I looked ahead and saw three figures approach the bridge. I didn’t recognize two of them. The center one made my hand slide closer to Ebonsoul.
“Esti.” I kept my hand away from my weapons through sheer force of will. She was dressed in her black bodysuit. All of the Blood Hunters wore some variation of the same. The sections of ballistic armor that covered parts of her body were black, but some of the other Blood Hunters wore gray or brown. I guessed she didn’t have time to do her makeup. Her face, neck, and arms were bare of any paint this time. She sniffed the air and stepped closer.
“You came to witness your last sunrise beside your beloved vampire?” She spat the last words. “The blades.”
“When I see her, you get the blades, not before,” I said, staring her down. “Where is Anastasia?”
“Follow me,” Esti said and turned. “I will take you to both, and an old friend of yours.”
The Blood Hunter on the right approached and made to remove Monty’s swords.
“Touch my weapons and that will be the last thing you ever touch,” Monty whispered as he kept walking. The Blood Hunter backed off with a snarl.
Esti waved her hand. “Allow them their weapons,” she said with a laugh. “They can do nothing here today—except die.”
I glanced upward and saw a large bird flying over the island. Some of the Blood Hunters glanced at it, but none took their arrows off us. We arrived at the main building.
“How’s the magic?” I whispered under my breath. “Anything?”
Monty shook his head as we kept walking. The building consisted of a central atrium where immigrants were processed. The façade of the building was made up of three immense windows. Blood Hunters stood all around the atrium with arrows drawn. I looked around, but I didn’t see Chi.
Against the far wall, opposite the windows, sat a woman. If Esti was a loose cannon, this woman was a sniper bullet. She wore the black Blood Hunter bodysuit, but her ballistic armor was golden. Taut muscles flexed as she brought her hands together, interlacing her fingers. Her dark eyes focused on us as we approached. I could see her assessing what kind of threat we were, but her face was a stone mask, giving away nothing.
An array of daggers rested on the side of each thigh as she crossed her long legs. Across her back, I could see the hilt of a large sword. She sat in a large oak chair and made it look like a throne. On either side of the chair stood six Blood Hunters, swords drawn and held across their chests. Their ballistic armor was red and I assumed this was an elite guard. As dangerous as they appeared, they paled in comparison to the relaxed lethality this woman projected.
Esti stepped close to the chair and bowed. “Señora, el mago y su compañero,” the mage and his partner.
“Gracias, Esti. Buscame el traidor,” the woman replied with a wave of her hand. “I am Anastasia Anyxia Santiago, leader of the Cazadoras Sangrientas—you call us the Blood Hunters, but we hunt the true danger. I believe you have something that belongs to me.”
I gave the case to the Blood Hunter who approached. She opened it and removed the fake kokutan no ken. She handed it to Anastasia hilt-first as I heard a struggle behind us. The black blade gleamed in the low light of the atrium and I held my breath as she held it up to her face.
“Get your hands off me!” I heard the familiar male voice yell. “We had a deal. I held up my end of the bargain.”
It was Nick. Esti dragged him in front of Anastasia and pushed him down on his knees. On this island there would be no way for him to plane-weave or use any of his magic. He was trapped.
“Where is the second?” Anastasia said, looking at me as she stood and walked over to where Nick knelt. Every step whispered of death. Watching her move was mesmerizing. It was like watching a cobra before it struck, or a lioness stalk prey. Now I knew why Esti was second to her. I had no doubt Anastasia could erase Esti with little effort. I moved my hand slowly and pointed to Ebonsoul.
“Where is Chi?” I said, my voice full of menace. “You give her to me and I hand this over.”
“You believe you’re in a position to bargain?” she said with a smile that chilled my blood. “How charming. You have come here to rescue your damsel in distress. Is that it?”
I could feel the rage rising.
“We have come here to negotiate her release,” Monty said calmly. “It would be preferable to do this without bloodshed.”
“Your threats are empty and your weapons useless on this island, mage.” Anastasia pointed to the large windows with the fake sword. “Your vampire is ready to greet the morning sun. Say your goodbyes—while you still can.”
