Sacred Blood

by Alys B. Cohen

  "Okay," she started, facing them again, her features carefully arranged, concealing her fear. "I need you guys, except William, to change and meet me up front by the stage. I don't know what we're going to have to work with, and you’re needed to help train those who can go as their animal forms. William, your experience as a bouncer is about to come in handy. Emma and Gabrielle, you’ll be my eyes and ears during the battle. Emma, you can fly above. Gabrielle, you will watch below, and both of you must get word to me about what is happening and where. Spend this week getting familiar with every last nook and cranny of this village and learn it from all viewpoints."

  "What’s my job going to be?" William furrowed his brow.

  Juliette held up a finger. "Let me finish. I will train those who cannot fight as animals, but who can learn to use a bow. William, you take care of whoever can do neither. Teach them how to fight with whatever weapons can be made. The guards will help. All of you work together. No one's in charge."

  Jareth slammed a fist on the table. "Why should we listen to you?"

  "Because if you do not, you will die," Juliette coolly told him. "While all of you were upstairs doing whatever last night, Tyr, Cian, and I discussed our few options. We need everyone to fight who is capable, or else death is certain."

  Ash put an arm around Jareth's shoulder. "Come on, Buddy, let's get going." He gave Juliette a wink.

  "The rest of you go on, too. Animal form and meet me at the stage. Emma and Gabrielle, start getting familiar here until you know every twig. I'll be out in a moment."

  Juliette leaned back against an icy stone wall and let her head fall forward. The coolness beneath her palms complemented the iciness of her limbs as she thought about whether death would hurt or happen peacefully. She closed her eyes and flipped through her happiest memories. The salty sea air, the museum, even sitting in classrooms, all flickered like glimpses of someone else's life. Though it had been her own only months before, it felt like nothing more than a nearly-forgotten dream.

  A warm finger tipped her chin upward and she looked into a softly-smiling face. "Your forehead wrinkles a bit when you worry."

  "Tristan, I'm more than worried. I'm scared out of my mind. I want to cry, but that’s not an option. I have to hide my fear and be a leader for once."

  "Well," he said, rubbing her cheek with his thumb, "you're handling it like a pro. Part of me wants to say you don't have to do this while the other part knows we're backed in a corner. The biggest chunk of me is kicking myself for not keeping you safe from this."

  Juliette stared hard into his eyes. "I would have been beside myself worrying if you were alive or dead. I'm here now. So regrets aren’t going to do any good. We’ll all keep each other safe, okay? We’re a team."

  Tristan nodded and stepped back, offering his arm. "Shall we head on out?"

  Half a smile graced Juliette's face. "I have to look like I'm in charge so everyone else will have some confidence, or I’d give you my hand. You already hold my heart."

  "You've had mine for..." His mouth moved toward hers.

  A loud crash in the hall interrupted them. Juliette ducked around him, darted to the door first, and ran through. A guard carrying dozens of swords had dropped half of them.

  "Let me help you," Tristan offered, rushing from behind her.

  "I'll see you outside, Tristan," she said, continuing briskly out to the makeshift stage.

  All manner of animals stared at her. Bears, a skunk, many large cats of various species and colors, a few raptor birds, and even a rhinoceros and a hippopotamus. Off to the side a group of a dozen and a half still stood in their human form.

  "Why are you not changed?" she demanded.

  A longhaired man stepped forward to speak for them. "Captain, we know we will be of no help as animals. I am a horned beetle, and these others are a sloth, a canary, and some water creatures."

  Juliette looked them over the small group in front of her. "Well, do you think any of you could handle a bow and arrow? Or would you prefer going hand-to-hand using a sword or staff? Think it over, and either meet me at the archery range, or, if you want to fight using another weapon, go with William.” She raised her voice to speak to the larger audience. “I’m going to walk through. If I touch you, you can choose to learn archery with me, or you can follow William and learn to use another weapon. If you are dismissed from animal combat, go home and change. The rest of you will stay here and learn with the animals."

