My family of vampires picked up the bricks and stones that had just been thrown at them. Their targets were the archers and many were picked off before they discovered how vulnerable they were to this barrage. They hurried behind what cover they could find where they quickly re-armed and sent their well-aimed arrows back. We were trying to give don Lucido a chance to deal with Milan.
The storm of arrows became thicker and fiercer. MacQueen and his men had arrived, joining the archers of Constantine but, not wanting everyone to be in the same area, finding their own places to launch.
Ferdinand became further peppered with arrows. This was not good as he was a big target. He looked like a porcupine as he fell against the wall of a building. He had grabbed two of the archers, one in each hand and bare handedly crushed their skulls. Afterward Ferdinand slid to a sitting position on the ground where arrows continued to find him. The Haunted Horses stood on their hind legs and pounded the building Constantine’s men stood upon. And as this happened, MacQueen’s archers sent arrows to the horses, outstretched and vulnerable. Beatrice stood in the water pegged to one of the dock pilings. Arrows were thick upon her, and still they came. Her eyes were wild and not friendly to anyone. The water beneath her was red. Many of the archers were stepping up to higher perches to get away from the horses, and also to step into the sunlight which was crawling down the buildings, making shorter shadows out of long ones. They hoped the sun would make them safe but they were in a life and death struggle and standing in the light at this time of day was only as safe what you stood upon to reach the rays. The Haunted Horses were vicious and so very fiercely driven. They toppled many sun-touched perches and then crushed the heads of those who fell back into the shadows with gigantic hooves, or tore at them with gnashing teeth.
“Now is the time for your red arrows.” Milan called out to his troops. Find them and use them while you can, you fools!”
Don Lucido had Milan now by his coat lapel and they faced each other with fangs bared and claws outstretched. Two lions poised to destroy the other.
Don Lucido called out. “Michael, get your family to the water.”
I wanted to help don Lucido dispense with Milan, but knew the sun was up and looking to claim all of the creatures of the dark and turn us to ashes. I took quick steps toward my fallen comrades but before I could cross to them Bevin stepped before me in ambush, intent on stopping me from any rescue. He slashed at me as he launched and tore through my clothes. My shirt turned crimson and he had me in his grip. I found myself baring my fangs and wrenching his arm from me but he was committed and followed as I stumbled from his surprise attack. He sprang at me again or so I thought but he over shot and landed several feet beyond me. I watched him warily and looked for an opening where I could intercept him before he regained his footing but I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me from the street into a nearby doorway. It rained arrows down upon the spot where I had just stood. Bevin was struck many times and collapsed to the ground, then he crawled on all fours toward the cover I now was under.
Jennifer stepped up beside me. She had been the reason for Bevin’s leap going awry. I went on guard immediately but she looked at me through tears, then back to Bevin. She appeared haggard and wild.
“My beloved”. She softly said as she reached her hand toward her fallen love. He saw her and called out. “Jennifer, help me. You…you pushed me out here…behind my back…out here into these arrows.”
“You took those steps yourself, my love. We were free of everything but you left me to come here after we made our escape. What have you been doing behind my back? That is the question. Coming here was not by happenstance, dear heart”
“You pushed me out into the arrows.” He repeated, this time sounding far more betrayed.
Jennifer stepped toward Bevin, but I held her arm and yanked her back. Bevin exposed his fangs and snapped at her. His talons had taken a fast and furious swipe and due to her quick change of direction Jennifer sustained only a slight slice upon her cheek which trickled blood but that was not why I had pulled her back. A barrage of arrows landed near and on Bevin. Several of the shafts skidded the ground and ricocheted around the broken room where Jennifer and I stood. Her tears mixed with blood trickling down her cheek.
“What am I doing? I can’t… I can’t…I can’t….” Jennifer said from somewhere inside, far, far away. Then she seemed to rally a bit and squinted her eyes. “I’m peeking through your windows. Who are you talking to in there?”
