by K. F. Breene
I stared at him with a slack jaw.
Five?
That one new vampire had nearly taken me down yesterday. Darius thought I could handle five?
“Kill as many as you like,” he continued. “They should never have been turned, and their creator has since been destroyed. If you don’t destroy them, I have no doubt the shifters will.”
“But…they’re people,” I said, aghast.
“Prisoners convicted of heinous acts to their fellow man. The vampire that illegally turned them thought their past would enhance their maliciousness. She was right. They are a danger to both the magical world and the human world.”
“They’re like the vampire you brought with you last night? The one that almost killed me because you didn’t properly guard him?”
Darius’s lips thinned, the only indication that what I’d said cut him. “That vampire was the best of the lot and from a previous turning. His inclusion was a test…which he failed. Have no fear; he would not have reached you. Had you not reacted, another would have.”
Something—a vampire, I now knew—snorted near the door. The sound was inhuman. They were all likely in their swamp thing forms.
I wanted to ask just who Darius thought would’ve helped me from across the room, but I didn’t have the luxury of talking back. I had other things on my mind right now. Like the five hungry and out-of-control vampires waiting outside of this room, blocking my exit.
“Why aren’t they coming in?” My voice was high and tight. “Are you going to let them bite me?”
“I am their master now. They will listen to me until provoked beyond their limit. They will not enter this room while we sit idly at this table.” He put his hands on the table, palms down. “They won’t bite at this age. They will tear into your skin. I will not let them do that around a vital nerve, but otherwise…”
He let the sentence linger. It was probably better that way.
I blew out a breath, good and slow, trying to still the tremors racking my body. It didn’t do much.
“Why the hell did Reagan bond you?” I asked. “You are, quite possibly, the worst person alive.”
“I am not alive.”
“That just makes it worse!”
“He has your best interests at heart,” Marie said, finally looking at me. I saw a burning hunger in her eyes. She was reacting to my fear. Her hunger was rising, and her desire with it. I could feel them both. “He is being more lenient than I would’ve been. We fought side by side. I felt your greatness. These parlor tricks are beneath you. And so is that hideous dress.”
“Nope. They sure aren’t. Neither of them are. I think you are greatly overestimating my prowess, here. And my bank account.”
Darius pushed back his chair and stood. “It is time you started your training, Miss Bristol. And please remember, you are welcome to stay here, should you wish—”
“You’re out of your mind.”
“—or stay with Reagan—”
“How am I going to get out?”
“—but please respect my wishes and stay out of the Bankses’ home. While it is as safe as can be at the moment, soon it will be a target. The Bankses would never shift their allegiance, I am certain, but they would be in the way of those who did. Not to mention they’d find themselves in the crossfire.”
“Fine, fine. But that won’t be a problem if I’m bleeding from a dozen fang marks, will it? This isn’t the right way to train, Darius.” I pushed back from the table, my shaking body giving away my utter terror. “I am in control here.” I struck a finger toward the ground. “I hold the power. And I say that I do not want to be trained by you. I do not. This ends now. Get rid of those vampires and let me out of here.”
His expression didn’t shift at all.
“No,” he said, neither firmly nor angrily. He was completely unaffected by this whole scene.
“What do you mean, no?” I hollered. The time for decorum had long since ended. “I don’t want to train with you. I have the power to choose. So end this.”
“Only you have the power to end this.”
I gaped at him for a moment. The other two vampires stared up at me calmly from their seats at the table.
“That is completely untrue.” I lifted my hands and felt the magic slide through my fingers, ready to be used. “You know that you are in control of this situation.”
“Yes, I do.”
“And you also know I can kill you.” I hadn’t known that string of words was waiting to be said, but I didn’t want to take it back. He was needlessly putting me in extreme danger. A threat or two was hardly amiss.
“I doubt you know you can kill me. Which is why we must start at the beginning.” His gaze flicked to the door. “But I would advise against attacking anyone in this room before dealing with the vampires waiting behind it. You’ll need your energy.”
I clenched and unclenched my fingers. Then clenched and unclenched my jaw. Callie had been dead wrong. Darius held all the power in this situation. And he’d continue to hold all the power until I mastered my craft enough to put him in his place.
Which I would absolutely do.
“That’s how it’s going to be, is it?” I asked, my voice hard and rough and reminding me of my mother. For once, that wasn’t a bad thing. “You’re going to put me in your enemy corner?”
“If that is how you choose to view it, then yes.”
“Fine. Fuck you.”
His lips tweaked upward just a little and his eyes glittered. “Those words have much more weight when they are seldom used.”
“When she finally lets out her fire, it always scorches,” Marie said in approval.
I nearly swung my finger at her and delivered the same threat, because she’d put herself squarely in my enemy corner as well. But I resisted the urge and turned away. They weren’t my problem right now.
Still, it would be so gratifying when I finally got to punch them right in the kissers.
