Corrupted blood lord

The stairwell filled with blue-white light.

Teclos moved before the spell was released.

Darkness spread from his feet and climbed the cellar walls, forming a curved barrier between the stairs and the prisoners. Serenna seized the woman she had knocked unconscious and threw her behind it.

Lightning struck.

The blast hit the barrier with enough force to drive Teclos back half a step. White cracks raced across the darkness, widening as the spell continued to pour down the stairs.

The prisoners cried out and pressed themselves against the far wall.

Teclos raised his other hand.

More shadow gathered.

The barrier thickened, but the lightning did not weaken. It burned through the outer layers, filling the cellar with the smell of hot stone and scorched air.

Serenna stood beside the opening in the wall.

"Can you hold that?"

"For a while."

"How long is a while?"

The darkness split near Teclos’s shoulder. A bolt passed through and struck the floor behind him, blowing a hole through the stone.

"Get them into the tunnel."

Serenna did not argue.

She tore the ropes from the nearest prisoner and pulled him upright. His legs failed beneath him.

"You’ll have to crawl," she said.

The man looked toward the lightning.

"What about you?"

"We’re staying."

Another section of the barrier broke apart.

Serenna shoved him toward the hole.

"Move."

The first prisoner crawled into the drainage passage. Serenna cut the others free and pushed them after him, leaving only the man tied to the chair.

His wrists were bound with metal instead of rope.

Serenna caught the chain and pulled.

It held.

"Enchanted," the prisoner said. "They used a key."

Serenna examined the collar beneath his torn shirt.

A thin rune had been carved into the metal.

"Don’t move."

"I wasn’t planning to."

She placed one hand against the collar.

Dark red mana gathered around her fingers.

The metal groaned.

At the stairs, the stream of lightning stopped.

Teclos released the remains of the barrier before it collapsed on top of him.

Smoke drifted through the cellar.

Someone stood above.

A tall man in a black coat descended the first few steps. Silver threads had been woven into the fabric, and arcs of lightning crawled between his fingers.

Two more figures waited behind him.

The man looked at the hole in the wall.

"You let them out."

Teclos formed a blade of darkness.

"They were in the way."

The vampire’s gaze settled on Serenna.

She still wore the face of a young male mercenary. The amulet concealed her blood and most of her mana, but not the ease with which she bent the enchanted collar apart.

"You’re not one of Veyron’s men," he said.

Serenna dropped the broken metal.

"No."

The prisoner crawled toward the tunnel.

The vampire lifted one hand.

Teclos stepped into the path of the spell.

A spear of lightning formed and crossed the cellar in an instant.

He met it with the dark blade.

The weapons collided.

Lightning spread along the edge of the blade, forcing Teclos’s arm down. Darkness peeled away in strips wherever the current touched it.

The vampire pushed harder.

Teclos gave ground, his boots cutting grooves through the floor.

Serenna caught the prisoner under one arm and threw him through the opening.

The man vanished into the drainage tunnel with a shout.

Then she turned.

"Everyone’s out."

"Good."

Teclos twisted his blade.

The lightning spear slid aside and struck the wall. Stone burst outward, showering the cellar with fragments.

Teclos disappeared into the dust.

He emerged halfway up the stairs and drove his shoulder into the vampire’s chest.

The man struck the wall, but he did not fall. One hand closed around Teclos’s throat while the other gathered lightning against his ribs.

Teclos caught his wrist.

The spell discharged between them.

Pain tore across Teclos’s side. His muscles locked, and the vampire threw him down the stairs.

Teclos struck the cellar floor and rolled through the remains of the table.

The vampire stepped after him.

Serenna appeared between them.

Her palm hit the man beneath the chin.

His head snapped back. Before he could recover, she caught his coat, turned, and drove him face-first into the stone stairs.

The steps cracked beneath him.

The two vampires above attacked at once.

One was a pale woman with silver rings covering every finger. Thin lines of lightning stretched between them as she moved her hands. The other was a broad man with a shaved head and a scar running from his ear to his collar.

The woman sent ten narrow bolts down the stairwell.

Serenna pulled the first vampire upright and used him as a shield.

Lightning struck his back.

His body jerked in her grip.

The broad vampire leaped over both of them.

Teclos rose in time to meet him.

A fist wrapped in lightning came toward his face.

Teclos blocked with both forearms.

The impact lifted him from the ground.

He crossed the cellar and hit the far wall hard enough to split it.

The broad vampire followed.

Teclos pushed away just before another punch buried itself in the stone beside his head. He caught the man’s arm and opened a small rift beneath his feet.

The vampire dropped to one knee as his leg sank into darkness.

Teclos drove his elbow into the back of his neck.

The man barely moved.

He pulled his trapped leg free by force, tearing the rift apart, and swung backward.

Teclos ducked.

The blow passed over him and released a wave of lightning that shattered the shelves behind them.

Ledgers and wooden boxes burst into flames.

Teclos’s expression changed.

Harven was going to complain about that.

