by Hunter Blain
My legs went numb and gave in. I fell to the ground, exhausted. Nothing was left in the tank. I could hear Depweg whimpering, which was good.
All I could do was laugh through a lipless mouth as the hellfire continued to eat away at my skin, spreading like a California brush fire. As muscle dried and snapped from bone, I inhaled and let out a deep breath, accepting my fate. My parents had been avenged, Depweg was alive, and those things brought a metaphorical smile to my face.
I let the darkness wash over me like the tide coming in. Little by little, my head became lighter and my thoughts slowed. Nothing hurt anymore. My last thought was a question: which eternity would I be met with?
Then my mind went blank, like a subsiding ripple on a glass lake…I floated in a now familiar nothingness. I was seriously debating on decorating, or at least leaving a magazine behind.
My eyes focused on a point in front of me where I expected a beam of light to coalesce. Instead, warmth spread over my back like a blanket.
Struggling to turn my head, I saw a blinding pinprick of colors emanating from the darkness. Light swirled in the color of hellfire. Red and green fought for their chance to shine in my eternal nothingness.
Gravity came into existence at that moment, and I could feel myself being pulled toward the chaos of color.
A bright white light shone in front of me, reaching with its own gravity and effectively halting me in between the lights. The forces pulling me seemed to crawl over my body; my legs were pulled forward while my arms were sucked backward. Then they switched. It was as if both were vying for the right grip, but they were evenly matched.
There I remained, stuck in an evenly matched game of tug-of-war. I tried sticking my limbs out in front of me to allow the white light more purchase, but to no avail. The rear force latched onto my torso, refusing to relinquish its prize.
A shadow blotted out the light in front of me, allowing the darkness to grab hold and pull me back. I moaned helplessly, understanding what was happening; Hell would have me. Without warning and out of nowhere, a massive armor-clad hand wrapped thick fingers around my neck, holding me in place.
All I could see was the silhouette of a colossal angel complete with outstretched, feather-clad wings and a burning halo saturated with white flames. I was pulled toward its shadowed head where two white flames shone through orbs where the eyes should be. Then he spoke.
“Not yet. Your role on the board has yet to be played, abomination,” the angel said in my head. His voice was annoyed, as if through a clenched jaw, like a reluctant employee who had been told by management to issue a refund to the customer who insulted him.
Abruptly, both lights winked out of existence and allowed stars to litter the sky like wisps of dense clouds.
“Aw…shit,” I said right as the angel let go and I catapulted through the after-verse. Stars streaked past as if I were the Millennium Falcon fleeing from the Empire. A familiar blue orb appeared at the center of the tunnel and grew larger by the second.
“Whee!” I yelled in defiance as the stars slowed and the blue sphere grew, showing details that were the continents and oceans. It wasn’t long before I was hurling toward a big city near the gulf coast.
An idea struck me, and I attempted to control my descent by spreading out all my limbs. It seemed silly to me while doing it, as I was incorporeal and air resistance wouldn’t play a factor, but the act itself seemed to work and I began to slow. I controlled the speed of my descent and quickly learned I could maneuver on command, though I allowed the general direction to stay true; I didn’t want to get lost in my incorporeal form.
It wasn’t long before I saw the warehouse and construction zone. A blood-covered Depweg appeared in frame and began to come into focus as I continued to float toward my corpse. He had reverted to his human form and wasn’t moving. As I got closer, as if zooming into a picture on a computer, I could see his skin was seared and blackened. He would have come in first place in a Freddie Krueger look-alike contest. There was a cauterized hole the size of an open hand that severed his spine. Closer still, I could see the dirt he was lying on through his brand-new flesh tunnel.
I could see a flickering glimmer of light at his core, fighting to remain.
Motion over my body caught my attention. Lily was there, holding a blood-soaked wrist over my head. The powerful scarlet life flowed freely, and she flicked her hand over my body, sprinkling droplets all over me. I was amazed to see that the blood soaked into my body, providing immediate energy that was used to grow back disintegrated flesh.
I felt my incorporeal self yanked briefly toward its home, like a fish getting hooked. I was off-balance, as if getting caught in a crashing wave. My arms wheeled, and I tried to regain my equilibrium. This no-gravity thing was difficult to get used to.
“You look ridiculous, lover,” an amused, silky voice said.
I gained some semblance of control and saw Lily looking at me. She was upside down. Rather, I was upside down…again.
“We have got to stop meeting like this!” I said. “How are you healing me?”
“How is not important. Why, on the other hand, is so much more interesting,” she purred with a devious smile.
I gulped before asking, “Why…?”
“I am saving your life,” Lily said as my body tried to inhale my essence, “so you will be indebted to me.”
“Always looking out for yourself, Lily,” I said while rolling my eyes. Another moment passed and my feet were pulled into my torso.
“Someday, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me,” she said, her smile a mix of amusement and mischief.
“Did you just Godfather me?!” I cried out while my recently empty shell of a body swallowed my form up to the knees.
“It was apropos, but I am also dead serious. You are bound to me now, Jonathan. A life debt. You will do my biding until the life debt is repaid; and let me tell you, I have eluded death for over a multitude of millennia.”
