A Call of Vampires (A Shade of Vampire #51)(65)

“Hold on, honey, I’m coming!” I shouted, crossing the last couple of yards. Then my heart stopped.

I felt a chilling presence looming behind her, getting bigger with every step it took. The girl was wounded, with deep red slashes all over her calves, blood pouring out uncontrollably. I caught a glimpse of what seemed like beady, fire-red eyes as the unseen fiend got closer, but then they were gone. Had I imagined it?

There was no time to think.

I jumped off my horse and slid on my knees for a good ten feet, bringing my broadsword forward as I stood and took my attack stance in front of whatever that beast was, placing myself between it and the Iman girl.

“Scarlett, wait!” I heard Patrik shout, then heard Scarlett grunt as she landed behind me and dragged the whimpering girl away.

I kept my eyes on the invisible presence, which seemed to be focused on me as it inched forward. I bared my teeth and hissed, something I always did to intimidate my opponents. Most of the time it worked. But not with this… thing.

“It’s concealing itself somehow,” I snapped as it got closer.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Three more of these invisible creatures were moving in from the right. They made absolutely no sound, but the air trembled around them.

A ball of blue fire hit my opponent hard, pushing it back a few feet, but still, no sound. Patrik moved forward, his hands an incandescent blue as he shot a few more of his flames at the other three fiends.

The one Patrik had hit first, the one I’d stopped from feasting on the Iman girl, rushed toward me. I slashed away at it, but it dodged every hit. It was ridiculously light on its feet, despite its massive size.

Jax moved next to me, both swords out. His eyes shone gold as he tried to use his mind-bending abilities on it. He shook his head, gritting his teeth with frustration. I saw the invisible figure rippling fast from left to right, making it impossible for the Mara to capture its mind.

“Oh, great, so that doesn’t work either!” I barked, then moved to attack the unknown beast again.

“It’s too fast. It knows what I’m trying to do!” Jax said, moving to my left, where three more of these invisible forms emerged.

There were seven of them now, and six of us, including Darius, who I couldn’t see anywhere in my split seconds of stepping back and recalculating my attack angles. It wasn’t a fair fight, considering they’d practically swallowed sixteen Exiled Maras and Imen without the slightest of efforts.

Harper was the last to jump off her horse, pulling her swords out in the process.

A hard blow to the chest knocked the air out of my lungs, and I hadn’t even seen it coming. I looked up and saw those blasted red eyes almost smiling at me as I fell backwards and hit the hard ground.

White stars covered my field of vision.

“Hansa!”

I heard Jax’s voice echoing somewhere in the back of my head.

He seemed so far away, as opposed to the invisible entity that had appeared on top of me.





Harper





(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)





Something dark and hard knocked into me midair. I landed on my right side with a thud, but I flung my swords out, slashing at the invisible figure above me. It worked—it moved back a foot, enough for me to jump to my feet and groan from the throbbing pain in my shoulder.

I managed to get a glimpse of the others in the darkness. They were fighting these strange, massive entities, much like the one coming at me again. There were seven in total, and Hansa had just been brought down by one of them. I’d heard Jax shout her name during my botched jump.

Another one slashed at Patrik. Blood spread through his white shirt and vest at an alarming speed. Scarlett was busy dragging the girl away, moving too fast for any of the hostiles to get to her. Hansa growled and swung her sword against her attacker, then sprang to her feet, wobbling slightly.

She and Jax moved back-to-back, holding their own against four of the invisible creatures. Two were moving in on Patrik, who dropped to one knee due to rapid loss of blood. I had to do something fast with the seventh in front of me, so I could get to the Druid in time. The entity lunged at me, big and black with gleaming red eyes, like burning coal.

I pushed out a barrier, strong enough to push it back a couple more feet. I needed to put more energy into these barriers, since they barely nudged these bastards. I shuffled to my right and moved around the obscure creature, trying to get closer to Patrik.

I couldn’t see Darius anywhere, but I didn’t get another second to look around again, as two more invisible fiends emerged from my right. There were nine of them now, one inching away from Patrik and moving toward Scarlett, who kneeled above the Iman girl and drew her sword, ready to defend her.

I was faced with three hostiles, all big and red-eyed. I pushed out a second barrier, using most of my energy. I heard a grunt before I saw one of them dart around, moving so fast I didn’t realize what it was doing until it was too late.

It swept my feet from under me, and I couldn’t help but yelp as I tried to get up and stilled, staring into a pair of red glowing eyes that I’d glimpsed before. The invisible beast had swiftly moved over me. I heard claws scraping the hard ground next to my ears.

I felt its hot breath on my face. It smelled like iron, like blood… like death.