Stormwind (The Storm Chronicles Book 3) (22 page)

Moving like she had all the time in the world, Raven drew her bow, knocked an arrow and put it through the middle of the left lycan’s skull. He died instantly, crashing to the ground and shivering as he reverted.

She ducked back out of the way as the remaining lycan rounded the corner. He tried to turn his charge into a pounce, but Raven simply used her shoulder to flip the lycan onto his back. She grabbed his arm and twisted, dislocating the creature’s shoulder. To her surprise he rolled and jumped to his feet, pulling his arm free. He shook his wounded limb with a bone-rattling snap and ran his claws over the bloody wall, pulling off chips of old mortar. He then raised the sharp, bloody claws at Raven and roared; Raven bared her fangs in response and handed the bow to Aspen, circling to keep herself between the lycan and her friend.

The lycan attacked with blinding speed, his claws opening bloody wounds in Raven’s right arm and thigh. She hissed in pain and struck back, her fists thudding into the creature’s muscular ribs, the jarring impact causing him to groan. In response the lycan grabbed her by the arms and threw her into the wall. Ancient stone cracked and splintered from the impact and Raven fell to the floor, her arrows scattering around her.

She was just rising, her hand closing around one of the arrows when the lycan grabbed her by the back of the head and slammed her face first into the opposite wall. Raven felt blood spurt and heard a sound that she thought was probably her skull fracturing because stars began to do pinwheels behind her eyes. She sagged unconscious and the lycan threw her like a ragdoll into the opposite wall where she collapsed.

She came to a few seconds later, her head swimming and Aspen calling her name.

“Ray! Raven you have to get up! I can’t fight tall dark and hairy all by myself! Come on honey or we’re both going to be hanging on that damn wall!”

Raven groaned and pushed off the floor, stone chips falling from her to mix with the mud and blood at her feet. She looked up to see the lycan clawing at Aspen who was keeping it at bay with a shield spell.

“Hey, bub, I wasn’t finished with you yet,” she said, standing on shaky legs. “Is that the best you’ve got? What idiot would ever make you alpha?”

The lycan turned in disbelief and growled. He lowered his head, his ears flattening as he watched the flame-haired woman.

Raven wiped blood from her face and waited, fighting the urge to pant. She didn’t have long to wait. The lycan roared and leapt through the air, his claws outspread. Raven ducked and sidestepped the flying creature, using its momentum to get beside it. As it passed by her left hand struck out and stabbed the end of the arrow she was holding straight through the lycan’s heart. The silver pierced his flesh like a knife through butter and he fell to the ground, already changing back to human.

Raven leaned her aching head against the cold stone and stared at the body lying in a pool of her blood. The image was making her hungry and she wondered not for the first time what would happen if a Childe of Strohm fed from a lycan. Normal vampires and Embraced got sick. But what about someone spawned from a Sanguinarch?

She shook off the thought as Aspen came up beside her.

“You look like shit, honey,” the girl said.

Raven smirked and wiped more blood from her jaw. “Thanks, Asp.”

Aspen frowned and wiped hair from Raven’s face. “I’m sorry, but you do. You need blood. You’re winning, but these things are kicking your ass in the process. How long can you keep going?”

“As long as it takes,” Raven replied, straightening with the help of the wall. “There has to be a way out of here.”

Aspen shook her head. “Stubborn.”

“Yes, you are,” Raven said.

She smiled and waved in the general direction of her scattered arrows. “Can you retrieve those? I think if I bend over the top of my head is going to fall off.”

Aspen nodded and went to do as Raven asked. Raven closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, concentrating all her energy on healing. When she opened her eyes sometime later she felt weaker, but knew the gushing head wound had healed and she could function. She raised her eyes and looked at Aspen who was standing in front of her holding arrows and looking worried.

“What’s wrong?” Raven asked.

“You’ve been standing there for fifteen minutes,” Aspen replied.

“I was healing...fifteen minutes? Really?”

“Yeah,” Aspen said, handing Raven the arrows. “It was like you went into torpor sleep or something.”

“Great. More like Mom every day,” Raven replied said, ramming the arrows into her quiver. “Next I’ll be drinking warm blood out of crystal and calling everyone darling.”

Aspen grinned. “Nah. You’re more of a shot glass and ‘asshole’ kind of girl.”

Raven laughed and turned to continue up the hallway. “Thanks, Asp.”

“No problem, love,” Aspen said, still smiling.

