by Hunter Blain
A fully loaded Mack truck going close to the speed of sound smashed into my back, snapping my neck, arms, and lower spine. Everything went quiet as the sight of gray concrete alternated with a brightening blue sky over and over again as my rag-dolled body tumbled through the air.
I didn’t feel pain as I rolled. Instead, it was more like having two playful friends alternate hitting me lightly with pillows, with one striking my chest and the other focusing on my back.
My mind was empty, as if my head were the Starship Enterprise’s control room and my thoughts were the crew dramatically trying to hold on to anything until the ship was done being thrown around.
I slid over the concrete to a halt with an accompanying groan as my brain did a systems check. Error 404 came back with the accompanying message of Body Not Found. Then my neck began to heal, reattaching my spinal cord and flooding my mind with red flashing lights and piercing alarms that howled in a crescendo. Jonathan Frakes from Star Trek appeared in my mind, but he was dressed as Number Two from the Austin Powers franchise, complete with eye patch.
“Sir,” Jonathan Frakes said.
“What is it, Number One and a Half?”
“We think the wolf is just as strong, if not stronger, than Jonathan Depweg.”
“No shit.”
“Yes, shit. We also think that the obsidian might be able to cut through our celestial armor, sir.”
“Oh shit,” I drawled, not even having considered the possibility. “Set phasers to murder.”
Jonathan Frakes moved in closer and whispered, “We don’t actually have those.”
“Then let’s bus’a cap in dis foo’.”
“Very good, sir.”
Returning to my body, I rolled to my side right as a black blade the length of a doorway blurred through the air. On instinct, I brought my gladius up and deflected the blow rather than try to outright stop it. With the massive momentum and sheer power behind the swing, blocking his attack would have just ended up pushing both of our blades into my torso.
The obsidian sliced into the pavement next to me like a spoon through pudding, or maybe yogurt. I don’t really know, as I’ve never tried either one of those desserts. Maybe cottage cheese?
A fur-covered fist the size of a car’s tire rim streaked through the space between the wolf and me to smash into my face. The armor did its thing, but I was still rocked by the incredible power behind the simple punch, and was knocked silly for a few moments. I was reminded of when Depweg had struck my face when I didn’t have my celestial suit and he had nearly taken my head off.
From somewhere in the hazy distance, I heard a Viking’s battle cry, prompting the wolf to yank his blade free and turn toward the next contestant on Who Wants to Be in a Million Pieces.
Senses regained, I pushed myself up on my elbows to see Ludvig and the wolf dueling. A part of my stomach dropped as I compared the regular-sized katana to the wolf’s obsidian blade, which was as long as the monster was tall.
Where Ludvig was all prowess and fluid motions, the wolf was fierce power and jerking swings. With each ferocious swing of the black blade, the sword made a lengthy, deep whoosh as it displaced the air.
The Swede’s blade, on the other hand, sounded almost like a high-pitched whistling shht that was short and precise.
The swinging blades dinged off one another as Ludvig did his best to deflect rather than block in much the same way I had. There was no sense in trying to stop the power of the enormous, preternaturally enhanced god-beast.
A tight ball of fire was flung through the air, almost in an underhand toss, to silently land atop the wolf’s broad upper back. Where struck, the fur ignited immediately, prompting an angry series of barks from the beast that threw Ludvig off his game in surprise. The wolf kicked out in reflex, striking Ludvig in his stomach and sending the man crashing to the ground. He slid for several yards before regaining control and rolling to his feet, sword at the ready.
The wolf began beating his upper back with the flat side of his blade as he bellowed in pain-filled rage.
“Ha! Beat that!” I cried out. “Even I can’t fight fire, bitch!”
In answer, the wolf did something that made me mentally and physically face-palm. He blurred toward the warden, extinguishing the flames with how fast he moved. Why the Hades had I never thought of that?!
