“Well done. I guess you know what we’ve got to do now.”
Anthony nodded. “Seems like we might have unfinished business.”
Connery shook his head. “That’s not the point. We’re training.”
“Absolutely; training.” Anthony smiled. “To train you have to push yourself. And fighting someone like you will certainly push me.”
Connery nodded. “Yes. It certainly will.”
He stripped off his shirt for just as little reason as Anthony, revealing his tighter, more compact torso. I couldn’t help noticing that an audience had formed, that seemed to be composed of every female, vampire or human, in the building. I felt like putting a tag around Connery’s neck just to make sure that they all knew he was spoken for.
“You know, there’s something we’ve been forgetting,” said Anthony, as the pair squared off.
“Yeah?”
“The light.”
Connery frowned. “Can you people see in the dark, too?”
“No.” Anthony shook his head. “You guys have got us beat on that one. But we’ve got night vision goggles and I think it’s important that we start using them.”
Connery didn’t look happy. “That puts you at a disadvantage.” He didn’t want to win by default.
Anthony shrugged. “Maybe thinking that will put you at a disadvantage. Vampires have great night vision, but you can’t see in pitch black. I can.”
“Keeps us all square.”
“The important thing is that it mimics the conditions we’ll be facing. That’s what matters.”
“Of course.”
Anthony reached for a pair of the night vision goggles as Connery called for someone to kill the lights.
“Get me a pair of those,” I said quickly to one of the watching VTs – there was no way I was missing this. Rightly or wrongly I was a bit turned on by the whole thing. It was stupid and pointless and overtly testosteroney; I have no idea why men feel the need to one-up each other like this – I guess it’s a penis thing – but I would have been lying if I had said that it didn’t give me a bit of a thrill. I wanted to see Connery do his thing but, weirdly, I wanted it to be tough, I wanted to see him take a few knocks before he won.
Was that a bit fucked up? Oh well.
I’d owned plenty of night vision kits in my time as a bounty hunter – essential for a human hunting vampires – but I didn’t like to over-rely on it because it could be cumbersome and put you at a disadvantage in a fight. These goggles, however, were streamlined and designed for combat. They still had that fuzziness of all night vision, but were far and away the best I had ever seen.
I watched as Connery and Anthony faced off.
“Ready?”
“When you are.”
Neither attacked, but both their bodies tensed, like predatory animals ready to spring. I chewed my lower lip as I watched them slowly circle one another, eyes locked, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Connery went first, moving even faster than I had previously seen him, ducking and sweeping with his leg. Anthony started to jump but was too late, caught off-balance and landed on his ass. First blood to the vampire, but before Connery had time to follow up, Anthony had rolled back onto his shoulders to kick both feet up at his adversary, knocking Connery back, before jumping back to his feet.
Now the two men lunged for each other, their arms locked like wrestlers as each tried to force the other back. There was nothing here that would happen in an actual fight – any pretense that this was training had passed; this was about who was the bigger man. Anthony’s massive arms bulged like balloons till it seemed they might burst, while Connery’s corded muscles strained. Both had feet planted firmly on the ground, unwilling to give an inch.
Suddenly, Anthony pulled back so Connery shot forwards. The human tried to use this sudden direction change to throw the vampire over him, as he had with Louis earlier. But Connery was too wily for that, flipping himself instead and dragging Anthony with him, the pair rolled and sprang apart.
In the next instant, they were together, trading blows, matching speed and strength. Connery took a powerful hit to the gut, but barely seemed to notice. Anthony took a punch to the face that would have knocked out a horse, but he shrugged it off.
I had been enjoying things to this point, perhaps more than I should, but this had now ceased to be a fun little turn on. The fight became harder, less training and more vicious. Real blows were landing as the pair fought for supremacy.
“Stop!” I had been about to wade in myself but Katya saved me the trouble. She was the oldest vampire in the resistance and seldom showed her power but, at that moment, you could almost feel that age rolling off her in waves.
The two men backed apart.
“Lights!” yelled Katya and the lights came back on. “What was the point of this?”
“Training,” said Connery, licking the blood from his lips.
“Training?”
“Training,” confirmed Anthony.
“And have you learned anything?”
Anthony looked sheepish but Connery nodded. “Yes.”
Moving like lightning, he pulled the goggles from Anthony’s face. His fist flew forwards and stopped barely an inch from the human’s nose.
Anthony stared at the fist that would have broken his bones.
Connery looked to Katya. “And that’s what the wraiths will do.” He slung the goggles back to Anthony. “These need to be more secure.”
“Thank you,” said Anthony with a nod of respect.
The pair shook hands but I wondered how much was just for the look of the thing. Connery was right; the fight had taught us something. But I was still concerned.
We finally had a solid plan against the King of Nightmares and we were fighting amongst ourselves.
