Lord Taranas chuckled. “I see that you’re smarter than I thought. Good. Now go and draw the Vampire Sword. My sword arm is getting sore and I’m liable to cut Lucius’ head off accidentally.”
I knew that Lord Taranas would not feel even remotely sad about killing Lucius, but I kept my mouth shut. I just turned around and walked up to the Vampire Sword, which stood as if awaiting my presence. I stopped in front of the Vampire Sword and looked down at its hilt, which came up to my waist. In my right hand I held Domination, but I sheathed the silver sword in order to leave both hands free to grab the Vampire Sword’s hilt.
I was only a few inches away from the Vampire Sword now and I felt its presence drawing me to it. My fingers twitched of their own accord and I wanted nothing more, at that moment, than to draw the Vampire Sword and use its power for my own purposes. In my mind’s eye, I could see myself wielding the red blade like an ax, slaying anyone who dared stand in my path.
Still I hesitated, however. I didn’t want to draw the Sword. I really didn’t. If there was even one alternative to drawing the Vampire Sword and falling under Lord Taranas’ control, I would take it. But in my heart of hearts, I knew that I had no choice.
So I put both hands on the Vampire Sword’s hilt and pulled.
I expected the Vampire Sword to be tightly encased in its plinth, but to my astonishment, it slid easily out of its plinth at my touch. Turning the Sword right side up, I was amazed at how light it was in my hands. It was even lighter than Domination and I swung it back and forth a few times to test its mobility. It moved easily and accurately at the slightest touch. It felt more like an extension of my person than a mere weapon. I felt like I was whole again, as if I had reattached a limb I’d been missing for so many years.
A loud laugh made me turn around. Lord Taranas was laughing now, his eyes glittering with triumph and happiness.
“Yes,” said Lord Taranas, triumph dripping from every word he spoke. “At long last, the Vampire Sword has been drawn from its plinth. Now nothing can stand before me. First the vampires, then the sorcerers, and finally the whole world will tremble at my might. You shall be my dark knight, Tara, and with the Vampire Sword, not a single soul shall be able to stand against you.”
I should have been angry at Lord Taranas’ gloating, but instead I merely felt annoyed. I said, “Are you going to let Lucius go now?”
Lord Taranas moved his sword away from Lucius’ neck. “Of course. We will leave his body here. You and I, on the other hand, shall return to Earth, where you will use the Vampire Sword to slay all of Lucius’ fellow Order members. This will work out well for us, because the Order was one of the hardest obstacles in my path to world domination, but with all of its members in one place like this, eliminating them all should be as easy as stomping on insects.”
“You mean we’re just going to leave Lucius here?” I said. I gestured at the endless darkness around us. “In this dimension he won’t be able to escape from?”
“Of course,” said Lord Taranas. “Why should we? He’s the enemy, remember. We don’t need more enemies to oppose us. He can remain here in the Vampire Sword’s realm, where he will be trapped forever, unable to return to Earth and oppose us. Besides, I said I would spare him, not take him back to Earth. Leaving him here to rot for all eternity counts as ‘sparing’ him, does it not?”
The thought of leaving Lucius alone, bleeding and horribly injured, in this God-forsaken dimension was enough to make my blood boil. Even if Lucius couldn’t die due to his status as a vampire, I still didn’t want to just abandon him here. It would be like sending him to hell, only hell would be a relief in comparison to being stuck in this dimension forever.
Besides, I found myself feeling not just annoyed, but angry, with Lord Taranas speaking of ‘we’ and ‘us.’ Now that I actually had the Vampire Sword in hand, I didn’t want to obey him anymore. I wasn’t sure if it was just my own pride getting the best of me or if the Vampire Sword was somehow making me more aggressive. Either way, I could not help but imagine stabbing the Vampire Sword directly into his throat. Or maybe just slashing off his head entirely.
“What are you waiting for?” said Lord Taranas. He gestured at me. “Come. We must leave immediately. The longer we wait, the more my Horde shrinks, which will mean I will have to spend more time building it back up when we get back to Earth. Of course, if the Vampire Sword is as strong as all the legends say it is, perhaps I won’t need my Horde at all.”
