Vampires of Maze (Part Three) (Beautiful Immortals Series Two Book 3)
Page 1
Vampires of Maze
(Beautiful Immortals Series Two)
Part Three
BY
Tim O’Rourke
First Edition Published by Ravenwoodgreys
Copyright 2016 by Tim O’Rourke
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organisations is entirely coincidental.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Story Editor
Lynda O’Rourke
Book cover designed by:
Tom O’Rourke
Copyedited by:
Carolyn M. Pinard
www.cjpinard.com
For Richard
More books by Tim O’Rourke
Kiera Hudson Series One
Vampire Shift (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 1
Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 2
Vampire Hunt (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 3
Vampire Breed (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 4
Wolf House (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 5
Vampire Hollows (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 6
Kiera Hudson Series Two
Dead Flesh (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 1
Dead Night (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 2
Dead Angels (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 3
Dead Statues (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 4
Dead Seth (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 5
Dead Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 6
Dead Water (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 7
Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 8
Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 9
Dead End (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 10
Kiera Hudson Series Three
The Creeping Men (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 1
The Lethal Infected (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 2
The Adoring Artist (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 3
The Secret Identity (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 4
The White Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 5
The Kiera Hudson Prequels
The Kiera Hudson Prequels (Book One)
The Kiera Hudson Prequels (Book Two)
Kiera Hudson & Sammy Carter
Vampire Twin (Pushed Trilogy) Book 1
Vampire Chronicle (Pushed Trilogy) Book 2
The Alternate World of Kiera Hudson
Wolf Shift
Werewolves of Shade
Werewolves of Shade (Part One)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Two)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Three)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Four)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Five)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Six)
Vampires of Maze
Vampires of Maze (Part One)
Vampires of Maze (Part Two)
Vampires of Maze (Part Three)
Moon Trilogy
Moonlight (Moon Trilogy) Book 1
Moonbeam (Moon Trilogy) Book 2
Moonshine (Moon Trilogy) Book 3
The Jack Seth Novellas
Hollow Pit (Book One)
Black Hill Farm (Books 1 & 2)
Black Hill Farm (Book 1)
Black Hill Farm: Andy’s Diary (Book 2)
Sydney Hart Novels
Witch (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 1
Yellow (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 2
The Doorways Saga
Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 1)
The League of Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 2)
The Queen of Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 3)
The Tessa Dark Trilogy
Stilts (Book 1)
Zip (Book 2)
The Mechanic
The Mechanic
The Dark Side of Nightfall Trilogy
The Dark Side of Nightfall (Book One)
The Dark Side of Nightfall (Book Two)
The Dark Side of Nightfall (Book Three)
Samantha Carter Series
Vampire Seeker (Book One)
Vampire Flappers (Book Two)
Vampire Watchmen (Book Three)
Unscathed
Written by Tim O’Rourke & C.J. Pinard
You can contact Tim O’Rourke at
www.kierahudson.com or by email at kierahudson91@aol.com
Vampires of Maze
(Part Three)
This story is set in a where and when not too dissimilar to our own…
Chapter One
The bullet from Trent’s gun whistled past my ear and thundered into the first of the vampires that had managed to break its way through the door. I looked back over my shoulder to see that Trent had both his guns drawn and was in fact firing at the vampires, not at the sobbing babies who cowered in their cots. The vampires scrambled over each other as they stormed the makeshift nursery.
Surprised by this, I looked at Trent and said, “I thought you had come here to kill these children.”
He glanced at me, then back at the vampires who had reduced the door into splinters as they fought desperately to get us. “I’ve changed my mind,” Trent said, before firing off another wave of bullets.
Drawing her guns, Rea also glanced at Trent and said, “I thought we had come to kill humans, too.”
I feared what Trent was going to say, suspecting that he was going to take my side over Rea’s once more. “Julia is right, we can’t kill these children.”
“But…” Rea started, pumping a continuous stream of bullets into the vampires who were now heading across the room at speed toward us.
“No buts, Rea,” Trent said over the roar of gunfire, “if we slaughter these children, it makes us as bad, if not worse, than the vampires. We are better than that – we are better than them.”
I couldn’t help but notice how Morten looked somewhat relieved by what Trent had said. I suspected that, despite being a werewolf like the others, Morten couldn’t have killed the human children any more than I could have.
Both Rush and Calix had drawn their guns and they backed slowly across the room, vampires hissing and spitting just feet from us. The two brothers opened fire. The room had become nothing more than a deafening noise of hellish gunfire, screeching vampires and wailing children. Some of the children had curled their hands into small balls and pressed them to their eyes, trying to fight back the tears. Their faces were bright red and knotted as they hitched back the sobs that racked their tiny bodies. In a line and shoulder to shoulder, we made our way backwards across the room and out of reach of the vampires.
