Malice of the Cross

by Jeremy Croston

  No one would ever confuse me for a scholar, let’s be honest. Still, I didn’t need to be one, it was clear to see where this story was going. “The witch, was she a gypsy?”

  “A notorious one that dabbled in black magic. The dark master she sought was my brother. By that time, Vlad was well versed in blood magic from his human sacrifices.”

  There was just one last question that needed to be spoken aloud. “The elderly couple with no children, their last name was Brinza, was it not?”

  “Your true lineage began in a pantry off of the kitchen in Castle Dracul, in Wallachia,” he stated solemnly. “Vlad has never traced your family back to his witch, Esmerelda. And that is our greatest weapon. Don’t see this as a curse, but a chance to save Europe before it falls.”

  As much as I wanted to see the bright side, as Radu did for once, the idea of being connected that closely to Vlad made me sick. “My family’s skills, they are born out of dark spells, are they not?”

  “Magic is inherently neither good nor evil. It is the master and his or her intentions that give magic its defining trait, Maximus.”

  I wish I could say his words eased my mind. I looked at my hands; hands I knew were capable of performing feats most men couldn’t. These were the hands that killed daemons, daemons as strong as The Jackal! Yet, what if I were to fall to corruption? Then these hands would be capable of doing horrible things. I didn’t know how to process it all.

  “There’s nothing you can do to change your lineage, Maximus,” Radu said kindly. It was the first time I heard a sense of compassion from him. His red eyes, as damned as they were, always showed that side, even if he tried to hide it. “Both Ivan and Denis had trouble coming to terms. If you didn’t, I’d be very much worried.”

  “Tell me, did either of them ever get seduced by the darkness?”

  “We all get seduced by the inherent evils of the world. How we respond to them, that’s what makes our legacy.”

  Radu let me think on that as he reentered camp and lay down. He fell to sleep much easier than I did. Once I fell asleep, things didn’t get any better for my conscience…

  Chapter Twelve

  V lad! Vlad was standing in front of me. No, not me, someone else. He was putting his shirt back on, his upper body looked as powerful as they came. His features were just like Radu’s, except harsher. There was not a trace of empathy in the daemon. This was a man who killed on a whim, even as a human.

  “Esmerelda,” he called. “Has Bishop Brandon deployed the high clergyman yet?”

  I answered. No, God no! I was seeing events through the eyes of my ancestor! “Yes,” the woman’s voiced cooed. My Lord, she was in love with this… creature. “The Englishman is in our thrall and will do exactly what we ask.”

  Vlad looked pleased. “When Ariana returns, go to the labyrinth below the castle and free the shades. I need to make sure Radu and the current generation of Brinza die before they reach the walls of the Vatican.”

  Esmerelda gulped in horror. “The shades, Master?”

  “Is there a problem with my orders, Esmerelda?” Vlad’s question was asked in a calm voice, yet there was an underlying implication death would await those who did not do as he asked. “Yes, the shades. Radu is resourceful. He’s made me call even the most detestable creatures from the depths to deal with him.”

  Easing up, “Very well, Master.” I felt her bow towards him. “We will do anything you ask, to make sure Drakovia is realized.”

  “We are so close,” he gloated. “With the Vatican in our grasps, with the elimination of my brother and that damned family he’s empowered, nothing will be left to stop us.”

  “Maximus!” a voice called out. When I didn’t respond, I felt a hand strike the side of my face, hard. “Maximus, you must awaken!”

  My eyes shot open. My breath was heavy and I was covered in sweat. “What happened?” I barely got out.

  Abigail’s lame eyes were somehow focused on me. “You started chanting, it was an odd language. I was convinced you were possessed.”

  “He wasn’t possessed,” Radu drawled out. He was standing over her, his arms crossed. There was a flash of concern on his face. “He was chanting the old gypsy language.”

  I sat up quickly, causing Abigail to jump backwards. I had to tell Radu, right away. “I saw him! I saw him through the eyes of my ancestor.”

