Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
Sloan
She was smug. Leah wasn’t the type of enemy to overreach. If she was confident in taking on Sloan and her squad of vampire soldiers with only her and the man beside her, then there was much more to her companion than met the eye.
He was well-dressed, maybe even handsome, if it weren’t for the devilish grin that twisted his lips.
He stood on Leah’s right-hand side; no wand that Sloan could see, just a malevolent stare in his eyes.
Sloan was sure she had never seen him before, but she had a feeling that somehow he was different.
“Oh, I’m being so rude.” Leah motioned to the man who stood beside her. “This is my friend, Dominic Drencher. I’m sure you’ve heard rumors of the Fallen? Well, this is one of the humans they’ve chosen to do their bidding on Earth.”
Sloan had heard whispers of the Fallen but they were nothing more than bedtime stories. Tales of angels cast out of heaven to live on Earth. They chose humans to do their bidding for them and granted the abilities.
What he was doing interfering in their war was beyond Sloan, but one thing was certain: it couldn’t have been good.
Sloan drew her sword and flipped the switch on the handle that bathed the blade in a dull red light. Out of the corners of her vision, she saw the rest of her squad take up positions beside her. They were red-eyed and ready to charge at her command.
It was difficult to tell who was more deadly. Should Sloan take Leah and leave the rest of her squad to handle the unknown entity Leah had brought with her, or should she attack this Dominic Drencher? At least leaving the rest of her squad facing Leah they knew what they were in store for.
The decision was made for them a moment later as Dominic shrugged off his coat and stepped forward.
“This would usually be the part where the villain says he’ll give you one last chance to give up.
But I don’t really want you to give up, this is going to be fun.
” Dominic opened his hands where balls of flashing light began to form.
“I want you to think you have a chance before you die, too, so I’ll take it easy on you at first, and then I’ll kill you. ”
Sloan had seen her fair share of witches and wizards using magic, but whatever Dominic had in his hands was not anything what she was used to experiencing.
Magic in their world looked like fire. Different wizards and witches used different colors of magic when they fought, but they always looked the same, like fire, maybe even energy.
What sparked in Dominic Drencher’s hands now was something like an explosion ready to go off, a swirling mass of static and sparks that looked as unstable as a bomb.
Sloan’s heart beat in her chest like a war drum. Years of training kept her head clear despite the adrenaline that came in the presence of a fight.
“Let me see how he’s going to attack first,” Sloan said just loud enough for those beside her to hear. “When you understand how to best counter his form of fighting, attack him from the sides.”
“If we can move this along?” Leah looked at the placement of the sun in the sky. “I have an army to get back to and an invasion to finish.”
Sloan stalked forward, her sword trailing in the forest ground behind her. The mage-powered blade cut a line through the dirt in her wake. Sloan was breathing easy, her entire body like one giant spring ready to take action in any direction.
Dominic winked at her before hurling his first attack her way. As Sloan expected, the conjured balls of energy in his hands were, in fact, explosives. Dominic hurled them at her with speed she wasn’t anticipating.
She ducked under the first attack.
BAM!
The ball of explosive power blew up a tree behind Sloan. The massive oak groaned under the attack, coming down to rest on the forest floor with a massive crash that made the ground shake.
Sloan felt tremors from the impact race up her legs.
Another mass of energy came hurling through the air at her. Instinct made Sloan bring up her sword to block the blow. Bad idea.
BAM!
Sloan was lifted into the air. The next thing she remembered was fiery pain across her chest as she crashed into the ground a dozen yards from her previous position. Pain exploded across her body as light danced at the edges of her vision.
Her hearing was gone for the moment, replaced by a loud buzzing. Her mage sword was gone, lost somewhere during her impromptu flight. Sloan winced as she propped herself up onto her elbows. She could guess at what her stomach looked like, but she didn’t want to look.
A glance down told her what she’d expected: from the top of her chest to her stomach was a mess of bloody skin and tissue. Already her vampire DNA was mending her wound, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less.
Her hearing gone for the time being, Sloan relied on her vision to tell her what was happening to the rest of her squad. She looked up just in time to see Pia hurling through the air and become lost in the forest.
The rest of her squad was dancing around Dominic, dodging his attacks, all the while getting closer and closer to his position.
Sloan struggled to her feet. All thoughts of finding her mage sword were gone. But she needed to get back into the fight. Already the pain surging around her torso was lessening, so she found the pain that remained and buried it down deep.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Dominic was a madman hurling the explosions in every direction. Sloan had to duck under a few. All around the battle scene, trees fell as explosions shattered them into a mess of bark and splinters.
Speed was the only thing saving the other three members of her squad as they ducked and weaved their way closer and closer toward Dominic.
With a bone-breaking thud, Leah entered the fight. She moved forward and, with a flick of her wand, sent a beam of purple magic slamming into Doyle. The force lifted him from the ground and sent him head over heels, crashing into a thick tree. Doyle crumpled to the ground and didn’t move.
Steel glinted from the sun’s rays as Sloan made her push to reenter the fight.
Her hearing was back, but what she heard was the last thing she wanted.
Babs and Harrison had made it within striking distance of Dominic; however, it seemed the power to conjure up explosive energy wasn’t the only trick he had up his sleeve.
Already Harrison and Babs were trading blows with Dominic. It was clear he was the better fighter. The vampires were able to keep their edge based on the fact that it was a two-on-one fight and they were faster than their enemy.
Sloan grabbed the hilt of her sword. She flipped on the mage blade once more, headed right for Leah.
“Nice blindside,” Sloan shouted at the witch, more to take her attention off Harrison and Babs than to actually start a conversation. “I was wondering when you were going to throw in a cheap shot or two.”
Sloan’s ploy worked. Leah had zeroed in on Babs and was about to send another spell toward her, but Sloan’s words caught her off guard. Instead of striking Babs down, she turned her attention to Sloan.
“I was inspired.” Leah grinned as she began moving toward Sloan. “I didn’t want Dominic to have all the fun. Plus, five on one isn’t fair at all.”
“Since when have you been about fairness?” Sloan was within ten yards of Leah now.
She would have to choose her plan of attack carefully.
The grunts from Babs and Harrison as they fought, the explosions still let loose by Dominic Drencher, would all have to be ignored for the moment.
Leah demanded her full attention. “You killed your own sister.”
“Yes, I know. You two shared something of a connection.” Leah scratched the underside of her jaw with her wand. “She still liked you for some reason. Up until she died, her order was always to take you alive.”
“Yeah, well, I can see why, given her current company.” Sloan looked Leah up and down. She readied herself. What she was about to say was going to begin her battle with the witch. “With a sister like you, the bar was set pretty darned low.”
Leah’s lip curled in indignation, which was ironic, because she was the one who had killed her sister in the first place. With a scream befitting of a banshee, Leah reached high over her head, and as her wand came down, a purple blast of magic followed with it.
The blast came so quickly, Sloan barely had time to dodge the attack. Hot energy caressed the right side of her face as she sidestepped the spell just in time. Leah used her wand much like a sword of her own, but instead of striking with steel, she was striking with magic.
Blast after blast collided with Sloan’s mage sword as Sloan blocked the attacks just like she would another physical weapon. Her mage sword was unable to absorb Dominic’s explosives; however, it was able to turn blasts from magic attacks.
Each time Sloan deflected an attack, a loud crack accompanied an explosion of purple sparks. Sloan battled her way forward, inching closer and closer to the witch.
Sloan gained ground, coming so close now she could almost reach out with the sword to strike Leah. It did occur to her that something was very wrong, though. The struggle with the queen of New Hope had been far too easy.
A moment later, she found out why.