by Nick Stead
“Well if you’re right then David deserves to be torn apart,” she answered with that teenage anger I knew so well. “Just, let one of the others do it. Please, for me. I don’t want my brother to be a monster.”
“For you, sis,” I lied. I had no intention of leaving him to the others if we made it far enough to have our revenge. “One thing I can’t explain though. How is it she was able to lie to us when we first met her and Zee used his powers to question her?”
“I’ve heard of witchcraft being used to combat a vampire’s power, though I’ve never had cause to use such spells myself,” Selina answered. “They would probably have used such measures before bringing her in here as a precaution, preventing her from divulging any of their secrets too soon.”
“Ah.”
Silence fell between us, soon broken by Zee drawing his cutlass again.
“Shall we?” he gestured with his sword to the last challenge standing between us and freedom. Well, freedom from the dungeon. Fighting through the rest of the building would be a challenge in itself.
“Let’s do this,” I growled.
We stepped into the chamber, hearts pounding in response to the demon’s very presence, even Amy’s, the creature’s power over our survival instincts so strong that it negated the effects of Zee’s spell she’d been under since first waking. As one, we felt the urge to flee, but there was nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide. Flight simply wasn’t an option, which left us with fight, no matter what our minds might have kept screaming at us to do.
Crossing the chamber wasn’t easy when every fibre of our beings wanted to get away from this nightmare thing we were about to face, not move closer to it. I forced myself to keep moving, glancing up at the window on the left wall to find David was indeed watching from the safety of his room where I imagined he’d been overseeing everything since the moment we were all first brought into the dungeon. At first he was just a shadowy figure up there but once we were far enough in the room, my eyes could make out those features I once knew so well. It was unmistakeably him, and my anger stirred at the sight of the engineer of our current torment.
My eyes returned to the bigger threat and the first obstacle to overcome before we could reach David. The demon’s profile was also obscured by shadow but I could just make out huge leathery bat-like wings, and my mind cast back to that place between life and death where I’d faced the reaper himself and been saved by another powerful being wielding a fiery blade. Could it be the same beast? Had David had a hand in my fate even then, when I thought I’d passed beyond his reach? But surely that couldn’t be possible for a mortal man with no particular powers or abilities to speak of. Surely he had no control over that realm on the very edge of Death’s domain, caught somewhere between life and death, so how would he have known what was going on while I was in that state to send the demon at just the right moment to save my life?
My heart thundered quicker still as we drew closer to the creature, hammering so hard and fast I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Thinking became an effort under the weight of the sheer terror squeezing me in its icy grasp. Seeing the Hellish features of our adversary only made the fear worse, once our eyes were close enough to penetrate the shadows and pick out the details of its nightmarish form. And it wasn’t the same beast who’d saved me from the reaper after all. They might have both been winged and black, but that was where any similarities ended.
Necrotic skin covered its body, leathery like its wings and hairless, stretched so tightly that the bones of its ribcage were clearly visible on either side of its torso. But in the centre of its chest its ribs poked through where they appeared to have been fractured and pulled outwards, revealing an empty cavity where its heart and lungs should have been. It appeared to be hollow, devoid of all the ingredients of life.
There wasn’t much flesh on those bones but it did have some muscle on its limbs, though they reminded me of the lithe form of a runner rather than the exaggerated bulk of a body builder. It stood twice as tall as the average man on bony feet which were akin to my own in my hybrid form, resembling the paws of a canid or a feline so that it walked on its toes. Its hands looked more human but so skeletal it was hard to tell there was anything covering the bones. I’d expected it to be much bigger and bulkier after the brief encounter earlier in the dungeon, but given the way fear has of distorting something to make it seem all the more terrible than it actually is, it seemed a safe bet that the demon probably had a similar ability to inspire greater terror in its prey.
Its head was roughly humanoid and skull-like, eye sockets empty but covered by that black membrane which was unbroken by any kind of lids. It had the usual space in its skull for a nose and ears but there was no cartilage to form either of those features; only the holes in its head where they should have been. Its mouth was more like a gash in its face with no lips to give it any definition, parted just enough for us to see the fangs within. They reminded me of snake’s teeth, each shaped like wickedly curved hooks designed for holding prey, with two large upper canines at the front and several smaller fangs lining its jaws. A forked tongue rested between them.
Horns like those of a ram curved downwards from the top of its head, the skin puckered around them as if they were unnatural growths which had burst through its flesh. Bone also protruded from its elbows, forming two spikes, and its tail looked like a lizard’s, ending in another sharp, bony point. Vicious claws on the end of each of its fingers and toes completed its set of physical weapons, though no doubt it had far worse powers at its disposal.
The demon was completely naked and apparently sexless, with no visible male or female genitalia. It probably had no use for sex organs since this was clearly a thing of death and suffering, its entire existence built around causing death, not creating life. I fancied it was one of Hell’s soldiers, sent forth to slaughter mortals so that their souls might be delivered into its master’s clawed hands for fresh torment in their own realm, back in the days when they had been free to roam the Earth or at least freer than they were now with the Slayers, from what little Lady Sarah had told me. Assuming there was such a thing as the Devil who lorded over them all. Maybe there was no actual hierarchy and I was merely letting my imagination get the better of me. I didn’t really intend to find out, wanting nothing more than to slip past the demon as planned and run as far away from it and its kind as I possibly could.
