Silverthorn (28 page)

Both head and body dropped to the ground. A moment later, he burst into dust.

The crowd issued their approval by screaming, clapping, and raising the metal sign.

I spotted another vampire tussling with Kendall. I tottered over to her, flinching from the pain in my knee, which now throbbed in agony. The vampire punched Kendall in the stomach and then lashed a wicked elbow into her face, sending her to the ground.

Just as he took a step toward Kendall, he must’ve sensed me behind him because he whirled around and locked eyes with me before darting toward me, only to find that I held the sword out in front of me…just a little too late because it slipped right through his stomach. His eyes grew wide and his mouth twisted in anguish, but a second later a cloud of particles erupted around me.

Feeling the vibration of footsteps charging toward me through the soles of my shoes, I spun around and watched as a fourth vampire dashed toward me while he unleashed a primal scream.

Nolan rushed through a haze of dust—he’d obviously just killed the vampire he’d been leaching power from—and collided into the vamp, knocking them both off the stage. Nolan fell on top of the bloodsucker, and although they rose at the same time, Nolan punched him in the chest and extracted his heart. He tossed it to the ground. A second later, dust particles erupted across the first few rows of the standing room only crowd who now jumped up and down, their cheers grew to an even louder pitch than before.

I heard Kendall’s bass thunder through the amps, and a moment later Nolan hopped onto the stage, grabbed his guitar, and picked up right where he’d left off.

The band had apparently forgotten that Darius had yet to make an appearance.

I stood on stage holding the Soul Sword in my right hand, examining the crowd for any sight of him. It only took a few seconds to spot him.

Darius stood in the middle of the lower level. He made his way toward the audience, slipping into pockets of space with ease. When he saw a man kneel down to tie his shoe, he sprinted toward him, and used his back as a launch pad that allowed him to soar ten feet over the heads of the audience, while traveling twenty feet in distance with his arms out at his sides as though invisible wings supported his flight.

Since he headed straight toward me, I backed off and cringed in pain as spasms roiled my kneecap.

Darius landed on the stage like a skydiver who touched down on the ground without the least bit of effort. He noticed me favoring my right knee and smiled. Then he darted right toward me.

I swung the blade toward his head, hoping to remove his head, but Darius had slipped the maneuver. I spun around and slashed at gut-level, but the sword swept through air. Sensing him behind me, I shoved the sword in that direction, but again, I failed to make impact.

Kendall and Nolan hadn’t attempted to approach him, probably fearing that I’d accidentally slice them in half. I appreciated their logic, especially when I saw a look of pure hatred on Kendall’s face. She looked like she wanted revenge so badly she might allow that emotion to override common sense.

The band continued a ferocious jam by relying on a heavy groove that the crowd appeared to appreciate because they’d somehow managed to elevate their frenzied applause. A few dozen hands raised camera phones up in the air to record our performance.

Darius circled me, since the pain in my knee made it difficult to shift in any one direction. He punched me in the temple before I even had a chance to sling the blade toward him. I skittered to the ground and bounced up, although so much stress on my knee almost made me collapse again.

Grinning, Darius faced the band to keep an eye on Kendall and Nolan. He notched his eyebrows.

Knowing that Kendall and Nolan were prepared to join the fight, I extended my arms to either side, calling them off. I didn’t trust either of them to deal with Darius. Kendall desperately wanted revenge and Nolan might not be able to control the rush of power that had inundated his body. For those reasons, they were less likely to concentrate on defending themselves, only trying to unleash their aggression. It seems they took out their frustrations on their instruments, because the speed with which they played intensified to a furious tempo.

Darius charged. He punched me in the gut, sending me to the floor once more. The blow knocked out so much air from my body that I dropped the sword, but suspecting that my opponent would attempt to snatch it, I kicked out hard and sent it behind me…and probably behind the drum kit.

Darius darted toward me and, just before he barred down on me, I fired off a roundhouse left.

The impact sent him flying ten feet in the air, off the stage, and onto the concrete floor below before smashing into the gate. He wiped a finger across a bloody lip, smirked. Without looking, he jumped backward and perched on top of the gate…and then he vaulted fifteen feet in the air, hurling himself toward me.

I’d jammed my bad knee onto the stage, but I feared that I wouldn’t be able to get to my feet. Even if I did, I wouldn’t have enough physical strength and mobility to rely on my martial arts abilities to defeat Darius. Therefore, I had to rely on my supernatural gifts to fend off his next attack.

I unfurled my arms and called upon all of the energy I could command. But seeing him soaring toward me with such confidence made fear and indecision peck at my fortitude. I called out for more energy, but once again, I couldn’t sense it pulling inward…until I latched onto a ribbon of power.

It came so easily, I dragged it toward me with desperation. Fright and uncertainty reappeared in my psyche, leading me to believe that if I couldn’t clutch onto that bit of power and thrust it at Darius, I’d never be able to defend myself. And the more I reigned in that shred of energy, the quicker it hit me. Soon enough, the thread of strength surged inside me so quickly and with such momentum that I once again felt as though I might burst at any moment.

In that instant, I knew how and why the intensity filled me so swiftly. Subconsciously, I’d called out for black magic, and it hadn’t let me down. At the same time, I feared my ability to reach out and collect it so easily. Would I seek it out whenever I needed a little power boost? In doing so, would I lose my ability to determine right from wrong? Rather than allow those worries to conflict me, I concentrated on the matter at hand.

As Darius descended, I extended my right hand and flung a burst of energy at him with such force that he drew inward while his body flew backwards.

Seeing that he might collapse into the crowd and potentially injure a group of people, I reached out with my left hand, this time drawing him toward me. Darius swayed back-and-forth and side-to-side for a few moments until I applied the necessary pressure to keep him stable.

