Then I let my magic rip through the wall and break into thousands of pieces. Concrete went flying in every direction. It was utter chaos. I took a step toward the hole I created and allowed my senses to take a whiff of the smells inside. Some of the humans were hurt and left bleeding on the floor. Others were knocked unconscious. It would soon become a feeding ground.
Kitty cawed into the air as I made my way inside.
“Please be careful,” she spoke through my mind.
“Come on,” I hollered to Tobias behind me. “We can’t waste any time.”
“That’s your idea of keeping a low profile and not getting my warriors killed?” He stared me down as he walked through the hole I made.
“A low profile isn’t necessary anymore. Especially if humans are becoming more aware of our existence.”
Christophe snickered as though he found the prospect entertaining. I didn’t. In reality, I never felt so exposed. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me. If there was any damage to contain, it could only be contained by violence. Plus I was starving.
‘Why am I thinking this way?’
The caution that followed me my whole life abandoned me. There was only the goal at hand and the blood awaiting me.
‘This is what makes them so reckless. This is the blood lust.’
I walked inside the room to see that it was nothing more than a storage closet. A refrigerator with bags of human blood to feed the vampires when necessary, equipment and weaponry for the guards, lab coats, extra glass vials for their experiments and so on. The door to the corner had been completely blown off and thrown into the opposite wall.
“Cast a shadow charm,” Tobias demanded.
“Why?”
“Do it!” he shouted.
I lifted my arm up and cast a shadow charm over my body, making sure it was ten times stronger than any I summoned in the past with my kruxa magic. Then I spread it over Tobias and Christophe so they wouldn’t be exposed.
I wasn’t thinking of discretion. I didn’t seem to care anymore. The wires in my mind had been rerouted. They spun new truths. And after the shadow charm was up, Tobias lost all reservations. He walked with me down the hall, smiling once he realized how many cameras were lining it and that those watching on the other side wouldn’t be able to see him.
“Now is your chance,” I said to him. “Get some revenge for your warriors.”
“Our warriors.”
I bit my lip, still not used to the sound of what was once his becoming ours.
“I like this new side of you,” he said. “You’re stronger. Bolder. But please have some foresight. We’re already more exposed than we ever wanted.”
“You two make me a little sick,” said Christophe before he took off in front of us and dug his teeth into a security guard only ten feet away as he turned the corner. The man barely had time to scream before Christophe flew through the air and launched at him with full force like a predator leaping on his prey.
I walked by him as blood poured out of the man’s throat and onto the floor, staining the white tiles beneath him.
“You’ve never been one to drink with any sort of grace,” said Tobias as he stepped over him. The guard’s arms were latched onto Christophe’s back, desperately trying to push him off and fight for his life. His arms fell in a matter of seconds and slapped against the ground. The sight might have disgusted me at one point in time. Now it was only natural. The guard had helped our enemies. His death was meaningless.
My magic swirled around my staff and told me exactly where to go. We were in an outer wing where there wasn’t much activity. That was about to change.
We came across a heavy door with latches on the side. It had to be a few inches thick.
“Would you do the honors?” said Tobias with a mischievous grin.
I held the staff horizontally along my arm and rested it on my wrist, letting the magic charge through the long wood and erupt at the end in a ball of incredible light. The door went flying inward with a thunderous crash. That was when the alarms started going off. Along with red lights flashing throughout the hallway.
“Breach in sector four,” a voice cried through a PA system. “Breach in sector four.”
We continued walking down the hall and waited for the onslaught of security guards that would inevitably find us. Only they didn’t see us when we saw them. As the men in dark military-style uniforms turned a corner with their guns in their hands and the metal over their necks they attempted to charge right through us.
‘Good luck.’
We let a few pass by. The stragglers at the back weren’t so lucky.
I hadn’t fed since we left Mount Evans. And I wasn’t about to engage in a full-scale attack without feeding a little more. I needed the energy. The life force. The pulsating glory that pumped through my veins as I felt human blood satiate the dryness at the back of my throat.
The shadow charm protected the two of us as we both grabbed men from the back of their lined formation and pinned them against the wall. The others continued down the hall, too distracted by their orders and the blaring sound coming from the alarm system to notice their numbers were down by two.
My magic shot through my hand and shattered the metal material protecting the man’s throat. I lifted him with ease and threw him to the ground. He went down with a grunt before I latched onto his throat and dug my teeth right into his neck. My fangs still weren’t fully formed. That didn’t stop me from creating a gash in his skin. His blood seeped into my mouth and I drank it like I had forgotten what it tasted like. It filled every part of my body with the same euphoria I felt before. And the instant I had nearly drained him dry, Tobias took me by the shoulder and pulled me away. I let the man go before I could allow myself to think twice about it. When I saw Tobias, his face was stained with blood, having already taken his fill.
He let his thumb graze over my chin and remove the trickle of blood spilling over my lip. I knew he was pleased.
