Once he did so, he started the change immediately, standing up at the same time. Her heart raced as she wondered if the change had healed him. Nearly back to human form, he stumbled, recovered, and stopped the change. It didn’t change things, but she didn’t care. Somewhere between man and beast she would lie with the man she loved.
“Why don’t you come on up here and show me how much you love me?”
Xander was hesitant, but then he figured, if she doesn’t care, why should I? A mischievous smile on his face, he started up the porch steps and walked up to her. Leaning in and kissing her, his hands roamed freely about her body. The kisses moved their way to her neck as she put her arms around him and reveled in his warm body against hers.
“Shit.”
The words from the witch came just after she opened her eyes, and just as he was ready to take her inside and tear off her remaining clothes. He stopped and stood up, wondering if she had changed her mind. Instead of looking at him with uncertainty, her eyes stared fiercely into the distance. He turned and saw what she was looking at and his shoulders hunched down a little as two figured came over the hill down the road.
“Damn it. Get dressed and slip out the back. Watch from a distance and take off if things look bad. Find Cassandra and them, they’ll take care of you.”
“I’m not leaving you regardless of who that is.”
“GO!”
Instead of arguing with her further, he ripped away from her arms as he moved towards the steps. Before he was to the ground, he was back into werewolf form and headed into the nearby cornfields.
From a distance Nichole watched anxiously. The strangers got closer and then Xander emerged from the fields. It was odd that he didn’t attack. He simply stopped and seemed to be talking, though still as a wolf. The three began walking down the road towards the house and she decided that was all she needed to know. Clearly it wasn’t a threat.
Inside, she got out four glasses and teacups and started a kettle of tea. The front door opened and she went to the living room to see exactly who had shown up. A mix of surprise and concern hit her when she saw the mage and Cassandra’s werewolf. If this was a social visit, why was it just these two and not the others?
“Hello Dhane, Amber,” Nichole greeted them politely. “Can I get anyone tea or lemonade?”
Xander changed to human form as he sat on the couch, making sure to angle himself so he would stay propped up. With a nod to Nichole he signaled for lemonade. He wasn’t much of a tea drinker. Dhane asked for the same while Amber politely excused herself to assist Nichole with the drinks. They returned to a silent room and the witch became anxious.
“What brings you two here? Nothing’s happened with the others, I hope.”
“No,” Dhane began after taking a drink of lemonade. “We’re here to talk about Elisabeth and the others. I believe the time is right to strike back and put an end to the hiding.”
“Are you out of your mind? She has vampires, werewolves, and another witch on her side. Not to mention the fact that she has all the spell books. We don’t stand a chance.”
Nichole was furious at the notion that they put themselves in harm’s way again. Dhane looked at Xander, who glanced up at the witch. The look in his eyes told her he was considering it. Her anger boiled over.
“No! You are not doing this. We don’t even know how stable your back is in werewolf form. And if you need to change, you can’t. That is where Sebastian will have the upper hand, and then he can kill you. You can’t give him that opportunity.”
“He won’t have that chance,” he said calmly. He waved for her to come sit by him, but she refused. Partially changing to wolf form, he stood and walked over to her, putting his hand gently on her chin to make her look at him. “We need to do this. If you think about it, you know it’s inevitable. They will force us to hide and run for the rest of our lives. Regardless of the outcome, I would rather have this shot at freedom. This time, it’s all or nothing. We end it for good, right Dhane?”
The mage nodded with focus in his eyes as they stared back at Xander. Nichole looked over and saw it too, and the situation took on a whole new meaning suddenly. Fear left her and she knew this was it. All or nothing, they would be free either way.
“Okay, fine. But on one condition. We get to take care of Sebastian. We owe that fucker.”
Dhane nodded in agreement. “I think I have just the tool in mind to help you exact your revenge. Before we get to that, though, I have an errand to run. Then, I need Terrance and Tyler to help with some personal business.”
28
Terrance slipped around to the alley that ran behind the post office. Once he was confident that nobody was around, he changed into his werewolf form and prepared to charge through the front door. Glancing up, he noticed a fire escape ran along the outside of the building on the other side of the alley.
With swift and powerful movements, he climbed the fire escape up to the third floor. If the vampires were prepared for an attack, they would expect the back door as being the most likely entrance, not a window three stories up.
Thrusting forward, Terrance fired himself like a shot through the window and into an empty room that took up the entire floor. Immediately his heart sank as he worried that the information was wrong.
Cassandra cast her spell to unlock the front door and the two women slipped inside and closed the door carefully behind them. The first room was a small reception area, old and dusty, but clearly somebody was using the place. The thick layers of dust on the floor were scuffed heavily with footprints.
After casting an illumination spell, they continued on through to the next room, which was a large factory floor, though none of the machinery that once worked here remained. Instead there were scatterings of boxes and garbage instead of the vampires and the witch they were seeking.
Cassandra nodded to Samantha and they proceeded along a path in the dust near the wall to their left. A sudden thud above them caused the ladies to freeze. Something was moving on the second floor.
