Page 4 of Blood Bond

He moves further into the sunlight, exposing more than just his hand. I step back towards Seth. It's like the one that followed me out from the Deathbringer's building, seeming to not care about their survival against the sunlight, focused only on reaching me. The sunlight strips away his flesh, and when it reaches his face, he doesn't flinch as it bubbles and oozes off his bones, a black tar running down his cheeks.

Inevitably, he collapses.

Seth stares at the pool on the ground, his brow furrowed. “It should not have done that,” he says.

Before I can respond, he swings a branch around, striking the female. She hisses as she topples backward, her feet ensnared by the others already on the ground. They hiss at her, agitated by her rude intrusion as they try to scramble towards us. There is no coordination amongst them now; they've devolved into ravenous monsters craving only to feed their insatiable hunger, thanks to Alitoa—the virus humans had created.

Alitora had been a chance for humans to rid the world of vampires, only to have it backfire and create these creatures we see before us.

Seth swings for another, and then another. But these vampires—former vampires—are not vanquished so easily. Seth wields a branch, driving it into their chests, then moving on to the next. The thirsty show no fear, and even as they tumble, they don't stop their relentless reaching. Seth struggles to hold them at bay.

With each blow of his branch, their undead forms splinter and fragment. The grotesque remains of their kind pile around him. He exhales heavily with each splintering body, yet they persist—a relentless force, determined to breach his defences and reach me.

“Seth—” I call out his name on instinct as one crashes into him, claws gouging his bare arm. Blood spills from the wound, but he keeps on fighting, trying to shake off its grip.

“Move—” he shouts, pushing me away while still striking at the creature. Helpless and useless, I watch in horror. Seth falls to his knees, rising again and again, even as the onslaught of creatures grows greater with each passing moment.

Amidst the chaos, a commotion emerges—a jarring blend of mechanical roars and aerial hisses, like a swarm of angry wasps growing to life somewhere beyond the bend of the riverbed.

But then I see them—Killian and Naneve, riding through the valley with swords in hand, slicing their way through the throng of thirsty creatures.

Bike rolling away behind him, Killian dismounts before it comes to a full stop. He raises his blade with practised ease, striking with precision to decapitate any creature that dares approach him or Naneve.

Breathless, desperate, I run toward them. “Seth, they?—”

Killian nods, pushing me towards Naneve. She rides around us, slashing through the shadows. One severed head tumbles into the sunlight, dissolving as it hits, the body left at the side twitching.

Naneve and Killian race to Seth’s side, killing all that get in their way.

“There are more over the hill,” Killian says.

Seth gets to his feet and seems to physically shake himself. He casts a quick glance in the direction Killian and Naneve just came from. “How many?”

Killian wipes his sword on a rag from his pocket and tosses the rag to the ground. “Too many.” Their gaze shifts from me to the riverbed behind me, stretching farther than my eyes can see.

“A herd,” Seth states. “We need to get inside. We'll never hold them off.” He takes a blade from Killian and tosses his branch aside, driving toward the remnants of a small group blocking our path. Without hesitation, he beheads them, chopping them down.

Blood and gore splatter in every direction. Between them, they clear the way, allowing Seth to pull out a panel from beside the door on top in a crouch.

“Inside,” he directs me. I stand transfixed, a foolish paralysis rooting me in fear. Killian strides over to me, grabbing my arm to drag me inside.

Seth holds the door open for both of us and, once we're securely inside, locks it, sealing us off from the monsters.

I go to the door so I can watch them through the thick glass. They gather and move like liquid in the shadows. I feel the weight of their stare as they watch me. I can see the thirsty moving back, confused that they've lost me, unable to understand how I went into the door. But I feel so much more than that. I feel their hunger, their pain, their need, their suffering—it's thick, choking me inside.

One of the thirsty comes up to the glass and slaps a hand against it. He peers in at me. His eyes are deep green, the colour of the ocean when you know there is danger beneath its surface. For a moment, he looks perfectly human … but only for a moment. Then he opens his jaws and shows me his fangs.

Seth hunches over a desk, cradling his arm to his chest as he powers up a computer.

“I’ve never seen them move like this before,” Killian says from beside me, his tone baffled. “We drove right through them to reach you and they ignored us both. They didn’t even seem to acknowledge our presence. What the hell is happening?”

Small cannons, the same as are out front, push out from the ground and open shower-like heads. Seth clicks a series of keys and buttons, and the cannons fire out a red mist.

He nods at me, his gaze unwavering.

“They want her.”

ChapterFour

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