Dread Nemesis of Mine (8 page)

Salazar glanced back at me with narrowed eyes
and shook his head at Thomas. The other man crossed his arms and
gave him a withering gaze, but it didn't faze the Colombian. I
followed Bella through a long brick archway, and emerged inside a
fenced-in lot bordering a street congested with cars, foot traffic,
and noise. A thick aroma of burnt diesel and other pollutants
crowded my nose. The brick-paved street wound down a long hill
between white adobe houses with barred windows and worn terracotta
shingles. I looked behind me. The plaza looked like a tall, brick
warehouse from the outside. No doubt the razor wire and chain-link
fence kept most casual passers-by from trying to get in.

A shadowy flicker in the corner of my eye
sent a panicky jolt straight to my heart. I ducked and rolled, eyes
scanning for the shadow creature. Instead, I found a gray, cloudy
shape drifting around the perimeter. A group of kids were trying to
squeeze under the fence. The cloud morphed into a humanoid shape,
its ghostly hands brushing the children on the head. The intruders
abruptly stood up and wandered down the sidewalk, eyes blank, faces
expressionless.

"What is that thing?" I asked with a
shudder.

"A minder," Bella said.

"Those things give me the creeps," Elyssa
said with a shudder.

I noticed several more of the ghoulish wisps
patrolling the fence. "What did that thing do to those kids?"

"Minders twist the thoughts of people." Bella
gave a shiver of her own. "Arcanes discovered these things lurking
in the Gloom decades ago and, after several disastrous attempts,
learned they are sentient to a certain degree."

"They trained them like animals," Elyssa
said, eyes angry. "And allow them to feed on noms."

"They feed on normal humans?" I couldn't
really muster any outrage, given my need to feed on human
emotion.

"When the minder touched those boys, it fed
on their thoughts and memories. We still don't know exactly how
they do it, but prolonged contact with those things could
permanently damage your mind."

I sidestepped farther away from one of the
minders as it drifted along the fence in our direction. "They're
really that harmful?"

"I would tell you to ask the first Arcanes
who discovered them, but they're stark-raving mad now." Bella's
violet eyes grew unfocused as if she were looking at a memory of
her own.

A line of black SUVs waited outside the
fence. Christian and Thomas piled into the lead vehicle, still
talking heatedly. Bella and Elyssa climbed into the vehicle behind
it. I walked around the back of the same vehicle to toss in my
luggage when I felt a cold ping on my supernatural radar. It was
close. Maybe fifty feet away. I'd felt that sensation enough to
know exactly what it was. I spun to face it.

The Templars felt it, too. Within a split
second of the sensation, dozens of swords slid from sheaths.
Another cold blip popped up behind me. Another to my side. Followed
by another. And another.

"Starfire! Get down!" someone shouted as a
ball of white energy the size of my head shot from a rooftop down
the road and streaked toward the lead SUV.

"Dad!" Elyssa shouted. She dove from the
backseat. Rolled on the pavement and pivoted for her father's SUV.
But it was too late.

The fireball slammed into the grill of the
vehicle, suffusing the frame with brilliant white light, and
exploded. My body left the ground and flew through the air,
slamming against the hard brick road. A twisted and charred bumper
slammed onto my chest. I sucked in a wheezing breath and heard the
whine of tinnitus buzzing in my ears. Screams and shouts echoed as
though through a long tunnel.

I shoved the blackened bumper off me and
rolled onto my side. Noms scattered in all directions as dozens of
dark forms leapt from rooftops and hit the ground running. I pushed
myself to my knees. The effort sent waves of agony through my back
and ribs. Something hard and sharp brushed against the inside of my
arm. I looked and found a blade of shrapnel jutting from my
side.

"Justin!" someone screamed.

I saw Elyssa surrounded by a circle of
Templars fighting off a mob of vampires. Some of the attackers
looked barely out of middle school while others looked college
aged. Maximus obviously didn't discriminate by age or gender,
because there were plenty of females in the riotous mix. Each
attacker wore a red armband around one bicep, each bearing a
valentine-shaped heart with two fangs piercing it. Some vampires
wore pink shirts with the same heart logo on it.

