That misstep was all it took for another vampire to wrap his unnaturally strong hands around my throat and hoist me into the air. My legs kicked outward, connecting with something soft and squishy. I fell, slamming backward onto the stone. I lay there, trying to remember how to breathe as my hand instinctively went to my wounded side.
It no longer burned, but there were still four more vampires surrounding me. Their eyes blazed from beneath their hoods as they lunged for me, undead fingers wrapping around my limbs and pulling at me. My sweatshirt tore as I struggled, and for a second, my hands were free. I drew upon my magic and smashed my fist into the vampire with the copper bowl’s face. The blow flung him backward like a ragdoll, and he hit the ground a few feet away. The bowl slipped from his hand and crashed to the ground, spilling the pink goop onto the stone.
The smell of burning rubber filled my nose as the stone began to bubble and crack. I leapt off the dais, landing in the place the vampire had occupied and used one well-placed sidekick to shatter the hip of the vampire who had been standing next to him. He flopped to the side as Ariel’s chanting reached a crescendo. Thunder cracked within the cloudless room, splintering my hearing as her words reverberated through the air and pounded in my ears like bass drums. My stomach clenched in horror as I spun in time to see her striding toward Luc, ritual dagger in hand.
“No!” I screamed, knowing I couldn’t leave Luc tied to the altar. I shifted and brought my elbow down onto the altar with all the force my magic-infused body could muster.
Pain exploded through my limb as power flared across the surface of the stone. Purple light exploded from the spot I’d struck, rippling outward along the surface of the altar and everything went totally silent for a moment. The altar shattered into powder. Luc’s body hit the ground just as Ariel reached us, dagger slashing through where he had been a second before.
“You’re ruining everything!” Ariel cursed, whirling on me and extending her free hand toward me. Everything went sort of black and hazy around the edges as the taste of blood filled my mouth. I toppled forward, falling to my knees across Luc’s body as pain racked me, distilling everything down into indescribable agony. Then all at once, the necklace around my neck went as cold as ice, chilling me to the bone. “We were supposed to have an agreement!” Her voice was an erupting volcano of rage.
Instead of replying, I tried to breathe. Only it felt like my lungs had filled with fluid. Try as I might, I couldn’t draw in any air. Bloody foam sprayed from my lips as the necklace froze my flesh. It was like someone had filled my veins with ice as the necklace throbbed and pulsed, and then, like magic, I could breathe again. How the hell had that happened? Had Logan’s necklace protected me from Ariel’s magic somehow? I was pretty sure it had, but why? Why would he help me stop her? What was in it for him?
Luc twitched beneath me, his body spasming hard enough to knock me off of him. I hit the ground hard, but wasn’t able to do anything more than lay there and bleed. His body was smeared with my blood. Only… only, he was glowing.
I tried to move, tried to get out of the way as every ward on his body burst into silvery flames. Ariel cried out, her shrill voice tearing my hearing asunder, but I could breathe again. I sucked in a merciful breath as I struggled to do more than watch Luc slowly rise. The vampire backed up, her blade held before her, fear plastered across her face. It was weird because I bet she hadn’t felt fear in a very long time. Still, why was she so afraid of Luc? Sure he had magic wards covering his body, but she was Ariel, the millennia old founder of the Owls. That didn’t make any sense at all.
“I thought you needed help,” Luc told the vampire, his voice strained and broken as he rose to his feet and stood there like a living pillar of silver flame. “But it turns out you’re just a very bad girl.”
His hand shot out, and he grabbed the vampire by the throat. He lifted her into the air like she weighed nothing, and she struggled, grasping her throat even though I knew she didn’t need to breathe. Silver fire leapt between them, crawling over her skin and consuming her as she thrashed in Luc’s iron grip.
It was almost enough to make me miss her lashing out with her dagger. The blade slashed open Luc’s chest, filleting him down to the bone. The wards along his torso winked out as his blood poured from the wound. Luc grunted and flung the vampire before she could strike again. She smacked into the wall hard enough to crack it and fell forward onto the stone still burning.
