Blood Hunt (Codex Blair Book 2)

by Izzy Shows

  No one responded, I suppose they didn’t think I merited a response, and instead the tension in the room broke and the two bodyguards launched themselves at us.

  I dug my feet into the ground, raising the blade so that it crossed my chest, gripping the stake tight in one hand.

  They separated quickly, one engaging Finn in hand to hand combat while the other focused on me.

  I ducked to avoid the first blow, shouted the Latin word for strength once as I drove my hand into its stomach, and then again as I brought my foot up in a roundhouse kick to the face.

  Unfortunately for me, while the first blow had caught the vampire by surprise, the kick had not. He gripped my foot in one hand and sent me spinning across the roof a moment later.

  I landed against the stone floor with a thud, barely managing to keep my head from slamming into it. I found myself wishing that I carried my gun with me more often, a bullet to the head might not put a vampire down but it certainly would come in handy to keep them away from me. And I disliked engaging in close combat with one; I was vastly outranked in skill.

  It wasn’t like I could take a gun from Finn either, he needed every ounce of help he could get.

  Speaking of which, if I was outranked…

  I dragged my blurred vision past the vampire approaching me and to Finn, who was sprawled on the ground with a gun in each hand, firing on his vampire continuously to keep it at bay. He was going to run out of bullets, and I wasn’t going to wait around to see what happened. I dragged myself to my feet.

  “Vis!” I shouted, launching myself in the air. As I reached him, I whipped myself around in a circle, driving my foot into the face of the vampire he was fighting, sending it away and crashing down to the ground. I landed in a crouch, rising to a stand again. My wand was already in my hand, and I brought it up and over my head, twirling it in a circle there. “Incendium!” I sprayed fire around us like a deadly umbrella, keeping the two away from us for the moment. “Get up!” I shouted down at him, reaching an arm out to him. He gripped it, scrambling to his feet, the blood having drained from his face, leaving an ashy pale complexion.

  I shifted the fire wand to my left hand, and used my teeth to remove the ring from my right hand’s middle finger. “Here.” I shoved it at him. “Put that on.”

  He glanced from me to the ring and back again before he finally put it on his little finger. “What’s this?”

  “Terra.” Petrified wood exploded from the ring, fitting around his fingers and spreading to his upper arm.

  “There. It’s a shield, it should keep you up while you fight.”

  He stared at me with eyes wide, and I could see a touch of fear there. Fear at the power I commanded, fear of me.

  I pushed down the guilt that came to mind, burning my insides worse than magic possibly could.

  He doesn’t understand magic. If he did, it wouldn’t matter to him, he would know how simple that focus had been to make, how little energy I’d had to put into it to keep it topped up, how infrequently I used it, I thought to myself. He’d know that I’m not something to be afraid of. I can explain it later, once we make it out of this alive.

  And then a blur surrounded us, weaving through the droplets of fire so quickly that it could not touch them, and a well-placed foot caused me to topple to the ground. I frantically dropped the fire spell, afraid that the change in stance would send it towards Finn, and whipped a stake up in front of me. Now that the fire was done with, the vampire stopped blurring and strode casually towards me. It was the one who had originally fought me, the other standing back with a smirk on its face.

  “We will never submit to the Baron. It has been a long time coming that we should leave him, and once we are done with you we will refill the ranks in the glory of The Dark One. He will guide us in our attempts, and we will triumph over London, and spread like the plague across the world.”

  Maybe a portion of the city. Raven’s words from the prior year came to mind and I laughed madly, shaking my head. A portion of the city, as if that was nothing to be concerned about. But it was likely true—the vampires had no idea how much work it would take to spread across the world, never mind the fact that there were so many different types of vampire out there. No, I didn’t see them as being able to take over the world, not now when I had just fought my way through so many of them to reach this roof top. They were going to die.

  Or I was, in a minute here.

  He scowled at my laughter, I had obviously hit a nerve with that. He launched towards me at the same time as I pulled my arm back so that the stake was now beside my face. “Vis,” I said, as calm as I could be with a vampire inches away from killing me, and launched the projectile through what air remained between us. It dug into the vampire’s chest, finding a home there. “Lux.” The stake ignited then, its enchantments lighting up like a Christmas tree, burning a hole through its chest and destroying the rest of him so that ashes fell on top of me.

  I sputtered, fighting the urge to retch at the idea that I had possibly just swallowed parts of a being that had just a minute ago, been whole.

  I stood at last, in time to see that while I had been preoccupied with my vampire, Finn had staked the other one. I suppose that shield had come in handy

  Without waiting a minute to look at one another, we turned to the trio as one.

  43

  My body shook, trembling from the exhaustion that threatened to claim me at any moment. The blood of my enemies covered me, soaked into my tank top along with a coat of sweat, staining my jeans, the amount of it no longer splotches. I felt it on my arms and face, and had the sudden thought that I must look at something straight out of a medieval fight scene. In one hand, I held a stake, in the other I held my wand, and blood was smeared across me like the blessing of Christ.

  I raised a hand to push back my hair, feeling wetness there and not sure if it had originated on my hand or if it had already been there.