  The birds and skunk fled to their dwellings. Juliette walked through, pausing in front of each animal and making a snap judgment if fighting with a weapon or as an animal would be best. After passing the last, she looked over them all once more and left to the archery range.

  The hunters took turns shooting at the same target. While they consistently hit the hay bale, they rarely came close to the crude bull's eye. She stood beside them with her bow. With barely any effort, she aimed and released. Her arrow landed squarely in the middle.

  "If you can't hit a non-moving target, you're not going to shoot a moving wolf."

  "We kill the food around here fine without your help," one of the hunters told her in defense.

  She pulled out another arrow and aimed at the bull’s eye on the next bale. "A hurt animal will run away by instinct. These wolves won't have the instinct to flee in the face of danger. Are you mentally prepared to shoot again at an angry and injured wolf charging at you?"

  Several new archers approached. After matching them with bows from the supplies cabinet, she gave them the same lesson she'd given Tristan in her previous life.

  Her stomach growled hours after training first started, giving her a new worry. "Does anyone know how are we going to get food if we can't go outside the village?"

  Not a single attendant refrained from laughing. "What do you think we eat during the winter? We stock up. Our cellars are full of meat. They’re far enough down that our supplies are frozen," one matronly vampire told her.

  "Thank goodness for that. All of you continue. We have to keep this up until you can hit the bull’s eye even when we start swinging the target around. We will fight after sunset with no light from overheard. Since you must get used to doing this at night, practice will happen then too. I need to go check on the others."

  Juliette wandered to the field where William and Cian should have been helping train the hand-to-hand combatants. They stood with their noses inches apart, hands clenched in fists. Dozens of vampires stared at what was happening.

  "What is going on here?" she asked, stepping between them and separating their bodies with her open palms.

  Cian pointed at William. "This man thinks we should make them participate in fake fighting, but all they really need is us to show them," he said, spittle shooting out.

  "You mean spar.” Juliette crossed her arms. "Well, they need to have some practice in--"

  "We have been peaceful by command for hundreds of years!" Cian insisted, his eyes flashing and nostrils flaring. "All they can handle is being shown!"

  "Cian--"

  "No, listen--"

  Juliette drew herself up as tall as she could, fists closed and by her sides. "Cian, I am pulling rank on you! These men and women must practice! They need to learn the feeling of dodging what's coming at them and how to aim! I didn't want to put anyone in charge, but if you're going to do nothing aside from talking, then you will submit to William. Listen to him. That is a direct order."

  With a curt nod to William, Juliette walked to the village square and observed the panther and tiger demonstrating a move, then growling in conversation with various four-legged creatures. The caribou dipped his head down, using a lion as a demonstration subject. A white-tailed buck imitated him, while other antlered beings studied. In a smaller group, Jareth stood with the rhinoceros and the few large animals that didn't quite fit in with the others, rearing up on his hind legs as much as his bison body allowed.

  Overhead, outside the canopy an eagle squalled and plunged through, letting
in a brief glimpse of direct sunlight. Juliette hadn't realized she missed it. In her time of stress and fear, the leaves and filtered light above her seemed to shield her from the world outside.

  The golden bird soared around the village before coming to rest on a cottage.

  "Hi, Emma!" Juliette said, unable to suppress a smile. "I think you and Gabrielle have the easy jobs. Where is she?"

  The beautiful spotted cat chose that moment to leap from behind the cottage, as if she had been waiting. She purred.

  Juliette gave a small laugh. "You wanted to see if I'd notice, didn’t you? Oh, what I wouldn't give to trade places with one of you. Day one of this commanding-an-army deal already feels like a failure."

  Gabrielle's feline head butted Juliette's leg, her purring increasing. She pranced behind Juliette and nudged her thigh. Go back, she seemed to say.

  "All right, off to work. Emma, stay safe. The protection of this village doesn't extend far over the tops of these trees."

  Emma ruffled her feathers in indignation and spread her wings wide.

  "Oh, Emma. Go have fun. You too, Gab. Get to know every twig and leaf of this place. I’ll be counting on you two more than anyone."

