Fabian spun away from me and fled back towards his kin.
I bellowed a challenge and took chase. My mother and brother ran behind me, blades ready and warrior cries on their lips as we raced after the monsters who had taken everything from us.
The four Revenants grouped together across the plain, staring at us in confusion and with more than a hint of fear.
“Do you feel the thirst driving you on?” Clarice cried, turning her gaze on the newly sired vampires behind them. “Go forward and feast!”
The vampires shrieked in excitement and flooded past their creators like the tide. They raced to intercept us as the remaining members of the seven clans thundered to meet them at my back.
“These creatures need reminding that they’re already dead!” I yelled and the replying roar of my kin joined with a great crash of thunder as Valentina continued to wield the storm with her newly enhanced gifts.
The Revenants stood behind their army and watched as our forces collided. I did no such thing; no warrior of mine would be asked to sacrifice themselves without me by their side. I led the charge from the front, carving a path through the vampires with Julius and Mother beside me.
We cut down more vampires than I could count and the dust from their demise mixed with the thick mud at our feet.
Again and again I swung my blades and the fatigue I expected never came. My muscles thrummed with strength and the promise of death for all those who came against me.
As the rest of my people battled against the new vampires, my family sliced a path through the mayhem towards the demons who had caused it.
I plunged Tempest into the heart of a beautiful vampire clad in the dress of a noble and as she dissolved before me, the Revenants were revealed beyond her cascading remains.
“This isn’t possible,” Miles hissed as he glared at my family.
“The gods have levelled the field,” Julius growled. “Are you afraid to find out if you can match us now?”
“Why?” Erik breathed and I got the feeling his question was meant for one of the powerful deities who watched our exchange but I answered all the same.
“For the curse you bestowed on our father. No Earl of the slayers should ever have met the fate you dealt him. I will repay that debt in blood.” I advanced on them, my gaze fixed on Erik as his eyes narrowed in confusion.
“Your father was the slayer I turned?” he asked as realisation hit him. “I saved him; I sent him back to you-”
“You sent back a demon wearing the skin of the man I loved!” my mother yelled, her broken heart making her voice crack with emotion but her axe was steady in her hand.
“You forced me to plunge a blade through my own father’s heart,” I growled as I took another step. Venom and Tempest hummed in anticipation as I closed in on the monsters who had started it all.
“You killed him?” Erik asked and I didn’t miss the horror that flashed through his eyes. Did he dare mourn the loss of the foul creation he had placed in my father’s skin?
“You killed him,” I corrected angrily.
The thunder cracked above our heads again and I ran at him, no longer willing to hear his abhorrent voice. I would take his head from his body and pay the blood debt I was owed.
I took three long strides and leapt forward, spinning in the air as I swung both of my blades for his head.
Erik’s eyes widened as he saw death coming for him and his sister leapt forward to knock him aside before I could land my blow. Venom sliced across her shoulder and she howled in pain as bright blood spilled from the wound.
Erik snapped out of his momentary inaction and wrapped his arms around Clarice, leaping away from me and taking her to safety.
Miles and Fabian stepped in front of her too, the three foul brothers protecting their monstrous sister. I almost laughed at the false display of love. A creature sustained by death could never be capable of such an emotion.
Julius yelled as he charged at them and I ran to join him with Venom screaming for vengeance in my palm.
The Revenants bared their teeth like beasts as they sprinted to meet us.
Julius tucked his head low and barrelled towards them like a human battering-ram. His shoulder connected with Miles’s chest and as they collided, a sound like falling rocks filled the air. Miles was thrown backwards, slamming into his sister and sending them both crashing into the mud.
Fabian leapt onto Julius’s back, sinking his teeth into his shoulder. My mother screamed as she aimed a kick at Fabian, dislodging him before he could drink my brother’s blood.
I only had eyes for Erik as I advanced on him steadily, swinging my blades in a clear challenge. Vengeance called my name, drawing me closer.