The broad vampire grabbed him by the shoulder.

Teclos stepped closer instead of pulling away and drove his dark blade upward beneath the man’s ribs.

The point entered, but the muscle around it tightened.

The vampire looked down.

"You’ll need more than that."

Lightning erupted across his body.

Teclos was forced to release the weapon. The current entered his arm and spread through his chest, stopping his breath.

A second fist struck him beneath the sternum.

He hit the ceiling.

Before he could fall, the vampire caught his ankle and slammed him into the floor.

Stone broke beneath Teclos’s back.

Across the cellar, Serenna fought the other two.

The first vampire had recovered from being used as a shield. He attacked with a short blade covered in pale lightning, cutting at her neck and stomach in quick succession.

Serenna avoided each strike by inches.

The silver-ringed woman stayed behind him, sending bolts toward every direction Serenna tried to move.

They were working together.

The knife forced her left.

Lightning waited there.

Serenna twisted in the air and allowed the bolt to strike the side of her borrowed coat. The cloth exploded, but the spell passed without reaching her body.

She landed close to the woman.

Too close for another bolt.

Serenna caught two of the woman’s fingers and bent them backward.

The silver rings discharged into both of them.

The illusion around Serenna’s face flickered.

For a moment, dark hair and one crimson eye appeared beneath the borrowed features.

The woman saw it.

Her eyes widened.

Serenna broke her fingers and drove a knee into her stomach.

The vampire folded.

Serenna seized the back of her neck and threw her into the knife wielder.

Both struck the stairs.

The first vampire reached for Serenna’s ankle from the ground.

She stamped on his wrist.

Bone snapped.

Then she glanced toward Teclos.

The broad vampire had him pinned against the floor, one knee across his chest. Lightning gathered in the man’s raised fist.

"Teclos."

"I see him."

"That isn’t what it looks like."

The fist descended.

Teclos opened a rift beneath his own head.

The blow passed through the darkness and emerged from a second rift beside the vampire’s face.

The man struck himself.

Lightning exploded across his jaw.

His head snapped sideways.

Teclos drove both feet into his chest and threw him back.

Dark tendrils rose from every broken section of the floor. They wrapped around the vampire’s arms, legs, and neck before he regained his balance.

The man planted his feet and pulled.

The first tendrils broke.

Teclos closed his fist.

Every shadow in the cellar joined them.

The lanterns went dark.

The flames consuming Harven’s shelves vanished beneath a wave of blackness.

The broad vampire disappeared inside it.

Lightning flashed from within the dark, revealing his shape in brief white bursts. He tore one arm free, then the other.

Teclos entered the darkness with him.

The vampire sensed the movement and swung.

Teclos moved beneath the fist and struck him twice in the ribs. The blows did little, but they forced the man to turn.

That was enough.

Serenna appeared behind him.

She had removed the amulet.

Her true face had returned, and with it came the full pressure of her mana.

The broad vampire froze.

He knew what she was before he saw her.

Serenna caught his head with both hands.

The man tried to release his lightning.

Teclos wrapped darkness around his arms and pulled them wide.

Serenna twisted.

The vampire’s neck broke with a deep crack.

She did not release him.

Her fingers drove into the sides of his skull, and she pulled his head free from his shoulders.

The body remained standing for a second before collapsing.

Teclos allowed the surrounding darkness to thin.

The knife wielder was already retreating up the stairs.

The silver-ringed woman followed, one hand pressed against her stomach.

They had both seen Serenna.

She fastened the amulet around her neck.

The male disguise returned.

"Neither leaves the building," she said.

Teclos looked toward the stairs.

"I know."

They followed.

—

The upper floor of the tax office had been turned into a residence.

Heavy curtains covered the windows. Maps, letters, and ledgers filled the tables. Several open crates contained blood bottles packed in ice.

The knife wielder waited at the top of the stairs.

The moment Teclos appeared, the vampire thrust both blades down.

Teclos caught one wrist.

The second knife cut through his shoulder and scraped bone.

Lightning entered the wound.

His fingers went numb.

The vampire pulled the blade free and stabbed again.

Teclos shifted aside, trapped the man’s arm against his body, and drove his forehead into the vampire’s nose.

The vampire staggered.

Teclos kicked the inside of his knee.

As the man dropped, Teclos caught the back of his head and slammed his face into the wall.

Once.

Twice.

On the third strike, the wall broke.

The vampire was thrown into the next room.

He rolled across a long table, scattering papers and glass bottles, then landed on his feet.

His nose had already begun to heal.

"You don’t know what you’re interfering with," he said.

Teclos pulled the knife from his shoulder.

"You took people from the road and asked about me."

The vampire adjusted his grip on the remaining blade.

"That wasn’t my decision."

"Whose was it?"

A line of lightning crossed the doorway.

Teclos dropped.

The spell passed over his head and struck the far wall, blowing open the shutters.

The silver-ringed woman stood near the front entrance. Blood ran from her mouth, but the broken fingers had straightened.

