Danse Macabre Read online

  Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  Synopsis

  Get a FREE, EXCLSUVE Short Story

  Also by Katerina Martinez

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  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Follow the Author!

  About the Author

  Also by Katerina Martinez

  Copyright

  DANSE MACABRE

  A Blood and Magick Novel

  Book Four

  By Katerina Martinez

  The dead stalk the streets of New Orleans, and they're out for blood.

  The vampires came with their fangs bared and claws sharpened, and their brutal attacks saw the death of many witches, including one close personal friend. Despite facing insane odds, we beat them back and forced them to retreat into the shadows, but that probably wasn't the best thing, because now they and sit in wait, slowly gathering their strength.

  It falls then to me and my small, rag-tag group of witches, vampires, demons, and even imps, to hunt down and kill the bloodsuckers that make mistakes, but it's like playing a game of whack-a-mole; kill one vampire, and another pops up somewhere else.

  The vampires are faster than us, better at hiding, and they've developed a way to avoid even magical detection. We can't keep the pace up, but our options are limited; that is until we make a discovery that presents us - me - with an option that'll change my life forever, and may just change the course of this war. We're in the twilight hours, the vampires are closing in for the kill, New Orleans hangs in the balance, and I may be the only person who can stop them from tearing us all open with their fangs.

  This is it.

  For a limited time only, you can grab a FREE novella to one of Katerina’s other series by signing up to the authors’ reader group email lists. To opt in, click on the link below and go through the quick sign up process. There’s no spam, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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  Also by Lee Dignam & Katerina Martinez

  Magic Blood Series

  The Warlock

  Book 1: Demons and Deception

  Book 2: Mages and Masquerades

  Book 3: Scions and Sorcery

  Book 4: Hellfire and Homicide

  Book 5: Warlocks and Wickedness

  Magic Blood Series

  The Primal

  Book 1: Hunter’s Calling

  The Blood and Magick Series

  Book 1: Magick Reborn

  Book 2: Demon’s Kiss

  Book 3: Witch’s Wrath

  The Half-Lich Series

  THE HALF-LICH BOXED SET

  Book 1: Dark Siren

  Book 2: The Void Weaver

  Book 3: Night and Chaos

  The Amber Lee Series

  THE AMBER LEE BOXED SET

  Book 1: True Witch

  Book 2: Dark Witch

  Book 3: Shadow Witch

  Book 4: Red Witch

  Book 5: Devil’s Witch

  The Cursed and Damned Series

  Book 1: The Dead Wolves

  The Order of Prometheus Series

  Book 1: Smoke and Shadows

  Book 2: Cloak and Daggers

  You can also join Katerina’s Inner Circle of Mages on Facebook, where you’ll be able to interact with her directly, whenever you want! That’s also where she’ll be sharing early snippets, early cover reveals, and more contests!

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  CHAPTER ONE

  First it had separated our group, and now the vampire had forced me into a room from which I didn’t think I could get out. I tried regulating my breathing by taking long, deep breaths, but in the stark darkness even the sound of my own exertion was unnerving. I shut my mouth and tried to swallow the anxiety, only my body was running too hot, and the adrenaline coursing through my veins only made things worse.

  Through sheer force of will I managed to wrangle a moment of clarity, enough to whisper the word “Lumiére.” A blessedly cool breeze touched my hot skin, bringing a moment of comfort in an otherwise uncomfortable situation. An instant later, from my left hand started to grow a soft, silvery light that spread just far enough to let me see my immediate surroundings.

  “Well, that’s just great,” I whispered to myself, rolling my eyes and shaking my head.

  “Maddie… can you hear me?” That was Nicole’s voice, and it was beaming directly into my mind.

  “I can hear you just fine,” I said, looking around the abandoned, crumbling room I found myself in. This had once been a hospital ward, a place where people came to get better. Now it was a home to all manner of creepy, crawling insects, disease-ridden rodents, and even worse things. Coming here had been a mistake, this was its turf, but we didn’t have a choice. If we hadn’t moved in on it when we did, it would’ve gone somewhere else and we’d have had to start all over again.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Let’s see… I’m trapped in a dark room in an old, creepy hospital, I have no idea where everyone else is, and there’s a vampire somewhere nearby that I’m pretty sure wants to rip my tongue out with its bare hands… so, yeah, I’m okay. How about you?”

  “Okay, I know it looks bad, but I can feel everyone else. You’re not alone, and no one’s dead.”

  “Well, if we’re setting the bar based on how many of us have died, then I guess we’re doing great.”

  I moved through a crumbling doorframe that had surrendered to the termites years ago, shifting my body carefully to avoid wayward nails and bits of sharp wood. Light from my hand touched the tips of objects, some which glinted like they were made of metal. As I moved deeper into the room I saw twisted, old bed frames, but no mattresses; chairs that had been bolted down but now no longer had cushions on them; and cables hanging from the ceiling like limp snakes. On the other side of the room there was a door. I started moving toward it.

