clung to skin and hair. Gary threw a blanket over Gabrielle’s head, wrapping her face and arms to protect her from the worst of the bites.
Jubal cursed and beat at his face and neck in a frantic attempt to keep the insects off of him; at the same time, he refused to take his eyes from the widening hole in the ceiling. The vampire beat at the wood and ripped the beams away. He reached down through the hole toward Jubal’s head, claws lengthening.
Gary dragged Gabrielle away from the danger of the swinging claw. He met the eyes of the vampire. “You cannot enter this room, foul thing. You are not welcome here.”
The arm smoked. Little flames licked up the rotting flesh. The vampire screamed and jerked his arm away, thrashing around on the floor of the bedroom above them before thrusting his head just outside the widening hole and spitting venom at them. The spinning blades rose into the air and smashed into the exposed head, tearing through the face, burning and cutting as it went. The vampire screamed horribly and fell back out of sight.
Jubal closed his eyes, shutting out everything but the bracelet, forming an image in his head of the spinning weapon targeting the vampire’s heart. He was oblivious to the insects swarming over him, Gabrielle’s cries, or Gary’s chanting. The only thing, in that moment that was real for him, was the mage weapon and the vampire.
The scent of burned flesh and hideous screams that cut off abruptly were his only confirmation that he’d been successful. He called the bracelet back to him. It came through the door with the master vampire’s retaliation—hordes of bats. The bats covered his body, driving him to the ground with their weight, teeth biting into his flesh with the intention of devouring him.
Gary shoved Gabrielle behind him, toward the bathroom. “Get in there, cover every crack,” he ordered and turned back to try to clear the bats from Jubal, knocking them to the floor and to incinerate them with a small torch he took from atop his dresser, ignoring the ones using their wings as feet and walking menacingly across the floor toward him.
A vampire appeared in the hole and Joie shot him with the shotgun, blowing him backward. Immediately the gun grew too hot to hold and she dropped it hastily, inhaling sharply when she saw what she faced. The vampire was back, the bloody hole blown through the body spewing maggots, but he was still standing as though unfazed.
Through the door, Joie could see that this was the real enemy. She stood stoically facing the monster outside in the hall. His smile was a terrible parody, as was his bow. He looked smug as he watched the black horde of insects biting the occupants of the room and the bats covering the body of her brother like a living blanket. Joie knew she was staring at something far more foul than the creature she had knifed in the cave. He beckoned to her with his clawlike fingers, and she felt a tremendous pull. It was only the pain from the vicious bites of the insects that kept her from stepping out of the room and into the hallway. She had no doubt that this vampire would kill her—that he would kill all of them.
She struggled to keep her mind her own, rather than allow his soft voice to intrude and command. “You are Valenteen,” she named him. “A master vampire without equal. Tell me why you do the bidding of the other, the one who hides behind your strength.”
The only weapon she had was to flatter the vampire’s ego—stall him in the hope that Traian would come before Valenteen could entice her out to him. “It’s clear you’re much more powerful. Why would you serve such a creature?” She forced interest and admiration into her voice. “I find it hard to believe that a man like you needs someone like him.”
Valenteen’s lip curled, exposing blackened gums. “I allow him to think he commands me. It suits me to fall in with his plans. We both seek the same thing. If he finds it, I will take it from him.”
Joie was being compelled forward, one slow step at a time. She struggled to stay grounded, flinging her hand out to Jubal. Her brother crawled to her in spite of the weight of the bats, clawing his way across the floor, pushing with elbows and toes until his fingers