Twelve voices screamed in dire agony as the raw fury of the sun itself flooded the room, its rays reaching every corner of the underground lair. Those same twelve voices were throttled into grave silence as the blinding light receded. I removed my hand from my eyes. Where the vampires of the coven once stood were only piles of dust. Diaz fell to his knees, his mouth open, his eyes huge with disbelief.
I ran to Diaz’s side, pulling Asher with me. “Stay close,” I said. “Don’t move.”
I reached for the shards of broken gemstone in Asher’s hand, using their jagged edges to carve a fresh line in my palm. I scanned the room for the thirteen or so homunculi still remaining, marking their places in my mind’s eye.
Everywhere but here, I thought, looking at my feet, reaching to the ethers, to the corners of the chamber my soul called home. Bring terror to this world, just, everywhere but here.
Spears of blackest night erupted from the shadows, each skewering a homunculus from spine to skull. Even from where I stood I felt their muscles twitching against my blades, the warmth of corrupted blood running down their razor edges. I felt, too, the tide of warmth running down my palm, the sticky, slick red of my own blood as the Dark Room drank its share of my life force.
I snapped the door shut. The blades vanished, and twelve, thirteen bodies slumped to the floor, lifeless.
“Holy shit,” Asher muttered. “You killed them all.”
He caught me as I stumbled, my knees stinging as I crumpled to the ground. Through bleary eyes I surveyed the room, the panoply of corpses littering what was once the coven’s home, what used to be Nirvana.
But one of the corpses was moving.
We missed one. Scratch that. We missed two. They had feigned death, completely bypassing my assault by blending into the piles of fallen human thralls. The homunculi rushed Diaz, grabbing his arms, one slugging him in the face to stop his words mid-incantation, the other reaching into its shirt to pull out another opal amulet.
Asher broke into a sprint. “No,” I shouted, too winded, too exhausted to chase him, or to even summon another blade from the Dark. Diaz and the homunculi vanished in a flash of white light before Asher could even reach them. He skidded to a halt, shielding his eyes against the radiance, cursing under his breath.
“I could have gotten them,” he shouted. “I almost got them.”
“Don’t,” I said. “Not your fault. We’ll find him.”
“How?”
A pillar of flame exploded in the center of the room. I groaned, clenching my wounded hand as I searched my body for any reserves of fight I could muster. Then the flames cleared. It was Sterling, Carver, and Gil.
Gil spun in a circle, his eyes wide. “What the hell happened here?”
“This was a massacre,” Sterling said. “I could have helped. I should have stayed.” He glared at Asher, his eyes full of accusation.
“You would have died,” Carver said, his voice heavy with authority. “Asher did the right thing, Sterling. Do not fault him for saving your life.”
Sterling said nothing, his fist clenched. Asher was quiet, too, but he stuck his hands in his pockets and kicked at the ground.
Gil bent down, sifting through the ashes, sniffing at his fingers. “This is insane. These were all vamps, all killed by sunlight. I can still smell it.”
“They were murdered,” Sterling growled.
“We have to find them,” I said. “They killed every vampire in the coven, then they took Diaz. I don’t know what they’re going to do with him, but we have to find him.”
“Latham’s Cross,” Sterling said. “That’s our best bet.”
“Then that’s where we’ll head.” Carver swept his hand across my back, and I felt the warmth of his magic seep into my skin, the flow of blood from my palm slowing, then stopping. “This is the best I can afford for now,” he whispered. “We’ll need the rest of our energies to fight.”
I nodded, staring into his eyes, the words forming in my mouth even though I knew he didn’t need to hear them.
“Thea’s behind it all,” I said. “It’s been her all along.”
Carver beckoned for us to approach, and we gathered around him in a tight circle.
“Then we’re going to find her.” He gestured with his hands as he cast a sending spell, trails of amber fire dancing at his fingers as he worked. “And we’re going to kill her.”
Chapter 26
Latham’s Cross was the closest graveyard for miles around the city. It sat on the outskirts, and based on the homunculus’s description, was our only real lead on where to find Thea and the rest of my clones. Drained as I was, I steeled myself, readying body and mind for the inevitable search throughout the graveyard.