in it, heading his way. Jade’s heart leapt. He could tell even from here that this was a vampire, and that it was not of his own coven. Who could it be? he wondered. And why was he heading this way?
Maybe, Jade realized with a pounding heart, that this would be his first test as a soldier. He tensed up, and held his spear high. He reached into his waistband and reassuringly felt his favorite slingshot and small pouch of stones. He had spent many days looking for the smoothest, roundest stones down at the waterside, and they all fit perfectly inside the sling he had created. He’d spent countless afternoons practicing with it, hurling the stones at tree branches, at targets in the water. He had even taken aim at birds recently, and had managed to kill quite a few. No one else took him seriously, but he knew that, with this weapon of his own design, he had become a force to be reckoned with.
As Jade watched, the figure suddenly came very close, diving and landing on the dock before him, just feet away.
Jade’s heart pounded and he felt his mouth go dry, as he saw the size of this vampire: he was enormous. He was dressed in all black, in some sort of battle armor, and as his wings retracted, Jade saw how muscular he was. He was even bigger than his Dad. Worse, he looked terrifying: half of his face was completely scarred, as if it had been torn off.
Rose tensed up, too, growling.
Jade again felt along his side, for his slingshot. But his hands trembled, and he was not so sure it would do him any good. This man looked like pure evil.
Jade swallowed.
The man took several step towards him. Jade wanted to step backwards, but he forced himself not to. Instead, he tried his hardest to act like a man, standing his ground, puffing out his chest and raising his chin. He tried to put on his meanest look. He would never allow himself to be a coward.
No matter who was approaching him.
“Stop right there and explain yourself!” Jade yelled out, trying to use his fiercest voice.
Unfortunately, his voice hadn’t yet changed—it was still too high-pitched, and it cracked a bit.
The man laughed out loud, and took two more steps forward.
“I warn you,” Jade yelled, “I am the son of Caleb! This is our island! You will do as I say!”
The man stopped, and this time looked genuinely surprised.
“Caleb, you say?” he asked. The man’s voice was dark and deep, coming out almost like a growl.
Jade took some comfort in this. It seemed like his father’s name had impressed the man.
“That’s right,” Jade said, emboldened. “And no one lands here without permission. So you had best leave right now!”
Jade again felt his side for the slingshot, but his hands were trembling, and it was hard to feel exactly where it was.
The man smiled back.
“Very interesting,” the man said.
The man looked about the island, as if smelling the air, as if trying to sense something. After a while, he seemed disappointed.
“Your father had a visitor. A woman named Caitlin. Where is she?” he asked.
“She left before everyone else did,” Jade said. “But she gave me her necklace. It’s mine now. She said I could keep it. And if you don’t leave now, my Dad will be back any minute,” Jade said, throwing out the scariest thing he could think of.
The man scowled, seeming disappointed.
“Where did she go?” he demanded.
“I have no idea,” Jade said. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
The man smiled again, but this time his grin was more evil than before.
“You are a defiant little boy,” he said. “Just like your father. Unlike your father, you will pay the price for standing in my way. Your father has caused me grief throughout the centuries. In time, I will kill him myself, with my own two hands. But in the meantime, it will suffice for me to kill you.
Let this be a lesson for him.”
With that, the man started taking several steps toward Jade.
Jade’s eyes opened wide and his heart pounded in his chest. The time had really come: the time for battle. He’d gotten his wish.
But now that it was here, his hands shook so hard, it was hard for him to control them. Hard for him to think clearly, to remember. The slingshot. The stones. He found himself frozen, unable to move.
He wanted to act, but as the man came closer, a part of him was just too scared to actually break into action.
Rose, as if sensing Jade’s inability to act, suddenly burst into a snarl, and ran right for the man.
She leapt into the air, and dove right for his throat. It happened so fast, it caught the man off guard. Rose clamped her jaws down hard on this throat, making the man stagger back several feet, shocked. He grabbed at Rose and tried to pull her off, but he was unable. She bit too hard. Blood was everywhere, as she held onto his throat, unwilling to let go.
Finally, the man got hold of her, and threw her off him. He slammed Rose down so hard on the stone that, with a yelp, the wind was knocked out of her. Then, with a scowl, he lifted up his boot, and Jade could see that he was about to crush her head.
Jade broke into action. In one quick motion, he reached into his belt, extracted his sling, inserted a stone and, as he’d done a million times before, he pulled back his arm, aimed right for the man’s eye, and hurled it with all he had.
To Jade’s shock and amazement, it worked. The stone went flying at lightning speed, and struck the man, only feet away, in one of his eyes, knocking it out of his skull.
The man grabbed his empty socket and screamed and screamed, horrific screams, as blood poured from his head. Jade had saved Rose’s life.
But now the man turned on Jade, and looked at him with a snarl from hell. Jade reached down for another stone, but this time he was not quick enough. The man pounced on him with lightning speed, faster than anything Jade had ever seen.
The last thing that Jade saw was his grotesque face, filled with rage and fury, and heading right for him.
Caleb fought with his coven in the streets of Venice, in the midst of heated battle. With Samuel at one side and Sera at the other, he swung wildly with his ivory staff, killing the convicts left and right. The three of them, outnumbered, were charged by a dozen convicts, but these were only humans, and the three of them prevailed.
But Caleb was caught off guard as a dozen vampires suddenly charged their way. He recognized them immediately—they were of the Lagoon Coven, hardened criminals that he thought were rotting beneath the prisons. Their presence immediately alerted him to the fact the someone had released them, had been behind all this mayhem. That this was all a deliberate plot.
But he hadn’t much time to contemplate it, because soon, they were in the thick of battle.
Caleb and his men got separated. One vampire leapt for Caleb’s face, but Caleb stabbed him in the throat. Another grabbed his shoulder, but Caleb wheeled and head butted him. Still another charged from behind, but Caleb took his staff, and thrust it backwards, its pointed end going right through his throat.
Two more charged at his front, but Caleb pulled the staff back and swung it down, cracking them both hard across the head, and knocking them to the ground.
Caleb caught his breath, and looked over and saw his brother doing well; but Samantha, with her short sword, was jumped from behind. He stepped in and tore the vampire off of her, wrestling it to the ground.
The vampire reached up with his long claws and tried to gouge out Caleb’s eyes. But Caleb grabbed them and
