Chapter 4 #2
Her foot shot out, sending the nearest vamp crashing down the staircase as Adriel retrieved his own stake, supporting my weight with his free arm.
He half-led, half-carried me down the staircase, where we found our path blocked by a horde of hungry vampires.
“Sorry,” Adriel mumbled as he released me.
Without his support, I stumbled backward into the wall as Sorsha whirled toward the vampires. She threw her full weight behind the stake, slamming it through the chest of the nearest vampire.
Adriel was at her side before she could withdraw it, staking the next male who lunged for the princess.
Nausea gripped me as I hiked up my dress, my shaking hand closing over the smooth edges of my second stake.
This was absurd. I could barely stand, let alone fight, and I cursed my own foolishness at letting Mirabella feed on me.
But I had to try. There was no way the three of us would make it out of here alive if I couldn’t hold my own.
Just then, a vampire that Sorsha had staked stumbled forward, blood spurting from his chest. She’d missed his heart, and he was angry.
Summoning all my strength, I gripped my stake with both hands and lunged for the injured male. The tip lodged in his breastbone, but I hadn’t driven it all the way through.
Growling, I heaved again with all my might, but the vampire grabbed me, and I pitched backward. His entire weight crashed down on top of me, sticky black blood soaking my dress and lodging in my mouth.
I choked on the taste of death and decay, the sickly sweet stench of the vampire mixing with the coppery tang of mortal blood as I gasped for air beneath him.
I wanted to be sick, but in a stroke of luck, the vampire’s fall had driven the stake through his heart.
Bracing my hands on his chest, I tried to heave him off me, but he wouldn’t budge.
Bucking my hips, I tried again, but he was simply too heavy.
I couldn’t breathe. He was crushing my lungs, and Mirabella’s venom had sapped my strength.
Just as I was beginning to panic, rough hands yanked the vampire off me, and Adriel pulled me to my feet once more.
Bodies littered the stone floor, and a few dazed mortals had awoken from their stupor to stare blankly at the carnage.
“Where are they?” Adriel demanded. I didn’t have to ask what he meant.
“Downstairs,” I panted. “In the crypt.”
Wordlessly, Sorsha snaked an arm around my waist and guided me down the dimly lit corridor. Adriel paused to stake a few blood-drunk vamps that stumbled into our path before throwing open the heavy wooden door.
Sorsha’s ball of faelight winked into existence, illuminating the narrow stone staircase. But as we descended into the crypt, I realized something was wrong.
The warm glow illuminated the outlines of at least twenty sarcophagi. But spaced between the pillars and bulky stone coffins were dozens of undulating shadows.
Adriel’s stillness told me I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. A low sigh echoed through the crypt, and I realized that the writhing shapes were bodies.
Nearly two dozen vampires were sprawled around the darkened chamber, tangled with naked mortals. Judging by the wet squelches and soft groans of pain, they were busy feeding.
Blood pounded in my ears as I weighed our options. We were no match for that many vampires, but we couldn’t leave without the hands.
A pair of red-tinged eyes gleamed through the dark, the glow of Sorsha’s fae light reflecting in that monstrous gaze.
“The hands,” Sorsha whispered.
“There,” I rasped, pointing at a dusty glass case along the wall.
Adriel’s body became a blur as he shot across the chamber.
As he moved, Sorsha’s faelight split into a dozen more glowing balls. They fanned out to illuminate the horrific scene — no fewer than thirty mortals lay on the cold stone floor. Some of them weren’t moving, and a wave of disgust rose in my throat.
Sorsha released me as the vampires pounced, and I just managed to avoid one lurching vamp as the princess resumed her lethal dance.
A crash of glass drew my attention, and I looked over in time to see Adriel’s elbow smash through the top of the case. My stomach lurched as he withdrew two disembodied hands and tossed them in my direction.
By some miracle, I caught the hands — and nearly dropped them.
They were cold to the touch, stiff and withered with age. I gagged and clutched them to my chest as Adriel whirled to stake a blood-drunk vampire who was lurching toward him with a frenzied expression.
A few feet away, Sorsha moved in a swirl of gold and blood. Her long locks were already matted in the tarry black substance, and her beautiful gown was soaked in gore.
“There are too many,” she called to Adriel, not sparing a glance in our direction as she speared a vampire through the heart, then planted one high-heeled foot on his chest and shoved him off her stake.
“What do you suggest?” Adriel growled.
“Take Lyra and the hands and get out of here. I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll be dinner.”
Sorsha’s scream was right on cue as another vamp took her to the floor, one pale hand clamping around her throat as the other snaked up her thigh.
Adriel hurled himself across the chamber, leaping over an open sarcophagus and kicking the vampire in the head so hard I heard the crunch of bone.
They landed in a sprawling heap, and the royal guard plucked Sorsha off the ground without so much as breaking stride.
The princess was heaving for air, her bloodied hands trembling. Power and fury radiated from Adriel as he held her close, raising a stake as he circled to face the other encroaching vampires.
This was it. We weren’t going to make it out of here — not the way we’d come, at least.
“The pool,” I called, though my voice came out broken and raspy.
Adriel’s eyes met mine across the chamber before refocusing on his opponents.
He was ludicrously outnumbered.
“It’s a doorway to the in-between.”
The royal guard’s expression tightened. I saw the calculations flash through his eyes, saw him weighing the dangers that awaited us in the in-between against the dozen or so vampires prowling closer.
“Fuck,” he bit out, setting the princess on her feet and rushing the nearest vamp.
Sorsha lurched after him, and I realized he hadn’t released her hand. They sprinted across the chamber, stakes slashing as they went, and my stomach wobbled as I turned toward the fetid water that lapped at the sides of the pool.
My body remembered the horrific journey to the in-between, even if my mind had blocked it out. Everything inside me fought against getting anywhere near that churning black water, but the vampires had us surrounded.
Legs shaking, head spinning, I climbed up onto the low stone wall and plunged into the pool.