Bloodborn (Ulrika the Vampire Book 1) by Nathan Long

Author:Nathan Long [Long, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2011-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CLAWS IN THE NIGHT

Ulrika stepped back. ‘You are mistaken, mein herr. In the excitement you must have imagined–’

‘I know what I saw!’ he shouted, then pointed again, his sword trembling. ‘Look! Your hands still drip with their blood! And no mortal woman could have carried me so!’

Ulrika retreated again, her heart sinking. ‘Templar Holmann, Friedrich, please.’

‘Call me not by my name, whore of darkness!’ He roared. ‘I see your ways now! You have seduced me with your soft words and foul sorcery! You have tricked me into believing that–’ He choked on the words. ‘Into betraying my oaths! You have tainted me with your corruption!’

It tortured her to see his pain. This was exactly what she hadn’t wanted to happen. ‘Templar, please,’ Ulrika pleaded. ‘Let me explain.’

‘There is nothing to explain!’ Holmann bellowed, raising his sword and pulling one of the glass vials from his bandolier. ‘You are fiend in female shape! An enemy of the Empire and humanity itself! In Sigmar’s name, I shall destroy you!’

He threw the vial and lurched at her, stabbing clumsily, hampered by his wounds and his rage.

She dodged both attacks easily. ‘But I saved you!’

‘Another seduction!’ he snarled, stabbing again. ‘You save me to falsely win my loyalty! You mean to make a pawn of me. A besotted spy that would do your bidding against my masters!’

‘I don’t,’ said Ulrika, but she knew it was no use. He was a Templar of Sigmar. His beliefs were too strongly held. He would never see her as anything other than a monster. Again the temptation to feed on him came to her, but she cast it away. She would not be what he called her.

Of course, that left killing him. There was no question that was what she should do. He knew her secret. He knew she was in some way connected to the vampire women that had so recently been exposed. He knew everything she knew about the murder in the plague house and the secret in the cemetery. He had to die, and he would be easy to kill. He could barely lift his sword or throw his glass grenades. He was limping and slow. She had only to knock aside his blade and thrust him through the heart with her sabre and it would be over.

He came forwards once more, throwing another vial and flailing wildly. She knocked the vial out of the air with her sabre and sidestepped his attack. He stumbled and caught himself against the wall. His neck was exposed. A swift chop and he would be dead. Her hand clenched her hilt, but for some reason she could not force her arm to move, instead she only stood there and watched him recover.

‘I’m sorry to have disappointed you, Templar Holmann,’ she said, then turned and fled out of the mausoleum and into the cold black night.

Ulrika cursed herself as she ran. Was there ever a bigger fool? She should have killed Holmann when she first met him in the sewer.

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