Blue-Blooded Vamp (33 page)

“Yes?” His tone too casual.

“I hate you so much right now.”

He chuckled. “Good to know. Focus, please.”

The circle tightened around me. I did a quick count. Dread was a frozen stone in my gut. One to three I could probably manage, but there was no way I could hack my way through twelve Revenants with nothing but a small blade and a gun.

“How in the hell—” I started to shout. But then a new thought occurred to me. Tristan had said that the purpose of this test was to see how I handled my Chthonic powers. That meant he expected me to use magic to win, not brute force.

So despite the tarry ball of fear in my gut, I blew out a long, calming breath.

Okay, Red,
I said to myself.
Think dammit!

I was in a graveyard, which meant my Chthonic powers would get a nice boost from the death energy. Graveyards were also liminal spaces, so that would help, too, since the goddess Hekate, patron goddess of magic and Chthonic energy, loved a good transitional space. And what was more transitional than the soil where mortal bodies returned to the earth?

I pulled out my gun just in case one of the Revenants lunged at me and closed my eyes. I could feel them closing in, but I focused on calling my powers. The ground beneath me trembled, but instead of signaling another animated corpse, it announced the arrival of the primal Chthonic energies that gave me my power.

Magic snaked up my legs in black tendrils. Wrapped around my torso, my arms. Rushed through my veins and filled my senses with the taste of blood and the overpowering scent of soil and iron.

My lids flew open. My vision was tinged red as if someone had dipped my pupils in blood. Power throbbed through me like a second pulse.

The Revenants stopped ten feet back. Whether they were confused or merely curious I didn’t know. But I didn’t intend to give them time to get over it and attack.

A woman in a tattered lace gown that had probably been white at one time but was now brown and yellow took a
hesitant step forward. The zap of magic flew from my eyes like two black lasers.

She exploded in a fiery pyre. Her horrible screams cut through the night like shards of glass. The other Revenants shied away and hissed, like animals witnessing fire for the first time.

The scent of burning flesh filled my nostrils. I smiled. One down, eleven to go. From the corner of my eye, I saw Tristan stand straighter. But instead of looking impressed by my display, a furious frown turned down the corners of his mouth.

I froze. Shouldn’t he be in awe of my amazing Chthonic powers?

“Sabina?” Rhea called. Her voice was muted because of the veil of fog, but I heard her.

“No!” Tristan yelled. “You cannot help her. She has to do this on her own.”

I frowned at him. What was I missing? Surely he didn’t expect me to just stand there and let the undead feast on my brain.

Another Revenant began a shambling attack. This dude wore a dusty black gown with a white collar.

“Oh, come on!” I yelled. “A fucking priest? Really?”

I might not be a mortal and I might not worship the same god as the sons of Adam, but even I knew killing a man of the cloth was bad juju. I paused, looking around the circle as something Nyx said the other night flashed into my head. She’d said these grounds had once been owned by the church and served as a hospital for the aged and infirm. So basically, I was fighting a zombie horde of priests, nuns, and fucking invalids.

I gritted my teeth and shot a death glare at my father. Luckily for him, I had enough control over my powers now
that my anger didn’t manifest as an actual death ray; otherwise he’d be toast. “You want me to kill a bunch of devout do-gooders?”

Tristan cocked a brow. “Who asked you to kill them?”

There it was. Everything clicked. Somehow I had to figure out how to take control of them and send them back to eternal slumbers without rekilling them… or becoming an all-you-can-eat brain buffet.

I took the gun and fired several rounds into the ground at the feet of the zombie priest and a few others who looked like they were about to make a move. The noise and the muzzle’s flash had them cowering back into formation.

Good, I needed time to think.

I knew a couple of things about Revenants. You had to cut off their heads to stop them. They were afraid of fire. And, if you were the one lucky enough to summon them, you could command them at your will.

