Bloodstone (17 page)

When the jet of fire reached them, the flames dwindled and dipped to the grass a few inches from the vampires, who stared at the ground, perplexed as to how the fire died out.

Unlike the vampires, I didn’t need to reflect on what caused my flames to sputter out. I glanced back at Alexis, who stared at Zephora in rapturous astonishment. For her part, Zephora notched an eyebrow at me, unfazed by her ability to thwart my magical abilities. She had either issued a spell to combat the effectiveness of my flame-throwing ability or used an unknown power of her own to stifle my attack. I suspected that she’d also rendered my ability to manipulate the energy around me. She might be able to stop my magical abilities, but she couldn’t stop fifteen years of martial arts training.

The slight curve in her lips revealed that she took great pleasure in preventing me from charring the vampires ahead of me.

Her amusement proved short-lived, however, when a heart fell at her feet (another victim of Nolan’s) before turning to dust. Appalled, she stepped backwards, placing a hand to her heart as though a woman of her renowned and delicate nature was unfamiliar with such gruesomeness. A second later, she steeled her emotional fortitude, no longer permitting her dainty outlook to affect her.

If I hadn’t been examining her, I wouldn’t have noticed her aversion to violence. It seemed that Zephora took pleasure in defeating others, but not from inciting physical.

Meaning she’d stopped my attempt to burn the vampires because it prevented her from achieving her goals.

Zephora glanced at Nolan, and her eyes flashed with surprise.

Nolan sent the fourth vampire he faced sprawling into one of the humans, which set off a chain reaction as though each person was a domino, not a human being. They hit the ground and glanced around at each other, confused. When a couple of them saw Nolan and a vampire engaged in battle, they scrambled to their feet and ran away, hurrying toward the long concrete path, which would take them out of the park and toward the street. Likewise, the other humans acknowledged the fight with widened eyes, as well as ten other humans standing perfectly still like statues. Some of them shrieked, while others remained silent, but all of them got to their feet and scurried away.

Alexis started to run after them, but Zephora extended an arm across her chest, stopping her.

One vampire had just torn open the skin from his wrist, prepared to force the human on the ground to drink from him, but instead he leapt up and sped toward me.

I’d lost the element of surprise, but like most of the vamps I’d confronted in the past few days, this one had just turned and hadn’t enough experience to move sleekly or with limited motions to prevent his opponent from anticipating how she might attack. The vampire reeled back an arm to punch my face, but substituting an attempt to block his fist, I swung the Soul Sword at it. The blade severed his arm with ease. His limb fell to the grass, and blood squirted from his extremity.

The vampire, gawking at his appendage in shock, turned back to me and screamed. He didn’t attack me. He just stood there and continued screaming. I arched my sword behind me and swung it toward him, removing his head. On my way to the next vampire, who jumped to his feet with a scowl and used his forearm to drag the slick blood from his lips, I lightly kicked a pair of humans, both of whom bumped into two others on either side of them. If they acted similarly to those who’d fallen earlier, they would regain their bearings and run away.

The next vampire dashed over to me quicker than I’d expected and fired off a fierce uppercut. It caught me by surprise and bashed into my chin. Pain sizzled through my jaw, and the blow flung me twelve feet backwards. When I hit the ground, I barely got to my feet before the vampire had encroached upon me, holding the Soul Sword. I hadn’t even realized that I’d dropped it, but seeing another person holding it, I no longer felt an ache along my jawline as a possessive instinct took hold of me. My senses heightened and the inner fortitude inside me strengthened as I focused on the vampire who’d taken my birthright.

He swung the blade to my left.

I dodged it easily, and before he lifted it and swung right, I sidestepped the maneuver, somehow knowing he’d position it in that direction. I punched him in the face, knocking him backwards with such force that he wind-milled his arms in an attempt to regain his balance. I had no doubt that the Soul Sword had somehow reached out to me, bypassing a verbal message in favor of a mental one to let me know which direction the vampire intended to send the blade.