The pair went down the hall and turned the corner to find yet another staircase, this one leading back down. With nowhere else to go, Raven led the way a step at the time until she could see the floor below.  Blood covered the black and red stone and she could see marks in the blood as if something or someone had been dragged away. She glanced back at Aspen and readied her bow, knocking one of the obsidian arrows.

The stairs emptied out onto a sticky floor. Unlike the floors above none of the walls had any hieroglyphs or pictograms. These were instead plain red shot through with streaks of black mortar and smeared with blood, some ancient and some less than twelve hours old.

Raven squatted and looked at the tracks. Two pairs of large clawed paws had dragged away someone wearing shoes or boots with a blocky heel.

“I’d guess a woman’s size nine,” Aspen said, kneeling beside her. “And werewolf size freaking huge like all the others.”

“Thank you for the insight, Doctor Watson,” Raven said. “So why did it take two huge lycans to drag away one woman with size nine feet? Especially when it looks like she was unconscious.”

“Some kind of honor guard for the dead?” Aspen guessed.

“Maybe,” Raven said. “There’s only one way to find out.”

The two women straightened and began to move down the hallway, their steps quiet and catlike. As they neared the end of the hallway it brightened and they could hear the sounds of fighting; bone on bone and flesh on flesh. Raven relaxed her bow long enough to hand her silvered knife to Aspen and then drew it tight again before stepping into the light.

The room ahead was wide and circular, much like the room they’d almost drowned in before. A narrow walkway ran around the rim of the room past a series of lycan and wolf statues to another corridor at the far end. The heart of the room was sunk twenty feet below the surface and had a floor covered in bones and straw. Bone weapons of various types lined the walls with rope ladders placed at intervals to allow the creatures in the pit egress.

In the pit itself were four muscular lycan warriors. At first it looked as if they were fighting each other; claws flashed and they snarled threats at one another. It was only after a hard look that Raven realized they were squabbling over the remains of a human woman like a pack of dogs tearing apart prey.

Raven growled low in her throat and drew back her bow. She let fly and the arrow passed through the head of one of the lycans. He had barely hit the floor when her second shot pierced the heart of another. Before the warriors realized what was going on Raven had put three of them down. The fourth dropped the arm he’d been fighting for and jumped, using one of the rope ladders to scramble up the sheer wall. Raven backed away, keeping Aspen behind her and firing arrows when she thought she had a shot.

The lycan however kept behind the statues as much as possible, only popping out to scurry forward and draw Raven’s fire. With every move he made, Raven and Aspen moved further into the corridor until they were against the stairs once more. The lycan stepped into the corridor and growled, the low rumble sounding like distant thunder. Raven loosed the arrow she’d held knocked, the tip aimed straight at the lycan’s vulnerable eye.

With blinding speed the lycan caught the arrow, the shaft squealing against its claws like a buzzsaw. He snapped the arrow between his fingers and roared, causing Raven to roll her eyes.

“Again? Yeah I get it, you guys are big tough First Clan lycans from hell,” she said. “I’m not impressed. You’re nothing but dog crap waiting to be squashed.”

The lycan snarled in response and ran forward on all fours, blood and saliva trailing behind him. Raven pushed Aspen back and waited for the lycan to pounce. When he did, she caught him mid leap and drove him face first into the wall with the satisfying crunch of bone. He rebounded off the stone, blood dripping from his broken muzzle and she tore his throat out in a spray of blood and cartilage. The lycan fell to its knees, but not before grabbing Raven around the throat and dragging her down with him. He crawled on top of her, his weight crushing her windpipe.

Aspen didn’t give him a chance to strangle Raven. She drove the knife Raven had given her through the creature’s back and into its dark heart, killing it. The young man who had been the lycan collapsed on top of Raven and she pushed him off, kicking him aside with one boot and trying to not to acknowledge the surprised look on the once handsome young man’s face.

“Thanks, Aspen,” Raven said.

“I knew you had it covered, but we’re burning daylight,” Aspen replied with a grin.

Raven made a face at Aspen and climbed back to her feet, pulling the longer knife from the small of her back.

“Where are you going?” Aspen asked.

“Those lycans,” Raven replied. “I used the obsidian arrows not the silver ones I made in camp.”

Aspen blinked. “You mean they’re not dead?”

“They are. They just haven’t stopped breathing yet,” Raven said.

