Ice smirked. “Lawan can play cat and mouse with me anytime.” And then he was gone. I looked down and saw a white mouse who skittered under leaves and low-hanging branches on his way to the pyramid. Ice would make it in through the south entrance.
“Your turn.” I glanced at Mandisa, who gave me one of her hard, unreadable looks before she moved.
I expected her to approach the gate and scale it. Instead, one second she was there, the next second she was gone. I took a step back in surprise. Abatwa Fae could use glamours? Nice.
As a paranorm I could still see her milky white outline, but humans or Vampires wouldn’t be able to. I watched as she went up to the Doppler guards standing at the gate.
Mandisa walked through the bars.
Not in between the bars. Through the bars. Like a Specter or Shadow Shifter.
Mandisa looked over her shoulder at me before facing forward and walking toward the west entrance.
The beating of my heart increased as I wrapped myself in an air glamour.
To gain momentum I went at a hard run from the forest to the east wall. Several feet from the wall I jumped up and forward-flipped over the wall and razor wire. I landed in a crouch on the ground on the other side of the stone fence.
I looked around me, taking in the compound with a sweep of my gaze. Everything looked normal on the outside. I saw no signs of my team. I hadn’t expected to since the pyramid was too big for me to see around from the middle point.
But I did see the guard who stood at the entrance where I would be going in.
A few more raindrops hit my face as I ran in glamour toward the east entrance that led down below the pyramid. The smell of rain grew stronger as I ran for the guard.
The skies opened up and began to pour. By the time I reached the Vampire guard, I was soaked. I stood a few feet away from the Vamp who looked irritated at being out in the rain. It was one of those who had shackled me and bolted the head cage onto me.
I drew one dragon-clawed dagger, held the hilt in a two-fisted grip, and walked up to the Vampire. Just to let him know it was me about to take his life, I released my glamour at the same time I swung my blade at his neck.
The look of shock was still on the Vampire’s face as his head dropped to the wet ground and his body collapsed.
I kicked the Vampire’s feet off the square of stone that covered the east entrance. I used my earth magic to make a quick search to make sure no Vampires were in the passageway that led into the depths below the pyramid.
After I moved the heavy slab covering the entrance, I climbed down, leaving the entrance open for Team Two. I tapped my earpiece as I jogged down the steps. “Team Two, come on in.”
“On our way,” Angel said. “We’ll be right on your tails.”
I hurried into the black darkness when I reached the bottom of the steps and along the earthen passageway. A strong sense of déjà vu overcame me. I’d been at this very place only two days ago? So much had happened since the time that I’d first walked down this passageway that it seemed longer.
My skin felt cool and wet from the rain as I dodged the roots dangling from the earthen ceiling. After running down the slanting passage, I saw the strip of light beneath the black door. I paused to search what was on the other side of the door with my elemental magic.
Another guard, just like Negel had said.
From my belt I withdrew a small periscope and slid it beneath the door to get an idea of exactly where the guard was standing. He was almost dead center from the doorway, maybe a foot away at most.
I replaced the periscope on my belt and in a pocket on my weapons belt I reached for a disc that was about the size of a quarter that humans used for currency. I knelt, pressed down on the center of the disc, then slid it beneath the doorway.
The strong smell of garlic was followed by a grunt, like someone was in pain. Then a loud thud against the door. The intense mixture of holy water and garlic would throw the Vampire off balance and I could picture him slumped against the door.
It was too bad large quantities of the stuff couldn’t be used on more than a Vampire or two at a time. The power of the combination was diminished when not used in a form this concentrated. It was also hard to trigger and get to the Vampire before he or she moved.
I wrapped myself tight in an air glamour again.
Holding one dagger, I jerked the door open with my free hand. The Vampire guard stumbled backward, followed by the pungent odor of garlic. Before he had a chance to right himself, I brought my dagger down on his neck. His head dropped on the passageway floor and his body fell beside it.
I picked up the expired disc and tossed it into the passageway before closing the door and leaving the headless Vampire in the darkness.
Once again I was standing on the black marble of the foyer, the crystal chandelier hanging overhead. I looked at the sweeping staircase and listened. Coming from behind it, in the direction of the ballroom were voices.
My throat tightened as I walked toward the ballroom at a brisk pace, still in glamour. I reached the entrance and looked in to see more Vampires than we had expected.
I started to back out so that I could tell Angel that we had a bigger problem than we’d thought. But two Vampires came up behind me and I had to step away inside the ballroom.
To my right was the office where Negel was positive Volod now had the serum and antiserum hidden. I had to get into that office, but so many Vamps were crowded near the hallway that I didn’t know how I was going to get past.
Volod walked into the ballroom from the hallway.
The bite mark on my neck burned like white-hot fire and I slapped my hand over the bite. The heat of it traveled through my fingers and I felt it throb.
At the same time, Volod raised his head, but he didn’t look at me. I bit my bottom lip as the burn continued. Volod reached inside a suit jacket he was wearing tonight.
Faster than I could see or react, Volod whipped out a small knife and flung it at me.
