Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Elisabeta, take down his safeguards above. We will need the lightning. Strengthen the ones we wove in the ground so the slivers cannot burrow.
The ground is both hallowed and safeguarded, Ferro, Elisabeta assured. I am removing the safeguards above you now.
The grasses disappeared as if they’d never been to reveal the wide expanse of bare dirt, all of which had been sanctified. Ringing the entire prepared circle were the ancients, waiting, all eyes on the writhing, fighting master vampire as Ferro held him down with the sacrosanct wooden stake. He had to use both hands. Black blood bubbled up around the wood. Benedek held the legs of the vampire as Sergey kicked and drummed his heels into the dirt.
The master vampire spit his hatred at Ferro. His red inflamed eyes promised retaliation, flames burning in their depths. At times they glowed silver or brown or green, malevolent, promising torturous, painful death. He tried to dig claws into Ferro, to tear skin off his ribs and arms, anything to get him to remove the stake.
Minutes passed while they waited. The ancients wore the expressionless, stoic masks of the hunters. They didn’t pass judgment on the creatures they were forced to hunt and destroy. They rid the world of their presence because they had no other choice. They waited now in silence, all eyes on the writhing master vampire.
Maggots and parasites oozed from his pores, abandoning the undead’s body. More and more he appeared a rotting, decomposed corpse. The moment the parasites or maggots hit the soil, they burned into white ash so that soon, the vampire’s shape was drawn with a pile of ash much like a chalk outline surrounding him.
Each of Sergey’s four older brothers had placed a sliver of themselves in their younger brother. He also had two slivers of Xavier, the high mage. Those slivers would abandon him when it became apparent their host was not going to survive. The ancients simply waited while Sergey hissed and screamed his hatred. While the hallowed ground under his body burned and seared his back and skull. While the sanctified stake spread purity through his insides, forcing out every corruption.
Without warning, six tiny shadows emerged from Sergey’s ears, rushing in all directions, each seeking the safety of the darkness and the higher grass several yards away. The slivers were so tiny they were nearly impossible to see, even with Carpathian vision, but for the plume of smoke rising from each as the hallowed soil burned them, marking each abomination as it made its desperate run.
Lightning forked across the sky in a dazzling display, seven whips arcing above their heads. Six jagged spears slammed to earth with deadly accuracy, each striking one of the fleeing slivers. Hideous shrieks tore through the night, a frightful cacophony that rose in strength. Faceless skulls with wide yawning empty holes for mouths appeared in sheets of rising black smoke. Venomous silver eyes glared for a brief moment and then flames consumed them, burning them to ash.
Ferro jerked the stake free in one swift movement and the remaining white-hot lightning whip hit Sergey’s heart with deadly accuracy. The master vampire stared up at him with unrelenting hatred until there was nothing but the rotted corpse left, and then that, too, was gone. The ancients stood for a brief moment, heads bowed, before they cleared the land of all traces of the vampires and made their way back to the compound, just beating dawn.
21
What once was a blaze, grows stronger than before;
A metal in the forge, turns a sword for the war.
A life of hope sings to you, melodies of devotion;
A world of love awaits, vaster than the ocean.
Ferro woke Elisabeta gently, singing their song to her, one of deep love and commitment, of devotion and hope. She was truly free, his little songbird. No longer in her cage, free to choose her life, and she had made it abundantly clear that her choice was Ferro. He found that humbling. A miracle. He knew he would never take her for granted.
They’d gone to ground together, wrapped in each other’s arms, his body protectively curled around hers. He was grateful for the freedom to be able to do so without frightening her. He never wanted her to think he was caging her in, but he found he needed to be close to her. Skin to skin. Touching her even in their slumber.
Before, he had slept above her to protect her, to give her a sense of safety, but now she welcomed him in the ground with her, his body in the same resting place. He woke before her to hunt for blood for them both, but then he had the privilege of waking her with their song. He was able to feel that first awareness in her mind, the joy in her when she recognized the notes of their music together. Her long lashes lifting so her eyes met his. The moment that happened, his heart clenched and his stomach did a slow roll of acknowledgment.