Black Blood - 25. Chapter 25

25

The music was entrancing. She couldn’t help but move her body, dancing as Blake guided her steps, making her twirl and twirl some more. She was laughing. Many people were dancing. The tables had been pushed away to make room. The artists were way better musicians than they were actors; in fact, Skylar felt newfound respect for them. The ones playing the flute and violin were absolutely amazing.

Their dancing made no sense. It was just a little bit of everything. Blake would bring her close, and then pull away again. They were teasing each other. At some point Blake went and came back with their refilled wine glasses. They had a toast to nothing in particular. It tasted sinfully sweet.

Skylar suddenly felt like dancing the night away with Blake. She was forgetting about everything else, the stress and worry fading away like consciousness just before falling asleep. He was a good dancer; whatever it was he was doing, it was working. She was having so much fun. When the music got slower, they moved closer to one another in one motion. They danced with their hands all over each other, and Skylar tilted her head, hesitant to rest it against his shoulder. She was so close that she could smell his dark hair. It smelled minty and clean.

She shivered when she felt Blake’s lips brush her neck. The touch was subtle but intense. She threw her head back a little and melted into the sensation. For a moment she lost control, and she wanted nothing more than to just keep dancing with him.

Then they heard someone shouting. A man was going from door to door, warning people that the town was being attacked. The patrons of the restaurant stopped dancing, looking at one another anxiously, and asking questions.

“The vampires,” Skylar whispered. She pressed a hand to her temple. It all came back in a rush. How could she lose track of time like that?

“Don’t worry about it,” said Blake quietly. He was still holding her in his arms.

But she pulled away wildly. “No! You did this on purpose! You were distracting me.” She glanced to the window sharply and narrowed her eyes as her head cleared. There was smoke in the distance, like white puffs in the darkness. As the musicians stopped playing, she thought she could hear the din of people fighting and screaming from afar. Vampires were attacking the townspeople. Skylar put a hand to her chest. “I need to go fight them.”

Almost immediately Blake grabbed her arm with a solid hand, fingers digging in her skin like claws. “I won’t let you.”

She frowned, her eyes searching his. They looked almost black. “Why not? Why do you want people to get hurt so badly? Why don’t you care?”

Blake was so calm and reasonable that it made her angrier. “They’re Charisma’s army, and they’re hungry. What else are they going to eat?”

Some people were going outside in a panic, rushing to their homes. Some others were staying in, gathering together and heading to the stairs in the back leading to the basement. The waitress in the beige and blue dress was showing them the way to safety. She gestured for Skylar and Blake to join her. When they didn’t, she shrugged helplessly and went with the others, closing the hatch behind her.

They were alone in the establishment. Skylar thought she could hear the roar of a dragon in the distance, added to the screams of people. The battle was slowly reaching them.

“You can’t keep me in here,” said Skylar, but she hated the desperation in her voice. “You’re hurting me.”

He let go of her arm, but when she tried to move, she couldn’t. There was an invisible barrier surrounding her, like the air was pressuring up against her on all sides; Blake’s magic. She couldn’t go against it. She stared at Blake in astonishment, her eyes widening.

“What are you doing? You can’t stop me from going out there!”

“I think I can.” The amused look in his eyes was mixed with something bitter and sorrowful.

“You know I’ll hate you even more if you do this.”

He made a sad smile. “I put all of my magic into this barrier. It should stay up for at least a few hours. I can’t let you kill them all, Skylar. This isn’t even your world. You really shouldn’t have come here. But I know how convincing Mayrin can be, so I don’t blame you.”

“I came here because I wanted to! Of my own free will.” She was shouting now. Blake was walking past the rectangular tables on which the remains of the buffets still were. He was almost at the door. He was going to leave her here alone. “What you’re doing is an abomination!”

He looked at her over his shoulder. “Isn’t letting them starve to death the abomination? They are people, too. A new race.”

“People that need to kill other people to survive? How’s that going to work in the long term, Blake?”

“We’ll see.”

He was about to leave when the door slammed open right in his face.

It was Kalan. “I heard your voice,” he looked over at Skylar, “what’s going on? We need you out there.”

A tear rolled down her cheek. “I know. I’m so sorry. Now I’m stuck here…” She put her hands into fists, smashing at the invisible wall all around her, but it was no use. It actually hurt, in a strange way. She wouldn’t be surprised to see bruises on her fists later.

