All things that I should have cared about, but at that moment, didn’t.
My sword cut through the torso of a vampire like it was softened butter, his innards falling to the ground. He wouldn’t die from the wounds, but it had to hurt like a bitch. The scream he let out nearly burst my eardrums, loud enough to wake the whole block. I smirked and moved onto the next closest assailant, gliding across the uneven ground with a practiced grace.
I’d go back to finish him off. I wasn’t heartless. For now, he’d be more concerned about trying to put everything that was outside of him inside again, so he could heal properly.
The next guard was more prepared for me, raising a blade of his own to parry my blow. My smirk grew. I glimpsed my reflection in a window, finding I looked downright maniacal, and I felt that way too. Another man came up behind me, blade thrusting at my back, but I effortlessly spun with my blade, piercing his exposed stomach. He choked and gurgled blood, and I pushed him back. Taking off his head with a powerful swing of my sword, I let the momentum keep me spinning until the other opponent’s head was falling to the ground in the same breath.
Four men gaped at me, an odd mix of awe and terror on their expressions.
“Who’s next?” I asked.
My grin let blood drip into my mouth from the mess covering my front and hair. I didn’t bother to spit the coppery substance out. There would be more. I was only half drenched.
I did a quick count in my head, determining I’d taken out five of the approximately fifteen. A solid start, and I was mostly uninjured. One small cut had healed instantly on my bicep, acquired during my two-on-one battle.
“All of us,” one man grunted, breaking out of his trance to rush forward.
As I’d expected. They’d seen how well two-on-one worked. In theory, their approach had a higher chance of success. However, I knew I would win from the first second they moved. They didn’t work as a team, and even their personal footwork was clumsy. One vampire brought out his affinity and encased his sword in flames, but he didn’t seem aware of how to use that as an effective strategy. Another incubus tried to use his control on me, but I was unaffected.
Caspian had been against using his control on me, even for me to practice evading its effects, but I’d insisted.
I laughed as I parried and lunged, leaving more nicks and cuts on them than they did on me. The quick succession of movements, my body struggling to block beings that were significantly faster than me, wore me down fast. My gaze followed the vampire as he darted around me, trying to catch me with the flames, until I spotted my opening.
Throwing myself to the side, the heat of the flames licked against my throat but didn’t make contact. While the vampire took a second to relish how close he’d gotten to taking my head, I brought my hand up and wrapped it around the blade. Flame burned me and steel cut through the tough palm of my hand, but with one firm tug I had the vampire practically in my lap.
Plenty close enough to slice off his head.
He wasn’t quick enough to let go of his sword, and his head fell to the ground.
Another shower of blood.
I took advantage of the stunned guards to use the vampire’s blade, flames extinguished with his life force, to pierce the hearts of two of the other men. They dropped to the ground, gasping before falling unconscious. The final one was the incubus, looking like he was about to piss himself.
“Gods help me,” he whispered, eyes darting to the slowly lightening night sky.
“The gods aren’t around to help you now.”
The vampire’s sword sank into his stomach, twisting back and forth as he tried to back away. It pressed him against the side of the building, and I shoved the sword deeper until it impaled him, pinning him to the house. Then I released it and he squirmed like a worm on a hook. “How many men are in the house?”
“Eight.”
I internally cursed. Great, more than I’d initially thought. “And where is she?”
“Who?”
Grunting, I grabbed the sword and twisted it. He screamed. “I think you know who,” I said.
“Fuck, I don’t know. They must have taken her somewhere else, but we have a different woman in the basement.”
I left his body pinned to the wall and cleaved off his head, then moved to finish the job on the others. The man I’d gutted had managed surprisingly well to reacquire his innards before I got back to him. It was a shame his attempts had been for nothing. Then again, relief flashed through his gaze when he spotted me coming back toward him, and he didn’t put up a fight when I swung the sword.
By the time I was done with the men outside, I was a mess of blood and there were heads lying like abandoned soccer balls on the lawn. The guards inside the house had opted to stay there, but they would be ready for me. I felt eyes on the back of my neck, watching as I stole weapons off the bodies and shoved them into holsters or hid them in my pockets.
I’d had yet to use my angelic light, but I wouldn’t get in the house without it. There was also no way for me to sneak inside, so I opted to step up to the front door.
I knocked once.
My grin widened at the lack of response.