Before he could fall backwards, I grabbed hold of the vampire’s shirt, tugged him toward me, and bashed my fist against his chest. As my knuckles collided with his skin, I felt bones break behind it, which issued an “oomph” from the vampire’s mouth, causing him to drop the Soul Sword. My eyes settled on the blade with rapt attention, as though I’d spotted a missing portion of my body that I’d longed to reconnect with. Before I knew it, I’d ignored the vampire in search of reacquiring my sword.

From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the vampire Nolan now fought.

He’d tried to hit Nolan with a roundhouse kick, but my bandmate and swiped an open chop across vamp’s throat, severing his head from its body as though he’d used the sword I now sought. A cloud of dust sifted through the air. Without wasting movement, Nolan addressed the next vampire, who whipped a fist toward his head. Nolan ducked and kicked the vampire’s kneecap, sending him to the ground. Before the vamp could get to its feet, Nolan threw a backhanded chop into its neck, removing its head as though his flesh and bones consisted of sand.

The next four vampires looked up from the victims necks they’d dug their teeth into and eyed Nolan, uncertain if they should proceed. The lone female vampire glanced back at Zephora.

By that time, I’d already snatched the Soul Sword and rushed up to her. Just as she threw a fist my way, I blocked it, and severed her head. Unfortunately, in the haze of dust that spread across me, I spotted the next vampire dart toward me. With no time to swing the sword across its throat, I kicked it in the hip, knocking him aside. Instead of waiting for him to regain his bearings, I barreled forward with the Soul Sword leading the way.

I impaled the vampire in stomach, driving it into the ground, but because I hadn’t hit its heart, I removed the weapon, and rammed it into that area, spurting a line of blood past my face. I twisted the blade. Of course, that hadn’t ended his life, so I grabbed the inch-wide stick on the ground beside and plunged it into the vamp’s heart.

Just as I turned, another vampire knocked me into the ground, flinging the sword a few feet away. I’d hoped that Nolan would have handled this one, but he was attending to the final vampire, so I swung to my side, snagged a foot around its ankle, and kicked hard at its knee, dislocating it. As the vampire screamed in pain, I rushed over to it, grabbed the blade, and removed the vamp’s head.

When I got to my feet, I saw Nolan punch the final vampire in the heart, extract it’s still beating organ, and hurled it across the street. The vampire fell aside, and its body crumbled into a pile of particles.

After speeding along the line of humans and tipping them from their stoic position and onto the ground, certain that they’d soon shake the confusion from their minds and run away as the others had done, Nolan and I spun toward Zephora, Alexis, and Celestina. My niece stared at her shoes as though Alexis had given her a tongue-lashing. For all I knew, she’d done precisely that.

Still, Celestina’s confounded and helpless expression infuriated me. I stomped up to my sister, who raised both arms toward me in a threatening manner.

I stopped immediately, knowing that Alexis would sling frozen daggers into my face if I didn’t acknowledge her authority. Nolan did likewise, unwilling to test her patience.

“A minor inconvenience,” Zephora admitted, stepping forward to inspect my face. “I detect…” She closed her eyes and sniffed the air. “Arrogance.” Her eyelids flipped open. “That shall be your downfall, young lady.”

Hearing the humans, who had fallen, only to rise before their footsteps trotted away, I smiled at Zephora. We’d managed to kill every vampire in the vicinity. We’d sabotaged the threat to increase the vampire population. I couldn’t have asked for a more successful mission, although I still hated that we hadn’t reached the two humans before they’d turned, and thus, needed to be killed.

“My arrogance?” I asked, knowing she couldn’t stop a paranormal threat without resorting to her magical abilities. “You’re right.” I copied Zephora’s actions by sniffing the air, as though the sorceress couldn’t keep up with my magical abilities. “What is that? Fear?” I grinned. “Must belong to you, Zephora.”

“Yeah, right,” Alexis said, stepping forward like a dog guarding its master. “You wouldn’t know fear unless—”

“I sensed it on you?” I asked. “Probably. But just look at your daughter. Go ahead, look! She’s frightened of you. Is that what you think parenting is about?” I shook my head.

“So what now?” asked Nolan, reluctant to deal with a bunch of insults flying back and forth, rather than dealing with the issue at hand. “We killed your vampires. What does that mean to you?”

