by Sonia Harper
"Try," Donovan's response wasn't a suggestion; it was an order.
Derion gave a small chuckle and finished wrapping up Donovan's wound. "Sorry, I don't answer to anybody weak enough to require my surgical table to recover," he teased, flicking Donovan lightly on an uninjured shoulder.
"Try," Donovan repeated, firmer this time. His eyelids lifted a little higher, and Derion could see that Donovan was trying to force his will through his gaze.
Derion shook his head, incredulous. Out of the entire group, he would have never expected Donovan to support this ludicrous idea. He was too sensible and practical to suggest such risky behaviour. He must have been knocked in the head at some point.
Derion shook his head again but decided to humour the other daemon. "How?" He asked simply, feeling around Donovan's head as he awaited an answer. No blood, no bumps.
"Would this help?" Adelyn interjected into the conversation from just behind Derion.
As he turned around, Derion's eyes landed on the object in her outstretched hands.
That book.
"How did that get in here?" Derion snapped without thinking, reaching out and taking it out of her hands. He glanced at the cover, the hand-written words unreadable to everyone in the room but him.
My Legacy.
He snorted at the title.
"Um, hi?" Derion was startled to see Pytho waving at him from behind his desk. Pytho sat comfortably in his desk chair with his feet up on the edge of the desk, a tablet perched carefully in his lap. He had opted to wear a chest holster with two guns already loaded under each arm. "You dropped it when you reached for the serum in the dining room," he added, pointing to the book. "I thought I would be nice and return it to you," the younger daemon grinned.
"When did you come in here?" Derion demanded, his fingers absentmindedly rubbing the soft material covering the book.
"Three minutes ago," Pytho yawned as he watched the tablet's screen carefully, no doubt conducting his surveillance electronically. "You have a tendency to block everything out when you're upset, did you know that?"
Derion bristled. "Why aren't you outside?" He pointed to the door. "Cain wanted you to-," he was cut off.
"Yeah, and I'm doing it!" Pytho insisted. "Look, if I'm out there all on my own, I can only cover a small portion of the grounds at any one time. But from here," he lifted the tablet for emphasis. "I can monitor all areas at the same time. It's much safer."
Derion frowned in response but turned his attention to the book in his hands instead. He couldn't believe that the book was back in his hands. It should have been locked away in his mother's old room, the only key belonging to their previous ruler.
How had it gotten out?
"I think you should give it a go," Pytho leaned back and rested his hands behind his head. "I don't get the big deal here...it's not like you have to make a habit out of it. It's just this one time."
He had a point, Derion thought sourly, though it didn't prevent him from wanting to refuse and throw the book in Pytho's face.
"If you don't, we might not live long enough to argue about this again," Pytho added, his gaze still glued to the screen. "No pressure or anything," Pytho shrugged lightly.
Derion sighed, defeated. He slapped the book down on a nearby table and began angrily flipping through it. "This is ridiculous," he muttered, mostly to himself. "Just because I have the potential to use my mother's magic doesn't mean that there will be anything helpful in here," he grumbled as he turned each page with a loud slap of paper.
He felt Adelyn cautiously approach behind him, peering around his arm and looking at the book with curiosity. “What is in there?”
“Spells, notes, recipes for healing poultices, curses...” He listed them off angrily as he flipped the pages.
“Anything that would give us an unlimited supply of energy drinks?”
“What about a healing spell to help Donovan?”
“Pytho, I'm about to turn you into an energy drink,” Derion turned his head to glare at the younger daemon. “And no, Adelyn, no healing spells.” He snapped the book shut before he could continue flipping through to the end. “There's no point. Even if I did find something in here, I've never done something like this before. Even with detailed directions, I would have no clue how to carry it out. We're dealing with a very powerful curse.” He ran both hands through his blonde hair before taking a deep, calming breath.
He felt a hand rest against his shoulder blade, and he cracked one eye open to look down at the woman standing next to him.
