Ignited: A Vampire Urban Fantasy Series (Daywalkers Series Book 6)

by Maya Daniels

  And I burst out laughing.

  Soren’s slinky hair is sticking out of his head as if he is standing next to a generator. Static is pulling the long strands into a huge halo around his stunned face. Dirt and what have you is smudged all over his bare arms and chest, as well as one side of his face. His silky pants are ripped to shreds and hanging off his hips in strips of fabric. It’s unfair that, even like this, he still looks good enough to put the rest of us to shame. Well, except for the fact that he is glaring at me for laughing. That kind of ruins it for me.

  “Do not taunt him.” Zoltan steps closer to me, his arm going around my shoulders to pull me to his chest.

  “Why?” Snorting ungracefully, I lean back and nestle against him. At least he is not pissed anymore. “He does look ridiculous.”

  Soren scowls at me, but I see the corners of his lips twitching.

  “I think he is up to something.” The murmur is for my ears only, and I do my best not to show a reaction.

  “I think you are right.” Looking down at Tenebris’s upturned face, I hide my lips so the ancient Fae can’t read them.

  “I need to check the portal and see what damage they did. Will you be okay?” Feeling the vibration in his chest when he speaks relaxes me further. He is alive, and so am I.

  We can fight another day.

  “I’ll be fine. I need to check the infirmary.” Watching Leo drag Daren toward the building, I push off Zoltan and follow them. “Hopefully Aspen made sure the creature was dead for real this time.”

  “I’ll get the book and meet you there,” Zoltan calls over his shoulder, already walking away to meet Astara at the portal.

  I’m glad I don’t have to go there. As much as I wanted to kill the redhead, I really don’t want to look at her cut-up body. She got what she deserved. She is dead and we won a battle. No freeing Titans today for that asshole Roberti.

  If only things were ever that easy.

  Chapter Ten

  I feel it the second my boots connect to the gravel. I almost reach the alpha and the mage, rushing to catch up with them. The magic keeping the place alive and protected reacts to the intrusion like a wild bull bucking under the weight of a rider trying to tame it. A ripple of revulsion and disgust passes through me, my own magic jumping to the surface and making me stumble forward. My arms shoot out to the sides so I don’t lose my footing. Leo’s head jerks in my direction, and even Daren opens his eyes wide as he struggles to straighten.

  The portal makes a subtle popping sound, too loud in the sudden quiet.

  “Leo, get her out of here.” Zoltan’s roar has me spinning on my foot and sprinting in his direction before he is done yelling, Tenebris right on my heels.

  “Like hell you’ll keep me away.” Pushing the words through clenched teeth, my heart drops to my feet when I see the sea of hunters pouring out of the portal.

  A feral cry comes out of Tenebris, and it pebbles my skin.

  “Soren!” Screaming his name, my eyes search for the ancient Fae wildly as I pump my arms. When our gazes connect, I stab a finger in the direction of Zoltan. “The book!”

  White noise fills my ears, the war beat of my heart muffled from it as I let go of the control I’m holding on my magic. I’ll never admit this to anyone, not even if my life depends on it, but I’m scared of giving it full reign. There is a small part of me that refuses to be ruled by an ancient being that has a mind of its own—one that is separate from mine. I let it control my movements or actions but never fully my mind.

  Until now.

  Seeing Zoltan’s body being swallowed by the hunters surrounding him and Astara breaks the fundamental leash I have on who I am and what I want to be. A new fear rears its ugly head. That male means so much to me. Is this the bond talking, or is it just me being a stupid female that has fallen hard for a male? The moment of truth I’m facing is this: there is no more Francesca Drake without Zoltan. I will die before I let anyone, including the Fates, take him from me.

  A terrifying roar shakes the ground at my feet, shriveling my lungs in horror.

  It came from me.

  Tenebris, agile as the feline that he is, jumps to the side and away from me mid run. Colors burst to life around me, my vision sharpening enough to see the individual leaves on the trees and the thin veins spreading through them. Soren’s joyful and excited laugh shouldn’t surprise me, yet it does. His grin grows unbelievably wide when I give him a sharp, narrow-eyed look.

