scaring the fuck out of me. In the time we’d been fighting, the vrykos had been silent. I stepped back again as it kept coming toward me. I was trying to decide from what angle to attack again.
A shriek diverted my attention and I swung around. Oh shit, one of the SuVahta had been hit. He had stabbed his opponent through the heart but must have forgotten that wouldn’t kill it, because the creature had hold of him by the ankle, and had pulled his feet out from under him. The vrykos was biting down on his flesh, ripping at the wolf shifter’s shin.
“Crap!” I was the closest one to him.
I darted away from my own opponent, dodging around him to race over to the guard’s side. As I came near, the guard screamed again as the vrykos bit down hard on his shin again, tearing further into the flesh. Blood splattered everywhere.
I raced forward, bringing my sword down across the creature’s shoulders. I had first thought to behead it, but if I did that, I’d chance catching the guard’s foot.
The guard kicked hard, dislodging the vrykos from his leg and rolled out of the way. I brought Brighid’s Flame up again and then brought it down hard, right across the neck of the creature. There was the sickening sound of flesh rending, and then a crunch as my blade carved through the top vertebrae. A moment later, the head rolled to the side, teeth gnashing harmlessly.
I leaned on my sword, panting, but the next moment, I saw that the body was on the move, headless, dragging itself toward the decapitated head. The vrykos’s eyes blazed, staring at me. It seemed that it was still in control of the body, even though the head was no longer attached.
“Freaking hell, what kind of horror show are you?”
I jumped over the body to get to the head before its torso did. Turning Brighid’s Flame point down, I drove it through the skull, pinning it to the ground. The next moment, Viktor appeared by my side. He began hack-and-slashing his way through the corpse, tearing it to bits with his sword. I yanked my own sword out of the head, grimacing as I brought the blade down again, this time cleaving it in half. I managed to slice through it, then before I could think, I did so again, quartering the pieces. Finally, the light in its eyes died, and I glanced over to see Viktor doing the same to the body. We finished up and I pointed to the guard.
“He needs help. Take him to the medics.”
“Will you be all right?” Viktor asked.
I nodded, leaning over, my hands on my knees. “I have to be. Just go and then get back here as soon as you can.”
The half-ogre grunted, then swept up the guard in his arms and began jogging back toward the gate. I picked up my sword again and turned back to my first opponent, who was crawling toward me, using the grass to pull himself along. Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself and headed over to repeat the process, as dusk fell and the fight went on.
Chapter Eight
The sounds of metal against flesh, of grunting and shrieking and curses blurred into a tangled cacophony of unending noise. I ignored the shouts and shrieks, trying to focus on keeping myself alive as I plowed through corpse after walking corpse. The scent of blood was noticeably absent, except for the few guards who were getting caught. Whether Kipa hadn’t warned them about the dangers or they were just getting cocky, I wasn’t sure, but I saw Viktor carrying at least four men out of the graveyard.
The vrykos seemed like they’d never stop coming and their exhausting, nonstop attempt to break free into the city seemed like it would never end. Everything blurred into a haze in which only we and our enemies existed.
For a moment I wondered if we tried to talk to them, would they hear us? If we stopped and requested a truce, would they listen? But then reason took hold of me again. The vrykos weren’t vampires. Their souls had been recalled into rotting bodies, and they were angry and confused. They were also being controlled. There was no chance they could—even if they wanted to—make any sort of pact with us.
By the fourth corpse, I was getting tired. They weren’t easy to kill and I had almost been bitten twice. But I forced myself to keep