“She’s mine,” Sorin said as he watched Luca disappear into the darkness below.
“Not if I get her first,” Luca responded.
“Now, boys,” Indikaiya said with a smile as she followed Luca. “An expression I have heard used often in this world is ‘ladies first.’ Are you not all gentlemen?”
“I’m no gentleman,” Rurik said as he went in after the others. From a short distance away, Sorin heard a cry of alarm. Jimmy and his squadron were here; their presence was not a secret. It had begun.
* * *
This was it. Finally, the end had arrived. One way or another, the turning point in this war happened today. It was time. Past time. Indikaiya stayed close to Sorin, while she could. When the fighting began they would likely be separated. She reminded herself that it would be foolish to allow his presence here to distract her from her purpose.
This would be a fight to the death. Either the war with vampires would end and she and Sorin would walk to the other side together, or they would die fighting and be returned there in a flash.
Together, as partners and lovers. She could not imagine returning to her own world without him. He was necessary. It had been a long time, a very long time, since she’d thought of any man in that way.
Indikaiya had long been eager for this war to end for many reasons, but a new eagerness spurred her on. A new life awaited her, as well as Sorin. A real life, with love and laughter and… happiness. Happiness! What would come after the end of this war would be more than waiting for the next fight, more than living in limbo waiting for another chance to redeem herself.
And why did she feel such a need for redemption? Why had she been so willing to fight for an eternity to save innocents? She’d fought during her own life and after. She was one of the oldest of the Warriors, one who had never even considered moving on to whatever might be waiting in the next world. She would not move on now, not even if she felt herself worthy. Sorin would serve a long while, she imagined. She would serve beside him.
Indikaiya allowed Rurik to pass her in the silent stone hallway. She edged closer to Sorin, not daring to speak. Vampire hearing made even the lowest whisper impossible. It was likely some would hear their very footsteps, no matter how quietly they moved along this passageway.
But she touched his arm, and in response he glanced down at her. She looked at him with what she hoped was love. Love and hope. She was ready. Ready to begin again.
Sorin nodded, as if he knew what she was thinking. Perhaps he did. He smiled. Before she could return that smile the alarm was raised and they all rushed forward, swords ready, hearts full. Vampires and Warriors here below; humans and Warriors above.
It was time.
* * *
He wanted this to be the end. He wanted, so desperately, to return to a normal life. If a normal life was even possible. Knowing what he knew now, having seen the greatest of atrocities, would his life ever be normal again?
Jimmy fought back to back with Kevin Brown. He didn’t know what drove Kevin to fight so hard, but Jimmy knew what he was fighting for.
A life with Kate. A home. A world where walking after the sun set wasn’t as dangerous as jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. He wanted kids, kids who would live to be old and happy and safe.
Some vampires would survive. Some should survive, those like Luca and Chloe, Duncan and Isaac, a handful of others who had come to their side. But seriously, he wanted bloodsuckers to be an endangered species. This uprising… the uprising had to end in a way that would discourage any other power hungry vamp from trying this again. At least in his lifetime. Maybe even his children’s lifetimes.
Children. His mind could not go there. He might not survive this battle, much less live to be a father.
Jimmy didn’t fight for his own survival. He had accepted the very real possibility of his own death long ago. He fought for Kate and those like her. He fought for all the humans who could not fight for themselves. And Kate… even if he didn’t live to be a father, she should have the chance to be a mother. Watching her with Phillip these last few weeks had proven to him that she’d be a good one.
This was a battle like many others, even though it was taking place in daylight. He preferred to disable the glamoured humans, rather than killing them, knowing that if Luca and Sorin and the others were successful, the humans who had not chosen to be here, who had not chosen to serve monsters, might survive. But some of them had chosen this path, they wanted to live and fight among vampires. Sick bastards.
Men and women from both sides of the battle fell on a once normal street, in tall grass that had not seen a lawnmower in months, and along a sidewalk where kids had once skipped and ridden bikes and been pushed in strollers. Some of those who fell were wounded, others were dead. There were a few strong vampires among Marie’s army, a very few who could withstand some sun but who kept to the shade as much as possible.
They fell, too, but not as easily as the glamoured humans.
A handful of Warriors fought here today, as they had fought for months. Jimmy saw two of them die and then disappear, very early on, but since that time they had been untouched.
Nevada’s protection spell or skill? Both, he imagined.
The battle was waning, his side was winning, and then Jimmy spotted a new player. An old man, judging by the way he moved, head covered by a deep hood which was a part of the robe he wore, seemed to float toward Kevin. He stopped, turned toward Jimmy, and smiled.
In the darkness beyond the edge of the hood, eyes gleamed red.
Jimmy shouted, “Kevin, behind you!”
* * *
Marie knew they were coming. Of course she did. She had considerable powers. Sorin led the way, down a narrow hallway, into another, wider hallway where they had done battle in the past. It was here that he had made the decision to change sides. It was here that the shift in his soul that allowed him to leave the monster he had been behind and embrace the man he had been and could be again had begun.
