With that, the fight was on. Kamila had been tackled by one of the vampires, but it wasn’t going to get her down. She lashed out with a fireball of her own, ending the life of a female vampire in a grotesque shower of gore. The tunnel briefly stank of blood and rot before Kamila got the fire hot enough to burn the flesh to ashes.
Tess used her silver-tipped spikes to stab one in the heart. Then she got Jannes in the brain, dropping him with a shout of militant joy.
Zarya crafted a blade of water and brought it up between Anders’s legs, slicing him in half from bottom to top. It was enough to kill him, cutting through his heart and choking off his blood supply almost instantly. Stuck together, his face would have been surprised. Apart, he just looked dead.
I tried to stay between Lila and the fighting. I didn’t want her to be involved with any combat, but Lila wasn’t about to sit by without getting her licks in. She had a set of silver throwing knives hidden somewhere on her body, and she produced one. She threw it at the last remaining vampire’s head as hard as she could. Her aim was true. She hit him right in the eye, and he collapsed into a pile of dust.
The whole fight had taken less than ten seconds
Tess fist-bumped with Lila. “Nice work.” She winked at her, and then she went and retrieved the knife. “I like your aim. I might have to get myself a set of these.”
“If we make it out of here, I’ll help you find some.” Lila smiled weakly at her.
We looked at the three tunnels. Any one of them could have taken us somewhere interesting. By the same token, any one of them could be a dead end. “I say we go straight. Feels right.”
We jogged across the inlaid rotunda, now covered with vampiric ash. When we got to the other tunnel, we slowed down to lessen the sound of our approach.
This tunnel had lights, so I let my fire disc go out. If this one had lights, then they must have humans down here, at least on occasion. Mustache Guy was probably one of them, but there might be others. I would measure their worth on a case by case basis, but any acts of collusion would get them just as dead as their vampire masters. Deader, in fact. Collaborators had no place in my world.
A few of the rooms had open doors. The open doors led to bedrooms. The bedrooms were nondescript, somewhat elegant, and completely impersonal, the feel ranging between corporate chic and airport food. They seemed almost like hotel rooms. Vampires didn’t need hotel rooms, though. They just needed a place to go to ground out of reach of direct sunlight.
Or did they? Maybe they didn’t need hotel rooms, but they still had some human inclinations. They all seemed to complain about the boss, complain about their jobs, and even complain about teenagers. Who was to say they didn’t just want to go lie down somewhere, instead of propping themselves in a basement corner or whatever they did? Maybe they liked retiring to a bed and pretending they were human, just sleeping during the day instead of returning to their natural corpse-like state.
We heard footsteps coming toward us and ducked into one of the rooms. I closed the door most of the way behind us and watched while a troop of three vampires marched down the corridor. “Man, Ricard is pissed.” The vampire speaking had auburn hair, tied back from his face in a loose ponytail. “I can’t remember the last time I saw him this pissed.”
“That’s because the last time he was this pissed, he was pissed at you, and he hit you so hard you didn’t wake up for a week.” This time, the speaker was a petite female vampire, with blonde hair and dark skin. “He’s just anxious about The Day of Culling. We’re running out of time.”
The third vampire, a stocky man with a face that had probably been ruddy in life, waved a hand. “He can’t actually believe in any of that nonsense anyway, can he? I mean come on. It’s just a bunch of superstitious bullshit meant to keep stupid people in line. It’s no more real than human religions are.”
The woman raised an eyebrow at him. “I’ve got a great idea, Ronal. How about you go out into the rainforest, find Malfas yourself, and tell him to his face that he’s just a bunch of superstitious mumbo jumbo? Then you come back here and tell me how well that went over.”
Ronal’s hands fluttered at his throat. “Everyone’s entitled to believe what they want. I’m not trying to denigrate that, Denita. I’m just saying, maybe we shouldn’t be bending all of our efforts into trying to find a place that doesn’t exist.”
