CHAPTER 25
Nick is speeding through the air rapidly. He cannot hear any other sounds over the thunder of his own pulse. His eyes still ripple with oily murkiness as he closes the distance on the first crow.
The black bird is in mid-flight, but is moving much slower than normal as Nick snatches it with one hand and decapitates it with the claws on his other. Nick's attention is already focusing on the next avian as he squeezes the blood from his first victim into his mouth.
Drake has barely even partially turned his head toward Nick as the young vampire kills the second crow and downs its crimson contents. He kills a third and a fourth all in similar fashion – the birds barely having time to flap their wings much less see Nick.
One gleaming ruby eye widens and the beginnings of a swirl starts to form. Nick swipes at a half dozen crows in mid-peck on Drake's wing. Feathers explode in bloody gore.
Nnn...
Nick hears the first letter of his name start to form in his mind. He is in a blind fury and is skewering multiple birds on his long talons. The night around him appears in an infrared haze. He locks on to a cluster of ebony avian perched on the third story railing of the lodge.
iiiii...
Nick pushes off of Drake's muscular body and screams fiercely as he lands on the first two crows – crushing them under his feet.
icckk...
All crows on the railing are dead. Nick's expression is of blank and mindless fury. The black pools of liquid that have replaced his eyes make him look insidious. More blood spurts as he slices through the rest of the crows suspended in the air.
Nnniii...
Hearing the slowed speech of Drake in his mind, Nick glances down at the alarmed expression on the dragon's face as it struggles to track its rider's movements.
"WHAT!" Nick screams into the night.
He spots the last of the crows taunting from behind Drake and launches himself off the third story balcony as the birds take flight in slow motion. He is already upon them before they can even get a few inches from the ground.
Drake is slowly turning his giant body as Nick dispatches the last of the birds. His face as well as the front of his jerkin are drenched in crow blood. He looks wild and alien with the combination of full-blown vampire features, gore, and liquid obsidian eyes.
Drake has finally completed his spin to face Nick. Their eyes lock for no more than a split second when Nick glances up at the roof of the inn and notices a vampire trying to retreat.
He swiftly crouches and springs up into the air. In the time it takes him to reach the rooftop, the other creature of the night has only taken one step.
Drake is still on the ground, his face a combination of jade hide and crimson blood dripping from the wounds inflicted upon him. He is tracking the path Nick had just taken through the air. His partially torn wings are starting to extend.
On top of the roof, Nick's hands are grasping opposite sides of the frightened vampire's head. His eyes are bulging wide and his mouth starts to open to scream as Nick powerfully twists the creature's cranium. A series of snaps sound loudly as the vampire's face is now turned completely around. The last image the undead being sees is a pair of rippling, oily eyes.
Just then, Sparx appears out of thin air to witness Nick feasting upon the dead vampire. She sees his alien eyes and gasps.
Nick's surge of power is diminishing. He feels the rest of his surroundings start to catch up with him. He glances up from the bloody body he is draining and as the red taint of his vision starts to fade, he sees a terrified looking Sparx gaping at him. Her expression tells all; it's as if she is seeing him for the first time for what he really is – not her beloved friend, Nick, but a bloodthirsty monster.
Nick reaches out to Sparx and cries "Wait!" But she has already vanished. A golden fleck of her pixie dust falls upon the tip of his finger as his eyes return to normal – the oily pools evaporating.