Page 16 of Dark Hope (Dark Carpathians #38)

Chapter 16

Silke leaned toward Castello, deliberately exposing her throat as a temptation. “Just so you know, that isn’t going to happen.” She whispered to him in a low, sultry voice completely at odds with the way she tempted him to use the wicked, curved ceremonial knife he had withdrawn from his jacket.

Castello’s hand was down beside the arm of the chair, concealing the blade from Silke. Benedek was so close he could easily see it.

He’s armed, he warned.

Benedek’s entire body reacted to his woman speaking in that tone to another man. Even though he was aware of what she was doing, every cell in his body objected right along with his mind. He didn’t make the mistake of interrupting her or interfering. She was far too close to the demon. She was the slayer, and it was clear she had a plan. Still, he stood close to the demon, close enough to stop him from swinging his hidden knife at Silke’s exposed throat.

Castello drew back as if her voice shook him, and maybe it had. That sensual tone had shaken Benedek. Ese Jordan took a step toward her, his face flushed red. Bakker had punched in the security code for Silke’s cameras. She’d texted it to him, and he’d been looking through the recorded videos. Now he just stared at Silke as if stunned by her. Visser cleared his throat several times as if unable to speak. He was the one to break the silence.

“What isn’t going to happen, Silke?” Visser asked.

Silke leaned back in her chair looking relaxed. She gestured toward Castello with a graceful motion. “His idea is to kill me and gain access to the house so he will be able to kill my mother.” She spoke matter-of-factly, not at all as if she were accusing Castello of the conspiracy to kill. “Ese is with him and intends to kill one of you while Castello does away with the other.”

Ese Jordan pulled himself up to his full height, face red, fist clenched. “What are you accusing us of?”

“I can read minds, Ese,” Silke said. “You’ve suspected I could for a long time, which is why you have as little contact with me as possible. Just for your information, Castello intends to kill you and make it look like you were the one to slaughter everyone here.”

Jordan swung around to glare at Castello, who appeared amused. Benedek knew he was anything but. Now the two policemen were just out of his reach, taking Silke at her word. They had known her from the time she was a toddler and Fenja brought her out into the world. They knew the good she did everyone. Castello was a total stranger whose voice bothered them. He might not be able to get through their shields, but his voice grated on them.

Castello stared at Silke with murderous intent. “Why would I do such a thing?”

Silke ignored him, focusing her attention on the two law enforcement officers. “You might want to look at Castello for the disappearance of Drakos. He needed an excuse to bring you here in the hopes that you would get me to allow you in to see Fenja.”

“Is she given to flights of fantasy?” Castello demanded, beginning to go from feigned amusement to real anger. He wasn’t used to being thwarted. Nothing had gone the way he thought it would go. He had never expected Silke to confront him.

“She can read minds,” Jordan insisted. “Everyone knows that.”

“She can’t read my mind,” Castello said. “We came here for a serious purpose, and once again, she’s stopping us from finding Drakos.”

Have Bakker continue to go through the security camera videos, Benedek said.

“Perhaps you will find something in the security cameras, Gerrit,” Silke said helpfully, using that sultry voice Benedek objected to her using.

It’s my voice. I can’t help it if your blood is making me sound all sexy. I’m about to be in a fight for my life with a demon. I can assure you, my mind isn’t on sex.

Benedek could have told her every man present had his mind on sex but that wouldn’t be fair to her. She couldn’t help that Carpathian blood had enhanced her natural beauty. He didn’t just see her physical beauty. Her character shone through. That was one of the things the demon had the most difficult time with. He was both fascinated and repelled. He was attracted to her brightness and yet needed to crush the light in her.

Immediately, Gerrit Bakker began to thumb through the various videos, but he did so while keeping a distance from both Castello and Jordan. He left the porch to stand on the first wide stone stair, facing Castello and Jordan. Visser distanced himself as well, turning his body slightly to present less of a target and ensuring he could dive from the edge of the porch into the flower beds below.

Castello is weighing the odds of successfully carrying out his original plan. I’ve been working out how to slay him. When they dunked him into the two vats, both times, the mage used the top of his skull to hold on to him. That was the only part that wasn’t coated in both types of armor.

Benedek loved that she’d noticed that little detail. He’d seen it immediately. If the armor coating the body held against her crystal sword or any type of blade that would normally slay a demon, they would need that weak spot on him. The attack would have to be exact, something difficult when a battle began and opponents were moving quickly.

