Read Online Wardbreaker: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles) by J.A. Cipriano - Free Book Online

with his face. The creature cartwheeled backward across the pavement like he’d been hit by a wrecking ball. Luc stood there, covered in vampire blood and shining like a goddamned star.
    As the vampire got to his feet, Luc pulled what looked like a piece of paper from his pocket and drew a symbol on it with one bloody finger. The sheet began to glow violently, throwing off color in every shade of the rainbow. He balled his fist around the sheet as the vampire charged him, fangs bared.
    Luc ducked the first swing, but the second one caught him in the stomach, actually lifting him from the air. Spittle exploded from his mouth as he careened backward, the paper slipping from his hands. It fluttered slowly toward the ground as the vampire turned back toward me and licked his lips.
    “Ready to die, Dioscuri?” he asked, running his tongue over his oversized fangs. I was about to reply with something snappy like “not really” or “come over here and find out jackass” when the vamp stepped on the crumpled, bloody note.
    Silver fire exploded up his leg, reducing it to ash in the space of a second. He screamed, reaching down toward his leg, but as he touched it, the limb actually crumbled to the ground as his fingers swept through it. The motion sent him toppling to the ground, howling.
    I wasn’t quite sure what Luc had done to the paper, but I was going to have to find out after this was over. He had way too many secrets for it to be good. I gripped my wakazashi and moved toward the creature, but I’d barely taken a step when Luc waved me off. He was kneeling on the street a little ways away, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
    “No,” he wheezed, getting to his feet and wincing as he spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the ground. The blue glow had mostly faded from his body, but being that he’d just blown the leg off a vampire with paper, I was inclined to listen to him, for now.
    “Why?” I asked, sucking in one wheezing breath. Everything hurt. That wasn’t good. If I was injured badly enough, my body would try and repair itself, and since I didn’t have any energy left, it would start cannibalizing itself to make the needed repairs. The only way I could stop that from happening was by eating, soon.
    “If you touch him, it might spread to you,” he replied, leaning against the prison van for support. My gaze swung back to the vampire, and sure enough, the silver flame had spread to the hand that had touched the ash and was traveling down the screaming creature’s arm. I watched in amazement as the vampire was consumed inch by inch until nothing but dust remained. It was the single most horrible thing I’d seen in quite a while. Calvin would be proud.
     

Chapter 6
    “Don’t take another step,” I screamed, pointing my sword at Luc and wishing I had something more long range like a shotgun or a rocket launcher. He was still leaning against the vampires’ modified prison van, but he’d looked like he was going to start walking toward me at any second. The blue light had faded from his body, but I didn’t much care. He’d just burned a vampire to death with a piece of paper. I wasn’t sure what the hell he was, but it wasn’t normal.
    “Lillim, it’s okay. I’m one of the good guys,” he said, trying to smile at me but wound up wincing. No doubt, the Bear’s punch had hurt something inside of him.
    “News flash, bad guys think they’re the good guys too,” I snarled, wishing I hadn’t come to this town at all. I’d just wanted somewhere with nice weather and no monsters. Was that too much to ask for?
    Luc chuckled, shaking his head. “You make an excellent point, but I did just save you from him.” He gestured vaguely at the pile of ash that had been the vampire.
    “Maybe that’s just part of your plan?” I said as a horrible realization came over me. Where had the vampire I’d kicked from the car gone? I looked around, frantically, confident I could ignore Luc for a