Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Some vampires have almost human intellect, others are little more than beasts. The ones we are fighting here are closer to zombies. They are hungry for what lies inside us. My light, and Skor’s dark.
They are vicious and they are not going to stop coming for us. Not for anything. Their fangs are sharp and their awful will is worse. My light is weakening every time I call it, and finally one of them slashes Skor hard with its fangs, pushing him out of his wolf form and into a cowering muscular naked human one.
He collapses at my feet, absolutely exhausted, and unable to defend me. The vampires close in around us, and there is less than a second to do anything to preserve our lives.
I summon the light with all my might. I lift my eyes to the sky and I remember what it was to look out from the mountains and feel all the power of the woods. I remember who I am, and where I came from.
A golden halo extends around us, a small circle of sunlight that encompasses Skor and me, keeping the vampires at bay. We are trapped in a circle of vampire ash and body remnants, and more furious creatures who would tear us to pieces if they could. The more death there is, the more the dark creatures are drawn to us. There is no way out of this.
“I am sorry,” Skor says, rising to one knee. “I thought this might… I thought we could… I thought…”
I listen to him try to explain that he thought he might be able to break one of the most powerful curses I have ever been near simply by throwing us both at it.
“My father thinks I am a coward for bringing you here,” Skor grunts. “He thinks I should have kept you far from this place, forgotten about the curse, let it take my little sister. He was happy to live and die this way, surrounded by these evils. I thought…”
“Argghhhghbbble!”
The vampires are pressed close around us, staying just clear of the last beam I have managed to summon. I won’t be able to hold this forever. Soon it will fade, and we will both be consumed, and the short story of my life will end in a spray of blood and a mangling of flesh.
This would make a normal girl, one who doesn’t mind the speed of trains, or the crowds of a restaurant, panic. But I was born in a place where everybody dies brutally one way or another. I never expected my life to end any other way. This is why I have a sense of clarity, I think. A sort of odd awareness as everything makes sense. I understand what’s happening now. I grab Skor by the hair and lift his head so he looks at me.
“The curse isn’t about me. Or you. It’s about power.”
“Okay?” Skor looks at me blankly.
“You have to give up the power your ancestor claimed. You have to renounce it completely. This darkness in you has to die.”
Dawn is coming.
I can sense it.
But it is not coming fast enough, and even when it does, the weak sun won’t keep these creatures from their ongoing attacks.
We have to do something neither one of us have ever wanted to do. We have to sacrifice the parts of ourselves we’ve held onto at all costs.
“I don’t know how to give it up. How do I get it out of me? I’d do it in a heartbeat if I knew how to exorcise this demon.”
“You don’t know how to give up power?” I smirk at him. “You know how to take it, Skor. Giving it up is just the opposite.”
“What do you mean?” There is something charmingly helpless about him as the evils of the world bear down upon us.
I smile, because even in the midst of death and chaos, this is going to be fun to say.
“Submit.”
CHAPTER 13
Krall
We’re too late.
We drove home as fast as we could, but the battlefield is obvious. There are hundreds of vampires surrounding a thin beam of light. It looks like some kind of ant swarm from a distance, but up close, there are tons of vampiric flesh.
“Are we too late?” Thorn asks the redundant question in the hopes I’ll tell him everything is going to somehow be okay.
“We need elevated ground,” I growl, heading for the church tower that stands at the edge of the village green where this battle for the souls of our family is raging.
I have wanted to suppress her magic from the moment I met her, now I hope that it is strong enough to overcome the incredible evil Skor has chosen to make her face. Stupid, selfish, idiot man. We could have lived happily ever after in a city full of wonders, and instead we are here, where every rock and crag develops a covering of moss and lichen almost immediately.