A Shade of Vampire 83: A Bender of Spirit

by Forrest, Bella

Seeley thought about it for a moment, then looked at Trev. “What exactly did your scouts tell you about this place?”

  Trev seemed surprised by the question. “What do you mean?”

  “Do we know for sure it’s still inhabited?” Seeley replied. “Maybe they left.”

  “They haven’t left,” Widow said, staring ahead. “I can sense a presence. It’s dense.”

  Soul nodded slowly. “My brother here might not have the sharpest senses among the Reapers, but he knows how to use them. It’s part of what makes him so deadly.”

  I wasn’t sure if he meant it as a compliment or well-disguised sarcasm. “Oh, so it’s not the oversized scythe that can cut down a friggin’ mountain,” I grumbled.

  Widow produced his scythe, and I gawked once again at its enormous magnificence. The blade was as big as the Reaper himself, and our reflections fluttered across the metallic surface as he moved it. “You love my scythe. Admit it,” he quipped.

  “I kinda do…”

  “My scouts said the Darklings were still here,” Trev interjected, drawing the conversation back to its original point. “Six hours ago, when I got the last message, they were still raiding the houses and looting every coffer they could find.”

  “Do you think they’re hiding?” Rose asked, looking at me.

  “I don’t know. It does look weirdly empty for a town that’s supposedly just been taken over,” I replied.

  “Let’s go in,” Ridan said. “And find out for ourselves.”

  Night glanced back at the several dozen ghouls that had come with us on this journey. He motioned for them to spread out. “You know what you have to do,” he commanded them. “Take the alleys and dead ends first, then move onto the main streets. There are no innocents left here, so kill whatever crosses your path.”

  Rudolph growled softly and led some of the ghouls around the east side of Dieffen, while the others headed west. Soon they would storm the town from all sides, using their subtle forms to rip open the throats of anyone who stood in their way. I had to admit I took a certain comfort in their presence—ironic though it was, considering I’d spent most of my days in GASP fearing these creatures, even after I’d met Herbert.

  “We’ll go in first,” Night said, pointing at himself and the other Reapers. “Consider us the first wave, just like we planned. The rest of you give us a couple of minutes before following.”

  The road into town was empty, clouds of dust rising over the cobblestone blocks. The windows were all shuttered, and there were a couple of wooden stalls turned over, their fruits and vegetables rotting on the ground. The Darklings had stormed this place mercilessly, tearing everything and everyone apart. Dried blood was splattered across the façades, the clearest sign of violence I could make out at this distance.

  Ridan gave Night a slight nod, and we watched the Reapers move ahead. I didn’t like separating myself from Seeley, but I understood that his kind had to sweep the roads before the living joined in. I was somewhere in between, and Lumi had tasked him with keeping me safe. I’d promised her I’d be back, and I intended to keep my word.

  The Night Bringer stretched out his arms, and darkness blanketed the town like a sudden eclipse. I heard them whispering to one another, before a spine-tingling growl erupted somewhere nearby.

  “Wait, something’s—” Trev was interrupted by a Knight Ghoul, as Nethissis had called them. The fiend came out of nowhere, and it wasn’t alone.

  I jumped back, fear almost crippling my senses as our living group was attacked by dozens of Knight Ghouls. Using my scythe, I slashed at them, left and right, while the others emptied their pulverizer mags into the ghouls. Ashes lingered in the air as we tried to understand what had just happened.

  “They waited for us to separate,” Rose concluded, brushing some of the gray dust from her suit. She looked around, narrowing her eyes as she tried to see better. “Crap, there are more coming!”

  “Let’s catch up with the Reapers,” I said and ran into town.

  Hunter, Kailani, Rose, Caleb, Ridan, and Trev all followed. Those with pulverizer weapons fired at will, trying to keep the alarming number of Knight Ghouls from catching up with us. Kailani used her swamp magic, throwing up protection shields that held the monsters back temporarily.

