The Phoenix Prince

by Kristen Gupton

  Jerris heard a growl and guttural sounds as he neared the place where Keiran had been assassinated. He pressed his back against one of the building’s walls before leaning out, looking down into the dead end.

  It looked like there was a cloaked man crouching over the body of the assassin. They’d not bothered to move him. Perhaps this was an accomplice, after all. At the very least, it wasn’t one of the people in the hunting party. There really wasn’t any excuse for anyone else to be out this far, and certainly not in this weather. Jerris steeled himself for a moment to get up the nerve to confront whoever it was. He turned around the corner and rushed toward the visitor, intent on getting to the bottom of things.

  There was a flash of lightning, illuminating the scene, and Jerris halted just a few paces away.

  It wasn’t a cloaked man or even a man at all.

  It was a bear, and a hungry one.

  “Holy God!” Jerris suddenly bristled with fear as the animal lifted its head and looked back at him. The guard started to back away, knowing that getting anywhere near something a bear was making a meal of was a very, very bad idea. It didn’t help that bears happened to be the guard’s particular phobia, making all logical thoughts for him instantly evaporate into his panic.

  The bear turned and stood up on its rear legs. It was a Tordanian mountain grizzly, and once up, it towered over Jerris by several feet. Its neck stretched forward and it gave a rumbling growl out, its foam-laced mouth opening to reveal its teeth.

  Jerris’ eyes flashed wide and he looked at the piteously inadequate knife in his right hand. He gave one more look at the beast, before turning and trying to run away. His fear combined with the darkness and wet conditions to make it an ill-fated attempt. About halfway to the end of the alleyway, he tripped over a rock and went down hard, the knife flying from his hand. He was unable to draw a breath, having landed with enough force to knock the wind from his lungs.

  The bear lowered back onto all fours and lumbered after Jerris. Its size made its movements look deceptively slow, but it reached the man in a matter of seconds. Eating the dead assassin had seemed like a great find to the hungry creature, but fresh human was far more appealing. With winter nearing, the animal was gorging itself on anything it could find prior to hibernation. Jerris would make a great last meal.

  Jerris fought to breathe and crawled forward to reclaim his knife. He managed to get a hold of it and rolled onto his back, still trying to push himself away from the animal. Had the wind not been knocked out of him, he would have called out for the other men, but it wasn’t going to happen under the circumstances.

  The bear was upon him in seconds, one massive paw sweeping forward, batting Jerris’ hands and batting the knife to the side and well out of range. It lulled its massive head forward, catching the guard’s left forearm between its teeth.

  Jerris writhed from the deep pain, feeling the bones in his arm on the verge of snapping. Had he not been wearing his thick leather bracers, his arm would have been shredded beyond repair. He kicked with his legs, but it was futile. The bear simply ignored his struggles.

  The bear was preparing to shake its head, which would have ripped Jerris’ arm off completely. It let go, however, eyes widening as it started to look back over its shoulder. It didn’t get very far.

  Something pulled the bear with enough force to not only get it off of Jerris, but fling it across the alleyway. It hit the back wall of a building hard enough to cause the wood planks to break, the bear disappearing halfway into the structure.

  Jerris managed to draw in a gulp of air and he sat up, trying to see what was going on. There was movement, but the intermittent flashes of lightning were just enough to render him without any sort of night vision at all. He caught a glimpse of the bear trying to right itself and back out of the wall, something else moving toward it. After another flash of lightning, it went dark again.

  There was a growl from the bear, and the sound of more boards breaking. Something splashed in the mud and then there was a roll of thunder. A moment of quiet passed before the bear screamed with a sound that could only have been described as fear, followed by a sickening crack.

  Then, there was silence.

  Jerris didn’t move. His terror had overloaded his senses and he had no possible idea what was going on. His arm wasn’t broken, but it was bleeding beneath his destroyed bracer and hurt worse than anything he’d ever felt in his life. He managed to sit up, cradling the damaged limb to his chest, looking around in the blackness. Disoriented and in shock, he didn’t know what to do.

  There was another flash of lightning, and someone was standing right in front of him.

