Blood and Madness

by Michael Clement

  The insects began to move. Together, with one mind, they began to force a path to the surface through the rubble. By themselves, they were weak, but together, with the power of thousands, they were strong enough to move anything.

  Mockery scooped up all the power that Taesa and Azlin were generating and threw it at the spell.

  Oh, Fuck.

  More critters came to her beck and call. The air was full of cricks, snaps, and crunches as insectile legs scurried all over us. They crawled through my hair, under my clothing, even over and around my ass.

  I fought to breathe, blowing hard through my nose to keep them out. But nothing worked, they were fucking everywhere!

  I wanted to scream.

  I hated bugs.

  - 26 -

  “You big baby,” Mockery crooned, as I swatted and slapped bug after bug off of my body. She had released the spell after we had crawled to the surface, but I could still feel them skittering across my skin.

  Looking over her, I shuddered.

  Mockery had a tarantula in her hand, and she was playing with it.

  Fuck.

  Flames burned all around us. The motorcycles were now just pieces and parts, scattered all over the street. Dead Goblins lay everywhere. The explosions had caught them by surprise and had ripped them to pieces.

  The Reapers had been wiped clean from the earth.

  Well, at least most of them.

  I could see survivors crawling and groaning here and there, but not many of them. And, unless they received medical attention soon, they would die, just like the cockroach that was crawling next to me.

  My foot came down with a loud crunch, just as I heard, “Sorry, Boss.”

  I turned and glared at the little Goblin, thoroughly pissed off. I wanted to squish him just like a cockroach.

  “I didn’t say, destroy everything!” I yelled at him instead.

  He dropped to his stomach and covered his black hair with his hands.

  “We need to leave before any of the Reavers figure out we are responsible,” I decided.

  Xot peeked up at me and nodded.

  Mockery had already started walking back to the park. Her stride was long enough that I had to hurry to catch up to her.

  “Hurry up, Xot,” I yelled with a touch of grouchiness in my voice.

  When I caught up to her, she handed me Kakx’s bloody shirt. “Here are your bones,” she said. One of them was sticking out when I took the bundle, so I re-wrapped it.

  But, not without touching it.

  The smell of Apples flowed into the air, and then my mind swam.

  Falling to my knees, I almost vomited.

  Nope, not almost.

  I puked green sludge all over the road.

  Hell, I threw up until I had the dry heaves, and then some more for good measure.

  Groaning, I took a deep breath.

  “What the hell was that?” I moaned.

  “Elf-stink,” Mockery said. “My spells knocked it out of you.”

  Then, she knelt by me. “But, if you keep fucking Azlin, she’ll take your soul. I detoxed you, but an addict that sleeps with his vice will stay an addict.”

  I struggled to my feet, making sure that I grabbed the pile of bones.

  Mockery smiled at me with her new friend sitting on her shoulder.

  Shit.

  She was one creepy bitch.

  “You have potential, Bazal,” she announced. “I’d hate to see you flush it down the drain for a tight piece of Elf.”

  --M--

  We walked back to the park in silence. I had a lot to think about.

  I didn’t like that Taesa was sleeping with Azlin. Puking up all the poison that the Elf had slipped into my system infuriated me. I had seen too many of my Goblin brothers addicted to Smash. Becoming a junkie had never been one of my life goals.

  Several streets away, I could hear a crowd, a large one.

  Mockery held up a hand to indicate quiet.

  Not understanding why, Xot and I followed her to the edge of a building and then peeked around it.

  A procession filled up most of the street. Kwon Dragons pulled the wrecked train car. Even from this distance, I could see piles of gold loot piled six feet high inside of it. Blue Goblins with chains around their necks followed in a long coffle at the end in abject misery.

  They looked like someone had beaten them, badly, and then made to walk all the way here. A few of them were actually being dragged by their necks after they collapsed.

  Asian men who looked like a mishmash of man and frog rode on the train car and walked alongside the prisoners. In their hands were AK-47s like the Red Goblin had been holding earlier.

  Tied to the front of the train car was the Hollow Bride. She looked like someone had taken a club to her face, body, and legs. I could see blue blood leaking from her mouth and nose in a steady stream.

  And, strapped to the back of the train car was Azlin’s old body. It was still in two pieces, but both of them were tied down and secured.

  Mockery motioned for us to follow her. We walked several dozen yards back the way we had come.

  “My sister works for the Mournflower of IronHold,” she began. “If she can keep all that gold, weapons, and the Bride, Shy will not only run Redtail but all of Columbia west of the river. And, she will be able to revive her Patron as well.”