  “An sin tha thu, dràgon òg.” Regally inclining his head—which should look ridiculous thanks to his long hair sticking out every which way—he lets his fingers transform into wicked-looking claws.

  With a frown, I lift my hand in front of my face wiggling my own fingers. The wind is belting my face while magic pours out of the portal, so I have to work even harder to make any progress in my attempt to reach Zoltan and Astara. If he can do it, maybe I can too. Having no weapon but my own body, I force magic into my hands while hunters approach much faster than I want them to.

  Nothing happens.

  Disappointment is a bitter pill to swallow. The more bodies dressed in white that rush out through the swirling portal, the surer I am that we are all going to meet our end tonight. Even with Zoltan and Astara carving their way through hunters like swirling dervishes out on a mission. My gaze darts to the sky, seeing the large silver moon shining gently over us, her glittery rays weaving through the bright colors of life my dragon loves to see. At least we will die on a pretty night, I think stupidly to myself.

  Sharp pain zaps through my shoulders and down my arms until they are numb. It ricochets to my neck and along my spine, taking my feet from under me. Not wanting to end up on my face, I tuck my head down while tilting my shoulder forward, using the momentum to roll for a few turns before bouncing up on my feet. When I pop right up, I’m not sure who is more surprised: me, or the hunter that stops before me with his eyes about to fall out of their sockets. My arm shoots out to grab him by the neck, but I stop short and my jaw hits my chest.

  Claws.

  Not just claws as wicked as Soren’s, but the skin of my hand and arm is covered with a shimmering of tiny scales under a thin layer of my skin. Flexing my fingers, I dispassionately watch the hunter’s head roll off his shoulders. My cheeks hurt from the huge smile on my face when I turn to the side and see Soren watching me with an emotion I cannot name in his too-old gaze.

  “Tha iad ag iarraidh na tha agamsa. Chan eil mi a ’roinn, seann fhear.” The sultry tone of my voice carries over the sound of the screams.

  Guards are already streaking through the open space, some in human form and some in animal form, but all of them are attacking indiscriminately. White clothing is turning red, so much like the fury swirling through me painting my sight. I give Soren one last glance to ensure he is reading between the lines of what I just told him. Just in case, I repeat it for him in English.

  “They want what I have.” One of his perfect eyebrows cocks up when he hears me and the corners of his lips twitch. “I do not share, old man.” When mirth dances in his ancient eyes, I offer him a humorless smile, clarifying it for him. “Not even with you. Do not test me.”

  Taken aback, he gives a barely perceptible nod.

  That’s all I need … for now.

  Clearing a path to Zoltan is much easier with my new dagger fingers. Tenebris is still keeping a safe distance between us, but he doesn’t leave my side. With Soren making bodies fly left and right as if a tornado is passing through them, I focus on my mate. Zoltan’s eyes glow brighter when they zero in on me, as if he somehow has heard my thoughts.

  My arm protests from the burning when a star covered in poison slices through my skin, opening it to the bone. Hand dropping limply to my side, I grind my teeth when my magic churns in my chest before rushing to the injury and repairing it instantly. No trace of the poison is left within seconds, and that leaves me stunned.

  With renewed vigor I dance around hunters, spinning, kicking, and slici
ng through them like butter. Between their pathetic attempts to hurt us, I see Zoltan’s body healing in a similar way. Something to ask him about after we make it out of here alive. The more we kill doesn’t put a damper in their numbers, though. More just keeping coming, replacing the ones lying dead on the ground. We have to close the portal even while we continue fighting for our lives.

  “Soren.” Shouting while twisting away from a dagger, I kick a hunter in his teeth and send him toppling over. He takes four others down with him. “I’ll help them. You close the portal. We can’t fight them all.”

  Soren’s eyebrows crawl up his forehead, and he jerks his chin at something over my shoulder before continuing with his fighting, graceful like a fucking gazelle in the midst of all the carnage. Craning my neck, I almost laugh when I see Azgor in his ghoul form with a full horde of shifters, mages, and demons at his back, wedging a path to join us.