I started walking toward Lord Taranas, the Vampire Sword at my side. I didn’t show him my real intentions, because I now realized this was the best time to take him down. If I could just get close enough, I could kill him with the Vampire Sword once and for all. Lord Taranas didn’t seem to realize what I was about to do, and he wouldn’t, not until it was too late for him to do anything about it.
I stopped beside Lord Taranas, who looked down at me, his triumphant smile seemingly glued to his face. But he wasn’t really looking at me. He was looking at the Vampire Sword.
“Excellent,” said Lord Taranas. “It is even more beautiful up close than from a distance.”
“I know,” I said. “So what are we waiting for? Let’s go already. I’m ready to head back to Earth to do your bidding.”
Truthfully, I just wanted Lord Taranas to turn his back on me long enough to stab him in the back. I hoped that would cause him to double over enough so I could behead him, but if I had to stab him multiple times to get at his neck, then so be it.
Lord Taranas laid a hand on my shoulder. “I know I urged speed, but I think we need to take a couple of minutes to put a few things in order first.”
I tried not to shiver at the touch of his cold hand. “Like what?”
“Like breaking your will and turning you into my puppet,” said Lord Taranas.
His grip on my shoulder tightened and once again pain exploded in my mind. I dropped the Vampire Sword and fell to my knees, grabbing my head and screaming in pain.
“You weren’t foolish enough to think I wouldn’t finish what I started earlier, were you?” said Lord Taranas, looking down at me with a cold expression. “I know you intend to kill me as soon as my back is turned. I’m going to ensure that you never use the Vampire Sword against me ever again by crushing that pesky will of yours. Trust me, you’ll learn to enjoy it, because you won’t have a choice in the matter.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The mental pain Lord Taranas inflicted on me was somehow even worse than before, maybe because it took me by surprise. I couldn’t stand. I could barely even think. If Lord Taranas had been putting pressure on me before, he was now simply hammering away at my mind’s defenses. He was clearly not playing anymore. He wanted to win and he was going to do whatever it took to make me submit to his rule.
And what was worse, I thought he was going to succeed.
“Keep screaming, girl,” said Lord Taranas, without a hint of mercy in his voice. “I can do this all day, because I haven’t used even a fraction of my true power yet. Your screams are simply confirmation that your will is starting to collapse under the strain. I estimate you have about thirty seconds left before your will breaks entirely, at which point you will be my perfectly obedient slave who will do whatever I ask her to do without question, a definite improvement over the willful woman standing before me.”
My eyes were watering. I wanted to tell Lord Taranas that he was wrong, but I couldn’t speak. I believed him when he said I had thirty seconds before he crushed my will, however. I could feel my will rapidly bending underneath the pressure which Lord Taranas inflicted upon me, and every second the pressure got worse.
But even through the pressure, I felt the Vampire Sword calling to me, demanding I pick it up again. And I would have, but the pressure from Lord Taranas was too much for me to move. I was too busy fighting off Lord Taranas’ mental attack to pick up the Vampire Sword. But I would be picking it up again soon. After all, the whole reason Lord Taranas was breaking my will was to mak
e it easier to boss me around while I used the Sword.
This was it. I failed. Lord Taranas would turn me into his puppet and unleash me upon the world. I would kill everyone who stood in his way, even my own friends and family if they opposed me, and no one would be able to stop me. Even worse, my eternal damnation was practically assured at this point, because if I couldn’t reverse my transformation and become a normal human woman again, then my soul was probably damned for good. Even God himself had likely turned his gaze away from me now.
But I didn’t want to give up. Deep down within me, a fire burned, a fire I didn’t recognize. It was thought of losing Dad, I realized, that was driving me to not give up. If I let Lord Taranas destroy my will, then I might be sent to kill Dad at some point. I couldn’t stand the idea of losing Dad, whether by my hand or by the hand of someone else.
