by Simon Archer
When the buzzing finally cleared from my ears, I looked up and found Rozmarin sending blast after blast of black power into the beast. Mystical energy surged from her core and radiated out of her hands. I had seen Rozmarin train with Anix before, even trained with her myself, but I had never seen her fight like this.
It took me a moment to realize that she had lost her sword near the wall of the cave, and my dagger was still embedded between the toes of the beast. Judging by the ever-increasing tension in Rozmarin’s features and the way her movements slowed, the blasts coming at longer intervals between each other, I could tell that she wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.
Just as I stood up again and rushed to retrieve my dagger from between the creature’s talons, the BloodDrake’s giant claw swiped at Rozmarin, and she went flying, slamming into the cave’s rock wall, her wings flashing out of existence just in time to not get crushed. Pain stretched across her face, but as soon as her feet touched the ground, she was up again, wings reappearing to spread wide and launch her back to the creature’s height.
There was something in the fierceness in her gaze, the fearless way in which she fought with everything she had that got me charging the creature for a third time, just barely dodging a swipe from its wings above my head. I managed to rip my blade from the creature’s foot and ducked beneath its wings to squeeze behind it.
“The wings! She is most sensitive in her wings!” Rozmarin yelled, her voice strained with fatigue.
If we didn’t succeed, if we returned home empty-handed, the fall of the kingdom when the hordes finally breached our walls would rest on our shoulders. And I could not carry that weight to my grave. I simply couldn’t.
It was funny how all of the important stuff, the things you valued the most, became so utterly clear when one was in a life-threatening situation. At that moment, all that mattered was Rozmarin’s survival and the future of the kingdom, of the people I had come to care for and even loved.
Without another thought, I raised my dagger high and dug it into one of the BloodDrake’s wings, this time dragging it so that it tore a giant slit through the leathery skin.
The creature shrieked as I tore into its wings, black blood oozing from the wound. Its wings tried to stretch and spread, but I did it again to the wing next to it, figuring we could at least keep it grounded without the advantage of flight. Not that there was enough room in the cave for it to take flight fully. But a victory was a victory, and I would take it. I snatched a glass vial from my pouch and took my prize then and there.
As I pocketed that precious vial, I ducked beneath its wings to face the creature again. That very moment, I saw Rozmarin go flying into the wall once more, and this time, she did not get up. Cuts, scrapes, and bruises marred her skin everywhere beneath her torn clothing, and when I ran to her side to check on her, I realized that blood oozed from her head where it had slammed against a sharp rock.
“Rozmarin,” I called as I kneeled over her limp form, her wings crumpled beneath her. “Rosie?” This time, it was a raspy whisper. A broken plea.
When she didn’t open her eyes, an odd sort of clarity rushed through me, chasing away all of the fear and doubt and hopelessness. At that moment, I wasn’t the Light-Bearer or the sarcastic, sharp-witted thief, or even the compassionate member of the Queen’s council. I was just a man in love with the vampire Queen currently laying, unconscious at my feet.
Love. Yes, that was the right word for it, though it seemed rather underwhelming compared to what I felt for her. I loved Rozmarin, and the BloodDrake could have killed her. But, from the rise and fall of her chest, I knew she hadn’t. Contrary to popular belief, vampires did need to breathe oxygen for their bodies to function like ours, but they wouldn’t die without it. They would simply be in a very boring and uncomfortable state of paralysis.
I grabbed the pack near her body and stood up then, my hands and the front of my shirt soaked in my lover’s blood. I grinned at the angry creature, the arrogant thief returning to the surface.
“You are really and truly a terrible host,” I snarled. “If I hadn’t already gotten what I came for, I might actually be angry.”
“You fool,” the creature hissed, speaking for the first time since it transformed. Blood oozed from its mouth, and I took comfort in the fact that it was black, not red, not Rozmarin’s blood. “You will never defeat me. I have lived for a thousand years, and I will live a thousand more.”
“I didn’t come here to defeat you,” I said as I pulled a vial of black liquid from a hidden pocket in my cloak and dangled it from my fingers for the BloodDrake to see. While Rozmarin had been distracting the creature with a fight, the BloodDrake had forgotten to guard the one treasure we came here for. Her blood.
Enraged by the sight of her bottled blood, the creature pounced, closing the distance between us so quickly that I almost didn’t move fast enough. In the time the creature took to close the distance between me and Rozmarin’s limp body, I crouched over Rozmarin, scrambled to grab the red velvet pouch from the pack in my hands, and clumsily pinched it between my fingers, doing my best to imitate the way Rozmarin had used it to transport us to the clearing.
I tried to envision some place safe as the winnow powder worked its magic. The castle, the kingdom, anywhere. But instead, when we were finally spat out from the dark and empty space between worlds, it was in another cold, dark cave.
At least it was a different cave.
“Shit. That definitely could have gone better,” I muttered under my breath as I took in our surroundings. This cave was much smaller and more shallow than the BloodDrake’s had been. The cold, harsh wind whistled through the dark cave, alerting me to the fact that we were probably still in the Constantan mountain range.