Chapter 14
Training continued in less ‘vigorous’ fashion. Anthony and Connery worked together well enough but I still sensed the tension between them. I tried to talk to Connery about it but he always avoided the issue and I got the sense that I was the last person he wanted to speak to on this subject. It was odd to think that vampires have some of the same hang-ups as humans, and even odder to think that someone like Connery – so strong, so masculine – could be insecure. He hated the fact that there was a human who could match him. Training had proved that he could take the other VTs, which meant that it was not just the enhancements that made Anthony a force to be reckoned with.
Amongst vampires, there is always someone more powerful than you, and Connery had already dealt with this in meeting Jack. But a human? It made Connery feel like less of a man. Which was insane. But it also troubled him as a vampire.
In the old days, vampires had terrorized and terrified humans – they had been the embodiment of the shadow, the thing that lurked in the night. Over time, humans had learned to fight back, and with technological advancements, had even gained an upper hand. The tentative truce between the species that had existed for over a hundred years now was based on a balance of terror; vampires could not beat humans en masse, if nothing else, the humans would always have daylight on their side. But, as individuals, vampires were always something to be feared. It was still a predator-prey relationship – and we were still their prey. This balance allowed the species to co-exist. The VTs represented the first step in ending that balance, and it troubled Connery as it troubled a lot of the vampires. Even the level-headed Katya seemed more somber than usual.
But, the VTs were our best hope. They were our trump card, and one that we were very nearly ready to play. Plans were being laid out by Sharpe and the Boy King for how to attack the catacombs and ensure that there was no escape for the King of Nightmares.
Was it possible that the King knew about these plans?
Maybe. Or maybe he just felt that he had been the passive one for too long...
It was during afternoon training that the sirens began to sound.
“What’s going on?” asked Anthony, who had been putting hi
s men through their paces.
“Maybe it’s a drill,” said Connery.
“And if it’s not?”
“Then we’re under attack.”
It wasn’t a drill.
The Night Wraiths erupted from the cellars that ran beneath the new resistance HQ, which was part of the Castle of Clubs complex – a complex that had been built in the time of the 1st King and which he knew well. He apparently knew ways in from beneath that no one else had known about.
A horde of wraiths burst into the training room. Connery looked at Anthony, who met his gaze with a look of grim determination.
“Well, I call this proper training.”
But Connery shook his head. “We need your people for the final attack. I’ll handle this.” He turned to me. “Get the non-fighters out.”
I nodded. I wasn’t about to question him now. “Be careful.”
Connery nodded and ran to face the wraiths, calling the other resistance fighters to him.
“Caldwell!” Anthony called for his second in command.
“Sir?”
“Get the squad out of here.”
“But, sir…”
“You heard me.”
I didn’t try to stop Anthony as he ran after Connery. Maybe they could settle their differences by fighting shoulder to shoulder rather than face to face.
Besides, I had my own job to do. Resistance HQ was home to many who were not fighters, as some of those who were had brought along family to keep them safe. That had not worked out as planned.
Rushing out of the training center, I found wraiths in the hallways.
“Don’t you people get sick of dying?” Our preference for not killing them was going to have to take a day off – there were lives at stake.
My kit was elsewhere in the building and I had no time to go fetch it, but I was used to fighting with the bare minimum, and my favorite stake never left my pocket. I dusted the two wraiths and ran on through the corridors, trying not to think about who they might have been. Casualties of war. Fucking war.
I bumped into Sharpe as I ran. He was white-faced, wide-eyed and stuttering.
“What’s happening? What’s going on?”
“We’re under attack. Get yourself out.”
“Shouldn’t I…”
I grabbed him by the shoulder. “You’re not a fighter, Sharpe. It’s okay, we need you the way you are. Now get out before you get yourself killed.”
“The Boy King…”
I blanched. “What about him?”
“He was visiting…”
“I’ll find him. Now get out.”
The council chamber was on my way to the living quarters, and as I entered, a royal bodyguard tried to take my head off.
“Do I look like a fucking wraith to you?”
“What’s happening?” The Boy King stood up at the end of the table. He might have been a child, but he spoke with the authority of an adult.
“Wraiths. Came up through the cellars.”
The King nodded. “We need to get people out.”
“I’m on my way to the living quarters.”
“We will come with you.”
“Your Majesty…” one of the bodyguards began, but the King rounded on him.
“If you question my orders then you will find that the wraiths are the least of things you have to worry about. Lead the way, Ursula.”
I suspected that Sharpe would have preferred me to get the King out as a priority rather than dragging him into danger. But if there were similar numbers of wraiths attacking the living quarters as there had been in the training center, then I was going to need all the help I could get, and the bodyguards were well-trained.
“Come on.”
We rushed on up, meeting the occasional wraith on the way. Outside the living quarters were ten of the creatures.
“Stay back, your Majesty.”
