by JN Moon
But Damien had snuck in and was ready with his new-found fire, and arms outstretched, palms facing the man, shot a hose of fire that caught Orion’s wings like flames to paper. Orion’s eyes widened in shock as he registered in that second that he was on fire. He screeched like a banshee, then quickly began mumbling a spell and in the next instant his wings smoked, the blaze vanished leaving them scorched and smelling. I rushed at him, carrying a sword low to swoop it up and take his head. As his eyes met mine, he blinked and grinned. I couldn’t move. Paralysis gripped me, as if frozen in ice.
Panic coursed through me. Damien this time sent more fire. From where I stood, I saw Orion send it back, but I didn’t hear Damien scream. I watched from my frozen position, but couldn’t see Damien. Marcus leapt, grabbing Orion who laughed, mocking him. Sabian and his men appeared along with the Victorian vampires. I sighed in relief which was all I could do. But something was wrong, they moved differently. Just when I thought our friends had come to the rescue, my heart plummeted.
They were under the control of Orion, a dark spell cast upon them. What fresh hell is this?
I could only gather what was happening, but I suspected that the smoke from his hands when we entered was the spell he’d cast on the others, and since we’d removed Mabel’s power, he had obviously taken it for himself. He’d probably been watching us the whole time and knew everything we’d planned.
Damien moved forwards and stood to my left, just in front, and had surrounded himself and Marcus in a circle of fire. He now extended that to me but no matter. Orion was more powerful.
“Stop them and hold them,” Orion told our other friends. Damien stopped in his tracks, realising that the fire was no deterrent to them, bewitched as they were. They simply continued to walk through it, he scrunched his eyes closed, clenched his fists, and changed fire to water, shooting it from his palms to extinguish his friends who had been caught in the fire. Beads of sweat ran down his face, his eyes large with terror, mouth open in shock. Our friends moved like zombies, hollow eyes, jerky movements.
Orion sauntered back to his chair and commanded William to pick it up before sitting down with the biggest smug grin I’d ever seen. A petulant teenager.
“Sabian, I believe?”
Sabian was under Orion’s spell and looked like an automaton, his glazed eyes and a fixed lifeless expression on his face.
“Yes.”
“Hand me that book.” As Sabian ambled over to the book, Orion gazed out of the window as if nothing was amiss. Marcus shouted, held by Claude, Nathaniel, and the two women vampires. Mabel stood as still as a statue behind Orion’s chair.
Damien was the same as me, standing just in front and unable to move, frozen it seemed. Breathing was getting harder, stiffness and cold eating into my limbs, my body and head. He had actually petrified us in glacial ice. I looked at everything through blue-white hues. I could blink, but the biting temperature was fierce. This was the second time as an immortal I was surrounded by ice. Did I mention that I hate the cold?
Shuddering, I realised as the minutes passed, I heard no further noises from the others. Orion was reading, now and then fingers flittering above some spell in that book, followed by a tiny wisp of smoke and then he sighed, looking back out the window. I guessed as he was part nephilim he could read the minds of everyone here, and I thought it best...
“That’s right, Anthony, I can read your mind. Everyone’s actually. Would you like to tell me when Rachel will come back with that dragon shifter? I like him. I’m thinking of keeping him permanently in his dragon form and riding him. Oh, don’t look so cold!” He sneered. “Anyway, I’m thinking of keeping you alive and in ice. You make for an interesting thing to look at, and I love your memories. I’ll pluck those out soon and have them for myself. Not to worry, you won’t know. When I take them from you I’ll make sure you don’t remember. You’re a fine specimen, I can see you now cleaning the yard. Doing things for my amusement. All sorts of sordid things, like you did when you were first turned.” He huffed. “I’ve only ever had Mabel. She wasn’t interesting. I might want that experience from one who isn’t spellbound, like Rebecca perhaps? And I only say that, just so you know, because Stuart is obviously in love with her, and I wouldn’t want that.”
Frozen shut, I couldn’t move my lips, but since he read my mind. You are a moody little shit. You’re not even half the man of any here. Why, for fuck’s sake, are you doing this?
