Dark Light - The Warlock Legacy Book 12: An Urban Fantasy Action Series by Ryan Attard

Author:Ryan Attard [Attard, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

28

What can I say about vampire lairs that Hollywood hasn’t already?

The camp’s underground palace—because make no mistake, that is what it was modeled after—displayed Gothic grotesques and gargoyles on marble statues, some of which were missing, and knights made of empty armor, some of which were also missing from posts and I found scattered on the ground.

Witch light hung from lamps and chandeliers, from candles of ever-burning flame, and spelled to look as eerie as possible. Other than creeping the shit out of everyone, it had the practical use of playing tricks with your eyesight, perhaps lulling you to sleep while the watchers in the shadows sharpened their knives.

Or fangs.

You get the idea.

I walked past it all, ignoring the spent magic in the air. The aftermath of a battlefield has the same frequency you find in hospitals; to a wizard it screams of pain and hopelessness, sometimes with the slightest underlay of hope. That’s the worst part. People can accept death if they detach enough—it’s the hope that twists the knife.

Rogue had left the battlefield soaking in parts and bits in his wake. We knew the front of the vampire house was theater.

The decor was meant for visitors from the outside. The gargoyles and suits of armor coming to life were the easy defenses.

As I walked further into the bowels of the vampire lair, I saw the true home of those that dwelled in the night. Vampires don’t like open space. They like tunnels and columns. Corners and shafts. Maybe it’s some ancient DNA from the progenitor species that dwelled in the labyrinthine cave system of the Underworld, one of the top layers of a dark dimension that served as a pathway between Earth, Hell and any and all afterlives in between. The nicer bits led to Heaven.

I never get to visit there.

Screams came from one corridor in particular, cut short with a suddenness that could only be deliberate.

Instead of heading there immediately, I lowered my glowing sword and held it by my side, quiet as you please. Closed my eyes, and willed my ears to ignore the scraping and moaning, the crunch of boots and bodies on the ground. The hiss of steel. Vampires didn’t draw breath but all bodies made sound when exerted.

Wizard senses came in two flavors. The physical enhancing of our sight and sound, and the rest, which was an enhancement spell that required training. Came natural to me thanks to years of practice with a stunted magical pathways system.

But what we can all do naturally—and take extra caution to tamp down most of the time—is aura reading. It’s not just bright colors and astrology woo-woo crap.

Magic rarely comes in the form of shapes, texture and a big bright neon sign. It’s a feeling, a sixth sense that pulls at you and says “spookiness here.” Dipping your finger in is up to you.

The area where Rogue had been doing his work was the same trail of psychosis energy that had nudged at the back of my senses since entering.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.