“Six men, armed and armored, maybe more after that,” I whispered as soon as I heard the two Inquisitor teams rattling down stairs, descending into the dungeon. “Do they expect you to be here with me?”

“Doubtful.” Irina nodded at her remaining companion. “Ambush?”

Piers nodded back. “Ambush.”

“Stay hidden,” I instructed the two humans. “I’ll make them think I’m the only threat. Strike as soon as you have an opening.”

While Irina and Piers moved out of sight, I pried loose a small piece of rock, clawed makeshift channels into it, and positioned myself in the middle of the corridor. When six Inquisitors barged in, I was waiting for them. With one hand on the wall, the other holding the pebble, and my face projecting perfect calm, I seized them up and scoffed mockingly.

My composure was pretend. I wasn’t the least bit calm. I only had the vaguest hint of a plan, one that amounted to little more than abusing my short stature and their dependency on sight. And unlike the guards to my dad’s cell, these six were prepared. To take all of them, I needed to be even faster, even deadlier than before. I would only manage that if I stopped holding back, if I sucked these Inquisitors dry or pumped them full of Metzus and splattered the walls with their innards. I didn’t know if I had that kind of ruthlessness in me.

Thankfully, for once, the horrid reputation of vampires helped me. And perhaps my gruesome appearance and the two maimed corpses behind me made a statement as well. A dozen paces from me, their charge stumbled to an apprehensive halt. The reek of their fear spread out around them. Even fully armored, weapons held out, and all enchantments active they were terrified of me.

I did not wait for them to collect their bearings, throw a Tonaltus weave at me, or switch to a defensive formation and snap a Tonaltus field into place. I simply pulled on the runelight running through the wall. With the entire warren of catacombs plunged into darkness, the active runelight enchantments embedded in the Inquisitor’s armor momentarily blinded them to their dark surroundings.

They reacted fast. A blast of Tonaltus was flung my way.

It was dark, and I was faster. I halted my heartbeat, stilled my breathing, and dove low, narrowly avoiding the worst of the wave of Tonaltus. All magic was ineffective when projected at range. Weaving took time and concentration as well. I needed to disrupt their focus before they could close the distance and fling more magic at me, so I surged forward. Diving low, I slipped between their legs, I stabbed my blade backward. Once. Twice. The armor at the back of the knees was always thin. I was through, and one Inquisitor fell, their leg suddenly no longer able to support them.

I had missed the tendons on my second target, so I planted my feet. The claws on my toes gouged the stone, arresting my momentum far faster than boots ever could. I whirled around and threw the tiny rock I’d prepared at their feet.

The pebble impacted the stone floor. The light enchantment I’d carved into it and pumped full of Atlus flared, then broke, pulsing a short strobe of eye-searing brightness.

Following right behind that blinding flash, I was upon them once more.

Unfortunately, these were trained Inquisitors. Even blind, with one of them down on his knees, they stepped into a circular formation to protect their hurt comrade. More enchantments on their armor hummed to life, and a Tonaltus field stretched across the protective circle they had formed.

That containment field was nothing like the one they had placed on my cell. If I dove through their legs again, if I stepped into that circle, I would be torn apart by it. Eyes wide and panicking I tried to redirect my momentum once more. Pushing off against the ground, I clawed my way up the nearest Inquisitor. The talons on my feet dug into the plating covering his chest.

My target screamed and flailed, ignoring his weapon and trying to shake me off out of pure primal fear.

I fought to hold on, but so near to the containment field, the burn of it melted my feet. I quickly planted my blade in the neck of his companion on the right. Dead. With my hands now free I sought out the correct spot on the armor of my still struggling catch — the one the cell guard from earlier had reached for — and simultaneously grabbed hold of his sword-arm.

The Inquisitor standing to the left of my prey swung at me, his enchanted blade humming with even more Tonaltus.

I found where the light enchantments were woven into the armor. Pouring far too much of my own Atlus into the runes, the circuit overloaded. At the same time, I pushed off from the Inquisitor’s chest. Holding his arm just a little longer, I pulled and twisted.

My target lit up in an explosion of brightness, blinding him and everyone around him once more. Meanwhile, his arm, pulled forward by my momentum, entered the path of his companion’s sword.

