by D. N. Hoxa
Sight and sound hit me all at once. I’d been so out of it, I hadn’t even heard all the cheering going on behind me. And why wouldn’t they cheer? What had once been a lake full of water was now a steep descent of about thirty feet or more, and nothing else except mud.
“How did you do that?” Ned asked as I stood up, a bright smile on my face.
“The bed of the lake sucked it under. We need to get moving, fast.” I wasn’t sure how long this was going to last, and I wasn’t going to take any chances.
A long, deafening howl came from Everett. A second later, he took off running into the mud. Attaboy.
Edison howled, too. I suspected it was a shifter’s way of telling their soldiers it was go-time. When he took off into the mud after Everett, I turned to look at the rest. They all had some kind of a weapon in their hands, eyes of steel directed at the island.
“This is it, boys and girls. Do try not to die,” I said as I pulled out my swords. Sunlight still reigned in the sky on this side of Necterram. Jack, Frosty and the rest of the vampires on our side were going to have to wait before getting a taste of the battle. And that was okay, because when I turned my eyes towards Kyahen, I lost my breath for a second. I’d gotten so used to seeing him glamoured all the time. Now that he was showing me his true self, it was hard not to be impressed. Huge white wings resembled shields behind his back. His sword was carved on every inch of space in fairy letters, and his smile was the meanest smile I’d ever seen. A whole army of fairies like him was going to make up for the time our vampires needed to get to us.
So with a deep breath, I turned around and I ran.
23
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My muscles were beginning to scream by the time I realized just how big the island was—twice the size of what it had looked like from the beach. When I saw Everett and Edison had stopped twenty feet away from the edge of the island, I did the same. They were both in fighting position, looking at the black wall that surrounded the island.
But now, it wasn’t a wall. It was soldiers, dressed in black, standing straighter than a tree, looking at us passively. My senses washed over them and told me that they were all shifters and under the potion’s influence. Sick. They looked half dead. I wondered how they were going to fight…
And then each soldier took a single step to the side. The row went so far back, I couldn’t see the end of it. Shivers washed over my body as wolves appeared next to the firsts in lines. They each had collars with blinking blue lights around their necks, and they looked hungry.
Everything began to move so slowly.
Everett howled.
Wolves flew above my head and landed right in front of me, their teeth ready.
I took one last look behind me. So many people were there, waiting for me to begin what could be the end of their lives. I felt privileged. Honored. Scared shitless. But I also realized that I’d been preparing for this day my entire life, even if I didn’t know it.
I raised my sword up, and I turned to the enemy.
Samayan’s shifters charged forward as soon as we started to run to them. Adrenaline pumped my blood and strength fueled my mind. Kill, kill, kill. I was nothing but a machine from the second my katana cut the first head of a shifter.
From then on, the smell of blood overran the smell of dirt. The blood coated the dead ground bright red. The feel of blood all over my body took hold of my senses. Around me, I could see those closest to me fighting. Kyahen was ruthless. He fought the battle like it was a fucking dance. Big Mike stayed true to his words and used his bare hands more than he used his knives. Arturo stuck to his sword, moving too fast for Samayan’s shifters to be able to defend themselves. We were all taking heads, our minds completely empty, our chests filled with the want to kill.
Shifters came at me left and right, and I swung my swords without stopping. They were trained well, but they were slow. I couldn’t decide if my slow motion function made it seem so, or if the potion had affected their speed. But the wolves were fierce. They were much faster, much stronger, and much more thirsty. They had a crazed look in their eyes, and one of them almost caught me right on the neck. I let go of my katana, reached for Bob, and made a clean cut of the upper half of the wolf’s head. It had been a close one, but I had no fear. I had rage and I had determination, and I cut through flesh and bone like it was made of paper. It was exactly the kind of strength I’d hoped for while we’d prepared for this.
The soldiers kept coming. So did the wolves, though a lot fewer in number, but we didn’t stop, either. Kyahen’s and Drean’s fairies were there now, too, and they were all lethal. Probably born with awesome combat skills.
I moved forward as fast as the soldiers would let me. I had to get deep inside the island to wherever Samayan was staying. Wherever he was keeping everyone he took. In those moments, I didn’t think about how unprepared I was to take him on. I only thought about his borrowed blood on the blade of my sword.
The first vampire came at me too fast to notice him. I was fighting three shifters at once, after all. He hit me hard on the face. Bone broke. The pain was suffocating. I fell on one knee, repeating to myself over and over again that I needed just a second or two to heal, but before that happened, the vampire hit me again. And again. He stabbed me, too, as I tried to defend myself however I could. After the pain began to dull, I did the best I could without losing all defense against his attacks: I swung my arm forward and back a couple of times, until I was no longer being beaten. By the time I stood up again, I found the vampire with both his legs bloodied. So Frosty’s blades really worked.
One vampire’s cut head later, and with a healed but still sore jaw, I made my way to the next.
The trees began not too long after. I wished I could look at where we’d come from to see if there was still sunlight over there, so I’d know if our vampires were able to come and fight besides us. But I couldn’t. Too many shifters and vampires coming down on us.