Seemingly undeterred by Trent’s change of mind – heart – Rea said, “But if we don’t cut off the vampires’ supply of human flesh, we will never defeat them. If we let these children live…”
“Julia is right, we’ve come to make a truce, not defeat the vampires,” Trent said, nimbly reloading his gun in a blur of movement.
I couldn’t help but cringe once more as those words left Trent’s mouth. I dared not look sideways at Rea for I knew she would be staring at me – her powerful blue eyes boring into my very soul – trying to freeze me out. It seemed that with every
decision Trent made, Rea disliked me – hated me – that little bit more.
So resisting the urge to stare at her, I looked deep inside myself at the tendrils of magic that waved to and fro from the pit of my stomach. I let them reach out and travel through my entire body until my hands were pulsating with light. Raising my arms, I made fists, then extended my fingers, unleashing streams of purple and blue light. The sizzling streams of magic burst from my fingertips, shooting across the room like lightning strikes and into the vampires. My magic lifted them clean off their feet, sending them spiralling and pin-wheeling through the air. They smashed into the nursery walls, the sound of their bones breaking like kindling being snapped underfoot. But with every vampire I crushed, or who fell helplessly to their knees under the volley of bullets, more of them continued to stream into the room. They made their way across the room, zigzagging amongst the cots in a relentless stream. I didn’t know what was worse, the vampires’ screams of anger and hate or the terrified cries of the children who cowered in their cots. Even though Trent had changed his mind and had decided to let the children live, my heart still sank. I knew that despite my best efforts, there was no way we could take the human children with us or save them from their fate. It pained me even more to know that Rea, in some small way, had been right in what she had said. To let the children live for now was only putting off their inevitable deaths at the hands of the vampires. For I knew that once the children had grown enough to provide the vampires with flesh to gorge on, they too would be hung up then cut down in the hangar below. But however impossible it seemed, if I could in some way find a truce between the werewolves and the vampires, perhaps I could change the fate of the many children that the vampires had imprisoned in the human farm. And as the vampires looked through the air at us, faces twisted with hate and claws scratching the walls and splintering the wooden cots, any ideas I might have of ever finding peace with these creatures seemed impossible. But however hard it was going to be for me to stay focused, I had to keep reminding myself that not all vampires were bad. I knew that they could love and be loved just like all of us could be.
A sudden gust of wind, followed by a flurry of swirling snow, swept into the room, covering my skin with gooseflesh. I continued to take aim at the vampires with my fingertips, striking them down with my magic. Daring to snatch a glance back over my shoulder, I could see that Morten had opened a door set into the wall just feet behind us. Through it I could see the night sky and the snow that drifted on the wind.
“This way!” Morten shouted before disappearing from view.
Taking aim with his shotgun at the vampires, Calix fired once more before setting off after Morten.
“Come on!” Trent said, arms and guns out before him as he made his way slowly backwards toward the door.
Huddled together in a small group, not daring to take our eyes off the hooded vampires, we made our way through the doorway and once more into the night.
I found myself standing on a small metal platform that jutted from the side of the building. There was a set of iron stairs that led down to ground level. The snow had begun to slow and was now little more than a gentle flurry. I was shoved in the back by Rea. Lurching forward, I stumbled down the first of the steps.
Rea hissed in my ear. “Move it! Move it!”
Without looking back, I regained my balance and raced downstairs to where Calix and Morten were waiting. Calix had reloaded his guns and was taking aim at the doorway we had fled through. He cut down the first of the vampires by shooting one of them straight in the face. The vampire’s head erupted as the creature flew back into the night, its long black robes fluttering all about it like broken wings. Rea, Trent, and Rush sprang from the foot of the metal staircase and down into the snow. Spinning round on the heels of their boots, they fired up at the vampires who were now racing down the stairs. My companions brought the first wave down, riddling the vampires’ heads with bullet holes. Blood spattered the stairs, the wall of the human farm, and snow in thick black lumps. The vampires dropped down the staircase, landing in a twisted and bloody heap. This caused the vampires behind them to bottleneck into each other, forcing them to slow down.
Seeing this and hoping it might buy us some time, Trent said, “We need to find a way out of here.” Without saying another word, Trent was dashing away through the snow and back toward the road where we had seen the truck bring those humans to the farm.
Rea panted beside me as we raced at speed across the snow-covered field. “So can’t you perform some kind of magic trick to get us out of this mess?”