  “Where’s Jared?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

  “You’re not far from each other. Nina circled back and is heading out of the hospital; she’s gonna go around it to get to you.”

  “Around it? But this place is huge.”

  “You try arguing with her, then.”

  “I’m good. This is probably a stupid question, but—” a sound like a metal can rolling along the floor derailed my train of thought and sent it careening off its tracks. I spun around on the spot, my left hand raised, light shining brightly from it. I couldn’t see what had made that noise, but it had come from this room, I was sure of it.

  My heart started hammering against my chest, and the light emanating from my fingers pulsed with the same rhythm.

  “Maddie? What happened?” Nicole asked.

  “Don’t suppose you’ve got eyes on the vampire, do you?” I asked, keeping my voice low. It was stupid to even try lowering my voice; the vampire’s senses were so sharp it could probably even hear the psychic conversation Nicole and I were having. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but the point needed to be made. I was whispering because my instincts made me, though in truth I could’ve been speaking at my normal level for all the good it did me.

  “I can’t see it,” Nicole said, “These fuckers are impossible to spot with magick.”

  “Impossible to spot with your regular senses, too,” I muttered. “Do you have any idea how I can get out of here?”

  “It’s hard to get a ment
al map of the place. It’s like the rooms keep shifting.”

  “That’s the vampire’s doing… fuck, what about that door?” I was already heading toward it, but if Nicole could’ve told me what was on the other side of it, I’d have felt a lot more comfortable about what I was getting into.

  “Looks like it leads to a hallway… I think the hallway is clear.”

  “If it isn’t, and the vampire kills me, I’m gonna haunt the crap out of you.”

  “Got it… don’t die.”

  I reached the metal door, fingers trembling from the adrenaline pumping through my body as I went for the handle. The door itself was old, and the knob was covered in rust; the joints, too. I tried opening it, but the door only squeaked, and barely budged an inch. I tried pushing down on the handle even harder, but the thing broke off in my hand and fell to the floor with a thud.

  “Excellent,” I said to the darkness. “I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.”

  “You’re right, you know,” Nicole said, her voice sounding like an echo in the back of my head.

  I readied my right hand and aimed it, palm out, at the door. “Right about what?”

  “The old-fashioned way… witches have been using magick to do their hard labor for millennia. How do you think the pyramids were built?”

  Frowning. “Slaves… it was slaves, Nicole.”

  “Was it?”

  “You’re trolling me, and I need to concentrate. Hush up a second.”

  I took a deep breath followed by another, and another. I could feel the magick move through my arm and flow into the palm of my hand, causing every muscle and bone it touched to vibrate as if an electric current were passing through it. I had avoided the use of powerful, earth-shaking magick because the building I was in was old as hell, and one wrong move could send the whole thing down. I’d have tried this on the door I’d been pushed through a moment ago, but I knew for a fact a whole pile of debris was sitting on the other side of it and I’d need to conjure a ton of power to push through it.

  This one probably only needed a nudge.

  Grunting, I pulled my hand back and then thrust it toward the door, pushing every drop of magick I had collected out of me in a powerful blast aimed directly ahead. The door buckled and strained, joints cracking and popping under the pressure. It was an old door, but it had been shut for so long, it was practically fused to the frame. Finally, the door gave way and exploded outwards, slamming into a wall immediately behind it kicking up a cloud of dust and debris.

  So much for a nudge, Maddie.

  I took a step toward the now open archway, but a series of cracks stole my attention. What I hadn’t accounted for, though, was the role the door was playing in holding the ceiling up. “Shit!” I yelped, as large chunks of masonry began to fall from above, smashing into the ground and breaking apart into smaller pieces. I turned around and ran, trying to get as far away from the falling ceiling as I could, hoping I hadn’t just brought this entire hospital down.

  The collapse slowly stopped, and I waited in the room I had come from until it did, listening out for the last few remaining pieces of stone, and brick, and concrete to fall. I’d kicked up so much dust, I’d started coughing. It was getting difficult to breathe, but a quick flick of my wrist whipped up a gust of wind powerful enough to keep the air immediately around me clear of as much dust as possible, allowing me to catch my breath, if only barely.

  “Maddie… Maddie! Are you okay?” Nicole asked through the psychic link she’d created between us.

  Coughing to clear my throat. “Yeah, I’m fine. I think I just made things worse, but I’m fine.”

  “Can you get out?”

  “I don’t know…”

  I started moving toward the room I’d inadvertently caved in and let my light shine through it. The ceiling was almost entirely destroyed, several pieces of it having fallen to the floor and smashed into much smaller pieces. One whole section of the ceiling had fallen through but not quite broken apart as it came, creating a slanting hill onto the next floor up. Considering it had fallen directly in front of the hole I’d just made, I now didn’t have a choice but to climb it if I wanted to get out.

