He laughed as he kicked the stallion into motion and we left the farmhouse behind.
“I think you need to learn a bit about respect, novice,” he mocked.
I struggled in vain to free myself but he’d tied the reins too tightly. “Okay, okay I get it! Please just let me go now.”
“I will. In an hour.”
His laughter drowned out my swearing as the stallion picked up speed and we thundered away into the trees.
When my hour was up, Magnar slowed the horses and drew them to a halt.
Fury was simmering with rage in its sheath at my hip and I was glad to have at least one person on my side. Even if that person was more of an object.
“I think we’ve made enough of a commotion to draw the vampires to us,” Magnar announced.
I struggled feebly against my bonds, no longer interested in his plan to capture a vampire and torture the train station’s location out of them. All I wanted was to be cut loose and try to regain what little of my dignity remained.
“Are you going to let me go now?” I demanded through gritted teeth. The humour of the situation had long since faded and I was about ready to kill him. My hands had gone numb and my face was sore from rubbing against the stallion’s shoulder.
“Just as soon as you apologise,” Magnar replied, running his fingers across the skin on my wrists beside the point where they were tied. I tried to struggle away from his touch but I couldn’t escape him.
“You have got to be fucking kidding,” I growled.
“Unless you’d like another hour to think on it?” He caught my hand and tugged it, sending a spike of pain flaring through my shoulders. I bit down on my tongue, refusing to make a sound in response.
“I hate you,” I spat.
“Fair enough.” He nudged the stallion into motion and I cried out for him to stop.
“Alright alright!” Anger flared through me and suddenly I realised I didn’t have to let him treat me this way. I had my gifts now. I was capable of fighting back. “I’m... sorry,” I muttered, the word causing me physical pain.
“That’s better.” Magnar tugged the reins free and took my arm to help pull me upright.
But instead of allowing him to help me, I opened myself up to the memories of my ancestors and threw my elbow back, catching him in the chin. I threw my weight into him before he could recover and knocked him off balance. He fell sideways, slipping from the stallion’s back. My stomach lurched as he caught my ankle and yanked me down with him.
I fell on top of him in the dirt and threw a punch into his gut.
He grabbed my waist and tried to propel me beneath him instead but I jammed my knee into the earth, halting his progress. Before he could try anything else, I snatched Fury from its sheath and pressed it to his neck.
“Now you apologise,” I snarled as I glared down at him.
He relaxed his grip on my waist but didn’t remove his hands.
“I don’t owe you an apology,” he replied calmly but his eyes glittered with some emotion I couldn’t place.
“You just hog-tied me to the back of a horse for an hour,” I snapped as I pressed down on the blade. Fury hissed encouragement as it bathed in us holding the upper hand. “So say you’re sorry.”
“I’m not sorry. Look what you just managed to do because of it.”
My brow furrowed as I tried to understand what he was saying.
“You shouldn’t be this good, Callie,” he breathed. “Your gifts are far stronger than any I’ve ever seen. You know how to do things you’ve never been taught. It’s more than enhanced instincts. Do you know how many warriors have ever beaten me like this?”
My grip on Fury loosened and I moved it away from him a fraction.
“How many?”
“Since I completed my training? Just one. My brother was the only warrior who could match me in combat. No other mortal has ever gotten me in a position like this.”
My mouth parted at his words and I withdrew my blade, allowing him to push himself up onto his elbows.
“It wasn’t like this for you then?” I asked. “When you took your vow you didn’t... I mean, I remember all of this. It’s like I’ve lived a thousand times before. All the lessons those slayers learned are there just waiting for me to tap into them. When I give myself to them it’s like I don’t even have to try. I just know what to do.”
Magnar studied me for several long seconds. “No. It wasn’t like that for me. I can feel some instinct from my blades which helps to guide my hand and enhance my skills. But I trained for years to be able to do what I can. I have no memory of other lives.”
“So I’m not a slayer like you?” I asked, a sliver of doubt passing through me. If what was happening to me wasn’t normal then what did that mean?
“No. You’re something else, Callie. You’re magnificent.”
I snorted in disbelief. “If I try to make you repeat that will you hog-tie me to the horse again?”
“It’s entirely possible.” He smiled at me and I was suddenly overly aware that I was still straddling him.
I placed Fury back in its sheath and stood up, offering him my hand. He accepted it and I pulled him upright. He didn’t release me right away and I was reminded yet again of the curse that accompanied my vow. I couldn’t move any closer to him and I had no idea if he still wished he could move closer to me. He dropped my hand and I released a breath as I turned away from him.
Goosebumps traveled along my flesh and the strangest sense of unease filled me. I raised my eyes to look out into the trees to my left. Fury burned at my hip and I pulled it from its sheath.
They’re coming. It seemed excited at the prospect but I still had trouble feeling that way about facing the bloodsuckers.
Magnar moved closer, placing himself between me and the oncoming danger. He removed Tempest from his back and turned his attention out into the forest.
I focused on everything around us and the skin on the back of my neck prickled as I felt them drawing closer. Something was definitely coming our way.
“Are you ready?” Magnar breathed.
