by James Somers
I hated to leave Adolf. However, cooler heads might be best in this uncertain situation, and Adolf tended to rush ahead despite the danger. Still, if we got into trouble, it was comforting to know that he wouldn’t hesitate to rush to our aid.
“Left behind?”
Adolf turned at the voice, but he had instantly known whom he would find. Lucifer stood upon a sand dune looking out over the sea toward the mysterious city in the distance. He was wearing dark clothing: a knee length shirt with a leather girdle at his middle. Another shirt, red in color, beneath the black, matched the crimson detailing in the broad leather belt. His black breeches, pantaloon in style, were tucked within the high leather straps of his matching sandals.
“They’ve gone to investigate that city,” Adolf said, looking after them. Then he turned on the angel. “How is it that you know of this place already? It just opened up before us hours ago in the Valley of Dragons.”
“Why should I not know it?” Lucifer asked. “I’m well acquainted with the spiritual plane.”
Adolf’s mouth dropped open. “What do you mean? This cannot be the same—”
Lucifer walked down toward him, grinning with a mad gleam in his eye. “Ah, but it is!” he bellowed. Spreading his arms wide he said, “All of this is where Galidel and Tidus and Greystone and all of the rest once stood.”
“Impossible,” Adolf said, looking around. “How could it be remade?”
“The cherubim are quite powerful,” Lucifer explained. “They possess a singular mentality, but there is a great deal of power behind it. Their rendering lacks much of the subtle wonder admittedly present in the Almighty’s creation, but it is functional.”
“But how?”
Lucifer turned, considering the question again. “Oh, they did not create from nothing, if that’s what you mean. All that was necessary was to go through a process of breaking down the matter that was present and then reorganizing it—something Superomancers do on a much smaller scale, of course.”
Adolf’s tone turned angry. “You knew about this?”
“Knew about it? Dear boy, I suggested it to them.”
Adolf gave the angel a puzzled look. “I don’t understand. Why would you do that? What could it gain you?”
Lucifer flashed his devilish grin. “In time it will give me a great many things. However, turning their attention away from Black nine years ago allowed you and the others to win in London against those metal giants. The cherubim were the power behind them. Surely, you had to wonder why they stopped working.”
“We assumed that Black being shot had done that,” Adolf said.
“Another matter that I arranged, by the way,” Lucifer said. “Just like the centaurs I killed in that troll village when you were injured.”
“I knew that one already,” Adolf admitted. “And I thanked you for it.”
“Of course, you did,” the angel acknowledged. “After all, you’re a smart young man, so much like your father. Which reminds me, there is one final aspect of his power that you yet lack. The ability to kill with your touch.”
“You can give this to me?”
“All of these gifts I have given to you as I deemed you ready to receive them,” Lucifer said. “At last, I feel that you are ready for this.”
Adolf smiled, bowing his head gratefully. “Thank you.”
“And you will likely need this gift for what you will find here,” Lucifer added. “The cherubim have established a religion to themselves in that great city.”
Adolf’s brow furrowed. “And the worshippers? Who are they?”
“All of the vampires that were in Russia,” he said.
Adolf looked toward the city then up to Cole and Sadie. They were too far away to see them now, especially in their smaller bird forms. Hopefully, they would see what was happening before it was too late to get away.
“I should go after them,” Adolf said, gazing toward the city.
Lucifer had turned back the other way toward the forest. “You won’t need to go to Trinity to find the vampires,” he said. “They’ve come looking for you.”
Adolf turned. Lucifer was gone. He had vanished as silently as he had come. Nothing new there. However, following the angel’s direction, he found no less than a dozen raptors heading toward him from the forest.
He had to choose. Would he fly toward the city? If he did, then an alert would undoubtedly be sounded. That would bring even more vampires down upon him. At least, with this limited number, he might stand a chance.
Adolf walked up the nearest dune and over to the other side. He headed back the way they had come, toward the forest. The predatory birds, no doubt vampire animorphs, were almost to him, though still high up. It would be too easy for them to intercept him right now.
He remained on the ground, not giving away what he was, or his own ability to fly. The darkly plumed birds sailed in low. Their wings pivoted back to catch the wind and slow their descent. A transformation began in them all just as they would have touched down.
However, before they could complete this process, Adolf leaped over the nearest that would have shortly blocked his path. He plunged through the air at speed, heading for the forest where they had come from a moment ago.
Adolf smiled as he heard their curses at having allowed him to get past. They were landing in human bodies only to make the awkward attempt at returning immediately to their flying forms in order to take up pursuit. They were fast, but not quite as fast as Adolf. It took less effort for him to fly. He did not have to bother with beating wings or the like.
In less than sixty seconds he entered the forest. Here he had the possibility of either losing his vampire pursuers or fighting back with the odds now a bit more even. The trees were large enough to provide good cover, their trunks being wide enough to require half a dozen people holding hands to encircle one of them.
Shadow and half light enveloped him as the dense richly colored canopy blocked most of the light from reaching the forest floor. For this reason, underbrush grew very sparsely here. He threw himself behind one of the trees and waited silently, rising even higher into the air as the vampires flew into the woods after him.
