing with his hands behind his back and a smile on his face.
“I’m down to one pet, now,” he told me. “You’ll probably make a good vampire, once you learn to obey.”
Chapter 29
MY HEART WAS BEATING faster than it ever had before in my life. It probably wasn’t a good thing, since the vampire holding me against the wall was staring directly at my neck.
I was running low on air. My lungs were burning, screaming for relief, and there wasn’t a lot I could do.
Keeping my grip on my knife was almost impossible, but I forced my hand to keep hold of it. It was the one thing I had left, I just didn’t have a shot yet.
“Turn her,” Torn commanded, a hint of a laugh in his voice. “When she’s unconscious, throw her in the van.”
He turned around and started walking toward one of the many doors, and the vampire leaned in to bite me. He slid me down the wall, so that he could reach my neck, and I felt my feet just barely touch the floor.
The vampire leaned in slowly, inching toward me like he was savoring every second. I needed to wait, though, he needed to be completely caught off guard.
Finally, he moved his hand, probably because he needed easier access to the artery in my neck. My feet hit the floor, and air rushed into me.
I lashed out with my knife, I sunk straight into the vampire’s stomach. His eyes went wide and his hand left my neck, that was all I needed. Wood in his stomach wouldn’t kill him, but it would hurt.
Even as dizzy as I was, it was easy to push the vampire back so my knife slid free of his body. One quick swipe, and his head hit the floor before the rest of him did.
Torn turned back around before he made it to the door and let out a curse.
My body was swaying, I couldn’t keep myself upright without a tremendous amount of effort, but I wasn’t going to fall. He was right there, and I could end this.
Torn reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a handful of blue dust. I took a wobbly step toward him and he turned the rest of his body to face me, like he was waiting for me to get closer.
A few deep breaths, and my body stopped swaying. I wasn’t exactly at my strongest, but I doubted I would fall over. For the first time ever, I didn’t think rushing in to attack was the way to get this kill.
“What’s the matter, Hunter?” Torn taunted. “Afraid to get too close?”
Rage bubbled in my chest, spreading a fiery heat through my entire body. I felt the angry scream coming from deep inside me before I let it out.
All at once, my body was fine. I felt no pain, I was steady as I raced toward Torn. My skin felt like it was on fire, but the tingling that ran through me stopped it from hurting. I was channeling as much magic as I had when I killed those vampires. Enough to cast a spell that should’ve been beyond my limits. This time, I wasn’t letting it out, I was using it to sustain me.
This was a very good room for me. I lucked out last time, maybe I could again.
When I was close enough, Torn mumbled something and blew on the blue dust. It hit me in the face, but nothing happened.
With all the strength I could muster, I threw all of my weight behind the knife and dove at Torn. He dodged, just barely avoiding the knife plunging into his chest.
He let out a howl of pain as the blade sliced across his arm, but he was still standing when my feet hit the ground again and I turned to face him.
“That’s not possible,” he whispered to himself.
“Potentia violentus!” I shouted as I thrust my hand toward Torn.
He was lifted from his feet and thrown all the way across the room, crashing into the same wall I had been pinned against seconds before.
Torn fell to his knees and wiped the blood from his arm before he looked up at me.
“Draco ignis!”
Torn blew into his hand again, and a plume of fire, taller than I was, raced toward me. It was burning blue, and I swore I saw the face of a lizard inside the flames.
“Protego!” I shouted as I ran forward.
The bubble that tried to form around me was black, unlike Gen’s green, and it melted away as soon as the fire touched it. Some of the blue flames licked at my body, but I ignored the burning and came out the other side of the inferno.
Torn’s eyes grew wide, and I just barely heard him mumble, “What are you?” before I kicked his jaw upward and he slammed his head against the wall as he crumpled to the ground.
Oh no, I was not done with him yet.
“Sursum!” I shouted as I grabbed Torn’s limp body.
