Victoria couldn’t see, but she felt Max behind her, grabbing her shoulders from above, her long, thick braid flailing like a whip, and Sebastian suddenly warm and solid in front of her. If anyone spoke or shouted, the sound was snatched up in the whirlwind and destroyed, for all she could hear was a roaring in her ears. The air, cold suddenly, smelled ancient-ancient and deathly, like rotting bones and aged flesh. The chill was unbearable, biting and sharp, stinging her face and skin through the fabric of her clothing.

Black filled her eyes and ears, buffeted against her, pushing and battling her trousers like wind against sails. Something screamed high and long in her ear-or perhaps in her mind. She felt Max hovering over her, touched Sebastian, kept her fingers around the useless sword.

Suddenly, the wind whipped hard enough to rip a tree branch from above, and it crashed down onto the group of them. The branch tumbled away, leaving Victoria scratched and her head aching though she’d not borne the brunt of its weight.

The demonic cloud surged again, louder and darker now. Victoria pushed at Sebastian, shoving him toward the open door even as Max tried to pull her back. She shouted, but couldn’t even hear herself, and so she shoved Sebastian with all of her strength, leaping after him.

Helped by the black gale force, they tumbled down through the door into the mausoleum.

Four

A Dark Battle

Victoria slammed into Sebastian when they hit the ground, then tumbled onto the rough, cold floor. The wind whipped above her, but the roaring in her ears had eased.

She staggered to her feet, hand on her sword, trying to make out details in the furious, dark world. For a moment, she had an impression of dim illumination, and perhaps the outline of shapes near the floor. Something warm touched her-an oasis in the fury-and she grabbed Sebastian’s hand. His grip closed around her hand, strong and solid, anchoring her, as someone-Max?-crashed to the ground behind them.

And then suddenly, the horrible fog seemed to scream in rising desperation, whipping and buffeting even stronger and harder, filling her ears and nose and needling her skin… and then all at once, it stopped.

Everything became still.

The door was closed. Had Max done it?

Victoria released her grip on Sebastian and looked around, still mistrustful of the sudden peace. The faint gleam of illumination she’d discerned became a small blue-tinged glow in the far corner of the small chamber. It cast a pearl gray frost over the bare stone walls, blackened by mold and age. A large ash-colored crypt rose low in the center of the room.

“Max?” she said, more to try out her voice in the sudden silence than anything else.

“Brim and Michalas are still out there,” he said by way of reply. His voice was low and taut in the quiet.

She wondered if the closing of the door had subdued the curdling fog, or if it merely waited outside, battling harder against Brim and Michalas.

“Victoria. ” Sebastian had moved away from her, and now crouched near the corner where the dull bluish light shone.

The urgency in his voice had her hurrying past the waist-high crypt to join him, hand on her sword. He stood as she drew closer, revealing that the glow seeped from beneath the wall, and appeared to be curling into the darkness of the chamber. Tendrils of the eerie bluish light coiled up, snaking around Sebastian’s boots and legs, writhing up against the wall… then dissipated as if losing strength.

Victoria’s and Sebastian’s eyes met, that odd glow giving his tanned skin a peculiar pallor. She read the worry in his gaze, and knew it echoed her own.

“A door,” she said. But what was behind it? Another hurricane of fury? Wayren?

Max moved up to join them, his face stark and taut. “Let’s get it open. ”

Without further discussion, the two men turned to the wall, feeling along with their hands in search of a crevice or gap in the doorframe, while Victoria moved farther away, searching for some other opening.

A hiss of satisfaction in the silence drew her back over to Max. “Here-Vioget, push… there. ”

And then a portion of the wall moved slightly, one side canting inward, and the one nearest Victoria edging out. She braced herself, waiting for an angry burst of foggy blue light. The hair on the back of her neck rose as more coils slipped through the crack, draining into the room through the narrow aperture. Silent, like insidious smoke.

She looked at Max, nodded for him to continue, and the door moved again, levering out of position until it left a gap wide enough for someone to pass through.

Now the chamber glowed with blue and gray smoky light, and the air began to whip up. Victoria heard the roar as it gathered its strength, filling the room, seeming to swell and writhe with fury. A dusty, musty evil smell filled her nose, and an ice-cold sting again pummeled her face and skin through her clothing. The wind swirled against her, pounding and deafening.

She ducked, dodging into the gap, and heard a vague shout behind her. Past the door, she found herself stumbling into another chamber filled with the thrashing blue smoke. It glowed as if possessed.

The illumination was enough to reveal the walls, etched with dark shadows. In the center, dark blue flames roared toward the low ceiling. The smell of death and malevolence was stronger here, the snarling rush of wind louder.

Victoria stayed near the ground where she had more stability, and inched toward the twisting blue flames. The ferocity around her charged and buffeted onto her back and the top of her head, but it was marginally quieter near the ground. Her sword dragged next to her as she moved along, the other accoutrements in her pockets sagging toward the floor.

She’d seen sapphire-colored fire like this once before, when Max had destroyed Akvan’s Obelisk-a demonic shard of obsidian imbued with malevolence. Whether this pyre of flame protected another such evil item, or something else, she didn’t know.

Tags: Colleen Gleason The Gardella Vampire Hunters Vampires
Source: readsnovelonline.net