"Holy shit," I breathed, staring at the seething mass.
"You got that right."
We hadn't just found a vampire. We'd found a whole damn nest.
Chapter Ten
"Oh, hells bells, this is so not good," I hissed. "There are way too many of them. Where the hell is Kabita when you need her?"
Haakon didn't answer me. Probably realized my question was entirely rhetorical. "Looks like at least half a dozen. Maybe more."
Great. I'd handled that many before, but not on my own. I'd always had Jack. Or Inigo. I shoved that thought ruthlessly aside. Haakon would have to do. He was a Sunwalker, after all. And if Eddie was right, a former Viking. I was pretty sure he'd know a move or two. I stared at the knife in my hand. Damn, I could really use a machete right about now.
I had something else, though. Something most Hunters didn't have. Something that was far more deadly than a blade. I had Fire.
"Um, you might see something kinda weird," I told him.
"You mean weirder than you glowing green and making flowers sprout out of the dirt?"
"Possibly."
He gave me a look. "Fantastic."
"Just don't freak, okay?"
"I am not in the habit of 'freaking,'" he said stiffly.
All righty then.
With my eyes still fixed on the ceiling and the mass of hibernating vampires, I reached down into that place where my powers dwelled. They raised their heads, eager to get out. Smoke twined around Fire. Earth shimmered with green. Under them all was the black, roiling mass of Darkness. I frowned. Beneath the Darkness, lurking just out of sight, I could have sworn I sensed something else. Something new. I shook my head. I must be losing it.
Refocusing my energy, I coaxed Fire from its lair. I didn't have to work too hard. It surged out of me, flame spreading down my left hand like a fiery glove.
"Holy shit," Haakon echoed my sentiment from earlier.
"Told you."
We didn't have time to discuss it any further. The vamps above our heads began to stir.
I tightened my grip on the knife, fervently wishing I had one of Tessalah's flash bang grenades. They were like the regular flash bangs the army used, but with a little extra UV juice. Enough to disable the entire nest. Heck, at this point I'd take a plain old gun with plain old bullets. I wiggled my fingers a little, the flame dancing merrily in the dark. I'd have to make do.
I glanced at Haakon. He had a blade in one hand and a gun in the other.
"How the hell…?" He lifted an eyebrow. I shook my head. "Never mind." I might have known he'd have a way to keep a UV gun operational underwater. I was going to have a talk with Tessalah after this. If I survived. The Fire inside me laughed.
The first vamp peeled off the ceiling and dropped to the floor. The scent of death and decay stung my nose. I knew I wasn't really smelling it. To an ordinary human, a vamp smelled no different than anyone else, but my Hunter senses allowed me to smell the monster beneath the thin veneer of normal.
The vamp hissed at us, flashing long, yellowed fangs.
"Its eyes are red." Haakon sounded stunned.
"A human is in control of the nest." Normally a vampire nest was controlled by the strongest vamp, but once in a while a human used otherworldly means to gain power over a nest. In those cases, the entire nest's eyes turned red. I had no idea why.
"Shit."
I braced myself as the vampire rushed us, but it was Haakon who took it out. One shot from his UV gun, and the beam drilled a smoking hole in the vamp's brain. The thing dropped in its tracks like something out of a zombie movie. There was a howl from above and three more vamps dropped to the floor, followed by a fourth.
Another shot from Haakon's gun drilled through the breast of one of the vamps, taking out the heart. It burst into dust. And then the rest of them were on us.
One of the vamps flew at me, long hair whirling about her face. I knew it was a female only because she was half-naked from the waist up. Not out of sexiness, but because; her clothes had practically rotted off her. She was old. Really old. Definitely not a soul vamp, but still controlled by a human.
She slashed at me with long, ragged fingernails. I punched her in the jaw with my left hand. Honestly, it barely grazed her, but the fire singed her skin black from jaw to cheekbone. She screeched in pain and anger, leaping back. I gathered the Fire in my hand and hurled it through the air like a baseball. She dodged the flame, sneering at me as it splatted against the rock wall and sizzled out.
She came at me again, but this time her eyes were on my left hand as she weaved slightly to make a more difficult target. Clever minx. Maybe someone was at home in there after all. She was so busy watching my left hand, she forgot about my right. I slashed out with the knife, the sharp blade parting the skin along the side of her throat nearly to the bone. Black blood spilled over what remained of her clothing, her screech this time more of a gurgle. She stared at me in shock. Her hesitation was all I needed. I threw another fireball straight at her chest. She exploded in a cloud of dust.