  “Jerris, are you all right?”

  He yelped from fright, before calming down. The guard’s eyes narrowed and he got to his knees, looking up. The clouds thinned enough that he could make out the figure, though the voice had been enough. “My God, Keir!”

  The vampire fell to his knees, facing Jerris and putting a hand on his shoulder. Keiran looked like absolute death, his eyes dull but searching his friend to see what the bear had done to him. “Are you all right?”

  “To hell with me! You’re alive!” Jerris forgot his arm for the moment and fell forward, embracing the prince for all he was worth. From somewhere, he managed a few tears, his body shaking badly in his shock. He gave no heed to the idea this man had just spent the better part of the evening dead. It didn’t matter how he was alive, the fact that he was meant everything to the guard.

  Keiran returned the embrace for a moment, but soon pushed Jerris back and took his arm. He could smell the blood pouring from his guard, and it made his stomach twist with a horrible, dark craving. His mind was sluggish, but he was trying to put his thoughts together. “We need to fix this.”

  Jerris looked down, seeing his bracer torn open, his sleeve shredded beneath, the tatters dark with his blood. He wavered a little, not well for it in the least. “Aye.”

  “Come on.” Keiran stood up and then pulled Jerris to his feet, guiding him back to the building he’d awoken in.

  Inside, they landed next to the fire. Keiran, his thoughts clouded, had to ask Jerris to get the medical supplies to treat his arm gathered. The guard closed his eyes and kept his head turned to the side while the bracer was removed and the sleeve of his shirt cut away.

  “How bad is it?” he asked quietly, still refusing to look.

  The sight of blood still seeping from the bear’s tooth marks did something inside Keiran, and he froze up, unable to respond. He very badly found himself wanting to lap up what was there, but was horrified at the idea at the same time.

  “Keir?” Jerris asked again, worried that the wound was so bad that Keiran couldn’t honestly tell him. He turned his head and looked at the prince. Seeing the faraway look in his eyes, Jerris frowned and reached over with his good hand, flicking Keiran in the middle of the forehead. “You all right?”

  He drew in a sharp breath and shook his head, doing his best to tune back into reality. Keiran gave up a weak smile, hoping that his friend had no idea what he’d just been thinking of doing. “Aye, sorry. I don’t think it’s that bad, really. Had you not been wearing your bracers, it would be a different story.”

  Jerris dared to drop his gaze and look at his arm upon hearing that. The impression of the bear’s teeth were marked out clearly on his skin, but only the animal’s canines had gone all the way through the leather and into his arm. Though his arm would be terribly bruised for a few weeks, assuming he avoided infection, he would be all right. “I got bitten by a bear. That’s impressive, aye? Think the girls will like the story?”

  Keiran gave Jerris a deadpan look as he opened up a small jar of ointment to dab on the punctures. Had he the energy, he would have made some commentary about Jerris’ ways, but he didn’t. Instead, he just slathered on the ointment a little less delicately than he otherwise would have. Then again, his hands seemed stiff and his fine motor skills were lacking. He placed a linen bandage around Jer
ris’ arm and called it good.

  With that done, he moved as close as possible to the fire. He’d awoken horribly cold, and despite the brief action with the bear and tending to Jerris, it hadn’t improved much. The notion of getting warm overtook him for the time being.

  Jerris sat next to him, staring in awe. As the shock of the bear attack wore off, he was growing more serious. “I’d given up. I didn’t think you were coming back.”

  Keiran turned to look at his friend, his mind not functioning fully. “I don’t know what happened. I woke up in here. I felt… I felt something terrible.”

  The prince’s words trailed off and he hung his head, pressing his hands against his temples. When he’d regained consciousness, he’d honestly sensed Jerris’ terror and need for help. He hadn’t heard or seen a thing, but the other man’s feelings had been as clear as daylight in his brain. Keiran had forced his exhausted, aching body up from the floor and had rushed out. His eyes had been more than able to see in the scant light, and he saw Jerris being mauled by the bear. He’d acted only out of instinct.

