Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters) (29 page)

I smiled back at him, my own grim, scary smile.
 
His answer was only what I had expected.

Christian rubbed his hands together, giving me a toothy grin.
 
“Let’s do this.”
 

I smacked him in the back of the head.
 
I swear it was barely a tap.
 

He sent me a disgruntled look.
 

“Don’t
wish
for it all to go to hell.
 
That makes you crazy.
 
And crazy gets you smacked.”
 

He gave a half-shrug.
 
“I am what I am,” he said with a smirk.
 

I rolled my eyes at him.
 

“Right this way, Barbie and Ken,” Corbin said, heading resolutely towards the house.
 

“Okay, Buffy,” I murmured to his back.
 
He’d started the name calling, after all.
 

He stifled a laugh.
 
“Guess I asked for that,” he said, his voice pitched-low.
   

“That round went to Barbie,” Christian added, helpful as always.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Barbie And Buffy

We fell silent, wise-cracks and all, as we got close to the eerily silent house.
 
It had a bad feel to it, which was understandable, but I thought I would have felt a chill up my spine even without a vampire hunter there to tell me what was inside.
 

Corbin opened the front door without a sound, easing it open agonizingly slowly.
 
He disappeared inside, and I followed next.
 
Christian brought up the rear, closing the door as quietly as it’d been opened.
 

There were street lights on outside, but they were dimmed, and we had been fighting in negligible light for most of the night.
 
That didn’t bother me.
 
My eyes had adjusted just fine.
 
It took just a second for my eyes to adjust to the even darker interior of the house, but when I did, I froze, my eyes going wide in dismay as I looked up.

The ceiling was covered in the creatures, this one room alone holding more vampires than I’d ever seen in one place before.
 
Their bat-like wings were wrapped around them, hiding their hairless, slimy bodies from view.
 
It was a mercy, that.
 
Vampires were hideous looking creatures, when they weren’t using glamour, and only the strong master’s even had that ability.
 
How the monsters had turned into modern day sex symbols, I would never understand.
 
The depictions of hideous nosferatu were much closer to the real thing than brooding teenagers with over-styled hair.
   

Corbin moved forward silently, and I followed closely behind, Christian a steady presence at my back.
 

The house was bigger than I would have guessed, and we made slow progress, through room after room, most of them empty, thank the gods.
 
Corbin finally stopped at the bottom of a set of narrow stairs.
 
He addressed Christian.
 
“Fall back to the first room.
 
Jillian and I will head upstairs.”
 

Christian nodded, disappearing without a word.
 
Corbin didn’t have to mention that the master had to be upstairs.
 
We had combed every inch of the first floor, so it was a given.
 

I followed Corbin very carefully up the stairs, trying hard not to make the old steps creak.
 
We had just reached the top when Corbin froze, his entire body going stiff.
 
I moved around him to see his face, rather than making a noise.
 
I wasn’t reassured by what I saw.
 

His eyes glowed red, his face suddenly all harsh bones and angles.
 
His mouth hung open, sharp fangs now protruding, dripping saliva.
 
He took off his glasses and sniffed the air.
 
He looked vaguely like a human version of a bloodhound on a scent.
 
This was bad.
 
He hadn’t gone all scary on me just for the hell of it.
 
This was a vampire hunter’s reaction to being near a vampire.
 
A vampire that
wasn’t
sleeping.

 
A deep voice called out from somewhere down the long hallway.
 
“Helsing.
 
I feel you.
 
You cannot hide from me.”
 

 
“Fuck,” Corbin said around all of those sharp teeth, and broke into a blindingly fast sprint, heading for that voice.

I followed, pulling my axe from it’s shoulder holster as I moved.
 

All hint of the harmless scholar was gone as Corbin rushed into a room down the hall, so fast I couldn’t keep up. That was what I hated most about vampires.
 
They were so freaking fast.
 
I was fast, but they moved in a blur, even to me, finding a place to sink their fangs before you knew what hit you.
 
And if they were real hungry, the place they found was usually your throat, right before they ripped it out.
 
I’d be real salty if I got my throat ripped out tonight.
   

Corbin was moving vampire fast as he charged at the master, who met him in a loud clash, halfway into the room.
 
I had barely rounded the doorway when they collided, snarling, into a furious brawl.
   

“The room down the hall,” Corbin barked at me.
 
“Hurry, we don’t want any newborns escaping.”
 

I tore out of there, searching each room I passed, his description of my destination leaving something to be desired.
 
In his defense, he had been a little preoccupied at the time.

I had passed three empty rooms before I found a nest of new vamps rising from the ground, blinking away their deep sleep.
 
The master had arisen, and his whole nasty flock had just joined him.
 
I cursed.
 
The last few stragglers dropped from the ceiling, climbing slowly to their feet, confused and disgruntled at being disturbed.
 
There were fourteen of them in the spacious room, and they were obviously disoriented from sleep.
 
I struck.
 

I swung my axe in a large circle, using it’s weight as momentum to increase my speed.
 
They scattered dizzyingly fast.
 
Newborns were much weaker than the older ones, but unfortunately, they were just as fast.
 
I only caught one on my first attack, clipping the hairless thing in the chin, then pushing forward to cut it’s head in half.
 
Regrettably, it was the wrong half to cut, and I had to move into another broad swing to sever it’s head from it’s neck.
 
