“Lovely acrobatics,” Starrack called. “Too bad they will make no difference in the end. Attack.”
The Void obeyed, mindlessly charging. Again, I dodged contact, and when I landed near the old, covered well, I thought I saw humanshaped shimmers above on the gun-deck. Had my backup arrived? I didn’t have time to look closer because the blob moved.
This time I unzipped a pocket just enough to grab a magical grenade. I zinged it at the Void’s mass then flew clear. The Void’s hulking body absorbed the blow as effortlessly as the coquina walls of the fort had absorbed English cannon balls, but its etheric skin crinkled. I focused on the subtle cracks and sucked the Void’s essence while it stood still.
“Now, now, is that fair?” Starrack asked. “I believe I detect my long-lost but not lamented brother on that piece of magick. Is he cowering in that hovel in the woods, leaving you to sacrifice your life?”
“Is that why you made the Void? To show up Cosmil? You’re a little old for sibling rivalry.”
“You will not rile me with words, but such faerie fireworks will anger my friend. Shall I demonstrate?”
Starrack waved a hand, the Void moved, and so did I. I jump-flew out of reach like a fanged ninja, and I also realized that the Void was active only when it had the wizard’s attention.
“Starrack, we can do this all night,” I said, forcing my voice to sound bored instead of breathless, “or you can surrender.”
He chuckled, his attention on me. Sure enough, the Void remained rooted in place. I sent that thought to Triton, Cosmil, and Lia wherever they were, and prayed they got the message.
“Oh, no, pitiful little princess. I’ve waited a long time for this encounter. In fact, I believe I’ll invite others to the party.”
He lifted his gaze skyward, and opened his hands to the heavens, and for a second I feared he’d detected Cosmil, Triton, and Lia. Then he spoke.
“I command you, vampire spirits, come.”
Wisps like dark clouds gathered. A moment later, the wisps congealed into recognizable apparitions, and I realized Isabella’s warning was coming true. King Normand’s ghost appeared, then another nestling whose name I didn’t recall. More followed until they flew above the courtyard like a swarm of mutant mosquitoes.
Cesca, what’s happening?
Triton asked in my head.
I was on my way down.
My knees nearly buckled in relief to know Triton was nearby and ready to move in.
Ghosts,
I answered.
Ignore them, and hold your position until you have an opening.
“Recognize these shades, vampire?” Starrack taunted. “They are angry that you survived when they did not.”
“They aren’t mad at me, dumb ass,” I snapped at Starrack. “They’re pissed at you. Aren’t you, Normand?” I called to the largest apparition. “You were king. Powerful, important, feared.”
Normand’s spirit dipped to hover in front of me as if he listened. The other ghosts streaked through the air in aimless agitation.
I took a deep breath, and another deep draw on enemy energy, and looked directly into Normand’s ghost-eerie eyes.
“You know you’re being manipulated by a mere wizard, don’t you, my king? You didn’t stand for such treatment when you ruled, and you won’t stand for it now.”
Normand turned on Starrack and growled.
“She lies. Attack her.”
“You see, my king. The wizard is giving you orders. He commanded that you come, and now he demands more. He’s using you.”
Normand’s ghost eyed Starrack then emitted a roar that shook the fort’s coquina foundation. I fell back a shocked step as Normand dove at Starrack. The other vampire ghosts hesitated a beat before they swarmed, too.
“Attack, attack,” Starrack yelled as he ducked, stumbled back and away from Saber, and batted at the ghosts.
Just then, my reinforcements rode in. I didn’t see Triton or Lia or Cosmil, but magical bombs suddenly exploded in the courtyard. Two in quick succession. Two more. Three after that? I lost count, but the number didn’t matter. The Void wavered, its etheric skin fracturing like baked desert soil.
With Starrack’s attention off his creation, I acted. I whirled first to Saber. Yes, the Void chain links had thinned to the size of fishing line. I pulled energy until a black stream ran from the links into my body, until not a smidge of the Void was left on Saber. Then I spun to the blob Void, and psychically sucked energy from its fissures. I sucked until my mouth and nose and lungs were on fire, and then I gorged on yet more of its aura until the blobby mass shrank from towering to toddler size to a shiny wet spot on the grass. I mentally lapped up the last drop.
