Darkness Rising

by Cate Farren

  Dracula’s rage started to fizzle away. Lizzie was everything to Stephanie. She’d taken a chance on adopting a child, claiming it was for her public image as a politician. He knew his daughter better than that. She’d wanted to be a mother for a long time. Most vampires wanted to be parents. The thought of living eternity alone made their species quite broody.

  “I understand,” Dracula stated.

  “Good,” said Loki. “Now that’s over with...”

  Saskia the witch laughed and threw a fireball at him. Dracula was about to dodge it and join the fight when Celia leapt in front of him. Her body absorbed the flames, sucking it into her pores. The young woman smiled with pleasure as her eyes glowed a deep orange. She stared at Loki like she was ready to fight.

  “Let me try that again,” said Saskia.

  Loki nodded. “Go ahead.”

  Saskia grinned and created a larger fireball in her hand. She smiled and launched it forward.

  I know you’ve got this, Celia.

  Celia nodded and thrust her hand out. The magical fireball hit her fist. The girl almost fell back from the force of the impact, but she held firm, gritting her teeth, absorbing the fire as she did before.

  “This is only making me stronger,” said Celia. Her voice was different, raspier, as if her throat was on fire. “Fire feeds me.”

  Celia smiled and created her own fireball. It clung to the palm of her hand for a millisecond before firing forward. Saskia created a shield around herself to block it, but the fireball swung around her instead and incinerated a shapeshifter.

  Loki charged forward, anger written all over his pale face. Dracula leapt down the stairs of the lecture theatre, joining Celia. The fury of the fire in her eyes frightened him. He’d seen hell, or dimensions where foul demons writhed in fire, tormenting souls, feeding on misery. The fires of hell were in this girl’s eyes.

  No wonder her species were almost extinct. If even I’m afraid of them...

  He trusted Celia, though. She was an innocent. He could see, despite the all-consuming fury, that all she wanted to do was protect.

  Loki leapt at Dracula, springing across the space between them. They collided with a crash, fists punching. He saw Celia trading fireballs with Saskia as his daughter watched, helpless and terrified. He would win this so Stephanie would never have to make such a decision again. Loki would feel immense pain for what he’d done to his family.

  NICOLAE FELL AGAINST the bookcase. He reached out to grab his attacker, hoping to push him away, but his enemy was quick. The shapeshifter grabbed him by the neck and prepared to throw him.

  “Father!” a voice shouted.

  There was a gunshot, followed by two more. The shapeshifter’s head exploded.

  Hayley ran up to her father. She tried helping him to his feet but he pushed her away. He was quite capable of picking himself up. He may look like he was in his late forties but he was certainly not decrepit.

  Four bodies lay prostrate on the floor around them.

  “You killed them all,” Nicolae observed. “Good on you.”

  Hayley shrugged. “It was nothing.”

  His daughter had a small amount of telekinetic power. She could use it to control bullets so they found their mark. He was impressed. She’d only ever used her cadou to text on her cellphone or move chopsticks before. She may have her uses yet.

  And what did I do during this battle?

  It shamed him that he’d been more useless than his media obsessed daughter. His cadou, the ability to cloud minds and cause dizziness, hadn’t worked on the shapeshifters. They were immune to any sort of psychic attack. When he’d tried to fight them he’d proven unworthy. How could he live so long without learning to defend himself? His arrogance had almost cost him his life.

  Hayley was about to say something else when she opened her mouth in shock. She screamed once and exploded into ash. Valeriu was standing behind her, a wooden stake in his left hand. He was grinning.

  “Son?” the vampire royal exclaimed, horror-struck. “What have you...”

  It was when his son staked him that Nicolae suddenly realized that maybe this thing wasn’t Valeriu after all.

  FOR THE FIRST TIME in his long, selfish, arrogant life Valeriu Groza wept.

  Daniel ran in behind him, surveying the scene. They’d entered just as the shapeshifter posing as Valeriu killed Nicolae. The vampire prince himself was shell-shocked, staring. The shapeshifter imposter just stood there, watching, almost as if it was getting a kick out of the grief it was causing.