Anger flowed through my body, mind, and spirit. A new strength suddenly came to me, a strength I didn’t recognize or understand. All I knew was that whereas before I had been too weak to withstand the pressures Lord Taranas had put on me, now I felt strong enough to stand up to him.
Slowly but surely, I stood up. It felt like I was squatting under hundreds of pounds of metal, but I was making real, measurable progress, standing up higher and higher, pushing against Lord Taranas’ attack. His mental attack was as harsh as ever, but I ignored it.
Lord Taranas’ eyes widened in surprise and he said, “How are you standing? This is impossible. Down, you Hordeling!”
A particular strong burst of mental energy struck me dead on, almost knocking me flat on my back, but I managed to remain standing. I rose higher and higher, until soon I stood to my full height. Lord Taranas, of course, still towered over me, but I didn’t care, because I was no longer afraid of him.
“Impossible,” said Lord Taranas. “You cannot defy me.”
“Looks like I can, Taranas,” I said, though even I heard the strain in my voice. “Maybe you’re not as tough as you think you are.”
Lord Taranas growled, but then raised his sword and said, “No matter. I’ll just knock you down physically if I must. Your body is much frailer than mine. One solid blow and it will be a long time before you get up again.”
Lord Taranas’ sword flew toward me, but I drew Domination from its sheath and slashed at Lord Taranas’ wrist. Domination slashed through his wrist, sending his hand and sword flying somewhere into the blackness surrounding us. Lord Taranas himself screamed and hissed, clutching his now-bleeding stump of an arm and staggering backwards.
“How did you draw your sword so quickly?” said Lord Taranas, looking down at the stump which had been his hand. “That shouldn’t even be possible.”
I didn’t know what to say, because I hadn’t been thinking when I drew it. It must have had something to do with my second wind. Maybe the Vampire Sword had somehow given me the knowledge and skill I needed to draw Domination so expertly. Or maybe—and this seemed like a stretch to me, but anything was possible—God himself had given me this ability in order to defeat Lord Taranas.
Thinking of the Vampire Sword, I glanced at it and held out my other hand. The Vampire Sword turned into a cloud of gray smoke and then reappeared in my hand. I turned to face Lord Taranas, Domination in my right hand, the Vampire Sword in my left, and I rushed toward him.
Lord Taranas snarled and held out his good hand. A strange, dark energy began swirling in the palm of his hand, which he fired at me without hesitation. But I batted it out of the way with the Vampire Sword and reached Lord Taranas before he could react.
I slashed Domination across Lord Taranas’ chest, its silver blade burning against Lord Taranas’ skin. Lord Taranas cried out in pain and tried to swipe me, but his aim was off and I dodged it easily. I slashed him in the chest again, deepening the wound and making him fall to his hands and knees. I immediately put Domination and the Vampire Sword against his neck scissor style, making him freeze.
“You are quicker and faster than even I assumed you would be,” said Lord Taranas. “Am I looking at the power of the Vampire Sword or the legendary power of the half-vampire?”
“Maybe both,” I said, panting and sweating. “Or maybe the power of God himself.”
Lord Taranas sneered. “Please. God would never help a creature such as you. You are nothing more than an abomination in his eyes. You would be wise to take this power of yours and use it for your own glory, rather than his.”
“Maybe God does think I’m an abomination,” I said, “but that doesn’t mean I have to live for myself.”
With that, I cut Domination and the Vampire Sword together like scissors. They cut through Lord Taranas’ neck as smoothly as butter. Lord Taranas’ head fell to the ground with a rather sickening thud, and then his body collapsed a moment later. Black blood leaked out of his neck, which smelled like excrement and mud.
But it was over. It was finally over. Lord Taranas was dead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Lowering my swords, I took several steps away from Lord Taranas’ corpse and then threw up. It was probably not a particularly graceful thing to do, but I was just so overwhelmed by everything that happened that I couldn’t take it. The adrenaline which had been rushing through my body during the fight was gone and I felt as weak and powerless as I normally did. It didn’t help that I realized I was very sweaty, making my shirt cling to my body and my hair stick to my forehead in a way that probably didn’t make me look good.