“Good luck, Miss Bristol,” Darius said as Moss walked through the door of the dining room without turning his back.
“Wait…” I could feel all the blood drain from my face as Marie followed, connecting eyes with me for a moment before she disappeared. “You’re leaving?”
“Of course. I must strip away all your safety nets. You’ll do fine.” He offered me a slight bow before gracefully striding toward the door. Almost there, he paused and half turned back. “I will keep them at bay for a few moments to let you get your bearings. After that…”
I’d never snarled in my life, but there was a first time for everything. Unfortunately, it didn’t sound quite as forbidding as I would’ve liked.
“You will regret this,” I ground out, anger flaring deep inside of me.
His smile was as slight as his bow. “I surely hope not.”
And he was gone, leaving me in an empty room blocked off by new, bloodthirsty vampires.
11
“I’ve been in worse situations,” I muttered, retreating toward the wall. For the moment, anyway, I was sheltered from visibility by the inwardly opened door. My breath caught in my throat, my panic working to override any pretense of thinking. “You’ve been in much worse situations. You’ve broken into a compound full of highly skilled magical people. You took them out in groups larger than five.” My breath exited my mouth shakily. “But how?”
The answer rose, unbidden.
By running at the enemy and letting nature guide my hand.
I zipped my gaze to the far corner of the room where a leafy potted plant sat idle. I remembered the flowers I’d noticed on the way in—sitting on the shelves and draped down the banister. What I’d seen indicated there were plants in each room.
This house ruled by death was a haven for the natural.
Had Darius planned that?
I didn’t know or care. I had to bust out of here, and that wouldn’t happen if I wallowed in a puddle of fear. I needed to seize the moment.
“Okay. I can do this.”
I shook out my arms and welcomed the pump of adrenaline through my body.
I closed my eyes again, taking a moment to feel the energy of that plant, of the wind softly whistling through the window. Magic throbbed around me, alive and vibrant. It collected just above me in a cloud, my organized mass of the elements I could pull from this room.
Without thinking and before I could stop myself, I pushed off from the wall. I’d need to blast my way out, that was certain.
I stalked out from behind the door. As I rounded it, I caught sight of what I faced.
Forest green and ever so swampy, the group of vampires in their monster forms crowded at the doorway, staring in at me with hungry eyes and gaping, fang-filled mouths. Matted black hair fell down the sides of their gaunt faces, and their bowed legs and stringy arms ended in a set of vicious claws.
“The worst part about you is the way you look, did you know that?” I said through my teeth, my courage waning. “Oh holy crap, I’m not up for this. I’m not made for this kind of thing.”
The magic pulsed above me as if to argue. The sweet song of nature drifted from that lonely plant in the corner.
I balled my fists at my sides.
“Yes, I am,” I said. Arguing with yourself was a sure sign of insanity, wasn’t it?
Maybe insanity would help. It sure seemed to give Reagan a leg up.
“Yes, I am made out for this kind of thing!”
I started the weave without thinking, creating a spell reminiscent of the time I’d mixed glue, sage, and honey together as a kid and somehow made it explode. That jerk Billy Timmons had put gum in my hair, and Veronica and I had played at making a potion to blot him off the earth. Stupid Billy Timmons hadn’t been hurt in the ensuing explosion, but I had blown a divot into the table, burned my hair, and succeeded in getting grounded for a week.
If I mixed in an explosives spell Callie had taught me, ballooning the power, it would surely do more than cut a small divot into those vamps.
It would blow out some walls.
Eat ants, Darius. I’m about to tear up your house.
I weaved the spell tightly, infusing it with my desire to do damage to both the monsters and the house. After I finished, a strange sensation kept me from throwing the spell.
Five.
Four.
A ticking clock, counting down.
Three.
Two.
I pushed the spell forward and braced myself, dropping a layer of survival magic in front of me in case there was backlash.
A stream of murky yellow zoomed at the collection of monsters shifting side to side in the doorway. Two of them pushed back to get away from the magic streaming at them. They were clearly the thinkers of the group.
The spell hit one of the other vampires center mass, plastering onto its chest.
It grunted and wiped at itself, first like a human might do after spilling coffee down his front, then more harried and intense. Its claws ran deep scratches through its flesh. From its agonized squeals, it seemed like the spell was burning away its skin.
“That’s not what I was going for,” I said under my breath, struggling to cobble together a different spell.
Without warning, my original spell exploded, the concussion hitting my wall of survival magic and pushing it back at me. The force took me off my feet and threw me at the wall five feet behind me.
The breath gushed out of my lungs as I hit the hard surface. I slid to the ground, my vision swimming. Wood groaned and something heavy crashed down not far from me.
I shook my head and shakily got to my feet, my ears ringing.
A vampire lay on the ground in the middle of the doorway, its chest torn open and black goo seeping out.
Bile rose in my throat at the carnage, but I pushed it down and sprinted forward. This was life and death. I didn’t have time to throw up.
