by S. J. Bryant
Nova breathed out a long sigh. If only the wheels of bureaucracy would turn a little faster.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
"Is everything ok?" Selene whispered from the other side of the bedroom door. Her voice was calm but concerned.
Corvus glanced at the door and then at the balcony covered with shattered glass. There were a few specks of blood, but it could have been worse. His breath came in great gasps and his face was flushed red. He felt overcome with joy and sorrow in equal amounts.
"Come in," he said.
Selene pushed open the door and stepped into the room. Her eyes widened with surprise and confusion. Her gaze darted between Corvus and the balcony.
"What—"
"You sick bastard!"
Corvus didn't have time to turn before someone flew through the broken window and crashed into his back, sending him sprawling to the floor. He scrambled on hands and knees as fast as he could. There was a commotion behind him. He rose to his feet and whipped around to survey the room.
An unfamiliar male lecheon stood in the centre of the room between Corvus and Selene, snarling. His eyes were rimmed red and his teeth gnashed. Selene was still at the door, her lips pulled back, revealing her pointed teeth. She threw the door wide open and in an instant the rest of the coven was there, snarling at the stranger.
"You killed her and you'll pay for it!" the stranger said. His nose curled up and he growled.
"Whoever you are, get away from me this instant before I see you killed," Corvus said. His voice was level, quiet and deadly.
"I don't think so, Corvus Vadova. You thought you were so high and mighty. You and that bitch of yours. But where has it got you? Hmm? Where are you now? You don't even remember me do you? But why would you, I was so unimportant." The words were spat around snarls.
Corvus's eyes narrowed. He stared at the stranger. How dare he mention Laticia. Who did he think he was? His dark hair and the cut of his jaw were somehow familiar. Where did he know those features from? It was years ago, decades even.
"Byzant?" Corvus whispered.
"Ah, his majesty sees me and in so doing I have become real!" Byzant said with a false smile, throwing up his hands and bowing.
His features dropped back to focused hatred.
"Get out of here, Byzant," Corvus said. The young boy had longed for Laticia's affections, longed for a coven of his own, but at every turn he had been bested by Corvus. He had eventually been set loose to fend for himself. He should have learnt his lesson by now.
"Oh no, Corvus. It's my turn. I will succeed where Selwyn failed," Byzant said.
With his last words a howl echoed from outside and the room was flooded with new lecheons. They poured in through the window and from the hallway. There were at least thirty of them and they were obviously ready for a fight.
Byzant leapt for Corvus, while the rest of his coven lunged at the others.
Corvus's coven was taken off guard. Their attackers wielded wooden stakes and wore leather gloves. A few had wooden swords edged with sharpened steel and covered in deadly splinters. They hissed as they ran forward, their eyes gleaming with bloodlust. It wasn't often that covens fought, but when they did it was always bloody and violent.
Byzant slammed into Corvus and smashed him into the wall. Corvus's head cracked against the solid stone and he growled in pain. Byzant's forearm pressed against his throat, crushing it. Corvus's neck bent under Byzant's weight, sending shots of pain into his head. Stars danced at the edges of Corvus's vision. He sucked in breath after laboured breath, each one more difficult and less satisfying than the one before.
Corvus lashed out with his leg. It smashed into Byzant's stomach and sent the other lecheon stumbling back. Corvus pushed the advantage. He lunged after Byzant, his fist swinging. He was so focussed that he didn't see the other two lecheons coming up on either side of him. They clamped onto his arms and wrenched him backwards.
His back slammed against the wall and this time he was pinned. Byzant leapt forward so that his face was pressed against Corvus's. He grinned, revealing the pulsating leach behind his teeth.
Corvus strained against the younger lecheons, but the three of them together were too much for him to break free. Byzant's hand was back around his throat, clenching tighter. Corvus's legs grew shaky with the lack of oxygen. His body slid an inch down the wall. The three lecheons kept him upright even though his legs were on the verge of collapse.
