Muscle and sinew stretched, popped, and pulled into place. A new forearm sprouted from the stump left by the blonde’s sword. Within seconds, he stood whole under the moonlight.
Time ran short. If he didn’t complete the ritual by midnight, he would have to start over again next year. For the first time in over a hundred years, Dupree felt uncertain. In his long life, he had experienced many things and the source of spectacular evil, but only once had he ever seen a vampire pulled down to the very depths of hell.
He shook his head. Now was not the time for doubt. The altar stood ready, and three cauldrons of preserved vampire blood sat full beside it. The witch had promised him that the blood of a newborn vampire, uncorrupted by a feeding, would allow him access to the magic. She hadn’t been wrong. He never left things to chance, which is why he possessed the power he now held.
Dupree began to recite his memorized incantations. By his power alone, the sun would never rise again.
Vampires, not humans, shall rule this earth.
***
“Alexi,” Savanna said softly.
Alexi knelt and clutched her chest as Victor’s heat fled her body. She felt the warmth go even as she desperately tried to hold it in, to hold on to the last drop of his fading soul.
First, her hands went cold. Then her arms. So cold, so empty, and so . . . alone. She choked back tears as the beat of her heart slowed. It was the last thing, the last warm piece of her body.
Now it was cold, too.
“Alexi, we’re almost out of time.” Savanna’s hand rubbed her shoulder.
“I know,” she heard herself say. Her voice sounded flat to her ears. “But how am I supposed to beat him? I cut his arm off, and he still—” She couldn’t say it.
Savanna smoothed her hair back. “Victor is dead,” she said softly. Alexi winced as the words hit her, as though the witch had slapped her. “In half an hour, a lot more people are going to die. If we don’t stop it, Victor’s death will have been for nothing. Is that what you want?”
His name sent a spike of pain deep into her. She couldn’t feel before him. The world had been cold and dark, and all she could feel was a dull ache of something missing. Then she had met him. He had warmed her mind and body, and even when she tried to fight it, he had taken care of her.
And now he’s gone. And that bastard Dupree knows I can’t touch him.
“We have to try, Alexi,” Savanna said. “Even if we don’t have a chance. If we don’t try, we will watch the streets run with blood. I saw it in my vision. I don’t want to see it in person. We have to try.”
Alexi nodded, wiped her face, and stood up.
“Okay,” she said, “Okay.”
There was only one way to take Dupree . . . and that was unawares. Surprise was their only chance of success. That meant silence. They climbed as quietly as they could—but what Alexi needed was vampire silence.
As they neared the precipice, Alexi raised her hand to stop her friend. “Listen, I’m going to sneak ahead and see if I can spot him. I’ll wait for you at the top.”
“Be careful.”
The worn path was clear of debris and other noisemakers, but the fall of boots, breathing, and the swish of fabric could all give her away to Dupree. A quick check told her everything was in place. With one last breath, she darted up the path.
Her sheer speed took her breath away. The crest of the hill appeared in seconds. A large sign naming the hilltop and elevation acted as a perfect place to hide.
The copper-iron smell of blood hit her. It was so thick in the air that there must have been gallons of it somewhere ahead. The putrid stench burned her nose and made her want to vomit. The silver moonlight bathed the landscape in an ashen tone. The flat area itself was a hundred feet long and half that wide. In the center, Dupree had built an altar made of human bones. Between the light and Alexi’s supernaturally sharp vision, she could see every inch of the ground.
Three shattered vessels leaked the last of their contents—that was what she smelled so intensely. The blood pooled into a large circle that spread around the altar to encompass it like a small lake. Alexi couldn’t believe the familiar-looking circle was an accident of physics. The blood was following the magical lines carved into the ground.
Dupree knelt on his side of the altar, his back to the trail, both hands clasped in front of him.
Both hands? Damn it!
He had regenerated.
Alexi carefully chose each step as she moved closer. Dupree started chanting, and she almost ran at that moment. She froze instead.
Did he hear me?
He was starting the ritual. The buzz of magic filled the back of her head, like a fly that wouldn’t let her alone. The buzzing turned into pounding drums. An ache formed at the base of her skull. It grew with each step.
