by SL Figuhr
What the hell? Where’d she go? Eron cautiously approached the rock outcropping; there was a small opening at eye level, and he peered through.
Holy shit! That’s a fucking army! Eron counted the campfires scattered about. Not a professional army, judging by the spacing of the fires.
He concentrated on the men and camp followers moving in the firelight. Ragtag clothing, where’s...Ah there. Weapons, furs, and blankets in piles, a few small tents. Hired men.
Eron watched a fight break out, growing to engulf another group of men before officers broke it up with difficulty. He was unfamiliar with the dialects, but guessed that more than one was being spoken.
Mercenaries, anyone who can hold a sword and swing it, and loot and rape and...Great. Does that damn kid think he’s going to lay siege to the town and throne with this bunch? There won’t be a town left when they get done. Amateur...crap! I’m going to get caught up and probably killed. Again. Hell no! It’s time for me to make plans and leave, as of yesterday!
Eron gave a quick look behind, to make sure no one was sneaking up on him. I have to find where she went. The day for the attack may have been set, so I will know how much time I have left to pack and leave. I don’t want to be around when she tells the king. It has the potential to be the mother of all fuck-ups.Staying low to the ground, he slithered back to the tree line, using it as cover to move further down the camp, disappointed he didn’t have a chance to test his skill against any sentries. Sloppy and over-confident. I could lead this rabble more effectively. I’d have the town under control in a day, and Lira would be my queen. What the hell am I thinking? I’m not that person anymore. Focus!
The man came to the edge of the tree line, and saw a tent which could only belong to the leader of the rag-tag army. He had still not seen Illyria anywhere. What did she do? Walk right into the camp? Just like an arrogant vamp. Mind-whammy their way past the support. Why the hell am I even here? It’s not as if she needs me. Now how to get near the tent? It’s too well-lit, I may have to give it up. Wait, what’s this?
Eron saw a cloaked figure escorted into the camp as Illyria exited the tent, followed by a large muscular man and his personal guards. Damn! I really want to know what the hell they’re saying. He looked around for a better route to approach.
* * *
I faced Lord Nicky’s slave; even close up, I still could not see inside the cowl. A wet guttural laugh issued from under that all-encompassing hood. I and the men behind me took an involuntary step back. “You would do well to fear me, more than Lord Nicky.”
Fleeing was looking like a better option than staying, but I would not be scared until I knew why I felt the need. “Why?” I calmly asked.
“You have not learned from the last time you crossed beings of power. They cursed you. Your memories are only now returning.”
I didn’t know how much power he and Nicky had; they were not like the other immortals I had known. Whatever was before me laughed in sibilant amusement.
“My servant accomplished his task with what I taught him. The pain of breaking it fed me well, and for that you should be thankful.”
I still couldn’t pick out his mental signature. “Stop playing games like the boy. You claim to have information I need. If you have anything of value to report, do so.”I could smell the fear-sweat of the men around me—intoxicating until I caught another whiff of the person before me, then it became nauseating.
“I think not. I like this way better,” Nicky’s slave said.
I felt a twisting in my gut, which almost brought me to my knees It felt like another being trying to invade me.
I tried to force the strange sensation away, but my body was out of my control. Had Lord Nicky’s slave done this? Was he a witch? How could he take over my body and power?
“Wrong, little vamp.” My mental shields crumpled from the brute force of his mind against mine.
He knows what I am?! How the hell?
He said, “Hell indeed, little vamp.”
To my utter horror, and may I say there’s not much anymore which can cause that sensation in me, a rotted hand shot out from the cloak, grabbed my upper arm and spun me about to face the growing circle of men ringing us. Every muscle in my body seized as if in one nasty cramp. I saw the men before me freeze, then jerk and scream as if in unimaginable pain. The other rotted hand rose from the sleeve of his robe and touched the chest of the man in front of him, right over his heart. I saw a blackened circle of flesh blossom, deepen, encompass the heart within the man’s chest. Each man I could see developed their own matching hole.