“I hope so.”
“Remember, we need to keep one alive if we want to find out where that train station is.”
“And how am I supposed to capture one of those things?” I hissed.
“You’re not. Just make sure you don’t kill the last one standing and I’ll deal with catching it.”
“Okay,” I replied.
“Tell me how many are coming,” Magnar instructed.
I strained my ears, tightening my grasp on Fury to help me concentrate. My ancestors had hunted these monsters for generations. They knew all of the signs. I closed my eyes as I allowed their expertise to flow through me.
“A small group...” My fingers tightened on the runes lining Fury’s hilt. It could sense the dark power which allowed the vampires to exist beyond death. “Six lesser vampires and-” I swallowed thickly. “Two Elite.”
“Good. Get ready.”
Would I ever feel ready for this? I pulled more memories into me, filling myself with the knowledge of my ancestors as the vampires drew closer. I straightened my spine as I stepped out from behind Magnar and took my place by his side.
I glanced at him and the corner of his mouth lifted in a smile.
The vampires arrived in a swarm of motion, pouring towards us through the thick trees. The horses snorted in fear, shifting back as I sprinted to meet the vampires at Magnar’s side.
Magnar released a war cry as he fell into battle with those on my left and I raised Fury, gritting my teeth as I sprinted on.
The two male vampires rushed towards me like the wind. I ducked aside as the blonde swung his blade for my neck and brought Fury up in time to parry a blow from the other one.
My heart pounded with adrenaline as I spun back towards my first opponent and Fury sliced deeply across his gut. The vampire howled in pain as I leapt away again and turned my attention to the other.
He bared
his fangs at me as he swung his sword and I barely managed to get Fury up in time to block the blow before it could cleave me in two.
“The Belvederes want her alive you fool!” a female shouted from somewhere behind me.
I traded blows with the male vampire again and again until I finally spotted an opening and ducked beneath his blade. I drove Fury home in his heart and the sound of falling rain filled the air as he was swept away on a cold breeze.
Pride flooded me but I couldn’t spare it any attention as I swung my focus back to the vampire I’d wounded. He’d collapsed to the ground and he hissed as he saw me coming. He clutched the wound on his stomach which continued to spurt bright red blood despite his efforts to hold it back.
He tried to raise his sword in defence but his injury made him slow. I batted his sword aside with a swipe from Fury and delivered a kick to his face, knocking him back into the mud.
Magnar was there before I could finish the job, shoving Tempest through the vampire’s heart. I looked up at him in surprise as he swung Venom at something over my shoulder. The clash of steel rang out beside my ear and I cringed away from it as Magnar took on the Elite who had snuck up behind me.
I frowned down at Fury, surprised the blade hadn’t warned me. It was like it could hardly sense the Elite at all. I focused on trying to feel for his presence and only the faintest response came back to me.
I backed away from the ferocity of their battle and scanned the trees for the rest of the vampires. The female Elite stood on the far side of the clearing, watching the chaos through narrowed eyes while making no attempt to join the fray. She held something in her hand but I couldn’t make out what it was from this distance.
Three sets of clothes marked the ground where Magnar had finished the lesser vampires which meant one was still unaccounted for.
My heart pounded as I twisted back and forth, trying to locate my adversary as Fury burned in my palm. It seemed to be screaming a warning at me but I couldn’t figure out what it meant.
Higher!
I turned my head skywards a fraction too late as the vampire leapt out of the tree. She collided with me, knocking me onto my back as her fingers locked around my elbow, immobilising the arm which held Fury. The shock of the impact severed my connection to my gifts and I was suddenly left flailing beneath her with nothing to rely on but my own determination to survive.
Her free hand caught my chin and she forced my head back, exposing my throat.
“We have the right to bite,” she snarled a moment before her teeth pierced my skin.
Indescribable pain flooded through me as her venom met with my blood. It burned like fire, clawing a path through my veins until it echoed within my skull, blinding me.
I kicked and clawed at her, yanking on the arm which held Fury but her grip was iron as she continued to feed on my blood. Rage boiled beneath my skin. An inferno lit in my heart and my free hand swept across the forest floor until my fingers met with what I was looking for.
I grasped the heavy rock in my palm and threw every inch of my slayer strength into my arm as I slammed it into the side of her head.
Bright blood flew, coating my hand as she was thrown off of me. I rolled over, pinning her beneath me and swinging the rock again. Something cracked as I smashed it down into her stunning face and more blood spurted over my clothes.
“I. Am. Not. Food!” I screamed at her, enunciating each word with every strike of the rock. She tried to scramble away from me just as I remembered Fury in my other hand.
Teach her! it purred as I slammed the blade down and found her heart. I stumbled forward as she turned to dust beneath me, and I pressed my hand into the dried leaves to right myself.
My chest heaved as I pushed myself to my feet and turned back to face the Elite across the clearing. She stared at me with wide eyes and I realised she clutched a cellphone in her hand. She held the thing in front of her, pointing it at us as if it could see us too.
I rotated my arm and launched the rock at her. She jumped aside before it could hit her.
