Wardbreaker: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “You’re going to tell me where Jean Luc is right now, Mr. Vampire, or I’m going to start cutting off body parts. Unlike the shifter out there,” I jerked my thumb out the door, “I’m not sure how well you heal, so I’ll make sure I cauterize the wounds when I’m done so you won’t be able to repair the damage. How’s that sound?” I asked, smiling sweetly at him as his face contorted in pain. “I’m going to ask you exactly one time. Where is Luc?”

  He didn’t respond. Instead, he tried to tear my wakazashi out of his chest by the blade, cutting his hands open in the process and spilling his blood along its edge. I snapped my fingers and sent a small surge of will toward the weapon. Set lit up with a crimson glow as the sigils flared like tiny stars. The vampire screamed in pain and dropped his smoking hands to his sides.

  “Okay,” I shrugged. “I guess you’ll be spending the next, oh, forever with no legs or arms.” I lifted my katana and aimed at his left arm, touching the crook of his elbow with the edge before raising it above my head. “I’ll be honest, I have bad aim so this might take a couple tries. That’s okay, right?”

  “No!” He squealed just before I was going to swing. “I’ll tell you, Dioscuri.”

  “Excellent.” I grinned at him and knelt by his side. “I knew we’d see things eye to eye.”

  “When Pandemonium gave us the signal, I told my men to move Luc out of here. They’re probably still loading him into the helicopter on the roof. If you hurry, you might be able to catch him.” I stared at him for a moment, trying to decide whether or not I believed him. I really didn’t have much of a choice, which really pissed me off.

  “Okay,” I growled, sheathing Isis and tearing Set out of his body. I grabbed him by the collar and hauled him to his feet as gore dripped down the front of his white t-shirt. “Show me. That way if you’re lying, I can throw you off the building. I know it won’t kill you, but it’ll sure make me feel better.” I gave him my best crazy smile, and he shrank away from me before I shoved him into the hallway.

  The werebear was gone, but there was a ginormous trail of blood leading toward the elevators. Good, so he still thought he was hurt, and was no doubt frantic about why he hadn’t healed the wound yet. I sure hoped that letting him live didn’t come back to bite me in the ass. Then again, maybe he’d crawled off into an elevator and died. It was possible, right?

  We moved toward the elevators as fast as I could reasonably make the vampire go while still keeping my grip on him. Thankfully, he didn’t even try to run. As we reached the elevator, he pressed the up button with his thumb, leaving behind a bloody thumbprint.

  “Oh no,” I said, shoving him past the metal deathtraps and toward the stairs. “There is exactly zero chance of me getting into an elevator with you. Assuming it didn’t malfunction and kill us, it is way too enclosed of a space for me to risk it. For all I know, you have the shaft filled with explosives or snake demons. Who knows?”

  “And they say I’m paranoid,” the vampire muttered.

  “Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you,” I replied, pushing open the door to the stairwell with his face, smudging the little glass window in the center of the wood in the process. “Go on, tell me I’m being cliché. I dare you.”

  He shut his damned trap. Which was good since it took longer than I’d have liked to make it up the stairs, but even though my chest was heaving from dragging the vampire up six floors, I still was calling it a win because I hadn’t died in an elevator. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the giant metal demon boxes, but I didn’t exactly like the idea of someone potentially breaking a few cables and sending me plummeting to my death. Besides, for all I knew, there was a really pissed off werebear inside one of them just waiting for his next meal.

  I threw the vampire at the door marked helipad. Instead of breaking through it, he bounced off and collapsed to the ground yowling. “Next time, try turning the knob first, jerk,” the vampire said, reaching up and twisting the silver handle. The door swung open to reveal a helicopter, its rotors already spinning. I caught a glimpse of Ariel standing in the compartment with Luc just before the door closed, leaving me staring at the red cross painted on the white metal.

  “No!” I screamed as the helicopter started to leave the ground. I charged forward as fast as I could and leapt. My free hand grabbed onto the skids as we surged high up into the air. As I dangled several hundred feet above the ground, I tried desperately to keep the panic swelling inside me from taking over.