He meandered over and pressed his charred body against mine, the heat sizzling the ice that encased me. Running his hand over my face, he whispered, “Because, I can.”
Shivering violently from my frozen prison, I watched as Orion glanced around at his work. Seeing me watch him, he smirked, made a slight jerk of his hand towards me and I became colder.
“Now, Anthony, who shall I kill first? Or maybe I’ll just leave you all here and enter the time loop? Decisions. I think I’ll leave that for tomorrow. For now, though, I feel like playing with...Rebecca. What part shall I remove?”
Why? We only wanted to help you. What the fuck is wrong with you? The thoughts raged in my mind. A blurry vision of him appeared by me, facing Damien. Maybe I’m not here. Is this real? Why can’t I move? Is this ice getting tighter around me? Looking from my frozen position, I noticed a huge wooden pentacle hung on the far wall with strange symbols daubed on it. I hadn’t noticed that before. Screaming, howling suddenly jolted me out of my daydream, something bad. I know that voice. Whose is it? Wailing, terror. I can’t see what it is... My eyes, heavy...
Vaguely aware of Damien, ah yes, he can do magic. Is he moving?
In front of the pentagram Orion with Nathaniel. I love Nathaniel, my friend. Why is Orion taking him there? No, no. No more...
My Friends
Rachel
We’d brought weapons this time, and the little bastard wouldn’t even know what they were having hidden himself away in the past. Althea brought herself and her magic and the rest of us brought assault rifles. Getting them had been ridiculously hard, but we’d managed it.
Hit him fast and hard. Unknown to the little shit and thanks to Althea, I had seen exactly what was happening with the help of her scrying so we had the advantage. She had performed a masking spell so he wouldn’t know we were coming, charging in to shoot him and Mabel. I asked Althea to rescue Damien first, so he could help unleash his magic on this dark necromancer. She had a stark warning, which I didn’t want to hear. I’d die trying to rescue my friends.
Like soldiers on manoeuvres, we crept stealthily through the undergrowth that surrounded Mabel’s house. Suddenly we stopped dead as we heard a cry, shrill enough to chill me to the bone, that haunting sound carried across the grounds and disappeared into the night. Gulping, I wiped the sweat from my forehead.
Looking at the others, I signalled to move forward and dashed silently towards that Hell hole of dark magic. As we burst in, we made our way to the drawing room to find Orion latching onto Nathaniel’s neck, twisted around to see us. As we raised our guns, he pulled Nathaniel in front of him before darting behind the others.
“Ah, Rachel, I’m so glad you’re back, and look, you’ve brought me some more friends!” His voice sounded strained and sharp as I flew into his sick fantasy armed with Althea, Kyle, Trish, Anne, and Nikki.
Like wolves, we surrounded our prey, each of us with a weapon pointed right at him, poised as Althea raised her voice chanting some magical incantation. He moved his head like an animal, trying to understand her spell, then he rushed at me and I pulled the trigger, and I kept shooting. Bullets flew into him like insects on a car screen, but he kept coming. Abruptly he stopped before spinning around and around. The others woke from their spellbound prison. Trish and Kyle tried to usher them out.
Orion pounced on Anne, biting her mercilessly. In seconds she lay dead on the floor drained. I wanted to yell. Like wildfire, the fear and adrenaline pumped through my body, making speech or noise impossible.
Tim flew at Ori
on. He turned to Tim, growling. Tim’s anger, his instinct caused him to start to shift into his animal self. Yelling, Orion grabbed him and snapped his neck, and within a second Sabian was on him. Sabian’s mass almost compounded Orion, but he threw him off, shoving him back. Blood dripped down his face, his small white eyes challenging us. He was enjoying this.
Orion grabbed Eliza, she tried to run but that dress was too restricting, too long. She wailed and clawed at him as he tore at her neck, her blood shooting out. Grunting like a rabid animal, he clamped his jaw around her neck. Seconds later, he dropped her and she crumpled to the floor.
“No!” screamed Rebecca, running at him. Grabbing her, he turned her around and tilted her head, biting whilst his claw like hands grabbed her between the legs.
