Coldstorm (Heart of a Vampire, Book 7) (33 page)

In the same instant, the wolf lying prone on the ground near the dais opened his eyes a slit. He looked at Anca for a long moment, before he returned to playing dead. Injured as he was, the wolf remained an Alpha's son, and like Eliza had said, was a future Alpha himself.

He wasn't down. He wasn't out. And in his brief look had been a promise to help if Anca could get them both free.

The wolf was certainly pinning a lot of hopes on her.

Then again, she was a Judge.

She could do this.

Anca shoved as much magic as she could gather against the ragged edges of the spell. She blinked, and the magic had lowered an inch.

Imperceptibly, she tried tightening her shoulders. Welcome relief and hope flooded her senses when her muscles responded. Now to hurry, before the girl caught on to what she was doing.

In front of her throne, Eliza stomped a foot on the dais, scowling. Her voice came thick and rough, and full of power. "Tell me what you hate. What you fear. Tell me what will break you."

Magic washed down Anca's throat, gagging her, then spilled into her soul. The answer came unbidden. "The death of innocents."

Damn it.

She fought the girl's new magic, feeling the power, the true inherited strength of this magic. Not borrowed. But the child's real powers.

Strong enough to compel Anca's answer.

Furiously, she worked harder at unraveling the weaker, false spell holding her captive.

It fell to her chest.

Unaware of Anca's near freedom, the answer made a smile creep across Eliza's lips. One with fury and murderous intent so odd on a child's face. "Really? That's it? Something so deliciously simple and easy?"

Stomach exploding with worried fear, Anca unwove the siren magic faster still.

More, more. Must go faster, faster.

Because she didn't want to see what Eliza planned to do with Anca's answer.

The girl's gaze settled on Leo. She walked behind him, and grabbed his hair, jerking his head back once more. "Tell me, what was your job?"

He blinked, glanced at Anca, then away. His answer was soft. "To bring you the Judge that was in town."

"And what did I tell you the prize would be if you succeeded?"

He strained against her hold for a short second before stilling in defeat. "You'd finally free my sister."

"I did say something like that, didn't I?" The girl tapped a finger on her lips, then in a blink, flashed to Luci's side.

Eliza looked from sister to brother and back again. "You both received punishment for the failure. But now I have to wonder, the Judge is here, is she not? So did Leo succeed or fail?"

"Failure. The Judge came on her own, not with Leo." Oliver's gruff reply made Anca shiver, but no one noticed.

"I don't know about that." Eliza turned to stare at Anca. "What do you think, Judge?"

T
ruth continued to be forced from Anca's lips. "I think Leo was the one who told me how to find this place. Therefore he succeeded and they both deserve to leave here right now."

Eliza nodded as if considering. She looked up at Luci. "Do you want to be freed, dear Luci?"

"Yes," Leo's sister whispered in reply.

Pinning Leo with a dark look, Eliza asked, "How about you? Do you wish your sister to be released?"

Leo stiffened, shaking his head no.

Anca suddenly understood the girl's hidden intent.

She unraveled the magic even faster. To her hips. Her thighs.

Time stilled.

Eliza drew a small knife from a wrist sheath hidden beneath her ruffle, ribbon and lace sleeve. She reached up, a child so small she had to stand on her tiptoes, and slashed the blade across Luci's throat.

Horror clenched tight at Anca's chest.

A guttural scream filled the room. Leo bellowed in agony, scrambling on his hands and knees across the dais to Luci's feet.

"She's free now," Eliza said happily, and returned to sit daintily upon her throne. She glanced down, noticed blood on her hand, then began to lick her fingers clean.

Shock and fury froze Anca in place. She could do nothing but watch the waterfall of crimson pouring from Luci's neck, down chest, pattering in droplets over the floor. Painting her brother in matching rain of red.

A terrible rage colored Leo's mottled face. Bled into his snapping eyes.

Anca struggled to get free from the last wisps of the spell.

Magic brightening, the earth spirits flooded her with their remaining strength, then disappeared.

The siphoned siren magic broke away.