The other vampires were on the move, rushing toward their founder as Luc slumped to his knees, clutching his chest as his silver glow surrounding his body dimmed. I was on my feet in an instant, but as I reached out toward him, he held up one bloody hand.
“Blood,” he said, collapsing to the ground as the glow went out and crimson began to gush between his fingers. “I can heal with more blood.”
I looked toward the vampires and swallowed. Did he want me to pour vampire blood onto his open wound? That was insane, but then again, everything was insane. I hate to say it, but instead of trying to staunch his bleeding, I left him on the ground and sprinted toward the vampires. I grabbed the nearest one by the back of his cowl and jerked him off his feet. He hit the stone with a crash, and before he could recover, I drove my fist into his cloaked face hard enough to shatter his bone beneath my fist.
The other vampires turned toward me, and for a moment, I’d wondered if they would attack me, but Ariel took that moment to grab the closest of her minions and tear into his throat with her teeth. Her face was charred to the point I couldn’t even make out her features, but I wasn’t going to waste time watching her suck her vampires dry because afterward, she’d be coming for me.
Her minions stood there, unsure of what to do as I tightened my grip on my captured vampire and dragged him across the floor toward Luc. He stretched one hand out toward me, and I shoved the broken vampire toward him. He grabbed hold of the creature and pressed the vampire’s still bleeding face into his own torso.
The wards across his body flared with sapphire light, and his wound began to close. An inhuman shriek filled my ears, and I spun to see Ariel reaching out toward us. I felt her power slide off me and strike the vampire Luc was holding. The creature exploded into a cloud of red fog, flinging body parts in every direction. A leg hit me in the side of the head, and I stumbled backward, little tweety birds flapping around my skull.
“How are you avoiding my powers?!” Ariel howled in rage and frustration. Her flesh still had that mottled, burned look like a ham that had fallen into the fire, but it didn’t seem to hinder her movement much as she crossed the distance between her before I could draw a single breath.
“Oh you know, magic,” I said, throwing a punch at her face.
She dodged my blow with ease before slapping me across the face hard enough to rattle my teeth. “No matter, Dioscuri. I am no stranger to fisticuffs. I shall enjoy beating you to death with my bare hands.”
Ariel grabbed me by the hair and slammed my head backward into the stone wall. “Do you know how hard I have worked to catch the Wardbreaker? Now that I have him, I will not let you take him away from me. Not when I am so very close to victory! It’s too bad. I would have let you go if you hadn’t interfered, little Dioscuri. But now… now you will pay for this disruption with blood.” She sank her teeth into my throat. The feeling was indescribable. First there was pain as she tore my flesh open with her teeth, but after that it felt so good, I couldn’t even think beyond the pleasure.
It was a good thing Luc chose that moment to kick her in the face. Her fangs tore free of my body with a spray of her blood. I lay there, unable to move. The only thoughts I had were “why had she stopped biting me?” and “how could I make her do it again?”
Luc stepped over me and grabbed the vampire by the hair before tossing her into the wall. She hit with a sound that made me think broken bones and internal injuries before slumping to the ground amidst the dried up husks of her minions. Had she drained them all?
“Are you oka
y?” Luc asked, glancing at me as he knelt down and picked something up. The ritual dagger gleamed in his hands.
“Yeah,” I replied, forcing myself to get up. Now that the euphoria of Ariel’s bite had passed, I was left feeling groggy, but otherwise unfazed. “Takes more than a vampire bite to put me down.”
“Good to know,” He turned back toward Ariel as she rose to her feet.
The vampire smiled, her lips twisted into a horrific grin as she raised one hand in front of her face and snapped her fingers. The sound echoed within the room, so loud I was forced to cover my ears. The walls began to bleed. Crimson ichor flooded out from between the stones and splattered across the ground. All of her minions simply dissolved into ooze as her lips quirked into a smile.
