Vesik Series Boxset Book 3

by Eric Asher

  “What the hell is going to distract it?” Rick asked.

  “A boy and his dog,” I said, offering a small smile before I sprinted away with Bubbles. Now I could see the battle clearly, as well as the crashing waves below. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought I was hallucinating.

  Waves rose from the old quarry, surging forward and carrying towering equipment toward Graybeard’s ship.

  Still the harbinger closed on us, regardless of the undines attacking its shins and knees and climbing up to its eyes.

  Still it came.

  A massive conveyor belt lifted two dozen feet above Graybeard’s ship, and I saw the skeleton crew raise their muskets. The boom sent an unholy shot of gray through the wave, and I watched the waters collapse in on themselves, leaving the giant conveyor to crash into the side of Graybeard’s ship and bounce off with minimal damage.

  The pirate shouted as the waves rose again, and the cannons boomed over the side of the ship. What had been a towering tsunami collapsed in on itself completely, and I understood what had happened. The chaff of the stone daggers that was intended for the handheld weapons that Edgar had gifted us had been loaded into the cannons. It cut undines down like so much paper.

  Still the harbinger stalked onto the shore. I could feel its footsteps as it crashed into the rocks and made its way toward Main Street. The road beside the river buckled and snapped beneath the weight of the thing. The Bone Sails lit up again, nearer the opposite shore, and its cannons erupted.

  The harbinger’s hand rose to shield the back of its neck, as if it had expected the attack. As if it had known exactly what to listen for. Two of the cannon shots rebounded off its hand. One caught a glancing blow on the back of the harbinger’s skull, but the other sailed long, smashing into a storefront 100 yards in front of us.

  Undines spilled from the river, hacking and slashing at the few still clinging to the harbinger that hadn’t been swatted away by those massive hands. Some of them struck killing blows, and some managed to wound the others without killing them. I suspected they were using the poison blades instead of the stone daggers.

  “Kill it,” I said, pointing up at the massive harbinger.

  Whether Bubbles understood or not, she charged at the lumbering giant. She had a single-minded purpose and kept her eyes locked on the monstrosity before us. I drew the pepperbox and sent some of Mike’s incendiary rounds screaming into any water witch who paid too much attention to the cu sith.

  The one who made the mistake of getting in Bubbles’s path ended up with her throat torn out, frantically clawing at the gaping wound. Bubbles streaked up the harbinger’s leg, using claws and teeth to dig into the dark flesh. The harbinger slowed and looked down at the glowing green attack dog.

  I tried to judge the angle of the tanks, but I still didn’t think they had a shot. I raised the pepperbox and fired my last two incendiary rounds at the harbinger’s face. Its attention swung from the cu sith back to me. It started to take another step before Bubbles leaped and hooked her fangs into the harbinger’s eye. I cringed and flinched away at the sight of the cu sith clawing and scraping and digging into the harbinger’s head.

  The harbinger swung wildly, trying to dislodge Bubbles, but her head was entirely inside the thing’s eye, sending a spray of vitreous fluid down its cheek. Still the harbinger swung and spun until the soft flesh on the back of its head came into view.

  “Bubbles!” I shouted. When the first round of the tank fired, I screamed Bubbles’s name even louder. The shell smashed into the back of the harbinger’s head and sent a geyser of gore out the front of its face.

  The second round blew clean through the harbinger’s head as the whumph of the nearby tank deafened me to everything else. I couldn’t hear myself scream the cu sith’s name as the harbinger collapsed. There was no sign of her as the body tumbled forward and crashed down onto the edge of the river bank.

  I charged the enormous corpse, instinct and rage and fear swirling in one mad thought. That surge of adrenaline was enough to chase the exhaustion from my bones, enough for me to reach out and grab the harbinger’s aura. There was no flash of knowing, no horrible vision of whatever this thing had been. But inside I found no soul, no trace of what animated so much in our world.