I couldn’t reach up and draw my swords. Damn it! Stupid vamp! Soon to be dead stupid vamp if I didn’t get free. I fought for control of my body, felt his dominance over me lessen and with all my speed I let myself fall onto my ass, twisted, and brought my legs around, slamming at the arm holding me with every ounce of strength I could muster despite the pain. I heard his elbow snap, then a wet, ripping sound, and I was free, though I still had half an arm attached to me. Grimacing, I gave a vicious tug at the wet ends of the bone, felt the fingers spasm. I slid the forearm down my own arm, and as I felt it clear my fingers, I flung it out from me. Without being able to touch me, the slave couldn’t kill me. The men screamed in terror as they fled. Others tried to attack us, but strangely were repelled. I looked to Lord Nicky’s slave and recoiled as the thing before me laughed and laughed.
“It would be a mistake to attack me. Look closer,” the voice hissing like steam from a kettle.
At first I saw only the rotted, dead person, but a hazy outline coalesced around it, bigger than the body before me, more massive, with muscle, horns. Okay, I got the point. Hell indeed. “Demon, I see?” I was pleased with how calm I sounded.
Another laugh was all I got. I felt fear give way to majorly pissed off. “Just who the hell... fuck holds whose reins here?”
The demon gave an angry hiss, much better than my own; I almost felt jealous. “This meeting was your idea, not mine. I have no interest in being tricked into any bargain. So whatever you want, forget it.”
I got another hiss and a guttural growl. “Without the answers you seek?”
“I wasn’t aware I had questions,” I tartly replied, beginning to back away toward the trees.
“Phillip.”
I caught myself before reacting and continued my slow backing away. “What of him?” I would not give him an opening.
“Your mate. Wandered off, dazed, amnesiac.” The tone sly. “I can bring him back, and you will get rid of the little boy.”
“No bargains, especially if he’s truly dead.” I was proud of my calm, how I permitted no iota of emotion to leak through the shields I had re-erected around my mind. Get away from the demon first, then weep and scream for the loss.
“Those men will never be able to kill the boy.”
I couldn’t help but interrupt, “And I’m the only one who can do it, blah, blah, blah.” Why did these conversations so resemble one another?
The corpse’s bulging eyes popped, and yet the thing could see me just fine. I crouched, readying for battle. I had no idea how quick the demon before me was.
“Stupid vampire.” It sounded bitter and dare I say it? Disappointed? “You cannot kill the boy either.”
“If no one can, what the fuck is the point of all this?” I moved to an all-new level of pissed-off.
It seemed he was going to respond when to my utter surprise I saw him stiffen in shock. I decided to take the opportunity presented me.
* * *
Nicky stopped short, gripped in fear at the carnage before him. The bodies of his men lay strewn about the ground like broken dolls. Those who still lived fought each other or fled. In the middle of the carnage were the last two people he expected to see: his demon and the duchess. How could he get free of my bindings?! How dare my slave refuse to answer my summons! How dare the conniving bitch steal my slave!? Nicky drew his sword and, slamming his spurs into his horse’s side, cha
rged. He had just enough power left to show them he was to be reckoned with.
Nicky watched surprise overcome his slave at sight of his master, realizing he had been outsmarted. Nicky’s smirk of satisfaction became a yell of outrage as that damn woman moved in a blur, plowing into his slave.
* * *
Eron felt all the hair on his body raise in a spine-tingling rush unconnected with the impossible scenes unfolding before him. He saw the blur Lira became, watched as she and that whatever-the-hell-it-was disappeared into a patch of shadow. Eron could only stare as Nicky rode his horse past the man’s hiding place.
The kid was yelling in an unknown yet familiar language. Holy shit! Holy crap! Holy fuck! Yo! Stupid! Opportunity is knocking! Nicky halted mere feet from another handy-dandy rock outcropping, and Eron bolted for it, using the trees for shelter and praying to all the forgotten gods the boy wouldn’t see him. He gained the top, loose rocks clattering down, just as something shot like a firework rocket out of the end of the sword and exploded in a ball of light. Not another one of those damn things! What the hell did he do? Attach it to his blade to launch it? He set the impossibility out of his mind, squinted his eyes against the growing light, and launched himself off the rock in a flying tackle. Nicky was twisting in the saddle when the man slammed into him and dragged him off. The horse reared at the nasty yank on its reins and toppled onto his back, nearly crushing the two men.
