by Amos, Ashley
“Ready to go kick some necromancer butt?”
Chapter 7: Necromancer’s Lair
The drive from their house took an hour. By the time they hid the car and found a way inside, it was well past dark. The smell of rotting flesh hit them even before they stepped inside making Drey gag, while Krys dry heaved and Trent merely made a face. Drey’s hand found Trent’s, as Krys walked inside, making the mage look at her as she squeezed it briefly.
“Be safe.”
“You too.”
She smiled before walking in next, leaving Trent to follow as she stepped into the dark maw of the building. It was pitch black inside, forcing Drey to rely on her brother’s knowledge of the building as she made her way through. It was a full minute before Drey realized her twin was no longer in front of her and she was alone. Panic bloomed in her chest, but she quickly squashed it and made a quick entreaty to the elementals. Power flooded her system in a familiar rush of warmth and when she opened her eyes the path forward was clear. Shoving concern for her companions from her mind, she moved further into the belly of the beast. The putrid smell got stronger the further she got, the hallways a labyrinth of twists and turns that would have pulled her into rooms full of corpses, reanimated and ravenous, had she not had guidance. A body shambled out of a side hallway, the smell horrible enough that she nearly lost control of the spirits before she blew the thing down the hallway it came from and iced over the entryway.
She finally made it to her destination, ducking behind abandoned equipment when she saw Krys, her brother was tied up but unharmed. She enhanced her hearing to catch the closest nude figure speak,
“...ay that we kill them. Use them as sacrifices for the next summoning.”
“But the reanimated need food or they will not be controllable.”
“How did they even get in here?”
“Does it matter? Just let them be eaten and be done with it.”
As the necromancer’s bickered, Krys’s eyes flickered to her hiding spot and quickly away, their connection stronger the closer she got. She let him know what she planned before darting forward, through shards of ice that hit five of the six mages and a fireball hit the sixth. She untied Krys as quickly as she could, eyes darting around them and watching for threats,
“Have you seen Trent?”
“He’s not with you?!”
Krys was on his feet and sweeping the area instantly while Drey closed her eyes, pulling on her new markings to search for the remaining necromancers. Just then something slammed into her, caging her in as they went skidding across the floor and the sound of impact in the crates that had been behind her reached her ears. Her eyes snapped open to see Trent smiling sheepishly back at her, quickly rolling them to the side to avoid another flying projectile from across the room. The mage laughed, helping her to her feet as they raced, hand in hand, to find Krys holding off three necromancers. Their naked bodies emitted a greenish glow and the undead shambled from throughout the building to converge on the three intruders.
Drey inhaled deep, calling on the ink on her right arm while her left still controlled the druid magic familiar to her,
“Fire.”
Flames engulfed her right side, leaving her clothes untouched but causing the undead closest to her to shrink away and shield their eyes as if the black flame was too bright to look at. She immediately tossed fire at her assailants, swallowing the ten closest to her in flame while ice flew at an alarming speed from her other hand, causing the other half of reanimated to freeze and shatter. She immediately turned to help her brother, causing the mages (eight now) to step back. She must have made quite the site to strike such fear into mages that regularly raised the dead and had intended on bringing back Merlin himself.
Trent stepped up next to her, his black eyes giving her a start of her own as the same black flame she sported also consumed his entire body. Drey glanced to her brother, who was gawking in amazement, smiling ruefully as she spoke,
“You may want to take cover. This could get messy.”
Krys’s eyes widened and he quickly scrambled for shelter. The necromancers were chanting, the power in the air pulling the oxygen from Drey’s lungs as a portal opened in the floor. Trent and Drey immediately surged forward to stop them, but three necromancers broke away from the group in a counter-move. Chaos ensued, separating them once more as Drey battled one of the mages. The woman in front of her was covered in piercings and tattoos, naked as the day she was born as she brandished an obsidian knife that came to a wicked point. She was quick to dodge Drey’s ice shards and fireballs, slicing up in a high arc that caught Drey’s side, causing her to cry out before grabbing the woman’s face with her right hand. The woman shrieked as she was burned alive, the druid’s attention quickly drawn to Trent as she clutched her side.
Her boyfriend was holding his own against the other two mages, snapping one neck and sending the other one flying across the room to land like a broken doll upon some construction equipment. He immediately turned to her, face contorting in a snarl at the sight of the blood seeping onto her shirt. A scream yanked their attention to the necromancers, all but one dead as the man attempted to pull himself out of the spell. A gnarled hand reached from the portal, and the man’s scream as his life force was sucked from him was overshadowed by the demonic screeching coming from the opening.
Krys was next to Drey as she watched the scene unfold in horror, checking her side before yelling over the racket,
“What the hell do we do now?!”