I cried out and my glamour dropped as the knife buried itself to the hilt in my thigh.
TWENTY-SIX
My leg gave out from under me and I dropped to one knee. The knife had penetrated the muscle of my thigh.
“Ballroom!” I shouted into the mic. “Storm the compound now!”
Vamps who had been standing near Volod started toward me. I jerked the knife out of my thigh at the same time I gathered a powerful shield around myself.
Blood poured down my thigh and pain burned in it enough to make me grind my teeth as I got to both feet again.
How appropriate to have this battle in the same room where I’d watched Vampires go crazy not only once, but twice. The second time with me as the exhibit and victim.
Resting my weight on my left leg, I drew my dagger along with my buckler.
A Vampire came at me from my left.
I was too close to go for his neck so I ran him through with my dagger.
It was only enough to make him pause before he began to heal.
He went for me with fangs and claws even as I jerked the dagger out.
I dropped to the floor and rolled between his legs and came up behind him.
As he whirled I had my dagger ready for him. I sliced into his neck.
My momentum wasn’t enough. The blade only made it three quarters of the way through.
He backhanded me with a Vampire’s amazing strength and slammed me across the room against a wall.
I fell, landing on my knees. More pain burst through me from my thigh. The Vamp’s neck was already starting to heal as he charged me.
There was barely enough time to jerk the small crossbow from my belt, load it with a stake, and fire.
The stake buried itself deep inside his heart.
With a pained cry the Vampire tumbled forward, landing on the hilt of the stake and driving it even further.
He lay still.
I looked around me.
A madhouse.
The entire pa
ck of Vampires from across the room raced toward me. Where was my team?
Then it looked like almost every Tracker from both Team One and Team Two had descended on the room from all four entrances.
My teams rushed the Vampires and began battling them.
More Vampires flowed in from the main entry which was closest to the stairs from the catacombs. Must have woken a few late sleepers. There were even more Vampires in the pyramid than we had suspected.
Candle flames flickered in the wall sconces and I considered frying Vampires with my fire elemental magic. But there were too many Trackers around and I didn’t want to take the chance of roasting anyone who wasn’t a Vampire.
When I saw Adam and Olivia, my heart started pounding so hard in my chest that it hurt. They were human and didn’t belong here no matter what they thought. Vampires were too powerful.
But they tag-teamed again. Olivia shot a Vampire in the head with garlic and holy water bullets which caused the Vampire to come up short. That gave Adam a clear shot to stake the Vamp with a loaded crossbow.
My neck still burned where the bite marks had been, but the burning lessened. Volod was walking farther from me. I swung around and saw him heading toward the hallway leading to his den.
I started after Volod, who shouted orders which I didn’t understand in the chaos. He had stopped behind three vampires engaged in a fight with Angel and Mandisa. I had to reach that room behind him and he knew it.
I rushed forward but two Vampires got in my way.
One of the Vampires flung himself at me with fangs bared and claws extended.
The other Vamp circled me to come up from behind.
Blood rushed in my head and pain pounded in my thigh.
Before either Vampire could touch me, I dove to the side, dropped, and rolled a few feet away.
The Vampires smacked into each other as I scrambled to my feet.
Almost without pause they came after me again.
The burn of the bite mark on my neck was fading more. Volod was getting away.
Had to get to him!
I called to my fire element and sent huge flames rushing at the two Vampires.
They screamed as they were engulfed in fire.
I took both of my daggers and with a full swipe of each, beheaded both Vampires at the same time.
To my left two Vampires came up behind Olivia. She didn’t see them. I called my fire element and torched them, exploding them in flames.
Olivia nodded before pulling the trigger on her small crossbow with the stake. The Vampire she nailed didn’t see it coming. He was dead before he hit the floor.
I looked and saw two Dopplers engaged with four Vampires.
Three Trackers were to my right fighting off seven Vampires.
I sensed an attack from behind. I whirled with my dagger sweeping neck high. I grazed one Vampire but crumpled under the weight of another as he flew into me. Pain screamed through my leg as his weight landed on my thigh. He raised his hand and a wicked-looking knife was clutched in his fist.
He slumped forward, his dead weight on me. Ice stood behind the Vampire with his emptied crossbow. A stake was buried into the Vampire’s back, straight through to his heart.
Love that weapon.
I limped to my feet and looked for Volod. The Trackers had all but crushed the Vampires. Six Vampires stood with their hands up, surrendering to the garlic, holy water, and stake weapons.
Two Vampires bolted through the doors leading out of the ballroom.
There was no escape for them. Our forces had the exits blocked and we would find any surviving Vampires.
What mattered now were the serums. I had to get them.
Volod had disappeared, but I would find him.
I ran to the hallway where the office was.
Four Vampires emerged from the office and rushed us.
Where had they come from? What were they doing in that room?
Just in time to avoid one of the Vamps’ fangs and claws, I dodged to the side.
I ground my teeth against the pain in my thigh. “Team leaders,” I said as I ignored the pain to keep from limping and hurried past the four Vampires. “Assign squads to search every room for remaining Vampires.”
Before anyone had a chance to respond, I was already going after Volod.
