New Spark (Dark Magic Enforcer Book 3) (21 page)

"He doesn't let them out, Spark. They're in there, locked away. He lied. There is no power to share. He will protect us, his wives, but he won't do anything but kill the rest of them. He tricked me, made us make the trolls intelligent, but it was all a lie. This is just the start, he wants to—"

"Enough, you may go now." Taavi nodded at the Chinese goons, the twins. I've always thought of them as somehow slightly amusing, but they seemed anything but jolly fellows as they grabbed Kaisa Hayashi and took her away.

"Looks like you have your hands full with that one. I'm sure you'll be a delightful couple."

"Hmm, she is rather willful. Haha, she will settle down soon enough."

"I'm sure."

"So, what do you think?" Taavi attempted a friendly smile. He looked like he was about to rip my head off and lick on the stump.

"About what?"

"About saving your soul, Black Spark. I want you with me, by my side. This has gone on long enough, all this foolishness. I know you, I see your heart. I have watched you for a hundred years, Spark, waiting for this day."

I didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Waiting for this day? Was this about me? I was at an utter loss.

"Don't play the innocent with me. I've seen what you do, what you are capable of. The people you have killed and—"

"I have never killed apart from in self-defense or because the other person was out of control. Not like you."

"Please, spare me the nonsense. Faz Pound, you are a killer. You are Hidden, and you cannot escape this world no matter how hard you think you try. You always come back, and I knew you would come to me. Now is your time. You can have it, you can have the humans. You can become their Head, rule their pathetic lives. I shall take the rest."

"I don't believe you for a moment. I would always answer to you and I don't want it anyway."

"Of course you would answer to me! But Rikka will be gone. No more walking in his shadow. You will be your own person, let your true nature out. You can be vampire."

Choices

I went cold inside.

He smiled at me, a genuine smile, as if I was family. This was what it was all about. He was gathering humans to him. Using us, taking us, giving us what we wanted, what he knew we craved deep down whether or not we'd even known it was our true wish.

The offer of immortality. How tempting that must be to everyone that has stared death in the face and glimpsed the other side. To be given the chance to cling to the world, even have a say in your own future rather than being carried away on the tide of life and death.

And I'd never considered it.

Becoming vampire had honestly never crossed my mind. Not even with my infatuation and love for Kate had I believed it to be an option. But as he spoke those words I suddenly felt my heart leap. I could be with her forever. Be by her side for eternity. We would change together, grow ancient and powerful. Lead, and answer to nobody.

Apart from Taavi. And we would become cold, and heartless, and kill for blood magic. I would lose my love for Grandma, for Rikka, even for Intus. Without me to help Kate remain human she would fade away and become true vampire, me along with her if I accepted Taavi's offer. We would grow mean and spiteful, and play with people's lives.

But we would be together.

"No."

Taavi shrugged. He wouldn't offer twice. "So be it, Spark. You have lived your last day, my friend. You will not live to see Kate come to us. You will not live to see me rip your boss to pieces and feed him to my family. But I tell you this on such a momentous night. I will eradicate all you love from the face of this earth. I will eliminate them all and I will rule. I will tear through the Hidden human world and destroy it. Nobody, absolutely nobody, can stand in my way."

I felt nothing refusing his offer, as it was no offer at all. Knowing myself, I knew that if I became vampire I would be full of hate, disgust too. Not for them, but for me, for what I'd become, for all I gave up to live a cold and empty life. Nothing was worth that price.

"There will be blood like you have never seen, and all will obey me. I will run the Councils and those pathetic fools will step aside. They will thank me for bringing true order to the filthy chaos of Hidden life. You have no idea what I am capable of."

"I know exactly what you are capable of. Yes, it's dirty, it's unorganized, and we are cruel and mean and we do things wrong and we make mistakes. We hurt each other, and some of us are wild and we refuse to follow the rules. And you know why, Taavi? Because we are free. Because we are real. Because we are human beings and that is what it means to be a person. We have our faults, and if you think you can ever beat us then you are sorely mistaken."