“It’s not just a case of clicking my fingers,” I said, drawing a freezing cold lungful of breath. “It takes thought – it takes time…”
“Time is the one thing we don’t have,” Calix said, looking back over his shoulder at the vampires as he sped past me.
I desperately fought the urge not to look back but I couldn’t resist. I needed to know if there was perhaps some time for me to reach out, draw on the elements, and use the natural magic that surrounded us and cast a spell. If I could, I wanted to help my friends or at least buy us a little more time. So snatching one quick glimpse back over my shoulder, I was horrified to see that the vampires had now clambered over the knot of dead bodies at the foot of the stairs and were racing at a terrifying speed in pursuit of us. And in what little light that came from the moon, I could see the wretched, pale faces of those creatures hidden beneath the long dark hooded robes they wore. The long and jagged swords they carried almost seemed to glow blue in the moonlight.
“How about that?” I heard Morten say.
I looked front once more.
“How about what?” Rea asked.
Morten pointed ahead with the blade of one of the knives he carried. “The truck! We could escape in that truck!”
Peering through the last flurries of snow, I could see the truck which the vampires had abandoned at the front of the hangar.
“We could certainly outrun them in that,” Morten said.
“I like your thinking, old man,” Trent said, before changing direction and speeding across the field toward it.
Trampling the snow underfoot, we raced after Trent. Reaching the road, which was frozen in places, we began to slip and slide and it became difficult to keep our balance. But with the vampires at our heels, we couldn’t afford to slow down. Within feet of the truck, I lost my footing and my legs shot out before me. I slid backwards. Before striking the ground and possibly fracturing my skull against the rock-hard ice, I was gripped by the arm.
“Take it easy,” I heard someone say.
I glanced up to see that it was Calix who had taken hold of me. I glanced down at his hand that had hold of my upper arm.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said with sarcasm. “I forgot I can only look and not touch.” And as quickly as he had been to take hold of me, he let go. Losing my balance, I dropped to the icy ground with a bone-rattling thump.
“Idiot!” I cursed under my breath before springing to my feet and brushing snow from the seat of my jeans. Chuckling to himself like a big kid, Calix made his way toward the truck where Trent was already climbing up into the driver’s cab.
With only seconds to spare and the sound of the vampires ringing in my ears, I slipped and stumbled toward the truck. Reaching it, I could hear Trent cursing.
“There isn’t a key!” he shouted in frustration. “We’re not going anywhere fast without one!”
Chapter Two
The vampires had reached the road and were now only yards away. Trent continued to shout and holler from inside the driver’s cab. I could hear clattering and banging coming from inside it as Trent searched under the seats, the glovebox, and behind the vanity mirror for the key that would start the truck and hopefully take us to safety.
“Where is the goddamn key?” Trent roared.
Rea glanced at Morten. “Whose bright idea was this?”
Morten said nothing. He looked away and back at the approaching vam
pires. As if wanting to prove his worth and value to the team, Morten raised the knives and charged at the vampires who were running toward us. And again, with an agility and speed that defied his decrepit look, Morten once more sprang into the air. With the bowler hat still wedged tight on top of his skull and jacket tails flapping all about him, Morten dragged the blades of his knives across the throats of the nearest vampires. Their heads fell away, dropping into the snow with heavy thuds. The snow at Morten’s feet began to turn crimson. The vampires’ headless corpses twitched and jerked spasmodically until crumpling to the ground along with their heads. Seeing the bravery of the old man, and knowing that like the rest of us he was vastly outnumbered, I raised my hands. Fingers extended, I sprayed tendrils of light at the vampires. The pulsating beams of colour that leaked from my fingers crackled and hissed, consuming the vampires. Once more, the darkness became light in sudden bursts as Calix, Rea, and Rush began to open fire. With our backs against the truck and knowing that it was now our only hope of escape, I lowered my hands and climbed up into the driver’s cab.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Rea asked, eyes fixed front as she continued to blast away at the screeching and cavorting vampires.
Ignoring her, I crouched low and ducked into the cab. Trent was still frantically searching for the key.
Glancing up and finding me beside him, he said, “How the hell do we get out of this one? I do not know.”
“Like this,” I said, extending one finger and pressing the tip of it against the ignition. My fingertip tingled as a spike of energy travelled from me and into the ignition chamber. At once, the engine of the truck began to rumble as it came to life beneath the hood.
With the truck shaking and rattling about us, Trent looked at me, the corners of his firm lips twisting up into a sly smile. He looked good like that. I felt a pang of heat inside of me which hadn’t been caused by magic.