Whoever was behind the attack had been smart, Levi had to give them that. Sending their feral dogs first had ensured that the huntsmen and knights alike were occupied, and then their foot soldiers had been scattered throughout the unmanned territory.
Levi and the huntsman at his back made short work of the group they’d encountered before sending Chloe on her way, then headed downhill to aid the others.
It wasn’t pretty.
Levi hadn’t dealt with huntsmen for an age, but he had to admit that they could certainly be useful. Not all of them were Jack Hunter, however. They were losing ground.
Another hundred ferals had surrounded three of them, two young men and a woman who was quite gifted with her many knives. Her, he knew of. They weren’t acquainted, but there was only a handful of born vampires at any given time, and Levi made a point to remember their faces. Tris. Adrian’s daughter. He positioned himself as her six, guarding her back as they fought through that lot.
Once they were dealt with, Levi said, “I hear three other groups—two south, one east. Let’s split.”
Jack went south with the boys while Tris headed east with him.
She froze as they arrived, screaming, “Bash!”
The warning came too late. A feral behind the huntsman plunged its eight sharp fangs into his shoulder. From where he stood, Levi could smell the blood; it had broken the skin, which meant the man was already lost.
Most would have fallen and screamed in agony, but Bash was strong. Not only did he remain on his feet, he also kept fighting, swinging his ax at any threat around him.
Levi held Tris’s arm as she rushed toward her friend. She glared at him, but he just shook his head.
“There’s nothing to do now. If you get close…”
“Touch me again, you lose that arm,” the woman growled.
She would make a devastating immortal when she changed.
If she didn’t turn feral first.
“If you want to help your friend, let’s clear the beasts,” Levi told her.
She seemed to agree.
The woman launched herself at them with a battle cry. Levi was no less brutal. He hated losing lives, even those he didn’t know. Hence why he remained on his hill, in his tower, behind a red door. Out here, people died, or worse.
One head ripped off. A knife through a heart. A kick so hard it cracked a skull. One after the next, they fell, until there was silence.
Levi turned to the huntsman. Bash.
He’d given up standing and was now panting hard.
His friends were approaching.
“Stay away,” Bash said before Levi could caution them against getting too close. “I feel…”
Levi knew how he felt.
He took one step. Right away, four weapons were unsheathed as the huntsmen focused on him.
They knew what his kind did to those who were turned when they wished to be kind. Give them a quick death.
He held his hands up in the air.
“I won’t hurt him. I can make him sleep, however. He won’t feel pain through the change.”
“Is that a euphemism for death? Try, bloodsucker. We’ll see who’ll go to sleep.”
They certainly didn’t lack guts.
“Children, quiet. I don’t intend to dispense with a perfectly good test subject.”
Cold, but true. And hopefully, it would get the point across.
“I keep ferals for observation while I work on a cure. If we take him to my lab…”
“Is there one?” Tris asked, her voice breaking. “A cure?”
Levi shook his head. “Not yet.”
He wished he could give a different answer, but he wasn’t one to lie.
“I want to go. In the lab. I want to go,” Bash said, proving to be the wisest of the five.
Levi walked forward again, pulling one of Alexius’s potions out of his jacket, glad he’d taken to keeping the sleeping draught with him.
“Drink this.”
The huntsman obeyed, and faded almost right away.
Now that this immediate potential threat was dealt with, Levi listened to his surroundings. No more large groups, but he heard and felt plenty of intruders.
He pulled keys out of his pocket and threw them at the fledgling.
“You should be able to slip out now, if you take the ravine west. Head to Night Hill, last house before Skyhall. When you go in, there’s a study to the right. You’ll find suitable restraints in the chest of drawers. Do not leave him without chains.”
The girl nodded. He hoped she obeyed. Students turning feral en masse was the last thing he needed right now.
One huntsman carried each of Bash’s arms, a third walked in front, and the fourth closed the circle as they walked away. Levi started to hunt.
Clearing ferals wasn’t fun. It equated to having a rat infestation. But hunting down vampires in full control of their senses was another matter altogether. Levi knew they heard him coming, felt the air cool as he closed in on them. He watched true fear in their eyes before bringing them to their knees.
Killing a vampire wasn’t easy. He couldn’t just slit throats; that sort of wound could heal. He had to cut through the spine, rip out the heart. Fire or water could have done the job, but as he had none at hand, he had his work cut out.
At first, Levi ripped his way through skeletons, ignoring the blood on his hands, but as the number of enemies thinned, he changed tactics.
Finding a group of three, he made quick work of the first two, and then wrapped his bloody hand around the third’s throat before pulling him off his feet and holding him high.
“Who sent you?”
The first four vampires he questioned could not answer. They choked on any reply, not only because he was strangling them. Something prevented them from speaking.
“True to the blood!” is what most would say.
Just those four words.
They were bound by magic, that much was obvious. Dammit. He stopped attempting to spare anyone, instead focusing on clearing his territory and, more importantly, finding Chloe.
He couldn’t sense her location, not even through the faint bond that had always existed between them.
As if she was fading. Losing energy. And no wonder.
He couldn’t focus on that now. First, he had to kill the enemy to protect Oldcrest, his home, the hundreds of students here. Then, he’d find her.
She was alive. He had to believe that. He’d find her and then hunt Tom down to get more blood for her. Or demand it from Ariadne herself if that’s what it took.
He had to…
Levi stopped in his tracks midway through striking a curly-haired blond vampire near Eirikr’s cave.
Fire.
As sure as there was water in his soul, the woman in front of him was all raging blue fire.
There was nothing sweet about her. Nothing beautiful. She was too terrifying to be called that. Bewitching, fascinating, and irresistible would work, though.
Chloe moved like a shadow, kicking the blond’s head and pushing the heel of her muddy boot into his chest.
“Who sent you?”
The man looked frantic as he struggled to break free. She pushed more of her weight forward, leaning in.
“Who?”
Her voice was so very beautiful, melodious, like honeysuckle.
“We serve the queen,” he replied weakly. “She said there was an imposter. Someone who wanted to take everything she’s worked for these past hundred years. We were told it’d be a human girl with tricks.”
The vampire looked ashamed now.
“What queen?” Levi asked.
Many bore the title. A hundred queens ruled around the world.
“The queen of all vampires,” he replied.
Levi frowned. No such thing existed.
“She will have us give in to our true nature, hunt and celebrate darkness, once all who oppose her are gone. The queen will bring back the golden age, as it was foretold.”
That explained it. Fanatics.
“A name,” Chloe demanded.
The vampire shook his head. “There is none. She is the queen.”
Well, that was certainly convenient.