He still levitated about fifteen feet above their heads, but when an exciting idea popped into my head, I raised my right hand, which in turn, lifted Darius another fifteen feet higher, so that I’d lifted him quite a bit above the crowd on the second floor.

When I held him steady at that height, I called upon a rush of heat, and a moment later, a string of flames shot through the air and enveloped Darius. Screaming, he flailed his arms and legs as he burned. Each time I sensed that I overcompensated with too much fire, his body began to sink, but I wouldn’t allow his flaming body to crash into the crowd, which would result in at least a dozen casualties, so I balanced the amount of pressure until I hoisted his body upwards again. Darius continued screaming and kicking.

I’d maintained a steady stream of fire on a vampire before, and they always perished by this point, but each passing day where Darius’s blood remained untainted had increased his strength and the proficiency with which he utilized his abilities. I didn’t see a hint of blood where I’d slashed my sword across his shoulder. He’d probably fed in order to allow his healing properties to close his wound. Once the influx hit his bloodstream, it would dilute his blood, weakening him.

Earlier Darius stated that I posed no challenge for him. At least now, I had a better chance of defeating him. Furthermore, I’d managed to break his bones with such ease not only because I’d tapped into black magic, but also because I’d used one ability, whereas now, splitting my powers resulting in divided their effectiveness.

My head began to pound, and I felt something wet slip across my upper lip. I slid my tongue across that spot. It tasted salty and metallic: blood. Only I hadn’t endured a punch to the face, so I couldn’t explain why it leaked from my nose. When I paired that mystery with my headache, I realized that the pressure that I’d called upon was putting undo stress on my body.

I sent out so much energy I thought my body would soon collapse if I didn’t end my assault. It became hard to breathe. My arms felt leaden, weighted down. They began to sink. I felt lightheaded, but I was determined not to let up the pressure and allow Darius to slip toward the crowd, but despite my best efforts, he began to drift lower. I couldn’t allow him to fall and injure those below, so I pushed more effort into keeping him stationary.

Warm liquid slipped down my lips, continued to my chin, and slid off. I grew dizzy. Nausea roiled in my stomach. And my arms continued to falter ever so slightly.

Exhausted, I couldn’t hold myself upright any longer. The jet of energy and fire that I slung at Darius evaporated. My arms fell at my sides and I hit the ground. I watched as a fiery form fell toward the ground, still kicking and releasing an ear-curdling shriek.

Ten feet before reaching the audience, a loud explosion erupted and dust filtered over the crowd.

The music stopped.

The crowd grew silent. I lay on the ground, gasping for air, barely able to see straight. Nonetheless, I was overcome with joy that Darius had died…and no one in the audience had gotten hurt.

After a few seconds, the crowd burst into applause: clapping, whistling, shouting, and screaming.

I saw dark forms hovering over me. My bandmates?

Through cracked eyelids, I saw Nolan fall to his knees beside me. One hand caressed my cheek, while he placed his other palm across my forehead.

Knowing that removing energy from my almost depleted body might result in my death, I struggled to get away from him, but I sensed that I barely moved my limbs.

“Hey!” Brandon shouted. “What are you doing? You’ll kill her!”

Nolan said, “Trust me.”

I saw Kendall get down beside me. I felt a gentle hand on my left shoulder and another against my right rib. I tried to yell at her to push Nolan away from me. Had he finally given in to his demon side? And why weren’t Kendall and Brandon protecting me?

A moment later, my headache disappeared, and the haze in my mind began to clear. It became easier to breathe. My nausea subsided. Strength replaced my exhaustion. I sat up. Nolan and Kendall removed their hands.

The applause rose to a feverish pitch. The audience jumped up and down and shook their fists in the air. Everywhere I looked, I saw their smiling faces.

I got to my feet, shocked that the pain in my knee had vanished. I turned to Nolan. “What happened? What did you do?”

“I took a chance,” he said.

Confused, I shook my head. With every passing second, my body felt even more rejuvenated than the moment that preceded it.

“Before now, I’d always drained you of strength, but I thought…what if I could give you my strength. So that’s what I focused on.”

“You could have killed me!”

“Yeah, but if I didn’t try it, you might have died anyway.”

I couldn’t argue with that logic. A grin spread across my face. I felt myself gravitating toward him.

“I’m afraid to try it again.”

He pulled me into his arms and looked deep into my eyes.

“We better not touch again,” I said, shocked that I felt as lively as I had before the show. “You might start stealing life again, instead of giving it me.”

“Mmm. Giving it to you…I like the sound of that!”

I giggled, ecstatic to have cheated death, only to end up in Nolan’s embrace. I glanced down and saw his forearms resting against my hips. “So are you gonna? Give it to me?”

One side of his lips lifted in a half smile. He leaned in and pressed his soft but insistent lips to mine.

I knew that this kiss might remove time from my life, but he’d saved my life, so I didn’t care. I melted against his chest and slid my arms around his shoulders.

“Hey, guys,” Brandon said. “I think Scrap Mettle wants to take the stage.”

I broke away from Nolan and started to laugh. “They can kiss my…” But having parted from Nolan, I felt a little weaker than I had before we’d locked lips, so even though I desperately wanted to return to our make-out session, I didn’t want to return to the lifeless woman I’d been a minute ago. Besides, I now felt incredibly uncomfortable standing in front of over one thousand strangers kissing someone who’s touch (and kisses) stole time from my life.

Did I regret our kiss? No way! I treasured all eight seconds of it, and it only made me that much more determined to permanently disable Nolan’s mysterious curse.

My thoughts returned to my unexpected victory. I’d killed a master vampire. And since Zephora wouldn’t regain full-strength until sometime tomorrow, at the soonest, I wanted to enjoy this victory for as long as possible.