That last part meant that Tristan was currently controlling everything these guys did. I frowned and sucked on my teeth as I considered my options. I sent out an experimental stream of Chthonic magic—not a zap, but a gentler tendril of energy. Maybe if I could interrupt Tristan’s power over the Revenants, I could wrest control from him.

The feelers spread out through the graveyard. It wove over headstones and around statues. Sunk low into the earth, combing the soil for the roots of his control. I closed my eyes to focus on the feedback. Earthworms wriggled against the energy as it crawled past them. I smelled rich, fallow soil fertilized with the remains of so many bodies. My power crawled under the feet of the Revenants, seeking the magical source. And there, finally, throbbing under Tristan’s feet was a ball of bright light buried deep in the earth.

The instant my powers touched the sphere of energy, a
painful zap zinged back through the ground and hit me like a bolt of lightning. Stars danced in my vision. My teeth rattled in my head. I groaned and shook myself. Time to try again.

On the periphery of my consciousness, I felt Tristan staring at me. Could feel his hold on his powers and his surprise that I’d figured out the trick.

This time, I was braced for the counterattack. I absorbed the pain and used it to fuel my spell. The tendrils of my dark energy curled around Tristan’s spell and hung on tight. Now I could feel Tristan’s emotions as he struggled to maintain hold on his own powers.

The Revenants started moaning again, this time in confusion. I dug down deep, calling on all my reserves to destroy Tristan’s hold on the Revenants. My left shoulder throbbed. I ignored it. I already knew I was in trouble without the physical warning.

The spell wouldn’t budge. I put everything I had into it, but Tristan’s power was too strong.

Blood
.

The single word echoed through my head like a whisper. I paused. Was that the key? I knew from past experience that blood amplified a spell. But could it also help overcome another Chthonic’s magic?

I shrugged. What the hell? It certainly couldn’t hurt at this point.

Without further hesitation, I bit into my wrist and held my trembling hand over the earth. The instant my blood hit the soil, the ground shifted and roiled. It forged a deep furrow under the dirt as it sought the target. The effect was like throwing water on a grease fire. My power flared up, engulfing Tristan’s spell in flames. The earth under my father buckled and he fell to the ground in a lump.

The instant the spell was broken, my eyes flew open. I watched Tristan fall. The instant he hit the dirt, the fog surrounding the graveyard disappeared. Adam, Rhea, and Nyx all stood on the other side of the wall, looking pale and worried. “Tristan!” Nyx called, moving toward the gate.

“No,” he called. “I’m… I’m okay.”

“Sabina?” Adam shouted.

“I’m fine! Stay back.” He looked unconvinced, but I didn’t have time to explain. I also didn’t have time for a victory dance. Because the zombies were suddenly on the move. Toward me. With their arms outstretched and their jaws gaping and hungry.

Despite the magical fireworks they’d just witnessed, they stared at me with dead eyes. I swallowed hard against the pressure rising in my throat. When I raised them, my hands trembled from the excess of power. “Go back to your graves. Your work here is done.”

A couple of the Revenants blinked, but none of them stopped. Frowning, I tried again, raising my voice. “I
said
, go back to your graves. Now!”

Again, nothing. They moved closer. The fetid stench of their coffin cologne made me gag.

“Sabina,” Tristan called. He still lay on the ground. A grimace of pain contorted his face and his hand cupped his right ankle. For a moment, guilt cramped my stomach. Had I been too rough with my spell?

I shrugged off the guilt. He deserved it for the shit he’d pulled.

“What?” I called, my eyes on the zombies. Four feet now.

“You forgot to take control of them.”

“Oh shit,” I squeaked. In a flash, I whipped my powers back up and used them to surround the horde. I tried to recall the invocation I’d used the last time I’d summoned
Revenants in the graveyard in New Orleans. “Sprits of the Loa, Hekate, Great Mother Lilith, I summon and invoke thee to send these restless spirits back to their graves!”

The air popped. Thoughts that were not my own flooded my brain—memories combined with outraged cries and pitiful whimpers. My head throbbed and I grabbed my temples to buffer against the cacophony. Bile rose in my throat. I breathed through my nose as I struggled to grab the tangled threads of control. I opened my eyes and froze.

