I only saw how many of them had had me pinned as they scattered back, rolling, slapping, beating, to try to stifle the flames. I smiled. Blue fire was harder to douse than normal fire. It was like fire on crack. They would burn in agony until Corbin came and put them out of their misery. Six of them were out of commission, for the moment. I turned my attention to the others. They had scattered to the corners, cowering rather than fighting, and I almost felt sorry for them.
I bent down and grabbed my axe. “I’ll let you pick. Axe or fire. As you can see, fire hurts a lot more. But if you bite me, you get fire.”
One vampire broke for the window, making a dive at the glass. My axe caught it in the back, pinning it to the wall near the window. I pulled back, and swung again, taking it’s head. Before the head had hit the floor, another one was on me, straddling my back, it’s teeth sinking into my neck from behind. I screamed, shifting my axe to one hand and reaching back. I felt it’s disgusting head, and pushed the fire out. It fell off, screaming in agony.
Six vamps remained, darkening the corners. They hissed at me. I pointed to the headless vamp, and then to the one ones on fire, their tormented screams filling the room. They were writhing in pain, no longer a threat. “You pick. The easy way, or the hard way.”
One scuttled forward awkwardly, it’s eyes sad and anguished. There was no way to tell if it had been a male or a female when it was human. It’s slimy white body was smooth and sexless. “Please,” it said around a mouth full of teeth. “End my suffering. I did not choose this.” It bent until it’s head nearly touched the ground. I swung before it saw it coming, feeling like a real bastard, something I’d never felt for killing a vamp before. This was one weird fucking Kiss. Most newborns couldn’t speak, let alone communicate clearly. I had been doubtful that they would even understand me when I spoke. I made a note to ask Corbin about talking newborns, first chance I got.
I waved my axe. “Anybody else wanna go the easy way?” I asked, almost wanting them to fight now. That last one had seemed too pathetic to be a threat, even though logically I knew better than to doubt that it was.
Another one scuttled forward. It’s forehead tilted to the ground, and it let out what sounded suspiciously like a sob right before I took it’s head. I felt one rush me from behind and I used the momentum of the swing to turn, catching it on the side of the jaw, then following through for a clean beheading. At least it hadn’t bitten me.
Three more remained. One scuttled forward, bending it’s head. I was swinging when it struck, going for my ankle, of all things. I chopped it’s head off right as it’s teeth made contact, before they had time to sink in. I decided to be nice, and let my axe take it, since it hadn’t technically bitten me.
Predictably, one jumped on my back as I dealt with that one, and I used blue fire as it tore into my shoulder. Bastard took the hard way.
The last one never moved, just cowering in the corner, making me go to it. I felt oddly reluctant to strike. These were like no other vampires I’d ever seen, and I felt pity as I looked at the slimy thing. “I’m sorry,” I told it, raising my axe.
It hid it’s face, but I heard it’s muffled words just before I struck. “Don’t be sorry. I want death. Death is much better than this.” I took it’s head.
I shook myself, moving to the doorway, sure there were more rooms to clear, though if Christian had faired as well as I, the two main nests had been eliminated.
Corbin Helsing met me in the doorway. His eyes widened as he saw the room’s carnage, blue fire rampant. “The master is dead, the Kiss weakened, though it looks like you hardly needed the advantage, since I just barely killed him. What the fuck is that blue stuff?”
I blinked at him, shocked at myself for a moment. I usually avoided using the blue, particularly if Christian was near, and here I had almost just left it burning. “Don’t speak of the blue flame. Just stake them, so I can get rid of it,” I told him, sore, and pissed, and depressed about those pathetic creatures. I couldn’t scrounge up an ounce of good manners just then, so I sounded as mean as I felt.
Corbin didn’t even seem to notice, just nodding and setting to work, staking all fourteen of the creatures quickly and quietly, chanting softly over every crumpled vampire.
He stood as he finished, his chanting increasing in volume. All at once, every still body in the room turned to ash. Corbin nodded grimly.
I called off the flames, closing my eyes as it rushed back into my body, causing me to shiver. Corbin was giving me wide eyes. I shook my head at him. “Don’t ask. Just lead.”
We searched the rest of the floor, finding one, smaller pocket of vampires. They all fought hard, but they were weakened, and no teeth reached us as we dispatched the ugly creatures, one by one.
“Some of them begged me for death, back in the other room. I never knew the new ones could even speak,” I told Corbin, as we made our way down the hallway.
Corbin shook his head, his jaw tightening. “They can’t, normally. Something truly fucked-up was going on with this Kiss, though I can’t say for sure just what. I’m determined to find out, though. If not tonight, then tomorrow.”
He looked at me as he spoke, and I nodded at him. I believed him, and I wanted him to find those answers. Those vampires being something other than the mindless killing machines I was used to had been disconcerting, to say the least.
We made our way downstairs, taking out another five vamps in a closet of a room. They cowered all the while, one of them sobbing almost like a human as it begged for it’s end, and Corbin grimaced even as he turned them to dust. “Something is very wrong here,” he said. I agreed wholeheartedly.
