Page 23 of Property of Mako
“Yes. I have no idea how many there have been over the years, but they are alive and well. The next one’s soon.”
“That’s why so many young girls are going missing?” Calix asked, his gaze intense.
Marrow nodded sagely.
“Where?” I asked.
Marrow turned to me slowly, and I fought the urge to shrink away from him. “That’s the thing. It’s never the same place twice. But the signs… they mark the venue with blood and shadow right before the auction. You’ll know it when you see it.”
I shivered as he grinned maniacally at me. “They don’t just take anyone,” he murmured, his voice sounding suddenly sad. “They take the pretty ones, the strong ones. The ones who can be… sold. Ones like you.”
I gasped.
Calix growled.
He turned back to Calix and opened his mouth like he was about to say something else—something important—when the window behind him exploded.
Shards of glass sprayed the room as a dark figure came crashing through the stained frame in a blur of red and black. In the moonlight, I saw two things: his sharp teeth and the blade glinting silver in his hand.
The figure hit the ground, spun so fast it was a blur, and drove a stake I hadn’t noticed through Marrow’s chest, impaling him against the wall.
I couldn’t help it—I screamed. Blood sprayed and splattered across my face and chest. As Calix pushed me back and stepped protectively in front of me, Marrow’s mouth opened—but nothing came out.
Then the dark figure beheaded him in one fluid motion. The head hit the floor with a sickening thud.
Time froze. Then it was as if it snapped.
The intruder turned toward me, eyes burning with what could only be described as hunger, his grin dripping with malice. Long fangs glistened in the dim light, and I was frozen in place.
“Lyra, down!” Calix barked.
Snapping to, I dropped as the attacker lunged for me—but Calix was already there.
Calix had moved faster than I could process. One second, the vampire was advancing. The next, Calix was on him.
They crashed through the pews, wood shattering beneath them. Fangs flashed. Blood splattered. The assassin snarled, claws out—but Calix grabbed him by the throat and ripped it open. I stumbled back at the sheer brutality of it.
Despite the dark blood staining the vampire’s neck, he was still fighting with a barbaric desperation. He stabbed at Calix, grazing his side.
I cried out, but Calix didn’t flinch.
With a snarl, he drove his fist through the bastard’s chest and ripped out his still-beating heart. Then, in one savage motion, he tore the head clean from the body.
Blood hit the wall like rain—dark and ominous.
Transfixed, I watched the dark liquid slowly begin to run down the faded and torn wallpaper. Vaguely, I was aware of the thump from the body hitting the floor.
When it was over, Calix stood panting over the corpse, chest rising and falling, blood dripping from his hands. The animalistic glowing silver in his eyes hadn’t faded.
I approached slowly, breath shaking.
He turned toward me, and I stopped dead in my tracks—and for a moment, he looked like a demon. Something monstrous and ancient.
But then I met his eyes. They slowly lost the look of mercury that had consumed them until they were the same storm-tossed sea color I’d become accustomed to. Other than the flashes of silver that sparked with each deep breath he took—he was there again.
He stepped over the corpse, blood soaking into his shirt, and as he stared down at the crumpled form, he whispered like a vow, “They took your sister. They marked her—the Covenant. We’re doing our best to track down the location and figure out when it will be. I was told Marrow knew.”
He sighed as he glanced over his shoulder to where the headless man still hung on the wall from the stake through his chest.
