My eyes skirted off to the side to see Scott standing to my left. He was powered up, golden energy surrounding him in thick blankets that spread out to include me. His eyes were focused and there was a fire in them I recognized from when we were younger, from the days when he wanted more than anything to be the best there was at what he did. Maybe he’d accomplished that goal in the years I’d been away. If so, perhaps he’d be able to save us all now.
“Scott,” I said, clearing my throat, and yelling to the best of my ability. He couldn’t hear me. The rain queen was throwing arcs of lightning at my brother’s energy shield, trying to pop it like a bubble. But why? Was Renee already dead? Hadn’t that been the end result they were going for? Shouldn’t the rain queen (and maybe Bandhal) run off back to the Benefactor who sent them, waving the flag of victory?
“No,” I muttered as what was obviously happening settled over my mind. Renee wasn’t dead. She’d survived somehow. That’s why they were still at him. That’s why this assault was still going on. It was also why I needed to stop being a weak little bastard and get my ass up off this floor.
My eyes went red as I summoned my demon. Why would I do that now? Because the nasty SOB is strong. The monster inside of me would never lay on the floor like the warlock would. He would get up. He would tear through everything around him to make the people responsible for this pain pay.
He wouldn’t stop until those after him were a mess of blood and guts on the floor. He would save me. He would save Renee. He would save Gary and Scott. I just had to unleash him, and that was a problem of a completely different sort.
Ever since I was a kid with a dark secret back at the coven, I’d spent my entire life keeping the monster at bay. I’d prayed to any god that would listen to take him away from me, to purge me of the beast. I weighed and measured just how long I could go without feeding before the creature got out of hand. Every waking moment of my life was spent keeping my demon side in check.
So how could I even consider the idea of letting it go- I mean really letting it go?
I could feel the heat of the lightning as the rain queen continued her attack against Scott’s protective bubble. My eyes slid over to the other side. The entire front of my apartment was on fire. Flames rose high and thick, causing black smoke to obscure my vision. I couldn’t see Gary, couldn’t see Renee. Still, I had to believe they were alive. It was the only thing that stood a chance of pulling me off the floor.
Well, that and the beast.
Closing my eyes, I did something I hadn’t done in decades, something I had been afraid to do for most of my life.
I gave up.
No more holding it back. No more keeping it at bay. I was unlocking the cage, letting the monster out, and though the idea scared the literal shit out of me, at the same time, it was also oddly freeing.
There was no need to grit my teeth and deny half of who I was. The demon was free now, and he was in control of every inch of my body.
The inkling warmth which always started in my gut anytime the monster got frisky filled me to the brim. I usually did my best to keep it there, to hold it steady in a little ball.
Now wasn’t usual times though, and as I eased the tension on my muscles and let the beast run free, it lit my entire body up with a rage and power unlike anything I had ever known.
It wasn’t evil, really. At least not the sort of evil I expected to feel. This wasn’t mindless. It wasn’t even uncontrollable. It had a sense of purpose. It had a drive and an easily identifiable goal in mind. It wanted to survive, and it wanted revenge.
As I imagined it would, the demon’s rage gave me strength. The monster in my chest spread to my legs and arms. It pulled me upright, and before I knew what was happening, I was standing upright. Hunger, unchecked and without reservation, flooded my every pore. I was insatiable. I was without limitation. I was demon.
The room shook as I took in the situation. The rain queen and Bandhal were standing before us, right outside the circle of Scott’s protective circle.
They were still hand in hand, still channeling power and striking us with lightning. Beads of sweat covered Scott’s forehead. His face was tired and obviously pained. This wasn’t easy for him. That made two of us. I recognized the look on his face, the determined one that also said he wasn’t sure either one of us was going to make it out of this. I thought about looking over to the fire, about checking on Gary and Renee, but with every passing moment, I could feel the pull of the demon dig deeper and deeper into me.
I wasn’t going to be able to control this, not for much longer anyway. It was going to take me over, at least for a while. I couldn’t risk heading over to an injured Renee and Gary with that going on because I wasn’t sure I would be able to stop myself from feeding on either of them, and I would never be able to live with myself if I did that.
I wouldn’t want to.
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Instead, a low growl escaped them. Scott turned to me, keeping half his attention on the besieged force field. His eyes widened and his face went instantly pale and lost its expression.
“Baby brother?” he asked, his tone low and serious. “Baby brother, what did you do?”
“Take it down,” I managed, though my voice was strange and different. I sounded otherworldly as though I was speaking from the bottom of a well. My words echoed as they left my mouth, but at least I still had control over the words. At least I knew what I was doing, even if Scott didn’t seem to.
“What?” he asked, taking in both my words and the sound they made as they escaped my lips. “Are you delusional? They’ll kill you.”
“They won’t,” I said, and the rage and hunger ramped up to unprecedented levels. “Other way around.”
“Not a chance,” he answered, and I watched him steel his expression. For whatever reason, the anger I felt with him- the same anger I’d felt for years now- began to dissipate. He was still an ass. He had still been responsible for what happened to me back at the coven, but I had more pressing issues. I had more important people to hate, and he was helping me.
