“Lillim Callina, it is a pleasure to finally meet the black sheep among the flock.” His face was impassive though his muscles grew larger beneath his black leather jacket and designer jeans. For a moment, I wondered if he was revving up for some kind of attack. Then I realized that the attackee would probably be me and a snake of fear encircled my gut. There was no way that would end well.
“I like what you’ve done with the place.” I waved a hand across the room, annoyed he knew who I was. It was one thing for me to be able to recognize one of the oldest known vampires, but it was quite another for him to know who I was.
While Dioscuri were pretty damn strong and pretty recognizable, most of us had normal human lifespans. Plus we spent the majority of our lives fighting vicious monsters bent on killing us. That meant the life cycle of a typical high ranked Dioscuri could be short indeed.
Vampires who had lived a couple millennia tended not to even notice people who lived in our time frame. Sure, Bob might have encountered Dioscuri from time to time, but I was willing to bet he’d never known the names of any of them. So why did he know mine?
“I’m going to assume you haven’t brought me a gift?” Bob said as looked me over. “Or are you offering yourself as the gift.
“Yeah, that’s not happening,” I muttered, feeling a little stupid I hadn’t brought anything to present him with. Even my mother, the vicious Diana Cortez, always brought gifts when she spoke to creatures like Bob. “I know you’ve got Gib’s kid, and I need him back.”
“You are mistaken. I do not.” His face hardened into an unreadable mask. “Please don’t hesitate to show yourself out.”
Just like that, my only lead had gone up in smoke. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I mean, I hadn’t expected him to just hand over the kid, but he couldn’t lie, and there wasn’t much wiggle room in what he said. His words strongly implied he didn’t have the child, but maybe I was wrong? Maybe I was mistaken about something else? But what could that possibly be?
Bob was already walking away, barely a shadow against the backdrop of darkness as he strode down one hallway. I had half a mind to run after him and… what? Force him to help me? I doubted I could force Bob to do anything he didn’t already want to do, which was really unfortunate because I needed to get the child back. There had to be a way, I just had to figure out what it was. Fast.
Behind me, the door opened, and the doorman gestured for me to leave. Without really thinking about it, I stepped outside and glanced around for Logan. He had said the child was in Rome, but maybe Bob didn’t have the kid? Maybe someone else did? Like Bob, Logan couldn’t lie. Speaking of Logan, where was he?
11
As I stood outside of Bob’s disgusting hideout, a flash of lightning in the distance drew my attention. I turned toward it and squinted. Logan! He was just a shadow against the backdrop, but when the lightning flashed again, I could tell it was him.
The only problem was, I couldn’t quite tell what he was doing. As crimson energy tore from the clouds and slammed down in the same four points over and over again, my heart shuddered in alarm. He was a vampire with mastery over blood magic. There was no way whatever he was doing was going to be lollypops and cotton candy.
I sprinted toward him, and as I did, I saw power flow from the hallowed church ground and illuminate an intricately designed circle on the ground at Logan’s feet. It flashed, filling the dirt around the demon I’d confined to a pillar of salt with blazing silver light.
Logan stood next to it with his back to me The cold iron sword he’d had back at the House of Owl swung from a loop on his belt. He raised his hands upward, and as he did, I nearly screamed. Gib’s son squirmed in his hands, horrible shrieks ripping from his throat as he thrashed his tiny arms and legs.
Logan had tricked me— some detective I was. He must have been the Owl who had stolen the baby! Knowing I would visit him for information, he probably planned on summoning the demon so I could help him contain it. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d tricked me into doing his dirty work.
That left just one question. Where had he hidden the demon and the sword? I hadn’t seen them on the plane ride over here. Then again, I guess when you have your own personal jet, hiding things on it is relatively easy.
I knew he was cunning, but I hadn’t known how cunning. Now that I thought about it, he’d probably been the one to secretly leak the information to Voln, knowing the old vamp would get someone to “rescue” the child. Then he’d ambushed me and taken the baby, knowing I’d eventually wind up at his coven for help. Why else would the kidnapper had made it so obvious which caste he was part of? I hadn’t thought about it at the time, but wearing a generic hoodie and a ski mask would have been loads smarter.