Dupree’s head moved ever so slightly. Alexi charged. Her hand clasped the hilt of her sword as she leaped through the air to cover the last few feet. Dupree didn’t move.
The world turned upside down. Her head screamed, and her body slammed into a hard, invisible barrier in the air. She couldn’t see for a moment as her eyes tried to focus. She couldn’t move. His laugh filled the air.
“I admit, you’re very good. The thing you do with the sword—” He swished his hands in the air with a flourish. “Very amusing. How did you learn that?”
Dupree got off his knees to face her. He was in his human form. His left hand was cradled against his chest.
“Yes, I grew a new one. That’s going to cost you.” He sighed. “I admit, I’m torn. Two millennia on this earth, and I’ve never met a vampire like you. Perhaps once the world is mine, you will reconsider your place in it. Or not.” He shrugged. “I’m happy to kill you either way.”
Alexi wished she could shut her ears as easily as her eyes so she wouldn’t have to listen to his mocking tone.
Savanna couldn’t hide her labored breathing as she reached the top or the creak of the sign as she leaned against it. Dupree had to have heard her. Alexi realized it didn’t matter. With a barrier like this, what did he have to fear?
Dupree glanced around Alexi and smiled. “The witch. I thought you smelled familiar. The smell of magic is hard to mistake once you know what to look for.” Alexi couldn’t turn to see Savanna, couldn’t speak to warn her. She was a fly in a spider web, and all she could do was watch as Dupree ended the world.
“Magic has rules, my dear, and as you know, these wards are powered and inviolate. Now, excuse me while I end the world and usher in a new age of . . . well . . . me.”
Dupree ignored Savanna as he turned to kneel in front of the altar. He began chanting, the strange mix of language that sounded half Latin, and half something else that Alexi heard so often since she had woken up. I’m getting really sick of magic.
“Alexi,” Savanna said, “be ready.”
Her voice sounded off to Alexi . . . a confidence rang with it that Savanna lacked normally. What is she planning? Without someone to sacrifice, she can’t muster enough power to . . . oh, god—no.
Savanna didn’t have anyone else to draw the power from. But Savanna didn’t need anyone else.
Savanna’s chant joined Dupree’s. Where his was guttural and sharp, hers was melodic and beautiful.
“Good-bye, Alexi. I can never thank you enough,” whispered Savanna.
A soft, wet sound followed. Savanna exhaled sharply as the dagger plunged into her chest, but she didn’t cry out. Alexi heard her topple to the ground. Savanna coughed once, and then spoke the last word of power.
The pounding in Alexi’s head flared. Her vision dimmed from the sudden lance of agony that spiked her skull. She couldn’t scream. Her muscles seized, racking her with pain.
And then the pain was gone.
Alexi dropped to the ground, sword firmly in her hand. Dupree clutched at his head. Alexi couldn’t hold back the scream as she got up and rushed him. Her sword gleamed in the moonlight as she poured every ounce of rage, sorrow, and pain
into that one swing. Her eyes focused on Dupree’s neck like laser beams.
Let’s see if you can regenerate your head, you bastard.
TWENTY-SIX
Dupree smacked the sword aside and slammed his open palm into Alexi’s chest. It flung her back twenty feet to rebound off the inside of the barrier. Savanna’s spell let her in, but apparently, it wouldn’t let her out. Her mind reeled at his speed. She was still trying to pull her knees under her when he flung her over in a long arch to smash into the ground. Before she could stir, his foot slammed her gut and sent her sprawling over the gravel.
He jumped after her and both his feet landed on her right arm. Her forearm snapped, sending the sword falling to the ground. Dupree dropped and put his knee in her chest.
“You’ve cost me enough time. I don’t know what I have to do to kill you, but if I must, I will tear you limb from limb.”
Anger burned in his cheeks and frothed in his mouth as he spat the words out. He stomped on her broken arm again. He braced his foot above her elbow. With his left hand, he grasped her wrist. Alexi screamed as he pulled. Flesh ripped, her joint pulled loose with a cracking sound, and he tore her arm from her body. He stood over her, in a strange surreal light, holding her arm and waving it at her.