  I took a deep breath, finding my center and calming myself before sheathing my wakazashi. I wrapped both of my arms around the skid and with my muscles screaming, pulled myself into a less precarious position. I wasn’t sure if the vampires inside the vehicle had noticed me leap onto their helicopter, but I had a feeling that even if they hadn’t, the vampire I’d left alive on the rooftop would let them know. For all I knew, he’d already radioed them about my position. That thought made my blood run cold as the wind rushed by me.

  Still, it was nothing compared to the panic I felt as crimson light exploded from within the helicopter. The smell of blood, like a bucket of rusty nails filled my nose. The surrounding sky darkened as the sun turned sanguine, casting the entire earth in blood.

  Chapter 19

  So what did I do? I took a deep breath, grabbed the door, and jerked it open with all the strength I could muster. Its internal mechanisms held for a second before ripping free and sliding backward into the skin of the helicopter. Ariel was nowhere to be found, which was good.

  Unfortunately, four vampires surrounded a metal gurney with Luc’s unconscious body strapped to it. Tubes were stuck in his body, feeding some kind of viscous green sludge into him as his wards glowed with faint red light.

  While the vampires didn’t look like they had expected me to burst into their helicopter in midflight, they were already starting to come at me with preternatural speed. Before they could throw me from the vehicle, I launched myself inside, screaming incoherently.

  My fist lashed out, catching the closest vampire under the chin and snapping his head backward. I spun on the balls of my feet and drove my knee into another’s side, knocking him into his female companion as she tried to grab me from behind. They went down in a heap as I dropped to my knees, avoiding another female vampire’s kick as it whooshed by so close to my head, the wind coming off of it ruffled my hair.

  I grabbed onto her leg and jerked her off balance as I came up, slamming her onto her back and making the floor beneath us shudder. The vampire I’d slugged originally came at me fangs wide and glinting as blood streamed from his torn lips. His fist caught me on the shoulder, and my left arm fell numbly to my side. His fingers curled around my trench coat, pulling me toward him. I stumbled as another one grabbed onto my ankle with its vice-like grip.

  My body toppled forward into the vampire, throwing him off balance and making him trip over the female I’d body slammed earlier. His hand released me, shooting out to try to catch himself on the door before he fell. He missed the helicopter’s thin wall completely and plummeted through the door. Well, that was one less vampire to worry about.

  I crashed to the ground on top of the vampire he’d tripped over as the first female got to her feet and came at me, long nails splayed like talons. I reared back and mule kicked her as hard as I could. My boot connected with her knee. The crack of the shattered joint filled the air. Her scream pierced my ears, loud even over the roar of the helicopter blades. I scrambled forward on my hands and knees, pausing only momentarily to drive my elbow into the vampire beneath me, shattering her nose in a spray of blood. Her eyes went glassy, and her hands fell limply to her sides.

  The only male left in the cabin was back up and racing toward me, but there wasn’t anywhere to go. I threw myself to my feet, grabbing onto the metal gurney holding Luc’s body and called upon my magic, summoning everything I had. In an aircraft. Full of sensitive equipment. High above the ground.

  An explosion ripp
ed through the air and smoke filled the cabin as magic surged around us. The rotors stalled with a shriek of tortured steel, and the lights on panels all around me caught fire or winked out entirely. The door to the pilot’s chamber swung open, and Ariel stood there, annoyance playing across her delicate features. At first, it looked like she’d been about to scream at her companions, but as soon as she saw me, her face twisted into rage. Behind her, I could see lightning bolts leaping across the pilot’s console as smoke poured from it. His hands scrambled over it, fighting for control against the crippled machine.

  “You!” she howled, pointing one red-nailed finger at me and baring her fangs.

  “Me,” I replied and threw all my magic outward at her. The spell leapt across the space between us as a bolt of purple energy slammed into her and threw her backward into the cockpit. Her body slammed against the windshield, shattering it beneath her. She drove one hand into the metal skin of the helicopter, her fingers piercing it as she fought to keep from being flung into the distance. I had half a mind to throw another blast at her, but my heaving chest told me I didn’t have much left in me. Damn.