The armor was created in the underworld using the dark arts, Silke continued. They always forget about sacred water.

His woman. Demon Slayer. She had a mind made for battle strategy. He could do no less. Fenja was right, he should have refined his ways centuries earlier.

The other thing the mages forgot, he said, is dragon fire. It’s pure. It cannot be corrupted by the dark arts. The demon seems unaware there are dragons in the vicinity.

She smiled directly at him. No one knew he was there, but she turned her eyes to the seemingly empty space between Castello and her and she smiled. That got him right in the gut. Considering the circumstances and the coming violence, he found his woman to be extraordinary. That she could sit there looking the picture of serenity and give him that intimate smile because he’d contributed to her growing ideas on how to defeat the demon made him realize she was exactly what he needed.

You are teaching me how to live life. I have been existing, not living. I didn’t realize that until you showed me what life is all about.

Her smile widened. Castello made an ugly sound, an impatient rumbling in his throat.

I cheat. I’m in his mind and will know when he is ready to launch his attack, Silke explained. The longer I’m in his mind, the more control I have over him. I can assess his prior killings. He’s very determined to do me in.

I’m very determined that he doesn’t touch you. Benedek would take the ceremonial knife himself before he would allow that blade near Silke.

The blade is tipped with poison and small parasites that will cling, like the demons planted in you and your friends, should either of us get cut, Silke warned. He’s feeling very smug about it.

Benedek’s friends were close. Waiting to see if they were needed. They’d been in the meadow just outside the forest, constructing dragons. Tomas, Lojos and Mataias had made dragons from rocks for children they’d rescued when they’d been in the States. Those dragons came to life and flew when the children whispered a secret phrase to release them from the rock. Otherwise, they stayed in the yard as rock sculptures. The three men flew dragons, or would become phantom dragons, difficult to see against the night sky, although they were vibrant colors of red, green and violet. When in shadows, the dragons, as large as they were, disappeared.

Carpathians could shift easily into a dragon and wreak havoc when they chose, but often they preferred to fly a dragon. Benedek had watched others with dragons and found that several of the Carpathians seemed to communicate easily with them. The more they were in and around a dragon, the better they worked together, adding one more weapon to their arsenal against vampires. Tomas, Lojos and Mataias were very adept with their dragons.

Benedek had been in the forest of myths several times discovering the creatures who would be allies in any battle the slayer and Tora were engaged in. His big discovery had been a dragon he had met before. The dragon was old and wise, not given to allowing others to see or hear him. He lay on the ground looking for all the world like a large downed tree trunk with small plants and mushrooms growing on him. He didn’t move if an adventurer sat or even stood on him, not realizing he was a living entity.

Benedek had an affinity with ancient forests and trees. The woods whispered secrets to him and aided him when he needed it. Over the centuries, he had learned a great deal about dragons. Real dragons, the old ones, were wise and lethal. They had seen countless battles and lost loved ones and most of their kind. Their knowledge of the earth, the creatures and people coming and going, was vast. When Benedek had been accepted by Mother Earth, the mycelium network was at his disposal. At first, he hadn’t realized dragons were a part of that network. It had taken some time before he realized the advice he received was often from one of the old guard cautioning him not to use certain places to sleep or to weave safeguards in a different manner. They spoke to him of battle strategies when he lay under the soil healing. They kept him company on the long road to recovery after Marius, Fawn and Boian betrayed him.

He had been heeding those warnings for so many centuries he had begun to take them for granted. He was old, an ancient like the legendary creatures who were dying out or already extinct. Some of those creatures had already become real myths. Modern-day society didn’t believe they ever existed. It wouldn’t occur to people that Carpathians, werewolves, jaguars and dragons would incinerate bodies, so there was never proof of existence.

Will provoke him now. You’ll have to shield Visser and Bakker.

I see you didn’t include Ese Jordan.

Ese is beyond help. He’s programmed to kill us, and even though he thinks he’s safe, he’s not. Castello will command him to kill, and he’ll follow those orders.

Are you certain? Benedek didn’t kill innocents.

He willingly sold everyone here to Castello for his gambling debts. Castello may be using him, but he opened himself up to evil for money.

Benedek had seen addiction over and over throughout the centuries. There were many things one could be addicted to. He had the feeling he was becoming addicted to the laughter, compassion and light he saw in Silke.

