Karolina Dalca, Dark Eyes Read online

  The vampires rose from their crouched positions, untouched. Their black hollow gazes fixed on me as they walked toward us. Darkness crept up from the earth and air around them, like a menacing fog. The blackness spiraled into their hands and swelled.

  I spun my head, looking for an opening in the crowd. Andre stood by my side. I didn’t need to count our opponents to know it was too many. I clasped his hand and yanked him into a run. My arm jolted in its socket. He remained unmoved. I turned and hauled on him.

  We were surrounded.

  Andre swooped to a low crouch with his arms spread wide in front of me. His lips stripped back in a feral hiss. A crackling ball of violet lightning soared outward from him and immersed us in a large circular shield.

  Our attackers each called up their own forms of magic. Black lightning crackled to life in the hands of some. Others swirled dark smoke back and forth in their palms. One man’s face twisted as he morphed the dirt into gleaming chunks of dark metal. A threatening mace formed between his hands. It floated in front of him in a fluid motion.

  A bolt of black lightning collided with our shield with a crash. More stones soared to the roofs.

  Andre held one hand in a cupped position, in the other he molded a ball of violet electricity. Without warning, he dropped and rolled beyond the walls of the shield. He raised one hand unleashing the energy ball into a whip of lightning. It sizzled through the air at flashing speed, cutting through a cluster of vampires, and cracked out to the side. Their steaming halved bodies fell to the ground.

  A torrent of attacks smashed into the orb around me.

  One vampire threw a punch at Andre, but he sidestepped the vampire and cut off his head with a crack of his whip. Another charged toward Andre’s chest. Andre’s free hand flashed to the vamp’s neck and crushed his windpipe.

  The orb around me jarred to the side when Andre moved his empty cupped hand. I sprinted to stay within its protective shield.

  The mob of vampires rushed to Andre and he disappeared from my view. His lightning whip cut through the air as black smoke and lightning shot in from the crowd. The stone square flashed like a continuous strobe light, filling with the smells of flesh, blood, and smoke.

  A lonely bystander rushed into the square screaming “police” into a cellphone, only to be plucked up by a nearby vampire and devoured. The man’s backpack fell to the ground, his American flag badge covered in his own blood.

  Light reflected off the gleaming mace that floated from the horde. The vampire who had stared me down stepped from the crowd. He flashed forward, twisting his body to the side, and sent the mace smashing into the orb.

  The shield jarred backward. I smashed into the ground. My head hit the stone. Warm liquid trickled down my neck, and a pungent iron smell turned my stomach. Through my spotty vision the shield appeared to be intact above my head, but the edge of the dome prickled against my upper thighs. My lower legs lay outside the shield, exposed.

  The jagged points of the mace tore through my skin. My voice shrilled into a scream. I recoiled my legs. My nerves erupted in agony. Behind the safety of the shield, scarlet rippled in a pool around me.

  Andre’s scream echoed against the stone walls of the square.

  He’d sacrificed himself for me. Guilt chewed its way up my stomach. A ribbon of blood pulsed from my legs.

  The vampire with the mace sent it high into the air.

  A switch deep inside of me flicked off, and in the moment of kill or be killed, my morality disappeared.

  As the mace smashed down into the shield a second time the electricity dissipated around me. I rose on my mangled legs, as a molten ball of fire. The mace melted above me and steamed into the air. My attacker sucked more dark magic from the earth into his hands and hurled it my way, but the chunks of metal perished in the circle of flames.

  I walked forward.

  He retreated from the heat and attempted to form a shield of dark metallic debris around himself. He failed. The flames consumed his horrible face. My legs shook with strain and threatened to buckle from the agony of my wounds, but I continued, forcing the last bit of energy from my exsanguinated muscles. I stepped through him. His body evaporated. The putrid smell of burning flesh cloaked my face as I walked. I headed into the middle of the horde, where tiny flashes of violet lightning were still flaring.