Byzant's other arm fumbled in his belt. He smiled with triumph and brought his hand up in front of Corvus's face. He was holding a ring, of sorts. It was like a small section of armour designed to encase a single finger. The main segment was metal but where it covered the end of Byzant's finger the metal was replaced with wood in the shape of a talon. It was a deep, dark wood that was already stained red by the blood it had seen. It was coated with a sticky layer that Corvus recognised instantly; the sap of an oak tree.
Byzant thrust his index finger into the ring; it fit perfectly, and then lifted it up to within a centimetre of Corvus's eyeball. The metal glinted in the dim lights of the hotel suit while the wood was dull, deadly.
Corvus smelt the blood. It was a mix of iron, rust and stone. Lecheon blood always had a tinge of stone; it was a whisper of their home planet. The wooden nail took up his whole vision. His eyes kept blinking but it wouldn't disappear. Corvus twisted his head to the side, as far away from the wooden nail as he could get, but it was no good.
Byzant moved in even closer. He wiggled his finger back and forth so that the nail dipped in close to Corvus's eye and then moved away. Back to within an inch, and then away again. It was exquisite, infinite torture, and if Corvus had had the strength or the breath, he would have cried out. But he didn't.
The sap of the oak would leak into any wound and kill him within minutes. There was no weapon more deadly to a lecheon. Even just the sight of it made Corvus's skin tingle.
The edges of his eyesight grew darker with every second and the creeping nail became harder to make out amongst the bright flashing stars. His eyes drooped shut, this time more from lack of air than a feeble attempt to avoid the wooden nail.
"Oh no, you're not getting out of it that easy," Byzant said. He loosened his weight on Corvus's neck.
Corvus sucked in a great gulp of air. The cool oxygen poured down his throat and into his lungs. His chest expanded out in grateful gasps. His surroundings zoomed back into focus with that first breath. Where before all he had seen was the wooden nail, and all he could hear was his own blood desperately hammering ever slower through his neck, now there was a massive assault on his senses.
The room was pulsating with commotion. Hands, bodies, and blood flew in all directions. There was so much noise. It beat at his newly recovered hearing, pounding away. His eyes flew away from the nail in front of his face to the wider scene. His coven was being slaughtered. They were unarmed and unprepared.
Byzant's coven looked younger, although it was hard to tell with lecheons. They fought tooth and nail, and they were winning.
Selene was backed into a corner. Somehow she had managed to acquire one of the wooden swords. She was swinging it back and forth in front of her. Her eyes were dark and determined and her mouth was set as she glared at her attackers.
Two of Byzant's coven ran in towards her. Corvus recognised them; Andil and Roan. Andil wore two killer gloves with wooden spikes thrusting from his knuckles like long claws. Roan wielded a wooden sword similar to Selene, edged with metal to make cutting easier.
Roan swung her sword down at Selene's neck. Selene raised her own sword and deflected the blow with the dull thud of wood on wood. Meanwhile, Andil took advantage of the distraction and pressed the advantage. His fist was raised, ready to punch into Selene's stomach with his wooden claws.
Selene was ready. At the same time as deflecting Roan's blow, she lifted her right knee and thrust out her foot. The side kick caught Andil in the jaw and he stumbled backwards.
Selene pushed forward
with her sword and Roan's blade slid off to the side. Selene lifted her own blade and swung it in a wide arc. Roan was ready. Thud; wood on wood. Roan stepped forward and pushed Selene back into the corner, limiting her reach.
Roan swung in an arc designed to remove Selene's head. At the last moment Selene collapsed, her upper body crumpling to her knees so Roan's sword sailed straight over her head. Selene burst up. Her shoulders and head shot up within Roan's reach, along with her sword.
The strength of her arms combined with the power of her legs sent the wooden sword straight into Roan's stomach. It plunged through skin, muscle and organs with a sick squelching sound. Selene bent and ploughed the shoulder into Roan's chest so that she fell backwards. Selene kept a firm grip on the blade, wrenching it out of Roan's body and leaving behind rivers of blood.
