Vengeance (Hybrid Book 3)

by Nick Stead

  A part of me was shocked to see him, after assuming he’d been overwhelmed by the zombies in that corridor where we’d been split up. But how he’d survived wasn’t really important. There would be time for answers later, if I lasted long enough for that.

  Expecting the vampire to make the first move, I stood my ground once again. At least I didn’t have to worry about exhaustion creeping up on me too soon this time, so trying to wear my opponent down was an option and I knew from experience that robbing a vampire of the blood stolen from their victims would quickly weaken them and even the odds. But evading Zee’s attacks would be even harder than dodging the bear had been, since he was that much faster. And he had the added advantage of range from his blade, not to mention centuries of experience. I would have to take every opening I could get to wear him down, but such openings were likely to be few and far between from an opponent of such speed and skill. My rage might be the equal of the wildness currently ruling him, but I knew it simply wouldn’t be enough when I was outmatched in every other way. And yet there was still no fear or doubt breaking through that anger blazing through my mind.

  Minutes ticked by but still Zee hadn’t charged. Why wouldn’t he attack when he was almost guaranteed victory? Whatever madness had possessed him, it clearly didn’t recognise me as friend or at least former ally, so there was nothing to hold him back. And if he was as crazed as he looked, surely his bloodlust wanted a fight as badly as my own, or if not that same dark need for violence as my own then if nothing else his hunger should be driving him to the kill.

  I tore my eyes from his frenzied gaze, taking in the rest of the chamber for some clue as to what was going on. That was when I noticed the sword stuck point down in the stone floor on the left side of the room, which could only mean David wanted me to fight like a man this time. And though I hated to play into whatever twisted fantasies had led to the creation of this entire ‘game’, I was forced to accept that taking up the sword was probably in my interests if I wanted to even the odds a little. It would mean I wouldn’t have to get in as close to wound the vampire and it would give me something other than my own flesh to block his attacks, as well as dodging. I couldn’t really turn that down, but I needed my hands to be more humanoid if I was going to be able to grip the hilt properly. So with great reluctance I focussed the transformation on my almost fully lupine paws and willed them to become closer to human hands, though I kept my fur and my claws. If I found myself disarmed I wanted my natural, bestial weapons to fall back on, and keeping them furry used slightly less energy, plus there was some personal preference there. I’d been so obsessed with werewolves as a human that I’d been fussy with the way they looked in artwork and movies, and hairless werewolves had never been my thing. And since I had the power for real and complete control over the change outside of the full moon, why not use it to be the kind of monster I’d always wanted to be?

  I turned my attention back to the vampire while my almost lupine paws settled into almost human hands, half expecting him to suddenly spring into action and take advantage of the costly seconds it would take me to regain fully opposable thumbs. Not that he needed to take that kind of advantage when victory was almost certainly his, but in the short time we’d been down in the dungeon I felt I’d already got to know him fairly well, or at least well enough to know that he wasn’t one for making the kind of stupid, overconfident mistakes that could get a warrior killed. Yet still he stood as if locked in place, and I began to wonder if something was controlling him somehow. That would explain why he was still alive – if David had intended us to eventually fight to the death, Zee had probably never been in any real danger and the necromancer must have been ordered to call off the zombies before they tore the vampire apart. Once I was in the hidden tunnel where David wanted me to be, it would have simply been a case of seizing control of the undead pirate and bringing him to this arena, ready to fight me when I showed up. And if he was being controlled and still hadn’t attacked, that probably meant his puppeteer was waiting for an exact moment to set him free.

  Once I had hands capable of a good grip again, I looked back over to the sword with growing suspicion. Video games had once been my life and I knew full well how boss fights worked, so I could guess how this would go down. If Zee hadn’t simply been commanded to attack on sight but was rather being held in place by another’s will, that likely meant there had to be something to trigger this fight, just like in the video game world. And I was pretty sure the trigger would be the sword. The only thing I couldn’t be sure of was whether I’d be given the chance to draw it or whether the vampire would be set loose the moment my hand touched the hilt. Or worse, just getting near the blade could be all it would take to activate the fight. I wouldn’t know until I tried.

  My other option would be to ignore the weapon and go straight for the vampire, but since David and his minions were watching, as ever in that place, I had a feeling they’d just let Zee loose anyway. They were hardly likely to let me sneak past the ‘boss’ they’d prepared for me and walk from the chamber unscathed, and they weren’t going to hand me an easy win by keeping him motionless either. There was no escaping the fight that I could see, short of turning back and searching for an alternate route to Lady Sarah which I didn’t have time for, so I felt I might as well take the sword as they’d intended. It was better to have it and the slight tip of the odds back in my favour it granted than do without, and at least I would have some sense of when the first attack would come, rather than approaching some less obvious trigger around the vampire and risking being taken unawares.

