Hellfire

Chapter Sixty-One

Blood clung to my blade, sunk into my clothes, and the only reason it didn't stiffen my hair was because of the old Rebok cap I wore.

'You'll survive.' I hissed as the vampire begging me to stop through gulps of sobbing agony.

I dug Thorn in deeper, slicing her through bone and flesh with more speed than care. He cried out louder. It made me wince. I looked frantically at the only survivor who had remained.

'Keep him quiet.'

The lamia, coated in wounds of frostbite, snatched at her colleague and slammed his mouth shut, urging him to just take the pain. With a final cut I put all my weight behind, his ankle finally came free of the icy trap. Blood didn't spray free. The wound was too frozen over to bleed.

'Get out.' I ordered.

They didn't hesitate. The lamia dragged away the lame vampire, hushing him as he frantically tried to swallow the howls of pain. Both of his feet were left behind, lodged onto the floorboards and encased in ice, along with three other pairs. My shoulders sagged at the sight. This time, I had managed to get ahead of Morrigan, using bats to send warnings and sliding to the rooms she hadn't reached yet. With Thorn burning, I hacked at the ice that snaked around their feet, refusing to abandon those who hadn't fled in time. The ones Morrigan wanted in particular were sealed to the floor, forcing me to cut the foot off entirely, while the others I managed to chip around and pry free. I hadn't got to them all though. Morrigan was in the bar below. Her victims screamed as she slowly bit off their faces and hands with her gaping maw of a thousand teeth, enjoying the agony she inflicted and the terror watching her devour the others. It was a thrill she needed. Craved. It made me realise she didn't just eat because she was hungry, but she ate because she wanted to cause suffering – it gave her pleasure.

The bar was a lower vampire haunt, full of Houseless or impure ones. It's why Morrigan came here – instructing me to guide her to a new place of the lowly. She wanted to eat them, or purify them as she put it. She disliked the dregs in the city. It tainted it, she claimed. I couldn't do much for them, other than send warnings or try to spring those I could free. Lucius had made it clear Morrigan was roaming and for them all to get out, and Tabitha did her best to chase what remained from the city, but there were those who just refused to leave. Some didn't believe the threat was real, while others either had nowhere to go and Morrigan seemed a lesser of two evils. Some believed they could hide too. None could. Morrigan always sniffed them out, drifting through the dark in her bloodied nightdress and singing that endless lullaby, her demons scouring the skies like hunting dogs. Her control would slide over anyone that took her fancy, trapping them in their own body as she took their heads and devoured their faces. That's where she always started. Faces and hands. Sometimes it's all she took before moving to the next.

I set Thorn aside and hunkered down, ducking my head to press my arms against my ears to block out the screams below. She'd be done soon. The screams would be over. Then she'd either go home to nap or she'd drift off again, urging me to tail her and take her to the place the dregs roamed. I had no choice. If I said no, it caused Lucius pain and she'd wake up just that little more. I had to protect my family from her.

The screams then came to a sharp stop. Hush came over the bar below. Then I saw feet beside me - pale white, blackened with frostbite, and covered in drying blood. I looked up, spying Morrigan staring down at the feet left behind in ice with a demon clinging to her. Three pairs.

She took a silent step towards the remains, kneeling down beside a small human foot now black from frostbite. She bent down and split her mouth wide, her teeth needle sharp and more dangerous than any knife. She bit down on the blackened foot and chewed for a moment. Chewed and chewed like it was cud. Then she slowly sat up, sinking back onto her heels, and tilted her head towards me. Her icy eyes the reminded me so much of Lucius bore into me with dislike.