by Riley Storm
She sat upright in sudden understanding. “The burning trees. All the debris, the torn-up ground. That was him.”
“Yes. It was a message. A signal, that he’s back, and he’s not going away without a fight. We have to stop him, Rachel. Before he assembles strength enough to take us down.”
“Right. Okay. Sure.” Rachel took a moment, trying to calm herself. “Assuming that I believe all of what you just told me… Which I do, but believing you versus accepting it are completely different things. But pretend I do. What would this guy do next? If he’s done striking at your finances.”
Khove pondered that question while she took them back out of the parking lot. Focusing on driving to distract herself was the better choice, instead of just sitting still.
“I’m not sure he is done hitting our money,” Khove said. “But if we act like he is, how would he approach his goal?”
“What’s his goal?”
“To control everything.” There was a pause. “Well, he did want to control it. Now it just seems like he wants to burn it all down.”
“So he’ll hit the Manor?” she suggested.
“No. It’s too well-protected for now. He needs to gain strength. Build an advantage.” Khove sounded thoughtful.
She drummed her fingers against the wheel, trying to think while focusing on the road ahead. “Well, he must have a plan. What would he expect to happen after his attacks then?”
Khove bolted upright, looking around.
“Khove?” she asked uneasily at his reaction to her question.
“He would expect the Queen to send someone to investigate,” Khove said quietly. “To watch for further attacks. To try and stop them. Outside of the Manor’s protection.”
Rachel’s stomach sank. She didn’t like what she was hearing. “Like we almost did last night,” she whispered nervously, peering out into the darkened town around them.
“He knows we’re here now,” Khove confirmed, his eyes focused out the windshield. “We just played right into his hands.”
22
“Turn the car around,” he barked abruptly, coming to a decision. “Head for the Manor as fast as you can. Don’t stop for anything.”
The car was already whipping around in a circle before he’d finished speaking. Tires squealed on asphalt and shortly thereafter, the acrid stink of burnt rubber filled the interior, cloying at his nose.
Khove was glad he’d decided to extend his trust to Rachel earlier. It was proving dividends now as they raced through the center of town toward the far side. She blew through any light or stop sign that gave her visibility to do so, and didn’t slow for any other cars, often weaving in and around them. It was impressive.
Then all at once, the little traffic that remained was gone. The streets around them were completely devoid of any late-night foot traffic. Even storefronts had gone dark, their neon signs dull, dim.
“Khove?” Rachel asked, her voice sounding distant.
He looked over at his driver, noticing the way her attention was flagging. Angrily, he reached into a pocket and withdrew a ring.
“Put this on.”
She looked over at him, and despite all that was going on as they sped through town, and the forces working on her brain, some of her personality shone through, a testament to her mental fortitude.
“Really?” she asked, voice now dripping with sarcasm. “We’re fleeing for our lives, I presume, and you’re asking me now? Don’t you think this is may be just a little bit of a bad time to propose? Couldn’t you, I don’t know, wait for a better setting?”
She smiled and her gaze went slightly unfocused, before returning to the road. “Where are we going?”
“Put the damn ring on!” he ordered, grabbing her hand.
“I don’t even have makeup on,” she protested. “The pictures will be terrible!”
Rolling his eyes, Khove shoved the ring onto her finger. The effect was almost instant. Rachel sat upright, the fog that had infected her eyes and her body language disappeared.
“What the hell was that?” she growled, stomping the accelerator down hard. “What is going on, Khove?”
“Magic.” There was no need for further explanation. “Now drive like a badass.”
“On it,” she said fiercely, taking them through a turn so quickly, he felt the truck rise up almost onto two tires only before crashing back down onto the shocks.
The buildings of the core of Plymouth Falls retreated behind them, transforming into one- or two-story shops interspersed with housing. Everything was dark.
“Where is everyone?” Rachel asked.
He could feel her nervousness, the fear strong in the air. Not that he blamed her. Khove wasn’t sure how to answer. He’d never seen anything like this, magic blanketing an entire city, sending them home, darkening the air around them.
“They’re out of the way,” he said. “So we don’t have to worry about hurting them when it comes.”
“When what comes?” she asked, but his attention was too focused on the side view mirror, and the darkened shadow he could see charging closer with every push of its four massively muscled legs.
“The attack,” he said, reaching down to his ankle and sliding a dagger from the sheath in his boot, wishing desperately that he’d taken his sword or gun. But the police frowned upon those, and he didn’t want to get in trouble with Rachel. So he’d left them behind.
Now, his reluctance may have sealed their doom.
“Khove,” Rachel asked tightly. “What the hell is that I’m seeing in my rear view?”
“That’s a centaur,” he said, trying to remain calm. “Body of a horse, torso of a man.”
“Right. Of course it is,” she said cheerily. “Now, do you mind telling me what a centaur is doing catching up to my car when we’re doing seventy?”
“It’s going to attack,” he said carefully. “And I’m going to kill it.”
