Blair Nightshade's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The serpent struck. Blair twisted aside, but a fang raked her shoulder. She hit the dirt beside the open stone door. The snake coiled for another lunge. It was faster than her. One more strike and it would pin her to the ground. She needed something to stop it, and she had nothing but her hands. Ella stood frozen at the edge of the pit. The small zombie had not run, though she easily could have. Her black eyes fixed on the snake, not the door. "It eats the dead," she said. "That's what feeds it down there. Corpses." Blair rolled clear of another bite. "Then give it one!" Ella did not move toward the snake. Instead she turned and dug both hands into the grey grass near the bush of black lilies. Blair had thought it only roots and dirt. But Ella hauled up a torn arm, then a shoulder, then a whole body. An old corpse, long dead, its clothes shredded. Deep bite marks scarred its chest and legs. Snake wounds. Something had tried to climb down before. "Help me," Ella grunted. She could not lift it alone. Blair understood. She grabbed the corpse's legs. The snake swung toward her, jaws wide. Together they heaved the dead body up and flung it into the gaping mouth. The serpent clamped down on reflex. It swallowed the shoulder, the ribs, the whole ravaged shape, dragging it backward into the dark stairwell. For a moment the snake thrashed, choking on its meal. Blair did not wait. She dove past its writhing coils and down the first three steps. Her feet found stone. The throat of the court opened below her, cold and black. She looked back up. Ella stood at the lip of the door, framed by the bleeding roses. The snake was already turning from its meal, blocking the stairs again. It cut Ella off above. "Come down," Blair said. "Before it finishes." Ella shook her head. "I told you. I don't want the throne." She stepped back from the edge. "But you owe me now, vampire. Remember that when you wear your crown." The serpent lunged for the open door. Its body slammed across the stairs, sealing the way behind Blair. She pressed flat against the cold wall as scales slid past her face. When they passed, the top of the stairs was gone. Only the snake's huge coiled bulk, and beyond it, the faint grey of the night she had left. Blair stood alone on the stairs. She had crossed the guardian. The door was behind her now, shut by the very creature she had fed. There was no climbing back past those fangs. Her shoulder bled where the tooth had torn it. Below her waited the court and its throne. The only way left was down.