Forever Knight [Harmione]

Chapter 30: Tested

Hermione felt the presence of humans, vampires and half-formed werewolves apparating outside the Krum perimeter walls. Any moment now, the fighting would begin, and she had to think of a way to draw first blood.  She clutched her sword, mentally going over the pre-battle questions:

Will you remember your sword forms?  Are your guns locked and loaded?  Are you ready to take the pain?

Each and every answer to the question had to be yes, or else she just might get herself killed too soon into the fight.

A dark figure in the distance rose into the air, wings like a raven’s flapping and stirring the flecks of ice in whirls.   

“There’s Deardra,” Solomon said. 

Beneath the winged vampire were the rest of the Death Eaters.  They would be walking through the snow to cross the courtyard because the Krum property had anti-apparition wards. 

Hermione tightened her grip on her sheathed sword.  “Sol.  Go.”

Solomon took off with vampiric speed.  Lucien took off after him and Hermione followed, pulling her sword free of its scabbard as she went.

Across the courtyard, Hermione saw Deardra’s gaze dart towards them, and seconds later, Deardra was off to meet them in an attack. 

Deardra dove towards them like a bird of prey, her razor-sharp claws elongating as she came.

Those very claws had beheaded many an unsuspecting vampire in the last twenty years of Deardra’s existence. Deardra was quite deadly in her own right and she had done some contract jobs for the coven in the past.  She was a mercenary, and perhaps she had gotten paid enough money to join with a human faction.  Money was, after all, what drove her, and that above everything else, was the reason Hermione was going to take her down this night. 

Solomon skidded into a graceful crouch ahead and Hermione planted her foot on his shoulder as she reached him.  He heaved, tossing her into the air like a springboard.  She flew into deadly action, sword and body melding in fierce combat.

Muscles tightening, she glided into form as she swung and Deardra’s claws blocked her sword.  The rasp of steel against claws sang through the air.  Vampire had caught vampire, but it was exactly what Hermione had hoped.  Using Deardra’s grip on her sword as leverage, she twisted, pulled her aikuchi out of its sheathe, and sank the silver blade right through Deardra’s spine. 

Deardra’s shriek ripped through the battlefield like a woeful siren and she batted Hermione away with a powerful smack of her raven wings. 

Hermione felt the wing land right on her gut and she braced herself for the jarring fall, even as she landed into a graceful, skidding crouch.  She sank her sword’s blade into the snow and ground as she slid.

Deardra crashed into the snowdrifts as battle exploded all around them.

The humans scrambled for cover as hexes came at them from all around.  Werewolves and vampires clashed in the open courtyard, blood and bone mingling as limbs were torn and sliced. 

Hermione felt herself vamp as the smell of blood permeated the air. 

Deardra batted snow at Hermione and the ice struck Hermione’s face with shocking force.  Her instinct was to move back, knowing full well that Deardra would take that opportunity to attack. The spray had barely dissipated when she felt the tip of Deardra’s claws rake across her body.  She felt a distinct sting on her throat.  The welling of blood and the warm wetness that accompanied it was a reminder that had she been fool enough to stay planted on the spot when Deardra created her diversion, Hermione’s head would be rolling on the ground.