"You fool. The world will be better without wizards and necromancers and seers. Without any of you idiots, playing with magic like you know what you are doing."

"Some of the true Hidden may well be happy we are gone, or they won't care one way or the other. But many are tied to us, here because of us. You think Kate will stand by and quietly fade into nothing? And besides, there are those that would like to have a word with you. There are plenty of Hidden, human and non-human, that are pissed at you, Taavi."

With that, I turned and walked away.

Okay, it was a touch dramatic, but the truth was I was getting ready to run. Not away from the vampires, but away from the danger, as I heard the rumbling at the wall.

Moments later, stones were crushed to dust and hell came to earth as the wronged clamored for revenge on the vampires that had taken so much from so many.

Storming the Keep

Taavi stared from me to the wall then back again. He was pure hatred, but I saw the fear. His confidence, his utter belief in the superiority of himself and his kind, had blinded him to the strengths of others.

The screams echoed through the night, inhuman and cruel. Then the dogs began to run. I watched as the entire front wall perimeter was breached in at least fifty places, troll-sized holes punched right through, or whole sections crumbling as fists born during the forming of the planet turned carved stone to dust.

Trolls stormed through the rubble, massive feet stomping down hard on the large pieces of wall, flattening it and grinding it under their heels until the access points were easily passed.

Vampires ran around in a panic while more and more poured out of the house. Others grabbed dogs that had escaped, in a foolish belief it would offer them protection, or found themselves yanked off their feet as almost the entire troll population of Cardiff walked with huge strides up the extensive grounds.

Most of the dogs were sensible enough to know they stood no chance against such creatures, and ran, or tugged to get free of their handlers, even attacking them in their panic. Some of them tried to defend their territory, springing for the throats and legs of the trolls, bouncing off and yelping as their teeth shattered.

The trolls batted them away like gnats, stomping down hard on the bodies as they tumbled backward. I put my hands to my ears as bones crunched and pitiful screams rose to join the howls of the vampires.

There was no stopping the trolls and their destruction, but the dogs weren't to blame, just doing what they had been trained to do, poisoned with the vampire bloodlust, knowing no better. But as a few dogs attacked, so the rest joined in. The poor creatures were the first to die.

It was the hardest thing of all, that first wave of attack. These were innocents corrupted, and they gave their lives for the vampires because of a false sense of loyalty. The other outcome would have been worse—vampire Dobermans running around the streets, biting indiscriminately. Ugh, can you imagine?

"You idiot! Haha, do you think those mindless rocks can destroy us? Spark, you are a fool. Look at them, daft lumps of rock piled up high. They are nothing. We can run, we can move and rebuild like we have done so many times before. This changes nothing. I shall destroy you all, you pathetic Hidden humans. I shall take my place as Head of the Councils. This country is mine, all of it."

"Don't think so, dude. What, you think I would just organize the trolls to take their revenge on what you did to them and leave it at that? You're the fool, Taavi. You're the one that needs to be eradicated."

Taavi snarled at me. I have to say, I was surprised to find myself alive at this point. I'd halted my dramatic departure, somehow finding myself stood next to the one man I really ought not to be stood beside, but something inside told me this was the right way to do things, how to play the end game.

Then I caught a reflection in his angry eyes, and realized I was shooting out sparks from my entire body like fae danced beneath my clothes. Bright blue and silver lights flashed and fizzed like I had never known my body to react before.

There was no pain, however. No devilish sickness that doubled me over and made me act rashly just to release the magic and let it do its worst then leave, to let me curl up in a ball and wait it out. No, I was power. I was magic, alive with the energies that creatures such as true Hidden are at their core. Real magic, pure and innocent, not taken, but a part of me. Mine, and I was its. We were one.

I felt the tattoos swell and pulse dangerously, burning me up, my body overheating. I tore off my jacket and dropped it, revealing black hate pouring from my skin. Silver flashes of protection and anger, uncontrollable and wild, working without my direction, protecting me and stopping Taavi or anyone else coming close. A warning that I was above their games and wouldn't be stopped. No wonder I felt oddly unafraid of Taavi and his threats.

