I act on flash instinct from all those hours practicing rapid-sword draws with the twins. I pull one of the knives from my hip in a flicker-quick motion, slashing upward with the momentum of the draw and cut a deep gash in the attacking vampire from his right hip to just below his left eye. If I'd timed it better, I could have gutted him. He reels backward with a scream and a spray of blood, back into the crowd, triggering a chaotic flurry of activity as they fight over the injured vampire. I think they're fighting over who gets to eat him. Someone shrieks, "Hungry!" and "Blood!" and the others pick it up, parroting the words as they tear at the injured vampires. Others try in vain to protect the injured one, clinging to him and covering him with their bodies. Others are more fixated on the blood already spilled, bending to rub their hands in the puddle on the floor. Others still haven't stopped staring at us in the doorway.
Both groups fighting over the injured vampire are thwarted as someone suddenly shoves the others away, grabs the injured one, and snaps his neck with such brutal quickness that I flinch back in shock. The cut, though long, wasn't deep and wouldn't have killed the vampire had he a few minutes for his healing to kick in.
The one that killed him straightens up and I feel a chill as I recognize her. It's the blond one who had been with Morana. Jesse.
Her expression is just as blank as it was then, while the vampires that had been protecting the injured one wail in disappointment and the hungry ones throw themselves at the body, which is soon invisible beneath the sheer number of them. But when she sets eyes on me, a smile touches her face.
"Hungry!" complains one of the vampires unable to make it to the dead one through the pile of other vamps already feeding on it. Jesse raises a hand to point slowly toward us in the door.
"Food."
All eyes turn our way.
"Oh, fuck that," Carver declares, and hurls a UV grenade into the center of the room.
We turn to run before the flash even goes off. The blast, in this contained space, is loud enough to deafen. I can't hear the shrieks of the burning vampires, though I don't need to look back to know plenty of them are after us. As my healing repairs the damage to my ears, silence becomes painful ringing over a low rumble which slowly increases in volume to a terrible roar, with the pounding of feet, the lunatic screams and shrieks, and my own terrified pulse hammering in my ears.
"We can't lead them out of the basement!" I realize, seeing the path back to the stairs approaching. "They'd come out right on top of our people!"
There may be more of us than them, but I've seen how strong they are and I don't want to see what they can do when unleashed in the middle of my unsuspecting allies.
I take a random turn instead and the others follow. But the savage vampires are right behind us and catching up. They're faster than we are.
"We need a strategy!" Aura says, looking at me. I scramble for an answer and can't find one. Carver grabs his shotgun, loads two shells, and turns on his heel just long enough to unload both barrels into the mass of vampires choking the hall behind us. I wince and cover my ears, but in the narrow concrete hall it still sends me temporarily deaf again. Thank God for healing powers.
Jesse, at the front of the pack, is caught in the center of the blast. If you've never seen someone hit with birdshot from fairly close range, I don't recommend it. The bulk of the shot opens a melon sized crater about an inch deep in her chest. The spray pits her face and arms in ragged clusters. The silver shot sizzles inside the ruined flash, ensuring it won't heal until the silver is removed. Jesse staggers back two steps from the impact, then keeps going. She barely misses a beat, her expression unchanged. The vampires around her who also got caught in the spray fall back for only a moment, shrieking and clawing at the silver in their skin, but they, too keep going, undaunted.
"Son of a bitch," I hiss as we hurry on. "Bolo trick is not going to work on that many of them!"
"What about the thing we did in Berlin?" Carver suggests, desperate. "Loop back around to the entrance and then bring the basement down on them?"
"We don't have the explosives!" I say, mentally going through what we do have in search of something, anything, that might help. "And I'm not sure it would stop them anyway! Wait, how many grenades do we have left?"
"Four," Carver replies, taking his last one from his belt. "But I don't think they're powerful enough to stop those things."
"It'll have to do," I reply, taking it from him and scanning for the right place to do this. There's a bend in the hall ahead and a row of dusty filing cabinets likely forgotten down here since the '60s. As we turn the corner, I grab the cabinets and throw them down onto their sides for cover. "Keep them off me!" I order, stopping.