All of this gave at least some of the vampires enough time to swarm me, pushing me onto my back.
 

I felt fangs sink into my wrist at the same time a pair ripped into my thigh, going right through my heavy cargo pants.
 
I screamed, equal parts rage and pain.
 
I was pissed.
 

My hand still gripped my axe even as another bloodsucker attacked that wrist with gusto.
 
Hmm, hands useless.
 
I tried to kick, but both legs were pinned, as yet another ugly bastard latched onto my other leg.
 
Legs out, too.
 
That effectively eliminated my options for both hand-to-hand and weapons.
 
I was pissed enough not to even care.
 
When all else failed, I always had fire.
 
I took a deep breath.
 

Vampires, fortunately, had no immunity to fire.
 
One latched onto my neck even as I breathed out, reigning blue fire onto all of the beasties directly in front of me.
 
My hand let go of the axe even as I reached out, feeling for a grip of anything slimy.
 
I gripped a slimy head in one hand, a cheek in the other.
 
It wasn’t even a thought so much as an instinct to burn everything I touched.
 
All of the creatures near me began to scream in agony, and I knew that every part of the skin that they touched burned them.
 
I
was
fire.

I only saw how many of them had had me pinned as they scattered back, rolling, slapping, beating, to try to stifle the flames.
 
I smiled.
 
Blue fire was harder to douse than normal fire.
 
It was like fire on crack.
 
They would burn in agony until Corbin came and put them out of their misery.
 
Six of them were out of commission, for the moment.
 
I turned my attention to the others.
 
They had scattered to the corners, cowering rather than fighting, and I almost felt sorry for them.

I bent down and grabbed my axe.
 
“I’ll let you pick.
 
Axe or fire.
 
As you can see, fire hurts a lot more.
 
But if you bite me, you get fire.”
 

One vampire broke for the window, making a dive at the glass.
 
My axe caught it in the back, pinning it to the wall near the window.
 
I pulled back, and swung again, taking it’s head.
 
Before the head had hit the floor, another one was on me, straddling my back, it’s teeth sinking into my neck from behind.
 
I screamed, shifting my axe to one hand and reaching back.
 
I felt it’s disgusting head, and pushed the fire out.
 
It fell off, screaming in agony.

Six vamps remained, darkening the corners.
 
They hissed at me.
 
I pointed to the headless vamp, and then to the one ones on fire, their tormented screams filling the room.
 
They were writhing in pain, no longer a threat.
 
“You pick.
 
The easy way, or the hard way.”
 

One scuttled forward awkwardly, it’s eyes sad and anguished.
 
There was no way to tell if it had been a male or a female when it was human.
 
It’s slimy white body was smooth and sexless.
 
“Please,” it said around a mouth full of teeth.
 
“End my suffering.
 
I did not choose this.”
 
It bent until it’s head nearly touched the ground.
 
I swung before it saw it coming, feeling like a real bastard, something I’d never felt for killing a vamp before.
 
This was one weird fucking Kiss.
 
Most newborns couldn’t speak, let alone communicate clearly.
 
I had been doubtful that they would even understand me when I spoke.
 
I made a note to ask Corbin about talking newborns, first chance I got.

I waved my axe.
 
“Anybody else wanna go the easy way?” I asked, almost wanting them to fight now.
 
That last one had seemed too pathetic to be a threat, even though logically I knew better than to doubt that it was.
 

Another one scuttled forward.
 
It’s forehead tilted to the ground, and it let out what sounded suspiciously like a sob right before I took it’s head.
 
I felt one rush me from behind and I used the momentum of the swing to turn, catching it on the side of the jaw, then following through for a clean beheading.
 
At least it hadn’t bitten me.
 

Three more remained.
 
One scuttled forward, bending it’s head.
 
I was swinging when it struck, going for my ankle, of all things.
 
I chopped it’s head off right as it’s teeth made contact, before they had time to sink in.
 
I decided to be nice, and let my axe take it, since it hadn’t technically bitten me.
 

Predictably, one jumped on my back as I dealt with that one, and I used blue fire as it tore into my shoulder.
 
Bastard took the hard way.

The last one never moved, just cowering in the corner, making me go to it.
 
I felt oddly reluctant to strike.
 
These were like no other vampires I’d ever seen, and I felt pity as I looked at the slimy thing.
 
“I’m sorry,” I told it, raising my axe.
 

It hid it’s face, but I heard it’s muffled words just before I struck.
 
“Don’t be sorry.
 
I want death.
 
Death is much better than this.”
 
I took it’s head.
 

I shook myself, moving to the doorway, sure there were more rooms to clear, though if Christian had faired as well as I, the two main nests had been eliminated.
 

Corbin Helsing met me in the doorway.
 
His eyes widened as he saw the room’s carnage, blue fire rampant.
 
“The master is dead, the Kiss weakened, though it looks like you hardly needed the advantage, since I just barely killed him.
 
What the fuck is that blue stuff?”

 
I blinked at him, shocked at myself for a moment.
 
I usually avoided using the blue, particularly if Christian was near, and here I had almost just left it burning.
 
“Don’t speak of the blue flame.
 
Just stake them, so I can get rid of it,” I told him, sore, and pissed, and depressed about those pathetic creatures.
 
I couldn’t scrounge up an ounce of good manners just then, so I sounded as mean as I felt.