Angel's Curse (7 page)

His face was close to mine and he tilted his head to the side to breathe in my aroma. I could feel his cold breath on my neck and couldn’t suppress the smallest of shivers, goosebumps forming on my flesh.

“And what of Danizriel? Is he hiding out here somewhere?” Drake peered into the shadows half expecting Danny to step forward.

I was grateful now that I
could
still lie. I shook my head and looked at the ground.

“No,” I said sadly. “Unfortunately he didn’t make it.”

I made some sobbing sounds in the back of my throat. Before Drake could question me any further, or possibly try to comfort me — in whatever way vampires comforted each other — I disappeared back to the cottage. I wanted my performance to be as realistic as possible. With my ability to change scents I could blend into either of my two worlds — mortal or immortal — but Danny could not. If everyone continued to believe he was dead, he, at least, was safe.

This was to be my little secret. Drake wouldn’t tell the angels I was still alive — they wouldn’t thank him for it — and if he thought Danny was dead and I was mourning him, he might also think I might be swayed into joining him. At least then I wouldn’t have to worry about being hunted down by them, although I’d need to tread carefully. Besides, if I told Danny what had happened he’d probably insist on coming with me wherever I went from now on, or ground me for eternity, which was a long time.

6.
Specialists

Over the next few months I had a lot of fun venturing out not only into the forest, but to the city, as a mortal. Danny provided me with a credit card that seemed to have no limit and I shopped like an ordinary person for clothes, shoes, books, music — anything that wasn’t edible or drinkable was fair game. I knew Danny could provide me with whatever I wanted or needed back at the cottage, but it was nice to retain some normality in my life.

I’d even bought some naughty
necessities
from an adult store and these greatly intrigued Danny. He never once baulked at anything I suggested — all harmless fun and nothing I thought would be too perverse for an angel. In fact he seemed game for anything. I was beginning to wonder what I’d unleashed.

It was fun to watch Danny examine my purchases and have him ask about what certain things were used for, even things that seemed bloody obvious to me, such as a toothbrush. I may never have to worry about visiting a dentist again, but it didn’t mean I was going to give up the feel of clean teeth and fresh breath.

Danny was content to stay at the cottage. A long overdue vacation was what he called it, and as I always came home safe and sound, he began to relax and unwind even more.

I hadn’t bumped into Drake again and was very careful to check out scents properly before venturing on a hunt.

Today I came to the corridor, the place where the borders met between what had been Danny’s territory and Amrael’s. Amrael had caused us a lot of grief by getting himself killed and sending a message back to the archangels, implicating us in his death. All untrue of course, but it was what Amrael believed, and as such was held to be the truth. Only Michael — Danny’s superior — knew differently, though his sway with the others was not what it had once been and he could do nothing to aid us.

The forest was already beginning to regenerate, as Danny had promised it would, and the animals were returning. They still kept a safe distance from me, more so when I smelled of vampire. Maybe one day I’d come here smelling of angel to see if the animals preferred that.

Hundreds of young saplings were reaching towards the sky in an endeavour to outdo their neighbours, and become the dominant tree, in an area where only a few dozen trees could grow comfortably to maturity. Some of the older trees managed to retain a tenuous grip on life, and small offshoots and buds grew on these. It was incredible to see amid all the devastation.

The corridor still smelled of death. The trees were scarred — the chains that had restrained the monsters having melted into the tree trunks during the fire that had ravaged the forest. They were a reminder — I told myself not to think of it as a memorial — of the savagery that had taken place, the trees now marked forever. A message —
we remember
— had been carved into one of the trees, further scarring it. I may not want to look at it as a memorial, but others certainly did. I knew they would tear to shreds
any
angel they came across, given the chance. Even more reason to keep Danny safe at the cottage.

As I knelt at the base of the tree, tracing the letters carved in its trunk, the air stirred around me. The muscles in my back, shoulders and neck automatically tensed. There were two scents — both vampire — neither of which I recognised. They had come up silently behind me, to see who was taking a moment to reflect at their memorial. They only saw my back and as I smelled like one of them they weren’t too concerned.

I can take out two easily,
I thought.

Once I’d finished tracing the letters I stood up and let my hands drop by my sides, flexing my fingers a few times. I took a deep breath, turned swiftly and grabbed both of them by the throat. Before they could protest I started running, and they were forced to run backwards to stop from falling over, trying with little success to pull my hands away from their throats.

When they started to stumble I slowed down. Their bodies were becoming heavy, and while I could have continued to hold them up and run I really couldn’t be bothered. They had little strength left to put up much resistance and I barely felt the few kicks that managed to connect with my shins. The rush from their blood wasn’t as good as when I drank the traditional way, but there were times when I had to use my hands and keep my mouth free, and vice versa.

I took the bodies back to the cavern, which was becoming quite crowded and smelly. I retrieved the backpack of goodies I’d brought here after Danny and I had discovered this place, liberally sprayed lighter fluid over the bodies then set fire to them. The smoke was thick and black, the fumes almost unbearable. When my eyes started to water I decided it was time to leave.

There were two things I still wanted to do before returning to the cottage: eat the traditional way — there was nothing like the taste of vampire blood, warm and sweet like honey, in my mouth — and give Death a bit of a workout. I missed its singing and was keen to hear it again. I’d only used it to kill vampires so far, and wondered if it would sing if I killed other creatures. Would it sing if I injured or maimed them instead of killing them? Would the song be different if I killed or maimed werewolves, varakianas or zombies? One day I’d find out, just as I’d find out what the real things, and not the old pretend sparring partners I used to have, tasted like.

