Fire and Fantasy: a Limited Edition Collection of Epic and Urban Fantasy

by CK Dawn

  “Who did it? How did he die?” Trevor growled.

  I let out a sigh. “I’ll tell you another time.” If he kept detaining me, I wouldn’t be able to find Rune.

  “Izella, wait! Tell me who killed him.”

  There was something in his voice that made me pause. Was it desperation, agony, or despair? I couldn’t tell.

  “Why do you need to know?” I asked.

  “The vampire was my nephew.”

  “A vampire hunter killed him.” I tossed the words over my shoulder and hurried down the cracked stone steps outside the mansion. I knew exactly which hunter had killed him, but for some reason, I didn’t want to give out Rune’s name.

  Three

  Rune

  The door groaned shut, blocking her from view. I hesitated for a moment before hurrying to my Jeep. Brydon was more important than a suspicious witch whom I’d just met. He was dying, and something told me she could deal with the vampires. No matter how distasteful it was to leave a woman in the vampires’ den, my priority went to my little brother.

  Yet once I hit the road, I caught myself glancing at the rearview mirror more than once. The whole time the nurse in the hospital was asking me how Brydon had managed to lose so much blood and what kind of accident he got himself into, I kept looking over my shoulder.

  She said she would catch up with me. Her eyes had looked so sincere that I believed her. Never once did I think about how she was going to do that. It wasn’t like I’d given her a location to meet up or told her where I was going.

  I stared at the IV hanging beside Brydon’s bed.

  Drip drip. Drip drip.

  The sound should have been soothing, but I found it irritating, pushing me over a certain edge.

  I gripped Brydon’s bed rail, and the hard plastic cracked.

  She said she could deal with the vampires, but she’d looked to be about my age—definitely no more than twenty-two. It had been two hours since I’d left her in that mansion. She could’ve been sucked dry. She could’ve died.

  Damn! I shouldn’t have believed her.

  I grabbed my keys and bolted out the door. Fear gripped my throat. The emotion was so strong that I was afraid to go back to that mansion. What if I found her abandoned in a pile of blood on the ancient floor? It would be all my fault. Vampire hunters were supposed to protect humans—Hunter Academy had drilled that into my head—now a girl could have died trying to protect me.

  “Where are you going? You have to finish the paperwork.” The nurse chased after me, but she was too slow.

  I was at the automatic sliding door of the emergency room, ready to bolt out and hit the road when I saw her.

  She stood just inside the door in her sleeveless dress too fancy for an emergency room. Black hair flowed down her back and spilled over her shoulders in gentle waves. Her eyes pulled me into their depths and wouldn’t let go. Even in the midst of all those people, she stood out. Not because she was one of the prettiest girls I’d ever seen, but because there was something about her that was different from everyone else, something I couldn’t pinpoint.

  She strolled toward me. Her dress swayed around her leggy thighs.

  “How did you get out of the mansion?” I asked.

  “I have my ways.”

  The answer was as good as none, but I let out the breath I was holding. I would rather not know than go back to that mansion and find her sprawled on the floor.

  Heavy silence hung between us. I should have said something, but I’d never been good with words or girls, so I just grunted and headed back to Room 107 where Brydon was still hooked onto IV.

  “Sir, you haven’t completed these papers.” The plump nurse waved a stack of forms at me as soon as I got back.

  I grabbed it and took a seat to leaf through the volumes of tedious words.

  My eyes were glued on the papers, but I knew exactly when she walked in. She paused at Brydon’s railed bed for a moment before sitting next to me.

  “Who are you?” I asked without looking up. This might not be the first time I’d asked this question, but she hadn’t exactly given me a direct answer. A girl who’d taken a bath in a vampire den and had walked out of it alive. Forgive me for being suspicious.

  “Izella,” she said.

  The name sounded familiar. I must have heard it before, but I couldn’t remember where.

  “What were you doing in that mansion?” I scribbled my signature for the thousandth time on a dotted line.

  “What were you doing?” Again, she evaded my questions.

  I wrote the date on the last blank before tossing the papers and the pen on the coffee table next to me. “I was on an assignment with Brydon. We parted ways to search the mansion for a particular vampire. When I found Brydon, he was like this.” I gestured at Brydon on the white hospital bed. “Care to explain how that happened?”

  “Which vampire were you looking for?”

  “That’s beside the point. I want to know what happened.”

  She tilted her head. “And you think I have the answer?”

  “Tell me why you were taking a bath at a vampire’s den.” Normal people just didn’t do that.

  “I hadn’t taken one in ages.” She looked serious, as if that explained everything.

  I was getting nowhere. After so many questions, the only thing I’d learned about her was her name. I sighed. “Izella, where do you live?”

  “Is it now common to ask for a woman’s address the first day you meet her?”

  “No, I just need to know where I should drop you off at, unless you drove here.”

  “What if I don’t want to go home?”

  She was gazing at me in that way again, as if I was the only person in this world, and I felt the breath sucked from my lungs.

  I looked away and stared at Brydon’s still form. As soon as he woke up, I would take him back to Hunter Academy. The academy health center would heal him better than any physicians could. Things would go back to normal.