I followed the sword up to where she pointed and there, strapped to the center window, was Chi. That’s when I realized that we were facing east. The rising sun. Realization struck me then.
“You bitch,” I said, but remained motionless, “you were never going to let her go.”
I saw the sky getting lighter. Soon the sun would creep over the horizon and turn Chi to dust. Inside, the rage started to break free. I wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Let her go? Are you insane?” Anastasia laughed. “We are Blood Hunters! We have a singular purpose. We exist to eliminate vampires and all who help them.”
“We had a deal, I held up my end,” Nick said again with a sob. “Let me go. I gave you the vials and the boxes. Just like you asked. The streets are full of Redrum.”
“Yes, Wraith, you held up your end,” Anastasia said softly. “Thanks to you, we will have plenty of creatures to hunt. The NYTF will beg us to cleanse this city of their kind. But I have a little problem—I can’t trust you, Nicholas. You betrayed your own kind.”
She raised his head with the tip of the blade. “You can trust me—I mean I did what you asked, didn’t I?” Nick said, obviously not realizing his life was ending. “If you let me go I can still help you. I can still get more vials. I have connections—connections you can use.”
Anastasia walked a few steps away and then stopped. “I think I will let you go, Nicholas.” Nick smiled at her words, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. She spun around faster than my eye could track and turned to face me. Behind her, Nick’s head slid off his body with a wet thud. His face still held the smile of hope at her words. “You can never trust a traitor. Sooner or later they turn on you.”
“That’s what I call severance pay.” I moved my hand to cover my mark. Everything depended on her showing up. “I promise to kill you quickly—if you give me Chi.”
“I think you overestimate your position,” Anastasia said and headed back to her chair. She sat down, crossed her legs, and rested the fake sword across the arms of the chair. “We will watch your vampire greet the sun, you will both join Nicholas, and then we will purge this city of the vampire scum.”
Two Blood Hunters approached and directed us to face the window and the approaching dawn, before stepping back several feet. I looked up and saw Chi struggle against the bonds, but I couldn’t see her face.
Erik’s words came back to me: You don’t reason with them, you don’t appeal to their sense of right and wrong. They are relentlessly driven to achieve one goal. Nothing can stop them except their own annihilation.
I pressed the mark on my hand and nothing happened.
“Oh, shit,” I muttered under my breath. “We are truly fucked.”
“Remember what I told you—there’s one weapon here that will work despite the defenses of the island,” Monty said and glanced down at my thigh sheath. “You need to use that first.”
“On myself?” I hissed. “Are you serious?”
“Or we can watch your vampire die,” Monty whispered back. “Whatever you’re going to do, make it quick. We’re running out of time.”
If I moved to draw Ebonsoul, I would resemble a porcupine in a matter of seconds. I needed a way to draw the blade and use it without becoming a blood-arrow pincushion—and Monty was right. I was running out of time. Then it hit me.
“Señora,” I said with a deep bow and
faced Anastasia, “may I approach?”
“No, say what you need to say from there,” she said with a glare. Easily four Eastwoods on the glare-o-meter, but I deducted two because, well, she was a bitch.
I needed to be convincing. “I don’t agree with anything you’ve said, but I do know one thing—this doesn’t belong to me,” I said and slowly drew Ebonsoul. “I offer it to you in exchange for the release of my friend. He never approved of my relationship with Chi.”
Anastasia nodded and a Blood Hunter approached. I needed to make this look like an accident or the arrows would fly. I held Ebonsoul by the blade with my marked hand. When the Blood Hunter pulled the blade from my fingers, I held on just a bit tighter than necessary, slicing my palm.
“Señora, forgive me,” the Blood Hunter said. “I did not mean—”
“You fool,” Anastasia said and narrowed her eyes. Her expression went from mild displeasure to rage. “Kill them!”