  What I found instead was power, raw, unfiltered. I used it to pull the head of the harbinger from the waters. The horrible gristly crack of that act froze the water witches in their tracks. The few who had been stalking toward me backpedaled.

  They stared instead at the harbinger as its body rolled and roiled and what had been inside became the outside. Its massive skeleton fell away from the flesh as I lifted it. A soft green glow emanated from the left eye socket. I dragged the skull on sheer will alone, bringing it closer until I could reach the cu sith inside. She was panting, curled up in a ball, but I couldn’t tell if she was injured through the splash of gore that permeated her coat. I let the skull come to rest on the parking lot beside me, and I waited for Bubbles to climb out of the blown orbital socket. She sniffed at me, and then shook herself off violently, the wet smack of meaty chunks slapping against me as all the tentativeness in her motions left. Gore coated me from head to foot, and I’d never been so happy to be so disgusting.

  One of the tanks pulled up beside us, and I glanced over to see Rick. His face looked hesitant, but his voice was confident. “Where to next, boss?”

  “Keep your guns trained on the riverfront. You might not be able to kill them, but blowing them apart will slow them down. And if you see those vampire things with helmets on, just shut yourself up in the tank and wait.”

  “You got it.” I heard Rick shout to his men, ordering them to keep line of sight on the riverfront and the north end of Main Street. I hoped they’d pulled back far enough to guard the hospital, when I remembered that the hospital likely had a guardian all its own. Aeros would be there. I had no doubt.

  “Come on, Bubbles. Let’s go eat some water witches.”

  Bubbles chuffed, shook out her rear leg and dropped a few more bits of gore on the ground. Her giant pink tongue worried at a large chunk of meat lodged between her fangs.

  We made it down to the broken street, unopposed by the water witches, who appeared to have fled back into the waters.

  A new line had formed upriver, and I could see Alexandra’s black hair as she commanded the soldiers on the riverfront. Nixie’s forces were driving the queen’s water witches back into the Bone Sails. Fire and gunpowder stormed along the rails of the warship. Peanut’s booming barks joined the gunfire as any undine that dared to board was cut down by the cu sith’s fangs, or the flickering swords of Foster and Aideen. Graybeard commanded a nightmare army. Nothing could stand in their way.

  The battle pitched and shifted, swaying upriver and back as Graybeard chased down an undine who’d tried to escape. Alexandra cornered her upstream. The sight had me transfixed, which was likely why I didn’t see the pools shift at my feet, didn’t see the translucent arms rising behind me, and didn’t see the armored shape of the undine who pressed her blade into my throat.

  “Call off your dog,” the undine hissed in my ear.

  “I’d rather have her just eat your face,” I said.

  The dagger bit into my neck, and it was done with such careful precision that I knew the witch would have no issues cutting my throat.

  Bubbles finally noticed the water witch and barked like a thunderclap. Another water witch formed beside the cu sith, but this one I knew. Euphemia wrapped her arms around Bubbles and whispered to the cu sith, “No.”

  “I’m sure she can kill one undine,” I said.

  “It’s not one,” Euphemia said. “There are many.”

  “Summon your leader,” the undine with the knife said. “Or her mortal dies.”

  Euphemia closed her eyes, and something in her breastplate pulsed blue.

  “Don’t,” I said. “I’m not—”

  “Silence, child,” hissed the undine who had me.


  Without seeing her position, I doubted I could summon a Fist of Anubis with enough accuracy to do any good. And by the time I called a suit of gravemakers, I’d be long dead.

  Shit.

  The fighting in the river drew down. Graybeard’s ship wheeled around, and I wasn’t sure if I felt better or worse with the cannons leveled at me. And blunderbusses weren’t exactly known for their accuracy.

  Nixie stood at the bow of the Bone Sails. “You kill him now, and you only seal your fate. I will take your throne regardless.”

  I stiffened at her words. I hadn’t been caught by some random water witch—the queen herself had captured me.

  “Millennia,” the queen spat, “and you would throw it away for flesh.”

  “Lewena,” Nixie said, “your rule is not just. You never should have taken the throne.”

