With an internal slap to my senses, I pull myself together.
‘THEO’S HERE!’ I scream at the very top of my lungs.
I hear windows smashing throughout the house, all followed by a series of loud bangs and yelling. My own windows shatter and in flies a grenade. It lands at my feet and my eyes widen in horror.
‘Shit!’
I hurl myself over the bed as it goes off. There’s no fire, but the room fills with a bright light and smoke. I can’t see a thing. My ears are ringing and the air becomes so thick it’s hard to breathe. Another bang goes off right beside me. Another stun grenade, and it knocks me for six. I struggle to get to my feet. I can’t get my balance and I can’t hear anything other than a high-pitched ringing noise. I fall to my knees, cover my ears and seal my eyes shut in case another one comes in through the window. As the smoke forces its way into my lungs, my throat starts to burn and I can taste something foul in the air. Coughing and gasping, I grab one of Gabriel’s tops from the floor and cover my mouth.
Oh god, Gabriel! Please let him be okay. I can’t let the last thing said between us be in anger.
I blink open my eyes and see a grenade is still smoking, filling the room with some kind of gas. I run over, grab the thing and toss it back out the window before stumbling to the door, coughing and wheezing with streaming eyes. I still grip my book in my hands. It’s the only sentimental thing I have left and I’ll be damned if I lose it.
My hand doesn’t reach the door knob before it flies open. I come face to face with a tall figure, all in black, with a gas mask covering his face. At his feet is Ste. Dead.
‘Got her.’ The masked man says into a radio. ‘Gabriel’s bedroom. Like you said.’
With blurry eyes, scorched lungs and still struggling to get rid of the high-pitched screeching noise the grenade caused, I back up.
‘Bringing the witch to you now, Theo,’ he says.
Oh shit!
The faceless man lunges at me. When I try to yell out, my breath gets stuck and I can’t stop coughing. I hold Gabriel’s top closer to my mouth and make for the bathroom. I’m quick and manage to slam the door in his face and lock it. But his foot starts hammering against it. He’s joined by another. Two men make light work of breaking through and they soon stand in the darkened doorway looking at me.
The one on the left raises a gun. I toss my book as hard as I can at the raised weapon and I knock his aim so when he fires, a needle-like dart hits the wall behind me.
It’s a tranquilizer. Not a bullet. The same as the Nomads carry. So, they’re not here to kill me.
There’s no way out. The sounds of the house start to become clearer as my ears begin to recover. Yelling. Shooting. Fighting.
Dying.
This is not happening.
I won’t let it happen. I’ve been training for months for precisely this reason.
To fight. To survive.
Focus!
I charge them both, leaping through the middle of the two and when my feet land on the floor, I swiftly kick one in the back of the knee, pick up my book and hurl it into his face, knocking the mask loose. He starts to cough and splutter in the smoke as the second one un-holsters his gun. I pick up the chair at my dressing table and throw it at him. He uses his arms to protect himself. He expects me to run away. But I don’t. I run at him, upper-cut his jaw, knee him in the crotch, snatch his gun and point it at him instead.
Wow, my training has really paid off! Thank you, Gabriel!
I pull the trigger. A dart lands in his neck. Whatever’s inside works fast. He falls flat on his face, motionless and silent. I’m still coughing and gasping against the remaining gas. My lungs feel like they’re full of acid. But I’m focused. Beyond focused. I have a hell of a lot of pent-up anger and frustration inside me and I have people I need to protect from these assholes.
Time to let it out.
The second man – his mask back on his face – points his gun at me. I point mine at him. The rest of the house is still in darkness and chaos. A sea of violence and yelling surround us. I drown it all out. I ignore it all, just as I was taught, and focus on what I must do to get myself safely out of this situation.
I could really do with my magic, I think to myself. But I don’t have it. Grayson hasn’t given me access. Perhaps he’s been hit by a dart?
So, it’s just me. All five foot, four inches.
‘Surrender and come quietly,’ he says through his mask. ‘I would hate to have to hurt you. Although, I did love to hear you scream while Theo cut off your fingers. So that’s not actually true at all.’
‘You’ll regret saying that.’
I shoot. He dodges and shoots at me. I spin before planting my feet into the floor and running right at him as fast as I possibly can. He continues to fire. His darts seeking my skin. But I duck and weave and jump and skid. I perform a ballet from one end of the room to the other. Unlike him, I know where every bit of furniture lies, so the darkness doesn’t hinder me. I use it all. The desk. The bed. I hide behind it, toss it and leap off it. I crash into him. He falls back, I land and jump to my feet with my gun still in my hand and pointed at his face.
‘Surrender,’ I tell him.
‘Never.’
‘Oh. I’m so glad you said that.’ Quickly, I pull off his mask. A man in his early thirties looks up at me. I see him raise his weapon. I pull the trigger first and a dart goes right into his eye.
He screams a high and strangled yell full of pain.
But then, he falls still.
The battle in the house rages on, but it might as well be a hundred miles away. I see a knife in the fallen man’s belt. A pistol too. I take them both after sliding on his gas mask.
Do it. They deserve it. Do it!