I pressed the mark and white light shot out from the top of my left hand. Everything around me was slightly out of focus and frozen. I looked around and admired the massive amounts of arrows headed our way. The elite guard had detached and approached, swords ready. Esti had knives in both her hands and was closing. Even Anastasia had gotten out of her chair, black blade gleaming, ready to remove more body parts.
“Splinter,” the familiar voice said from behind me, and I braced myself. I still had to get her to agree. “I see you are trying new and novel ways to test your immortality. Are those blood arrows?”
The smell of lotus blossoms wafted by my nose, the scent laden with citrus and mixed with an enticing hint of cinnamon. This was followed by the sweet smell of wet earth after a hard rain.
“Hello, Karma.” I turned slowly in case she was feeling handy and decided to introduce me to one of her bone-cracking slaps of greeting. She was dressed in vintage brown motorcycle leathers complete with leather cap, which read BITCH across the visor.
“You summoned me,” she said, her voice hard. “Even after I expressly advised you against it. Why would you risk your life this way? You do recall you’re not immortal in this state?”
I pointed to the window holding Chi. “Dawn is a few minutes away.”
Karma stepped close and placed a hand on my cheek. I flinched reflexively, and she smiled. “You would risk your life for her?” She looked around and shook her head. “Obviously that’s a rhetorical question. Are you aware she’s a vampire?”
I almost answered in my typical fashion and then I remembered I was dealing with the embodiment of causality, so I just nodded. This probably saved my life.
“You still don’t see it?” Karma said. “This isn’t just an attack on the Dark Council or vampires. It goes deeper.”
“Deeper?”
“Find the commonality, Splinter. Out of all the vampires on the Council, why target her?”
“She heads the Council,” I said, confused. “That makes her a target.”
“No.” She tapped me lightly and stars raced across my vision. “Stop being dense. Do you see any Council members here? No. They were willing to let her die.”
“I’m not seeing it,” I said, acutely aware of the cloud of arrows pointed in my direction. “It may have something to do with the swarm of blood arrows heading my way.”
“That is a lot of arrows.” Karma nodded and looked around. “Looks like you’re honing your gift for pissing off the wrong people.”
“I can’t see it,” I said, frustrated. “I’m sorry.”
“Until you make the connection, you and everyone around you will be vulnerable,” Karma said and adjusted her cap. “Now, what do you want?”
“Can you get Chi down from there?” I looked up to the window. “There’s no way I can reach her in time.”
“Once time flows again, that will be handled by the old man,” she said with a sly smile. “What do you really want?”
I tried opening with the emotional request, expecting her to be moved: it didn’t work.
“I need the island defenses down for thirty minutes.” I stared into her bottomless eyes. “I need Monty and Dex to be able to access their magic while on the island.”
“And by default have your curse active?”
I nodded. “Can you do it?”
This time she did slap me across the floor. “Don’t ever question my abilities or, even worse, try to goad me into taking an action—understood?” she said as she stepped over to where I lay and picked me up by my neck.
I spit blood on the floor. “Understood,” I croaked around her vice-like grip. She loosened her hand slightly when I started to see spots and my vision began tunneling in.
“I can suspend the defenses for ten minutes, but longer than that and the karmic repercussions will demand I balance the outcomes in every branch of causality stemming from the suspension—which means a colossal pain in my ass.” Karma dropped me on the floor. “Greater even than dealing with you. Take it or leave it. Though I suggest you take it and move the mage before the flow is restored.”
“Thank you,” I said as I relocated Monty away from the arrows. I grabbed Ebonsoul from the Blood Hunter who had pulled it from my hand.
“I hate zealots, so don’t thank me,” Karma said with a smile and a tip of her visor as she gestured to the Blood Hunters around the atrium. “You still have to deal with all of that.”
She turned with a wave and disappeared. Time snapped back and chaos took over.
There was a good reason archers never stand in a circle to bring down an enemy. If for some reason the enemy manages to avoid the arrows, the archers are now essentially shooting each other. It becomes the worst case of unfriendly fire when you realize an explosive arrow is buried in your leg and your fellow archer put it there.
