Smoke (The Slayer Chronicles Book 1)

by Val St. Crowe

  Well, we had to go that way, right?

  Unless Cunningham was sitting on one of those couches, invisible, waiting for us.

  Wouldn’t he have come to the aid of his fellow vampires when he heard them crying out?

  Naelen tugged at my hand, leading me toward the hallway. He’d already decided where we were going.

  I let him lead me.

  Our footsteps seemed loud on the stone floor. I tried to go more quietly, to ease my feet against the ground, but it wasn’t any use with Naelen clomping along next to me.

  A loud bang rent the air, and then I saw something hurling through the air.

  A bullet? Had a gun—

  Naelen screamed, letting go of my hand. He staggered backwards, turning visible.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  “He shot me.” Naelen was doubled over on the ground. His voice was strained and hurt.

  I had my bow and arrows out. I was pivoting, looking all over the room. “Where is he? Where is he?”

  Another shot.

  I tensed, waiting for it to hit Naelen.

  But Naelen just let out a shaky breath.

  And I let an arrow loose at the place I thought the bullets were coming from.

  My arrow froze in midair and fell to the ground.

  Great. Cunningham was invisible and the stylus was enhancing his telekineses to the point that he could stop objects hurling toward him at top speed. Also, while he might not be able to directly use magic on either of us, considering we had objects as well, that apparently had no bearing on the arrows I’d shot.

  I knelt next to Naelen, touching him so that he was invisible again. I hauled him to his feet.

  He groaned.

  “Shh,” I hissed as quietly as I could.

  I dragged Naelen with me over to the sectional couch. I set him down there and climbed up next to him. I peered over the back of the couch, arrows at the ready. I wanted to ask Naelen where he was hit and how bad it was, but I didn’t dare give away our position by making noise.

  I wondered if he was bleeding badly. Would the blood stay invisible even as it was staining the couch?

  What was I going to do? What was I going to do?

  “Well, well, well,” said the disembodied voice of Cunningham.

  I started to shoot an arrow at the direction of the sound, and then stopped. If I did that, he’d know where we were. Arrows were much easier to see than bullets.

  “I see you’ve found some objects of your own, Clarke. I do hope it’s you, Clarke. If your little dragon friend has come back all on his own, then it will be quite disappointing. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, you see? You’re the one that got away.” Cunningham sighed. “And a dragon slayer, too. I’ve never had a dragon slayer.”

  I was honing in on the location of his voice more and more.

  “Did you bring the gargoyle too?” said Cunningham. “Are you all huddled around one invisibility object, or do you have both of the other ones?”

  I could send three arrows right at that voice, but he’d probably just freeze all of them, and then he’d also know where we were, and it wasn’t fair that he had so much god damned power. It was nice being invisible and all, but really how useful was the damned arrowhead? What did I want with copies of teddy bears?

  Wait.

  “Arrowhead,” I whispered fiercely to Naelen.

  “I thought I heard something…” said Cunningham.

  Naelen pressed the arrowhead into my hand.

  I didn’t even know how this worked, so I was probably going to screw it up completely. I released an arrow, and then another one, and and then a third, all of them as quick as I could, and as I released them, I thought of each of them exploding into ten copies so that thirty-three arrows were all going to be going at Cunningham at top speed. We’d see if he could freeze all of those.

  It worked!

  A volley of arrows headed in the direction of Cunningham’s voice.

  Unfortunately, all of them froze.

  “Nice try, Clarke,” said Cunningham. “I see you’ve got a manifestation object, or is that just my comb which you’ve taken from poor Mara?”

  The comb. The comb. I hadn’t even thought of that. The comb made copies too, right? Did it help me at all?

  Cunningham used magic to turn all of the arrows toward me. They started to hurl back at me through the air.

  What was it that Eden had done? She’d taken the matter back into herself. I held out my hand, willing the arrows back into my body.

  They disintegrated in midair, except for the three original ones.

  But then those froze too.