I scowled at this. She was right. I would be compelled to do her bidding until I saved her life. It would hurt my very essence and make me physically ill to disobey. I’d even heard of some supes that had lost their minds from resisting. Thralls could be created this way. Simply locking a willful subject in a dungeon and commanding them to do some mundane task like picking a flower could be all it took to create a mindless minion. It could take years, or even decades depending on how strong your mind was, but no one had ever fully resisted a Fae’s commands and kept their wits about them. I would have to make sure to do whatever Lily commanded, as my mind was my favorite part of being me—besides my sweet, sweet biceps.
Muscles reconnected with bones and plumped back to their original size. Organs regrew in their proper place (score!). My eyes began as two specs of dust in the back of my sockets and grew like melons on the vine. I frowned when I noticed my trusty duster was in tatters. I didn’t think Da would be able to fix that.
I was fully sucked into my body, and my essence spread out like a hand slipping into a custom-tailored glove.
My eyes fluttered open, and I could see the approach of dawn. The stars became less prominent in the night sky. The black seemed to lighten. I didn’t have long before I had to find a place to sleep.
I turned my head to see Lily had moved on. She was cutting pieces of her thigh off with Depweg’s own silver kukri and feeding her flesh to Depweg, who was growing stronger with each bite. I could see his hole shrinking and eventually sealing. His bubbling skin shrank, smoothed over, and regained its color, although a little pink. Even his hair grew back on his head, arms, and torso.
“Shit,” I managed to breathe out as Lily looked at me with a most devilish smile and eyes that sparkled with delight. She had just gained two henchmen that would have no choice but to do her bidding.
My eyes went from hers back down to her thigh, which was rapidly healing despite the silver. My brow furrowed at the implication that not even the deadliest of supernatura
l weapons could be more than a mild inconvenience to her. That was going in the ol’ floppy disk for later.
As my body regenerated to full capacity, my focus shifted to the red streams that flowed over Lily’s alabaster skin with each pass of the blade. Saliva flooded my mouth. The tips of my fingers and nose tingled, my lips joining a moment later. Someone had put my head in a gyro and was slowly making it tumble in all directions.
With bloodlust creeping over my senses, I got to my feet and started making my way to where Lily was feeding Depweg the last scrap of flesh. He was fully healed and lay still, breathing heavily while staring unfocused into the stars above. I could immediately sense he was also in a losing fight against his predatory side.
As I neared, my eyes shifted and teeth elongated. Depweg’s hands elongated into boney claws, and his jaw popped as a snout extended out from his face. His eyes were yellow with black slits. He sat up and began reaching for Lily, who took one large step back, a confident smile upon her beautiful face.
She let us get within arm’s length before holding one hand up in a universal stop gesture.
It was as if my blood had been replaced by quick-drying cement preventing my muscles from obeying my brain’s commands. From my peripheral vision, I could see Depweg frozen in place, a clawed hand outstretched midmorph.
“Now now, boys. Didn’t your mothers teach you to keep your hands to yourselves?” she purred with delight, having just confirmed her power over us.
The sun grew beyond the horizon, preparing to crest and greet us with morning light. The distant light shone with chaotic shimmers, like heat waves on black asphalt.
“Oh dear, would you look at the time,” Lily said as she manifested large cat-eye sunglasses. “We will continue this another night.”
At this she shifted planes, leaving behind a vacuum of air that collapsed with an audible bang.
Both Depweg and I fell to the dirt, free of her command for the time being.
“That…bitch,” I said between heaving breaths.
Depweg looked at me with an expression that said really?
“Oh, right. That stray cat!”
“You better get out of here, John,” Depweg warned, gesturing to the horizon.
As I started walking away to find a hole away from the construction zone that I could sleep in, I turned and asked Depweg, “Hey, in all these years, I’ve never asked; what’s your first name?”
“Jonathan,” he called back with a smile evident in his words.
I stopped undead in my tracks, turned around to face him, and said, “No fucking way…”
The End
Epilogue—Part 1
Present day
The next night, Depweg and I met up outside my lair. His house was still burned to the ground, and he had nowhere else to stay. I told him to expect a mess, but it would be safe with Locke out of the picture.
We wordlessly stood at the entrance, assessing the damage, before we walked past the fallen door. I noticed where chunks of the stone had been taken out by a crowbar, sledgehammer, or some other device. I assumed Locke hadn’t used magic as to not alert Da or me before he had everything in place.
We entered to find my faux coffin had been shattered into pieces. I shrugged and started walking down the stairs, lighting the torches as we went.
“Nice trick,” Depweg said.
“It’s fun at parties,” I replied, pretending to be my old, nonexhausted self.
As we passed through the door and into the first shipping container, I was greeted by Father Thomes, who had a giant black garbage bag in his hands. I froze as we made eye contact.
“Hello, my son,” Father T said warmly.
“H-hi, Father,” I responded, obviously confused.
“I do hope there are no hard feelings, child. I thought it best to keep you secure until your bloodlust was under control and the supernatural community had stopped looking for you. You understand?” he asked like a parent explaining to a child why spanking them was actually for their own good.