“You’re nearly there,” he said. “I imagine by tomorrow you will have fully transformed.”
I smiled back at him. A silly meek smile that reminded me of how he made me feel when I was nothing more than a young kruxa being courted by the most stunning man I had ever met over two centuries ago.
Christophe rushed by us in the blink of an eye and tackled another security guard that came around the corner. Tobias and I both came to our senses and continued down the hall. Soon we were standing in a much larger area. One with beds lining the walls, blood staining the white sheets, and restraints made of locksin hanging over the sides of the beds. Along with vials of blood on tables, holding what certainly didn’t smell like human blood. It was vampire blood. Ripe for experimentation.
“This is where they’re doing the experiments,” I said.
I knew Tobias couldn’t sense the agony permeating around the large room but I certainly could. I wasn’t sure if it was the crowning magic inside my body that was causing it but I was more sensitive to the emotions around me even after the room had been cleared. I could sense the emotions and experiences that had been left behind. A stain on the room as if it had been forever marked by the pain that was felt within those enclosed walls.
It made me furious. I wanted more blood. I wanted to tear into the men and women who made this possible. And most of all, I wanted to take Gandira down.
“Is this what it’s supposed to feel like?” I asked Tobias as we continued onward toward the door at the other end of the room. “The way vampires feel a certain connection between each other?”
“Yes,” he muttered. I knew he was fuming in the same way I was. I could sense it. Only he was even more enraged. Some of these vampires were his friends. His allies. People he had trained to stand by his side should the absolute worst happen. And now it had. Vampires had been exposed. And witchlings. I didn’t know how much damage was done. Nor did I care to sit around and think about it. There was too much happening at once.
“We need to get to
where they’re keeping my warriors,” Tobias said.
“Before or after we kill those responsible?” I asked.
“Let’s get them first. I want them to enjoy the carnage as well.”
I held my palm up and briefly shut my eyes as we walked to the other end of the large room.
‘Show me. Please show me.’
An image appeared in my mind. It was another hallway. Similar to the one at the facility where I was held. There were more rooms with heavy locked doors. Cells. The vampires were inside. I could sense they were suffering. Some had been drained of so much blood that they could hardly move. Others had been injected with various serums to see what would happen. A few were cut open repeatedly to see how long it would take for them to heal.
The anger inside of me started rising up. I let it writhe around inside me and cradle every single desire. Which was mostly to see those responsible suffer.
“There’s a hidden staircase,” I said, veering off in another direction in the room to the back corner and pushing a spot on the wall where a square-shaped outline emerged, revealing a pad with numbers on it. It was some machine asking for my fingerprint.
‘No time for that garbage.’
Christophe must have seen the determined look on my face because he backed away instantly, pulling Tobias along behind him.
I took the staff and repeated the same motion as I did outside, sweeping it behind me and slamming it down vertically in front of my body. The entire room shook. The ceiling cracked and crumbled. Several of the beds were blown back against the wall. And the doorway in front of me barely moved.
I slammed the staff down again, only this time I used more crowning magic inside my body and let it burst out of me like a canon. I was so consumed with the feeling of power surging through my veins that I didn’t even notice that both Tobias and Christophe were blown back as well. I heard them grunt as they fell to the ground and quickly recovered. But not before I let the bright red ball of energy swarming around the top out in a blinding light that slammed into the wall and broke it from the edges. It caved inward and finally detached from the hinges. I had to back up as pieces of it crashed down before me in large metal chunks.
I looked back at Tobias who was no longer admiring me with a sly smile. His expression was different. He wasn’t seeing me in the same light. And above all, I could sense the fear permeating off his body. Not for what we were doing and where we were about to go. He feared me. He managed to create one of the most powerful vampires that ever lived. And somehow I knew he was starting to think that what he had done might have been a mistake.
‘I will prove you wrong. I can handle this. I know I can.’
I stepped through the remains of the door and didn’t bother to say anything to the two of them. They knew where I was going. They could follow.
When I got through to the other side there were more guards waiting for me. Only now I could sense even more. My magic was expanding. The power inside of me floated through the room and I knew they could feel it. It overwhelmed them. And it nearly overwhelmed me. The atmosphere left behind was so thick that a spark could light it on fire. As if I was creating my own electrical energy. They knew something had changed when I stepped inside. That didn’t stop them from trying to get up. Most had crashed down to the ground the first time I slammed my staff into the floor. Their eyes searched but found nothing. The shadow charm still had me concealed and they didn’t even know they were dead yet.
I raised the staff from my side and let my magic rip through my chest and into the doors of all the cells lining the hall. It flowed as if I had created my own life force. The human blood inside of me was doing more than just creating a euphoria. It was feeding my desires. I wanted the vampires freed. I wanted these men dead. And I wanted Tobias’s warriors to have the pleasure of seeking vengeance.
The door burst open. My magic tore through them as if they were nothing. Then all hell broke loose.