After inspecting Rozmarin’s injuries more thoroughly now that we were alone, I searched the shallow cave for any dry sticks to make a fire. I had blown our last shot at returning to the castle with the winnow powder while trying to escape, so now we would need to make the journey ourselves and fly back.
By the time I reached the back wall of the cave, I had found a sufficient amount of dry twigs to start a fire. I pulled a match from Rozmarin’s pack and started the fire near her, hoping the heat would wake her up comfortably. I didn’t know how long she would take to heal before she could fly again, but I refused to think about that at the moment. I would focus only on what I could control, and that was the state of this cave, the environment in which Rozmarin would wake up to.
After starting the fire, I worked to treat her injuries, starting with the nasty gash on the back of her head. Thanks to her uniquely fast healing abilities, the wound had already stopped bleeding, though it didn’t look to be healing as quickly as it should have. After treating that and any other significant injuries that needed attention with the salves in her pack, I decided I would try to get a bearing of our surroundings. I pulled a map from the pack and made my way out into the rising wind.
My hair whipped around my face from the frozen wind, the map in my hands folding in on itself, as I squinted at the sky, but it was useless. All I could see was snow, trees, and rock. I could see no way to pinpoint our location without getting an aerial view, and that wasn’t an option at the moment.
After spinning in one last circle, desperate for any details, any land markers, anything, I finally gave up and made my way back into the calm darkness of the cave.
When I did, it surprised me to find that Rozmarin was finally beginning to stir. I rushed to her side at the sound of her painful groan, suddenly desperate to see the silver of her eyes and the curve of her mouth as she smirked at me.
When her eyes finally did open, they were aware and searching right away. As they landed on me, I couldn’t help the tiny smile that formed on my face at the relief I felt. Her own returning grin was small and pained, but it was there. Then her eyes closed once more, and she was out again.
34
Rozmarin
When my body finally finished h
ealing, I awoke to find Christoff there, waiting. He had a mug between his fingers, and as soon as he noticed that I was awake, he brought the cup to my lips, encouraging me to drink. I made a move to tell him that his human tinctures would not work on me when I got a whiff of the liquid in his mug.
It was blood. His blood. I recognized the sweet scent of it right away, that familiar cinnamon and roses scent that I had come to love, in its purest form. My eyes fell to the bandage on his arm, and I frowned slightly, the memory of me drinking his blood from that mug slowly returning to me in bits and pieces. He had been feeding me his blood to speed up my healing. Both warmth and trepidation filled me at the surfacing memories.
“You did not have to bleed for me, my lord. I would have healed just fine without it,” I said. That was not a complete lie. I would have healed, but it would have been a much slower process.
Feeding could be a very sensuous experience for both the feeder and the donator, but this was different. Christoff had sacrificed a piece of himself for me. I could already feel the connection between us, like a tether as his blood rushed through my veins, quite literally giving me life.
A half-smile formed on his lips at my concern. “It’s okay. I can handle it.” He sounded exhausted. Hell, he looked exhausted.
I brought my palms to the floor at my sides and realized that I was lying on top of his cloak. I pushed myself to a sitting position, grimacing at the dull pain in my head. Christoff supported my back, warning me to take it easy. When my hand rose to feel the back of my head, I only felt hair and the smooth skin that stretched across my skull. Aside from the dull pounding in my head, the wound had healed. Good.
I looked up at Chris, and his half-smile turned into a full-blown grin.
“You’re okay,” he said, and it was just barely above a whisper as if he could not believe that it was true. A shaking hand came up slowly towards my face like he was afraid any sudden movements would make the moment disappear.
“I am, my lord. Thanks to you,” I returned, with an earnest bow of my head.
He threw his arms around me, squeezing me to his chest. Though it was painful, I did not have it in me to tell him so.
“I was so scared,” he whispered over my shoulder.
I pulled back, and my palms found either side of his face. “I am okay. You are okay.” I kissed him briefly on the lips before pulling back and stretching out the stiffness in my limbs. When my wings reappeared, they were sore and aching too, but nothing that would keep me from flying. When I turned my head to look at him again, that pounding in my head came back full force with a round of dizziness. I looked at the light coming from outside the cave and determined that it was likely close to high noon.
“I should be ready to fly by nightfall. I assume you tried to use the winnow powder to get us home already?” I said, and it came out as more of a statement than a question.
He nodded, seemingly impressed. “How did you know? I thought I was going to have to break it to you that you’d be flying us back.”
I chuckled, grimacing a bit at the pain in my… everything. “Considering how much pain I am in at the moment, I imagine that I was not in very good form when you got us out of there. I trust that you would have used it to get me help despite the massive risks, even though you should know it is quite difficult to truly harm me.”
He surprised me by leaning in and placing a sweet kiss on my cheek. “Thank you for trusting me,” he said sincerely, “but I did use all of the winnow powder just to land us in another cave in the Constantan Mountain Range.”
I looked at him, impressed. “Not bad. You had more control than I did the first time I used the powder.”
He scoffed, rolling his eyes. “I couldn’t get us to winnow off the mountain, let alone to a foreign land. Your first time was way more impressive.”
I chuckled again, and this time, it was a little less painful. “It is not about distance, my lord. It is about accuracy.”