Selene watched until she was sure Roan wouldn't be standing up again, then she turned to the rest of the battle. Andil was hanging back, cautious of Selene now that he'd watched one of his companions die by her hand. He moved his fists back and forth, the claws menacing.
Corvus ripped his eyes away from Selene to take stock of the rest of his coven. He could see at least nine of them dead. He couldn't imagine the massacre going on in the main room of the suite.
Winton was holding his own, as was Trevalon. He could see three bodies belonging to Byzant's coven, plus Roan who Selene had just killed. It wasn't enough; there were too many of them.
"I've waited a long time for this," Byzant said, ripping Corvus's attention away from the rest of his coven. "But there was always someone in the way, like that arrogant bastard, Selwyn."
"You do know how to hold a grudge," Corvus hissed. The leach in his mouth flicked out, leaving a shimmering trail of saliva over his lips.
"You made it so easy," Byzant responded. "No matter, now it's my turn."
"It will never be your turn. Laticia is dead. You'll never have a chance with her now."
Byzant's eyes flashed and he snarled at Corvus. The pressure on Corvus's neck increased and he again felt his head getting light and his vision going dark.
"Don't you dare speak her name," Byzant snarled.
"Why? I've been screaming it in ecstasy for years," Corvus said with a sneer. He even managed to force a chuckle up his constricted throat.
The lecheons holding his arms weren't distracted. He strained against them, but their grips remained firm.
"Oh, you'll pay for that," Byzant growled.
He advanced the wooden nail towards Corvus's eye. It was an inch away, and then half, looming closer, edging with infinite slowness. Corvus imagined the agony it would cause. The wooden tip would slice through his cornea and plunge into his eyeball. The poison from the oak sap would pump into the blood around his eye and from there it would spread to his brain and then on to the rest of his body. His head would feel it first, agony coursing through his very veins. It would get more intense the longer the wooden nail stayed in, until he was overcome with pain and fainted. From there his organs would seize and he'd die.
The nail was only a hair's breadth away.
Byzant grinned and flicked up a smaller wooden blade. He slashed it across Corvus's cheek.
The pain was immediate. Tendrils of agony poured through Corvus's face. His jaw tightened uncontrollably, clenching down onto his tongue and drawing blood.
Corvus did the only thing he could think of. He lifted both legs and kicked forward, slamming into Byzant's stomach. The sudden weight of Corvus's body made the two younger lecheons lose their hold. Corvus's arms slid through their hands and he fell free onto the floor. His tailbone crashed onto the hard ground. Pain shot through Corvus's spine, but he ignored it.
He grabbed hold of Byzant's wrist, and used it to pull himself off the floor. He wrapped his arms around Byzant, turned his hand around, and thrust the wooden nail into his face. The nail went deep, carving a hole in Byzant's cheek.
Byzant cried with agony and lifted both hands to his face in a desperate attempt to stop the blood.
Corvus was also bleeding profusely. The gouge was just below his right eye. It was so close that he could see the blood flowing out of his cheek when he glanced down. He shook himself and turned his full attention to Byzant. The two younger lecheons stared with wide-eyed fear, dancing on the balls of their feet.
Corvus had no weapons, there was no wood within reach, and daylight was still an hour away. His head whipped back and forth, searching. Selene glanced up at him. She was still fending off Andil and his cursed gloves. She looked at Corvus, looked at Byzant, and nodded. She drew back and thrust her sword across the bedroom.
It sailed through the air like a javelin. The blade went over the heads of the fighting lecheons and straight into Corvus's grip. He smiled and without wasting time stepped forward and thrust the sword into Byzant's stomach.
The blade sunk right in, finding its way between ribs and spinal column. Byzant seized up and looked at Corvus with a mixture of horror and confusion. Then the pain set in.
Byzant screamed and wailed. He fell to his knees and pummelled the carpet. Tears streamed out of his eyes.
Corvus sneered down at him and stomped on his flailing hand. The wrist was locked on the carpet but the fingers continued to tense and relax, tense and relax. Corvus bent over and grabbed hold of the metal ring with the deadly nail. He yanked it off of Byzant's finger and thrust it onto his own. He liked how it felt, powerful.
