The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) Garrett Robinson (poetry books to read TXT) 📖

left. She sped through into the second room with the secret entrance to the underground chamber. Half of it was aflame, and the smoke was thick and black.

And there she found the vampires—Shoulders and King, the only two left.

For a heartbeat, the creatures did not seem to notice her. Both were screaming and tearing at the floor, but their claws did not so much as scratch it. That was strange, but Mag had no time to think about it. The creatures noticed her, and they wheeled around to attack.

She fought only two now, not the three she had faced outside. But the room’s small size constrained her. As she dodged and turned, her cloak kept striking the walls and furniture. Pushing the vampires back with a wild swipe, Mag reached up with her shield and undid the clasp. The cloak fell to the floor. That was better, but not enough to give her the advantage. Her spear strikes had to be somewhat restrained, or she risked striking the walls and knocking herself off balance.

Mag switched her strategy, pressing in closer and using the spear more as a staff. It brought her within reach of the vampires’ claws, and she had to block them both with the spear haft and the shield. But with a clever twist, she managed a solid kick into Shoulders’ chest.

Shoulders flew away, tumbling over the back of a chair that had caught on fire. The flames erupted across the vampire’s skin almost instantly, and it shrieked and tried to bat at them even as its back slammed into the tapestry on the wall.

The vampire was so busy with the flames, it did not see Mag launch herself through the air. Her spear impaled it through the chest and sank deep into the wall behind. The wood and flames spread through Shoulders together, and it died with black blood dribbling from its jaws.

Too late, Mag realized that she had punched a hole straight through the door that led to the underground chamber. She turned, wrenching her spear from the wall and the corpse. King stood there in the center of the room, its head back, sniffing at the air.

It turned on her, its black eyes narrowing to slits.

Mag tried to spear it as it flew through the air towards her, but it caught the spear in one hand and threw her aside with the other. Its claws sank into the wooden wall, and it ripped the door from its hinges, throwing it into the flames on the other side of the room. With a rending screech, it vanished into the shadows of the stairwell.

Yue and I burst into the room just as Mag was getting to her feet. Yue had one arm over my shoulders, and her other hand held the wound near her neck. Oku whined as he ran to Mag and licked her hand.

“One left,” said Mag. “It got in.”

She wasted no more words, but ran down the stairwell after the thing. Oku gave a bark and ran after her.

“Leave it, Mag!” I cried. “Let the flames finish it!”

“A little late for that,” growled Yue.

“Dark take her,” I mumbled. “I will get you to the front and then get her out of the cavern.”

“No time,” said Yue. “I am coming. You both came in here for me.” She pushed off of me and drew her short sword in one hand, hefting her cudgel in the other.

“We have no time to argue, but let us pretend I did,” I told her. “Come, if you cannot be stopped.”

Just inside the doorway was a torch on the wall. I took it and lit it from the flames at the edge of the room before running down the stairs, Yue just behind me. We reached the bottom to see Mag and Oku locked in combat with King. But its proximity to the magestone-infused blood seemed to have given the creature a new surge of strength. Even as I tried to work out how to enter the fight, it sent Oku flying with a kick and swiped at Mag so savagely that she was forced several steps back.

Before any of us could react, the vampire rushed to the cauldron and stooped over the side, plunging its face into the blood.

We all watched, struck dumb and paralyzed with horror, as King threw its head back and roared. The roar turned deep, guttural, until I could feel it shaking and vibrating within my chest. The vampire’s pallid skin began to darken, a deep crimson spreading through it as long-dry veins refilled. The red suffused all of its body from top to bottom, and the skin rippled as bones shifted and rearranged themselves beneath. Then the creature shrieked, and my heart leaped, for it sounded like a cry of pain. But then ridges of bone sprang out through the skin, running down its back and arms, with huge spikes protruding from the elbows. All the while, the vampire’s body continued to grow, until it stood now at least three heads taller than me, even hunched over as it was.

Yue and I were frozen in horror, but Mag had kept her wits about her. As the transformation neared completion, Mag brought back her arm and heaved her spear straight into King’s now-massive back.

King whirled and held up a hand. It did not catch the spear. It let the weapon pass straight through its flesh. The spear shuddered to a stop halfway through the claw, its wood coming to rest deep in the vampire’s flesh.

The vampire scowled down at the wound. Then it dragged the spear the rest of the way through and flung it, contemptuously, at Mag’s feet.

For a heartbeat we hesitated, waiting for the wood to poison the vampire, to send it cowering to its knees.

Nothing happened, except that the hole in the vampire’s hand began to seal itself shut.

“Dark take it,” muttered Mag. She stooped to pick up her spear, ignoring the black blood that coated its length.

“This was the aim of