Marie nodded. “Yes, that does put a bit of a damper on our relationship now, doesn’t it?”
“Why don’t you just run?” I asked. “My Sire and Progeny are both on this ship. They won’t rest until you’re dead. Just take your equipment and go.”
“Go where?” Marie laughed. “There are no lifeboats. We’ve been adrift for over a day. There’s no telling where we are or which direction would even lead me to land. I will not abandon my duties.”
“Foolish little hunter. You’ll die for your stubbornness.”
Marie stomped her foot out of frustration. “And just what would you have me do? Leave all these people to die?”
“They’re already dead. They just don’t know it yet. My Sire has demanded their deaths, and what Tessa wants, Tessa gets. There is nothing anyone can do to stop her, not even you. So just leave, abandon being a Slayer, and find yourself a new life.”
Marie took a rosary out of her pocket and kissed the crucifix attached to it. “Being a Slayer is all I know. I can no more quit being what I am than you can.”
“If that is the case, one of us will not leave this ship alive.”
Marie returned the rosary to her pocket and sighed. “If that’s how it must be, that’s how it will be. It was our fate to meet here, and fate will either lead me to victory or lead me to death, but I accept whichever it has chosen.”
She stood there defiantly, refusing to back down, even to overwhelming odds. She was a brave little thing, and I admired her for it.
Screams echoed from the lower decks and Marie spun towards the sound. She took her helm, placed it back on her head, and pulled her gladius from its sheath. I thought she was surely about to come for my head, but instead, she grabbed Kamikaze off the table and tossed it to me. “Here,” she said, “you might need this.”
I could have followed her, but I decided not to. Instead, I stood there contemplating how odd it was that I just carried on a civilized conversation with someone who had taken a blood oath to kill me.
Hmmph, will wonders never cease?
Tessa strolled into the room, walked to Molly, and took her hand. She then turned to me and took my hand as well. “Come, my children, the time has come to end our little game.”
Molly stuck out her bottom lip and pouted. “Aw, already?”
Tessa imitated Molly’s pout and gently caressed her cheek. “Talon did such a good job distracting the little Slayer last night that there’s no one left to kill–no more passengers, no more crew. All that is left are the priest and his little birdie. Tonight, we walk in the open–no more games, no more hide and seek. Tonight, the darkness will engulf the light. Tonight, we do what few have ever done. Tonight, we kill a Slayer.”
I felt a bit uneasy hearing those words. I had come to respect Marie. She could have killed me easily the night before, but she hadn’t. Now, I was off to kill her. Something about it just didn’t feel right.
We didn’t walk. We marched to the deck of the ship, making as much noise as we possibly could. The time for stealth was gone. It was time to go to war.
I walked around the deck with Kamikaze in my hand. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” I screamed while Molly and Tessa took a seat and laughed at my antics. “We’re not going anywhere, Slayer! You might as well come out and dance your last dance with honor!” Oh, how I hated myself for saying it, but what could I do? She was a Slayer and I was a Vampire. It was our fate to duel to the death.
I yelled for half an hour. Nothing. At that point, Tessa stood and took Molly by the hand. “Come, Molly. It appears we’re going to have to flush the little birdie out.”
Molly ran to me, wrapped her arms around my neck, and kissed me passionately. “Kill her for me, Nicky. Make her suffer as you suffered, but save some of her blood for me.”
Tessa and Molly descended into the bowels of the ship while I paced on the deck. I was anxious, even nervous. Marie was strong and she was resourceful. She was a worthy opponent and one capable of ending my life. I had been a Vampire for just over two hundred years, and I wasn’t ready for my time in this realm to be over yet.
The door to the captain’s cabin suddenly exploded and I was hit with what felt like a thousand pieces of splintered wood. Once the smoke settled, she came with a pistol in each hand. She fired first from the right, and then from the left. I dodged both and watched as she threw the pistols down and pulled two more from her hips.
I darted along the edge of the ship, making myself as hard of a target as possible. She fired the first round and missed, but the second caught me in the thigh and I fell to the deck.
The Bird of Prey pulled her gladius and leaped high into the air. She must have thought I was more immobilized than I actually was. I easily rolled away as her sword stabbed deep into the deck of the ship. I regained my feet and smiled at my prey. “And here I was thinking you didn’t want to have a second date with me…”
She threw another one of those silver smoke bombs at my feet, but that time, I moved away quickly. She got me once with that trick. She wasn’t going to get me again.