One of them, a large raven like Cole’s bird form, shot past the tree where he was hiding. Adolf reacted lightning quick, snatching the bird out of the air. Now, he had the opportunity to see if Lucifer had lied to him earlier. His father had been said to have the ability to control physiology inside an individual and therefore kill with his touch.
In truth, This required a little more than a mere touch. He had to know how to change his opponent’s physiologic functions in the right way to induce death. There were ways to kill and methods that would only incapacitate an individual.
In the moment he held the bird around the throat, Adolf felt his mind pour into the body. He wasn’t reading thoughts, but reading heartbeats, body temperature, blood pressure, cellular functions, electro-chemical discharges across neural pathways, and a thousand other physical impulses and processes occurring simultaneously.
The sudden rush of information made his head ache. He opted for the quick kill instead, crushing the delicate spine of the bird before the vampire could emerge into a stronger human form again. His prey didn’t even have the opportunity to croak a warning to his fellows before Adolf crushed the life out of him and dropped the carcass to the forest floor.
Others passed by without seeming to notice him. Adolf rounded the tree trunk, still hovering high above the ground. A vampire’s blade drove into the bark of the tree above his head just as he managed to duck. The sword stuck there, momentarily fixed into the wood. It was just long enough for Adolf to strike his attacker with a terrible blow to the sternum.
He disarmed the vampire, seized him by his velvet waistcoat and swung him around, slamming him into the tree. The others would certainly have heard this commotion. He had to be quick.
However, the vampire wasn’t about to give his life so easily. Adolf fought off the Breed’s defensive bl
ows, slamming first one fist and then another into his throat. The vampire’s eyes went wide with horror as he tried to breathe. Adolf smashed the Breed warrior’s breastbone with a thunderous blow that cracked the man’s sternum. He fell from the fray, landing among old bark and rotting leaves upon the forest floor.
The vampire was still alive for the moment, but he wouldn’t be for long. Even though the Breed had tremendous healing power, they couldn’t go without oxygen. His trachea had been crushed, and his heart had been lacerated with the strike to his sternum.
Adolf turned around only to be hammered back into the tree by no less than four vampires. They hit him fast and hit him hard, driving the wind out of his lungs. Then his arms and legs were pinned as another brute of a vampire came at him, pounding him mercilessly with fists like jackhammers.
His ribs were broken and his jaw shattered as the beating went on. Even his great strength couldn’t withstand the terrible blows he was suffering. It had taken four vampires to pin him against the tree, and one other to carry out the beating.
Behind these, clinging like squirrels to more trees were the half dozen other vampires who had been members of this hunting party. They watched with gleeful expressions of malice as Adolf endured their malicious attack.
When they were satisfied, the vampires holding him to the tree released his arms and legs. He fell battered, bruised and broken to the forest floor. Adolf landed in a wretched condition all but dead. Yet, unseen to his tormentors, the quick healing ability passed from his father was already working within him to bind and mend the fractures, contusions and lacerations he had suffered.
Adolf was presently in no condition to fight them. The circumstances had been to his disadvantage, but he had still managed to kill two of their number. He lay upon the ground near the base of the tree near one of the vampire corpses. His only thought now was pain, unrelenting pain.
As he was dragged away by Breed warriors, this agony ebbed and flowed, diminishing only slightly and then returning in unstoppable waves, sweeping through his body. He cried out a number of times, but the sound was distant, drowned by the incessant ringing in his ears. He passed out numerous times on the way to the city, waking during brief respites in his pain, only to be submerged into unconsciousness again.
When Adolf finally awoke and remained that way, he was held prisoner within a cell made of granite. The only window was a thin slit in the stone high up one wall, enough to get some air and see part of the city beyond. A sliver of sunlight penetrated the gloom, but no more.
The entire floor of his small cell consisted of a thick metal grate. With no weapons, he would never get through it. Below this, in the darkness, water rushed beneath. He had the unpleasant idea that the water flowed through here from the sea and served to carry away waste.
The granite walls were slick with condensation and some form of mold was spreading out from the joint between the wall and the grate. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious, but his body ached all over. There was no way to get comfortable in this environment. Only his overwhelming pain had allowed him to remain unconscious as long as he had—his mind shutting down in order to deal with his terrible injuries.
Adolf called out, but no one answered. He suspected that the walls were most likely spelled in order to prevent teleportation though he personally lacked that talent. He had no idea what had happened to Cole and Sadie. Either they were dead, or they had been captured like him. Until someone came to explain what was to be done with him, he had no choice but to lie quietly, nurse his wounds and wait.
Kindred
We found, as we rode thermals high above the mysterious island city, that it was dominated by what appeared to be a massive arena. Currently there was nothing going on in this huge venue, but the stains of bloodletting were unmistakable even from this height. Since we appeared to be in some realm beyond the mortal world, I assumed that Descendants of some kind must dwell here, but their identity remained unclear. No individuals were visible yet.
