Queen of The Hill (Knight Games) (16 page)

“Whoe’er shall challenge for the privilege to lead, cast thy blood into the sacred fire.” Padnon held up a silver knife and scanned the edge of the crowd of vamps.

“I so challenge!” a baritone voice said. The largest vampire I’d ever seen shouldered through the crowd. The guy looked like a linebacker with a Mohawk ponytail. A tribal tattoo curled from his face, down the side of his neck, over his shoulder, and disappeared into the waistband of his pants.

“That must be Kace,” I whispered.

Rick nodded in the affirmative.

“No wonder Gary was afraid. That vamp must be three hundred pounds.”

Kace swaggered up the three stairs to the platform and accepted the silver knife. Positioning himself in front of the bowl, he sliced his forearm and thrust it over the flames. A glob of red fell into the fire, and to my surprise, the tribal symbols from his tattoo erupted from the flames, curled around themselves, and scattered into the cold night air.

“I give you Kace Bloodgrain as first competitor.” The crowd erupted into cheers. “Do any among you wish to challenge Kace?”

Silence. The fire flickered. Padnon scanned the crowd. For a moment, I thought Gary flaked on us. Maybe he’d never intended to help us at all, that bastard. Then the crowd parted and his chestnut-colored head emerged. Next to Kace, he looked scrawny and emaciated. Gary had no visible muscle under his wide-striped Henley. Slowly, like he could barely force his legs forward, he climbed the stairs and accepted the knife from Padnon.

A murmur rose up from the crowd with the occasional snicker. Gary paused next to the bowl, knife in hand. He grimaced as he considered the act required of him.

“The impenetrability charm,” Poe said with alarm.

“Oh shit!” I yanked Nightshade from her sheath and muttered the counterspell, concentrating on Gary’s right arm. I’d never done this so specifically before. I focused my intention on the small patch of skin he’d have to cut. Licks of magic coasted down from my perch, traveled quickly across the snow, and wrapped around my target. Gary must have felt his arm grow lighter because he glanced toward our tree before cutting into his forearm. His blood dropped into the bowl. The smoke rose up.

It was shaped like a raven.

T
he vampire coven closed in around the platform, a collective gasp rising up as the smoky raven rose, then broke apart. Gary cleared his throat and stepped into line next to Kace. A rumble erupted among the vampires, several clearly unhappy with the turn of events. Padnon scrutinized Gary and Kace for longer than seemed necessary, slapping the knife against his palm.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” I said.

“They know the raven is your symbol,” Rick said.

I glanced at Poe, who shifted nervously on his branch. “How?”

“Every free vamp knows their Hecate. I’m sure word traveled quickly the first time one of them saw you with Poe.”

Poe had buzzed past Gary the night he’d returned my money and been a fixture at my side almost every night since I’d conjured him. Of course the vampires would recognize the symbolism. Funny, up until now, I’d only thought of Poe as my familiar, but seeing him as a symbol of my power made total sense. If I’d flown a flag from my gable, a raven would be the likely choice for the embroidery. My element was air, and what represented that better than the bird who magnified my power? “So, they all know I’m helping Gary.”

Rick’s face moved from shadow into a strip of moonlight. “Do not worry yourself. There is no law against what we have done. Although discretion might have been to our advantage.”

“I’m sure I could have concealed it, had I known,” I said. I stopped talking when Padnon raised the bowl from the stone column and placed it on the seat of the throne.

“I proclaim these competitors worthy of this trial,” the demon said. “Let us begin.”

Gary stepped down into the ring, followed by Kace who seemed unruffled by the revelation I was helping Gary. I didn’t know Kace, but I assumed he was either ignorant of what my raven meant or too big and proud to be afraid of Gary or me. The two competitors positioned themselves face to face at the center of the clearing. A group of vampires rolled the platform away from the ring. The coven closed in, circling the ring and forming a barrier around the perimeter.

Two go in but only one comes out,
I remembered Gary saying.

From the platform, Padnon raised one arm toward the moon. Silence fell across the coven. “Begin!” he commanded. His arm swept down, and the crowd burst into cheers.

Gary sank low, circling Kace with arms outstretched as if he were hugging an invisible tree, an effort, I suspected, to make himself look bigger. Kace grinned, the muscles of his chest and shoulders flexing and relaxing. Was he testing his weaponry? My stomach clenched.

“Why didn’t you tell me Kace was a gargantuan freak? I should have layered more enchantments on Gary.”

