Heart of the Dead: Vampire Superheroes (Perpetual Creatures Book 1) (31 page)

The foul odor of savage blood filled the air around them. There came a sound of metal scissoring together, followed by Suhail’s howl of pain. And then they were falling, all three of them, down toward the fire burning atop the machinery, down toward Kole and his newly formed leg.

Chapter Twenty-Four

O
nce again, had Jerusa been mortal, the fall from the high girder to the top of the machinery would have killed her. Instead, her vampiric body absorbed the impact and immediately went to repairing the damage done. It still hurt, though.

The world buzzed around her head like an annoying fly. Jerusa sat up, swatting at the disjointed images her rattled brain tried to piece together. Or maybe it was the smoke from the fire. Someone was on their knees near the fire, screaming in rage.

Jerusa fought off a swoon and focused her thoughts, willing her senses to recalibrate. There were two others atop the machinery with her, one on his knees near the fire, the other just to her left.

Suhail clutched his right arm to his chest as he stared into the fire at a black and twisting mass. It looked like a large spider, twitching in the flames until finally it was consumed and fell into a pile of glowing ash. That was when Jerusa noticed Suhail’s hand was missing above the wrist.

A moan caught her attention and she turned to the person to her left. Shufah pushed to her knees, still clutching the blood-covered garden shears she had used to sever her brother’s hand and bring them all tumbling to the ground.

Jerusa rushed to help Shufah up. Her dress was in tatters, stained with dirt and blood. Her face was swollen, her jaw shattered, her teeth missing. Oozing cuts and dark bruises covered her tiny frame. One eye seemed forged of blood. She had not fared so well in the battle with her brother, but she had survived and had come to Jerusa’s rescue.

Jerusa held Shufah tight to her chest, the tears welling thick in her eyes. She bent to kiss her forehead, but before her lips could touch Shufah’s feverish flesh, a hand took hold of Jerusa’s hair once more and jerked her head backward.

Suhail dragged Jerusa across the top of the machinery by her hair like an insane caveman. “She took my hand,” he said, the firelight fueling the maniacal glow in his eyes. “Burned it in the fire. First, I’m going to burn you, then I’m going to burn her.”

Jerusa could feel the heat of the fire growing. The stench of scorched metal, melting paint, and singed flesh hung heavy in the air. She clawed with her hands, kicked with her feet, fighting with all that she had to slow her journey to the fire, but there was nothing to grab hold of and Suhail’s strength was far above anything she had imagined.

Just as Suhail was about to heave Jerusa into the fire, Taos leapt to the top of the machinery, clubbing Suhail in the face with his right hand. Suhail released Jerusa’s hair in an attempt to block the blow, but Taos’s attack sent him cartwheeling head over feet until he landed on his back near Shufah.

Taos extended a charred and mangled hand and Jerusa took it without delay. The explosion had burned away most of his blond hair and had left his face and hands blistered and blackened. Jerusa took solace in knowing that the vampire spirit would eventually return Taos and Shufah to their eternal beauty, but the pain they endured right now broke her heart.

Suhail climbed to his feet. “You are going to regret that, Taos. You should never have betrayed me.”

Taos ushered Jerusa to the side and slightly behind him. He stood, prepared for the attack, but instead of rushing forward, Suhail turned and kicked his sister in the head.

Shufah flipped over onto her back, dazed and moaning. Suhail raised his foot to stomp on her face, but Shufah held up the garden shears. Suhail stopped, dropped his foot, and stared at the blades glistening red with blood. He said something to his sister in a language Jerusa couldn’t understand, though she got the impression it was not a compliment. Shufah waved the blades at him, though more as if she wanted him to see something rather than threatening him with them. A raspy laugh rolled out of her broken mouth. She responded to him in the same language, then with a flip of her wrist, she sent the shears tumbling through the air to splash down in the black water of the pit where the remains of her lover, Foster, lay.

Whatever Shufah had said, it greatly affected Suhail, causing him to stumble backward as if drunk. He squeezed the bloody stub at the end of his arm. Jerusa wondered if his hand would regenerate on its own, or would he have to replace the tissue as a savage would? He had been terribly upset when the fire had reduced his severed hand to ashes. Perhaps Shufah had condemned him to an eternal scar, a blight in the eyes of the Stewards.