* * *
I felt bones snap, flesh slid off as we hit the ground. The sun burst out in the middle of the night. Not again! I was only marginally better prepared for the pyrotechnics. My hand flung up, palm out, and I turned my head while closing my eyes to shield them as I tumbled off the man beneath me. He screamed, a noise high-pitched enough to burst a bat’s eardrums. I felt my body hit the ground and through squinted eyes, I saw smoke rise off him, or maybe me? It sure felt as if the sun was burning me. Vision blurred, I spotted a white blur well away from the spreading glow. I hoped it was a tent. I scrambled up on all fours and had started to lunge up into a sprint for the blur when the man or sorry, demon, yelled something unidentifiable in a guttural tongue. It was like flicking a light switch. With a pop and a rush of cool air, the light vanished. Inky darkness without light of star or moon.
* * *
Eron grappled with Nicky for control of the boy’s sword when they were plunged back into darkness. He let out a yell, partly because he couldn’t see, and partly because of the elbow in his gut. He was left blinking, trying to keep a hold on the child. He felt a foot slam into the side of his head. He tried to grab it, but felt the kid’s leg slip through his grasp.
“You’ll pay for your interference!” Nicky snarled.
Everything still a blur and Eron had no peripheral vision. A wave of pain tore through him as he felt Nicky’s sword slide out of his gut. He backed away as he staunched the wound with his left hand, forcing his guts to stay inside and the pain to the back of his mind while drawing his sword out. The man heard chanting. Silently he launched himself toward the source. Nicky saw the man come toward him, twisted, but was a tad too slow. He felt a searing pain in his left arm as blood trickled down.
Impossible! He’d dealt a death blow. The little boy froze for a moment but backpedaled. Straight into the rock behind him.
Nicky heard a whoosh, rolling away again just in time as Eron’s sword rang against stone. He couldn’t be too mad as the damn rock saved his other arm from getting sliced.
He gritted against the pain in his left arm as he placed pressure on it, trying to lift himself up. He almost lost his grip at the strength and force as the other man’s sword rang against his own. The boy kicked out, making a lucky connection with his foe’s knee. He felt it give and the man slammed down onto the ground. Nicky took the opportunity to spring up and slice the other man’s back. For his trouble, he took a cut to his upper thigh. He made a limping run for an abandoned wagon. Slid under it and risked a glance back at the man gimping toward his hiding place.
Nicky sneered, lay panting to get his breath back. Swordplay was difficult against longer-armed heavier opponents. He preferred to ambush or let the people he tricked into caring for him defend him from others.
He had let his sword training grow lax when he learned how to make himself bigger, and his magic expanded, relying on his guards to take care of pesky details. He would have demanded DiJinn help him if the damn demon hadn’t betrayed him again.
I ought to have kept punishing him the way my old masters told me I should. But no, he seemed to have learned his lesson early and well. Why waste my fading magick on something I didn’t think I needed to do anymore?
If only the men around him would quit behaving like pussies. He had to get back to safety. Grab one of the horses running around, avoid the other men who would no doubt see him as prey.
Finally! The men saw Nicky’s wounded attacker and were trying to overpower him, providing the perfect distraction. The boy scrambled out from underneath the wagon and ran as best he could toward one of the wandering horses. Eron saw the boy go as he hurried to dispatch the men attacking him.
Nicky veered just as a blade whistled past his head. He jumped the log seats surrounding a fire pit but caught his foot and went sprawling close to the fire. Ignoring the heat and flame, Nicky snatched a burning brand up and twisting, thrust it at his foe. The man grunted as the branch slammed into his stomach, and his sword blow at Nicky’s chest went wide. It did slam off the kid’s sword, scoring his shoulder; he was rewarded with a scream of pain. The man frantically beat at himself with his free hand as the brand caught his shirt on fire. Nicky fought to remain upright, but he would not pass out! He slammed his sword into the man’s gut again before drawing it out, and painfully stumbled toward the milling horses.