That’s why I’d been delayed so long when I’d arrived at the House of Owl! He’d needed time to summon the demon while I was there.
That pissed me right off. To think he could do all this right underneath the noses of the Dioscuri was beyond contemptible. Well, I might not be “with” the Dioscuri at the moment, but I was going to put a stop to his little plan here and now.
I darted forward, screaming at Logan as I called up my own magic. He glanced at me and sped up his chant. Behind me, the monstrous roar of a revving engine ripped through the air. I turned to see a black Lamborghini Diablo rushing toward me at breakneck speed. For a second, I thought about trying to stop the oncoming vehicle with my shield, but I doubted I could, what with the momentum and all that.
Thankfully, my body was moving much faster than my mind. I guess lifetimes of training come in handy because I flung myself upward, forcing my will into a leap that carried me over the speeding vehicle.
The driver braked, sending the sports car into a spin that sent up clouds of dirt. In a heartbeat, the car was rushing toward me again. I ripped my wakazashi, Set, from its sheath, and pointed it at the front wheels of the Lamborghini.
Red lightning exploded from the tip of my weapon and slammed into it, melting not only the front tires, but the entire front part of the car into slag. Inertia took over, and the Lamborghini flipped, toppling end over end.
I leapt to the side as the vehicle skidded past me, carving a huge gout in the dirt where I’d been half a breath ago. Smoke billowed out of the crumpled car, and the smell of gasoline filled the air. I vaulted to my feet, ignored the car, and sprinted toward Logan. I made it about six steps before the sound of screeching metal stopped me in my tracks.
Bob didn’t climb out of the car so much as he ripped the car apart around him. His massive form burst through the crumpled wreckage like it was little more than tissue paper.
Without even grunting, he seized hold of the car and flung the vehicle at me. I dove to the side, burying my face in the dirt. The force of it ruffled my clothing as it sailed over me and crashed to the ground a couple hundred yards away. My ears were still ringing from the sound of the car bouncing across the rocky ground when it exploded. My hands shook as I crawled to my feet, my heart beating so fast in my chest, I didn’t think it’d ever slow down. That had been close… too close.
“That was my favorite car for running people over.” Bob took a step toward me. His pupils were ringed with several shades of red, ranging from light burgundy to crimson. “And you broke it.”
“You have a car for running people over?” The words tumbled from my mouth in that overconfident way they did when I was really nervous.
“Not anymore.” Bob’s lips peeled back in an expression that gave me an uncomfortably clear view of his fangs. It was like he had a pair of daggers in his mouth. I swallowed and took a tentative step backward. I hadn’t really been scared before, but now? Now I was.
This was a creature so old and powerful that in ancient times, people had referred to him as a god... and he was pissed at me. Damn.
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have tried to run me over,” I said as Bob disappeared completely from view. It happened so fast, I barely realized he was gone. His han
d burst from the ground like a zombie and seized my left ankle in a vice-like grip. With a jerk that damn near wrenched my leg from the socket, Bob tugged me down into the earth. Pain, so intense it was like rubbing lemon juice soaked sandpaper on my flesh, exploded through my legs. I wanted to cry, wanted to beg for him to stop hurting me. Mostly though? Mostly I just hated him.
I hated when vampires had ridiculous powers. Usually the older they were, the more likely it was they had some stupidly absurd abilities. Bob was several millennia old and could, apparently, travel through dirt at immense speed. That definitely needed to be on his dating profile.
I thrust my arms downward into the earth and shoved, forcing energy into my muscles as I did so. Power ran down my body, thrumming along my skin and casting faint white light. I knew my flesh had been shredded, but right now, my power could keep the worst of the pain buried deep down inside me. My arms tensed, shaking with effort as I pushed myself up from the dirt. One inch... two... Sweat began to drip down my face. Three inches... four...