Still, I wasn’t going to put an end to this unless I could take Bandhal and the rain queen on directly, and I was through asking politely.
“I’m sorry, Scott,” I said, moving toward him and placing my hand firmly on his chest. The demon in me roared as I began to pull energy from my brother. His eyes went even wider as though he couldn’t believe I was doing this to him. The truth was, I couldn’t believe it either.
I felt his life pour into me, all his hopes and dreams, his memories too. I felt the way he felt about everything. I felt the pride he had in himself and his coven. I felt the love and connection he felt toward the parents we shared for so many years. I felt a tenderness around the memory of a blonde witch with a dimple in her chin. He must have found someone. And then I felt the way he felt about me. There was no desire to hurt me, no resentment because of what I was. There wasn’t even any hesitation around looking at me as his brother. It was love, tainted with an overwhelming sense of shame and regret. He really did feel bad about what he’d done. All he wanted was to make it right.
I pulled my hand away from him before the feeding went too far. I wouldn’t kill him. It wasn’t who I was. It wasn’t who I wanted to be, demon or no demon.
He stumbled around, falling to one knee and looking up at me as the force field faded away.
“It’s alright, Scott,” I said in my demon, well voice. “I’m going to make it right.”
Turning, I saw the rain queen and Bandhal. The rain cloud was still overhead but, looking at it closer, I saw it wasn’t a cloud at all. It was a tear in the fabric of reality. It was the same sort of tear which existed in the pizza place, and now it had set up shop in midair in my fucking apartment.
I growled, giving the demon free reign over me, and rushed toward them.
This ended now.
As I tore toward the South Africans, I heard a noise from behind me. Turning, I saw my door ha
d been opened and-inside of it-n poured a slew of vampires.
My heart pounded quicker and the hunger inside of me seemed to rejoice at the sight of them. They were obviously the vampire sect under the thrall of the Benefactor. He’d taken them over as well, used them in order to get all the chess pieces in place for this moment, and now he was using them again to incapacitate Scott, Gary, and I. He was trying to make sure there were no barriers between him and Renee.
My logical mind knew that. It knew how important winning this fight would be if I wanted to keep my girlfriend and the world safe, but my primal mind-the part of my mind the now rampaging demon inside of me was accessing- focused on something completely different.
For the demon, these vampires were nothing more than ragdolls and it was playtime.
I rushed them, my eyes glowing and the world tinting a deeper shade of red than it ever had before.
I looked over. Renee and Gary were on the floor. The logical piece of me, the piece who wanted to save them more than anything, took note of the way both of their chests were moving up and down lightly. It might have been just barely, but they were still alive, and I was going to have to do everything in my power to make sure they stayed that way.
I spied something strange, a golden hue floating around Renee. Part of me wanted to turn tail and investigate it, but there was no time for that. Besides, the primal piece of me didn’t want to hear it. I could practically taste these damn vampires. I needed to be sated, and I wasn’t going to stop until I was.
I counted six as I lunged toward them, leaping into the air and feeling a spark of power rise inside of me. The demonic power was different than the warlock sort. Warlocks were all about finesse, all about the light show and ambience that came with more civilized magic. Demons were nuts and bolts, blood and guts. It was in our hands, in our teeth. It was in the way we ripped into our victims and took them into ourselves.
All that and more was what I was planning to do to these bastards as soon as I got to them.
Someone got to me first though.
A pull of power yanked me backward, slamming my back to the floor and pinning me there.
I roared, the hunger inside of me twisting into an intense flame in my chest which couldn’t be ignored.
Scott stepped into my line of sight.
“Hang tight, baby brother,” he said, his hands glowing with the energy I knew was holding me where I was. “I’ve got this, and I won’t let you lose yourself by doing what you’d have to in order to fight them.”
Looking back, I saw a dome of energy surrounding the rain queen and Bandhal. Scott-the powerful sonofabitch- had split his energy in two ways. Some of it was holding me here, helpless to give in to the demon the way I yearned to right now. Another piece of his power was shielding us from the attacks of the rain queen and Bandhal, and soon, another piece of it would have to be directed onto this vampire sect.
All of that wouldn’t hold. It would be too many plates spinning in the air. Something was going to give soon. For all of our sakes, I hoped he knew enough to let the falling plate be the one holding me back.
I roared again as I turned back to him.
The vampires had surrounded him and weren’t giving him a second to get his bearing. They rushed him with bared fangs and flying fists. Luckily for him, my brother was trained in more than the mystical arts. Scott had always had a soft spot for karate, taekwondo, and all the other martial arts shit Steven Segal wished he knew in real life.
His body contorted like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix, dodging blows like Neo dodged bullets. Fists and fangs moved toward him; all of six of them attacking at once. My brother used their numbers and their weight against them. His back bent forward, and he threw one of them over top of him. As soon as the vamp entered the air, it stayed there, a victim of Scott’s magical machinations.
He threw a hand into the second vamp’s windpipe though, when he realized the damn things don’t breathe, he found himself kneed in the gut by the thing.
He bowled over, and I felt the ties holding me down weaken. I pulled at them, but they were still too strong for me to break. Still, the demon inside of me growled anew.
