YEAR OF THE VAMPIRE 31

Chapter 31

Music from: Revenge of the Gods

Ivy wanted to laugh, but hadn't quite caught her breath yet.

Vohn's blade stabbed at her again, but she pivoted, driving a wooden needle into his throat.

"Ivy!" He fell back, hands pawing at the wood. He slashed at her, an awkward movement that caught her stomach, further ripping open her green sash. The corset fabric split, exposing the metal stays beneath, leaving Ivy intact.

She lunged on him before he could recoil. She pulled the needle out of his neck and stabbed it into his chest with all her force. She backed from him, feeling under her skirts for another needle.

Around her, the vampires stared back, but not with the surprise she expected.

"Gods, no!" Evandis cried in horror. "You came here to kill us?"

Every vampire in the room surged toward her.

Barely had she grabbed a knitting needle and raised it than Dred tackled her. Ivy's back hit the hard floor, doubled by his weight. He pinned her arm away as she tried to bring the needle down to his chest.

"Stop it, Ivy!" he shouted, struggling to keep her hand away.

"You killed all my friends! Just like you killed your family!" She tried to twist him off, but he straddled her stomach, knees to either side of her, stretching her arm across the floor.

"What? I didn't . . . We're helping you, dammit!" He dodged her other hand as she tried to claw his face. "Just look!"

Their hands locked at a stalemate between them as she spared a glance to the ballroom. The smoke was thinning, and in its place, eight bony vampires had materialized from the mirror. All wielded bone-bladed swords, now in battle with Rimbladt, Jovan, Mandrake, Evandis, and Branard.

Vohn was slumped to the wall, trying to pull out the wooden knitting needle in his chest. Smoke came from the wound, and his face was tight as he glared at her, but he managed a low laugh. "She believed it."

"Who are they?" she asked, ignoring Vohn, barely able to breathe under Dred's weight and her corset.

"The unrepentant, the ones who would not conform to the world," Dred said. "He's opened Neverfall."

She looked back up at him amid the sounds of the bone sword on metal sword melee. His chest was red, the black-and-white tie-dye now stark with blood and torn flesh. She could see one edge of his birthmark. "Let me up."

"Are you gonna not try to kill us?" He winced, still holding her hands away.

"I'm not staying. I want my friends back. Evandis said it's almost too late, Drexor."

He sat back, his hands loosening on her. "Don't say that. I'm not him here. That's only for the past."

She coughed. "Get off me."

He tilted to one side, swinging off her. "Hey!"

She scooted to her knees and stood up. "I'll spare you."