Reborn to Bite (Vampire Shadows Book 1) (16 page)

The three vampires facing them from the back of their defensive circle averted their eyes. Vampire Barbie was the nearest, and pointed at Sabine's chest. "Um, can you put that away? We're trying to protect you and Heather and Esmerelda here."

Sabine looked down and pondered the cross on her chest. Could she trust these vampires? "You know Heather and Esmerelda?"

"Only what the others have told me. I'm a newbie. Got turned here this year."

"What about the other group over there?" Sabine asked, pointing at the three women and four men on the other side of the street. The other group looked like thugs in leather and prostitutes in lingerie; though one of the women looked more like a dominatrix. The men in the other group held swords, and the women held daggers.

The blonde glanced over her shoulder at the other group and nodded to herself. "You're right. Maybe better to keep it. If you promise not to hack my head off with that sword of yours, I'll just look away if it's all the same to you. I'm Shelby, by the way."

Sabine stared at Shelby for a minute, trying to process the surreal nature of talking to a vampire like they were friends or something. "Sabine. Um, nice to meet you."

After a minute, the group on the other side of the street seemed to take notice of the witches. The largest of the men pointed at Heather. "It's that damned witch. Kill her!"

The vampires across the street started to charge, and Trent bit into the blond kid vamp that had attacked Sabine earlier. He squealed and screamed, stabbing at Trent as the werewolf ripped the kid's arm off and tore open his stomach. With Trent distracted, both vampire groups converged into a blur of swords and blades; Shelby's group defending the witches.

Before Sabine knew what she was doing, she stepped off Holy ground toward the fray. She felt her heart slow, and the dark energy flow into her. She could feel death claiming her, drawing the warmth from her core and replacing it with the familiar cold fire. Nothing had changed. She was still the monster. She barely had time to acknowledge the loss of her life yet again, before feeling the war of vampire energies trying to control her.

The largest of the thugs managed to bash his way past the rest of the vampires, and charged.

Sabine pulled her sword from the sheath at her spine. The man ignored her, focused on Heather. He switched his sword to his left hand so he could pull a throwing knife from his belt. He snarled at Heather.

"You think being on Holy Ground will save you, witch?"

Sabine swung her sword down, and caught the thug by surprise, severing his left forearm. His left hand and the sword it held clattered to the ground. He turned to face Sabine, dagger poised for the throw.

She shifted her blade and sliced back up. As her silver-plated blade passed through his stomach, his look of shock froze on his face. Sabine put everything her muscles could manage into the upward slice, and his rib bones gave way. Her sword came out at his shoulder, having sliced through his heart on the way.

The thug staggered back, into a whirlwind of other vampires' swords. One sliced his neck, and his headless body fell to the ground to join Hector and the blond kid. Shelby's group were true to her word; they fought to protect the witches, and concentrated on fighting the thugs and avoiding Sabine.

Sabine looked up from the bodies of the fallen when she heard Trent's howl of pain. The thugs' women had piled on him. Their blades stabbed at him, and his blood covered his fur and their lingerie.

Without thinking, she charged forward.

One of the vampires in Shelby's group, Lorenzo, sent glamour at her. Sabine felt the compulsion to stay clear of the fight as though it was her own idea, but she knew it was his. She would not be stopped. She threw up a defense around her mind, and pressed forward.

As the male vampires fought, the women from Shelby's group descended on the lingerie-clad ones stabbing Trent. The dominatrix moved to intercept them, trading slashes with a long pair of daggers. Vampy Vamp and Shelby tried to block Sabine from the fight, and their split attention gave the dominatrix the advantage, costing Shelby a sliced hand.

At some point, a drop of werewolf blood must have hit the mouth of one of the lingerie-clad thug women slicing Trent, and the two buried their fangs in his fur.

Trent howled.

The dominatrix screamed "No!" and turned from the fight. She tried to wrench her two lingerie-clad companions off Trent.

