A Call of Vampires (A Shade of Vampire #51)

Leaves rustled and branches cracked somewhere behind us.

Darius’s guards squealed and grunted. Horses neighed, their hooves shuffling on the hard ground. I looked over my shoulder and froze. I could see well enough through the darkness to observe some of the Exiled Maras and Imen being swept off their horses and swallowed into thin air, while the others drew their weapons, dread imprinted on their pale faces.

“We need to go back,” Jax growled, witnessing the eerily quiet massacre.

“We can’t go back. It’s too narrow,” Darius replied. “We need to move ahead—I have a feeling there’s an opening to another gorge. We can go through there and get back to the plain.”

Several of the Maras bawled in the darkness, and their swords and their saddles fell off as the invisible fiends dragged them away. Their horses went berserk and ran off. Some tried to go back but swiftly vanished, their ear-piercing wails making me shudder, while the others trotted off ahead, passing us with no intention of spending another second there. Whatever this was, we couldn’t see it.

The woman screamed again, this time louder. Closer.

“Run!” Darius croaked as he saw what happened to his men.

I didn’t wait for him to say that again.

“Let’s go!” I hissed, then nudged my horse in the ribs.

We shot through the narrow gorge, leafy branches slapping us along the way. Something thudded on the ground behind us, but I didn’t want to stop and see what that was.

“What the hell was that?” Scarlett gasped.

“I don’t know, but it’s definitely not out to make casual conversation!” Jax shot back, his horse keeping up with mine as we jumped over a cluster of rocks.

The scream came again, this time closer.

Only a few yards away.

I squinted and saw her then.

“Somebody! Somebody help me!” she screamed at the top of her lungs as she staggered between the trees, the air rippling around her. Something huge was there, prowling, ready to pounce.

“What the hell are those things?!” Harper exclaimed, her eyes wide, glimmering as she used her True Sight. “I can’t see what they are!”

“Help me!” the girl cried out as she saw us headed her way.

I clicked my teeth together, urging my horse to go faster. The girl tripped over a gnarled tree root and fell flat on her face, moaning when she tried to get back up. She looked like an Iman female, and a very young one at that, probably in her late teens.

I drew my sword, my eyes on her.

“Hold on, honey, I’m coming!” I shouted, crossing the last couple of yards. Then my heart stopped.

I felt a chilling presence looming behind her, getting bigger with every step it took. The girl was wounded, with deep red slashes all over her calves, blood pouring out uncontrollably. I caught a glimpse of what seemed like beady, fire-red eyes as the unseen fiend got closer, but then they were gone. Had I imagined it?

There was no time to think.

I jumped off my horse and slid on my knees for a good ten feet, bringing my broadsword forward as I stood and took my attack stance in front of whatever that beast was, placing myself between it and the Iman girl.

“Scarlett, wait!” I heard Patrik shout, then heard Scarlett grunt as she landed behind me and dragged the whimpering girl away.

I kept my eyes on the invisible presence, which seemed to be focused on me as it inched forward. I bared my teeth and hissed, something I always did to intimidate my opponents. Most of the time it worked. But not with this… thing.

“It’s concealing itself somehow,” I snapped as it got closer.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Three more of these invisible creatures were moving in from the right. They made absolutely no sound, but the air trembled around them.

A ball of blue fire hit my opponent hard, pushing it back a few feet, but still, no sound. Patrik moved forward, his hands an incandescent blue as he shot a few more of his flames at the other three fiends.

The one Patrik had hit first, the one I’d stopped from feasting on the Iman girl, rushed toward me. I slashed away at it, but it dodged every hit. It was ridiculously light on its feet, despite its massive size.

Jax moved next to me, both swords out. His eyes shone gold as he tried to use his mind-bending abilities on it. He shook his head, gritting his teeth with frustration. I saw the invisible figure rippling fast from left to right, making it impossible for the Mara to capture its mind.

“Oh, great, so that doesn’t work either!” I barked, then moved to attack the unknown beast again.

“It’s too fast. It knows what I’m trying to do!” Jax said, moving to my left, where three more of these invisible forms emerged.

There were seven of them now, and six of us, including Darius, who I couldn’t see anywhere in my split seconds of stepping back and recalculating my attack angles. It wasn’t a fair fight, considering they’d practically swallowed sixteen Exiled Maras and Imen without the slightest of efforts.

Harper was the last to jump off her horse, pulling her swords out in the process.

A hard blow to the chest knocked the air out of my lungs, and I hadn’t even seen it coming. I looked up and saw those blasted red eyes almost smiling at me as I fell backwards and hit the hard ground.

White stars covered my field of vision.

“Hansa!”

I heard Jax’s voice echoing somewhere in the back of my head.

He seemed so far away, as opposed to the invisible entity that had appeared on top of me.





Harper





(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)





Something dark and hard knocked into me midair. I landed on my right side with a thud, but I flung my swords out, slashing at the invisible figure above me. It worked—it moved back a foot, enough for me to jump to my feet and groan from the throbbing pain in my shoulder.

I managed to get a glimpse of the others in the darkness. They were fighting these strange, massive entities, much like the one coming at me again. There were seven in total, and Hansa had just been brought down by one of them. I’d heard Jax shout her name during my botched jump.

Another one slashed at Patrik. Blood spread through his white shirt and vest at an alarming speed. Scarlett was busy dragging the girl away, moving too fast for any of the hostiles to get to her. Hansa growled and swung her sword against her attacker, then sprang to her feet, wobbling slightly.

She and Jax moved back-to-back, holding their own against four of the invisible creatures. Two were moving in on Patrik, who dropped to one knee due to rapid loss of blood. I had to do something fast with the seventh in front of me, so I could get to the Druid in time. The entity lunged at me, big and black with gleaming red eyes, like burning coal.