Chapter 205

Gaining entry to the castle was not difficult at this stage of the battle. Van and her advanced team had cleared the way. When Ward led them inside the wide foyer, the sounds of battle elsewhere in the castle might’ve been menacing, but Christian felt his blood coursing quickly through his veins as he thought about all that he might see. If Van were correct, and he wasn’t certain she was, he may see some Vampires in various forms he’d never considered possible before--wolves, bats, mist creatures. It was all exciting in a way he couldn’t put into words.
He wasn’t crazy about the three vixens, though. The further Ward led them down into the castle, the more nervous Christian became. With any luck, they’d take them out quickly and get out of the dungeon. He didn’t particularly want to be face-to-face with three sirens in the belly of a castle.
There were six of them altogether on his team. Ward, Aaron, Catherine, Margot, Morris, and a red haired man named Clive which Christian hadn't spoken to at all yet. He wanted to trust all of them, but having only worked with Morris and knowing that despite their reputations as being superior performers, he gave little credence to those reports of Ward and Aaron without seeing it for himself, it was difficult to know for sure how this might go.
In the bowels of the castle, it was dark and dreary. The scent of mildew and dry blood permeated the air. Intermittent torches helped with the lighting, but they mostly relied on their own abilities to cut through the darkness in order to see.
Ward led them to a large room in the bottom of the castle and stopped. He opened his mouth, as if he were about to announce that they were there, as if three coffins in the center of the room were not evidence enough, when the lids to all three stone sanctuaries were blown clear off of their bases, flying up into the air and becoming screaming projectiles. One of them hit Clive and sent him flying into the wall.
The three Vampires shot up out of their caskets, hovering above them like genies out of the fables of Arabia. All of them had on satin, flowing skirts that wrapped around their narrow waists and floated around them, but that was it. Christian’s eyes bulged as he took in three of the most beautiful pairs of bare breasts he’d ever seen. His mouth dropped open, and he realized then and there he was in big, big trouble.
They were sirens of a sort, or at least he imagined they must be as they began to call the men over. Closest to them, a blonde dressed in red stared into his eyes, while her sisters, a brunette in blue and a redhead in purple, seductively twisted their arms and rocked back and forth in the most enticing manner he’d ever seen.
The three of them sang out offers, inviting the intruders to join them. When the brunette looked directly at Aaron and wiggled a finger in his direction asking, “Would you care to join me?” a pang of jealousy hit Christian right in the gullet. Why didn’t the Vampire want him? It seemed ridiculous to be jealous, and yet that’s how he felt, nevertheless.
It was Catherine who broke the stupor he’d fallen into. When Christian heard her say, “No one wants to join you!” he recalled the nature of their visit. Some of the other men seemed to still be under their spell, but not Aaron. It was time to move in.
Except now the blonde had her eyes on him. She wanted him. Christian. He felt his eyes glaze over again. Without thinking, he was moving toward her.
“Christian!” Aaron shouted, knocking him out of the trance again. “You and Margot have got the blonde!”
Though he was unsure who made Aaron the boss of anyone. Since the actual leader, Ward, wasn’t doing anything but staring at the redhead, and Christian had no better ideas, he did as he was told, following Margot, a small brunette he hoped was stronger than she looked, into the fray.
The blonde Vampire seemed delighted he’d decided to join her. With the other two Vampires occupied by other team members, Christian attempted to shut out the ruckus in the room and focus just on her. He had to keep his eyes off of her breasts if he was going to take her down.
Margot didn’t seem distracted at all by her nudity. She hurled herself at the woman, blade in hand, and attempted to pull her from where she hovered. Christian had seen Vampires capable of launching themselves into the air before, but not one that could float like these women. Was this evidence that Dracula truly had come through the portal and had been given even more intense powers that he’d handed off to others?
He had to clear his mind. Christian grabbed hold of the woman from the other side, and together, he and Margot attempted to pull her to the ground. The Vampire shrieked and lashed out, He drove his blade into her side, and she screamed, ash floating freely, but she was strong, and he had no idea how to fight something hanging in the air.
Clive had recovered from the incident with the coffin lid and was with them now. The three of them managed to yank the Vampire down, slamming her to the stone floor. She shrieked again. Margot jumped on top of her, blade drawn, but the Vampire brought her hand around, claws protruding, and poked deep within the woman’s arm near her elbow, pulling with all of her strength down on the limb.
Margot’s scream was as piercing as that of the Vampire Catherine and Aaron had just ended, only it didn’t stop. He couldn’t see precisely how bad the wound was at first since Margot was kneeling, cradling her arm in front of her, but when he moved to assist her, he realized the lower portion of her arm was on the ground.