  Brydon’s finger twitched. Relief rushed out of my lungs in a breath. Izella must have noticed it too, because she was looking at Brydon with an unreadable expression.

  “Brydon, can you hear me?” I walked over and bent toward him.

  His index twitched again. I took his hand in both of mine and held it near my forehead, praying to God he was going to be okay. My twin might look tough on the outside, but I would never forget the vulnerability on his face the day our mother left us at the Hunter Academy gate. No matter how strong both of us became, he would always be that little boy who’d cried in my arms.

  He shifted on his bed, letting out a barely audible groan. Maybe he wouldn’t take as long as I thought to wake up.

  “Rune.” A hand touched my arm.

  I clasped the hand, intending to throw my attacker over my shoulder. The moment my body moved, I regretted it. There was only one person in the room close enough to touch me.

  Her soft hand slipped from my grasp like an eel. She pivoted and escaped my vicinity with two skillfully placed steps. A second later, she was standing a couple meters away. Only the flutter of her dress indicated she had moved at all.

  “You should go call in the doctors,” she said.

  The idea of leaving Brydon didn’t sound appealing. I leaned over and pressed the call button on the remote.

  “This doesn’t work.” She glanced at the remote.

  How did she know? She’d never tried to use it before.

  But she was right. I waited for ten minutes for the nurse to come. She never did, so I grabbed the stack of forms I’d filled out and went looking for her.

  Four

  Izella

  Rune left the room, and I relinquished my mental concentration on the white remote that I’d broken.

  I looked down at the young man lying still on the bed.

  “Brydon, I need you to forget about me.” I traced my fingers up his cheeks until they buried into the thick of his soft hair. “It won’t do for you to tell Rune
everything.”

  I still had to figure out why Rune looked like Jayson, and I couldn’t do that if Brydon sold me out.

  My fingers dug into Brydon’s head, and I concentrated on erasing his memory of me. The technique was familiar. I’d done it many times. It was one of the first things my sire had taught me.

  Brydon’s eyebrows furrowed. His head turned a bit, and his lids fluttered open. He stared at me with blank confusion for a moment, then recognition lit up his eyes. He tried to jump up from the bed but only succeeded in yanking down the pole of IV connected to his arm.

  I straightened the pole just before it crashed onto the floor and created a commotion.

  “You—” he said.

  I pushed his head back and looked directly into his eyes. “Brydon, listen to me.” My own eyes warmed. Even without seeing them, I knew they’d turned blood red, like they always did when I issued a command.

  “What are you doing? Let me go!”

  “Listen, you didn’t see me today. You don’t know me.”

  He pushed against my hands with surprising strength, considering his injuries.

  I held firm and repeated, “You didn’t see me today.”

  You didn’t see me today.

  You didn’t see me today.

  The words echoed off the walls like a chant. I couldn’t say how many times I’d repeated them. Commanding a regular human was always easier than a hunter. But gradually, his resistance died. His eyes glossed over as they stared into mine, and I knew it worked.

  He slumped down onto the bed just as Rune walked in the door with the physician and a nurse.

  Five

  Rune

  Brydon was still lying on the bed when I returned, but something felt off. It wasn’t just Izella standing over him. When she turned to look at me, I thought her eyes were a deep shade of crimson. I blinked, and they were grayish green again.

  The physician with her hair tied in a severe bun arched her eyebrow. “You said your brother is awake?”

  “He stirred a moment ago.” I tore my gaze from Brydon and Izella to her.

  The physician positioned the earpieces of her stethoscope and proceeded to listen to Brydon’s heart and lungs.

  “The IV insertion is loose. Fix that please, Mary,” the physician said.

  “Will do,” the plump nurse chirped.

  “Monitor the patient’s vitals every four hours. Continue the infusion. I need the labs as soon as they’re available. If the patient doesn’t wake up by the end of the day to eat, remind me to order parenteral nutrition.” The physician hung her stethoscope around her neck. She gave me a curt nod and strolled out of the room with business-like efficiency.

  Mary tore off the tape holding the IV needle in place on Brydon’s arm. The needle had all but fallen off. I stared at it for a second. I didn’t remember it being loose when I left.

  “He must have really stirred.” Mary winked at me as she wiped Brydon’s arm with alcohol and jammed a new needle in.

  Brydon grunted. I walked to his side and held his hand. “Brydon, are you okay? It’s me.”

  His lashes twitched. Slowly, his eyes fluttered open. “Rune?”

  “I’m here. How are you feeling?”

  “Like shit.”

  I smiled.

  Mary bent over Brydon. “Well, it looks like you might not need the IV anymore. I’ll let the doctor know. Would you like some food, young man? How did you lose so much blood?”

  “Food would be lovely,” he said.

  “I’ll be right back.” Mary winked at the both of us and left the room.

  I wanted to wait until Izella was gone to question Brydon about what had happened, but Izella didn’t look like she was leaving anytime soon.

  “Who did this?” I asked.

