I was mad at him about . . . something. I pushed it away. Kill vamps now, figure out why I was mad later.
Having formed a plan, I weaved my way forward.
Louis-Cesare tried getting in between me and a group of vamps that had just peeled off the main bunch and headed my way, but they were sneaky. They jumped onto the pillars, high above his head, clinging to the surface by way of the tiny ridges left by the carvings. That was impressive enough, but then they started leaping on all fours from column to column, as easily as I’d walk down a street. They looked like . . . like . . . like those climbing things, I thought, my brain not cooperating.
Little brown fuzzy creatures with long tails. An ‘M’ word. Moose? Mice? Manatees?
No, that wasn’t right.
“Motherfucking lemurs!” I yelled triumphantly, causing some of the vamps to stop and stare.
But others kept coming, and they didn’t look happy. Of course, they looked a lot less so a moment later, when they were tackled by the remaining elements of my arsenal. And these were relevant.
A pair of flying bolos wrapped around a couple of vamps’ necks, dragging them off the columns and into the air, feet kicking and eyes bulging. Three razor-edged disks knocked down half a dozen more and chased them across the room, slinging about like deadly Frisbees whenever they tried to double back. Meanwhile, Kitty—aka the tiger, aka the charm I’d borrowed from a friendly triad and failed to return—was going ham on the rest.
Well, most of the rest.
There was a pile of bodies on the floor a little way from Louis-Cesare that didn’t look dead. They were still moving, writhing and groaning and being dragged off by other vamps who were making a hash of it, because they were trying to keep on eye on him at the same time. I didn’t know why; he seemed pretty busy. He’d put his back to a pillar, had a vamp under one arm and his rapier in the other, which he was holding steady on a second vamp on the floor. A semi-circle of snarling masters surrounded them, but at a distance, as if they were afraid for the life of their friend if they came too close.
Which didn’t make sense. Judging by the furious, peppery smell coming off of floor vamp, he was a high-ranking master. One of those could heal a blow from a metal weapon in seconds, even to the heart.
Or maybe not, I thought, noticing something weird about the rapier.
“What’s that?” I asked, wandering over after Kitty ate a hole in the semicircle.
“Dory.” Louis-Cesare looked conflicted. Like he wanted to grab and hug me, but that would have required letting go of one of his captives.
I squatted down, and then almost fell on my ass.
I’d had better days.
But this was new. It was a highly polished wooden tip that had been affixed to the end of Louis-Cesare’s rapier. Turning it, effectively, into a stake without interfering too much with the functionality of the blade. Huh.
“Where did you find that?” I asked, looking up.
“I didn’t. I had it made—”
I grinned at floor vamp. “My hubby, the inventor.”
He just stared at me.
I thought he looked familiar, but couldn’t place him. Tall and lanky, with a hooked nose and dark brown skin. Bald. Maybe I’d seen him at the party?
Seemed plausible.
“Dory, perhaps you should sit down,” Louis-Cesare said, sounding a little strangled.
“No, no, I’m fine,” I assured him, just before my butt hit the floor. Guess my body had other ideas. “Where’d you come up with it?”
“Come up with what?”
“The wooden thing.” I pointed, more or less. “What’s it called?”
“A col de mort, and I didn’t—”
“A . . . death collar?” I translated. It was harder than it should have been.
“Yes, but I didn’t—”
“Didn’t what?”
“Didn’t come up with it!” Louis-Cesare was looking exasperated. “We need to get you to a healer!”
I looked around. The circle had closed back up, and the people didn’t look friendly. “Well, that’s gonna be kind of hard.”
“You’re never getting out of here,” floor vamp said. “Kill me if you will, but there are hundreds between you and the exits, each willing to die—”
“For what?” I asked curiously.
“—to see that neither of you escape alive!”
“Well, technically one of us is already dead,” I pointed out, lying down.
Oh, yeah.
That was better.
“Dory!” Louis-Cesare’s voice snapped. “Do not go to sleep!”
“Okay.” I yawned, and listened to Kitty savaging something in the distance. “I’m just