Brothers of the Fang

by Sharon Joss

  The lids of the other coffins began to slide open. Ozzie opened his eyes.

  CHAPTER 45: RAISING THE DEAD

  “Get her out of here,” I shouted. Cobb was already taking aim with a pistol. I leapt for him and he fired at me from less than two feet away. The bullet slammed into my shoulder and I grunted with the impact. I crashed into him and the gun went flying across the cavern.

  I caught a glimpse of Tom’s wolf and the Nagual bear attacking Ozzie as Cobb seized me by the neck. Tryffin was rising too, but I had my hands full.

  Cobb pulled me toward him, his fangs fully descended. His strength was unbelievable. Cobb wasn’t alone, either. A brand-new vampire was also rising right beside him. It was Cobb’s number one blood steward, Jared. I got a glimpse of Jared’s fangs as Dave attacked him with the katana sword in one hand, and a crudely sharpened stake in the other. I hauled the Cobb away from the coffin, each of us straining for advantage in the tight space.

  I wrapped my taloned hands around Cobb’s neck. I struggled to snap it, but he bore down on me with a relentless force, his fangs fully extended, aiming for my throat. I smashed him in the nose with my forehead and felt the satisfying crunch of bone. He cursed and threw me across the cavern with enough force to knock the air out of me.

  I crouched on my hands and knees, struggling for air. Silas and Chaney were busy with Tryffin. Rafe looked like an animated skeleton, as he drained the blood bags as fast as he could swallow.

  Cobb came at me faster than I could have imagined possible. He tore at my wounded shoulder, tearing at me with his teeth, again going for my throat. I tried to hold him off, but he was relentless. I scored his abdomen with my clawed feet, shredding his burgundy velvet shirt but doing little damage. The sonofabitch was wearing chain mail underneath his shirt.

  I rolled to the side, using one hand to keep him off me, the other to get under his protective armor, but he jerked away and delivered an uppercut to my jaw that had me fighting not to lose consciousness.

  He bit deep into my neck and held on. I heard the unmistakable sound of the single chain around Lyrissa’s coffin breaking and realized that two more angry vampires were about to join the party. We were all going to die.

  A feeling of lassitude washed over me as Cobb’s jaws worked, sucking my life’s blood out of me. His skin grew warmer, and I felt the heartbeat at his temple throb against my cheek. The smell of blood came to me, bringing with it Tehuantl’s tremendous craving for blood. I pulled Cobb closer, and he relaxed.

  As his thirst lessened, my own grew until it became unbearable. I reached out to the earth beneath me, and used Tehuantl’s magic to feed my resistance. Instinctively, I knew that feeding off a vampire was not a good idea, but the smell of blood and my own need overwhelmed me. I waited until Cobb had descended into his own thrall of feeding, then rolled into him, using the weight of my body to force him to loosen his grip.

  Cobb screamed and bucked as my own fangs bit down into his exposed neck. I reveled in the taste and sensation of his blood pulsing against my tongue. I’d nicked an artery, and the blood poured into me as he tore at my mangled shoulder. With his throat locked between my canines, I slipped my hand under his mail shirt. I forced my hand beneath his ribcage and clawed my way toward the throbbing shrunken muscle that animated his corpse.

  Cobb panicked. He twisted violently, trying to wrench me off him, but I held on, my lower incisors hooked around his collarbone. With agonizing slowness, my hand inched upward through his chest cavity until I felt the throbbing of his gristly heart muscle. He grabbed at my arm, but it was too late. I had him. With a wrenching twist, I tore his heart from his body. Cobb collapsed, and the flesh of his inanimate corpse began to tighten and dry.

  An instant later, Lyrissa and another vampire hit me from behind. Lyrissa bit deeply into my upper back, while the other vamp sprawled across my lower body, her teeth embedded in my hip. It hurt like hell. I couldn’t get them off me. Striper Dave lay face down on the floor, with the katana sword still in his hand. I yelled at him, but he didn’t respond. I fought and scrambled uselessly, trying to reach it. Lyrissa let go of me just long enough to wrap her hands around my throat.

  Neither vamp was nearly as strong as Cobb. I got my knees under me and bucked, but Lyrissa clung to my back like a limpet. I managed to kick the other vamp off my hip, and lunged for the sword, but the other vamp seized it first. She screamed and raised the weapon, shrieking at Lyrissa to get out of the way.