  This broke the calm façade Radu normally had. “You connected to Esmerelda?” he asked, without a care in the world of who heard him. “I’ve never heard anything like this before. What happened, what did they say?” he asked in quick succession.

  Before I could tell him anything, I had to relax. The flashes of the memories scattered the moment I woke up. I needed a moment to put the pieces back together. “He’s working with a bishop, shit; the name escapes me at the moment. It was Vlad who had the bishop send the clergyman after us.”

  Radu blanched. “Where is Vlad? Has he reached Italia yet?”

  “He has the Vatican under his thumb. We’re too late.”

  Abigail took this news hard. Even though she’d been betrayed by those who she served when she lost her vision, she stayed faithful to the Lord. “Have mercy on me, my God, for in you I take refuge,” she quoted. Psalm 57:1; not a bad verse to look towards with the revelation of Vlad’s position.

  “This makes our task that much more difficult.”

  “I think we realize that, Radu.”

  The vampyre backed off. “I apologize. I know both of you look to the Vatican for strength. Knowing it is in his clutches, that’s not an easy proposition to deal with.”

  To take my mind off of that, for the moment, I had to ask Radu about one more thing. “Do you know what the shades are?”

  He moved forward and gripped me by my coat. “Did Vlad release the shades?” There was desperation in his voice.

  “Yes,” I answered, afraid of his reaction.

  “Dammit,” he muttered. “Dammit all. Hurry, pack up—we must make it to the mountains before they come.”

  There was no debate to be had. Radu didn’t explain anything else; he just wanted us to move. Even though the sun was still dominating the sky, he wasn’t wasting any time. The shades must’ve been terrible for Radu to forego waiting until nighttime to make our ascent. When we were bundled up and ready, the three of us stayed in the shadows as much as possible. Unfortunately, the last stretch to the foot of the mountain range was in wide open spaces.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to wait?” Abigail asked Radu.

  The stubborn vampyre shrugged her off. “Time is not our friend. The shades will avoid places that are bitterly cold. The higher we can get and the sooner, the safer we’ll be until I figure out a way to deal with them.”

  I wanted an answer first. “What is so bad about these daemons? We’ve dealt with some bad creatures before.”

  “Shades,” he spat. “They are formless, sentient beasts from the very depths of Hell. Basically shadows, they need hosts to fight for them, but even in their natural state, they can drive a person insane.”

  “How do you fight a shadow?”

  “You don’t, Abigail,” Radu said plainly.

  With that information in place, our sense of urgency picked up to our leader’s. The hike to the mountain took much out of Radu, but we were lucky that the sun fell under the horizon shortly after we began to climb upwards. The vampyre found his strength and had no problem making the ascent. Abigail, on the other hand, was having issues. Being blind was not conducive to mountain trekking.

  She knew it, too. “Leave me behind,” she begged. “I’m only holding the two of you back.”

  “No, all three of us will be needed not only to get to Vlad, but to defeat him.” Radu’s conviction in our team was refreshing. “We rest, for the Seer.”

  As we sat down, you could feel a palpable tension in the air. “I don’t understand why climbing into the mountains was necessary in the first place,” I challenged.

  Using the mounta
ins was always Radu’s plan. I had wanted to call him out on this before, but when we were presented with the shades coming for us, Radu seemed vindicated in his logic. “The mountains provide us with a defense against dark creatures. Up here, we’re close to your God’s territory. The denizens of Hell would like to remain far away.”

  “I believe this is the first time you’ve supported our beliefs.”

  This made Abigail chuckle. “Who knew the brooding vampyre respected God?”

  Radu, yet again, became annoyed with us. “I’d like to remind the two of you that I saw Satan with my own two eyes, bursting forth from that portal Vlad and his abominations created. I always believed in God; I just turned away when the answer to effecting Vlad’s death was to become as foul as he is.”

  That was nonsense. “Good will triumph in the end. It always does, Radu.”

  “Your faith is stronger than even that of your grandfather’s,” he told me. “Like you, Denis was always quoting scripture in tough times. Ivan, he was more a realist. That’s probably why we got along a bit better,” he added.

