Page 21 of Fangs and Family
I smirked and wiggled two fingers, daring them to come closer, mocking their greater numbers, and the two underlings charged forward in a blur of movement.
I was already moving, knives appearing from their hidden sheaves as if by magic, but I hadn’t expected the leader to stay back, especially when he flicked his wrist and a rusty metal pole launched itself toward my chest. That little fucker was an elder and had significant power. Curses slipped from my lips as I twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding the pipe as it sailed past, my knives flashing out to parry an attack from the charging enemies and riposte, gouging a deep cut into one of the idiot’s faces.
Frustration burned in my chest as I knew I could easily kill these fools if not for their elder’s power and the need to keep Nina safe. I exhaled, reining my temper and slammed my fist out, punching my dagger into the side of one attacker, twisting and forcing him to stumble into his compatriot.
I suppose I should be grateful that only the leader was an elder, but in my fury, I didn’t care. Anyone threatening my Nina would die, and die regretting their life choices. They fought with tooth and claw, disdaining the use of weapons, and I was carving them to pieces with ease, almost enjoying their foolish arrogance.
I would later thank Nina for bringing us to such a desolate place. It allowed me to forget about potential witnesses and let myself go, using my full strength to rip them to pieces. Unfortunately, I realised my mistake too late as Nina gasped in fear, and I noticed I’d exposed her to an attack by the leader of the group. As I turned to rush to her side, a clawed hand tore across my forearm, leaving it numb, and my dagger fell harmlessly to the floor. Instinctively, I dropped my other weapon, willing my hand to transform and, with a wordless scream of rage, lashed out, hammering my clawed hand through his chest until my fingers closed around his withered heart.
I saw his eyes widen as the realisation of true death flashed across my enemy’s features, but my hand was already exiting his body as I rushed toward Nina.
The second vampire knocked me to the side, but this time, I was quicker, rolling with the impact and lashing out. My claws tore out the idiot’s jugular, leaving him incapacitated, as I leapt to my feet again. I was about to finish the job when a piercing scream forced me to turn away.
‘Adam!’ Nina’s body was pinned to the tree by the power of the last vampire. He stood there, not even glancing at his captive as he looked me dead in the eye while her hands desperately clawing at her throat.
‘You are good, but you are no elder,’ he gloated, his contours blurring, and I knew he was going to enter the shadows, taking Nina with him.
‘Don’t you fucking dare touch her!’ I shouted, pushing the bleeding vampire’s body to the side.
The elder vampire was wrong. I had faced my challenge and survived. It’d started one night two years ago when a woman with eyes of obsidian fire had offered herself to me. Despite knowing there was something different about how I felt around her, I accepted. It took one drop of her blood to know she was the sweet darkness that whispered in my soul. She filled me up like no one ever could.
I could enthral her, feeding off her until she died, or I could accept a life filled with burning agony because of the thirst she awakened, but I wanted more than just blood. I wanted Nina. That night, I made the choice that started my blood rite. The choice of not draining the woman with fire in her blood.
The blood rite was always about choice. Every vampire could undergo it once in their lifetime. Some failed, while others proved themselves as masters, gaining unique skills that allowed them to break the tether if they so chose.
For most of the vampires, it happened at a time agreed on by their sire, the master deciding when the spawn was mature enough to resist the bloodlust. The ritual was simple. The vampire was starved to the point of madness before being offered a human. They could bleed the victim dry or hold back the hunger, triggering vampire magic that allowed them, in time, to inherit some of their sire’s magical abilities.
Unclaimed mutts like me had little chance to complete their blood rite, as no vampire alone was able to bring themselves to near-death starvation. If they were lucky, it happened by chance when they fed on blood that tasted like no other and awakened the blood rite craving.
Nina didn’t know she was part of my blood rite, and I chose to keep her in the dark, allowing her to be free in a moment of unexpected selflessness. As soon as I withdrew my fangs, I felt something change. The sliver of humanity left inside me grew, pulsing with unknown magic, and when Nina’s life was threatened by Czernobog’s madness, I felt a connection with Leszek that manifested my power. I hadn’t used it since, but it had been etched into my soul, waiting to be called.
My eyes never once left my opponent’s smug visage, and I felt the smile grow on my lips as I drew upon it, wings bursting from my back, tearing apart the fabric of my clothing as if it were tissue paper.
With feathers as dark as my black heart, their silken sheen disguising vicious, razor-sharp edges, my wings were a weapon sharper than any knife. I saw Nina’s eyes widen in horror as darkness surrounded me like smoke, her struggles ceasing as she stared, but I didn’t have time to worry about her reaction. I pulled the darkness closer, using it to propel me forward at an incredible speed, closing in on my opponent before he could blink in surprise.
My grin grew wider and more savage at the vampire’s shock, his confusion at someone so young gaining such power fuelling my strength. Unfortunately, he was not surprised enough. I almost missed it, barely able to twist away, when the knife Nina had dropped embedded itself in the base of my wing.
I faltered, almost falling to the ground, but I was already beside my opponent, my clawed hands reaching out.
‘It can’t be possible,’ he muttered. Dirt and debris peppered my body, raised by his mind, but nothing could stop me now. He’d hurt Nina, and for that, he would die.
He didn’t see it coming, my body formless within the shadow, but as my hands tore into his flesh, my wings swept forward, shrieking worse than any banshee’s scream, the razor-sharp feathers ripping through his neck, severing his head in a bloody explosion of fury.
With the vampire’s death, the storm of debris ceased when the power fuelling it was gone. Nina’s choking gasp and the thud of her helpless body falling to the ground were loud in the sudden silence, and I rushed to her side, barely stopping her head from hitting the concrete debris.
‘Dracula can kiss my arse,’ she whispered as I pulled her into my arms, unable to hold back my chuckle at her brazen words.
My merriment died when I noticed her shocked expression and the wild, bewildered look in those black eyes, and I worried what Nina’s reaction would be. Still, I held myself back, knowing I needed to check if she was injured. Loosening my tight grip on her body, I moved to examine her but stopped as she whispered a quiet question.
‘How… wh… what just happened?’
‘It’s my ability, Nina, something vampires gain after…erm… living for a certain amount of time.’ I finished with a white lie, unwilling to admit she was the one who had enabled my gift.
‘I know it’s a little different, unusual even, but I believe it’s due to Leszek’s influence, as he’s the closest thing to a sire I have.’
At least that part was true, but I saw the lack of understanding in her eyes. I shrugged it off, taking advantage of her confusion to examine her, explaining the origin of my gift to distract her.
‘As we age, vampires face a challenge. Think of it as us growing up, and when it happens, magic forces a transformation. It is called Ascension, and one needs to face fear, cravings, and obsessions to survive. One’s master usually guides the vampire through the blood rite because it comes with great suffering, but sometimes it happens spontaneously during intense emotional stress. Tomasz, the werewolf alpha, insists on calling it “vampire puberty,” but that’s because he’s an immature arsehole. The creature that attacked you developed telekinesis, whereas I developed a form of shapeshifting, hence the wings.’ I tried to keep the discussion light-hearted, but the smile I gave Nina was tense and more of a grimace.