“Need a hand?” He laughed maniacally, and then in a heartbeat, his visage shifted to a scowl. He kicked her in the head, sending her spinning to the side. She rolled over in a desperate attempt to shield her ruined arm from him. Vomit spewed forth from her mouth. Pain burned through her for a moment, clearing the fog from her eyes. Strong hands grabbed her head and back, and claws dug into her skin as he hoisted her up above him. She gasped. The ley line burned through the night sky with enough power for her to see it, a blazing line of magic that shifted and moved. A column of light shot up from his altar to intersect with the line.
“I’m two thousand years old! I walked the earth when the gods still lived, and you think you can defeat me?”
He hurled her with all his might. Alexi smashed into the barrier with a grunt. She bounced off and fell on the hard ground. She whimpered as she tried to roll onto her good arm. Something snagged her hair.
She was on the other side of the altar, opposite where Dupree resumed his kneeling chant. Beneath her, maimed and mangled, with half his neck and shoulder ripped away, was Victor. His body was bruised and broken. Her head fell on his chest, and she wanted to die as she realized how completely she had failed. The pain in her heart eclipsed that of her body, and all she could feel was his last moment of life. His last thought to her.
I love you. Alexi’s head snapped up.
“Victor?”
Victor’s maimed face hadn’t moved, hadn’t uttered those words. She reached up to her head with her good hand and found his fingers entwined in her bloody, matted hair. She pulled his hand free. A small leather pouch, sealed with candle wax, tumbled to the ground. Alexi gasped. She looked back to Victor’s face. Nothing had changed. He was dead. Savanna was dead. She was the only one left—broken, battered, and near death.
Alexi clutched the pouch in her good hand.
We can do hard things. She told herself Savanna’s words as she dragged herself to the altar. Each movement sparked new pain, and each muscle burned in agony. She hit the exposed bone of her severed arm against the ground and winced. Her hand found the lip of the altar, and she pulled herself up with all her remaining strength.
“Good god, woman, why won’t you die?” Dupree cursed at her.
“You’re right, God is good—but you’ll never meet him.”
Dupree smiled at her words with a lecherous grin that touched his eyes and promised great evil upon the world. “There is no God and no Devil. Just us immortals and our food.”
Alexi looked down at Victor. His vacant eyes gazed back, giving her strength. She pushed off the altar to stand on her own with the little leather bag clasped between her fingers.
“You’re not immortal, Dupree, just arrogant.”
She put the bag in her teeth and ripped it open.
The sun rose in front of her. The brilliant yellow light burst forth as it tumbled down to bounce on the top of the altar. The light fell on Dupree, and he screamed. His skin blackened. He struggled forward. His eyelids burned off, followed by his hair. His mouth opened in a silent scream, and his body exploded into a million dark shards.
The light blinded her. She turned her back to the stone, sure that any second she would be ash and dust. A shadow fell over Victor’s body and spread out in front of her. Alexi looked up to see shadowy wings unfurl around her, protecting her from the light shining behind her.
Then the light was gone. And Alexi wasn’t.
The moonlight returned the pale cast to the world. Alexi stumbled and fell to her knees. The altar was a blackened ruin. She reached out to touch it, and the entire thing collapsed into dust. On the other side, nothing remained of Dupree or the blood he had used. She shook her head, blocking out the pain of her wounds. Savanna! At the edge of the hill lay the crumpled form of her friend.
“Savanna,” Alexi breathed.
Please still be alive!
She limped as fast as she could, her ruined arm cradled in her gut. She fell to her knees next to the witch. She grunted with effort as she rolled her onto her back. Savanna’s eyes stared out into space, glassy and unfocused.
“Please be alive, please!”
She pulled the dagger from her breast and put her hand on her chest. Blood bubbled up from the wound and pooled between her breasts. She closed her eyes, desperate to feel a heartbeat.
A moment passed, then another. Alexi held back her tears. She inhaled huge breaths to stay calm. She squeezed her eyes shut and refused to give up.
There! Savanna’s heart thumped.