The rest of the city was fairly simple despite its great size. There was a monstrous temple complex, though no worshippers were present. I could not discern to what idol god it had been constructed. If there was an image, it was hidden within the structure itself and not visible in the great courtyard that spread out before.
We had come approximately one mile in order to get over the city, and Adolf was no longer visible upon the shore. I hoped he would keep his word and give us enough time to determine who belonged to this city and whether they were hostile or not. Though, admittedly, due to the arena we had seen, I felt they must be. That just wasn’t the sort of structure a people would build their entire city around unless they enjoyed killing sport.
“Closer?” I croaked in my raven’s voice.
Sadie vanished. I knew what she was doing. There was nothing more to see from here. We had to go down there. I spotted her a moment later when she appeared on top of the wall.
Following her, I transformed back to my human form, momentarily freefalling until I teleported to Sadie’s location. Drawing the wall and my position together, as the Leprechauns did, my transition from plummeting to standing next to Sadie was surprisingly smooth. More and more, I enjoyed this method over the traditional technique.
We were now standing upon the smooth granite perimeter wall, looking out over the area where the mammoth temple complex was located. The silence was too pervasive, the stillness too deliberate. This was not good.
“Vampires,” Sadie mouthed, sampling the air.
Being a Lycan, she was more sensitive to the scent of the Breed than I was, though I had noticed also. Taken altogether, everything I had seen and not heard had witnessed to Sadie’s conclusion being correct.
The Breed were here. And they clearly knew that they were being watched. This meant they were almost certainly watching us now, and quite possibly they had been watching us even when we were standing upon the shore. Adolf might be under surveillance right now, yet unaware.
I turned to Sadie. “We should get back to Adolf.”
“Cole?” she said weakly.
Sadie stumbled and fell upon the wall. I started to rush to her, but a voice stopped me.
“Move and the dog dies,” the voice warned me.
They had not come from the shadows into the open yet, but I had heard the voice. They knew Sadie was a Lycan, and they knew that I was Breed born. This hidden warrior understood that I would have heard his whispered warning.
I paused instantly, noticing the sliver of metal lodged in Sadie’s shoulder. A dart. Most likely they were using the venom of the poison dart frog. The Breed liked this for incapacitating their long-hated enemies, the Lycans. A human would have been dead from it by now, but that hadn’t been their intent. Undoubtedly, only the fact that I was a vampire had kept me from similar treatment.
Sadie would be unconscious for at least a day now. There was nothing that could be done. If I made a move toward her, they would kill her. If I attempted to cast a portal envelope around my friend, they would know it before I could complete the process. I had to play this out more diplomatically. Use what advantage I had.
“Show yourselves,” I demanded, “unless you’re a cowards who must hide in the shadows.”
All at once, vampires emerged from dark places, hidden pockets in the stonework built for this purpose. One of them removed part of a cloak which had been fashioned to render him invisible. This vampire carried the blowgun. Only the exposed part of him was visible, even now. The rest remained nearly indiscernible from his surroundings.
I had never seen such a garment before. I couldn’t imagine that the Breed had fashioned these. Neither technology, nor spell casting were fancied by them. Someone else was at work here.
I was no longer a child, so I had no intention of acting like one. If you did not deal firmly with the Breed, they would sense weakness and kill you rather than negotiate. According to my mother, my grandfather, Tiberius, had said as much on more than one occas
ion when dealing with his own people.
“How dare you attack me?” I said.
The wall guard straightened. “How dare you bring a Lycan into this city,” he replied. “You are not one of us. You do not belong here.”
I stiffened visibly, growling my reply. “I am the grandson of Tiberius.”
I wasn’t sure if this proclamation would make any difference. Even living in this unknown place, the Breed here should have known something of my grandfather’s leadership over the vampires. He had ruled as the lord of the breed for at least two centuries.
The warrior’s jaw went slack at my reply. Clearly, he did recognize the name of Tiberius. He seemed momentarily confused, looking to some of the others surrounding us on the wall for support. I decided to push my advantage.
“Who rules this city?” I demanded.
Another voice answered. “I do.”
Turning, I was surprised to find a man whom I had actually met before. “Felix Yusupov?”
“Cole,” he said, probably remembering me from a trip I had made to Russia several years before. “And all grown up too. I must confess that I am surprised to see you here.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
A moment of awkward silence passed between us before I remembered Sadie lying on the wall unconscious behind me with Breed warriors all around. Despite my surprise and the fact that I had met this man before, we were still in a very perilous situation. I collected my resolve quickly before matters could get out of hand.
“I don’t understand the meaning of this unwarranted attack,” I said.
“Unwarranted?” Felix chuckled a little at the thought. “You arrive here unannounced with a Lycan woman in tow, yet our defensive measures seem unwarranted to you?”
“We were not acting in a threatening manner,” I replied. “In fact, we had no plans of coming here at all. I don’t even know where here is, to tell you the truth. We were conducting business elsewhere when the borders of this realm burst through into the Valley of Dragons. Naturally, we came to investigate.”