So I do. I carry out my dark thought, encouraged by the sinister little voice in my head. I hold down the man’s right hand and stretch out his fingers. Then, I press the sharpened edge of his blade through them. It’s like cutting through a stick. A meaty stick that squirts blood. But seeing them severed, seeing him bleed like I bled… It feels good. Someone rushes into the room. I stand, mask on my face. Knife in my had. Gun poised. Only to see Hendrix. He looks between me and the man on the floor with a needle in his eye and two fingers severed.
‘I err… came to save ya?’ he says.
‘Great. Hold that thought,’ I reply through the mask. I pick up the fingers, toss Hendrix the gun which of course, he catches, and head to the second unconscious man. I kneel next to him, stretch out his right hand, and do exactly the same to him. Hendrix doesn’t say a word as I mutilate my unconscious victim, but watches me keenly and looks impressed. I scoop up those fingers as well, and all four go into my pyjama trouser pocket.
‘Bit dark,’ he says. ‘For you.’
‘Shady, maybe. But this isn’t dark. Nowhere close. It’s payback.’
I stand and see a second wave of attackers coming towards us from the top of the stairs.
‘Hendrix, behind you!’ I point over his shoulder. Three men attempt to tackle the vampire. He makes light work of taking them down but the smoke around us is building and getting thicker. The grenades are going off all over the house. When he snaps the neck of the third man, he slides off his mask and places it over his own face.
‘What’s happening down there?’
‘The house is overrun,’ he tells me. ‘Everyone is getting out. You know the drill. We need to regroup in the woods and launch a counter attack. Everyone has headed to the safe point.’
‘Where’s Gabriel-’
‘Out. They’re all out. Grayson dragged lover-boy into the woods and sent me to come get you. You know what happens if any of the others die. They all die. Can’t let that happen. They had to get out.’
‘Connor?’
‘I just told ya, Little Witch. They’re out. Let’s get ya outta here too, hmm?’ he says, holding out his hand. He seems remarkably calm, considering. But then… so am I. I walk to the door, scooping up my Brothers Grimm book as I go, and push his hand out of my way.
‘I don’t need my hand holding, thanks.’
‘You and that stupid book,’ he tuts.
‘It’s the only thing I own that I care about so shut up.’
The top landing is quiet. But below is far from it. We stand at the top of the stairs and look down at the fighting men and women. Guns. Stun grenades. Knives. Fists. At the base of the stairs is a solid line of coughing and wheezing Nomads, each one determined not to let anyone else past.
‘I need my magic,’ I tell Hendrix, giving him a whack on the arm. ‘Where are Grayson and my Bloodstone?’
‘Out,’ he grunts through the black mask. ‘I told ya.’
‘He needs to give me my magic!’
He looks below and growls. ‘I got my orders.’
‘Which are?’
‘Get you out. Come on.’ He grabs my arm and pulls me down stairs. Straight into the fight. The Nomads see us and let us through. But the traitors see us too and if all hell hadn’t already broken loose, it sure has now. It’s like a starving horde and I’m a great big steak. It’s sheer desperation and panic as they try and fight through the Nomads to get anywhere close to me.
‘Ya need to colour ya hair. It’s a glowing sign telling everyone who ya bloody are. C’mon.’ He has a tight hold on me and pulls me through to the next flight of stairs. But I stop dead when I see who is coming up them. Even with the gas masks on, I know exactly who it is.
‘Hendrix! It’s Theo! He’s there! He’s right there!’ My instinct takes over. After months of fantasising about all the terrible things I would do to him, I can’t stop myself from charging.
Hendrix hurls me to the side as a streak of lightning comes straight for us before I get anywhere close. He takes a blast to the chest instead of me and flies backwards into the wall as I land on the floor face down.
Goddamn it. I need my magic!
Hendrix gets to his feet, runs to me and yanks me up. He then starts pulling me away.
‘NO!’ I scream, desperate to get free of his grip. ‘We need to attack!’
‘This is a fight we ain’t gonna win,’ he tells me. ‘We’re too outnumbered and our enemies are armed to the teeth. And now Theo’s here. I can’t take him and neither can you.
As more lightning streaks from Theo’s hands, we sprint to the library and seal the doors shut behind us. It seems that this is the only room not under attack. The air is clear and it’s empty. I pull off my mask, as does Hendrix.
‘Call Grayson. Tell him to give me my fucking magic!’
‘I can’t,’ he growls, pushing over a shelving unit so it lands across the door, before gripping my wrist and pulling me deeper into the library.
‘You can’t? You don’t have a phone?’
‘I have a phone, Little Witch. But Grayson doesn’t currently have your Bloodstone.’
‘What! Where is it then? He can’t give me access unless he holds it. Has he lost it?’
‘No,’ he says, going to a window and attempting to open it. But there’s no latch. I know. I checked many months ago. ‘I have it,’ he says. The sound of the Traitors on the other side of the door, battering it down, echo around the empty room.
‘You have it?’ I smack his arm. ‘Give it to me!’ I hold out my hand expectantly, but he laughs a low cruel laugh and shakes his head. ‘Why the hell not?’
