by Simon Archer
“If you make a move to harm me, I will snap his neck in a fraction of the time it will take for you to even reach his dead corpse,” the BloodDrake threatened lightly, her tone casual.
My own gaze flicked to Chris then, his chest rising and falling slowly. He almost looked peaceful, but I knew better than to count on that.
“What have you done to him?” I asked, trying not to let the creature hear the fear or desperation in my voice. Not for myself, but for Christoff. As long as Chris’s life was at her mercy, the BloodDrake had me by the neck, and she knew it.
“I have merely put him to sleep.”
I eyed her skeptically, not believing a single word she said. “Then why did he scream?”
The BloodDrake’s mouth slowly turned up in a secret smile at being caught. “Okay, maybe I have thrown in a night terror or two while we finish the business we must attend to. A small price to pay for his rather rude departure.”
Slowly, I walked towards the woman, her black eyes following me all the while.
“And what business might that be that is so important that you had to make such a… dramatic appearance?” I asked, recalling how she’d lured me out with that goblin zombie so she could sneak in. Had she somehow found a way to control them?
The BloodDrake smiled at me, almost business-like. In all honesty, it was a rather unsettling sight. I was not sure which version of her I preferred: the woman or the beast. The woman just might have been the fiercer opponent.
“I have come to offer you a bargain.”
35
Rozmarin
The BloodDrake had clearly become privy of my reputation for being a sucker for a good bargain. Luckily for me, my kingdom, and the entire continent, I did not trust the BloodDrake as far as I could throw her monster form. Even as she sauntered over to my side, swaying her hips more than necessary.
“Join me,” she said as she reached up to run a long red nail down my chest, over the material of my shirt. “And with my power, my army, we will rule.” She leaned up to whisper in my ear, her hot, rancid breath fanning across my face. Her tongue flicked out to run its slimy course up my ear. “Together.”
It took everything in me not to shove her away and immediately wipe the spit from my ear.
“Why me?” I asked, letting some breathiness into my voice.
“Because I have been keeping my eye on you, Vampire Queen. I have watched you grow and conquer and thrive again and again.”
It was not like she had given me a choice. Because of her, I was a vampire. Immortal. My nails pierced into my palms as I bit my tongue until I could taste blood.
“As have many others,” I replied vaguely. I did not ask the BloodDrake how she had been watching me. I was not quite sure that I wanted to know.
“Not like you,” she said cryptically.
I forced myself to meet her gaze, then. “And what would be in it for me?”
She smiled a cat’s grin, her black eyes devouring my face as if I were the tastiest looking thing on this mountain. Perhaps, to her, I was.
“Power, my sweet Queen. Eternal and incomparable power.”
“I already have power,” I countered, looking down my nose at her. “I have my kingdom. Constanta.”
A flicker of irritation passed across her face before it disappeared, smoothed over with a saccharine grin. “But you can have so much more. Together, we will breed chaos throughout the whole continent. And then, once we have conquered that, we will move overseas.”
“And you intend to do that, how?” I raised a single, dark brow.
Her sympathetic smile turned downright evil.
“Why, my army, of course,” she sang, gesturing to the entrance of the cave where that undead goblin had attacked me.
I did my best to hide my shock, but even I could feel my eyes widen a fraction. She did not miss it.
“The supernatural zombies in the clearing. In these mountains. They are yours?”
She nodded like a proud mother. “Are they not magnificent?”
I took in her words, her movements, and her mannerisms. I tucked away every little piece of information that she let slip in our little ‘business meeting’ into the back of my mind.
“Why does this strain affect supernaturals? What if it infects even those you do not mean to infect?” I asked, digging for anything she might be willing to divulge that could help us in some way. That was if we even managed to get out of here alive, let alone in time to get back to Constanta before it was too late.
The BloodDrake seemed undeterred like she had thought of everything ahead of time. “Did you see any infected vampires during your precious human’s little stunt in the clearing? As for myself, I am the mother of this virus. It cannot affect me.”
I heard the last sentence, but I was still hung up on the first one. I had not noticed the lack of zombified vampires in her army, though once I thought about it, I could not remember seeing a single one. When I gave the BloodDrake a curious look, she just shrugged.
“You cannot spread a zombie virus to those who are already dead.”
Tired of always being one step behind, I faced the creature fully. A flicker of movement behind the witch, and an odd smell caught my attention, but I did not let my eyes stray from her face.
“Why have you changed your mind? I slaughtered your coven, and I do not, for a single second, regret it. I never will.”
She waved a hand dismissively as if the lives of her coven meant little to her. The thought did not come as a surprise. She smiled, almost sweetly as she stepped closer to me until our chests brushed against each other. Her hand came up to cup my cheek gently. Such an odd contrast to the blackened, scaly creature I had fought the other day.
“Because your power and your strength of will draw me to you like a moth to a flame,” she cooed. “Power attracts power, and you and I, my sweet Queen, could find no better match for each other.”
“I beg to differ.”
A flash of golden light shone behind the BloodDrake, and surprise flashed in her gaze as Christoff plunged his dagger into the creature’s back, straight through her heart. Black blood oozed from the BloodDrake’s mouth as it gaped open, but her mouth curled up in a hideous smile. Christoff withdrew his dagger, and the monster twisted around toward him.