A satisfying squish.

A painful scream.

I’d pushed off so badly that I flew wide and wild, with barely any control over my direction, but as I sailed through the air I could only grin at my target’s chilling howls of pain. Then my shoulder smashed into the wall.

The three uninjured Inquisitors surged forward, taking up positions in between me and the two of them who were now badly wounded.

Ignoring my probably broken shoulder, my half-melted hands, and the sopping messes that were my feet, I quickly scrambled further back.

They took one more step forward. Then, matching my expectations, they stopped. I had already killed one, and disabled two others. To follow a vampire into a dark corridor was to die, and they knew it.

Unfortunately for them, I’d still managed to lure them into a position where they had their backs to Irina and Piers. Those two now had a clear path toward the two maimed Inquisitors and darted out of hiding.

One of the three Inquisitors still facing me had to turn around to support his injured comrades.

As soon as he did, I dove back into the fray as well. The other two were ready for me, waiting. It wasn’t the same determined defense though. With Irina’s assault, their formation had been disrupted. Without proper positioning, the Tonaltus field they had strung between them wavered, then broke.

I grinned wide, fangs bared. Having lost my blade in the dead one’s neck, I raised my claws. Ignoring their own swords pointing my way, I lunged for the nearest one, a female. No more tricks, no surprise attack, but a full frontal assault. They had seen what I could do when I held back, and I now made every effort to signal that I was done playing games.

It was an act, a massive gamble, but if the way Inquisitors were trained had not changed since my father was in the Inquisition, then they would react as I expected. A vampire that reached for you this callously was about to pump you full of Metzus and splatter you all over the wall.

The Inquisitor raised her sword to cut me off.

I dove under her strike, the blade only barely grazing my neck and shoulder. Loaded with Tonaltus enchantments it cut great rents through my flesh all the same.

My fingers reached up for her shoulder.

She did not step back as she should have. She dropped her blade and twisted, pushing one hand into my side.

I felt her Tonaltus burn through me. My entire right side detonated in a spray of blood and charred flesh. My skin and bones, lungs and organs patterned the walls, the ceiling, the floor, and most of all the other Inquisitor facing me.

I screamed a soundless wail of agony. Great clots of flesh and blood sloughed off my pulped torso. A blasted-off leg dropped away from me. Mine. Dying. Dying. Could have killed me. Not yet. Do something? Left her wide open. I teetered forward on only one leg, gravity dragging me down and towards her. With my only functioning arm, I snatched her falling sword out of the air. I turned the blade around, buried it deep into her armpit, twisted and pulled.

She staggered back, gurgling, eyes wide in disbelief.

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Her final companion was unable to help. A spray of my flesh and blood coated his visor, blinding him. The underprepared baby Inquisitor was retching, heaving, and clawing at his eyes in a mad panic.

Not that I was much better off. The room swayed and buckled. I gasped for breath, but instead blood burbled in the gaping void of my chest where my lungs had been. Pain burned through my right leg, yet it was funny since it wasn’t there anymore. The floor tilted, and my one remaining leg was a mess of pins and needles that did nothing to keep me upright.

I flailed my arms and it only made me fall faster because my right arm flopped uselessly from my mangled shoulder. In desperation, I sunk my claws deep into the retching Inquisitor’s chest armor. I nearly slid right off as I was still holding the sword in that same hand.

A terrifying moment went by where I was simultaneously fighting to remain conscious, struggling to remain upright, avoiding his panicked swipes at me, and holding onto my stolen sword. Then, I found my balance. I let go of his armor, angled my blade, and drove it up under his chin.

My two pet humans had already taken care of their targets, so the Inquisitor I was holding myself up by was the last body to hit the floor. Broken and spent, I let my own maimed vessel sink down on top of his.

All I wanted to do was lie there, rest a little, and indulge in the feast of my kills. My tongue touched the first pool of spilled blood, and I drank.

I drank.

I drank. And tore. Rent flesh from bone. And Drank.

A heaving sound made me stop mid-swallow. Liquid ambrosia pooled on my tongue, but the gagging and retching had me fighting to not associate it with bile. Screwing my eyes shut and pulling my head back I forced my suddenly disgusting mouthful of meat down my throat.

