In comparison, the creature’s first movement was loud, yet still so ordinary that he filtered it out of his consciousness, along with all the other ordinary noises. It was ten seconds later, once the adrenaline had kicked in, when he was already fighting for his life, that he recognized the sound as the scrape of a foot when the thing had leapt from the rooftop above. It was an odd moment of retrospection, with no real use for the life-and-death struggle he was engaged in, but the mind was funny like that.
His first awareness of danger came as a shadow fell across his field of view, the shape of a human-sized body dropping down directly in front of the recessed gate he stood before. The sound of its boots slapping heavily against the stone walkway seemed thunderous compared to the relative silence of the past few hours, yet his body still seemed to respond only sluggishly.
Will’s heart had just started to leap into his throat when the vampire finished absorbing the shock of landing and unfolded from the ground to spring at him. Everything happened in slow motion, which gave him plenty of time to register events, but unfortunately his body moved far slower than his perceptions, while the monster’s body seemed to be moving at an unbelievable speed.
Once again, Arrogan’s advice from a year ago saved his life. “A force-effect spell that you can reflex cast works at the speed of the soul, not thought,” the ring had told him, prompting him over and over to work on his point-defense shield until he could cast it without thinking. The first shield appeared in front of the snarling thing’s face, which was rushing toward his own with horrifying rapidity.
The silent observer in the back of his head watched one of the vampire’s fangs shatter as it hit the shield less than two feet from his face. It rebounded and came back at him on all fours, staying close to the ground. His second shield stopped it once more, again appearing right in front of the vampire’s snarling lips.
This happened in the span of a second or two. He was still drawing breath to yell for Tiny when his ears heard the screaming sound of iron being wrenched free of its moorings behind him. Apparently, his monster had a friend, and that friend had just ripped the iron gate from its hinges. Will tried to turn and keep his eyes on the fiend in front of him at the same time. Naturally, he failed spectacularly at both. He managed to stop the first vampire’s third lunge, but then he felt an iron grip take hold of the aventail connected to the base of his helm. His feet left the ground momentarily as the unseen vampire jerked him back and upward, letting him fall to the walkway.
Will’s breath exploded from his lungs as he hit the ground hard, and then the creature was on top of him. The thing didn’t seem overly concerned with the fact that armor protected his throat and most of the rest of his body; it was perfectly content to go for the one part of him that was clearly open to the air—his face. Another shield stopped it just inches away, but farther down, out of his view, he felt the other monster take hold of his leg, pulling at his boot. No, no, no! he thought desperately, trying to kick it away. From the corner of his eye, he saw a third form land in the yard to his right. This one was smaller, though he didn’t have time to reflect on its appearance. It moved to take a position on his right arm.
In all, less than five or six seconds had passed since the attack had begun. Will was pretty sure he would be dead before another five seconds had passed—or wishing he was dead.
Tiny’s spear went completely through the chest of the monster on top of Will before sliding off Will’s breastplate and sinking temporarily into the turf of the lawn. A moment later it rose, lifting the creature upward as the massive soldier used the spear to lever the vampire into the air.
Lifting something the size and weight of a grown man into the air on the end of a spear wasn’t a feat most could accomplish—perhaps not even Tiny under normal circumstances—but fear had elevated the big man’s strength to heights few had seen. I can believe he threw Sir Kyle now, thought Will idly.
Finally, given a moment to act, Will lifted his head and sighted down his body at the creature that was almost done removing his boot. The force-lance he had been holding ready tore through the vampire’s left shoulder and sent it flying into the wall next to the gate. Will’s boot was still firmly in its hand.
Meanwhile, Tiny’s opponent had slid down the spear to reach the big warrior. Tiny had stopped it with one hand, and since his arm was longer, the thing couldn’t reach his throat. A moment later he was forced to use both hands to hold the thing at bay, releasing the spear. The vampire had taken hold of the squire’s arms and was now prying them away from its throat. Will saw a strange look cross Tiny’s face as the vampire’s greater strength slowly pulled his arms apart, forcing his hands to release the thing’s throat.
Tiny outweighed the thing by a factor of two or three, and still it was overpowering him. The smaller vampire, a girl near the age of twelve by the look of her, abandoned Will to throw herself at the giant warrior. With both his arms otherwise engaged, Tiny would be nearly helpless to stop her from ripping his face off if she so desired.
Will’s second force-lance ripped through her back and accelerated her motion, flinging the diminutive vampire over the wall and into the street. Getting to his feet, Will moved to help his friend. He could see the vampire with his boot was already beginning to stand again. What do I have to do to keep them down? he thought desperately, though he already knew the answer—fire.
If only he had some.
Hobbling over with one bare foot, Will gave the vampire struggling with Tiny a wide berth. The air was filled with coarse grunts as the big man tried desperately to keep his arms from spreading. Will moved behind him and got close, pressing himself almost against Tiny’s back as the first vampire threw the boot away and sprang at them. If the ruinous hole through its body bothered it, it certainly wasn’t enough to slow the thing down.
Will released his last spell, the wind-wall. His turyn was still close to his maximum, more than enough to fully empower the spell. A fierce roar filled their ears as the air around them tore the world to tatters. The vampire that Tiny held was partly in and partly out of the minimum radius, but it was torn free in less than a second, becoming just another piece of detritus in the terrible cyclone that surrounded them.
The spell lasted several seconds, and when it died away they could see the devastation it had wrought. The lawn around the walkway was gone, torn up out to a distance of fifteen feet. Parts of the walkway had also vanished, fragments of it lying haphazardly in the surrounding area. The torn gate and part of the wall had collapsed, and scattered among all the debris and broken masonry were body parts, the remains of two of the vampires. Will could see the arms and legs twitching and moving helplessly as they tried to find each other to reunite. Can they really survive something like that? Would they heal if we gave them enough time?
The smaller vampire had been too far away to be affected.
“What the hell was that?” exclaimed Tiny as the roaring winds died down.
“Magic,” snapped Will. “Let’s see where the other one went. Stay close.” He headed for the ruined gate. As soon as he stepped out into the street, he could see that he and Tiny hadn’t been the only ones engaged in a desperate fight. The entire front lawn of the Nerrow house was ablaze, and several burning corpses littered the yard. Will was forced to readjust his vision to accommodate the change in lighting, but he’d gotten so used to doing so that the process was nearly automatic.