I closed my eyes, holding back the tears as a pained expression swept over my face. I just couldn’t get the memory of it out of my head. I kept seeing my hand reaching out to her, my fingertips blurring as her dead white eyes came in to focus. All that blood, soaking up the white tips of her hair and that beauty shining through, even in the face of death.
I gritted my teeth and tapped the edge of my blade on the stone walls of the cell block a few times. The echoing sound soothed my nerves, telling me I could do this.
I would do this.
I straightened my frame along with my resolve and continued through the dimly lit space that I could only barely see from the few torches that were lit. It seemed Harpies had far better eyesight than humans did.
I continued to walk around in what seemed like a maze with no purpose until I came to a broken set of stairs that finally led above and out of this madness. The staircase was made of wood with a lot of the steps either rotten or missing completely. This then meant that when my foot went through one, I screamed anyway despite not being surprised. Thankfully, it was a sound that didn’t travel far, or if it did, then no one had been around to hear it.
I carefully pulled my foot up and out of the hole, gripping on to whatever wood I could find that looked strong enough to hold my weight. Doing all this while trying not to lose my weapon in the process. Once back on my feet, I continued up the stairs with more determination and admittedly, more care. Damn, but now was not the time to be clumsy and well, looking down the centre of the spiral staircase, I knew it was a long way to the bottom. Not only that but falling through one of the treads would no doubt mean falling through them all. Gods, by the sounds this wood was making I felt as if I were walking over thin ice on a frozen lake.
The moment the staircase started to narrow further I knew that I must have been climbing some sort of tower and now it wasn’t just the steps that had been left to ruin. But then again, what did Harpies need with steps?
“Duh, Fae,” I muttered to myself, already out of breath and in need of about six pints of water! Well, at the very least I had healed from my injuries, ones sustained from when I was knocked out and kicked in the ribs…thank you Harpy bitch but more sincerely, thank you Lucius for your magical blood.
“Oh Gods,” I hissed, pausing to lean against the stone wall, covering my mouth with my hands. Shamefully, I hadn’t even thought of Lucius until now. Of course, it wasn’t as if I hadn’t been a little preoccupied, what with killing things and dissecting them for slightly insane and sinister reasons. Which also meant that I hadn’t thought of the shit storm that was going to come from his wrath at finding me missing yet again! Fuck, but I was going to find myself locked up for good this time! First the McBain brothers and now fucking Harpies…I mean what the Hell was wrong with me! Was I seriously a magnet for this shit, talk about a chip off the old block…thanks Mum, I thought wryly, being aware of only some of the times she managed to get herself kidnapped and needed her ass saving.
“You’re in Hell, that’s what, idiot!” I scorned myself, and speaking of which,
“Time to get this shit over with!” I said with a snarl of my own whilst looking up to realise I was near the top as I could see more natural rays of light reflecting off the stone. Of course, I soon discovered why when I reached the last few steps. The tower looked as if a giant boulder had catapulted through the air and had taken it out. In fact, the second I breached the crumbling stone and looked out to the view in front of me, I realised it wasn’t just the tower.
“It’s the whole castle,” I muttered in awe as I took it all in. To be honest, all that was left of the place were crumbling battlements and towers surrounding a bailey that was filled with broken stone from the castle and thick clusters of soul weed. I couldn’t tell if the castle had been attacked or it had just been left to ruin. Its walls almost looked so deteriorated it gave it a sense from up here as if pieces of it had simply melted away. Grey stone matched that of both the soul weed below and the dead landscape I could barely see past the fog. And like this, I could also see arched doorways to nowhere and windows that had long been without glass. Few features remained of what it once was, but one thing I was certain, before its ruin it would have been spectacular and beautiful.
Of course, that was minus all the Harpies that now occupied its space below, with a few of them I could see perched at the different levels of broken stone walls. The main group, however, seemed to be circling something below, snapping out at it making me wonder if I had just been about to interrupt their evening meal? Well, whatever it was, something was obviously keeping their attention and with their large bat like wings stretched out, it was something I couldn’t yet see.
What I could see, however, was the lack of Harpies at this level, which gave me an advantage and time to make a plan. It also awarded me a view of the two larger Harpies, who admittedly stood out from the rest, not just for their size but for their difference in features also. Their hair for example was different shades, although styles were obviously a thing of the past and long gone. No now, each of them wore it long and hanging down in knotted waves.
One had larger, more pointed ears than the other, and one had black spots mottled on its skin. This one also had a red tinge to her hair making me wonder if she used to be a redhead before being cursed and sent down here? Either way, she was an ugly creature now, and her overly large jaw was one filled with rows of long, thin, pointed teeth. It also made her narrow chin jut out further than it needed to be, which was made more prominent with the superior way she kept lifting and nodding her head as she clicked her jaw.
It was an unnerving sound, even from way up here. The two were currently sat in the largest empty arch that looked as if it once belonged to some broken church window or something. Underneath it was another arch that was made dark by the remaining part of the building behind it. One that had me wondering if this was the main part of their lair?