When I opened my mouth, I swished the residue of blood around with my tongue. A little dribble of saliva and blood slipped past my lips and down my chin. Flicking the trail of drool away with a finger I glared up at my Honey-blooded pet, who was holding up her retching Sorrow-blood companion.

When she noticed me staring, the Honey-blood snack met my eyes. “Sarding hell! That was sloppy, Sweets.”

I bared my fangs and hissed. This human did not get to lecture me. She was nothing but my spare meal, my little pet Inquisitor. A delicious, fragrant snack like her only lived because I allowed it to. Just a small nibble would show it its place. She’d taste so much better than the gunk I was scraping off the floor. She had a nice bit of weight to her, nothing like her companion, but still a good amount. With some luck, I could hold back enough not to drain her completely. Only a little bite, enough to sate me, but not so much that she needed help to leave here.

But no, she was right. Far too right. If those six prey had activated their Tonaltus field sooner my dive through their legs could have killed me. During that dive, I should have pierced them all with Metzus right then and there. Pulling on that one meal’s arm instead of simply killing it outright was idiotic. Going for a second blinding flash had been a waste of time. And focussing on creating openings for my two pet Inquisitors when I didn’t trust them hadn’t been smart either.

I’d already dragged myself halfway towards my little Irina snack when I finally managed to reason myself towards sufficient restraint to spare her. Pulling my fingers through the groove between two stones I raked up the blood pooled there and licked it off my claws.

Have to keep the edge off. Can’t kill her just yet.

My Honey-blood was right. I had been incredibly sloppy and unprepared. Only the intervention of my two pets had saved my life. And even then my survival was pure luck. I had not expected that female Inquisitor-meat to push her Tonaltus out of her body and into my Metzus vessel like that. That was new, nothing like the Inquisition tactics my dad had told me about. If it had been angled better, that one attack could have ended me.

It had been a suicidal move of hers. If a human pushed all of their Tonaltus out, into someone or something else, then it was just gone. It left them defenseless. Then again, I had been about to kill her, so her action had made a demented sort of sense.

The Inquisition had clearly learned from the years of war. They had adopted a vampire trick. Pushing their Metzus into a human’s Atlus vessel was the quickest way a vampire could kill someone. Only, I was my Metzus and my body was merely a vessel. If I pushed my Metzus into someone, I could pull it back. I could strike over and over, while an Inquisitor could only do it once.

I really should have just pushed my Metzus through them all when I dove through their legs.

Still too weak and sentimental and stupidly human!

“Yes, it was sloppy of me,” I admitted, still licking blood off the back of my hand. “Haven’t…”

I struggled to finish the sentence, the mere taste of the blood so overpoweringly satisfying that I struggled to think of anything. Gods, that blood was so, so tasty. I could just stop thinking, mindlessly devour my two snacks and everyone and everything. “Haven’t really made a habit of fighting… people so far, I guess.”

Have to keep it together. For Dad. Still people we’re fighting. Not meat or snacks.

Irina and Piers. Not pet Inquisitors.

Irina held out her hand. “I noticed. Now get up. We need to move.”

Neck so close! Pull her down! Feed!

I restrained my instincts, grabbed onto her, and let her drag me up from the floor. “Well, you weren’t exactly fast to seize that opening either,” I joked, desperate to hide how close I was to peeling her out of that armor and draining her dry.

The entire right half of my body was a sore mess of spindly limbs with red laced flesh, regrown gaunt and wrong and far too skeletal because I was starving. I could count every bone in my body right through my skin! All of it was because I was hungry. So, so hungry! Oh, that pile of corpses, and the cloud of heavenly blood that hung thick in the air. The food was here, all the food was here, yet I could not partake.

I forced my eyes to the ground. Leaning heavily on Irina I took a hesitant first step. My knees buckled under me. I willed my body to regenerate faster, but it barely responded. I was running so thin on Metzus again that it was hard to think of anything but…

Food!

“Well, maybe next time warn us when you’re about to blind everyone. That might help.” The Sorrow-blood snack came closer, threw my other arm over his shoulder, and pulled me forward. “Can’t believe I’m helping the thing that tried to kill me. Now move it. I don’t need the lights on to tell me more of them are coming.”

Don’t need the lights on?

