Page 41 of Reaper
“I know who you are, Quincy Harker.You’re the pitiful half-vampire lapdog of that dried up husk of a monster standing beside you.You used to be terrifying until you lost your edge.But lately you’ve been more retired than Reaper.You’ve spent so much time the last few years chasing your own personal demons that you’ve lost all relevance, and your useless ‘uncle’ is even worse.Vlad, you used to be aforce, but now…now, you’re just a farce.You may as well wear a velvet cape and decorate a cereal box.You’re more mockery than monster, and I’ll be happy to slaughter you both right here.The rest of you can have the human.She’s barely worth a snack to me.”
I’m killing this bitch myself, Becks said in my head.
Not if Luke gets to her first.And I’m not inclined to get in his way,I replied.
I glanced over at Luke, who let a tiny smile flicker across his lips before he took one step forward.“I wondered who was responsible for new vampires being turned right under my nose.None of the vampires I knew of in the region would dare such a thing, and yet new fledglings kept popping up.I should have recognized your little rebellion, Eleanor.You of all my children were always among the most headstrong, but until right this moment I never knew you werestupid.”
He took two more steps forward, his eyes locked on Eleanor, paying no attention to the chaos in the stands, to the bloodshed in the boxes, or to the other monsters arrayed before him.He only saw Eleanor, and having been the subject of his laser focus more than once, I knew for a fact that she could no more move than a deer caught in headlights.“You are old, Eleanor, and powerful.You have lived nearly three centuries clinging to the shadows, eking out an existence on the fringes of human and vampire society.You have managed to stay ahead of the purges our kind have suffered in many places, all because you have been wary, and wily, and occasionally wise.”
He never stopped moving, never varied his pace.He just took one step after another until he was right in front of the badass female vampire who had pushed me to my very limit.“But tonight, you have stepped out of the shadows and into the spotlight, and in doing so, you have made a grievous, and fatal, mistake.You nearly killed my nephew, the closest being to a son I have ever had, but that is not your final error.You have made new vampires right under my nose without my permission, but that is also not your worst mistake.You have challenged my authority and insulted me in front of many of my subjects, but that is not the reason you shall not walk out of this arena tonight.”
He was right in front of Eleanor now, close enough that he could reach out and touch her.And he did, running his fingers along her cheek almost lovingly.“No, your fatal mistake was in challenging me.In questioning my authority over the vampires of this city, and in fact thisworld.That cannot stand, and I long ago learned that disrespect of that magnitude must be dealt with swiftly, and decisively.And thus I shall.”
“You shall what, old man?”Eleanor said, spittle flying from her lips in her rage.“What are you going to?—”
Her words cut off as Luke’s hand flashed out and wrapped around her throat.He lifted her up into the air, never taking his eyes off hers, and shook her.That’s all.He just shook her from side to side.Once, twice, three times, and we all heard thecrackas her neck snapped.Luke stared at her as the life fled from her eyes, then he dropped the body to the sand and looked around the assembled cryptids and paras.
“Would anyone else like to challenge Count Dracula?I expect that your fame would eclipse anyone here should you manage to even land a blow against me, much less actually survive the encounter.”
Nobody seemed in a hurry to step to Luke.But a roar from the back of the pack galvanized them into action, a dozen of the crew rushed us at once, and the melee was on.Oh well, at least he tried.
Notable innotcharging forward to kick my ass was the one I was most worried would be able to do just that—Tony.The faerie knight calmly walked over to one of the Colosseum walls and leaned against it, sword drawn but point down in the sand, just watching the mayhem.I raised an eyebrow at him, and he just gave me a nod.I guess he wasn’t who I needed to pay attention to.
Who Ididneed to pay attention to was Rat-faced Steve, who ran straight at me with a pair of knives flashing in the stage lights over the fighting grounds.He grinned as he took in my battered, bloody body and the way I held my left elbow pressed tight against my broken ribs.He got to within ten feet of me and opened his mouth, probably to make some smartass comment as he slashed open my throat.After all, that’s what I would have done.
