Wayren reached for him, her fingers closing over the juncture of neck and shoulder. “Later, Sebastian. We will talk later. ” She twitched her hand, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he crumpled to the floor. Obviously Wayren didn’t trust him either.
Victoria looked sharply at her—she’d known all along about Sebastian! Why had she never told her?
“The vampires haven’t found us yet, but there are undead and mortals above, in the streets and buildings nearby. Something has brought them here. ” It was Zavier, speaking to Ilias as though Victoria were not present. His normally jovial face bore darkness and accusation when he finally looked at her. “We must drive them away. ”
He started off toward the alcove that led to the spiral staircase Victoria had descended only thirty minutes earlier, but she called him back.
“No, Zavier, wait. We cannot go that way, for if we suddenly appear from the church they will know our secret. ”
Ilias kept hidden guardsmen within the small church and in the areas surrounding it: one Venator along with two Comitators, who were martial-arts experts like Kritanu who taught the Venators their fighting skills. If there were vampires about, threatening their security—which Victoria had no reason to doubt—presumably the guards were already engaged. Still, it would be rash to come from the church and confirm to the undead where the entrance to the Consilium was.
“This way,” Ilias ordered with a sharp gesture. Victoria and Zavier followed the older man, who obviously knew more about the secrets of the Consilium than anyone else, back down the steps and through one of the pointed archways that led to a chamber Victoria had seen only once before. It was bare and dusty. Trunks and several wooden crates were stacked against one of the walls, but Ilias hurried past them toward the back corner. He reached up to one of the iron sconces that were studded throughout the entire Consilium and lifted the torch from its place. Fumbling around with his fingers inside the empty sconce, he grunted in satisfaction, then withdrew his hand.
Victoria watched with increasing tension, impatience nearly sending her back to the top of the spiral stairs. At least there she could hear if the threat was coming closer.
But when Ilias removed his hand from the inside of the sconce, he also pulled back on the iron cup, and it fell away from the wall. A dull grating sound drew her attention, and she saw the wall behind the trunks shift.
Zavier was there before she was, only, Victoria knew, because he’d somehow been looking in that direction. He shoved the wall so that it opened wide enough to get through, and he dashed into the darkness beyond.
She would have followed him, but Ilias caught her arm. “You cannot come back in this way, so take care. It is only an exit. ”
“Thank you,” she said, and ran after Zavier, noticing the splatter of blood he’d left on the floor. She didn’t know how badly he was injured, but she must rely on him. It was the two of them and the three guards who watched the church above; Ilias and Wayren would stay below as a last shield in the Consilium.
The secret door had closed behind her, leaving no illumination, yet Victoria did not slow her pace.
Her huntress blood was ready, her instincts on edge, when she saw gray relief ahead. Stake steady in her hand, Victoria slowed as she came around a corner and found herself at the bottom of a set of stone stairs. Up she climbed, the heels of Zavier in front of her becoming more visible as they ascended, and the pungent smell from the nearby umbrella makers more evident.
Then she followed him through a stone doorway that led to the street in front of Santo Quirinus church. The cobblestones were covered by moonglow. The sun had been set for some time.
As Victoria burst across the borghi and up the five steps onto the brick street, she noticed two things: first, the bloody heap of what had been a Comitator, and second, the dank, musty death-smell she’d smelled only last night.
A demon.
Sebastian had brought demons to the Consilium!
This fact was confirmed when Victoria saw Michalas, who must have been with Zavier before he came to sound the alarm, slam his stake into the chest of a red-eyed being. When he withdrew it and stepped back the creature leaped toward him, unharmed. Victoria vaulted herself at them and kicked into the demon, sending him off balance and slamming into the side of a building.
She rolled to her feet and looked around for something to use as a blade; demons had to be beheaded. A great force slammed into her from behind, and Victoria went sprawling onto the dirt, her knee twisting as she stumbled onto a large rock. She rolled away, kicking out with all the strength of her legs and painful knee as the demon with the vampire eyes lunged toward her again.
The shouts and blows around her ebbed into the distance as she fought hand-to-hand with the demon, who matched her in strength.
This one appeared human, except for the red eyes of the undead and his foul, dank smell. Her arms ached where he grabbed them; her stomach burned when he jabbed her with an elbow. His head snapped back as she whipped her arm up under his chin, and he tumbled to the ground when she followed that up with a sharp kick behind his knee. She shoved him into a small bush and whirled around, again looking for something to use as a blade.
“Victoria!” She heard her name and shifted her attention for the barest of moments. Something flew through the night toward her, something long and gleaming. She caught Zavier’s eye with a quick thanks and snatched the sword out of the air, barely feeling the blade as it sliced into her palm.
It was in her other hand a breath later, her fingers safely behind the guard, and Victoria leaped toward the demon with a great swipe toward the creature’s throat.
The blade cut through, and blood from her own wound splattered as she kept her momentum going. She didn’t see the demon freeze and then shrivel into a dark mass before it bubbled into the dirt and old grass; she was already turning toward another creature bearing down on her.
A kick, a shove, a whirl and a slice, and she severed the ogre-faced demon’s head from his doglike body. By the time she whirled back around, everything had stilled but for the ratcheting breathing of her companions. Michalas panted near the threshold of a building, sweat dripping from his tight curls.
“Bloody hell…” Zavier’s barrel chest heaved as he crouched against the corner of a small building that looked as though it might tumble over from his powerful weight.
“It is Stanislaus on the steps in the Icon Hall,” came a voice. Ilias stepped from the small doorway of the church, his face stern and weary. “He is dead. But the door was closed behind him, preserving the secret door in the confessional. From the looks of the blood streaking the tile, he crawled in there to die…and to loose the alarm bell. ”
“They nearly found the kirk!” exploded Zavier, staring around with furious eyes. “If we had not been here they could have found it. ” He rose to his feet, the man never seeming so large and ferocious as he did then.
Sudden comprehension welled inside Victoria, and she moved toward Zavier. That was when she saw there on the ground at his feet another body. This one had long dark hair in a crumpled braid, and his mahogany-colored face was turned to one side.