Just as I reached the Pillar, I heard more screeching and looked over my shoulder to see Lady Hisara sprinting toward me. I whirled around at the last minute and held up my blade to catch her claws. Her claws wrapped around the blade of my sword and her skin immediately started steaming as Domination’s silver coating reacted against her skin.
That should have made her let go, but instead, Lady Hisara just tightened her grip on it and drove me back. I slammed into the Pillar and put all of my strength into holding her back. In the red light of the Pillar, her fangs looked blood red, though I knew they would actually be that color if I let her kill me.
“Give it up, Hunter,” Lady Hisara said with slight strain in her voice. “You’re wounded. You’re alone. You have no one and nothing to save you. My superior physical strength will soon overwhelm you and then the Vampire Sword will be mine.”
“I … I’m not alone,” I said, my voice shockingly weak even to me.
Lady Hisara looked genuinely surprised when I said that. “What do you mean? Of course you are. Lucius is dead and you don’t have any other allies here. Is the blood loss making you crazy?”
I shook my head and suddenly felt Lady Hisara’s magic-negation spell go away. “N-No. I have God on my side. God … and magic.”
I raised my hand and unleashed a blinding light spell directly in Lady Hisara’s eyes. Lady Hisara screeched in pain and let go of my sword, covering her eyes with her hands. She staggered backwards a few feet from me, cursing loudly, but I didn’t give her a chance to do anything else. With a tight grip on my sword, I yelled and slashed my blade—now shining with magical energy—directly through her neck.
Lady Hisara’s head went flying off her body into the shadows around us as her corpse collapsed. At the same time, the Pillar of Blood suddenly stopped glowing and the portal in the sky closed, turning the night sky back to its original color. The only hint that the Pillar had even been active were the blood stains—mine and Lucius’s—on its surface.
But I didn’t have any time to celebrate. The blood loss had finally taken its toll. I dropped my silver sword to the ground and then fell on my hands and knees. I gasped for breath, but I couldn’t stay conscious for much longer.
I looked over at Lucius’s prone body and raised a hand. I managed to cast one last spell—a disintegration spell that would disintegrate the stake in his chest—before I fell onto the ground and lost consciousness entirely.
***
CHAPTER TEN
I woke up sometime later. At first, I thought I was in heaven, because the sky above looked nearly as bright as the morning sun and the air was cool and crisp, just like how I thought heaven would feel.
But then I felt the dried blood on my clothes and realized that I was still lying in the Paths City Graveyard. Oddly, my stomach wound was closed, which made no sense to me, because I hadn’t cast a healing spell on my stomach before I fell unconscious. Had someone saved me?
“Welcome back to the world of the living, Richard,” said a familiar cool voice above me. “You look better than ever.”
I abruptly sat up and looked over my shoulder. Lucius was leaning against the Pillar of Blood, his massive arms folded in front of his large chest. His shirt had a hole in it—likely where the wooden stake had been—but the hole in his chest where the stake once was was gone.
“Lucius?” I said. “You’re alive.”
“As alive as an undead vampire can be, anyway,” said Lucius. He gestured at his chest. “Thanks for removing the stake, by the way. Had it stayed in much longer, my ‘death’ might have been permanent.”
“Don’t mention it,” I said. I looked down at my stomach. “But how did my chest get healed? I didn’t heal it myself.”
“I did,” said Lucius.
I looked at Lucius in amazement. “You healed it? How? Vampires can’t learn healing spells.”
“Pures can,” Lucius said simply. “Didn’t you know that? It’s one of the ways we’re distinguished from our bloodthirsty peers. Refusing to drink human blood gives you access to a variety of abilities that your average vampire can’t do. It’s quite convenient.”
I rubbed my closed wound. “Well, that was nice of you. What’s the catch?”
“The catch?”
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “The catch. Why did you save me? You could have abandoned me when you woke up. Gone back to the Vampire Council to tell them about how you defeated Hisara and saved the whole world from her plans. Why didn’t you?”
Lucius blinked. “Because you saved me. I felt like I needed to repay you for your help. You removed my stake and saved me from death, so I healed your wound and saved you from death. I think that makes us even, don’t you think?”