"Mereth ordered it," she said. "You were supposed to be watched, not attacked."

Teclos looked between them.

"Where is she?"

The woman did not answer.

Serenna entered the upper floor.

The pressure around the two vampires changed immediately.

The knife wielder looked at her borrowed face.

"Who are you?"

"You saw enough downstairs."

The silver-ringed woman stepped back.

"I saw the amulet fail."

"And?"

"You’re not Drennar."

"No."

The woman’s eyes moved over Serenna as though trying to place her.

The knife wielder attacked Teclos before the conversation could continue.

He crossed the room in a flash of lightning.

Teclos met him head-on.

Darkness wrapped around his right arm, thickening into a heavy gauntlet. He struck the knife aside and drove his fist into the vampire’s chest.

Lightning burst against darkness.

The collision sent a shock through the room.

Windows shattered. Tables overturned. The floorboards bowed beneath their feet.

Neither moved back.

The vampire bared his fangs and released more mana.

Lightning crawled over his skin, then poured into his arm and through the knife.

Teclos’s darkness began burning away.

He added more.

The shadow beneath every object in the room stretched toward him. It climbed his arm, replacing each layer the lightning destroyed.

The vampire’s blade moved closer to Teclos’s throat.

Teclos’s fist pressed deeper into his chest.

Wood cracked beneath them.

"You can’t keep replacing it forever," the vampire said through clenched teeth.

"No."

Teclos opened a rift beneath the man’s rear foot.

His balance shifted.

Only slightly.

Teclos turned his hips and drove forward.

The vampire’s back struck a support pillar. The wood split from top to bottom.

Teclos released the fist and seized the man’s knife wrist.

He twisted until the elbow broke.

The vampire screamed.

Teclos drove the stolen lightning blade beneath his chin.

The point tore through the roof of his mouth and entered his skull.

The lightning around his body went out.

At the front of the building, the silver-ringed woman attacked Serenna with everything she had.

Both hands came together.

A sphere of compressed lightning formed between them, dense enough to pull loose nails and metal buckles across the floor.

Serenna moved toward her.

The woman released it.

The sphere became a solid river of white light.

It swallowed the entire room between them.

Teclos shielded his eyes.

The front wall of the tax office exploded outward.

Stone and timber flew into the street.

When the light faded, half the building was gone.

Serenna stood in the open wreckage.

Smoke rose from her coat.

The amulet had failed again, though this time the chain remained intact. Her true face showed beneath the torn illusion, and one side of her hair had been burned away to the shoulder.

The silver-ringed woman stared.

Serenna looked at the damaged hair.

Her expression went very still.

"You should have aimed lower."

The woman tried to gather another spell.

Serenna reached her first.

She caught both wrists and forced the vampire’s hands apart.

Lightning discharged between them, crawling over Serenna’s arms and shoulders. Her skin burned, healed, and burned again.

She did not let go.

The woman screamed and drove one knee toward Serenna’s stomach.

Serenna blocked it with her thigh, stepped inside, and bit into her throat.

The scream ended.

Serenna tore away a mouthful of flesh.

Before the wound could close, she drove her fingers into it, caught the spine, and pulled the woman forward.

Her knee struck the vampire’s face.

The skull collapsed inward.

Serenna released the body.

It fell through the missing wall and landed in the street below.

Silence returned.

Teclos pulled the knife from the dead vampire’s skull.

Serenna touched the burned side of her hair.

"It will grow back," he said. "...You look angry."

Teclos glanced at the ruined front of the building.

"That seems easier to repair than the tax office."

She looked at him.

He decided not to say anything else.

A weak voice came from the back room.

"Please."

Teclos and Serenna followed it.

A man lay behind a desk, one leg trapped beneath a fallen beam. He wore a fine gray coat and several silver rings.

Not a prisoner.

A servant.

Teclos lifted the beam with darkness.

The man tried to crawl away.

Serenna placed one boot against his back.

"Mereth," Teclos said. "Where is she?"

The servant looked toward the dead vampires.

"She left before sunset."

"For where?"

"The lower mine."

"Why?"

The man hesitated.

Serenna pressed down.

His ribs creaked.

"She received a message from Selrik. They’re moving everything tonight."

"What are they moving?" Teclos asked.

"Records. Prisoners. The coffins."

Serenna and Teclos exchanged a look.

"How many vampires are at the mine?" she asked.

"I don’t know. More than ten."

"Is Selrik there?"

"Yes."

Teclos looked toward the dark hills beyond Sorn.

The tax office had been a waystation.

The real operation was already preparing to disappear.

Serenna removed her boot from the servant’s back.

He released a shaking breath.

"Thank you."

Teclos drove the lightning knife through the back of his neck.

Serenna watched the body go still.

"He could have told us more."

"He said they’re leaving tonight."

"That doesn’t mean he knew nothing else."

Teclos pulled the knife free.

"We don’t have time to ask slowly."

Below them, voices rose in the street. Town guards had begun gathering around the ruined building.

Serenna retrieved the amulet from beneath her collar.