“Patagonia is real, dumbass. Patagonia is real, The Day of Culling is real, and if we show up empty handed, Malfas might just decide we’re a good enough substitute.” The auburn-haired vampire glared balefully at the other two. “Ricard is pissy about it, and it’s not working out so great for the rest of us. We’re not exactly team players to begin with, and we’re all getting on each other’s nerves. But that doesn’t mean Patagonia’s not real. That’s just nuts, man.”
Ron heaved a mighty sigh, like all the air had just been let out of his tires. “I’m telling you guys, we’re out here on a wild goose chase. You want to know what’s real? Some of the Ferin they’ve got chasing after it. They’re stronger than any Ferin who’ve ever lived before, and they can even kill First Blood.”
Rita laughed. “Cute. Did you hear that, Matteo? Ronal thinks a Ferin is capable of killing a First Blood.”
Matteo shrugged. “A Lifebringer could.”
“Now who’s delusional? There aren’t any Lifebringers. The Lifebringers are a fairy tale, something the First Bloods made up to keep all the baby vampires in line. Better do what your sire tells you to, or else the Lifebringer will get you!” She pantomimed something with wavy fingers, possibly intended to be fire. “Give me a break.”
“All I know is there’ve been Ferin running around and doing some crazy things. I heard one of them built a cyclone around one island off of Belize, just to hold off our brethren in Belize City. And then they slaughtered all of our brothers and sisters there.” Ronal’s eyes widened, bloodshot and wild. “Can you imagine that?”
Rita leaned in and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Hey, Ronal, if they slaughtered all of our brothers and sisters in Belize City, how do we know about it?” She patted him on the shoulder and straightened up.
Matteo snickered and put a hand on Ronal’s back. “She’s got you there. I’ve heard the same rumors, don’t get me wrong, but you have to admit it makes you wonder.”
These vampires couldn’t have been very old. They all behaved like humans. Their banter was human. Their complaints were human. Their fears and concerns were human. The only thing that wasn’t human was their biology, and for a moment, I almost considered letting them go.
Then I saw the bit of metal glittering on a chain that hung around Matteo’s neck.
We might need the key to get back in here later. And if he had the key, Matteo must be trusted by the people who wanted to keep an entire neighborhood of underprivileged and exploited people as their personal barnyard. I stepped out into the corridor.
Three sets of eyes looked me over.
“A Ferin.” Denita smirked and licked her lips. I could see her fangs descending. “You made a grave mistake in coming down here, vermin. Ferin are delicious.”
I glared at Ronal. It didn’t take much to boil the blood inside of him. To an outsider, it would have looked like he simply collapsed into a heap of ash at my glare.
“So I’m told.” I gave her a tight little smile. “I understand you think I don’t exist.”
“Lifebringer.” Matteo figured it out before Denita. He charged me, moving so fast he was just a blur. I barely had time to snatch the key from around his neck before he knocked me to the floor, but I rolled with it, comfortable in my own Ferin body.
It was fine. Matteo might be enough of a higher-up to have a key, but he wasn’t old or powerful enough to resist when I burned him alive from the inside out. Denita succumbed to the same treatment, but it wasn’t me who sprang it on her. Kamila stepped out of the bedroom we’d hidden in, shaking her head.
“Showboat,” she accused, even t
hough a little grin played around the corners of her mouth.
I dangled the key from my hand. “Oh ye of little faith.”
Lila clapped. “Victory.”
24
We kept going down the tunnel, moving as one with weapons and abilities at the ready.
We passed by rooms that appeared to be nothing so glamorous as stored goods, although I got a mild thrill when we found what could only be their treasury. Most of what they had was cash, and none of us had too much pride to help ourselves to the loot. After all, they were the bad guys. We had things to do, and the less we relied on chance or our own shadowy network, the happier I would be. Even Lila didn’t hesitate to stuff her pockets.
I grinned. Good for her.
