Immortal Creatures, page 8
part #1 of Blood Oath Series
Shuddering as she touched it, she pinned him with her eyes as she exclaimed, “Bloody hell, this should help! You’re going to use it on the Wendigo?”
Tilting his head, he replied, “That’s the plan, though I’d prefer not to get too close.” As she handed it back her mind froze, swimming in a dream state. Josias held her, she was vaguely aware of him talking but his voice sounded distant, far off.
Through blurry vision she felt someone rubbing her shoulders, realising she was in his shop sat on a chair, her head still spinning.
“What the hell was that?” she cried.
“The magic in this weapon is quite powerful, it affected you. From now on only I will touch it. Are you alright now?”
“Yes, let’s go. I want to get this night over with.” Panged with guilt, she spoke, not wanting to say what she had to, “Josias?”
He turned, caught off guard and looked in her eyes. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry about earlier, I was mean, unfair. This situation...I’m glad you’re here, I’m glad we kissed. I just can’t be emotional right now, I have to be professional, but...I don’t know why you, with your coven of women, like me, or why I like you for that matter, but I do, we do.”
Taken aback, he was a little put out that she wouldn’t normally like him, but then they were so very different. “Thank you El, that means so much.”
He drew her into him, hugging her, whispering, “You and me El, we can do anything, everything together.” Moving away slightly, their faces inches apart, she kissed him. A soft long, languid kiss as they held each other close.
Wendigo Psychosis.
Still slightly unsteady on her feet she followed him to his car, texting Jason that they were on their way, promptly he replied back to say Hakon and Darren would be joining them.
The housing estate was busy when they arrived and Josias drove around looking for somewhere safer to park, his face serious, frowning. Sniggering Eloise simply remarked, “Why not just use magic then to protect it, it seems you’ve no shortage of it?”
“I do, but right now I need all my power to get this creature,” he huffed. He forced a smile, his hatred of the undead was strong and she wondered why but wouldn’t ask him today.
As they got to the little wood, Hakon eyed them with a wicked smirk. “Ah, here comes our fearless warrior and her pet!” Josias narrowed his eyes, avoiding eye contact.
“So, Josias, are you ready with your magic wand to take down the barrier or have you been busy using it bedding your coven of witches?” Hakon laughed. “Let’s get on with it, so I can slay this wretch, I’ve got better things to do with my time and I don’t want to waste it hanging around here. I’m disappointed that Jason talked me into this in the first place. And where are all those Skin walkers?” His voice raised as if the last sentence was an uncertain question.
“I should be able to do that, yes,” Josias snorted.
“Good, come on then. But I think the better question that you all need to find the answer to is who brought these creatures here in the first place. My guess as one who’s lived for centuries is that it’s some kind of idiot hellbent on wiping out immortals, but that’s just my thoughts.”
Hakon’s remarks jolted Eloise. “We’d been wondering that, too, but how would we find out?”
Arching his eyebrows Hakon walked briskly alongside Eloise. “You know I like you, for a mortal. We’ll probably find out the culprit before long. In my experience once you start killing their darlings, they’ll soon emerge. I’d like to see some of the creatures though, you know, before ripping their hearts out.”
Walking on in silence they arrived at the tiny, rusty building and immediately nausea gripped Eloise and Josias, as for the others blinking rapidly it seemed they were slightly hardened by the warding, though not immune.
Taking a deep breath Josias started chanting, pulling a bundle of sage from his bag, lighting it and wafting it around whilst Eloise sat on the curb, watching intently and the others eyed this strange human.
The heady scent of the sage mixed with sweet rotting leaves from the adjacent wood and inner-city fumes, adrenaline coursed through her, chest tightened with anticipation of facing the beast, she observed how Josias and the other’s, their movements seemed strangely slow, almost like watching from a dream. Shock and fear, she knew that from being a para, made the mind process everything at a pace that seemed crawling but this clenched at her chest, her stomach further.