  “I would also like to know. Who did this?” Izella leaned forward. Her eyes stared intently at Brydon.

  He opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but nothing came out. He furrowed his brow. “I … I don’t remember.”

  “What do you mean by you don’t remember?” I asked.

  “I was hunting down Vampire Lord Trevor in that mansion.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “There was a vampire.”

  Izella fixed her gaze on him. “What vampire?”

  Brydon glanced at her. “And who are you?”

  I might have imagined it, but I thought she looked relieved.

  “Anyway,” Brydon continued. “There was a vampire.”

  “He did this to you?” I asked in disbelief. The vampire I killed couldn’t have been more than twenty years old, judging from his strength and power. Brydon and I had encountered far worse in our assignments.

  He opened his eyes, but he looked no less confused than before. “I guess, although I swear I could’ve kicked his butt, but somehow, I didn’t.” His gaze shifted to Izella. “Who is she anyway?”

  I hesitated for a moment. “Izella was in that mansion when I came to look for you.”

  “The vampire’s den?” He narrowed his eyes on Izella. “What was she doing there?”

  How was I supposed to know?

  “For the same reason you were there,” Izella said.

  “To kill vampires and complete our summer assignment for Hunter Academy?” Brydon raised his eyebrow.

  She blinked. “No, I was thinking more along the line of self-defense and preservation.”

  “Fine.” Brydon closed his eyes, looking drained. “If you were wounded in the mansion, now is the time to seek medical attention.”

  Only now did I think about the possibility that she might have been injured.

  “Were you hurt?” I asked.

  “I …” Her voice faded. She turned her head to the door and frowned. “You have to leave now.”

  “What?”

  “Trevor is coming.”

  I heard it too. Boots hitting the tile floor. I could smell the stench of vampires from a mile away.

  I tore the needle from Brydon and threw him over my shoulder. Opening the window, I leaped out with him just as the vampires burst into the room. Were we not in the middle of human property with sick people all around us, I would have buried my hungry stake into their chests.

  “Where are you going?” Izella took the passenger seat of my Jeep.

  “To somewhere without people,” I replied. And then we would settle the score once and for all.

  Six

  Izella

  He was not going to run away. He wanted to face Trevor. Once Trevor caught up with him, my disguise would be over.

  “Your brother needs rest,” I said. “He doesn’t have the energy to help you.” I didn’t like to be exposed. It would force me to do some things I didn’t want to do.

  Rune kept his eyes on the road. “I don’t need help.”

  Ahh. Such confidence for someone so young.

  If Trevor exposed me, then I would have to help my fellow vampires. The hunters wouldn’t stand a chance.

  I tapped my fingers on the car dashboard. “Tell me about this Hunter Academy of yours. Where is it?”

  The academy sounded familiar. Was it the same one Jayson had created two hundred years ago?

  Rune didn’t respond.

  “I assume they have faster ways to heal your brother?” I asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Then you should take him to them now.”

  “I’ll survive until you turn them into dust,” Brydon said from the back seat.

  “Is completing your assignment more important than your brother?”

  Rune didn’t reply, but he hit the gas pedal, lurching the Jeep forward. I sat back on my seat, knowing he’d taken my suggestion.

  As for our pursuers …

  I rolled down the passenger’s window and leaned outside. My vampire vision made out the black BMW weaving through the traffic to us.

  Trevor, stop your pursuit, I told him in my mind.

  I didn’t have to repeat twice. The black BMW skittered in the middle of the road.
The car spun half a circle before coming to a complete stop. In my rear-view window, the image of the BMW became smaller and smaller.

  I rolled my window back up.

  Rune frowned. “They stopped.”

  “They did,” I said.

  “Weird.” Brydon yawned. “Wake me up when we are there, okay?”

  I lay back and turned to Rune. He sat straight in the driver’s seat with both hands on the wheels. His short straw hair managed to look tousled and attractive at the same time.

  He cleared his throat. “I can drop you off at the closest bus station.”

  He still wanted to get rid of me. That was not going to happen until I had all of my questions answered. “I no longer have a home.” Not when it was occupied by Trevor and his people. “The vampires took it.”

  An awkward silence stretched in the car. I was expecting him to say something, like he was sorry, but he didn’t.

  “You must have some relatives you can go to.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Then friends—”

  “I want to go to Hunter Academy.”

  “The academy location is a secret. I’m not allowed to bring people back.”

  I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Brydon was sleeping before I turned to Rune. “Rune, take me to Hunter Academy.” I tried to catch his eyes.

  “I’ll drop you off at a hotel.”

  Irritation gnawed at my insides. Command wouldn’t work well unless he looked into my eyes. “I don’t have money!”

  “I can pay for your room,” he said.

  “Take me to Hunter Academy. I want to enroll.”

  “They don’t take applicants.”

  “Then where do they get their students?”

  “Through recommendations of respected hunters.”

  “They might make an exception for me.”

  “They don’t do exceptions.”

  “You never know.”

  He finally looked at me, and I seized the opportunity to stare into his eyes, chanting a silent command. The light in his eyes flickered before he blinked and looked away.