Aura, Carver, and Damon, trusting that I have some kind of plan, turn back toward the army of monsters coming at us. Damon snarls and throws himself at Jesse directly, while Aura and Carver fight back the vampires that try to get around her. In the meantime, I hook the four remaining grenades together, rip the pins out, and hurl them around the corner, back down the hall into the crowd.
"Get down!" I shout, and dive behind the filing cabinets, covering my ears, feeling Damon's bulk crouching over me protectively a second later. My heart beats once, and the explosion rips through the hall like holy vengeance.
UV grenades are basically stun grenades modified to produce intense UV radiation. But even stun grenades explode. That always seems to surprise people. They figure it's supposed to be nonlethal and just put off a ton of light so they don't expect it to have a pretty big concussive force, too, enough to take all the fingers off your hand from a few inches away or cause massive fatal internal injuries if it goes off next to you. And when you tie four of them together and put them in a narrow concrete hallway full of people, the damage is significant.
The bend in the hall, the cover, and the sheer amount of people between us and the explosion did a lot to insulate us, but I still feel my skin burning and blistering from the concentrated UV. There's a feeling like someone jammed an icepick into either side of my head as my eardrums rupture and my hearing goes out again, blood running down the sides of my head. The concussive force hits like a sucker punch, leaving me dizzy and reeling.
But I'm still conscious, and as soon as the light stops, I stagger up, coughing. Smoke fills the halls, thick, acrid, and smelling of burned meat.
There's a crater in the floor where the grenades went off, surrounded by the smoking remains of vampires charred to ash by the intense UV. Others are down, maybe not dead but unconscious, their clothing on fire, adding to the burning meat smell. Damon stands up beside me, blood on his ears as well and his fur singed. Aura and Carver both look in rougher shape than me, but they're on their feet. For a moment, I think we pulled it off.
And then the vampires start getting up.
Any of them not reduced to charcoal begins moving almost immediately. Jesse is the first on her feet, her face burned black and her stare murderous.
"Fuck," I say, and can't even hear it. We start running again.
We can't figure out a new plan now, all of us still deafened from the explosion. It took out a few of the monsters but not enough to make a difference. At least it bought us a little time. We make the most of it, trying to put as much distance as we can between them and us before they get moving again. I scramble for a plan, for anything we can do, but as we turn another corner I realize there's only one option left.
The hall is a dead end.
We stop, and I look at Carver, who I can see understands the situation already. He nods and I nod back. There's fear in Aura's eyes but her jaw is set. She takes a deep breath and draws her knives. Finally, I force myself to look at Damon, who is already staring at me. He tries to say something, but neither of us can hear, and in his wolf shape I can't read his lips. I bet it's something along the lines of, "Didn't we just have a conversation about not dying here? I distinctly remember both of us promising to stay alive!"
I wish I could tell him how much I wish I cou
ld keep that promise. A desperate frustration wells up in me, and I fight the urge to cry, scream, and lose my shit. I wouldn't have minded dying against Morana so much. At least I would have gone down doing something that mattered. If I could weaken her even a little bit with my dying breath, it would be worth it. But here? In an old basement to a bunch of rabid freaks? With no way to tell the people depending on me what's coming or that I failed? How long would they wait with no word from me before they realize we died? Would they ever know what had happened? Or would these monsters just head up to the surface when they were done with us, and kill everyone I cared about?
"I love you," I say. I still can't hear my own voice. But I say it again, as many times as it takes to see the recognition in Damon's eyes. He can't do the same, but he takes my hand and brings it to his chest, over his heart. The same place I held his last night. I understand.
I want to hold him, but I know we don't have time. Together, we put our backs to the wall and prepare ourselves to fight.
Carver and Aura share a long look, her hand in his. Aura doesn't look afraid any more. Just determined. She doesn't intend to die here. I wish I had her certainty. Carver stands a little straighter, the resignation in his eyes becoming resolve. There may be no chance we're going to make it out of this. But we're sure as hell going to fight like there is.
