by Brandon Witt
His nails paused in their slicing, and he began to pull out small clumps of chest hair.
I managed to keep from grimacing, even though I couldn’t stop the water from boiling more furiously around us.
He leaned closer once more, his hand now dropping to grip the hair around my penis. “I’m commanded to let no harm come to those two clowns. I’m not under any such compulsion about you. The great king doesn’t even know, or care, that you exist. However, before I end this pathetic thing you call a life, I wanted to give you one last bit of knowledge.”
Simultaneously, he ripped hair from my groin, and with his other hand, pulled my ear to his mouth once more. So close that his fangs scraped my earlobe. “At the end of my servitude, I’ll take that witch boy of yours the same way I did you in that alley. I’ll tell him it’s a gift from you.”
Instead of fire, water surged between us. The force lifted the redhead out of the ocean, sent him airborne over the surf, and pummeled him onto the sand.
Before I was fully aware that I was the one responsible for tossing the vampire through the air, the force of my tidal wave faded, falling like a diminished rainbow over the surface of the water between us.
In the second the vampire moved to lift himself off the sand, the darkness of the jungle descended on him in a rage. Blood sprayed skyward in an arc.
In the time it took for my senses to catch up with what my eyes were seeing, I was able to recall what the original plan had been. Lure the vampire to the ocean’s edge, surprise him with a rush of water, a power he didn’t know I had, and then Shane and the others would battle him for the few moments it took me to get to shore and torch the fucker. The vampire had bypassed it all and come right to me, making it so simple. Only one fiery touch needed.
Shane’s fangs slashed down, again and again over the vampire’s throat, his massive wolf body holding the thin vampire down.
And then his black form was flung back into the shadowed forest, disappearing into the darkness.
“Again, Brett! Again!”
This time my brain was functioning as it should have minutes before. Water was arching toward the vampire before Caitlin had even needed to shout at me. It crashed over the monster with force that would have crushed a human’s bones.
I was able to make out the wolf’s silhouette easily now as Shane bounded back toward the vampire. The animal’s gait was slower and less fluid than his first onslaught.
As Shane reached the vampire, I called back the water, once again letting it crash over the distance. Instantly, the wolf’s fangs tore into the vampire.
From behind them, out of the darkness, Caitlin and Newton ran forward. Newton’s hands were blurred as they made some formation in front of him, and Caitlin’s voice rang out in an incantation.
The vampire screamed in pain, though it was impossible to tell if it was from Shane or whatever spell Caitlin cast. His body began to rise in the air, writhing in agony, his claws swiping at Shane, who continued to tear at his flesh.
Shane’s hind legs slid off the vampire as he began to lift into the air, but he managed to catch his balance on the sand, never letting his front claws slip or pause in his vicious assault on the vampire’s face and upper torso.
I’d just broken free of the water and was rushing toward them when one of the vampire’s flailing hands snagged on Shane’s left front leg. He grasped on and twisted with a yank.
A splintering snap vanished to the sound of the wolf’s howl of pain. As Shane lost his balance and slipped from the vampire’s body, the clawed hand released his leg and shot up toward his head. One talon-like fingernail sliced through the soft skin under the wolf’s muzzle and exited his jaw.
The force of the vampire’s grip lifted the wolf off the ground as whatever power Caitlin and the fairy invoked continued to cause the vampire to rise.
I leapt toward them, knowing that my sprint wouldn’t get me there in time to keep the vampire from ripping off Shane’s head. Even as my feet left the sand, I saw Newton motion from the corner of my eye. I shot forward like I had a rocket attached to my back. I thought I was going to zoom over them, but my body was whipped downward, crashing into the vampire’s levitating form, then colliding with the earth.
Shane howled again as an invisible force dragged him from where the three of us landed, the vampire’s claw ripping free of its hold inside his jaw.
“Now!”
Caitlin’s furious voice was enough to cause my body to take over, and a sphere of flame engulfed the beach with the vampire and me at its epicenter.