He examined Ese Jordan’s mind. The betrayal of his family and friends, those in the village who had done their best to aid him, including the two men he’d plotted to kill with Castello. Both had gone out of their way to be there for the man. And Silke’s mother…Fenja. Time and again she had gone to Ese’s rescue. She had sat with him through illnesses, made certain he always had food, tried to counsel him when he went to her, fearful of his debts. He had come to their home to murder a woman who had over and over been nothing but kind to him.

Betrayal is such an ugly thing. He hoped Silke understood what he was telling her. Betrayal was unforgivable as far as he was concerned. Over the centuries betrayal had become a trigger for him. He was at his most lethal when that particular behavior was involved.

The look in Castello’s eyes had turned sly. Benedek was concerned that there was more to the demon than Silke had discovered. No matter what, it appeared that they were out of time.

Silke shifted slightly in her chair, her feet sliding under her easily. If Castello were paying attention at all, he would have recognized that Silke had to be the slayer, not Fenja. He was so certain he was right in his judgment that he dismissed her as a young human woman with a few gifts. He had decided she couldn’t be Carpathian because she had been in the sun. She was standing in his way, but to Castello she wasn’t relevant.

Everything about Silke screamed her identity. Her confidence. The graceful way she moved. Her voice should have been a warning to the demon. That low, compelling voice that made anyone listening want to do whatever she asked. Castello was far too used to living with humans and feeling superior. With all that, Benedek’s warning system was blaring loudly.

Silke, I have a bad feeling. My gut is generally reliable.

I have the same feeling, but he’s going to attack. Better to provoke him and catch him off guard.

Benedek didn’t have to like it. The moment he makes his move, I’ll shield Visser and Bakker. I’ve called the others in. They’re close.

Tora is close as well.

He knew her friend gave her far more confidence and comfort than knowing there were four other ancient hunters close by ready to aid them. His sense of humor must have been growing because he found that amusing.

I’m looping everyone into the communication, Benedek said.

We’re ready, Nicu said.

Benedek felt Silke reach for Tora to include her. The ancients rarely used the common Carpathian pathway to speak to one another because any vampire in the vicinity would hear and know what was said.

Go for it, o jel? sielamak, Benedek encouraged. He faced the demon, his body a shield for Silke.

Silke didn’t hesitate. “As for reading your mind, Castello, it isn’t difficult. You’re so smug in your belief that you’re superior to humans that you didn’t think to guard yourself. I’m adept at slipping into a mind such as yours and reading thoughts. You think to slay me with your poisonous blade. It is dipped in not only venom but those little spawns, the parasites that enter through the bloodstream, travel to the brain and hide.”

Castello’s lips drew back to show his teeth in a snarl. Before he could react, she continued in that same low, compelling tone.

“Did you know that several people here were infected with the little demons? They grew quickly, but they couldn’t resist my commands. I called them to me and they came. I slayed them. That’s what I do, Castello. I look for demons, find them and destroy them.”

His face grew a dark, mottled purple as she so casually mentioned destroying his allies.

Her smile turned even sweeter. “You were here, speaking to me at great length, attempting to force me to answer your questions, using a compulsion embedded in your tone. Even when it was impossible to penetrate my mind, impossible to use your voice on me, you still believed Fenja was the slayer. What does that say about you and your abilities?”

Benedek could see that every word she said undermined the demon’s confidence in himself. She used subtle attacks, but her tone was so low and mesmerizing, nearly impossible to ignore.

You need to remember this moment when you have disagreements with your lifemate, Mataias whispered into his mind.

There was an edge of humor to Mataias’ comment, something that could only happen when they were locked in with a Carpathian lifemate they shared a mind with. It made Benedek happy to know that Silke could provide a little respite for his friends.

That woman of yours is no pushover, Lojos added, volunteering his opinion. There was even a note of respect and admiration in his tone. She’s going to keep you on your toes.

Don’t be like Castello and believe you have all the advantages because you’re ancient and she’s a baby in our world, Tomas cautioned, giving his advice.

You caught a she-wolf by the tail, Nicu said. He switched his comments to their private path, long established from their many hunts together. She’s fearless, Benedek. While I admire her, she is your lifemate and should she be killed, you would be at great risk.