My attention was guardedly turning from her internal turmoil to look briefly at Ferdinand, slumped against a wall. Santos, a staggering bloody mess of holes and shafts, was just reaching him. Then I looked to Veria lying motionless where she had been struck down and then to Beatrice who was being unpinned from the mooring post by Elena who had returned. In a fast sweep, my eyes took in the disappearing shadows, the Sun’s coronation, dead bodies and the devastated burning city. My sight landed on the archers aiming their arrows toward don Lucido and Milan and like a hoard of bees those arrows flew with speed and anger.
But they were not targets standing stationary. They moved in dips and lunges in their own battle and not as humans would but as vampires, quicker and craftier, which made them more difficult to lock in.
I turned to Jennifer, grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face me. If she had wanted to tangle, with deadly fang and claw, I would have been vulnerable. I was a new vampire, only beginning to feel one with it. Thanks to Bevin’s assault, I was wounded and weak and I felt I was getting weaker. He’d done damage and probably would have killed me but for Jennifer’s interference
“I don’t know why you’re here. I should turn you away. I should kill you…but you have returned and …well…helped me with Bevin. Thank you for that. If you mean to help, then fly with me now and forget the Lorn and their 2songs. Leave them to Bevin and Milan. Come! …or go, or make your attack known. Time is short and so is my patience.”
She measured me through those intimidating eyes. We flew to the wounded others by the pier. Yes, that’s right, I flew too. Elena hissed like a cat upon Jennifer’s arrival and turned to fight, although her injuries made her slow and favor her wounds which were bleeding.
“No!” I shouted in a whisper. “There is no time. Get everyone into the water, now! Take them deep.”
I ran to where Veria had collapsed. She was face down and motionless. Pulling her from the shrinking shadows and held her in my arms as I carried her toward the waterfront. She was light and limp as I pressed her to me. The movement roused her sluggishly from her swoon. Her face was bloody as one might expect but I was gladdened to see signs of life. Gradually her eyes raised their lids half way and she took the situation in, unhurriedly moving her head and squinting to make the state of things fit.
“…but where is Lucido?”
“He battles with Milan. Let’s get you to the water….”
Zip! Zip! Zip! A shower of arrows came down around us, on top of us, and through us. Our escape attempt was not going unnoticed. At least two arrows skewered Veria and me together. Due to this volley I stumbled at the water’s edge and we fell painfully stuck as one. I heard don Lucido shout out as we struggled to stand.
“Push against me, Veria and I will push you. Don’t stop, even if we both cry out.”
She knew what I meant, and we pushed painfully and horribly, whether we un-skewered ourselves or brought an arrow with us as we parted. The air seemed thick with pointed shafts and each one that landed was like a nail to a coffin. We slowed all the more and for a few of us, stopped all together. Some of the archers were fitting red-shafted arrows now and those looked very serious.
Beneath where Constantine and the archers stood in the morning glow, the steeds smashed their hooves into the buildings. The structures shuddered and cracked from the powerful death blows. Across the way, MacQueen and his bunch launched their arrows in attempt to help their comrades, though smoke and shadows made targeting difficult. Veria and I were both try
ing to hurry. The two of us seized upon Ferdinand and dragged him from where he lay to the water’s edge and from there we shoved him to Jennifer, which seemed strange but was the right thing to do. The Havens had surfaced apparently from tending to the wounded. They took the giant and sank beneath the surface with him.
Cries of surprise ushered out from the archers who grouped with Constantine as their building collapsed. He and a few others had made it to another rooftop before it buckled. Those who hadn’t made it along with Constantine, fell along with the building to the ground and either died in that crash or were crushed and torn by the horses who quickly picked through the rubble for anything breathing. More reactions of surprise came from MacQueen’s contingent and I looked to them. Hands broke through the roof from below, encircling the ankles of unsuspecting archers and brutally yanked them through to the floor below. I doubt they were alive once they disappeared. I saw three drop through before they began to scatter. One last one, who had waited too long, was pulled down like the rest, only to have his head caught. His arms were below him somewhere and unable to help and he called to others who were too afraid to walk on the roof to get to him. Another sturdy tug followed, and his head rolled down and off the roof. The others regrouped around MacQueen at the roofs highest point. The sun was not protecting either group as much as they had hoped.