  Lyrissa released her grip on my neck, I threw myself backward, and heard a satisfying thunk as she whacked her skull against the stone floor. The other vamp tried to slash at my throat with the blade, but she didn’t know what she was doing, and I wrested the blade out of her hand. I caught her on the side of the head in a furious blow, which took most of the fight out of her, along with the upper half of her skull. Lyrissa charged me from the floor, and launched herself straight at me. I dropped the weapon and grabbed her face between my hands. I gave her head a sharp twist and heard her neck snap.

  I dropped her and grabbed the katana to finish decapitating the other vamp, then delivered a killing blow to Lyrissa, severing her head from her body. I stumbled and wiped their blood from my face.

  I looked around, trying to make sense of the chaos. Silas and Chaney were holding Varrick up against the wall. He wasn’t really fighting them, but they weren’t letting him go. Rafe and Wynn held onto a convulsing Jared who had one of Dave’s stakes sticking out of his chest. Tom’s wolf and the bear were fighting a losing battle against Ozzie, who had the bear Kiyayo in a chokehold, and was draining her of blood.

  I threw myself at Ozzie and bore the three of them to the ground. I caught a glimpse of Sarah coming at us with kitchen knife in hand, her expression a grimace of rage.

  Ozzie fought like a madman, but with Cobb’s death, his strength wasn’t nearly as strong as his makers’. And his strength was fading; just as it had for the women. I held him down, but he wouldn’t release the bear. Sarah rushed in with the knife. I yelled for someone to bring me a stake, and Ozzie released his grip on the bear. In the confusion, Kiyayo turned on Sarah.

  The bear grabbed her, raking her savagely with her deadly claws. I shouted at Kiyayo to stop, but she wasn’t listening. Tom’s wolf attacked the bear to protect Sarah and Ozzie turned his attentions to me.

  He laughed. I grabbed the katana and hacked at him, using the blade like a machete. With every blow, he laughed harder and harder. I kept going until there was nothing left of him but a bloody pulp. I couldn’t stop; I kept hitting him even after he began to parch and wither beneath my blows. It was Rafe’s shout that brought me back.

  Kiyayo had Sarah down beneath her killing claws. Already weakened by starvation and blood loss, she was no match for the enraged bear. I didn’t want to kill Kiyayo, but I couldn’t let the First Bear kill Sarah, either.

  I grabbed the bear by the scruff of the neck and dragged her off Sarah. She turned on me and clouted me a good one. We rolled and tore at each other until Xenotchi emerged, his fury now rivaling the bear’s. Xenotchi grabbed the bear by the skull and rolled as the bear scratched and fought the increasing pressure on his thick skull. I heard shouts as we fought for our footing on top of the bloody shreds of Sarah’s inert form. I felt the First Bear’s skull crack beneath the jaguar’s teeth and she collapsed, silent as the dead. With the last of my strength, I rolled up the jaguar.

  I staggered to where Sarah’s inert form lay. Dimly, I heard Rafe’s voice issuing orders. Silently, I begged Tehuantl to do something. But Tehuantl wasn’t there anymore. I was Tehuantl. He was part of me.

  “Her pulse is thready,” Silas said. “She’s lost too much blood. She’s not going to make it.” I folded Sarah’s mangled hand within my own. My tears dripped onto Sarah’s bloodied, mutilated body. No. It couldn’t be. This can’t be happening. Something in me would not accept it. I checked Kiyayo’s pulse. It was steady. The bear was unconscious, but still breathing.

  Rafe tend
erly wiped the blood off Sarah’s face. “I could make her one of us.”

  My gorge rose in my throat. I felt sick. “No.”

  She’d saved Tom’s life. She’d gotten him safely through the first onset of lycanthropy. If not for her, I would never have defeated Tehuantl. We would still be trapped inside the bestiary. She’d given everything she had to help us. And maybe countless others. She’d fought so hard to survive the horrors of this place. How could this have all ended so badly?

  An idea came to me, and I truly didn’t know if it was mine or Tehuantl’s. It didn’t matter. What if I could bring Sarah’s spirit into Kiyayo-Nekeyah’s? What if I could make her like me?

  She was so badly injured; I wasn’t certain it would work. But the same had been true of me when Xenotchi first attacked me. There was no reason that Sarah couldn’t share Nekeyah’s spirit like I had shared Tehuantl’s. I had to try.