Vampy Vamp jumped on the dominatrix's back, grabbed her tight ponytail, and sliced off the dominatrix's head.

Trent broke free and ran, putting distance from the vampires.

The two lingerie clad vampires turned on the rest, their auras suddenly a thousand times as powerful. The lingerie-clad pair roared in unison.

"Fight their power," Lorenzo said, as all the vampires stood facing the two that had bit Trent. "Hold hands. It'll only last a minute."

Sabine felt the overwhelming force push at her mind, and braced herself. She watched as the man in the suit looked at her. He cocked one eyebrow up. Then Sabine had to close her eyes against the pain in her head and the sense of confusion and hopelessness that assailed her. Two voices grew in her head, screaming incoherent babble. Then two popping sounds followed, and the power vanished.

She opened her eyes to see the two lingerie-clad vampires fallen to the ground, their heads exploded.

"That is why you should never feed from a werewolf," Lorenzo said to Shelby. "You see what happens?"

"Lorenzo, dear, you're scaring poor Shelby," Vampy Vamp said. "If they had a blood bond with an Ancient, they could have survived."

"And Shelby has no bond to protect her," Lorenzo replied. "But a good point, my dearest, for future reference."

Sabine stared at the headless corpses, thinking that she could have ended up like that. How had she not? Esmerelda had said that her soul had kept the energy in. She barely noticed the last thug vampire running off. He was a newbie like the ones in lingerie, if his thready aura was an accurate indicator. She turned her attention to Shelby's group, as the vampires put away their blades and stood staring at her.

Trent approached on four feet and growled at the six vampires.

"That's enough Trent," Esmerelda said, walking over to the werewolf. "These nice vampires were trying to protect us. Let's give them a chance to explain why."

The handsome leader of the small band bowed in his tailored suit. "Thank you Esmerelda. I don't believe we've met, but your reputation precedes you. My name is Lorenzo Di Gastini, and this is my Family."

Lorenzo gestured gracefully to Shelby. "At my far right, we have Shelby, with whom you've shared pleasantries already. She joined us earlier this year when her college bus traveled through town. Apparently the allure of our kind was more interesting than studying the great philosophers. The irony is that now she will have all the time in the world to study them. She found a vampire from the group we just defeated to turn her, but quickly discovered how evil they were and begged my help."

"Thanks again for that too," Shelby said, nodding to Lorenzo. "Those guys were freaks."

"Next we have Ernesto, my oldest friend," Lorenzo said, gesturing to Warrior Vamp, the one in the bomber jacket. "He has been out of sorts since Heather forced our relocation. His amante – his special friend - is left alone to fend for herself in the city. He worries for her safety."

"It is my hope to return soon," Ernesto said, nodding as he stared at Heather.

Heather swallowed, looking ill.

Lorenzo put his arm around the svelte Italian woman's waist. "This is the lovely Melina, my consort and Ally."

Melina bowed her head to the witches. Her eyes flashed with mirth. "It is a pleasure to see you both again."

Heather looked startled, but schooled her expression.

Melina's fangs showed as she smiled at Heather's reaction, before turning her attention to Esmerelda. "You may not remember me Esmerelda, but your grandmother considered me a friend. I attended your commencement from elementary school some years back. She was able to convince the Headmaster of the school to conduct the ceremony after sunset."

It was Esmerelda's turn to look surprised, and the elderly witch smiled. "I thought I recognized you. The years have been kinder to you than they have to me."

Melina laughed, and it sounded like music. "Nonsense. You're absolutely divine."

Lorenzo slipped away from Melina to stand between Flower Child Vamp and the Highwayman. "Lastly, we have our married couple, Deirdre and Ethan."

Ethan bowed in gentlemanly fashion while Deirdre curtsied. Ethan had a wicked smile on his face as he spoke. "You caused us a great deal of grief, Blondie."

