“Get your hands off me Samantha,” Delilah warns. “Or my brother will not be happy.”
The vampire whose named is Samantha laughs. “Look around you honey, Cristescu will never find out if I kill you. He’ll simply think one of the slayers got to you first.”
The woman seems to have played on Delilah’s last nerve, because she violently yanks her arm out of Samantha’s grasp and then pushes her to the ground before leaping on top of her. Delilah reaches under her ethereal white dress and pulls a long, sharp knife from a concealed thigh strap. Quick as a flash, she’s holding the knife to Samantha’s throat.
“I might not be a vampire,” Delilah says, her voice low and threatening. “But I know how to kill and I am far older than you, Samantha. However, I’m not heartless like you are, and I will not sully my conscience with your death. I will hurt you though.”
Samantha struggles to push Delilah off her to no avail. I cover Rebecca’s eyes with both hands because I have an idea of what’s coming. With a swift and precise slash, Delilah slits the vampire’s throat and then stabs her in the stomach for good measure, though not in the heart. If Samantha had been a human she would be dead by now, but no, she will heal from her injuries. Her incapacitation will simply provide us with enough time to get away.
Delilah wipes her knife on her white dress, making a stark red stain against the pale fabric. Then she slides it back into its holster before rejoining myself and Rebecca. I sigh in relief as we make it to the exit. Unfortunately, that relief is short lived. Because the door opens, and in walks Whitfield, Eliza, Ethan and several heavily armed vampire bodyguards. We back up substantially.
Chapter Eighteen
After Me Comes The Flood
Ethan immediately recognises that Delilah and I have joined forces, because his powerful voice booms, “Step away from Tegan and the child this instant, Delilah.”
Delilah doesn’t do as he’s told her, instead her grip on Rebecca’s hand tightens and she retorts, “I have had enough of this life. I have had enough of him,” she gestures to Whitfield now. “And I will not allow him to hurt the little girl.”
Whitfield laughs and steps forward. “And what exactly do you plan to do to stop me?”
“She doesn’t need to do anything,” I interject. “If you want to get to Rebecca, you’ll have to get past me first.”
Whitfield’s eyes cut into me, and he turns his nose up like he’s caught wind of a bad smell. “Yes, there is that. Tell me dear, what exactly are you?”
“Someone who will burn your fucking face off if you don’t get out of our way soon.” I glance at Eliza, whose cheek is currently healing from earlier. I smile over at her smugly. There is so much hate in her eyes that I have to make a conscious effort not to crumple with fear.
“Why are you doing this Tegan?” Ethan asks then. “Do you hate us that much?” There’s hurt in his eyes, but he quickly masks it when Whitfield glances at him.
“I don’t hate you,” I whisper.
The fighting in the room has ceased now that Whitfield is here, and all of the vampires begin to culminate around their Governor. I almost get a fright when I look over my shoulder to find Finn, Pamphrock and about forty odd slayers standing behind me.
Rebecca runs to her dad now, and he hugs her tightly before lifting her up into his arms. In this moment he’s not a dhamphir or the leader of the DOH, he’s just a father who is so unbelievably happy to be seeing his daughter again. He mouths “thank you” at me, and I nod quietly in return.
Whitfield looks like he’s about to say something, when I hear a familiar voice echo through the room. It bounces off the walls and flows like the rhythmic beat of a drum. Rita. She’s reciting Latin, and I crane my neck to look around and see where she is. It’s difficult to see past the slayers who are crowded behind me, but when I rise on my tippy toes I finally spot her. She’s at the very back of the room, forming a circle with Alvie and Gabriel. All of their hands are joined and they are repeating one word over and over; diluvium.
“What is that witch doing?” Eliza screeches before looking to Whitfield and shouting. “For God’s sake, stop them Father!”
Whitfield doesn’t acknowledge her outburst, he seems to be trying to figure out a way to prevent Rita, Alvie and Gabriel from completing their spell. The problem is, there is a wall of slayers between the him and those he needs to get to.
He rears up, and looks over the group of vampires standing on either side of him. “My people, we must attack,” he demands.
The vampires are just about to stampede forward when I sweep my arm up and over my body. I hold it directly in front of me, my magical sparks fly out in warning. “Don’t even think about it,” I shout, maintaining steady eye contact with Whitfield.
The vampires hiss and gasp, I just need to hold them at bay until Rita finishes her spell. Although I have no clue what she is trying to accomplish, surely it’s something that will allow us to get out of Whitfield’s mansion with our lives still intact.
Suddenly Rita’s chanting ceases and a deathly silence permeates the room. Nobody even dares to breathe as we wait to see what will happen. Then I hear something far away, an odd distant gushing noise that is quickly getting closer and closer.
Suddenly, the various windows situated high up on the walls burst open, glass shatters into the room, quickly followed by massive torrents of water. Not only this, but the violent storm of liquid streams from the doorway that leads to the ballroom, quickly flooding the room. The water is two foot deep before I have even had the chance to react. I’m in so much shock that I don’t do anything until somebody grabs my hand and begins pulling me from the room and out the door.
I am vaguely aware that the person dragging me forward is Delilah, recognisable only because of her bright, curly red hair. We wade desperately through the rapidly rising torrents. It feels like I’ve been caught in the very centre of a tsunami. There are too many people trying to escape, too many bodies competing for the dwindling air supply. Delilah swiftly pushes her way forward, swimming now. I kick my legs back, and try to swim with her. Soon I’m breathing in huge big gasps of clean air as we leave the confines of the building.
We’re coasting on the gigantic slide of a wave as it spills out of the house. Bodies tangle and knock against each other. I notice that my hand is still latched onto Delilah’s. The water falls away once we are a good distance from the building. I stand, and the water trickles down my soaked body.
Suddenly Finn is beside me yelling, “Come on Tegan, we need to get out of here.” He seems momentarily confused by Delilah’s presence, but he shrugs it off and guides us quickly from the grounds of the mansion and over to a DOH van that is parked just outside on the street. I glance back at the mansion just before we leave the gates and I almost faint in surprise at what I see.
A huge, swirling capsule of water covers the roof and is spilling down around the surface of the building, plunging inside through every available entryway. A crowd of slayers and vampires alike are fleeing the place to escape the water summoned by my magic wielding friends. How the hell did Rita manage it, I wonder? I suppose it’s a perk of having a Sorcerer for a father.