by Imogene Nix
“Just what do you mean by weres?” His voice wavered slightly and she had to control her grin.
Cressida sighed. “Well, it’s not really my secret to tell—”
A slender and dark-haired man slinked out of the darkness. Daniel was surprised by his piercing and otherworldly ice-blue eyes. He was dressed in faded jeans and boots, but wore no shirt. Even in the glow of artificial light it was clear he was broad-shouldered and with superb definition in his muscular upper body. “No, it isn’t your place to tell of us. But Creedar made it necessary when he attempted to change Jelani. Our mythology warned us that there was a vampire-were hybrid, but no one saw it. Or at least, no one that survived. But the rumors continued to circulate.”
Cressida acknowledged the were who had joined them at the table. “I greet you, Lord of Lycans.” His gaze narrowed as he scanned her face, then the stiffness in him leached away and he grinned.
“Cressida, you haven’t changed in over fifty years. You’re still the same sexy, smooth talker you always were.” Simon and she had been friends for more than two centuries, and at one time she’d even considered a dalliance, but the timing and situation had never been quite right.
She now understood it was because the only man for her, Daniel, was the one she’d needed to wait for.
Daniel, however, didn’t know that and tensed beside her, and a shaft of pain tackled her, right beneath her ribs. It was a shadow of his emotions, but right now they didn’t have time to deal with the niceties of his or her bruised feelings. “Daniel, I would introduce to—”
“The Lord of the Lycans? Yeah, gotcha.”
Simon glanced at her quickly, his gaze assessing. “This is your consort, I take it?”
She took a single deep breath before answering. “He is also my life partner.”
Simon reared back. “Well now…”
“I can also talk for myself.” Daniel’s face was dark and closed.
“He doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“I hope not, Cressida. You’ve publicly announced we are life partners and I intend on keeping you to that.”
If ever there was a time for her to roll her eyes at his possessiveness, now wasn’t it, but they’d be talking about all this and so much more if they survived the night.
“Fine, now that we’ve all been introduced, it’s time to get to the planning and strategy bit of the meeting. Before it’s too late.” If there was a certain dryness about her words, she couldn’t help it.
Too much was at stake.
“So, here are the others of my force. Hope, Javed, Celina and Xavier are going to help us…” In turn she indicated each member, who either shook his hand or inclined their heads. Information was imparted quickly as they considered issues and problems at lightning speed.
Within minutes Usain was agreeing with them as the plans were laid out. “I’ll make sure the humans are kept well back, then.”
“Good. And Usain? Stay safe. I’m not ready to break in your replacement just yet.”
The man laughed at her words as she rose.
* * * *
They waited in the dark, having crept up the alley. The house beyond was shadowed and Daniel frowned. Do they know we are here? he wondered. He wanted to test the boundaries but as he gathered his magic, Cressida stilled him.
“He knows we’re here. I would’ve been shocked if he didn’t.”
Hope settled back against the wall, looking to drop into a light doze, just as they’d agreed. A chill, biting and quick, flicked up the narrow way. “Ready?”
Hope’s words were almost inaudible but Cressida nonetheless quieted her. “Shhh… They’ll hear you.”
During their planning, the group had agreed they needed the most up-to-date information as well as to ascertain the layout of the building. Daniel’s stomach flip-flopped, though, at what else she might see. Who they might lose.
Celina tugged a tiny shard of the protection stone, one she’d used before, from her pocket. “Are we ready?”
Daniel slid his hand over his half-sister’s shoulder. He would lay in place another layer of enchantment as she began her incantation. While Creedar and his minions might hear hers, they wouldn’t be able to detect Daniel’s.
They’d discussed their strengths over the last few days, and this was the single greatest advantage they had—their ability to work cohesively as a team.
He wove his magic through her words, seeking to not only block them from sight and their words from hearing, but also to create a null zone. A place where no one could read them. Only the six of them would know what had been found.
Hope fell into the stupor and they waited, hoping this would give them the information they required—information that had remained veiled and hidden from view. Perhaps with that additional knowledge of his location, they might be able to glean his plan.
Hope’s eyes opened, and for a moment the shock of the anguish and fear on her face plowed into Daniel’s psyche. Then Hope gasped. “Don’t let the others in. Cressida, whatever you do, we need shielding before anyone enters the building.”
It was too late. The first team had already advanced and started to enter. Now all they could do was watch and listen, their hearts shattering as the screams of terror and pain began slicing through the night.
Hope fisted her hands in Daniel’s jacket, tugging at him. “You have to stop them!”
“I’ll do what I can.” Daniel closed his eyes, casting a net of security while seeking those he knew. Maybe he could tug them from the building they’d just stormed… But his magic was blocked. Shielding? He gripped the amulet. “Help me.” His grunt was met with the rest of the team giving him what they could. It wasn’t enough.
“The witches said he had no magic! How can this be?” He growled and the night air rippled with repressed fury.
“We never said he had no power. Just that it’s dim. A faint version of the power you share.” He could hear their thoughts but they were hidden from his view. He couldn’t even follow the thread of their magic to whatever location they had taken up.