“It's okay,” Adelyn assured him, her hand stroking circles on his back reassuringly. “You tried.”
He released the breath he had been holding. Except he hadn't tried. He swallowed and closed his eyes once more. He knew if he went through the rest of that book, he would be able to find something that would help him. He also knew that his mother's notes were nothing if not detailed. If he did find something, he knew he could try.
But the thought of doing so terrified him.
One hand fell from his hair to rub at the centre of his chest where his mother had transferred her powers. Ever since that day, he had locked it away deep within himself and tried to forget everything. The pain of losing his mother was just too much to bear as a child. He knew that if he tried to follow in her footsteps and learn to control his powers, he would be signing up for the same life as his mother – locked away and used as a tool for the rest of his life.
“I can try and hold them off until Gideon arrives at sundown,” Gregory's voice cut into his musings.
Derion opened his eyes.
“Yes, we'll hold them off,” Adelyn agreed. “We have no other choice.” She dropped her hand from Derion's back. “It's too bad that threatening to use his entire grenade collection without him wouldn't bring Gideon out,” she chuckled to herself.
“I already took three,” Pytho remarked, eyes still glued to the tablet as he leaned back into Derion's chair again. “He's going to be pissed,” he sang happily.
“If you all leave now so that I can concentrate, I might be able to heal faster,” Donovan whispered from his table, eyes still shut. A drop of sweat fell from his pale brow and onto the table beneath him.
Out of the corner of Derion's eye, he saw Adelyn turn towards his desk. “What if we-,”
"Shit," Pytho swore loudly, then peered closer at the tablet in his hands.
"What's wrong?" Derion asked.
“I think you might be out of time, Donovan,” Pytho said grimly as he turned the tablet around to face them. “They’re here.”
Chapter Seventeen
"Great," Derion bit the word out as he rushed over to his desk, opening drawers frantically.
“Shit,” Gregory swore, then ran out of the room.
"What's going on?" Adelyn asked, heart pounding. How many guardians were out there? She was about to walk over to Pytho and demand to see the screen when something large and green flew at her from Derion's direction.
She caught it clumsily, fumbling with the awkward object as she tried to walk over to Pytho at the same time.
"Open it," Derion instructed, already filling his arms with medical supplies.
Tearing her eyes away from Pytho, who had long-since abandoned the screen and had turned his attention to checking his clips, Adelyn looked down at the duffel bag in her arms.
"Open it," Derion repeated, his voice harder this time as he approached her.
Adelyn had barely managed to open the bag before Derion dumped everything in his arms into the empty duffel.
"Take these as well," Derion turned around and grabbed the box of healing serums that she had stolen. "If they find these...the last thing we need is to give them an advantage." He shoved the box inside and zipped the bag shut.
"What am I going to do with this?" She asked in bewilderment as Derion passed her the duffel. "Unless this is a bag full of band-aids, I don't think I'm going to be of much help as far as first-aid goes."
"Just hold
onto it for now," Derion instructed as he returned to Donovan's side, checking underneath the other daemon's bandage.
Adelyn immediately threw the bag over her shoulder. "What now?" She asked as an annoyed grunt escaped Derion's throat.
"No good, we'll have to move him," Derion announced, kicking at the wheels under the table and releasing the brakes.
"Just give me some time," Donovan's thin voice strained as sweat continued to pour down his pale and clammy face.
"No chance," Derion shook his head and jerked the table forward with a lurch. "You're missing out on this one, my friend."
Adelyn jumped as the bag on her shoulder suddenly jerked from under her arm. Instinctively throwing her arms up to prevent its displacement, she felt warm hands release her grip on the duffel.
"You need to carry it like this," Pytho insisted and removed the duffel from her shoulder. He slid the handles through her arms so that she was carrying it like a backpack. "Leaves your hands free," he explained as he reached behind her and grabbed something off of Derion's desk.
"Let's go," Derion grunted as he tried to manoeuvre Donovan's table towards the door. "We need to get them into the library."