Except he focused so much on me that he ignored the gorgeous Black woman standing next to me, her MP5 set to three-round burst mode.Becks took one step forward, raised her submachine gun, and put three 9mm rounds right in Steve’s face.He dropped to the sand, blood, and very little brain matter spraying out behind him like a Jackson Pollock original.
“He’s a shifter,” I said, trying to keep my tone as blasé as her execution.
“Silver nitrate-coated hollow points,” Becks replied.“New ammo straight from the nerds at R&D.”
I looked at Steve, who lay on the ground with half his head gone.“Please tell the nerds I love them.”
Yannis was trying to test his strength against Luke, but I only gave that a glance.The big dipshit didn’t stand a chance, and six lower-tier fighters converged on me and Becks at the same time, so I needed a little bit of focus.I drew in the very last dregs of magic I had and went back to my old reliable method of destruction—kill it with fire.
“FUEGO!”I shouted, holding up my hands and sending six-inch spheres of white-hot flaming energy at the oncoming asshats.I caught a young vampire in the face, turning him into a running, screaming birthday candle.Another slammed into the guts of an onrushing were-bear, causing him to instantly shift to his human form, only to catch another fireball in the face.His body couldn’t heal two mortal wounds in ten seconds, so he went down for the last time.My last fireball smacked into a massive woman who looked like a slightly more feminine Yannis, with muscles on top of her muscles.She just shrugged it off, looking more amused than hurt or annoyed by the flames.
Shit.
Becks must have heard my internal monologue, because she yelled, “Duck!”and swung her MP5 around.I hit the dirt, literally, as half a dozen rounds from her submachine gun whistled over my head and slammed into the massive woman.Her bullets had no more effect than my fire, and this was shaping up to be a bad time for our heroes.
Until Anthony decided to pick a side, and for some reason it was mine.He leapt across half the arena floor in one massive bound, bringing his sword up as he did.He crashed down behind the seemingly impervious woman and cut her diagonally from neck to hip, slicing through meat and bone like it was water.I swear, his sword moved through flesh easier than my soulblade, and that thing’s made of nothingbutmagic.The monster woman’s top half slid off her bottom half, and both chunks fell to the floor with a soggysplat.
I looked up at Anthony and nodded.“Thanks.I don’t know what I had left for her.”
“She was an earth elemental.Not much, I expect.Your magic butter knife would have done it, but it doesn’t look like you’re in any shape to conjure it right now.”
“Yeah, not so much,” I said.“As a matter of fact, I think I…” I meant to say, “need to sit down,” but some asshole turned all the lights off before I could get the words out, and I passed out right in the middle of the bloody sand.
33
There was a cat on my chest when I woke up, so I guess I wasn’t dead.Pretty sure there aren’t cats in Hell.At least, I’ve never seen any on my trips there.But there was very definitely a large gray ball of floof sitting on me now, and as I took in more of my surroundings, I was in my own bed.Alone, unfortunately, except for Nameless, who once he saw I was awake, jumped off and sprinted out of the room, as if he didn’t want me to know he was concerned.Cats, man.
“Did we win?”I asked, my voice barely more than a croak.Unfortunately, Nameless doesn’t speak English, and I was alone in my bedroom.I heard voices on the other side of the door, so I threw the covers off and got unsteadily to my feet.My everything hurt, and I wasdisgusting.I had sand caked to my body with sweat, blood, and some bodily fluids that I didn’t recognize but probably weren’t mine, there were bruises on my bruised spots, and something in the left side of my chest grated when I moved, sending spikes of pain radiating all up and down my side.
I held onto the bed and made my way to the bathroom, hoping that it was Becks and not Luke who’d undressed me.Not that Luke hadn’t seen me naked more than once, but it’s a little embarrassing when you’re more than a century old and your uncle still has to peel your clothes off and help you into bed.No more embarrassing than having him show up and fight your battles for you, but since reinforcements arriving when they did meant I was still alive, I figured I’d let that one slide.
I managed to get to the toilet, without peeing all over myself, and in even better news, I didn’t piss blood, so either there wasn’t any internal damage, or it had already healed.I sat on the toilet, took a deep breath, and shoved my ribs back into place, biting down on a towel to keep my screams from waking up the three floors below me.
