“Guess we should be ready for anything,” he said with an excited gleam in his eye. He actually looked forward to facing the unknown.
I opened my door as my passengers did likewise. We met on the passenger’s side of the grass and scanned the grounds before us.
There was a playground to the right with swings, a seesaw, and a slide. A basketball court lay just beyond, but at this time of night, both areas were vacant. I scanned the long swath of green grass and the tennis courts to the left, but again, it lay vacant. That seemed odd. Usually, during this time of night, a small group of family or friends occupied this area, having dwindled from even larger numbers, reluctant to part after spending only a few hours together.
“We’re at the right park, right?” I asked Celestina.
She left Nolan and I and then crossed the sidewalk, heading along the concrete path leading to a McDonald’s across the street.
“What the heck!” said Celestina, scanning every direction. “Mom said she’d be here.”
“Maybe she…” Upon seeing movement under a flickering lamppost beside the nearly always abandoned public restrooms a few hundred feet away, since the city seemingly never unlocked these rooms, I stopped speaking and remained on guard, waiting for further indication that someone might have bad intentions.
The lamppost light glowed bright for a full two seconds before shimmering again, allowing me to catch an eyeful of what Celestina had seen. My breath caught at the sight, and I halted.
Two rows of ten individuals faced us, but they directed their attention on someone ahead of them because their heads shifted ever so slightly from left to right as though receiving instructions from someone who walked back and forth alongside them.
A second later, two women stepped into view with their backs to us. The taller of the two women stepped forward, directed her attention to both pairs of the four men flanking her. She narrowed her arms, closing in to point at the twenty individuals standing opposite her.
The eight men sprang toward their prey and attacked them with feral intensity, while their victims didn’t so much as budge a muscle. They just stood in place as though disinterested or unmoved by how the predators unleashed a fury of violence. Someone had obviously compelled them not to move.
A vampire may have accomplished the deed, but I suspected that while Darius had likely turned these humans into vampires before I ended his life, I doubted he’d had enough time to train each of his recruits. After all, Kendall had difficulty compelling the woman who’d knocked on my door last night, but even then, she lacked the self-confidence to finish the task to the best of her ability. Plus, I’d relied on my experience during those instances where Alexis had attempted to infiltrate my mind and push thoughts into my brain that I’d otherwise never even consider.
There was only one reason to brainwash the twenty humans into stillness. Zephora had instructed the group of eight men to attack them…in order to turn them into vampires. She needed a large army, and tonight she had apparently set out to recruit new members.
Zephora may have instructed Alexis to compel the twenty humans in order to determine my sister’s level of skill. On second thought, I had difficulty believing my sister could manipulate almost two dozen people at the same time. One person? Definitely. Four or more people? Highly unlikely. Alexis was too impatient and had a tough time placing her undivided attention on any given mission for more than a couple minutes. Besides, she preferred to use her gifts with blunt force rather than smooth, seductive efficiency. Not only that, but she sought out circumstances where she could wield power over others, while her victims looked on without the ability to defeat her. In other words, she was a bully.
Zephora, on the other hand, relished the idea of forcing others to do her bidding without them any the wiser. That route reduced the tendency of revolt. Zephora preferred subtlety to brute force and grand gestures. She liked to work her magic in the shadows. In fact, if given the chance, I’d bet she’d allow Alexis to steal the spotlight, to work as a figurehead, while Zephora pulled her strings.
The eight men dug their sharp teeth into their victims’ necks, spraying blood through the air.
Far from werewolves, who would have transformed into hairy beasts in order to use their weight, strength, and dexterity to their advantage, these men remained in human form. More precisely, these men moved in a sleek, efficient manner, unwilling to sacrifice the least bit of wasted movement in order to wreck the most havoc within the shortest amount of time possible.
Only vampires had those attributes.