Drey just stared with wide eyes, only pulled back to herself when Trent grasped her right hand, causing their flames to combine and grow in both intensity and breadth.
“We fight it! Close the portal!”
“Trent, are you crazy?! We can’t-!”
“Are you with us or not?!”
Trent stared the other druid down until he finally nodded with a wry smile,
“Nobody lives forever, right!”
Drey rolled her eyes and Trent snorted as Krys grasped her other hand, the three of the inhaling deeply before stepping into the portal’s range of consumption. It instantly latched onto their magic, Drey’s connection to the spirits becoming fragile. She could feel Krys’s knees buckle and just before the connection snapped, and with it the last of their protection, she threw her brother from the connection. The hand in the portal was attempting to claw its way out, but Drey gave the last of her magic to Trent who, with a cry of exertion, made the portal begin to recede. They exchanged triumphant grins, both focusing all of their control on burning the portal out of existence. The smaller the opening got, the more relieved Drey felt and she could finally feel fear begin to fade.
The portal was the size of a half dollar and Trent’s exultant, if slightly hysterical, laughter was infectious. Drey’s guard dropped for a split second, but that’s all it took. Suddenly Trent shoved her to the ground and when she looked up a scream tore from her throat. There was a long, pointed thing sticking out of Trent’s chest, blood already pouring from the wound. She saw the hand trying to force the portal back open and she came to the horrified realization that he was impaled on a long, yellowing nail. With an anguished cry she slammed her hand over the portal and burned and burned until there was nothing but a charred mark on the cement floor. She went to Trent then, who was being supported by Krys as the blood poured from the wound. She grit her teeth, tears falling freely as she gripped the broken nail,
“Hold him still.”
“What? Shouldn’t you-”
“Krys just do it!”
Something in her tone or on her face made him stop and nod minutely. She ripped the implement out in one fluid stroke, jaw clenched as she pressed one hand to each side of the wound and strained with the last bit of energy she had. Flame conjured in both hands, allowing her to cauterize the wound before Trent could bleed to death. The world swam before her, vision going dark faster before she hit the ground and her last thought was that if this was how she died, at least he
r last act was something she could be proud of.
Chapter 8: Souls Bond
“...-ou have to get some rest dear.”
“I appreciate the concern ma’am, but I can’t leave her.”
“She is right young man. You are no good to my daughter as a walking corpse.”
Papa? Why was he being so nice to Trent?
“Alright I will go for a little bit. But if she wakes up-”
“I will come get you myself.”
“Papa why’re you being so nice?”
Drey’s slurred, faint words as she opened her eyes blearily made every breath in the room catch. Trent was at the bedside instantly, hand clutching hers so tight she thought the circulation might be cut off. Her parents stood behind him, looking relieved and Krys wormed his way next to Trent,
“Thank goodness Andreya! You scared us!”
“Drey what the hell is wrong with you, leaving me alone with them for this long!”
“Andreya you are not allowed to pull a stunt like that again.”
Trent was the only one who remained silent, pressing his lips to her hand and staring at her with so much relief, pain and fear in his gaze it made Drey’s own breath catch. Her mother, seeing the silent exchange, quickly shooed everyone out of her daughter’s room and winked at the two before shutting the door. It was silent for a long moment until Drey croaked out,
“How long was I out?”
“A week.”
“You’ve been here the whole time?”
“Where else would I be?”
“Trent you need to take care of yourself too.”
“Would you have done anything different?”
Drey didn’t respond and silence fell once more. This time Trent broke the quiet.
“Drey I had a lot of time to think, while you were out and...God it felt like forever. I kept running through worst case scenarios and I honest to god have never been so scared in my entire life. Especially when I learned how you got yourself that way, I just couldn’t…”
Confusion, pain, fear all raged inside of Drey as she spoke up timidly,
“Are you...are you trying to break up with me?”
“What?! No!”
Trent gaped at her, appalled and sheepish as he stumbled over his words,
“That’s not what I meant-god I’m awful at this. I meant...I’m trying to say that I...I love you.”
It was Drey’s turn to gape, still in shock long enough to make Trent second guess himself before the druid yanked him forward and kissed him hard. She was laughing and crying all at the same time, hugging the mage as tight as possible as she rained kisses to his neck and face.
“I love you too you ass. It’s about damn time!”
Trent snorted softly, climbing into the bed and holding her as Drey continued to cling to him. He rubbed her back, pressing his lips to the top of her head. He had started to doze, exhaustion finally overtaking him, when Drey spoke once more.
“So, my dad likes you now?”