I stood there and watched as the walls disintegrated and the dogs finally fell silent. The vampires tried to attack the trolls, but the trolls were acting in unison, walking in a line from the walls, spread out and in control, their communal connection guiding them. One family, taking revenge for what had been done to them. For their minds corrupted by addiction.

They liked the way they were, what nature had decided was right for them. I had found that out in the club. Yes, they thought slowly and acted accordingly, but that was their nature. Inside, they spoke to each other with intelligence and insight, chose to live a sedate kind of life, as they had since the beginning of time. Then it had been corrupted, interfered with for the first time in their entire history.

With the idea I had suggested through Brewster Bunker, they had taken the opportunity to have their revenge, deadly and without compassion or feeling, their emotions not a factor.

They didn't feel like we did, in some ways as cold as the vampires, but without the background of cruelty—they acted how their nature intended, not to be cruel merely for the sake of it. They just wanted to ensure it never happened again, that they continued to exist as was their right, their duty.

But revenge, they understood that. Payback for what had been done was unavoidable. They would raze House Taavi to the ground.

I saw Taavi understand, but still he was confident—vampires could be gone in a flash, away from the trolls, and they would never be smart enough to destroy them.

"You underestimate me, Taavi. Surprise." I watched as Rikka and Dancer appeared through the destroyed wall. Rikka glowed orange with magic that pushed even the rock aside and scorched the ground as they passed.

"A wizard and a pathetic necromancer. You think that will make a difference? Rikka's time is up, Spark, I've already told you that. Last chance. Join me, rule by my side. You can have the humans, even have the Dark Council. But I shall take them all down otherwise. They will be mine, and that fool will not stand in my way." He smiled as vampires circled closer to Rikka and Dancer, fangs dripping venom, easily dodging the trolls that stomped about and laid waste to the grounds, occasionally grabbing vampires and breaking them over knees, or punching clear through their bodies, crunching heads like they had the poor zombies.

Rikka and Dancer continued moving forward, Rikka's magic forcing the vampires back. But they were surrounded, and I watched, still doing nothing, seemingly safe from attack because of my proximity to Taavi, as a few of the vampires glowed as they summoned their own magic and got ready to kill.

They were vastly outnumbered and Taavi and they knew it. He licked his lips, keen to enter the fight, believing it would save him days or weeks of chipping away at what remained of our communities until we gave in and let him control us.

"Maybe not one wizard and necromancer, and by the way he likes to be called a mage, but how about this?" I pointed behind them as at least fifteen men and women, all somberly dressed like Dancer, looking like a collection of funeral directors, spread out in a line as they lifted their hands in unison at Dancer's direction.

"Pathetic. Is this the best you can do?"

"No. Watch."

A nightmare vision from beyond the grave came scrambling and rushing manically from behind the necromancers, humans and animals alike. Some in half-animal, half-human form, others with battered and mangled bodies, but many as the creatures they had shifted into during life, now re-animated.

There was only one thing on their minds. Revenge for what had been done to them. A final chance, an hour of life given back to them by the collective necromancer power.

Bears, dogs, cats—yeah, I know—wolves, a few horses, tigers, and most terrifying of all, the body of Plum, dark and beautiful even in death, they all came charging toward us at full pelt.

The screams of reanimated animals and humans filled the night as hell came to vampire HQ.

Just Watching

Taavi pulled an evil, curved blade from beneath an elegant and timeless jacket, snarling like a cornered animal as the reality of the situation sank in.

Dead witches, presumably found beneath the rubble of the flattened witch HQ, howled like banshees as they tore at the vampires in a frenzy of unworldly loathing, scratching and clawing in a madness and fury that made me sick. They were worse than animals, unstoppable in their hatred for what had been done to them, for all that had been taken. Increasingly overwhelmed by the extent of the carnage, I watched, unable to act, as they tore through vampires ill-prepared for such an unholy attack.