by Raven Steele
Several vampires rose to their feet at my arrival. Some hissed, their fangs stretching in their mouths. Three of them crouched low as if to spring at me, but the taller of the group stepped forward, his hands outstretched as if to stop any of them from attacking me.
"What business do you have here?" he asked, his eyes flickering to my tattoo.
"I come for your death." I readjusted my grip on the handle of the sword.
Several more vampires poured out of a hallway and circled me.
"You must be Aris Crow," the tall one said. "My name is Marcus, and I am the leader of this small coven. I answer directly to Bastian. He’s given specific orders if anyone sees you."
"And what were those orders?" I asked, barely able to say the words. The desire to take their lives was all-consuming.
"We are to take you to him—alive. There is much he wants to discuss with you."
"I have no desire to see him."
Marcus nodded his head to the vampires behind me. "Then we will take you by force."
Chapter 13
Just as I felt the rush of air from the approaching vampires, I spun and ducked, slicing off two sets of legs. Their torsos fell to the ground, and they screamed in pain. Two more leaped at me, but I used my super speed to circle them, severing their heads from their bodies. Their ashes sprinkled on top of the two writhing on the floor.
I sprinted to get away but hadn't counted on all the blood gushing from the legless vampires. Had they been older, messy, fatty sludge would be in the bloods place. After nearly slipping, I adjusted my legs beneath me, then swiped my blade across both the wailing vampire’s necks. They exploded into ashes, preventing any more blood from coating the floor. Their dust absorbed the remaining crimson liquid, making it more manageable to speed around the room, swinging at anyone who stood in my path.
When I approached Marcus, he casually stepped out of my way as if I wasn’t moving a hundred miles an hour. He must be one of the older ones, but where was the other? I looked around the room. Only a few newer vampires remained, two had already escaped out the front door. I focused my senses and smelled the air. That's when I discovered him, hiding in the shadows of the hallway watching everything I was doing.
But there was someone else there with him. The presence didn't feel quite right, almost supernatural and yet not. I wanted to focus more on the entity, but the remaining vampires rushed me at once. I easily took care of them leaving only Marcus and the two in the hallway.
Marcus clicked his tongue. "You are incredibly powerful for your age. Who turned you?"
He sauntered in front of me. He had more self-control than the others, and this gave me pause for the first time that night.
"How much do you know about me?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"Only that you are the son of Jonas Crow, a great man that was once a part of us. I had many pleasant evenings with him before he was killed. As his son, I'm sure we will also get along if given the chance."
"I am nothing like my father."
The vampire from the hallway stepped out, a shorter female who was incredibly muscular for her small frame. Her head had been shaved, and she wore a piercing in her right eyebrow. Behind her, trailed a human with a high forehead and equally high cheekbones. He had a crazed look in his unnatural blue eyes. They shouldn’t be that blue, almost glowing. He held his hand to his mouth as if to keep himself from laughing. The female glanced back at the … human, her lip inching up in a snarl.
"This is my companion, Ophelia," Marcus said. "She doesn't talk much, but she expresses her emotions in other ways. And with her is her servant Billy." He cleared his throat as if he were embarrassed by the crazy-eyed human.
Billy giggled against his hand, the sound making a slurping noise. I narrowed my eyes trying to figure out what it was that was different about him.
"This is your last chance," Marcus said. "Come willingly, or we will force you. You cannot beat us. We are much older than you."
"I have fought older, and, if I’m being truthful, hotter too."
"Very well." He looked back at Ophelia and nodded. When he turned back to me, his fangs were long and sharp with his face contorted into more beast than man.
He lunged for me, but I darted out of the way. I twirled and swung my sword at his neck. His hand shot forward and caught the sharp edge before it could make contact. I jerked the blade free, slicing his palm, but he didn't flinch. A fist crashed into my back, surprising me. The force lifted me high into the air, but I managed to rotate back down onto my feet. Ophelia winked at me. I growled, craving her death so bad I could taste it.
Marcus slammed into my side, making me lose my grip on the sword, and together we hit the stone fireplace knocking over one of the bins of blood. Two of the humans fell from the mantle hitting the ground hard. I kneed Marcus in the side and undercut my fist into his jaw. He punched me back just as hard.
Billy clapped his hands together joyfully but returned them to his mouth when Ophelia glared at him again.
We exchanged blows for several seconds before Ophelia joined the fight. She smashed the front of her head into my face, hard enough to knock me to the ground. She jumped on top of me, while Marcus pinned my shoulders.
I grunted and struggled against them, but they held me firm. I turned my head to the side, meeting the dying eyes of the woman lying on the floor.
“Help me.” Her lips formed the words, but no sound came out.
If there was ever a time to unleash the monster inside me, it was now. This is what I was made to do.
Anger, unlike anything I had ever felt before, built inside me until it pressed my skin outward. It burned and fizzled, roared and cried as if I had just woken it from a deep slumber. It was ancient and powerful, and it rushed through my body filling me with a foreign rage. I welcomed it into me.
"You cannot beat us both," Marcus said, but I saw the strain on his face at having to hold me still. Ophelia struggled, too.