Benedek didn’t need Nicu’s warning. He knew he was too far gone to recover if he lost Silke, but he wasn’t thinking of himself and what would happen should he turn. He thought about her. About how he didn’t want her injured or, worse, killed. Not because he needed her so much, and he acknowledged to himself he did, but because he thought the world needed her brightness. Her compassion. And her courage.

Unlike him, Benedek knew Silke had the capacity to love. That emotion was deep and enduring for her mother and for Tora. He knew he wanted her to love him with that same fierce intensity she had for those she let into her life. He had thought he had nothing to give her but his loyalty; now he wasn’t so certain. She was lonely. She wanted a partner. Family. Children. She wanted her partner to care for and respect Fenja. He could do that. He wanted to do all of it. But first, he had to keep his lifemate alive. She was the demon slayer, and she wouldn’t take kindly to any interference on his part. He might want to fight her battles for her, but to be a good partner to her he had to respect her experience and expertise just as he would expect her to give deference to him during battles with vampires—or Lilith’s army.

“You should drop that knife you’ve got. You don’t really want to use it. You’d much rather pit your skills against mine. You’ve never been happy when Lilith gives you orders.” She tilted her head, studying the demon. “She doesn’t even give you the courtesy of giving orders directly to you. All the years you’ve served her, allowed her to torture and punish you when you weren’t at fault. She never valued your service. I value you as my opponent. I believe you have skills and secrets that will challenge me. But the knife, that’s beneath you. You really want to put it on the floor and shove it under the chair.”

Castello’s face was a study in confusion. Twice he leaned down to place the ceremonial blade beneath the chair and then sat up quickly as if he thought she might attack him. His fist tightened around the hilt. “You know too much about me.”

“I told you”—Silke’s tone had turned soothing—“I can read minds. I can see you take your duty seriously. There’s honor in that. I’m not certain Lilith understands loyalty and how much you have sacrificed on her behalf.”

Benedek was astounded at the sympathy and compassion she exuded. The emotions enveloped Castello. The more he studied Silke’s mind, the more Benedek realized the reason those emotions swamped Castello and penetrated his cold heart was because they were genuine. Silke genuinely felt compassion for him. She felt very real sympathy for him. She also felt that he was a loyal man and did his best to carry out every order, no matter how difficult, for his cruel mistress. It was impossible not to feel that as she surrounded the demon with her emotions, including her respect.

Castello sighed and placed the knife on the floor, watching her the entire time. With his foot, he pushed it beneath the chair. “I do wish I could have recruited you. It is with genuine regret that I will have to kill you.”

Visser and Bakker both reacted, reaching for weapons. Benedek and Tora reacted simultaneously, halting all action, freezing them where they stood on the steps and then forcing them to walk down the stairs and move completely out of the line of fire before encasing them in a cocoon of safeguards.

“Kill them,” Castello ordered Ese Jordan. “Do it now.”

Ese didn’t hesitate. He spun around, raced down the stairs, gun in hand, firing a hail of bullets at the two law enforcement officers. The bullets couldn’t penetrate the safeguards woven around Visser and Bakker, who stood frozen like statues encased in the protective cocoon.

Silke struck, leaping from her chair, crystal sword in hand, to take herself four steps forward, getting Benedek out of the line of fire. Sacred water shot from the rolled lily petals, hitting Castello across his chest, running down his arms and dousing his face. He screamed in pain and rage, coming to his feet so fast the chair fell over, covering the ceremonial knife.

Castello seemed to have forgotten all about the knife. He lunged at Silke, ran into an invisible wall and bounced back. The holes caused by the sacred water began to smoke. She continued to spray the water over the demon, circling to the right and chanting softly. The holes widened over his chest and began to fracture so that great cracks appeared all over his body. One rip went up his throat and around his neck, so his head tilted to one side.

He threw his hands into the air and began calling out in a demonic voice, one that reverberated through skin and bones to shake the body. His fingers curled and uncurled as he wove his spell of death. His nails grew thick and tapered with every curl until they were weapons, looking for all the world like stiletto scalpels. Tiny drops of venom glistened on the sharp points.

Watch your eyes, Silke cautioned all of them. He will throw the venom at your eyes to blind you.

Benedek felt the force of the dark words as they hissed and smoked in the droplets of water raining down on the demon. Each drop created more holes in the demon’s frame. Cracks immediately opened so that smoke poured out.

He’s breaking apart, Lojos said. Can he be that easy to slay?

No demon is that easy, Silke answered calmly. Not even the lesser demons, and this one is in a high position. Expect the unexpected.