"Here," Pytho passed her a handgun. "It's loaded," he added as he slid an extra clip inside the pocket of her pants. "There are more inside the library. Make sure they look like this one." he grabbed her arm and steered her over to Donovan's table. "Donovan will show you how to re-load," Pytho rushed ahead as he and Derion pushed the table out into the hallway.
"What the hell is this table made of?" Pytho grunted as they slowly made their way down the hallway.
Adelyn followed closely behind, her head whipping around several times to glance at the bay window behind them. She half-expected to see shattered glass and an extremely pissed-off guardian running towards them.
"It's not the material, it's the wheels," Derion replied, his head also turning around to check the bay window. "This table hasn't been moved in years."
"Fuck," Pytho cursed as he let go of the table and dug into his pockets, pulling out the key to the library door. He rushed ahead and unlocked the door, sending furtive glances towards the main entrance behind him.
Pushing the door wide open, he helped Derion turn the table so that it could be pushed inside. Once it was aligned, Pytho turned to Adelyn and pulled her closer, tucking the library door key into her other pocket.
"Don't lose this," He warned her as he brought a hand up to her back and guided her towards the library.
"Anything else you want to shove in my pockets? You guys are starting to make me feel like a pack-mule" She muttered as she allowed herself to be guided to the door.
"Maybe later," He grinned and winked at her.
Adelyn shrieked as a loud explosion ripped through the main entryway, glass shards scattering along the tile floor. Horrified, Adelyn turned her head just in time to see ten sickly-grey guardians unfurl from their crouches positions on the floor, having just broken in through the windows next to the front door, inside the parlour, and inside the sitting room.
A loud crack rang through the open entryway as the enormous front door shook. All ten guardians began to hiss as another loud crack exploded behind the door.
Aghast, Adelyn's hand shot out, and she instinctively grabbed Pytho's arm. They both watched, horrified, as the large, ornate oak door groaned and slowly fell inward, crashing on the floor with a loud bang that echoed up to the high ceiling above the second floor.
The fact that the gigantic door had been easily torn down was no surprise once Adelyn caught sight of the massive guardian on the other side. Standing easily a foot and a half above the other guardians and looking twice as wide, the behemoth stepped inside the Manor, ducking its head under the doorway and setting its eyes immediately on the group outside of the library.
"What is that?" Adelyn breathed, frozen to the floor as terror flooded her extremities, paralyzing them temporarily.
"It's mine."
Adelyn barely had a chance to register Cain's voice before he came directly into her view, his back towards her as he sized up the competition. As tall as Cain was, Adelyn was still able to see the giant guardian's head well above Cain's dark, cropped hair.
The monstrosity inside the door bared its teeth and reached up above its head with a clawed hand. Adelyn barely had time to duck her head underneath her arm before the expensive crystal chandelier was ripped from the ceiling and thrown above their heads. She let out a cry as the chandelier hit the wall above the library door. Thousands of shards rained down on her, cascading over her hunched shoulders and landing on the floor.
An unearthly cry erupted in the room, and Adelyn cupped her hands over her forehead to protect her face from bits of crystal still falling to her hair. Cain leapt forward, and a flurry of motion erupted in the hallway. Gunshots peppered the room as Pytho managed to take down the nearest guardian and injure a second as it leapt forward above the crumpled body of the first.
What caught her eye, however, was something far more grotesque.
Cain had managed to quickly drag down the head of the giant guardian to his level and had one arm wrapped tightly around its neck like a vice. With his other hand, he grabbed the guardian's nearest arm and twisted hard. With a sickening noise that was barely audible over the cacophony of shrieks and gunshots in the air, Adelyn watched as the giant's arm was twisted into an unnatural position and then separated from its body. Thick black blood burst out of the twisted flesh and gushed sluggishly down the giant's torso.