  Juliette headed to the metal smith, wishing desperately for the ability to fly and soar above the trees. Her leather boots sunk into a thick cushion of fallen leaves. Every so often, she kicked several up.

  The metal smith's shop had turned into a makeshift armory staffed full-time by the few with the skills to forge new instruments. Juliette ducked into the stable and cringed as a beautiful silver etched vase fall from a hand and into a pot to melt into vital weapons.

  "Hello, Juliette," Tyr said with barely a glance up. In his hands balanced a sword. He lay it aside and picked up another. It tipped toward the hilt, so he began to shave it down.

  "How are the arrows coming?" Juliette held one up and looked down the straight shaft with one eye.

  Tyr swung the sword in a wide arc and set it with the other before answering. "Ianus can turn them out three a minute after the heads are cool. Check up in the loft."

  Juliette looked where directed, and her jaw dropped. Piles of newly made arrows lay in a large heap, all the same as the one in her hand. The skilled hands of a vampire at the loft’s edge took a wooden shaft, arrowhead, sinewy floss, and a few feathers, and made them into a new arrow. "Are you sure he's taking that long? That was maybe five seconds!"

  "He may be improving his speed. How is it going out there?"

  "Oh," she groaned. "The archers-to-be don't want to shoot, and Cian and William almost had a fight over teaching methods. The animals are doing well though."

  Another vampire in the shop dunked a hot piece of steel into a bucket of water near her. The loud hiss and rising steam elicited a gasp from Juliette. He took the steaming metal to an anvil and began to strike it.

  "That is amazing," she muttered, watching the creation of a new sword. "I have to get back out to make sure no one else tries to kill each other. I'll see you this evening, Tyr."

  * * *

  Candlelight cast shadows over drawn faces. Half the guards and Tristan sat in chairs around the table, Tyr at its head. Juliette paced in a broad circle, too nervous to sit, hoping the evening training was going better than the day's.

  "I don't know if we can rely on them to do us any good, Sir," Cian spoke. "Bumbling and incompetent best describes them."

  Tyr nodded. "I think we're lost. A brand-new army, outnumbered, no skills."

  "You are wrong!" Juliette paused behind a bulky guard. "If you had seen how they started out this morning, their fighting now is a drastic improvement! They're coming out of shock and have gained a little confidence. I believe in them, and you need to as well!"

  For the first time, Tyr raised his voice to her. "What do you suggest we do? We are outnumbered nearly two to one, and a single bite will kill. That is not a ‘may kill,’ Miss St. Claire, but a ‘will kill’!"

  Juliette didn't flinch. She stood taller, and kept her voice calm yet forceful. "Well, Sir, we nullify their advantage. There is one entrance into this village. Far fewer than their five hundred can get in at once. King Leonidas and his army of seven thousand held off an invading one of hundreds of thousands in a battle at Thermopylae back in ancient times. They fought on a pass that only allowed a small number through at a time. Being outnumbered doesn't matter so much if you have as many on the front lines as they have charging at you."

  Cian slapped the table. "Get to the point, Woman."

  Juliette closed her eyes and slowly opened them, ignoring Cian and turning to Tyr. "As they come through, our archers will be ready at a distance. Their aim won’t matter at that point. Just fire as many arrows as possible into the oncoming crowd. The skin-shifters who aren't killed right away should be too injured to fight much or even at all, if silver is as harmful to them as you say. Any of them who get through will be met with our animals, and our fighters in human form will wait in the shadows to finish whoever was injured by the arrows, and then they can join the animals. With some luck, the forty archers and I can average a kill rate of about eight each as the wolves come in. That will make our numbers even."

  Another member of the guard raised a hand. "Why don't we gather around the entrance and ambush them?"

  Juliette began to pace again. "Well, if we do that, since out fighters can’t be trained on par with the skin-shifters, and with how hectic and confusing it’s already going to be, we could kill our own on accident. Expecting people who've been forbidden from involvement in violence to get make snap judgments in that kind of chaos is asking far too much."