Take his head off with a sword and be done with it, Tomas advised.

Nicu, Benedek and Silke gave an inner sniff of derision. That would be a mistake, Nicu said. You know better, Tomas. Lilith will have put some major surprise inside of that demon like a Trojan horse.

There is something, Silke said. Crouched inside him. Waiting to be released.

Benedek caught glimpses in her mind. She was still merged with the demon, reading his thoughts, the programming done to him, waiting for that moment when she would catch a glimpse of what was waiting for them.

The cracks widened and flesh tore away, leaving long, gaping holes in Castello’s body. The smoke began to spin like mini tornadoes pouring out of the fissures. Several blasted loose, targeting Silke, looking like arrows of spinning smoke as they shot toward her.

Benedek moved to shield her, blocking the whirling gray missiles from hitting their target. Two struck the barrier so hard he felt the impact.

Silke once more stepped out farther onto the middle of the porch where Benedek’s body didn’t block her. The dragon lily petals spit fire as the smoke tornadoes burst from the demon and shot in all directions. As the smoke hit the air, each grew in a whirling mass, stacking the smoke on top of each other to form copies of Castello. They were everywhere, on the porch, clinging to the ceiling, out in the yard. Once fully formed, they turned their glowing eyes on Silke.

She had managed to destroy several of the emerging demons with the dragon fire, but now Castello’s body contorted and seized.

This is what the ultimate goal has been, Silke said to the others. Castello knew he was the sacrifice. Whatever is coming out next is the one Lilith is certain will slay me.

She must believe you’re a grave threat to send an army after you, Benedek said.

Use dragon fire to kill them, Silke advised. They have to be fully incinerated to the finest of ashes.

All the while she spoke, she moved like a dancer, mirroring the steps of two of the closest Castello replicas. In the yard, as the clones turned their attention toward Silke, hurrying to intercept her from behind, the air was filled with dragons. Mataias emerged from the clouds riding on the back of a phantom red stone dragon. The dragon maneuvered through the shrubbery easily, homing in on one of the clones.

A matching stone dragon appeared, the color of phantom violet, a shade that blended with shadows and yet looked vibrant when the moonlight hit it. Tomas flew the dragon low and with great skill. He came in from the west, targeting two clones who were running to gain the porch.

The third phantom-colored stone dragon was green. Lojos flew him through the taller trees and lush shrubbery, his color blending with the shadows and flora so that it was impossible to keep the dragon in sight, even though it was large. Lojos homed in on a target climbing the side of the house to gain the porch roof.

Nicu’s dragon was clearly wolf. He’d never seen Nicu with a wolf dragon, but it didn’t surprise Benedek that he had one for a friend. Wolf dragons were reputed to be ferocious as well as loyal to those they included in their pack. Few agreed to work with a Carpathian or human, especially after they had been hunted nearly to extinction. It was only a privileged few who could ride a wolf dragon.

Tora’s dragon was sleek and elegant, streaking through the air to protect Silke. Its colors were that of a sunset. She appeared like glass, or mirrors, so that one moment she was there and the next she disappeared, only to be seen thirty feet away.

Benedek held his ground. Unseen. Unmoving. He had a bad feeling. He’d had it all along, and it had grown to an enormous warning clamor shrieking at him. He didn’t allow the chaos happening in the yard to interfere with his focus. Castello’s body broke apart, the strips of flesh, bone and muscle igniting with the crystal dragon fire.

There it was. Time seemed to stand still. Around him everything ceased to matter, just this hulk of a shadow emerging from the fire. It came out in the form of ash and smoke, but Benedek was ancient and he knew the feel of that enemy.

Silke, get behind me now.

She didn’t hesitate to obey. She made the leap, allowing his body to totally block hers as the vampire was spewed in a volume of ash and smoke from Castello’s husk. This was no ordinary vampire—it was…more. Justice? Not Justice. He knew Justice and this wasn’t the legend, but he was a Carpathian ancient who had lived far too long and turned more beast than man. He had sold out his honor in the end, beast overtaking man.

Benedek shared the information with the others as the ancient warrior-turned-vampire shot straight at Silke.

His name is Emil, Nicu informed them . He rarely used a surname. I invited him to the monastery a few centuries back, but he refused to go, even for a respite from killing. He was already addicted to the rush of battle.

