I felt another rush of wind and this time I hacked out with my sword, the silver edged sharpness slicing through muscle and sinew and bone with a dull, wet sound. Blood rushed out of the vampire’s neck and flowed down my left hand making it slip on the grip of the sword. Human blood was warm and fluid when freed from the vein. Vamp blood was cold and viscous and slightly sticky. Frankly, it was kind of gross.
I quickly swiped my hand against my pant leg then stepped in to follow up, the short blade in my right hand thrusting between the ribs, slicing through the intercostals and straight into the heart. The vamp exploded into dust and ash. That’s when it came.
One minute everything was normal, at least as normal as it ever got for me. The next minute I could feel it rushing and billowing toward me. The Darkness crashing over me, inside me like a living creature, until I felt like I might burst from it. I realized I could see and not just in a really good night vision way. The dark all around me had become bright as day. A sort of purple tinged day, but day nonetheless.
There were more of them than we thought. Oh, the monsters were good at hiding. There were at least twice as many as we’d guessed. To my whacked out vision they appeared as dim, blue shapes tinged with dark blood red. I turned toward Kabita who was a glowing ruby red outlined in hot orange and pale yellow. Ingo was a living flame of oranges and golds with a touch of turquoise. Bizarre.
I didn’t have any more time to think after that. Two vamps rushed toward me, saliva dripping off their fangs, eyes the same strange glowing red as the vamp that had attacked me outside the restaurant. The one I’d dusted later at the Waterfront. The same red eyes I’d seen on all the vamps lately. I filed that little jewel away for later inspection.
Fierce elation that was mine and not quite mine surged through my veins and I threw my head back and laughed. Even to my ears I sounded like a crazy person. Then with a snarl that rivaled that of any vampire, I hurled myself toward the oncoming vamps.
I don’t remember much after that. There was a lot of blood and dust and the flashing of blades, a few screams and an odd glow like something on fire. I was totally in the moment yet standing outside myself at the same time as I slashed and hacked and stabbed.
I could feel my blades ripping through flesh, shattering bone, the copper tang of blood filling my nostrils. Every cut and hack and spray of blood sent bubbles of delight shooting through me until I wanted to scream for the pure joy of it.
And then I was kneeling over Kaldan himself, my blade against his throat, my knee pressing into his chest. His laughter held an edge of insanity.
“Stupid child,” he hissed at me, ignoring the blood that slid down his neck from the shallow cut of my blade. “You think I’m it? You think I’m the one?” His laugh was harsh in the sudden quiet of the darkened warehouse. “You think I have the power to control the vampires of this city? You fool. You can’t even see what is right in front of your face.” His own face twisted somewhere between pain and victory.
“You can kill me, Morgan Bailey, but it won’t do you a damned bit of good. He will still destroy you in the end. You and all your kind.” His eyes flashed with the same eerie reddish glow as the others.
I struggled to speak past the Darkness that screamed at me to end his miserable existence. I needed to know what he meant. “What are you talking about? My kind? What does that mean? Do you mean Hunters?”
A thought struck me. I didn’t want to ask, but I had to. I dropped my voice to whisper, “Do you mean Sunwalkers?”
He just snarled back, so I shook him. Hard. “Tell me! Who controls the vampires?” I had my suspicions, but I wanted confirmation.
He laughed at me. “You already know the answers to your questions. You are just too stupid to figure it out. You pathetic, useless humans. One day soon, you will all serve us as we serve him.”
“Yeah? Well, you won’t be around to see it.” My blade sliced through his throat, and blood gushed across the floor in a thick, syrupy mess as his head toppled from his body. As he turned to dust under me, my mind whirled furiously. Kaldan had admitted he wasn’t controlling the vampires. Someone else was. Someone I knew. Right in front of my face, he’d said.
Dammit but the Darkness made it hard to think. The Darkness didn’t care about finding out who controlled the vampires or why that person wanted to subjugate the human race. The Darkness just wanted to kill. I wanted to kill. But there was no one left except Kabita and Inigo who were both staring at me like they’d just seen a whole lot of crazy and weren’t quite sure it was over with. I guess they had sort of a point.