by Ella Summers
“Stop!” Sera shouted over the shrieks and the thumps of stampeding feet. “Your hysterics are only making the vampires’ bloodlust worse. Hey, stop! Listen!”
Unsurprisingly, they didn’t stop, and they didn’t listen. They were too busy panicking. Or shooting videos. Again. Sera glared at the group of teenage boys following the vampires around, their phones recording the mayhem. Those kids had a death wish. Their silly hats weren’t the only thing they’d put on backwards today.
A fist swung toward Sera’s head. She ducked and spun, giving the vampire a solid shove as she turned. He threw out his hands to catch his fall, but Naomi hit him with a blast of Fairy Dust. His body went limp, and he smacked hard against the floor.
Three more vampires charged forward, drool dangling from their fangs. As Sera dashed past the first, she landed a knife in his back. She launched another knife over his falling body, at a vampire chasing a little girl across a tabletop of scarves. The blade sank into his forehead, and he crashed down onto an umbrella display. Sera drew two more knives and downed the vampires creeping up on Naomi.
“Hey, are you going to leave any for me?” her friend protested.
Sera shrugged. There were plenty more vampires in the store, twelve by Sera’s count. No, make that sixteen. Four vampires had just stalked out from the shadows, slinking up behind a group of mages shooting lightning bolts and high-heeled shoes at any and every monster in sight. For a bunch of men in sleek, custom-cut business suits, those mages sure were efficient monster slayers.
As for the vampires stalking them…well, their behavior was downright odd. All the other vampires in the store were sporting gleaming blood-red eyes and some serious fang. These four had neither red eyes nor big, pointy teeth. Their magic didn’t smell like rotting meat either. It didn’t smell like anything. Odorless magic? Sera had never come across anything like it before. The pale sheen on their skin, though, was undeniable. Those were vampires.
There was a sense of purpose to the four vampires’ movements. Vampires caught in the throes of bloodlust didn’t stalk with purpose; they pounced and bit and tore.
“They’re not together,” Sera said as she slammed a vampire face-first into a glass display case. It shattered on impact.
“Who?” Naomi asked.
“All these vampires.” Sera indicated the blood-thirsty bunch. “And those four over there. The ones going after those mages.”
By now, the mages had noticed the sneaking vampires. One of them shot an enormous fireball at those vampires, but the magic just bounced off their bodies.
“Well, that’s new.” Naomi pushed her hands forward, giving the two vampires she was fighting a face full of Fairy Dust. On their way to dreamland, they tripped over each other and fell to the floor in a tangled mess.
“Nice.”
Naomi grinned. “Thanks.” Her eyes shifted to the business suit mages. “Should we help them?”
There were now two mages shooting fire at the stalking vampires, but whatever they were doing wasn’t working. The vampires continued stalking forward, the mages’ magic simply bouncing off of their armor. Fear was slowly whittling away at the arrogance on the mages’ faces.
“Yeah, we probably should. Just a sec,” Sera said.
She threw an umbrella at one of the raging vampires tearing through the store. It clunked hard against his head. But rather than going to sleep like a good little monster, he turned his crimson eyes on Sera and roared, splattering the nearby teenage boys with monster drool. The boys shouted out in disgust and scrambled off the battlefield. The drool succeeded where common sense had failed. Monster video-making hour was finally over.
Sera launched a knife at Mr. Spittle, and this time he did go down. “Ok, ready. Path is clear.”
She ran toward the mages. They had abandoned their cool-faced extermination of the raging vampires. All five in front were now shooting magic at the armored vampires. Their faces weren’t calm anymore either. Panic speckled the heavy cloud of first tier magic brewing around them. Their unease grew with every spell that bounced off the vampires.
“We need to get the vampires out of that armor,” Sera said.
“How do you suggest we do that?” Naomi asked.
“I’ll think of something. Can you handle the bloodlust crowd in the meantime?”