Movement near the pit-side edge of the machinery caught Jerusa’s attention. She grabbed Taos’s fire-charred arm in an involuntary startled action, causing him to wince in pain. He followed her gaze and cursed aloud at what he saw.

Kole stood on the edge of the machinery, his withered lips pulled back in that demonic grin, his blood-filled eyes shining with the dwindling firelight. A tremor like a rolling muscle spasm overtook him. It was as though he were running a systems check on his body, testing what worked and what didn’t. He regarded them each in turn as a low, rolling groan, like the croak of a bullfrog, fell from his mouth.

They all stood frozen, as if by their paralysis they could somehow become invisible to Kole. The bare skin of his new leg and the healed wound in his chest still held the skin tones of Kole’s victims, giving him an almost piebald complexion. The tremor ran its course. Kole looked at each of them again, perhaps judging his options, then made a run at Suhail and Shufah.

Suhail dove over the edge of the machinery, rolling across the dust-carpeted concrete floor, stumbled to his feet and vanished into the shadows. Kole continued on, unperturbed, snatching up Shufah as she struggled to follow her brother.

Jerusa screamed as she rushed for Shufah. Taos tried to stop her, but she forced her way around his hulking form, smashing away his grasping hands. The entire world took on a strange, pulsing slow-motion quality, as though she were viewing life frame by frame in sync with her heart. Shufah struggled against Kole, who had her arms pinned in a crushing embrace. Kole’s mouth was open, fangs exposed, head drawn back like a cobra preparing to strike. Taos shouted her name. Thad cried out from somewhere in the darkness below. The sound of Suhail escaping through the plywood cover of one of the first floor windows echoed to the ceiling and back down. The light outside held a hint of predawn glow. And running beside her, keeping pace, was Alicia.

Jerusa wrapped both of her hands around Kole’s neck as she collided with him. The impact sent the three of them tumbling over the edge and smashing onto the concrete floor below. As they barrel-rolled over one another, Shufah was ejected from the mix. Jerusa squeezed tight, crushing the bones in Kole’s throat. He let out a garbled cry, but never once faltered in his attack against her.

They continued on, each struggling to gain the upper position. Kole tore at Jerusa’s hand, breaking several fingers, but she would not let go. He gouged at her eyes, hammered at her arms, smashed at her face with teeth-shattering punches. Jerusa landed on her back with Kole sitting upon her chest.

Jerusa’s grip weakened and Kole lunged in to bite her face. She shifted to the side and the crack of Kole’s venomous teeth clacking together thundered in her ear. Kole grasped Jerusa’s throat in both hands, digging his talon-like fingers into the sides of her neck. Her strength was waning. She couldn’t hold out much longer.

A light shone over Jerusa’s head and Kole screeched in pain. Alicia stood just above her head, and she was not alone. Beside the ghost girl in her eternal prom dress stood Foster, whole and perfect, his skin as resplendent as the noonday sun.

Tears spilled down the sides of Jerusa’s face as she looked up at Foster. She wished that he would look at her, but he was pouring all his will into blinding Kole. She wanted to tell him that she was sorry that he had died, sorry that he had sacrificed immortality with Shufah, sorry that it was all her fault.

Kole writhed and screamed at the pain the light brought him, but he would not let go.

Darkness crept into the edges of the world. A burning numbness swept down Jerusa’s arms. The light emanating from Alicia and Foster began to flicker. Jerusa looked for the others, but they had no power to save her this time.

Jerusa pulled in one last tattered breath and in a shout that came out as a whisper, she said, “Silvanus.”

Her arms gave out.

Chapter Twenty-Five

K
ole came close enough that Jerusa could smell the poisonous fume of his breath, could feel the brush of his festering tongue on her neck, but just as his teeth were set to pierce her skin, he stopped.

Kole arched his neck backward and his shoulders pressed high to his ears. He released Jerusa’s hands, which he had pinned to the ground, and reached behind him. Jerusa’s vision cleared and that’s when she noticed a form standing over them. The figure, cast in shadows, pulled Kole off of Jerusa, holding him by his neck. Kole fought to free himself, but the man flipped him sideways, catching his crotch in his free hand. He dropped Kole onto his knee and the savage’s back broke with a thundering
crack
. The man spun and sent Kole flying across the room. The savage smashed into the concrete block wall and crumpled into a twisted heap.

