Amaya, shield!
Can’t! she all but screamed. Need flesh. Steel.
I swore and shifted shape, even as they fired the guns. Lilac flames spun around me, but not quite fast enough. One bullet got through, hitting my arm. Pain exploded even as a cold, deep fire began to burn in my flesh. The bastards were armed with silver bullets.
As the remaining bullets bounced off Amaya’s shield, I surged to my feet and rushed at them.
Kill, Amaya screamed. Eat must!
Go for it, I growled, and flung her, as hard as I could, at the tall vamp who’d been the spokesman. She cut through the air, her scream high-pitched and as scary as hell, her flames flaring wide, as if trying to devour all six at the same time.
The vampires scattered. I dove for the nearest one, hitting him at knee height and driving him down. He crashed to the floor with a grunt but nevertheless twisted and started throwing punches. I became Aedh, allowed several blows to pass through my particles, then shoved my fist inside his chest and re-formed enough to grab his heart. Then I squeezed. Hard.
He screamed, twisted, fought.
But there was no fighting my grip. No escape from death.
He collapsed and died, pain etched into his expression and his eyes wide with shock. There was no reaper waiting for him, only an eternity as one of the lost ones.
I shoved away the sliver of remorse, spun around, and re-formed again. I raised a hand and a second later Amaya hit it, her steel heavier but anger still burning in her heart.
There were four of the original six left. As I reappeared, they raised their weapons and fired again. Amaya shielded instantly and the bullets zinged off to various parts of the room, most of them smashing harmlessly into walls but at least one shattering the kitchen window behind me. I flung Amaya again, then became Aedh and darted sideways, coming in at the vampires from the left as Amaya came in from the right.
They scattered, firing randomly. One bullet zipped across the edge of my particles, and red heat spun through me, a warning that silver did affect me, even in this form.
I mentally swore, twisted around, and became solid enough to smash a booted foot into the nearest vampire’s face. There was enough force in the blow to mash his nose into the back of his head and throw him backward. I hit the ground in full flesh at the same time he did, reached a hand out for Amaya, then drove her deep into the vamp’s body. Her flames raced over him even as her deep chuckle filled the air. He was dead before he even realized it.
I spun around again and discovered myself at the wrong end of a gun barrel. “It was a good effort,” the vampire said softly. “But in the end, for naught.”
With that, he fired.
The gun exploded.
Bits of metal went everywhere, cutting him, cutting me. I yelped but nevertheless raised Amaya and shoved her into the vampire’s cold heart.
She quickly consumed him, body and soul. I turned, Amaya raised to counter the next threat, but the remaining vampires were dead. I met Azriel’s furious gaze. “Did you have anything to do with that gun exploding?”
He shook his head. “From what I caught of his thoughts, something must have been lodged in the barrel.”
Luck, it seemed, had finally remembered we existed. I sheathed Amaya, then walked across to where Azriel was standing. The vampire at his feet was still alive, though his arm had been sheared off at the shoulder and his blood spurted across Stane’s pristine floor. “Without wanting to sound too bloodthirsty, why have you kept this one alive?”
“Because I intend to use him—or rather, his telepathy skill—to send a message to the remaining councillors.”
With that, he squatted beside the vampire and pressed his hands on either side of his head. The vampire’s eyes went wide, but other than that, he made no sound. Neither did Azriel. I’d seen him do something similar in the past, when
he was reading the lingering memories of dead people, but each of those times, the images had appeared between his hands, as a sort of movie reel on high speed. There were no pictures here, and the vampire wasn’t dead. Not yet, anyway.
After a few minutes, Azriel opened his eyes, then, without warning, sliced Valdis across the vampire’s neck, severing his head from his body.
Only then did he meet my gaze. His blue eyes glittered with a fire as fierce as anything I’d ever seen. “They have been warned not to attack you again; otherwise, I will decimate their ranks.”
I raised my eyebrows; while I had no doubt he would carry through with the threat, it did surprise me that he was willing to go so far. “I didn’t think you’d be allowed to do something like that.”
“If they order a second attack after being so warned, then yes, I am. The fates’ priority right now is both you and that final key. Anything else—even rules that have been in place since the beginning of time and life itself—is secondary.”
“Damn, the fates are getting serious,” I muttered.
“As am I,” Azriel growled. “Enough is enough.”