Another vampire was on the ground beyond the door, an arm blown off but its head and chest fine. It would heal.
I had to remember that. I couldn’t just hit them with a spell and expect to be on my way. They’d get up and chase me with whatever limbs still worked while their bodies stitched back together.
It wasn’t a fair fight.
Unless I purposely stopped their magical ability to heal.
But how?
The vampire on the ground was barely moving, so I leapt over it, planning to bolt for the stairs. Before I could get another foot down, though, a vampire rose in my way. Black burn marks covered half of its body and a flap of skin and tissue hung from a chunk in its thigh.
“Oh, that is freaking gross.” I needed to work on my weak stomach.
Another vampire rose, shaky but with two feet and two arms, all still adorned with razor-sharp claws. Desperate, hungry magic slammed into me, prickling my skin and scraping down my spine.
The closest vampire surged forward, faster than any human, claws and fangs out and ready to tear into me.
“Flipping Frisbees!” I zapped it, following up with a stream of white survival magic, all while back-pedaling.
I’d forgotten about the vampire on the ground.
My heel struck swampy flesh and I tipped, falling backward with a terrified scream. An arm came around me and claws dug into my side, changing the trajectory of my fall. My back hit bony ribs and my top half was yanked toward the fallen vampire’s head. The thing—and right now these newbies did seem like things, not people or former people—hissed like a predator. Then the vampire’s arm constricted, holding me still while its head bent to my neck.
Pure, primal fear woke up every sensory receptor in my entire body. I pulled the organized mass of magic above me down into the fiber of my being. I gave myself over to it completely, and then—
Fangs scraped my neck.
I let go.
A pure sheen of white rolled over my skin and attached to anything foreign touching my body. It latched on to the vampire’s arm and sizzled acid along its claws. The hard bone under me softened, and the vampire started to wail…then to scream.
Magical spears dug into the vampire as I rolled off it, keeping the monster put while eating it alive. It convulsed and spasmed as a huge hole ripped through its middle. Black goo rose in the cavity, but my magic didn’t let up.
Movement made me yank up my head. The surviving vampires were standing in a cluster on the opposite side of their fallen friend. Behind my magic. That stomach-twisting hunger was still very much pulsing from them, but it was interwoven with a new, unexpected strand. The intention was clear enough: command us.
Yeah, sure. Command you as you are reaching for my neck to cure that hunger. Nice try.
I couldn’t go through them, and something told me they couldn’t cross over to me until the white spell fizzled out. My legs felt shaky, and I knew it was because of the spell I’d just unleashed. If I tried to blast them now, the outcome would be weak and they’d easily take me down. I needed to stall our next confrontation until I got my second wind.
That, or I needed to find another way out.
I turned and sprinted deeper into the house. If I worked around to the other side, I’d hopefully find some servant stairs to the kitchen. Or something. In a house of this size and age, it was definitely a possibility.
The next large room I came to had a path through the center to a large archway, which then led to a hallway. I dashed in before immediately slowing down, my hands held out in anticipation. A quick look told me the room was probably empty. Couches, chairs, coffee table, a large Oriental rug, and a fireplace.
A strange pressure settled on my shoulders and a swish of movement in my peripheral vision had me spinning around.
Silence greeted me in the still room. The shadows seemed to laugh at me.
Warning butterflies stirred in my stomach and that same strange pressure bore down on my chest. I felt the itch of watchful eyes between my shoulder blades.
I was being watched.
But the onlooker wasn’t advancing, and he or she was far enou
gh away that I didn’t feel any foreign magic.
Best not to count my blessings.
Quickening my pace, scanning constantly, I finished crossing the room, emerging into a round area with two hallways leading away, one off to the right, and the other mostly straight ahead, both cloaked in shadow. A painting of a boat hung next to a closed doorway on my left, and a short column supporting a vase of flowers stood just inside the hallway to the right.
I licked my lips, knowing time was limited.
If I stayed straight, I would be heading deeper into the house, toward the side that (I was pretty sure) pushed up against the neighbor’s house. My only chance for escape would be the possibility of servants’ stairs.
The hallway leading right would eventually take me to a wall with windows that led to the outside world. Of course, I was on the second floor, and jumping to my death was not on my agenda.
The only other option was back the way I had come.
I looked behind me.
In the middle of the room I’d just crossed stood a single newbie vampire, a line of spit hanging from its mouth. Its gnarly claws clicked off each other, glistening in the low light.
“Butterballs.” I couldn’t go back.
I had to choose. Two options, and the wrong one might get me killed.
12
Emery stood at the top of a cliff in the Realm, watching magical creatures of all kinds zip past him on the fast-track paths. The elves had set up the system of paths, which magically sped up travel from point A to B, allowing magical creatures to travel through the Realm at high speeds.
Emery sank to the ground and tucked his legs under him, content to watch all the species sail past.