It was grim, the shape we were in. Milan and his small army had done serious damage to us, and to the good people of the city, refugees from a war they didn’t know existed. A shadow moved within the darkness in the half demolished building that Constantine stood upon. Through a damaged opening on the second floor, Charlotte appeared in the dim light and smiled a lovely smile directly to me. I do not know if I ever saw her look lovelier. She was the one who had been pulling archers through from underneath.
There were maybe ten or twelve archers left, if you combined those with MacQueen and Constantine. The horses below, stuck with arrows and bleeding, continued to demolish the structures the men stood upon. I wanted to go to the archers who were left and finish them off, but they stood in the sun and even if they hadn’t been, their combined force made a direct attack unwise. I tore a rock about the size of my head, from its place in the wall by the docks and threw it using my newly found vampire strength. I tried to adjust to the power now pulsing through me, but it was new and untried in this way but there was still the boy of the country and many stones thrown. My target was Constantine, and secondarily where his men collected on the roof. I lofted and it soared more accurately than I had hoped, taking two right off the top and carrying them into flames below. But Constantine was busy distributing the red-shafted bolts, and had bent in this process, out of the path of my throw. Those men remaining now changed their attention from where don Lucido stood, to those of us attempting escape at the pilings. We were not moving fast, limited by our injuries.
“Make your arrows true….” Commanded Constantine, “…or more will come. We have them at the brink.”
Standing from a higher elevation on the edges of roofs, they sent what had already been fitted to the bow, and reached for new colored reloads. The arrows flew just as they had in practices, hundreds of times a day. Veria and I stood in the blood-red water mostly hidden behind some of the posts. The bolts hit the posts or passed them and went into the water. We dodged what we could. One went through Veria’s hand and pinned it against a piling but she painfully pulled her hand along the shaft, and through the feathers, leaving the arrow embedded in the massive post. I looked around for another stone to throw. The archers had seen what my last heave had done and were searching for something to hide behind on a rooftop that offered little.
I could see don Lucido walking out from his battle with Milan, which in its course had taken them inside a building. The status of Milan, I could not tell. They had been locked in the grip of combat, gouging with claws and baring their fangs. At first I thought his emergence from the dark, smoky interiors meant that Desmondo Milan had been torn to pieces. But that was replaced with concern when Don Lucido called to the archers, making himself a tempting target. He taunted them loudly, insulting them regarding their aim as archers and their size in certain areas as men. This increased the draw of their attention to him and away from us. They swung to target him but Milan could see his adversary’s back, unguarded and vulnerable to attack and moved to take advantage of this. The Lorn inside Milan spurred him on, and this joined with his own inclinations which needed little motivation. He approached swiftly. The arrows flew and Milan leapt. But with a movement so sudden even my vampire eyes had trouble following, don Lucido swiveled and brought Milan about, using him as a body-shield. The deadly arrows stabbed into Milan’s back, absorbing those that might have pierced the great vampire. Desmondo froze wide-eyed as the barrage of darts slammed into him unexpectedly. Don Lucido held Milan aloft, with his arms extended, partially to show what had happened to the arrows that had been slung but also to hang on to his shield.
In those moments of the archers being astounded at this turn of events, a struggle could now be heard in the room where I had last glimpsed Charlotte. I feared for her and flew there without an arrow being loosed to cut me down. Archers were now busily refitting but I was across to the building’s damaged wall and in through the opening that was recently created. Veria did not come with me. She was concerned regarding Lucido’s plight as he stood out in the open holding the motionless body of Desmondo Milan.
I moved into the darkness and was greeted by the sight of Charlotte in bloody gown and on the floor. Bevin was moving in on her. They had clashed and Charlotte had received the worst of it, Bevin probably had ambushed her, much as he had ambushed me. She was down but not yet out. I inhaled the scent of her blood an intoxicating bouquet. Bevin, arrow struck but still dangerous, driven mostly now by the Lorn entity inside him, had surprised Charlotte as she had been pulling the archers down through the roof. The two vampires had scuffled around the room quite violently, slamming each other into the wall from the look of it.
“Michael, watch out for Bevin.” Charlotte called.
