A bat shrieked at the spy holes, clinging to the edge, alerting Vrykolakas to our presence.
The floor shook beneath our feet as we stumbled into the closet. The wall crashed down at our backs, the skree of a giant bat’s head chasing our steps as we pushed into the hallway beyond.
We crossed the short hall to the dining hall as the closet door flew off its hinges, and I stooped to open the door to the other spy post. The wall opened as Vrykolakas pushed into the corridor, eyes glowing red as he followed our movements. The bats he’d called circled him with relentless chittering.
Maxwell let loose a bolt from the crossbow, and a bat flew into its path, sacrificing itself for the god. Maxwell paled. “Oh, God.”
I yanked him into the secret room after me. The wall closed behind us, but that would do little to impede the creature at our heels.
I had just lifted the trapdoor to the hidden basement when the wall was torn from its moorings like tissue, Vrykolakas roaring in triumph.
“Down,” I ordered Maxwell, shoving him down the ladder. I yanked a bottle of holy water from my pocket and threw it at the monster, where it shattered upon impact with an explosion of steam that caused Vrykolakas to bellow. “Quickly.”
Maxwell obeyed, and I followed, pulling the trapdoor closed over us. We scrambled down the ladder to the staircase beyond as talons dug into the stone overhead. In a moment, the trapdoor had been removed, and Vrykolakas shoved his massive body through the opening, causing an avalanche of stone to rain down after us, a cloud of dust chasing us as we rushed toward the secret den of the vampire hunters.
Maxwell dropped the crossbow in his haste and paused to go back for it, but I pushed him forward. “Leave it.” He obeyed silently, jaw clenched.
The scent of smoke still clung to the basement as we broke through the opening, gasping as we tried to catch our breath.
After a moment, I stumbled into an adjoining room, eyes taking in the soot covering the walls, the stakes that had been reduced to ash. Several swords seemed unaffected by the chaos, however, and I grabbed one with little ceremony before rushing back to Maxwell.
“Go to the opposite wall,” I told him, handing him my two remaining holy water bottles and nudging him across the opening to the staircase as debris continued to fall. He did as instructed, clutching the bottles tightly to his chest as he stared back at me, wide-eyed. I shoved a chair beside the opening and waited with sword in hand atop it as the rumbling of Vrykolakas’s descent resounded around us, the very foundation of the manor quaking, as if with fear.
Dozens of bats spilled out from the tunnel before Vrykolakas, circling the room with their angry squeaks. Then the stone around the doorway began to spill out in puffs of dust that obscured my view. Vrykolakas’s massive head stuck into the room, ears twitching as he squeezed through the entrance.
I leapt, sword slicing through the air, arching down cleanly to behead the monstrosity.
Bats flew into my face, obstructing my eyeline, digging their nails into my cheeks. I grit my teeth and blindly plunged the sword down where Vrykolakas’s neck surely lay. I felt it strike home and I sighed with relief as I fell the rest of the way to the floor, flinging the bats from my face. I looked to find my sword halfway buried into Vrykolakas’s shoulder.
I paled, going still, unsure what to do.
The vampire god shimmied out from the narrow passageway and shook dust from his brown coat, before wheeling on me with fury pulsing in his red eyes.
“You always had good survival instincts,” Vrykolakas said, “which makes my having to kill you all the more heartbreaking.” He opened his mouth, revealing those rows upon rows of teeth, pulsing hungrily in his mouth.
A crash at his back gave Vrykolakas pause, and I flicked my eyes to the staircase entrance, where Maxwell threw the last bottles of holy water, earning a hiss from the monster.
Vrykolakas heaved his body back toward Maxwell, and I threw myself at the vampire’s side, punching him. “You want me, Vrykolakas. Or have you forgotten my betrayal already?”
“I’ll get to you,” Vrykolakas replied, chuckling. “This will take but a moment.”
“You wish,” a voice proclaimed, preceding a figure venturing down the steps from the garden. Isabel flipped her hair back, a pitchfork in hand. “I have a feeling round two isn’t going to go so well for you.”
Raven appeared at her elbow, blood smeared across her face in ghoulish fashion. She swirled a wooden fence post before her. “Not if we have anything to say about it.”
Then Helena was there, and Emmett, Cecelia, Zachariah and Flora. Determined, all brandishing weapons likely secured from a tool shed. They were brave, but they were fools. Didn’t they see that they were facing down a god?
“Get Maxwell to safety,” I ordered them. “It’s me he wants.”
I was ignored as the group charged into the room.
One shriek from Vrykolakas’s lips and the bats were all over them, beating their leathery wings against their faces so that still more could sink their teeth into their flesh and claw at their eyes.
“What a nuisance,” Vrykolakas said. Then his body shifted, popping as it changed, shrinking in upon itself, fur receding into his pores. He stood on two legs that formed to shape themselves like a human’s and walked casually toward me with the gait of someone confident in his powers. “I’m afraid it’s inevitable that they follow you to your grave.”
I stared at a familiar face, eyes red with triumph.
It was my old master. Konstantin.
