Page 53 of Last Hope
His eyes blazed red before he jumped in the air high above her and extracted his claws. Isis didn’t have time to react. Didn’t have time to do anything but gape at her brother in the air and couldn’t even take a step back to dodge him before he stretched his legs out and kicked her square in the chest.
She fell back near the edge of the building; rolling over, she jumped to her feet but Azizi was already on her again, digging his nails deep into her face. She cried out in pain and flailed her body around in an attempt to fling him off of her but his grip on her body was as tight as iron. Instinct came easily. The instincts of training, of fighting, of defending herself that she had learned from Caesareon all those years ago drove her every nerve on edge. Her mind rested, amplified and she was able tothink,to reason. She found a weak spot and struck.
Her hand shot out and gripped his unprotected side, gripped him, shirt and skin and pulled him to the side. She flung him easily with a mere flick of her wrist but instead of falling to his back, he landed gracefully on his feet away from her.
“Azizi, please,” she breathed desperately.Why didn’t he look at her? Why couldn’t he justseethat it was her, that she was telling the truth? “I’m your sister, remember? We shared a home and a mother. We were poor when we lived in Egypt but we got by selling mother’s scents. We lived by the red river. You could never hunt for our food because you were always afraid of killing the animals yourself so you invented devices that would help us make it easier.”
The memories sprung to her mind. He was always inventing things with wood and string and she would always scold him for spending all day in his experiments instead of helping provide for their family.
She wanted to smile through her tears.
And Azizi seemed to see her.Reallysee her as Isis, as his sister. His eyes widened at her words, softened. But then they darkened as if his belief couldn’t last more than three seconds. Her heart dropped.
“Shut up, you witch! Keep my name out of your mouth! You don’t know me and you don’t know my sister!” And he attacked her again. But this time when he struck, he did so with a force that knocked her over the side of the building. Isis screamed as she fell but lifted her arms up, palms open and gripped the edge of the building, her legs dangling in empty air.
And all she could think as she tried not to look down was:
Oh, shit.
* * *
Teddy O’Conner struckout at whatever vampires he saw. He tore their heads from their bodies and watched them roll along the ground and be squished into mush as people ran away.
His stomach curled in knots.
Azizi’s voice echoed over the noise of death and chaos; threatening, young and ancient at the same time—if that were at all possible. And when his voice disappeared so did the oxygen around them, so it seemed. It became hot and thick with smoke that caused Teddy to stop and sneeze. The stench of rot tickled his snout. He looked around and saw a white powdery smoke descend from the sky like fresh, new snow.
Teddy growled.
It was starting.
It was the vampire venom floating over them as vapor. He watched as it fell over the running humans and took its effect instantly.
They fell to the ground and writhed around screaming as the fire of the venom took over their system. The agony was great, some of them didn’t survive the process. Their bones snapped within their bodies; their veins tore within them, causing their blood to explode out of many orifices. Noses, ears and eyes dripped with blood on the bodies of dead people.
Innocent people.
Killed by Azizi.
Teddy let out a roar that shook the earth and attacked.
* * *
Isis grippedthe side of the building and tried to lift herself up but she was holding on by a few fingers, her legs dangled above empty air. Her eyes glanced below. Even though she was a vampire and could heal her wounds within seconds, if she fell from this building it would break every bone in her body and she would surely die.
She looked up to find Azizi at the ledge, looking down at her. There was no remorse in his eyes, no worry. There was only an angry crimson stain as he pressed his booted foot on her fingers.
She flinched.
“Azizi,” she gasped. “Please don’t do this.” He snickered and stepped harder on her fingers. They throbbed but she didn’t let go. She could only grip tighter. “Azizi, please.”
And she saw it in his gaze. It was just a flash, quicker than a light turning on then off again. The stain of red in his eyes flashed back to brown then back to red. The vampire virus hadn’t taken him completely over the edge. Azizi was still beneath Caesareon’s manipulations.Her younger brother was in there somewhere.
“Caesareon lied to you, Azizi. Just like he lied to me. He told me you were dead and I believed him.”
“Shut up!” He stepped on her harder. She winced but kept trying. She had to get past the craze, past the denial. Somehow.
“You know who I am, don’t you? You know I’m your sister. You know I’m Isis.”