My earpiece crackled.
“Nyx!” It was Negel’s voice and he sounded panicked. I didn’t know how he’d gotten hold of an earpiece but it didn’t matter. Static made it hard to hear him clearly.
“Volod … get … away … dark … running … text…” Then again I heard “text.”
“What?” I said as I ran down the hallway, leaving the melee behind. But all I heard was a crackle and then silence.
I reached Volod’s office. The door was wide open.
My skin prickled as I peered around the doorframe.
A bookcase had been moved aside and there was an opening in the floor.
My stomach pitched. No one was in the room and what I was seeing couldn’t be good.
I limped toward the opening. It was a safe and it was empty.
The earpiece crackled as I whirled around. I felt suddenly helpless and off kilter. My neck no longer burned, not at all.
Where was he? Volod might release the serum now with all of the paranorms around.
A few garbled words were all I could hear Negel say over the mic.
“What?” I shouted again as I ran back to the door and looked up and down the hallway. Where could Volod have gone? “I can’t understand you, Negel.”
“Stand-up coffin … catacombs … tunnel,” I heard him say through the static. “… text.… phone.”
I bolted out into the ballroom. Three more Vampires ran from the entry to the ballroom. They were immediately met with a barrage of wooden stakes launched from crossbows that Trackers had aimed at them. At least two of the shots were bull’s-eyes as the Vampires collapsed.
“Secure the perimeter. Volod is gone and so are the serums,” I said into the earpieces. “No one, I mean no one gets beyond our perimeter but Trackers only. I want additional paranorms at each exit now. Volod cannot be allowed to escape.”
Volod is here somewhere and he will not escape, I thought. He cannot escape. We have him.
I reached for my transmit button. “Negel, where are you?”
Nothing.
What was going on? Could Volod have actually escaped?
“Negel, tell me something.”
The room was all but secured. As the torched Vampires began to reform, they were put into compression suits before they got their strength back.
The radio crackled. A few garbled words, then the word, “text” again.
What did that mean? “Text.”
My phone vibrated. Oh. That was what Negel had been trying to tell me. He’d sent a text message and in the fight I hadn’t felt the vibration.
When I looked at the screen I clicked on a message from him. Can’t talk. Following Volod and two vamps. Long tunnel. Entry in stand-up coffin. Volod has the box. Help!
I replied into the transmitter. “I got it, Negel, I’m coming. Don’t lose sight of them, but don’t try and take the box yourself.” I was so glad Olivia replaced my phone.
Stand-up coffin … Stand-up coffin …
I frowned. Where—
Then I remembered the stand-up coffin in the catacombs at the place where I’d done the transference. Pain made me grind my teeth even harder as I raced there.
Over my earpiece I told Olivia, Ice, and Adam where to find the tunnel entrance and to follow it. I also ordered the team leaders to have the perimeter moved out, that Volod may have exited through a tunnel beyond our net.
As I bolted for the catacombs, thoughts raced through my mind. How could there be an exit we didn’t know about? Why didn’t I sense it with my earth element? Maybe it was the lack of fresh air in the dank catacombs. At this point it didn’t matter. I couldn’t let Volod get away.
Shouts
and cries from paranorms battling in other parts of the pyramid continued.
I rushed out of the ballroom and headed downstairs toward the kitchen, past the infirmary, and beyond the research center until I came to the stairs going down into the catacombs.
Wary that some Vampires might still be in their coffins, I dodged through the dark, dark place carefully. Fortunately I didn’t run across any and I made it to where the stand-up coffin was.
The lid of the coffin had been moved aside and instead of a bottom to the coffin there was an entrance into a dark tunnel.
I looked at my phone again. Another text message from Negel.
Volod running from exit. Still with two other Vampires. Beyond the perimeter.
I ran into the tunnel. Earth and air elements told me how long the tunnel was. A little over a quarter of a mile, farther out than our five-hundred-foot perimeter like Negel had said.
My heart pounded, blood racing. I used my air element to propel me to the tunnel exit. A quarter of a mile was normally hardly anything when I ran, but the wound in my thigh slowed me down some.
Finally I reached and stopped at the mouth of the tunnel. I listened. I saw moonlight break through the clouds. The rain had stopped.
In the distance were sounds of running—shoes snapping small branches and wet leaves slapping against bodies. The rain had not drenched the forest enough to quiet it.
The sounds were still loud to my ears as I stopped and whispered into my earpiece. I told the Trackers how to reach my position from the pyramid exits, including the one in the catacombs.
Water trickled from branches like tears as I started running through the forest, following the sounds again.
I came to an abrupt stop.
Listened.
Now everything was quiet.
No more sounds of running.
Where was Volod?
My neck started to burn. White-hot fire seared it and the wound in my thigh.
I sensed Volod and I spun around.
Volod was barely five feet away. Behind him was Danut.
“Purple bitch,” Volod shouted as he raised his hand and shot power at me.
I flung up my air shield and backed it up with magic I took from the earth and water from the trees and puddles.
Vampires Not Invited: A Night Tracker Novel Page 26