  The world around me grew hazy. Shadows started to creep in the corners of my eyes. More elemental attacks tainted with the dark charm soared into my flames. The blood flow at my ankles slowed to a trickle, but I kept moving. The smell of charred flesh got stronger and more rancid the farther I walked into the crowd. They dove over one another to escape my path.

  My knees buckled. Total body weakness overtook me. My flames shrank inward with each passing second.

  Andre stepped out from a heap of downed vampires. Blood seeped from his mouth. His shirt was shreds of fabric now. A chunk of flesh was missing from his torso, but raw angry threads of skin were slowly filling in. He’d fed off his attackers to heal. A path of bodies cut a line through the mob. They advanced like barracuda on the pocket of space their fallen comrades just created. Andre was progressing my way.

  He fought savagely, tearing apart vampires with his hands. Purple electricity crackled around him. He shot out barbs of lightning sporadically. It sizzled as it pierced through the vampires, cutting them to pieces as they fell.

  I crawled to him. The last of my fire diminished.

  He fell to my side. The electricity surrounding him snapped up into a small sphere around us.

  I threw my arms around his neck. “You were right, I’m sorry.”

  He wrapped an arm around my waist as his other hand surveyed my wounds. The Vampires beat against the tiny shield surrounding us. It flickered with each blow. Andre would be out of magic soon too.

  “No. I’m sorry,” he said, and bit down on his wrist. Blood dripped to the ground. He placed his wrist on my mouth, and I drank. Cracks of lightning struck the ground at the edge of the sphere, chipping away the stone street beneath us. The enraged faces of the vampires looked in, blocking out the view of the courtyard. They continued their assault on the shield. It buckled and shrank tighter around us.

  “I was worried you’d die when the shield fell,” he said and searched the back of my head with his fingers, making me wince. “I was trying to get to you.”

  “If I used my fire sooner, we may have gotten out of here.” I hesitated. “You were right. My morals got us killed.”

  “Shushhh,” he said. “You’ll be okay.” He held his wrist up to my mouth again. I started to drink but stopped after a few seconds. I would deplete his strength. I turned my gaze to the shield and the frightening faces outside it, my tongue thick with the rich flavor of his blood.

  “How long can you hold it for?” I asked.

  “A couple more minutes,” he said.

  I retreated from his wrist. The bleeding had clotted, and I felt some of my wounds beginning to close. If this really was the end, then I would embrace it. I looked up at Andre and our faces drew closer.

  A ground shaking roar echoed out around us.

  I yanked myself from Andre.

  The vampires surrounding us screamed. They turned their backs to our shield, engaging in battle with a large beast that hurled through the crowd. With a deep snarl the beast circled around. It smashed through them, tearing and flattening them to the ground. Muddy-red liquid splattered against the cobblestone. The vampires closest to the orb were plucked from where they stood with horrifying screams. My nails dug into Andre’s arms.

  A ghostly calm ensued. The huffing of a snout broke the placid stillness. Andre and I sat still under the shelter of the now fading shield. The beast prowled over to us crunching on the bodies of the fallen vampires. It stopped to snuff at a pile of rocks and guts. I peered through the pulsing wall of electricity at the creature.

  It rose on its hinged hind legs, with disproportionately long arms and claws shaped like talons. It had t
he face of a wolf I recognized, a mouth too big and full of razor-sharp teeth. The beast’s hairy leather skin started to transform.

  I had witnessed this change before. Roman. I held my breath.

  The body of the creature shifted like water, rippling as it changed form. Hair fell from its skin, leaving it smooth and silky. Its form shrank down to the size of a muscular man. He turned his back to us and walked to the corner of the square. He picked up clothes from the mouth of an alleyway in the far-away corner of the courtyard.

  I rose from the fading shield.

  Andre gently took my hand when I was halfway through.

  I turned to him.

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “Friend of yours?”

