Branded by Rob Cornell Read Free Book Online

second, then I watched the glow in them fade.
    He sagged forward and dropped on top of me, his weight pushing the last bit of stale air in my lungs out. My body’s instinct betrayed me and I gasped involuntarily. Before the vampire crumbled into ash, I felt the wetness of his blood hit the back of my throat.
    Oh, gods, no.
    I spat blood and ash. But it was too late. Even as I sputtered and coughed, I knew it was too late. The vampire’s blood had entered my system.
    I was infected.
    A wave of anger rolled through me. I bucked against my chains. My magic pulsed through my body and I unleashed its raw nature outward. I didn’t need to aim. The raw force broke the chains away from my body.
    The vampires around me were either shouting, screaming, or even crying at the sight of what had happened to their comrade. I got the impression he was some sort of elder or leader among them. Seeing their master cremated right before their eyes had shocked them. A few cowered away from me as I swung my legs off the table and stood, the chains rattling behind me.
    One of the vamps charged me.
    The power I had pulled from my rage still coursed through me. I rolled it up into a fiery ball and all but obliterated the attacker in one blow. He turned to a cloud of dust and embers before he got anywhere near me.
    This show of power made the others hesitate. I stood surrounded by them, but none of them dared another attack. It was a sort of Mexican standoff, the magical equivalent of the climax to so many Quentin Tarantino movies.
    I turned in a slow circle until I spotted the warehouse’s exit. Beyond the vampires standing in front of me, there stretched about fifty yards between me and a large steel rollup door. Even if I used magic to throw the door open, I could not outrun a pack of vampires. The only reason I had managed to catch up to Darius Strong on Belle Isle was because I had toasted him pretty good first.
    I either had to fight and kill them all, or die. And if I died, that would be the least of my worries, because with my body lifeless, nothing would stand in the way of the vampire infection from taking over and turning me into one of these freaks.
    I raised my hands, still running on the anger I had used to vaporize that last vampire. I drew on every shred of my magical stores. My hands lit up with pure blue flames. The sight made the circle of vampires back up. Before they could spread out too far and make this spell all the more difficult, I swung my arms out at my sides and summoned a ring of fire.
    I felt something in the center of my being tear. Like an over extended psychic muscle. I had tapped into a deeper store of power than I had ever accessed in my life.
    It was enough.
    The ring of flame shot outward and engulfed the vampires standing around me.
    Their howls and screams sounded like a choir of devils.
    Every one of them was covered from head to toe in flames. They flailed about, stumbling into one another.
    I waited until a gap between them opened and I hurried out of the circle. I sensed one come tearing at me. I threw out my hand, palm facing the attacker, and shouted, “No.”
    A wave of solid air struck him and sent him flying like a fiery comet.
    My legs buckled and I fell to one knee. My heart pounded. Suddenly, I found it hard to breathe.
    What the hell is going on?
    Too much magic in one night, topped with a massive amount of blood loss, and a mouthful of vamp blood. That’s what was going on. I had limits. Everyone and everything does. I had just never tested mine.
    I never wanted to again, thank you very much.
    I forced myself back to my feet.
    Most of the burning vampires had either turned to smoking piles of dust or had dropped to the floor to spend their last seconds undead as little more than firewood.
    I staggered toward the garage door. I lifted a hand, intended to magically roll the door up on its tracks, but I hesitated. There was no point in wasting any more energy. But when I tried to lift the door by