I sensed movement in a different part of the house. A second later, Rebecca’s scent crowded the room. Marcus and Ophelia also noticed.
The human, who had been standing against the wall this whole time, dropped his hand, shock on his face as if he too could smell Rebecca, but how was that possible?
"Go take care of it," Marcus grunted at Ophelia.
I couldn't let her go after Rebecca. The old vampire would destroy her.
Ophelia released me and turned to run away, but before she was halfway across the room, I exploded out from under Marcus, leaped over the shivering humans on the floor, and crashed down on Ophelia. Before she could react, I shoved my hand into her back, splitting skin and bone until I reached her heart. She screamed in terror as I crushed the tender organ in my grip. Her flesh began to boil and melt beneath me.
Marcus tackled me from behind, gnashing his teeth, claws extended as he tried to get at my face, but I threw him from me and crouched low. Rebecca and Oz stood in the doorway, their mouths agape at the scene in front of them.
Marcus leaped high into the air. I waited for him to land on top of me, but he shifted his weight mid-air and landed at my side. His claws scraped across my chest slicing open my shirt and part of my flesh. He spun and kicked my legs out from under me. I rolled away just as his foot came crashing down where my head would've been.
"Get the humans!" I called to Oz and Rebecca. This spurred them into action, and they disappeared into the hallway where the sounds of someone crying echoed out.
I flipped up onto my feet and used my super speed to get behind Marcus. My arms wrapped around his neck, but he leaned over, flipping me onto my back and into a wooden coffee table. He grabbed one of the legs and drove it toward my heart, but I caught it in my hand just before it pierced me. I continued to fight against him while Rebecca snuck into the room toward the human still sitting on the mantel. The other two on the floor, weak and barely alive, would be harder to get to, as they were too close to the fighting.
I shoved Marcus away, t
he site of the injured humans again adding fuel to the flames burning through me. My whole body hummed with new life, and I felt like I could take on anyone. Is this what Samira had been talking about when she said I would discover new strengths? Had my anger unlocked some part of Elizabeth Bathory’s DNA?
Marcus charged me again, his mouth foaming. I reached into my jacket and yanked out a wooden stake. He slammed into my body, and we both stumbled. His clawed hand dug into my chest as if to get at my heart, but I surprised him by shoving the dagger into his gut. He sucked in a breath and slowly looked down at the blood oozing from the wound.
In the corner, Billy laughed again, an uncontrollable giggle that caught even Rebecca's attention as she carried one of the humans from the room.
"Why?" Marcus asked. "You are one of us."
I pulled out a wooden stake from my jacket and shoved it into his heart slowly. "I am nothing like you."
“Yet,” he squeaked. His mouth fell open, and his eyes widened as his body began to crumble and melt to the floor. I stepped back to avoid getting anything on me.
Billy clapped, his hands uncontrollably slapping together. "What a wonderful show!"
In a blink of an eye, I appeared in front of him, gripping his throat and lifting him high against the wall. "What are you?"
He kicked my chest with surprising force, and I lost my grip. I stumbled backward. He was more than a regular human.
"We are brothers, you and I," he said as if reading my mind. "When I bite my tongue, I can taste your blood." As if to prove it, he stuck out his tongue. It was swollen and bruised with teeth marks.
"Hurry up," Rebecca said as she took out the last human from the room. "More vampires could be arriving any second."
“There are two more back there," Oz said from the hallway, as he supported a crying woman in his arms. At least she could walk.
I turned back to Billy who still had his tongue lolling out of his mouth. "What did they do to you?"
"They made me science," he said with a lisp, and then he giggled. He pointed to his brain. "They say it's not quite right, but they let me live because I bring them humans."
I stared at him, appalled. "Who did this to you?"
"The shadows. They are like ash,” he kicked at the dirty floor, “but smarter and stronger. They will not be happy with what you've done. They will come for you."
"I count on it." I stepped closer to him knowing what had to be done. There was no helping this human.
I picked up my sword from off the ground and lifted it high. Just as I swung it through the air, Rebecca yelled, "Wait!"
But I had already cut off his head. It fell to the floor and rolled a few times. He would not return as a vampire.
"Was that necessary?" she asked.
"He was already dead."
She stared down at the body for a few seconds before shaking her head. "I'm going to search the rest of the house. Then we need to leave."
I straightened and rolled my shoulders back as if to shake off some of the ancient power still pulsing through me, but it only deepened its grip. I shook my hands out and puffed air past my lips. Now that the fight was over, I didn’t know how to calm down.
I inhaled deeply but instantly regretted it. The smell of blood accosted my senses, and I whirled around to face the source. The bins full of blood near the fireplace stared back at me as big as a highway billboard sign soliciting food. I stepped toward it until I was directly above one, staring down into the dark crimson liquid. I dropped to my knees and breathed in deeply again. The smell made my head spin as if I’d just injected myself with the best drugs money could buy.