They continued on to the stairwell and listened carefully for sounds from up or down. After several seconds of silence, they had to decide their next move.
“I suspect they would be in the basement, just to be safe,” Cassandra whispered.
“I agree. Do we wait for Terrance?”
“Stay here and keep watch. I’ll check and make sure that noise on the second floor was him, then we can all proceed down there.”
Samantha nodded and watched as Cassandra headed up the stairs. Her footsteps faded away and silence replaced them. A sinking feeling swept through the witch as she waited for her friends to return. Finally the quiet was broken with heavy footsteps on the stairwell.
“Hello,” she whispered. She was afraid to shout in case it wasn’t Terrance on the stairs. Instead she braced herself, ready to hurry through a spell if needed. Around the corner and down the final set of stairs came Terrance, and she let out the breath she had held.
“This place sucks,” Terrance spouted as he noted the blood on his leg. “Foot went through rotten boards. I didn’t find anyone up there, so I hurried down to find you guys. Where’s Cassandra?”
“Oh, we heard your accident on the second floor, so she went to check on you.”
“I haven’t been on the second floor. This happened on the third floor.”
“Then… what was the noise we heard?”
Both of them felt a rush of panic and sprinted up the stairs. When they reached the second floor they found it filled with offices. This would make it more difficult to find Cassandra, and easier to be ambushed.
Terrance signaled for Samantha to stay behind and crept forward, peering into offices as he went along. The witch held her hands high, hoping the light would scare off any vampires rather than lead them straight to her.
The werewolf vanished down a hallway to the left and Samantha started making her way forward, past the offices he had already cleared. Most of them were empty, but a few s
till had old chairs, desks, and filing cabinets. She stepped into one room and cut her leg on an overturned cabinet.
“Damn it,” escaped her lips before she could catch herself. Standing perfectly still, controlling her breathing the best she could, she listened again, but all was quiet. Back into the hallway she stepped, and then proceeded to the end of the hallway where Terrance had disappeared.
Glancing to the left showed no signs of Terrance or anyone else. A look to the right and something moved. Her heart began to thud in her chest. Surely, if it was Cassandra, she would still be using the illumination spell.
Carefully she walked in that direction, peering into each office, unsure what she would find. When she reached the area the movement had come from, she took extra care checking for signs of life. Suddenly a hand reached out and grabbed her, yanking her into an office.
“Take off the spell, quickly!”
She did so, following Cassandra’s whispered order and they hid behind the door. Soft rustling sounds could be heard from the hallway, telling Samantha all she needed to know: they were not alone!
“Are you sure the light came from this way?” a voice asked.
“I’m sure it was from somewhere around here,” the other responded. “Wait, do you smell that? Fresh blood nearby.”
The door began to creak open and the witches prepared themselves to fight off the vampires. A roar interrupted the vampires as Terrance came charging towards them. They were knocked into the office and the women slipped out as quickly as possible.
A violent battle ensued between the werewolf and vampires. The wolf was trying to fight both at once so neither could get their fangs into him. In such closed quarters, though, it was proving difficult.
“We have to help him,” Cassandra urged, but she wasn’t sure how to do that. Spells raced through her head, but nothing usefully jumped out.
Without a word, Samantha ran to one of the other offices and disappeared inside. A moment later she returned, carrying a wooden leg from an old office chair that had been left behind.
“We just have to take one of them out so Terrance can concentrate on the other. Hide around the corner and I’ll lead him to you.”
Before Cassandra could question the plan, Samantha was in the room and headed for the closest vampire. He was fairly scrawny, unlike the hefty vampire on the other side of the room. Swiftly she threw a right hand and connected with the vampire’s jaw. At first he looked stunned, not from the blow, but simply shocked that she punched him. Slowly a smile crept across his face.
“You want to play, dear? I have many good games I could play with you.”
The plan was to turn and run, leading the vampire into the hall for Cassandra to stake him. His snide comment gave her an overwhelming urge to deck him again, however. This swing he caught and she knew she was in trouble.
Samantha yanked her arm away from him and turned to run, but he caught her by her shirt and yanked her back to him, tearing it open in the process. Panic consumed her and she tried to pull away again but couldn’t.
“Oh look, you want to play one of my favorite games.”
He looked over her barely contained breasts, only hidden by her bra now. Before she realized what was happening, he grabbed a handful of her hair, spinning her around so she was facing away from him. His hot breath was on her neck and his other hand began moving up her waist and to her breast. A sudden piercing pain in her neck and a hand clutching her breast simultaneously caused her knees to go weak for a moment.
The vampire leaned on her, taking advantage of her stumble, and was nearly on her back at that point. With desperation, she forced herself to stand, using every ounce of strength she had. Her attacker remained on her back as his feet came off the ground, and he simply clutched her tighter.
With heavy footsteps she moved towards the door, thankful that she got the skinny vampire. If the other one had jumped on her back, she would be doomed. Almost to the doorway, her head began to swim. The vampire was not sucking to feed, he was sucking to kill. She imagined he would have no problem violating her after he killed her, but she had no intention of giving him that opportunity.