The Vampire came at the Hunter again, like a shark smelling blood in the water. Seeing nothing else he could do to protect the Hunter, a Guardian’s true job, Christian inserted himself between them while Clive continued to wrestle with the beauty.
As soon as the first Vampire was gone, it freed Aaron and Catherine to help the others. He was hoping Aaron would come to their aid, but instead it was Catherine. A glance at the situation with the redhead explained why. Both Morris and Ward had given into the siren’s call and were on the ground, kissing and caressing the Vampire, their faces covered with their own blood he imagined was a result of her fangs puncturing them. They needed Aaron more than Christian did. It was too bad Morris, their “Healer” was incapacitated at the moment. Margot was struggling. Christian kneeled to see if there was anything he could do. He needed to make a tourniquet, or she would bleed out.
Catherine was brave. She launched herself at the blonde, and she and Clive did their best to try to at least contain her until help in the form of Aaron, who was clearly just as talented as Christian had heard, could come to their aid.
The Vampire was too much for Clive and Catherine to handle on their own. With nothing handy to help Margot and the Vampire straining to reach the injured Hunter, Christian abandoned any pretense of helping her and returned his attention to the blonde. About the time he drove his knife into her neck, there was another scream, this one from the redhead. Two down, one to go. Help should be on the way.
“Morris, see what you can do!” Ward shouted, perhaps back to his former self now that the red haired woman was a pile of ash. He still had blood smears all over his face, though the wounds above his lips looked to be healing. Christian was hopeful Aaron would swoop in and end this blonde vixen since he was the only one who seemed to have his facilities about him. Perhaps he was attracted to men so women didn’t tempt him….
“Aaron, go get another Healer!” Ward’s second order was disappointing. He’d hoped Ward would go to fetch help, but Aaron shot up the stairs in a blur, leaving the rest of them to fight the last Vampire while Morris attempted to help Margot who was lying on her back in a pool of her own blood now, her face as pale as the Vampire woman they held on the floor.
Ward seemed angry. He drew a silver-tipped stake from his pocket and rammed it straight into the blonde’s chest while Clive and Catherine secured her and Christian had his hands on her but wasn’t actually doing anything. A moment later, Catherine moved into position near the Vampire’s head, taking hold of her cranium with both hands as Ward grabbed her trunk. Catherine yelled, “Counter,” and Ward directed the rest of the team to turn her body to the left as Catherine yanked her head hard to the right. Christian had never heard the term before, nor had he seen a team work together to decapitate a Vampire, but it was successful, and the head popped free. The blonde shrieked and dissolved into a pile of ash. As relieved as Christian was that their mission was complete, it did seem like a waste of a perfectly beautiful pair of breasts.
He sat back on the floor, drawing in deep breaths, not realizing everyone else had moved to assist Margot until Catherine gave him an odd look. He made a move to get closer, but there were plenty of others to help her now. What was he going to do?
“Aaron should’ve been back by now,” Ward said, glancing at the stairs. “He must’ve run into trouble.”
By Christian’s best calculations, it hadn’t even been three minutes yet. Aaron was fast, but there were a number of reasons why he might not have returned, including his inability to actually locate a Healer.
“I have most of the bleeding stopped,” Morris said, “but she’s in bad shape, and there’s not much else I can do for her. I’m sorry, Ward. This isn’t my strong suit.”
The leader told him there was no apology necessary. Christian silently questioned exactly what Morris’s strong suit was. Making out with monsters?
“Christian, go see if you can find a Healer,” Ward said. “Aaron might’ve gotten caught up in the fray.”
“Me?” Christian questioned, pointing at himself.
“Go on!” Ward made a shooing movement with his arms, which Christian didn’t appreciate. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go. He just thought there might be others with greater speed than him.
But he took off anyway, flying up the stairs, unsure exactly how to go about finding a Healer. The only one he knew was Jamie, and he assumed that he would be quite busy. The battle was raging on up here. He heard shouts and bangs throughout the castle as bodies hit furniture and walls. It seemed some teams were not as quick to fulfill their mission as his had been.
In the foyer, he saw Van and a member of her team running back through the castle, but in the last few moments, something seemed to have shifted. The energy in the castle felt less evasive, less evil. There were still battles going on. Still shouts and crashes, but perhaps Van had managed to get Dracula, and that was what was different.
He needed to find a Healer, he remembered. Glancing around, he saw a few injured people on the ground, hugging wounds, and then his eyes went to the fireplace, and a smile brightened his face.