  “Are you insane?” she screamed as another explosion ripped through the air above me. Our vehicle plummeted like a stone as bits of metal flew off in every direction. Had we lost the rotor? Oh, that was definitely bad.

  “Only according to my ex-boyfriend,” I replied just before the floor slid out from under me, and I was saved from being flung into the abyss by grabbing onto one of the straps lashing Luc to the gurney. The leather snapped tight in my grip, cutting into the callused flesh of my palm.

  “Time to go,” I said and reached over with my other hand, unsnapping three of the four straps holding him in place. I grabbed onto him with both arms, unsnapped the strap I’d been using for balance, and kicked off the metal death trap with all the force my tired leg muscles could muster.

  We flew backward out the door, leaving the relative safety of the cabin as the helicopter started spinning like a broken top, spiraling toward the ground below in a stream of fire and smoke. I fought the urge to look down and instead concentrated on focusing my will. I’d never done this before, but I’d heard of Dioscuri using magic like a parachute. Maybe it would work?

  Before I could gather my magic, the pilot leapt out of the helicopter, a pack on his back. He pulled a strap free, and his parachute exploded behind him, jerking him upward as it caught the wind. I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to turn and threw my hand out toward him. “Come!” I screamed.

  Power poured out of me as sweat covered my body in an instant. Spots danced across my eyes as my spell ripped across the distance between us and grabbed onto the vampire. My body jerked to a stop, and I nearly lost my grip on Luc as his dead weight threatened to dislocate my arm and rip him from my grasp. My shoulder shrieked in pain, still aching from where the vampire had struck me earlier.

  We fell like that, our bodies slowing as my spell tried to pull the parachuting pilot to me, buoying us both. He stared at me wide-eyed as he fell, like he couldn’t believe what was happening. That made two of us. We jerked in the air, and I felt us fall for a split second before my spell snapped taught again. Spots danced across my vision as I struggled to fight off the exhaustion threatening to overwhelm me. I tossed a look below me, and instead of being totally scared out of my mind, I was relieved to see a high rise building not too far away. If I could make it there…

  I threw myself into action, swinging myself into an arc as I released my spell and sent Luc and I careening toward the rooftop. The helicopter slammed into the street below me as I fell and the force of it reverberated through my stomach even from here. A feeling of dread filled me as I realized we weren’t going to hit the roof. I pulled in every last ounce of power I had left as we came careening toward the glass walls of the building.

  Just as we were about to hit it, I released everything, not shattering the glass so much as disintegrating it entirely. My vision distilled down into a tiny pinprick of light as I tried vainly to absorb our impact with Luc’s magic trench coat. My breath exploded from my lips in a violent whoosh as we slammed into the well-decorated office hard enough to shatter not only the table in the middle of the room, but the bookshelf on the far wall as well. Orange basketballs fell from the glass cases atop the bookshelf, bouncing all over the room as I lay there staring at the ceiling, not believing I wasn’t dead. Still, I hurt so much, I had to be alive. Death wouldn’t hurt this much.

  I wasn’t sure how long it took for me to be able to look around, but I heard the woman screaming before I’d so much as turned my head. She was wearing a cream-colored suit and looked to be in her mid-forties with ginger-colored hair. She backpedaled out of the room, one hand to her mouth. Her high heel caught on a rolling basketball, and she stumbled, falling on her butt.

  Luc groaned beneath me, wards no longer glowing sickly red. His body was slick with sweat, but he seemed relatively unscathed for having been flung from a moving helicopter. His eyes fluttered open as I tried to sit up, but even that tiny effort made stars flash in front of my eyes. I felt myself falling, but didn’t feel the impact of my head hitting the carpet. Not good.

  “Lillim?” Luc asked, but his voice sounded weak and far away. I tried to respond, tried to make my mouth make words, but as I tried, I found I could barely even think. It was like someone had filled my brain with cotton. “Lillim?” He shook me, like it would do any good. My vision faded to black.

  I lost consciousness.

