Page 134 of Tainted Souls
Saul checks both directions. “We have a rendezvous point. If we can get there, we’ll be safe.”
We round a corner and come face to face with three vampires, their laughs cruel and determined. They move with blinding speed, converging on us from three sides. Saul meets the first with his fist, knocking him back before engaging another in feral combat. I dodge the third, trying to rely on my instinctive fighting responses.
Saul takes the two of them down, then helps me with mine. Four more appear, the numbers definitely not on our side.
With my weapons, this would’ve been over in a couple of seconds.
Two vampires slam into Saul, driving him up against the wall with enough force to chip it. I duck as two others lunge for me, their claws grazing my cheek as I roll away.
“Run!” Saul shouts, struggling under the weight of his attackers as more and more appear.
I scramble to my feet, my escape already being blocked, one from the front, the other from the back. Fear paws up my throat as I back away, desperately searching for the comfort of a weapon. My back hits the wall, nowhere left to run. The vampires smile, savoring my terror.
“Don’t worry,” one of them says, reaching for me. “We won’t kill you, but we will make you bleed.”
They lunge for me at the same time when a blur of motion tears through the corridor.
One of their heads snaps back at an impossible angle, her body lifted and hurled against the ceiling with spine-shattering force before dropping to the floor in a broken heap. The other meets the same fate, only slower, caught mid-snarl by an unseen grip and slammed into the wall hard enough to leave a crater of cracked stone and pulverized bone. His body twitches once, then goes still.
Ace stands before me, his hair wild, and his clothes splattered with vitae. He turns to the remaining vampires. “You dare enter my home?”
The vampires pinning a thrashing Saul hesitate for a fraction of a second, leaving just enough time for Ace to cross the distance between them and drive his hands through two of their chests in one clean shot.
He pulls back, still-beating hearts clutched in his fists, then tosses them aside as the bodies crumple.
Upon seeing their deaths, the others try to flee. Ace catches two of them by the back of their necks, lifting them effortlessly.
“The next time Cain sends his dogs to my door, I’ll send back more than just their hearts.” With that, he smashes them into each other and snaps their necks with a single twist, casting their corpses to the floor.
“The barriers are down,” he tells Saul, wiping vitae from his hands. “The cloaking spells, the wards, all of them.”
Saul pushes himself away from the wall, cursing under his breath.
“Max is outside,” I interject, still processing the situation and what I’ve just witnessed. “I saw him from the window, just sitting there—”
“That’s not Max.” Ace is already moving down the corridor. “What you saw is his body, nothing more. He’s being channeled by a witch, used as a host and a meat shield while they work their incantation.”
Panic rises in my chest. “How can we stop it? We have to stop it!”
Saul’s hand clamps around my arm, his grip unyielding. “Killing the host will sever the connection. Is that what you want?”
“What? No! I meant—”
“Then get your head straight and start moving.”
My brother and I follow Ace through the twisting passages of the mansion’s underbelly, the sounds of fighting growing louder again as we ascend.
“There has to be another way to help him,” I press as we emerge into a wider corridor.
Ace stops at an intersection to check for enemies. “Not right now.”
A scream echoes from somewhere ahead, followed by the sound of splintering wood. Ace motions for us to stay close as he takes a sharp turn down a side passage.
We move swiftly through the mansion, encountering small pockets of fighting. I catch glimpses of Reece fighting back-to-back with Kale, and Palina using her petite stature to her advantage as she darts between attackers. Irene has been cornered by a group of vampires ahead of us, her limbs pressed against the wall, terror in her eyes as clawed fingers reach for her heart.
Ace breaks formation, hurling himself between them and catching the vampire’s wrist mere inches from Irene’s chest, twisting until bones snap with a sickening crack. The vampire howls, her free hand slashing across Ace’s face, leaving deep gashes that immediately well with vitae.
My brother launches himself toward the other vampires trying to overwhelm the duo.
