Chapter 37

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

W e made it to the Reapers common room at a fast pace, the sound of bloodcurdling screams still carrying to us from the Heliacal Courtyard, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. But my focus was all on Harlon now.

I moved to the painting of a woman who was being ripped apart by a beast and I pulled it open, revealing the passage beyond. The sconces were lit and I knew at least one Reaper might still be lurking down here, but I hoped all of them had been summoned to the defence of the Keep.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, V?" the one who I had figured out was Moraine hissed. "The Reapers might kill us if we're caught. They could make us face the wrath of the stars for defying their prophets."

"You keep watch then," I said sweetly, racing past her into the passage.

"What's with you and her?" Cayde growled at Vesper. "She's our enemy."

"If you dare breathe the word traitor at me, I'll gut you," Vesper warned as the four of them followed me into the passage. "You're going to want to see this and for now, we need the Raincarver, so just deal with it."

For now. Those two words made me feel as though I had just placed myself in front of a pack of bloodthirsty wolves. What was to say they wouldn't kill me the moment we reached those archways? What reason would they have not to?

I glanced back at them over my shoulder, drawing my dagger silently and quickening my pace. My focus had to remain on Harlon. Despite the danger I had put myself in with this chaotic plan, if it led me to him, it would be worth it. I'd figure out surviving the betrayal of the Sky Witch if that was what it came to. Though I supposed betrayal was a strong word. We had a fragile alliance at best, but now I was seeing that perhaps she had been using me after all.

We met a stairway and I gestured for the others to go ahead, but Cayde gave me a rough shove that sent me stumbling down a couple of steps. "Keep moving," he growled.

I moved back up the step, raising my dagger.

"I'm not your pawn to order around, Skyforger," I hissed. "Touch me again and I'll cut your fingers off."

Bells rang out again and we all looked around towards the entrance to the passage as the amplified voice of the Grand Maester echoed across the Keep.

"Two more covens approach! Defend the Keep! Answer the summons!"

Hia kaské. One coven was enough to rip this place apart, but three? Never Keep might just fall tonight.

I looked between the Skyforgers, wondering if they might turn back to face the fight, but Vesper's jaw just ticked with what appeared to be irritation as she turned towards the darkness of the passage with firm intention.

"I'll go first." She stepped past me and I eyed her warily as the two women followed, but Cayde remained, folding his arms and waiting for me to move.

I turned, not wasting any more precious time on arguing with him, though I didn't like the way it felt to have him breathing down my neck as I hurried on.

"By the ocean, are you breathing that loud to stake your claim over the air?" I clipped at him.

"Keep your mouth shut or I'll silence you permanently," he said in a low, threatening tone.

"Just don't suck up all the oxygen, yeah?" I muttered and the ferocious one with choppy black hair, Dalia, sniggered just ahead of me.

We made it to the bottom of the stairway arriving in yet another long passage, but as we started down it, a clash of noise sounded from the steps behind us.

I whirled around just as a huge male Vampire with dark skin and tightly curling hair collided with Cayde, driving him into the wall so his head cracked against it. Cayde snarled, air magic exploding from him and sending the Vampire flying into the opposite wall.

A blur of movement in the stairway made my heart stall as four more male Vampires raced out of the gloom with fangs bared, mouths bloody from recent kills and a look of utter savagery about them.

The silver haired one with bronze skin and tattoos crawling out from his cuffs and collars came for me in a blur and I brought my dagger up with a cry of fright, aiming for his heart, but he moved so fast that it slammed into his shoulder instead.

A clash of fighting rang out around me as the Skyforgers met with the violence of the other Vampires and I was thrown into the wall, pinned there by the impossible strength of my attacker's monstrous Order.

I stabbed at him again, slicing into his side while my right hand came up and blasted him back with water. He hit the opposite wall, touching the bloody wounds and shock filled me at the sight of him using healing magic, something only the Reapers were capable of, his injuries stitching over fast and offering him a full recovery.

"No," I gasped, raising my blade again.

Vesper, Moraine and Dalia were being forced further down the passage by three of the Vampires while Cayde grappled with one of his own, and my attacker sauntered back towards me with a vicious smile on his lips.

"Oh you're gonna pay for that, sugar," he purred.