She dropped into the pit and approached the bodies as quietly as she could. With great care she slipped the blade into each lycan’s heart, listening to them revert to human as she continued from one to the next. When she was through she whistled softly and Aspen appeared at the edge of the pit. Raven waved her down and watched as Aspen descended the nearest ladder and joined her near the remains of the dead woman.

“Do you recognize her?” Raven asked.

Aspen cocked her head and looked more closely at what was left of the woman.

“Isn’t that Xavier’s familiar Dierdre?”

“I think so,” Raven said. “I thought all his followers had fled after the fight. It’s not good if they’re still around. It means another bloodsucker is protecting them.”

“Evangelina was always his lapdog,” Aspen said. “She would have taken them in just to make herself look more impressive.”

“I didn’t know she was that involved,” Raven said. “I thought she was just another Embraced with a big ego.”

“Look on the bright side. She’s probably one of those piles of ash we walked over,” Aspen said. “She never could fight, Xavier always had to do it for her.”

“I’m trying not to be pissed that you know that,” Raven said, turning to look at the weapons on the wall.

Aspen stepped in front of her. “Ray… you know that wasn’t my fault and I did all I could to help you. Not every vampire is as nice as you are to their familiars. He knew almost everything I was doing. You could too if you really wanted to.”

Raven looked at the purple-haired girl in front of her. “I know, Aspen. I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at my bottom-feeding brother. He used you to get to me. An innocent was hurt because of me and there was nothing I could do to keep it from happening.”

“No.  But you did the next best thing,” Aspen said.

Raven arched an eyebrow. “I did?”

Aspen looked down, violet locks falling in her eyes. “Yep. You stopped him. You killed him and instead of leaving me to whatever bloodsucker came along next you took me in even after all I’d done to you and Rupert. You protected me when no one else would have. Your mom would have fed me to the blood-starved forsaken if not for you.”

“None of it was your fault,” Raven said. “Besides, I’d grown kind of attached to you by then.”

Aspen opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by a melodious voice from above.

“Well isn’t this touching. The turncoat and the Mistress’ flunky,” Evangelina said. “And such a perfect disgusting place to find you. Blood suits you, Fürstin Ravenel…”

RAVEN LOOKED UP TO SEE Evangelina standing at the edge of the room, her leather catsuit and boots smeared with blood but otherwise intact. She was posing with a self-satisfied grin on her too-perfect face. It was a look Raven wanted to punch.

“Very funny, Lina,” she said. “How are you still alive?”

“Surprised?  I heard what you and your little friend said,” Evangelina replied. “But I’m not offended. On the contrary, you are quite right. I am not much of a fighter and was almost killed. But I am an expert at diplomacy. When I told the alpha I could deliver a day walking Childe of Strohm in exchange for my life, well, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

Raven snorted. “You’re going to deliver us? You couldn’t deliver a pizza, Lina.”

Evangelina clucked her tongue. “That isn’t very nice coming from you, half-breed. Perhaps you should start feeding like you should. You would see that I’d brought along some new friends.”

As she spoke, several of the pack’s largest warriors walked into view, their yellow eyes glowing with barely contained bloodlust.

“The pack’s hopefuls are just itching for a chance to fight you…though I think the battle may be quite short if you haven’t fed,” Evangelina continued. “Perhaps the little turncoat would bare her throat for you like she did for your brother so many times?”

“Shut up, Lina,” Aspen said. “I only did what Xavier made me do and you know it. Why don’t you come down here so I can kick your skinny little ass?”

“Oh, Ravenel!” Evangelina giggled. “Little purple-hair has gotten so feisty under your tutelage. I look forward to beating that out of her when I make her my personal footstool. She can replace my Karina.”

Raven shook her head. “That’s never going to happen, Evangelina.”

Evangelina stepped forward and smiled even wider. “I don’t think you’ll have much to say about it, Ravenel. The pack is going to skin you and eat your flesh at a feast in my honor.”

“In honor to you? An Embraced?” Raven asked. “Yeah, right. Do they know you used to be human before my brother’s brunette phase?”

“I am as much a vampire as Lady Tempeste,” Evangelina replied.

“In your sweetest dreams, Lina. You’re nothing but a jumped up bitch with bad hair and cheap clothes from an S&M catalog,” Raven said.

“How dare you?” Evangelina replied, shaking with fury.

Raven’s eyes narrowed and turned bright green. “How dare you, Embraced? What about avenging Karina? What about your vow? Surrender now, join my fight and I swear you will not be killed without a trial.”

Evangelina threw back her head and laughed.