Alexi tilted Savanna’s head to the side and brushed her hair back to reveal the artery that ran the length of her neck. If Savanna’s heart still beat, then she still had blood. Alexi plunged her fangs deep into the soft brown skin of her neck.
Nothing happened.
Come on, just one more beat, Savanna, one more!
Long seconds passed. Another heartbeat. What little blood remained in Savanna’s circulation flowed up her veins toward her head. Her body, desperate to keep her alive, pushed the last of her blood outward. Alexi tasted it on her tongue and swallowed. Without hesitation, she pulled out, ripped her wrist open, and pressed it to Savanna’s lips.
“Please, honey, just one drink. One sip, please!” Alexi leaned over her friend, her wrist pushed to her mouth. She didn’t know if it would work. Savanna said it wouldn’t last, but it had to work. It had to.
“Savanna,” she screamed, “drink!”
Savanna’s throat contracted, and Alexi heard the glorious sound of her swallowing. Then another and another. Her vision swam, not just from the loss of blood, but her battered body didn’t have enough left to heal her, let alone Savanna. She didn’t care. If she died and Savanna lived, it would be worth it. That thought warmed her as darkness took her.
***
Savanna was dreaming again, seeing the vision that first brought her to Alexi. She was dying on a hill with the last of her blood forming a small pool around her. Alexi turned to her from where she stood, thirty feet away. A brilliant light illuminated her. Great wings made of light and shadow spread behind her.
How had I not noticed them before?
The bright light blotted out the sky. Alexi turned to her. “Come find me when you wake up, and I will protect you.”
Darkness swallowed the sun, Alexi, and everything else. Nothing but a pinpoint of brilliant light remained. It burned her eyes and made her wince. She lifted her hand to block it out, and the world shifted. It wasn’t a dream.
Am I alive?
Savanna sat up with a start. She blinked several times to clear her fuzzy eyes. Her clothes were sticky with her own blood. The last thing she remembered was plunging the dagger into her chest to free Alexi from the ward. It should have consumed
her. She pressed her fingers against her chest, searching for the fatal wound, but found only a cut in her shirt.
“I shouldn’t be alive,” she muttered.
“You’re welcome,” groaned Alexi from beside her.
“Alexi, you’re alive!” Savanna turned to her friend, openmouthed, in shock.
Alexi was battered. Her arm hadn’t grown back, and raw bone stuck out from the stump. Dried blood covered her face and neck, and her skin was an awful shade of purple and yellow from the mass of bruises that covered her.
“Oh, Alexi. You look terrible. What did you do?”
“I saved you. I couldn’t let you die. Not you, too.”
Victor’s loss simmered on the surface for both of them. Savanna gently pushed an errant strand of hair from Alexi’s face.
“Let’s go home.”
“First,” Alexi muttered, putting her hand up to block the light from her eyes, “can you stop shining that flashlight in my face?”
Savanna’s heart skipped a beat. In the shock of still being alive, she hadn’t noticed. Not until this moment.
“Alexi,” she said, eyes brimming with tears, “that’s not a flashlight. It’s the sun.”
Alexi held her hand up into the light. Her body didn’t explode. The light didn’t burn. Alexi let out a quiet sob.
“It’s warm . . . I feel warm.”
The End
The adventures of Alexi and Savanna continue in Blood Sacrifice, Faith of the Fallen: Book 2. It is available for pre-order and purchase on Amazon.com.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are a lot of people I need to thank for this book. I could probably write a whole other one for that alone. Vivid Covers provided the beautiful cover that is far better than I could have ever hoped for. I would like to thank Karen and Natasha for being my beta readers and sounding boards. You both came up with interesting spins on the characters that really helped me flesh them out. Finally, Ruth saved my bacon on a last minute edit. Any novel written, traditionally published or self-published, requires a tremendous amount of work. People support you, encourage you, and cheer you. To everyone who did, thank you. I would also like to thank my friends at Alchemy: Tess, Cheryl, Ash, and Rebekah. Thank you for the constant encouragement. My friends on Facebook who endured my endless posts about writing, and my family, who put up with me when I was I would lock myself away to write, and when I wasn’t—you’re all the best. Finally the wonderful people at Kindle Press—you made my dreams come true.
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