Carver squeezes her hand one last time, then let’s go and draws his rapier. It's just like him to decide to go out in style. I take out my knives. Damon shakes himself and settles into a defensive position beside me, silver claws of his gauntlets gleaming.
We can't hear the monsters coming, so when it happens it happens all at once.
They explode around the corner to the dead end like a wave, some climbing on the walls rather than running on the floor. They're on us in half a heartbeat and chaos overwhelms us.
We do our best to hold the line, but they quickly break through it. They're too fast, too agile. Six of us couldn't kill one of these things. We don't stand a chance against hundreds.
But we're fighting for our lives and for each other. We stay as close to one another as we dare with blades and claws flying, trying to guard one another's backs. But I lose focus for a second and Carver and Aura vanish into the crowd. I shout their names but I still can't hear anything but a thin ringing. I look at Damon, who's a foot taller than the rest of the vampires, and he points toward where they must be, but before I can even attempt to get to them, Jesse steps between me and Damon.
I slash at her with all the speed I have. She catches the blade, letting it cut her hand in order to rip it from my grip and throw it. I dodge her first swing, try to dart out of range, planning to try and hamstring her, but instead I collide with another rabid vampire, who takes the opportunity to bite a chunk out of my arm. I can't even hear myself scream as I stab at the rabid vamp with my other knife until it lets go when I take out one of its eyes.
I turn and immediately block Jesse's fist as it flies toward my face like a freight train. I stop it just in time to see the other vampire coming in low, who knocks my legs out from under me. I go down, and I'm instantly dogpiled by more vampires than I can count, tearing at my hair, my clothing, any inch of skin they can get their teeth on. But I can't focus on the pain or trying to fight them off because I can see Damon, mouth open in a roar of pain as the rabid vampires climb over him, biting at his shoulders, his back, his arms. Others are at his feet, digging their teeth into the muscles of his legs, trying to force him down. I scream his name and hear only silence and a thin ringing. Jesse stands over me, a faint, proud smile on her face. I know she'll be the one to end it. I can only hope she kills me before Damon so I don't have to watch him die.
"Stop."
Out of nowhere, a word.
The ringing in my ears is still there. I can't hear anything. But I can hear this. The word pulses through me like a wave. I feel it, like the blast from the grenade in miniature, passing over and through me tangibly.
And so can everyone else, apparently.
The rabid vampires freeze in place. Damon searches in confusion for the source of the command. Even Jesse seems slightly perplexed.
"You've done very well, children," the voice says again, not so much a voice as a thought, appearing fully formed in my mind, so loud it drowns out my own thoughts. And now I recognize it. "But those are Mommy's toys, and she doesn't want them broken just yet. Bring them to me, and I'll give you a special treat."
I don't know how Morana learned telepathy, but I have a bad feeling about it.
There's a small stirring of movement among the vampires, but it's unorganized and conflicted. Some start to move back down the hall immediately. Others eye us, clearly considering just eating us now, anyway.
"Jesse, be a dear and help your brothers and sisters get them here in one piece, won't you?" Morana speaks in our minds again. "You know how they get confused."
Jesse turns to the vampires still hesitating and snarls, fangs bared. I can't hear her, but I can see those teeth and the corded muscle of her arms and broad shoulders. The other vampires move. Jesse grabs me by the hair to haul me to my feet, yanking my knife out of my other hand and throwing it aside. Damon's hackles rise in anger and he lunges at her, but I hold up a hand to stop him. They're taking us to Morana. Whatever happens, we've got a better chance of living up there than down here. He reluctantly backs down, and we let the rabid vamps shepherd us forward, back through the halls to the basement stairs.
I feel a rush of relief as I spot Aurora and Carver, both injured but still alive. They keep us separated, but at least I know they aren't dead. We still have a chance.
