Chapter 14

Chapter

Fourteen

‘ I think the best plan is for you to sally forth, Daisy, while Otis and I wait here,’ Hester said.

‘I thought you’d changed your mind and you were behind my plan?’

She nodded. ‘I’m all the way behind it. At least half a mile behind it, in fact.’

It would be for the best: if I didn’t have to worry about Hester and Otis getting hurt, I could concentrate on any vampires who appeared. ‘Alright,’ I said. ‘But you stay right here. You do not leave this spot.’

‘Don’t die,’ Otis whispered.

Hester agreed. ‘We need you to get us back to where we belong.’

‘You’re all heart.’

She bobbed her head solemnly. ‘You know it.’

I raised my hand in farewell and slipped out of the dark alleyway. The bottle of vamp spray that Tracey had concocted lay nestled in my pocket, and I’d swallowed as much spider’s silk as I dared. I was as ready as I could be – but now that I was out here in the cold, quiet night, my earlier confidence was deserting me.

‘Only vampires,’ I muttered to myself. ‘Only vampires. Nothing to worry about.’

Unsurprisingly, the Edinburgh streets were empty. Local people clearly heeded the dangers presented by the burgeoning population of fanged fuckers and hurried home as soon it was dark.

There were plenty of lamp posts, and their orange glow provided more than enough light to see what was up ahead, but somehow their eerie reflections in the small puddles of water and on the slick cobblestones discomfited me. The whistling breeze that was echoing up and down the empty street and ruffling my hair didn’t help matters.

I turned up my collar against the chill and moved quickly. With any luck, a passing vampire would notice me and come running over for a quick meal. I only needed one; I didn’t need to be greedy.

I turned right at the bottom of the hill and passed a dilapidated building that I knew would soon be torn down and replaced by student flats. There was a flicker of movement and I half turned, pausing for a moment until I spotted a small mouse scurrying in the gutter. I tipped an imaginary hat in its direction then continued on my way.

I didn’t have a particular destination in mind, and I’d hoped that a direction-less amble would quickly yield results, but when several minutes passed and the tiny mouse was the only creature I’d seen, I decided to alter my approach. There was an old graveyard past the next row of tenements; maybe I’d hit paydirt there.

As soon as I stepped off the pavement to cross the road, I heard snuffling. Yahtzee.

The vampire was a sorry-looking creature. His clothes were hanging off him in tattered, rotting strips, and his flesh was sunken and grey. He was shuffling along the middle of the cobbled road, dragging his left foot behind him; from the angle, it was badly broken. Vampires rarely felt pain; they possessed less awareness of their physical situation than the mouse I’d passed. Even so, as I watched his slow approach I reasoned that I was doing him a favour by putting him out of his misery so he could be laid to rest for good.

My right hand reached for Gladys and I slid her two inches out of her sheath. My left hand reached for Tracey’s vamp spray; thankfully, it only shook slightly when I gripped it. I straightened my spine, raised my head and gave a long, low whistle.

It took the vampire a few seconds to register the sound. When he did, he froze for half a beat before twisting his head towards me. I heard the bones in his neck cracking as he fixed his gaze – and then he came for me.

I took three side steps to position myself in the middle of the road so I had plenty of room to manoeuvre and wouldn’t end up boxed in. The vampire opened his mouth in a silent scream and showed me his fangs to prove that he meant business.

I waited until he was close enough before I acted. When he was less than a metre away and my nostrils started tickling at the stench of his rotting, undead body, I directed the small plastic spray bottle at his face and sent a cloud of fine droplets towards him.

The vamp’s reaction was instantaneous: as soon as the magicked combination of holy water and wild garlic hit him, he screeched and started clawing at his face. I smacked my lips in satisfaction as the concoction ate at his flesh and blinded him. Then I swung Gladys at his exposed neck and, with one swift strike, lopped off his head. Gladys hummed with glee as he crumpled to the cobbles.

The process had taken less than five seconds. ‘Only a vampire,’ I whispered and smiled.

I returned Gladys to her sheath and retrieved the penknife Tracey had lent me, then knelt down to start the unpleasant task of extracting the vampire’s fangs before I set the body alight to stop it ever rising again.

I’d barely made an incision when Gladys buzzed in warning. I stopped moving and listened hard. I could hear the hiss of laboured breath. Cumbubbling bollocks: something was behind me.

I slowly straightened up and glanced around. Oh no .

There were six vampires surrounding me, two behind, two in front and one on either side, and they were all in much better condition than the corpse at my feet. I was trapped.

The vampires were drawing closer and closer, matching their strides and maintaining the same distance from each other. They were working together, none of them allowing their bloodlust to take over and none of them going for an immediate attack. I’d never seen such a thing before.

As I shook my head in amazement, I wondered if they’d sent the first vamp out as bait to lull me into a false sense of security. But no, that didn’t make any sense because vampires were mindless automatons whose festering brain cells allowed no intelligent or rational thought. This was most definitely not supposed to happen.

Then an annoying, prickling sensation started at the nape of my neck and descended through my body. I knew instantly what it meant. There was a fiend nearby.

