Chapter 9 #2
A second one came at me from the right, moving faster than any normal human had a right to. Enhanced muscle. Enhanced reflexes. He kicked off a headstone and vaulted over it, bringing his boot toward my face in a spinning arc.
I ducked, spear snapping up to parry. His boot impacted the haft, sending a shock up my arms. I used the momentum, twisting and driving the butt of the spear into his ribs. I felt something crack. He grunted, stumbling back, but didn’t fall.
These weren’t throwaway grunts. They were trained.
Across the row, Con intercepted two at once. One went high, the other low, trying to flank him. He stepped between them instead, turning their angles against each other. His left blade caught a descending strike, his right elbow smashed into the second attacker’s jaw, sending teeth flying.
The first one recovered faster than most vampires would. He dropped his weapon and tried to grapple instead, reaching for Con’s wrist.
A big mistake.
Con twisted. Bones snapped like branches. The enhanced human screamed, but it was cut short as Con drove his other blade into the man’s sternum, burying it to the hilt.
Two down.
The remaining four spread farther, circling, using the grave markers as cover. They moved in eerie silence, boots barely whispering against the grass. Not one shouted. No orders, no curses. Just coordinated motion, as if they were all following the same quiet script.
I didn’t like it.
I jabbed my spear at the ribs of the one who had tried to kick me, forcing him back, then spun. “They’re testing us!”
Con parried a strike and shoved his attacker into a stone angel. The statue cracked, wings snapping in half. “Then let’s give them something to report.”
The third attacker tried to use my distraction.
He came from behind, knife angled toward my spine.
Magic pulsed under my skin in warning.
I let myself fall forward, dropping low as steel whistled over my back. I rolled, came up on one knee, and swept my spear in a vicious arc. The blade sliced across his thighs. He dropped hard, knees slamming into the cold earth.
I jammed the spearpoint at his throat, stopping a hair’s breadth from piercing skin. “Who sent you?”
His eyes met mine. No fear. No hatred. Just ice.
“Target confirmed,” he murmured. “Phase one complete.”
My grip tightened. “Wrong answer.”
I drove the spear through his neck. His body spasmed, then went still.
Three down.
The others finally abandoned the quiet approach.
The fourth charged Con with a pair of short batons that crackled. Stun tech, maybe. Or something worse. Con twisted away from the first strike, but the second caught him across the ribs. A flicker of energy crackled along his side.
He grunted, teeth bared, but stayed standing.
The attacker tried to follow up, baton angling toward Con’s temple.
Con ducked under, stepped in, and let one blade drop. He seized the man’s wrist in a brutal grip. With his free hand, he drove his remaining sword up under the man’s ribcage, right through his heart.
The enhanced human jerked, dropping the baton, eyes wide with disbelief before they dulled.
Four down.
The last two must have realized brute force wasn’t going to cut it. They split wide, vanishing between the older graves near the back, bodies melting into the shadows.
“Cowards,” I muttered.
Con panted once, shallow, then straightened. “They’re not running.”
He was right.
The night shifted.
The graveyard, normally a quiet place of stone and whispers, filled with sound. Boots pounding down the path. Voices shouting. The entry gate slammed against the fence as more bodies poured in.
“Cass!” a voice called.
Val.
Quinn was right beside him, both of them armed, eyes scanning the scene with the practiced speed of warriors who knew how badly things could go wrong in the dark.
Behind them, three more clan members rushed in. They spread out, forming loose flanking positions without being told. Good. At least some of the training had stuck.
I frowned. “Why are they so loud?”
Con’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure.”
A cold slither of dread crept down my spine.
The answer arrived a heartbeat later.
I felt her before I heard her.
Raven.
Her presence brushed my awareness through the bond—strained, thinned, but still carrying that familiar electric hum. She must have sensed the fight even in her exhaustion. She never could stay put when her people were under attack.
“Cass!” she called from behind us.
I spun.
She stood near the low stone wall at the edge of the graveyard, hair unbound, feet bare, having clearly come in a rush without bothering with shoes. A dark robe was thrown over her pajama top, fluttering in the cold breeze.
My stomach dropped. “Raven, get back to the mansion!”
“I felt—”
“Now!” I shouted. “You’re too exposed out here!”
She opened her mouth to argue.
That was when it happened.
Movement, fast and precise, flickered behind the crooked trunk of an old oak tree just past the wall. One of the enhanced humans had been waiting. Patient. Hidden. Using our own noise and reinforcements as cover.
He burst from behind the tree and vaulted the wall in one fluid leap, knife already raised.
“Raven!” I screamed.
She spun, magic instinctively rising. I felt it flare along our tether, wild and shaky. She threw up a barrier, but it sputtered, too thin, too weak.
The enhanced human slipped through the weakened shield as if it were smoke.
He slashed.
The blade cut across her side in a clean, vicious line.
Raven cried out and dropped to one knee, hand flying to her ribs. Blood blossomed between her fingers, dark even in the low light.
Before he could finish the job, Con moved.
I didn’t even see him cross the distance. One moment he was beside me, the next his blade was at the attacker’s throat. Steel flashed. The enhanced human staggered, clutching at the sudden red welling from his neck, then collapsed beside the gravestones.
The last of the six, seeing his opportunity gone and numbers no longer in his favor, broke away. He darted between the headstones toward the fence.
“Val! Quinn!” I snapped.
They moved to intercept, but the enhanced human threw something small and metallic onto the ground behind him. It detonated with a sudden burst of light and sound. A concussion grenade. Not explosive, but disorienting.