  After letting that sink in, Mockery added. “I work for Lady Felmorna.”

  I grabbed her around the throat and lifted her up into the air. Mockery’s feet dangled from the ground, as I growled and brought her close to my teeth.

  “Your women are safe,” she wheezed before I could say anything.

  “Lies,” I countered. “Candace killed Brynn yesterday.”

  Grabbing my hands to keep me from breaking her neck or strangling her, Mockery gasped, and got out, “Candace Vanaken purchased the salvage rights…”

  I growled and squeezed harder.

  “Brynn is not a shipwreck to be salvaged.”

  “No one killed her,” she wheezed, barely able to talk. “Brynn’s worth too much. Candace only snapped your link… to increase her salvage’s value.”

  “I felt my wife die,” I hissed. “Her heart stopped.”

  “And, then it was started again,” Mockery gasped. “She had to die… to break your connection.”

  Brynn was alive.

  “Help my Patron,” Mockery pleaded, “and she will release your women to you…”

  I growled at the young woman and then threw her to the ground.

  “You don’t have any power,” growled at her. “You were tied up and raped by a Goblin thug.”

  Mockery laughed, wiping the blood off of her face.

  “Who says my lover raped me?”

  I looked at her in surprise.

  “Kakx was my man as well as Shy’s.”

  I opened my mouth to argue.

  “Bazal,” she purred. “Who doesn’t like being tied up, beaten, and fucked?”

  Licking her bloody lips, she added, as she spread her legs, “Why don’t you try it?”

  “You’re a fucking child!” I growled. “I do not fuck children!”

  - 27 -

  “I can see in your eyes that you want to fuck me,” Mockery purred, running her hands over her tight clothing.

  “You’re a child,” I snapped, looking away so I wouldn’t be tempted.

  “I’m as old as Hana,” she countered.

  I looked back at her quickly. “How do you know that?”

  “You let the spider into your parlor,” she mused, tapping her forehead. “Did you think I wouldn’t look around?”

  “Hana is not seventeen,” I growled, hoping that I was right. If she was… shit. That would be a significant problem.

  Mockery laughed. “Of course, she isn’t, and neither am I.”

  That made me feel a little better.

  Barely.

  Mockery placed her hands on the ground behind her and arched her back, pushing h
er chest out. It made her breasts pressed up against her shirt in a distracting manner.

  Shit. Her nipples were hard.

  “I’m old enough,” Mockery insisted, opening her legs wider.

  Dammit.

  When she did that… hell… she did look a lot older.

  I didn’t really want to know how old either Mockery or Hana was. I already knew how old I was, and it was much older than either of them.

  “Serve my Lady, and I will inset Kakx’s ribs into your chest,” she added. “And, that arm bone as well.”

  I glared at her.

  “How did you know about that?”

  Mockery smiled. Reaching up, she tapped the side of her forehead again.

  Then, she sat up and cupped her spider in her hands, pressing it against her breasts and cooing at it like it was a child.

  Shit.

  She was bat shit crazy, and the little witch had read too many of my memories. She could be playing me. For all I know, she really was seventeen.

  I was so fucking screwed.

  Azlin wasn’t my friend, and I was sure that the Elf-poison in my system was there on purpose. She knew what she had done, and it had been to enslave me. I had stupidly trusted her, even though she had tried to enslave me. Azlin had kissed me and… I had lost all sense of control.

  I wanted to blame it on the Elf-blood, but honestly, when any pretty woman kissed me, the blood left my brain in a rush, and suddenly I thought they were wonderful. I needed to work on that. Just because a girl was nice to me, didn’t mean that she had my best interest at heart.

  “She will betray you,” an older voice announced. “Work with me instead.”

  I turned around quickly, surprised to see Oba Shufen standing behind me in her Kimono.

  “Hello… Mother,” Mockery purred from the ground.

  Lady Shufen rolled her eyes.

  “You are such a--slut--daughter of mine.”

  Mockery sneered at her mother. “You’re just jealous that no-one wants to fuck you anymore. You dried up old bat!”

  Fuck.

  That was vicious and unnecessary.

  “Neither the Malignant, nor my daughters,” her mother said, ignoring the comment, “have your best interests at heart, Bazal.”

  “And, you do?” I countered.

  “I don’t want to control you,” she replied. “I want to save my daughters, myself, and my city. Together, you and I can do that.”

  “Choose,” Mockery demanded, as she climbed to her feet. “But, if you choose either my sister or my mother, then your women will suffer.”

  I hated threats. They never made me want to comply.