  Zoltan’s ferocious bellow warns me at the last moment.

  I jerk my head straight.

  Two hunters block my path, one of them kicking dirt and upturned soil in my face. A tiny pebble smacks me in the corner of my eye, making it water and my vision blurry.

  That’s when I remember the serpentine stone in my pocket.

  Since I promised it to Myst, I’ve been carrying it around in case I see her. Knowing the affect it has on me, I rip out my pocket with my claws to reach it, unable to shove my hand inside. It falls in my palm as I notice Zoltan fighting his way to me with less finesse. Ducking, I pull the chain over my head and lock gazes with him.

  “Take it off me when it’s over.”

  His shout and Tenebris’s cry are drowned in the thundering that takes over my mind. A spike of fear is all I feel before coldness sweeps through my veins, icing my blood. My teeth chatter for a long second as I watch everything around me move in slow motion. My heartbeat slows until it fully stops. Somewhere deep in the back of my mind I’m aware that this is not good. Yet I stand still, even as daggers come at my neck from every side.

  A black streak through the air shows Tenebris taking down the hunter on my right, his jaws clamping around the abomination’s throat and ripping it out. Blood gushes down the panther’s chin while he shakes his head from side to side. Frozen in place, my mouth opens in a desperate attempt to … do what exactly? Breathe? Scream? I have no idea myself.

  Then everything stops.

  Dust moths flicker through the air like dancing pixies, reflecting the colors of life around me. Faces twisted in anger, pain, and determination meet my eye everywhere I turn. My gums burn and my fangs drop until they pierce my lower lip. That one drop of blood that wells up before trickling down my lip and jaw is like the answer to everything I want but never dared ask for.

  An inferno bursts at the center of my chest.

  A battle cry is ripped from my throat when my body turns to fire.

  I’m standing in the center of blinding rage, eager to feed on all that have wronged me.

  And I move.

  The screams, pained roars, and shouts are muted while my eyes are trained on Zoltan. My body is contouring in ways I didn’t think possible, avoiding weapons and flying shuriken faster than any vampire I’ve ever seen. Curling my claws into my palms, I shred my skin and allow my blood to flow freely down my hands. It leaves a trail at my feet, and the earth soaks it up greedily. That’s when Soren’s lifeforce links to mine. I feel it as a foreign thing that shouldn’t be there. When I try to resist it, it sinks its proverbial hooks into me and I have no way of kicking it out.

  Magic pours out of me in waves, smacking every one of the hunters left standing to the ground. My body turns on its own and I face the portal, the spinning, sparkling colors becoming transparent. Unfortunately for me (yet very fortunate for him) I see Roberti standing on the other side, his face pale and mouth gaping.

  A smile curls my lips, and he takes a step back.

  Zoltan steps behind me before his hand wraps around my shoulder. The usual heat of his body feels like a chilly breeze on my back, which is a startling sensation but not an unwelcome one. What is not good to see is the wriggling shadow next to Roberti. It isn’t separate from him, either. No, it’s like the two of them are one being residing in two different dimensions. It’s the same one I saw what feels like a lifetime ago on the streets of Sienna as it devoured people until nothing remained of them.

  “It was him all along,” I tell Zoltan, not recognizing my own voice.

  “I will die before he hurts you.” Voice rough and too deep, he pulls me closer to his chest.

  I snicker.

  “Tha mi a ’tighinn air do shon. Thathas a ’gabhail ris an dùbhlan agad.” My words brim with power and echo in the sudden silence surrounding us.

  I know Roberti hears me because he takes another step back, his knees bending in a fighting stance. That’s when I realize he can’t see me. And that I haven’t felt my heartbeat for longer than I should.

  “Francesca?” Zoltan sounds wary, but his hand is steady on my shoulder.

  “I’m coming for you.” Curling my claws over Zoltan’s hand, I make sure Roberti hears the promise in my voice. I don’t want him having any doubts that his end is near, and that it will come by my hand. “Your challenge is accepted, fucker.”