Christian was still fighting in the first room when we joined him. Ten lay headless on the ground, and he was actively fighting one, with two more cowering in the corner. He took it’s head as we entered the room, as though he’d just been toying with it. Perverse bastard probably had been.
Christian pointed to the two vamps cowering in the corner, looking almost angry. “Those things begged me not to hurt them, and didn’t attack. Make fun of me all you want, but I don’t have it in me to kill something that pathetic.”
I raised my hands, giving him a look. I hadn’t been about to make fun of him. Not for that, anyways.
Corbin just nodded, approaching the two vamps. “That’s fine. I have it from here.” He knelt down near them, holding out a hand. He whispered to them, sounding reassuring. “I’ll end your suffering,” he told them.
I watched, fascinated, as one of them actually reached out and clutched his hand. Corbin chanted softly, and the creature went slack. It didn’t even twitch when he staked it. The other vamp didn’t hesitate to take his hand when he reached out again.
The house was completely clean of vampires when we headed out.
Our misfit crew was waiting outside, looking anxious and tense, as though expecting ravenous vampires to break out of the house at any second. We got a lot of relieved looks when they saw that it was us.
“The house is cleared,” Corbin told them, and that was all.
We didn’t tell them about the strange, depressing vampires we’d encountered. I don’t think any of us were anywhere near approaching proud of the slaughter.
I advanced silently to the next house, wanting to move on from that strange ordeal, Christian a silent presence at my back. Our ragtag crew followed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Best Friend/Arch Nemesis
We were fortunate to have a necromancer with us. Their magic had almost no use against the living, but they had a special affinity for the dead. Gretchen was able to sense a necro presence from small distances. Which was particularly useful here since she could give us a sense of what we were walking into with each building we came to.
She froze as we approached one of the larger buildings. “This one is swarming with them.” Her voice was hushed with fear. “We’re going to need a lot more backup. This building must have many underground levels. I can feel thousa
nds of them.”
“All in this one building?” I asked her.
She nodded. “I sense heavy movement in there. I think it is some sort of escape route they’re using.”
Christian cursed. “We’re almost out of TNT. And nothing I brought is big enough to take out that many of them.”
“Back up a little. There’s something I can try,” I told our small group. Christian raised a brow at me, but they all backed away.
I approached the structure cautiously. I placed my hand on the wall, concentrating. I paced back to my group, speaking to the necromancer. “Can you bind the door against them? Keep them from getting out?” My knowledge of necromancy was negligible, but I could remember that they had some spells for binding the dead to a location.
She bit her lip, looking unsure. “For how long?”
“I only need a few minutes. But during those few minutes they will be wanting very badly to get out.”
“I can bind them, but I’ve never tried with so many before. My spell will hold, but I can’t guarantee more than a few minutes.”
I nodded. “It should be enough.” I turned to Christian. “I need the rest of you to go for backup. Tell them we’ve encountered a hive.” Christian was shaking his head at me. He didn’t like this idea. We usually stuck together in battle. It was an old habit.
“You’ll be back in five minutes. Trust me, please.” The thirteen soldiers who had taken to following us, obeyed. Christian followed them reluctantly, shooting glares back at me as he did. I would be getting hell for this later, I knew.
Gretchen began her ritual at the door of the deceptively small, windowless building. It was cinder block. There was no fuel to burn inside. Unless, of course, you counted the bodies.
I worked about five feet away, hand on the gray stone wall. I was no fire sorcerer. I didn’t need to call the fire down from above or below. The fire was inside of me. I merely had to unleash it. It was even somewhat of a relief to unleash some of the furious inferno that resided inside of me. I pushed it out with less effort than I expected. It pushed through the walls and to the creatures within almost too easily. And once there, it blew out like a silent explosion to engulf the creatures inside, too quickly to track. It felt good to release the fire I kept so tightly reigned most of the time. I didn’t hold back a bit of it, because for once I didn’t have to. I felt the fire leave me, but it was my fire, so I also felt what it did, touching one flesh-eater after another as it engulfed the hive.
The sounds that escaped from the building were tortured and wretched. Anguished screams filled the air. I pushed the fire inside the building, burning. Burning them all where they stood. I stood braced against the building by one arm, my being centered on the destruction inside. For long minutes I stood that way, mercilessly trapping them in that all consuming inferno.
The building’s flat roof suddenly burst into the air. It seemed to fly up and disappear. In fact, it disintegrated. A light rain of ash that peppered the battleground was all that remained of it. It was only seconds before necro hands began to emerge through the top of the building. They were making short work of climbing out.
In a flash I was hovering above them. Against my will, I had become flame personified. I looked down at my now glowing body. My power was shifting me against my will. Already I felt wings of flame unfurl from my shoulders. I halted the shift, but seemed unable to reverse the damage already done. I hung suspended in that in-between form, arms spread, back arched.
The climbing Necros froze at the sight of me. I shifted my gaze to them, and they began to scatter back into the building in terror. “Burn,” I tried to tell them, but my in-between mouth would not form human words. I breathed fire down on them in a tidal wave, and they burned.