“No,” Starrack cried.
I whirled to see the ghosts drive the wizard to the turf, then sprinted to Saber where he lay on his back, and fell to my knees at his side. His skin had darkened and wrinkled, and I fought tears as I checked the pulse in his neck.
In that moment of searching Saber for signs of life and finding it, in that split second of murmuring comfort and encouragement to him, in that nanosecond of losing track of the enemy, Starrack struck.
On his feet again, he sliced the blade of his hand through the air, and my chest burned from shoulder to breast. He slashed his hand again, and a second searing sliced at my neck.
“Come back, my pet. Attack the blood,” Starrack screamed, lifting his hand for a third pass at me.
He didn’t get the chance. Another bomb dropped from the gun-deck, and so did my reinforcements.
As if in a movie, Triton hit Starrack square in his back. The ghosts scattered, Starrack went down face-first, and Pandora materialized in full panther form. In one leap, she clamped her massive jaws around the back of Starrack’s neck, puncturing his skin and pinning him with her weight. Rivulets of blood ran down Starrack’s neck, and fat drops dripped on the grass.
Cosmil and Lia materialized, he muttering words, she making magical signs. Suddenly, Starrack was spread eagle, his arms and legs shackled to the ground with iron bands. Pandora never wavered in her hold on Starrack’s neck.
While Cosmil stood over his brother, Lia and Triton rushed to me.
“Let me see your wounds,” Lia said kneeling by my side and peeling back my ruined blouse. I looked down as if from a great distance, the smell of blood beginning to make me gag.
“Your gashes are deep, but not mortal. Can you perform the banishing?”
I gulped bile. “Not until we heal Saber.”
“Look at him, Cesca. He’s already healing.”
I swallowed again and steeled myself, but Lia was right. Even as I watched, Saber’s skin tone lightened slightly, and the deep age crags in his face began to smooth.
I gazed up at Lia. “We finish healing him once Starrack is gone?”
“Of course.”
“Then help me up.”
Triton leaped to take my elbow, one arm around my waist.
“You kicked ass,” he whispered.
“So did you, but you’re not bloody.”
“Hey, at least you wore a red blouse. The blood blends.”
I took a lurching step and grinned at him. “Yeah, and I bought it at Walmart. Easy to replace.”
“Triton, Cesca,” Lia scolded. “Make haste.”
“Coming, Lia.”
“Lia?” Starrack echoed. “Lia, my love, is that you? Let me up.”
“If you believe in a power higher than yourself,” she said as she stalked toward him, “you will beg forgiveness before you are banished.”
“By the little vampire and the dolphin? Not likely. She will be dead in a matter of minutes. My minion was made to kill vampires. Even now, it is devouring her from the inside out.”
“Shut up, Starrack,” I snapped, “or I swear I’ll kick you into next year and back before I kill you.”
“You know the truth, vampire. You know you are dying with each breath. My Void is a black cancer, eating every cell. And when my pet has completed its task, it will find other victims. The Void cannot be destroyed.”
“Lia, Cosmil, can you put a muzzle on this piece of crap? Oh, and flip him over while you’re at it?”
“Delighted,” Lia said.
Cosmil gave his brother’s prone form a long look before he sighed and straightened his shoulders. “Pandora, stand down.”
The panther moved but sat on alert. I unzipped my left pocket and palmed my amulet as Lia and Cosmil made flipping motions with their hands. Starrack’s rigid body levitated three feet, rotated face-up, and thudded back to the packed ground.
The amulet pulsed with warmth, and my skin glowed with Mu symbols. I nodded at Triton. He knelt at Starrack’s right, and I knelt on his left. Then I did something I would never have imagined. I saw Starrack’s blood in the grass and rubbed my flattened right palm into the congealing pool, smearing the blood from my inner wrist to my fingertips.
“Lia,” I said softly, “do you remember the spell you found. The one Starrack used to make the Void?”
“I remember. Why?”
I held up my hand. “Because I believe we have not only the bloodline, but the very blood to unmake the spell. Don’t we, Starrack?”
I looked into the wizard’s white face and knew that whatever instinct I’d followed, it was right.
“Ready?” Triton asked.