“You!” Kalan looked at Blake, facing him. Skylar noticed he didn’t have his bow with him. “You did this to her. Undo it right now.”

Blake studied him for a moment, taking in his appearance; dark coppery hair tied back messily, tall athletic frame, light eyes so similar to Mayrin’s.

“So you’re Mayrin’s half-brother then. You look more human than immortal. You must be popular in Zarien,” he said with mock-sarcasm.

Kalan stepped forward menacingly, boot scraping the dusty floor. The light of the torches made his hair look like fire.

“And you’re Blake. She’s told me about you.”

“Who? Mayrin or Skylar?”

“My sister. Why would Skylar tell me about you?” he scowled in distaste.

Blake put a hand to his heart, looking over at Skylar. “I’m wounded.”

She tried to get out of her invisible cage again, shoving at it with her shoulder. But it didn’t work much more than her fists. And now her body hurt.

“Just let me out!”

But Blake was ignoring her, looking at Kalan again. “What did lovely Mayrin tell you?”

“She told me enough. She told me you were evil; the worst out of your entire race.”

Blake’s expression was sour. “Your sister knows me so well. Did she tell you what she used to do with me? Out in the woods, in caves, even in rivers or lakes. We did it everywhere, as long as we were far away from our respective people. Forbidden love affairs are always the best—”

If he was looking for a fight, he got it.

Kalan lashed at him with a blow to the face. Blake ducked like it was the simplest thing in the world. Kalan tried again, but Blake moved swiftly until he stood behind him. He kicked his side sharply and Kalan almost fell. But he stayed on his feet, whirling to face his opponent again. They fought hand on hand because they had no weapons, and magic wouldn’t work against either one. Skylar looked at Kalan, inwardly cheering for him with all she had, like that would make any difference. She just waited for a moment of weakness from Blake, so she could try to get away from her prison. If this magic was anything like summoning, that meant that if Blake was in trouble he would lose focus and it would disappear.

Unfortunately, Blake had much more experience than Kalan. The latter was well trained, and he was trying his hardest, sweat trickling down his skin in tiny beads. But Blake was so much older. He fought like he’d done this a million times, and Kalan looked humiliated. Skylar could only watch which was extremely frustrating.

Kalan was attacking more than Blake, but that was no good. He was wasting a lot of energy like that, and Blake was just ducking or blocking with his arms every time. Kalan’s technique reminded her of martial arts movies. He moved quite well, his hands and feet always trying to find openings. But there were none.

After a while Blake seemed to get bored. He went on the offensive. Moving so fast that the eyes could hardly follow, he slipped past Kalan’s defense and struck his arm, then his knee. Kalan’s legs wavered and his knees buckled as he hardly repressed a yelp of pain. Blake grabbed his shirt and flung him against a wooden table with a loud crash. It broke with the impact and Kalan fell among the shattered pieces of wood. He turned this to his advantage, though. Grabbing one of the table’s legs, he swung it in the air expertly like a baseball bat as he jumped back up. Blake stepped back for a moment, gauging the new weapon. But he didn’t have time to do much thinking.

Breathing out in concentration, Kalan lunged toward Blake, swinging the bat at the last minute. Blake was fast, but not fast enough. It had aimed for his head, but it caught his shoulder instead. The blow had been powerful, and it sent him to the floor with a thump.

Skylar tried to lash at the invisible cage some more, but it still wouldn’t budge. She kept her gaze desperately on Kalan. She had been naive to think that this was enough to render Blake weak. He had already leaped back to his feet, boots grazing the floor. He tried a powerful kick but Kalan blocked with the table leg. Then Blake feinted to disorient him, and kicked again. This time it struck home, his boot hitting Kalan’s arm so sharply that it knocked the weapon out of his hand.

Skylar thought she could hear a crack as Blake hit Kalan’s arm a second time in a row. She inhaled sharply.

“Kalan, stop! Let him go. You don’t have to fight him.”

He was nursing his arm, stepping away slowly, his gaze never leaving Blake as he studied him.

“You’re stronger than you look,” said Kalan, surely finding Blake rather skinny for the power he employed.

He spread his arms. “It’s all in my blood.”

