Page 69 of The Firebrand
Good nose, but keep it in your own business.A feral snarl passed Silas’s curled lips, still circling.
This is my biz.
Red streaks nearly obliterated the old vampire’s silver eyes. The frenzy. Rein hoped hisfreronswould put him down if he ever succumbed to the disease. He would be nothing more than a blood-crazed beast, always seeking his next feed, never caring about the bodies he left behind.
When Silas’s gaze shifted to Chay and his partner, Rein spotted an opening. Howling, he danced to the left, stepped in, and popped a right cross to his jaw. Silas staggered backward. A left to the chin. A right. An uppercut. A fist to the eye.
Silas latched arms around Rein, burying claws in his back. Blood poured around their feet. Grappling, they slipped, falling to the ground.
Next thing, Rein lay trapped beneath his opponent’s body. He flipped Silas, but no sooner did one gain an advantage than the other spun on top.
Rein jammed the heel of his hand into the base of Silas’s nose.Crack. Bone splintered. The old vampire leaped to his feet, pinching his nostrils, crimson seeping through his fingers. He roared with pain because not even ancient ones healed immediately.
Blurring behind Silas, Rein locked an arm around his neck, preparing to snap it. The air was rife with the scent of blood. He needed to end the brawl now.
With a forearm choking him and a palm pressed against the side of his head, Silas went with the motion, broke free, and rotated his body so he faced Rein. He executed a sweeping high kick, but Rein blocked it with an arm.
Once again, they circled each other.
Rein threw a swift, almost invisible punch to Silas’s throat. When he exposed himself, the disgraced vampire drove a hand into the V between the ribs. Rein seethed with fury.
End the fight.
Silas clawed at the Firebrand’s chest.
Rein tore free before Silas could rip out his heart.Close call.He backed away, dropped into a crouch, and prepared to attack.
But Chay groaned. He was in trouble, boxed in, his spine to the wall.Fuck.The vamp opponent extended his fangs, going for the ylve’s throat despite a blade in his gut.
Rein tore away from his struggle with Silas to cast a whammy at Chay’s attacker, reversing their positions. With the bloodsucker against the wall, the ylve thrust his knife a final, deadly time.
Silas seized upon Rein’s distraction to speed to Stefan and, with a clean swipe, decapitate the incubus advisor. Then he dematerialized outside under the shade of a tree.
Rein followed but stared at the empty spot in the backyard. The male had shadowflashed out of sight. He could be anywhere. Stefan’s lawn abutted a forest with a million dark places, ideal for a vampire who could trace from one shaded location to another. He was long gone, giving Rein no choice but to return to the house.
“Thanks, man.” Chay rubbed his neck. “That motherfucker thirsted for ylve blood real bad.” He pointed to the headless renegade at his feet. “I stabbed the mean sonofabitch twice. He didn’t want to fall down.”
“Well, he’s dead now. But mine ghosted. I know who he is, though. Silas.”
“The same Silas who used to be with us?”
“The one and only.” Rein recalled Kole’s stories of the male, a hero of the Amazon and Berserker Rebellion.
The animus demon, not yet a commander, had partnered with Silas for a mission near the border of Knife’s Edge, hunting for five berserkers who had attacked a group of nymphs returning home from a party. The rebels had killed all the females, mutilating them in a way that made identification difficult. Hoping to put a speedy end to the aggressors, Kole headed south and Silas north. When the younger Firebrand demon rendezvoused with his partner, four bodies surrounded Silas. He had the remaining berserker in his grip. When he noticed Kole, Silas drew his blade to sever the rebel’s head from his body as he lapped up his dead opponent’s blood.
By the end of the Rebellion, the frenzy had consumed Silas. He had fed on violence, his fangs guzzling the spoils of battle. His last honorable act was to resign from the Scion Firebrands. He hid out for years, dodging his ex-frerons’attempts to assassinate him. Rumors said, he sold himself as a mercenary.
Welts along with a few bruises marked Chay, but otherwise, he was uninjured. Rein fared worse, but he’d heal fast. Claw marks punctured his back while a gaping wound on his chest oozed. At least he’d been smart enough to stock several bags of blood in his fridge last night while Braelyn slept. Two or three would speed the recovery.
Both Firebrands stood over Stefan’s headless body. Chay toed the dead incubus over. “What do we have here?” The ylve picked up something under the advisor. “Looks like he got a new portal hopper.”
Rein tapped his D-chip, his convo mind-to-mind because of the device.Kole, we’ve got a dead Stefan. Also, another jumper. What was the identification code on the device the Kalli took off Melia?
Rein pictured Kole shuffling papers.XR78543DV89.
He turned the gadget over in his hand.Same here. Let’s say Melia stole Stefan’s, or he gave it to her. Either way, he asks the ministry to issue him a new one. Wouldn’t it have a different code?
Yeah.