  I took a deep breath of the putrid air and inwardly conjured another image of David’s face on my mind’s canvas, painting him with such sickening, swaggering glee as he both delighted in my suffering which was all of his making and enjoyed playing master of puppets that my rage grew greater still. Then there was nothing for it. I was as prepared for the fight as I possibly could be, so I leapt forward, sprinting for the weapon with all my supernatural speed. My ears were pricked while I ran, listening for any warning sounds that the vampire was coming in for the kill, my eyes fixed solely on the sword as if reality had narrowed down to that length of metal, everything else ceasing to be for as long as my life rested on its edge.

  My clawed fingers were inches away from grasping the hilt when I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. I kept my sights fixed on the blade as I skidded to a halt beside it but I felt certain Zee had been ordered to attack at last and he was coming for me even as I made my play for the sword, moving so silently my ears hadn’t been able to pick him up, no matter how hard I strained them. And given the greater speed with which vampires could move, he was surely only seconds away from bringing his own blade down on my vulnerable flesh.

  My hand closed round the weapon which slid free from its stony sheath with ease, turning to face my opponent and raising it just above head height all in one fluid movement. And it was as well I had the strength and the agility to make such a move possible, the chamber ringing with the clash of steel as Zee brought his own blade down in a fierce strike that would have cleaved my skull in two, if it hadn’t been for the sword I’d just claimed blocking the attack. There was a brief moment where the burning amber flames in my skull met the stormy ocean orbs in his, our features mirror images of each other as fury twisted our faces into feral snarls. Vampires might consider themselves to be classier and more civilised than other undead, and Zee might have looked more human than I currently did in my wolf man form, but in that instant there was nothing remotely human about that bearded face, lips drawn back so that his fangs flashed from beneath his moustache. Despite the human weapons each of us wielded, in many ways he was every bit as bestial as I was in that moment.

  The pirate’s blade was still dulled with the blood from previous enemies whose flesh it had tasted whilst down in the dungeon, and it was as if it thirsted for more just as keenly as its owner did. That gore stained metal whipped round from its position
over my head and away from my sword, slicing through the air in a path intended to connect with my right side. I just managed to bring my own sword round to parry the second blow, then our swords broke apart and the fight truly began as the vampire launched into a vicious onslaught.

  Despite all the advantages he possessed, Zee still fought as if we were equals, attacking so that his weapon would come within range of my guard, giving me plenty of chance to deflect his blade but no opportunity to counter attack. I got the impression he was testing me and my reactions before going for any riskier strikes that might present me with an opening. It was all I could do to defend myself, my own amateur skills taught to me in the short time training with Leon paling in comparison to the vampire pirate’s master swordsmanship. The one small thing I had going for me was that I’d seen him fight while we’d been trapped in chambers facing other foes together. There hadn’t been enough time to study his fighting style when I’d been battling for my own life of course, but I had a bit more insight from the combat we’d shared together than if we were strangers and I was facing him for the first time. It might just be enough to predict some of his moves and help me evade for longer while I tried to create an opening to strike back.

  Deadly steel carved towards me in another arc meant for my head, but I just managed to dodge that one and retaliated with a swing for Zee’s sword arm. His vampiric speed meant he deflected my attack with ease but rage drove me on the offensive while I had the chance, hacking and slashing at my target with everything I had. Not a single blow landed and before I knew it I was back on the defensive, struggling to keep the sword from biting into my flesh.

  The vampire went into another series of attacks, his blade a viper darting in and out as it struck again and again until finally my inferior speed let me down, the flesh splitting along my left arm where the blade opened up a nasty gash. Fortunately it wasn’t my sword arm so it didn’t affect my ability to wield the weapon, but I roared with anger and pain as nerves exploded in protest once more, blood welling up and splattering the floor as we continued our deadly dance of steel. But some part of me realised that something didn’t seem to be quite right – perhaps it was just being denied his fill of fresh blood that was making Zee weaker than if I’d been facing him at full strength, yet I felt sure he should have done far more than give me a mere flesh wound by then. Even without his full strength to bring to bear against me, his experience should have served him better than he’d fared so far. I should probably have lost my arm if he’d really meant to attack the limb, or at least had it partially severed when I was too slow to dodge. Could it be that whatever power they were using to control the vampire let them keep him from going all-out offensive on me, instead forcing him to attack with intent to wound but forbidding him to kill? Maybe this chamber had never been about my own death – what if David wanted to force me to take the life of someone else I’d formed a bond with, and Zee was being forced to present just enough of a threat to push me into going for the kill? Or he could still be hoping my bloodlust would claim another life, whether I wanted it or not. Either way, as the fight wore on and I continued to escape sustaining any mortal wounds, I felt more and more certain I was right.

  David might even have picked Zee specifically for me to befriend. He’d known me once in our human lives and he could probably guess what sort of personality the vampire for this role would need to make it possible. And even though he couldn’t know for sure that it would play out exactly as he wanted, he would have had a good idea of who the right vampire for the job would be. Their control over Zee might even have allowed them to manipulate him into befriending me. By that point, anything that might otherwise have seemed farfetched had become entirely plausible as I was presented with more and more evidence that this entire place had been built solely for David to have his revenge on me for taking Fiona from him, in as personal a way as possible. I was meant to suffer all the physical and mental pain David could think of, and it was becoming increasingly apparent that every other being in the dungeon with me had been put there solely to add to my torment in one way or another. Whether it was as an enemy to wound me or someone with a hold on my heart to break it and bring me more anguish, they were all there to hurt me.