I could hardly believe my ears. A vamp that believes in returning the favor? I had never met a vampire who did that. No vamp ever did anything out of the goodness of its own heart, because vamps didn’t have hearts or goodness for that matter. Yet if Lucius was telling the truth—and I could tell that he was—then he had saved me because he thought it was the right thing to do. Part of me still believed this was all part of some kind of deep Machiavellian plot on Lucius’s part to make me lower my guard so he could kill me, but at this point, I knew that was just my own paranoia and bias against vampires speaking, not actual reason or facts.
“I also stayed long enough to make sure you woke up,” said Lucius. He gestured around the seemingly empty graveyard. “I knew that some of Lady Hisara’s Newborns were still alive and would not hesitate to kill you if they found you in such a vulnerable state. That’s why I stayed, although I’m glad you woke up when you did, because the sun is rising and I was thinking about looking for shelter if you didn’t wake up right away.”
I nodded. Vamps didn’t mix well with sunlight. The weak ones were instantly incinerated by direct sunlight, while the strong ones usually suffered severe burns that would permanently scar their skin. Lucius didn’t seem like a weak vamp to me, but I could see why he wasn’t keen on staying around until the sun rose.
Rising to my feet, I looked around the graveyard. Lady Hisara’s corpse had already decayed to the point where it was nearly unrecognizable. The only hint that it had once been the body of a powerful Vampire Lord was the torn dress clinging loosely to what remained. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have looked out of place as roadkill on a busy highway.
I looked at Lucius. “She’s dead.”
Lucius nodded. “I know. Beheading is usually a good way to kill us.”
“Then that means that the Vampire Sword is safe,” I said, glancing up at the sky where the portal had been last night. “Thank God.”
“You sound as if stopping Hisara was more of a personal matter than a professional one.”
“It was.” I looked at Lucius again. “I have a wife and daughter who is barely a month old. If I had died here, I would never have seen either of them again, at least not on this side of heaven.”
“I see,” said Lucius. “Perhaps you should consider whether you want to stay in this business if you have a daughter that young. She would likely benefit from having your presence in her life.”
I frowned. “Are you saying that just to make life easier for your fellow vamps? Because if so—”
“No, I’m speaking from my human memories,” said Lucius, tapping the side of his head. “My own father was absent from my life when I was a human. It’s been a long time since I’ve been human, but I’ll never forget how I felt as a young boy never knowing my own father. It’s not a fate I would wish upon anyone else.”
My frown deepened. “You’re a strange vamp, Lucius, perhaps the strangest vamp I’ve ever known. And that’s saying something, given all the freaks and monsters I’ve dealt with in this business.”
Lucius shrugged. “Pures have always been considered strange by humans and vampires alike. I’m used to it.”
I eyed Lucius carefully before glancing at the Pillar behind him. “What are you going to do with the Pillar?”
&nb
sp; “Take it back with me to the Vault, where it belongs,” Lucius replied. He tapped the surface of the Pillar with one of his knuckles. “The last thing we need is the Pillar falling into the hands of another Vampire Lord. Best to get it back to the Vault before news of Hisara’s death gets around and the other Lords try to get it.”
After seeing the power of the Pillar, I wasn’t sure I trusted the Vampire Council with it. On the other hand, I was in no position to fight with Lucius over it. Besides, although Lucius was a dirty vamp, he seemed to have a sense of honesty and even honor about him. If anyone would make sure that the Pillar of Blood wasn’t used by evil people to get the Vampire Sword again, it would be him.
“Then I guess this goodbye,” I said.
“It is,” Lucius agreed. “The sun is starting to rise and soon it will be too dangerous for me to be out any longer. Besides, the Vampire Council will be anxious to get a status report on Lady Hisara. They probably already know that her plan to get the Vampire Sword failed, but they always like to hear reports from agents in the field, so I’ll need to leave very soon.”
“All right,” I said. “This is probably the last time we’ll see each other again, isn’t it?”
“Most likely,” said Lucius. “Why? Have you grown fond of me?”
I scowled. “No. I just wanted to make it clear that we’re not going to be working together again. And don’t tell anyone that I worked with a vamp, except your Vampire Council. I don’t want people thinking I’m a traitor to humanity or anything like that.”
Lucius nodded with a slightly amused grin on his lips. “All right. I promise not to utter a word of our alliance to anyone who doesn’t need to know about it. But I must say, we made a rather good team, even though we argued for half the time. Should we ever have to work together again, I think we’d do well, don’t you?”