  By the time we caught up with Seeley and the Reapers, however, Dieffen had changed dramatically. We’d stumbled right in the middle of a vicious fight. The town wasn’t empty at all. It was, in fact, littered with dozens of Knight Ghouls—more than what we’d brought over, for sure. They swarmed through the side streets and tore into our ghouls. Most made it past them and came straight for us and the Reapers, snarling and snapping their jaws.

  “What the hell is going on here?!” I croaked, terror gripping me by the throat.

  Seeley cast a defensive spell and cut down one of the fiends before he turned to me with a look of sheer horror. “Move back,” he shouted. “Retreat, Nethi! Retreat!”

  A campaign that had seemed like a surefire win was rapidly descending into a bloody failure. The living shot their pulverizer weapons until they ran out of ammunition. I cut down everything within reach, and Kailani’s hands glowed white as she released a barrage of fireballs at the enemy.

  The Knight Ghouls weren’t alone. Hundreds of Darklings poured out of the seemingly abandoned homes and from the north side of Dieffen. Our ghouls were overwhelmed, and so were we. Night spread the darkness wider and intensified it, while Soul opened up interdimensional holes for the Darklings to drop into. Widow hacked and chopped his way out of a rumbling pile, and Kelara darted between the enemy clusters and slashed at their sides, causing curtains of blood to gush out, warm and crimson.

  “Stand back, I’m going in!” Ridan snapped and slipped out of his suit. Before he could go full dragon, however, one of the Knight Ghouls bit into the back of his neck. None of us were quick enough to get to him in time.

  Kailani set the creature ablaze, and Hunter rushed to drag Ridan back to our group. We were surrounded. There were too many Darklings and way more Knight Ghouls than we’d expected. We were outnumbered and outgunned, as the Darklings threw energy pulses at our Reapers and occasionally knocked them down.

  “Trev, this isn’t what we planned for!” I hissed, finding the Aeternae just as he cut off a ghoul’s head. He looked at me, his expression blank with fear. He hadn’t seen this coming, either.

  “I swear to you, Nethissis, I don’t know what’s going on here,” he said. “My scouts said—”

  “Your scouts lied!” Soul shot back. Two Darklings jumped him and almost got his scythe, but Kelara swooped in and decapitated them both with one swift move. “Thanks, beautiful,” Soul said to her, and Kelara gave him a wink.

  “I don’t understand,” Trev murmured but didn’t stop fighting.

  We were slowly being forced closer together as the Darklings and the Knight Ghouls formed a wide circle around us, which gradually tightened along with their offense. It was only a matter of time before they started taking us down. The First Tenners would kill as many of them as they could, but the rest of us were basically sitting ducks.

  “They knew we were coming,” I breathed and defended myself from another Darkling. Seeley chopped his head off and pulled me closer to his side.

  Rose and Caleb fired the last of their pulverizer shots, then picked up the nearest scythes dropped by dead Darklings and started fighting the enemy off with Reaper blades. We were running out of options fast as the circle continued to tighten around us.

  “They planned for this!” Trev growled and tore a Darkling’s head off, blood spurting and covering him in glistening crimson.

  We’d come to Dieffen prepared for a raid, and we’d found ourselves sinking into a hot pile of blood and death. The Reapers would likely survive and regroup, but the rest of our group was dead meat unless we figured out a way to turn the tide on these SOBs. The Darklings were winning. They’d prepared for this moment, and they’d effectively lured us to Dieffen by killing all t
he townspeople. This reeked of higher-level orders.

  One of the Whips was behind it. I just knew it. I had every intention of walking out of this place, but I wasn’t sure I’d be so lucky. Not anymore. Especially not once Seeley found himself unable to teleport any of us out of here.

  “We’re trapped,” he said. “They’ve got something in place to stop us from teleporting.”

  Glancing behind us, I saw a Darkling standing outside the town limit and smirking at us. He’d just finished drawing a line into the dirt—I remembered the circles that Reapers drew to keep other people in. The Darkling had made one for the whole of Dieffen, which meant we couldn’t even retreat.

  We were screwed, all right, and the Darklings were hell-bent on screwing us even further.

  Nethissis

  “What the hell do we do?” I asked, constantly fending off Darklings and Knight Ghouls. We’d walked right into a trap, and we needed a way to either defeat them or get out of here before they handed our asses to us.

