Page 22 of Queen of Darkness
Torchlight flickered up ahead, revealing that we’d been slowly rounding a long bend in the hallway. I wasn’t sure if Fred’s vision could penetrate the darkness, but to me, the light was a welcome sight. My wolf’s night vision had returned after we left the dark forest, but without any source of light at all, I still hadn’t been able to see much.
A low moan echoed from the depths ahead of us, sending a shiver down my spine. Goosebumps rippled across my arms, and the hairs all over my body stood up. Inside, my wolf shifted restlessly, not liking the sound. I could feel her growl. She didn’t like this.
“I don’t like this,” I said quietly, echoing her thoughts.
“Me neither,” Fred agreed, saying nothing more.
The metal scraping grew louder. Drakul was getting closer. I still couldn’t see any movement, but instinctively, Fred and I slowed. Whatever was going to happen, it would happen soon. No need to rush any quicker to it.
“He’s just a vampire?” I said, speaking up to fill the nervous silence. “Right? Like you?”
“Not quite like me,” Fred said.
“But, like, a regular vampire, right? We can take him, the two of us.”
“That depends on just how true the legends are,” Fred whispered back, crouching low as the scraping of metal on stone stopped.
“What legends? The ones that say he’s a vampire? We know that.”
“No,” Fred hissed as his fangs slid down out of his mouth. “The ones that say he has strange powers.”
The torchlight went out as flickers of motion flooded the hallway amid the rustle of thousands of wings.
“Bats,” I moaned, leaning back against the wall. “He can change into thousands of bats.”
Fred didn’t reply. I glanced at him, only to see that the bats had coalesced into a shape in front of us.
A tall man stood in front of us. Clad in silver armor, he looked down at us with eyes that burned red. The flickering orange light from the torches was just bright enough for me to see that his hair was a long, brilliant white, pulled back in a half-clasp, the rest falling down his back. Matching facial hair grew thick across his face.
What caught my eye, however, was the longsword he carried casually in one hand, as if not bothered by the weight of the four-foot blade. Its silver steel caught the light and bounced it around. I frowned. Did I see bats in its reflection? There were none in the cave that I could see. Were theyinthe sword?
Drakul spoke in a language I didn’t recognize. It sounded vaguely Germanic, which probably meant it wasn’t Romanian unless it was some sort of predecessor's tongue. I didn’t know.
“Shit,” I cursed. “How the hell do we–”
Fred started replying in the same tongue. Drakul’s glittery red eyes stared at him like tiny rubies set in his skull.
“What’s he saying?” I whispered, watching the sword very carefully.
Neither Fred nor I were armed. If Drakul decided we were hostile, it was the first thing we’d have to deal with.
“He wants to know why we dared disturb him.”
“And what did you say?”
Drakul rumbled something, the words tumbling from his mouth like a torrent of water, fast and furious.
Fred shook his head. “I’m having trouble making it out. The dialects are slightly different, and he speaks too fast,” he said before saying something else to Drakul.
The creepy vampire barked a single word that did not sound positive.
Gulping, Fred turned his head toward me. “Uh, I think he’s saying we have to leave.”
“Look out!” I shouted, launching myself past Fred toward Drakul, my hands going for his wrist, trying to stop the downward strike that the Count had launched when Fred’s head was turned.
I got there in time to prevent Fred from being opened, stomach to shoulder, but Drakul was stronger than I expected. The blade of his sword pierced Fred’s abdomen, pinning him to the wall with a howl of agony.
There was an ear-splitting howl of frustration, then Drakul dissolved into a swirling storm of bats. The resistance I’d been fighting against vanished, and I fell through the bats to land on the floor. Then, Drakul reincorporated in the same spot. He reached out, pulled the sword from Fred’s gut, and whirled on me.