Zephora revealed a pleasant smile as she waved a hand as though pushing aside a trifling nuisance. “You may have dealt with vampires,” she said, directing her attention my way, “but you have taken someone very special from me.” Her smile disappeared, replaced by a furious expression. “A man of consequence. A man of unquestionable righteousness.”

“The kind,” I said, “who tried to kill me.” I nodded, pretending to give her words consideration. “You understand why I had to defend myself, can’t you?”

“Indeed. But it does not make it any easier to bear, and for that…you shall pay!”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“How much are we talking?” I asked Zephora, taking her words literally. I loved the mystified expression on her face. “Damn.” I snapped my fingers. “I left my purse in the car. Besides, I need to hit up an ATM for some cash. Credit okay with you?” I needed to stall in order to formulate a plan to either kill Zephora…or leave unscathed in order to fight another day.

Zephora’s cheeks pinched toward her eyes, sending imaginary daggers my way.

“Aww, come on. I’m good for it.”

“You consider yourself quite the comedian, do you not?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Everyone needs a fallback plan.”

Alexis faced Zephora, but didn’t look into her eyes, almost as though she considered herself unworthy of meeting her gaze. Either that, or each time she did so, she couldn’t help but see an ambition matching that of our dead mother.

Thankfully, having never really known my mother, I didn’t have the same problem, although I’d briefly dealt with a similar scenario when Zephora had overtaken Grams’s body. Nonetheless, I suspected Alexis felt inferior to Zephora, and by not looking directly into her eyes, my sister gave her mentor the deference she figured Zephora deserved.

I scanned Zephora for evidence of drug withdrawal, but I saw no visible proof of that condition. Three days had passed, which meant she’d synced with Delphine’s body, and now had full use of her abilities. The knowledge sent a fright through me. I didn’t know what powers she could call upon, and I didn’t want to find out, but rather than run from the truth, I needed to deal with it head on.

“So,” I said to Zephora, “I guess I’m next on your hit list, right?”

“You would think so, would you not?” she responded with a haughty laugh. “I cannot blame you. I have been waiting to reunite with my love for nearly a century. Surely, even an ignoramus like you must recognize how the bonds of love tug on one’s heartstrings?”

“You mean for a psycho like you?” I asked, paraphrasing Celestina. From the corner of my eye, I saw a grin develop on her face. “Yeah, I get it. You want to end my life. Welcome to the club!” I glanced at Nolan before returning my stare at Zephora. “Maybe I should charge an initiation fee. What do you think?”

His eyes shifted between Zephora and Alexis, obviously distrustful of them and unwilling to look away for a single moment. “I think we should leave.”

“That will not do,” Zephora said. She set her pearly whites in my direction. “I plan to hurt you, Serena. Not just a little but a lot…and quite severely. I will deliver such exquisite pain you will beg me to forgive you for taunting me, but…I never will.”

“So what now? Do I make an appointment for that? I mean, you’ve got a lot brewing…what with wanting to destroy the world and all. I’m just one person, so I won’t take offense if you put me on the back burner.”

“I would much rather put you on the front burner.” Her grin broadened.

I didn’t remove my gaze from Zephora’s stare. Since laying eyes upon Zephora a couple minutes ago, I’d hoped to put together a workable plan that ended with Zephora dead and me in one piece. So far, nothing came to mind, and I had to admit the cool chill snaking up my spine had more to do with my incompetence to handle this situation than the temperature, which had dipped a little. 

“I only meant,” Zephora said, “you need not wait.” She extended both hands in my direction. “You shall suffer now!”

A stream of invisible energy shot from her fingers, heading straight toward me. I didn’t see it, but the air preceding it was electrified and made the hair on my arms rise.

Before it reached me, however, Celestina hurried over and stood in front of me. She raised a hand, and Zephora’s surge of magical elements bashed into my niece’s hand, forcing her to take a step back, but within a moment, she stood tall, a smirk on her face as she defiantly pushed her palm (and the energy she held back) toward Zephora.

I had no idea what type of magic Zephora had intended to hit me with, nor how Celestina had blocked it, since the ancient one was supposedly more powerful than any other witch in our line.

