Read Online Vampire Down (Blood Skies, Book 7) by Steven Montano - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Steven Montano
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towers glow like dim candles, and the cities are razor juggernauts, obscene jags of twisted steel and bone. Vast fogs of pollutant stretch across the land like a sea of poison. Iron railways trace veins along the cracked and blood-stained earth. Red brick and dark walls, dismal sepulchers and cobbled mazes of flesh.
Though everything is different, much is familiar. Black Scar has fallen; New Koth still stands, ruled by a lich council after Cross saw to the death of the Old One, Knight. His friends are still there, and they’ve suffered the same fates as they had before.
He never could have imagined a world worse than the one he knew, but here it stands.
A landscape of waste, crushed stones, forgotten forests filled with blood-hungry beasts and forlorn necropolises. Vampires roam the land in bladed warships and iron crafts, hunting down survivors. Humans live in fear, either of the Ebon Kingdoms or of the Coalition. It is a new hell.
He sees Danica. She’s survived, moving through the forest. Walls of flame and fire smoke surround her.
There’s no sign of Ronan, or Shiv. Cross’s heart twists like a knife in his chest. The atmosphere is thick with grit and thaumaturgic backwash, hideous fluid rained down by a cadre of Raza assassins. Danica has no choice but to flee, and she retreats back to the headlands where they first spied the white plume of smoke. She’ll wait for him, he knows it. She loves him, and she won’t give up.
“ Do you understand, Cross?” Hasker said.
Cross heard the voice distantly. The details inside the vision were hazy, and when he forced his eyes open the small iron room was still full with white fog smelling of something freshly skinned. His skin was flushed with heat. He no longer stood but sat on the floor, his back against the wall.
“They changed everything...” he said.
“ What is he talking about?” Hasker demanded. Cross didn’t hear a response. “Do you see your woman?” Hasker said, closer now. Cross could just make out his bald pate in the darkness as the man looked down on him like some pale tower.
“ Yes,” he said. “She got away.”
“ I let her. Get. Away.” Hasker backed up, his hands clasped behind his back. “You’re going to do what we want, Cross. To keep her safe.”
“ She’d...” Cross blinked against the unnaturally bright light. Silver glints sparked off the corner of his vision. He felt thickheaded, and his thoughts were starting to float away. “She’d kick your scrawny ass...”
Laughter. Then pain, a spike of hurt which spread up his arm. It was difficult to focus on the wound in the smoky haze of the hut, increasingly harder to even discern what was happening.
“We let her live,” Hasker said. “We can change that.”
Cross laughed to himself. He knew how powerful she was.
“I have the schematics to that arm of hers,” Hasker said. Cross’s heart went cold. Something in Hasker’s voice told him it wasn’t a bluff. “It’s based on Cruj tech. Black Scar was desperate for money before we finally destroyed that shithole a few months ago. They had all sorts of interesting things in there.” Cross heard him walking, and barely made him out on the other side of the room. “If I give the command, she dies. Wherever she is, whoever she’s with. It won’t matter.” He sipped from a cup of something. Cross tried to imagine himself crossing the room and snapping the little bastard’s head open, but without the sword he was useless. Just a broken old man.
“ What do you...what do you want?” he asked. He heard the fear in his voice, which meant Hasker heard it, too.
“ The swords,” Hasker said again. “It all comes down to the swords.”
“ You have them.”
“ And we have you.”
“ So what am I supposed to do with them?”
Now the Raza appeared. Her face was stark and pale, frightening in its
Though everything is different, much is familiar. Black Scar has fallen; New Koth still stands, ruled by a lich council after Cross saw to the death of the Old One, Knight. His friends are still there, and they’ve suffered the same fates as they had before.
He never could have imagined a world worse than the one he knew, but here it stands.
A landscape of waste, crushed stones, forgotten forests filled with blood-hungry beasts and forlorn necropolises. Vampires roam the land in bladed warships and iron crafts, hunting down survivors. Humans live in fear, either of the Ebon Kingdoms or of the Coalition. It is a new hell.
He sees Danica. She’s survived, moving through the forest. Walls of flame and fire smoke surround her.
There’s no sign of Ronan, or Shiv. Cross’s heart twists like a knife in his chest. The atmosphere is thick with grit and thaumaturgic backwash, hideous fluid rained down by a cadre of Raza assassins. Danica has no choice but to flee, and she retreats back to the headlands where they first spied the white plume of smoke. She’ll wait for him, he knows it. She loves him, and she won’t give up.
“ Do you understand, Cross?” Hasker said.
Cross heard the voice distantly. The details inside the vision were hazy, and when he forced his eyes open the small iron room was still full with white fog smelling of something freshly skinned. His skin was flushed with heat. He no longer stood but sat on the floor, his back against the wall.
“They changed everything...” he said.
“ What is he talking about?” Hasker demanded. Cross didn’t hear a response. “Do you see your woman?” Hasker said, closer now. Cross could just make out his bald pate in the darkness as the man looked down on him like some pale tower.
“ Yes,” he said. “She got away.”
“ I let her. Get. Away.” Hasker backed up, his hands clasped behind his back. “You’re going to do what we want, Cross. To keep her safe.”
“ She’d...” Cross blinked against the unnaturally bright light. Silver glints sparked off the corner of his vision. He felt thickheaded, and his thoughts were starting to float away. “She’d kick your scrawny ass...”
Laughter. Then pain, a spike of hurt which spread up his arm. It was difficult to focus on the wound in the smoky haze of the hut, increasingly harder to even discern what was happening.
“We let her live,” Hasker said. “We can change that.”
Cross laughed to himself. He knew how powerful she was.
“I have the schematics to that arm of hers,” Hasker said. Cross’s heart went cold. Something in Hasker’s voice told him it wasn’t a bluff. “It’s based on Cruj tech. Black Scar was desperate for money before we finally destroyed that shithole a few months ago. They had all sorts of interesting things in there.” Cross heard him walking, and barely made him out on the other side of the room. “If I give the command, she dies. Wherever she is, whoever she’s with. It won’t matter.” He sipped from a cup of something. Cross tried to imagine himself crossing the room and snapping the little bastard’s head open, but without the sword he was useless. Just a broken old man.
“ What do you...what do you want?” he asked. He heard the fear in his voice, which meant Hasker heard it, too.
“ The swords,” Hasker said again. “It all comes down to the swords.”
“ You have them.”
“ And we have you.”
“ So what am I supposed to do with them?”
Now the Raza appeared. Her face was stark and pale, frightening in its
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