  “Killing me won’t bring them back,” the fake Valeriu stated.

  Daniel held his Fey sword aloft, ready to fight. He’d earned this weapon ten times over while serving for King Lachlan. He’d pushed himself to the brink, learning how to wield the weapon effectively, not only for himself but to show Lachlan he loved him and would protect him at all costs. This was his first real fight.

  The real Valeriu screamed. He thrust his fist into his doppelganger’s chest. Their eyes met for a brief second before Valeriu pulled out his enemy’s heart and threw it against the wall. The shapeshifter sank to the floor, dead.

  THE FIRST WEREWOLF sprung towards her, teeth bared, drooling saliva. Clover swung her sword, slicing its head clean off. The others stopped in their tracks, staring at her with wide eyes. They were afraid.

  Clover grinned. “Are you scared? You should be. Loki pissed me off.”

  One of the wolves took the plunge and ran forward. Clover ducked as it leapt. It hit the wall and turned, coming back towards her from the side. It bit into her arm and she screamed. She elbowed it in the snout and used her free hand to grab it by the fur on its neck. It bit at her desperately as she prepared to sink her sword into its skull.

  “Clover!” Jared shouted.

  A group of humanoid shapeshifters were rounding the corner, six or seven. They were carrying what looked to be wooden steaks and automatic rifles. One or two of them had bruises, probably after fighting with the vampires, but they appeared unharmed. How many vampires had they massacred? Dozens?

  The wolf in her grasp snapped at her. She thrust her sword down, but she missed, merely slicing off a huge chunk of its soft fur. Jared turned into a shadow and swept towards the encroaching shapeshifters, sweeping them up in a tidal wave of darkness and slamming them against the ceiling.

  He’s so powerful...

  The remaining wolves started circling her as Jared contended with the humanoid enemy. She held her sword high, gauging which one was going to strike first.

  “I’m your sister,” she told them. The werewolf whose fur she’d sheared was glaring at her. “Loki created my father. I’m one of you.”

  They didn’t waver. They knew who she was and they didn’t care. Loki must have ordered them to kill her on sight. It hurt a little that he’d gone from caring for her to wanting her dead in such a short amount of time.

  One of the wolves crept forward an inch. She waved her sword and it stepped back again. Jared was having fun in his new shadow form, tossing the shapeshifters around like they were in a blender. Clover wondered how long he could keep it up.

  One of the wolves growled behind her. She knew it was going to be pounce and, through self preservation or instinct she didn’t know, did the one thing that might save her life. She changed her face into that of Loki.

  The wolves stepped back, momentarily confused. She grinned and took her chance, slicing through them like they were nothing, hacking all three remaining wolves in less than three seconds.

  Jared’s shadow form coalesced in front of her before changing back into his true self. He smiled, impressed.

  “That won’t work a second time,” he said.

  She looked at the pile of shapeshifter corpses that Jared had killed. A tiny part of her rebelled at such death and destruction. It didn’t have to be this way. Loki could have settled in his dimension home and left everyone else at peace, himself included.

  “Why does Loki have to be like this?”
she asked Jared, though she wasn’t really talking to him in particular. “I’ve seen his memories. I’ve seen what’s been done to him. Does his vengeance have to take so many lives? These shapeshifters could have gone on to lead normal lives, but instead he...”

  Jared put his hands on her shoulders. “You know him probably better than anyone. You know why he’s doing this. It’s just pure, petty vengeance.”

  She sighed. “No. It may have started out that way, and maybe he’ll get a kick out of seeing his enemies fall, but it’s not purely about that. He wants to create a universe where he and his shapeshifters are safe. You’ve seen the future he brings about. Tell me I’m wrong.”

  A gun shot rang out. Clover yelled as she felt something slice across her left shoulder. More shapeshifters were coming down the corridor. They were all armed.

  “I don’t know what to do about guns,” said Clover.