Finally, Josias stepped cautiously forward, placing the incense on the ground, looking over at the others, his face pale with anticipation. His eyes wide, panicked as they were finally going to face the monster. Hakon pulled out a sword from inside his long heavy coat, placed it on the ground, took off his coat and left it near the incense. Gasping she saw Jason had a handgun and Darren also had a gun but it had a large red barrel. He caught her eye and grinned, lifted his jacket to the side and as she narrowed her eyes, she realised he’d brought a flare gun with extra ammunition. Taking a deep breath her chest loosened a bit, surely with all this artillery the thing would never survive and gripping her bowie knife, she put it on the floor for a second to wipe the sweat off her hands on her jeans, that could be her last time to do that, then picking it up she stood and the four of them got ready to kill the Wendigo.
Before even opening the door, a muffled panting, slow and ominous could be heard and up close to the worn and ramshackle door a heavy odour caused everyone to cover their noses instinctively.
Death pervaded this place, rancid, heavy and noxious.
Josias looked at Jason, the two stared at each other for a second and Eloise shoved past them, pushing the door open slightly. Unlike the rest of them she’d thought a lot about getting into this place. It would be dark inside and probably the vampires could see everything but she couldn’t, so she pulled out her small ultra-violet torch, scanning it slowly around the place starting at the entrance, shakily her hand moved the beam around the rubbish, old bits of decayed furniture, rust and filth like a heavy coat of slime lay on top of everything. Josias stood against her, using the violet beam himself to see what horror lay in the shadows. Expecting it to be sleeping, laying at the back they hollered as it sprang at them, its shrill cry resonating around the walls. Still clutching the knife and the torch for dear life, Eloise stumbled back into Jason who grabbed her by the shoulders, shoving her to one side only to find Hakon leaping forward, mouth wide bearing his fangs as he roared at the creature. For a few seconds everything was like a flickering black and white movie to her, sweat broke out on her forehead and the back of her neck as she saw the thing rise up high. Making a strange cry herself its head was not human but that of a deer, mainly skull with fleshy skin and hair falling from its huge antlers, in its eye sockets huge red eyes with large black pupils and its body emaciated, half skeletal, rotting flesh and hair hanging in strings from its body, arms and legs as it towered above them, its eyes darting to each of them before resting on her.
Hakon rushed in, thrusting his sword but the Wendigo simply, easily, shoved him back, causing Hakon to be thrown across the stinking building.
Feeling the blood drain from her face, Eloise stepped forward, then noticed Hakon had cut the beast on its abdomen, its blood a mossy black and she heard cry behind her as Josias tumbled to the ground clutching his stomach.
Crouching to see if Josias was alright, she grabbed his blade, the runes on it glowed crimson but he held fast, shooting her a spiteful look.
“What the fuck, let me help!” she cried but Josias only whimpered under his breath and she couldn’t hear as Darren let off one of the flares from the gun, but was shoved back, the flare exploding through the dilapidated roof. Debris fell around them. There was chaos and confusion as Eloise left Josias and shouted at Jason, “Shoot it in the leg, in the leg! It’s too tall!”
Staring at her for a moment he aimed, shot and the beast shook, wailing more loudly, Hakon yelling, “Topple it, I’ll never reach its head.” In the chaos no one noticed Josias writhing in agony. Jason shot again and the beast lashed out its sticky sinews and flesh flying about as it grabbed Eloise in its fall. Dropping the torch, screaming, she twisted around to face the thing, driving the blade into its heart as its teeth were about to drive through her shoulder.
Jason pulled it back from her and Darren grabbed her away shouting, “Move back!” Challenging him Hakon echoed, “No!” He leapt forward and swung his sword over its neck. It stuck, fast and pulling as hard as he could he couldn’t dislodge it. Howling, as he tried to unhinge his sword, the beast flailed, Eloise again shot forward, its huge claws tearing into her, she screamed in shock and pain. She drove the dagger through its chest, pushing, her face wrinkled, red as she bust through its ribs. Looking to each other, Darren nodded and pulled her away, kicking and grunting, blood fury over-taking her and Jason took one last look at the creature, pulled the dagger from its chest, then ripped out its heart.