I quashed my terror as soon as it began, flattened my mouth into a grim line and hoped the fiend was Baltar. I had killed him in 2024 – no-one had been more surprised than me when I’d defeated him in the depths of an old dragon lair. When I’d first seen him, he’d spoken as if we’d met before. If this was Baltar, history dictated that I could beat him and stay alive. I doubted I’d have much of a chance if Athair was lurking in the shadows.

In any case, I needed to prioritise and deal with the posse of vampires first. I swallowed hard, unsheathed Gladys again and tried to remember Miriam’s training as the six of them closed in.

I turned slowly. They were clearly preparing to attack simultaneously, and I doubted I could take on all the bastards in close combat, but I was far from beaten. I had much more than Gladys at my disposal.

It wasn’t clear how the hidden fiend was communicating with the vampires; for all I knew, the bloodsuckers were under its control and instructions were being relayed with telepathic immediacy. I had to assume the worst and act accordingly.

I gripped Gladys with both hands and aimed her blade high as I completed another slow 360-degree turn, sweeping my sword through the air with glittering intent – and glorious misdirection. Then I inhaled deeply and flung out an arc of earth magic.

The effect was immediate. The ground shook and the cobblestones loosened, some flying several feet upwards before clattering down again. The road ruptured, first in a perfect circle that mimicked my sword sweep, then in radial cracks.

Four of the vampires fell backwards, and one lurched forward and snagged her leg in the hole my magic had created. She grunted and jerked as she tried to free herself. I focused on the sixth vampire, the only one who was still advancing.

Rather than blast him with more magic, I gave Gladys the honour of killing him. She sang as I swiped her tip forward, and she pierced the vamp’s eye before entering his skull. He didn’t make a sound, just gazed at me in confusion before falling to his knees and toppling forward.

There wasn’t time to congratulate myself. Three of the other vampires were already back on their feet. ‘Alright then,’ I said. ‘Come at me.’

Whatever control the concealed fiend had been exerting was fading away; the vampires’ faces were contorting and the wild hunger I was used to seeing in their eyes was taking over. I felt genuinely relieved that the natural order of things was reappearing, though I didn’t have long to feel pleased. All three of them meant business.

My skin was itching even more – the fiend must be getting closer. I shook away the sensation and blasted the nearest vampire with a jet of scorching fire magic. He roared as his body was engulfed in flames, though it didn’t stop his advance. His focus was so single-minded that he continued running at me, flaming arms akimbo. As I gulped and jumped out of the way, I almost fell into the hole I’d made.

The other two vampires followed, bloodlust speeding up their movements. I threw out a burst of water magic to douse the burning vampire and the force of the water knocked him down. The resulting steam blocked the view of his two companions for a few seconds, but that was all I needed.

Instead of running away, I ran at them. I pumped Tracey’s spray bottle vigorously, dispersing the anti-vamp potion into the steam – then I shrugged, yanked off the top and chucked in the rest of the contents. The answering shrieks were enough to tell me I’d hit paydirt.

I dropped the bottle and backed away several metres before blowing out a gentle gust of air magic to clear away the steam and see the damage for myself. The vampire who’d been on fire was down and out; his left arm was twitching but his body was charred beyond recognition. The two vampires who’d joined his attack were on their knees, their hands raised to their faces. Tracey’s vamp spray really was potent stuff: I could see exposed bone down the side of one of the vampire’s skulls. Her potion had eaten his flesh. Now all I had to do was use Gladys to finish them off for good.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance. The two remaining vampires were back on their feet. The one who’d snagged herself in the hole created by my earth magic had freed herself while the other one, who’d been knocked over by the same blast, had also recovered. The female sprinted at me from my right as the male hurtled forward on all fours like an animal from my left.

Time seemed to slow down. I didn’t know whether it was because of all the training I’d received from Hugo and his Primes or whether my own instincts kicked in, but I held my ground for one beat, then two. In the split second before both vamps were on me, I jumped backwards. Instead of throwing themselves onto my body, they collided with each other. Not realising that I’d moved out of the way, they went for each other and started tearing off chunks of flesh, screeching at the top of their rotting lungs.

Something altered in the cool night air and for a moment I was confused. I felt a strange stillness overtake the atmosphere; it was as if the world itself were taking a breath. Then a wave of powerful magic rippled from behind me, gathering in the air and rushing past my body. It engulfed first me and then the group of vampires.

A whimper escaped my lips as I stumbled onto my hands and knees and my chest constricted. Some sort of invisible force was pushing me down. I gulped in air, trying to recover and fight whatever nasty magic was surrounding me. With a great effort, I raised my head in time to see all the surviving vampires collapse in a synchronised thud onto the slick cobblestones .

A voice rang out across the street. ‘Well, I suppose if you want a job done properly you have to do it yourself.’

I turned my head. Less than twenty metres away, illuminated by both moonlight and the orange-tinted light from the nearby lampposts, stood the glittering golden body of a fiend. No doubt this was who had been controlling the vampires.

And no doubt this was when the real battle would begin.