Page 127 of Tin God

She smiled a little bit. “It’s time for him to get a new hobby.”

Tenzin reached for the hilt of the Mongolian saber at her waist and flipped her feet over her head, walking herself backward and upside down, flying in the face of the man who’d been pursing them at a “safe distance.”

The vampire gave a short gasp and immediately drew a blade of his own, a curved katana popular in Asia for those with little experience in air combat and even less imagination.

Not as worthy an opponent as she’d hoped. “Pity.”

“Tenzin!” Ben’s hissed warning alerted her a moment later to the second vampire following them.

It was a woman, her pale white hair cropped in a pixie cut, who pulled another sword from her hip, this one a much more imaginative hook sword.

Tenzin’s heart raced at the challenge. “Much better.”

A channel of wind gusted from her mate’s amnis, curving in a river of air around Tenzin’s body to re-form in front of her, blasting the first vampire off course.

The man tumbled backward and down toward the ocean, Ben following him to the water while Tenzin held up her hand and blasted a column of air toward the woman with the hook sword.

The wind vampire was clever, darting to the side and sending a wall of ice-laden air back toward Tenzin.

She twisted to the side, breaking the wall with her shoulder and flipping right side up to meet the thrusting hook sword aimed for her neck.

The vampire was fast even if her amnis wasn’t as strong as Tenzin’s. She twisted in the air, flipping over Tenzin’s head and trying to pull the saber from her grip.

The clash of steel made Tenzin’s fangs ache for blood.

The white-haired vampire bared her teeth, her hook sword locked on the tip of Tenzin’s saber until Tenzin pulled back, pushing the air away from her body and hurtling her opponent through the air.

The vampire flipped head over heels until she righted herself and speared through the icy air back to Tenzin, her sword tucked against her thigh.

Tenzin had to admire her ferocity. The woman hadn’t said a word; she was wholly focused on killing her.

She rounded on Tenzin, flipping in the air and spinning around to whip the hook sword with its twin, extending the reach of the lethal blades.

Tenzin felt the cut on her cheek before she could pull her face back.

She laughed at the woman’s gall, only to flip her own blade upside down and force the tip of her saber into the sharpened crescent guard that had sliced her cheek. She felt the tension through her arm when the blades locked, and Tenzin tugged hard, at the same time pushing back with her element.

The vampire gave a hard grunt at the punch of air to her gut and faltered, her grip loosening enough that the hook swords spun away from her, flipping through the air and spinning into the water below.

The vampire watched her weapons fall with wide eyes, then looked up and tried to retreat.

Too late. A whorl of air formed in midair, wrapping around the woman and pulling ice from the heavy clouds overhead, crystals that sliced her pale skin, spraying bloody mist into the wind. The small tornado wrapped around the blond vampire, who struggled against the press of her element turned against her.

“Henri Paulson,” Tenzin said to the captive vampire.

The woman’s eyes flew open; she looked at Tenzin, then at the cruise ship floating low at the back of the fjord. Her pale eyes turned back to Tenzin, and she bared her fangs.

Tenzin smiled. “That’s all the answer I needed.” She swung out, cutting through the torrent of air and slicing the vampire’s head from her body.

The snow-white head dropped into the evergreen forest below, disappearing into the darkness, and a moment later, Tenzin released the body from its tornado cage, the limbs splaying out in the wind as the vampire’s remains dropped to the forest floor where they landed with a soft thud.

Ben reached her only moments later.

“She cut you.” He bared his fangs, growling low in his throat as he reached his hand out to grip her neck. He pulled her cheek to his mouth and licked up the small wound, healing it with his own blood.

She smelled a hint of blood somewhere on his body, but he was not visibly damaged. “Where’s our other friend?”

“In two pieces at the bottom of the ocean,” Ben said. “What happens when you cut a vampire in half?”

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