Page 40 of Fiendish Delights
This time, the remaining vampires couldn’t help but notice. They abandoned the rubbish bag and swivelled towards the snores. All three of them screamed with delight and sprinted for her tent.
We abandoned any attempt to make a coherent plan. Hugo inhaled and immediately focused on his water magic, trying to conjure up a powerful jet that would knock the vampires offcourse – but there wasn’t enough moisture in the air for it work effectively. However, the plume of water made them hesitate, which allowed me time to run straight at them with Gladys held out in front of me. This time her blade screeched aloud with war-like intensity; the time for staying quiet was over.
All three of the fanged fuckers rushed me without looking at Hugo, even though at that moment he was the greater threat to their existence. Yeah, they were stupid. I grinned; with their focus on me, I could easily draw them away from the tents and the rest of the group.
I threw back my head, screamed like the very best damsel in distress and ran from the campsite towards the dark shadows and wider space of open road to the right of the abbey ruins. I didn’t need to look back to check that they were following me – I could hear them.
‘Right!’ Hugo shouted. ‘Veer right!’
I did as he said. A split second later, a howl ripped through the air and I knew that Hugo’s magic had finally caught up with at least one of them. There was no chance to celebrate, though. Unable to see the ground in front of me, I caught my foot in a small hole; instead of hurtling forward at high speed I hurtled downwards, banging my knee painfully on a small rock. Worse, I dropped Gladys.
One of the vamps roared with delight and sprang on top of me. I heaved myself up and tried to shake him off, but he was clinging on with all his might and his teeth were snapping at my neck. As soon as I felt the tip of his fangs scrape my skin I reacted, throwing myself backwards so this time it was the vamp who was trapped. He released his hold on me just enough for me to wriggle free.
Panting hard, I snatched up Gladys and launched myself into a two-pronged attack, swiping her blade hard at his exposed neck and following it up with a burst of fire magic,using the vamp’s own dirt-stiffened rags as kindling. He screeched in agony as flames licked his body and dark blood poured from his neck wound.
Even then he wasn’t prepared to give up, and he flung himself at me yet again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Miriam roar at the final vamp and throw a small blade directly at him. Rizwan and Slim were at her back – almost everyone in the camp was awake now and on the attack.
Then the burning vampire was on me, seemingly ignoring the fact that his flesh was on fire.
I jumped back, twisted Gladys and used the long edge of her blade this time. She sliced through both the flames and the vamp’s right arm, and the whole limb thudded uselessly to the ground. But the cumbubbling bastard still kept coming. I suppose that answered one question: vampires definitely didn’t feel pain.
He was so close now that I was likely to go up in flames, too. I hissed under my breath then changed tactics and forced out a thrust of earth magic, creating a tiny quake under his feet. His body juddered and he collapsed to his knees.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one who was struggling. A wave of light-headedness assailed me. Not now – I didn’t need this now. I sucked in a breath and, before my legs buckled, shot out another more powerful plume of fire.
This time the vamp didn’t simply burn, he exploded.
The force lifted my body and threw me backwards. Before I had time to panic as I sailed through the air, a gust of air snatched me and stopped my flight. I knew that magical touch and I raised a grateful hand in Hugo’s direction.
A moment later the burst of air magic gently lowered me to the ground. I raised my head, checked that all the vamps were accounted for and none of our people were dead or bleeding. Only then did I allow my traitorous body to get the worst of me.My stomach lurched and I vomited up everything in my stomach. Ick.
I expected the campsite and the surrounding area to look like a disaster zone. It made sense, given I felt like a human disaster zone, but other than the bodies of the fallen vamps and a few scorch marks everything seemed intact. Even my stomach appeared to have settled, although I still felt annoying waves of dizziness attack me every few minutes. I gulped down a half litre of water and located a Mars bar in the camp supplies. There. That should help.
‘Are you alright?’ Hugo sounded gruff.
I nodded mid-chomp, waving at him to indicate that I was fine. Becky, who’d finally woken up, brushed her sleep-tousled hair out of her eyes and shook her head, half in horror, half in awe. ‘Five vampires,’ she said. ‘Five fucking vampires.’
Miriam and Slim appeared beside us. ‘We’ve checked the perimeter,’ Miriam said. ‘There aren’t any more.’
‘This is why we need to start bringing a witch or a sorcerer with us,’ Slim muttered. ‘We need to set up wards around our camp. We could all have been killed.’
Hugo nodded, his expression grim. ‘We’ll talk about it. I promise.’
I wiped my forehead. ‘The main thing is that we’re all fine. We survived.’
Rizwan, who looked desperately pale even in this light, pointed at my neck. ‘You’re bleeding.’
‘It’s only a scratch,’ I told him.
‘Thanks to me,’ Hugo said.
Yeah, yeah. ‘My hero.’
He smirked. Before he grew too pleased with himself, I continued. ‘But what the hell were those hand signals supposed to mean?’ I asked him. ‘I’m not SWAT. It looked like you were putting on a puppet show without any puppets.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘It’s not my fault that you couldn’t understand. My gestures were perfectly clear.’
As if. I snorted in mock derision.