Still, we were shooting, but he kept going.
Seeing this, Stuart was all over Orion who simply threw Rebecca to the ground, turned, and tore his heart out. Taking it to his lips, he ran his serpent-like tongue over it.
Claude and William charged him, but he threw them off as easily as dismissing a conversation. The throw smashed them against a wall. Concussed, they tried to stagger up before losing their footing.
Marcus ran at him, face filled with fury, baring his fangs, and leaping with wings out behind him. Orion merely grinned, waited, and vaulted underneath him at the last second.
“Come on, old man, you’ve had your time. Make way for the new generation, stronger, faster. Admit it, you’re extinct!”
“Fight me man to man,” Marcus bellowed. His voice made the walls shake.
“I am not a man. I am, so much more. Care for a demonstration?”
They both flew at each other. Orion was vicious, his claw-like hands tore open Marcus’s face and arm, whilst his wings kept him in flight, smashing everything around. His legs kicked Marcus across the room and through the walls. He had barely a scratch.
Pressed against the door, Althea chanted wildly, terror struck across her face. She was mortal after all. Damien stood beside her, both of them trying to conjure something powerful to stop him. He threw out fireballs, but Orion merely cast them aside with a single look. Some wicked evil, he looked at Damien and Damien crouched over, seized in pain whilst the Dark Lord laughed.
He strutted over to Nikki, who was shooting in succession, grabbed her gun, and looked her in the eye. William got up and rushed him, but he took the gun, smashed Nikki in the face and pummelled William with bullets.
In the chaos, I turned to look at Anthony, but a sound startled me and I saw that Nikki was next in his firing line and with a malicious grin he feasted on her blood like a rabid animal. Her body slumped to the ground with a thud. Kyle, his eyes wide with terror, grabbed up another gun, sweat pouring off him, his face crumpled with anger and fear as he fired continuously.
Oh God, Anthony. As Kyle continued to fill Orion with enough lead to stop a tank, I ran to Anthony. Crusts of thick ice remained over him as he stood there, frozen. No pulse, nothing. Lifeless, dead...
The bullets seemed to bounce off of that winged demon. He laughed crazily and looked for his next victim.
Turning to Orion in the onslaught of bullets, I pulled a knife, ran at him and drove it through his body before Kyle had a chance to stop firing.
Till Death
Marcus
All of us had tried in vain to kill the bastard, but we were dying like flies. Althea’s power seemed useless against this foe. I knew he hadn’t died and compelled by anger, by fury I pulled myself out of the wall. Pain gushed through me and blood oozed from my face, and limbs, but I’d be damned if I let him live. I leapt with all my might to get Rachel’s fallen body over Orion’s. Blood poured out of her and gashes and bullet holes riddled her slender frame. Her heart beat was fading.
I couldn’t allow this. Wailing, Damien stumbled beside me. His mouth dropped open, looking at the woman he loved who lay in a bloody mass on top of the tyrant.
Scooping her up, I looked around for the first time since he’d thrown me through the wall. Tears welled as I saw the crumbled and bloody remains of Nathaniel, hung by the wrists underneath a giant pentacle. And there, as still as stone, as dead as a rock stood Mabel. But thinking was killing me. He was still alive, barely, and I heard his thoughts conjuring up some dark madness. Thoughts from everyone then cascaded into my head. The Blood Lord, a curse... I had to get out of here if I was to survive.
“Grab him!” I yelled at Damien, pointing at Anthony.
He shook his head.
“Just do it!” I franticly screamed, and at that Damien did what I asked.
Anthony’s body went immediately limp when Damien touched him and he snatched him up, not wanting him to fall to the floor. Trish and Kyle were ready to torch the place and I howled so loud that my throat stung like a bitch. My knees weakened knowing I had killed Mabel and now I could never, ever redeem her.
Stumbling down the drive with Rachel in my arms, my legs buckled, weak from the onslaught. On my knees, twisting around, I saw Damien had Anthony. Claude and his company ran towards us, their faces white, twisted with fear. Where was Sabian? I dare not call, then noticed them rushing out of the house, all in human form. I couldn’t see Althea.