Byzant's screams decayed into mewling. Soon he would be dead.
Corvus sprung back, swinging the sword in a wide arc. It sliced through the necks of both the young lecheons who had restrained him. Their heads fell to the ground with solid thunks, leaving pools of blood soaking into the carpet.
"You chose the wrong coven," Corvus said to their frozen features, still rigid with fear.
Corvus stood straight and surveyed the room. Things still weren't going well for his coven but that was about to change. He stepped up behind Andil and thrust the wooden sword into his back. He collapsed just like Byzant.
There were three other of Byzant's coven in the bedroom. Corvus made quick work of them. His feet danced across the floor as he thrust in his sword, pulled it free, spun, thrust his sword again. Two lecheons fell to the floor, dying.
The remaining lecheon looked down at his fallen comrades and then up at Corvus. He had just enough time to look down at the sword, before it sunk deep into his belly. Then he collapsed to join his fellows.
Corvus marched into the main room of the suit. Selene and Winton were right behind him. There was more death there. Tiny battles were being fought across the room and the dead lay scattered about. The lounge was toppled and it looked as if everything had been smashed.
It was moments like these he was thankful that he never paid a security deposit for any rooms.
There were fifteen of the other coven still standing and twenty of his. He liked those odds.
"I'll give you one chance," Corvus shouted. His voice boomed across the melee and the room fell still. Eyes stared at him in fear and awe. "Leave now, take your dead, and you will be allowed to continue. Choose to fight and I'll see that every last one of you dies."
Corvus took the time to glare at each of his enemies in turn. They turned to jelly under his gaze. He considered killing them all. It would be cleaner and leave no loose ends, but the last thing the lecheon species needed were more civil wars. The other alternative was to take them into his coven, but he couldn't trust them; he may as well stab himself in the back and be done with it.
"In case it helps your decision," Corvus said, holding up his index finger with the ring and claw, "Byzant is dead. He'll be leading you no more."
That was the release they needed. As one, the enemy coven went to work. They collected up their fallen allies and disappeared through the doors and windows as quickly as they had come. They probably had rooms above and below this one, Corvus thought. He cursed the hotel for its pervading perfume, which was now far less appealing because withou
t that he would have smelled the other coven long before the attack.
He looked at the remains of his coven. They were scratched and exhausted. Many of them were panting heavily or wincing at their wounds. He felt a pain in his chest for those who had fallen. He lowered his wooden sword and rested the tip into the carpet.
"We can't stay here," he said. "The authorities will be here soon."
"Where shall we go?" asked Winton.
"I have an idea," Corvus said. "It won't be easy, but we will prevail."
"If we wanted easy we would still be living on Sythar and eating animal blood for every meal," said Selene.
Corvus nodded at her, acknowledging both her words and her role in saving his life. She was proving to be a resourceful and loyal second.
"First, we have to get out of here," said Corvus.
The others nodded and they too began to gather up their dead. At least, Corvus thought, this way he could blame Pamielle's death on the other coven. Only he and Selene need know. There was no sense stirring up trouble at a time like this.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
"Nova, glad you could make it," Inspector Briggles said. His shoulders visibly relaxed when he saw her and he let out a long breath.
Nova nodded to him and then looked at the building where the lecheons were holed up.
"We've got some schematics. According to our intel, they went for one of the underground rooms," Briggles said.
"Why in Saturn's Satellites would they have underground rooms?" Nova asked. Her heart beat a little faster. Above ground was easy; throw open the curtains and all the lecheons would be disabled. Underground? What could they do underground?
"I told you, this building is for diplomatic relations. They have rooms specifically designed for lecheons."
"Fine. So, what's our plan?"
"The lecheon wing is cut off. According to management, Corvus's coven are the only ones staying there. We'll have free reign to move in. We're taking UV spotlights, as well as all the wooden weapons we can find. There's not much else we can do."