  I didn’t really want to work with Mockery or her sister. Both of them were tied up with Kakx, literally. I didn’t know if he was in charge, or if one of the sisters was. But, both of them had lied to me. They just wanted to could kick their mother out of the park and the temple.

  That didn’t sit well with me... at all. Oba Shufen had been kind to me as a child, and Father had talked well about her.

  Mog never had anything good to say about her daughters, though, which was why I had been interested in Mockery’s old sister as a child. If Father didn’t like them, then they were the kids I wanted to hang out with.

  Turning to look at Oba Shufen, I said, “You’ve lost the park and the temple…”

  Mockery chuckled evilly.

  “The Lady of Plants controls the east side of the city, and the Lady of IronHold now control the west side,” Mockery purred. “Join me, or we will crush you.”

  “When Malignant fight, everyone loses,” Oba Shufen observed.

  Snapping out a fan, she smiled at me, “But, right now, they are both vulnerable. Neither of the Unclean has solidified their grip on either side of the city.”

  Leaning forward, she added, “And, both of them consider you, and your father, their enemies.”

  “Lies,” Mockery hissed. “Bazal is not my enemy.”

  “The Lady of Plants intentionally sold Brynn Tawret’s salvage rights to Candace Vanaken,” Oba Shufen replied. “Felmorna did not turn his wife over to him. Instead, she sold her.”

  That was an excellent reason not to side with Mockery.

  Despite her nice breasts.

  “We still hold his other two women,” Mockery countered. “Choosing our side is in his best interest. Two pussies are better than none.”

  Then, she batted her eyes at me, “Or, should I say… three.”

  Oba Shufen sighed.

  Then, she snapped her fan out.

  Waving it at herself, she stared into my eyes.

  “If you choose either of my daughters, you will become their pawn,” Lady Shufen decreed. “They will sacrifice you as soon as you are no longer useful.”

  Mockery began to talk, but her mother talked over her. “I need a powerful male to work with,” she told me, “and I am offering you that spot… as my friend and partner.”

  Oba Shufen didn’t have any troops or a stronghold anymore. But, she was the only one who was treating me like her equal, even if I clearly wasn’t.

  “If I choose you,” I said. “Mockery will hurt Hana and Mary.”

  “Yes,” Mockery interjected. “I will.”

  “Not today,” Oba Shufen decreed, as she closed her fan and stepped forward.

  Mockery opened her mouth again to threaten me, but her mother beat her to it. Lady Shufen snapped the fan out and rapped her daughter right between the eyes.

  The air crackled, and then Mockery fell, stunned to the ground.

  - 28 -

  Fuck.

  Her mother had just swatted Mockery down with ease.

  “We can speak freely now,” Oba Shufen pointed out. “I won’t force you to serve me, or coerce you. I need someone younger who can do the heavy, physical lifting.”

  Then, she shrugged. “It is up to you. Pick either of my daughters or none of us. The choice is yours.”

  But, when Mockery woke up, that choice would be gone. Or, if Shy showed up. I knew that Shy was allied with Azlin. The Malignant had already told me she was.

  “Can you insert the ribs and arm bone into my body?” I asked.

  Lady Shufen nodded.

  “Shy has one of my lovers in her clutches,” I pointed out.

  “I can give you--and your women--a sanctuary and the weapons that you need to kill both the Malignant,” she said. “Freeing your women will be up to you. I can only give you the tools.”

  Picking one of the Malignant would be easy, but she was right. After my usefulness was done, they would throw me away.

  “If I kill both the Malignant,” I mused. “Who will run Columbia?”

  Lady Shufen smiled.

  “I only care about the Park,” she replied. “Protecting it, and the temple, is my only concern.”

  Fanning herself, she added, “Though, having a partnership with the ruler of Columbia would be beneficial.”

  She would back my control of Columbia if I gave her the smallest portion of it. Shit, the park was a pinprick compared to the rest of the city.

  I was tired of running about like a beggar. Like most Goblins, I wanted a lair, food, and women. Unlike the others, I wanted magic as well, which Oba Shufen could give me.

  Brynn might, or might not, be dead. We had all been traveling to Ashmouth with her, to become rich. If that wasn’t going to happen, I needed an alternative.

  “Alright,” I said, holding out my hand. “You have a deal.”

  Oba Shufen smiled.

  “Then, I will be your Merlin,” she replied. “Long live the King.”

  --M--

  We rode together in a hand sedan that was carried through Columbia by two servants that hadn’t abandoned Oba Shufen. Carrying the three of us must have been hell, but neither man complained. Mockery was still asleep, which was good. I didn’t want to fight with her anymore.