  “You handed it to me.” The sneer in the water witch’s voice was plain. A moment passed before I heard a pop come from behind us. Before I felt something sharp cut into my cheek. Before I felt the dagger drag across my shoulder to bounce harmlessly off my vest.

  I spun to find Lewena standing behind me, a webwork of stone etching through her like lightning. I backpedaled, getting closer to the shore when another shot rang out. The witch who moved to grab the failing queen went down in a heap, half of her head disintegrated. A third shot. A third undine fell. Nixie held up her hand, and I suspected she was calling for an end to the shooting. I didn’t know if the snipers would heed her call or not.

  But I caught movement on the second floor of the welcome center. Casper raised her fist in unity, and perhaps respect. And no more shots came. Nixie leaped off the Bone Sails’ bow, walking slowly forward until she was face-to-face with the failing queen.

  I closed on them both, fumbling with a pouch on my hip. Most of the things inside Death’s Door were for the greater good. Or to help, or defend, but some… some were meant to do terrible, terrible things.

  Before any more was said, Nixie’s stone dagger struck the heart of the queen.

  A moment later, I thrust a fairy bottle into Lewena’s mouth. As her life spasmed away, the witches around us reeled in horror when the vortex inside that bottle roared to life. It sucked away Lewena’s aura, and eventually her immortal soul. I ripped the bottle out of her mouth before slamming the stopper home.

  Nixie stared down at the ruin of her queen.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  There is a calm after every great battle, while the boiling passions and unstoppered violence slowly retreat into the darkest places of our hearts. Some of the military might have congratulated us, even celebrated with us briefly, as our mutual enemy fell.

  But others looked at us as if we would betray them at any moment; an ally who with one hand offered peace and with the other sold their greatest enemy their most powerful weapons. Park and Casper’s squad were formidable human allies, but I worried about the growing hatred and fear from Stacy and his ilk.

  I winced away from Aideen when she pressed around the cut on my neck.

  “Stay still. We have to heal this. I can’t be sure that wasn’t a poison dagger.”

  I gave Nixie a mournful look. “Can’t you just tell if there’s like bad juju in the wound?”

  “Bad … what?”

  I let out an exasperated sigh and leaned on the wooden kitchen chair in the back room of Death’s Door. “Fine. Do it.”

  The familiar sting of the healing began, like a line of wasps stitching my neck together, before the feeling changed. It burned, and the burning spread far past the wound. That odd sensation told me Aideen had been right.

  The queen had sliced me with a poison dagger, which made me wonder where the blade had gone after she’d dropped it, after Casper had taken her with a shot to the head. And I wondered how that moment would be remembered by the water witches. Would they remember a human had brought down one of their strongest? Or would they remember Nixie plunging the dagger into the queen’s heart? Or the horror of the fairy bottle?

  The light of the healing, and the sting, slowly faded. “Okay, okay, you were right.” I grunted and rubbed my neck.

  “It will leave some trace of a scar,” Aideen said.

  “Really? I thought you were good.”

  Aideen huffed. “It was at your queen’s request.”

  I smiled up at Nixie. “I knew you’d dig the scars.”

  “It is a trophy of our victory,” Nixie said.

  Frank’s voice grew louder in the front of the room. “And then a freaking skeleton threw me a blunderbuss like an actual pirate. It blew that water witch to pieces!”

  “Only because I didn’t let the other one rip out your spine,” Sam said.

  “Tearing out spines is really hard,” Foster said. “There is a serious art to it, and I doubt it could be accomplished on a moving ship in the middle of an undine storm.”

  I smiled and listened to them chatter about the battle as I stared up at Nixie.

  She frowned slightly, and I didn’t think I’d like what she had to say.

  “I have to go back.”

  “For how long?” I asked.

  “Until I prove Lewena is dead.” Her hand cradled the fairy bottle, which hung on a thin chain around her neck. “And the coronation.”

  I nodded. “I’ll miss you.”

