Page 57 of Kiss of Light

The demon waited. Lemar got up warily.

“Is this a trick?”

“Probably. Let’s go. Fast.”

Lemar blurred out of the door and Tala shimmered. One or two of the more excitable patrons let off a couple of shots as the pair virtually disappeared before their very eyes.

That was too easy, thought Tala. Ravij had been supremely unconcerned about them escaping. She saw why when they got outside.

The diner was completely surrounded by vampires. A hundred of them, maybe more. An army of vamps working for Ravij.

And Tala and Lemar had just delivered themselves directly into their hands.

Twenty Three

They got separated in the first rush. Tala had no time to reach Lemar, no time to grab him before vamps surrounded her on all sides. She fought hard, her blades flashing through skin and bone. But she was grimly aware she was only hurting them. Not killing them.

Lemar had more success. He was older than most of the Vetali there. Faster. Stronger. He ripped three heads from their bodies, snarling in triumph as he blurred from one victim to another, black veins pulsing under his skin.

For a pathetically short time, Tala managed to keep out of their reach by shimmering. But in the end the sheer volume of vamps brought her down. A large brute grabbed her arm and twisted it until it snapped. She cried out, dropping her blade. She jammed the other one into his eye but his place was immediately taken by another. Then another.

Someone kicked her legs out from under her and smashed a fist into her head. She fell to all fours, dazed. Pain shot up her arm and she felt the jagged edges of her shattered ulna grating together.

Fuck. That was going to hurt like a bitch as it healed.

Lemar heard her cry of pain and whipped round, teeth bared. His fangs gleamed in the light. He saw a huddle of vamps kicking at something on the ground.

Tala.

With a roar of rage he blurred towards them. Something bludgeoned into him, smashing into his body like a hammer. The force knocked him off his feet and he was immediately surrounded by six or seven Vetali who grabbed his arms, twisting them behind his back.

He looked at himself in disbelief. A perfect hole about the size of a coin had been blown straight through his torso. In and out.

“Nowthatwas a brilliant shot, if I say so myself.” The Ravij-host lowered his high-powered rifle. His eyes were liquid black from lid to lid, like the depths of hell. “These human weapons do have their uses.”

Panicked, Tala struggled against her captors on the ground.

“Lemar!” she screamed “Are you hurt?”

“Relax,Tala-ji,” smiled the host. “”It wasn’t silver. He’ll heal. Just in time to get his head cut off, obviously.”

“Stop calling me that!” she snarled. “Stop pretending we’re related. We aren’t family, you son of a bitch.”

“Of course we are. We were both created from the ether. We are connected whether you like it or not.” The host leaned towards Lemar conspiratorially. “She just thinks she’s better than the rest of us because she does not have a master. What she fails to realise is that we have no purpose without masters.”

Lemar shook his head.

“You’re wrong. Tala is more than you’ll ever be.”

The host threw his head back and laughed.

“My sister is a pathetic excuse of a shaitun. Constantly trying to demonstrate she’s tough and independent but all the while secretly craving the approval of the one who freed her.”

“At least Lord Shadeed is an honourable man,” Tala snapped. “Unlike your slimeball of a master. Salaq is almost as despicable as you are, Ravij. Why are you here anyway? You can’t be the one to kill Lemar. Everyone knows you’re Salaq’s. The Vetali would turn against him.”

“Oh, I won’t be the one to behead him.” The host studied Lemar thoughtfully. The vampire was on his knees, held there by three other Vetali, his arms thrust painfully behind his back. “You don’t remember me, do you, vampire?”

Lemar raised his eyes.

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