Page 67 of House of Darkness
We made it down three flights before we encountered our first Bursuc vampires. Rows and rows of vampires donned silver badger masks with jagged fangs along the edges. Their black vests hosted silver shoulder spikes that merged into their beast form, those hairlike needles protruding from their shoulders.
“Under orders of the tsar, you are sentenced to death for treason,” Enso announced. He had transformed into his beast form, his body covered in deep green scales and twisted horns sprouting from his skull. Balls of flame readied in each palm. We exchanged one last glance. Enso knew what I would do to protect my family; it was the same he wished he could have done. He dipped his head, then we began our destruction.
Spikes of blackness shot out of my body, merging with the torrent of flames erupting from Enso’s palms. That mixture of light and darkcoiled over the first row of vampires and forced into their eyes and mouth. I watched with a brutal, twisted satisfaction as they screamed. Their very flesh bubbled and fell from their bones as the dragon’s fire and my darkness worked. The air filled with the scent of burning flesh and fabric, the copper from their boiling blood a tangy taste across my tongue and nostrils.
The remaining soldiers froze in horror as they acknowledged their fate. Nothing they did would change the fact that they were dead men walking. They knew it too, because they rallied themselves, and my team met them head-on in a clash of steel and fangs.
Enso and I drew our weapons as the fighting thickened. Though our powers were deadly, our fighting skills were deadlier in close combat. The air was heavy with the weight of fear and adrenaline. My body moved without my guidance, cutting through the mass of bodies with ease. This—this I understood. I understood violence and hatred. I knew what it meant to fight for every step with the threat of being cut down looming over my shoulders. I could deal with this.
I just couldn’t deal with the knowledge of what was to come. What I was reliving over and over again in the minds of those I cut down. I could not lose her.
We hacked our way through the swarm of vampires, leaving a pile of bodies in our wake. Each step forward was a battle, so when we erupted into the throne room I was panting and covered in sweat. But my entire body went cold as I looked upon the scene in front of me.
Codran sat on a spiked obsidian throne, his black suit blending into the stone. Needle-like spikes fanned across his shoulders, several feet high and covered in remnants of his flesh and blood from where they had torn from his back. He held a clear glass of blood in his curled talons, still dripping with blood from his victim. And his face… it was smeared with blood, his stained pink fangs protruding over his reddened lips and his eyes blackened from the taste and filled with a savage, brutal delight. He looked more animal than human.
Chained to his throne like an animal, Estrella was screaming, thrashing against the chains binding her wrists. Her eyes met mine, but the pools I had fallen in love with were glassy and unseeing. A black bite mark marred her neck where the venom seeped through her perfect body. Bite marks covered her arms and legs, blood dripping from the wounds where they had feasted on her. The horror of what they’d done to her froze me where I stood. Her pain pierced through me like spears, ripping my already tattered mind and soul to shreds.
“HOW DARE YOU!” I screamed.
“Did you know she was a magnifier?” Codran took a long sip from his glass. “Of course you fucking knew. Decided to keep that to yourself, like the selfish prick you are. That’s okay though, we’ve shared her now.” He curled his tongue along his lips, lapping up her blood.
“I’ll fucking kill you!” I stepped forward.
Codran’s guards lining the walls stepped forward, but he waved them back and stood. It was then that I noticed how massive he was. He had always been small, but in his beast form with Estrella’s blood running through his veins, he was even larger than me. His shoes stepped onto Estrella’s starlight hair as he approached me, and that was enough for me to lose whatever sanity I had left.
My skin tightened to the point of tearing as my bones and muscles readjusted to accommodate my true form. My fingers felt like splinters were being torn from them as my own talons grew and hardened. I hurled into him with the force of a locomotive. He barely managed to pull his sword from its sheath before we smashed through the throne in a cloud of dust and stone.
I sank my teeth into his shoulder, and in response, he shovedhis blade through my stomach, forcing me off him. My pain was overshadowed by rage, but as I tried to stand, my body jerked forward in reaction to the gaping hole in my gut. I clutched the spot and prowled toward him, teeth bared.
The room had quickly devolved into the seventh circle of hell. Enso’s flames engulfed the room. In the glow, our soldiers clashed with the Bursuc, some with weapons and others with fangs and claws. The smell of charred flesh, screams of agony, and clashing metal filled the air and centered me.
Codran scrambled to his feet and held his bloodstained sword toward me. I wasn’t afraid, though. He could spear me a thousand times over, as long as my head was attached, I’d come after him again and again until I was laughing in a pool of his blood. I chuckled at his wide eyes. He pretended, but he had never faced off against a true monster.
“You committed a sin, now you have to dance with the devil,” I hissed. I spun my karambits, the raven’s head hilts settling into my palms like the touch of an old friend.
He smiled back and straightened, that fear dissipating and leaving behind a crazed satisfaction. “You want to see my sins, fake tsar? I’d be happy to share them with you.”
Nightmares crashed into my mind like a tidal wave, knocking me down and threatening to pull me under.
I was in a dank cell, the sound of water droplets and the hushed whimpers of women filling my ears. On the roughly carved floor in front of me huddled four shaking, nude women. But my eyes only went to the one in front. The light of my life, braced against the women behind her, protecting them with her body. Her eyes were furrowed with hatred and anger, but I could hear the thrum of her panicked heartbeat.
Hands that I didn’t recognize but that came from my own bodylashed out and tangled into her hair, tearing her off the floor. She fought against me with everything she had, but it was useless. There was nothing she could do against this monster as he pinned her against the wall. I could feel her skin breaking under my hands as I forced her to my will. Could hear her soft sobbing as I hurt her, over and over…
A searing pain lit up my back like a cattle prod. I wasn’t sure how, but I was on my hands and knees. Codran’s foot held me in place as he tore his sword from my back. I choked out a scream, but not at the pain. The pain was nothing compared to what I had just endured. Rage and helplessness forced their way down my throat and took away my ability to breathe.
My darkness engulfed the throne room. With no glass or wood to shatter, the very floor began to crack beneath my palms, branching out like roots and splitting the throne in two. Codran was thrown off-balance and stumbled backward, screams from our enemies echoing as darkness overtook them.
I needed to find her and tell her how sorry I was. Nothing else mattered. It wasn’t my hands—itwasn’t,that had hurt her, but I was to blame nonetheless. It was my fault. I crawled forward, my eyes desperately searching the darkness for her.
It was as though my subconscious sensed her because Estrella was bathed in a circle of light that protected her from my darkness. She thrashed in pain, her screams ringing through my ears as though it was the only sound in the room. I coughed, blood spraying from my lips, and forced myself forward even as my hands slipped across the blood, sweat, and grime soaking the floor.
A boot landed on my back and a bolt of pain shot through my wing. Codran had pinned it to the floor with his blade and shredded through it like paper. I groaned through it and dug my talons into the stone, trying to pull myself forward regardless. I was losing toomuch blood to properly heal, my pathetic body unwilling to do what I wanted it to.
The weight on my back lifted. My shaking head turned to see Sorin on top of Codran, the pair devolving into a mass of snapping teeth. Arms tucked under my armpits and heaved me to my feet.
“Roman, you with me?” Catina asked. She smacked my cheek, and I forced my head up. “We need to grab Estrella and fall back. There are too many of them.”
Estrella. I stumbled toward her but coughed again, spraying a mist of blood. Thisfucking pathetic body.I snarled and slammed my hand to my chest, pouring my darkness into the wound. It felt like boiling acid being poured on my insides, but I grit my teeth to stifle the screams. Bit by bit, I used my power to pin the ragged pieces of my wound together so it could heal faster despite the blood loss.
