Bitten to Death

Maybe if my emotions tipped the holy-shit! scale he’d get the message. Were we there yet? I took inward stock. Almost.

Ziel backed up three or four steps, causing me to stop again. “Hang on,” I said. “Something’s wrong.” Another faint whiff of vampires. I concentrated on it. Realized it was more familiar than it had first seemed. “Aw, no.”

“What?” Dave asked.

“Vamps,” I whispered. “A lot closer than I’d thought.” Admes gasped and went to his knees, a bolt sticking through his left shoulder.

“Take cover!” Dave yelled. We hit the ground just as a bullet whined between me and Tarasios. Both had come from beyond the fallen trees ahead of us.

“I need them alive, you idiots!” came a slightly accented voice off to my left. I concentrated my fire in that direction. When I heard a body crash in the woods I paused to reload.

We’d hit a tough spot. Our cover consisted of the night, our ability to make like flatworms, and the trees most of our attackers seemed to be hiding on the other side of.

I saw Dave’s blade flash and realized he was cutting the bolt that had hit Admes so he could lie comfortably while he fired. “Thanks,” Admes whispered as he rolled to his stomach. He began shooting his AK in short bursts that forced our enemies to keep their heads down. Meanwhile Tarasios lay with both hands clasped over his head, moaning, “I don’t want to die,” over and over again, No Frills forgotten at his side.

“How did we not sense them?” Dave asked as he rolled to his back, Beretta in one hand, crossbow in the other, watching for maneuvers meant to surround us.

“Blas,” I said bitterly. I pressed the magic button. Heard the whir of machinery that meant Grief was transforming. Though I could sense some humans feeling hugely pumped by their surprise attack on the other side of those gnarled branches, I figured Admes had them covered. The vamps were the ones Dave and I needed to worry about. And I was pretty sure they still lurked near the edge of the forest.

I went on. “He can camouflage his own psychic scent. Apparently he can do it for others too. He didn’t claim it as his cantrantia, but as masterfully as he fooled me, I think that’s his main ability. He’s the cause of this mess.”

“I thought he was dead,” Admes said unbelievingly. “You’re saying he invited this attack?”

“Oh yeah,” I said. “I kind of admire his tenacity. You’d think losing half your face would quench pretty much any ambitions you had left. But he keeps on trucking. I suppose he figures Samos is his best bet to dethrone Disa.”

“I should be Deyrar, not that mutation they’ve all bowed down to.”

I was so startled by the voice of Blas, coming from every direction but seemingly disconnected from any physical form, that my entire body came off the ground. Ziel, who’d been lying quietly beside me, began to growl.

I baited the vampire, trying to make him reveal his position. “And here you had me thinking you were the poor, pitiful victim.”

“I am the one who called the Raptor from the skies. Hamon’s leadership had already begun to crumble. Beneath Samos’s attack it would have fallen, and Aine would have found no support for her succession, she was such a sycophant of his. The rule of the Trust would have fallen peacefully to me if Hamon hadn’t phoned Vayl.”

“What’s he got to do with this?” I demanded, staring into the night, trying to track Blas by the sound of his omnipresent voice.

“I overheard them speaking of a contract. I could hardly let Hamon live once I knew Vayl was coming to shore up his position, now, could I? So I killed Hamon and made my play.”

“But it didn’t work out the way you’d planned, did it?”

“How were we to know about the Preserve?” he shrieked. “Hamon kept everything such a secret! Hoarding all his power like a damned . . . power hoarder!”

I almost had him pinpointed now. Out of Grief’s range. But Dave should be able to reach him. I whispered, “He’s standing between your ten and twelve o’clock.”

“Can you be a little more specific?” Dave replied quietly. “That still leaves a whole lot of black between the trees.”

Admes traded another few rounds with our human ambushers. I waited for the firing to pause before I yelled, “We found the Preserve, Blas. Lovely little spot right off of Octavia’s dressing room. You should see all the relics Hamon’s collected in there. Oh wait. That’s right. You can’t.”

His scream raised the hairs on the back of my neck. In the extremity of his emotion he allowed his guard to slip. I saw movement. And so did Ziel. He didn’t bark. Just shot straight toward the faceless vampire like a furry torpedo, leaped, caught him just below the jaw, and tumbled him backward into the grass.

Blas squealed like a little girl as Ziel tightened his hold.

“Can’t get a shot without hitting the dog,” Dave said, so calmly he might’ve been discussing lunch plans as Admes fired off another burst and one of the humans screamed his death cry into the night.

“Leave him to me,” I replied.

“Fine. I’ll take care of the vamps at our six o’clock,” Dave said. As he readjusted I realized there were at least two more heading our way. Easier to sense now that Blas was down, they must’ve left the woods after we’d passed them and snuck up behind us. Dave would have his hands full.

I snaked my way forward, pulling my knife as I moved. Ziel, making growly sounds deep in his chest, was chewing Blas up pretty good.

“Don’t hurt the dog!” screamed Samos as he came charging out of the forest, both arms raised as if Blas could