Anca flexed her muscles, her entire body once more hers to command. But she didn't move. Not yet.

No matter how much it hurt to admit, she could no longer save Luci. Right now, she had to watch, see what happened, so she could hopefully save everyone else. Magic laced with hate and the fury of an unleashed storm exploded through the room, washing over Anca with barely leashed violence.

***

O
nly two enemies remained—a vampire warrior watching Matt close, and the insectile creature who kept trying to reach Robby.

Matt drew large gulps of oxygen into his aching lungs. Set his stance once more. He bled from cuts on his arms and legs, painful but not serious. It was the deep wound across his cracked and battered ribs that gave him pause.

The warrior lunged.

This time Matt was prepared for the sneaky double strike. Instead of connecting, the vampire's razor thin long blade whistled past him. Matt dodged close. Delivered two sharp strikes to his throat.

The warrior let out a gurgled cry, and tried to swing his sword again.

Matt didn't give him the opportunity. He spun around the warrior, grabbed the guy's chin, and twisted violently.

Bone crunched. The vampire fell limp to the ground.

The insectile creature took the chance to dart in. Claws slashed across Matt's back. Fire flared over his skin. In a duck and spin move, he swept the creature's feet out from under it, then rammed his knee into its gut.

This one continued to deflect all of Matt's strikes.

It's spider-like features covered some sort of bony armor, hard as rock. It flung Matt off with a chittering squeal.

In less than a second it was back on its feet. The creature dashed toward Robby.

Matt blocked it, throwing it against the rocky wall.

To no effect. The thing's armored body blocked all his strikes.

It grabbed Matt and squeezed, trying to break him.

He shoved his arms up, loosening the hold, then flipped the thing onto the floor. He reached across the creature and grabbed the nearby sword. Raising it over his head two handed, Matt let out a cry. He slammed it down between the creature's chin and collarbone.

It cut deep, but took four more chops to kill the thing completely. Avoiding the ichor pooling on the ground, Matt searched for more enemies.

There were none.

"Robby. Let's go."

Anca's earth spirit pushed him with a heavy urgency. This fight had taken too much energy.

Too much time.

Robby reached his side, eyes wide in his pale face. "Y-you're covered in blood."

Matt mentally assessed his injuries, worried about the spreading fire across his back. The blood slickly oozing from cuts and scrapes all over his upper body. At the edges of his strength, he found a slow sluggishness waiting to creep in. He didn't have time for such things.

Hesitation paused his movements when he started to drop the sword. Matt preferred martial arts over weapons. But only an idiot brought a slingshot into a gunfight. He might need the sharp blade later. He gripped the hilt tighter, the feeling long forgotten, but quickly coming back with crystal clarity.

He raced down the tunnel, Robby at his side, following it's winding route.

A voice inside Matt screamed at him to go faster.

Hurry, hurry, hurry
, it echoed.

He'd get to Anca in time.

He had to.

Any other option was unthinkable.

***

L
eo screamed, an unending keening of dark sorrow. He slowly climbed to his feet. Hesitation slowed his movements. For a long moment, he stared at his sister's pale face, then reached to cup her cheek and place a soft kiss on her forehead.

Then Leo turned and stared out at the room.

A shiver slid down Anca's spine.

The vampire's mind had snapped. Only a furious need for retribution shone in his dark reddened eyes. Thick black lines snaked through his aura, pushing a thrumming, vengeful magic around the dais and throne.

From somewhere hidden, Leo drew out two wickedly sharp daggers. With mindless anger, he attacked Eliza, slashing her face before she could jump back.

Oliver bellowed. He ran into the room he'd dragged the wolf from, his steps loudly echoing.

Anca wouldn't have been surprised to feel the ground shake.

The giant rushed back out, holding a huge polearm, the thick wooden staff tipped by a deadly sharp blade. The whole monstrous weapon stretched over eight feet long in total. Oliver thundered up the dais toward his Mistress.

Another magic exploded through the room. The stolen power of the dead siren. This time, it was weak. Anca was prepared.

She flung it off easy enough.

Eliza stumbled away from Leo, grinning. Raising her hands, she blasted him with magic.