  Jerris wasn’t sure how Keiran had finally reanimated, nor did he really care. The fact that he was alive was enough for him. Not having ever experienced someone important to him coming back from the dead (or unimportant either, for that matter), he wasn’t exactly sure what he was feeling or supposed to say. Jerris put a hand against Keiran’s back. The cold surrounding the prince made his skin crawl. “It’s okay. We’ll get you dried off and cleaned up. Wait here.”

  Keiran didn’t respond as Jerris moved off to dig through the saddle bags on the floor. The initial burst of energy he’d felt upon awakening and feeling Jerris’ fear was gone. The cold, the damn cold, was all he could think about. After several hours very much dead, his body was fighting to rewire itself. The vampirism’s chemical changes throughout his entirety were painful and not making him feel very well at all. His muscles were burning and felt on the verge of cramping outright. How in the world he’d just killed a bear with his hands drifted though his mind, but for the moment, it wasn’t something he could dwell on.

  The guard managed to find an outfit for Keiran that was dry and clean. He brought it over and set it down next to the other. Jerris retook his place, starting to fidget with his bandage.

  Keiran unlaced the doublet he was wearing and shrugged it off his shoulders. He checked the inside of it, before looking down at his bloodied shirt. His hands moved down his chest, and he scanned the area around where he was sitting.

  Jerris looked over, quirking a brow as he searched around. “Lose something?”

  “Aye.” Keiran tossed his ruined doublet into the fire before pulling off his shirt and doing the same. “I had a little fabric bit under my doublet.”

  The guard cocked his head to the side, before remembering the arrow and what was stuck to it. He crawled over and found it beside the hearth, passing it to Keiran afterward. “That it? What is it?”

  “It… you wouldn’t understand.” He didn’t feel like dealing with any taunts about Thana for the time being, so he dodged the question. Keiran took the arrow in his hands and examined it. He saw the small square of fabric caught on it, and then looked up sharply at his guard. Despite all that he’d been through, he felt bad that the favor Thana had given him had been damaged and stained. Something had kicked over in his mind. He recalled seeing the end of it sticking from the center of his chest. “It was in my heart?”

  Jerris looked as well, sitting back for a moment, holding a new shirt out to his friend. “Aye, it looked like it. I pulled out the arrow right before I went outside. I couldn’t stand seeing it anymore.”

  Keiran’s mouth quirked up into a faint grin, a shudder from the cold running through him. He reached out and took the shirt. Before pulling it on, he looked down at his chest. There was a star shaped scar where the arrow had gone into him, but it was completely healed. His skin was marred with his own blood, but he had no way to wash off properly at that point. As almost an afterthought, he looked at his brand. The burn had healed, but the dye had remained appropriately. It had turned out better than he could have hoped for. Keiran pulled on the new shirt and looked into the fire again. “Then you saved me.”

  Jerris wasn’t sure he followed, and cocked his head to the side in the canine way he tended to do when confused. “I did what?”

  “According to some of the legends, or at least one of them,” Keiran spoke quietly, trying to remember clearly, “driving something through the heart is one of the few ways to kill a vampire. But if that thing, whether it be a stake or an arrow, is removed before too long, the vampire can come back. What I did right before I died, it must have been enough blood. I don’t know.”

  Jerris blinked and gave a slow nod, looking at the fire as well. He’d not ever gained that little nugget of information. Then again, he hadn’t studied it anywhere near to the depth that Keiran had. “You bastard, you’re meaning to tell me that if I’d just pulled out the damned arrow from the beginning, you would have been just dandy? You ass.”

  “Ah, perhaps? I don’t know. But here we are. Kept that bear from having red-headed bastard for dinner. I guess bears like it, too.”

  “I’d laugh, I would, but I’ve got a little emotional recovery to make,” Jerris replied, propping his chin in his right hand. He didn’t want to tell Keiran that he was ready to go and have himself done in over his guilt. Keiran might have laughed at him.

  Then again, maybe he wouldn’t have.

  Jerris wasn’t really in the mindset to bother finding out.

  “How’s the arm?” Keiran asked, needing to break the silence that had fallen between them. Getting warmer, he stood up for a moment and changed into the extra pants that Jerris had brought him.