“Rise,” Ariel said, and the words thrummed with power. Blood rose up around us as she evaporated into red mist. The room shook as the blood around us coalesced into a huge writhing mass. I swallowed, staggering backward as a winged serpent stepped forth from the slime and wrung its head, splattering us with goo. Luc’s wards flared with blue light for a split second before winking out completely.
Terror filled me as I staggered backward and fell on my butt. How the hell was I supposed to stop a blood dragon? Much less one controlled by the most powerful vampire in existence? It was impossible. There was just no way.
“What’s the matter, Wardbreaker? Dragon got your magic?” Ariel’s laughter filled the air as the creature opened its jaws and roared loud enough to shake the room.
Chapter 14
A lot of thoughts went through my mind as I stared at the gigantic blood dragon, but none of them were particularly helpful. I mean where exactly was I supposed to hide in an empty room?
I had no idea how to beat something like this because it wasn’t even alive. It was a construct held together by Ariel’s iron will, and she had millennia of practice. Even if I beat it up, it wasn’t like I could stop the thing. The only way to take it down would be to break Ariel’s control over it. The only problem was, I had no idea how to do that either.
The dragon lumbered toward us, its heavy footfalls splattering red liquid across the cobbles as it moved forward, ichor dripping from its jaws.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked, backing away from the creature until my shoulders touched the stone behind me. I instantly wondered if I could somehow phase through the wall. Not that I would because that’d be running away… Oh, who am I kidding, I’d have totally run away from a giant blood dragon with teeth like glittering ruby daggers because it was scary as hell.
“Buy me some time,” Luc whispered, eyes narrowing at the beast. “I think I know what’s going wrong with my wards, why they stopped working despite all the blood and magic.”
Above us, Ariel cackled. It sounded like her voice was everywhere in the room and I shuddered uncontrollably, my knees quaking as I stared at the massive beast. I wasn’t quite sure how she’d managed to create the creature before us, but I was betting it took tremendous focus to keep it manifested. Controlling creations like her dragon was an all consuming task, even if you were a several-thousand-year-old vampire. Maybe I could blast it into ribbons and force her to spend time reforming it? I had to try, right?
“Sure, no problem. I’ll fight the monster while you meditate,” I said, ducking out of the way as a bloody claw cleaved through the air, forcing Luc and I onto opposite sides of the monster. The air was thick and heavy with magic, making it hard to breathe as I whirled around and faced the dragon with my fists clenched.
It turned its head toward Luc, ignoring me as the hunter knelt in the blood and placed his hand on the floor. I wasn’t quite sure why his wards had faded when there was so much blood on the ground, but I hoped he would figure it out soon.
Before the creature could amble its bulk around and smash Luc into twain, I slammed one open hand into its side. The necklace Logan had given me flared like fire against my skin, so hot I knew it was going to leave burns behind. I shrieked as my hand plunged through the dragon’s weird flesh with way less effort than I’d expected. I sank up to my elbow in the crimson goop of its skin. It sort of felt like cold pea soup. Power exploded up my arm, flowing into the necklace as it got hotter and hotter.
“White Sparrow!” I cried, doing my best to redirect all the energy flowing from the dragon and into my necklace. I was never really very good at sucking magic out of the air, let alone redirecting it, but in this particular situation, I didn’t have to be because there was so much of it. Power rampaged through my body, burning inside my veins like molten lead before surging out of my submerged hand.
A column of white fire exploded into being, slamming down inside the creature and cleaving a huge hole out of its center. The dragon snarled and thrashed as the fiery cylinder held it pinned in place. The smell of charred blood filled my nose as Ariel screamed in outrage.
The dragon collapsed into a puddle of goo, and I fell backward onto the stones, my spell winking out in an instant as I sucked a breath into my heaving lungs. I’d killed it. I wasn’t quite sure how or why Logan’s necklace had helped me, but I wasn’t going to question it right now. Instead, I tried to get up and move toward Luc, but before I could, something seized me by the scruff of the neck and hauled me to my feet.