Scott looked up, energy blasting from his eyes and driving the vampire into the far wall. The thing slammed hard against the cheesy boat painting which came with the apartment, shattering the glass and sliding down.
Scott’s eyes went wide and he wore a look I recognized. He had an idea. Spinning quickly around, he twisted his arms. The shattered shards of glass took flight and started toward the vampires.
As they flew through the air toward their intended marks, I heard claps of thunder and flashes of lighting which smacked against the shield holding the rain queen and her disciple in.
It must have been hell for Scott, keeping all of it going. Still, he moved like a ninja. He was so impressive, always had been. Maybe that was part of reason I hated him so much sometimes. He made it all look so easy while I was stuck on the floor.
Another clap of thunder accompanied the shards reaching the vamps. They slid into the monsters’ flesh like knives through butter. The things fell backward, blood spurting from them.
Unfortunately, something else was happening at the same time. Lighting hit hard against the shield and I felt the bonds holding me back weaken even further. I could wriggle now. In a few moments, I would be able to break free. If we had a few minutes, that was.
The vamp who’d slammed against the wall was back on his feet now, rushing toward Scott, who was turned the other way and unaware of the danger coming at him at full speed.
“Scott! Behind you!” I yelled in a voice so deranged by the demon that it sounded like a completely different person.
Scott turned quickly, but not nearly quickly enough. The vampire leapt onto him, latching fangs onto my brother’s neck.
I roared as the thing sunk his teeth into my brother’s flesh. It wasn’t the demon roaring this time though, it was the person. It was Roy. It was ‘baby brother’.
Scott fell backward, his eyes growing wide and the energy growing faint and weaker around him.
My heart sped up and, curiously enough, the hunger in me grew even more intense.
Scott slammed against the wall and I watched as his blood spilled out around the vampire’s lips. He would be dead soon if I couldn’t stop it.
My brother locked eyes with me and, at his side, his fingers twitched just a little. Another bolt of lightning hit hard against the shield and both it and the ties holding me disappeared.
I leapt to my feet. The rain queen and Bandhal were free now. So, I’d have to be quick about saving Scott.
I jumped away from a bolt of lightning intended to fry me where I stood and reached the bloodsucker.
Pulling him off my brother, I felt a surge of energy as I pulled his head backward and snapped his neck. This wouldn’t kill him-not that I was opposed to it- but I didn’t have time to finish him off right now. An unconscious vampire was just as good as a dead one at the moment.
I slid toward my brother, toward the slumping and bleeding mass of warlock as he sputtered and breathed heavy.
Again, the hunger in me roared to life. As much as I hated it, as much as the idea disgusted me, I couldn’t help but acknowledge the fact that a part of me wanted to eat my brother.
A flurry of insane rationalizations began popping up in my head.
He’d lied to me.
He betrayed me.
He gave me up, told my secrets.
He ruined my life.
He deserved to die.
He deserved for me to kill him.
I swallowed hard as I found my hand moving closer to his chest. I couldn’t believe what I was doing, couldn’t believe the choice I was about to make.
I felt the heat of him rising up toward me, smelled the copper of his blood as I neared him. I wanted so many things at that moment; to save Renee, to fix this entire mess, and to even make peace with Scott. None of that held a candle to the most pr
essing need I faced right now. The need to feed. The need to quench this thirst, to appease this hunger, to fill the swirling hole inside of me.
I was a demon. I needed to do what demons did.
Swallowing hard, I looked down. My hand was nearly on him now. Another slight movement and I would be feeding on him. In fact, his energy had already started swimming up to me, teasing me with the taste of it, with the fullness of it.
My hand started to shake as I hovered it over him, trying with everything in me not to do what I knew I was about to do.
“This isn’t you,” Scott sputtered out weakly. “I know you, Royce. I know you.”
Before I could make another move, a bolt of lightning struck right beside us, knocking me away from Scott and singeing my hair.
I spun around, my eyes wide and the demon inside of me angrier than I was hungry now. In that split second, my greatest want went from feeding to revenge.
As I glared at Bandhal and the rain queen, free of Scott’s dome, I was thankful to have a few worthy recipients of that revenge.
25
I moved toward the pair of South Africans as the demon spread anew like cancer throughout my body. I wasn’t sure which one of them was worse. The rain queen was possessed by who or whatever the Benefactor was. She was a conduit for a sort of evil I could hardly imagine, let alone define. Bandhal, however, was of sound mind and body. He knew exactly what he was doing, and his devotion to a noblewoman with a penchant for damp days and bolts of lightning had caused him to turn on all of us.
In the end, it didn’t matter who was worse. Both of them were going to go down. Such was the nature of this particular beast, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Not that I wanted to. The demon was starving inside of me. He wanted nothing more than an entrée to follow up the Scott appetizer I’d just enjoyed.
The thought of my brother flickered across my mind. I hoped he was okay. I hoped he could forgive the intrusion. Something told me he would. The essence of him swam inside my head, the same way echoes of anyone I’d fed on might. I felt close to him, like I was living inside his head, and I knew he wouldn’t hold this grudge. Not like I had done with him.
Flesh and Blood_An Urban Fantasy Novel Page 14