Blood Trial Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #1) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,147
atop the crate, pretending to lose consciousness. Callum’s grip shifted.
I threw my head back directly into his balls.
He howled, releasing me to cup his crown jewels.
I didn’t waste time, throwing myself forward to stagger through the midst of the battle in a drunken run.
Kyros was aware of me. He didn’t look my way but shifted to keep me in his peripherals.
I leaped for an open box, picking up the first object my blood-covered hands encountered.
Shit! It was a fucking drill!
“That was a mistake, bitch.”
A hand spun me and I shrieked, swinging my hands to cover my face.
Something stopped my right arm.
Callum grunted and jerked, and we both dropped our gaze to the drill bit stuck between his ribs. Oh my god.
I’d stabbed him with the power drill.
My fingers were wrapped around the handgrip.
In a daze, I squeezed the trigger.
The whir of the drill was lost to the Vissimo’s screams. His raw pain filled my ears—I’d never heard a man scream. Horror caught up, and I released the power drill.
The tool didn’t fall, wedged between his ribs, but Callum began to fall.
Not a stagger, not a slow descent to the knees. Before my eyes, his skin turned grey and his eyes black. His fingers clawed, stiffening with the rest of his body.
Like a wooden board, the vampire fell back, slamming onto the concrete floor like a toppled wardrobe.
Transfixed, I lifted my eyes to Kyros’s.
The fighting had stalled. Suspended in time by my actions.
Nine sets of furious Vissimo trained on me, and my knees gave way, my body caving to its terrified instincts.
I couldn’t deal with that on top of everything else.
I groaned, black spots filling my vision.
Kyros laughed, a cold sound, and called out, “Your brother is dead.”
The four vampires surrounding him launched at him. Fuck, I’d killed their brother. Someone would come for me.
I had to move.
The door out of here was metres away. Running for that would make sense.
Escaping.
Removing myself as Kyros’s weakness in the battle.
But taking one step required strength I no longer had.
Fuck!
A sob caught in my throat. I couldn’t make it.
My muscles were drained of energy. I offered no resistance when a vampire gripped my hair and dragged my head back, exposing my throat.
“Stop,” a woman ordered.
I blinked upward at Gina.
The crashing and roaring in the basement didn’t skip a beat.
A jagged edge was placed against my throat. “Immediately. She has one second to live.”
Whoa!
As though switched off, the chaotic frenzy froze.
“That’s better,” she purred.
I swallowed awkwardly as I swayed in her grip.
“Hurt her, eldest child, and I’ll kill everyone in this room,” Kyros said conversationally. “And I’ll leave you until last.”
“You cannot defeat everyone in this room, eldest child,” she retorted. “Even you are not that powerful.”
“You have no notion of how powerful I am, Princess Gina.”
She dragged me to the side, forcing me to scuttle on my knees or say goodbye to my scalp.
“You may be more powerful,” Gina answered. “But I match you for speed. You can’t stop me killing her unless you step two metres to your left.”
“Something happens with the roof over the panel,” I gurgled.
Gina chuckled, shaking me like a limp doll. “You chose a smart one, brother. I’ll admit she’s brave too. Would you like to keep your human?”
Brother?
Why was she calling him brother?
I retched violently, the situation undoing me at last.
“I’ll step into your cage,” Kyros mused. “In return, you’ll allow her to walk away unharmed.”
“Agreed.”
“Kyros, no,” I whispered, despair tinging my voice. No one was burning to death for me. I couldn’t take more guilt. Losing him would be a hundred times worse than losing Rhys.
“My Indebted are outside, Miss Tetley. They will aid you,” Kyros said in a calm voice that made me furious.
Who’d help him? I choked on the bitterness surging within me, wishing I could see his face.
Was this just a ruse? Did he have a secret plan? He always had a plan, right?
The floor shook as metal slammed into concrete, but I knew for sure he’d stepped into the trap the instant Gina let go of my hair. She even laid me carefully on the ground when I began to topple in a dead heap.
Kyros watched between the column-like metal bars of a cage. The cage had descended from the ceiling.
“Go,” he ordered, shifting his eyes from my face.
Yeah... about that. His deal depended on me being able to walk.