Naomi’s eyes scanned the area. There were still a few vampires left. They were chasing the human shoppers from one end of the store to the other. They hadn’t hurt anyone yet. It was as though they were only meant as a distraction.
“Sure. Go get ‘em, Sera.”
Sera darted around the closest vampire. Drawing a knife, she grabbed him from behind and sliced her blade at the bonds holding the armored breastplate to his body. He spun around, swinging his arms at her, but she ducked, splitting the armor’s remaining bonds as she dropped. The breastplate peeled off of him. She smashed it into the vampire’s knees. As he collapsed, she clobbered him over the head, finishing the job.
Well, kind of. There were still three more vampires. They were almost upon the mages, who continued to shoot magic fireworks like it was New Year’s Eve. Sera ran toward the next two vampires, slashing out with her knives as she passed between them. Unfortunately, that also put her directly in the line of the mages’ fire. As the vampires’ armor tipped to the side, she dove under the firestorm and rolled.
“Your magic isn’t working,” Sera told the mages, hopping to her feet beside them. “I’ve cut an opening in the armor of those two.” She pointed at the vampires with the lopsided breastplates. “Aim your spells for their sides. I’m going to take care of the next one’s armor.”
One of the mages, a silver-headed stately sort of man whose last haircut had probably cost more than everything Sera was currently wearing, poked his head out of hiding. He turned his cold dark eyes on her. “You dare to give my bodyguards commands? Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?” He was pretty opinionated for someone who was letting the other five mages fight for him.
“Look, mister. I don’t care if you’re the president. Those vampires are out for blood—your blood—and your way isn’t working. You can either do as I say and live, or you can stick your nose in the air and die. Your choice.”
Mr. Silverhead’s nostrils flared. “Of all the impudent, ill-mannered—”
“She took out one of them,” another mage said, pointing at the vampire on the floor.
Mr. Silverhead looked at Sera. She shrugged and smiled at him, which was apparently not the response he was looking for. His magic buzzed with anger.
“Fine. If you’re not going to do as I said, then just try not to shoot me,” she said. She certainly didn’t have time to babysit prissy mages.
“We should listen to her,” one of the bodyguards said to the others. “She looks like she slaughters monsters all the time.”
Sera wasn’t sure whether the bodyguard intended that as a compliment or an insult. In either case, it was true.
“Fine,” Mr. Silverhead growled. He turned toward the other mages. “Aim for the gaps she made in the vampires’ armor.”
As a fresh round of magic singed the air, Sera ran for the last vampire. Like the others, he had that same invisible, odorless magic around him. No, not exactly invisible or odorless. It was a kind of white noise, a background magic that masked all ambient magic. Odd as it was, it didn’t make him stronger than any other vampire. If anything, he was slower, like his movements were delayed by half a second. Sera slashed the bonds on his armor and caught the breastplate as it fell. She smashed him in the head with it, but he didn’t go down. Maybe he was stronger after all.
He swung his gigantic fist at her. Sera lifted the breastplate to block his punch. He kept swinging, again and again. And again. Sera’s armor shield dinged like a clock tower sounding out the hour. Blood dripped down the armor, speckling the white floor with crimson drops. Still the vampire didn’t stop.
Sera stole a glance back at the mages. They’d taken down the
other vampires and were now watching her fight with this one. More than one of them looked completely horrified. Just not Mr. Silverhead. Apparently, it took more than a bloody-fisted vampire with a look of cold, calculated murder in his eyes to rustle up that mage.
A streak of lightning zapped past Sera, nearly sizzling her hair. It missed the vampire completely. She shot an irked look at the mages.
“Watch where you’re shooting,” she growled at them.
She shoved the breastplate at the vampire, then hopped back to put some distance between them. The second lightning bolt hit him square in the chest. The vampire convulsed for a few seconds, his eyes rolling back, then he went down.
Mr. Silverhead walked up beside Sera and gave the unconscious vampire a cold sneer. “I need you to hand over that armor,” he told Sera, holding out his hand.