  Chapter 20

  I woke up to find myself being dragged out of the office. Luc’s chest was heaving as my feet slid across the carpet, one of my arms draped over his shoulder as his other encircled my waist, holding me against his feverishly warm body. His skin was slick with sweat that stunk of blood and fear.

  He must have noticed I was awake because he shot me a look, lips quirked into a strained smile. “You okay?” His words sliced into my brain like a battle axe, and I cringed away. I felt drained of everything, and to be honest, I wasn’t even sure how I was still awake.

  I shook my head, and he let loose a loud breath. The moment it touched my skin I felt a little jolt of power. Was he feeding energy into me? If so, how? I tried to ask him, but words failed me as he turned back toward the woman. She was still sitting there gaping at us. Evidently, I hadn’t been out for long, but that was weird. I’d used almost everything in me to escape the helicopter and rescue Luc. I should be unconscious for a lot longer.

  “Can you walk?” he asked as my feet found the ground, and surprisingly, they held my weight. “I’m lending you some energy so you ought to be okay as long as you hold my hand.” He squeezed my fingers, and I felt a surge of power flow through me. How the hell was he doing that?

  I nodded even though it was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. My vision swayed, and my teeth started chattering before I toppled uselessly against him. He was so warm, I never wanted to let go. That should have scared me. It didn’t. That should have scared me even more.

  He gripped me tighter, pulling me toward the exit, and I found myself nuzzling into the warmth of his body. He smelled like pine trees and roses, and as I inhaled his scent, I felt strangely energized by it.

  “You know, you don’t have to be tough all the time,” he whispered, his breath kissing my cheek as he spoke. “I’ll get us out of here. Just relax.”

  I wanted to argue with him, to tell him I didn’t need his help, but instead, my eyelids started dropping shut. “Okay,” I whispered right before shrieking made my eyes snap open and my heart race.

  A giant scarlet tentacle slapped into the side of the building with a wet sounding thwack, its bulbous suckers latching onto the glass and pulsating as it strained to hold something up. Another one smacked into the building, and the glass beneath it shattered, spraying inward across the carpet as the tentacles wrapped around the girders.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t make any plans, Wardbreaker,” Ariel said as she stepped daintily through on
e of the shattered windows. Her octopus-like tentacles writhed around her as she strode toward us. “You’ll be sticking around for quite a while.” One of her blood red appendages lashed out at us, and Luc dropped me in time for it to sail over my head and smack him on the chest. He stumbled backward into the hallway, collapsing onto the ground next to the woman. Why was she still there? Why hadn’t she run? I sure as hell would have if I’d just seen people crash through my window.

  I hit the ground, and my whole world swayed, shaking violently as two of her tentacles lashed out, wrapping around my wrists and hoisting me into the air like a broken puppet. They felt slimy and warm, like someone had covered my flesh in snot. Yes, it was that gross.

  “But you can go,” she said, discarding me behind her like a piece of garbage. I careened through the broken window and found myself staring down at the ground as it came flying toward me. Fear ripped through me as I started to panic. I was going to die by smashing into the pavement after all. I had nothing left, no more strength.

  “You can do it,” the voice of my soulbound ghost Mattoc whispered in my ears. I felt his ghostly hands on mine, guiding them into my trench coat. My fingers wrapped around the hilts of my swords, tightening on the weapons before I pulled them free in a surge of strength. Even that tiny effort made stars flash before my eyes, but it was quickly chased away by adrenaline racing through my body. “I believe in you.”

  I stabbed outward, slicing into the glass walled building and praying the windows didn’t just shatter. They didn’t, thank God. The smell of burning plastic filled my nose as my swords sliced through them before driving themselves into the floor. The shock of my sudden stop jolted through my entire body, and it was all I could do to hang there and not let go.

  A crash filled my ears, and I looked up to see a desk fly out the window above me with Ariel pinned to one side. She came careening down toward me with the huge antique wooden desk on top of her. Her tentacles lashed outward, slapping against the glass and pulling her out of the way just after she passed me. The desk kept going and slammed down into the parking lot below, crushing a red car flat and causing alarms to blare.