He shouted hoarsely. Magic showered over him in unavoidable strikes. Leo fell back and off the dais.

On the opposite side of the platform, still on the ground, the wolf raised his head to stare at Anca. The silver chain flashed from his bloody neck.

Ignoring the plea for help, Anca rushed the giant of a vampire before he could regroup with Eliza.

"Stop running," she shouted.

Oliver clumsily stopped, the force of his momentum carrying him a few more feet.

She crossed the distance and ducked beneath his swinging polearm. Pouring power into her
saif
, Anca slashed the blade across his side.

The Council magic did nothing, as she'd worried, but the blade cut through his leather tunic like butter. When the metal touched his skin, her
tată's
imbued magic sprung to life. With a brilliant glow of sparking light, the sword hummed with new energy.

Oliver's aura thickened. Crimson flecked gray swirled to reveal hidden inner colors. The oily translucent blue-purple shocked Anca for a long second.

Her mind flashed to long ago, to tales her father had told of creatures descended from the earth's magic, like their Romani people.

The trolls and giants. And the
bengs
, or devils.

Not the devils of Christianity, or the creatures of other realms such as demons.
Bengs
were more simple.

And not inherently evil.

Everything clicked into place.

Shouting in pain from the magic of her sword, Oliver jerked away and stumbled toward the dais, and his mistress.

Eliza did nothing but watch him, and Anca, a curious expression on her face. One of bloodlust. She wanted to see them fight.

If Oliver was a
beng
so much of the strangeness made sense.

The siphoning of other's power, of using it for oneself or giving it to someone else, was a power of the
bengs
.

Following the giant vampire, Anca dug her sword into his side. Her blade hungrily vibrated. Her father's power blazed inside Anca, stronger than she'd ever felt before.

She paid no mind to the fact
bengs
were supposed to be extinct. Nothing in this place surprised her any more.

He'd come from Anca's homeland. The same homelands as Eliza Báthory.

Oliver jerked away and climbed up the steps, then stopped in front of his mistress as if waiting for a command.

Anca followed him up, but didn't attack. Not yet.

Not when he was running from her and refusing to fight back.

The more she traced the threads that lead to this time and place, Anca realized it was even possible—if Eliza truly was the daughter of the Blood Countess—that this
beng
had been with the girl since her childhood.

No matter. Confidence filled Anca.

Her Romani magic, her connection to the earth, could beat both of these old Arcaine creatures.

She just had to reach deeper inside herself. Find more strength.

Eliza laughed, the sound sweet and innocent. Then she demanded, "Kill the Judge."

Oliver's aura flushed with magic from the earth. Which meant he was connected to the lines of power Anca needed.

She just had to decipher how and then use it herself.

Before she even registered he was moving, Oliver backhanded her.

Hot daggers jabbed through Anca's cheek and jaw. She flew across the dais. Crashed into the rocky wall behind the throne.

She gasped a breath. Fire burned in her lungs.

Something brushed her arm. Startled, she brought her sword up. And found herself looking into Brighton's gaze.

Her fellow Judge hoarsely whispered in a broken voice, "They have a siphon."

"I know. It's Oliver."

"Can you beat him?"

She gave him an honest answer. "I think so."

He closed his eyes. "If you can't free me, do me a favor."

"Yeah?"

"Kill me."

Anca didn't have time to say she'd never consider that an option.

Oliver reached them.

She struck at him with her blade, staying inside the arc of his polearm. She slashed her
saif
in a large
X
, her movements a blur as she slashed the inside of his arms again and again, opening up gashes that bled freely.

He reached for her with one of his shovel sized hands.

Anca ducked under his massive paw, but couldn't avoid the slash of the long bladed staff across her thigh.

She stumbled. Lost her footing.

Flowing into a roll, Anca fell off the dais. Right next to the wolf. Jake yipped, shaking his head. The silver chain rattled loudly.

Oliver's heavy steps echoed across the dais. Toward them.

Anca met the wolf's arctic blue gaze. "Why should I let you go? You'd either run away or attack me," she said harshly, but didn't move away.