Page 140 of Kick the Candle (Knight Games 2)
"Ahhh," I yelled with the effort of rolling the creature through the air. Nightshade slipped from its flesh. The body landed with a bone cracking thump on its back on the wood floor. I hopped down from the island and positioned my blade over its heart. I paused as the body shivered, twisted, bones snapping and muscles stretching. When the nekomata had shifted, Seraphina stared up at me, hand gripping the wound in her side.
"You can't kill me, Grateful," she whined. "You'll break your daddy's heart." Her strange green eyes locked onto mine.
"Didn't he tell you? You're not his type." I leaped into the air, landing one boot on her chest the other on the floor, and sank my blade straight through her ribs, directly into her heart. She writhed beneath my boot for a moment, half shifting before the light in her eyes dulled. Her body went limp. I kicked it off my blade.
I turned to face the door but no more entered. "There were more than five, Poe. Where are the rest?" The sound of shattering glass below us answered my question. I bolted for the door to the basement, throwing it open with enough force for it to bounce off the far wall. I could hear a struggle and the sound of crunching glass under scampering feet.
"Do it!" Kai ordered.
When I reached the bottom, I came up short at what I saw. Soleil! Kai stood next to the pushed aside pool table at the base of the vault, one hand around the fairy's long, graceful neck, the other gripping her hands behind her back. Her eyes flicked to mine for a split second before a lightning fast blast of energy threw me against the wall, knocking Nightshade from my hand. Before I'd known what hit me, Naill, Anna Bathory's pet leprechaun, had straddled my chest, knees over my arms, and dagger pressed to my throat. "Don't move a muscle, Hecate, or I will cut your throat out."
"How are you here?" I blurted, eyes flashing to Kai and Soleil. "I thought nekomata hated vampires and you Naill, are definitely aligned with the vampires." I made the revelation for Kai's benefit, but he didn't even flinch.
"You are blonde, aren't you?" Naill said. "Why do you think Anna and I helped the nightmares escape the graveyard? The nekomata have to open the vault, and you are right, they hate vampires. Fortunately, the clan is known to blindly follow their leader. A little leprechaun magic and our vaporous friend ensured Kai would be sympathetic to our cause."
"Kai's possessed by a nightmare?"
"A nightmare that owes Anna a favor."
"And expects a reward," possessed Kai said, pushing Soleil by the neck toward the vault.
Naill nodded at Kai. "You must do it now. The Solstice is upon us. Her Majesty will have your head should you fail."
Trapped under Naill's knife, I searched the room for Poe.
"Looking for this?" Naill pointed at a sack to my right containing the thrashing form of a raven sized object. Fuck, I hated that ginger. How did his tiny legs move so fast? "Don't get any ideas. He can't break through the bag. It's soaked in Helleborine."
"Mr. Helleborine! You!"
Naill laughed wickedly.
"Don't do it," I begged Soleil and was rewarded with a stubby hand over my mouth.
Kai thrust her forward, and I watched his grip tighten around her neck, reddening the skin there. Soleil's eye's filled with tears. She was holding back, I could tell, but it was painful.
"Now, Kai!" Naill demanded.
The nekomata dug in harder, until Soleil's neck began to bleed, but the blood was not red like human blood. Soleil's blood was liquid sunshine, so bright I had to partially close my eyes as it dripped onto the stone vault and sizzled like acid.
Kai's voice filled the space as he spoke the incantation, and Soleil glowed ever brighter under his assault. I closed my eyes fully and sent out my strongest plea yet for Rick's help, but nothing came down our connection. Either he couldn't hear me, or he wasn't answering.
A mighty crack echoed through the room.
I opened my eyes to see the dusty, cobweb covered interior of a crypt exposed to Soleil's light. Before I could react, Naill pounded the hilt of his dagger into my temple, so hard my teeth clanked together and my skull bounced against the tile floor with a resounding crack. I fought against the temptation to pass out, sure that the last of my armor enchantment had dissipated with the force of surviving the onslaught.
Unable to move, I watched Naill push Kai and Soleil aside and hop into the crypt, emerging a moment later with a book powerful enough to fill the space between us with a heavy, palpable dread. This wasn't just a grimoire. The darkness leaching from it pushed Soleil's light back inside her skin. The fairy moaned and listed to the side in Kai's grip.
In an army crawl, I pulled myself forward for a better view. I recognized the corner of the tome as a shoulder blade. A human spine bound the pages. Slivers of bone framed the cover made from leathered human skin. I'd heard the pages were also made of skin, and the writing, not ink but blood. The book appeared to have a clasp or lock of some kind constructed of a human jaw and other, smaller bones.
Naill chuckled wickedly and held The Book of Flesh and Bone above his head like a prize.
"Let me see it," Kai demanded, casting Soleil to the floor and reaching for what he wanted. "Give it to me."
"Patience. The mistress will be here to open it at dusk."
"Bathory had better remember our deal. The first spell must be used for me, then the book is yours." A flash of black fog passed behind Kai's irises.
"Of course, that is the deal. Soon you will have your own flesh and the mistress will have true immortality."