The bodyguards and I attacked and the wraiths fought back with their habitual lack of self-preservation. Usually, when you fight someone, they are always protecting themselves as much as attacking you, but Night Wraiths simply attacked with no concern over whether they lived or died. It made fighting them a uniquely dangerous prospect.
As the last one exploded into sticky, black ash, I hammered on the door.
“It’s Ursula, open up.”
A terrified face peered around. “What’s happening?”
I was getting a bit tired of explaining.
“You’re leaving, come on.”
I pushed through the door, yelling out for everyone to evacuate. Vampire families swarmed around me; men, women, and altogether too many children. I hadn’t realized what a family affair this had become.
“They’re coming!” The yell came from one of the bodyguards and I raced back to the door.
“How many?”
“Enough.”
“Which way?”
“Main stairs.”
“Right.” I took a half a beat to think. “You two stay here with me to hold them. We can bottleneck them at the door. You, take the King and get these people out of here down the emergency staircase. It’s narrow and it’ll take forever, but it’s all we’ve got.”
And they all nodded – just as if I was actually in command.
As I, and the two bodyguards I had picked, stood ready at the main door, the King and his third guard began ushering people down.
“Come along, come along,” said the Boy King briskly.
“Are you the King of Clubs?” A toddler gawped at the young monarch.
“Yes, I am.”
“My Daddy says they shouldn’t let children be King.”
Daddy, who was holding the toddler’s hand, had the good grace to look embarrassed, apologetic and terrified.
The Boy King shrugged. “Most days, I would heartily agree with him. And certainly today. Now, come on, don’t dawdle.”
As the families got moving behind me, I could hear the wraiths approaching from in front.
“I thought there was only supposed to be a hundred of them down there,” muttered a bodyguard.
“We may have miscalculated,” I admitted. Would the King of Nightmares have left himself defenseless? Unlikely. Which meant that there were yet more wraiths still in the catacombs. The fight we were to face when we attacked would be a much harder one than we had been anticipating.
“Get back!” One of the bodyguards shoved me aside as a wraith dropped from the stairwell above us. The guard grabbed it by the throat and hurled it down into the mass of approaching wraiths. “They’re coming from above, as well.”
“Thanks,” I murmured as I took my place beside him again.
“No problem. You’re a brave human.”
For the next ten minutes, we fought them back, holding that narrow landing and keeping the doorway sealed until the civilians were out. I fought as I had never fought before, but my mind was elsewhere. If it was like this up here, then what must it be like in the training center? How many of these wretched creatures were there? What was happening to Connery?
“Fall back,” I called. The last of the families was gone and there were simply too many of them for us to fight.
We struggled back and closed the door, jamming furniture against it.
“Let’s get out of here.”
We raced for the stairs, clattering down after the civilians as fast as we could.
“Can anyone else smell smoke?”
The lower floors were ablaze before we reached them. It seemed that the families had gotten out, but there was no way down for us. Locating a window, one of the bodyguards kicked out the glass and looked down.
“Long drop.”
“Can you make it?” I asked. Vampires were great climbers and were pretty resilient if they fell.
The man nodded. “What about you?”
“I’ll find another way.”
The first bodyguard tried to climb down but found his path blocked by the growing flames, he leapt, rolling as he landed and getting up
, unhurt.
“Your turn,” I said to the second.
The man looked at me. “There’s no other way out.”
I already knew that, but I said, “I’ll find one. I don’t die easy.”
“And my King would never forgive me if I let you.”
Before I knew what was happening, the guard had grabbed me and leapt through the window. Holding me tightly, he used his body to cushion my landing and I heard the crack of bones beneath me.
“Why did you do that?”
“Are you yelling at me?” the man asked through gritted teeth. “I’ll heal, you won’t. And the resistance needs you. Lundercity is my home and it needs you.”
It was only at that point that I really understood how important I had inadvertently become.
But the thought didn’t stay in my head long as I turned back to the blazing building.
“Connery?!”
I felt a hand on my shoulder and knew the touch even before I turned to grab Connery, hugging him tight enough to make his eyes pop.
“Thank God you’re alright. How the hell did this happen?”
It seemed as if everything was lost, everything we had worked so hard for. The King of Nightmares had reached out from his lair and swatted us aside. But at least I had Connery. But he hadn’t spoken yet, and when I looked up, I saw his face in quiet anguish.
“Connery…”
He shook his head. “Damn fool wouldn’t keep back. I couldn’t help him.”
Chapter 15
The movement of Anthony’s chest was almost imperceptible, but it was there. As I looked at him in the hospital bed, the indestructible commander of the VTs looked suddenly smaller.
“Saved my life,” said Marco, standing beside me, his flamboyant personality suddenly absent. “He’ll never let me forget that.”
“I tried to reach him,” murmured Connery. “There were so many of them.”
“He’d be dead if it wasn’t for you,” Marco admonished. “You got to him.”
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