Nicky sobbed in frustration at the slow pace of his retreat, what with fighting the pain from his cuts and defending himself. The boy clumsily blocked a blow intended to split his head open, losing his grip on his sword in the process. Eron’s backswing with the pommel clipped the little boy upside the head and sent him flying into the dirt. Nicky’s ears rang from the blow but swam back into consciousness as Eron knelt to finish incapacitating him. The little boy shot both legs up in a last, desperate effort and managed to kick the man full in the groin. Eron couldn’t even scream, so great was the agony.
Nicky scrambled to his feet, a triumphant grin splitting his face. He snatched his sword up and plunged it into the back of the man before him. He looked toward his demon but it was still locked in combat with the woman.
* * *
The Thing/Demon? snarled as I drew my blades out.
“Get back to your hell-pit!” I snarled.
The demon grinned at me, muscles and tendons snapping with pops from the effort. “Surely you don’t think that’s going to work?”
The shriek I let out had nothing to do with the demon’s sending me flying backward and everything to do with its stubbornness. I landed in a crouch as it materialized by my side. The demon lifted me by my throat, rotted bits sloughing off as it raised its arm. I shuddered, revolted.
“I will send you back,” I gritted out. The stench this close was overpowering, but I rammed one sword into his gut and severed the arm holding me with the other. I dropped, yanking the second sword up and out. Rotting organs and trapped gases rushed out. The stench was enough to make anyone who must breathe to live bend over and puke.
I could hear Nicky yell something to the demon before me. I think it was annoyed; reading its expression was difficult with the few features remaining. It cursed, whether at me or the little boy, now fleeing toward a horse, I couldn’t be sure. “You better hope he doesn’t order me to kill you.”
“If you don’t know where I am, you can’t,” I gritted out.
“What makes you think I need to be near, vampire?” it hissed back. “Your maneuvering hasn’t impressed me.”
Oh, fabulous. Here I was, with no clue how to get rid of demons, and it was under the control
of a vengeful, immature little boy. “Have you seen whom I have to work with?” I snapped, moving away from the body.
The thing’s laugh was guttural, promising pain and other unpleasantries. I don’t know how it did it, having no arms, but I felt claws rake down my face, leaving blood and searing furrows. I brought a sword up to take his head off and felt a brief burning sensation on my wrist, causing me to misstep.
“Run, little vamp! Before I am commanded otherwise.” I brought the sword up and sliced his throat. Dark clots of blood and other bodily fluids came out. I looked for Eron. I still had uses for him, and capture by my enemy was not high on my list.
I thought I heard a howl of rage, or perhaps agony, in a voice which didn’t seem like Nicky’s as I kept moving, fighting off men as I looked for the immortal and risked a glance down at my throbbing wrist. What the? A pattern of red lines had appeared upon it in a newly formed excoriation. The damn demon had marked me! I could not keep a demon mark on me.
Pounding hooves brought my gaze around., Nicky sent his horse charging, men running like chickens from his contorted visage. My eyes followed his intended path and saw Eron feebly moving on the ground, trying to defend himself from men intent on killing him. Crap. The boy had a bigger head start, and I had half an army between me and the Immortal.
* * *
Eron heard the horse, even as a sword cut slashed across his chest when Nicky slammed into the group. Both combatants fell under his horse’s trampling hooves. I saw the brat rein his mount around and put spurs to the animal’s side for another pass.
“You stupid POS demon! I wanted her unharmed!” Nicky shrieked in rage. I didn’t know who he was yelling at, as the body the demon had occupied had collapsed from the loss of its puppet master.
The boy made one more pass over the prostrate forms of the two men and galloped off, avoiding the men running to intercept him. I had a quick scent of blood, and knew Eron or someone had harmed the advisor. Those men who had managed to capture mounts made a half-hearted chase attempt, while others turned their attentions to me.