The other room was full of books. I couldn’t read most of them, as they’d been written in every language known to man. Both Kamila and Zarya could read some of them, and they helped themselves to a few with disapproving scowls on their faces. I resolved to ask about the books later, but for the moment, our pace remained steady.
I tried to hurry us along, but trying to get Zarya and Kamila out of a bookstore like that was like trying to get my ex-wife Linda out of a shoe store. Then a phone rang, and the sound caromed off every surface around us. In my mind, it sounded like an air raid siren going off.
All four of us turned to look at Tess as the color drained from her face.
“Are you shitting me?” I asked her, feeling the heat flood my face.
I grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the library. I knew that one moment of error would be enough to bring the vampires down on us. Lila was between Kamila and Zarya, rushing her along as we pelted forward in the same direction.
I figured going backward would be even more dangerous than going forward. There were two other tunnels for vampires to attack from if we went back the other way. This way, we didn’t stroll into a mob scene, armed with our abilities and exactly zero element of surprise.
We didn’t have far to go before we found our first pocket of resistance. A knot of ten vampires stood in the passage in single file, all waiting to tear us apart. I flattened myself against the wall and let Tess go first, since she was the only one of us who didn’t have any distance weapons. She launched herself at the first vampire with glee, snarling her hatred at him while she lashed out with those silver-tipped spikes of hers. He blocked, moving as fast as the wind, but Tess had already anticipated his move.
I focused on the vampire at the back of the pack. I didn’t even have to think very hard to burn him from the inside out. It had become such a rote action for me by now, I could do it as easily as exhaling. He collapsed into ash without making a sound, and I felt the sensation of pleasure at his death. It was more than an act, now. Killing vampires was a calling.
Kamila launched a fireball at the guy behind Tess’s opponent. She hit him and the one behind him, knocking their heads from their shoulders in a mighty blow that made the vampires behind them jump as flesh and hair and blood exploded in a ruinous mess. Zarya took two more out with a blast of water as powerful as a tsunami, but focused to a blade-like consistency.
Lila threw a silver knife at one of the enemies, and he fell too. His ashes combined with the rest in the water left behind by Zarya’s attack to make a repulsive slurry, but there were still three more to take care of.
I bruléed another one. This one must have been older, or at least closer to the Source. His skin bubbled and blistered, but he kept surging forward. For a second, I thought he might be too strong to be burned, but just before he caught up to Tess, he exploded into a shower of ash.
Tess had her hands full with another of the vampires. He had his hands around her throat, and her eyes bulged as she struggled for breath. She had enough leeway to bring her silver-tipped spike up and drive it into his heart, though, and that was all she needed. He disintegrated slowly, from the fingers back, joining the slurry with the others.
Lila dispatched the final vampire with a flick of her wrist. Silver flashed through the air, and that was the end of this fight. She sprang forward to collect her knives, which she cleaned on her black trouser leg. “Let’s go,” she said in a tense voice. “I don’t think that’s all we’ll have to face.”
She wasn’t wrong. We ran up the hallway until we found ourselves in another rotunda. It wasn’t empty. This time, we had fifteen vampires, five from each of the tunnels leading into the elegant space.
We formed up around Lila quickly. We didn’t talk about it. We didn’t have to. None of us were prepared to assume there weren’t enemies behind us. I created another spinning fire disc, but instead of making it stationary this time, I sent it spinning like a buzz saw toward the vampires on the left. It decapitated three of them, searing clean through their necks with no effort at all. Two of them were fast enough to duck.
I stretched my mind and my senses. The first one went up easily, like a Roman candle. The second smoldered a little, without slowing his stride as he ran toward us. Indeed, the only effect he seemed to show was an angrier snarl on his face, and I wondered if I’d miscalculated. Then flames poured from his mouth and his eyes. He turned to ash in the middle of his stride.
Kamila lobbed fireballs. She seemed to enjoy them today, and they were an effective distance weapon. She threw them like baseballs, one at a time at the head of each vampire in the tunnel straight ahead of us. The effect was devastating, as each hit splashed like Napalm across the hissing monsters.