  “Two can play this game,” said Naelen’s voice beside me.

  Right. Naelen had magic. He’d frozen the arrows. Okay, good.

  “Oh, you’re not dead, dragon?” said Cunningham. He’d moved. His voice was coming from a different place. “Too bad. I was really hoping that I’d shot you someplace lethal.”

  “No such luck,” said Naelen. He noticed that Cunningham had moved too. The arrows turned to face his new direction. They all flew through the air.

  I took aim and shot more arrows, copying them as I did. This time I went all out. Each one I copied fifty times.

  But they all froze again.

  Cunningham laughed, turning them and sending them back.

  They slowed in the air, but they didn’t freeze.

  “Too many of them,” Naelen grunted.

  I held out my hand and took them back into myself.

  The remaining arrows froze.

  And then there was another gun shot. Three in succession. Bullets burst into the back of the couch, barely missing us.

  I lost my grip on Naelen as we tumbled off the couch. He was visible again. He didn’t have any of the objects now.

  “Ah,” said Cunningham. “Dragon, why don’t you come here?”

  Without the protection of the objects, Naelen was vulnerable. He started to walk toward Cunningham’s voice. He’d been compelled.

  I tackled Naelen from behind, making him invisible again. I pressed the comb into his skin and then tucked it into his pocket. “You’ve got the comb,” I whispered softly.

  Abruptly, copies of Naelen began appearing everywhere. They weren’t alive. They couldn’t move. But they were just flowing out of him, filling up the place, as if we were in a warehouse of mannequins.

  What the hell was Naelen doing?

  Cunningham started shooting the copies. Bullets exploded in the skulls of the Naelen copies. Each time that happened, the copy disappeared.

  Cunningham laughed, shooting again.

  I didn’t see what the point of these copies were. As an attack, it was fairly useless, I thought. There was a reason that Naelen was not idea guy.

  “Clarke,” he whispered in my ear. “This is a distraction. Go get him while he’s busy.”

  Oh. Actually, that was smart.

  I stepped away from him.

  But he didn’t move, so he just looked like he was another of the copies.

  Don’t shoot him, I thought at Cunningham, running in the direction of the gunshots.

  I swerved around the copies of Naelen, which were popping up all over the place. I worried that he’d run out of energy to make them. Hadn’t Eden said that the magic converted your own energy to matter? How long could Naelen keep this up?

  He was weak from getting shot already.

  Of course, now that I could study his copies, I could see that he’d been shot in the leg, not anywhere lethal. Thinking of that seemed to make the old wound in my leg throb again.

  Suddenly, I realized that I wasn’t sure which copy was Naelen anymore.

  I stopped, turning to look at the sea of copies. I should remember. I should protect the real Naelen.

  But no. If I was obvious about which one needed protection, then—

  Abruptly, I collided with Cunningham.

  We both became visible. That was right. Eden had said that if a person
wearing an object touched an invisible person, it negated the magic. Same with the copies.

  We stepped back.

  Was that why the copies of Naelen were disappearing? Or were they disappearing just because they were getting shot in the head?

  I trained an arrow on Cunningham.

  Cunningham whipped the gun around to point it at me. He smirked.

  Okay, speaking of getting shot in the head…

  “Go ahead, Clarke,” he said. “Take your best shot. But I think if I shoot you, it’s going to be a lot worse for you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  He was right, of course. I couldn’t kill him with a bow and arrows. But he could shoot me in the head, and then I’d be dead. Gone.

  My pulse started to race. My fingers tensed, holding the arrow against the bow.

  Cunningham laughed. “Do it, Clarke. I dare you.”

  I let an arrow fly, cringing, waiting for the answering gun shot.

  It didn’t come.

  But my arrow also hadn’t hit anything. The cringing may have messed up my aim a bit.

  Cunningham cocked his head to one side. “I really don’t want you dead, you know. That wouldn’t be the least amount of fun. I’d like to have you whole and under my compulsion, where you could put on archery shows for everyone’s entertainment.”