Several of the Blood Hunters found themselves in this situation, but I couldn’t devote any mental energy to them. The shattering of glass forced me to look up. A giant raven grabbed Chi and fell to the ground, tumbling across the atrium.
“You did this? How?” Monty said next to me as he took in the utter confusion. “Have I mentioned how fearsome you can be?”
“I called in a favor,” I said, dodging a sword thrust from a passing Blood Hunter. “Defenses go back up in ten minutes. Until then, you have—”
I saw him hurl several fireballs as he superheated the air around him. “Go get your vampire,” he said and unleashed several orbs of air, slamming Blood Hunters into the walls.
I ran to where Michiko and the raven landed, only it wasn’t Herk, it was Dex. I saw she was wearing the Daystrider Armor, but I didn’t see Peaches. When she didn’t move, I feared the worst.
“She’s still alive, but it doesn’t look good, lad,” Dex said, his voice grim. “They starved and beat her to an inch of her sanity. If she regains consciousness, she’ll be more of a threat than the Blood Hunters.”
“I need you to get her to the car.” I looked around the fray. Monty was dealing with most of the Blood Hunters. I didn’t see Anastasia or Esti. I handed Dex my flask. “This is Valhalla Brew. Give her a few drops at a time until she stabilizes, but don’t let her regain consciousness. Can you keep her under?”
Dex nodded. “I can be more help here,” Dex said, looking around the atrium. “I can bring the power.”
I grabbed him by the arm to get his attention. “Listen to me. The defenses will only be down for a few more minutes,” I said with urgency. “We need to be off this island by then. Help me do that.”
Dex nodded and scooped up Chi. I touched her cheek one last time before he ran out of the building, with Herk flapping behind him.
“Where are you, boy?” I said out loud, looking around the atrium for a four-legged agent of destruction. I saw him in the corner as he pounced on a Blood Hunter and launched her into a column, cracking it. She crumpled to the floor and he ran in my direction, barreling down another Blood Hunter in the process.
“That’s good, boy.” I scanned the atrium and found the side exit Anastasia and Esti must have used. “We need to find a few more. Ready?”
Peaches barked in response and several panes of glass shattered as I winced. Monty looked in our direction and nodded. He would catch up when he was finished. I ran for the side exit with Peaches next to me.
THIRTY-FIVE
THE SIDE EXIT led to another, smaller, atrium. In the center stood Anastasia. She must have sent Esti on ahead. I would catch her later.
“Kali’s chosen,” Anastasia sneered and drew her other sword, tossing the fake kokutan no ken to one side. I paused in my approach. “Oh yes, I know all about you, immortal.”
Seriously, the leaks about my condition were getting out of control. “Then you know you should quit now while you’re behind.” Peaches rumbled next to me. “Be careful with her, boy. She’s dangerous.”
“I don’t know how you managed to disable the defenses, but even now I can feel them returning,” Anastasia said as a black flame enveloped her sword. “I wonder, are you still immortal in the absence of magic?”
Her sword looked dangerous without the flames. The flames just convinced me that staying away was the best strategy. I pulled Grim Whisper and emptied the magazine. She held the sword in front of her, deflecting all of the rounds.
“A null sword—totally not fair,” I said and holstered my gun, drawing Ebonsoul. “Are you sure you don’t want to surrender?”
She slid forward and lunged, faster than I expected. Faster than any human had the right to be. A smile crossed her lips as she circled around me. It was the smile of ‘I know something you don’t and it’s going to get you killed.’ I hated that smile. Sunlight streamed in through the large windows and I realized how bad the situation really was. When Anastasia crossed into the sunlight, her skin turned that black inky color I thought was camouflage paint. It wasn’t paint. The designs etched into her skin were runes.
She sliced horizontally and I managed to get Ebonsoul up in time to parry. The force of her blow sent me across the floor.
Montague & Strong Detective Novels Box Set: Montague & Strong Detective Novels Books, 1 through 3 (Montague & Strong Case Files) Page 53
