Page 82 of Blood Magic

Chapter Thirty-Four

“Tell me again why we didn’t leave the way we came in?” I asked Bastien as we picked our way through the dim, flickering lights of the tunnel. He’d told me that there were some twists and turns in the dark tunnels that made them seem longer. At least they were quite wide, which helped with a person’s claustrophobia.

“For one reason, at least one of the humans who left the club might have called the police—and across the street is Harmony’s. They are a human club and a rival of Scarlett’s. Not only do human police frequent it, but there are nights when the patrons and managers call the cops on Scarlett’s. Tonight would have been one of those nights. You would not have wanted to run into that.”

“No,” I agreed. “I would not.”

“The troll,” he said, as menacing growls began to drift from the shadows. “Tend it as quickly as you can. Your detective is not doing well.”

The vampire trolls had no idea about council happenings or that I’d taken on some new power. They probably wouldn’t have cared even had they known. The first one was waiting like we owed him a toll, blocking our path to freedom.

“Also,” Bastien said, as I gaped at the huge shadow I could see starting to drift toward us, “Axton keeps them hungry down here. He’ll eat you and your friend and use me for a toothpick afterward. Kill him, Kait.”

“You’re not exactly making me feel confident that I can,” I muttered.

“Use the council’s power.”

I hesitated.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I’m not…I don’t know how to call that power, Bastien. It manifested back there when I thought I was dying.”

“You should consider that a distinct possibility right now,” he told me.

The dark figure of the troll picked up its pace. I thought I felt the floor shake. He was not only tall, he was big. “Put the detective down so you can help me with this guy.”

“I will have my own troll to fight,” he said calmly. “Either this one or the other one. And I must also protect this human.”

So really, the only question was, should I fight him with demon blade or wolf? Before I could quite decide, the troll had apparently gotten his fill of stalking and flew from the shadows like the vampire he was.

He wasn’t only a vampire, though. He was bundled up with something else. His voice was screechy like a huge, mutant bird, and I was pretty sure I saw the flash of horns on top of his head. He clacked his teeth together in between screams. The sound from that was so loud I couldn’t imagine how his teeth weren’t breaking.

“Weapons?” I asked Bastien.

“He doesn’t need weapons,” he replied, his voice grim. And finally, he put Rick down.

The tunnel in which we stood was wide, true, but I didn’t think it was wide enough for two trolls. But then the second troll appeared, and he wasn’t a big vampire. He wasn’t even a man.

“A fucking dog?” I managed to get out, right before both creatures ran full out toward us. “There’s no such thing as a vampire animal.”

“I don’t know how he came to be,” he said. “Only that he did. Don’t let him bite you, Kait.”

“I’ll take the dog.” I dropped my blade into my borrowed jacket pocket, flung it against the wall, and then, I called my shift. I loved dogs. I did. But the thing coming at me wasn’t really a dog. It was a huge, slavering, fangy vampire beast.

And sure, the trolls were freaking me out, but I wasn’t really full of terror and doubt, and I did not think I’d die in those tunnels. Not really.

During the time it took me to shift, I was vulnerable. Someday I would be able to speed things up, but as I’d only recently been given the ability to shift, I was still a baby, and I was still slow.

When I finally fully shifted, the vampire dog was already attacking me—I was injured before I’d even begun to fight. I was injured from the fight inside the club, as well, but whatever power had rolled through me had helped me recover. Still, starting a fight with a mutant vampire creature while injured couldn’t be a good thing.

But then my raging wolf was in control, and the pain from injuries dimmed.

I clashed with the vampire dog thing, and we rolled down the tunnel, snarling and clawing and biting, as Bastien took on the other troll. Not getting bitten by the dog was easier said than done, and, as it turned out, impossible. But my wolf could take a lot more damage than my human form, and even as pain ripped through me, I barely gave it a thought.

For my wolf, there was only the fight.

For the woman, though, there was worry that the detective, in his helpless, unconscious state, would be hurt. Bastien had to not only protect himself, he had to protect Rick. And that was my responsibility.