One by one the vampires came out and the guards started shooting at them. Somehow the scientists had created bullets with the same material as locksin. It made the vampires stagger and stumble. But it didn’t stop them entirely. Nothing could. They were far too hungry for that.
The first guard went down.
Then another.
And another.
I watched as the vampires realized they were breaking free of their bonds and their meal had been bestowed upon them like a formal dinner just waiting for their hunger.
Tobias came from behind and pushed me forward. We wandered through the sea of vampires wildly attacking all they could see.
We moved onward even though I wanted to join them. I wanted to tear the men apart.
‘No. I can’t drink more. Not yet.’
I stopped in my tracks. My magic was sensing something. No. It was showing me something. The image in front of my eyes changed. Lenora was sitting in front of me, tied down in the same manner as my vision. A man watched her with vicious eyes, threatening her with a needle the same way Richard Foster had done with me. Was he going to drain her magic out of her arm with a syringe?
“She’s here,” I said.
A flash of excitement traveled through Tobias’s body.
“Lenora is here,” I went on. “I can sense it.”
“Where?”
“In a basement below us. Five floors down. There’s more security down there. Or at least there was. I think most were ordered to come up here once we broke in.”
“Good,” he said coldly. “Lead the way.”
I let my magic continue to swirl in my palm as various men in white lab coats and security gear ran from one end of the facility to the other, trying to figure out what was going on only to realize they were walking right into a feeding trap.
“Code red,” the speaker system announced. “Code red! Everyone get to the bunkers immediately.”
I could only imagine what code red meant. Perhaps that the vampires were spilling red all over the pristine white tile floor? The thought made me smile.
We reached an elevator and Christophe pressed the button to open the door. When it became clear that it would take more than a few seconds for it to reach us I quickly lost my patience. I touched the metal doors with my hand as my magic shocked the electrical system. I could hear the elevator stop in its tracks above us.
“What did you do that for?” Christophe asked, sounding rather irritated.
“Too slow,” I answered.
I burst open the metal doors with the magic in my palm and stepped into the elevator shaft, controlling my fall until I reached the bottom. Only my feet never touched the floor. They stopped right before I fell below the level where I knew Lenora was being held captive. I floated there with a sea of red magic swirling beneath my feet, levitating me inches above the gears of the elevator shaft.
I managed to break my fall when I fell down the mine shaft when I was searching for the vampire nest. This was different. I could levitate without moving a single part of my body.
I reached forward and forced my magic through the bottom of the doorway where the elevator would have stopped and opened it.
Once I stepped inside and turned around, it was clear that Tobias and Christophe weren’t sure what to do. Or even what to make of what I just did.
“Come down,” I urged them.
Tobias was the first to take the plunge, gradually falling until my magic caught him and he could float through the doorways where the elevator would have dropped. My magic didn’t sting him. It didn’t harm him in any way whatsoever. It would do so only if I willed it to do so. Then Christophe followed with slightly less grace and a bit of a tumble. The fear inside Tobias was still there. I wasn’t sure which part he didn’t like. The fact that I was more powerful than him or that I was willing to use that power. When his eyes connected with mine I got the feeling that it was the latter.
‘We don’t have time for this. Which is your priority? Keeping me in line where you want me or saving Lenora?’
I walked down the hall to the door at the back. It was the same as the door that led to the cell blocks above. And there were guards who clearly saw the doorway being opened and the crowning magic swirling around on the other side. And yet, they couldn’t see us. They simply stood there in a ready stance with their guns pointed in our direction. I raised my hand with my magic twisting over my arm and my fingers and watched as their guns lifted right out of their hands. Then I pinned them to the wall to get them out of my way as we walked toward the door. I busted it open with my magic before we even reached it. Along with the guards. They slammed into the wall with their hands pinned above their heads, unsure if they should beg or scream. They were being controlled by an invisible force. One they could sense was there but they couldn’t see.
It was getting a bit…easy. Too easy.
I walked inside the room where I was sure Lenora was being held captive only to stop dead in my tracks. The chair was sitting there. The locksin used to tie her down flickered with blue sparks on the floor. And the syringe lay empty at the corner of the table. Lenora was nowhere to be found. Someone else was seated in the chair before me.
Tobias and Christophe walked in behind me to see the man sitting in front of us with his hands folded calmly in front of him as if he had been waiting for us all along.
He was tall with a bald head and a thick mustache. An older man. Perhaps in his fifties. And dressed in a suit that had to cost five figures. Although, from the smug look on his face he could clearly afford it.
“Hello, Miss Ashwood,” he said to me with a tilt of his head. “Would you mind releasing my men?”
“Yes, I would,” I answered him. “And I’m not Harper Ashwood.”
His brow furrowed as if that wasn’t an answer he expected.
“She’s my descendant,” I said. “I’m considerably… older.”
Fated Realms: (Witchling Wars: Vampire Echelon Book 2) Page 7