The crew of vampires had each taken down one human, while the dozen other brainwashed individuals stood upright, completely at ease, failing to acknowledge the rampage around them. One vampire after another used its fangs to cut into a vein from their wrists before fastening it against their victims’ mouths, allowing them to ingest their vampire blood, which would turn them into bloodsuckers, once the vamps ended their lives.
Alexis had called upon her daughter in order to witness this vampire initiation ceremony. I set my gaze onto Nolan, who had already met my stare with barely contained excitement, obviously ready to take on these vamps to steal some of their supernatural power before dusting them.
I popped the trunk, rushed over to it, and removed the Soul Sword. Nolan snagged my shirt, careful not to touch me, lest he accidentally remove supernatural strength from my being. I swung back. “What’re you doing? We have to help the innocent people.”
“They’ve got two witches, eight vamps, and almost two dozen people about to get turned into vampires. There are just three of us, and we can’t count on Celestina to—”
“To what?” asked my niece, turning back to him with a glare. “To turn evil?” A low growl erupted from deep in her throat. Rather than wait for a response, she darted toward the crowd a couple hundred feet ahead of us. Her arms and legs pumped in swift, regimented bursts.
Nolan looked after her. “I guess she made up our minds for us.”
Instead of replying, I slammed down the trunk and raced after Celestina. I appreciated the cool breeze hitting me as I ran across the field. A moment later, Nolan sped past me, snatched a thick wooden stick a few inches in diameter, which had earlier fallen to the grass from the giant tree overhead, and surpassed Celestina a second later.
He rushed past Zephora and Alexis and launched himself onto a vampire’s back. Nolan swung the vamp around, reared back his right hand, and slammed the stick into its heart. As the vampire burst into dust, Nolan turned his attention to the unconscious (or, more likely, dead) man on the ground, with blood-slicked lips. Nolan hesitated for a moment, but because the man beside him would soon turn into a vampire, he rammed the stake into the man’s heart, preventing him from returning to this world as either a human or vampire. Since the vampire blood had already entered his bloodstream, the man disintegrated into a pile of particles.
Nolan turned to the next vampire, who had disregarded the dead human under him. He rushed Nolan and threw a right cross, knocking him a few steps backwards before he regained his footing. Nolan lashed the stick across the vampire’s neck with incredible speed, lopping off his head. Next, he rushed to the man who had sucked down vampire blood and slammed the stick into his heart, killing him instantly as dust filtered to the ground.
The other eight vampires looked up from their victims, none of whom had yet consumed vampire blood. They stared at Nolan, looking uncertain whether to attack him or complete their mission.
“Finish them!” Zephora shouted.
The indecision on their faces vanished. They returned their attention to their human victims.
As the creator of all paranormal creatures, Zephora had the capability to influence each of these monsters, except of course, the witches in her line. Upon devising these rules, she probably now wished she’d given herself the capacity to coerce everyone into abiding by her every command, especially now since Nolan and I had appeared.
While each vampire opened a vein,
prepared to force their victims to drink the blood from their opened wounds, Nolan raced around each of them in one swoop, knocking each vampire off those they intended to turn.
Zephora snarled, her eyes twinkling with disgust. She extended an arm and pointed at him. “End him!”
The vampires darted toward Nolan, but rather than gang up on him and potentially get an arm thrust in their face by one of their comrades, only one vamp attacked at a time. Either that or these vamps were complete strangers and therefore not bound by duty or honor to protect or defend one another.
Zephora or Alexis could have entered the fray, but I suspected they stood on the sidelines in order to allow the vampires to wear down Nolan as well as discover what abilities he might call upon. Although Alexis would never hesitate to enter the fray, Zephora probably wanted to determine his fighting style to discover any weaknesses, as well as to learn if he might use any supernatural abilities beyond his strength and speed. Either way, this time we’d get a free pass. It wouldn’t occur again, so I focused my energy on the vampires, now that one had broken ranks and sped toward me.