It was obvious that they had stolen this place, being known as the scavengers of the sky and well, the two fuglies, as Aunty Pip would say, looked to be the leaders of these hairless rodents with wings. Now all I needed to do was figure out a way to tap back into the power that had come out before, and I knew it would give me the edge in this fight I was looking for. Oh, who was I kidding, it was one I needed, well past the point of borderline desperation, I was just plain desperate! Because I knew I wasn’t getting out of here without it…whatever it was.
Keeping low, I emerged from the tower and made my way along the battlements, being careful of both where I stood and where the broken stone was. However, my foot slipped, and the stone crumbled beneath me enough that it went rolling down the side. This meant that I had to save myself quickly from going down with it and drop to my belly so they wouldn’t see me.
I heard one of the two Harpies snarl up at my direction, but when I heard nothing more, I lifted my head to have a sneaky peek. They had turned back to the swarm at the centre, making me realise that having parts of the castle crumbling around them was most likely a regular occurrence.
But then movement overhead quickly had me reacting once more as I suddenly found myself ducking again. I also had to roll this time so the half wall around the battlements could hide me from above. This was so I couldn’t be seen by the largest Harpy of them all, who was flying over the edge of the castle walls. Thankfully, a big enough crack in the wall I was curled up against allowed me a good view of below.
The Harpy swooped low, making all the smaller minions below call out to her in some high-pitched cry. She circled the bailey, with her green toned wings glinting off the few fires that were dotted around the space in cast iron grills. The large Harpy, then circled back towards the biggest arch and after her wings batted her back enough to stop mid-air, she lifted her skirt and reached out with her bird feet to grab the edge. The other two made room for her instantly, each moving to their sides so she could perch in the middle.
Then she started to speak, and I recognised in
stantly that same malevolent voice that had taken me. She also wore the same headpiece made of shadowy fingers that hissed like snakes and reached out like dead souls trying to grasp back at life. Her eyes were also different, slanted snake eyes of crimson pools of hatred. However, her face and body weren’t like the other Harpies.
No, amazingly, she was in a scary way, beautiful. I couldn’t understand how she was, for what I knew of Harpies, being beautiful was far from how one would be described. Yet here was this radiant, if not bat shit crazy, beauty that had dirty white wings with tips of emerald green.
She was even dressed in a regal medieval dress that was most definitely what you would call form fitting. Her dress was made of dark green satin that looked almost as black as her coiled dark hair. It was a style she wore twisted and curled up around the headdress she wore, pinned in such a way it became hard to distinguish between what was hair or not. It reminded me of a traditional Japanese headdress cross between a helmet of a samurai warrior. The front of which came down low and covered her forehead in a V shape, with the point touching the bridge of her nose. Her eyes, which had once been slanted and that of a crimson snake, were now as a human’s was. Well, if that human had dark green eyes and looked menacing to the point of murderous that was.
She had slim features that admittedly gave her a regal edge, with a thin nose, high cheekbones and distinct jawline that lent its way to a graceful neck. Her body was also all that of a woman and not at all like the painful flash bag of bones like the rest of her hideous race. Her tight bodice was embroidered with swirls of roses and thorns that framed the lines of her body, mirroring the V shape of her headdress as it finished at a harsh point at her navel.
Long bell-shaped sleeves were tight around her slender shoulders and tops of her arms before flaring out at the elbow, making her hands appear swallowed up by swathes of material. The skirt was the same, being a full skirt making her look like some dark medieval Queen out for killing all that threatened to take her crown. Basically, she was your typical looking fairy tale baddie, other than the fact she had wings and feathered bird’s feet hidden underneath her skirt, legs that you only saw when she lifted the material enough to aid in her landing.
In short, she didn’t look like a Harpy at all, which made me question…was this their Queen?
Whether she was or she wasn’t, it didn’t matter. She was the one that brought me here and she was the one that needed to pay! A flash of that same image assaulted me, with my fingertips reaching out to Nero only to blur again before haunting me with those dead eyes. In the end, this was all it took for that rage to ignite something in me and I could feel it happening again, only this time more slowly.
I looked down at my hands to find them twitching uncontrollably, as if I was casting spells or commanding something invisible just beyond my fingertips. That’s when I saw it seeping up through the cracks and gaps in the stone. Small lines of blood appeared like red grout between the blocks before it overflowed and turned into pools of crimson. Each one started to join up until suddenly I found myself lying surrounded by a small moat of blood, as if protecting me in some way.
I had no idea how I was summoning this blood or how I knew that I could summon a lot more than that. I didn’t even know where it had come from, I only knew that it seemed to be linked to my anger. Linked to the very hatred I could feel burning inside me as if it would soon burst and when it did, I knew exactly where I wanted it aimed at!
So, I rolled to my front, mindful of the blood and once my knees were under me, I got to my feet, looking out to the Harpies below and getting ready to unleash the fury that was building inside me.
I would kill them all!
I started to lift my arms out wide, as if this was all instinct kicking in and knew that it would cause more damage this way. When suddenly I heard a muffled scream just as the Harpy Queen laughed. Then she raised a slender hand, flicking it aside and giving a command for the swarm to separate. I also knew that my time for getting them all was now or never, as I needed them in a large group like this. Because I didn’t know how hard it would be directing this power at any should they decide to take flight and attack me from above.