Not two feet from me in a complete circle, eleven Revenants bowed at my feet. Relief flooded me, cooling the hot panic piercing my skull. My voice shook when I spoke. “Your work here is done. I release you. Rest in peace.”

As a group, the undead turned and shambled back to their graves. Their retreat was accompanied by the loud popping of joints and the papery crackle of decayed skin. Across the graveyard, Adam, Rhea, and Nyx watched in mute awe. Tristan had risen from the ground and was favoring his right leg. His expression was dark but unreadable as he watched, too.

My heart hadn’t stopped pounding since the skeleton hand had grabbed my ankle. And it didn’t calm until the last Revenant disappeared beneath the soil. Only when the mound had stilled did I release the powers. Normally I tried to expend the energy slowly, but this time I pushed them out as fast as I could. I felt hot and dirty and… disgusted. As rotted as the organs of those corpses.

The energy swirled into the soil like a vortex, like a spectral vacuum sucking the filth away. Once every drop of Chthonic energy was gone, I sagged into the headstone behind me.

A hush fell over the graveyard, but the echo of spent magic made the air throb.

Tristan spoke first. “Well,” he said, “normally I’d lecture you about being careless, but all things considered, the results were…” He paused as if searching for the right word. I held my breath. “Satisfactory.”

The air escaped me in a rush of bitter laughter. “Fuck you.”

He raised a brow. “It appears that in addition to working on your anger management issues, your cockiness, and your impatience, we’ll also need to address your total lack of respect.”

I started to tell him where he could put his respect, but then what he said hit me. “Wait, does that mean I passed the test?”

He executed a curt nod. “Yes. Now, come along. We have a lot to do and not much time to do it.”

He turned and started shouting orders at Nyx. The vampire scrambled over to help him limp back to the villa. I watched them go as warring emotions duked it out in my gut.

On one hand, I was psyched that we could finally get moving on our plans to stop Cain. But on the other, I was disappointed that he couldn’t spare more than a lukewarm compliment, which was quickly erased by his judgmental assessment of my many and varied character defects.

Footsteps approached and I looked up to see Rhea and Adam bearing down on me. The mancy arrived first, grabbing me in a hard hug. “No offense, but I really want to kick your father’s ass right now.”

I pulled back to reward him with a smile. “You and me both.”

“Now, now, children. Tristan’s methods might be a tad… unconventional, but they’re also very effective. Gods, Sabina! You were amazing.”

“I just wish I hadn’t screwed up on the last part.”

The silver-haired mage waved away my concern. “The true test was being able to break Tristan’s spell.”

“It was pretty breathtaking,” Adam said.

I shot him a you’re-just-saying-that look.

“Seriously. How did you know how to do that?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea. Instinct, I guess.”

“Well, whatever it was, it worked. And now we can finally put the next phase of Operation Kill Cain in motion.”

I blew out a deep sigh. I knew I should be excited, but the truth was I had some doubts. When I’d thought about going to Irkalla, I’d figured I’d have to do some fighting. But Tristan’s little test had proven that when it came to battling spirits, I had no idea what I was doing. Give me a gun or a knife and I could kill a man seven ways to Sunday. But when it came to matters of the spirit, I was a total newb.

“What’s wrong?” Rhea said, shooting me that look that told me she already knew and had an answer ready.

I shook my head. I was in no mood for a rah-rah speech about how I could do this if I only believed in myself and trusted fate. Whatever Irkalla threw at me, I’d take it as it came. “I’m just hungry,” I said.

Two doubtful looks greeted this statement. It wasn’t a lie, exactly. All that magic had worked up a crazy appetite. “Hey, controlling a zombie horde is hard work. I’d punch a nun for a cheeseburger right about now.”

They both leveled me with arid glances. Finally, Adam put an arm around me and propelled me toward the gate. “You’ve been spending way too much time with Giguhl.”