About halfway across the chamber, the four of us currently lacking the strength to fight made our way to the left wall, along with Varin. I had no idea how we were going to climb up to the room above, even if we succeeded in breaking the window, since I wasn’t able to grow claws to dig into the stone and there were no handholds for any of us to grip. The room was bare apart from the demon, giving us nothing to use to help our ascent. And yet we had to find a way up there, somehow, if we wanted to escape the encounter with our lives.
The two vampires continued to advance towards the terror made flesh with raised swords, senses focussed solely on their opponent for any hint of an attack. But it may as well have been carved of stone, stood motionless in place. It wasn’t until the vampires had almost drawn level with it that something happened, though it was movement from above rather than ahead of us, the seemingly solid rock over our heads grinding into action like the door panels that separated each chamber. A large hole opened up in the ceiling, revealing what looked to be part of what was once a mining shaft leading up to the surface. That vertical tunnel leading up to the outside world wasn’t particularly long and the night sky would have been clearly visible through it, if cloud cover hadn’t obscured the stars. But I suddenly became aware of the unseen moon overhead. I could feel its power, almost see its ghostly beauty in my mind’s eye, and the urge to howl to it flashed through the icy mist of fear enveloping my mind. I didn’t need to physically see it to know it was full.
I embraced that feeling of power and tried to answer, tried to allow my primal fury to sing through me and return the moon’s
call until it set my blood boiling and my flesh remoulding into a shape more suited to the wild, but still the suppressant or cure or whatever it truly was kept me from turning. A howl of frustration escaped my jaws then. It was almost like how things had been before the curse awoke the lupine side to my nature which had lain dormant all those years of my life, awaiting the bite of a kindred spirit to set it free. I could feel the pull of the moon and I felt wolfish in the same way I’d often felt wolfish in my human life to the point where I would act like a werewolf, but I remained trapped in my human body. And how I’d longed to transform back then, to feel the strength of a wolf’s body and to experience the world with superior senses. Having got my wish and lived out my fantasies for well over a year, it made it all the harder that night to be yearning to change beneath the full moon and to be denied my heart’s greatest desire. Despair took hold. I felt like the wolfish side of my nature was straining against his human prison with everything he had, but the chains he’d been placed back in kept him from breaking free and running under the light of the moon that called so strongly. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if we were to fall to the demon’s might after all. Life didn’t seem worth living without that side of me I’d finally accepted and even embraced.
Then the second thing David had been waiting for us to trigger happened. The vampires had paused when the hole in the roof began to open up, probably expecting some kind of trap to spring on us. Once the stone settled and a minute or so went by with nothing else changing, they started forward again. But they had barely gone a few steps before the demon finally came to life, so to speak. A red glow appeared in those hideous eye sockets, the thing’s head turned to look downwards at us and the fight began.
Chapter Twenty Six – Endgame
As one, Zee and Lady Sarah rushed forward the instant they saw the demon move, their two forms a blur as they charged it. They didn’t even come close to striking the creature’s twisted body, a hideous shriek and a wave of one clawed hand sending them flying backwards with the same telekinetic power the vampires themselves possessed. They landed heavily, though they each sprang to their feet only seconds after, indicating neither had been badly harmed. Our situation suddenly seemed much grimmer though. If they could be overpowered so easily before the fight had even begun, what chance did we have of escaping?
The vampires tried to attack again, Zee charging his enemy head on a second time while Lady Sarah tried to circle round and strike from the side. They were knocked back once more and once more Zee sprang straight to his feet. But Lady Sarah struck the wall and didn’t immediately rise.
Zee drew a pistol in his offhand and aimed it at the demon’s head. Surprisingly he was able to fire it, though the lead shot stopped short of the creature’s skull, clattering harmlessly to the floor. The thing unleashed the full power of fear then, giving another roar like the one it had made earlier when it had been trying to get at us through the chamber of fire, a sound so full of hate and pain and so very wrong on a level that went so completely against nature that it was truly unearthly. Again we were reduced to cowering wrecks trembling beneath the demonic nightmare, those of us on our feet falling to our knees and dropping any weapons, hands clasped over our ears to try and block out the terrible sound. Even Varin cowered like a mortal dog and whimpered pitifully. Lady Sarah had just been getting back up when the roar sounded and she fell back to the floor, lying on her side and covering her ears like the rest of us. Then blessed silence came rushing in on the ebb of that awful cry and Zee found the strength to stand tall once again, even as the rest of us were still suffering the after effects. He’d retrieved his cutlass but his pistol lay forgotten after finding it utterly useless against so powerful a foe. Not to mention it would have taken far longer than a modern gun to reload, and that was the kind of time the vampire didn’t have.