“I did not think it would help our cause to share his size with you,” Rick said. “Gary knew what he was getting himself into, and you could not have layered one more spell in the time we had.”

“Fuck. Let’s hope Gary has some skills.”

As Gary danced in a circle, Kace’s massive fist shot out and pounded him in the center of the chest. Gary’s body soared back, directly into the silver spikes to the north. If not for my impenetrability charm, he’d be impaled for sure. Instead, his body bounced off the razor-sharp points and he landed on his feet.

Kace’s eyes widened, and a cheer rose up from a subset of the crowd.

“Well, if they didn’t know I was helping him before, they do now,” I said.

Dropping low, Gary took advantage of Kace’s surprise to charge. His shoulder caught the giant in the stomach. Without my help, I was sure Gary would have never been able to move the vamp, but I’d given him potions to magnify his speed and strength. Kace’s back barreled toward the werewolf. The beast growled and snapped. Nine-inch, razor-sharp claws dug into Kace’s shoulders. Massive wolfie jaws clamped down on the giant’s Mohawked head.

Werewolf bites were fatal to vampires. Gary receded, a smug grin spreading across his face. The werewolf tore into Kace, growls and cheers rippling through the crowd.

“There’s no blood,” I said, alarmed. In fact, after a moment to collect himself, Kace shrugged off the wolf like a cheap coat, slamming its body into the frozen ground. The werewolf whimpered and stayed down.

Whoops and hollers filled the night. Kace’s supporters pumped their fists in the air and yelled their encouragement into the ring. Kace cracked his neck.

“Another witch is helping him,” Rick muttered. “No vamp survives a werewolf attack like that without help.”

I turned my head to look at him. “Who?” I shouldn’t have had to ask. I grabbed the branch above my head, the one Poe was on, and pulled myself into a standing position, scanning the crowd. I was looking in the wrong place. She wouldn’t be in the crowd.

I raised my eyes to the edge of the forest, just inside the tree line opposite our position. A figure in a dark cloak watched the action from atop a branch similar to ours. I couldn’t see her face clearly from this distance, but if her dark hair and red lips weren’t enough of a clue, the bright green of the forest around her would have given away her identity. My nemesis.

“Tabetha,” I said. “Poe, do a flyby and see if she’s alone.”

My familiar took flight.

A growl rumbled deep in Rick’s chest. “It appears we are not the only ones who care to influence the outcome of this event.”

“Her symbol is the scarab beetle. Why did Gary’s blood produce a raven and Kace’s, his own tattoo?”

“She must have known and used a cloaking spell.”

“That takes preparation.”

“Another way to pressure you to turn over your territory,” Rick said solemnly.

Furious, my gaze darted back to the ring. Kace and Gary grappled for the upper hand. Kace lifted Gary off his feet and slammed his back into the ground. Gary didn’t hesitate. He hooked an arm between Kace’s legs and twisted, knocking Kace off balance. In the blink of an eye, the two became a rolling, twisting mass of vampire flesh.

“How do we help him win?” I asked Rick.

He shook his head. “We don’t. Not yet. He’s doing well on his own.”

Gary was on top, fists flying in super speed, using Kace’s face as a punching bag. Kace’s legs lifted. He twisted his torso, knocking Gary onto his side and grasping his neck. A dark object appeared in Kace’s hand.

“What is that?” I asked Rick. His caretaker vision was more acute than mine.

“It looks like a walnut,” he said.

As Gary struggled beneath the chokehold, Kace thrust the nut into Gary’s throat and held his mouth closed. Gary reflexively swallowed.

The werewolf was up again, snapping and snarling just short of Gary’s head. Gary raised his knees to bring Kace’s face closer to the beast’s jaws. Planting a foot, Kace dug a heel in, stopping his forward momentum, and bared his teeth as he squeezed Gary’s throat. Fangs extended, Gary gripped Kace’s wrists, trying to pry his meaty hands from his neck. Vampires didn’t need to breathe, but Gary’s eyes bulged ominously. Kace wasn’t trying to strangle Gary; he was trying to rip off his head.

Gary opened his mouth, I assumed to scream, but instead a thick vine erupted from his throat.

“Fuck!” I clutched the branch above my head until my fingers turned white. “That isn’t fair. Tabetha is directly interfering,” I said. Red-hot anger spread through my torso and settled in a spot behind my breastbone. How dare this bitch come to my territory and try to influence my vampire coven?