Zarya had seen my fire disc and adapted it for water. She beheaded four vampires, and I was almost jealous for a moment. Lila finished off the fifth with a flawless knife strike to the throat.
We didn’t stick around to congratulate ourselves. We needed to keep going. By unspoken agreement, we kept running straight. The path angled upward after a few yards, proving we’d made the right choice.
Three more vampires tried to block us seconds later, and we barely slowed to dispatch them with a bombardment of fire and silver blades. I began to feel a shift in the air, like our progress was limited despite us dealing so much pain.
About halfway up the ramp, another pod of fangers stood before us, ready for battle. “How many of these bastards are there?” I waved a hand at them, turning my fist into a flamethrower and aiming it at their heads. “I didn’t think this complex was so big.”
“Neither did I.” Lila’s eyes had gone as wide as saucers, but she didn’t let up. She got one of them in the heart with a knife, the silver blade burying itself to the hilt before the vampire collapsed into black grit. “Is this normal for you all?”
“It has been lately.” Zarya summoned her water blade again and beheaded another vampire, it’s skull flashing into dust before it could land.
Lila retrieved her blade, and we kept running. We emerged from the tunnel into a night lit up almost as bright as the day. Generators roared in the background, and the stink of raw diesel made my eyes water. I hadn’t thought we’d been down there that long, but my body had adapted quickly to being underground. Cheap diesel wasn’t the only nasty smell assaulting our senses. The tunnel put us out just outside the abandoned, unfinished apartment tower right there in the favela, and the eternal dumpster fire burned nearby, adding to the toxic smudge around us.
Everyone turned a little green, except Lila, who had spent time down here hunting for the vampires and was apparently used to it. I staggered for a moment, my gorge rising.
It was a moment I didn’t have. A warm human body barreled into me, knocking me to the filth-strewn ground. Human hands wrapped around my throat. I could get rid of this person easily, but I would have to hurt them or kill them to do so. I stared into the face of an average looking favela dweller in ragged clothes. His face was completely emotionless and slack, but his eyes screamed for help.
I’d seen that look before on the train. He was being controlled, and he knew it.
I brought my foot up into the guy’s chest and pushed as gently as I could without being ineffective. I managed to laun
ch him into the air, removing his hands from around my neck and sending him into a knot of other blank-faced civvies. They fell to the ground, eerily silent, and I leaped to my feet.
We were surrounded. There must have been a thousand people, shuffling toward us in a mewling crowd. Here and there, we saw faces with emotion, bone-white faces smirking with amusement. I recognized the vampire from the train, and knew he was in control of the herd. If he died, I saved the people. It was simple.
That was easier said than done. I hadn’t been able to kill him on the train, and I wanted to avoid hurting the humans under his sway. None of this was their fault, from living in the slum to being pawns in a war between supernatural beings. They didn’t deserve to die, and certainly not by my hands.
I aimed a spinning disc of flame at the mesmerizing vampire’s neck, more to distract him than because I thought it would kill him. Then I sent a huge wave of water out over the shuffling mass, strong enough to knock them down.
It gave us enough time to run toward the exit. Then another vampire in a red dress caught up to Zarya, who fought her off easily, with a punch to the face that gave her time to summon her water sword. Unfortunately, that gave the zombified residents enough time to come close to catching up, and I had to brush them back again, reminding me of old footage of protestors getting pushed back with a fire hose. In sputtering clots of humanity, they fell back, soaked and disoriented.
Kamila sent an arc of flame toward the vampire from the train, but he wasn’t bothered. More of the zombies closed in as the circle began to close like a noose. I was at the edge of a horrific choice. Killing innocents, or dying at the crush of their mindless swell.
Then I looked up. The favela was in a valley. Huge cliffs rose on either side of the shitty neighborhood, and I began to call on my power like I had before in Mexico.
I began to call to the earth.
Forever Young - Book 3 Page 13