The other Elite screamed in pain and I looked over to find him impaled upon Tempest. Magnar had driven the blade through his shoulder and pinned him to a huge tree. Smoke rose from the wound in a murky cloud as he tried to claw it from his flesh.
Magnar turned to face the female Elite too, leaving the male where he was.
“Help me, Maria!” he cried but she was already backing away.
“I’m sorry, Carlos,” she replied, her dark eyes widening with fear as Magnar advanced on her.
“Tell your master I want my sister back!” I yelled at her as she turned to flee. “And I’ll kill every vampire between me and her if that’s what it takes to get her! Including him!”
I took a step towards her but Magnar’s hand landed on my shoulder. “We won’t be able to catch her now,” he said. “We’ve got what we need anyway.”
Carlos screamed again and I turned back to face him.
My neck continued to burn like an open flame was pressed to my skin where the vampire had bitten me. I clenched my teeth against the pain as we moved towards the Elite.
“We want to know how to find the train,” Magnar said, his voice a deadly warning. “You will tell us before I end you. It’s up to you how long that takes.”
“My master will tear the flesh from your limbs and-”
Magnar lifted Venom and stabbed the vampire in the thigh. He screamed so loudly that birds flew from their roosts in the trees above us.
“The train,” he repeated patiently.
The vampire started swearing and Magnar stabbed Venom into his gut.
I bit my tongue as he repeated the process again and again while the vampire refused to answer his question.
“If this doesn’t motivate you enough then I can start severing limbs and burning them before your eyes,” Magnar growled. “You only need a heart and a tongue to tell me what I want to know and I’m perfectly willing to remove everything else if that’s what it takes.”
The vampire glared at him but I could see his resolve floundering. Blood poured from his wounds and he panted heavily. He looked half dead; any mortal would have succumbed to such injuries already. I clenched my hand into a fist, my nails biting into my skin as my gut prickled uneasily.
He’s already dead. He’s a monster. This is the only way to get to Montana.
I didn’t doubt Magnar when he said he would do it and I was pretty sure the Elite could tell he would too.
“What does it matter anyway?” Carlos spat. “The station is heavily guarded. The trains carry all of the blood from the west coast back to the east. You won’t get within five miles of it without them killing you.”
“Your concern is touching but unwarranted. Just tell us where it is,” Magnar replied flatly.
The Elite hesitated and Magnar raised Venom again. “Thirty miles northeast of here,” he said hastily. “East of Realm G. Not that it’ll do you any good.”
“How many of your kind guard it?” I asked.
“What difference does it make?” he muttered. Magnar stepped closer and his eyes widened with fear. “It varies. When they’re gearing up for a delivery like they are now, more are drafted in. Around eighty lessers working shifts with ten Elite in command.”
“And when you say delivery, you’re talking about all of the human blood you’ve stolen from the people of the Realms. Right?” I snarled.
“What else would hold such value?” the vampire hissed.
Magnar swept Venom forward and ended him before we had to listen to any more about his love for our blood. His body dissolved before my eyes and my lip curled back with disgust.
“We have a destination then,” Magnar said, sounding satisfied.
I nodded but the motion sent pain flaring through my neck from the bite I’d received.
I pressed a hand to the wound as the burning continued to blaze wildly. I looked down at my fingers as they came away bloody with a hint of silver venom swirling thr
ough the red.
Magnar noticed and a growl of anger ran through him. “Come.” He rummaged in the vampire’s pockets, pulling out a smooth, black stone then removed Tempest from the tree, releasing the impaled clothes so that they fell at its base. He led me back to the horses and I followed him, wondering what the stone was for.
“What is that?” I asked, unable to contain my curiosity any longer.
He looked back at me and offered me the stone. “The vampires have a god helping them too. That rune helps them hide from our blades. Luckily very few of them were ever made so only the Elite will carry them.”
I accepted it and frowned down at the black stone which filled my palm. It was polished to a high shine and the rune carved into it was at once similar to those which lined Fury and yet also entirely different. Nausea rolled through me as I held it and I was gripped with the desire to throw the thing away.
“It’s horrible,” I said, shoving it back towards Magnar. “Why are you keeping it?”
“I need to destroy it. If I leave it here then it’s just a weapon waiting to be used against us. Better that I bring it with us and break it as soon as I can.”
We reached the horses and Magnar placed the stone into one of the packs before removing a bottle of water from it.
He stepped towards me and I lifted my chin so that he could wash the wound. I wasn’t entirely sure how much water we had left but the pain was sharp enough that I didn’t care.
Magnar leant close as he poured the water over the bite, flushing it clean.
“Well we know where we’re going at last,” I said, forcing my mind away from the similarities of when he’d first kissed me and keeping my eyes on the trees.
“We do,” he agreed. “And we also know what they’ll be carrying on that train.”
“What are you thinking?” I asked, sensing there was more to his words.
“That it’s about time we asked for a little help from Idun.”
My eyes widened in surprise as he mentioned the goddess but his jaw was set with determination and I didn’t question him. If he thought she might help us then I wasn’t going to stop him from asking.
Age of Vampires- The Complete Series Page 52