“I don’t think it’s your color.”
Shockingly, he didn’t laugh. “The armor. Now.”
“You have three sets of armor over there.” She pointed at his bodyguards, who were looting the other three vampires. “This set is mine.”
“You seem to be confused as to our respective positions here,” he said, drawing his magic around himself like a regal cloak. “I command. You obey. I have jurisdiction. And you have the honor of serving the Magic Council.”
The sarcastic quip sizzled out on her tongue. The Magic Council. She couldn’t afford to incur their wrath. She’d already attracted far too much of their attention.
“Good. You’re more agreeable when you don’t talk,” he said. “Now hand over that armor.”
“Fine.” She shoved the breastplate into him, then walked away.
“Are you all right?” Naomi asked her as they headed toward the exit.
“Yeah, fine.”
“You looked like you wanted to punch that mage.”
“Yep.”
“But you didn’t.”
“He hid behind his Magic Council shield,” Sera told her.
Naomi glanced back at the group of mages. “He’s on the Magic Council?”
“Yes,” Sera grumbled.
“You look like you’re regretting saving them.”
“Yes.”
The manager in the blue blouse stepped in front of them. Her neat bun had come undone, and her pantyhose were torn. She looked like she’d just survived a night of hell. Maybe the centaurs and the vampires had been too much for her.
“You don’t usually get monster attacks here, do you?” Naomi asked, her smile sympathetic.
The woman brushed down her expensive skirt and made a solid attempt at standing tall. Her messy clothes and broken heels somewhat diminished the effect.
“This is not a fighting pit,” she said stiffly, sweeping her hand across the trashed store. “Who is going to pay for all this?”
Sera pointed at the mages. “Talk to those guys. They have jurisdiction.”
The manager hustled off to the mages. She actually looked relieved. Sera hoped Mr. Silverhead wasn’t nasty to the poor woman. She wanted to hear how they were going to fix her store, not eloquent speeches about ‘serving the Magic Council’.
“First centaurs, then vampires,” Naomi said as they stepped outside. “What do you think this was all about? And why do monsters always attack wherever you are?”
Kai had told Sera magic was a monster-attracting beacon, but she wasn’t going to take the blame for this one.
“The vampires were after those mages. No, that one mage. Mr. Jurisdiction,” she said. “We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Or the right time to save their asses.”
“Yes.”
“And the centaurs?”
Sera shrugged. “Bad luck. I don’t think they have anything to do with the vampires.”
“Those vampires were acting weird,” Naomi said. “Well, the four armored ones, anyway. The others were just common vampires caught up in bloodlust.”
“They were the distraction so the other four could take out Silverhead. No, not just the distraction. The cover. Someone was controlling the vampires. I bet you a tub of double chocolate ice cream that they wanted to make that mage’s death look like a random casualty.”
“I’m not taking that bet,” Naomi said. “This whole thing is as fishy as a Wizard House Pizza Seafood Special. It’s too bad the mages wouldn’t let you take a piece of that magic-proof armor. It might be able to lead us to whoever is behind this.”
Sera pulled a knob out of her pocket. “I might have swiped a piece of armor.”
Naomi’s eyebrow twitched. “You stole it from right under Mr. Snooty’s nose?”
“Sure. And if he hadn’t been so busy waxing poetic on the joys of serving the Magic Council, he would have noticed too.” Sera rolled the knob between her fingers. With the magic-nullifying effect of the armor broken, it smelled an awful lot like burning plastic. “I need to get this to Kai.”
“Why?”
“Because I think the armor is from Drachenburg Industries.”
8
Trove
Sera gave her closet a wary look. The shopping trip had been a bust, which left her back at square one. Sure, she’d insisted to Kai that she had plenty of clothes that wouldn’t get her turned away from Trove, but she’d also been totally lying. She actually was having trouble finding something that wasn’t denim, dirty, leather, torn, bloody, full of monster gore, or designed for military warfare. What did the magical elite have against denim anyway? Even Kai wore jeans, and he was practically perched at the top of their silly hierarchy.