The monster halted in front of Hayley, seizing her by her entire upper body, and brought her up to his jaws. Fangs glistened as drool began to spill over snarled lips, stringing to the ground like a bungee jumper with a defective rope.
“NO!” Ludvig cried out, sprinting forward but with no hope of making it in time.
My mind went still, and all of a sudden, I was beside the creature, bringing my gladius down in a clean sweep.
The monster roared in agony as Hayley collapsed to the ground, still in the wolf’s grip. Blood spurted from his wrist, and I understood I had moved so fast that it prevented the flames of my sword from cauterizing the wound.
Seeing the blood, I latched onto it, freezing it in midair and mentally commanding it to travel to my mouth. It slid down my throat and sent a tidal wave of euphoria throughout my body, making my knees turn into Slinkys.
I wobbled on my feet as I inhaled as much of the copious blood as I could, refilling the energy that had been used to rebuild my body, when a massive blade was swung in an upward arc.
My Lil’ John had just enough time to squeak before being split in half along with my lower torso. The blade pierced through my chest plate, but became lodged at my sternum.
Don’t stop sucking! I commanded the crew of the Starship John-terprise.
Phrasing! a yellow-skinned android, complete with visor that stretched across his eyes, called out. Damn, even I knew how bad my mind was messing up my references.
The blood continued to flow from the monster before slowing to a trickle, as if a faucet had been closed, and then flesh began to poke out of the stump.
A cold-iron katana flashed through the air, removing the monster’s other hand, and the obsidian sword that was lodged in my chest vanished.
“Prph,” I barked as my insides began to slide down the massive gash in my body.
I fell to my knees before I felt the alarming sensation of my lower torso beginning to split further open. With a nudge in one direction, I intentionally collapsed to my side, effectively closing the wound.
Knowing Ludvig had hurt the monster, I dared to close my eyes and focused on healing the grievous and massive trauma that ran from my sternum down to my nethers.
Flesh began to stitch together as organs reconnected, and a part of me even felt the armor trying to repair itself.
Letting my flesh heal on autopilot, I focused on my chest piece, and was alarmed to see just how much energy it was siphoning in order to repair itself. Imagining Da’s cross, I decided it was worth it and opened the floodgates.
Ludvig cried out in pain, and I shot my eyes open to see the wolf had bitten down one side of the Swede’s ample torso. The monster’s jaws went from the top of my friend’s bulging shoulders all the way down to his belly button and the small of his back. I could see blood trickling down Ludvig’s pants and pooling at his feet.
“Lude!” Hayley screamed as she lunged forward and stabbed her wand into the wolf’s side. The only thing preventing the entirety of the weapon from going in was the fist with which the wand was held. Scarlet blood began streaming from the stab wound and down Hayley’s hand, wrist, and elbow.
With a command word that was barked in fury, the wolf yelped as ice began to grow up the length of the thing’s fur, starting around where the wand was piercing the flesh.
Dropping his snack, the wolf with the white stripe reared up and tried swiping at Hayley with his missing hand. Realizing the oversight, the monster tried backhanding her with his other just partially regrown claw, doing absolutely no damage to the warden. Instead, the monster only managed to break his own budding limb.
Hayley gritted her t
eeth while letting out a long war cry as she poured more frost into the monster’s torso.
He whined in pain as a mist of frost plumed from his mouth and nostrils before snapping jaws that seemed sluggish all of a sudden tried to latch onto the much smaller warden. She was less than half his size, and used that to her advantage as the wolf proved to not be as nimble as what was needed, especially while having an ice spell—fueled with the urgency to save the man she loved—forced throughout his body.
Joints creaked as the behemoth moved. Ice had spread out several inches from where the warden had stabbed the wolf, and my body felt colder just imagining what it must feel like to have your internal organs frozen.
The first rays of light slammed into the wolf’s head, causing a renewed bellow of pain. In response, a portal opened under the huge monster, and he fell through. The blood-covered wand slipped free from the wolf due to Hayley’s death grip on the weapon. Unfortunately, the balls of Warden Broadway’s feet were no longer standing on solid ground, and she began teetering forward with a gasp of surprise and flailing arms.