  CHAPTER 46: FORESWORN

  The gunfire had stopped by the time we carried Sarah out of the Odditorium. Steve-o, Wyatt, Trick and a badly limping Rizzo were there. They told us that the resistance had disappeared when most of the blood stewards keeled over and died. Yolanda was awake, but neither she nor Rizzo wanted a veterinarian. My best friend from childhood, Dave Stripe, had died of a broken neck, but I had no time to mourn him. Not yet.

  Silas and Rafe carried the unconscious bear between them as I led the way to the beer gardens behind the Bloody Fang. I needed a quiet place where I could draw power directly from the earth.

  We lay Sarah on the grass next to Kiyayo. I kneeled beside them, and reached with Tehuantl’s power deep below the surface of the soil, into the original lands of the Fae. The old Fae. The energy field was there, pulsing deep within the earth. I didn’t need any divining rod to feel it. With one hand, I cupped my hand to the bear’s semi-conscious head and called out to Nekeyah. I told her what I wanted, and asked for the favor she’d promised me. After a small hesitation, she agreed.

  She took a deep breath and exhaled the essence of her life force into my mouth; I opened my pure being to her and allowed her to fill my soul with her spirit.

  I lowered my teeth to Sarah’s neck. She wasn’t breathing. The pulse at her throat gave a beat and stopped. I bit deeply, drawing her blood into my mouth. The essence of Nekeyah surfaced hungrily and consumed the blood and spirit of Sarah Powers. For a moment, I felt some confusion and discomfort as the two women elbowed at each other within me, then their embrace as Sarah’s physical form died in my arms. I waivered, wondering if Sarah would ever forgive me for this. But after all she’d been through, she had demonstrated her strength and determination to survive. Maybe this wouldn’t work, but she deserved the chance. Turning back to Kiyayo-Nekeyah, I exhaled their combined essence within the breath of the First Jaguar Xenotchi back into First Black Bear. I felt their amusement as they departed, leaving behind an empty spot in my psyche.

  It was done.

  The bear Kiyayo took a deep shuddered breath and faded away, leaving behind a dark-haired, sleeping woman.

  “Did it work,” Tom asked, as he covered her with a blanket.

  I couldn’t answer. I had no clue.

  “We’ve got company,” Rafe murmured.

  Nixese and Daneah approached, with a dozen Fae warriors spread out behind them. Unlike the color-shifting leathers they’d worn inside the Tor, they were all dressed in regular military-style camouflage, complete with heavy boots and plenty of good ‘ol American firepower to supplement their bows and quivers full of arrows.

  I stood to greet them.

  “Now they show,” Wynn muttered. “It’s about time.”

  To my surprise, Nix and his people were rigid with barely suppressed anger. The realization hit me then. I understood why they hadn’t arrived sooner. Bitter acid burned the back of my throat.

  “Let me handle this,” I said. If I didn’t make this right, we’d have another war on our hands.

  I met Nix’s accusing glare without blinking. “I understand your grief, Cousin, but you must accept that Lyra died a long time ago.”

  “She was my wife,” Nix choked.

  “No. She was the vampire Lyrissa. She hadn’t been your wife, or even Fae for a very long time.”

  “Time has no meaning for immortals.” His voice cracked as his emotions betrayed him. “You swore to release all the hostages. I convinced the elders that you would honor your oath. Instead, you destroyed her.”

  I had nothing to offer him. At that moment, I could not conjure up the slightest bit of remorse for killing Lyrissa, or Cobb or Ozzie or any of them. I was sick of death. “We destroyed her maker. She was already dying.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “She attacked us and we fought for our lives. She killed Dave, and she would have killed me. I derived no satisfaction from her death.”

  “You lie,” Daneah hissed. “You stink with the blood of your victims, Bane. You are one of them now.” With a swift motion, she drew an arrow and knocked it against her bow.

  “I loved her, and you took her from me,” Nix said.

  The simple statement tore at me. “I do understand your grief. After all, you took my father from me.”

  Nix nodded, grimly, his face set. “So be it, blood drinker. The wards are destroyed, but the treaty between the Fae and the Blood Drinkers will not be broken by me this night. But hear me, oath breaker; as of this moment, you are foresworn of the Fae, Mike Bane. You are no longer cousin to me or my clan.”

  “I never really was,” I answered.