  Such a realisation only stoked the fires of my rage yet higher and I grew bolder and more offensive as I became more certain that I’d guessed David’s plans correctly. But I had no intention of killing the vampire I’d come to call friend, whether our friendship had come about through careful manipulation or not. Knowing that was what my true enemy wanted only made me more determined to somehow end the fight without taking Zee’s life.

  I went for the vampire with all the speed I could muster. Sparks flew each time our weapons met but still I couldn’t get past his guard, though his blade snuck past mine a second time, opening a cut on my cheek and spattering the ground with more drops of hot blood. My sword took most of the blow, turning it from a deadly strike into another minor flesh wound, though I knew I could only take so many cuts before I began to weaken from blood loss yet again. I had the regenerative power of the transformation to fall back on of course, if I was becoming too weak and needed to heal some of the damage. And if I was right in my assumption that this fight was about Zee’s death rather than my own then I didn’t have to worry too much about being worn down and executed once exhaustion and blood loss took all the fight out of me. But I still wanted to avoid risking it if possible and I wasn’t keen on using energy to heal so soon after I’d just fed. There was no telling when I’d be granted the chance to feed again in that place so I wanted to make the energy the bear had given me last for as long as possible. Which meant I really needed to find a way to wound the vampire and bleed the strength from him, though it occurred to me that I’d still need to find a way to break the control they had over him, even if I could end the fight by making him too weak to carry on.

  Feeling confident I was right about David’s plans, I decided to use Zee’s inability to kill me to my advantage and deliberately left myself open to attack with the aim of finally wounding the vampire. It was a reckless move and if I was wrong it could cost me my life, but I didn’t see how else my blade would find its mark. Playing it safe and fencing with him clearly wasn’t working since he was simply too good a swordsman, so it seemed the only way to beat him was to break the rules which the Slayers appeared to be making him stick to. I knew it would come at the price of further injury to myself, but unless I’d read the situation wrongly or I’d just been jumping to conclusions – in which case I was about to end up very dead – then the vampire wouldn’t land a killing blow. And I knew from fighting Leon that blood loss would wear a vampire down far quicker than it would weaken me, since their bodies were incapable of making their own. Once the blood taken from victims was gone that was it until they could feed again. Their bodies couldn’t recover from losing even the smallest amount in the same way a living one could, and with every drop of blood lost, some of their strength went with it. If I could take enough of that stolen blood currently powering his body then he’d be left weak and helpless until he could feed again, and it’d all be over.

  So I swung at his torso, knowing he’d catch it on his cutlass yet again. But then instead of following through with another strike meant to clash with his sword, I slashed much lower, at the thigh on his leading leg, and finally succeeded in splashing cold blood across the floor. I paid for that small victory with a nasty gash across my chest, and the warmth of my life force soon joined my opponent’s chilled crimson tears.

  I brought my sword back up just in time to parry a cut to my neck and exchanged a few more blows with the vampire, my wound stinging with greater urgency from the movement I was putting my torn flesh through. I could probably have healed whilst fighting since the damage wasn’t deep enough to require shifting fully to either wolf or human, but I was still reluctant to use the power of the transformation unless I really had to, wanting to make my energy last for as long as possible. I knew
the fight would also be a drain on my reserves if I didn’t find a way to end it soon, but the damage I’d dealt Zee was only minor. I would have to starve his body of a significant amount of its blood if I was going to disable him that way and the flesh wound to his leg was leaking its precious fluid far too slowly. From what I knew of vampire healing it wouldn’t close unless he fed, but at the rate his stolen life force was seeping out it would take longer than I had for him to bleed out. Which meant there was nothing for it – I was going to have to risk greater damage to my body to open up more cuts on the undead pirate and speed up the process.

  Dropping my sword to slash at his other leg when he lunged forward to attack again, I was rewarded with another rivulet of cold blood at the same time I felt his blade slice into my left bicep. Still it wasn’t enough to weaken and subdue him as quickly as I wanted, and even if I could take enough strength to allow me to wrestle him to the floor, I was no closer to figuring out how I was going to break whatever control the Slayers had over him. But one thing was clear: my current tactic wasn’t going to work, forcing me to rethink as our swords continued to clash.

  I soon realised what needed to be done. It would require a greater sacrifice than the blood and pain I’d already given just to open up those two minor flesh wounds on the vampire’s legs, but it was the only way to end the fight and hopefully free Zee’s mind without actually killing him, at least as far as I could see. It meant I would have to use some energy to heal myself after all, though it was beginning to seem unavoidable at that point as my own torn flesh continued to leak a steady stream of blood.