“You’re going to wh—”
The centaur galloped up alongside the passenger side of the truck and ripped off the door. Khove lunged out before the huge beast could toss the weight aside and stabbed his dagger deep into the being’s torso, then forced it up under his second ribcage and into the tertiary heart.
Swinging back into a seated position as casually as if it was a regular move, he shook the dripping purple blood from the silvery blade and prepared for more.
“Khove? There are more of them,” Rachel said, her voice oddly distant.
“Just get us to the Manor!” he roared, the sound shocking her back to reality. “Those are my problem, okay? Not yours. You drive. I’ll fight.” He reached down to his other boot, withdrawing his second blade.
Reaching across, he forced it into her left hand. “Stab at anything that comes for your door.”
“Right. Of course.” She looked over at him suddenly as he started to move. “Where are you going to be?” she shouted.
“I’ll hold them off for as long as I can,” he said. “But I need room to work. There are a few tricks these bastards don’t know I have. But we need to make it to the Manor. My people will protect us there. So don’t slow for anything, okay.”
“Khove what are you doing!” she shrieked as he smashed out the window behind them and started crawling through into the bed of the truck as creatures raced out of the darkness, easily keeping pace with the car.
This isn’t going to be good,” he muttered, ignoring the wind whipping at his face, looking at the sheer mass of Fae that Korred had unleashed this night.
All to kill little old him, and Rachel. Because of Khove’s arrogance, and reluctance to bring his weaponry into the town, it was all too likely that the crazed shifter would succeed.
The first Fae made it to the truck, hoofed paws reaching out to grip the lip of the bed, metal crumpling as the creature pulled itself up inside. Legs spread wide to balance himself, Khove studied the creature. Its upper body was that of a grossly-oversized buck, including antlers that stuck out wide to either sid
e. But from just below the chest down, it was completely human. He’d never seen its like before.
What have you done, Korred?
The nearly seven-foot-tall creature came at him in complete silence. Not for the first time, Khove hated himself for not bringing his sword. It would have been easy to dispatch such a creature. Glancing down at the knife in his hand, he couldn’t help but wish it was longer. Six inches just wasn’t going to be enough tonight.
The truck bounced wildly as the Fae charged, and Khove shouted his anger at the situation, moving to meet it. They grappled, the hoofed paws pinching his skin painfully as it got a hold of his free hand.
“Khove! Stop playing around,” Rachel shouted from inside.
“I’m. Not,” he growled, twisting to drive his forearm into the creature’s throat.
The sudden blow to its airway stunned the faerie and Khove used his massive strength to whip his knife hand free and drive it deep into the midsection three times in the blink of an eye.
The Fae shrieked in pain, and then fell back into a pile of purple blood and goo as Khove slit its throat wide open, effectively banishing it back to its home realm.
Climbing cautiously to his feet, he watched as more of them approached from all sides. A few small satyrs were tossed about by the herd, slamming into the sides of the truck, shaking it. Rachel yelped in surprise, but kept herself focused on getting them out of town.
“I wish I had my sword,” he complained. “Why do you police have such silly laws?”
His humor didn’t seem to register. Looking in the rearview mirror, he saw that the focused glint had gone out of her eyes, replaced by muted acceptance of what was about to happen.
“Rachel?”
“We’re not going to make it, are we?” Rachel asked dully, voice barely audible from inside the cab as the Fae crowded closer on three sides.
“You’re probably right,” he admitted, trying not to sugarcoat it. “I got us killed.”
Rachel’s eyes flared as she looked over her shoulder at his admission of guilt, speaking up to be heard over the whistling air. “We’re not dead yet, Khove,” she snapped. “Keep it that way for as long as you can.”
He was nearly thrown to the bed of the truck as Rachel slammed the accelerator to the floor. The truck leapt forward and their wild headlong escape for freedom continued.
For now.
23
Plymouth Falls had never felt so big before.
It felt like an hour ago that they had passed out from the edge of the downtown core, and yet still, residential units and small commercial blocks flashed by. With no lack of space around, the town had definitely decided to spread out instead of up.
A rumble of thunder from behind tore her eyes from the road. She watched in the mirror as Khove wrestled with what appeared, to her eyes, to be a minotaur. It made no sense, and her brain categorically rejected the notion, and yet there he was, locked in a death grip with the half-bull, half-man beast that towered over even him by at least a foot or more.
“Are you really going to let that itsy bitsy thing get the better of you?” she called, entirely unsure if taunting him was the best move or not. “Hold on!”
“To what!” Khove yelped as she careened to the side of the road, pasting numerous creatures between the side of the truck and the concrete wall as they passed under the rail bridge that went through town.
They were everywhere. The dark murk that surrounded the truck barely let her see more than twenty feet in any direction except forward, but Rachel knew they were horrifically outnumbered.
Metal screeched as one of the creatures dug into the side paneling of the truck and ripped it free. The metal and the inhuman shape holding onto it tumbled away, its support no longer attached to anything, but more shapes filled the void.
“Khove, they’re going to tear this thing apart before we’re anywhere near safety!” she shouted through the smashed rear windshield.