Poe swept past me, landing on a branch near my head. “The witch of Salem is alone,” he said. “And grinning like she’s already won.”

My previous levels of anger were replaced with a sure and certain fury at Tabetha’s sickening arrogance. A swift wind picked up over the clearing, my natural magic coming to the surface, and before I could reconsider, I’d jumped down from my branch and was walking toward the action.

“Wait,” Rick said. “What are you doing?”

“I’m claiming what’s mine. This is my territory. This coven is in my jurisdiction. No fucking way am I letting Tabetha’s dupe win.” I drew Nightshade.

The power coming off me thickened the air and dropped the temperature a good ten degrees. It was enough to turn the faces of the vamps nearest me. They made a path for Rick and me to stand at the edge of the ring. Across from us, Tabetha made her own entrance, a few vamps bowing slightly as she approached the ring across from us. Her lips peeled back from her teeth as she looked at me.

Gary was in dire straights. His abdomen roiled as if roots tangled within him, and the vine had thickened to the point of straining his jaw.

“Use it, Gary,” I commanded.

We had one last trick up our sleeve. One last chance to use it. Gary released Kace’s wrist and contorted his body to plunge his hand into his calf. For a moment, blood spewed, and then his fist swept into the air clutching the enchanted stake I’d sealed inside his flesh. He plunged the bloody weapon toward Kace’s heart.

My stake was soaked in a grounding potion meant to neutralize supernatural flesh. It was the only way we could seal it inside Gary’s leg without his body expelling it. But now the spell had an additional benefit. It cut through Tabetha’s enchantments and entered the soft spot between Kace’s collarbones. Kace’s hands recoiled from Gary’s neck to scramble for the end of the stake before it could conclude its magical journey to his heart. Gary wriggled out from under him.

Freed from Kace’s clutches, Gary gripped the vine growing from his mouth and yanked. I had to look away as he tore the thing out by the roots, with what I imagined was a large chunk of his entrails. When I looked back, blood was gushing from between his lips, but the vine was dislodged, and he was already healing.

Kace, on the other hand, writhed in pain from my enchanted stake. I glanced at Tabetha. She seethed at me, her wand raised in warning.

“She underestimated us,” I whispered to Rick. I could see it on her face. She’d thought this would be an easy win. She was wrong.

Gary stumbled toward Kace, lifted him by his hair and waistband, and tossed him toward Vladimir’s guillotine. The blades struck the mammoth vamp’s neck. Tabetha’s spell was strong enough to keep him whole, but the enchantment of my stake left a spot of vulnerability. The flesh near the entry point split. Kace tumbled to the ring, bleeding profusely.

With a wicked grin, Gary moved in for the kill, hand reaching for the wound. Would he rip out Kace’s throat?

Tabetha had other plans. A root shot up and wrapped around Gary’s ankle. He flopped to his stomach and was dragged away from Kace.

The crowd went wild, pressing in around us, but none seemed to go as far as to attack or retaliate. Instead, the coven looked between Tabetha and me with equal parts excitement and disgust. Their instinct for self-preservation kept them at bay.

Kace plunged a hand into his chest and with a howl, pulled out the stake. His flesh healed itself as he walked his muscular frame to the place where Gary struggled against the roots and vines that bound him to the ground.

I turned up the volume on my power, a winter storm moving in like a tornado of ice. Tabetha did the same, her side of the ring blasting me with heat. The vampires struggled to steady themselves against the tug of war between fire and ice. Cries rang out as the vamps on my side clung to each other to stop from blowing away in my icy tornado. The ones closest to us stepped back in fear. I circled Gary with my storm, forcing Kace to shield his eyes from the spinning hail.

Tabetha waved her wand. A blast of spring forced me back a step. My power withered in the heat. Every cell in my body begged me to give up.

Gary was still tethered, and Kace had the stake. If I didn’t help him, he’d be dead in one swipe of Kace’s hand. This was my territory, damn it. I ground my teeth. No bitch kills my ex-boyfriend in my territory.

I toed off my boots and planted my bare feet in the snow, casting my power through the earth, calling on my graveyard. I’d only ever tried this during the day and with mixed results. Poe landed on my shoulder, amplifying my efforts. Rick grabbed my hand. The night air and the light of the moon pressed in around me, giving me strength. I drew on their energy, and I rallied. The power of the dead snapped into me like an overstretched rubber band. I didn’t have to coax it out as before; it came of its own accord, slamming into me, filling me.