A flutter of pink drew my attention to the
SUV Elyssa had been in. Bella hung halfway out of the backseat.
Blood dripped from her outstretched hand, forming a puddle on the
ground. I roared with anger. Grabbed the jagged shard of metal in
my side and pulled it out. The world faded to black for an instant,
and a scream tore from my throat. As the ringing in my ears
subsided, I pushed myself to my feet and ran for Bella.

I dragged her from the SUV. She groaned. Her
eyelids fluttered.

"Bella?" I said.

"I—I'm okay, Justin."

I watched a slice down her arm slowly heal as
her supernatural healing kicked in. "Can you run?"

She nodded.

Strong hands grabbed me by the shoulders and
jerked me away. Threw me across the road. I turned my roll into a
three-point landing and looked into the red eyes of a gaggle of
vampires. One-on-one, I knew I could beat them, but—

Something snapped around my neck. I turned
and saw a female vampire smile, her fangs glistening. Bella shouted
something.

And the world went black.

Elyssa

Elyssa stared at the burned-out hull of the
SUV in shock. Her father and Christian were in there! Adrenalin
burned through her blood. She had to get to them. He couldn't be
dead. But he probably was. What sick joke was the universe playing
on her to steal her brother and her father from her in the space of
a week? She reached for a sword, ready to slice through the mob of
vampires surrounding her meager circle of Templars, but her sheath
was empty. The sword was in the back of one of the SUVs.

She kicked away one attacker and looked
around to see who was in charge. Everyone looked too busy fighting
for their lives to think about the chain of command. Considering
how many vampires were swarming them, she had to do something.

"Call for reinforcements," she shouted to a
local Templar fighting next to her. "I'll cover your position."

He gave her a confused look at first, then
seemed to realize who she was. He nodded and backed inside the
circle, pulling out a cell phone.

The circle was faltering. Dozens of other
Templars were scattered about, fighting individual battles.
Considering the odds, they wouldn't last long. Whoever was supposed
to have taken charge hadn't. She took a deep breath and bellowed,
"Templars, form cohort! Skirmish ranks!"

As if she'd just pushed a button, individual
Templars shouted out positions, trading spots and lining up in a
wedge, while scattered individuals formed a smaller rank and fought
their way toward the main group.

Elyssa backed behind the wedge for a clear
view of the battlefield, and checked for Justin. She'd seen him
through the throng only a moment ago. Thankfully, the attacking
vampires were untrained at hand-to-hand. Maximus was obviously
counting on sheer numbers to do the job, but with order restored to
the Templar ranks, the tide of battle was turning.

She clubbed the closest vampire in the nose.
He yelped. Elyssa thrust a foot straight out, slamming into his
chest. He flew back, taking several other vampires tumbling to the
ground with him.

With her view momentarily cleared, Elyssa
spotted Justin dragging Bella from an SUV. She looked okay,
but—Elyssa's eyes caught sight of a group of vampires rushing the
two of them. Before he could react, a vampire slapped a sleeper
collar on Justin.

"No!" Elyssa shouted. Despite years of
training and a sense of duty hanging heavy around her neck, she
didn't hesitate a second. She left the protective wedge and ran for
him.

The vampire, who'd collared Justin, slung him
over her back and dashed down the road. Elyssa dodged a clumsy
swing from a vampire and shoved him away. Another charged straight
at her. She ducked under his grasp and flipped him over her
shoulder. Spun and drove her heel into his neck. A bone cracked and
he lay still.

The vampires who'd cornered Justin now
blocked the road. The diminutive sorceress, Bella, faced them down,
a pale staff in her hand. Though Bella was a dhampyr like Elyssa,
she was just an Arcane, not a trained fighter. Elyssa threaded a
gauntlet of vampires, racing for Bella and Justin's kidnapper.

Before she could reach Bella, something hard
smacked Elyssa in the temple. She rolled sideways to avoid another
blow, but her eyesight blurred from the impact. She sprang back to
her feet. Her vision cleared just as a muscular woman drove her
fist right at the bridge of Elyssa's nose. She caught the fist.
Twisted the arm. Drove her elbow into the vampire's arm and heard
the crack of bone. The vampire screeched.