  She put her hand on my cheek and smiled. “I’ll miss you too. But the fight lies in Falias now. I’d ask you to come with me, but I know you can’t leave your place in this war, either. One day it will end, and things will be different.”

  “You two are so sappy,” Aideen said, a completely unmasked disgust in her voice.

  I grinned at the fairy, and we slowly made our way to the front of Death’s Door, and down to the damaged riverbank by the harbinger’s body. Aeros stood close to its head, pointing out at the river and saying something to the soldier at his side.

  The man shifted, and I could see it was Park, with Casper standing beside him. I raised my arm in greeting, and Casper waved back.

  “We were just talking about how to clean up this mess,” Park said. “Aeros seems to think he can rebuild the river banks without much of an issue. Although, I was more interested in his ability to rebuild that old road. I don’t think the historical society will be thrilled with this.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, tanks and cobblestones do not mix.”

  Park rubbed the back of his neck. “I think it’ll be good. If Aeros helps.” He glanced up at the Old God. “After what happened with the tank, I think it’d help a lot in explaining things to my superiors.”

  “Your bullet saved the mortal prince of the water witches,” Nixie said, turning to Casper. “I thank you, and am in your debt.”

  “The mortal what?” Casper and I echoed the same time.

  “It’s only a title,” Nixie said. “I must go. Alexandra’s waiting to escort me.”

  “I’ve given the order not to engage any water witches.” Park paused, and then released a chortling laugh. “I’ve never seen a look on the general’s face quite like when you said Damian is not to be fucked with.”

  “Yes,” I said. “It was very subtle.”

  Nixie smiled. “Most of the water witches have disbanded. Though, should you have trouble with any of them, you need only ask.”

  “I thank you,” Park said.

  Nixie nodded before she kissed me, long and deep, until I grew a little uncomfortable with the eyes all around us. But that discomfort vanished as I realized I didn’t know how long it might be before I’d see her again. I pulled her close and held her tight, until she finally broke away. She grew translucent, and stepped into the waters that had so recently been boiling with blood.

  Forgotten Ghosts

  Eric R. Asher

  ~

  Tamales or chimichangas? Is it a plot clue? Foreshadowing? No, I’m hungry.

  ~

  CHAPTER ONE

  The ocean calmed as we made our seat among the hexagonal structures of Giant’s Causeway. Nixie unwra
pped her arm from around my waist and snatched the blue and white cardboard box from my grip.

  “Of all the food we could get here,” I said, “you really wanted a Crave Case?”

  “It’ll be some time before I’m back in Saint Charles,” Nixie said as she popped the box open, and the very foreign scent of White Castle cheeseburgers mingled with the salt of the surrounding ocean. “In fact, I suspect Finn McCool himself would rather enjoy these sandwiches, if they were only a bit larger.”

  A slow smile pulled at the corners of my lips. I took a slider from Nixie and turned my attention back to the shoreline. The causeway had become one of my favorite places to visit. A surreal landscape where you could almost imagine yourself in an alien world. Perhaps not as alien as the Abyss itself, but a more welcoming land, with far more hope than the darkness had.

  “It’s quiet here.” I took a deep breath and sighed.

  “The ocean is quite loud,” Nixie said. “Did I damage you?” She raised an eyebrow and leaned forward, one side of her mouth lifting ever so slightly.

  I barked out a short laugh. “I mean the dead. They’re quiet here. It’s not like the constant roar back home, especially on the battlefields.” I rubbed at my back and grimaced. “But that wasn’t the most comfortable place I’ve ever had sex.”

  Nixie raised an eyebrow. “You were on top almost the entire time.”

  “I’m not as squishy as you,” I said, grumbling.

  “Are you calling me fat?” she asked with a sly grin.

  I snorted a laugh. “I’m not … why would you even … I’m just saying I need pants.”

  A slow smile crawled across Nixie’s face. “Sam was right. You look flustered.”

  I froze. “She told you to say that?”

  Silence.

  “Stupid vampire,” I muttered. My sister had always been a master of the guilt trip.