Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
THE UNDEAD
When nightmares take the place of dreams…
Kate felt the chill first. It wasn’t that the room had gone cold, but an all-enveloping chill that spoke of evil, dread, and threat. Barely awake, her first thoughts were, Where’s Torran? What’s happening? Is he safe?
It was still dark in the room. Heavy drapes prevented even a glimmer of moonlight from entering the room. She guessed it was around three or maybe four in the morning. Torran’s side of the bed was empty and cold, as if he’d been gone for some time.
Gathering the bedclothes around her, Kate tried to make out a shadow at the end of the room. It remained preternaturally still, but she got the impression that someone or something was watching her. Remembering Torran’s warning and the protection he’d put in place, she ran through the inventory in her mind.
“Who are you? What do you want?” she called out when the suspense became unbearable. “Don’t hide. Come closer so I can see you.” As she said this, she collected her flare and a handful of silver ingots.
Beads of sweat broke out on her brow when a reedy voice responded. “Are you sure you want me to come closer?”
She knew that voice! She knew it!
Kate would know her father’s voice anywhere, though she hadn’t seen him since she was a child. As she pressed back against the pillows, her chest tightened as the shadowy form began to move. It didn’t so much walk toward her as glide, and the chill in the room increased as it drew closer.
Goose bumps lifted on her skin as the figure took on shape and detail. An angular, ash-white face contained nothing but evil intent. A stark black suit was eerily similar to Kate’s costume at the Gathering.
Kate’s worst fears were confirmed. Confronting evil in rotten, withered flesh, she knew this creature. Kate’s father was a vampire, a foul incubus that fed on blood. Even more sickening was knowing this thing had destroyed her mother. Not even the dribble of blood at one corner of its cruel, thin mouth could revolt and anger Kate more, but she had to remain in control, or Torran and everyone else in the castle and outside these walls would be in mortal danger.
“Who are you? What do you want with me?”
“You know who I am,” the creature cackled.
It was tall and angular, with coal-black eyes that she found dangerously compelling. The urge to stare into those eyes almost irresistible.
“Gah!” It took a great effort of will to rip her gaze away. Covering her eyes with her hands broke the spell, and her head cleared. She knew exactly what to do. “I know who you are and why you’re here.”
“Aha…” The creature seemed pleased.
Keeping it talking would buy time. The creature was vain enough to be malleable, and Kate’s eyes had a chance to grow accustomed to the dark. She had the flare, the silver ingots, and now she located the switch that turned on UV lights.
“It’s been a long time,” the vampire crooned. “You’ve aged well.”
More than could be said for him. The vampire’s age was hard to determine—always had been, Kate remembered with a shiver as the past flew back into her mind. Older than time, with skin like faded parchment, the creature’s eyes gleamed as it stared at her, but it was an empty light.
It must not see her fear. She had to find a way to warn Torran that at least one of the vampires was already inside the castle?—
“Katie?”
The creature’s use of Kate’s childhood pet name made her skin crawl. All she could think of was how her mother had begged this fiend for mercy. It was so close to the bed she could smell the sour, damp soil of his grave. She recoiled when it reached out with bony fingers.
To think of those evil hands with their horny, club-like nails touching Kate when Torran had caressed her with such tenderness unleashed Kate’s inner warrior. Grabbing the sheets to cover her nakedness, she straightened her spine. “That’s close enough!” she commanded.
Undeterred, the creature crooned, “Katie…”
Ignoring the fiend’s whiny attempt to win her over, she recalled, “The last time I saw you, you were torturing my mother.”
Another cackle, and then, “She loved it.”
“Did she?” Kate remembered her mother, cowed and beaten in body and soul when this bloodsucker left them for what turned out to be the final time. You’re too old for me now, she remembered the fiend crowing over her mother. “My mother was frightened of you, hypnotized by you, until finally, she died because of you.”
“That’s not a very nice welcome, Katie.”
How dare this monster come back now? Did it imagine she could think of it with anything but loathing? “Why are you here? I thought you specialized in terrorizing vulnerable women and children. You’ll find no victims here. Your days of bullying are over. You have a lot to learn about me.”