“He’s killed Rebecca, William, and Eliza!” Claude wailed.
“He’s killed most of our friends. Help us. We need to get out of here and fast or we will be next!”
We had no coach to take us back so wearily we stumbled back into the city until we spotted one, and seeing us and the state we were in the driver was understandably reluctant to take us. Claude pulled out a handful of money which worked. There wasn’t room for all of us, so Althea, Sabian, Trish, Kyle, and Claude walked back.
It was getting light out and the mist hung like ghosts over the tiny city as we bumped and jerked around in the carriage back to the lodgings.
Once back, I laid Rachel on a bed, and Damien placed Anthony beside her. For some reason he hadn’t woken from Orion’s spell and his pulse, I couldn’t feel it.
The others arrived and joined us as we stood solemnly over the bodies of our friends. Althea and Damien joined hands, she chanting some incantation then Damien copied her. I looked from Rachel to Anthony, this was a nightmare I could never have predicated.
She had no blood in her system and even now looked as if she was decaying. He looked dead, but preserved. I knew that vampires can go into a type of torpor, a deep sleep where their hearts slow to almost nothing, so with my heart like lead, I bit my wrist and held it over him. Sitting next to him, aches and pains eased a bit and I was able to relax a little. I couldn’t think of what to do next. Right now, I just needed to save him.
Breaking the soft chanting, I said, “Damien, why don’t you try and help Rachel? You are both hybrids, your blood may save her. Though I fear it’s too late.”
Strewn with bloody tears, he gasped, breaking away from the magic that held him together. Battling against his emotions, he couldn’t answer but did as I asked, and gave his blood to Rachel.
As my blood dripped onto Anthony’s mouth, a faint glow started to caress his skin and I heard the light murmur of his heart. I swallowed hard, my mouth so dry from shock and I eventually dared to gaze at Rachel. Both of them had helped me so much in the past. They had become family and to see them lying here, near death was unbearable. But bear it I did, for I would do everything I could.
Damien, too, sat on the bed, too weak to stand, and as his blood dripped slowly in her mouth it was painful to watch. Her dry and grey skin looked as if it was starting to crumble, even with his blood. But he kept going. Even though her face grew taught, sunken eyes and mouth receding to show the vileness of the vampire. The soul hidden to all during life, now revealed its ugly nature. It was horrifying to watch.
But not Anthony. Something was slowly changing. I jerked, knowing we had to act. He could wake to find her here like this next to him.
As if reading my mind, though she couldn’t, Althea stepped forward and whispered quietly,
“We must move Rachel. She is gone and trying to bring her back, even if we could, I fear she may not be in the same physical state as we lost her.” She stared lovingly at Rachel as she spoke, “She is a martyr, a lesson to us all. Let us not dishonour her by fighting foolishly to now give her life. I believe, if she could’ve come back she would, but see she is decaying right in front of us.” And looking to Anthony she continued, “And he cannot, must not wake to this! He’d never recover from it. Come, let’s move her. Marcus, you stay with your friend.”
Restraining a wail of pain, Damien covered his mouth and got up, his back slightly bent as the reality of losing his friend was all too real. For us, we feel more whether good or bad. We may have less humanity killing evil doers because we have lived so long, they don’t concern us. But losing a friend, seeing an innocent child living in poverty, fighting for existence, for some of us at least, this cuts to our core.
Sabian strode lightly over, and rubbing Damien’s shoulders whispered, “I’ll carry her.” He scooped her up quickly to take her to another room.
The air thick with anxiety, no one spoke as the loss of our friends wrenched our feelings. All I could hear was the strain of everyone’s breathing.
Anthony started to look better, but aside from the slight movement in his heart nothing. I stopped feeding him, covered him up, and left the room. After a few minutes everyone else had joined me in the drawing room. Bitter cold from lack of heat sent tiny waves of condensation in my breath and I busied myself making a fire.
Trish broke the silence. “We cannot leave them with him. God knows what he’ll do to their bodies.” As her words spluttered out, we all knew what she meant. An army of the dead, the final desecration to our friends, using them for his own means.