Blood Warrior (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #4) (10 page)

Behind her, about six feet down the
deck, Christina stood with an expression fiercer than I’d ever seen
on her. She threw another knife, which lodged itself deep in
Korina’s back. “You take your hands off of him!” Christina yelled
holding another large knife.

Korina didn’t turn around, she still
faced us and even though she had two knives sticking out of her
back, she smiled. “Missed the vital organs, honey. You are going to
have to do much better than that, if you want to kill me.” And
then, without warning, she lifted Zander into the air and jumped
over the side of the deck with him wrapped in her arms.

We all ran forward as we heard the
splash. Everyone leaned over the railing, searching for any sign of
them. I held my gun out, wanting to fire, but not wanting to hit
Zander in the process.

Everyone in my group had the same
thoughts as me, but Sarah, now that was a different story. She
didn’t know Zander and her only mission was to stop this freaking
apocalypse.

“
Screw this,” she growled
and then fired her rifle into the water. The rest of her group
followed suit and began peppering the river below us with
bullets.

Oh, please God, let him be
all right.

“
Let’s go!” Christina
screamed, running down the deck, toward the dock. “We have to find
him.”

I stayed where I was for a moment,
trying to get a focus on the water. Anthony stayed with me while
everyone else followed Christina. Nothing. The water was still
moving from the spray of ammunition so it was hard to tell if there
was any movement underneath.

“
There,” Anthony
whispered, pointing at the bank of the river, a good distance away
from us. The shadowy form of a woman was dragging Zanders limp body
from the confines of the Mississippi. I couldn’t tell how far it
was, but she definitely had a good head start.

I fired a couple of shots in their
general direction, but it was too dark, even for my eyes, since I
couldn’t really judge the distance. I was also still afraid of
hitting Zander.

“
Let’s go. We have to tell
the others.” I bolted down the deck and then jumped over as soon as
I got close enough to the dock. Anthony followed right behind me.
Man, it was actually nice having someone around who could keep up
with me.

We caught up with the group in no time
at all. “This way,” I called as Anthony and I plowed our way
through the mass of people. “They went this way.”

The others picked up their speed and
followed us back into the city, toward the French Quarter, once
again.

Korina had lifted Zander into her arms
and sped off. She knew we were not far behind her, but even
carrying Zander, she was really freaking fast. She rounded into an
alleyway at the same time I heard several guns go off at
once.

The gunshots came from behind us and I
didn’t know if they were from our group or from soldiers. Then
shouting, followed the gunshots, and more firing.

Oh, my God, someone was being
massacred, I just didn’t know if it was our guys or the bad guys.
Oh, my God.

I looked over at Anthony as we rounded
the same corner that Korina had. He shook his head slightly and I
knew that finding Korina was the priority. Killing her would help
end this. But, I wanted to know everyone was all right.

This was indeed, a war, and there were
going to be casualties. I just didn’t want them to be any of the
people I loved.

With shouting and gunshots firing in
the distance, we found Korina had cornered herself into the
alleyway. There was no way out of this one, the buildings
surrounding us were two stories high, too far for her to jump
it.

Her hair was damp and dangling into
her face and her eyes were wide, since she knew she had made a
mistake. She had dropped Zander to the ground where he lay
unconscious. Her stance was that of attack, arms slightly raised,
fingers spread like they were claws and her legs bent at the
knee.

“
It’s time to go, Korina.”
Anthony aimed his gun at her. But, like me, he hesitated and she
took advantage. With a sudden burst of speed, she bolted forward
and knocked him to the ground. Anthony grunted and rolled so that
he was on top. Which was stupid because with him on top I was
unable to get a shot at her without hitting him.

I threw a glance over at Zander, he
still hadn’t moved or made a sound. Dammit. I wish he would wake
up.

Anthony and Korina continued to roll
around on the filthy cement, trying to choke each other. Both of
them were doing whatever they could to take out the other one.
Outside the alley I heard footsteps thundering toward us … a lot of
footsteps.

Crap
.

Vampire Council soldiers thundered
into the alley with their guns raised. I just knew they were going
to fire before assessing the surroundings. So I pulled all the
energy inside of me and forced it outward.

Flames burst forth from my arms. I
swirled them in the shape of a rainbow and then pushed even more,
forcing the fire outward, toward the soldiers. Their screams were
ear piercing. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them screaming
in pain as the fire scorched their skin and burned away their
clothing. Some of them involuntarily fired their weapons and
miraculously they somehow missed me.

I didn’t let up on my fire, I kept it
going and moved forward slowly, a step at a time.

“
Chloe!” I heard Drew’s
voice on the other side of the fire. “Put it out, they’re
down.”

Drew, thank God, he was all
right.

I extinguished the fire quickly, but
there were still flames flickering in front of me. I blinked a few
times, wondering what the heck was happening and then realized that
I’d been too close to the building and now it was on
fire.

Damn old wooden structures. I turned
back toward Anthony and Korina, there was nothing I could do now,
even though the fire seemed to be spreading quickly.

Drew appeared at my side. “You didn’t
have to set that on fire, you know.”

I made a face that said ‘ha ha, very
funny’ but only muttered, “Smart ass,” as a response. The soldiers
who were left had either crawled away or lay dead on the alley
floor. Anthony and Korina were still going at it too.

I raised my gun, attempting once again
to get a bead on Korina. Vampires were fast, and I fought vampires
all the time, but two fighting vampires was like trying to watch a
movie in fast forward. I’d never seen anything like it.