"Mind yourself, Ethan," Lorenzo said, glaring at the Highwayman before turning back to Heather. "You must excuse his atrocious manners, Ms. Wilde. Ethan and Deirdre lost a significant investment, but they're making the most of it. Aren't you, Ethan?"

Ethan shot him a look. "She owes us, Lorenzo. One way or another, we'll collect."

"You've already made back the money," Lorenzo said. "I won't abide you seeking retribution."

Deirdre smiled, looking at Heather not unlike a panther would view a dangling steak. Given the lacy dress, the leaves in her hair, and look on her face, she looked barely civilized as she pointed a dagger at Sabine. "Heather dear, are you going to introduce your friend?"

Lorenzo went back to stand by Melina, glancing at Sabine before averting his eyes from the cross around her neck. "Deirdre has a point. Your armed companion seems able to resist our powers. It would be an honor to have an introduction."

"This is Sabine," Heather said, gesturing to Sabine.

"And how do you know each other?" Lorenzo asked.

Sabine shrugged. "We just met today."

"How is it possible that you can resist our glamour?" Melina asked.

"I concentrated really, really hard. Or I just shrugged it off. I can't recall."

"Sabine is apparently remarkable in more ways than she lets on," Lorenzo supplied.

Ethan fingered his sword hilt. "Sabine is it? You seem to know your way around a sword."

Sabine regarded Ethan the Highwayman. "Would you believe it was luck?"

Ethan canted his head to the side, blinking at her before looking away from the cross. "I think you reek of garlic and fancy yourself a vampire slayer. The question is, why would the witch who banned the vampires from San Francisco bring a vampire slayer to the place where she exiled the vampires?"

Sabine laughed. "You really think she'd have come along willingly?"

The vampires turned their gaze to Heather, where she stood at the edge of Holy Ground.

Heather blushed and turned fiery eyes at Sabine. "It's really Esmerelda's fault. I tried to exile Sabine here, Esmerelda got in the way, then I–"

The vampires started laughing.

Heather crossed her arms and started tapping her right foot on the grass. "You know what? Never mind."

"Irony, thy name is fate," Lorenzo said.

Sabine looked around and saw Trent next to her, all fur and teeth. His breathing had been so quiet, it barely registered even to vampire ears, but his heartbeat was strong and steady, drowning out the sounds of Heather's and Esmerelda's and Sabine's one-per-minute. She hoped the vampires wouldn't ask why Heather would exile her here, so she tried to change the subject. "The other vampires all left back to California?"

Lorenzo nodded. "They await the collapse of Heather's wards. One of the city Masters plans to repeat some experiment that he performed last year. He used some witches for a spell at the boundary of the ward near the Golden Gate Bridge, and the spell somehow caused the ward to collapse last year."

Sabine got a chill down her spine, but said nothing as she listened.

Lorenzo continued, addressing Heather. "You only took a week to restore the ward, and another week to expel most of the vampires again; so it gained him little. But this time, he planned your assassination as soon as the wards were down."

"When did they do the spell last time?" Sabine asked, a lump in her throat.

"A year ago tonight. On Halloween," Lorenzo replied. "He's probably having the spell done again now."

"I need to get back and stop him," Sabine said, kneeling and wiping her sword clean on the pant leg of one of the corpses. She put her sword in the spine sheath at her back, and stood to regard the vampires. They were trying to look her way without looking at the cross. She clasped it and stuffed it into her turtle-neck shirt.

"Thank you," all the vampires said at once.

"And why do you need to stop him?" Lorenzo asked.

Sabine debated what to tell them. Could she trust them? They seemed nice enough, but what did she know about true vampires? "I had a front row seat to Neville's experiment last year. I know the witches he used last time. If he's forcing them to do the spell again, we have to save them."

Lorenzo gave her a sidelong stare. "What was your involvement? Did you work for Neville? I suspect not, if you want to stop him."

Sabine gritted her teeth. "I was his test subject."