When I finished throwing up, my stomach felt empty and bothered, but at least I didn’t have to throw up anymore. I looked over at Lord Taranas’ corpse, which was already starting to disintegrate like all vampires did when they got killed. In seconds, Lord Taranas’ massive form was no more, save for his robes and sword, which apparently did not disintegrate with him. I felt like I could relax at last, however, because even after beheading him, I hadn’t been sure that Lord Taranas was really dead.
But then I heard a loud groaning sound nearby and looked around and spotted Lucius still lying in front of the portal back to Earth. I rushed over to him and, dropping both Domination and the Vampire Sword onto the ground, knelt next to him and turned him over onto his back to get a good look at his wounds.
His injuries were horrible. A gaping hole existed in his stomach where Lord Taranas had punched through his back. It was sticky and black, reminding me of a tar pit, except far more disgusting. The rest of Lucius’ body seemed okay, but that hole was a big problem, one I knew I needed to deal with immediately.
“Tara?” said Lucius in a dangerously weak voice. His red eyes were paler than normal, which I did not take as a very encouraging sign. “Is that you? Where is … where is Lord Taranas?”
“Dead,” I said, taking Lucius’ hand into my own and holding it with both hands. “I killed him with Domination and the Vampire Sword.”
Lucius blinked in surprise. “You wielded both Domination and the Vampire Sword at once? Interesting. I didn’t think it was possible for one person to wield both weapons like that.”
“It doesn’t matter how I killed him,” I said. “I need to heal you before your injury gets infected and—”
Lucius laughed. “Tara, I appreciate the concern, but my injury won’t get infected, and even if it does, I’ll still be fine.”
“Lucius, do you even understand what you just said?” I said. “I’ve seen what happens to injuries that don’t get cleaned right away, and it isn’t pretty.”
“Maybe it works that way for humans, but as a vampire, my injuries are going to be different from yours,” said Lucius. He grimaced at the hole in his stomach. “It hurts like hell, I won’t deny that, but all we need to do is get me back to Earth and have the Order heal it. You don’t even have the necessary abilities to heal vampire wounds anyway, so don’t worry about it.”
“Are you sure?” I said, glancing at his wound again uncertainly. “Will you even be able to walk?”
“Tara, the only sure fire way to kill a vampire is to behead them,”
said Lucius. “As a general rule, vampires can survive having limbs cut off, being stabbed in the chest, and having fire thrown in our faces so long as our head remains firmly attached to our body. It hurts like hell, yes, but unlike you humans, we’re not really in danger of bleeding out.”
I still wasn’t entirely convinced that he was going to be okay, but he did have a point about me lacking the necessary skills to heal him. “Okay, then I guess you’re feeling well enough to head back to Earth.”
“Yes, but I think I will need your help,” said Lucius. He touched his wound and winced. “I can’t walk on my own, not in this state anyway. I’ll need your help to get anywhere.”
“Sure,” I said. “Just let me get Domination and then I’ll help you out.”
I turned toward Domination, but then paused when my hand was halfway to the silver sword. My eyes were drawn to the Vampire Sword, which lay on the ground just a couple of feet from Domination. Without thinking, I picked up the Vampire Sword instead and held it up.
“So that’s the Vampire Sword,” said Lucius in an awed voice. “I’ve never seen it so close before. Is it heavy?”
“No …” I said, barely paying attention to what Lucius had just said. “It’s quite light … almost like an extension of my arm …”
“Tara, I think you should put it back,” said Lucius. He nodded toward its empty plinth. “The Vampire Sword was never meant to be used. You should put it back where it—”
Again without thinking, I snapped my head toward Lucius and jabbed the tip of the Sword into Lucius’ throat. Lucius immediately stopped speaking, but his red eyes told me exactly what was going through his mind at that moment.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I said. “Maybe I want to take the Vampire Sword out of here. I can take good care of it. I’m destined to use it. I know I am. I can use it for good, unlike Taranas, who wanted to use it for evil.”
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