I grabbed his shirt and lifted him into the air as easily as a feather before I shoved him against the wall. I pressed the blade of my knife against his neck to keep him still, and kneed him in the stomach, just because I felt like it.
He started, and his eyes fluttered for a few seconds before they opened again. For a moment, his eyes seemed to be searching for something before they finally focused on me.
“I am not a Hunter,” I growled. “I’m a Reaper.”
Torn made a sound somewhere between a chuckle and a cough. “Is that so?”
“Who else is working with you?” I demanded. “Tell me who else I have to kill.”
Torn gave a weak cough before he managed a soft laugh. “I will die before I talk,” he said casually. “Besides, you couldn’t stop him if you tried. I just figured it out.”
The rage that filled me subsided for just a second. I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Figured what out?” I demanded.
Torn raised his head and let it fall back against the wall behind him. It looked like it took all his strength. He was too hurt to fight back anymore, he must know he was out of options, but still, he laughed at me while staring at the ceiling.
“There’s no point in fighting it. I just figured out what you are. There’s no other way you could have survived dragon’s fire.”
Curiosity overtook me. I glanced down at my arms, which still burned from the fire I had run through. They were both covered in blisters, and the skin was bright red, but I didn’t look nearly as bad as Magnus had. I would probably heal in a couple of weeks, even without magic.
“Explain yourself,” I commanded as I pressed the blade against Torn’s throat a little harder.
Blood started seeping out of the wound and down Torn’s throat, he inhaled sharply, but gave no other indication that he understood how close I was to killing him.
“Ah, little Maddison. You have no idea what’s in store for you, do you?” he chuckled in a weak voice.
My rage was steadily growing again. Part of me really wanted to know what he was talking about, but he was pissing me off so much that that part was fading fast.
“Tell me who else is working with you, or I’ll slit your throat right now!” I yelled.
Torn slowly lowered his head so he was looking directly into my eyes. “Do it, then.”
A growl of frustration tore out of me. I dropped the knife and punched Torn in the face right as I heard the weapon clatter to the floor.
My punch knocked Torn’s head against the concrete behind him and his head fell down against his chest, he was completely unconscious. I released him and ended the spell, his body crumpled to the floor again and I just took a few steps back.
Every fiber of my being screamed to tear this guy’s throat out, but if another Reaper was working with him, I needed to k
now who it was. He was the only way I was going to get that information.
It was really hard to ignore everything that I had learned my entire life, but this time, killing the evil creature wasn’t the answer.
One of the doors beeped, and I looked up just in time to see Asher and Gen rush into the room. Asher had a knife ready, and Gen was holding up her bleeding palm. Both of them looked around the room in confusion, and then surprise covered their faces.
“You killed him?” Gen asked, she sounded almost surprised.
I walked over to where they had stopped walking, leaving Torn on the ground. It wasn’t like he could run from the three of us.
“No,” I answered with a sigh. “We need him.”
“Ooh, assassin girl didn’t assass,” Asher said with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes and decided to talk only to Gen from now on.
“He says another Reaper was in on this. Atasha isn’t a problem anymore,” I explained. “But, if he was telling the truth, there’s still at least one other person to worry about.”
Gen glanced in Torn’s direction and then back at me. “So, you wanna take him back and interrogate him?” she asked. “What if he just doesn’t talk? Or, what if whoever was working with him lets him go?”
I shrugged and let out another sigh. “Honestly, who cares. It’s the only way we have a shot at finding out. Also, I’m fucking tired, I just want to be done with this.”
Asher nodded, the stupid grin still on his face. “Sounds good to me.”
“How’s Magnus?” I asked.
Gen attempted a small smile. “He’s pulling through. We’re going to have to keep him away from your friend for a while, but the vamp blood should work its way out of his system in a few weeks.”
I nodded. “Fucking hope so, I drank some of his blood, too.”
Gen’s eyes went wide, but Asher glared at me, so that seemed more pressing.
“What’s your problem?” I demanded of Asher.
“You?” he asked as he raised his eyebrow. “You just that into him, or—”