Kalan wasn’t one for idle chat, so he rapidly picked up a small shard of broken wood, and flung it at Blake like he was staking a vampire. Blake seemed surprised himself when it struck his ribs, just below the heart. It was as if there was something off with his fighting, like his reflexes were dull. For a moment he didn’t move. Then he pulled it out with a horrendous sound of ripping flesh and blood spilling out of a wound. Skylar brought a hand to her lips, shocked and feeling sick. Blake’s blood was in fact so dark that it was hardly visible against his black tunic. It looked like thick ink as a few drops dripped to the floor. With a scream Kalan grabbed one last piece of wood—a bigger one this time—and he went to smash it against Blake’s head. Next time they fought, Blake should know better than to throw Kalan against a wooden table.

He fell to the floor on his side, and so did Skylar as she had just been trying to free herself from the barrier. Breathing hard, Kalan hurriedly came to help her up. His hand was warm and gentle. They walked out of the restaurant. Skylar didn’t look back when she thought she heard Blake moan in pain. As much as she hated herself for it, she didn’t like seeing him like that, it just felt wrong. If she looked over her shoulder, she might be tempted to go to him and make sure he wouldn’t die. She might want to at least stop the bleeding. But there was no time for that. Outside people were running, chased across town by vampires. Vultures lurked in the sky, waiting for the battle to calm so they could have a nice meal.

So Skylar didn’t look back. Instead she let herself be dragged down the path by Kalan.

“How did you know where I was?” she asked.

“I didn’t! I looked everywhere for you. We needed you, Skylar.”

She felt guilt eating away at her heart. “I’m sorry, what can I do?”

Before he could answer, they heard a dragon roaring in the night sky. It was Lord, with his bluish and reddish scales. He was flying near ground level, brushing the trees with his huge wings. On his back sat Pandra, holding a bow. She picked up arrows from her quiver repeatedly, drawing her bow and flinging them at vampires. Lord breathed fire at them to finish them off.

“Pretty bad ass,” Skylar said. “Is that your bow?”

“Yeah, but it’s okay. I can summon one. It just takes me some time.”

“Take your time, I’ll cover for you.”

Pandra and Lord moved on to another location. But some vampires were still around. Standing in front of Kalan protectively, Skylar breathed out, letting her magic fill her whole. Immediately she felt a surge of power pulsing through her. She smiled; she loved this. It really was like a drug, pushing aside all negative emotions. There was only energy. The town was already on fire in most places, so it was easy to pull at this natural energy all around her. She felt warm, then hot, but it didn’t hurt.

Vampires ran to her and Kalan when they smelled fresh human blood. Red stained their fangs, lips and chins. They were a gruesome sight. They are people, too. Not anymore, she thought.

She unleashed her fire. They stopped short on the road as fire engulfed them. They screamed in agony before choking, and finally their contorted voices were gone with the whoosh of the flames.

“Let’s get as far away as possible from that place,” Kalan suddenly said, gesturing toward the restaurant where Skylar had been dancing just moments ago. “Malkye people heal very fast.”

“Got it.”

Kalan had summoned his long white bow, with a quiver undoubtedly holding an endless supply of shimmering silvery arrows strapped to his back. They ran along the path, zigzagging around corpses drained of their blood. Skylar felt guilty again, but it turned to anger, which fed her magic. When they encountered more vampires, Kalan only had time to strike one with an arrow before Skylar had burned all of them.

She had an idea.

“Give me your hand,” she said.

Kalan looked intrigued, but he held her hand wordlessly. They stopped walking, standing in between a burning house and a trashed market place. Smoke filled the air, making it hard to breathe properly.

Skylar gave him some of her magic. She felt it in his summoned weapon, and she smiled as she knew it had worked.

“Try again,” she said.

“What did you—?”

“Just try!”

A vampire came rushing at them. He seemed completely terrified of the flames all around, but at the same time there was an undeniable thirst in his maddened eyes. Kalan released an arrow, letting out a surprised chuckle as he realized the tip of the arrow was on fire. The bluish flames destroyed the vampire in no time after the arrow struck home.

“Wicked,” said Kalan, “thank you.”

“No problem.”

They kept walking together, burning all the vampires they could see. Skylar just regretted being too late to save all those people. But she pushed those feelings away for now; it was pointless. Besides, they were still able to save some of the townspeople. Whenever they heard bloodthirsty vampires lashing at doors inside houses, they rushed in to burn them, thus saving the people who had taken shelter in their basement.

Outside, they walked along the roads, Skylar with flames ready in her hands, and Kalan with his bow and fiery arrows. The dragon roared menacingly as he flew over town, a flash of gleaming scales across the smoky night sky. Skylar flinched before reminding herself that the majestic creature was on their side. The vampires wouldn’t win this battle.