  My strong religious convictions came from my mother. Radu was right about my father, he was a bit of a pessimist when it came to God’s master plan for each of us, but mother, she believed. We prayed for my father’s safe return every night when he was the one hunting the damned. Mother died not too long after father’s disappearance. That’s when the church took me in, as it had my friend, Julius. Or it tried to. Having learned a bit from Ivan by that time, I spent most of my time in the woods, perfecting my daemon hunting skills.

  Abigail was listening intently to our conversation. “I believe Proverbs 18:10 said it best— The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe.”

  “The Alps represent our strong tower, don’t you think, Radu?”

  He still wouldn’t give in. “The terrain is our friend. Are you ready to travel, Seer?”

  Abigail stood back up. “Yes, the rest was exactly what was needed. Thank you,” she said gratefully.

  We all froze. There was a noise behind us. Radu, being the quickest of us all, had his weapon at the ready. “Come out, I know you’re there.”

  With no point left in hiding, the figure walked out, into the moonlight. It was the high clergyman. “Daemon, I told you I would find you. Are you ready to die?”

  Up close, it was easy to see why this man had been assigned this task. He was imposing, powerful. He held his broadsword, easily the length of a regular man, with one hand. He brandished it forward with ease. The white of his armor glowed, giving him the ethereal appearance of one of Heaven’s chosen warriors. We were his targets and he planned to kill us.

  “Stop,” I commanded.

  The high clergyman was not expecting me to address him in such a way. “You dare interfere, interloper? Are you ready for a quick death?”

  In that moment, the key part of my dream that had been escaping me came back. “Your master, Bishop Brandon, he works for the true evil of this land.”

  “Silence!” he shouted. I’d rattled him. “I will not have you speak ill of one of the Lord’s highest priests.”

  “The one who consorts with Satan, clergyman? Aren’t you supposed to execute those who turn their back on the Lord’s words?” Radu taunted him.

  We had pushed this warrior too far. “Enough,” he growled. “The three of you will soon find out what the taste of Heavenly steel is like.” With that, the clergyman attacked.

  Chapter Thirteen

  T he church’s highest ranking warrior was as skilled as Radu. Their blades crossed numerous times, neither man giving ground. The clergyman was the first to back off, but not because he was forced to retreat. His arms were longer than the vampyre’s and he decided to use that length to his advantage. Radu wasn’t able to get near him, instead being forced to go on the defensive. The holy warrior’s brutal strikes weren’t giving him any leeway.

  Radu was a swordsman with over three hundred years of experience. He kept his frustration under control. He sheathed his sword, taking the clergyman by surprise. Radu grabbed a few daggers and began running around the man, tossing the daggers with deadly speed. It was the clergyman’s turn to go from offense to defense, using the flat part of his blade to knock the daggers away as they hurtled through the night air.

  Abigail and I stayed back. This wasn’t a fight meant for just ordinary mortals. There was something quite different about the clergyman; he was just as supernatural as Radu. What manner of creature he was, I couldn’t tell you. Maybe he was just very blessed, the Divine’s power flowing through him. He was not an enemy to take lightly.

  Radu’s dagger-throwing barrage came to an end. None managed to touch the white clad holy man. Both warriors were breathing much heavier, but I got the impression that the feeling-out round was coming to an end. Watching two combatants engaged in such heavy warfare, one could almost peer into their souls. Both Radu and the clergyman had a lot more to give. What we’d seen so far was nothing.

  Radu reached for his sword once more and the clergyman readied himself. The vampyre used his quickness once again, attacking before the clergyman could prepare his own. All he could do was stop Radu’s blow with his blade. Radu’s fangs were showing and he lunged towards his opponent’s neck. The clergyman’s eyes went wide, his pulse beating so hard his veins bulged.

  Then he punched Radu. Hard.