  One of them fired again. She swung her sword, hoping to hit the projectile, but she wasn’t nearly fast enough. The bullet struck her in the stomach.

  I will not die by something as mundane as a fucking bullet!

  The pain was mind-blowing. She fell back onto the ground as more bullets flew her way. Jared was deflecting them somehow; she wasn’t sure how. She couldn’t really concentrate. She was too bush pressing her hands against the wound, trying to stop the blood from gushing from her body.

  “How are you doing that?” she asked, feeling faint.

  Another hail of bullets ricocheted away from them and hit the ceiling. Jared was staring towards their attackers, an intense look on his face, almost as if he were straining against something.

  “I have limited telekinetic powers,” he said, his teeth gritted. “But I’m not sure how much longer I can hold them off. I haven’t really practiced this power that much to be honest.” A bullet slipped by him, embedding itself in the wall just a few inches from his head. “Who knew I’d end up in a situation like this?”

  As the bullets continued to fly, and the shapeshifters edged their way closer, Clover hoped Jared had just enough left in him.

  ADRIAN’S SENSES DIDN’T lie. He didn’t understand it, but it was the simple truth. The back exit to Dracula’s underground lair was wide open and unguarded.

  “Are we sure this isn’t just a trick?” Lovisa whispered.

  They’d been debating what to do for a few minutes. The coast was clear. Yet something told Adrian this was too easy. Why would Loki leave the door open? It defeated his purpose of massacring everyone if they could escape so easily.

  “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “But we have to escape and get help.”

  “It may already be too late,” she said sadly.

  They’d waded through so much ash on the way here their clothes were covered in it. He could feel it in his lungs, making him cough.

  I literally have the bodies of hundreds of vampires in my lungs.

  He took a step forward, keeping Lovisa behind him. He needed to make sure she was safe, just in case this was a trap. He was pretty sure there wasn’t any shapeshifters disguised as fleas, waiting to attack them. Shapeshifters had a distinct smell, something akin to wet clay. They couldn’t hide it from those with enhanced senses like a werewolf, no matter what form they took. He always thought vampires had decent enough senses that they could detect shapeshifters too. Seems he was wrong.

  The moment Adrian walked through the doorway he felt something. It was like his whole body was suddenly hit by pins and needles.

  “Lovisa...”

  Adrian gasped and sank to his knees. He looked up the stairs beyond the door and saw more piles of ash.

  Some sort of magic spell...

  “Adrian, what’s wrong?” Lovisa cried.

  He held his hand out to stop her from coming forward. God only knows what effect the spell would have on her. He could already feel his body diminishing.

  “Lovisa, I...” He fell onto his face, his eyes dimming. “I love you.”

  She grabbed his arm and tried to drag him away. The moment she came over the threshold she screamed. Adrian tried to push her away but she fell down beside him. Her eyes were white, no irises to be seen. She started to spasm, her limbs thrashing about violently.

  “Lovisa!” Adrian whispered. “No, no...”

  The last thing he saw as he faded was Lovisa, still.

  Chapter 50

  The fake Prime Demons continued to batter the panic room door. Up closer Toren could feel the magic pouring from it. It wasn’t a simple panic room with a thick steel door. There were many powerful spells layered over it. The shapeshifters would never get in, no matter what they did. They could change into a fifty-foot giant and try and kick the door in and it wouldn’t work.

  Why are they trying so hard to get in there?

  She shrugged her shoulders and charged into the fray. She didn’t care one bit why they were doing what they were doing. She just wanted to kill them.

  “Prime Demon!” she shouted. The ignored her, their focus intent on getting into that panic room. She sighed. “Hello?”

  She wanted a real fight, but this would have to do. She walked casually up to the nearest Prime Demon and brought her sword down on its horns, shearing them off from the tip. It turned to her. It was so angry she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

  “What’s in that panic room that’s so important?” she asked.

  The Prime Demon growled and grabbed her by the neck with its clawed hands. She swung her sword up and plunged the blade into its stomach.