“One more thing.” I stared into the cold gray eyes now dilated with fright. “However much this hurts, it isn’t enough.”
I slammed my amulet on Starrack’s chest, Triton hit him on the right, and we chanted the banishing in unison. We chanted the phrase over and over, the rhythm of the foreign words feeling familiar now, weaving power with each repetition.
Bright beams burst from both crystals. Rays shot out in a supernova, piercing the night, boring into Starrack’s bucking body. I thought of the murdered homeless couple, even the murdered thugs. I thought of the vampires driven to madness and death, and of those still infected. I fed on the far-flung misery the illness had caused and channeled justice for all of them into the amulet.
Starrack’s body suddenly dissolved, leaving only his clothing on the ground, and the light drew back into the crystals so fast, I had spots dancing in my vision.
“Well done,” Cosmil said quietly.
“Agreed,” a new voice said behind me, “though she is nothing like you reported to the Council, Cosmil.”
Triton and I whirled toward the fort’s sally port at the south wall to confront the new threat. A man who appeared to be in his twenties strolled toward us, dark hair flowing to the collar of a white shirt. Long, lean, and mean, my senses screamed.
“Legrand?” Lia said as if she mistrusted her eyes. “But you’re dead.”
“Well, yes. I am a vampire, Lia.” His tone mocked, but the Frenchman said the words mildly, with no discernable accent and no particular rancor. “It was very convenient to have Cosmil come looking for me in the Veil, by the way.”
“You attacked me?” Cosmil probed, moving a step closer to me.
My muscles trembled with tension, and the gash on my chest still bled sluggishly, but power coiled, too. I prepared to strike at any provocation.
Legrand stopped thirty feet from us. “No, it was Starrack’s pet that attacked you. I only provided a body for you to discover, and a duplicate ring, of course. Although I did set the bomb in the Council headquarters. No loss. We needed to redecorate.”
“And your ring?” Cosmil asked the question of Legrand, even as he spoke in my head.
Release the amulet to me.
Cosmil’s fingers brushed mine, and I didn’t question the request but let the disk roll out of my palm into his.
“My ring is right here.” Legrand held up his hand, wiggled his fingers, and the carats-huge ruby ring, the one that looked exactly like Normand’s, flashed fire in the moonlight.
I looked into his head and sucked a harsh breath. “You were behind Starrack all the time. Why?”
“Although one cannot have enough money, my motive is as always. Power.”
“You ran the protection money scheme,” I accused. “You bled your own kind.”
“You sound so righteous,” he said on a chuckle. “In truth, the oldest vampires have paid me for decades to represent their interests with the Council. Sadly, the stateside vampires balked when my price increased. Then last July I acquired Normand’s ring, and you were resurrected in August. With both rings, I doubled my power and saw the opportunity to put a new plan in motion.”
“You sicced Starrack and the Void on the reluctant vampires. They acted as your enforcers.”
He sketched a bow. “Indeed, and the scheme worked, but you were a threat to my continued success.”
“How could I be a threat?” I scoffed. “I didn’t know about the scam until a few months ago.”
“But the old vampires knew about you. They knew the legends, even though I had destroyed every written record.” Now his voice betrayed an edge of anger. “The virgin vampire princess who would come into all of Normand’s powers and add her own? No, I couldn’t have another of Normand’s royal line alive to challenge me.”
“I’m no challenge.”
“Because you want to live your pathetic little normal life? How long would it have been before you wanted more? Wanted to rule vampiredom?”
“That’s your ambition talking, not mine.”
“No, you would challenge me sooner or later, just as I challenged Normand. I would rather eliminate that threat now.”
He shifted his weight, just a subtle tell, but enough that when he rushed me, I met him headlong. We grappled four feet above the courtyard until I landed a knee thrust to his groin. Legrand grunted, faltered, fell into a crouch. I touched down, gripped his head with both my hands, and brought him to his feet. Then, following another instinct, I held his brown eyes with my gaze and breathed the Void at Legrand.
He laughed, not even bothering to break my hold. “You think to slay me with rancid breath?”
“That’s a bonus.”
He clucked his tongue. “Foolish wench. My blood helped create Starrack’s creature. It will not attack me.”