Bob exploded from the dirt and held me aloft in the air by one bloody leg. My entire lower body was like one brownish-red smear. To make matters worse, my skirt fluttered around my waist giving him a view I wished I hadn’t. Not for the first time, I cursed myself for not wearing pants. After this, I wasn’t even going to consider leaving the house without putting on a pair of jeans.
Without thinking, my right hand tore the shotgun from beneath my overcoat, and I was immediately grateful the overcoat had the ability magically store a ton of junk. If not, how would I shoot him in the face?
I pointed the barrel at the vampire and fired. My speed must have surprised the old vamp because he didn’t move as I pumped five shots into his chest. The first couple shots had as much effect as they would against a brick wall. By the last shot, I’d made him wobble.
Bob the vampire founder had done little more than stagger backward under the onslaught of buckshot. That was not good, and while I knew it may not have seemed like much, he still had to use his magic to heal. That meant he had less to use trying to kill me. Unfortunately for me, despite taking five shotgun blasts to the chest, he kept his steely grip on my leg.
“Pathetic,” he said and flung me like a sack of potatoes. I smacked into the ground twenty yards away, bounced once, and rolled onto my feet. My shoulder screamed in pain as I staggered toward him, struggling to keep my balance as my ankle faltered. My right side screamed with pain as I gritted my teeth and glared at the vampire.
I shoved the empty shotgun back into my magical pocket and drew my katana, Isis, from its sheath as his elbow crashed into my side. Pain exploded through me as my feet lifted from the ground. As I slammed into the ground, stars shot past my eyes and my body made some kind of wet squishing sound that couldn’t be good. Still, I tried to get to my feet. I was Lillim Callina damn it. I didn’t lay down on the job.
“Goodbye,” Bob said, and his massive hands closed around my throat. He hoisted me up by my neck. “I can see why they call you the black sheep. No other Dioscuri would be so lowly and dishonorable as to use human firearms.”
“White Sparrow!” I choked out as I touched his chest.
Power leapt from my fingers, and it must have surprised him because he dropped me. As I fell gracelessly to my knees, a shaft of white light shot down from the heavens and engulfed the vampire. He cried out in confusion, slamming his hands against the shaft of solidified light. It cracked beneath his blows even as his skin began to char and flake away.
“Is that more honorable for you? Cause I can bring lots of non-gun-related pain,” I said, climbing to my feet and turning toward Logan.
I had to stop him before he finished his ritual. Even though Bob was the demonstrably bigger threat, he was also just the distraction. That was a pretty scary thought. One of the oldest, most powerful vampires on the planet was a distraction.
Admittedly, I wasn’t as up to date on the “this is how we make magical weapons that haven’t been used in millennia” stuff as I should have been, so I wasn’t exactly sure why Logan needed Gib’s son, but if that baby really was Dar Silver-tongue reborn, then using him as a focus for an already immensely powerful weapon would probably give the wielder a greater affinity toward dragons. If Sharkface, or someone working for him, had a weapon like that, I couldn’t even imagine how powerful the dragon would become.
As Logan glanced at me, a smile curled across his face. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to because my spell shattered with an earsplitting crack.
The ground beneath my feet shook, and I turned to see Bob standing there. He was naked save for a few scraps of charred fabric, but if that bothered him, he didn’t show it. Bone stuck out from his blackened skin in places where the flesh had been completely burned away.
“I was being nice before, but now? Now I’m going to add you to my wall, Lillim Callina of the Dioscuri!” he snarled and took a step toward me. Flecks of burned meat sloughed off of him as he bared his fangs and charged.
12
I stumbled backward with my katana in front of my body as my left hand found the hilt of Set and whipped it out.
“Kongounonikutai!” I cried because loosely translated it meant body of adamantine and was my version of a shield spell. With that command, the energy stored within Isis and Set burst from the twin blades, covering my body, clothes, and hair in an alabaster in a sheet of pure white, indestructible magic.