I watched the skin char and get eaten away from the vampire’s skull in a slow-motion instant. In the glow of the flames, his bones shone brilliant white before they too began to blacken.
“Stop, Brett!”
He was the eyeless monster who’d stood over me in the alley, his foot raised above my head.
Only his fangs continued to gleam.
“Stop! Brett, we need him!”
Caitlin’s cries cut through the trance of the vampire’s hypnotizing death.
I waited a heartbeat longer, desperate to see him crumble into ash.
“For the mers, Brett! For Finn.”
I called the fire back within me, the sudden absence of flames leaving the scorched beach unnaturally dark.
Nothing but a skeleton remained beneath my fingers. My skin glistened bright white over the blackened monstrosity.
“Get up, Brett.” Newton gingerly touched my shoulder. “Quick, there’s not much time.”
I didn’t move, only continued to stare down at the creature that had haunted my dreams. “I think I really killed him. I tried to stop.”
Newton pulled at my shoulder now. “You didn’t. Get up.”
Caitlin gasped and stepped closer. “Holy fuck.”
Even as I kneeled on the skeleton, charred fibers began to weave their way over the bones, making a paper-thin layer of tissue. It reminded me of seeing Finn repair the damage I’d done to his bedroom all those millenniums ago, the fabric of his headboard weaving itself back together.
Another second and a thicker layer separated the bone from the air.
“Get up, Brett.”
This time I did as the fairy commanded.
I glanced up at Newton. The planes of his face were drawn in a mask of power I wouldn’t have thought possible of the waifish-looking fairy.
“I’ve got this, Caitlin. Help the wolf.”
“He’ll be—”
He didn’t take his eyes off the vampire as he snapped at her. “Argue later, witch. Help the wolf.”
I glanced over at Shane, his now-naked human body crumpled and bleeding several yards away, close to the trees. Caitlin’s shoes sprayed sand behind her as she hurried toward him.
Feeling like I was betraying him, I turned my attention away from Shane and looked back at the vampire. Although still miles away from truly resembling anything human, the layers of tissue were now thick enough to hide the bones beneath.
“Stay back, Brett, but be ready, I may need you to burn him again. I don’t know how long before his brain will regenerate to the point his body will function again.”
I scrambled back, giving him space. Newton had described how the vampire’s body would respond after being burnt, but I hadn’t quite grasped what’d he’d meant. Maybe it was impossible for me to actually kill a vampire. Even with my fire.
Still making strange motions with his hands and singing a soft melody under his breath, Newton paced in circles around the vampire’s body.
The vampire lifted into the air once more. I thought he was floating again, but as the sand poured away, I saw a thick stone slab beneath the vampire. I’d forgotten this part of the plan in the horror of watching the vampire begin to re-form.
I couldn’t remember if Newton had said he would call the rock from beneath the earth’s surface somehow or if he would use the elements to create something new. I pushed the question aside, focusing on what he’d said would happen next.
Sure enough, scores of inch-thick spikes emerged through the stone surrounding the vampire’s body. They lengthened until they were nearly a foot tall. At a sweeping motion from Newton, the spikes curved and plunged back down into the stone. As they dove, each spike pierced through or between bones, puncturing the newly forming flesh. At the invasion, the vampire’s body arched off the rock, hips thrusting forward, trying to avoid the danger.
Newton made another gesture, this time flinging his arm up and back down like a conductor. Two more spikes erupted from the stone, on either side of the vampire’s torso, then plunged through his body. Like staples over his spine, they secured him back onto the stone.
Even as Newton caused the penetrating stone to thicken, the vampire’s skin continued to form, already growing over some of the staple-like restraints.
“I may need you to burn him again soon. He’s reforming quicker than I thought.”
I tore my eyes away from the vampire to gape at the fairy, now seeing him in an entirely different light. “No problem. But you really think he’ll be able to tear through those?”