Within minutes all that remained of the building was a great gaping hole in the ground. I drifted gently down to the earth, kneeling slowly to touch the ground. That touch was all I needed to ground myself. I shifted slowly back to human form, my clothes now singed and tattered. Well, that was new, and I wasn’t even winded. There was definitely something very wrong with my powers. I had never lost control like that before.
It was a moment before I noticed the crowd of fighters that stood frozen around me, mouths agape. I cringed as I realized the revealing show I’d just given them. It was then that I noticed Christian standing only a few feet away, Dragonsbane unsheathed into a double blade in his trembling hands. He was shaking his head back and forth as dawning terror lit his face.
“Jillian.” Christian’s voice sounded panicked. “Tell me I’m wrong.” Dragonsbane had unfurled into a bigger blade than I’d ever seen in his hands. Every fighter watching backed far away from him to stay out of it’s reach.
“You’re wrong,” I told him calmly. I had been lying for so very many years that I was more than good at it. I didn’t just know how to lie, I knew the perfect timing of a lie, knew how to inflect my voice with just the right conviction. I was still hopeful I could talk my way out of this one. Apparently I had an unexpected optimistic streak. Who’d of thunk it?
“How come I don’t believe you?” His voice broke.
“Nothing’s changed, Christian. You’re still a brother to me. What I am has nothing to do with-”
“Don’t you get it?” He was shouting now. “It doesn’t matter how I feel about you! My instinct is far stronger than my will. How could you? How could you be this abomination for all this time and I not see it?” Tears ran down his face, but he raised Dragonsbane to me threateningly.
I shook my head at him. He was my brother. He was one of a small handful of people I had ever allowed myself to get close to over the course of my wretched life. My strongest instinct had always been one of survival, but I didn’t think I could bring myself to fight the brother that my heart had chosen, not even for my life. “I won’t fight you. I love you, Christian. Nature won’t dictate my actions. It doesn’t have to dictate yours.”
“My line was created to destroy yours, when your kind descended into madness. It is my sole purpose for being.”
“I haven’t gone mad. You know that. Lynn is perfectly sane, as well. I agree that many of the dragons have gone mad. Most of them have, in fact. Those ones do need to be put down. But not me, Christian. Nothing about me has changed.”
His eyes were wild. “I was always taught that enchantment was your strongest power over the slayers. My father told me not to engage your kind in conversation. ‘They will try to deceive you, Son, into thinking they are benign creatures. In this way, they can take your soul before they take your head.’ But I couldn’t have dreamed…I never imagined….”
I just kept shaking my head at him, despair beginning to sink in. “I don’t want your soul. Or your head. Just your friendship. I’m sorry for all the secrets and lies, but you have to see that they were necessary. Put down the sword, Christian.” I began removing my own weapons, throwing them at his feet. Was I feeling suicidal? A little bit, apparently. “Would you attack me when I’m unarmed?” I blinked away the tears in my eyes as I waited for his answer.
He stared at me unblinkingly. His body was shaking, but his hands were steady. Finally, he nodded. A great roar sobbed out of his throat as he lunged at me. Dragonsbane was swinging straight at my neck. I braced myself to roll out of the way when he suddenly froze. A large fist in his hair had stopped him. I followed the hand up to the great figure looming behind him.
Dom brought his other hand to Christian’s throat. It was still a great bear claw, dripping blood from the battle, and Christian swallowed hard just looking at it.
“Take his arms and pin him down,” Dom spoke through a mouthful of bloody fangs. I didn’t recognize the animal they came from, but I knew it wasn’t bear. Wolf, like his eye, I realized, as I studied him, trying to focus on anything other than the fact that my best friend had just tried to kill me.
Druids swarmed the slayer, pinning Christian against his will. Sweat broke out on his forehead, but he was silent.
Dom arched his back into the night, letting out an earth shattering howl. It was a victory roar, and it was met by countless other animal calls. Despite heavy casualties, the druids were clearly victorious.
As he straightened, I noticed the dark blood seeping out of his torn vest and down his body. He was badly wounded and ignoring it.
“Dom, you’re hurt. You need to call on your healers-” I started.
“Silence!” he roared. Now was not the time to be giving him orders, I saw. He turned back to the slayer. “Cam,” he barked at his 2nd lieutenant. Cam stepped forward, completely nude and obviously newly changed from some beast form. He handed Dom a fist-sized object I couldn’t make out. He gave me a hard look before stepping back.
Dom knelt beside Christian’s struggling figure. “You will not seek to harm Jillian or Lynn. You cannot. On pain of death.” It wasn’t until he was snapping the bracelet of bones onto Christian’s wrist that I realized he had been placing a Geas. The most powerful one I’d seen. The eleven druids touching Christian all lent their power to it. Dom had clearly planned ahead for this. Christian finally stopped struggling. He shut his eyes wearily, tears slipping down his cheeks. He said something to Dom, too softly for me to make out. It could have been, “thank you,” but I wasn’t sure.
“Take him away,” he ordered. Several druids obeyed, carrying Christian away. I watched silently.
Dom stood, and a team of healers descended on him. He let them, staring straight ahead. They stripped off his body armor, and I could see clearly the damage he’d taken. His body was covered in countless, deeply gushing wounds.
Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters) Page 18