“God damn it!” He hurled a flash of power outward. It lit the night, showing him the wrestling bodies that lay just beyond the dim glow that now illuminated the building from within.
“We should—” Even as he rose, Cressida held out her hand, barring him.
“Stick to the plan. Daniel. You will weaken us if you leave now.” He heard the words she didn’t say, deep in his brain and his heart. “If something happens to you we cannot fight… And I won’t have the strength to continue without you.”
Her thoughts stopped him cold.
On one level he understood why he should accept her ruling. She’d been a warrior for so long that she knew what needed to be done and said. He was new and green.
On the other, the screams of pain went on and on, not just jarring his mind but leaving his soul aching at the punishment the warriors were taking.
“How many, Hope?” He turned to her, but she had her hands over her ears as moisture tracked down her face. Xavier had wrapped his arm around her, his face tight as if he too could hardly bear the sounds.
Huddled against the wall, it felt like hours. Daniel’s hands grew numb, clenched into fists, before the final sounds died away.
Celina had slumped into a crouch on the ground during the noise and she rose to her feet. “We can stop the second wave. I have an idea.” Celina was already muttering something, her lips and hands moving swiftly through the dark night. He knew she was running through her magic spell inventory in her head.
Daniel gripped his amulet in his hand and dropped himself into her mind, searching for her thoughts. For a moment he was confused by her plan then, as understanding filled him, he grinned. “Oh, Celina, that’s magic.” He blinked as the words he used to praise her echoed in his skull.
She giggled, breaking the air of despair that had settled over them. “I know. That’s why it will work.”
“Cressida, compel them to line up b
efore us. Celina thinks if we run a simple spell, not a love spell, but an attraction one, we can stop them long enough for the warriors to gain entrance. They’ll be too interested in each other to have any interest in our own warriors.”
“Won’t she need…?” Javed frowned. Daniel knew why she didn’t have any of her normal implements. He didn’t have time to tell him that this time he was acting as the magical conduit, but if it made the fight easier then he’d find the precious minutes to explain.
“Normally. But you see, this is where I can help by melding our magic to make it happen. While she talks through the spell, I can imbue it with my peculiar kind of magic, so she won’t need the normal items…”
“I will need something though, a way to spread a compulsion among the warriors. Like a spray bottle filled with water.”
Daniel nodded and brought one to mind, concentrating on his palm. Then it was there, the small bottle Cressida used to tame her hair before braiding it.
Then Daniel laid his hands over Celina’s. She worked on the spell that had formed in her mind and he wove his magic through it. In his mind the threads were purple and yellow, twining around each other in a tight band.
When it was done, the water in the bottle sparkled as if tiny confetti flakes filled it. He turned to Cressida. “The second wave warriors will need to be prepared. Have them file by us so we can…vaccinate them.” He frowned, unable to think of a better choice of words and no time to consider the problem.
Cressida gave the order, the vampires formed a line and one by one they squirted the liquid on their hands.
Cressida watched in silence. “How long?”
“Maybe ten minutes. It’s weak, but we only want to slow them down. Nothing more.”
She nodded and watched as the end of the line marched before Daniel and the final warrior extended his hands. Kharisma winked at him from the front of the line of thirty or so warriors. “Hope this is good stuff.”
“It better be.”
Then Kharisma straightened to her full height, unhooking her favorite blade from her belt. “No quarter!” As they watched, the warriors charged into the night while Daniel and the others shuddered in the cold night.
Silence filled the air as the warriors entered the building and disappeared from sight.
Then Cressida turned on her heel to look upon them, and her face held a cold distance. The warrior woman had returned. “Shall we?”
* * * *
The noise levels in the residential complex ran high, and as the spell wore off the warriors from the combined nests were hoping to bring the majority of the newly turned to holding facilities that had been set up around the neighborhood. It had occurred to them that some might actually be able to be helped, once Creedar was defeated.
Making their way up the stairs resembled the climbing of a mountain, mounded high with the bodies of those who’d been unsuccessful in the first attempt to gain entrance.
Beyond the door, wherever Cressida looked she saw wrestling figures as the seasoned fighters faced off against the rabid creatures Creedar had spawned.
If these newly turned could be rehabilitated, then they’d do so. If not, they would be humanely destroyed. It was all that could be done. Cressida comforted herself with the knowledge that her people would find the ones in whom the shreds of humanity lurked beneath the blood hunger.
The band of six stopped at the top of the first flight of stairs. While the building wasn’t as large as many residential complexes in the area, there were still moving bodies and they couldn’t afford to be scattered. After a quick scan, Daniel shook his head. Before they could continue, they had to flatten themselves against the walls avoiding the battling vampires who erupted in a frenzy around them. Up another flight of stairs they fought, ducking and weaving to avoid injury on their way toward their destination.
The bangs of opening doors and clanging metal echoed through Cressida’s skull, disorienting her.
“This way.” Daniel gestured, the schematics of the building in hand. They had used the information gleaned from the girl, realizing it was necessary to move to the center of the structure, understanding it was the easiest to fortify, when a boom shook the walls and floor. The building shuddered and Cressida instinctively reached for Daniel’s hand.