“You insolent child!”

Alexis shook her head, making it known that she sided with Zephora instead of her daughter.

I glared at my sister, startled at how she’d neglect Celestina. I approached her. “How could you be so cold, so unforgiving?”

“Easy,” she said, snarling as she headed toward me. She stopped when only a few feet separated us. She wouldn’t risk coming any closer, since she knew I could rely on my martial arts skills in tight quarters. “
My
daughter wouldn’t forsake me. She wouldn’t choose sides with you.”

“This isn’t about sides,” I said, shocked she hadn’t figured that out. “It’s about family.” Why didn’t she get that? Then again, given her close relationship with our mother, she might have lost a screw in her noggin after Delphine moved on from this world. That could explain why she’d seemingly disowned her daughter. Or maybe I would never understand my sister’s warped mind.

Alexis cracked a smile. “I’ve got a family.” She glanced at Zephora before returning my gaze once more. “She’s the first in our line. You can’t get much more devoted than that. Without her, I wouldn’t exist. I wouldn’t have
any
abilities or power.” She regarded her daughter with repulsion. “I’ve tried teaching
you
respect and honor and family obligation, but you won’t listen, you won’t see!”

Had our mother’s death put her over the edge? Had Alexis…gone insane? I searched my sister’s gaze for some sort of stability and humanity, the type that would allow me to comprehend her rationale, but I couldn’t imagine a mother giving up on her daughter with so little recourse. Now I figured I’d misjudged how much Alexis cared for Delphine. She respected her and sought to learn from her, but she most certainly didn’t
love
her. Continuing my stare, watching my sister’s smile stretch at my observation, I realized that like Darius, my sister may have sensed Celestina’s power and hoped to learn what she could from her. More than that, Alexis planned to use her daughter in order to optimize her power and abilities.

That explained why my sister asked Delphine to teach Celestina outside of school. It also clarified why she frequently lashed out at her daughter and often commanded her to stay in the house outside of the school day. Even worse, I now got the impression Alexis hoped actively pursuing this route would result in Celestina becoming socially awkward, which would result in poor self-esteem and a co-dependent relationship with her mother. Hadn’t Celestina overly cared about her mother’s opinions and actions? Hadn’t she continually stated or implied no one but her correctly interpreted Alexis’s behavior and
caring
nature? Why hadn’t I seen the signs earlier? It probably stemmed from my own absence of a family. Like Celestina, I wanted to trust my sister and often made excuses for her. Put bluntly, I’d once wanted to believe in Alexis.

Alexis’s smile, now free of worry, mirrored her relaxed posture, as though she’d released a great burden. Or in this case, two burdens. Me and Celestina! She had used both of us. Now that she no longer needed us, she planned to move on with her life, a life neither of us fit into. If either Celestina or I tried to convince her otherwise, she would pity us and maybe even hate us that much more.

She sickened me. Alexis was not only a wretched mother, but a terrible person. I never wanted to see her again. But it presented me with a problem. Now that she had sided with Zephora, how would this decision affect Celestina? It might crush her self-worth. I suspected Alexis had no interest in seeing her daughter ever again…unless she needed her, after which she would take immense joy in pulverizing what little ego Celestina clung to.

Zephora ended her assault, and Celestina stopped blocking it. “You
are
powerful,” Zephora said to Celestina, “but you lack the skill and experience to confront someone of my stature.” She flicked a wrist at her. Nothing happened.

When I glanced at my niece, however, I noticed an inch-wide cut across her right cheekbone. Blood rose to the surface, but since the gash wasn’t deep, it didn’t pour.

The tip of Celestina’s right lip grimaced at Zephora, obviously suspecting whichever spell Zephora had crafted had backfired, only to wince a second later as she felt the sting on her cheek. Her adrenaline had probably dulled the physical effect of the mark. Celestina bit the inside of her cheek as she watched Zephora chuckle at her, curiosity glittering in her eyes. Within a couple moments, however, she snapped her wrist toward Zephora.