  “As you can see,” I said, panting. “I will not be denied. I have destroyed everyone that you had, as you promised to do to me. You have no one and nothing left to you except your pathetic lives, and if you do not return to your Baron, then I will take those from you as well. You have been warned, listen to me and you can be spared.” My words were almost archaic, the medieval vibe jiving with me to such an intense degree. “I don’t think it’s your fault, what you’ve done here. Something has happened to you, and perhaps it could be reversed.” I added as a second thought, because I wanted them to know what I was offering them. They might be destroyed in the end, if they did as I asked, but there was at least the possibility of survival if they took the offer.

  They didn’t listen to me, barely managing to wait for me to finish my words, their heads shaking frantically as they launched out of their seats. I could see the intense hunger etched into their faces, despite the discarded bodies that I could now see at either side of the lounge. How long had they been there? Had the vampires been up here, feasting, all night? Or were those older bodies, the distance and death between us keeping me from identifying their state of decay.

  I had to think fast, there was no time to waste. They might just be three, but I had no doubt that they were the oldest of the vampires that we had gone up against, which meant that they would be much stronger.

  We engaged without losing a minute, fighting hand to hand and barely managing to block any of the blows. I took one to gut, the pain that exploded there assuring me that some sort of internal damage had been done. I didn’t want to think about what kind of shape I was going to be in—I already had a broken nose. I whirled to face one of the vampires, having just felt their claws biting into my shoulder blades, and was rewarded with the sensation of claws ripping into the sensitive skin of my stomach. I screamed, doubling over in pain, clutching at my stomach reflexively trying to staunch the bleeding that had begun there.

  Fuck. There was a real chance that I was going to bleed out if we didn’t get somewhere with this fight soon. And it ha
d only just begun. I raised the ice wand, intending to freeze one of them in place so that we would have one less to deal with for the moment, but it was knocked out of my hand before I could do anything.

  It fell to the floor with a pathetic clatter, the sound haunting me.

  This wasn’t good. Of course, it wasn’t good, but it was suddenly painfully clear to me that I was going to die here. I blocked a blow that came at my face, which I did not doubt would have broken my cheek bone.

  I was knocked to the ground a moment later, landing on my face and driving piercing pain throughout when my nose touched the concrete. I gasped, seeing stars and hearing the roaring pound of blood in my ears. I felt the wetness of blood pouring out of my face and gritted my teeth tight.

  I did what might have been a dangerous thing considering the condition I was in, and pushed the pain into the back of my mind, locking it behind a door. It was a trick I’d learned a long time ago, back when I’d been in foster care and on the receiving end of multiple beatings. Back then it had only meant blocking out pain to get through the day, to feel it later and deal with a potential black out at the end of the day when I would have slept anyway. Now, it could mean dying at any point because I wasn’t paying attention to how much pain I was in, which was the body’s way of letting you know that you needed to sit the fuck down.

  The three vampires converged on me, which only made me panic more—I turned my head and saw Finn lying on the ground. His head was still attached to his body, which made me feel a little better. Maybe they had just knocked him out, to be fed upon once they had dealt with me, but there was still the real possibility that they had killed him.

  No, I would know if he was dead, I would feel it, he can’t be dead. I can’t have failed so miserably.

  For a moment, I let the panic and despair consume me, watching the vampires step closer and closer and knowing that I was going to die if I didn’t do anything. How could I care about my own death when I didn’t know if Finn was alive or dead?

  Emily is still out there. Fred needs you.

  I took a deep breath, closing my eyes against the tears that were springing up, and forced myself to do my job.

  Two steps brought the three vampires close enough to me that I could reach out and grab an ankle each of two of the vampires. “Terra!” I gasped out the word, reaching deep inside of me for the small amount of magic that remained. I pulled it to the surface with much effort and shoved it out of my arms, screaming at the pain that erupted across my nerve endings. It hurt so much, there was so little move, but I made it work.

  Petrified wood encased their legs.

  They screamed, scratching at their bindings, writhing in pain.

  The third vampire leapt away from me, terror filling the once hunger haunted eyes. I pulled myself into a sitting position, one hand wrapped around my abdomen, and glared at him. “Mote,” I said, gesturing at the vampire with one hand as I reached for the power again. Along with the pain that fired through my veins, an invisible force moved through my arm and wrapped around the throat of the vampire that stood free. It was yanked close to me and brought to its knees there so that we were at eye level.

  “Vis,” I snarled, plunging my hand into its chest and wrapping around the monster’s heart. “Incendium.” The fire roared through me again and for a moment I reeled, unable to focus on anything other than the pain that rioted through me. But in that moment the vampire in front of me was crumbling to ashes and my hand was floating in the air there. I shifted my attention to the two vampires pinned in place.

  It took a lot for me to stand, but I managed it, grabbing the stake that remained in its holster. Without ceremony, I plunged it into the heart of the male that remained. “Lux.” I didn’t wait to watch it die, but instead turned to pick up the last stake that I would need.