“I just killed Edwardo…tore his head off. You are just a fledgling who was lucky once to avoid death at my hand. Can you possibly understand how stupid you are for coming back to face me again. I will kill you both.”
“How boring it will be if you mean to talk us to death.” I replied.
My taunt infuriated him and he swiped at me as he had before. My chest still bled from his slash. But he staggered slightly from his injuries, and his fast lurch missed. I waited for his arm to go by, and I grabbed it and turned it so I could drive him, stiff-armed into the nearest wall. I felt rage and bent near to sink my teeth into him and rip away at his flesh. I heard Charlotte screaming for me not to and I knew why. I was already pulling back. To have bitten into him would be to leave myself open to a Lorn invasion.
I placed my foot upon his neck and still holding the arm, I gave it a sharp tug, pulling the arm painfully from its socket and separated the arm from its owner. He screamed in pain, something he probably hadn’t done in a long time.
“I have heard you have a reputation for taking the arms and legs and heads from those you fight.”
I flung his arm out through the crack in the building, and left him on the floor, crossing to Charlotte.
“You are foolish to think I am no match for you with my arm taken. That will be your last mistake.”
“You won’t be around to know.” I returned.
It was a battle for him to stand, but he managed it and bared his fangs in a silent roar.
He growled and I readied for his charge. Charlotte attempted to stand but was having more trouble doing that than Bevin. He leapt from across the room and soared the length of it. I bent low and sprang at him as he approached, taking him by his clothing and forcing him upwards through the roof into the morning sunshine. I heard the sound of fat upon a hot skillet coming from above me where I held him, popping and sizzling. Arrows whistled through him, narro
wly missing my arm and fist. I forced him forward impaling him on some of the ragged wreckage. Charlotte and I could see his legs kicking, and watched them slowly become still. I helped Charlotte to her feet and just as she managed a wobbling stance, we heard Veria shouting from the street below. We made for the hole in the building.
“Lucido! No!” I heard Veria scream. Something was terribly wrong. I could feel in her tone. When we managed to look out. She was still by the dock posts but now standing away from their protection. Don Lucido still held Desmondo Milan but no longer an arm’s length away. Arrows now were going through Milan and into don Lucido just as they had skewered Veria and me. He looked dazed and surprised and his knees gave out. He went down in the street, still pulling Milan on top of him, finally collapsing further until he became motionless.
Veria screamed, “Lucido, no-o-o-o!” and rushed toward where don Lucido had fallen. Between pilings, I saw her surge toward shore. Alarmed that she would leave protective cover in a few more steps. I glanced towards the few remaining archers who had bows drawn and following her as she moved predictably from pillar to post. They readied anticipating a clear shot. Charlotte and I called out to warn her which helped in a way unexpected. Some of the arrows meant for Veria were redirected toward the sound of our clamor. Those arrows still trained upon Veria’s eventual step out into the open were sent and, dear God, they took their toll. The darts hit her with such force, she not only stopped abruptly in her forward intent, she was propelled backward after the impact, and in a stutter-step to find her balance, she inevitably fell. I began to climb out to get to her, but was held fast by Charlotte and pulled back in. I turned to her and saw that arrows that had missed me had found her. Her eyes were tear-filled, and when she moved to speak to me, a mouthful of blood rolled out and flowed down her chin. She stepped back and disappeared through a widening hole in the floor which had appeared as our building began to come apart. I reached for her but she was gone. Our building collapsed upon us and I was trapped under the wreckage. There were terrible screams and a deafening roar, as other buildings crumbled to the ground. I thought it must be an earthquake but soon, through the dust and debris, I saw the haunted horses, now collected together, begin to stampede wildly along the narrow street. In their crazed charge, buildings fell apart following their progress. They raced with thunderous hooves trampling those who got in their way and surged over the square, over the dead and the newly fallen, don Lucido and Milan were trodden, pulverized into the cobblestone and as they wildly searched for shelter from the sun they charged through the harbor and caused the pier and pilings to split, shatter and crash.
The Blood In Between (The Safe Haven Trilogy Book 3) Page 31