by Jeff Hale
“So this must be the Sentinel’s best friend, Dave. Raven told me you’d be showing up. You ready to have some fun?” Kyra asked enticingly.
“Hey now. Be gentle with him. No biting, or I take your head,” I threatened, half-serious.
“Oh, she can bite me anytime,” Dave declared, giving me a shit-eating grin.
“No, she can’t, Dave, them’s the rules, you play by them or you go home. You hear?” I asked, shaking my head.
“Right. No problem. Dad.” Dave laughed.
“Agreed. No biting,” Kyra promised. As they wandered to the couch set up across the room I was wondering how I was okay with this. Maybe I wasn’t. I wasn’t sure how I felt about an ambulatory corpse trying to seduce my best friend. I got settled myself and glanced over at Dave and Kyra. When she saw my questioning look she gave me a smile, her fangs on prominent display. Then she shook her head and they retracted and she turned her attention back to Dave. The door to the room opened and Raven stepped in.
“The fans are ready whenever you are,” she said to Kandee, who smiled at the rest of her sisters, and then nodded.
Raven motioned to those on the other side of the door, and soon the room was filled with about fifty people ready to party. I moved to a quiet corner and kept watch, making sure to keep Dave in view as the party got wilder. The sisters were being offered to drink from many of the fans, with the exception of Dave, or course.
Kyra and Dave moved to a more private loveseat so that Dave could continue his worship of her. Her sister, Krysa, took over the couch with three fans, which eventually led to her having sex with them. I shook my head at the level of debauchery that was going on around me, partially feeling left out, but at the same time happy that I wasn’t giving in to the urges to join in. I had to wonder at that moment if Kat would have been able to fight it. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure.
“Who you thinking about?” Dave asked, coming over to me with a couple of drinks in his hand. There was a huge hickey on one side of his neck, but since it didn’t include puncture marks, it didn’t worry me.
“No one. It’s not important,” I muttered.
“Serena again?” he asked. He handed me one of the drinks, a screwdriver.
“Kat,” I said, testing the waters.
“Why? Dude, seriously, look around you! Forget about that shifter bitch!” he said, giving me a pat on the shoulder.
“Yeah. You’re right.” I said, shaking my head.
“I’m going to go back to Kyra now. Go. Have some fun, dammit!” Dave ordered, smiling at me before going back to the loveseat and whatever conversation he was having with Kyra.
I stayed in the chair in the corner and went back to watching the party. Then I felt it again, that Aetheric tug. I turned my head and saw her come into the room with her friends. She was wearing her hair in twin pony-tails and had on a Vixens baby-t and a pair of white denim short shorts. I sank into the chair I was sitting in a bit more.
“Who is that? Someone you know?” Kandee asked from where she sat a couple feet away from me.
“Yes. No. I don’t know. She looks like…” I couldn’t bring myself to actually tell someone else. It sounded too crazy.
“She looks like someone you know?” she asked.
“Yeah. I guess so,” I said, half lost in thought.
“Well, maybe you should say hi, find out if it’s who you think it is?” she suggested.
Instead I sat and watched the girl as she talked with her friends before they made their way over to where Krysa and Kaycee were. I overheard one of the girls mention a sorority house at UNLV.
“Not much into these things, are you?” I heard a soft voice ask. I looked up and saw Kyra next to me, drink in hand. A quick glance around found Dave talking with one of the female fans.
“No. Not really,” I admitted, sighing.
“Why not?”
“I don’t like being around a lot of people I don’t know. That, and I’m just not a social person I guess.”
“That’s too bad. Mind if I join you over here?”
“Whatever you want. You’re the client.” I shrugged.
“I’m not asking as your employer.”
“Then I’d prefer to be alone. Besides, I don’t want Dave getting the wrong idea,” I said, glancing over at him again. He waved at me and went back to his conversation.
“Okay, I can… see that you have a lot on your mind. Another girl? Hmmm,” and she glanced over to where her sisters were, talking with the mysterious Serena look-alike and her friends.
I groaned inwardly as she walked over to the group, tapped the girl on the shoulder and pointed at me. She shrugged and they spoke as I sank deeper into the chair. Kyra eventually walked back to where Dave was and they resumed their deep important conversation. After a while the party started to wind down. I didn’t know when the Serena look-alike had left, but at some point I noticed that she was gone. A few more minutes passed, most of the fans left, and one of the janitorial staff began to pick up the mess in the room.
Suddenly the door exploded inwards and someone in a black trench and fedora waltzed into the room like he owned it. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
“Ladies! The party’s just starting now that Malachai is here!” he announced, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.
“Kandee, it’s him! Aerick, help!” Kaycee called out. She, her sisters, and the group they were still conversing with moved towards the back of the room, towards me. I stood and pushed my way past them, motioning for Dave to stay put as I did so.
I approached the intruder, conjured my blades into existence, then charged him. The man’s smile got bigger and he quickly ditched his trench and hat, then called forth a blade of lightning, and a second blade that seemed to be made of diamond.
“Oh, good! Fun time! It’s been a while since I’ve faced one that was actually trained,” he said as he met me mid-charge.