Only the glow of the runelight in their armors?

They expect me to guide them in the dark?

I motioned at the still-doused runelight circuit running along the wall with my head. Irina pulled on the weave for me. The warren of dungeon corridors remained dark.

I hissed in frustration. They must have figured out that I was toggling the dungeon’s lights to mess with their terrible night vision. They had disabled it somehow. That was smart. Dangerously clever even. Someone intelligent had taken charge. Maybe even the Creeping-vines Inquisitor that had led my interrogation.

I tasted the air, inhaling another mouthful of pure, ravenous hunger. Yet below that hunger, it was there, tangy and aching at the back of my mind. He was here, down in the dungeons.

Damn. Damn. Damn!

How’d he even disable those runelights so fast?

“Follow me.” I pushed more strands of Metzus into my legs, holding myself upright by magic where nonexistent muscles failed to support me, grabbed hold of Irina and Piers’ wrists, and pulled them along. That man was bad news. We had to get out of here. Now!

I dashed ahead recklessly, the two humans trailing behind me. He was here. I could taste a hint of him in the air. He was down here and up to something. I had no idea how he had gotten down here so fast, without me noticing. But this place was so much of a maze that it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a third, or maybe even a fourth stairs leading up and out.

I strained my senses, trying to figure out what was going on, but I had painted the corridor we had just left behind with so much blood that all I could taste clearly was that slaughter. Two things were certain though. Upstairs there was still a warren of activity, and the Creeping-vines blood was down here, somewhere between me and my dad. Worse, the Inquisitor was moving away from me, towards the other staircase, towards the exit Irina’s men and my father were using.

I hoped Irina’s team had gotten Dad out already. But I feared. Dad had been so weak, barely able to stand on his legs. He would slow them down. And Irina’s three baby Inquisitors wouldn’t stand a chance against that monster.

Oh, if he dares to hurt Dad…

I had to stop him, but I was dragging along two fumbling, cursing, night-blind idiots as if I was their gods-be-damned babysitter, and they were slowing me down.

I dashed around a corner.

“Valentinaaaa!” Irina screamed as she stumbled and lost her footing.

Piers hooked his free arm around hers, dragging her up and along before she could hit the wall.

To keep the both of them upright, he set his feet. I felt the pull of it tug at my arm, even my momentum unable to move his mountainous weight when he resisted.

Not! Working!

Letting go of their wrists, I snatched the first burning torch I found off of the ground, tossed it at them, and sprinted ahead. They could catch up.

“Ereldin!” I roared at the top of my lungs, hoping to catch my tormentor's attention. I had no idea where I had first heard his name, or who had spoken it in front of me. But somewhere, during weeks spent in a feral daze, I had picked it up. Captain Ereldin Sung. The Creeping-vines predator. My warden. My torturer. My interrogator. The monster looming down over me from the rim of my oubliette.

My nightmare. And if he dared harm my dad, then I would be his.

Another corner and I spotted him. He was… naked except for his underclothes. Defenseless. Vulnerable. Delicious! Unarmed even. Painted in the flickering lights of the torches he looked so like a harmless meal ready for the taking.

Tasted oh so ready and… prepared? Eager!

He reached a hand to the wall, as if to lean on it. With casual grace, he pushed Tonaltus out and into the stones of the corridor. A circle of runes etched in the walls completed. An enchantment woven into them activated. And as he jumped back and away from me, in the place where he stood, a deadly Tonaltus field snapped into place.

My talons cut deep gouges into the rough stone beneath my feet, as I forced myself to an abrupt stop, only a foot or two from the field.

Sard! Sard! Sard! That would have killed me!

Get your hungry head in the game, Vale!

The naked Inquisitor smiled a sad little smile and met my assessing gaze. “Here, in a narrow corridor, vertical is so much more effective, don’t you think?” He took a step back, clasped his hands behind him, and tilted his head in smug satisfaction.

He even tasted smug.

And he had a right to feel clever. The containment field he’d put up, vertical instead of horizontal, covered the entire passage. A doorway of Tonaltus. Didn’t even know that was possible. Just from the energy it was giving off, I could tell that trying to leap through would turn me to a pulp.

He’d blocked my way out. Separated me from Dad.

A low growl built in the back of my throat.