Chapter 6
It takes a moment before I register Tori’s words. The fear I expected to see looks a lot more like awe.
I told you she’s growing on me.
I’m starting to see why.
“You’re not afraid?” I ask, and I’m surprised at how scared I sound.
She walks toward me. “Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how badass that was? You just killed a freaking vampire with your blood.”
She claps a hand over her mouth and starts giggling.
“I don’t know how in the lost gods you did that, but you’re a gods-damned superhero. I knew you were hiding something, but this is so much cooler than anything I imagined.”
“Superhero?”
“Yeah, apparently they used to save the world and shit in the books our ancestors read before they were banished,” she says.
“I’m not even going to ask how you know that.” I raise a brow at her.
“That’s probably for the best.”
I shake my head, but a strange sense of relief washes over me at her words. I’m not sure why I didn’t expect this response from her. Aside from Willow and Cora, there’s no one else who has had my back as much as she has.
“I’m not a hero.”
“Yes, you are.”
I move back over to the dead vampire and throw a glance over my shoulder.
“You may not think that after what I’m about to do.”
I slip the dagger from the hiding place beneath my dress and use the tip of the blade to push open the creature’s mouth.
The black stain of my blood is everywhere like a stamp that will forever taint him.
I remind myself that he probably killed hundreds of humans when a knot twists my stomach just like it always does.
You did nothing wrong, Athriel tells me.
I usually kill the ones that hurt someone…this one was just…
My words trail off as uncertainty swallows my thoughts.
He was indulging in more blood than he needed. This wasn’t about survival; it was about greed. You likely saved many lives by ending his.
Athriel’s words sink in as I set to work on one of the fangs, loosening it with quick, precise motions.
I repeat the movement until at last it gives way, and I pull it free from his mouth.
It took me a while to get the technique right.
The first time was so bad I ended up leaving the vampire's fangs behind and running back to the bloodhouse, too afraid everyone would know what I’d done.
These days, I never leave without their fangs.
“What are you doing?” I jump at the sound of Tori’s voice. “Sorry.”
“I need the fangs, it’s where the venom is stored.”
It’s all I offer as I pull out the second fang and place them both into the hidden pocket Cora sewed into the inside of my dress. I remember the first time I realized she’d done it. It was a silent sign that she was on my side.
“And what exactly do you need vampire venom for?”
I rise to my feet, moving a couple of feet from the vampire’s body before turning to face her.
“Look, I want to answer all of your questions, but right now, I need help hiding this body to give us enough time to get the hell out of here before anybody realizes what I’ve done or who I am.”
Realization of what is happening and where we are finally sinks in as her eyes widen.
“Shit, I completely forgot. Ok, what do you need me to do?”
“Grab his legs.”
It turns out that having an accomplice is incredibly beneficial when hiding a dead body. Tori and I are done in record time and back in the main room, moving quickly toward the door.
“Is it just me, or does it feel like they’re all staring at us?” Tori mutters as we move through the room of vamps. She’s right. Red eyes seem to glow from every corner, and they’re all focused on us.
“They’re hungry,” I remind her. And we just walked in like fresh meat. Athriel hums his agreement in the back of my mind. “We need to get out of here.”
I know the look of a bloodlust vampire when I see one, and right now, this is the last place we need to be. I push Tori forward, moving quickly as we go, but we come to a halt when four vampires circle us.
“Where are you two delicious things running off to?” the tallest of the group asks.
My heart pounds in my chest, but I lift my head high and give him an innocent smile.
“Amabel is expecting us back now.”
He laughs at that.
“Amabel expects you to stay until we are fully satiated, and I still have a hunger for more.” His eyes twinkle as he speaks. Instinctively, I step in front of Tori, but she moves to stand beside me. If we make it out of this, I’m going to kill her.
Or you could just use her as bait.
I thought you said you liked her.
I said she was growing on me, not that I liked her.
“You’ll have to take that up with Amabel, but we’re leaving.”
I grab Tori’s hand and quickly try passing between the two vamps at the front, but one grabs Tori, pressing her back against his chest, while the other wraps a hand around my throat and slams me against the wall.
“I think you misunderstood,” he says, squeezing his fingers tighter around my throat. “You’re not leaving until we say so.”