“Maybe,” I said grudgingly. “Now don’t you have a report to make to the Vampire Council or something?”
“That I do,” said Lucius. “Good bye, Richard Lee, the Hunter of vampires. Perhaps our paths will cross again sooner than you think.”
Before I could ask Lucius what he meant by that, Lucius grabbed the Pillar and then vanished into the shadows with it. Once the Pillar was gone, I had a clear, full view of the sun rising on the eastern horizon, its beautiful rays spilling over the sleepy town of Paths, Texas. The remains of Hisara’s body decomposed rapidly in the light, until soon all that was left were the tattered remains of her dress.
I walked over to Domination—which still lay where I had dropped it the night before—and picked it up. Quickly wiping the dried blood off its blade, I sheathed Domination at my side and looked out toward the rising sun one last time before turning around and walking onto the path out of the graveyard.
As I walked, I thought about what Lucius told me, about being present in my daughter’s life. Though I was still young and energetic, I knew that I couldn’t hunt vampires forever. Most vampire hunters retired after they turned thirty. I was twenty-four, but I could still retire if I wanted. I had several near-death experiences last night, which wasn’t unusual in this line of work, but maybe I needed to go into a more peaceful field to earn a living, one where I would be more likely to be with my daughter and raise her and watch her grow up.
Perhaps I would become a pastor.
***
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Present day …
As Tara finished singing her hymn, I started to clap. So did the rest of the congregation, along with a few ‘Amens!’ for good measure.
Tara looked as sheepish as she always did whenever she received praise. She bowed a few times as I stood up and waved my hands, motioning for the congregation to quiet down a little. The congregation stopped clapping and looked at me.
“What a wonderful hymn that was to hear,” I said, standing in front of the altar and readjusting the microphone attached to the collar of my shirt to make it easier for people to hear me. “I may be a bit biased, but I think that was one of the most God-honoring performances I’ve ever heard in my life. Can I get an amen?”
“Amen!” cried several people in the congregation.
I looked over my shoulder at Tara and flashed her a smile. She smiled back, which was all I needed to confirm that I had made the right choice all those years ago to give up vampire hunting in favor of becoming a pastor.
“Now,” I said, turning to face the congregation again, “let’s have a quick word of prayer before I start this morning’s sermon. Everyone, bow with me and we will pray.”
The head of every member in the congregation bowed. I closed my eyes, lowered my head, and said, “Dear Heavenly Father, we gather here today to worship you. We thank you for giving us this opportunity to come together and fellowship, and we thank you, also, for the people in our congregation who you have blessed with the ability to sing, such as—”
My words were interrupted by the sound of breaking glass, followed by a shriek of terror behind me: Tara’s shriek.
My eyes opened and I whirled around to stare up at the altar. Tara was pinned against the altar by a large, pale-skinned man I had never seen before in my life. He was huge, easily big enough to be a bodybuilder, and based on the broken glass behind him, I guessed he had chosen that moment to burst through the window above the baptistery and attack Tara.
But what caught my attention the most was not his massive body, his blood red eyes, or even his unnaturally pale skin.
No, what caught my attention were the fangs that had popped out of his mouth, fangs which were currently biting into the neck of my daughter, Tara Lee, and draining the life out of her right before my startled eyes.
-
Continued in The Vampire Sword, now available HERE!
***
About the Author
T.L. Cerepaka is a Texan urban fantasy author and author of Vampire Sorceress and Noah House.
If you would like to find out more about T.L. Cerepaka, go to his website here (http://www.tlcerepaka.com).
***
Other books by T.L. Cerepaka
Vampire Sorceress
The Vampire Sword (https://books2read.com/thevampiresword)
The Vampire War (https://books2read.com/thevampirewar)
The Vampire Flame (https://books2read.com/thevampireflame)
The Vampire Sorceress Omnibus: Books 1-3 (https://books2read.com/vampiresorceressomnibus)
Noah House:
The Eater of Souls (https://books2read.com/theeaterofsouls)
The Butcher of Souls (https://books2read.com/thebutcherofsouls)
The Feast of Souls (https://books2read.com/thefeastofsouls)
***
The Last Hunt Page 6