Page 84 of The Ghost and the Graveyard (Knight Games 1)
"Waiting for you," the black-haired vamp said.
"Marcus, we were here first," the redhead hissed and took a step toward Amanda.
"Don't get greedy. There's enough to go around." Marcus appeared in front of the alien boy.
"Hey, back off, buddy," the boy said.
The vamps had forced the teens into a tight clump and were closing in, licking their lips. So much for any hope the teens would scale the fence and get out of there. I braced myself for a good ol' fashioned vampire slaying.
I stepped out from behind the tombstone, my right hand instinctively reaching for the sword I kept in the sheath down my back. "Hold it right there, bloodsuckers," I said in that strange voice. My boots hit the stones with running steps.
The vamps glanced my way but moved toward the teens.
Screams rang out as the three teens either noticed the vampire's fangs or my sword. They ran for the fence, but they were too late. The vamps pounced. Shaggy blond sank fang into Michael Jackson. I launched myself off a tombstone, pivoting in the air and delivering a tornado kick to his head before sinking my blade into the vamp's chest. The undead exploded into a shower of sparks.
Bleeding, Michael Jackson ran for the fence and strong-armed his way over. Marcus had Amanda pressed against his body, and he was ready to strike. She didn't stand a chance. But to get to her I needed to go through the growling and snapping ginger-headed vamp doing his best to make a meal of the alien boy. I flipped over alien's head and drove my blade into the vamp's shoulder. He melted like wax. Alien ran screaming like someone was pulling his toenails out, but unlike Michael Jackson, he wasn't strong enough to pull himself over the wrought iron. I'd have to help him when I finished off the last one.
I whirled around to face Marcus, who had succeeded in exposing Amanda's neck. With a warrior's howl, I leaped toward him, my sword above my head.
"Sorry, witch," Marcus hissed. "Not this time."
Claws ripped me from the air and tossed me backward to the stones. What the fuck? I landed on my back. Four more vamps appeared out of nowhere and wrestled me to the ground. This was an ambush. This was meant for me!
I watched Marcus sink teeth into the girl. Her scream sounded wet, like a gurgle. Blood was flowing down her trachea. She'd be dead in seconds. I tried with everything I had to help, but there was something on the vamps' hands restraining me. My magic wouldn't work.
Marcus drained the girl, wiping the last of her blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "Don't bother, Witch. Helleborine root." He licked his lips. "A little birdie told me it would temporarily render you powerless. Enjoy the show."
He easily overcame alien boy who wailed pitifully until he died. His squeals brought droves of the undead. There would be nothing left of either body by morning. The vamps would drink the blood, the zombies were partial to the internal organs, and the ghouls would eat the rest.
Pain coursed through my body as the vamps tightened their hold on my struggling limbs. "Rick!" I screamed with everything I had, but it was too late. They'd staged the gathering at the chapel to distract him, and the teens were an all-too-convenient and unexpected way to lure me out. Their real goal was to kill me, and now they would.
With human blood in his veins, Marcus was three hundred times stronger than normal, stronger than me and maybe even stronger than Rick. He strode toward me. In one graceful move, he straddled my chest and lowered himself to his knees. His razor-sharp fangs elongated near my chin.
"Stop, Marcus. If you kill me, Rick will have your head."
"I think not. With your blood strengthening me, I'll have his. And you know the beauty of caretaker flesh is that it goes on forever."
With that, he bit the place where my neck met my right shoulder, and I heard the rush of my blood flowing down his throat before my flesh tore from my neck. As I died, I had one piece of magic left the Helleborine couldn't restrain; it wasn't tied to this body. I released my soul, allowing my light to escape through my open mouth. It blew west on the fall wind. The spell took me into town, inside the open window of the nearest woman of appropriate age. I fluttered to her abdomen, and then sank beneath her skin before the blackness swallowed me.
My last thoughts were of Rick. I prayed for his safety.
As I died in my memory, the book spat me out and I was back in the attic, gasping for breath and holding my neck. I collapsed to the floor.
"Oh my," Prudence said. "I suppose reliving one's death would be a disturbing experience." She took my pulse and propped my head in her lap.
I met her eyes. "It was my mother. I saw the light enter my mother."
"I told you, you were very powerful."
I sat up to see Prudence more clearly and crisscrossed my legs in front of me. I had so many questions, I didn't know where to start. "What happened to Marcus after I died?"
"Rick tried to kill him. They fought until dawn when Marcus was forced to retreat into the underworld. With your blood and that of the two humans giving him power, he's become the leader of the vampire coven inside the Hellmouth. The vampires haven't found a way out of the cemetery yet, but Rick's been working overtime to keep it that way."
"Marcus said someone had told him to use Helleborine on me."
"Yes. Helleborine does not grow within the graveyard. Marcus had help from the outside. Maybe from the same entity that provided Monk with the Book of Flesh and Bone. Rick's spent years trying to track down your true killer."
"And without me, Rick is weaker?"