  There is a tug on my neck, and I twist to glance at Zoltan a second before all the strength leaves me. In his other hand, the chain of my necklace is dangling, the serpentine stone swaying like a pendulum. My body sags on him heavily as I gasp for air, and then my heart takes a hard, painful beat.

  Thump.

  “I got you.” Zoltan scoops me in his arms and my fingers tipped with claws brush against Tenebris where my arm is hanging limply down.

  Thump.

  The fire drains from me in a whoosh that turns me into a wet noodle with the mother of all headaches. Soren’s face pops into my line of sight, his brows puckering in a frown.

  “The book?” Rasping, I hope to hear we didn’t lose it.

  “Safe,” the ancient Fae mumbles as he watches me thoughtfully.

  “Astara?” Gasping my friend’s name, I cling to consciousness with everything I have. “Feed her my blood.”

  “No.” There is no room left for argument in Zoltan’s snap.

  “Feed her—” A cough rakes my body, and I curl like a fetus against his chest.

  “I will feed her my blood, young dragon.” Soren sounds too far away. “You did well protecting what you have claimed as your own.” I must be imagining the sadness in his voice.

  He keeps talking, but darkness tugs on my mind and I eagerly rush into its embrace.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Did we lose a lot of people?” Tugging the covers closer around me, I watch Zoltan stoically regarding me from the foot of the bed.

  I think Aspen is still freaked about drugging him and chaining him to the bed because she doesn’t stop Zoltan when he says he is taking me out of the infirmary. I wake up there feeling like death has ran over me, so I can’t protest too much when he plucks me out of the bed and walks out without a second glance. The feisty redhead nurse is too eager to assist him as well, much to my dismay. And then I’m in Zoltan’s bed, only this time the others aren’t here to help me deflect.

  “Ten.” The vampire was unnaturally still as his intense, unreadable gaze rooted on mine. “Considering there were over a hundred or so hunters, we didn’t lose many.”

  “How many is too many, Zoltan?” Getting more apprehensive the longer he stares at me, I fidget on the bed. “In case you didn’t notice, Roberti is upping his game. We were sure he couldn’t get his hands on the book, yet we kept it here by pure luck.”

  “Luck had nothing to do with it.” Cocking his head slightly to the side, he narrows his eyes. “What happened back there, Francesca? I felt your anger through the bond and the next thing I know our connection was overwhelmed by fury like I’ve never felt before.”

  My mouth opens and closes a few times, but no words come out. How do I exp
lain the face that I gave full control to the creature inside me? Zoltan, just like Soren and Fenrir, has asked me to do that many times, but looking at it from this new perspective, I’m not sure they had any idea what they were asking of me. Ever since I discovered I have a sentient being sharing my body I’ve seen us as two separate beings. What happened in that open space in front of the portal left me unsettled and more scared that I’ve ever been before.

  We were one.

  Me and the creature I fear so much.

  My thoughts were her thoughts, and her actions were my actions. How do I explain this to him without admitting I’m something that shouldn’t exist? No one should hold that much power.

  No one.

  Yet here I am in the middle of the people I grew to care about, barely a girl in my near thirties compared to the centuries they’ve all lived, with enough power to hold their lives in the palm of my hand. The moment all the hunters dropped on the ground was when everything became crystal clear. I chose to have the rest protected from my magic. It was a conscious decision on my part. I could’ve easily been the only one standing in that open field otherwise. With the exception of Soren … maybe. I’m still not sure he would’ve survived either.

  Mind spinning with everything I should say but wouldn’t, I watch Zoltan move around the bed. The mattress dips when he sits gently to my right, taking my hand in his. Warmth spreads from my fingers up my arm simply from being connected to him. Where our skin touches, a tingling sensation remains, reminding me he can feel my emotions. My gaze jerks from his chest to his face.

  “I don’t know.” My answer to his question is barely a breath passing my lips.

  “Talk to me.” Holding me prisoner in those blue eyes of his, he rubs his thumb over the back of my hand. The movement is curiously soothing, and hypnotic. “I have lived long enough and have probably seen it all. Do not shut me out. I felt your panic. Allow me to share the burden of whatever it is.”