Panic, and then a firm realization set his expression in stone. He lifted up an arm, his palm pointing at the laughing, bleeding BloodDrake as she stalked toward him. Christoff closed his eyes, and a blinding beam of light shot out from his palm and wrapped the BloodDrake in burning light. When the light faded, her singed body crumpled to the floor.
“Thank the gods. I thought she would never shut up,” Christoff quipped before wiping his blade of the black, rancid blood on his cloak.
I just stood there for a moment, shock and silence whispering through my veins. Then, snapping out of it, my legs surged forward, and I closed the distance between Christoff and me in two long strides. The handle of his dagger poked into my abdomen as I hugged him, but I did not care. Christoff was alive and awake and…
“Is she…?” My voice trailed off, letting the question hang in the air between us as I pulled away, and we both looked down at the creature.
Chris shrugged and opened his mouth to say something, but the BloodDrake coughed and rolled from her side to her back, black blood oozing from her wound. Her body smelled like burning, rotting flesh.
“Light-Bearer,” the BloodDrake spat, recognition slowly seeping into her black gaze.
Chris just smiled down at the creature, letting it see the triumph, the confirmation in his eyes. I noticed that was not all that was in them. They seemed brighter, more vibrant.
“That’s right, BloodDrake,” Christoff said. “I am the one who will be the end of you and your desperate attempts at claiming power that doesn’t exist. Thank you for that little rest, by the way. I needed it.”
His voice sounded different. He still sounded like Christoff, his unfailing snark even peeking through, but
with all of the confidence, wisdom, and power of someone centuries older than him. Like he had somehow lived multiple lives, conquered nations, and saved villages while he was under the sorceress’s spell.
The BloodDrake tried to laugh, but it only came out as a gurgle, blood bubbling up from her mouth. When she recovered, Christoff and I both had to strain our ears to understand her.
“You are too late, Light-Bearer. You have been racing the clock, and finally, your time is up. My army has already marched west. By the time you reach your precious kingdom, my army will have breached its walls, and you will have no hope of stopping the chaos that they will reap.”
And with that, the BloodDrake choked on her own rancid blood until it stopped flowing completely. When she exhaled her last breath, her skin greyed and shriveled, deteriorating before our eyes until the infamous, terrible creature was nothing but a pile of dust, whisked away by the cold breeze.
My eyes met Chris’s, and one side of my mouth quirked up.
“You truly are a connoisseur of the dramatics, my lord.”
36
Christoff
Rozmarin and I were airborne minutes after I stabbed the BloodDrake through the heart and blasted it with light. Before she appeared, I had been sleeping soundly when I felt a sharp pain in my head, pinning me to my spot. I screamed from the pain at first, but then the witch had completely taken away my ability to do anything, and a web of horrifying, nightmarish images and sounds trapped me. I was unable to do anything about it. Unable to move or scream or think. A prisoner in my own body.
Somewhere amid all the pain in my head and the terrible images that the BloodDrake was forcing me to endure, I felt a light tapping in the back of my mind as if someone was asking for permission to enter. Desperate for any escape, or distraction, or anything, I opened the mental door.
Nothing in this world could have prepared me for the onslaught of sensations that flooded through into my being. I had always felt an emptiness in my core like it was waiting to be filled when the time came. I had always thought it was a normal occurrence, that emptiness. But as an overwhelming sense of peace and power rushed through my being, I knew that it was much more than that. That emptiness I had felt was a calling I hadn’t been able to hear, an unfulfilled prophecy.
Remember who you are, Light-Bearer. Remember why you are here.
Sahar’s words echoed through my head, and for once, I did remember. I was the poor thief from the wrong side of the tracks, the royal representative of the West Village, and I was a warrior, but most importantly, at that moment, I was the Light-Bearer. I broke out of the BloodDrake’s spell with ease once that odd sensation had filled the emptiness in my core, suddenly entirely confident in my abilities.
I marveled at my use of power as we flew over the evergreens at the base of the Constantan mountains, we kept our eyes out for more of the BloodDrake’s zombie army. There were none in sight. The BloodDrake’s words echoed in my head as we passed the empty forests below.
You are too late, Light-Bearer. You have been racing the clock, and finally, your time is up. My army has already marched west. By the time you reach your precious kingdom, my army will have breached its walls, and you will have no hope of stopping the chaos that they will reap.
I shuddered in Rozmarin’s arms as the words ran through my mind. What if we were too late? What if we get to the kingdom, and there’s no one left to save? Rozmarin pulled me tighter into her chest when she felt me shudder, mistaking it for a chill. If only. Thanks to the protection her wings provided, along with her body warmth and her strong arms wrapped around me, I was surprisingly comfortable as we sped home. The fear of flying a whisper of a memory in my mind, I reveled in the refreshing feel of the wind whipping against my face, the experience now oddly enjoyable.
Rozmarin smirked down at me when she saw the blissful look on my face.
“It looks like you are enjoying the flight almost as much as I am, my lord,” she teased. Though her tone was light, I could see the fear in her eyes, the worry that we truly might be too late to save her people.