He gave a sharp nod. “Without a doubt. If we let him heal too much.” His eyes flicked toward me for the briefest of moments. “If you can’t find a way to only burn his body without continuing to destroy his head, you’ll need to finish him off. We won’t do anyone any good if he kills us.”
I didn’t respond, once again captured by the horror of what we’d done to the vampire. I’d figure out a way to only burn what we wanted to burn. Even if we couldn’t get information out of him, at least I’d get to make him hurt a good while longer.
The fairy glanced toward Caitlin. “I’ve got this. Can you levitate Shane back to the cave?”
A faint groan escaped Shane before Caitlin could respond. “Yeah. No problem. Lead the way. Brett, keep your fire ready.”
In unison, both the stone slab carrying the vampire and Shane lifted into the air and began to float toward the jungle. I took a step forward, following closely behind the vampire.
“And, Brett!”
I glanced over at Caitlin, who motioned behind her.
“Get your clothes, for fuck’s sake.”
Thirty-Six
SONIA LIU
The tree’s shadow nearly covered the entwined bodies of the three men. Sonia glanced up at the tree house room above her, a small smile playing across her lips. She’d gotten more than she’d hoped for when she followed the tourist to his open-air resort. The breed and feed had been satisfactory enough, but watching the man’s naked body fall the twenty-five feet from where she’d dropped him over the edge had been the real treat. Not so much the watching, but the hearing. Good stuff.
She’d been so caught up in her thoughts during her descent to the ground—the dead man already a forgotten memory—that she’d nearly missed the two men hiding a few yards away. Even their whispered Spanish had gone unnoticed. Not true for the racing cacophony of their hearts. She’d snapped their necks before either screamed or ran. Then had dessert one and dessert two.
For the briefest of moments, she’d felt the faintest stirrings of fear as she looked at the two men. Natives, obviously. And from the look of them, probably employees of the exclusive treetop resort. The Royals had strict rules about eating the Costa Ricans. Tourists’ deaths were easy to explain. Easy in the sense that they had no reason to explain. But kill enough locals and that could bring unwanted attention to the Vampire Cathedral. She didn’t understand how the magic enchantments worked, nor did she care. She’d had both men slung over her shoulders, ready to dispose of them, when she flung the fear from her in irritation.
Now, inspecting her artful arrangement of their entangled limbs, the bloodied naked white skin shining between the clothed employees, the worry was replaced by the delicious flavor of rebellion and a sense she was starting down a path she’d been trying to find.
With a long crimson fingernail, she traced the one visible fissure in the side of the oldest man’s neck. That would have Montezuma talking. Probably even make the papers or local news. Maybe more.
Even though Gwala didn’t concern himself with the workings of humanity, word would get back to him. If he took his wrath out on some poor, innocent vampire to set an example, she’d sit back and enjoy the show. If he asked, she’d confess. She assumed he’d let it slide this time. Maybe try to train her, explain the rules again, like she was a brainless beauty queen. He might even do that several more times.
She’d start leaving presents of the like every few weeks, as often as she managed to break away. It would be fun to see how long it would take the king to lose all patience. With a last glance at her handiwork, she slipped down the hillside and out of the estate. He’d quit comparing her to that fucking Menos soon enough.
Letting the fear of Gwala’s eventual rage wash over her, she continued to wander through the forest, pausing here and there to watch the nocturnal animals scurry to avoid her. Her eyes met those of a kinkajou—a creature that resembled a raccoon-monkey hybrid—who blinked at her slowly. She grinned at the furry thing. “You dare to stay in my presence, you little beast?” She bared her fangs, letting a hiss escape. Still the cute mammal continued to stare, its tail curling and uncurling around the branch on which it perched.
An unfamiliar sense of affection came over her at the kinkajou’s refusal to flee from her. “I know how you feel. Your heart is nearly ready to burst in terror, but you’re not going to let me see it, are you?”