His daughter. As Kate thought about that, she felt sick inside. Being half vampire made her Torran’s sworn enemy?—
No time to think about that now. She had to save Torran. If good were to win over evil, good people must act, but there was a hurdle to jump over first. She was still naked in bed.
Snagging some clothes while the vampire performed a little vibrating dance of what she guessed it supposed was a victory, Kate got dressed beneath the covers. Throwing back the sheets made the creature jump back. “Are you going to tell me why you’re here?” she demanded, “or are you too much of a coward to do that?”
The monster recoiled at her words, then seemed to draw itself up, ready to strike. This stretching revealed rot and mold and suppurating sores on his long-dead skin. “I’ve come to see if the rumors are true,” it said.
“Rumors?” Kate queried, edging her fingertips toward the UV switch.
Gathering her thoughts into one spear of intent, she sent them flying toward Torran, but there was no reply in thought, or guarantee that he’d receive her warning. “What rumors?” she repeated sharply.
“Rumors about you becoming a dragon by injection?—”
“You odious fuck! Torran Kildear is my lover by mutual consent. Something you’re not familiar with.”
“So, where is he, this lover of yours?”
“Right here.”
“Torran?” Torran was back in Highland dress, with a sword of vengeance in his hand.
Fearful for his safety, Kate warned, “Stay back! I can deal with this?—”
In spite of the creature’s crude insinuation about Kate being a dragon by injection, and regardless of not knowing how big a part, or not, she played in Torran’s life, Kate was sure of one thing: she’d lay down her life to save his.
Grabbing the flare, she flung it at the vampire, who reeled back, but recovered faster than expected. After picking up the small box containing the flare, the creature examined it with interest. That was all the time Kate needed to flip the switch and flood the bedroom with UV light.
With a screech, the vampire retreated to the far end of the room, where he cowered behind the drapes. Grabbing hold of Kate’s arm, Torran rushed her into the bathroom, where he yanked out the ventilation screen and bundled her into the tunnel. From there, it was a frantic combat crawl until Kate managed to wrench the next screen from its holdings. Dropping onto the landing, she recovered and stared back up the yawning hole. “Torran?”
Fear iced through Kate. Torran was nowhere to be seen. Had he transformed into his dragon? Did the vampire have a space-iron weapon? If Torran was still in human form, he was even more vulnerable.
And I left him!
“I’m safe. The vampire has disappeared for now. Run! You know what to do.”
No one could outrun a fiend, but Kate was confident that if she could reach her weapons in time, she could defend herself and Torran, as well as everyone else in the castle.
Racing downstairs and across the hallway, she barged out of the main entrance doors. Dragging in a hectic breath, she stared into the sky, but there was no sign of Torran or his dragonkin. The best she could do was to send her thoughts flying to him. “Take care!”
Feeling a chill on her back, she turned and stared up to see the vampire on the topmost tower, leering down with satanic amusement. Having spotted her, the fiend chose not to use the stairs, but floated down to join her. While she was watching its descent, two of its ashen-faced minions appeared out of nowhere and tried to grab her. How stupid to imagine that a bully would travel alone. Reaching into her pocket, she flung a handful of silver ingots into the vampires’ faces and then raced for the statue where her weapons were concealed.
The vampires got there before her. Bone-white faces turned in Kate’s direction, they made a blood-chilling chittering sound, their sharp teeth clattering together. With no interest in becoming anyone’s canapé, she barged through the foul-smelling group to grab hold of the stone hand of a statue that might just save her.
A concealed entrance in the pedestal of the statue slid back to reveal a secret tunnel. Diving into its cold, dark heart, Kate found what she was looking for and nocked the first arrow to her bow.
Outside the tunnel, mayhem reigned. Torran, in dragon form, had swooped down to save her, while more and more vampires had arrived. They fell over each other in their haste to escape as Kate picked them off one by one, while Torran blazed fire and vengeance on the rest.
Bow and arrow in hand, with her quiver slung across her back, Kate could spare only the briefest moment to admire Torran as he flew back and forth, incinerating vast swathes of screeching undead, because undead were still falling from the sky. Landing unhurt, they formed up in skeletal battalions, quickly replacing those Torran and Kate had destroyed.
The portal had to be closed and fast!
If only she could fly.