Blade Of The Vampire King (Book 4) by Lucas Thorn

in the Glass . “Think I'll start with him. The feller calling Ahod.”
    Seeing the elf for the first time, the man panicked. But kept screaming for his fleeing comrade. “Ahod!”
    “Well?” The elf's grin curled cruel. She jumped. Hit the ground running. Could already taste the blood she was about to spill. “You heard the man.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    There were six Grey Jackets pressed against the wall. She couldn't see any sign of the cleric and assumed the soldiers had split up to explore the labyrinthine caves. Felt with gut instinct more than any astute guess that Hyrax wouldn't be close enough to save the men struggling to stay alive.
    Forming a wall in front of the soldiers was a small army of skeletons. Old dry flesh still sticking to their bones. A few had scarlet chunks splashed against their ribs and skulls. Signs of fresher meat which wasn't their own.
    Bereft of muscle and tendon, they appeared fragile, but their fragility clearly hadn't stopped them from tearing at least two Grey Jackets to small pieces.
    How they remained upright was something she figured only Hemlock would be able to explain.
    Not that she cared.
    Not yet.
    A Dhampir prowled the edge of the small battle, making the line between soldiers and undead flinch.
    Large and apelike, with a monstrous face which looked like a crazed mixture of bat and wolf. Glowing red eyes. Fangs like knives. As big as an ork and twice as angry.
    Savage maw dripping blood and gore. It'd fed already and was thirsting for more.
    As she bolted toward the fray, determined to kill, the Dhampir launched itself into the Grey Jackets from the other side, managed to snatch one by an arm and leg.
    Wrenched him free of his terrorised comrades as though he weighed nothing at all. Didn't seem to notice the soldier's desperate struggles. Just looked at him with glowing red eyes filled with hunger.
    And tore.
    The man shrieked, the sound filling the cavern with such a cry of agony that the Shadowed Halls themselves echoed with it.
    Even the elf paused in revulsion as she caught a glimpse of the man's body being ripped in two. The horrible sound of meat and bone being torn apart vomited gruesomely into the cacophony of battle. Blood and worse showered the ecstatic creature.
    The skeletons, mindless of what had happened, clattered forward. Though not as fast as the frenzied Dhampir, they seemed relentless. Old weapons from ancient wars in bony fists.
    The other Grey Jackets saw the elf coming and, for a moment, their spirits raised as a sliver of hope lifted their hearts. They figured a common enemy haunted the room. An enemy more foul than anything the elf could represent.
    Figured she'd fight at their side.
    But they couldn't know the depth of her hate until she was among them, ignoring the clutching of skeletons so she could ram A Flaw in the Glass through the shocked mouth of the first soldier she could reach.  
    The blade slid through the back of his head with shocking ease.
    She twisted her knife free, nearly taking his jaw with it. Turned, violet eyes sparking with hate, on the rest.
    Who shouted at her.
    Screamed words she couldn't understand. Warded her with outstretched hands.
    She roared into their terrified faces; “Fuck you!”
    Spittle wet on her lips, the elf flew at them. Stabbing. Cutting. Raking.
    And then Melganaderna was there. The massive battleaxe whooshing through the air. The sound of its passage was hollow and dark, runes glowing an ominous shade of purple. The twin blades fractured the light from the Grey Jackets' torches, gleaming in the light of the yellow orb. Flashes of reflected light stuttered brightly as the effect of the different lights clashing off the alien steel brought madness to the fray.
    The massive axe cleaved through skeletons, sending their bones skittering across the cavern's uneven floor. A skull rolled to a sullen stop and the dark black pits of its eye sockets stared malevolence back at the chaos.
    Caught between the hunger of the