E.V.I.E.: 13 Slayers, 13 Missions

by Lexi C. Foss

  “I love you too.”

  “Er...someone pass me the sick bucket.” Adiman’s voice fills the cavern, and the beat of my heart accelerates…he’s here.

  Moving to stand side by side with Howie and guard the flame, I search around for the monster I’ll take great joy in seeing die today. I don’t need to do much to locate him, though. He draws my attention when he jumps down from a ledge near the roof of the cave. His long cloak creates the illusion of the wings of a bat as he drops to the floor, landing directly in front of us.

  Joining Adiman are several other vampires—one I recognize as his deputy, Jatin, another old vampire but thankfully better blessed with looks than Adiman.

  “Sorry, I forgot you’ve never been loved. Is it really hard to watch two people show affection for each other?” I smirk.

  Adiman throws his head back and laughs. “You’re sucking face with a vampire. He doesn’t have a heart. He doesn’t love you. He just wants the glory of fucking a slayer. I tried it once. It was more fun to suck her blood. Slayers are far too uptight and their pussies are saggy from fucking their way around the world.”

  “You really don’t have a clue, do you? You’ve no heart or compassion. You’re just a dead vessel intent on destruction. The witches were right. You do need to die, and I’m going to take great joy in watching it happen,” I respond.

  Howie and I haven’t discussed how we’re going to work together to destroy Adiman. We’re kind of winging it from now on. Howie needs to be near to the flame. He has to figure out how to control it, and while he does, I need to keep Adiman and the other vampires occupied and away from it.

  The best way to do that is in animal form. I step forward and start the transformation. My hands change to paws first, followed by my legs as the golden and black spotted fur covers me. The bones of my face are the last to shift, the fangs of my teeth descending into sharp points.

  Adiman yawns. “The kitty again, really? So boring.” I leap with a loud growl at my nemesis. “Everyone calls me a monster because I’m a vampire, but no one questions the fact you transform as well. It’s not fair. You aren’t human either—you’re a wild animal.”

  I land with my claws dug into the skin of his chest, and we both fly along the ground into the cave wall. Adiman uses his strength and pushes me away, and I bounce quickly off one of the walls and go into the attack again. The other vampires descend upon us, and I’m forced to fight a significant number at once. It doesn’t matter, though. I’m strong enough, and I need to buy Howie as much time as possible so he can figure out how to control the fire.

  Adiman’s deputy rips me off his master when I strike again, and I swipe down the side of his face with my claws. He steps back and cries out in pain, before stepping forward to bear down on me again.

  “Jatin, lead her deeper into the cave,” Adiman calls out. “The armies will be here soon. These two will be horribly outnumbered, and we’ll send them to hell along with the cave when we destroy it.”

  Jatin rubs his hand over his cheek and then looks at the blood now covering his fingertips. I growl at him and prepare to pounce, to inflict a death blow on Adiman’s deputy, but out of nowhere, Howie flies at me and pushes me away.

  I instantly shift back to my human form.

  “What the hell?” My senses are alert. A trap?

  “What the fuck!” Adiman exclaims.

  Howie whispers into my ear, “Jatin is one of yours. Trust him. Trust me. I love you.”

  Howie then jumps up, and grabbing me by the hair, he pulls me close to him. It’s painful, and I struggle against him, trying to kick out. My mind is a whirl of emotions. What’s happening here? Howie says Jatin is one of ours, yet he serves Adiman. Is Howie playing me, or is this all part of a plan he’s devised? I’ve no idea what’s going on, and I don’t like it. I’m normally in control as a slayer, but the vampires have taken over, and I’m now a pawn in whatever happens next.

  Howie cocks my neck to the side and bares his fangs. Adiman claps excitedly.

  “I knew he wasn’t the good boy everyone said he was. No one created from my blood could ever have any humanity left in them.”