On the edge of the bucket, a single drop of blood shined in the darkness. I leaned over and licked it up. The taste was sweet, and it tingled on my tongue. This could all be mine. I gripped the edges of the bin almost able to see my reflection in the murky contents. My nails busted holes at the top of the hard plastic. I had never wanted something so much. But this was a dangerous path to go down – drinking from anything other than a blood bag in a controlled environment. It could easily make me lose control.
But all this blood. It would go to waste.
"Are you okay?" Oz asked from behind me.
I spun around, hissing instinctively. He stepped away and lifted his hands in a surrender motion. "Whoa, easy there."
Rebecca ran into the room. "Get away from the blood, Aris."
It took a few seconds for her words to register, and when they did, I scurried backward on my bum away from the blood as far as I could get. "Get me out of here."
She hurried to my side and lifted me to my feet. I leaned into her, my body suddenly drained of its strength from fighting against the bloodlust. Oz followed us into the kitchen but a safe distance back. The man who had been sitting in the sink was gone, which meant he still lived.
Outside, Rebecca let go of me long enough to open the passenger-side door of the van, but the motion wafted the smell of more blood toward me. I closed my eyes tight, resisting the urge to jump in there and suck the humans dry.
"Get the humans out of here,” I growled. “Go without me."
She narrowed her eyes. "Promise me you won't go back in that house.”
I nodded my head, trying to keep my legs beneath me. "Go."
Oz walked by me, holding a briefcase he must’ve found in his hands. I expected him to say something to me in passing, but he was oddly silent. This was probably the first time he realized his best friend was a monster.
A moment later, the car was gone. I dropped to all fours, my body shaking like a drug addict who hadn’t had a hit in a long time. I had to get out of here. Rebecca was right that vampires could be arriving any second, but all I could think about was the blood in the house just sitting there growing colder by the second. My fangs elongated in my mouth, and I ran my tongue over them, the pangs of hunger burning a hole in my gut.
I could no longer control the desire within me. That blood was mine. I had earned it.
Chapter 14
I rushed back inside and slid onto my knees as I approached a bin by the fireplace. I lifted the square container, turned and lifted it, so the corner was at my mouth. I gulp it so quickly that blood overflowed and ran down the sides of my face.
When I finished, I turned my attention to the other bins and drank them too until I thought I would burst. The soothing, satiny liquid had quenched my thirst, and I laid back on the floor, the whole world spinning. I breathed in and out feeling as if I was floating. A nagging thought entered my mind. I needed to leave this place.
I dragged myself onto all fours and crawled toward the back door, slipping on blood I had spilled. At the back porch, I grabbed the railing and pulled myself to my feet, but fell right back to the ground. Everything around me was changing shapes, stretching, and thinning and widening. Even colors distorted, and it was difficult to make sense of objects around me.
I slipped down the stairs landing hard on my back. I groaned and pulled myself back up and stumbled into the darkness. The backyard bordered the edge of a small forest, and I disappeared inside walking far enough until I thought I would be safe. I fell backward and stared up into the starry night sky through the tree limbs above me.
I had never experienced anything like this. It was an amazing feeling but tainted by thoughts of knowing how bad I had messed up. And yet, I still thought of blood. Wondering what would happen if I consumed more. Wondering what it would be like to bathe in it. This made me think of the man in the sink, of all that blood just sitting there.
I growled and dug my hands into the earth as if it might hold me in place. Something was wrong. I had never felt like this in Louisiana. Had unlocking my new strength unleashed something else in Elizabeth's blood? Samira had spoken about Elizabeth’s obsession with blood. Is this what I was experiencing?
I laid there as the moon slowly tracked across the night sky unable to move. I expected the intoxicated feeling to go away, but my limbs grew increasingly heavy. Returning
to Ironwood was out of the question.
Voices speaking quickly echoed into the forest. Vampires had arrived at the house and had seen my carnage. If they searched the woods, they would find me in no condition to fight.
It took great effort, but I managed to roll over onto my stomach and push up. I was about to start crawling when I detected a presence in the forest with me. I froze listening carefully and sniffing the air. A strong arm came around me just then and helped me to my feet.
"Roman," I breathed. Shame replaced my desire for blood, and I turned my head away from him.
He said nothing as he helped me out of the forest and into the closest entrance to the tunnels. Only when we were down below, did he ask, "Are you all right?"
"I lost control," are the only words I could say.
"Your blood is extremely powerful, especially when you access its true potential, but it comes with a price. You must find the strength inside yourself to fight it."
I limped alongside him and said nothing else. Only when he helped me into my new coffin pressed against the wall of my house, did I say, "Thank you."
He patted my arm and closed the door over the top of me, trapping me in a cocoon of darkness. That was the first time he’d shown me physical affection. Guilt created a hole in my chest.
I had to do better, be better. I couldn't become the monster I felt lurking inside of me. These were the thoughts I had as I drifted off to sleep even though the sun hadn’t risen yet. It was better this way.
My eyes flew open only to be greeted by darkness. It took a moment to remember I was in my coffin. The smell of dried blood on my clothes permeated the small space reminding me of how much I had ingested the night before. It repulsed me, and yet, my mouth watered for more.