“Not all of you!” Zephora yelled at the vampires. Aggravated, she shook her head at their failure to comprehend her instructions. “Half of you…” She motioned toward the humans. “Turn them.”
Four vampires nodded their heads and rushed over to the humans they had left on the ground.
Unwilling to let them follow Zephora’s plans, I rushed past Alexis.
“Hey, sis,” she said. “Glad you could join the party.”
I ignored her, glad that Celestina had branched off from me and pulled up beside Alexis, probably to try and get her to end this horrendous attempt to multiply the vampire population. I appreciated that, since she might distract my sister from attempting to stop me. I rushed toward the first vampire to cradle a human’s neck in the crook of his elbow, tipping his head toward the patch of blood on his wrist. I had hoped to catch him from behind, but since I didn’t have super speed like Nolan, my heavy footfalls had attracted his attention.
Knowing that I’d reach him before the human in his arms had a chance to feed on him, he hopped to his feet and spun around with a sneer.
A second later, a headless vampire went flying through the air and bashed into the other three vampires who’d been attempting to get the humans to feed from them. The next moment, the headless vampire burst into dust. For the bloodsucker to have been airborne for more than a few moments meant that Nolan must have wasted a fraction of an instant in severing his head before sending him soaring through the air.
That striking image nearly disrupted my concentration as I avoided a vicious fist to the face and ducked a roundhouse kick. One of my greatest strengths from learning martial arts centered on my ability to anticipate an opponent’s impending assault based on their fighting stance and the direction of their body. I relied on that trait to predict this vampire’s movements. I blocked two more blows, back-stepped a kick to the gut, and before the vampire had a chance to perform a back-kick, I kicked his shin, knocking him to the ground.
I hurried over and attempted to impale the Soul Sword into his chest, but the vampire rolled away from me. When he leapt up, I swung the blade toward his mid-section, knowing it wouldn’t end his life, but I needed to slow him down, since the pair of vampires that had fallen to the ground by the headless vampire had shaken off their confusion and would soon confront me.
Since I didn’t have the superpowers that Nolan could call upon, I couldn’t count on the element of surprise to confound the vamps. They could move quicker and withstand much more abuse than I could. A surge of finality entered my body, and rather than rely on my martial arts abilities or attempt to cut open the three vampires from rushing me, I extended a hand and drew the energy in my direction with the intention of forcing it at the vampires who approached me.
Try though I might, I felt the energy receding from me, rather than approaching me. Puzzled by this bizarre reaction, I placed more emphasis on suctioning the energy surrounding me, but once again, the molecular pressure in my vicinity extended outwards. Instead of allowing a third attempt to enter my mind, I needed to attend to the vampire who now rushed me. I avoided a left uppercut and right jab combination and then kicked him into the two vampires heading toward me.
As the trio fell to the ground, I reached out and let a charge of heat bolt through my chest and into my arms. I directed an outstretched palm toward the vampires, and flames erupted from my hand, shooting toward the vamps.
When the jet of fire reached them, the flames dwindled and dipped to the grass a few inches from the vampires, who stared at the ground, perplexed as to how the fire died out.
Unlike the vampires, I didn’t need to reflect on what caused my flames to sputter out. I glanced back at Alexis, who stared at Zephora in rapturous astonishment. For her part, Zephora notched an eyebrow at me, unfazed by her ability to thwart my magical abilities. She had either issued a spell to combat the effectiveness of my flame-throwing ability or used an unknown power of her own to stifle my attack. I suspected that she’d also rendered my ability to manipulate the energy around me. She might be able to stop my magical abilities, but she couldn’t stop fifteen years of martial arts training.
The slight curve in her lips revealed that she took great pleasure in preventing me from charring the vampires ahead of me.
Her amusement proved short-lived, however, when a heart fell at her feet (another victim of Nolan’s) before turning to dust. Appalled, she stepped backwards, placing a hand to her heart as though a woman of her renowned and delicate nature was unfamiliar with such gruesomeness. A second later, she steeled her emotional fortitude, no longer permitting her dainty outlook to affect her.
