Witch's Wrath (Blood And Magick #3)(20)
Among them, I saw Nina with her heeled shoe in her hand, swiping at the air in front of a slender looking man trying to get close. Behind her, clutching his own bleeding arm, was Harvey. He had managed to grab a fire poker from the fireplace and was holding it in front of himself like a sword, thrusting at the vampire from behind Nina’s back.
Taking a page from Nina’s book, I quickly removed both of my shoes and held one in my hand, heel out, ready to hit the next asshole who came my way. Footsteps came pounding in my direction. When I turned and raised my arm to attack, I saw it was Delphine rushing at me from inside the ballroom. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the corridor.
“Delphine!” I said, relief filling me, “What the hell is happening?”
“I don’t know,” she said, “It all started so fast, and now I cannot find Jean Luc or the others. They’re all gone!”
“Gone?”
“Yes, when the vampires came, I lost them in the melee that broke out, and now I don’t know where they are.”
“Okay, first thing we need to do is start some kind of fire—that’ll scare the vampires off.”
“You’re going to fight?”
“We have to fight, we have no choice! People are getting hurt here. A fire is our best bet.”
“Madison, I… I…”
I took hold of her shoulders. “Delphine, what is it?”
“I can’t,” she said, “I just… I don’t think I can.”
Delphine was scared. No, she was terrified. Her family was gone, Jean Luc was missing, and she was alone, surrounded by strangers, and death, and blood. Her calm and collected composure had fallen away, revealing the truth behind the mask all vampires wore with consummate ease. And I understood exactly how Delphine felt. After all, hadn’t I been here before? Hadn’t I felt vulnerable, and alone, and scared in the face of danger and death?
“Alright, listen to me,” I said, “I want you to go upstairs, find a bedroom, and hide.”
“But what about Jean Luc?”
“I’ll find him. Just get out of sight and lay low.”
Delphine nodded, turned her eyes toward the stairs, and dashed to them, taking them two at a time. I then turned my attention toward the main room again and inched toward the corner where I could get a closer look.
The fighting was still going, but the vampires were getting the upper hand. I couldn’t see Nina anymore, and at least two witches were on the ground, struggling to fend off vampires trying to bite into their necks. There must have been six of them, or seven counting the one I had seen in the corridor a moment ago. It was hard to tell; they moved so fast.
Fuck it, I thought, and I strode into the main room with my hand arched above my shoulder, holding my heel ready to strike.
A vampire came at me, running full pelt with murder in his eyes. I had enough time to line up my attack before delivering the heel of my shoe right into his eye. But that didn’t stop him. The vampire grabbed the shoe and yanked it out of his eye socket, taking the bloody eye with it. He tossed the shoe aside and reached for my neck, but I managed to jump out of his reach.
Looking around wildly for anything I could use as a weapon, I saw a small table covered in plates and glasses. One by one, I pulled them from the table and threw them at the vampire, but he swatted them away as they came to him. I realized, even as I continued to throw whatever I could get my hands on at him, that all I was doing was slowing him down.
My hands settled on the silver tray I had seen floating around the room, and instead of throwing it at the vampire, I spun on my heel and swiped it around, edge first, in a close arc. The vampire put his hand out to protect himself and the silver tray dragged across his hand, but something happened then—the vampire hissed, pulled his hand back, and began to cradle the deep, smoking wound the tray had left. It seemed to have somehow bitten into his flesh and caused some real damage the vampire hadn’t been expecting to receive.
“Silver!” I yelled to anyone who could hear me, “Silver hurts them!”
But the attack hadn’t hurt him as much as I’d thought. The vampire reached for me, as I called out to my fellow witches, and grabbed me by the neck. With one strong hand, he pulled my chin up. With the other he pushed me, effortlessly, against a wall, and then he sank his fangs into my neck, introducing me to a world of pain like I had never known before.
A brilliant star field exploded in front of my eyes at the instant of impact. Almost immediately, my vision started to blacken. And while I continued to hit him with the silver tray as hard as I could, my energy was slipping away from me with every exertion I took. Until, finally, I caught him on the side of the head hard enough that the edge of the silver tray bit deep into the flesh, burning a deep, black, sizzling line into his skull.
The vampire pulled his teeth from my neck and yowled as pain filled him. He turned his eyes back on me, and he snarled at me as if this was it—he was going to kill me. I shut my eyes to brace myself for his bite, but the bite didn’t come. I heard a crunch, and when I opened my eyes, I saw the vampire’s chin was still raised, his mouth was still wide, but sticking out of the front of his neck was a thin, pointed tip, dripping with dark blood.
The sword pulled out of the neck, and the vampire’s grip on me loosened enough for me to shake him off and shove him to the ground. There, standing behind him, was Remy, his shirt and face speckled with blood, and a sword in his hand. Only, it wasn’t exactly a sword; I recognized the decorative skull on the hilt and noticed the lack of a cross guard.