Blood Magic by Laken Cane
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Tell me again why we didn’t leave the way we came in?” I asked Bastien as we picked our way through the dim, flickering lights of the tunnel. He’d told me that there were some twists and turns in the dark tunnels that made them seem longer. At least they were quite wide, which helped with a person’s claustrophobia.
“For one reason, at least one of the humans who left the club might have called the police—and across the street is Harmony’s. They are a human club and a rival of Scarlett’s. Not only do human police frequent it, but there are nights when the patrons and managers call the cops on Scarlett’s. Tonight would have been one of those nights. You would not have wanted to run into that.”
“No,” I agreed. “I would not.”
“The troll,” he said, as menacing growls began to drift from the shadows. “Tend it as quickly as you can. Your detective is not doing well.”
The vampire trolls had no idea about council happenings or that I’d taken on some new power. They probably wouldn’t have cared even had they known. The first one was waiting like we owed him a toll, blocking our path to freedom.
“Also,” Bastien said, as I gaped at the huge shadow I could see starting to drift toward us, “Axton keeps them hungry down here. He’ll eat you and your friend and use me for a toothpick afterward. Kill him, Kait.”
“You’re not exactly making me feel confident that I can,” I muttered.
“Use the council’s power.”
I hesitated.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I’m not…I don’t know how to call that power, Bastien. It manifested back there when I thought I was dying.”
“You should consider that a distinct possibility right now,” he told me.
The dark figure of the troll picked up its pace. I thought I felt the floor shake. He was not only tall, he was big. “Put the detective down so you can help me with this guy.”
“I will have my own troll to fight,” he said calmly. “Either this one or the other one. And I must also protect this human.”
So really, the only question was, should I fight him with demon blade or wolf? Before I could quite decide, the troll had apparently gotten his fill of stalking and flew from the shadows like the vampire he was.
He wasn’t only a vampire, though. He was bundled up with something else. His voice was screechy like a huge, mutant bird, and I was pretty sure I saw the flash of horns on top of his head. He clacked his teeth together in between screams. The sound from that was so loud I couldn’t imagine how his teeth weren’t breaking.
“Weapons?” I asked Bastien.
“He doesn’t need weapons,” he replied, his voice grim. And finally, he put Rick down.
The tunnel in which we stood was wide, true, but I didn’t think it was wide enough for two trolls. But then the second troll appeared, and he wasn’t a big vampire. He wasn’t even a man.
“A fucking dog?” I managed to get out, right before both creatures ran full out toward us. “There’s no such thing as a vampire animal.”
“I don’t know how he came to be,” he said. “Only that he did. Don’t let him bite you, Kait.”
“I’ll take the dog.” I dropped my blade into my borrowed jacket pocket, flung it against the wall, and then, I called my shift. I loved dogs. I did. But the thing coming at me wasn’t really a dog. It was a huge, slavering, fangy vampire beast.
And sure, the trolls were freaking me out, but I wasn’t really full of terror and doubt, and I did not think I’d die in those tunnels. Not really.
During the time it took me to shift, I was vulnerable. Someday I would be able to speed things up, but as I’d only recently been given the ability to shift, I was still a baby, and I was still slow.
When I finally fully shifted, the vampire dog was already attacking me—I was injured before I’d even begun to fight. I was injured from the fight inside the club, as well, but whatever power had rolled through me had helped me recover. Still, starting a fight with a mutant vampire creature while injured couldn’t be a good thing.
But then my raging wolf was in control, and the pain from injuries dimmed.
I clashed with the vampire dog thing, and we rolled down the tunnel, snarling and clawing and biting, as Bastien took on the other troll. Not getting bitten by the dog was easier said than done, and, as it turned out, impossible. But my wolf could take a lot more damage than my human form, and even as pain ripped through me, I barely gave it a thought.
For my wolf, there was only the fight.
For the woman, though, there was worry that the detective, in his helpless, unconscious state, would be hurt. Bastien had to not only protect himself, he had to protect Rick. And that was my responsibility.
The dog sank his teeth into the side of my throat and slung me against the wall, and I felt blood, hot and wet, cascade over my fur. I jumped up immediately, though, and drove my claws into his vulnerable underbelly as he leaped through the air. I didn’t hesitate—I rode him to the floor and tore out his throat.
But when his blood exploded into my mouth and down my throat, two things registered on my raging mind. One, there was something wrong with the beast’s blood. Two, Bastien was in trouble.
The troll appeared to have figured out that the detective was food, and he was attempting to force Bastien back so he could get close to the human on the ground. Bastien was at least as strong as the troll, but the troll wasn’t just trying to kill him. More than he wanted to kill the intruder, he wanted to eat.