“Maybe I’ll just wear my running suit,” she muttered as she pushed all her jeans to one side of the closet.
Her stomach growled in response. Lunch with Riley and Kai felt like weeks ago. Probably because in the last few hours, she’d fought through centaurs, vampires, and Cutler. And she’d had to put up with a mage from the Magic Council. Stupid Mr. Snooty Pants. She’d rather have fought more monsters.
After the ill-fated shopping trip, she’d gone back to the hotel for a nap. She probably should have gone to Kai right away and shown him the armor piece, but she was too tired to deal with him right now.
Her stomach rumbled again. Apparently, the sandwich she’d snarfed down after showering hadn’t been enough to satisfy it. Well, it would just have to wait its turn.
Sera wished Alex were here to help her pick out something to wear—or at least mock Trove’s snooty clientele with her. She would have settled for Riley, except her brother was off exploring the city tonight. Maybe he’d meet a nice girl, one with zero drama. And with no monsters in her closet.
Sera sighed and returned her attention to her own closet’s paltry offerings. Right now, she would have killed for a monster or two in her closet. Anything to get her out of this latest assignment. Trove. Bah. A midnight fight at the pier was suddenly looking really appealing.
Sera’s phone dinged, telling her she had five minutes to get her butt in gear and leave the hotel. She grabbed a skin-tight red shirt and a pair of even tighter black pants, a little outfit Naomi had picked out for her from the hotel store. Sera had been avoiding the outfit because she knew it would make her look like a streetwalker, but it was the only thing she had that might satisfy Trove’s stupid dress code. Staring into her closet for the next five minutes wouldn’t change that.
She grabbed a pair of black dress shoes—yet another gift from Naomi. The heels were way too high, but Sera couldn’t very well wear flats with an outfit that was essentially a bodysuit. That would have been ridiculous. So she slipped on her streetwalker shoes to go with her streetwalker costume. If a monster attacked her tonight, she’d just skewer it with her dagger heels.
She dropped her phone into her purse, which was just big enough to fit a small stash of throwing knives inside. Kai wouldn’t be happy, but what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. She was not running into a fight with magic as her only weapon.
As she fished her wallet out of the sports bag dangling from
her chair, she noticed Naomi’s magazine poking out of the top. She was already late, but she couldn’t resist taking a quick peek. Kai stood with his hands cupped behind his head, giving the reader front row seats to his sculpted torso.
“So what if he’s hot,” Sera muttered. “And has raw power gushing out of his pores.”
She could almost feel his magic pounding against the page, trying to break free. The memory of his magic flooded her, pulsing through her veins.
“Ridiculous,” she said, forcing out a laugh. She tossed the magazine aside. “He’s one of them. He’s on the Magic Council.”
Her phone dinged again. If she didn’t leave now, she’d really be late. She grabbed her purse and hurried toward the door.
Shockingly, the bouncer at Trove let Sera in. And he wasn’t even rude about it. Kai must have talked to him. She hoped bribes or threats hadn’t been necessary to ensure the bouncer’s good behavior, but she wasn’t holding her breath on that one.
She wove her way through the crowd of overprivileged young mages, concentrating really hard on not tripping over any of them. She’d already stumbled once tonight on the hotel’s steps, much to the amusement of the other guests. She had no intention of repeating the experience here. As soon as the fight started, she was tossing off those stupid shoes. She should never have let Naomi buy them for her in the first place. A new knife would have been more useful—and less dangerous.
A forest of crystal branches dangled from the ceiling, sparkling in the purple-blue light. Mages danced to the heavy beat, their bodies thrashing and buzzing in time to the music. A number of couples were making out on the dance floor. One couple was doing a bit more than making out, but no one seemed to notice. They were all too drunk—drunk on magic and on those glowing drinks the bar was serving. So much for this being a classy establishment.