  “Hurts. I can’t believe he didn’t just rip it right off. How in the world did you get him off of me like that?” Jerris asked, glancing over.

  Keiran struggled to get the waist of his pants tied, his fingers still numb and not cooperating fully. “I grabbed his back leg and pulled. How else would I?”

  “And it doesn’t strike you as strange that you threw a grizzly bear?”

  Keiran stopped and looked over, gnawing at the inside of his cheek. Jerris had a point. “Adrenaline? Like when old ladies lift fallen wagons to free a child, perhaps?”

  “Righting a wagon, or at least lifting it a few inches to pull a kid out, and throwing a bear across an alleyway aren’t exactly in the same class,” Jerris replied, smirking.

  Keiran moved back over and sat, grabbing up a blanket and pulling it around his shoulders. He felt a pang of worry. He knew good and well that he’d thrown the bear and had broken its neck out of nothing more than his rage and new strength—strength that he no longer really felt as the situation had calmed down. Vampires were more than capable of that sort of thing when agitated per all he’d ever read. Still, the fact that he’d done it, and without any conscious thought at the time, didn’t sit well with him. What if he lost control and used that strength against someone he liked? Even someone he didn’t like for that matter? How easy would that be? Would he be able to control himself?

  “Keir?”

  The vampire looked over, his expression tired. He gave a slow blink, simply waiting for Jerris to go on.

  “Who set this all up?” Jerris asked, his posture shifting. He figured it was time to get down to the important things.

  Keiran gave him a slight nod. The answer to that seemed obvious. Peirte most certainly was the prime suspect, and he definitely had his selfish motivations for orchestrating the whole affair. Suggesting sending out Ivan to point them to this specific locale was a very obvious red flag. The only thing he couldn’t quite figure was how he’d gotten the stag to lead him into the assassin’s killing field. Yet, lead him it had.

  “I’m sure there are plenty of people who have it in for me who don’t want a damned vampire as king. However, Peirte does instantly come to mind, doesn’t he?” Keiran replied, voice quiet.


  The guard nodded slowly, closing his eyes. “Aye, that was my instinct. So what do we do now?”

  Keiran looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well, for starters, we’re not having venison at the banquet, we’re having bear.”

  Jerris snorted and laughed a little, just to cover up his anxiety over that whole incident. “Fair enough, then what?”

  “I think I have an idea. We’ll head out in the morning and go home to confront Peirte,” Keiran said. “I think he’s pretty well just damned himself.”

  * * *

  Keiran and Jerris remained in the old building near the fire until the prince was warmed up enough to feel like moving. They needed to get the bear taken care of, so they had to let the butcher know what was going on. The two went over to the building the others were holed up in and entered.

  The three men were sitting in a circle on the floor, playing cards. The two that wanted to flee had resolved to stay until morning before taking off. Hearing something, they all turned and froze, staring at Jerris and Keiran. None of them had possessed any doubts about the prince’s previous physical condition.

  Jerris stepped forward, looking over the lot of them. He wasn’t sure how they were going to react. There was no time like the present to find out, he figured.

  They paid him little attention, though, all of them fixated on the prince. The butcher stood up first, taking a cautious step forward. “You, you’re alive?”

  “Aye.”

  The other two men quickly got to their feet, not quite as eager to get closer.

  Keiran sighed and moved up next to Jerris. Like he’d felt Jerris’ emotional response regarding the bear, he was definitely now picking up something from these men. From the butcher, it felt like fascination, but the other two were afraid. The prince didn’t understand how he knew what they were feeling. He just did.

  “I know this has been a very unusual day for all of us,” he said quietly.

  In response, he got dumbstruck nods from all of them.

  Keiran tried to think of it from their perspectives. He’d always felt awful around the only other vampire he’d ever known, and he hoped he wasn’t making them all feel like he did around Athan. Then again, maybe that was because Athan was an insufferable jerk, not just limited to the whole vampire thing. “I won’t blame a single one of you for leaving right now if you feel you must. Things have gotten complicated.”