  Chapter Nine

  Three’s Company

  Orange and red streaked the dark blue sky. The amber light of the sun crept over the roofs of the courtyard, angling its rays onto the walls of the square. The naked man slipped on boxers, and then a pair of blue jeans from the pile of clothes. I would have known that olive-skinned ass anywhere. I walked toward him. My footsteps sounded like Velcro against the scarlet cobblestone. It reminded me of stomping cranberries at the Ottawa festival last year. Except it wasn’t cranberries beneath me now. It was the blood of fifty men. There’s no way Roman could have saved us, that he could even be here.

  “Ro,” I said.

  Roman turned around, crunching on a bone beneath his feet. The low sound of sirens rang off in the distance. He assessed my wounds, traveling upward from the healing cuts on my legs, and stopping at my neck—where Andre’s bite marks had scabbed over. He glowered at my throat. I shifted my hair to hide the marks.

  Roman looked from my neck to over my shoulder. I felt Andre’s presence approaching from behind. Roman gestured to me, to the bodies, to Andre. “What the fuck, Karo?”

  “It’s not what it looks like,” I said.

  “Oh, you must be the friend Karolina told me about,” Andre said. His voice was cheery as he blustered between us and stuck out his hand to Roman. “The one she said I would love to meet.”

  Roman’s face turned deadpan, then rebooted. “Nice to meet you, buddy,” he said and clasped Andre’s hand. They shook and Andre tried to take his hand back, but he couldn’t get it out of Roman’s grasp. With a tiny motion, Roman crushed Andre’s hand.

  Andre gasped. Both men jumped to action. The air flew from my lungs. Roman wound up to punch Andre in the face. Andre’s other hand was inches from Roman’s jaw. I did the only thing I could think of in a millisecond and jumped between them.

  Andre’s fist glanced off Roman’s jaw as I landed on Roman’s arm.

  Roman’s fist stopped the moment I entered proximity of the fight. He slipped his arm around me instead of punching Andre and plucked me free from the danger zone.

  I placed both hands on his chest. I shoved at him, but it was like trying to budge a brick wall.

  “Ro!” I shouted.

  He carried me out of the way.

  “Can we have a sec!”

  He proceeded to drop me on the ground, but I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “Ro, please!”

  He stopped trying to yank me off him and I shifted my face to his, still holding him in my arms.

  “Fine,” he said.

  I guided him back toward the privacy of the mouth of an alleyway. Andre cursed in the background. I looked to him for a moment and saw his hand hanging limp and deformed. I turned to Roman.

  “Make sure you kids make it quick!” Andre’s voiced echoed into the alley. “We have to get out of here!”

  “What are you doing here, Ro? How did you find me?”

  “I tracked your scent to the airport, Karo. An air flight attendant confirmed a couple left a pile of bodies behind them when they boarded a private flight to Romania.”

  “You tracked my scent all the way here? You realize that’s crazy, right? I’m not going to complain about you saving us, but you just showed up and slaughtered fifty vampires. How the hell did you hide your strength all our lives?

  “Us. What the hell, Karo. Who the hell is that guy? And what do you think you’re doing? You could have died today. I told you going after the address in Russia was extremely dangerous, so you just go charging off by yourself?”

  “It was my only lead and you know it. I couldn’t stay in Canada.”

  “So, you thought you’d run off alone, or with a stranger? Who is he, Karo?”

  “He was hired by my uncle, Loukin, to find me.”

  “Nabakov,” he said. “So, you know about him now.”

  I hovered my face close to his. “I know a lot of things now, Roman.” I made a mental note of my father’s family name.

  “Not enough.”

  “Then tell me.”

  “No. The more I tell you, the more you’ll go running off into trouble.”

  “I’m a big girl, Roman; I can choose to run into trouble if I want to.”

  He put his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. “Karo, these people aren’t like you. They’re killers. They feed off people for fun. If you fed off people last night, I understand you only did what you had to.”

  “No! I would never feed off a human.”

  “You might want to wipe the blood from your mouth, before you say that.”

  I wiped my lips. “It’s not what you think. I didn’t drink human blood.” I rushed the words out without thinking.