Finally she stumbled through the doorway and to the floor. The vampire was enjoying himself so much that he never noticed they weren’t alone. It was the last mistake he would make.
With wide eyes, Cassandra was stunned at how Samantha got the vampire out of the room, and she knew she had to act quickly. There was no hesitation in her swing, knowing that even if it went through him and hurt the other witch, it was still a better result than letting the vampire drain her.
The blow sunk deep in the vampires back, causing him to release his bite and howl in pain. He rolled off of the witch and twitched horribly as his skin began to wrinkle and turn grey. Having never staked a vampire, Cassandra could only watch in horror at the result. The heart unable to work properly, the diseased vampire blood began to dry up at an extreme pace, leaving their foe looking like a prune.
As the final twitches occurred, Terrance appeared in the doorway, having dispatched the other vampire easily in a one-on-one fight.
“Well, that’s fucking disgusting,” he spouted.
The vampire finally stopped moving and the two of them helped Samantha to her feet. She did her best to cover herself up, but the shirt was beyond useful.
“That was really reckless of you,” Cassandra scolded her.
“Yeah, but it worked, didn’t it?”
Cassandra shook her head, surprised that the witch had the strength to pull that off. In her present condition, however, another encounter with a vampire could be the death of her.
“Maybe you should hang by the front door and keep watch while Terrance and I check out the basement.”
Terrance nodded in agreement.
“Not on your life.”
Stubborn as she was beautiful, they weren’t going to convince their half-naked friend to sit the rest out. Rather than wasting their breath, they proceeded down towards the stairs and hoped the basement would be quieter.
29
The witches led the way down the stairwell, lighting things up with their illumination spell. Terrance lurked behind, still hidden in the darkness, in case a trap was waiting for them. Better to have him ready to bail them out than be included in the trap.
At the bottom of the stairs was a heavy metal door. The witches looked at each other, took a deep breath, and swung the door open. Cautiously they stepped in the doorway and looked around, waving their hands to light the way.
“Veronica?” Cassandra called out. There was no reply.
Slowly they stepped into the room, making sure the door wouldn’t swing shut on its own, and started looking around the wide open room. Boxes were scattered all over the place, and dust filling the air made it hard for them not to sneeze.
At the far end were several doors leading to storage areas. That appeared to be their last hope, assuming she wasn’t packed into one of the boxes. They reached the door on the far left and slowly opened it. Inside were a few boxes and a large empty crate. Dried blood was on the crate and that gave them both chills.
The second of four doors revealed exactly what they didn’t want to find: vampires. About a dozen of them stood in the room, and behind them was the body of a naked woman lying on the floor. Though they couldn’t see clearly who it was, they were sure it was Veronica.
“Fresh meat,” one of the vampires spouted.
“Been waiting for you ladies,” a second said.
“How about me?”
Terrance stepped through the door into the larger room and moved forward, towards the small room containing the vampires. He was ready to charge forward and tear them apart. The door behind him suddenly slammed shut and all three of them knew the trap had just closed on them.
Vampires emerged from the many boxes in the room and they quickly realized how badly they were outnumbered. Samantha counted thirty, maybe even forty, vampires. Cassandra acted quickly, casting a containm
ent spell on the smaller room. That would help the numbers game, as long as she was still alive anyway.
“Sam, stay at my back, it’s our only chance.”
That chance wasn’t a good one, as Terrance was already surrounded and struggling with a dozen vampires. Bite marks were bloodying him up already, and every time he knocked one away, another took his shot.
The witches were also surrounded now, and Cassandra was glad she held onto the stake she used before. Not that she wanted to get that close to one of them, but at least she was going to take one with her.
Before she could react, hands grabbed each of her arms and pulled her away from the other witch, and forcing her to drop the stake. She glanced back, hoping to yell a warning, but it was too late. The vampires had grabbed her too, and the look she returned to Cassandra said all she needed to. They were going to die now.
Fangs pierced their skin in several places, though the blood sucking was slower than what Samantha faced on the second floor. Clearly they were going to take their time with them, maybe even leave them alive long enough to violate them in ways they didn’t want to think about.
Tears ran down Samantha’s face as she watched Cassandra being dragged away. She disappeared into an empty room and the door slammed shut. Clearly they had underestimated how many vampires would be here.
A loud thud echoed in the room. Then another. Finally a third followed by a crash, and the vampires released Samantha. She turned to see a werewolf enter the large room, one she didn’t recognize, and she wondered if things were about to get worse.
With a horrible howl, the new contestant charged in and began slaughtering the surprised vampires. The sudden distraction allowed Terrance to begin doing the same. A dozen were killed within a couple of minutes, while a number of others fled out of the room. There was nowhere for them to go, however, and Terrance pursued them through the building.
Samantha struggled to her feet and picked up the stake her friend had dropped. Limping to the door, she dreaded to see what was on the other side. Was Cassandra dead already? If the vampires wanted her dead, she was. With three of them sucking on her, it would only take a moment to kill a human.
Magestorm: The Reckoning Page 9