He leapt at me but before we could meet in battle, lightning struck the ground between us.
The vampire fell back and my heart leapt with surprise.
Again, lightning forked from the sky, slamming into the ground between us and driving the demon back. The third fork arced towards the other Revenants, carving a space between them and my family.
I looked around and found Valentina striding towards us. Wind billowed around her and pulled her usually perfect hair into a maelstrom of her own creation.
The vampires looked between the four of us in undisguised horror, their eyes drifting to the slayers who drew close behind us. As I followed their gaze I found my kin closing rank behind me, the newly-sired vampires reduced to nothing but piles of clothes on the battlefield.
Only the Revenants remained to face our host of over a hundred slayers gifted with the new strength of the goddess.
“Is that fear I see in your eyes?” I cried and the slayers at my back yelled their own challenges, the air rumbling with our combined rage.
The Revenants moved towards each other, taking a step back then another.
“Stand and face us, cowards!” I roared as I saw the urge to flee in their eyes.
“This fight will keep, slayer,” Fabian spat as his hand closed on Clarice’s wrist and he pulled her further back.
The four of them exchanged a brief glance then turned and fled.
I released a battle cry as I took chase, my people joining me as we raced to hunt down the monsters.
Despite the new power in my muscles, their pace outmatched my own and they began to increase the distance between us in their desperate bid for freedom.
I didn’t relent, my feet tearing a path across the sodden ground as I began to put distance between myself and my people. Only Julius kept pace with me, his hatred and thirst for revenge matching my own.
The sea loomed ahead and we pulled up on the top of a cliff which looked down onto the roiling waves. The vampires had taken refuge beneath the water where they knew we couldn’t follow.
“We are the sons of Mallion Elioson!” I roared into the night, knowing they would hear me. “Your deaths await you at our hands! We will have vengeance for our father and we will hunt you to the ends of the Earth!”
“You may run but we will find you!” Julius bellowed. “You are only delaying your fate!”
Julius and I headed deeper into the ruined city, passing rows of old stores with faded names above the doorways. A hardware store, a gas station, even an old bridal shop which I scurried past at a ferocious pace.
A large building loomed up ahead with a shattered glass doorway. Several of the letters on the wall above it had fallen away, leaving B-y Plaz- Mall.
I vaguely recalled the term mall from my dad's recounts of the past and started sprinting toward it.
“Hey- wait up!” Julius called, dragging his attention away from a lingerie store window and chasing after me.
I slowed as I stepped through the broken doorway, my dress trailing over the shards of glass, making a plinking sound as they shifted. Inside, was an impossibly pristine corridor lined with rows upon rows of clothes stores. Relief ebbed through me to escape the pouring rain. And now I finally had a chance to get out of this damn dress.
“Julius -look!” I gasped as
he joined me.
His mouth parted. “By the gods, what is this place?”
“It's a mall, a place people used to shop for stuff.” I jogged towards the nearest store, wrenching the door open and finding an expanse of untouched clothes hanging on rails all over the place.
My heart lifted as I took it all in.
Julius sprang past me into the menswear, tugging off his shirt and tossing it to the floor before unbuckling his pants. I quickly turned away and his gleeful laughter reached me as I started searching through the clothes.
Several of the items were thin and sparkly. They wouldn't be much use against the cold so I forged a path to the back of the room, finding a whole sports section. I grabbed a dark, long-sleeved shirt and grinned at it, certain it would keep me warm.
Glancing over my shoulder to make sure Julius wasn't watching, I reached behind my back to undo my dress. My fingers fumbled against the tiny buttons. There were so many of them. How the hell was I supposed to get out of it?
Your husband was supposed to get you out of it, Montana.
My gut took a dramatic dive.
“Need a hand?” Julius strode toward me in a pair of jeans with a t-shirt gripped in his hand. I openly stared at his huge chest and the packed muscles of his torso.