Elyssa swept the other woman's legs from
under her, grabbed the vampire's neck, and drove her face-first
into the brick street with a
crunch
. She looked back at
Bella. Several vampires fanned out, encircling the dhampyr. Behind
them, Elyssa saw the form of Justin's abductor speeding downhill on
foot.

There was no way she'd help Bella with these
vampires in time to give chase.

Bella twirled her staff and smacked a vampire
in the head. She spun the rod around her waist and, sweeping low,
upended the next vampire. The staff whirled over a shoulder, swung
down and cracked the downed man in the face. Before the other
vampires could react, Bella shouted, "
Kineesi!
" and stabbed
the rod into the road. A bright blue light exploded around her,
flinging the remaining attackers in all directions. One flew over
Elyssa's head and bowled over several of his comrades.

"Holy smokes," Elyssa said. She'd obviously
underestimated the woman.

The sorceress saw Elyssa and motioned her
over. "We can still catch them!" She rushed to the back of the SUV
and grabbed something. Turned and tossed a silver katana hilt-first
to Elyssa.

Without another word, the two women sped down
the street.

A blinding pulse of energy explodedthe bricks
next to Elyssa. Shards of brick stabbed her flesh in countless
places. Bella cried out. Somehow, they kept their feet.

"What the hell is that?" Elyssa shouted,
looking back over her shoulder.

"There, look," Bella said, turning and
pointing at a rooftop in the distance.

Zooming in her sight, Elyssa spotted a man on
a roof, holding a sheet of paper in his hand. "Is he an
Arcane?"

The other woman grabbed Elyssa by the arm and
guided her toward the buildings on the left, taking them out of the
man's line of sight. "No, he's a vampire, but he has weaponized
scrolls."

And he'd killed her father. Rage boiled in
her chest. Part of her wanted to turn around and tear the man to
bloody shreds. But her father was dead and there was nothing she
could do about it. Right now, she needed to catch the vampire with
Justin. Her jaw hurt and Elyssa realized she was clenching her
teeth so tight, they felt as though they would crack.

The vampire with Justin vanished around a
corner in the distance. Elyssa and Bella blurred after her,
whipping past buildings and fleeing pedestrians. They rounded the
corner and smacked into a crowd of waiting vampires. Bella tumbled
through them, losing the grip on her staff. Elyssa converted her
forward momentum into a jump kick, catching one attacker on the
chin.

Bella punched one guy in the crotch from her
position on the ground. He screamed and went down. She rolled away
from a vampire's foot as he tried to stomp her. Elyssa dodged a
clumsy lunge by an attacker and, grabbing his shoulders, vaulted
over him. Her foot lashed out in a backward kick and sent him
stumbling against a brick wall. Bella's staff lay only feet
away.

Elyssa swatted aside a punch from a woman
dressed in a skintight, leather suit who obviously thought becoming
a vampire meant she could live out her Catwoman fantasy.

The woman hissed in Spanish and clawed at
Elyssa's eyes. Elyssa gripped the other woman's wrists. Twisted
them out and away from each other. Kneed the vampire in the
stomach, and finished her with a roundhouse to the face. Catwoman
went down in a ragdoll heap.

Bella yelped as one of the vampires landed a
punch on her face. She wobbled but managed to keep her feet. Elyssa
snatched the staff from the ground. Whirling it, she cleared a path
back to Bella, clubbing vampires on the head with it. Though she'd
trained with a bo staff, it wasn't her specialty. True, she had the
katana Bella had given her, but even as mad as she was, Elyssa
couldn't bring herself to start slaughtering these stupid sheep
Maximus called followers. They were brainwashed. Not evil.

Bella dodged a furious uppercut from the
vampire. Elyssa came up behind the man and swung the staff up hard,
nailing him in the crotch with the knobbed end of it. She pushed
the staff forward. Bella grabbed the rod. Twirled it. Crushed the
man in the balls with a fierce thrust. The vampire howled and fell
to the ground, clutching at his injured manhood.

The two women exchanged fierce grins, and
dashed past the fallen attackers.

The street dead-ended in two narrow alleys.
Elyssa cursed. "Check the left, and I'll check the right," she said
over her shoulder as she ran across the road. She reached the end
of the alley and looked both ways down a long, deserted street.
Bella emerged on the same street on the opposite side of a tall
red-brick building.