Our people.
“No wonder you usually prefer to fly. I think, if I had wings, I might never land.” It was an exaggeration… sort of. I really did enjoy the feeling of weightlessness flying gave me once I got over the whole ‘fear of falling to my death’ part.
Rozmarin’s chuckle was lost in the wind before her face sobered. “Christoff, if we make it to the kingdom and the walls have already been breached, you do not need to st--”
“Shh,” I said, bringing my finger up over her lips. “We are in this together. Until the end.” She gave me a weak, unconvincing smile. “I mean it, Rosie. Don’t you dare think of dropping me off in the middle of nowhere and making me miss all the action. I will never forgive you if you do.”
As I spoke, my words rang true. I truly would never forgive Rozmarin if she forced me to sit out of the war while the BloodDrake’s army ravaged my people.
Rozmarin sighed and offered me a small, sad smile. “I know, my lord. But you can hardly blame me for trying.”
I kissed her lightly on her cheek. Hardly, indeed.
We kept our eyes out for hordes the whole way back to the kingdom, trying not to treat it like the last few hours of our lives, though it may very well have been. But as we got closer and closer to the border, the mystery of what awaited us when we returned weighed heavier and heavier on our shoulders. By the time we were an hour away, we had fallen into a comfortable but grim silence, just enjoying each other’s company, the warmth of each other’s body, the easy breaths that could have been some of our last.
At least the weather was warmer now that we were out of the mountains. Spring was in full bloom, and I knew vines and plants would grow over half of the structures in the kingdom. All the greenery and blooming flowers would give the kingdom a faerie tale sort of quality. Of course, considering the current circumstances, it was more like a nightmare.
Finally, when we were just a few miles away from the border, we caught sight of the first sign of zombies. As the BloodDrake had said, they were marching west towards the kingdom, and my heart sank to the pit of my stomach when I realized that many of them were flying. Most of those who had had wings in their lives had kept them, but some of them had become so deteriorated from the virus, like the faerie in the clearing, that their wings were no longer functional. But those who did still have functional wings would have no trouble breaching the wall. The thirty-foot tall rock border was only meant to deter human zombies, not supernatural zombies, a threat no one thought existed before now.
Rozmarin and I shared a look, our hope that maybe the BloodDrake had been bluffing. Our only hope now was Constanta’s army and Sahar’s cure. And me.
“When we reach the castle, we must immediately find Anix and Sahar,” Rozmarin said, her voice tight.
“And then?” I asked.
“And then, either the cure works, or it does not. If it does not, then we fight. If we somehow survive this invasion, then we keep searching for the cure.”
My heartbeat quickened at the anticipation and the realization that we might lose everything in a matter of hours.
The castle came into sight first, as it sat atop the highest hill in the kingdom, and the villages settled in the land beneath it. It still stood, and considering the current situation, that was a victory in itself. I had feared that we would come back to nothing but rubble and death. More than that, the castle and the courtyards were crawling with people and troops momentarily safe from the swarms beyond.
Rozmarin and I shared a hopeful glance. They had successfully evacuated the outer parts of the kingdom. That had been a major point in our plan if the hordes were to move in. Get the people to safety. Even the West Village looked like it had been evacuated. I briefly wondered if my family had made it out successfully, but I shoved those thoughts down. I needed to focus on what I could control now, and that was completing the cure.
When the wall, along with the
rest of the kingdom, slowly came into sight, my breath fled my lungs in a giant whoosh. The thirty-foot wall that had held strong for forty-something years was almost invisible beneath the broken and rotting bodies that were flying over it, or even climbing it. Thousands and thousands of zombies for miles were rushing the border, mainly from the east. The guard posts along the wall were thankfully still intact, and troops were already shooting fire cannons over the wall, along with arrows and anything else that might slow down the hordes.
When we reached the outskirts of the army, mainly on foot as those were the slowest, Rozmarin tightened her grip on me, murmuring a low warning to hold on, and swooped low towards the zombies. When she was only feet above their heads, she gave her hulking wings a mighty flap, and even I felt the power surge around me as the zombies below us went flying. Some of them, those who had deteriorated so badly that they were almost nothing but a skeleton, never rose to their feet again.
Rozmarin did it again and again, even when we reached the inner parts of the hordes where the stronger, faster, and flying zombies were more abundant. Even as undead gargoyles and faeries chased us towards the wall, Rozmarin was still faster. But when a giant faerie with bark for skin and a missing eye came barreling towards us from behind Rozmarin, I scrambled for the dagger at my belt, jamming it into its good eye just as it came into arms’ reach of Rozmarin’s back. Its body bashed into Rozmarin’s wings, destabilizing us for a moment before she shook him off. The beast plummeted towards the ground.
“Nice shot, my lord,” Rozmarin said, appreciatively, and I gave her my most wicked smile, the thrill of having survived our first attack rushing through my veins.
There was a part of me that wanted to fight the zombies from the outside and deplete their numbers before they ever made it inside the wall, but I knew that we needed to complete the cure. I had never wanted to be in two places at once more than I did at that moment. To be able to be everything my people needed and more.