Taste a Thousand Deaths (Marionettes of Myth #3)

Chapter Fifteen

Carmi's head swung when four bodies lurched with impact.

These weren't just any bullets. These were sniper bullets. These were gaping holes-in-the-chest bullets. Before Yuuhi and Nekane and Leon and Jason could even hit the ground, the vampire lords moved. And they moved so fast. Xue and Renatus vanished with Yuuhi and Nekane and Leon before Carmi could even think to react.

But before either Seth or Aemilius could get to Jason, something happened.

The air ruptured.

Carmi's eyes snapped open. Suddenly he was on his back, a twister of wind shredding every raindrop and every shard of ice into mist. Carmi shielded his eyes and squinted against the new hurricane just as a single pair of feet slammed the ground and created a new crater. Seth and Aemilius had already retreated in opposite directions, their eyes wide.

They had not expected this.

Apparently Cassius or his seer hadn't either.

The air cleared. The rain had stopped completely, and standing with Jason's shaking body in a pair of strong arms was a man Carmi had never seen before, with the same long, gracefully pointed ears as Kirin, his eyes smoldering like red mirrors in the dark as short black hair tossed with the wind.

And those mirrors sliced into Aemilius, a low, dangerous growl of a wild animal rumbling in his chest. Carmi could feel the growl between his own ribs, like the shudder of an amp.

Aemilius lifted both hands and consequently his cane, and even Seth backed away, and the more cordial of the two lords inclined his head. "Seems we've done all that can be done tonight. Good evening, then."

The two remaining vampire lords vanished.

The strange man switched to Prometheus and Epimetheus. "I'm taking him to the hospital."

Prometheus rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses as his twin said, "Go."

The demon man hesitated, like he had expected something else, but then he turned to the others who remained, and he held Jason's bleeding body as if he were cradling his own son. "I can take a few with me."

Kali shook with shock beside Toivo, both of them on their knees, and even then Carmi wasn't sure what held her upright. Her attention struggled between Jason in this man's arms and where Yuuhi had been just seconds ago.

Ave teetered on quivering legs, her hands over her mouth as she stared at Jason and the man, though it looked like her wide eyes didn't even see either of them. If her lips parted, if she tried to say anything, nothing came out. Then her gaze moved to Toivo's wound. Toivo seemed to have forgotten about it completely, blood staining his shirt as he stared at the man.

Kali finally clambered to her feet. "Toivo and I can follow behind."

The man's reflected eyes scanned Carmi, Zia and Tian, before landing on Ave. "Then let's go."

Carmi didn't get to breathe before the wind sucked the oxygen from his lungs and shredded him apart. He lost all solidity, a grain of sand swept up by the current and stolen down the river. He couldn't see anything. It was too dark. Nothing was clear. Shapes and lights smeared like one of Raye's paintings, the way her hand splotched color and texture with one of her fanned brushes, how beautiful it was when nothing made sense.