Gavin, Christina and Luke thundered
into the alley behind us. “Hey,” I turned to them, not wanting to
take my eyes off Korina and Anthony. “Is everyone all right. I
heard so many screams.”

Luke was breathing hard and trying to
catch his breath. “The screaming was the other guy. We did lose a
few of Sarah’s people, but Alice had us protected.”

Just then, Christina spotted Zander.
“Oh my God. No!” She ran to him and fell to her knees beside him.
“No, no, no.” She repeated over and over again, pulling his head
into her lap.

Grunts and curses came from Anthony
and Korina. They had moved into a standing position and Anthony had
her up against a wall, holding her secure by the neck. “Stop
fighting me, Korina, you are not going to survive this, look around
you.”

She didn’t care what he had to say,
she just kept on struggling against him as she tried to free
herself from his grasp. I realized that in the position they were
in now, I could get a clear shot, so I took aim at her chest region
and pulled the trigger.

Nothing.

Crap, I was out of ammo. I didn’t have
time to check my clips and reload, so I pulled the bow over my head
and nocked an arrow.

The fire picked up momentum, spreading
from one building to the next. Great, that was all we needed was to
cause yet another fire in New Orleans that would make history by
burning the French Quarter to the ground. I glanced at the fire and
then at Gavin. “Do you think you can put this out?”

“
No problem.” He nodded as
I drew back my arm and took aim once again.

“
There, get them!” a loud
voice called from the opening of the alley. I abandoned my shot and
turned to see what was going on.

A mix of soldiers and vampires
approached, held back only by what remained of our group. Oh no, we
were all trapped in here like caged mice and Alice wasn’t with us.
Christina saw what was happening and left Zander to help. She,
Luke, and Drew began firing, just as the ground beneath us shook
with the strength of an earthquake.

Gavin sat in kneeling position, his
hands pressed against the cement, calling to his element beneath
the floor of the city. His head bowed in concentration and he was
somehow able to ignore the deadly commotion around him.

The soldiers fired back and the
vampires surged forward. They stumbled over the shaking ground
below them as they dodged the spray of bullets coming from both
sides. Some of the soldiers who were shooting fell as their balance
was thrown off.

And then, the cement cracked, the
pavement broke apart in crooked lines and some of the sections
raised up as tons water shot up from within them. The powerful
bursts shot high into the air, taking some of the soldiers and
vampires out with them.

The bad guys weren’t the only ones,
Christina, who had been standing right on top of one of the cracks,
was lifted into the air and thrown to the side, into one of the
flaming walls.

Oh God, this was so bad.

I saw her bounce off the wall and land
on the pavement. She let out a string of curses as she crawled
across the wreckage while fumbling to find her gun. At least she
was alive.

I turned and drew back again. This had
to end.

Anthony had to hold Korina with both
hands, so he was unable to defend himself against her, which meant
holding her there was all he could do. It was up to me.

I tried to filter out the screams and
shouts and gunfire behind me, telling myself that this was what
mattered. This, was what had to be done.

Everything seemed to go silent around
me. The chaos muted as water rained down on us and smoke billowed
up from the extinguished flames, obstructing my vision. I focused,
drawing the energy within me. It swirled and ebbed inside of my
body until I mentally pushed it out, into the bow which I held in
my hands.

Whoosh.

Flames appeared on the blades of my
arrow. Anthony turned slightly to glance at me, exposing the entire
region of Korina’s chest. My fingers loosened and released, letting
the arrow fly.

The arrow sailed through the alley,
disappeared into the smoke and then made its new home in Korina’s
heart.

She screamed the shrillest, ear
piercing scream that I’d ever heard in my life. Instinctively I
dropped my bow and covered my ears. But, refused to take my eyes
off of her.

Anthony did not let go of her, if
anything, his grip tightened. “I am so sorry, sister.” He stared
into her wide, brown eyes. “This is what is meant to
be.”

She tried to speak to him and only
coughed, choking on her own blood as it surfaced in her mouth.
Several drops fell from her soundlessly moving lips and then, she
was gone. The life disappeared from her eyes and her body sagged
forward against Anthony’s strong hold.

He didn’t let her fall, he gently
lowered her to the floor of the alley and lay her out. He grasped
her hand momentarily and then released her. His head turned up
toward me and I saw the sadness clearly written in his expression.
I’m sure, if we hadn’t been soaked to the bone, that I would have
seen tears glistening on his cheeks as well.

And then he pointed, his finger
extended to the area behind me.

I turned, knowing in my heart that
this couldn’t be good. Through the smoke, a few soldiers and one
vampire were left standing. Luke shot and took out a soldier.
Simultaneously, Christina sliced another across the neck with one
of her knives.

Alice, Oscar and then rest of the
group appeared at the entrance to the alley, they were covered in
blood and dirt, telling me they had survived their own battle in
the streets. Alice pulled her swords and twirled around to gain
momentum and charged the vampire among them.

Sarah held her rifle and searched for
any danger, spotting the last soldier, she aimed and fired. He
stumbled back several paces and then fell as the bullet lodged into
his forehead.

Luke shot the fallen vamp a second
time, so that he would have a round of UV in him. That was when I
should have sighed with relief, but instead, my gaze landed on the
only thing that fell into the same category as losing my
mother.

Drew lay sprawled across the broken
pavement, his arm extended out as if reaching for his gun, which
lay about a foot from the tips of his fingers. His black tee had
ridden up, exposing his midsection, where blood still oozed from a
bullet wound.

Oh my God.

Beside him, Gavin lay in almost an
identical pose. His wound was almost exactly where he had been shot
the last time. This couldn’t be happening … it just
couldn’t.