Benedek was invisible and the vampire hadn’t had a chance to orient himself. He struck quickly, determined to kill Silke and gain his freedom. Emil hit the barrier harder than Castello’s clones had, shaking the house, shaking the ground. He roared with rage and stared at Silke as he fully materialized. His eyes were red and his teeth were stained black. He didn’t seem to care to make his appearance pleasant, like most vampires did. His entire attention was centered on Silke.

She smiled at him. “Ah, at last I get to meet you, Emil. I’ve been waiting ever since I saw you crouched like a toad inside Castello. Hiding from little old me.”

Her sweet, soft voice belied her scathing words, throwing the beast off for a moment. He threw back his head and howled his fury, taking a step toward her. “You will come to me.” He opened his arms wide as he commanded her.

She frowned at him, not retreating. “Seriously? That’s your voice? You sound like a goat bleating.” She dropped her voice an octave. “You know you can’t defeat another ancient. You hide from them because you know how powerful they are. You must open your arms to ask for justice.”

Her voice was sweet and compelling. At no time did she appear to notice the dragons flying through the sky, the bursts of flame as they engaged with the demons. Her entire focus seemed to be on the beast. The red in his eyes deepened to bloodred when his arms began to open. He threw back his head and roared, shaking the house. He charged her. Benedek had been waiting for that move, and he stepped into the vampire, his fist driving deep as he solidified. He’d used the momentum of the charging beast to bury his fist deep. Killing a beast such as Emil would not be easy.

When he continued forward into Emil’s chest, he kept moving, driving the vampire backward until he was stumbling off the porch. They both went down to the ground, Benedek combining the momentum of the fall, his enormous strength and sheer power to force his fist deeper into the chest cavity. He managed to get his fingers around the heart before the beast sank teeth into his neck and ripped.

This kind of vampire was what he feared he would become. He knew if he didn’t kill Emil immediately, chances were he would slay Benedek and his brethren and get loose in the world. Benedek had the element of surprise going for him, and he was just that little too close to being the beast that Emil was. He had a certain ferocious attitude when he went into battle. There was no stopping the almost euphoric feeling rushing through his veins when he went head-to-head with an evil opponent.

Blood spurted from his neck and shoulder as Emil tore strips of skin and muscle from him, as the teeth sawed through flesh and bone. Benedek remained stoic, ruthlessly extracting the heart as Emil twisted and turned in an effort to dislodge his opponent’s body.

Emil changed tactics, slamming both palms hard into the ground’s surface. They’d fallen just off the path of stones that might have protected the earth from Emil’s assault. The ground shook with such force that wide cracks opened. It was only the carefully woven safeguards that prevented Visser and Bakker from falling into an ever-widening abyss.

Everywhere, clones of Castello desperately tried to get to the slayer, their one purpose. They had been created with that end in mind—locating their target and eliminating her. Nothing else mattered, not even the kaleidoscope of colors shimmering through the sky, raining down dragon fire.

Benedek and Emil crashed through the ashes of several of the clones, both wincing as dragon fire swept the yard. The heaving ground aided Emil, allowing him to roll, changing the weight of his body so that when he rotated over Benedek he became equivalent to a steamroller, smashing Benedek beneath him. Benedek was forced to release the heart, changing his body composition to flat and soft so Emil didn’t crush him.

That enraged the beast, and he rolled back and forth, turning the ground beneath Benedek into a mudhole. Benedek sank, burrowed under the soil to come up to the left of the porch, the side the vampire most likely would take to avoid the dragons spewing fire in every direction. It was imperative that he keep Emil from escaping.

As he emerged, the vampire once more ran into his extended fist. Emil shrieked his hatred, slashing at Benedek’s throat along the line where it had once been cut.

“Someone gave me a blueprint to follow,” Emil taunted as his talon, sharpened to the point of a razor blade, followed that white scar around Benedek’s neck.

The blade snapped off as Benedek stepped closer, giving himself leverage to dig closer to the heart. Black acid bit through flesh. He cut off all feeling, refusing to acknowledge pain as he tried to extract the vampire’s heart.

The withered organ wouldn’t budge. Instead, great jaws clamped down around his wrist, serrated teeth sawing through flesh. He had no choice but to change the composition of his arm or he would lose it. The vampire continued to tear at his neck, throat and chest in an effort to get away. Blood ran like twin rivers. Bright crimson red and oily black sludge.

He stumbled back and instantly the vampire raced away.