“We’ve only just begun, and you’re already draining the power of your Dioscuri weapons.” The corners of Bob’s mouth twitched into an almost-smile. “Either you’re taking this seriously, or you’re worried I’m going to kill you too soon. Don’t worry little Dioscuri. One doesn’t get to kill your kind very often. I intend on savoring this battle. If I wanted you dead quickly, I could have killed you the moment you walked into my home.”
A split second later, he threw a punch at me, and I stepped back and slashed at him with my wakazashi. My blade caught him along the wrist, slicing through his flesh in a flash of blood that sprayed across my face. The rest of his arm slammed into my chest, flinging me to the dirt like a rag doll.
As I hit the ground, my katana slipped from my hand. As I reached for it, Bob tried to drive his boot through my outstretched hand. I snatched my hand as Bob’s hand smashed into my katana’s hilt. The weapon shattered as his foot crashed through it and into the earth beneath him. Whiplash from him breaking my magical sword exploded behind my eyes like a giant, broken rubber band, and a scream I couldn’t stop tore from my throat.
Even worse, the shield I had formed around me ebbed. Sure, I can do some pretty amazing things when I have the right focus and even cooler things when I have a weapon like Shirajirashii. But I still need that focus to maintain the spell even after I’ve cast it. By shattering Isis, Bob had just reduced my shield to half power, and I’d just cast the damn thing. Talk about wasted energy.
When things like that happen, it’s usually time to throw all the cards on the table and hope they beat your opponent’s hand, especially if he is going to try to kill you. Why? Well, you don’t get to be a vampire founder without being at least a little tough, and you don’t beat one without being at least a little bit crazy. Or a lot crazy.
Bob unslung his sword, Frost, from the sheath on his back. Cold fog rolled off the edges of the blade as he pointed it at me. It glowed violently in his hand, and I could almost hear the weapon calling to me, whispering sweet deadly nothings in my ear.
I scrambled backward, barely regaining my feet as Bob shattered the earth in front of me with a nonchalant swing. Bits of ice and stone pelted me, and I heard the blade call to me again. It was like a tiny voice in my head asking one simple question. “What good was a wakazashi going to do against a weapon like that?”
I sheathed Set, and the call of Frost was suddenly so loud in my ears, I could hear nothing but the rushing gale of remorseless winter. I held my hand out toward Bob and muttered a word.
“Come.”<
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Frost trembled, straining against Bob’s hand as ice spread out across his fingers like a flowing glacier. The old vampire stared down at the weapon, eyes wide as the sword he had used for centuries tore itself from of his grip and flew into my open hands. Who says you can’t learn any cool tricks from watching old movies?
My muscles heaved and strained under the weight of Frost as it slammed into my outstretched hands. As I hefted it in both hands, my fingers started to turn blue and my veins filled with ice water. Cold radiated out from the weapon, chilling me to the core as I pointed it at Bob.
“Not so tough now, eh?” I said, pointing the vampire’s own magical sword at him. Hey, if he was gonna break mine, he had to give up one of his, right?
“I always did like fire a little better.” A thin smile crossed Bob’s lips. Very slowly he drew his fire sword, Melt. Flames spouted from the edges of the massive black blade as he swept it casually through the air, reminding me of a batter taking a test swing.
He came at me so fast, I couldn’t even move Frost as he slammed the broadside of Melt into my stomach. White blisters formed on my abdomen as the blade seared my flesh even through the shield of Kongounoikutai. It hurt, but I gritted my teeth and pushed down the pain because if there was one thing I was good at, it was ignoring pain.
I staggered back, the tip of Frost digging roughly against the dirt at my feet as I swung the massive ice blade in an upward arc.
Clang!
Melt was raised above me, so close the heat of it scalded my brow. Flames leapt off Melt’s edges but were chased back by icy blasts of fog. Frost was holding its brother off. The vampire smiled, showing entirely too much fang and drove his knee into my midsection.
The Lillim Callina Chronicles: Volumes 1-3 Page 9