As we crossed blades, we locked up, and I was staring at him, eye to eye. His eyes were dark brown, seeming sunken under thick brows.
“Who? What? Are? You?” I asked through the strain of holding my blades in place. If I gave in, I’d get a face full of both my blades, and his.
“What’s wrong? Don’t remember your own brother?” he asked in mock disbelief, one heavy brow lifting.
“I don’t have a brother.”
“Not in this lifetime. Think for once in your life, Kerensky.”
“Mordred!” The sudden realization hit me like lightning from his sword as I saw another face briefly imposed over his. One I had seen before, one I found disturbingly familiar.
“You got it!” He smiled like a showman who had just revealed his big trick or a used car salesman who had just made a sale.
I pushed back, my blades crackling and hissing off of his, and slid to stop in a crouch, my right arm with the fire blade extended behind me, my left arm with the ice blade across my front in a defensive line.
Another Paragon Sentinel.
This just got interesting, and a lot more real.
FOUR
He stood several feet away from me, his posture casual, and his blades to his sides. He was about my height, maybe a bit shorter, and slim. His dark brown hair was short, with long bangs that hung over his forehead. His angular features were harsh, but not so much to make him unattractive. His eyes had a maniacal gleam in them, like hunting dangerous prey was something of a hobby of his. He wore a loose black sweatshirt and black slacks.
“What? Don’t tell me you seriously thought you were the only one of your kind on this planet? Surely you’re not that arrogant,” he said, grinning at my obvious surprise.
“Well, the thought had crossed my mind.” I was still a bit confused at the sudden change of events and I glanced around, knowing that not only did I have keep the Vixens protected, but I had to make sure no one else got hurt either. Luckily everyone had backed as far away from us as they could get and still be in the room.
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��There were more. At one point. I took care of that problem though.” He tilted his head slightly to the side when he said that, almost the way a child does when trying to look at something from a different angle. The gesture made me think he wasn’t playing with a full deck.
“You mean you killed them.” It wasn’t a question.
“Aw, have I offended your delicate sensibilities with my past actions?” he asked in a mock tone usually reserved for talking with particularly slow children.
“Nah, just surprised that Baba Yaga would be so brash as to hire someone to strike at Merlin and his students so boldly.”
“Ha! Hire? Not likely. No. We work together. See, I’m not one of her tattooed drones. I work with her, not for her. There’s a huge difference. But, honestly? I killed the other Sentinels quite on my own.” He flipped the diamond blade and caught it by the hilt as it descended.
“How long ago? How is it that they stayed off the radar? How did you for that matter? I didn’t even sense you.”
“Nor did I sense you. I was just hoping my favorite brother would be here based on the information in the Aether and the way it flows oh so wonderfully. It’s the way we draw our power, it doesn’t even register. Well, if you know what you are and how to use your abilities properly that is. What you were doing a couple of years ago was completely different because you were relying on inferior sorcerer training to wield your powers.”
“Merlin said I was the only one,” I reiterated.
“And he was right, up until you helped in bringing down that damned Barrier. That’s when those of us who had the souls of the great knights within us awakened to what we were. I, of course, already knew I was destined for something greater in my life, even if I couldn’t tap into the power that gave me that potential. I guess I have you to thank for that, don’t I?” Malachai chuckled lazily.
“Why. Why kill all the others?”
“Practice. That, and to find the one piece of the puzzle that would help me gain all the power I need. Something our father treasured very much.”
“Excalibur.”
“You got it!” he said, tapping his nose.
“You realize it doesn’t exist, right? It’s a metaphor. A myth. Just like the Grail.”
“You aren’t very bright, are you? Look around you; you’re surrounded by creatures of myth. You are a thing of myth yourself. Either way, you know where it is.” He waved his lightning blade at me.
“How do you know that?” I asked, taken off guard. I know where Excalibur is? Since when? And why didn’t anyone tell me, and more importantly, why don’t I recall that bit of information?
“Oh the others told me you knew where it was, and that you were part of the key to retrieving it,” he said with a dark grin.
“And how would they even know what they were? And more importantly, how would they have any idea about who I am?” I asked, not buying his story.
“Because their souls were quite willing to talk when I pulled them from their dead bodies before they could escape into the Aether,” he said.
“How can you kill so casually?” I asked, appalled at his apparent disregard for life.
“How can you for that matter?” he asked grimly.
“I don’t kill casually,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Oh? And poor Henry I suppose was an act of kindness? You were going to kill him, were you not? Seemed pretty casual to me when you could have talked with him and found out what was really going on. Not such an easy question when directed back at you, is it? Maybe I’m your dark reflection, or maybe you just can’t cope with what you really are. Or rather, what you really aren’t, and that’s human.”
“He would have killed me, and he and his pack are obviously working for Baba Yaga, and I am pretty sure that she’s not just having them sit around playing quarters in that old nightclub,” I defended.