  Howie snarls, “Destiny has destroyed enough of our lives over the years. We could have been the greatest undead in the world, but the witches took it from us, and the slayers as well. I know the truth now, and I’m going to get revenge on them all. They said my soulmate needed to be born but not for me to love. No, for me to kill. To suck all the blood from her as I destroy the people who held me prisoner for all these years.”

  Howie drags me along the floor, and as we move past Jatin, I see Howie give him an almost invisible sign.

  “Save a bit for me. She owes me,” Jatin snarls and touches at his face.

  “Save a bit for everyone.” Adiman jumps up and down like an excited child.

  He doesn’t realize what’s happening. Howie is taking us back toward the flame—where he needs to be. He wouldn’t let me kill Jatin, because he knows the deputy is one of those who’s been protecting him all these years, but to save him, Howie had to leave the fire. This is his plan to get back to it, and now I understand, it changes everything.

  When Howie is back where he needs to be, I shift again and use my back legs to kick him even closer to it as I leap through the air away from him.

  Adiman shouts in anger, “Damn slayer. Where are my armies?”

  Jatin smiles at him and then raises an eyebrow. “Not coming. They never were.”

  “What?” Adiman stands dumbfounded as I pounce at him again.

  Jatin turns and starts to attack the other vampires in the room. The odds have changed in our favor, and we might just win this fight. I take a final look at Howie and nod at him. He smiles back and then focuses on the fire.

  It’s time to end this. We all know it, even if it’ll break my heart. Adiman has to die. I leap for him once more, but as I do, one of the other vampires catches my leg. My flight is slowed, and I don’t attack Adiman with as much power as I intended. He catches me easily, and I shift back into my human form as he positions me kneeling on the floor in front of him, ready to break my neck and kill me.

  Howie looks at me. His eyes go wide. The next second, he’s gone, engulfed by the flames of the eternal fire.

  15

  Howie

  When I see Mishka on her knees as Adiman prepares to kill her, I know her life is more precious to me than my own. I have to do everything to save her. I’ve been standing here, while she and Jatin have been fighting, staring at the flames and desperately trying to think of ways I can control them. I know deep down there is only one way, though. I have to let them consume me. I tried to use my hand to control them last time, and it didn’t work. I need to be the flames to kill Adiman.

  Jumping into them is surreal. They don’t burn but cradle me in a cocoon of gentle warmth. I allow the tendrils of reds, yellows, and oranges to wrap around my body and flood into my skin, changing it, turning it all the colors of a sunset in the fall. My bones break, but nothing hurts.

  It’s like I’m transitioning into the form I was always meant to be, not the monster Adiman made me. I embrace it and welcome it even if I know I will die at the end. I’ll save the woman I love, and that’s all I need to achieve with the little bit of life I have left to live. Arms turn to wings, feet to claws, a tail appears, and plush, bright red feathers grow down my back. My face changes into that of a bird— no, a phoenix. I’ve been reborn into the shape of a glorious, mystical animal, and from the ashes I shall rise.

  The flames around me die down, and I swoop up high into the cave. My body is still on fire as I watch Adiman wrap his hands around Mishka’s neck. Her eyes go wide when she sees me, and a look of love blooms on her face. Adiman glances up, but the expression on his face is vastly different from Mishka’s. It’s a look of terror and despair. The look of a man who knows he’s about to die.

  Flying down, I aim directly for Adiman. He’s let go of Mishka and is trying his hardest to
escape by clambering up the walls of the cave, but I’m too quick for him in this new form. I swoop into him as he hangs off a ridge near the top. The flames surrounding my body rage intently, and they instantly set Adiman alight. He falls from the ridge and crashes onto the cave floor below. I dive around the cavernous space, setting the other vampires alight, making sure to avoid Jatin before I collapse to the ground. The fire surrounding me dies out, and I turn back into my previous form, Howie the vampire.