I jumped on top of the captain’s cabin and dove off, bringing my katana down in a powerful slash. Our blades locked together in a test of strength. Once again, I was having trouble overpowering her. I cursed my luck, put my boot against her chest, and pushed her away from me.
I was on the offensive, delivering slash after slash. She parried most of the blows, but the last was dodged by contorting her body in some kind of inhuman fashion. I could hardly believe my eyes. She was a slippery one, this girl.
We stood at about ten paces from each other and circled slowly. “That was a nice trick,” I said, “hiding in the captain’s cabin until my Sire and Progeny left. What’s the matter? Afraid to fight a coven on your own? I thought you Birds of Prey were supposed to be brave.”
She smirked. “I am brave, Nicholas, but I am no fool.”
Tessa and Molly appeared on deck, and they had in their possession a very badly beaten priest. Molly smiled at me with fanged teeth. “Nicky, darling! Look what we found!”
The Slayer lowered her blade after seeing her priest handler in such a condition. “Don’t you harm him!” she cried. I could feel the emotions radiating off of her. He was more than just a handler to her. She looked at this man as more of a father-figure. Damn those Catholics and their brainwashing bullshit.
The Slayer started to charge at Tessa, but Tessa quickly put her talons to the priest’s throat. “Not so fast, my dear. We wouldn’t want anyone getting hurt, now would we?”
“Let… him… go,” the Slayer demanded, a tone of desperation in her voice.
“I’ll let him go, on one condition.”
“Name it.”
“Don’t listen to them, Marie! They are liars!” the priest screamed.
Tessa quickly backhanded the priest across the face and shouted, “Shut up! No one was talking to you, holy man.”
“Don’t hit him!”
“Don’t hit him or what? The deck is stacked against you and you know it. I could snap my fingers and before you knew what happened, your handler would be dead and you would be embraced by three sets of fangs. You can’t stop us all and you bloody well know it. So let’s play one last game–a wager, if you will.”
“What kind of wager?” the Slayer asked apprehensively.
Tessa giggled and leaned over to kiss Molly before continuing. “Even from here, I can sense the attraction you feel for our dear Talon. It’s so obvious! You, the poor little Catholic girl who never got to live, never got to be courted, who’s never been kissed. As much as you want to kill Talon, you’re fascinated by him. So here are my terms: the two of you duel, one on one. If you win, you and your handler may leave this cursed ship unharmed.”
“And if I lose?”
Tessa laughed quite loudly. “Well, if you lose, that’s when things get interesting. If you lose, Talon turns you into one of us. You become the very thing you were taught to hate and you join us. What
do you say?”
Desperation danced in the Slayer’s eyes. She paced back and forth and looked to be on the verge of tears.
“What’s it going to be, Slayer? A certain death? Or a chance at life?”
The Slayer took her time, but eventually, she said, “I accept your terms.”
“Wonderful!” Tessa screamed as she pushed the priest down to his knees. “Let’s have a good show, shall we?”
The Slayer squared herself with me and we raised our swords simultaneously. As we began the duel, I smiled at her. “Fancy me, do you?”
“Don’t flatter yourself!” she hissed, and charged me.
She was throwing everything she had into her swings. Each one felt like a sledgehammer being slammed down against my blade. I started to panic when I saw Kamikaze actually bend under the weight of her blows.
She performed a powerful arcing slash, which I barely avoided by turning to the side. I wrapped my arm around her neck and pulled her down as I dropped to one knee. Her spine cracked, and Marie screamed out in pain as her back got bent over my leg.
I released my grip on the Slayer and let her slump to the ground. She lay there, clutching at her spine as she tried to crawl across the deck to reach her sword. Just as she reached it, I placed my foot on top of her hand. “It’s over, Slayer.”
“Nothing’s over!” the Slayer screamed and pulled my leg out from under me. I crashed to the deck as the Bird of Prey pulled herself up slowly and claimed her weapon.
I rose to my feet and raised my blade. “I heard your spine snap. Admit that you’re done, Marie.”
“Never!” she screamed as she lunged at me. I easily avoided her advance and she fell to the ground. I shook my head as I watched her lying there, wincing in terrible pain.