Bits of masonry rained down upon them and they made to cover their heads as billows of particles filled the air.
“What the hell was that?” Celina coughed, gripping the edges of the door.
“I don’t know. But I think we‘d better find Creedar…and quickly!”
With care they pushed their way through a doorway at the end of a corridor, and there before them waited a band of vampires, brandishing knives and even power cords that had obviously been torn from electrical equipment.
“What the hell is this?”
“Don’t underestimate them, Xavier. We have no idea what kind of training they have.” Cressida caught Daniel’s gaze, her concern plain. “Just do what you can.”
They moved, each targeting a specific vampire. Even as they advanced, Daniel kept an eye on Cressida. They were confined to a small hallway, with a crush of waiting combatants behind them. This wasn’t a good area for an attack, he was sure.
Daniel flicked his gaze to the side, hunting for an alternative so they could spread out, but there wasn’t one. He tugged the small blade from his belt and lunged at the man who came at him, jaws wide open.
The claws on its hand nicked him, just a scratch, but it annoyed Daniel, who pivoted to follow through his defense. Now he thanked all the hours of practice Samra had demanded of him as the creature captured him around the waist. Even as it tried to sink long fangs into his shoulder he twisted, while muscles screamed, loosening the hold the warrior had on him. Then he struck, the blade sliding home. A harsh yell split the air and it was done.
“Daniel?”
“All good, Cressida.” The glance in her direction was automatic but he spied another attacker, its face wreathed in smiles as it aimed at her. “Watch your back!” He slid in behind her, meeting the next opponent squarely, once more moving as he’d practiced.
The skirmish was brief but fearsome, and by the end they all panted and leaned against the walls. Daniel gazed at them, amazed that they carried nothing more than the odd bite or cut. “Amazing.”
Xavier clapped his shoulder. “You did well. But this is the beginning, Daniel. I would expect it will grow fiercer the closer to Creedar we get.”
Xavier’s words didn’t make Daniel feel any better but he shrugged them off. After all, this was what they’d been training for.
“This isn’t a good battleground, Cressida. We need space to be able to wield our weapons.” Javed wiped at a trickle of sweat on his brow.
“I know. But there isn’t likely to be a room with more space.” She shrugged. “He likely chose this chamber because it’s easier to defend.”
Daniel straightened at Cressida’s words, accepting the truth.
“Cressida!” The cry came from beyond them and they surged forward.
The door was shut and she laid her fingers on the silver knob. Who knew what lay within?
“Cressida?”
Her nerves jangled as she slid the knob a little to the left. The door squeaked in protest and she pushed it forward.
“Welcome, little one. Bring your friends in too.”
She stood and scanned the view before her. For a second, she blanked. This was a face she knew, and it occurred to her in an instant—she was face to face with Creedar.
“You!” She advanced only to stop when he tugged a woman, sobbing wildly, against his chest. A human. An innocent. One of those she’d sworn to protect.
How to proceed?
The grin on his face was obscene and cold. “Oh yes, my dear. Had you forgotten me?”
How could she? This was the face that had dogged her dreams for centuries—the vampire who had caused the death of her child and her husband.
Here was her sire.
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Deep inside she quaked, but she knew if she showed it he’d kill her and the others with her. Not to mention the humans. This was a creature with no sense of remorse.
Cressida had to force her mind to concentrate. “Do not engage him until I’ve had a chance to secure the freedom of the humans.”
“Cressida? Is this—?”
She cut Daniel’s query off with a sharp hand motion. She couldn’t splinter her thoughts any more than they were already. To do so would mean death for more than them.
“So…Creedar? Strange, you never called yourself that before.”
He leered. “Well, my dear, I wear many faces and answer to many, many names. Yet, it seems to me, you were one of my greatest creations. Just look, you are leading a… What would you call this?”
She ignored the question and indicated the humans, tied together hand and foot. “Do you really need to subject them to this? Not afraid of what we can achieve, are you?”
“Afraid? Of what…you?” He laughed and the sound scraped across her raw nerves. “My dear, you may be one of my best creations, but you’ll never come close to what I am.”
“And what, Creedar, is that?”
The smile this time displayed yellowed but razor-sharp teeth. “Why, I’m a god!”
She couldn’t control the gasp that slipped from her mouth.
“Cressida? He’s not a god, he’s a butcher.”
Daniel’s correction made her smile and Creedar, seeing her reaction, frowned. “Well, Creedar, it occurs to me, if you’re a god, you really don’t need them.”
The cunning look he’d displayed earlier returned. “True. I don’t, but…” Something in his manner telegraphed his next action and she lunged, hoping to tug the human away. He bared long incisors and struck. A stream of red blood spouted before he drew deep and the rich scent muddied her senses as adrenaline coursed.
Behind her Daniel groaned and the hunger he’d just begun to learn to control flared. It took on its own life, echoing through the link between them. She grabbed his hand, digging her claws deep into the flesh of his palm, forcefully dragging him back from the precipice of hunger-induced thrall.