Heat crawled up my neck.
I frantically shook my head in answer to his offer, bringing up Nightmare and slicing into the lace bodice.
He smirked, turning away with a shrug as I shed the dress. As soon as it was free from my body, I realised my mistake.
The rain had soaked through to my underwear and even if it hadn't, I didn't feel remotely comfortable going around in the bridal lingerie. It was too revealing, too-
“Here you go.” Julius thrust a black bra and knickers under my nose and a blush surged into my cheeks.
I snatched them, gazing down at the bra which was three sizes too big. “Where did you get this?”
“Over there.” Julius pointed. I moved to leave, but he caught my arm, reaching out to brush the bite marks on my neck. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I breathed, his heated fingers making me wince as he touched one of the wounds. “The rain washed out the venom. They’ll heal.” It’s my heart that really hurts.
He nodded and I hugged my arms over my chest, running toward the bras that hung in neat rows on the back wall.
“Don't look,” I commanded as I found my size.
He pulled on the navy shirt in his hand, mussing up his dark hair as he did so. “I'm a gentleman - I'm nothing like the parasite company you've been keeping lately.” He turned his back on me and I sighed, stripping off the underwear and finally pulling on the new ones.
“They're really not that bad,” I muttered, not intending for him to hear, but he immediately responded.
“Yes they are.”
“Not all of them.”
“Wrong,” he sang. “They are all undead, blood-thirsty creeps. And if you think Erik Belvedere wouldn't suck you dry the second he got the chance then-”
“Stop it,” I snarled, tugging on a pair of jeans and buttoning them up. Anger flowed through me and the X on my palm prickled. “He would never hurt me.”
“He wants to though. He had to fight the urge to bite you every moment he was around you. How could you stand it?”
I glared at the back of his head, pulling on my new shirt and striding toward him. “Just drop it, okay? I know Erik. He's not like those Biters who attacked us.”
“Can I turn around now?” he changed lanes and I relaxed a little.
“Yes.”
He swivelled toward me, pushing a hand into his damp locks to keep them out of his eyes. “Look, I'm not trying to upset you, Montana. I care about you.”
I frowned as he reached out and brushed his fingers over my arm. “It's a slayer thing, I suppose. I'm lost without my kind. So I feel protective over you. It's hard for me to accept that one of my own actually feels something for one of them. Especially Erik Belvedere.”
“Maybe it's to do with the prophecy,” I suggested with a heavy breath, my heart beating harder at Erik’s name. “I think we're meant to be together.” I traced the cross on my palm with my thumb, sure I was right about this. Nothing could feel this strong if we didn’t belong with one another.
“Did you speak to Andvari?” Julius asked, his tone darkening.
I nodded, a shudder running through me at the memory. “He said I'm part of the prophecy. Half of it. So I guess Callie has to be the other half.”
“What else did he say?” he asked, a hunger growing in his gaze for my answers.
“Nothing.” I dropped my eyes as the dark memory swallowed me up. “After he tortured me and Erik for a while, he just left.”
“Did the god hurt you?” he growled.
“Not really...it's hard to explain.” I wrapped my arms around myself and Julius tugged me into a hug, resting his chin on my head.
“We'll work it out,” he muttered.
I knew it must have been hard for Julius to understand my love for a vampire. Erik had killed his father. But if his vow urged him to end the curse, maybe that would be enough for him to put his revenge aside one day.
“Thank you for keeping your word not to hurt Erik back at the cathedral.” I pulled out of his arms and he gave me a slanted grin.
“I am nothing if not a man of my word. But don’t ever ask that of me again.”
My heart hurt at his words, but there was nothing I could do to make him hate Erik less than he did.
Nightmare vibrated in my palm and Julius's head lifted just before a bang sounded behind us.