“I suppose you might be right,” I relented to Father T, letting my shoulders relax and posture return to normal. Val had warned me that the supes were out to get me, free from all consequence for revealing myself to mortals.
Once I let my focus relax from the father, I looked around to see that the Fortress of Solitaire was mostly empty.
Da floated in from the bedroom and saw me looking around at the places where our furniture used to be.
“The water damage was extensive, I’m afraid. We’ve already removed the damaged pieces before they started to mold,” Da said informatively. I looked at him and nodded. He had forgiven me for my trespasses.
An idea struck me and I ran to my locked cabinet. Undoing the lock, I opened the doors to reveal my intact Battlefield Earth collector cups.
“Oh, thank Lilith!” I said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“I told you we should have removed them when we had the chance,” Da said to Father Thomes. I wasn’t entirely sure he was joking.
“Da,” I began unsteadily, “the…boy?” I looked up to see him bow his head and nod it up and down.
“He is well taken care of. I found him a home and provided a stipend from your funds that will provide him for his entire life,” Da said with a calm, soothing voice, as if he were explaining a tough situation to a child who couldn’t quite grasp the severity.
“Thank you,” I said with tears in my eyes. “I am truly blessed to have you all in my unlife.” I turned and regarded my three friends, who were smiling and nodding.
“Not just us, John,” Da said. “Val is crafting us new furniture as we speak.” He regarded Depweg. “Should we suggest one more bedroom set?”
I looked at Depweg who was still smiling, though there was pain behind his eyes. “Yes. It’s my fault Depweg lost his home, and his family,” I said with emotion building in my voice. “It’s the least I can do.”
“It wasn’t your fault, John,” Depweg said, walking over to place a hand on my shoulder. I admired how strong he was as he comforted me. “Let’s just make sure they didn’t lose their lives in vain, shall we? It’s the best honor I could bestow on them.”
“You damn right,” I exalted, feeling the sadness recede and give way to hope. “But first, I need some time off after all of this excitement.”
“Before you take a vacation,” Father Thomes said with his index finger raised, “there is still that demon to take care of.”
Turning to the group, I threw my frayed and burned duster to Da, who caught it with his little body, and said, “But Daaaaadddd. Can’t I do it tomorrow?”
Epilogue—Part 2
Present day
Across the ocean, on a hill just outside of London, a tree had grown miraculously larger than all the others. It was this tree, which sported thick branches, that a black cat sat patiently under. With the sun having retreated for the day, the feline blended with the shadows, creating only an outline that could barely be seen; all except for purple eyes that glowed dimly in the dark like amethysts.
A woman pushing a stroller passed by, heading to the nearby homes, prompting the featureless black cat to meow. The woman glanced over her shoulder as she continued to walk, paying the animal little mind. The cat’s eyes squinted in agitation, following the woman as she walked away.
Within a few minutes, a portly man named Jacob—who reeked of ale—stumbled into view. The cat began meowing again, calling out to the plump Jacob. In his inebriated state, the large man looked around, trying to locate the source of the noise. The cat, seeing his chance, called out again, louder this time. Jacob screwed up his face trying to see in the shadows before noticing the amethysts in the dark.
“Oye, ‘ello kitty kitty,” the man said in a thick, drunk cockney accent as he got closer. “What cha do’n in tha dark, eh?”
Jacob approached, barely able to keep his balance, and fell to his knees to pet the cat. The purple eyed animal did something that made him cock an eyebrow
; it smiled a Cheshire grin.
“Wha’ tha…” were Jacob’s last words as the cat swiped at his throat, opening a geyser that sent a torrent of blood cascading to the hungry dirt below. Fat fingers tried in futile desperation to cover the crimson waterfall; but he might as well have been using a shot glass to try and stop pressurized water from an opened hydrant.
Jacob gurgled with wide eyes the size of dinner plates, blood flowing from his mouth like a statue in a fountain. His head became heavy and he dropped his hands to the dirt to try and stay upright. The ground was now slick with warm mud and Jacob slipped to land face down in the muck. Unbeknownst to Jacob, the very spot he spilled his life’s blood was where the vampire that once caused the Great Fire of London had slumbered so many years ago.
As Jacob’s vision began shrinking to a small circle, he vaguely noticed the mud was turning back into dirt, as if the liquid was being sucked away.
A blackened, blood-covered skeleton hand, complete with tendons that were growing at an impossible rate, burst from the ground and seized the back of Jacob’s neck.
The last thing Jacob saw was a skull emerging from the dirt, as if the Earth was giving birth to a monster.
The black cat meowed before disappearing into the shadows, purring in satisfaction as it went.
If you enjoyed John’s shenanigans, turn the page for a sample of DAWN AND QUARTERED—book 2 in the Preternatural Chronicles.
Or get your ebook copy HERE:
argentopublishing.com/l/1306079
Dawn and Quartered (Book 2)
Epigraph
“I doubt, therefore I might be.”
Anonymous
“I’m no sell out. Unless you give me money, then yeah, whatever you want.”
Hunter Blain whenever Netflix calls to offer a series contract