Hayley shrieked in panic, and I manifested a long spear and threw it to pierce the pavement on the other side of the circular portal, giving the wizard something to grab onto before falling through. She used her free arm to wrap around my spear while her tippy-toes barely found purchase just outside the circle. Then the portal vanished, leaving solid ground beneath my friend.
Confident we were safe, I let my manifestation retract as Warden Broadway collapsed to her hands and knees, taking heaving gasps at almost being lost to wherever the other side of the gateway led.
Ludvig moaned, prompting Hayley to crawl quickly on her hands and feet to where he lay, bleeding.
She removed his breathing apparatus and slid it and her wand inside the satchel beneath her warden’s cloak.
I pushed myself to my feet and took the few steps to where he was, noting how pale his skin appeared to be...and how his lips were turning the blue of death.
“Shit.”
“What?” Hayley snarled, eyes wide with fear.
“He’s lost a lot of blood.”
“How? Look!” she countered, pointing to the relatively small pool on the ground. “He-he’s a big man! He-he can lose more than that!”
“The wolf drank from him,” I softly informed her, feeling dread open its haunting eyes from within the darkness of my mind, ready to pounce armed only with the reality of the situation.
“What?! Th-th-that doesn’t make sense!”
“Later. For now, move, please,” I instructed as I crouched down by where Ludvig was slipping under the surface of consciousness.
I placed my hands evenly over the massive bite wounds and willed my blood to flow over the holes that looked like they had been made by a prehistoric monster.
My blood coated his chest and back before descending into the holes and beginning the process of repairing the damaged tissue.
I cringed as I felt that his ribs had been shattered, collarbone had been snapped in half, and even his shoulder blade resembled the bottom of a bag of tortilla chips. What was worse was that his heart was fluttering erratically from the substantial loss of blood.
Using my celestial armor and preternatural blood, I healed his critical bite wound before I sent water from my own vascular system to fill his veins in lieu of a blood transfusion or saline drip. The only problem was that he needed a lot in order to give him a fighting chance. Also, the fact that giving saline to someone with severe blood loss would result in spacing out the remaining red blood cells which carried oxygen. Plus, his remaining electrolytes would be dangerously diluted. His organs would begin shutting down as they starved. I wanted to give him some of my blood, but this close to death, I was afraid I would infect him with vampirism.
To combat this, I focused my celestial energy on his bone marrow, and began helping his body produce more of his red blood cells at an accelerated rate. It just wasn’t enough, and I knew I only had minutes before Ludvig’s body began shutting down.
As the volume of water inside my body diminished, my cheeks stretched over my teeth as my tongue became as dry as a sponge in the middle of Death Valley. My joints and tendons audibly creaked as I moved my head to examine my handiwork before recalling my blood surrounding Ludvig’s torso. At least I tried to recall it. It was thick now, like a gelatin, and my body refused to absorb it.
I decided to break free of it, preparing for the inevitable shock from losing my manifestation...but none came. With eyeballs that hurt to move, I scanned the blood that was no longer attached to my body, and understood all the energy within had been transferred to Ludvig, so I had none left to lose.
“Lil-ith,” I croaked with a clumsy tongue and dry throat, “Bas-tard took a lot of en-er-gy to...to...”
“To heal?” Hayley finished as she flicked her gaze between the unconscious Ludvig and the man that resembled a living skeleton before her. Thick, dark blood coated him, but it didn’t look right. It was still red, but dull and almost dried, reflecting the lack of life inside of it.
I wavered where I was kneeling next to the big Swede, and I collapsed on my haunches, no longer able to hold myself up.
“I-I did-n’t give him e-e-enough,” I hissed.
An idea seemed to come across Hayley’s features as she steadily got to her feet and strode toward where the guard shack had been. The lava I had thrown was a cold lump in the shape of a circle around the guard that was still asleep from the warden’s spell.