“I’m not sure how you knew to rip the power from the heart of my blood golem,” Ariel hissed in my ears. “But I’ll make you pay for it, Lillim.” She said my name like it was a particularly offensive curse. What can I say? I have an effect on people and monsters. Still, I had half a mind to tell her it was Logan’s necklace and redirect her anger toward him. Something told me that even if she believed me, she wouldn’t do anything about it until after I was dead.
“Well, you know what they say,” I growled, trying to swipe at her with my hands but catching only air. “If at first you don’t succeed, kill it with fire.”
Instead of replying, Ariel flung me across the room. I hit the ground and bounced a couple times as pain ripped through my body and made things hazy and red around the edges. Ariel stalked toward me, eyes narrowed as she raised one hand and gestured at me.
The blood beneath me surged around my limbs, wrapping around my ankles and wrists and locking me to the floor. “You’re just a distraction, Dioscuri. An annoying one, I’ll admit, but a distraction nonetheless. Keep it up and I just may decide the ransom your mother will pay for your safe return isn’t worth it.” The vampire turned toward Luc who was still kneeling there, eyes far off and vacant looking. “You probably don’t even realize who he is.”
What did she mean by that? Luc was just a hunter right? Albeit a weird one with magic scars, but I never got the impression he was anything other than human. If he wasn’t, well, I’d have felt it right? So why was she so insistent seeming. Why had she been about to sacrifice him? And why was she here at all? This was Ariel, the founder of the Owls, after all. Surely, she had better things to do than deal with Luc and me.
Ariel smirked and took a step toward Luc. “I can see from your eyes that I am right.” She shook her head. “How very disappointing. I thought your kind was better informed, but in the end, you’re just like every other monster. Concerned with your own politics and missing the big picture.” Her words made me feel very small and embarrassed. Hadn’t I just accused Luc of the same thing earlier when we were dealing with the feeding holes?
Luc stood, and as he did so, the markings across his chest glowed every color of the rainbow, making the room light up like a disco ball. And yes, I knew what that was. Disco was pretty damned popular where I came from. Don’t ask me why.
“That’s enough, Ariel,” Luc said, his voice cold and even. “Say another word, and I’ll tear your tongue from your mouth.” He cracked his knuckles. “Though I’ll probably do that anyway. You know. For fun.” I’ll be honest, the sight of him standing there like an avenging angel filled me with the hope that maybe, just maybe, we wouldn’t die in the next few moments.
“Whatever,” Ariel said and blood
surged around her, engulfing her body in an instant before coalescing into spiked, crimson knight’s armor. She held a bloody two-handed sword in one hand and gestured at Luc with her other. One by one, his wards winked out as a thin, nearly-translucent rivulet of scarlet spun out of his body toward her outstretched hand. “You forget who you are dealing with.”
Luc smirked, fingers tightening around the bronze dagger. “Then I’ll just have to make this quick.” He charged forward, moving so quickly, I saw little more than a blur. He slammed into Ariel hard enough for the reverberation to shake the room. The vampire stumbled backward, mouth twisted in pain as she swung the huge sword at Luc. He blocked the blade with one arm, and it shattered into a thousand droplets of blood that splattered across the room like warm rain.
The bindings around my arms and legs loosened, only a little, but it was enough for me to realize Luc had broken her concentration, at least a little. I squirmed, my muscles cording as I tried to wrench myself free of the bindings. Another titanic blow rocked the vampire and my hands slipped free.
I sat up, watching in amazement as Luc’s hammer blows slammed into the vampire’s exposed torso, mashing her insides into jelly as the wall behind her cracked. But why was he using his fists? What had happened to his dagger? I glanced around, looking for it. He must have lost the weapon because the blade glinted only a few feet away from me. I held my hand out toward it and concentrated.
“Come,” I murmured, pouring magic into the word. The blade jiggled on the ground before flying toward me. I caught it in my outstretched hand, and a surge of energy ran down the length of my body. My eyes opened in shock as I stared open-mouthed at the blade. It sure felt powerful. What was it? I lashed out at the bindings holding my legs. The dagger didn’t cut through the blood so much as dissolve it into scarlet smoke.
Wardbreaker: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles) Page 11
