Page 175 of Loreblood

Silenced by Skartovius sticking him in the back, directly in his heart, and the top half of him sizzled and burned.

Our trio waltzed past the bodies amidst an inferno of flames on either side of us.

The portcullis finished lifting. The entire act had taken less than fifteen seconds.

Vallan pushed the heavy door with a grunt as its lock clicked out of place—Garroway’s rat finishing its job.

Skar looked over his shoulder as he strode into the tower with Vallan baring his teeth, keeping the door ajar. “Prepare for ten minutes, hope for an hour, my dear family.”

We streamed through the lowest level of the Tanmount in a sprint. I was worried about leaving Garroway behind but we’d needed his familiar’s eyes and tiny rat teeth to get us in here.

The initial corridor had doors on both sides—three to a side, with a staircase at the far end leading up to the second level.

And so it began.

I skipped the first door—the gatehouse where Garro’s familiar remained—and shouldered my way into the second. Vallan burst into the door past mine, while Skar took the other side of the hall.

My room was a storage closet with brooms, boxes, and supplies. I hurried through the boxes, upending them over the shelves, and left the room in an upheaval when I’d surmised there was nothing special here.

Certainly nothing that screams “Relic.” It must be on the higher levels.“Don’t think we’re gonna find anything on this level, boys!”

“Keep searching.” Skar emerged from the first room on the other side of the hall. Vallan came out next, and we systematically made our way through a study, a kitchen room, and another storage closet.

Oddly, the two guards who had changed their shift with the two flaming corpses outside were nowhere to be seen on this level.

We jumped the stairs three at a time, winding up to the second story. On this level, the landing opened into a large circular room with closed doors littering the curved wall—eight of them. I rolled my eyes at the obscene number of doors we had to search through, and spotted the stairs past the circular room leading up to the third.

“Skip it and go up?” I mused.

This was a quiet space, every sound in the Tanmount locked tightly shut to the world outside it, and my voice reverberated and echoed.

“We search everywhere,” Skar scolded. “It’s been less than two minutes.”

Our boots pounded on the steel floor as we split up to take opposing doors. I went to the closest door to the left, Vallan to the far right, and Skar near me.

I kicked the door open—

A sharp whistle as an arrow flew through the air and embedded in my shoulder.

“Fuck!” I hissed, twirling as pain lanced through me.

“Sephania!” Skar shouted.

The door he stood in front of burst open and three vampires streamed out astonishingly fast, taking him to the ground before he could raise his sword, due to his distraction of seeing me get hurt.

Vallan had his axe out. The first vampire that crossed the threshold of his door earned a slash down his front that nearly separated his left shoulder from his torso.

The quiet space filled with shouting and hissing as doors opened and vampires careened into the room.

An ambush.

We’d been had.

More than a dozen bastard bloodsuckers bared their fangs and charged us.

Vallan flipped his massive cloak off his shoulders, spun, and barreled into the nearest group weighing Skartovius down.

Two Buvers emerged from my door, one discarding his bow and drawing a sword. My dominant arm hung limp from the arrow, so I drew my sword with my left, ignoring the pain to try and fight my way to my men.