I shifted back to my human form, taking a second, as I always did, to appreciate the fact that I could shift. I would never take that for granted. The shift back was a bit quicker and less…bone-crunching.
I jumped off the vampire I’d just killed and started to race back down the tunnel to help Bastien when the dog began to shift. And then I could only stop and stare in horror as in his death, he returned to his human form. A vampire couldn't turn a shifter, but apparently, that was exactly what had happened.
I’d just fought and killed a shifter who’d been turned into a vampire.
I was frozen, horrified. If shifters could be turned, then could wolves be turned? Was this some sort of perverse anomaly that Axton had somehow magicked into being with his freaky seer?
“Kait,” Bastien bellowed. “Kait!”
I put the horror of a turned shifter away—for now—and sprinted to help Bastien. The two vampires were locked together, claws and fangs doing untold damage, but I figured Bastien could take care of himself—especially if he didn’t have a defenseless human to protect as well.
It was only when I got past the two fighting vampires and leaned over to scoop my borrowed jacket from the ground that I realized how injured I really was. The vampire dog thing had torn me up, and then I’d shifted back too quickly, losing some of the fast healing I’d have gotten had I remained my wolf. And I had to stay that way until I got the detective to safety.
Groaning, I zipped up the coat, made sure my demon blade was still secure, and then leaned over to grab the detective, throw him over my shoulder, and carry him to safety.
At least, that was what I planned to do.
The two vampires were snarling and punching and slicing with lethal claws, and though they were still a few feet away, the troll got in a punch and sent Bastien flying. He slammed against me and for a few seconds, as I tried to breathe and Bastien attempted to recover from a blow to the face that would have broken the skull of a lesser vampire, the troll leaped for Rick.
Bastien groaned as I shoved him off me, and then, desperation once again lending me a hand, I exploded through my pain and went to fight another vampire to save my friend. I took my demon blade, because I didn’t have the time required to shift—the troll literally had his fangs at Rick’s throat. But my wolf’s brain was fully engaged as I ground my teeth and ignored my terror that Rick was about to die. I jumped, hooked an arm around the troll’s shoulder, and drove my blade into the back of his neck. Again and again, until he dropped the detective and concentrated on me.
He screamed and slammed me against the wall, knocking the breath from my lungs. I heard something crack and realized it was the back of my skull hitting the rock wall, and then red-hot pain exploded in my head. My vision dimmed, but I saw the vampire’s fangs flashing as he snapped at the air, his head twisting as he tried to heal the damage my blade had dealt him.
He was strong, the bastard, so strong—and I was sliding into unconsciousness. If that happened, the vampire troll would have the detective. He needed blood to help him heal, as well, so even as we both collapsed to the ground, he went for mine.
I was bleeding freely from dozens of different injuries, the worst one being the side of my throat where the dog had gotten me. The vampire wouldn’t even have to bite me—that’s how much I was bleeding.
I was weakening faster than I usually would have, and in the back of my mind, I wondered if using the council’s power in the club had taken too much energy from me. Even with all my injuries, I should have been able to take one fucking vampire troll.
I needed to shift, but I could not. Not with a vampire on top of me lapping frantically at my blood in his attempt to heal himself. I screamed and flung out my hand, and no one was more shocked than me when my demon blade flew through the air and planted itself firmly into my open hand. But I’d known when I summoned it that it would come. Somehow, in some deep part of my brain, I’d known.
Demon brain, demon blade.
I shuddered at that thought even as I slid my blade almost gently into the vampire’s back, right into his heart. I sliced it up, sobbing, half hysterical, exhausted.
I killed him.
I fought my way to my feet, swaying, covered with blood and injuries, doubting my ability to make it the few steps to the detective. Bastien still lay on the floor, his body jerking, his hand over his heart.
The troll had messed him up, but he would heal.
“Take the human and go,” he told me. “I will take their heads.”
I nodded. If they weren’t decapitated, both vampires could come back, eventually. I stood over Rick, dropping my blade into my pocket as I leaned against the wall for support. “I don’t have the strength to get him out,” I said.
But Bastien had gone deep inside himself as he put all his energy into healing, and he didn’t answer. He’d barely just returned from his horrifying encounter with the sun, so he hadn’t been at full strength to begin with. Honestly, I wasn’t sure he would heal.
I wasn’t sure any of us would.
But as usual when I felt like giving up, my father was at my shoulder, pushing me on, and there was nothing like the memory of his voice to force me into action. I was tired, that was all. I was tired and injured but I could rest and heal later. I’d come to rescue Detective Rick Moreno, and that was exactly what I would do.
I grabbed his arms and began dragging him out of there, leaving a trail of bright blood that would follow us all the way to the end.