Since he had changed, since he was no longer vampire, would Marie be able to identify his energy? Would she realize he had come for her? He hoped not. He wanted her to be surprised when she saw him.
The so-called queen did not lead her army. Instead she stayed behind and sent others to stop the invaders. That was her way; it had been from the beginning. She sent others to their deaths. In the darkness, her vampires could — and did — fight. Three vampires came around a corner with a war cry that echoed off the stone walls of this dungeon. With claws, swords, knives, and teeth, they met the raiding party of four that had come to end their rebellion.
Sorin had never fought as a Warrior until this moment. He could no longer fly — flight was the only power he would truly miss — but he retained his skills, and most of his speed. His strength actually seemed to be increased.
Marie’s three soldiers fell quickly. If these were the best she had to offer, taking the mansion would be quick work. Sorin took the male in the lead, and Luca felled the behemoth of a monster that had been behind the leader. Together Rurik and Indikaiya took down the vicious female who had attacked like a bird of prey — from above, and with sharp talons. All three went to dust in a matter of minutes.
Sorin looked back and down to catch Indikaiya’s eye. The male in him wished he had been able to leave her behind, to keep her safe, to protect her from battles such as this one. She was his woman now, and it was his instinct to protect her. But Indikaiya was a Warrior. She would never need his protection. That did not entirely erase the instinct, but he knew better than to try to send her to safety.
He accepted who she was as she accepted him.
They heard others — far more than three — approaching.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Ahron had not done battle in a very long time. He had not needed to battle. And yet here he was, throwing himself into the fray. In daylight, no less.
He’d left Marie when he’d seen that she would not succeed, when he had bee
n washed in the knowledge that she was not long for this world, but he had not traveled far before he’d realized that he had nowhere to go. There was no longer a Council to protect him. No home other than an abandoned warehouse. No children to serve him. His children — human and vampire — had all died a long time ago. What life was there left for him?
He had not realized how much he’d wanted Marie to succeed, how much he’d wished for true freedom, until he’d seen, so clearly, that she was going to fail. He so craved the freedom to walk among all others of the world. Freedom to feed as he desired, to make new children, to live.
So he had come back. He had returned to participate in a battle he knew Marie’s soldiers would lose. He would likely die here today, and he was not afraid. He wondered if Luca would be the one to take his life. It would be fitting that the strongest of his kind be the one to end him. Perhaps one of the Warriors would end him. They were impressive beings, he had to admit.
And yet, he had developed an irrational fear of a young human male. It was the reason he had told Marie the boy had to die, along with Sorin and Luca. He had made her think the mortal’s death would serve her well, but he’d been thinking only of himself. No fear was truly irrational. In the back of his mind he had sensed the danger for a long while, and in the past few days it had only grown. He had hoped to change what he knew, had hoped Marie would be able to erase the possibility as she’d erased Sorin… but no.
If he hid, he would survive, but Ahron did not want to hide any longer. He would not go back to life as he had come to know it. A true death was preferable, and it was waiting for him. It would come today.
Before he met his death, he would take out as many of the annoying humans as he could. They should pay for ruining Marie’s plans. They should not survive to see the world return to their rule, their supremacy.
The humans who fought on this annoyingly sunny day were well-armed. With swords and shotguns, they fought as soldiers will. For their lives. For victory. But they were merely humans, easy prey.
He set his sights on one who wore so many weapons strapped to his body that he should be crawling under the weight. Ahron delved into the human’s mind. He had killed many vampires in the last few months. He would kill more, if Ahron did not take his heart. This was not the human he had come to fear, but was another who needed to be eliminated.
The well-armed human’s blood would nourish an old vampire who needed nourishment. There would be no time to savor, but Ahron was fast. He had always been fast.
Another human — one Ahron instantly recognized as the boy, Jimmy, whom he had warned Marie to eliminate — called out a name. “Kevin!”
Ahron’s target turned, and without hesitation fired a bolt from his crossbow. Ahron caught that bolt in mid-air, and then he caught Kevin’s eye and smiled. His final hours might actually be enjoyable. The human turned his head and fought against the attempted glamour as he notched another bolt in his crossbow. The child could not harm him, Ahron knew. In an instant, this Kevin would nourish him, and then…
He was so focused on his prey that Jimmy’s quick movements surprised him. The blade of a sword caught the sun, and Ahron turned just in time to avoid being cut down.
Ahron was fast, he was powerful, but he had not fought in a very long time, and these humans did not have the good sense to be afraid. Jimmy kept coming, and this time the sword sliced skin. The wound was still healing when the other one, Kevin, put one of those annoying bolts through Ahron’s eye. He fell to the ground, flailing like a wounded bird.
His eye would heal, even his brain would heal, but the damage, the damage to his body and brain slowed his response. Sunlight beat down, too hot and bright, into Ahron’s one good eye. Another bolt went into his heart and he saw that blade again, reflecting the sun as it swept down to take his head.
He had been right to fear Jimmy. Marie had failed horribly when she’d allowed this insignificant human to live.