  “We must break that circle,” Night said, pointing to the town entrance.

  Violence exploded all around me. Rose and Caleb moved to protect Ridan, and Kailani worked some of her healing magic to help him recover faster. The ghoul had done quite the number on him, and we needed the dragon now more than ever.

  Kailani gasped, discovering a wound on his side. “He got cut with a scythe.” It must’ve happened earlier in the melee, and it left us without his fire—at least for the time being.

  Hunter turned into a wolf and took on some of the ghouls, biting and tearing through their undead flesh before they shimmered away into their subtle forms and reappeared elsewhere. Soul and Kelara made a good team, taking down any Darkling that came their way. Our ghouls were scattered and overwhelmed, but I managed to spot Rudolph swerving left and right, vanishing and reappearing as he bit into as many of his foes as possible.

  Widow moved like a flash of lightning, zigzagging through the swelling crowd as he cut Darklings down. But even with our combined powers and strengths, it wasn’t enough. The Darklings had prepared for this. They’d summoned more forces and concentrated their troops in Dieffen. They’d stayed hidden until we came in, giving them the opportunity to seal us within the town’s limits.

  “Will Ridan be okay?” Caleb asked. He dodged a Darkling scythe and ducked, ramming a hand through his attacker’s chest. With a single motion, he withdrew it, crushing the Darkling’s still-beating heart in his slick hand.

  “Yeah, but it’ll take a while for the wound to heal,” Kailani replied.

  Her skin glowed white, light bursting through her pores as the Word began to manifest. She released a devastating pulse that cut through every living creature outside our shrinking circle. Limbs and heads were sliced off, and some of the Darklings collapsed, screaming in agony. Hunter came back, blood dripping from his fangs. He gave Kailani a concerned look, and she waved him away.

  “Go do your thing,” she said. “I’ve got this!”

  “It’s not enough,” Seeley warned. “There are more of them than we expected. We must retreat and plan again!”

  Trev snarled as he caught a Darkling’s head and ripped it clean off his shoulders. I’d seen him in the Blood Arena before, and I knew he was bringing his top game to this fight. His movements were fast and fluid as he slipped between the fiends, using his claws to draw blood before taking each of them down, one decapitation after another. Even so, we were in trouble. The more we killed, the more of them poured in from the side streets.

  Our ghouls were dwindling, vanishing into puffs of ashes as they were chopped down by Darkling scythes. I worried about Rudolph, but I didn’t have time to follow him. All I could do was pray he’d make it.

  “Someone needs to reach the circle!” Night said. A second later, he was tackled by a horde of ghouls, and Widow came back to clear him. But it wouldn’t help, as a Darkling snuck through and drove a stake through Night’s shoulder. The spike was covered in death magic runes, and Night suddenly slowed and slumped down.

  Widow tried to catch the assailant but lost him in the ferocious crowd. Night was pinned down and virtually helpless, his eyes drooping. I reached him as Seeley covered my back.

  “What do I do?” I asked Night.

  “Break the circle,” he said, breathing heavily as his lips turned purple. “Break the circle, and we’ll be able to get out of here…”

  “But the stake, it’s clearly hurting you! I need to—”

  “Break the damn circle!” Night roared. “The stake is Spirit’s doing. I recognize the weapon. You won’t be able to do anything about it. Break the circle so one of us can zap what’s left of our crew out of here!”

  I gave Seeley a look, and he responded with a nod. “I’ll cover you,” he muttered.

  With no time to think of other options, I ran away from our cluster, dashing between the incoming Darklings and their ghouls with jaws opened wide, strings of drool swinging loose. Curved blades came down from different angles, each sharp edge thirsting for my spirit’s eternal death. As long as I had the scythe in my hand, they could all see me. But I couldn’t let go of it—I’d need it to break the circle.

  Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Seeley’s lips moving as his blade lit up. He was preparing a brutal offensive. I ducked as a ghoul jumped over me. It vanished in a puff of ashes as Seeley cut through it. I wished I’d learned more death magic so I’d be less vulnerable in the face of such dangers, but I only had myself and a scythe to work with. I’d have to make the most of it.