Zephora flinched, placed a few fingers against her left cheek, and pulled it away, only to discover blood smeared across her skin. Astonished, she gazed at Celestina in wonder, shaking her head. “But how could you know…You are only capable of using three abilities. How could you possibly have managed to call upon a fourth?”

I half-smiled at Zephora’s revelation. I had reacted likewise a couple days ago, when I’d discovered my niece could use way more than three gifts.

Alexis exhaled with a combination of aggravation and fear. “She’s a mutant, a freak.”

Her daughter blinked at the insults, but her gaze didn’t waver from Zephora.

“Is that so?” Zephora asked as her breath hitched in her throat. “Then please entertain us with by repeating…” She drew both wrists inwards, revolved them in a half-arc, and then thrust them outward in Celestina’s direction.

Celestina’s mouth snapped shut, the force nearly pushing her back a step before she regained her balance. She blanched, her lips twisting and contorting, as she did her best to open her mouth to no avail. She lowered her head, setting her frustrated gaze on her opponent as she drew upon the anger swelling inside her. After spending a couple seconds concentrating, she sliced a few fingers through the air as though swiping the screen of a smartphone, making it clear she sought to duplicate the maneuver that zipped her mouth shut.

Zephora’s mouth puckered as though she’d tasted something bitter, but Celestina’s attempt failed to clamp her lips together. The sorceress analyzed Celestina the way a small boy might first examine an ant on the sidewalk.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Nolan no longer stood to my right.

Zephora swept her gaze across from her, only to find Nolan glaring at her. When she locked eyes with his, Zephora’s aggravation drifted away, replaced by curiosity as she examined Nolan’s face. A slight hiss escaped her lips as she took a step backwards, as though caught unaware by an unspoken acknowledgment that caught her by surprise.

“I get that a lot,” Nolan said with a flat tone and expression. He tilted his head toward me. “Mostly from her.” He shrugged. “But…whatever.”

“If you knew what awaited you,” Alexis said to her daughter, “you’d want to take part in your ancestry, but no...” She hit me with a disgusted expression. “She’d rather spend time with you! She is my daughter no more!”

“What?” asked Celestina, her face crumbling in dismay. Rather than continue to concentrate on Zephora, she pivoted and made her way toward her mother with both palms spread out against her thighs, as though hoping to catch some type of reprieve. “How can you say that? I’m still your daughter. I’ll always be—”

Far from eager to attack Celestina from behind in hopes of catching her by surprise, Zephora scrutinized her, using this respite to determine how the teenager had somehow obtained powers that Zephora had forsaken centuries ago by limiting each witch in our line to only three abilities.

“
You
are not my daughter!” Alexis said with gritted teeth. “Not anymore. If you were, you would have trusted me. You would have
believed
in me. But no, you’d rather spend your time with a woman you barely know, a woman with little to no magical power.” A look of disapproval swept across her face. “I don’t even know you anymore.”

“But Mom,” Celestina said, her voice straining as she stopped an inch away from Alexis. “It’s me. I love—”

“You don’t
know
what love is.” Alexis stepped back, a snarl on her face. “Is it just a word to you? Doesn’t it mean anything to you?”

“Yes,” Celestina said, her voice finally breaking. She tried speaking again, but her tone allowed nothing more than air. She put her hands to her throat as though hoping that by massaging it, she would elicit a sound.

“See?” said Alexis with a disapproving stare. “Your soul knows the truth! You don’t love me. You never did. You never trusted me, never cared about me.” She flinched as though awaking from a bad dream. “You were
never
meant to be.”

“What?” asked Celestina, finally able to utter a sound.

Color had entered Alexis’s cheeks. “There’s a reason why you never met your father.”

Celestina’s eyebrows lifted, unsure if she wanted to hear what her mother hinted at disclosing. “I don’t want to—”

“It’s because I only saw him once. The night he raped me!”

“No.” My niece stepped back, shaking her head. “That can’t be.” Her lips peeled back in horror as she clenched her eyes tightly. “But you told me—”

“What you wanted to believe.” Alexis finished for her. My sister’s shoulders relaxed as though she’d finally allowed herself to release the pressure that had been dragging her life into the pits of despair. “You never knew your father because I never knew him, and haven’t seen him since.”