Chapter 3 #2
After loosing a high-pitched shriek, Reilly tried to fight back.
He pummeled Ilyana’s torso with awkward punches.
She maneuvered behind him and dug her sharp nails into his skin, tearing and causing rivulets of blood to drip from the wounds.
Her magic took control of the water in his blood to form a rope that started to loop around his torso like a living creature.
I could’ve stopped her magic with my own by nulling her abilities.
But my attention was caught on her fangs.
A single bead of venom hung off of one shining point.
I witnessed a statistical anomaly in motion, a bite already loaded with venom.
In a microsecond, she’d have her fangs buried in Reilly’s neck, and my final prototype would have a live test subject.
I could’ve let it happen, to test the preventative one last time.
Yet I didn’t think, I only reacted.
I tossed my spent weapon aside and grabbed the loaded crossbow from Dustyn’s grip. With vampiric speed of my own, I aimed and fired.
Ilyana’s expression went slack as blood and ocular matter sprayed from the hole straight through one of her blood-red eyes. She dropped to the ground at Captain Stark’s feet as the more experienced slayer skidded to a stop. The blood rope lost its form with a splash.
Reilly turned and fell to his knees before me, gripping my calves as he sobbed. “Thank you. Thank you. Aetherius bless you!”
My chest felt hollow as I stared at the crossbow still vibrating from the shot. Years of research, and I just threw away a perfectly viable test subject. What’s wrong with me?
But the truth settled fast. I couldn’t leave his fate to chance when I had the ability to intervene. And all that mattered anymore was creating that cure for Zane.
My lip curled into a sneer as he continued to grovel. “Consider another profession, recruit.” I pulled myself free of his grip.
Captain Stark kicked the body, which twitched with the last vestiges of life.
Vampires were nearly impossible to kill, except by extreme means: decapitation, a drink of consecrated water, exposure to fire or the sun, and the old slayer mainstay, a strike through the heart.
Most other wounds that’d be fatal to a human would put a vampire in a near-death state.
I pulled a stake and mallet from my belt. She nodded and sheathed her sword, letting me have the kill. Since we needed her body as intact as possible, there was only one option to send her soul to the beyond.
I flipped Ilyana onto her back and unbuttoned the fabric under her chin, revealing the pale skin of her chest. The dress needed to remain intact as well.
I knelt over her and set the stake’s tip above her pulse.
She moaned in pain, head lolling as her vampiric healing attempted to fix the extensive damage already done to her.
With a few brutal pounds of the mallet, I cracked any resistance from her ribs and ended her struggle. Her body fell limp with true death.
Now that it was over, Captain Stark went to speak with the coachman. She’d shifted her rags aside to expose the crossed stake and blade symbol of a vampire slayer embossed in her leather jerkin, then unhooked the bag of coins from her belt and pressed it into his hand.
His eyes gleamed when he spotted the pouch, and the possessive curl of his fingers told me exactly what mattered to him. Whatever she said after that, he nodded along eagerly, greed already doing half the work for her.
I took a moment to inspect Ilyana’s corpse more closely.
She’d been gorgeous in life, possessing an olive skin tone, full lips, and shoulder-length, wavy black hair now stuck to the wetness of her wound.
Blood speckled her off-the-shoulder gown, but that was all right.
The burgundy fabric was the perfect cover for little feeding accidents.
She thought she could be a queen? How foolish.
I turned my attention to Dustyn. “Help me get her back into the carriage.”
He drew himself upright and saluted. Together, we hefted her body inside and propped her upright. I scowled at Reilly’s bolt, which was still quivering where it was embedded through a cushioned headrest. Puffs of white stuffing emerged like blood from a wound, at odds with the rest of the decor.
“So much for our enemies not noticing anything amiss,” I said with enough venom that Reilly audibly shook in his boots behind me.
Before the coward had shot out the window and pierced the blackout curtain, the inside of this carriage would’ve been a fine place for a vampire to wait in style through the daylight hours.
A panel of the back wall was ajar, revealing a bar’s worth of alcohol in decorative bottles.
One, half-full of viscous blood, was on its side and in danger of rolling to freedom.
I set it upright and slammed the panel shut.
“Leave it,” I said when Dustyn reached for the embedded bolt. I motioned for him to follow me out of the carriage.
“Help us,” Captain Stark was saying to the coachman, “and you’ll never see another Krudelbach again.”
His throat worked as he swallowed hard. “Forty years, I’ve served that family. Forty years of…” He touched one of the scars on his forearm. “Lord Krudelbach was never gentle with those beneath him.”
His gaze flicked to the coin pouch now tucked at his belt.
He cupped his hand over it possessively.
After a steadying breath, he straightened his shoulders.
“So, yes, I’ll help. I can cover for Ilyana’s absence at the underground den.
Claim she changed her mind and returned home before anyone grows suspicious. ”
I arched a questioning brow, and in return, Captain Stark gave me a thumbs-up.