Nicolae felt his heart stutter.
You must hurry, Destiny. The malignant cells are damaging your body. You need a healer.
He sent calm reassurance and total belief in her, even though deep in his heart he raged against having to fight the enemy when he wanted to rush to her side.
The skies lit up with fireballs, missiles of spinning orange flames that sought him out in the darkness. As they whistled through the air, hot threads spun off and lashed at the space around him, seeking a target.
Calmly Nicolae swept the fierce wind in front of him, hurtling the lances back toward his enemy, announcing his presence.
Come to me, all of you seeking the justice of our people. I will help you depart for the next world as you should have done long ago. Come to me now. I grow weary of your tantrums.
Cries of hatred and rage echoed across the sky in answer. Nicolae was already on the move, knowing the vampires would attempt to pinpoint his location by the direction of the terrible wind. He heard a high-pitched chatter, and then the air to his left, where he had just been, erupted with an army of bats. Large creatures much like vampire bats, these were minions of the undead with long fangs, seeking his blood. They flew at him, so many the skies were filled with their furry bodies. All the while, the squeaks and chatter continued as they transmitted his presence to their master.
Nicolae blasted the area with lightning, supercharging the air so that whips danced and zigzagged, shedding radiant sparks as they sought their targets. As the creatures were incinerated, they gave off a foul-smelling odor that stung Nicolae’s eyes and burned his throat and nose. The night sky, black with ominous roiling clouds, was lit up by the phenomenal lightning display. Thunder followed, a clap that shook the earth below but also carried a hidden attack, bouncing sound waves as strong as any earthquake through the sky to shake loose the undead.
Harsh screeches hurt his ears as one of the vampires tumbled from above, shimmering a grayish opaque as the hideous form materialized from the mist, caught itself in midair and quickly streaked behind the clouds, fearful of attack. As the vampire threw spears of pure sizzling electricity toward Nicolae, Vikirnoff emerged into the open.
Nicolae slammed into his brother hard, driving him out of range of a white-hot lance. It skimmed his own shoulder, burning through muscle and tissue as it whistled by him.
You are getting too old for this. The reflexes are going, Nicolae taunted his brother even as he circled around to get behind the vampire.
Just checking to make sure you were in this battle and not with your woman.
Nicolae grunted as he blasted through the thin cloud straight at the vampire. Immediately the sky erupted from three sides with monstrous lizard creatures, much like the ones in the cave where he had first faced Pater. Clearly the ancient vampire had orchestrated this battle as well. The hideous creatures attacked even as the vampire shifted to the same shape, reaching for him with enormous, wicked claws, its huge head swinging toward him.
Fetid breath smelling of rotted flesh was hot in his face, but Nicolae drove forward, slipping away from the claws by a hair’s breadth. He put on a burst of speed, and his fist shot out toward the beast’s scaly chest. At the last moment, the vampire spun, whipping with its spiked tail, the barbs tipped with a paralyzing poison.
The other three beasts lunged at Nicolae, snapping with crushing jaws, their great wings flapping hard, creating a windstorm, stirring up dust in the sky. Clouds swirled and churned; blackened bits of debris torn up from the earth below towered high in a tornado funnel. The force of that wind created its own weather; a storm of ice like splinters and spears of crystal hurtled out from the center, looking for a target.
In the instant when Nicolae would have dissolved to allow the whipping tail and crushing jaws to pass harmlessly by him, one of the creatures opened its hideous mouth wider to reveal the prize in its mouth. His legs held prisoner by the rows of teeth, a man screamed helplessly, flailing his arms wildly, his horrified gaze locked with Nicolae’s as the giant beast began to exert pressure.
Vikirnoff dropped from above, emerging out of the dark clouds to land on the lizard’s back. In his hand was a spear glowing red-hot. He thrust the weapon straight through the back of the neck of the reptile. As it screamed in pain and hatred, the great jaws opened, releasing the human inside. The man plummeted toward earth, his cry a thin wail of terror.
Nicolae plunged straight down, chasing after the falling man as he dropped toward the rising funnel cloud. The splinters and spears of ice targeted both Nicolae and the victim of the undead. Nicolae hastily constructed a net woven of silken strands below the falling man while at the same time moving his hands in a complicated pattern, drawing fire from the sky to melt the ice weapons.