“Stop thinking about her,” Bleu snapped.
Loren smiled an apology at his friend and dragged himself back to the hunt. They entered an area with many humans, some of them rather inebriated. Easy prey. If he were hunting for blood, he would look for such a place.
Bleu sniffed again. “You smell that?”
Loren closed his eyes and inhaled through his nose, taking the stale city air down into his lungs. One scent stood out amongst the thousands of others.
Blood.
Vampire blood.
He opened his eyes and looked at Bleu. Bleu took off, sprinting down an alley to their left, away from the humans. Loren tried to keep up with him but he still hadn’t regained his strength after the torturous thirty minutes of running Olivia had put him through. When he lost Bleu, he tracked his familiar scent. It led him back to the park. The Archangel building towered in the distance off to his left. The park was larger than he had believed, a long rectangular tract of land in the middle of the buildings.
Loren followed Bleu’s scent, vaulting the cast iron fence and landing silently in a crouch on the other side. A thick layer of leaf litter cushioned his steps as he wove through the trees surrounding the park.
Bleu cursed in their native tongue and Loren broke through the trees and stopped dead when he saw why.
Someone had beaten them to the vampire.
The male hung from the branches of a large oak tree, broken and lifeless, his clothes and flesh shredded. Blood dripped from his bare feet to land in a pool on the grass and path beneath him. He hadn’t been there long judging by the fact that his blood hadn’t coagulated yet. Whoever had done this atrocious act was still in the vicinity.
Loren knew who had committed it.
The male’s flesh and clothes had been cleaved open, the method of the attack all too familiar to him.
Loren raised his right hand and called his armour. The scales swept over his hand, forming long serrated claws over his fingers.
Vail had been here.
He had left this vampire on display for the humans to find. It was a message. Vail was showing him that he had no qualms about exposing demon and faekind to the mortals, just as Loren and the council had feared.
A shiver skittered across the back of his neck and he turned, scouring the darkness for his brother.
“He’s here, isn’t he?” Bleu whispered from the shadows of the night.
Loren nodded, his heightened vision cutting through the darkness, revealing everything to him.
His gaze caught on something and snapped back to it. Vail. He stood in the middle of the park, as still as a statue, facing him.
Loren drew his sword and ran at his brother. Bleu followed suit, racing past him to engage Vail before him. Vail pulled his two shorter blades out of the air, his eyes flashed brilliant purple, and he slashed at Bleu. Bleu leaped back but it was exactly what Vail wanted him to do.
Vail grinned and flicked one hand out, using a blast of telekinesis to knock Bleu flying. Bleu sailed through the air and landed hard, rolling to a halt just in front of Loren. Loren crouched to check him.
“Son of a bitch,” Bleu muttered and swept his hand over his blade, transforming it into a long double-ended spear. “I’m going to kill him.”
For once, Loren didn’t tell him that he couldn’t. He caught the surprise in his friend’s eyes and rose to his feet, coming to face Vail.
“Brother.” Loren flexed his fingers around the hilt of his blade and drew in a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for the fight that lay ahead.
Vail grinned, a wild glint in his purple eyes, and disappeared in a flash of violet and pale blue light.
Loren easily predicted the move, bringing his sword over his shoulder to defend his back. Vail’s blades clashed with it, the sound ringing out in the darkness. Bleu got to his feet and thrust his spear at Vail, catching him on the shoulder. Vail hissed and bared his fangs at Bleu, and knocked him back with a blast of power.
“Stay out of this, Lapdog.” Vail threw another blast at Bleu, but Bleu teleported in a blaze of violet and green light, easily evading the attack. He reappeared behind Vail and Loren used the momentary distraction to attack his brother.
Vail growled at him, exposing his fangs again. Bloodied. He had fed on the vampire before butchering him.
“Come to kill me, Brother?” Vail smiled at him, cold and emotionless, countering each strike of Loren’s sword with his twin blades. He led the dance, luring Loren forwards, always defending.
Buying himself time?
Loren withdrew when he realised that wasn’t the case. Vail was trying to wear him out. Bleu leaped in and attacked in his place, the length of his spear giving him an advantage over Vail if he could dodge his telekinetic blows. Loren was glad all over again that Bleu had demanded to accompany him. Bleu could keep up with his brother, attacking and defending at incredible speed, landing several blows on Vail.