I’d like to be able to describe firsthand what a well-trained, well-motivated Carpathian half vampire looked like attacking a 500 plus year-old vampire of questionable origins and mysterious new issues but I didn’t actually see anything. Best I can figure, Lucy attacked, Jesper stepped to while pushing me back out of the way, and the next thing I saw was Lucy flat on her back on the floor, missing her weapon.
I think I yelled, “Don’t hurt her! She’s one of mine.”
I finally saw what manner of weapon it was when Jesper turned back towards me. It was a gleaming silver short spear two feet of which were sticking out of Jesper’s chest.
“One of your what?” he asked, voice clearly elevated but strangely, much less strained than expected. What with a silver spear sticking out of his chest and the vampire girl that attacked him doing a flip up from prone like I’d seen in many Jet Li films.
Depending on the vamp, wooden stakes may or may not do anything at all but huge holes in one’s chest, that normally slows a guy down, at least for a bit. Jesper turned as if it were nothing; grabbed it with one hand, ripped it out, and swung it in front of him. Not at the advancing Lucy, I might add, just in front of him to ward her off. Then he threw it on the floor.
She kept moving, her face all fanged out, reached behind her back and tumbling for the spear, while Jesper moved to stay in between us. The movements were just blurs to me most of the time, but time started to slow down, making their actions more distinct.
It wasn’t some special ability I’d been granted; it was the adrenaline pumping through my body, making everything run in slow motion. Unfortunately, I was in slow motion too. By the time I got to speak again, Lucy had resumed her attack with spear in right hand, a new strangely bent long bladed and very shiny shorter weapon in her left. A kukri.
The sense of profound dread settled over me like a oppressive cloud. I couldn’t allow that weapon to touch Jesper. Somehow, I just knew it. Just at this point, maybe six seconds into things, Morena made her first move, reaching behind her back for her gun. But I knew by the time she drew it, this might very well be over. Class turns into Practicum just like that. SNAP! Nick, thankfully, had flipped over the back of the settee to hide this one out. Good kid. Smart too. He knows better than to take up a profession without skills. But he was throwing a look towards Morena, one I’d take no time deciphering later, and was clearly going to head her way. Crap!
I needed to end this. Now.
Jesper was, as he should be, one step ahead of me. In Vox Compulsum, he commanded, “Stand down.”
Nick and Morena froze in that unnatural way when their bodies and minds have been disjointed from action. They wouldn’t fall over, merely powerless to do anything. For a moment, I had thought his plan had backfired as Lucy pushed through the Vox as if it were nothing. Later I would get it: He meant it to be broadband, to catch everyone in the room, even me, especially in the event anyone else, namely human, thought they should get in the middle of two vamps fighting it out. ‘Cause that would be stupid. Sign me up.
But for some reason, Lucy was unaffected and I, well, Jesper hadn’t known the Vox didn’t work on me either.
I scrambled across the floor, trying to find my legs and then my feet, all of which was taking too long. Strangely, Lucy and Jesper dodged and parried like matched sets, he could obviously overpower her at any moment but she was just capable enough to keep him from disarming or grappling her.
And it was frustrating him. I had to help.
“Lucy! Stop! He’s a friend!”
I wasn’t exactly sure of the sentiment but at this moment, Friend might have way more weight than Patient. Especially given my current client list. Will all the crazed vampires in the Seattle metropolitan area please stand up and be counted?
Lucy ignored me as if she’d heard not a word. She feinted and whirled a spin kick at Jesper’s chest, catching him off-guard because of his injury. She must have seen him favoring just enough. But I didn’t have time to be impressed. The one good thing about how good a fight she put up was it forced Jesper back towards me, by which point I could stand.
I felt rather than saw Jesper sense this, this feeling of alarm coursing through him (was it flowing through me too?), dividing his attention just as the spear came in again. He turned toward me, I think to again get me out of the way, felt the spear puncture his chest again, thought better of pushing me, and focused all his energy on Lucy, slamming her with both palms, keeping the spear from penetrating further. He hadn’t had the time to pull his punch and Lucy went flying.
She crashed into the bookcase next to Nick’s leaning body, then disappeared in a poof of black smoke. Jesper’s command would not let Nick get out of the way. Two entire shelves of books went flying and hit him, dropping him in a heap to the floor.
I finally was going to get my chance to break this up. Jesper moved his head for an instant to me and I saw his eyes were glowing with that strange amber light again. I hesitated. Something tugged at a memory. Distant sands, mosaic tiles, strong coffee, call to prayers. I stepped toward him.
He hesitated too, too long to prepare a more subtle defense against the sudden reappearance of crows solidifying into a two handed swipe with the kukri. I know what it looked like to see death through decapitation flying on glossy raven wings because I was standing right in front of it.
“Neilza!”
Behind me, I felt rather than saw light, a wave of it, carried almost like Vox Compulsum, crash into me flowing all around me and hitting Lucy wherever I didn’t give her cover. The force of the strange light smacked me hard into her and instead of my normal fading black circle of consciousness, this time light seemed to burn me up from the outside in. All the while my neck at the base of my throat was burning.
I closed my eyes with the impact and felt dark, cold sand between my fingers, underneath my nails as I dug. Then everything went familiarly black.
Vampirony 