  Either that or throw another burst of magic into another, though considering I’d need to put even more power into that than I’d thrown at the door, there was a chance I would definitely bring the hospital down on myself, and that was likely to suck. I shook my head, approached the slanting ceiling, found a good hand-hold, and started to climb, hoping to all the Gods the slab of concrete wouldn’t decide to split in half as I was climbing it.

  That was when I felt his cold breath on the nape of my neck.

  I’d felt it before, this phantom sensation, this warning that it was close enough to touch me if it wanted to. Only now, the feeling wasn’t fleeting; it didn’t pass. As I stood, rooted to the spot, I felt another push of cold air against my skin and knew, this time, the thing I’d come here to hunt wasn’t just playing games with me; it had come to play.

  My eyes widened, my chest tightened, as did my grip on the fallen ceiling. When it spoke, a rush of goose flesh spread across the back of my neck all the way into my arms. “Hello, little witch,” it whispered, its voice like poisoned honey.

  I knew if I turned around, I would be dead before I even laid eyes on it. These things were fast, insanely so. I also knew if I made any sort of move at all—whether that was to climb forward or kick out with my foot—I would be dead before I’d finished doing either of those things. I only had one trick, and it had to work.

  “Lumiére,” I whispered, rushing the word and shutting my eyes. My hand was already glowing, but now that glow became as bright as a football stadium floodlight. My vision turned red as the brightness overwhelmed me, but the vampire at my back hissed and retreated from the light, giving me enough time to climb like my life depended on it—and it totally did.

  I could hear it scuttling around behind me, smashing into things like a disoriented cat. By the time it had regained its bearings, I was already up on the next floor and shining my light, palm out, into the dark room below me. The vampire was there, caught in the light and defiantly staring up at me with its cold, dead eyes. Its skin was pale white and run through with purple veins, its fangs were poking out from behind its upper lip, and its hair was ruffled and messy, but still there was an inescapable beauty about him.

  Maybe it was the shape of its jaw, the sharp angles of its face, the light stubble that had been on its cheeks the night it was turned. I had yet to see a vampire that wasn’t pretty to look at, and that made them all the more dangerous. They made you drop your guard with their looks, some of them even had the power to make themselves more beautiful, to the point where they’d lock you up in a trance from which you didn’t really want to escape.

  This wasn’t one of those vampires, but that didn’t make it any less dangerous.

  “You want me?” I yelled, “Come and get me!”

  The vampire bared its fangs at me and hissed, then it started up the sloping slab of fallen concrete with the quickness its kind were known for. It moved like a blur, looking almost like it was gliding at an angle toward me, and—I could tell—thinking very much that it had me where it wanted me. I took a step back, crossing the line of broken concrete and finding level ground, then turned my hands down at the slab leading to the floor below, and wrapped enough magick around it to pull it up and send it shooting into the ceiling above me with a massive crunch that made the walls tremble.

  I watched the vampire shoot off to the side just as the ceiling became a floor, which told me it had probably avoided being smooshed. As debris began to fall, I held my hands up, summoned Eliza’s impenetrable shield, and started sprinting around the edge of the room, sticking as close to the wall as possible.

  The sky came down hard and fast. Pieces of brick and mortar slammed into the bubble of magick I had surrounded myself in, causing sparks of light to burst in all directions. Some of the smaller pieces of rubbl
e vaporized as soon as they touched the sphere, other larger ones fell away from me without turning me into witch mush, but I could feel every last impact in my chest, and some of them felt like being punched.

  Ahead of me I spotted the vampire, little more than a dark blur against the stark white light beaming from my hand. It zipped through an open doorway lightning fast, and I gave chase as the floor behind me fell away, pushing through into the other room only a couple of seconds behind it, but it wasn’t there. The air was heavy with dust motes which glittered against the light puling from my hand, but the vampire wasn’t there. Had I missed it? Had it tricked me? This room was a dead end, by the rusted old stacks knocked across the floor I figured it was a store room with no window. There was nowhere it could’ve gone.

  I couldn’t hold my shield any longer, so I let it fall and scanned the darkness, scowling, heart thundering against my neck.

  The vampire fell on me from above with enough force to send me to the floor. I struggled to break free, but this thing was much stronger than I was. It had gripped my wrists with his hands, and they were like vices around my bones, to the point of inflicting so much pain I thought the bones would give way and let themselves be crushed under the pressure.

  “Good little trick, bitch,” the vampire hissed, “But you’re too slow.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a glint of green in the darkness. I grinned. “And you’re not as perceptive as you think.”

  The vampire snarled, arched its head back, opened its mouth wide, and went to plunge his teeth into my neck, but there was a sudden flash of green and a whoosh of flame, and the vampire pulled itself off me in a hurry. I fought to get to my feet, watching the vampire flail around the room, desperately slapping a tongue of green flame off its shoulder.