by Craig Zerf
When Emily woke the next morning she found that she was alone in the apartment. Both Nathan and Bastian had gone out without leaving her a message. At a bit of a loose end, she spent the day training and then walking around the local area, doing her tourist thing once again.
As the sun was dropping below the skyline she headed back, looking forward to a coffee and something to eat.
When she got into the kitchen Nathan was already there, sitting at the table, hands clasped around a mug of steaming tea.
He glanced up at Emily as she walked in.
And for the briefest moment she was sure that she saw a look of pure hatred flash in his eyes.
But then he stood up and greeted her warmly, enquiring as to how her date had gone and she figured that she must have imagined it.
‘Went great,’ she smiled. ‘William was a real gentleman. Good food, good company. Nothing wrong.’
‘I’m glad,’ returned Nathan. ‘Look, I’ve come across a bit of info regarding the vamp break-in at the Emporium. I need to go and meet with an informant of mine, down at the docks near the Isle of Dogs. I don’t know where Bastian has got to and I’d really appreciate some back up. Do you think that you could come along?’
Emily nodded. ‘Sure, Happy to.’
‘Excellent. Get a coffee, get something to eat and then we’ll tool up and be on our way.’
Emily bolted down a huge bowl of fruit and nut muesli and a mug of coffee while Nathan went to the arms safe and took out a pile of weapons. He laid them on the table and pushed a selection across to Emily.
A Katana Japanese sword, two throwing knives, one strapped to each arm, and a heavy dagger to go on her belt. The Katana slipped into a specially designed shoulder rig so that it hung under her left arm, concealed by her leather jacket.
As usual, all of the bladed weapons were impregnated with silver.
‘We won’t take any firearms,’ said Nathan. ‘I don’t really expect anything to go down and, anyway; we wouldn’t want to start a firefight in the city.’
The two Shadowhunters took the elevator to the underground car park and Nathan showed Emily to a black Range Rover, pressing the key fob to unlock the doors as they walked towards it.
It took almost an hour to crawl through the city traffic and down to the Isle of Dogs. Nathan found a parking space in a tatty side street and then Emily followed him through a veritable maze of alleyways.
Above them loomed the massive glass and concrete edifices of the office blocks at Canary Wharf, diametrically contrasting with the narrow shabby streets around them. Nathan led the way to a row of Victorian terrace houses. They stood under a flickering street lamp and waited for Nathan’s snitch to arrive, turning their collars up against the seemingly ever-present drizzle that permeated the London air.
Nathan kept shifting from foot to foot, eyes constantly searching the area around them. Ill at ease and nervous. Emily wondered why he was acting so anxious but put it down to the fact that he must be worrying about his informant showing up.
After almost half an hour Nathan shook his head.
‘He should have arrived by now,’ he said.
‘Look, can you stay here in case he pitches up? I’m going to have a scout around, see if I can find him. Okay?’
Emily nodded and leaned against the lamp post in an effort to make herself less uncomfortable as Nathan jogged off around the corner.
Without warning, the lamp above her shattered and the street went dark. Emily jumped but then figured that it was simply an old bulb giving up the ghost. Nevertheless her senses ratcheted up a few notches as her heart rate increased. Colors stood out as more vibrant, the sound of the people living in the wretched, dilapidated houses came across clearly, like they were talking next to her.
Then a strange smell accosted her nasal passages. An overlying hint of snow with an undercurrent of something rotten. Dead.
Out of the corner of her eye she sensed movement. A mere flicker. A shadow. She turned to look but it was gone. And then, appearing in front of her as if by magic, stood four figures. Dressed like her, all in black. Three men and a woman. Their faces as white as a shroud. Lips blood red and eyes like dead coals.
The one man smiled and Emily could plainly see his two large fangs sticking out an inch over his bottom lip.
She felt as though someone had just thrown a bucket of ice cold water over her. Her mind shrieked, telling her to run.
But her legs simply couldn’t move. She was literally glued to the spot by an overwhelming feeling of terror.
Vampires.
She tried to call out to Nathan but her voice merely vanished in her throat.
The lead vampire shook his head. ‘Goodness me,’ he said. ‘Has the mighty Olympus Foundation come to this? Taking on terrified little girls to become Shadowhunters.’ He laughed and the other blood suckers joined in. Their lyrical laughter, proof that they were genuinely amused at how low the Foundation had sunk.
At how pathetic they thought the new Shadowhunter was.
‘So this is what they think will stop us searching for the corona potestatem?’ Sneered the female vampire. ‘I’m almost embarrassed for them.’
A wave of rage washed over Emily as she noted the scorn in the vampire’s expressions.
‘That’s it, you Dracula wannabees,’ she growled. ‘I don’t care who or what you are, I’m gonna be taking names and chopping heads off.’
She drew her Katana as she spoke and the silver coated blade shone in the wan moonlight, shimmering like it was magically charged.
The lead vampire hissed as he sensed the silver but still he moved forward. Emily kept the sword in front of her, tracking the vampire as he approached.