“Maybe, maybe not. Does it matter? Even if they weren’t working for the Hag, maybe Henry was just protecting those he called family while within his own home. The same anyone would do in his position. Maybe he had no real intention of attacking you until you made the first move. Maybe he had every right to do what he was doing with your female friend there. Perhaps she even wanted it. You never thought about it. Instead you attacked him with every intention of killing him, and even attacked someone who wasn’t even a member of his pack and almost killed her were it not for that cute little lynx.”
“Wait. You were…” That was when it dawned on me. He was at the shifter den where I had found Nina and fought Henry the Bear. He had been in one of the corners, keeping to himself the whole time.
“Wow, nothing gets past you. But enough. I’ve been hired to take you out. Too bad, I was hoping we’d be able to find Excalibur together. I was content with letting you live, after all, we are brothers. Even if you were always the favorite, and the heir, despite the fact that you were a bastard. I should have been the rightful heir; I was at least pure-blood.”
“Pure-blood? You were the product of incest, that’s not pure in any sense of the word. That’s just sick.”
“Ah, brother, you disappoint me. Oh well, time to kill you.” He gestured with his diamond blade and then charged at me.
I rushed him as well, hoping to catch him off-balance, and keep him away from the people. I was acutely aware that everyone was watching us. I hit him mid-stride, but his strength had been Aetherically augmented, and I hadn’t counted on that. He hit me like a diesel truck and pushed me through the window of the skybox room we were in. Suddenly we both had several dozen feet of air between us and the ground.
He never even started to fall, but recovered from the failed charge and hovered in place. I had to concentrate to get some of the warmer air to keep myself from splattering all over the seat below me when I hit. I still hit hard though, and I heard a crack as my right side clipped the top of a seat back.
I stood and quickly augmented my own strength to match his. I barely had time to get my fire blade out in a blocking arc as he swept in with both blades with a quick, and vicious overhead one-two-one barrage, diamond, lightning, diamond. As the last strike rebounded off my fire blade, I pushed up and followed through, bringing my blade down behind his head, causing his diamond blade to lock itself just above his shoulder.
In this position, he had no leverage to push my blade way, since it was behind his center, and it would take everything he had to keep me from taking his arm off with his own blade.
I made several quick jabs with my ice blade towards his ribs and he quickly parried with accurate, reverse-gripped sweeps of his lightning blade. I kept pushing my advantage and kneed him in the groin twice. As he groaned in pain, I thrust with everything I had with the ice blade. I felt the crack of his sternum as I angled the blade into his chest.
The ice blade, I had learned over the past year, was a thing of sinister design, as it was also what was known as a vampire blade. It drained warmth, and thus life force, from any life form it came in to contact with. It was just one of the properties of water magic to deal in life-force in some form or other.
I saw Malachai go pale for a second and felt my ribs begin to knit themselves. Then, in an adrenaline inspired move, he flattened his diamond blade, forcing my fire blade to slide, causing it to graze the back of his neck and to go through a portion of his shoulder, but freeing him of the lock.
He sprang backwards, pulling himself off my ice blade, and then ran down the steps, taking them four to six at a time. Once he reached the ground floor, where hours before there had been a mosh pit, I used energy to heat up the air around both me and him and simply teleported to where he was.
I swung my blades laterally in a horizontal pass, hoping to force him to jump backwards again. If he did so, he’d have to commit to the move, allowing me to rush forward, and spin in behind him, giving me plenty of time to do some damage.
He didn’t though. He brought his diamond blade out, lateral to my blades, and between them. He then twisted his blade, forcin
g my blades apart, and causing me to abort the move altogether. If I didn’t I would have been severely overbalanced on my left side.
Instead, I rushed in with a flurry of movement. Fire blade to his left side, followed quickly by the ice to the same side. As he parried the ice blade, I thrust in again with the fire, this time to his right, followed by another thrust with the ice blade to his right side.
I switched up again, thrusting the fire to his left, then the ice. I kept the pattern up for a few more passes, moving so quickly he had no time to counter, then, just when I had the pattern set, I switched, and after a quick thrust to his right with the fire blade, I thrust to his left with the ice blade, striking home once again.
He pushed himself free before I could drain more of his life force, and as he committed to moving away from me, I rushed in, then spun to my left, and moved in around him, to end up behind him before he even knew what happened.
I brought both blades up high and brought them down, hoping to catch my fire blade across his right shoulder, and the ice blade across his left, with the intention of them meeting somewhere inside of his torso. He was too smart for that, however, as he set each of his blades flat against his shoulders, deflecting my blades harmlessly to the sides.
With my arms out wide to his sides, and my chest completely exposed, he ducked and spun, bringing both of his blades into a cross thrust straight for my chest. I only had one decent counter, and I used it. I brought my blades into his and forced them into a downward angle and then brought my forehead down into his nose as he came upwards with the movement. I connected with his face, effectively aborting his maneuver as he stumbled backwards.
As he faltered, I made a final desperate vain attempt to finish this confrontation and tossed both blades, aiming for the middle of his chest. Luckily he was too stunned by the headbutt to do anything about it, and both blades hit home, driving themselves through him. I rushed in, and quickly punched both blades, driving them deeper, and he fell to the ground.