The car rumbled to life as whatever James had done started it up, the headlights lighting up most of the garage. Arkemoz blinked at the harsh light, shaking his head as he continued what he was doing. He ignored everything else, and just focused on keeping the blood in his palm as policemen yelled at them to freeze. James ignored them as well and brought the car out of the garage, sharply turning right with a loud screech, leaving skid marks in his wake. Only then did Arkemoz go back to painting the symbols.
He squeezed himself through the front seats and into the back to also paint on the windows there, almost spilling the blood in the process. It was very hard not to stare at the flashing red and blue lights following them, to not listen to the blaring of sirens, but Arkemoz forced himself to keep working. The sooner he finished this the better.
“This will hide us from them too, right?” asked James, making the car go ever faster.
“It should make them forget about us as soon as they lose sight of us,” Arkemoz said, hoping that was true. He hadn’t exactly had a chance to test this before since in person, demons and angels could generally see through magic like this without much effort.
As he finally painted the last letters on the inside of the rear windshield, he couldn’t help but freeze for a moment. The police cars were dangerously close now. And just finishing this spell wasn’t going to make them go away. But he needed to finish it anyway. If nothing else, it would give them a better chance of escaping. Arkemoz didn’t doubt that he and James could win a fight with the policemen following them, but that didn’t mean he wanted to fight them in the first place.
He looked down at his palm, glaring at it. “I need more blood.”
“Kinda busy now, Arkie,” James called back. “You’ll have to cut me yourself.”
Arkemoz leaned in towards him from where he was sitting in the back seat, about to do just that even though he didn’t want to hurt the vampire, when James suddenly held up his index finger. “Wait, wait, I have something that might work better.” He reached into his jacket, and then pulled out...a necklace?
Arkemoz caught it when James threw it his way, staring at it.
“Angel blood, supposedly,” James told him, making the demon’s eyes go wide. “Will that work?”
Arkemoz looked down at the little capsule hanging from the chain, noticing a divide in the black, rubber material. He pulled it apart, blinking as his eyes were assaulted with blue light. It really was angel blood. He’d never seen it in person, but he could somehow feel that was what it was. Arkemoz held it up by the chain, entranced by it. He wanted to know how James got this, but right now that didn’t matter.
“Yeah. Yeah, it should,” Arkemoz said, beginning to mutter the spell while staring at the blood without blinking. Angel blood should be much more potent than vampire, so if anything, it should work better.
The blood began to glow brighter and brighter as Arkemoz continued chanting in his native demonic language. It felt almost unnatural now, with his all too human tongue, but he still managed to pronounce the words clearly enough.
Finally, with a huge burst of light that left him blinking, the angel blood turned back into its still bright but not blinding anymore state. Arkemoz checked the words written on the car windows, pleased to see that they were dimly glowing with red light, the life force within the blood having been ignited.
“Did that do it?” James practically yelled, throwing a look at Arkemoz using the rearview mirror.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s done.” Arkemoz turned around, looking out the back window at the police cars behind them. They seemed to have stopped and were now just standing in the middle of the road, their sirens still on, getting more and more quiet as James sped away. Arkemoz looked down at the necklace in his hand. He’d had no idea it was this potent.
“Whew. Good going, Arkie,” said James, grinning over his shoulder. “These cars are way slower than I thought they were.”
Arkemoz looked out the window, seeing the trees passing by rapidly, becoming a dark blur. This didn’t seem slow to him, though he supposed James was probably referring to the fact that the police had almost caught up with them. Arkemoz climbed back into the front seat, trying not to touch anything with his blood-covered palm.
James slowed down, stopping at the side of the road and letting out a long breath. “Well, that was...something. You okay?”
Arkemoz nodded, sinking back into his seat. He hoped that was all the excitement for today because he really was exhausted after all of that. It was like his body had only now remembered he was actually tired.
“We can’t wash these off, huh?” James asked, pointing at the symbols all over the windshield. Arkemoz hadn’t thought about the fact that having letters written in blood on the windows could be a problem in everyday traffic, but now that the vampire had pointed it out, he agreed that some modifying was necessary.
“No, but I think we can move them somewhere more inconspicuous.” Arkemoz wasn’t even sure if the words themselves had to be painted around the entire car or not. Maybe just writing them on the car’s ceiling would be enough. They would have to test it.
James smiled at him, gripping his shoulder. “You did great, Arkie. Really.” His smile widened further. “You’re awesome.” And Arkemoz felt a smile tug on his lips too. James leaned in to press his lips softly to his, and Arkemoz melted into it. He still barely had any idea of what this kissing business was about, but he knew he liked it.
A few seconds later, it ended up being interrupted by his yawn, though. Arkemoz scowled, annoyed with himself for that, but James didn’t seem to mind. He just looked him over with worried eyes, stroking the demon’s hair back.
“Still tired, huh?”
Arkemoz suppressed another yawn. How did talking about it make him even more tired? It made no sense.
“I’m honestly surprised you’re even awake after all that blood those bastards stole from you,” James continued, taking his hand away from Arkemoz’s hair. The demon already missed it. “Why don’t you take a nap, hm? I’ll get us away from here in the meantime. Then we can figure out where to go from there.”
Yawning yet again, Arkemoz just nodded. He really did want to sleep, even though he couldn’t lie down here. Somehow the idea of climbing into the backseat again seemed completely abhorrent to him right now. So he just stayed where he was, leaning onto the window and closing his eyes. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, with his horn pushing against glass, but he was too tired to care. And he was also too tired to really think through what had just happened and what it would mean for the future.
But there would be more than enough time for that tomorrow. Right now, he just wanted to rest and not worry for a little bit. And so with the rumbling of the car’s engine lulling him to sleep, he let himself drift off, for once feeling more or less content.
About the Author
Gabriela Fišerová was born in České Budějovice, Czech Republic. She has been trying to master English since she was eight, mostly via video games and reading fanfiction of questionable quality. It was said fanfiction that inspired her to try her own hand at writing once she realized her English was good enough to attempt that.
Her writing style primarily consists of her characters doing whatever they want and her writing it down while attempting to stumble her way through descriptions and plot holes to finally get to dialogue. She tends to combine genres in her books and doesn’t bother finding out their rules due to laziness. Her favorite point of view to write in is third person limited. Unless she’s writing about herself. Then it’s just weird.
When Gabriela isn’t writing, she’s drawing, designing and redesigning graphics, or messing around with the saturation slider in Photoshop.
If you’d like to, you can find her in her palace of imagination, aka a fairly basic Wordpress website, located at gabrielafiserova.com.
Also by Gabriela Fišerová
Children of the Sun: LGBT Sci-fi Fantasy Series
The Return of the Eter
nals
The Return to Irithara
The Return of the Lifebringer
The Aperios (coming soon)
The Tyranny of Dragons Series: MM Epic Fantasy Series
The Storms of Arlow
Blood and Fire Page 13