  It took only a few steps to bring me to the last vampire, but I was panting, my head was heavy and starting to spin. I stumbled, and managed to get myself to stand steady. “Die, you toothy twat.” I ground the words out as I plunged the last stake home.

  There was one thing left to do, and I cast my eyes around me to figure that out. They’d said they were going to raise The Dark One—I had no idea what that meant, who that was, or if they had succeeded. My eyes landed on a body lying on a slab of marble beyond the sofa they had been sitting at, raised slightly on what might have been a parapet, though it stood alone. I stumbled across the roof towards it, half dragging the leg that had taken the most bullets, and clutching my side and hoping that I would make it. I threw myself down beside the parapet and panted for several moments, it started to feel like eternity by the time I gripped its edge and dragged myself to my feet.

  On the marble lay a man of swarthy complexion, long dark hair that reached his shoulders, and medieval garb. He had been down for a long time, and his eyes were still closed. I breathed a sigh of relief—they had not managed it. All around the slab of stone lay candles and incense, copper bowls full of blood, and other things I could not identify. A few of the candles looked like they had just burnt out, perhaps they had been starting the ritual when I had interrupted them. I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to wait around to find out. Reaching into my bag, I fished around and found that I had one stake left.

  Perfect.

  “Vis,” I gasped, slamming the stake into his chest. I hadn’t wanted to take any chances. “Lux.” I watched as the stake ignited and consumed the flesh of the vampire they had called The Dark One.

  It was over.

  The pain roared all around me now, and I crashed to my knees, the fatigue hitting me all at once. Somehow the door in my mind had opened and wouldn’t close. I couldn’t think though I knew that I needed to get myself under control.

  Finn.

  It was that thought that pushed my eyes to open, lighting a fire within me. Inch by inch, I pushed the pain back into its door and sealed it there. I dragged one foot under me and then the other, pushing myself to a standing position. I staggered over to Finn’s body, falling rather than kneeling beside him.

  “Finn!” I gasped, shaking his shoulder. “Finn, I need you to wake up.” A sob bubbled up from the raw inside of my throat, my voice hoarse but still audible.

  I heard a groan and began to weep, relief and happiness flooding my body.

  I had never felt so relieved. He was alive.

  44

  Finn looked up at me with bleary eyes.

  “Blair?” His voice cracked as he spoke. “Why are you crying?”

  “Because I thought you were dead, you bloody idiot. Oh Gods, don’t scare me like that ever again.”

  He grinned at me. “Haha, you care about me.”

  I shoved at his arm, then gasped in pain, doubling over and wrapping both arms around my abdomen.

  He lurched to a sitting position. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  “Nothing, it’s nothing, just uh…just a scratch,” I said, the smile I tried to bring to life coming out more as a grimace than anything else. “Just give me a moment.” I flexed my right hand, pressing it harder against my abdomen. “Servo,” I said. The magic had to come within me, which unfortunately sped the bleeding up for a moment, as I could not use a ring for the spell else it would have moved with the ring. A force field erected itself across my abdomen, acting as a stopper for the blood that otherwise would have seeped out. It was not a long-term fix, but it would keep me together and mobile long enough to get home and have Shawn examine me. I hoped he would be able to fix this without sending me to a hospital, I couldn’t go near a hospital for fear of what my magic would do to the machines there that people depended on to live.

  “We should probably go home now,” he said, staring at me. “I can call Shawn, after you walk a respectable distance away.”

  I made a face at him. “I do not break phones, thank you very much.”

  “You break smart phones,” he said with a glare.

  “Well…yeah, fuck you. Anyway, there are people down in the basement
we need to let out. They were captives, like me, and I told them to hang tight until I cleared the house.” I felt a new surge of happiness swelling in my chest—I had saved them. They hadn’t thought I’d be able to do it, and maybe a part of me hadn’t thought it either, but I had done it and they were going to go home to their families in one piece. I couldn’t wait to run down the stairs and tell them.

  I leaped to my feet to do just that, and promptly collapsed back down on one knee. “Hngh. I, uh, I need to take it slow, I think.”

  “Yeah, you do. And you were worried I was going to die.”

  “Of the two of us, who was unconscious, hm? Hm? It wasn’t me, I can tell you that.”

  “Oh, uh, of the two of us, who has their stomach leaking out?”

  “I do not have my stomach leaking out! I am bleeding, my stomach is fine!”

  He stared at me for several moments before he choked out a laughing sound. “Do you realise how ludicrous it is that you just said that?”

  I joined in his laughter. “You’re right, I can’t believe…wow. Look at our lives. Speaking of, how do you plan on explaining this to your bosses?”

  He grimaced. “I hadn’t thought of that yet. I’ll tell you what, though. We’re going to leave my involvement out, that won’t fly with them.”

  “I didn’t think it would.”

  “We’ll figure that out after we get you back in one piece, OK?”

  “Sounds good.”

  He stood up and then helped me to my feet, putting his arm under one of mine and then around my shoulders so that he was supporting most of my weight. With my other hand wrapped around my gut, we walked a few steps to pick up my wands. He fumbled, trying to help me put them back in their respect holsters.