  “That’s not an answer,” she spat.

  Wynn came in and chopped the Prime Demon’s arms off. Its hands still clutched around her neck, the grip still strong. She had to literally pull them off her.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  The other Prime Demons were still ignoring her, still focused on their job.

  “There’s something vitally important inside there,” said Toren.

  “What do you think it could be?” Wynn asked. “Some kind of powerful magical artefact? I hear Dracula has a lot of those.”

  “If there’s something in there that Loki wants then I want to make sure he doesn’t get it.” She dismissed the pettiness in her voice. “Even if it means I have to destroy it first.”

  One of the Prime Demons turned to look at her, but continued with what it was doing. It had no idea it’s quest was futile.

  “You can’t get through that door!” she shouted at them. She swung her sword around playfully, waiting for the battle to come. “Hello? Did Loki make you all deaf?”

  “Ignore her!” one of the Prime Demons cried. “She can’t stop us!”

  Upon closer inspection she realized that the Prime Demons all looked exactly like Gable Trent. She smirked, amused. Loki did this to make the sheriff of Chapel Green suffer. It was a pity, though. Toren had loved all the different horn designs of the Prime Demons she’d met in the past. They were a supernatural work of art.

  “Tell me why you’re here and I’ll leave you to it,” she told them.

  They continued to ignore her. Toren realized they didn’t know what was in the panic room. Why should they know? They were just puppets. You didn’t reveal your master plan to a puppet. You just gave it orders and sent it on its merry way.

  This is getting boring now.

  She swung her sword down against the concrete floor. The steel striking the ground caused sparks to fly.

  “Fight me!” she commanded. “I’m going to go upstairs and kill your master! Fight me before I can kill Loki!”

  She was about to start hacking her way through the remaining Prime Demons, fuck the thrill of battle, when there was a flash of light. In the darkness of the basement it was almost blinding.

  This better not one of Loki’s tricks...

  By the time Toren’s eyes had adjusted she knew what had happened. The panic room was gone. Some sort of magic spell had transported it elsewhere. She didn’t think it had been destroyed. Whatever was in there was
too valuable.

  The Prime Demons looked at each other in bewilderment. Then they turned to her.

  “What have you done?” one of them demanded. He sounded almost sad.

  Toren grinned. This was what she was waiting for.

  “I got rid of it,” she said casually, taunting them. “I didn’t want Loki to have it.”

  The horde of Prime Demons stared at her for a second before roaring. Toren held her sword high, and Wynn did the same with his weapon.

  This is it! The moment I’ve been waiting for!

  The first Prime Demon collided with her. Toren had a moment to think she’d made a huge mistake as her enemy overwhelmed her.

  DRACULA SIDESTEPPED as Loki brought his fist down. He backhanded Loki across the face, drawing blood. The Lord of Chaos laughed and shot his hand out, striking the vampire against the chin. He stumbled back and turned into his shadow form, slithering across the ground to get his bearings. The fight had gone on for two minutes and already he could see that Loki wasn’t tiring. When would this end?

  “Stop using your tricks!” Loki shouted. His voice echoed around the lecture theatre. “You’re only dragging out the inevitable!”

  Dracula leapt out of the shadows, grabbing hold of Loki by the head. He twisted, hard, but the neck didn’t snap. Loki elbowed him in the stomach and threw him over his head. Dracula flew against the wall, crashing into it.

  “You’re not using your full powers,” said Loki. He grabbed Dracula, pulling him from the hole he’d made in the wall. “Are you scared you might hurt me?”

  Loki laughed and smashed Dracula against the ground. The vampire changed into a bat and flew away. Loki grabbed him by his wings, trapping him.

  “Let him go!” Celia yelled.

  Saskia threw a ball of blue ice towards Celia. It melted before it even touched her. The witch screamed in frustration and charged forward. Celia ignored her and came to Dracula’s aid as Loki’s tried to rip him apart.

  “Let go!” she yelled again.