“I think you’ve overestimated your chances of survival, Ravenel, and Karina was just a familiar. Nothing more than a portable feeding machine. I understand that, now.”

Raven shrugged. “I think you’re an egotistical sheep with the brains to match.”

With speed born of anger and the Sanguinarch blood that flowed through her veins Raven drew, knocked and fired an arrow in an instant. The shaft penetrated Evangelina’s heart and she exploded into flame and ash in mid laugh.

Raven fired four more arrows and watched in disbelief as the arrows hit the lycans’ broad chests and exploded like so many matchsticks.

“Okay I think we could be in trouble,” Raven said, drawing her knife.

Aspen drew her own knife and cut her arm. “You think? Are you going to feed now or not?”

“Will you stop asking that?” Raven growled.

“Depends on if you’re going to stop being stupid,” Aspen replied. “What part of vampire don’t you understand?”

“I’m a dhampyr not a vampire, Aspen. I don’t have to feed,” Raven said. “And don’t call me stupid.”

Aspen’s response was cut off by the group of lycans jumping into the pit, claws and fangs bared. Raven threw her knife at the closest one; the blade punched through its skull and it collapsed. She then grabbed a double-ended staff off the wall and stood back to back with Aspen, using the blades from the staff to keep the lycans at a distance. The lack of silver tips, however, was just annoying them and they continued to advance, their claws snaking out to leave welts in both women.

“We’re going to get ripped to pieces, Ray!” Aspen said, pushing one of the lycans away with a spell.

“Stop being so negative!” Raven replied, spinning a kick at another lycan and giving them some breathing room.

“Fine, we’ll just chew our way through them, I’m sure our teeth will kill werewolves,” Aspen said.

Raven punched the approaching lycan in the throat and slashed it across the belly, dropping it temporarily out of the fight.

“You’ve got a silver knife, you know. You could try fighting.”

“I’m a witch, Ray. You know what witches use knives for? Athames and altar knives. And in a pinch to cut steak. Are you catching my drift? The lycan I killed was a fluke.”

“Stop whining and pretend that one is a really hairy steak,” Raven replied.

“You’re not helping, Ray,” Aspen said, slashing at the lycan on her side of the fight.

Raven reached back and grabbed the lycan Aspen was fighting, yanking him away from the smaller witch so she could pin him to the floor with her staff.

“I can’t teach you Escrima knife-fighting in the middle of a fight, Asp. This is what you get for going to Missouri.”

“You’re going to bring this up again? Now?” Aspen asked, half turning toward Raven.

“Just saying,” Raven replied.

Aspen stabbed the pinned lycan through the eye with her knife, piercing its brain and killing it. She pulled the knife back and faced Raven.

“I explained that was a misunderstanding, Ray. Are you going to hold it against me forever? I mean, you could have called and checked on me.”

Raven stabbed at one of the wounded lycans and tried to herd the angry witch behind her. “I was trying to respect your space! I hate that psychic crap.”

“I meant with a phone like normal friends…”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think you wanted to be bothered. If I pin this guy can you stab it like you did the other?”

Aspen didn’t reply. Raven kicked the injured lycan as hard as she could and looked over her shoulder. At first she didn’t understand what she was seeing. A blood-covered arm protruded from Aspen’s midsection and her mouth opened and closed silently, dribbling blood.

The lycan behind her pulled his arm free, pushed Aspen aside like so much trash and howled, boasting to the others of his kill.

Raven felt her stomach go cold and then the fire of her fury. Her anger built into a storm and her eyes turned to the fiery slits of a full blooded Sanguinarch vampire. She caught the lycan’s arms as he approached and squeezed, breaking bones beneath her fingers. The lycan whimpered in pain and tried to pull away; Raven didn’t let go. She bent the lycan’s arms back like they were paper, only letting go when they cracked and fell uselessly to the lycan’s side. She then grabbed his head and snapped his neck with a sickening wet pop that dropped him out of the fight. Less than a second had passed.

She spun, her foot leading in a back heel kick that connected with the last lycan’s jaw and dislocated it. The kick was followed with a punch that splintered both the creature’s ribs and her own hand. With a snarl she pulled his still beating heart from his chest and crushed it under her boot. The lycan blinked in surprise and shifted to human, still standing. 

Raven pushed the body aside and moved toward Aspen, slowing only to kick the unconscious lycan’s head with all her strength like she was trying to score a goal at the far end of the soccer field.