The banging gets more violent. The door starts to edge the case further and further away.
‘I have strict orders. You ain’t to touch the stone. Under any circumstances.’
‘Even if we could both die?!’
He gives up with the sealed window and looks at me. ‘Afraid so.’ He shrugs. ‘Grayson will see ya dead before he sees ya free with your magic to wreak your revenge on him. Ya get hold of this stone? We’ll never see ya again.’ My eyes go to his neck. That makes his smile grow even more. ‘I would really love to see ya try and take it. I will break every bone in your goddamn body before ya get close and Grayson will skin those friends of yours alive. Mark my words. And it ain’t round my neck.’ He points to his crotch. ‘I put it somewhere real special.’
‘Oh… fuck you Hendrix.’
‘Not right now, Little Witch,’ he laughs. ‘Maybe another time?’ I look around the room and make a bee-line for the stairs that lead up to the gallery. ‘Where ya goin’?’ he calls, chasing after me.
‘To make sure the journal isn’t in here and to destroy Connors notes.’
‘It ain’t in here. Grayson has the journal,’ he tells me, grabbing my wrist as we reach the top and yanking me back so I tumble into his arms. ‘We need to get out of here. Now!’
‘Connor has a desk full of notes. If Theo gets anything that leads him to the spell to kill all the Nomads, we’re all screwed.’ Reluctantly he agrees, knowing that I’m right. We run to Connors little corner and start scooping up as much paper as possible. All the while, the door edges more and more open. But there’s too much to hold. The more we pick up, the more we drop.
‘We burn it all,’ I suggest. ‘Do you have a lighter?’
Hendrix shakes his head. ‘It will burn the house down with all these dry books. We’ll take what we can and hope it’s enough. We can’t lose the house. We’ll have nowhere to keep ya safe if we do.’
I look over his shoulder to the door and the sound of dozens of men furiously trying to knock them down, and then back to him with raised eyebrows. ‘Oh yeah, Hendrix. I’m real fucking safe. I mean, if the dead woman in my bathroom didn’t drive home the safety of this place, the fucking army trying to kick down the door certainly does!’
‘You’re a seriously sarcastic little thing. I see why he likes ya,’ he chuckles. ‘We won’t burn down Grayson’s house. Once we kill the Traitors, the house will be secured again.’ He picks up a chair and tosses it through the window. The glass shatters and the cool night air pours in. ‘I’ll get ya out and somewhere safe, and then the rest of us will come back and re-take the house. Ready?’ he asks.
‘Are you joking?’ I point to the window. ‘I’m not a vampire. I don’t have the immortality spell. And that’s a forty-foot sodding drop at LEAST!’ He simply shrugs. ‘I’ll break my fucking neck.’
‘And Theo wants to tear ya limb from limb. Very slowly. And then force ya to do his spell which will kill your entire species. Except for his Traitors of course. Unless ya have an alternative, we’re jumping. Just… hold onto me and I’ll take the majority of the fall.’ He beckons me towards him. The shelves scrape further across the floor. ‘Time is kind of a factor here, Little Witch. They’re coming for ya.’
‘Goddamn it.’ I stand by his side, both of us at the window. In the distance, I see two men in the trees arguing. One is trying to get away from the other. It’s Gabriel and Grayson. And Grayson is really struggling to keep his brother from coming back to the house. Gabriel looks frantic. His arms are waving in the air. He’s throwing punches. But Grayson won’t let him leave. None of them will. Nomads are surrounding him, trying to calm him from his frantic efforts. But he’s using his magic and ordering them away.
‘Aww. Lover-boy’s all upset you got left behind.’
‘Shut up,’ I hiss.
‘When we land, bend your knees,’ Hendrix says, pulling me into his enormous frame and holding me tight. His face is far too close for comfort. ‘This kind of reminds me of the night we met. You in your little pj’s. Me nice and close.’
‘You try and bite me again, I’ll bite you back.’
‘Yep. I definitely see why he likes ya. Ready?’
The doors fly off their hinges and Theo and his army storm in below us. We’re about to jump when he says something that makes us both stop.
‘I have your friend!’ Theo calls out. ‘You leave, he dies.’
We can’t see over the balcony, but we hear who he has.
‘Lilly… RUN!’ Connor yells, before someone punches him. The thud and the groan it produces makes me feel sick.
‘You said he got out!’
‘I lied. Well,’ Hendrix scoffs quietly. ‘That’s a bit of bad luck for the leprechaun. We’re out of here.’
No chance.
‘Get the Bloodstone to Grayson. And tell Gabriel I love him,’ I whisper in his ear, before shoving him hard out the window. The look of utter shock on his face is almost worth it as he reaches out. But he catches nothing but air. I watch him fall and like a cat, he lands on his feet and simply looks up at me with his arms wide.
‘The fuck did ya do that for?’ he yells angrily up at me.
‘What? You landed on your feet, didn’t you?’
‘You didn’t know I would.’
I point to the two brothers. ‘Go!’ I mouth. ‘Now!’
‘Stupid bloody woman.’ He turns and sprints into the darkness towards Gabriel and Grayson.
I turn to face Theodore Kendryk.