I pushed with my feet and my elbows, used my knives and swords—even guns—and eventually, I was deep into the forest. I wondered, where the hell did Samayan’s army end? There were too many of them still, and they reeked of the potion. The vampires hadn’t slowed down at all—on the contrary. Thanks to my freaky slo-mo ability, I could see all of them coming.
Cut and bruised, bleeding in too many places, I finally made it to what seemed to be the only building on the island. It was made of stone, much like Lyndor, and it gave off magic like I was sitting in the middle of a spell. I had to go west for a while, always fighting, always killing, until I finally saw a gate. An open gate, which poured out more and more soldiers at an incredible speed. It was like they’d been cloned.
The wolves were the worst. Each one that came at me gave me a new wound, and I knew that once the adrenaline wore off, I would be hurting more than I could even imagine. But for now, I just kept going. A lot of soldiers were there to stop me, and eventually, I began to rely on my powers as well as my body—earlier than I would have liked, but I didn’t want to die without making it inside.
Connecting to the air was as hard as it had been to connect to the water. Luckily, I needed no more than a push and shove here and there to win me enough time for my blades to finish the work. The fire for which I had my Zippo in my pocket would have to wait. I couldn’t divide even a single string of attention to keeping the flames focused on one hand, as I’d rehearsed the night before.
When I finally made it inside the gates, a lot more hurt than I’d been just minutes before, I saw that Kyahen was already there. The place wasn’t as wide as I’d expected, and the monster stone building stood cold in the middle of the walls. No windows and no other doors except the ones that let out even more soldiers. Soldiers that Kyahen was slicing left and right until they all fell to the ground, lifeless. He made it a lot easier for me to run forward, and once I was close enough, he met my eyes for a split second, and gave me a curt nod. Go, it meant, and I obeyed.
Fo
rgetting the main door, I started to run to the right of the one-story building. There had to be another entrance, one the soldiers didn’t use to get out. I ran and ran, taking in nothing but the ground I stepped on, until finally, another door. Closed door. Chained to the wall. Protected with a bunch of powerful spells.
Fire could burn through most spells. I was just going to have to believe that it would work here, too. Time had come to take out my Zippo. When I flicked the lighter and the small flames began to dance, I was relieved to find that they felt no different than they always did on earth. Seductive. Demanding. They wanted me to try extra hard to connect to them, but thankfully, I was wide open and ready.
Directing the flames towards the door was easy. Waiting for the fire to do its job was hard, but I had no other choice. It was much better than reaching for the door and exposing myself to God knew what.
The ground shook beneath my feet as the door began to melt. The smell was something really awful. The rocks around it began to fall, too, having nowhere to hold onto any longer.
Before too long, the dust settled and the hole in the wall was bare of wards and spells.
This was it. I was going to find Ella and Aaron. And hopefully, I was going to free Ella and Aaron. Samayan was going to be next, but my attention was far from saving him.
When I cautiously stepped inside the castle, darkness swallowed me whole, as I expected. Putting Bob away was hard. That weapon was more than a blade. It was an extension of my arm, but Frosty’s sword was more valuable right now. It was stronger than silver and much more effective in cutting through a vampire. With a small ball of flame on the palm of my right hand, I moved forward. The flames grew and grew as I caressed their ego, and soon enough I was able to see two feet ahead of me. It wasn’t much, but better than nothing.
After having spoken to Frosty’s kidnapped vampires, I knew to look for stairs that led down. The place fit their description perfectly: cold, wet, dark, and soundless. I had no doubt in my mind that this is where the rest of the female vampires were being held.
Tunnel after tunnel, I followed my senses. A left and a right, through a door I had to kick down because it was stuck closed, and I found myself in a room full of beds. It was huge and I could barely make out the end of it. Counting the beds—even guessing the number, was impossible. It was where the soldiers slept, all right, and I wondered how many more of those rooms Samayan had in the building. A shiver ran down my back. Was the battle still going on outside? Who was winning? How many of us were still standing?
As the panic inside me rose, the flames on my hand began to shrink. I squeezed my eyes shut for a second and called order to my thoughts. Now was not the time to worry. I’d made it this far. I was the only one who could put a stop to all of this by getting rid of Samayan, and that was exactly what I was going to do.
All it took was another few minutes of wandering around the empty castle, hoping to find someone guarding something. The fact that there was no soul in sight gave me an uneasy feeling, but I pushed that away, too, by thinking that the best of Samayan would be with him, guarding him, wherever he was inside the castle. I just had to locate them.
Another door. A stairway that led down. I ran so fast, my heart nearly beat out of my chest. This was it. The basement. I was going to find Frosty’s vampires. I was going to find Ella. I was going to…
“Azazel.”
The word slipped out as if it had forever been on the tip of my tongue. Bob was in my hand the next second, and I threw, aiming for his head.
Rookie mistake. I hadn’t felt him before I’d turned the corner. He wasn’t really there.
But the throw made me feel so much better for a short second.
“Raven, so nice of you to come into our home,” he said, that devilish smile bright on his face.
“You fucking traitor. Where the hell are you?”