  Tristan inclined his face to her as she passed. "How do you know this stuff? How are you coming up with this?"

  "Nathaniel loved video games, and the Spartans. He watched movies and documentaries a lot. I’d be there with him or wait on him while he played games with Daniel."

  "You don't think he'll expect this?"

  Juliette stopped across the table from him and stared at him, her arms crossed. "It might go through his head, but what could he do? The entrance is only about ten feet wide. Shoulder to shoulder, maybe eight at a time can cross the threshold. They'll probably be running and…"

  "And then?" Tristan prodded.

  "Tyr, are the smiths able to make some snap traps?"

  Tyr raised an eyebrow. "We have dozens already. We don’t have time to forge more. But are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

  A smile spread across Juliette's face. "I think so! We'll set out what you have and they’ll run on top of them! That should take care of a bunch of those bastards and create a wall the ones behind them will have to jump over!"

  "You're wicked," Tyr said, eyes gleaming. Even Cian smirked.

  "All right!" she said with a single clap of her hands. "We set out the snap traps for them to run on while our archers shoot. Any of them who get through face animals. From there it’s hand-to-hand, fighters with swords, archers watching from our posts to take down who we can. I think we have a plan that might work."

  Cian tossed his hands up. "I'm defeated. She makes sense. I have no better ideas."

  "Yes, she does." Tyr stood. "Juliette, if this works, I'll be in your debt."

  She shook her head. "No, no debt. My life is at stake too, and so are the people I love. Everything is about survival. I'm heading back out to work on practicing my own night shooting. Anyone joining me?"

  "I'm behind you," Cian said gruffly, standing up to follow.

  "Thank you. Let's get going, fellas!"

  * * *

  Training over the following days remained steady and around the clock. Aside from meal breaks, the vampires worked out and trained nonstop. Juliette and Vivian alone had downtime to sleep, though it wasn't as restful for Juliette without Tristan's arms comforting her. Each morning she woke, hurried to dress and eat the meal someone took care to prepare and leave for her, and rushed out doors to check first on her archery team, then those who'd be fighting in their hum
an bodies. The animals had begun attacking as if they were truly wild and relying on their instincts.

  The largest leap of improvement came from the archers. Their inability to use animalistic impulses forced them into mental exhaustion, but still they worked hard. Pride had filled each of them at the trust instilled in them to do their job well. Halfway through the week they had advanced to aiming at swinging targets. Hitting bull’s eyes was still not common, but their aim was good enough for a body shot and to avoid obstacles swung in front of them. Toward the end of their time, Juliette ordered the women to accompany her to the outfitters to replace their gowns with fitted breeches and tunics like her own, explaining that anything loose was something for the wolves to grab. Their long hair was also braided and coiled to match hers.

  On the final night before the battle, Juliette convinced Tyr to hold an evening of revelry to congratulate the village on their progress and to rest and restore their energy. She expected raucousness, but the vampires settled down to play quiet card games or sing sorrowful tunes. The week of constant work hadn't affected them physically, though it had been mentally difficult. Jareth sat with the pretty vampire he'd developed feelings for. Sunil and Emma had disappeared altogether. The rest of her family played poker.

  Tyr stood apart and watched the game with his captain at his side. "They have done well, Juliette."

  "Allow me to say that I told you so."

  "Permission granted," he laughed.

  Juliette took a deep breath. "I'll need to turn in. Tomorrow morning we'll go over the plan again as much we can, kind of a rehearsal, and set the traps."

  Tyr glanced down at her. "Are you nervous?"

  "Terrified,” she nonchalantly replied with a shrug.

  "We'll get through this."

  "I know, Tyr, one way or another."

  * * *

  In the distance, a wolf howled. Two answered. The voices outside the windows softened to whispers. At that moment, nothing mattered much to Juliette. On what could be the last night of her life she focused on the comfort of her body pressed against Tristan's, to remember its every plane and angle, memories to take to whatever afterlife there may or might not be. She blinked slowly and breathed deeply. Several more howls pierced the air. One way or another.