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Damien retaliated as though he’d never been hit, dodging blows and trading them with his own. The minotaur roared and continued to fight, the burning patches of fur appearing to do nothing to stop it.
Damien attacked, fists aflame, each blow a drumbeat of war. The minotaur stumbled, faltered, but would not fall. How the hell were we going to get out of this alive?
And then, a gasp. A choke. A jerk.
The minotaur froze before it fell forward with a loud crash that echoed down the hall. A hand was holding its still-beating heart. A hand that belonged to the vampire Matriarch herself, standing there in the same black dress from earlier, but this time, it wasn’t a projection. She was really there, her devil-laced red smile curving as she lifted the heart to her lips.
She drank with a smile, and I realized then that we were just as dead as the minotaur.
Chapter 26
Run
Damien
Helstriva, the vampire Matriarch, stood with blood dripping down her chin, those sickening tentacles latching onto the minotaur’s heart, slithering into the aorta and bursting out of the bottom. She slurped as if she were drinking a smoothie after a day spent in the hot summer sun. She relished it, and we were just two more pieces of meat, hypnotized by the dread of inescapable death.
I looked to Robby, who’d gone paper pale. He was seconds from collapsing. The potion—the one we had come this far for—was still held in his hands with a white-knuckled grip.
No, this can’t be the way we go. I’ll get us out of this.
The Matriarch dropped the heart to the ground with a wet splat, where it fell next to the corpse of its previous owner. The minotaur’s thick tongue lolled out of his snout, close to where the heart had fallen. My stomach flipped. I’d never felt fear like this before. It went beyond bone-chilling. This was the kind of dread that came down on someone seconds away from a death that they could see coming.
The Matriarch licked her bloody fingers before she said, “I didn’t want to miss the party. And neither did my friends.”
That’s when the situation went from “oh shit” to “we’re fucking done.” The sound of claws scratching against the floor came from around the corner, immediately followed by unnerving laughter. The kind of laughs produced by a sicko enjoying the torture they were performing on a captive. A bloodthirsty laugh… something otherworldly almost.
And then they turned the corner. If I wasn’t shocked at seeing the Matriarch, I was definitely shocked at seeing the Shades.
They were demonic. Creatures that had no semblance to anything that had been naturally created. They were made of shadow and ink and nightmares, standing on two legs with four long arms that reached down to their knees and ended in bladelike claws, covered in cracked flesh, the skin around their eyeless faces pulled much too tight. They had jaws that unhinged, sporting rows and rows of yellowed teeth sharper than diamonds.
What the hell was the Matriarch doing with these abominations? They hadn’t been seen in decades. Not since the Chaos King had been banging away at his prison. Could that mean…
“Don’t look so scared, boys.” Helstriva put her hands on both Shades, petting their bald heads as if they were her fluffy little Pomeranians. A tentacle slipped out from her red-lipped smile, licking at her chin. “I’m only here to kill one of you.” Those endless orbs of death locked in on a terrified-looking Robby before shifting over to me. “Now, which one of you wants to dance with me first?”
The Shades giggled like rabid hyenas. I let two fireballs loose, landing directly on the Matriarch’s chest and fizzling away without a single thread of her dress burned. She smiled.
“Guess that’ll be you,” she purred.
“Robby… run!” I grabbed Robby’s hand and yanked him backward. He nearly tripped on himself but managed to keep his footing as I dragged us down the hallway. Those nightmarish laughs immediately followed behind us.
“Don’t kill the human,” the Matriarch commanded as she gave pursuit.
We sprinted down the labyrinthine corridors, our breaths ragged, hearts pounding like drums in our ears. The excited screeching of the Shades echoed behind us, growing nearer with each passing second. The dark, twisted maze seemed to close in on us.
A Potion of Will—turn left. I yanked Robby down the left hall, loosing another fireball over my shoulder.
A Tonic of Philosophy—right.
We ran down the right path, bouncing off the wall and running, running, running. I held on tight to Robby’s hand. I could hear his terrified breathing, his occasional whimpers. I let another fireball fly behind us, and another and another. But I knew the flame wouldn’t stop these monsters.
Nothing would stop them until they got what they wanted.
I glanced back to see the terrifying sight of the Shades coming after us, their ink-like bodies gliding over the floor, claws reaching out, eager to rend flesh from bone. The Matriarch, her eyes glowing with a murderous rage, floated behind them, the midnight-black dress billowing behind her, clinging to her form, her long black hair flowing along with it.