But Azazel laughed. “Right here.”
Only then did I think to look where I was. The room was exactly as Frosty’s vampires said it was. Chairs with thick chains placed in a perfect circle, in the middle of which stood Azazel. The vampires still chained to it looked a lot worse than even Kirsten had. They looked as if they were experiencing death while still alive.
“I’m going to find you, you know,” I said as I made my way to the chair closest to me, and shot the lock of the chain. The gunshot echoed in the high ceiling.
“And what are you going to do? You no longer have Illyon.”
Another laugh. I didn’t let that stop me. By then, I’d shot the chain off the fifth vampire.
“Unlike you, I don’t need it. I’ve read everything I need to know to kill Samayan, and I promise you I’m going to take you with me.” Lies, lies, lies. They would have been so beautiful had they been true.
“I beg to differ. Your pet tells me otherwise,” Azazel said. If it was even possible, I hated him with more strength than I did Samayan.
“Do you really think he’s going to give you back your powers when all is said and done? Are you really that stupid?” Anybody in the world who trusted Samayan was an idiot in my book.
“I see you spoke to Tytania.” He wasn’t happy about it, but he kept his smile.
“Where is my sister, Azazel? Where is Aaron?” It was an empty question, one he would never answer.
“Why don’t you come and find us?” Black smoke began to rise from under his feet. It distracted me for a second, before I shot the chain off the last vampire.
“Coward,” I muttered, just as he slowly faded and faded, then finally disappeared altogether.
I grabbed Bob from where it had fallen, and I ran like mad back up the stairs. There was nothing else in the basement, and the panic that took hold of me was no longer controllable.
They have to be here. They have to, I said to myself as I ran without aim. I was going to search the whole place if I had to, move every rock from its place until I found them. And I was going to. By God, I was going to find them.
“Raven!”
Kyahen’s voice bounced off the walls of the hallways I was searching. So far, no Ella, no Aaron, and no Samayan.
“They’re not here!” I shouted, and I hated that my voice broke in front of him. He was the last person I wanted to see me show any weakness.
“I know,” Kyahen said as he made his way to me, his sword raised and ready.
“You don’t understand. Nobody’s here! I’ve brought us all straight into a trap!” All those people. All the lives I’d cost by making a stupid decision…
“I know, but it wasn’t a trap, Raven. This is almost all of Samayan’s army.”
“I’m a fool. A fucking fool. I can’t believe I actually thought that…” That I could be anything better than a lowly assassin. But wait… “You know?”
Kyahen raised a brow as if to reprimand me. “I do know. My fairy has received news from your human slave.”
Holy shit. “Kyle?” Had Kyahen really agreed to Kyle’s idea of getting in touch with me?
“Yes, that,” said Kyahen. “He’s gotten word from a warlock who claims to know where Samayan is.”
My heart stopped beating for a long second. “Arsenal.” It had to be Arsenal.
“Yes, something like that. We need to get going.”
I cursed under my breath. “I doomed us all. I shouldn’t have made anyone come here.”
My shoulders were already broken from carrying too much weight from everything I’d done in the past. How was I going to hold up now?
“You did not doom anyone. We found their army. We’re fighting their army. Without an army, they’re just creatures,” Kyahen said, smiling. “Now, even if you don’t succeed in defeating Samayan, there will be no one left to fight for him. Do you understand?”
I did understand, but I was also awe-fucking-struck to hear those words coming from Kyahen. Had I missed something? When he’d turned into a…decent fairy being who said stuff like that?
“Are we…did we…” Win? The question lingered in th
e air between us.
“We’re still fighting, and the vampires have just arrived,” Kyahen said. Finally. “We all need you to go do what you said you would do, Raven.”
The fucking fear wouldn’t leave me alone. What would Kyahen do if he knew that I actually had no idea how to defeat Samayan? That I’d been a fucking chicken and hadn’t read Illyon when I’d had the chance?
“The others—”
“Those still alive are coming as we speak. I’m going to open a portal right here, and take us back to your human slave.” The words did not make me feel any better.
“I want to go back out there. To see where we’re standing.” I owed it to those who’d followed me.
“No,” said Kyahen, and it was a damn order, too. I was speechless. “You need to make sure that vampire is stopped once and for all. It’s what you promised you’d do for us if we fought with you—for you—and we have. Now, it’s your turn.”
What the hell was I supposed to say to that?
24
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Arturo was the first to find us in the basement while we tended to the unconscious vampires. Well, I tended to them, and Kyahen watched with a brow raised in disgust. He believed what I was doing was beneath me. That was more like the fairy I knew. I almost thought he’d give me another speech.
When I saw the Nephil, mostly bloodied but alive, I sighed in relief, both because he was a friend and because he needed to be the one who ended Azazel.
Frosty and Jack made it, too, a few minutes later.
“How are things out there?” I was almost too afraid to ask, but I needed to know.
“Hard to say this early, but we’re still fighting.” Jack’s body sizzled with energy. I could tell he’d just fed, possibly from one of Samayan’s soldiers.
Frosty was already by his vampires, looking each one over, cursing under his breath.