I spun toward the noise and my breathing hitched. A haggard vampire stood beyond the window with his forehead pressed to the pane. He wore a fine suit, even though the rest of him looked filthy. He opened his mouth and drool slid down the glass as he mouthed a word that looked suspiciously like ‘blood’. I didn't know who he was, but he certainly didn't look like he had anything to do with the royals.
Julius pulled Menace from its sheath, his eyes narrowing. “Stay here,” he breathed and I frowned, my pulse thumping beneath my skin.
The moment Julius reached the door, the vampire darted toward him, his eyes wild. “Blood – thweet nectar – the godth have ansthered my prayers!” he cried with a strange lisp to his tone.
Julius shoved him back and he hit the floor, skidding out across the corridor.
I hurried to Julius’s side as the vampire scrambled up. My stomach curdled as I eyed his open mouth. He had no fangs, his gums swollen and bloody where they'd once been as if his body couldn't heal the wounds.
His eyes turned between us, desperate and hungry. He rolled to his knees and sped toward us like an animal, his tongue lolling as he closed in. Julius kicked him squarely in the face, but the vampire hung on through sheer desperation, sucking on the toe of his boot.
I grimaced, backing up as Julius shook him off and pointed Menace at his heart.
The vampire lifted his head, drool sliding down his chin as a bitter acceptance filled him. “End it then. Kill me. Thith life ith not worth living without blood.” He broke a sob, pressing his chest to the sword.
Pity sped through me, but Julius pushed down on his blade and cleaved the vampire apart, sending dust pluming out around his feet.
“Julius,” I gasped. “What the hell happened to him?”
“Banishment,” he said, his upper lip curling back. “I have seen it once before. It seems vampires who break certain laws are de-fanged and cast out of the city.”
I took a shaky breath. This was what Fabian had wanted for Wolfe. This would be his punishment. And in a way, it seemed almost worse than death. With no blood to feed on out in the ruins he would surely starve into insanity...
My throat grew dry as Nightmare cooled in my palm, seeming content after the vampire's demise.
“Come, let's gather supplies and head back to the others. It’s fucking freezing and I want to be sleeping by a warm fire before
midday.” His tone was light as if he hadn't just cut a man in two.
Vampire, I corrected internally. Hell, I was in trouble if I started pitying them. But he'd been so helpless...
I battled away the thoughts, focusing on the task at hand. I needed to get supplies and head back to my sister. One dead vampire was not going to upset me.
The sun rose higher in the sky behind the clouds but it did nothing to raise the temperature. I clutched my arms around my knees and tried to stop my teeth from chattering as yet another freezing wind threw ice cold sleet over me. I huddled on the balcony, against the wall with my head down as I shivered.
I was no stranger to the cold. Back in the Realm the winters had always been harsh and we’d never had enough firewood to warm the entire apartment. We’d spent more nights than I could count huddled together in the front room before the meagre fire, using our combined body heat to ease our suffering. Dad had always taken the spot furthest from the flames while Montana and I rotated between spending the night closest to the fire or sandwiched in the centre. I’d always preferred being squashed in the middle; though it had often led to waking with a crick in my neck, I got to spend the night curled between the two people I loved most in the world. What I wouldn’t have given to feel my dad’s arms wrapping around me now.
Though I’d spent my fair share of time combating the harsh winters in the Realm, I knew I’d never experienced anything like this. If it wasn’t for my slayer gifts lending me strength and some resistance to the elements, I was fairly certain I would have succumbed to them already.
“Callie?” Montana’s voice sounded as if it were far away and I blinked the freezing water from my lashes as I looked towards the door which led into the building.
“Monty?” I called in return but the wind stole my voice.
My teeth clashed together uncontrollably and I spotted her stepping through the doorway, her eyes widening in shock as she noticed me huddled by the railings.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” she gasped as she ran towards me, raising an arm to shield her face from the hammering rain. She caught my hand and dragged me to my feet. “Come inside!”
Age of Vampires- The Complete Series Page 81