My blood turns to lava, and I’m not sure what the vampire sees in my face, but his grip on my throat falters for just a second before he regains his composure. Athriel’s anger pounds inside me like a drum.
“Take your hand off me.”
The voice is both mine and Athriel’s. Ancient and young. Behind him, a human woman whimpers, terror widening her eyes.
“Perhaps you should make me,” he sneers.
“Wrong answer.”
I slip the dagger from beneath my dress, running the sharp edge of the blade across the flesh of my thigh, coating it in my blood.
A quick twist of my wrist and the blade slices across the vampire’s cheek.
I slam my heel into his chest, sending him crashing to the floor.
The others recoil in shock, parting as they watch the scene unfold.
It takes a few seconds for the effects of my blood to kick in, but as soon as it does, he begins screaming and clawing at his face like a wild animal.
“What did you do to him?” a female vampire screams as she drops to her knees beside him.
“Only what he deserved.”
She sneers at me, but then her attention returns to him. “Jeremiah? Jeremiah? What’s wrong?”
His eyes roll into the back of his head, and convulsions wrack his body as she tries to steady him. A strained wheezing sound comes from his mouth, and then his body goes completely still.
The entire room is silent as the others look on in confusion, their eyes drifting from the dead vampire to me. My fingers tighten around the handle of the dagger, and I know without a doubt, I’m going to have to use it again.
There are too many of them, I tell Athriel.
Then use the element of surprise.
When I hesitate, the sound of his voice booms inside my head.
Now!
I charge the nearest vampire, slashing my blood-coated blade across his chest before dropping low and slicing through the calves of another. Both scream out, but I don’t stop to think. If I do, I’ll die and so will Tori, and Willow will be left alon…
I can’t even finish the thought. I will not leave her to fend for herself. I have to live.
“Why are you all standing around? Kill her and every human in here!” the woman kneeling beside the dead vampire says as tears stain her pale cheeks.
Her stare is lethal as our eyes meet, but I don’t have time to think about it as the room descends into chaos.
Humans bolt around screaming as vampires catch them, clamping their fangs into their flesh and draining them before flinging their limp bodies to the floor. This is my fault.
Focus, you can feel bad later, Athriel growls.
He’s right, if I don't act now, then every human here will die.
I look up just in time to find a vampire heading in Tori’s direction. I flick my wrist, sending my dagger flying through the air, only releasing my breath when it sinks deep into his eye. A guttural scream rips from him as he falls to the floor with the others who have felt my blade’s wrath.
I meet Tori’s eyes, and she nods. She yanks the dagger from the vampire’s eye and bolts toward me. I snatch it from her grip and drag the blade across my arm, relief flooding me at the sight of the black stain.
“I don’t suppose you have another one of those tucked under your skirt, do you?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“I think I’m going to die tonight, then.”
I follow her gaze and find the room of vampires watching us, yet they hesitate to come any closer as they stare at the black blood dripping from my blade.
Good. I hold it out in a firm warning, but almost drop it when I see all the bodies littering the ground.
They killed every human in here. We’re the only ones left.
A knot twists my stomach, and the taste of bile fills my mouth.
We need to get out of here. My focus sharpens as I take each of them in.
If any of them get close, I’ll take them down just like the others.
I thank the lost Gods that their current state makes them slow and sluggish; there would be no chance of us getting out of this any other way.
There are only eight of them left. Their fear is keeping them back for now, but it will not last forever.
They are simply assessing, waiting for the opportunity to strike.
And the only exit is through the door behind them.
“It’s her, she’s the slayer,” one of the vampires says as he points down at a spot on the floor, his eyes wide with horror. I look down and find the two fangs I stole earlier lying there.
I need those fangs.
The fangs are the least of your worries.
If I leave without them, then all of this will have been for nothing.
“Unmask,” one of the vamps commands.
“I don’t take orders from you,” I say, keeping my dagger in view.
“Enough talk, one of you kill her,” the female who was crying demands.
“I’m not going anywhere near that blade. Did you not see what it did to the others?”
“Pathetic,” she sneers as her eyes meet mine again. “You’ll die for what you did to my brother.”
I keep my head high, watching her through my mask.
“By whose hand?”