Rage of Vendetta (The Vendetta Series #2)

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The mindless Cambions are freakier at night. 

Their blank eyes take on a cat-like sheen in the dark, glazed over but steady like a predator ready to pounce. I gulp. Heavily.

They’ve noticed us too, the twenty so of them, only standing and staring. I would say they appear to be calculating their next move, but unfortunately, I know better.

They’re receiving their next instructions.

We don’t move a muscle either, afraid the slightest movement will cause the mindless to stir from their precarious state they are in. The traffic below is the only thing breaking the tense silence.

I reach for Sebastian slowly. He doesn’t complain. 

This is really bad. Sebastian has no forms of defence against the supernatural.

I crane my head most slowly past Courtney’s tall frame, taking in the fact the Cambions are gathered in a way that suggests they were all preparing to use the door once in blows open. 

There are dozens of ways into the building. The front door into the lobby is even wide open for use. Why is it so necessary to go through this door?

“Air?” Sasha hisses quietly.

I shift my eyes to look at her without moving too much.

“Yes?”

Shuffling.

“What are you doing?” I ask, feeling her presence slide behind me.

“You’re my shield,” she say simply, and adds, casual as ever, “Look, they’re attacking now.” 

And then I get hit across the face with a chair.

Sasha is lucky I don’t collapse against her. My jawbone clicks so loud I’m shocked it hasn’t pulled right off. 

With that attack, everything else sets into motion, the mindless rushing us at once. The rooftop becomes illuminated in colors, alighting the dark into a cacophony of loud lights.

I spin, grabbing the next chair that comes hurtling over with telekinesis, halting its path. 

“Ariel!” Sebastian shouts, panicked.

“Move out of the way!” I call back. I did warn him this would be dangerous, and I can’t stay in one place to protect him well if I want to make the most of my abilities. “Stay behind Sasha at all times! You hear me?”

With a pissed-off shout, I throw the chair, taking down three of the mindless like they’re bowling pins. 

But they pop right back up.

Sasha’s engulfed herself into a living comet and has no hesitations blowing people up despite her earlier reservations about wanting a shield. Sebastian hunches close, occasionally aiming kicks at the mindless that gets too close. Eric whistles hard into the night, and before I know what’s happening, an entire flock of black ravens dive onto the roof, pecking at the mindless and forming a cloud above us. I would have summoned vultures, but ravens will do too.

“What are you doing?” I hear Vee whisper to Courtney when I dodge an energy bolt a mindless throws at me. I don’t mean to eavesdrop, but I can’t exactly shut off my senses when Nephilum adrenaline is hurtling through my veins like five shots of pure caffeine.

“I know some of these people,” she says quietly. “I may be cold-hearted but killing my uncle was a different question. These people… they were good. Nice. Even when I wasn’t.”