Another snort,
“Apparently Krys told quite the heroic tale about me while I was passed out, because I woke up and suddenly he’s acting like I’m his second favorite son or something.”
Drey hummed, allowing Trent to begin to drift off once more before piping up cheekily,
“You know now he’s going to expect you to marry me, right?”
The End of Book 2
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IVory fangs in ebony flesh
Sarah was just your average little black girl from small town America. Well technically she was a woman at this point and for what she thought of herself she was maybe even a little less than average. A hopelessly logical and an extreme introvert, stuck with a mundane living in a little town on the edge of a big city she had little hopes for anything more. That is until Marcus - an amazingly gorgeous and possibly the largest white man she had ever seen, walked into her life one summer evening. Would she finally step out of her comfort zone in order to get what her heart desired? There was something different about him - something unlike any man she had ever known. Would she be able to come out of her shell and be brave enough to find out what it was?
Chapter 1: A Stranger Walks In
It was Tuesday, another boring day for Sarah. Most days were boring for Sarah. At this point it like most of her life was boring. She stood up and wiped the sweat from her brow. Her long black hair pulled back into a disheveled bun with a couple of sweaty braids hung down and framed her flushed and sweaty face. It had been over 95 degrees all day long and she worked the majority of it outside in the huge disaster her previous tenants had left her. She only paused to take a small nap during the hottest part of the day before heading back out into the heat again only to continue the never ending cleanup until sundown.
That was pretty much her normal schedule currently, especially with the summer heat. Being quite the creature of habit, she would keep to this routine until the place was fixed up and ready to be inhabited by, hopefully, more decent tenants. She was fairly content with life that way with the exception of spending her days cleaning after bad tenants. Especially when all she wanted to do was curl up and write her novel. Or at least that’s what she tried to tell herself.
She was sick of cleaning up after her tenants when they moved out. It was incredible to her the mess that they could leave and how much damage they could do to the property in such a small amount of time. “How could two people accumulate so much crap in only one year?” she thought to herself. Then she dragged another large, black trash bag across the yard and heaved it up and over, into the roll off dumpster.
Sarah had been gifted the rental property in her great uncle Max’s will when he had passed on 5 years ago. Prior to that she had been a waitress at her small home town’s dive bar and working on her novel in her spare time. She had graduated high school in the little town but the thought of leaving and going to college terrified her, so she stayed put.
The rental property she had been gifted had five little units squished next to each other and sat by a tiny river that ran through the little town down the road. About an hour away was the city but she only went there when she had too. She hated the hustle and stress of all the city people and their bustling about. She was pretty sure that, along with her introverted personality, not to mention being prone to social anxiety and the panic attacks that followed, she would probably always stay put in her little town. With the exception of not having enough time or money to focus on her book and the lack of a good lover, she was pretty content with where she was. So she stayed in the town where she was born and raised and took care of the rentals while trying to make a living at being a creative writer.
At first she had been thrilled at the thought of being a property owner. She had thought it would be a means to make a regular monthly income while pursuing her dreams of being a writer. Only to find out, all too quickly, that it was a ton of work and money to upkeep and maintain rental property. Between the damage, repairs and clean-up, she was almost always breaking flat even. If there was a profit it wasn’t worth talking about. Not to mention dealing with all of the tenants and their issues. That really was the worst of it as she never had been much of a people person. Nonetheless she was determined to make it work.
Her little dream of being a famous writer who could travel the world living in hotels while her tenants paid their bills on time and didn’t trash the property seemed a million miles away right now. But that was life and you just had to make the most of what you were given. Maybe some dashing man would come along and sweep her off of her feet. Ah but then again probably not. That was the sort thing that only happened in cheesy romance novels. She pulled herself out of her thoughts and back into the present and looked around the trashe
d yard and up to the sun on the horizon.
Only it was no longer hovering above the horizon, with its faint rays of light pouring over the yard. The sun had gone to bed, completely. Had she really been lost in her own thoughts for that long? Or maybe it was just the work?
She stood there in the front yard, her long and dark legs covered with bits and pieces of grass and dirt from her work day. It had once been a nicely landscaped garden area and was desperately trying to return it to its original condition. She looked down at her filthy self. Looking back over the yard she felt completely overwhelmed and dirty. She’d already been at it for days and there was still so much more to do. It seemed like it would take her forever to finish.
Her once white tank top was covered in a variety of stains from collecting the array of trash and debris that was strewn about everywhere. What a hot mess she must look like right now and what she wouldn’t give to have an extra hand. Perhaps she should try being more social? Maybe then she would have friends or some guys to call upon for help in these situations. She had thought of hiring professionals to take care of it but then it would dig into her own living budget which she needed if she wanted to have the time to finish her next novel.