Read The Dead of Sanguine Night for Free Online

nearest the door, and pushed the others away from her friend with a warning swipe.
    “It’s too late!” the necromancer shrieked with glee as the ghouls merged with the shadows of the farthest corner of the room.
    Lauren stood in the doorway, bent at the waist, cackling as if this was the greatest comedy she’d ever seen. “Hunters! Who thought they could be such fun? Looks like I’ve been targeting the wrong people all this time.”
    Margaret charged at her and slammed her sword through Lauren’s center. Even if it didn’t do a thing, it made Margaret feel better. Time and again she jammed the sword home, but Lauren only laughed in her face. Once more the necromancer pulled herself off the blade and fled down the hallway.
    “Dead,” she said, pointing into the next room. “Oh, and Nancy’s made a huge mess!” Lauren said, pointing into the next. Margaret didn’t want to turn back to the room. She could hear the ghouls feasting on Adelaide now that Margaret wasn’t near to protect her friend. The librarian’s screams fell silent.
    Lauren stood at the end of the hall before the lamp. Her eyes flared with ghostly blue power.
    “Go ahead, you can check if you want.”
    But there were no more screams, and Margaret didn’t want to check the other rooms and see why the screams had stopped.
    What she did want was at the end of the hall. Lauren. To kill the necromancer once and for all. There was a thought in her mind, something that she should be remembering from her studies earlier in the day. The thought tried to flit away, but Margaret reached for it, chasing it through her mind. Right when she was about to uncover what it was, she was struck with a great force. Margaret stumbled back against the doorframe, the memory, the key to defeating the necromancer retreated to the fare recesses of her mind an enigma once more. She shook her head and through the broadcaster the sound of banging pots shook her brain.
    :Margaret Sara Vantasyl, you listen to me now!: Nancy yelled. :It’s all an illusion. She’s woven a spell over you.:
    :Did you get through to her?: Lincoln asked.
    :Yes, I believe so.: Nancy said.
    :Goat, if you can hear us, please let us know,: Samuel said. :If you can hear us, say the word hear…somehow so she doesn’t know you can hear us.:
    “I can’t hear the screams any longer,” Margaret said.
    :We got her,: Adelaide said. :Hold tight Maggie, we are nearly there. Remember what we read—:
    “Of course you can’t,” Lauren said. “They’re dead!”
    :What we read!: Adelaide said. :She’s a lich. There’s something on her, about her, something that’s housing her soul. You have to destroy that. Anything that looks different about her, destroy it!:
    Margaret sagged to the floor, tears slipping down her face. They were tears of joy, glad that her clan was safe, glad that they hadn’t died in that house. Lauren didn’t know that though, and she swayed closer to Margaret, laughing.
    “Aww, poor thing. You let them all die!”
    Margaret let the necromancer talk, let her prattle on thinking that she’d defeated her once and for all. She waited until the death mancer was closer, waited until she could see Lauren’s black slippers under her gaze before she acted. When she struck, it was swift and true. Behind her strike, Margaret put all of her fear of losing those that were closest to her, those who loved her unconditionally and those she loved the same. The strike was hard, straight through the only thing she’d noticed of difference about the necromancer, her ghostly blue eyes.
    The sword sliced through the top of Lauren’s head. When her blade connected with the eyes, they shattered like glass. Fine dust slashed into the air, exploding outwards from her eyes. The top of her head thumped to the floor and tumbled away.
    The dust didn’t settle on the floor, instead it hung on the air. A blue light shimmered from the dust of her eyes, and drifted toward Margaret. It drifted through her,