Page 24 of Hellfire to Come
Screams rang out, echoing off the ancient stone. Sparks skittered across the floor. Steel rang like a choir of bells as it kissed stone and bone. I ducked a swing, rolled beneath a Guardian’s reach, and came up in a slash that tore open a ribcage. Hot blood sprayed across my neck.
Dominic launched off the wall and crashed into two of them mid-air, dragging them down in a whirl of snapping teeth and howls. Chester barked a command, the runes around him erupting into light as the ceiling groaned and part of the tunnel collapsed, crushing a wave of reinforcements.
I prayed Alice wasn’t behind that wall of stone.
But I couldn’t blame Chester.
I’d have done the same.
Echo and I moved like we shared a single spine. Her fire drove them back; I carved the opening. She scorched limbs; I severed spines. A macabre duet of survival.
We thinned their numbers, step by bloodstained step.
The bond in my chest screamed now, a tether yanking me forward with the urgency of a pulse about to flatline. She was near. Right there.
“Alice, stay back!” I roared, unsure whether I wanted to warn her, or just hear my voice. Hear something other than the madness.
Another Guardian lunged, his jaw unhinged wide like a predator unmasked. I didn’t hesitate. I drove my blade through his throat, twisting until vertebrae cracked like glass. His body fell like a puppet with its strings cut.
Then…
There.
At the far end of the corridor, past shattered pillars and half-burnt tapestries, stood Alice.
Her hair was a wild, tangled mess around her face in sweaty ringlets. Her skin was smeared in blood, some hers, some not. The rusted pipe in her hands was lifted like a sword, trembling slightly in her white-knuckled grip. Her mouth split into a grin so broad it nearly cracked her bruised cheeks.
“We killed the fuckers!” she shrieked, voice sharp with unspent adrenaline. The pipe wobbled above her like a flag of chaotic triumph.
She had no glasses. Of all things, my brain snagged on that like the absurdity of noticing an earring missing during a shipwreck.
But gods, she was alive.
I didn’t wait. I ran to her, weaving between the wounded, dodging the fallen, blood splashing beneath my boots.
Nothing else mattered.
Except nothing in this damn life was ever that simple.
Just as I reached the final stretch between us, three more Guardians emerged from a hidden alcove to block my path. Bigger. Meaner. And they weren’t alone.
From the shadows behind Alice came a voice. Cold. Familiar.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to find her,” purred Frederic.
Of course.
Of course, he was here.
Unfortunately for him, I was done running.
Chapter Ten
ALICE
I should’ve known it was too easy for me to get to a point where I could see my friends. Stupidly, I didn’t think anything of it until it was too late. Shuffling forward with strength I didn’t have, I started to doubt that I was out of that damn prison. Maybe my nearly broken mind conjured a story where I was free and almost away from the hellhole they kept me in.
The corridor still echoed with the chaos of battle, shouts, metal ringing, the sharp coppery sting of blood in the air. My knuckles were raw, the rusted pipe shaking in my grip, and yet… when I saw Brooklyn charging toward me, I felt safe. I shouldn’t have. Not here. Not ever around the bloody vampires.