I knew Danny wouldn’t like what I was going to do, but what he didn’t know couldn’t get me into trouble. I was going to venture underground. Over the past few months I’d found another eight entrances, bringing the total to thirteen so far. Every time I reported a new entrance to Danny he added it to the map and we reviewed what we knew. The network, if indeed that was what it was, and not a series of separate underground cells, ran at least three hundred kilometres. The number of vampires that could be housed in such a large area was staggering. My mother had said some of the chambers in the underground network could hold up to a thousand. Anything could be happening directly beneath my feet and I’d be none the wiser.

The last time I’d been in the tunnels I hadn’t been able to transport myself anywhere, and had to rely on Danny to get me out of tight situations. Now, if I knew where I was going, I could transport myself instantly, so the tunnels didn’t seem so much of a problem anymore. I thought Danny worried about them unnecessarily.
He’s a bit of an old fuddy-duddy at times.

I headed to the entrance closest to my present location, roughly fifty kilometres away. There were at least three hours of sunlight left and I was torn between not wasting a minute of it and transporting instantly, or enjoying the freedom of running like the wind.
Right, Helena, run,
I thought to myself.
You could do with the exercise.
My decision made, I started to run. At top speed I could run fifty kilometres in less than fifteen minutes. What was fifteen minutes to an immortal? I’d save transporting for going back to the cottage, and Danny. For now, I’d run.

I slowed down as I reached my destination, holding Death in my hand. I was ready to strike out if I needed to. The entrance was unguarded and all the rooms I encountered during the first hour were empty. There were signs of recent activity, though — up to a week ago.

This was getting boring, fast. If only I had Danny’s abilities when it came to hunting, scent trails and tracking. He would’ve been able to point me in the right direction in a couple of minutes, with an indication of how old the trail was and how long he thought it would take me to catch up.

Boring!

I transported out of there and without even thinking ended up in the temple, which I hadn’t visited for almost four weeks. It was a place I subconsciously thought might be good for a bit of activity.

There were definitely a number of scents in the temple, yet I couldn’t see anyone. Everything was quite dark, even after my vision adjusted to the gloom. If I could smell them, I should be able to see them, and as I pondered why I was seemingly blind I felt something hit me in the back and knock me to the ground. I rolled over quickly and was on my feet, standing in a defensive position, with Death poised to take any who challenged me.

I glanced from side to side, but could see nothing, further adding to my confusion as to what the hell was going on. As I looked to the left something hit me in the side from the other direction, with a great deal of force, and I literally flew a few metres through the air, dropping Death before hitting the ground, the wind knocked out of me. I really wanted to know what was kicking the shit out of me.

I scrambled to pick up Death and heard the slightest of sounds. As my fingers closed around Death I performed a circle sweep with my leg and was pleased to feel it make contact with something that fell and rolled away — at least I wasn’t going crazy — but I still couldn’t see what was attacking me. The best I could manage was a vague outline. I let me eyes lose focus, like I did when I wanted to view a number of different things, and found I could follow the movements of five separate individuals. They were all cloaked in black from head to foot, with a sheer black fabric covering their eyes. This explained why I had such trouble seeing them. The only reason I could think they’d be clothed in such a way was so my hands couldn’t make contact with skin. The vampires were getting smarter and adapting their tactics accordingly.

I must have reduced their numbers by about fifty over the past few months. Naturally they’d be getting tired of the slaughter. If I were them I’d be doing the exact same thing, trying to find a way around my talents, to give them a fighting chance. And let’s face it, I couldn’t resist a challenge. If things got too heated I could always leave, but for now, with the adrenaline rushing through my blood, the fight response dominated.
Bring it on!

I stood up and held Death lightly in my hand, keeping my eyes unfocused. I lashed out a few times in every which way, to make them think I couldn’t see a thing.

“Show yourselves you cowards,” I said, trying to goad them into doing something rash, “or do you only fight in the shadows.”

They remained calm and still. It was their turn to try and get me to do something rash. So here we were, each of us waiting for the other to react. I could just disappear, but where would be the fun in that. For the moment I wasn’t in any great danger.

When one of the shapes moved I was able to track its path. I crouched down quickly then launched myself into the air with a backflip. Twisting my body halfway through, I kicked out at the shape, before landing on my feet with my back to the wall. Okay, so the element of surprise was gone and they’d now know what I’d done was no fluke. I knew where the one that was moving had been headed. They were spread out in a line now, waiting once again.

“
Come on, girls,
” I teased, “you’ll have to do better than that!”

I got the reaction I was after. Quite obviously they were
not
girls — I would’ve known by their scents anyway — and didn’t like being referred to as
girls
. Typical male ego! The ones at either end of the line came at me together. I crouched down again. When they expected me to perform a flip, I stayed down low, and with a quick, sweeping slash, cut off their feet above the ankles using Death. They fell backwards, rolling on the floor — in agony I imagined — but not a sound escaped their lips. I had to admire their resolve — to not scream or cry out in the slightest, even involuntarily, was amazing. I would’ve been making some noise, that’s for sure.

Before they could pull themselves together, literally as well as physically — I figured that if heads could re-fuse, other body parts could as well — I needed to act. I would’ve been able to dispatch them both at the same time if they’d fallen closer together, or if I’d had two blades — seems I was ambidextrous now — but I had to settle for one at a time, though I’d have to be quick.

I scrambled the couple of metres to the closest one, kicking a foot out of the way in the process and knelt on its chest, dealing the death blow with my blade quickly. Death sang a sweet and joyous melody. The crescendo increased until it was almost deafening —
why can’t anyone else hear it?
— and I had to fight to drown it out and concentrate on the other four assassins. When I turned to reach out for the other one who’d been on the floor moments ago I found he was gone.