Sonia stepped closer to the tree, stretching out her arm toward the animal. She wasn’t sure what she expected. She wouldn’t be offended if it bit her. She’d respect it even more if it did. But if it didn’t? Was she going to pet the damn thing? Keep it? Another step forward and still the animal only stared, wide-eyed. Maybe she would. Maybe a pet would make the boring existence interesting, or at least humorous. The monster in designer gowns who roamed the Cathedral and forest with a fuzz ball with a tail clinging to her shoulder.
Her hand was less than a foot away from the kinkajou when it reeled and scampered up the tree, taking refuge among the foliage.
For an instant, such rage coursed through her, Sonia nearly tore up the tree after the little animal, ready to rip it to pieces.
She pushed the impulse aside. What had she expected, anyway? Save the anger for her next victim. One worthy of the attention. Maybe she’d run into another male on her way back to the Cathedral. Not that she really had time to spare.
She’d been gone for hours. Most of the night. Much longer and the sun would soon begin to rise. The thought allowed another rush of anger to push away the fear that had once again begun to tingle—knowing Gwala would be upset at her prolonged absence.
There’d been no sense in the king giving her the gift of the sun, then not allowing her to use it. Those brief days wandering and hunting in the daytime had been so wonderful that she’d nearly begun to be grateful to the redhead who had bestowed her immortality. Nearly. However, once the ceremony announcing her as queen had passed, so had her time in the sun. She was to be by Gwala’s side every instant of every day. Whether roaming around the Cathedral, hunting in the forest, or sitting for eternity in the damned throne room. If vampires shat, she had no doubt Gwala would have expected her to be no more than five inches away for those events as well.
Having the sun only to lose it again made existing even more miserable than before.
While she’d had no desire to be queen, she’d assumed there would be more freedom with the title, not less. The finery Gwala continued to bestow upon her had increased exponentially, so at every instant she was prepared to walk a runway in a couture fashion show. With every additional garment, the more silent he commanded she be. The few times she’d commented in front of the other vampires who resided in the Vampire Cathedral, Gwala had made it abundantly clear she’d been out of turn. He never raised his voice or lost his flowery praise of her beauty. Nothing he did hinted at the anger he felt at her offense, but she
could feel it. It wafted from him, as surely as hers must.
She didn’t care what caused his anger or why he was unhappy with his choice of her as queen—if that was the problem at all. Maybe he was losing the ability to find Menos in her, was increasingly seeing Sonia seeping through his idealized picture of her. It didn’t matter. She’d not wanted to be queen. She’d not wanted to be a vampire. The only thing she’d wanted, he’d given her. But now it was as far away as it had been those months after she’d been turned.
Since her coronation feast, the closest she’d gotten to the sun was stepping through the pools of light that fell in abundance over the stone floor of the Cathedral. Each pass through the illumination caused her bejeweled gowns to explode in fireworks, playing across the faces of those around her and highlighting her increasing confinement.
She should have fled before the coronation, before feeding off the disgusting, aged body of the old warlock. Taken the hours or days she would have had before Gwala hunted her down. Reveled in the sun. Run so fast she might as well be flying. Decimated a town or two. No matter what little time she would have had to enjoy it.
For the first time since that night, Sonia was not by the vampire king’s side. The minute he’d left with the fairy to see what Finn had accomplished with the mer’s water, she’d raced out of the chamber, through the smaller forest inside the cathedral’s protection, and out into the Costa Rican night. Still, she couldn’t make herself truly run. As it was, she feared Gwala would make it where she would be unable to leave the next time he chose to go off on his own.
She knew why she was afraid to run. The knowledge made her self-hatred nearly a palpable presence.
If she ran, Sonia was certain the king’s gopher would be the one sent to track her down and bring her back. One or the other she could face. But not both. Not Gwala and the redhead. When she was being honest, which was every time she was unable to keep from dwelling on it, she had to admit it really had nothing to do with Gwala at all. He could kill her easier than any other creature she knew of, but the idea of him chasing her was almost laughable. The possibility he’d use the indentured servant to do the job was more than she could face. Even the thought of him pursuing her made her want to bury herself under the ground and wait for eternity to pass.