  I turn my head toward Adiman. The flames have engulfed his whole body now, and the cave falls silent as Mishka, Jatin, and I watch him die. The fire is bright, and I use my hand to shield my eyes against the glare coming from the monster. His screams of agony are justice for all the people he’s turned, tortured, or killed over the years. The glow increases and then fades into nothingness as Adiman explodes into a pile of ashes on the floor. It’s over—he’s dead.

  And now it’s my turn.

  Mishka comes running over to me and lifts my head to cradle it in her lap. I can’t move off the floor. My body is exhausted, and I can feel the life draining out of me.

  “You need to collect the ashes and throw them into the fire, make sure he can’t find a way to return,” I gasp at her weakly.

  “I will.” She nods her promise. “But not until…” Her voice breaks.

  “My body as well, Mishka, return it to the flame.” She looks away from me. “Mishka, please. I want to dance in there forever.”

  “I will.” She finally makes her promise, and I feel death rapidly approaching, hurtling into me like a comet on a direct collision course.

  Mishka takes my hand and squeezes it hard.

  “I love you.” She leans forward and kisses my lips one last time.

  “I’ll love you forever...”

  The darkness claims me.

  “Hello, Howie.” The old lady from my visions sits in front of me. We’re still in the cave, and she’s sitting next to the eternal flame, dressed regally in her Mehdi patterns and gold jewelry. Mishka and Jatin have disappeared. It’s only us here now.

  “That’s something I didn’t anticipate, you as my guide to the afterlife. I wouldn’t have expected you to be sent to Hell,” I tell her.

  The old lady’s lip curls up into a mischievous smirk. “So much you don’t know about me, boy. Just as much as you didn’t know when you first entered my cave. We all knew you would come one day. It had been passed down throughout our generations since the beginning of time. You were right when you told Mishka you weren’t in charge of your life. You were born to kill Adiman. I’m sorry it had to take so long for it to happen, but the love in your heart needed to be tested. You and Mishka were always mismatched in time. It was never supposed to happen that way. We had to build the story around you in the end. You’ve served your time.”

  “So I get to go to Hell?”

  The old lady shakes her head.

  “Heaven? I guess it’s something I never believed could happen. There’s probably only one way I could get in there and that’s if I never killed any humans while I was a vampire?”

  “That and saving the Indian people from Adiman, and no,” the old lady gestures for me to sit next to her, and I do, “you never killed anyone as a vampire even when it left you weak. But Heaven is not your destiny either. Well, not yet anyway.”

  The old woman places her hand on my chest. The blue swirls of her magic start to flow from her and into me.

  “It’s not your time to die. It was your vampire’s time, but the phoenix in you will live on.” The woman pushes hard against my chest, and I fall back into the flames. This time they burn my skin, my eyes, and my lungs as I fall deeper and deeper into them. Eventually, the flames die down until there’s nothing but darkness all around me. I listen for any sounds to show me where I am, but the only thing I can hear is the beating of my heart. I’m alive again.

  I sit up with a start and gasp for air—my lungs are working, and my heart’s pumping blood around my body again. I’m human. No, something different. I feel the phoenix still inside me.

  Mishka screams beside me, tears streaming down her face.

  “Howie?” she questions in complete shock. “You were dead.”

  “No, the vampire in me is dead.”

  I reach out to take her hand, and her eyes go wide when she feels the warmth flooding around my body. She places her head against my chest and listens to my heart.

  “It’s beating,” she says, looking up at Jatin, who lowers his head.

  I feel an instant pang of sorrow for him. He’s still a vampire. He’s not been given this special gift of a life again, a second chance. Not only that, he’s protected me over the years from Adiman. He must have performed tasks that would have tested his resolve. He’s got his own story to tell, and I hope one day he gets to share it with us all to bring peace to his mind.

  For now, though, I have to concentrate on the woman smothering me with tiny kisses, my soulmate. The woman I love with my now beating heart. Maybe destiny isn’t so bad after all.