The last words Ahron heard on this earth were a breathless, disgusted, “Creepy fucker.” His last thought before he went to dust was Killed by humans. How embarrassing.
* * *
Indikaiya fought her way through Marie’s vampires, sword swinging. They were a good team, a fierce and dedicated band of Warriors — and yes, at this moment she considered Luca to be a Warrior — who cut through the enemy to make their way to their queen. Sorin had been right all along. Once Marie was dead, the revolution would fall apart.
She kept an eye on Sorin. She had seen him die once, and it had been devastating. If he was cut down today, if Marie or one of her soldiers ended him, he would go back to her world, their world, where she would see him again. He was Warrior now, one of them. He had been redeemed.
But she didn’t want to watch him go without her. When this war was done, she wanted to walk back to their home side by side, perhaps even hand in hand. He was more than a lover, he was a partner. The other half of her, in a way she had never expected him or any other man to be. To find him here had been unexpected, even shocking. After all these years, to be surprised by anything was a miracle.
She did not miss that he looked her way more than once, checking on her, making sure she was well even though he knew — as she did — that she could not die, not in the true sense of the word.
The army before them thinned. Seeing their compatriots go to dust, those vampires who did not perish in the dimly lit hallway turned and ran. Some of them succeeded in retreat, but others did not. A young vampire ran to the end of the hallway and turned toward what Indikaiya knew to be the stairway to the house above. From just beyond that corner, he screamed. And then another vampire met the same fate. And another.
The four of them, their team, stopped in the middle of the hallway. Luca whispered, “Marie,” and then, as if he had called her, the queen rounded the corner with a regal step. Her fine gown, bordering on ridiculous in this day and time, was covered with the ashes of her own soldiers, those she had punished for deserting her. She smiled, but when she saw Sorin that smile died. She stopped, stunned, but she recovered her calm quickly.
“I don’t know how you managed this, but I will enjoy killing you all over again.” And with that, she flew.
* * *
Sorin placed himself in front of the others. Marie was his. She had guided him, promised him power, promised him everything he’d ever wanted. She’d shown him how power corrupts. She unknowingly caused him to leave behind the monster he had become for the Warrior he was today.
And she had killed him. He owed her for that. He owed her for Jonas — the vampire she’d tortured and killed, a vampire without whom this war would not have been possible — and for Nevada, for Chloe’s mother. He owed her for Phillip, for Phillip’s mother, and for all the humans she had killed or glamoured beyond repair. He owed her for Melody, Sorin’s own vampire offspring who had died early on in this war, a silly, bloodthirsty child who never should’ve been called a soldier.
What he owed her was justice. That was who he was now, who he had become. Justice.
He had seen her fight many times, so he knew how she would attack, what she would do when she reached him. Her eyes were on him; she seemed to have forgotten about or else foolishly dismissed the others. Mistake. Sorin took a stance that indicated he intended to meet her head on. His sword was held high and ready. His eyes locked to hers. She was coming for him; she wanted to kill him again. When she reached Sorin he ducked down, tucked the sword close to his body, rolled along the floor, and shouted a name.
He rolled up in time to watch Indikaiya swing her sword and take Marie’s head.
Marie had time to scream in frustration, just once, and then she went to dust. It had happened fast, perhaps too fast, but it was done. The power in the mansion shifted instantly. He felt it. Luca felt it more strongly, he could tell by the way the blood born glanced up. Marie’s children were now weakened. Her glamoured humans were free of her influence. The war was not over, but it soon would be.
Luca st
epped over Marie’s dust as if it were poison. “You could have warned us what you two had cooked up.”
“It was not planned,” Sorin said.
Luca scoffed. “Looked planned to me.”
The four of them walked toward the stairway. A few vampires would need to be dealt with, before they could retake these headquarters. Sorin took a moment to ruminate on the fact that he was walking down the hallway side by side with Luca Ambrus. They had been on the same side for a while, but they had never been what anyone would call friends, or even friendly acquaintances. And yet now there was no animosity.
“What will you do now?” Sorin asked.
Luca did not hesitate to answer. “I’m going to take my family and go home.”
“And home is…”
“None of your business,” the blood born mumbled.
Scotland, Sorin thought, though he wasn’t sure why. He had a lot to learn about being a Warrior.
As they reached the end of the hallway, four heads snapped to the side when they heard a meek call from beyond a closed door. Rurik shouted for the woman they’d heard to stand back, and then he kicked in the door.
Sorin smiled, and offered the woman in that room a hand. It was a very good day indeed. Though she would not remember him — he had seen to that — he remembered her well.
“Mrs. Stargel, Phillip will be so happy to see you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The war was over; she should not cry. Marie had been dead a week, and every day there were fewer battles. Fewer rebel vampires. The time for shedding tears was over, right? The world was safe, or at least as safe as it had once been.
Nevada turned her head and wiped her eyes when Rurik walked into the room. She didn’t want his last memory of her to be one of her red-faced and puffy. Some women might look attractive when they cried, but she was not one of them.
Warrior Rising Page 22
