One Vampire to Stake (Anthem City Series Book 1) by Isaac Knight

Author:Isaac Knight [Knight, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Isaac Knight Publishing
Published: 2017-08-10T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Lightning flashed, illuminating a stone chamber. A wooden table held several flickering candles.

Rayley leaned against a wall, dizzy and disoriented. This wasn't the library. There was no sign of Vlad or any of the others. Where the hell was she?

She walked to the window and looked out. She was high up. Hundreds of stone buildings dotted the landscape. To the north, a large fire burned, turning the horizon red and sending smoke into the night sky.

The door to the chamber opened, and a shirtless man entered. His face was mapped with wrinkles, his eyes sunken into his skull. He sat on a stone bench and rested his head against the wall.

"Uh… hello?" Rayley said.

The old man didn't notice her.

A moment later, a second man entered the room. This one carried two heavy plates of armor and a metal pail filled with ancient surgical equipment. He set the armor on the floor. "Count Magnus, if I may?"

"Speak," the old man said. Was the old man Count Magnus? Why couldn't he see Rayley?

"Are you sure this is absolutely necessary?" the man holding the pail asked. "The war is lost, Count Magnus."

Count Magnus glared at the man. "As long as I stand, the war is not lost."

"But to go to such extremes—"

"Auger lost because he was not willing to go to such extremes." Anger flared in Count Magnus's voice. "He was an aggressive fool and I will not make the same mistakes. We will lie in wait, as the snake lies in the grass, and when the time comes, we will take our place as the true leaders of Anthem."

The younger vampire laid his surgical tools on the table. He offered Count Magnus a vial of liquid. "For the pain."

Magnus shoved the vial away. It shattered on the stone floor. "Pain is how we learn," Magnus said. "It is the price we must pay for our mistakes."

"I serve at your command," the young vampire said.

Magnus lifted the nearest plate of armor with ease. "The strongest material known to our kind," he said, grazing his fingers over the surface. He leaned the plate against the wall and pulled a wooden stake out of his belt. With one swift movement, he stabbed the stake into the heart of the metal.

The stake splintered.

"Didn't even leave a dent," Rayley muttered.

Magnus casually tossed the stake out of the window. "This is what Auger wore when he was defeated?"

"It is, my Count," the young vampire said. "The witches cast a spell to strip it away from his body so that one of the humans could attack."

Magnus nodded. "We will not make that mistake again."

The young vampire approached Magnus, a scalpel in his hand. "You're sure you want to do this?"

Magnus grabbed the scalpel from the vampire's hand and dragged the blade across his collarbone. Still staring at the younger vampire, Magnus peeled his own dead flesh away, revealing layers of muscle and tendons underneath. "Do it."

Rayley gagged and ran for the door. No way she was going to be able to watch this entire procedure.

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