“Keep driving!” he roared, delivering a powerful kick to the minotaur’s chest that sent it flying back into the darkness. There was no time to relax, however, because two more ugly beasts hopped up to take its place, rocking the truck with their added weight.
“I am!” she called back. “But sooner rather than later, this is going to become a pedal-powered car if you know what I’m saying!”
“What? Yes! Push the pedal all the way down!”
Rachel rolled her eyes. He couldn’t hear a word she was saying.
“This is fine,” she whispered. “This is fine, everything is fine. No reason to worry.”
Something slobbering and savage slammed into the driver’s door, cracking the glass. Rachel screamed. It shattered, and teeth came for her.
“Not today,” she growled, left hand jabbing upward with the knife Khove had given her.
The creature—it wasn’t anything she’d ever seen or heard of—howled, the hideous sound filling the cabin and leaving her ears ringing. Rachel didn’t give up, giving the knife a twist before yanking it back just in time.
The beast sagged down onto the window frame, bending the metal as life fled it. A moment later, other hands and hooves and things reached in and yanked it—and the door—from the truck.
Completely exposed now, Rachel had no choice but to reduce speed, forced into splitting her attention between driving and fending off the mass of nightmares that surged closer with every mile per hour the vehicle slowed.
Not that they’d had any trouble keeping up before, she thought to herself, slicing out wildly as something tried to grab at her arm.
“How’s it going back there!” she shouted, swerving to the right.
The truck bounced wildly as she squished something beneath the tires.
“Just another day in paradise!” Khove called back, then grunted in pain.
Whipping around to see what happened, she gasped in horror at the sight of him. Khove was covered head to toe in a mixture of red and purple blood, the life-giving fluid turning him into a macabre sort of party costume.
But he never slowed. His attacks came quick and precise, and the blade somehow managed to lop off an arm. How he generated such force into a knife, she couldn’t tell, but Khove didn’t care. He dipped to the side, snagged the arm and used it to fend off one attacker for a split second while he dealt with a third.
The man was a wrecking machine. Three, five, ten monsters went down as she watched in sick fascination every second she had. None of them could stand up to him. They didn’t have his strength, speed, or training.
Yet they had numbers, she reminded herself, slicing at an elfin sort of creature, taking its pointed ear off with her wild, uncoordinated blow. The creature open its mouth to scream, but nothing came out as it disappeared into the flow.
Something landed on the hood and began pounding away at it.
“Khove,” she called. “Brace yourself, hard brake coming up!”
There was a pause, then the truck rocked. Rachel didn’t have time to look back and see what was going on, but she heard his shout. “Do it!”
She slammed both feet down on the brake pedal, and the unsecured monster hurtled forward onto the asphalt, leaving purple stains in its wake. Rachel didn’t wait to see what sort of damage she’d inflicted, because the truck was already roaring as she fed it gas, the pistons churning away mightily as it labored to get back up to speed.
“We’re not going to last much longer!” she shouted. “That idiot did something to the engine.”
“Just get us as far as you can,” Khove barked. “Help will come. All we need to do is make it that far, understood?”
“Yeah, sure. Get to the Manor. No big deal!” She rolled her eyes.
They were out into the countryside now, passing by farmers’ fields on one side, and untamed wilderness on the other.
A human head came toward her door, and Rachel hesitated, unsure about hurting a human. Her eyes lit upon its furry lower body, and she realized with a start it wasn’t human. The knife s
lashed forward, but the delay was costly.
The creature dodged her strike, slashing downward with its own hand. Rachel yelped as her arm went numb and the knife clattered away into the darkness. She was unarmed.
But not helpless.
Wearing a disgusting leer upon its face, the half-breed human-beast attacker came close, only to receive a solid tactical boot to the face. It reeled back, nose smashed in, spewing purple blood all over the place.
For a moment, she wasn’t under attack, and Rachel had time to think.
“Khove, what do we do?” she hollered.
“Just keep going!” he bellowed, the truck rocking wildly as he battled some nightmare creature.
“Right,” she muttered to herself. “Easy peasy.” She didn’t believe it.
It wouldn’t be long before they decided to go for the wheels, or the damaged engine gave out. When that happened, they would be—
The engine coughed and died.
“Fuck you!” she screamed at the roof, unleashing her pent-up anger to the heavens above.
The truck rapidly slowed.
“Khove!” she shouted. “Khove, we’re in trouble. Truck’s dead.”
There was no reply.
“Khove?” she called weakly, looking in the rearview mirror as the truck sputtered to a halt and the mass of demons closed in around her.
The truck bed was empty.
There was no sign of Khove, just a wash of purple and red stains covering the bed. Rachel frantically undid her buckle and climbed out of the cab into the bed. Her foot kicked something into the sidewall. Bending over, she snatched up Khove’s fallen dagger, slashing at the air, daring any of them to come closer.
“I’ll take you all on!” she shouted as fiercely as she could manage given the situation.
The mass of human and inhuman faces came closer. They hadn’t even been slowed by her gesture. In fact, she thought, looking closer at the eagerness of some, they had been encouraged by it. What the hell?