If we hadn’t been in mortal danger at that moment, I would have laughed at her sheer brass.
Seth did not find it as funny. “If anyone will drink here, it will be me,” he spat, leaping forward. He was faster than I’d expected, but he did not have the blurring speed of the other vampires I’d seen. Jordan met him halfway and delivered a blow to his chest that just missed his heart. He spun away with a shriek of pain and wisps of smoke rose from his chest when he turned for a second attack. “You’ll die for that, bitch.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re the big bad sucker. Shut up and kill me already.”
When this was over, Jordan and I had to have a talk about how not to talk to a vampire.
Seth made a sound somewhere between a growl and a scream and went for Jordan again. I guess he thought I was less of a threat than the girl with two knives so he’d take her out first. For an architect, he was pretty stupid. His claws went for Jordan’s throat when he should have been paying attention to the two silver blades she wielded with deadly ease. One blade slashed across his midsection, opening a deep smoking gash there, and as soon as he dropped his hands to keep his guts from spilling out, the second blade found its mark. The vampire’s eyes flew wide with shock as Jordan pulled her knife free. Then he crumpled to the floor with a heavy thud.
“God I love this job!” Jordan crowed as she bent to wipe her bloody blades on the dead vampire’s sleeve. When she stood, I saw that she didn’t have a speck of blood on her. How was that even possible?
“We should get back to – ” Cold blossomed in my chest again and dread filled me as it finally dawned on me what was happening to me. I whirled to the ladder as a female vampire about my height with long dark hair flew through the hole. Her appearance did not shock me nearly as much as the revelation that my episodes were not random bursts of elemental power.
I had developed my very own vampire radar.
“Seth!” the female vampire shrieked when she saw him on the floor, and I knew she was his girlfriend, Dana, whom Derek had mentioned.
I realized how quiet Derek was, and I glanced behind me to see him out cold against the wall. Damn, Jordan didn’t know her own strength. I hoped he wasn’t hurt too bad, but there was no time to check on him now. We had Dana to deal with, and if Seth had been telling the truth, there was a third vampire here somewhere. All I could do was hope he was as new as these two.
“What have you done with Seth?” Dana screamed, advancing on us.
Jordan smiled and raised her weapons again. “Seth’s gone to hell, but don’t worry, you’ll see him again very soon.”
“Brent!” Dana screeched and bared her fangs at Jordan. “I am going to kill you slowly, bitch.”
I almost groaned when Jordan replied, “You go ahead and take your time, but just so you know, I plan to kill you quickly.”
Up until that moment, I thought we had a chance to get out of here alive. But when a second male vampire appeared at the top of the ladder, I knew we were in trouble. Jordan could probably take one of them, but I wasn’t a fighter. My only strength was my elemental power, and it wasn’t reliable. I had a feeling these vampires weren’t going to stand still while I tried to summon it.
My Mori stirred at the approaching threat, and I felt a spark of hope. I wasn’t as strong or as fast as Jordan, but I wasn’t completely helpless either. Fear for my life overshadowed the fear of my demon, and I dropped the wall between us. Help me.
I suppressed a shudder as the Mori’s consciousness touched mine, and I felt its power rush through my body a second later. When Brent flew at me, I shocked us both by sidestepping his attack so fast it would have made Callum proud. The vampire recovered quickly and came at me again, his fangs and claws bared. There was no time to think or to worry about how Jordan was faring in her own fight. My demon’s instinct took over and I swung the dagger in an upward arc, ripping it across Brent’s hands. He screamed, and I gagged as a clawed pinky bounced off my boot.
Enraged, Brent lunged at me again, and this time he hit me so hard I flew into the wall. My dagger went skidding across the floor, but not before I landed a good blow to his neck. He stepped back to put his hands over the gushing wound, giving me time to get to my feet again. My demon strength was already fading. It had saved me from his first attack, but I couldn’t take another blow like that, and I had lost my weapon.
I flexed my fingers in frustration. Where was all the power that had flared up around the other demons? Vampires are demons too – or at least they have a demon inside them – so there was no reason I couldn’t call on my power like I had with Nikolas. Vamhir demons are a lot closer to the surface than Mori demons. My power should be freaking out already being this close to two vampires. Maybe it just needed a little push.