But then something in me couldn’t seem to go through with it. As though I was being held back and it was a feeling only explained the moment when enough of the Harpies parted, that I knew why.
Because I wasn’t their only prisoner.
And death had not been delivered like I thought it had. Suddenly those fingers in my memory curled back into a fist as those dead milky eyes flickered back to life.
A sight my mind had missed before unconsciousness had taken me.
“Thank the Gods…” I muttered closing my eyes before whispering her name like a prayer that had been answered…
“Nero.”
Chapter Eleven
Back from the Dead
“She’s alive!” I muttered in utter shock at what I was now seeing!
Nero was currently chained to a wooden post like I had been down in the dungeon, only for her it looked as though it was one that was part of some contraption. A large H shaped frame stood over what looked like an old well of some kind, with a large crank at the side which was obviously used to lower and raise the large bucket I could see hanging over the opening.
The relief I felt at seeing her alive was only soured by the sight of how bloody and beaten she was. She definitely looked as if she had seen better days, especially with the way the swarm of Harpies had obviously been toying with her.
I narrowed my eyes at the sight, feeling myself getting angrier by the second at who I considered a friend, tied up and picked at like fucking meat for these bitches! I looked down at my hands seeing the thin streams of red particles snaking from my fingertips. They each looked like some miniature Milky Way amongst the darkening sky that was rolling in from all sides.
It was a power that I knew if I wanted to, I could unleash like a plague, destroying all those it touched by ridding them of their life force, controlling the very blood that ran through their veins! But then one look back at Nero and I was pulling back that dangerous power, knowing that I couldn’t risk it. I didn’t have enough control on it yet…and like I said…whatever ‘it’ was.
No, I needed to know more about this power before just throwing it out there. Because Nero wasn’t like Lucius or the McBain brothers. She didn’t have their strength and means to fight against it. And accidentally killing her just to take them all out wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. No, what I needed to do was be smart and sneaky, if such a thing were possible for my stumbling ass.
So, I decided I would wait until they all slithered their grey asses back underground to sleep, as I had read somewhere they were like bats, only they weren’t nocturnal. They preferred the cover of darkness and slept in large groups, which meant I hoped the moment night started to take hold that they would piss off. Because, like this, with so many of them down there, well, I had no hope of getting Nero out of here. Which was why I lowered back down, leaning my back against part of the wall that hadn’t fallen to ruin.
“Come on and think, Fae!” I snapped at myself banging my head on the back of the stone in my frustration. So, not only did I have to potentially kill a load of Harpies and then find my way out of whatever level of Hell this was, I now had to break out Nero without getting caught. Because either way I looked at this, I needed to protect her before unleashing the bat shit crazy version of myself on these bitches!
“Okay, so new plan, save the girl, get her somewhere safe, come back, kick ass, find the bloody Eye of Crimson that started this whole holy fucked up thing and then try and find a fucking map out of this place…oh yeah, piece of fucking cake, Fae…idiot.” I ended this scorning myself by slapping a palm to my forehead as I lowered my head in frustration. Because the likelihood of this actually happening was like pissing in the wind and hoping not to get soaked. Of course, there was always the option to make a break for it with Nero and not look back. But
then my biggest fear was losing the opportunity to kill them all, doing so when they least expected it. And with those bitches still alive then they would most likely just come and hunt us down when they realised we were gone.
Gods, but I swear if I ever ended up making stupid decisions and coming to Hell again then I was doing so dressed like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando after robbing that gun shop. Of course, I would first have to learn how to use most of that shit, as I was more of a ‘fighting with a sword’ kind of girl. Which reminded me to pick up the weapon I had dropped when seeing Nero.
Speaking of which, I glanced over the top of the stone to see what was happening now. The poor girl looked half ready to give up and half ready to die trying to kill every last one of them. Her head hung limp between her arms that were pulled up above her the way mine had. Her clothes were covered in dirt as if she had been half dragged along the floor, and blood stains edged the parts of the fabric wherever it was torn.
“Just hang on a little longer, Nero,” I whispered as if she could hear me. Then, as if she were subconsciously answering me, her spark of power ignited when one of the Harpies got closer and tried to take a menacing swipe at her. She muttered something I couldn’t hear, which I gathered to be some kind of spell as a blue flame grew in her fist and when she opened her fingers the flaming orb shot from her hand above and hit the Harpy square in the face.
It screamed a high pitch wail before falling back with its head on fire. The other Harpies screeched all around it like a pack of birds fighting, making me realise they mustn’t like the fire despite obviously needing it to see. The Queen barked an order in some other language making the dark spotted one next to her push off her perch. She swooped low and grabbed the one on fire by its legs before carrying her off into the air. I then watched as she heartlessly flung the flaming Harpy over the Castle wall and away from the rest of the swarm. The whole time it was screaming as the blue flames were melting its skin and hair, filling the air with the horrid stench of burnt flesh.
Roots Of Rage: A Vampire King Paranormal Romance (Transfusion Saga Book 9) Page 8