  “Everyone?” I said. “The compelled girls really going to be that entertained? They’re the only ones left.”

  His nostrils flared. “Yes, I had forgotten that you’d killed my companions.”

  “Didn’t even break a sweat doing it, either,” I said.

  He sighed. “Oh, well. I’ll find some more flunkies. Or maybe I’ll make some. I’ve got enough dragon blood to make as many new vampires as I like.” He pursed his lips. “What do you think about being a vampire, Clarke?”

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  Cunningham smirked. “You might like it, you know. Don’t knock it until you try it.”

  “Clarke, now!” screamed Naelen.

  The gun was ripped from Cunningham’s fingers—Naelen must be using magic to get it—

  No, the gun was coming back. Cunningham’s magic—

  I let the arrow loose.

  It embedded itself in Cunningham’s skull.

  He made a confused, strangled noise. He stumbled. And then he fell down, face first into the stone floor.

  “Geez,” I muttered.

  “Get the damned objects,” said Naelen, rushing forward.

  Oh, right. Of course. I rolled Cunningham over, and I felt around in his pockets until I pulled out a long, cylindrical object, the stylus, and the scarab, which was a small metal beetle-looking thing. When I touched it, I went invisible, so I dropped it, and then picked it up again with the edge of my shirt. I put all the objects in my pockets.

  Then I surveyed Cunningham. I took out my machete. “He’s not dead. We need to—”

  “Naelen!” called a voice.

  I looked up to see about fifteen young women running out from the hallway, led by Reign Spencer, who lit up at the sight of her brother.

  Naelen saw her and he started to run for her, but he stumbled.

  Reign’s eyes widened. “What happened?” She hurried over to him, throwing her arms around him.

  He hugged her. “It’s okay, Reign. It’s just a flesh wound. In my thigh. It went through and through. I’ll be all right. I only need to shift.”

  “Okay, okay,” she said, nodding, hugging him.

  The other girls swarmed me, all talking at once.

  “Who are you?” yelled one.

  “Can I call my mom?” said another.

  “Where’s Cunningham?” said another.

  “Get us out of here now!” said another.

  And then they just started talking over top of each other, drowning each other out, and I couldn’t hear any of them.

  I raised my hands over my head. “Quiet!” I yelled.

  They quieted.

  “Okay,” I said. “Now, you were here because a very powerful vampire had you compelled to be his blood slaves, but he doesn’t have the object that gave him the power to do that anymore, so you’re all safe. I will let you all use my phone to call your relatives, and we’ll get you home safe, but first, I need to cut that bastard’s head off.” I turned back to Cunningham’s body.

  He was gone.

  Of course he was fucking gone.

  I had turned my back for one freaking second.

  I checked my pockets. All the objects were there. He wasn’t roaming around invisible or anything. He’d just gotten up and sneaked off while we were busy.

  “You okay, Clarke?” said Naelen.

  “It’s Cunningham,” I said. “He got away.”

  “What? You shot him in the head.”

  “He’s a vampire,” I said.

  “Shouldn’t he at least have stayed unconscious?”

  I shrugged.

  “We’ll find him,” said Naelen, taking a step toward me and then wincing when he put weight on his hurt leg.

  My leg wasn’t completely healed yet either, of course. Still, I was in better shape than he was. I went over and gave him all the objects. “You keep these. I’ll find him.”

  * * *

  Of course, I didn’t find him. I scoured every square inch of that damned house. He wasn’t there. I did see a car driving away in the distance, down the long, dusty desert road.

  That was probably him.

  There were too many girls to fit in the car that we’d brought from the airport, so Naelen paid an obscene amount of money for a bunch of taxis to come all the way out and pick us up. Before the taxis arrived, he was able to find a jacuzzi tub in the house big enough to fill with water so that he could shift and heal.

  That meant he could drive back to the airport.

  We followed a caravan of taxis away from that desert house, leaving it as the sun set in the west, staining the sky purple and red and orange.