  We ran as fast as we could, sticking to the middle of the road leading out of Dieffen. Seeley passed me and started clearing a path through the incoming hostiles. I hadn’t seen him so fired up in a while, but I had faith in him. Seeley was an exceptional fighter and a savvy Reaper. His powers and knowledge might be limited, but he worked them to his utmost advantage.

  He moved like a shadow, cutting down everything in his path and stealing the occasional glance back to check on me. Whatever he failed to kill, I handled with my own weapon. The energy coming off the scythe was almost intoxicating—it flowed through me like raw energy, activating all my instincts. It reminded me of the Word itself when it had bonded with me during my ascension, and I realized something was happening to me.

  I wasn’t sure if it was the Word or another phenomenon, but I welcomed the rush as we fought our way out of Dieffen. My heart was the size of a marble. I was worried about Ridan and the others, but there wasn’t much I could do to help them unless I managed to break the circle around the town.

  We reached the perimeter where four Darklings calmly waited with arrogant smirks slitting their faces. They didn’t need masks with us, so I could see them clearly. Two of them I recognized from my first days in the palace—a lord and lady of the high court. It didn’t come as a surprise, but it definitely meant something that they’d come all the way up here to fight us.

  A trail of Darkling bodies and shimmering ashes lingered behind us, and there were more coming from along the edges of Dieffen to take us on. We only had seconds to do what we’d come here for. As usual, Seeley took the offensive, trying to kill as many of our opponents as possible before they reached me.

  But the four Darklings were still smiling and waiting. They stood along the circle, and I knew I’d have to take them all down before I could break the line in the dirt.

  “I’ve wanted this for a long time,” the Darkling lady said.

  “What, to get your head cut off by a ghost?” I shot back. “I’ll be happy to make that happen.”

  Seeley didn’t have any time for banter as he kept fighting the others off. “Nethi, you can handle them, so please do it now before I end up in chains again!”

  “Right away,” I hissed and bolted straight for the Darkling lady’s head. The lord met me halfway. As an Aeternae, he was faster, but he certainly didn’t have my tricks up his sleeve.

  There were mere inches of compressed air between us as he prepared to bring his sc
ythe down through me. I dropped mine, and for a moment, I vanished from his sight. As my weapon fell, I darted around until I got behind him and grabbed my scythe before it hit the ground.

  “Behind you!” the lady screamed.

  It was too late. I raised the blade and cut off his head in one swift blow. The other two Darklings came at me, and I had to recalculate my defense. I dodged some of their strikes while listening to the incessant clanking of Seeley’s weapon as it clashed with others behind us. The ghouls growled in their desperation to take a bite out of him—not because they wanted to, but because they were being coerced through death magic.

  One of my two attackers moved too slow and missed my head by inches. I took the opportunity to strike back, slicing through his side and opening a gaping wound. Blood sprayed outward and through me. He cried out in pain, but I wasn’t done. His partner was coming for me. I caught the wounded Darkling in a headlock, momentarily stunned by the fact that I could physically touch him.

  Whatever the reason, it worked to my advantage, so I didn’t hesitate. His partner drove down hard with his weapon, and I yanked on the wounded Darkling so the scythe cut deep into his throat. I quickly cut what was left with my blade, removing the head completely. Before his partner could try to attack me again, I tossed the head at him, momentarily distracting him.

  “Oh no, you don’t!” the Darkling lady growled. I heard her steps on the hard ground, but I was too focused on the partner. He rushed me, but I was already ahead. With one deep breath, I spun and decapitated him. The thump of his head rolling on the ground was swiftly followed by the lady’s angry scream.

  She almost got me, but I dropped my scythe again and pulled the trick once more, this time darting left before I caught it. I could almost hear her synapses exploding in disappointment as she spotted movement in the corner of her eye. By the time she turned to defend herself, I’d already swung my blade outward.

  She stilled, her eyes bulging. I watched her head fall, then glanced back at Seeley. He was struggling, increasingly surrounded and attacked from multiple angles. This was my shot. My chance to save everybody.