The lycan’s head shattered against the distant wall and Raven knelt beside Aspen. She removed her torn top and tried to use it to staunch the flow of blood, but could do nothing. The wound was too severe.

“Aspen? Aspen can you hear me?” Raven asked softly.

Aspen opened her eyes and looked up. “You vamped out.”

Raven nodded. “My familiar was hurt.”

“I think I’m still hurt, Ray,” Aspen said, struggling to breathe. “I can’t feel my legs.”

Raven stroked Aspen’s hair. “It’s going to be okay. You’re mine, you should heal.”

“If I don’t bleed out first,” Aspen said. “You…should feed before I die.”

“Shut up, Aspen! You’re not going to die and I’m not going to feed on you. Just breathe!” Raven said.

“She’s going to die,” a voice rumbled from above. “Leave her body and you are free to go.”

Raven looked up to see the lycan that had been following them throughout the crumbling temple.

“Who the hell are you?” Raven asked.

“My name is of no consequence. I am alpha female of the First Clan. You have killed the last of my sons, there will be no new alpha this generation,” the lycan replied.

“Too bad for you. But if you think I am leaving Aspen here you’re sadly mistaken.”

“She is a kill of the First Clan. She is ours to do with as we please. Leave before I change my mind,” the lycan growled.

“Are you deaf or just stupid?” Raven replied. “Aspen is no kill. She is mine and I am not leaving here without her.”

“Then you will not leave here,” the creature replied.

She jumped into the pit and approached. Raven squeezed Aspen’s hand and straightened, grabbing her bow on the way up. When she was standing she was somewhat disappointed her head didn’t rise further up the lycan’s chest. Frowning she looked up into the Alpha’s eyes and stroked the fire of her anger.

“I am a Childe of Strohm, a Sanguinarch. Your Alpha’s equal in every way. Let me take Aspen and go in peace,” Raven said.

“You insult my mate,” the Alpha snarled. “He is a God and you are weak.”

“Not so weak I can’t kick your hairy ass, bitch,” Raven growled.

The alpha roared in anger and attacked, clawing at Raven. The smaller, more agile woman blocked both attacks and kicked out with all her ebbing strength. The lycan flew across the room and hit the wall hard enough to leave an impact crater in the stone before falling to the ground.

She was up in a heartbeat, charging Raven on all fours. The attack was so swift that the lycan hit her in the leg as she tried to dodge and she fell to the blood-slick floor. The lycan rebounded from the wall like a parkour champion and pounced. Raven had just enough time to raise her arms and catch the attacking lycan, her hands locking with the alpha’s.

“You are pathetic, little dhampyr,” the lycan growled, pushing down.

“Damn, what have you been eating, Purina?” Raven replied. “Get off me, dogbreath!”

The alpha snapped at Raven’s face, her yellowed teeth closing less than an inch from the woman’s nose. Raven turned her head away and raised her knees until they were between her and the lycan. She heaved with all her strength and pushed the lycan off of her to slam back into the wall.

The alpha shook herself while Raven crawled back to one knee, her wounds drooling blood.

“Had enough?” Raven asked.

“Not until I’ve tasted your flesh, dhampyr,” the alpha replied.

“Suit yourself,” Raven said.

Again the lycan charged. Raven remained where she was, head low. When the lycan was nearly on top of her she snatched up a spear and rammed it home deep into the alpha’s chest. The alpha screamed and her momentum carried her over Raven’s head to slam into the wall where she fell limp, still in lycan form. She began to rise, disturbing what remained of the wall. Blocks of stone and broken weapons fell on top of her, knocking her unconscious.

Raven turned away from the unmoving lycan and hurried over to Aspen who was still clinging to life. She squeezed some blood from her wounded hand into Aspen’s slowly healing wound in hopes it would help and then picked up the smaller woman, cradling her to her chest.

“Leave me,” Aspen gasped. “The bitch was right, I’m going to die.”

“The hell you are,” Raven said. “Shut up and breathe.”

“Ray…”

Raven switched Aspen to her left arm and moved toward the ladder. “I said shut up. You’re using energy you need to heal.”

“Stubborn…” Aspen whispered.

Raven smiled. “Yes, you are.”

THE CLIMB OUT OF THE pit and up the long tunnel was long. Raven fell several times, each time forcing herself back to her feet by sheer force of will. After the sixth fall she couldn’t stand anymore and began to crawl, dragging Aspen behind her inch by agonizing inch until they reached the top.