  Silas stepped beside me and a wave of aggression grew around us, each wolf in turn adding their pheromones of solidarity until I felt surrounded by a wall of will, as strong as any Fae glamour. “Bane is our Alpha. When you threaten him, you threaten all of us.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chaney heft the katana in his hand. This could all go to pieces in a hurry.

  “Easy, brother.” Tiredly, I put my hand on Silas’ shoulder and rolled my power out over the pack. The tension backed down a notch, but all it would take was a spark to set it off.

  “By your own words, you have sworn to abide by the treaty,” I said. “There has been too much bloodshed here today already. Go home, Nix. Accept that Lyra is well and truly gone, and mourn her properly. I sympathize with your loss, but I will not apologize. Now go in peace.”

  “On the life you owe me, Bane, I will not hold my fire when next we meet.”

  “Nor will any of us, blood drinker,” added Daneah.

  “So be it.” I nodded and the pack surged forward. The Fae edged their way back through a gaping hole in the park fence near the Odditorium. I watched as they trotted out onto the Tor and disappeared into the tree line. Farley nosed my hand, as if to reassure me.

  I patted his head with as much comfort as I could offer. Not much chance of getting the Fae to lift his punishment any time soon. I rubbed his ear. “Sorry boy,” I whispered.

  I straightened and turned to address the pack. “Come on, guys. Let’s get this place cleaned up. I want everyone who wants to leave out of here by morning.”

  CHAPTER 47: DIGGING IN

  A week later, Rafe and I stood in the main plaza, watching the fireworks and a surge of happy visitors as they swarmed through the front gates. This was the first time the park had been open to visitors in weeks, and based on the number of reservations, we were expecting the park to be packed to the gills tonight.

  “Don’t worry,” I told him. “So what if we’re a little light on the street performers? Santino thinks we can hire some actors away from the Sterling Renaissance Festival. Lucky for us their season ends next weekend.” Santino had already hired new musicians, street performers, vendors, grounds people, and servers for the Bloody Fang.

  “We’ve got eighteen days until the Summit,” Rafe said.

  I was a little worried about him. He’d never wanted to run Mythica, and now the whole stinking mess had been dropped in his lap. He had only Tryffin, Varrick, and Santino t
o help him run the park, because none of them were of Ambrose’s line. He’d decided to wait for the summit and let the Globus determine Ambrose’s fate.

  The jugglers on stilts moved through the crowd, to scattered applause. “New costumes,” Rafe said. “I keep forgetting to remind Santino we need new costumes.” He shook his head. “How are we going to get new costumes without Orcas?”

  “Lexie is already working on it,” I answered. In addition to being Ambrose’s lover, Orcas had been the park’s costumer. Santino’s blood steward, Lexie had been her assistant. “Santino asked her to design a whole new look for the park performers and employees.”

  For a guy who never wanted the responsibility, Rafe was doing a remarkable job of getting the park back in order. Mythica was heavily dependent on blood stewards to run the rides, staff the concessions and restaurant, and perform general park maintenance. With their vampire masters either dead or chained in their coffins, most of the park’s blood stewards were either dead or incapacitated by withdrawal symptoms. Rafe had sent the survivors off to rehab. Only Varrick’s, Tryffin’s, and Santino’s blood stewards were able to work. He’d hired local craftspeople to remodel, repaint, replant and generally spruce up the overall appearance of the estate. New handicap-accessible ramps were being installed, along with new signage for the amusements. Rafe had pushed hard, but was equally insistent that we didn’t cut corners where quality and safety was concerned.

  “When are you leaving?” He asked me.

  “Tomorrow. I want to make sure everything runs smooth tonight. Silas will be in charge until I get back.”

  Trick had agreed to stick around until after the Summit, on the condition that I would write a letter of recommendation for him to the pack of his choice. Phelan and Steve-o were out of the pack, and Yolanda had also left after accepting an invitation to join a pack in New Mexico. Rizzo was driving back to his home in Detroit. Only one of the mercs, an ex-Marine named Jim Garrity, had asked to join the pack, and he had been a great addition. Tom was helping out when he could, but he had a business to run. That left the pack only five lycans strong. We needed at least six or eight solid guys with good control, and we needed them before the Summit. I was pretty sure I knew where to get the lycans we needed. “I’ll be back in a couple days. You won’t even miss me.”