Then the other three blood suckers split up, one flanking to Emily’s right and the other two to her left. She knew that they were all going to pounce at once and overwhelm her so she decided to take the fight to them instead and leapt forward, swinging her Katana in an overhead strike as she did so.
But the lead vamp moved out of the way with such breathtaking speed that Emily lost sight of him.
Remembering Bastian’s advice, Emily kept moving, somersaulting forward and then rolling to her right as she hit the ground. She swung her blade again as she did so and felt a satisfying shock as the silver-steel cut into something. As she jumped to her feet again she saw the female vampire stagger away from her, gouts of blood jetting from her right arm.
She moved again, desperately scanning about as she tried to pick up where the other three vamps were but she wasn’t quick enough and something seemed to explode against the side of her head.
She went down hard, rolling as she did but her vision blurred in and out of focus and she could feel blood trickling down from her temple and onto her cheek. She realized that one of the vamps must have punched or kicked her.
Emily whipped her Katana around her head, more in a desperate attempt to keep her attackers away than anything else.
The three unharmed vamps appeared in front of her once again and, out of the corner of her eye she noticed that the female was still bleeding but it appeared as if her cut was starting to heal.
Feelings of panic started to flutter on the edges of Emily’s consciousness as she wondered what the hell she was going to do next. She was outnumbered and, as far as she could tell, outclassed by the bevy of blood suckers.
She moved again, pushing herself harder than she ever had before, dropping to the ground, rolling forward and coming up hard and fast, punching upwards with the katana as she did. The blade struck the lead vampire in the center if his stomach and penetrated all the way through his body, emerging from his back in a spray of deep red blood. But as he fell forward the sword was ripped out of Emily’s grasp and she had to retreat, drawing her heavy dagger as she did so.
The skewered blood sucker glared at her as she skipped away from him. Then, with a grimace of pain on his face, he slowly pulled the sword from his torso and cast it aside.
‘Now you’ve gone and pisse
d me off,’ he spat. His voice a sibilant hiss of pure white hot anger. He coughed and blood splattered onto the pavement. Then he shook himself like a dog, threw his head back and howled. A high pitched keening sound that set Emily’s teeth on edge and brought on an instant head ache.
A wave of pure terror washed over the young Shadowhunter as she realized that this was it. But then she immediately quashed the feeling, sucked in a lungful of air, and braced herself. If she was going to die then she was going to do her damndest to take out at least one of these disgusting human leeches before she did.
As one, the vampires attacked. Moving at blistering speed, with fangs and claws extended, ready to slash and tear and bite.
But just before they struck there was a flash of silver and the lead vampire’s head leapt from his shoulders in a huge fountain of blood. A blur of shadow and the other three blood suckers were thrown back as something smashed into them. Emily breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that Nathan had come to her rescue but as she looked up she instantly saw that it was not her friend.
Instead, she saw another vampire, his fangs glistening in the moonlight, talons extended. In his right hand a slim razor-sharp rapier that dripped blood.
The remaining three vampires snarled and hissed as they prowled back and forth, eyeing the newcomer with trepidation.
Then he struck again, his movement a smear of darkness in the night. Talons tore open the female vampire’s throat and the rapier finished off the job, slicing her head cleanly off.
The last two vamps turned to run but the newcomer leapt high into the air and came down on them, slashing downwards with his sword as he did, skewering the one blood sucker through his neck and deep into his torso. Then with a sickening crunch the newcomer jerked the blade from side to side, tearing open a massive wound that dropped the vamp to the ground. As he fell the newcomer grabbed his head and twisted it violently, ripping it off as he did so. Within seconds he had dispatched the final blood sucker in a similar fashion.
Then he stood and faced Emily.
The wind made his black cloak billow about him and the moonlight reflected off his deep green eyes. His long black hair hung down past his shoulders and his pale face was unshaven. His lips, full and sensual and as red as blood. His skin as pale as an angel of the grave.
He was quite possibly the sexiest man that Emily had ever seen in her life.
And then his eyes flashed and, with a whisper of air, he was gone.
Emily turned as she heard running footsteps. It was Nathan, sprinting down the road towards her. ‘My god,’ he shouted as he drew close and saw the carnage around his fellow Shadowhunter. ‘What the hell? Are you alright?’ He grabbed Emily by the shoulders, running his hands over her as he checked for any wounds.
‘I’m fine’ she answered in a shaky voice.
‘Come on, let’s get out of here,’ responded Nathan as he dragged Emily back to their car. He opened the door for her and then he got into the driver’s seat. Before he pulled off he took out his cell phone and made a call.
‘Ambros, it’s Nathan. We’ve had an incident. Belgrade Street, Isle of Dogs. Need clean up as soon as. Four bodies, vamps. They’ve been decapitated.’ He paused for a few seconds and the spoke again. ‘No, it was Emily,’ he said. ‘I’ll get her back to the apartment. Speak to you later.’
Then, without further ado, Nathan, ended the call, started the car and set off back to St. Pancras.
Chapter 15