  Epilogue

  Mishka

  I stretch out a long spotted paw with sharp talons extended. Life is bliss when I get to relax in the sunshine and there’s no vampires to chase or tasks to complete. But what makes it even better is the man lying beside me, my husband, my lover, my life, and soon to be father of the child I’m carrying in my womb.

  Howie and I didn’t hang around after we’d cleaned the cave of Adiman’s ashes. We started our life together almost immediately. We were married later that night, and our child was conceived a few weeks later. I’m still in the early stages of pregnancy, but thanks to the absence of vampire attacks in India since Adiman was killed, I’m not having to do anything very strenuous. Hence, the relaxation time back in my home village in Nagerhole.

  Howie has embraced our way of life. It’s more like the world he knew a long time ago—one without the interference of technology. Here, it’s all about the closeness of the people in the village and the stories the elders tell. My mother has a wonderful story now that she loves to repeat to anyone who’ll listen. It’s the tale of how her daughter cured a vampire with her love. I’m not entirely sure it’s what happened, but I’m letting her tell it the way she wants, because it’s the romantic version.

  We often travel to the office in Delhi. I’m acquiesced to use magic to travel there these days because it’s quicker than walking, and it means Howie and I can spend more time making love to each other when we arrive there or at home. My colleagues and I are trying to discover ways the eternal flame can be used to cure other vampires who want to be human once again. Jatin is helping where he can, but otherwise he keeps to himself. I don’t know his story or why he’s not the monster he was made, but his kindness and devotion has forever earned him my respect.

  “Do you fancy a swim?” Howie turns over to face me.

  He’s taken to sunbathing naked recently. I can’t say it’s not a pleasant sight, but it makes me permanently horny. He’s definitely embraced the sun since he’s been able to walk in it again.

  “What about the crocodiles?” I look over to where one of the beasts lies sunbathing, completely ignoring us.

  Howie sits up, and I watch as his body starts to change into his phoenix form, flames shooting from the tips of his feathers as he soars up into the sky and then straight back down into the water. The crocodiles scatter, scared of being burned. Howie surfaces in his human form, and I turn back to mine. I walk carefully into the water as he forms a ring of fire around us, protecting us from any possible attacks from the man-eating beasts. I swim to him, and Howie brings me into his arms.

  “You’re definitely a handy man to have around. I’ll never need to buy matches again.” I chuckle at him, and he joins in with me.

  “Perfect for the many power outages we get here in India.”

  “Most definitely.”

  “I could get used to this being my life forever,” Howie says, lifting me up, and as we’re both naked,
sliding me back down directly onto his hard cock. I gasp at the intrusion to my core. “I didn’t know what real life was before. I just existed.”

  “You danced with the flames, but now you’ve become them, and I’m the one dancing with you,” I reply, not sure where the words come from, but I mean them.

  Howie moves inside me, sliding back and forth and propelling us both to a quick orgasm aided by the movement of the water

  “Our life won’t always be simple,” I continue. “We’re expecting a child, and I’ll always be a slayer, but it took us long enough to get to this point, and I won’t allow us to be apart again. Together we’re strong—together we are one, and we’ll create a lineage of slayers who one day will rid the world of vampires forever.”

  The End

  Coming next year...Jatin’s story

  I’ve seen and done things in the last four hundred years no man or monster should. I’m not a true vampire, but I do have the taste for blood now. Can I escape the mistakes I’ve made, the person Adiman shaped, and find the one woman who captured my heart again?

  Also by Anna Edwards

  The Control Series – A Contemporary Romantic Suspense Series set predominately in London

  Surrendered Control

  Divided Control

  Misguided Control

  Controlling Darkness

  Controlling Heritage

  Controlling Disgrace

  Controlling the Past

  Second Chances

  Dark Sovereignty – A Dark Romance set amongst the British Elite.

  Legacy of Succession

  Tainted Reasoning

  A Father’s Insistence

  Glacial Blood – Paranormal Romance in the Glacial National Park in Montana.