  Radu’s jaw dropped from the blow and blood began to leak from the side of his mouth. I’d never seen anyone actually hurt the vampyre. Abigail whispered to me, “I think the holy man just pissed him off even more.”

  She was even more perceptive than most people with two working eyes. “I believe you are right.”

  The red eyes of the daemon began to burn. Literally, flames erupted from the sockets. This confirmed rumors that scared townsfolk used to whisper, that incredibly old vampyres were able to summon the flames from Hell itself. There was even an old wives’ tale about Vlad destroying an entire village with falling fire from the Heavens.

  A dark cloud formed overhead. At first embers began to fall from it. That led to something much worse as a great ball of fire plunged towards the ground. Upon impact, it blew up the area we were standing in. I went one way, Abigail went the other. As I regained my feet, Radu was standing in the middle of the newly formed inferno. He looked just like his brother.

  “Radu, stop this immediately!” I shouted.

  “No,” he answered. His voice was cold, daemonic. He was no longer in control of the darkness inside him. “There will be no stopping until all of Vlad’s rodents are incinerated.”

  “Abigail’s hurt.”

  Hearing those two words, the burning rage in his eyes died down. They returned to their normal shade of red, only rage was replaced with immediate regret. “What have I done?”

  “You showed what you truly are, Hell beast,” called the clergyman. He had left the ring of fire and was on top of a horse that none of us had previously seen. “You can pretend to be doing the work of the Lord, but we both know what you really are.” With that last declaration, the clergyman disappeared into the night.

  I’d made my way over to Abigail, who was sporting a bad bruise on her head. “What did you do?! What the hell was that about?!” It was my turn to find my anger.

  Radu’s back was to us. He didn’t say anything, instead he walked away. There was still a barrier of fire between us, so there was no way for me to confront him. With Abigail injured, I wouldn’t have left her side anyway.

  “Go after him,” Abigail mumbled.

  “No,” I said sternly.

  I laid her head down and put my hands over her eyes, forcing her to rest. Radu’s latest display was something so unholy, I wasn’t even sure how to deal with it. He summoned Hell fire through his eyes and brought it down upon his allies. This was it for me, Radu was just as terrible as his brother, no matter what lies he tried to tell us.

  I sat down beside Abigail, my new duty was to protect
her until she was ready to travel. Even without Radu, we were going to fulfil our task. At least I was. I hoped that when Abigail awoke, she would still be willing to travel with me.

  A hand reached out and touched my own. The sun was up, meaning I must have dozed off myself. It was Abigail, who was sitting up. The bruise was still deep purple on her left cheek. In the light, I also spotted a nasty red contusion just under her bangs. She pushed them off to the side, as if it didn’t bother her.

  “We need to go find him, you know.”

  Ha! If anything, we were better off without Radu. He was just as dangerous to us as what we were facing. “We’ll be fine on our own, Abigail.”

  “You don’t understand, while I was asleep, I had another vision.”

  Blowing that off would’ve been easier for me than listening to a tale that cast a sympathetic light on the vampyre. It would’ve also proven I was a terrible companion. So I sat quietly while the Seer told me about her latest dream.

  Abigail told me how she witnessed Radu’s first attempt, by himself, to remove his brother from the Realm of Man. Fifty years had passed since the night both of the brothers had been turned into vampyres. Vlad had built an army of the damned, through creation of his own vampyres and freeing daemons from Hell. Radu, not wanting to confront an entire army, snuck into Castle Dracul through a caravan passing by.

  His knowledge of the castle made avoiding trouble easy. When he reached the throne room, he kicked the doors open only to discover it vacant. Vlad wasn’t at his castle, but had left a taunting note for his brother.

  “Vlad knew Radu was in the area and it was only a matter of time until he’d try something,” Abigail explained. Her connection to his feelings during those dream states ran deep. “And when Radu saw the note, he lost control for the very first time.”

  With his brother having left Wallachia to invade Moldavia, the note was the final nail. ‘I hope you are enjoying your newfound life amongst the daemons you hate. Enjoy knowing your damnation not only pertains to this life, but the next as well.’