This is ridiculous. Why won’t she just give up?
I walked over and helped the Slayer to her feet, but for my troubles, I got one of her silver smoke bombs smashed into my face. It was like my eyes were on fire. I couldn’t see a thing, but thank God the Slayer was slowed and her movements quite loud. I was fighting blind, relying on my speed and hearing to stay away from her.
“Come on, Nicky!” Molly screamed from the sidelines.
The Slayer’s gladius slashed down my arm and I winced in pain. My vision starting coming back and I made out a blur I recognized. I reached out and managed to catch the Slayer by her throat. I picked her up from the ground and slammed her as hard as I could onto the deck of the ship.
I overpowered and disarmed her. I stood and put the point of my katana to her throat. “It’s over, Marie. Admit it.”
The Slayer took off her helm and tossed it to the ground. Sweat poured down her forehead as she looked up at me with desperation in her eyes. She scooted along the deck, but I kept my sword at her throat the entire time. She backed away until she was sitting upright against the mast of the ship.
“It’s over!” I shouted. “Say it!” She remained silent. “Say it, God damn it!”
Her eyes welled with tears and she lowered her head. She looked at me slowly and whispered, “It’s over.”
“Wonderful!” Tessa shouted as she began applauding.
Molly ran over excitedly and kissed me. “Look what you did!” she shouted at the top of her lungs before pointing at the broken Slayer and laughing. “That’s what you get, little birdie!”
“Talon, help your new Progeny up.”
I offered a hand and Marie reluctantly took it. She leaned against the mast of the ship, obviously in pain from our battle. I whispered to her, “Soon, you’ll be free of this mortal shell, and the pain will cease.”
She looked at me, smiled weakly, and then grabbed my right wrist. She pulled herself onto my blade, impaling herself through the abdomen. “No!” I screamed as I watched her writhing in pain.
Why would she do this? I could have healed her! We could have been together. I could have taught her about the world; shown her things she had never even imagined. Why? Why, Marie? Why end it like this?
She was mere inches from me and trembling horribly, but she managed to raise her hands to caress my face. She whispered, “In another life, another time… I could have grown to love you, mon chéri, but I cannot be what you are.” She smiled one last time and then impaled herself on my sword, all the way to the hilt. She gasped. The blood poured from her mouth like a fountain before she collapsed into my arms and died.
This was the first person to die in my arms that I didn’t kill myself. I felt a kind of bittersweet melancholy. I took my fingertips and gently shut her eyelids. I couldn’t stand to look into her lifeless eyes. As I laid her down, I kissed her cheek and whispered, “Sleep well, mon chéri. Until we meet again...”
I pulled my blade out of her and wiped the blood off, onto my pants. I noticed a pair of silver daggers that she wore on her hips and I quickly pocketed them. Later, I would tell Tessa and Molly that they were a souvenir of my kill, but in reality, I took them so I would never forget the Slayer that almost loved me.
I looked at Tessa and said, “It’s done. Now what do we do with him?”
“With the priest? Why, we torture him, of course!”
Three Days Later
We were still adrift, but things were looking up. We had spotted a ship on the horizon and Tessa began singing the most beautiful, sorrowful song I had ever heard. Even the Sirens would have been jealous of the sounds my Sire produced while singing. Her cries must have caught the ship’s attention because in no time, they were headed in our direction. She kept singing until the ship was at our side and the men aboard were helping us off the Trinity.
When our feet landed on the deck of the second ship, one of the men asked, “What happened here?”
Tessa immediately dropped her fangs. “We happened. Talon, Molly, kill them all!”
And so it began again...
About The Author
Jay Michael Wright II is an Alabama native, husband, and father to three very precocious little girls. He writes dark fantasy, horror, Sci-fi, and other sub-genres of fantasy. Talon: The S.S. Trinity is actually a prequel to the novel, Talon: The Spider's Web, which will be coming out sometime in mid-2017 from Burning Willow Press. He also has a Sci-fi/horror novel called “The Rise of UMBRA” coming out in 2017 through TDR Publishing.
If you'd like to keep up with what the author is up to, you can follow him at any of the following social media accounts:
www.facebook.com/jmw2author
www.amazon.com/author/jmw2author
www.twitter.com/jmw2author
Talon: The S.S.Trinity (Talon Series Book 0) Page 3