If I hadn’t been examining her, I wouldn’t have noticed her aversion to violence. It seemed that Zephora took pleasure in defeating others, but not from inciting physical.
Meaning she’d stopped my attempt to burn the vampires because it prevented her from achieving her goals.
Zephora glanced at Nolan, and her eyes flashed with surprise.
Nolan sent the fourth vampire he faced sprawling into one of the humans, which set off a chain reaction as though each person was a domino, not a human being. They hit the ground and glanced around at each other, confused. When a couple of them saw Nolan and a vampire engaged in battle, they scrambled to their feet and ran away, hurrying toward the long concrete path, which would take them out of the park and toward the street. Likewise, the other humans acknowledged the fight with widened eyes, as well as ten other humans standing perfectly still like statues. Some of them shrieked, while others remained silent, but all of them got to their feet and scurried away.
Alexis started to run after them, but Zephora extended an arm across her chest, stopping her.
One vampire had just torn open the skin from his wrist, prepared to force the human on the ground to drink from him, but instead he leapt up and sped toward me.
I’d lost the element of surprise, but like most of the vamps I’d confronted in the past few days, this one had just turned and hadn’t enough experience to move sleekly or with limited motions to prevent his opponent from anticipating how she might attack. The vampire reeled back an arm to punch my face, but substituting an attempt to block his fist, I swung the Soul Sword at it. The blade severed his arm with ease. His limb fell to the grass, and blood squirted from his extremity.
The vampire, gawking at his appendage in shock, turned back to me and screamed. He didn’t attack me. He just stood there and continued screaming. I arched my sword behind me and swung it toward him, removing his head. On my way to the next vampire, who jumped to his feet with a scowl and used his forearm to drag the slick blood from his lips, I lightly kicked a pair of humans, both of whom bumped into two others on either side of them. If they acted similarly to those who’d fallen earlier, they would regain their bearings and run away.
The next vampire dashed over to me quicker than I’d expected and
fired off a fierce uppercut. It caught me by surprise and bashed into my chin. Pain sizzled through my jaw, and the blow flung me twelve feet backwards. When I hit the ground, I barely got to my feet before the vampire had encroached upon me, holding the Soul Sword. I hadn’t even realized that I’d dropped it, but seeing another person holding it, I no longer felt an ache along my jawline as a possessive instinct took hold of me. My senses heightened and the inner fortitude inside me strengthened as I focused on the vampire who’d taken my birthright.
He swung the blade to my left.
I dodged it easily, and before he lifted it and swung right, I sidestepped the maneuver, somehow knowing he’d position it in that direction. I punched him in the face, knocking him backwards with such force that he wind-milled his arms in an attempt to regain his balance. I had no doubt that the Soul Sword had somehow reached out to me, bypassing a verbal message in favor of a mental one to let me know which direction the vampire intended to send the blade.
Before he could fall backwards, I grabbed hold of the vampire’s shirt, tugged him toward me, and bashed my fist against his chest. As my knuckles collided with his skin, I felt bones break behind it, which issued an “oomph” from the vampire’s mouth, causing him to drop the Soul Sword. My eyes settled on the blade with rapt attention, as though I’d spotted a missing portion of my body that I’d longed to reconnect with. Before I knew it, I’d ignored the vampire in search of reacquiring my sword.
From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the vampire Nolan now fought.
He’d tried to hit Nolan with a roundhouse kick, but my bandmate and swiped an open chop across vamp’s throat, severing his head from its body as though he’d used the sword I now sought. A cloud of dust sifted through the air. Without wasting movement, Nolan addressed the next vampire, who whipped a fist toward his head. Nolan ducked and kicked the vampire’s kneecap, sending him to the ground. Before the vamp could get to its feet, Nolan threw a backhanded chop into its neck, removing its head as though his flesh and bones consisted of sand.
Bloodstone Page 17