  He froze. “Whose blood is it?” His expression darkened. “Is it his?”

  I averted my gaze.

  He held my face gruffly in his hands. “Did you let him drink from you?”

  “We needed to heal,” I said.

  His grip tightened. “Did you feed off each other?”

  I shoved him away. “It’s not a big deal, Ro. It’s something all vampires do. You wouldn’t understand.”

  Roman walked up beside me.

  I turned my head to avoid his gaze, but it still burned into my side.

  “I understand a lot more than you think, Karolina,” he said and turned to the courtyard. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”

  I leaned back against the stone wall and took a long, deep breath. My body shivered against the dewy stone. I knew what I had done; I killed people tonight. I told myself it was self-defense; it was acceptable. But the truth was, taking another life, vampire or not, could have sparked the Dark Charm. Roman’s words played in my head. You have no idea what you’ve done. It was true. Andre and I shared a type of magic now. I just didn’t know what that power was yet.

  I turned the corner and walked back into the square. Roman was watching the entrance from the street. Andre sat crouched sucking blood out of a fallen vampire. His crushed hand had morphed back to form. In a sick way, I had to commend him. It’d never occurred to me to drink from a corpse, nor could I compel myself to do it.

  The sunlight angled into the courtyard just enough to touch the ground. The bodies of the vampire mob burst into dust upon the contact of the sun, like cherry bombs going off all around us. Andre gagged. The vampire he had been feeding on had turned to sand within his hands. He spat ash out of his mouth. Roman laughed, but he was cut short by the approaching sound of sirens.

  “We have to get out of here,” I said.

  Andre got to his feet. “It was nice to meet you, poochie. We’ll be leaving now!”

  “No, Andre. From now on, where I go he goes.” I turned to Roman. “That is, if you want to come with us?”

  “I’m a man of my word, but we gotta ditch the leech,” Roman said.

  “No. We need him. He’s been hired to take me to my uncle.” They opened their mouths to protest, but I cut them off. “Whether you like it or not, we have no time. I’m calling the shots now. Both of you seem to have an agenda, and if you don’t want me going rogue, then you’ll do what I say. The way I see it, if one of you tries to force me into his plan, you’ll be stopped by the other. So, unless you want me sneaking away while the two of you have a showdown, we’r
e doing things my way.”

  “Well, Miss Dalca. I’m impressed,” Andre said.

  Roman glared at me.

  Flashing lights turned the corner of the square. The three of us sprinted out of sight down the alleyway to the restaurant. Andre led us around the side of the building. I tensed and called up my senses, ready for an attack. Andre handed the keys and some Romanian bills to the valet just about to check off shift. We took cover in the restaurant entrance. The wait wasn’t long, but there was nothing like multiple attempts on a lady’s life to put a sense of urgency in her step.

  The car rolled up.

  Andre jumped in the driver’s side and left Roman and me standing in front of the one remaining seat.

  “Just sit in my lap, Karo,” Roman said. He sat down in the seat and parted his legs for me to sit between them. I sat down and leaned back against his chest. He was so warm. After the events of the evening, I felt like I could sink right into him. Roman closed the car door and buckled the seat belt across my hips.

  Andre shifted the car into gear and jerked the vehicle onto the road, making Roman’s head smack against the glass of the window. The engine thundered. Our bodies pressed into the seat as the buildings streamed by.

  “Pothole,” Andre said.

  “I’m sure,” said Roman.

  Andre had no tender caress for the Dacia this drive. I had the feeling Andre was fickle with his women, cars included. A prickling feeling crept off him and over the seat to my leg. I concentrated and explored my new sense, the burning sensation tingling against my skin intensely. I focused on what emotion made me feel that way. Anger…or was it jealously? It halted. I probed outward only to feel the wall in place again.

  “We need a place to hide. Any ideas?” Andre asked.

  So far, I managed not to endanger the last remaining member of my mother’s family, but I was out of options. “Just for a few hours?”

  “Sure,” Andre said.