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“We’ve broken one before,” I told him, “Christian and I, working together. Though even I’m not sure just why it worked.”
“That circle was more invisible than fortified,” Christian remarked, though by the way he was jumping from foot to foot, I could tell he wanted to try again.
I shrugged. “Can’t hurt to give it a shot,” I said.
Christian grinned at me and it was as carefree and happy as it was bloodthirsty. “Let’s roll.”
But before we could take action the druids were ready with their own, better informed plans. They were nothing if not efficient.
A thick tree sprouted suddenly and violently into the middle of the vampire master circle, throwing the creatures in all directions and breaking their strange stolen spell.
At almost the same moment a group of newborn vampires tore up the stairs behind us. Henri’s corpse army couldn’t last forever. It’d had a good run.
It was a split second judgement which direction to fight in, but as I saw the newborns tear into the back of the group I shot that way, hoping there were enough strong fighters focusing on the masters for the moment.
After that it was a gore fest of a battle. Vampires lived on blood and so were in fact full of it, and each one I caught with my spinning axe effectively exploded blood into the air on contact. It was grisly.
I had to piece it together after the fighting was done, but Sven had joined me taking out the force behind us while almost everyone else went after the masters, which was for the best.
We fought well together for siblings that had been separated for most of their long lives. We’d never even trained with each other but our styles were similar, and I gave the credit for that to our love of a good battle axe.
The newborns coming up the stairs had taken out a few of ours with the element of distraction and surprise on their side, and those bodies combined with the growing pile of undead made for some slippery footing. At one point I just planted my ass down at the top of the stairs and started bonking them on the head as they came up.
They were new and weak but still vampire fast, so I got about a half dozen gnarly bites before the stream of creatures stopped.
At that point Sven helped me up from the floor, and we turned back to the room, assessing who needed help finishing off the masters.
I rushed to help Dom with one, but he was already squeezing its head between his hands until it was flat, casually pulled a stake out of a thigh sheath and drove it through its heart, moving on to the next.
Dom didn’t need my help.
Cam, who I’d barely seen in the melee seemed to be struggling with two of them on him. I came up behind one of the vamps and cleanly sliced its head off and in the same motion took the other one’s head and shoulders clean off.
I was rather impressed with my own moves but Cam just glared at me, the ingrate, and moved to stake them.
When the last master was dead, Dom caught sight of me, his eyes taking inventory, top to bottom.
“None of that’s yours, I hope?” he asked referring to the fact that I was covered in blood.
I waved at the room. Everyone was covered in blood and gore. “I look the same as everyone else.”
“Just answer the question, please,” he asked through his teeth.
“I was bitten a few times but am otherwise unharmed.”
Cleanup was a bitch, but we got out of most of it. That was a perk of being in the mess of it, I supposed. Waves three and four had faced less carnage but got the brunt of the bitch duty at the end.
The mood was somber after all danger had passed, and I assumed it was because the druids were disturbed by the darker form of their magic being stolen, yet again.
It had happened before, at the last necro roast. Druid magic in a place it shouldn’t be. And though there wasn’t an exact connection between necros and vampires, it felt significant that they were both undead.
It was alarming, to say the least. And if it was making my skin crawl like this, I couldn’t even imagine how crazy it was driving Dom and Sloan.
It was a perturbing development but one that the druids would be handling themselves. I wasn’t even sure they’d tell any outsiders after they got to the bottom of it all, which was frustrating but typical.
CHAPTER TWENTY
YOU WOULD KNOW