As we leave the basement behind, the horde of rabid vampires stream up into the main house, and then farther up toward the grand ball room on the second floor. My accelerated healing begins to repair my hearing. The tinnitus ringing grows louder, and my ears burn and itch as the delicate inner workings stitch themselves back together. My burns are taking longer to heal, and the most recent bites still haven't closed, but by the time we reach the doors of the grand ball room I can hear again.
"You have a plan?" Damon whispers to me, his hearing apparently back as well.
"Stay alive," I reply, and the doors swing open.
Chapter 14
The ballroom is decorated as though for a party, lit up and glittering, but there is nothing to celebrate inside. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows on the right side of the room, I see the fighting going on below. My people still have the courtyard. They're holding strong. If nothing changes, they could keep that position all night. But the army of Morana's "children" around me is going to change everything. They drive us into the room, then push us down onto our knees.
Morana stands on a dais in the center of the room in a black, strapless evening gown. An elegant drape of fabric falls from the back of the dress and attaches to diamond studded silver cuffs on her wrists, moving like wings behind her. Her hair is pinned up in elegant scarlet curls like something from an old movie. At least I got one thing right. She is fucking extra.
More concerning are the three bodies lying on the dais around her. Two I recognize as the elders of the Alder and Blackthorn clans. The other I can assume must be Aspen. Two are already dead, their throats cut and hawthorn stakes through their hearts. The third, Sioban, Morana holds by the hair. She's unconscious, but judging by the hawthorn-handled silver knife in Morana's hand, she'll soon join the others.
"Hello again Lyra, Carver, Aurora," Morana says warmly. She ignores Damon entirely. He's beneath her notice. "I didn't expect to see you again quite this soon, but I'm actually delighted that you're here. I really wanted you to see this."
She gestures at her feet and I inhale sharply as I see what she's doing.
In a wide basin, full of blood from the two dead elders, sits a crown. Not a delicate tiara but a full, heavy open crown. It's solid gold, the circlet made in the shape of woven branches and delicately curling vines and finely shaped laurel leaves. The tines, rising i
n seven points around the band, are filigreed windows studded with yellow sapphires to create the image of the sun. Mab's pendant grows warm against my skin, hidden under my shirt, and between that and the blood I can gather from context what it is, and what she's planning.
"Titania's crown," I say, and she blinks twice, then smiles.
"Correct!" she confirms. "You've done your homework, I see. You have been spending too much time with the Fae lately, haven't you? Nasty creatures. Really only useful for one thing."
She winks at Jesse and the other vampires conspiratorially.
"Treat," one of the vampires replies, with a note of impatience.
"Ah, of course," Morana sighs. "How silly of me. One moment children. Mommy has to finish some business first. Now."
She looks at me again and smiles.
"You destroyed my ring," she says.
"Just wait till I get to your face," I reply, getting tired of her drama already.
"I actually wanted to thank you for that," Morana replies. "I had been planning to do this anyway. Thanks to you, I finally went ahead with it, and look how well it's turned out! I already had the crown, getting the elders was almost too easy, and I even get to have you here to see my coronation."
Her gaze turns cold as she looks down at us, Carver in particular.
"All three of you could have been beside me for this," she says. "You might have been court and consort to a true queen. Instead you betrayed me and tried to take power for yourselves. Well, I hope it was worth it."
She lifts Sioban higher over the bowl and raises her knife. I lunge forward to stop her and Jesse drags me back by my hair.
"Tonight, you witness the crowning of the Queen of All Vampires!" Morana declares, and drags the knife across Siobhan’s throat. I cry out, Damon roars, but none of us can do anything to stop Morana as she bleeds Sioban out over the crown. It glows like fire as it absorbs the elder's power. Finally, Morana plunges the knife into Siobhan’s heart and casts her aside, dead and empty and no longer important. Morana only has eyes for the crown. With trembling hands, she lifts it, dripping blood, out of the basin and raises it to her head. She closes her eyes as though in ecstasy as she places it atop her beautiful hair, blood running down her face. I can see the power rushing into her. She glows, like sunlight running through her veins.
Fury : The Kresova Vampire Harems: Lyra Page 10