Hayley leaned down and grabbed the man’s wrists before hauling him in my direction. It impressed me that she was able to move him so effortlessly, and I briefly wondered what a child made from the lean warden and the buff paladin would be like.
As she dragged the mortal closer to us, it took a second before I understood what she was doing, and what rules she was breaking.
The sun’s rays were splashing over me now, and I knew I’d be able to refill my celestial tanks but wouldn’t be able to replace the hydration I’d lost from my body.
Stopping where Lude and I were, Hayley set down the man who continued to steadily breathe within his deep slumber.
“Don’t make me regret this, bloodsucker,” Hayley droned, defeat and a touch of disgust evident in her tone. It wasn’t that she was disgusted with me, but rather with herself for breaking the Council’s rules about harming innocent mortals.
Something bothered me. Not the rule breaking Hayley was partaking in, but something else behind my conscious thought. It was like a sound that you didn’t notice until, without a reason you could explain, you focused on it, wondering how you hadn’t acknowledged it before.
The autumn air was cool in France, with dew glistening in the morning light. I latched onto the feeling trying to get my attention, and closed my eyes to feel the air around me.
With an almost effortless focus of mind, I willed the moisture in the very air to pass through my skin and into my body, filling my flesh with the water it so desperately needed back. My tongue no longer felt alien inside my mouth. My joints stopped aching, and even my eyeballs stopped hurting after a time.
Another part of my mind let the sun’s energy begin to fill my celestial batteries. I would worry about my well of power afterward, as I was confident I could transfer the energy from one to the other at will based on the fact I had done it once before.
While letting the armor do its thing, I reached down to grab the mortal’s wrist with one hand while picking up Ludvig’s with my other.
Feeling my skin and muscles plump up with moisture, I moved my thumbs into position above the veins of both unconscious men. Willing surgically sharp needles at the end of my thumbnails, I inserted my manifestations into first the guard, and then Ludvig.
I did a quick check of the types of blood the two were, and found them to be incompatible. So, fighting the urge to absorb the guard’s blood, I instead focused on rearranging the hemoglobin to resemble the smooth orbs belonging to those of blood type O
by removing the antigens associated with either A or B types. I didn’t know what Ludvig was, only that the armor told me removing the antigens would make the blood compatible.
I kept part of my focus on the mortal’s heartbeat, not wishing to kill him for two reasons: one being that Hayley was right and he was probably innocent, and two, I didn’t want the warden to break the rules by allowing an innocent mortal to perish by a supe’s hand.
I recognized when the heartbeat sped up as it realized adequate oxygen wasn’t getting through, and stopped the transfusion, sealing the puncture as I removed my thumb.
As the last of the blood entered Ludvig’s system, I repeated the process of removing the needle and healing his skin, watching his face flush as life returned.
Job done, I moved up to the guard’s head, placed a hand on his forehead, and sent in my celestial essence. As a show of good faith, I did a quick check of the mortal and discovered a plaque-filled artery near his heart. For his service, I decided to remove the clog and give this man a chance at a slightly longer life. Hopefully, he would take it easy on the bacon cheeseburgers going forward, or whatever the French equivalent was for the American standard of heart problems.
Pulling my hand back, I looked up at Hayley who seemed to be nodding in approval.
“Here,” I said, taking off the device that SAC Collin Baker had given me and handing it to Hayley. “You remember how to use it?”
“Yeah. Is it charged?”
“Should be.”
“Okay,” she answered before placing the device on Ludvig’s bare, right wrist. Much like me, he kept his phone on his left hand. She opened his right hand and began touching the hologram, selecting the Airbnb we had our gear stashed at. It was no Hilton, but at least I didn’t have to worry about a maid ignoring the Do Not Disturb sign on the door and walking in to see all kinds of fun stuff; guns, knives, explodey things, computers, and even a corkboard with red yarn connecting pictures of people and places across Europe.