“I was aiming for the castle.”
My left shoulder lifted in a casual shrug. “Same continent, at least.”
As I predicted, I was strong enough to leave by nightfall. We considered leaving then but decided it would be better to rest through the night since apparently I had taken a day and a half to heal this far. That way, by the time we got back to the castle, I would not be too weak to lead. Or fight.
Christoff and I spent most of the rest of the evening waiting the night out in the cave. He told me that he had not heard any more of that wretched shrieking noise on the mountain since the day we battled the BloodDrake.
He filled me in on what happened after the creature knocked me out, of how our distraction strategy had worked, and how he could not resist dangling its blood in its face before he winnowed us out.
“That was rather dangerous, my lord,” I reprimanded him as we sat around the fire in the cave, the chilly mountain winds whistling through the cave.
Christoff pulled his cloak tighter around him and also pulled me close to her side. “I know, but she asked for it when she knocked you out.” He sighed. “Someone has to take that old hag down a notch.”
My mouth quirked up at one corner. At that moment, all we needed, all we had was each other.
“I think you did a rather adequate job of that.”
He smiled slyly. “I am nothing if not thorough, Your Highness.”
We fell asleep by the fire, me wrapped safely in his arms. It was before dawn when I awoke to the sound of movement outside of the cave. Christoff still laid fast asleep, so I maneuvered my way out of his embrace as gently as possible. I chuckled lightly when he made a little snoring sound and rolled onto his other side. This man would be the death of me.
Chances were that the sound was just a wild animal, but even if it was, I thought it necessary to let whatever it was know that this cave was occupied. So, I strapped my sword to my hip and made my way to the cave’s entrance.
When I stepped out into the snowy night, however, it was dead silent. Even the wind had died down, and no animals were anywhere in sight. Everything in the area had fled. I had been around long enough, especially as a predator, to know when another predator is in the area.
I had seen it many times. The silence. The faint smell of lingering fear in the air from those who have fled or are hiding.
We were not alone.
Right as I had the thought, a short, stubby creature with pointed ears, green skin, and razor-sharp teeth came barreling out of the trees, headed straight towards me. From the deteriorated state of its body, I could tell that it was a zombie, and the odd anatomy of the creature made me think it was a goblin. After dodging several of the zombie’s attempts at chomping off my ankle, I finally dispatched the creature. At that point, there was no hope of saving it.
When I glanced back up at the tree line, prepared to take on more attackers, it surprised me to find that I was, once again, alone. Or so it seemed. The forest was still quiet, and the fresh scent of fear still lingered in the air. Then, the worst sound I’d ever heard in all of my two-hundred and twenty-four years echoed from behind me: Christoff’s scream.
My wings immediately appeared, spreading wide as I shot into the entrance of the cave. It felt good to work those muscles again after almost two days of idleness. When I landed by the fire, a head of long, bright red hair crouched over Christoff, rocking back and forth. When I took a step forward to yank the BloodDrake away from him, a pair of empty, black pools whipped up to meet my gaze. I froze, my eyes dropping to its hands that hovered over Christoff’s limp body. The only thing keeping me from tearing the red-headed woman apart was the fact that I could still hear Christoff’s heartbeat.
“You were a fool to come here, Vampire Queen,” the BloodDrake hissed, and it was not just one voice, but multiple voices. “You cannot truly think that you can save your kingdom with the cure that insolent sorceress is brewing up, do you?”
My eyes widened, and I fell back a step. “You know of the cure?”
&nbs
p; The creature stood then, and to my utter horror, Christoff’s body rose with her. He still laid parallel to the ground, but the BloodDrake’s hands hovered over him, raising him to chest level like there was a physical tether between her hands and Christoff’s body.
“Of course I know of the cure, you foolish girl,” she said, her words whipping like the icy wind that had only just died down. That explained the lack of activity in the area. Everything knew to fear the BloodDrake. “You will ruin everything.”
My hands balled into fists at my sides as I glared at the creature.
“Give me the boy,” I said in a low voice filled with warning. The BloodDrake gave me a look that said, ‘Really? Do you honestly expect that to work?’ so I continued speaking, my curiosity getting the better of me. Besides, I needed the creature distracted. “What do you know of the cure? How do you know Sahar?”
The creature cackled, her mouth opening just a little too wide as if her jaw had unhinged. I had to fight the shudder that threatened to spill down my spine at the image.
“My dear Vampire Queen. That mockery of a sorceress has no vision for the future. No ambition.”
That threw me for a loop. How did we suddenly go from this odd hostage situation to The BloodDrake gossiping about Sahar?
“I think her future vision is just fine,” I said, referring to the seer’s uncanny ability to predict things before they happened. It was what had brought Chris and me here. That thought gave me pause, and for the first time, I doubted my judgment of the sorceress. “Tell me how you know Sahar.”
The BloodDrake cocked her head at me so quickly that even my heightened sight almost missed it. Then her eyes flicked to Christoff’s still-unconscious body below her fingers. Slowly, carefully, she lowered Christoff’s body to the ground but kept her hands poised, palms open and facing downward.