I ran to meet him with a Leopard's growl in my throat, ice shooting out from my right hand in a cascade of shards, but he shot away in a flash of motion that defied all possibility. He was behind me in a heartbeat as my shards shattered against the wall, his hand coming tight around my neck. His fingers locked tight and forced my head sideways, baring my throat to him. I twisted my dagger in my grip, preparing to stab it into his side, but he caught my wrist with a dark chuckle in his throat, releasing my neck to capture my other arm too, his breath like a toxin against my skin.

"Stay still," he purred, immobilising me with the impossible strength of his Order, his mouth grazing my neck as he prepared to sink his fangs into my skin.

My heart lurched, my magic about to be immobilised by this asshole if he got his fangs into me, the venom in a Vampire's bite able to lock down my power. Ice scored out along my hand, travelling up his arm, but it wasn't moving fast enough-

Blue was there in a flash, his wings fluttering and his teeth gnashing into the Vampire's cheek.

The Vampire reared back in surprise, a snarl of anger tearing from him as he swatted the little lizard away, but Blue let out a shriek from his open jaws and a powerful blast of energy exploded from him, sending the Vampire smashing into the wall.

Surprise hit me as he crumpled to the flagstones and I raced forward to finish him with my blade, driving it down towards his chest. His hand shot up, capturing my hand and smiling grimly at me before yanking me close and digging his fangs into my wrist.

I screamed as the power of his venom immediately swept into me, locking down my magic as he drank my blood and began draining the well of power inside me, claiming it for himself.

I snatched my blade into my right hand and swung for his neck, but he shot away in a blur that left me dizzy. He was behind me once more, his hand closing tightly around my arm so I couldn't stab with my blade again. "Run rabbit, run. I adore the hunt."

"I'll never run." I whirled around, blasting a fist of water at him that crashed into his jaw so forcefully that he stumbled back, releasing me.

Cayde went flying past me as the huge Vampire he was fighting threw him full-bodily through the air. He hit the flagstones, his arms lined with bloody bites and his face a picture of rage as the Vampire ran to intercept him again.

The shouts and cries of battle sounded further down the passage, but I couldn't turn my attention to the Sky Witch and her friends because my own predator was drawing close again.

I raised my dagger, ice coating my right hand as I took in the hauntingly beautiful face of the Vampire before me.

"Your blood is mine," he declared, stepping closer with a glint of malice in his eyes.

"Come and get it then." I raised my blade higher, my teeth bared, my wrath awoken, but then a furious blast of air went crashing into my assailant and all five Vampires were thrown back into the stairwell.

I turned, finding Vesper power sharing with Dalia and Moraine, their magic forcing the Vampires back as a tempest roared down the passage then formed a barrier between us and them.

The five of them flung themselves at the wall of air, trying to break through, their eyes alight with hunger.

"We're coming for you," the one who had attacked me sang, a wildness to him that made my heart hammer. "Down in the warren with all the other bunnies. We'll hunt you like foxes and rip you apart."

"I'm quaking in my little bunny boots," Vesper drawled, looking entirely unimpressed despite the way her chest rose and fell rapidly and the blood that was splattered across her cheek. Was it all a mask she wore or was she really that cold to the core?

The Vampires threw themselves against the air shield again, but the magic held and Dalia grinned tauntingly at them like this was just a game to her.

"Move," Vesper barked and we turned our backs on the monstrous Fae who had come for our blood, charging off into the dark once more.

I stepped over Cayde who was yet to get his ass off the floor, my boot knocking into this chin as I went. He grunted irritably as he shoved to his feet, and Blue went flying over his shoulder, his wing slapping him in the face before he came to land on my hand.

"Good boy." I stroked his head, absorbing the fact that he held a fierce kind of power, one capable of knocking a Vampire on his back.

"What is that thing?" Cayde demanded from behind me, but I didn't answer.

I didn't know anyway, and if I did, I wouldn't be imparting that knowledge to a cock of a Skyforger.

I touched the bite mark on my arm, frowning at the two bloody holes as we delved deeper into the tunnels, leaving the Vampires behind. But their taunts followed us, their promises to claim our blood making my skin prickle. If I knew one thing of their kind, it was that they lived for the hunt. And we had just made ourselves into a challenge they would be dying to rise to.