CHAPTER6
All the windis knocked from me. Stars explode in my eyes as my head cracks against the hard ground. A splitting headache rips through my skull instantly, threatening to make me retch. The weight of the vampire lord is atop me, the sound of his mail ringing in my ears. It’s too much; my senses revolt.
Luckily Drew and I grappled constantly from a young age. Even before he became a hunter. Instinct kicks in.
I bend my knee to get leverage and twist the vampire off of me, releasing my grip on him. The movement sends me over the edge. My stomach clenches around my ribs, upturning its contents, as though that would expunge the pain from my mind at the same time. My bile is as black as the elixir I drank and I wonder if I just expelled the only thing keeping me alive.
Everything begins to hurt. A pain beyond any I’ve ever known. My muscles tremble with weakness as exhaustion descends upon me.
I won’t… I can’t… This monster…
I think of him pinning Drew against the wall. I imagine my brother bleeding, dying on the ground, deep in the Fade Marshes where no one will find him. I’m no healer. But I know a bad wound when I see one. His life was fading and this monster took me from my brother in his final moments. The rage is almost enough to numb the pain.
“You…” A dark chuckle cuts through the air. “They have certainly made you a wicked beast.” The vampire lord lets out a groan. Plate clanks. He’s on his feet.
I push myself off the ground to match, nothing other than hate and fear propelling me. The world spins, finally settling into another unfamiliar place. He must have moved us as we fell.Damn it all. He can even use his magic mid-fall.
We’re at the back of a room that reminds me of the great hall of the fortress that Drew described for me after joining the hunters. Threadbare tapestries and fans of swords adorn walls of stone. Two long tables stretch parallel out from a hearth larger than that of our forge. A smaller table is perpendicular to them, before the dark fireplace.
“You thought you could kill me?” the vampire lord seethes, spinning to face me. His red cape looks more tattered than before. Armor dented. If I’m right about how the armor is forged, then I might be able to make some joints lock up with a well-placed strike or two and severely limit his mobility.
Rather than responding, I dash off to the side toward one of the racks of ornate weapons. Their blunt edges weren’t meant for anything more than decoration, but a dull sword is better than no sword. My fingers close around the steel hilt just as he moves right behind me. The vampire lord catches my wrist, yanking me away. He hoists me in the air by my arm. My shoulder pops and the quick jerking motion threatens to make me sick again.
“You can’t kill me with that. You know you can’t,” he snarls, leaning in with his horrifying face. “Enough resisting.”
I try to jerk my arm free. He drops me and I’m back to holding in sick. My muscles are beginning to strain with the effort to just keep me upright. I definitely think the retching removed the last of the elixir I so desperately needed.
The vampire lord looks down on me. “If I wanted you dead, you would be, you know.”
“If you were smart I’d already be dead,” I growl, baring my teeth at him.
His lips curl back in reply, revealing the two sharp fangs I saw earlier. “You don’t even want to know why I have yet to take your life? You’re not even curious?”
“To serve you.” The words taste fouler than the elixir the second time around.
“There are those who would be honored by a chance to serve me.”
“I’ll never serve a monster.” And if he thinks different then I must reevaluate my opinions of his intellect.
“Ah, yes,Iam the monster, when you are the one who has been transformed into a test subject.”
I ignore his words—the lies he spins for distraction—instead lunging for the sword once more. Yet again, he’s faster, already behind me. My strength is waning but I kick and squirm against the viselike hold he has around my middle anyway. I claw and push at his arms, but it does little good against his gauntlets. My arms are pinned to my sides and it’s hard to get leverage.
“Would you listen to—”
I hang forward, brace myself for the agony this will be, and rear back. The back of my head slams against his nose and he drops me out of pain or shock. I fall to the ground, trying for the sword again, but the soft spot at the back of my skull is ringing. I slump against one of the tables, falling unceremoniously into a bench.
If you’re ever face-to-face with a vampire, fight!I can hear Drew’s voice in the back of my mind.Fight with everything you have. Fight like your life depends on it.
“But what if I can’t?” I’m not sure if I say the words or if I just think them loudly. My eyes are burning. Everything hurts. Drew was the hunter, not me. How am I the one who ended up here? This is why everyone in Hunter’s Hamlet is taught to never question their place. The elixir is gone and my old doubts rise to fill its place.
If you can’t kill it, take the bloody monster down with you. That was what Drew told me. That was how he lived. I can’t let him down. I can’t. Won’t. I push myself up, stumbling for the weapons once more as though they are my only lifeline.
For once, the vampire lord does not lunge for me. Even though my movements are sluggish and clumsy. I pry a sword from the wall and its tip falls to the floor with a deafening clang, nearly falling from my grasp. My muscles are giving up. I feel worse than when I’ve been smithing for days on end with little rest.
“Enough of this,” the vampire lord says. His voice has softened. I draw up my eyes. Blood, nearly black, streams from his nose. It mingles with the crimson of my own blood. He licks his lips and his gold eyes seem to shine slightly brighter. “You are in no condition to fight me and you’re throwing the life away that I’ve so generously allowed you to keep by trying.”
With a grunt I hold up the sword. The muscles in my back scream. The weapon trembles in the air.