  I let Reign sit up front with Naelen, and the two chattered away the whole ride back.

  Reign told us what had happened to her. She had been expecting some party, just fun times with some alcohol and music, but she’d been compelled by Cunningham pretty much right away.

  “It was bad,” she said. “I was aware of everything that was happening to me, but I couldn’t stop it. I would fight and fight, but none of it made any difference. When he ordered me to do something, it seemed like such a good idea, so I had to do it. I couldn’t stop.”

  “We know,” said Naelen, looking agonized. “We felt the compulsion too. I’m so sorry, Reign. I’m sorry I couldn’t get you out earlier.”

  I was sorry that the bastard was still roaming the earth, but I didn’t say it out loud. I figured I’d let the two of them catch up.

  “How could you have? I’m amazed that you were able to at all. He was so powerful. There was no way to stop him.”

  “We did stop him,” said Naelen. “And now you’re going home.”

  “That’s all I’ve wanted for so long,” said Reign. “I didn’t think anyone would come for me. I thought everyone would think I’d been killed by a slayer or something. When a dragon disappears, that’s all anyone ever thinks.”

  “I did think something like that,” said Naelen. “But I’m so glad I was wrong. I couldn’t bear it if I lost you.”

  “I’m okay,” she said.

  Naelen’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “And he… did he hurt you?”

  “Well, they drank a lot of our blood,” she said. “Sometimes it was all four of the vampires at once. I’d think I was going to die, but they seemed to know how not to take too much, how to go just up to the brink.”

  He was quiet, and when he spoke, there was a tremor in his voice. “God, Reign, that’s awful. I think about that happening to you for so long, and I didn’t get to you.”

  “You did get to me,” she said. “Still… it was tough sometimes.”

  “I’m sure it was,
” he said. “Is there… is there anything else you want to tell me?”

  “No, I don’t want to think about it anymore,” she said. “I just want to get home.”

  “That’s where I’m taking you,” he said.

  * * *

  Later, on the jet, Naelen emerged from the bedroom area. “Reign’s asleep now,” he said.

  “That’s good,” I said. “She’s probably exhausted. She’s been through a lot.”

  “Yeah.” He poured himself a drink before settling into a chair next to me. He gazed at me for a second and then looked down at his drink.

  Oh, I’d nearly forgotten. The last time we’d been on the jet, he’d been intent on bullying me into his bed. Was he going to try to proposition me now? Because if he was…

  I glared at my knuckles. Honestly, right now, I’d probably give in. I was tired, and he was very nice to look at, and I liked the way he kissed.

  He studied his drink, not meeting my gaze. “Do you think she’s leaving things out?”

  “Reign?” I said.

  “Yes,” he said. “Of course I’m talking about Reign. When I asked if he hurt her, do you think she hesitated?”

  “I… I don’t know. Maybe. I’m sure it was horrible there. Talking about it is probably like reliving it.”

  He gulped at his drink. “He could compel them to do whatever he wanted. He…” But he trailed off, as if he couldn’t finish the sentence.

  “Naelen.” I reached for him. “Maybe it’s best not to think about it.”

  He got up, draining his drink and going back to pour another one. “I didn’t let myself think about it before, because every time I did, I’d think she might be dead, and that was so much worse, and—” He stopped to knock that drink back. He contemplated his empty glass. “But now I have her back, and I wonder…”

  I got up and went to him. I put my hand on his back. “You can’t know what happened. You have to let Reign tell you what she wants to tell you.”

  He looked at me, and his eyes were wet. “Fuck.” He poured himself another drink.

  I didn’t know what else to say.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  When we landed in Sea City, Naelen was busy waking up Reign.

  I slipped out without saying goodbye. I made my way through the airport, and I caught the night bus back to my apartment. I could have waited around, I guessed. I could have watched him with his damaged sister, huddled there in the background and waited like some kind of pathetic idiot to see if he was ever going to go back to saying whatever it was he was saying about swearing off other women for me.