In the ensuing shocked silence, Tomas streaked through the air straight at the vampire impersonating Petru. The vampire hadn’t even fully turned to try to comprehend or react to what had happened in the mere seconds it had taken Tomas to destroy fake Benedek. Tomas slammed his fist through the rib cage, found the withered heart with strong fingers and began to extract it.
Imposter Petru shrieked and buried his talons into Tomas’ chest, ripping great gouges of flesh away—or he tried to. Tomas had armor in the thin material of his clothing, a kind of natural silk that was strong enough to break the thick talons the vampire was trying to use against him.
There was no way to stop the acid blood pouring over his hand and forearm as Tomas extracted the heart. The acid burned through flesh and muscle straight to the bone. Tomas cut off all feeling of pain and jerked the heart free, swinging fake Petru’s body around as he did so in order to place the vampire between him and the one impersonating Nicu.
The shrunken heart made a terrible sucking sound as it was extracted from the body. The sound accompanied the earsplitting screams of the vampire as he thrashed and fought to get away from Tomas. Tomas shoved his body into the imposter Nicu as he threw the heart into the air and called down the lightning.
Black blood spurted onto the fake Nicu’s chest and face, thousands of parasites wiggling over him as the vampire impersonating Petru fell backward. Nicu landed on him, face down, screaming and beating at the vampire, tearing at him with his teeth.
Lightning incinerated the heart in midair and jumped to the jerking, thrashing body just as Nicu shoved him off and to one side. Foul smoke rose in clouds as the body blackened and turned to ash.
The imposter Nicu rolled and rolled to get away from the burning vampire, yelling for his master the entire time. He spun around onto his belly, digging claws into the ground as he tried to crawl away from Tomas.
Tomas leapt after him with lightning speed, landing on his back, driving him into the ground, knees planted firmly as he drove his fist through bone and muscle to find the heart. It was a much more difficult route going in through a vampire’s back, but Tomas had perfected the technique over the centuries, and he was relentless.
Ignoring the way the vampire’s body contorted in an attempt to shift, Tomas pushed his fist deeper in an effort to extract the heart. He had disposed of the first two vampires in record time. Not two minutes had gone by, and he’d killed two of the undead. The shock value was apparent, disorienting all the vampires who had been expecting easy prey.
The vampire imitating Nicu continued to scream for aid, and in answer, vines of thorns burst through the soil to stab into Tomas’ legs and shoulders, anywhere the venomous plants could reach. While trying to pull Tomas off the imposter Nicu, the vines had no way of knowing which body was which. They stabbed and wrapped up Nicu right along with Tomas. The fact that the master vampire had answered the call for aid gave Tomas a direction.
He didn’t flinch or try to remove the vicious vines, but he immediately shared with his brothers the impression of where the master might be concealed.
He is closer than expected.As always, he was steady and calm. No one would ever have known he was being attacked, the vines trying to imprison him.
The thorns are acting as needles. Be careful of these vines. Stay away from the ground if at all possible. The vines themselves seem to be tubes.
The thorns stabbed at him over and over in an effort to penetrate his armor.
Clearly, the goal is getting my blood, not aiding this foul one the master has tied me to. What he did not consider is that those tubes are easily followed right back to him.
He does not expect you to live,Lojos said.It still hasn’t occurred to him that he is dealing with some of the ancients he had his minions impersonate.
Is it time to allow him to see who we are?Mataias asked.
Tomas didn’t look at his brothers. He was well aware each of them was fighting the three vampires who had targeted them. Ignoring the black blood coating his arm and fist, Tomas relentlessly stayed to his goal.
My vote would be to hold off until I dispose of this one and am able to hunt their master. When he realizes we are ancients, he may run,he said.
I think that would be best as well,Mataias agreed.Lojos?
I’m all for waiting.
Tomas turned his full attention to extracting the heart. He managed to get his fingers around the pulsing organ and began to remove his fist from the chest. The vampire did his best to slam his head against Tomas’ forehead, but the vines holding him prisoner didn’t allow for much movement.
The thorns penetrated the vampire’s arms and legs. The insidious vines wrapped around imposter Nicu’s neck and began to pull tight while the thorns stabbed him everywhere. Each time those vines tried to curl around Tomas’ neck and chest, he countered with flames hot enough to force them to retreat. It was a delicate balance, allowing the vines to wrap the vampire up and yet keep himself free of the worst of them.
The moment he extracted the heart, he tossed it in the air and called down the lightning. Then he summoned his dragon.
Tomas had created the dragon from stone and given it a color that allowed the huge reptilian to fade into the background just as Tomas and his brothers were capable of doing. Tomas’ dragon was colored phantom violet.
The creature was aggressive when it came to protecting Tomas and fighting vampires. It loved the battle. Where Tomas didn’t feel emotions, his dragon did.
The dragon’s secret name was Kinta, meaning “mist of fog.” He thought the name was very appropriate. With his brothers, he had created stone dragons for several children when they needed them to fly them to safety. After that, the children would fly their dragons for fun, learning combat through games. The more they were on the dragons, the more the creatures came to life. It had been the same with Kinta.
His dragon was a fierce opponent. He had learned from sharing Tomas’ combat skills as well as consulting with other dragons they had run across in their travels. The dragon exploded out of the sky, roaring with rage, shaking the ground and letting loose a steady stream of flames over the vines. As the vines shriveled into long blackened threads, dropping away from Tomas, the dragon began to dig deeper into the soil, uncovering the tubular roots, which he proceeded to ignite.
Tomas could see the long, exposed roots leading deeper into the forest. He took a moment to bathe his arms and hands in the white-hot lightning to remove the acid from his body. There were two punctures where the vines had managed to get in between his armor to penetrate, which meant he would have to rid himself of parasites. That could wait. Now, he had to follow those tubular roots back to the master vampire.
He swung onto the back of his dragon, and Kinta immediately rose, using his powerful wings to lift them from the ground. Tomas didn’t have to give Kinta orders; the violet dragon was connected to him and knew what Tomas wanted. Tomas never discounted Kinta’s input; he had learned battle technique and strategy from the few ancient dragons still existing. Those dragons had been willing to share knowledge, and Kinta had taken full advantage.