Hands touched Jerusa’s shoulder and she flinched. Taos and Shufah knelt on either side of Jerusa and Thad stood just behind her. They looked, in wild wonderment, at the man whose attention was still directed at Kole.

“Get her back,” the man said to Shufah. “I don’t know how well I can control this.” He held his hands up before his chest, pressing them almost together as though he was squeezing something invisible. A ball of bright red fire ignited between his palms, swirling and pulsating as it increased in mass.

The light of the fire chased away the shadows, revealing the face of the man.

“Silvanus,” Jerusa cried out.

He gave her a pained smile over his shoulder. His arms trembled as he held the fire. His legs bent as if he bore a great weight. “Please. Get. Back.”

Shufah and Taos each took Jerusa under an arm and dragged her backward across the dusty floor. Thad tried to keep up, but he couldn’t match their speed, so Taos scooped him up with his free arm as he passed. They moved clear to the opposite side of the building, then stopped to watch.

The ball of fire had quadrupled in size and tentacles of flame circled about Silvanus like soaring dragons. Silvanus’s clothes, which had once belonged to Foster, smoked and smoldered, though his body and hair seemed untouched by the fire. The sphere of flame expanded again, cooking the dust upon the floor well past the spot where Jerusa had been.

Kole growled and screeched at the light as he dragged his twisted form across the floor. He moved toward the open window that Suhail had used to escape. He stretched upward, caught the shattered remnants of the plywood covering and pulled himself up.

Silvanus punched his arms outward and the ball of fire shot forth like a comet, hitting Kole in the back. The tendrils of fire chased one another around Silvanus, spilling forth from his hands in a horizontal column of destruction. Kole gave one last howl of pain before the fire consumed him, turning him into glowing cinders then blowing ash.

The fire encompassing Silvanus died away. He staggered a bit, then fell straight onto his back.

Jerusa rushed back to Silvanus, followed by Shufah and Taos. Thad tried to follow, but had to stop for the fire had burned up much of the oxygen and the smoke hung thick in the air. The walls and floor were scorched black and still hot to the touch.

Silvanus lay on his back, staring blankly at the ceiling. Jerusa knelt down and scooped his head into her arms. She brushed his black curly locks away from his face. His skin felt clammy and his pallor remained gray. His green eyes, dulled a bit but still beautiful, fluttered over to her face and he smiled.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“For what?”

“A lot of things.” He touched her face, bringing on that same strange electrical charge he had felt when she had touched his hand the first time they met. “You are the only one to be kind to me in all the world. I wanted to save you from that monster, not turn you into one.” He pointed to Shufah. “I saw how you turned the older man. I thought I could make Jerusa like me, whatever it is that I am.”

“You are One Who Has Regained the Light,” Shufah said with hushed reverence. “You are a Divine Vampire.”

Silvanus sat up. “Am I now? Later, you will have to tell me all you know, but I must say I do not feel divine. I feel wretched. Drinking blood does not suit me, especially when it comes from that tainted creature.” He pointed over his shoulder at the pile of soot that had once been Kole. “I’m sorry it took me so long to find you. There for a short while I did not believe that I would survive. I tried to follow, but lost you somewhere along the way. It wasn’t until you called my name that I knew where you were.”

Jerusa smiled. “Better late than never. This makes twice now that you’ve rescued me. Next time, it’s my turn to save you.”

“It’s a deal.”

Shufah turned away from the group and walked to the water-filled pit. She stood, her arms crossed before her chest, head bowed as if in silent prayer. Her shoulders quaked as a terrible sob broke from her. She wept aloud, her face buried in her hands, and for a moment, they were paralyzed by her grief.

Jerusa helped Silvanus to his feet, then went and stood behind Shufah. The breeze blowing in the broken windows replenished the air and soon Thad joined them as well.

They stood in silence. The power of Shufah’s mourning washed over them in heavy waves. The burden of the past two days sat upon Jerusa like a mountain of guilt. “I’m sorry,” she whispered and then her own tears broke forth.

Shufah turned to face her. Jerusa expected to see hatred fuming in her eyes, she even welcomed it. She deserved no less than for Shufah to tear her to pieces with her bare hands. If Shufah moved on her, Jerusa would not try to stop her. She dropped her head, unable to look Shufah in the eyes.