Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) - By Fionn Jameson Page 0,100
dust from two hundred years ago.
Van let out a hiss as a shadow flew out of the corner, white, pale arms outstretched, mouth open impossibly wide.
“Van!”
The dark-haired vampire turned easily and his blade flashed once, twice, thrice and the female vampire staggered to the floor, crimson spilling from her lips like an overflowing fountain.
While the corpse cooled into a pile of flesh and bones, I watched Eve pull her phone out and angrily punch a few keys.
“What is she doing?” I asked Ryder who, curiously enough, did not carry any sort of weapon.
Then again, I had seen his unarmed combat and he seemed competent enough.
His eyes narrowed. “I think she’s trying to get a hold of Vincent.”
“Damn it!” she muttered and shoved the phone back into her coat pocket, looking very much as though she would have liked to step on it. “That idiot won’t answer his damn phone. What the hell am I supposed to do when I don’t know what he wants?”
Ryder jerked a thumb over his back. “Then take Van with you and leave. Fenrir and Vincent were supposed to be taking Noir to his place. Maybe that’s where they are.”
She looked away for a moment, her dark brown eyes distant. “Maybe. Maybe not. Still. My orders are to see Ran safe.”
“As are mine,” spoke up Van. “I will see my orders fulfilled.”
Red. So much red in my ledger.
What’s worse, it was red scrawled in there by enemies.
“Ran, do you know where Jason might be?” asked Eve, shoving a lock of hair from her almond-shaped eyes. “This place is gigantic. They might already be moving him to a different location.”
“No,” I said. “I can still smell him.”
But the scent was fading.
And that was not good.
“At the risk of sounding like the dumb asshole in every horror movie, I think we should split up,” said Ryder. “We’re never going to find him at this rate.”
Eve exchanged a look with Van and turned to me. “Well? He’s your guy.”
The jian was unsheathed in my hand and felt wholly alien.
But it was the only weapon I had.
“He’s right,” I replied. “It’ll be faster if we take a different part of the house.”
“House?” snorted Ryder. “More like a friggin castle.”
“Right,” said Eve. “Van, come with me. We’ll take the west wing. Ran, you take Ryder and go down the east wing. Be careful; there’s a basement level on that side of the property. For all we know, he might be there.”
“But he may not,” I pointed out.
Eve’s lips thinned. “I know. That’s why we’re splitting up. Ryder, call me in half an hour, regardless of your status. I lost Vincent; there’ll be hell to pay if I lose you too.”
He grinned. “Would you miss me?”
She rolled her eyes and gestured to Van to follow her. “Yeah, right. Keep Ran safe.”
The laughter faded so easily from his blue eyes, I couldn’t help but wonder if it just been a lie. “You bet.”
We split at the main entryway, Eve and Van taking the left side of the house and Ryder following me on the ground level on my right hand side.
The house was, for the lack of a better phrase, eerily quiet. Almost, as if to make up for the excess of excitement at the house entrance, the deep interior was calm, too calm for my liking.
Behind me, Ryder giggled.
“Wow. This is creepy.”
I looked back at him, hackles raised, feeling desperately defenseless. “Do you have to laugh about everything?”
He shrugged, hands held casually at his side. “It helps.”
I sighed and shook my head, creeping against the wall, hands splayed against the peeling wallpaper that felt damp and sticky on my fingertips.
The smell was no less and yet no more intense than when we had entered the house and I wished I could have perfected my skill of tracing a body through their blood scent.
“Do you really think he’s here?”
“I have no choice but to think so,” I replied quietly and then paused. There was something… “Did you hear that?”
He guffawed. “Wow, now you sound like something out of a horror movie. Isn’t the person who asks if other people heard that weird noise the first person to die?”
“I have no intention of dying,” I said. “Not tonight.”
“Funny thing,” he replied. “Neither do I.”
Another noise again.
The sound of footsteps.
I put a hand over my racing heartbeat, half convinced I was only hearing my own pulse echoing in my ears.