The demon paused a moment to consider its prey, then began to stalk towards Lady Sarah’s prone form. With a cry, Zee ran to attack again, the demon seemingly too focussed on its chosen target to unleash that telekinetic power a third time so that the pirate was able to get within striking distance. But before he could cut his opponent, the Hellish creature whipped its tail across his path, sweeping his feet out from under him and sending him crashing to the floor yet again. His sword was torn from his hand when he landed that time, the demon turning to regard him instead like a cat surrounded by mice to play with. It seemed so completely sure of itself and the inferior beings before it that it was in no rush to kill any of us, probably content to watch its prey suffer awhile before crushing the life from each and every one of us.
I bent to grab my sword from where I’d dropped it and made a move to go to my friend’s aid, but Gwyn placed a hand on my shoulder and murmured just loud enough for Selina to hear as well “We have to a find a way out of here, now!”
“It pains me to say it but he’s right, there’s nothing we can do for them in here,” Selina said. “The only thing that’s going to stop that demon is the ritual to banish it back to Hell.”
“And how are we meant to get up there?” I growled. “In case you hadn’t noticed, that’s a pretty insurmountable wall to climb with our bare hands.”
“Gwyn, if we smash the lights can you break through the window and find something to use as rope for us to climb up?”
“Like it’s going to be that easy,” I answered before Gwyn could respond.
“We have to try, mate,” the knocker replied.
I wanted to argue that we were wasting our time but I supposed it was worth a try, though I was still as sure as when the thought had first crossed my mind that David would have planned some kind of measure to keep the Welsh spirit from his powers. I really wanted to be fighting alongside the vampires. The demon was already on Zee, one clawed foot pinning him down, wings stretched out on either side to make it look more impressive as it prepared to kill him and tail raised like a snake rearing up to strike. That terrible noise sounded forth from its skeletal throat once more like it was uttering a cry of triumph.
Before it could slice into its prey with that bony tip, Lady Sarah was finally back in the fray. She sliced at the leg holding the pirate down but again the demon was too quick, stepping out of the way so that her blade cut through nothing but air. Zee was able to roll away and pick himself back up, though his cutlass lay currently out of reach.
Reluctant though I was to tear my eyes from the action, I ran for the nearest light and smashed that source of Gwyn’s weakness. But the moment the bulb shattered, a stronger beam appeared from within the room above where David watched with glee, spilling into the chamber where we were locked in our bitter struggle so that the knocker remained trapped in his human body. There was no way to bring him the darkness he needed to return to his ethereal form then, unless the vampires could use their telepathy to destroy the lights currently out of our reach. But they were too focussed on battling the demon and they needed all their strength to endure against it for as long as possible, not to mention distracting them could quite easily cost them their lives. We would have to think of something else.
The demon seemed to be growing bored of merely batting around its prey, or maybe it had been ordered to start doing some real damage. Either way, after dodging Lady Sarah’s sword it had turned on her again while I’d been breaking the light and it had her in one clawed hand, holding her up towards its hideous face. She writhed in its grasp and clawed at its black skin but was unable to free herself from the fingers wrapped around her torso, a look of disgust crossing her features when the thing’s forked tongue snaked out and brushed her cheek. For a moment the creature just looked at her as if it was deciding how it wanted to go about breaking its new toy. Then it began to squeeze until bones broke with a sickening crack, so loud even Gwyn, Amy and Selina heard it with their human ears until the sound was replaced with the medieval vampire’s screams.
Zee took the opportunity to retrieve his sword and made another charge at his adversary, but the demon merely dropped Lady
Sarah who crumpled to the ground and then returned Zee to his earlier position, stood over him once more as he lay helplessly on his back. It seemed like the fight would soon be over and they were both going to die in vain if we couldn’t climb up to the window above. But I had no ideas as to how we were supposed to accomplish that and neither did the others it seemed, despite their urgent insisting we find a way. To their credit, both Gwyn and Selina were both studying the wall, looking for anything that might help us climb all the way to the top. Amy was watching it all with wide eyes and I kept finding my eyes straying back to the battle.
Lady Sarah managed to pull her torso upright on arms that would surely have been shaking if she’d been a mortal woman, her legs splayed out uselessly beside her. She gave little indication of the agony she was in, turning to the one source of strength the demon couldn’t simply squeeze out of her bones. It would have to kill her to take her mental powers and she drew on them again then, eyes glowing blue once more.
Zee had raised his head, visibly straining against the demon but with no more success than Lady Sarah had been met with when she’d been in its grasp. His hands clutched the demon’s foot in an attempt to throw it off, to no avail. But he caught sight of Lady Sarah’s eyes and added his own telekinesis to the struggle, and with the power of the two vampires combined I felt a surge of hope that it wasn’t all about to end so quickly. If only the demon hadn’t been such a powerful being, the energy it summoned not just shielding it from the considerable power the two vampires brought to bear against it, but hitting back against them like a battering ram, with enough force that even those of us who weren’t the targets felt it. Zee’s head smashed back against the stone, a pillow of crimson forming around his skull where it lay still, the vampire seemingly unconscious. At least I prayed that’s all that had happened and that his brain hadn’t just been damaged enough by the blow to send him into the eternal sleep of the dead.