The giant clawed the air madly with its remaining arm as its shriek pierced the air louder than any other guardian. It was clear that Cain was at an advantage in this position. The guardian's neck was forced down and to the right, though it kept swiping at Cain with its remaining arm.
Adelyn's mouth dropped open as Cain kicked away the swiping arm, but allowed its claws to catch his boot in order to keep it occupied before bearing down on the giant's neck at the same time.
Seeing the inevitable, Adelyn tore her eyes away for a moment to see that Derion had trapped a guardian against the wall of the hallway by trapping its neck in between the broken legs of a narrow side table.
A loud shriek pierced the air, and her eyes slid back to Cain. The giant's body fell to the ground, dead. With the giant's head still in his hands, Cain wrapped the long white hair around his wrist and used the severed head to bash in the head of the nearest guardian violently. As the sludge-like blood spattered the nearby wall, Cain shoved the unconscious guardian and the severed head to the floor.
He spat on them and cursed in a language she couldn't understand before his neck suddenly snapped back in an arch. An angry cry escaped his lips as a guardian had managed to break away from Pytho and stab Cain in the back with its long claws.
Fury fueled Adelyn as she brought her arms up, aimed her gun carefully, and fired off four rounds. The third shot hit, and the creature shrieked before it turned around and faced her, baring its ugly teeth at her. It launched past Cain with a battle cry and lunged at her as if the thirty feet that separated them was nothing.
Gasping, she shot off another two rounds but failed to aim properly in her panic. Body clenching, she took a step back towards the wall behind her and braced herself for impact.
Another loud curse surfaced over the clamour. Adelyn was about to fire off another shot when something jerked the creature back, just a scant foot away from Donovan's table. She watched as Cain grabbed the guardian around by the neck as if it were a rag-doll. Unable to avoid several scratches from the flailing guardian, Cain managed to finally raise the creature into the air by the neck, grab onto one of its legs, and brought it down hard on his raised knee as if it were a plank of wood or a stick.
A loud crunch brought about instant stillness in the creature, and Adelyn felt a shiver run up the back of her neck at the sickening noise.
"Get him in there!” Cain roared at her, pointing to the library before punching an approaching guardian in
the head. “Lock the fucking door and stay put!”
“Right,” Adelyn said, mostly to herself as Cain threw himself back into the fray. Donovan's eyes were screwed shut, and she could tell he was concentrating hard on something. She flipped the safety and put the gun on the table next to him.
She moved to the head of the table and shoved with all her might, but the table only moved a few inches. Grunting, she gave another shove but yelped when it only moved an inch and her feet lost purchase on the marble floors, slick with black blood.
“Damnit!” She buckled to her knees, but quickly got back up and whipped her head around to make sure the fight hadn't reached them. “Screw this table,” she ran to Donovan's side. “We have to leave it. If I slide you down to the end the table, can you stand on your feet and get inside?”
She caught his barely perceptible nod before she kicked the two brakes on the wheels and hopped on the table, picking up her gun and tucking it into her back pocket. She threw a leg over Donovan's body and crawled down his legs toward the open library door. Stumbling off awkwardly, she tossed the duffel bag further into the room before turning around and grabbing Donovan's legs. She planted her feet into the carpet and pulled with all her might.
Luck was on her side, and Donovan's body slid off the table much easier than moving the table itself. As his waist passed the edge of the table, she gently eased his feet to the floor and cringed as he cried out in pain, the gash on his abdomen stretched from the awkward angle of his body.
“Shit,” Adelyn rushed forward and shoved her arm under his shoulders, pulling his upper body upright quickly to ease the pain.
“I’m okay,” She heard him gasp as he tried to stand on his own. Failing miserably, he crumpled onto her, his arm instinctively clutching at her shoulders as his head fell on top of hers.
Adelyn grunted under his weight and slowly widened her stance inch by inch until they were both closer to the floor. His legs had folded underneath him, but all she had to do was get him to the floor. Once he was down, she needed to push the table out of the way and shut the door before one of the guardians made its way in here.