Still unable to get his sword, Hakon’s face was beetroot in colour, his mouth an oval as he hurled obscenities. “I’m not leaving my bloody sword; some help would be appreciated!” he shouted. Darren stepped over the mangled corpse, his face contorted with disgust as flesh and sinew stuck to his designer jeans, grabbed the handle with Hakon and they pulled. Flying across the room the sword broke free. Eloise went to tend Josias.
Angry, his voice loud and commanding, Hakon shouted, “Do not touch him! He is the reason we are here. You were too busy fighting and so you didn’t see what I acknowledged. This...creature, a magician, he is the one responsible for the Wendigo. That’s why every time we wounded it, he suffered, his magic, no doubt his poisonous fetid soul was tied up with that creature. His head should remedy this mess!”
“No! You can’t do that!” Eloise yelled back. “Enough people have died already!”
Hakon retaliated, even louder, his voice strained in anger, “Yes, yes they have and he, your pretty boy witch, is the reason why!”
A slump of noise made them all turn around swiftly. The Wendigo was monster no more. Its body, as the legends say, had reverted back to that of a human.
Eloise couldn’t speak, horrified by the human that lay bloodied and broken on the floor.
Darren, Hakon and Jason then slowly turned to Josias who was still crunched up on the floor, his watery eyes half closed, sweat gleaming from his forehead, his thick hair sticking to his face, moving his eyes slightly in acknowledgment he spat, “You Hakon, you and your filthy kind killed him, my brother. I know this, he emailed me the day before he died, said he’d met another, a friend of yours whilst he was out travelling in Minnesota.” Josias let those words sink in, stumbling up slowly, holding his stomach, eyeing all of them in turn, resting his gaze for a moment on Eloise before continuing, “My brother was staying in a remote part of the forest, he joked in his email to me that his cabin was supposedly haunted by such a creature, a Wendigo. He found it amusing, you can imagine that I did not. My brother was not like me, he thought my practising magic was a quirk, him not being superstitious at all, and though I warned him, he believed that I was touched, or crazy. When I didn’t hear from him for a few days I thought the worst, then an email came out of the blue, he said he’d met a fellow Bristolian, a man who had relatives here in Bristol and they’d enjoyed some time together. The man’s name was Karl and Karl knew the forest well.”
Josias watched as realisation dawned slowly on Hakon’s face, his lips curved slightly, menacingly, as Josias continued, “Yes, of course, Hakon- you know this Karl because he is one of your progeny- I know this. A few of Karl’s friends stopped by, they stayed in a cabin not far off, and my brother was amazed at their hospitality.
“That was the last that I heard of my brother until I was contacted by the police. As soon as I opened my door that day and saw two policemen standing there, I knew. My brother lived until your bastard progeny and his gang of blood suckers got him.” Josias’s face was red with anger, tears streaming with pain, he gulped hard between sentences, “I sent for the body and was told it was badly mutilated,” he continued, shouting, “I had to fight to get it back! Finally, they agreed, and they sent it here to a local funeral home.”
Turning away he hugged his sides and continued, almost clenching his teeth, “Imagine my horror, the atrocity, when I saw his body. Of course, I know of the legend of the Wendigo, I know that once infected it doesn’t turn straight away, it can be many weeks. I didn’t need to convince the funeral directors, no, because my brother that first week back, mutilated and ate them! I had tried a spell to stop his transformation, he was in fact due to be buried two days later, when I went to the funeral home and found their bodies and my brother, now this creature. I knew he’d been infected and as your kin, Hakon, were staying with him I also knew this was some type of sick immortal joke.”
Gasping for air, but fuelled by adrenalin, Josias continued, “Researching the oldest grimoires I could find I bound my dead brother, this monster, to a spell and then commanded him to take any and all underworlders and that he has done.”
Looking at Eloise he continued, “The loss of human life was unfortunate but in the bigger picture he did kill many more vile creatures than even you know of.”
Hakon’s face was fuming, snarling at Josias he went to lunge forward but Josias held up the dagger and a ripple of powerful energy sent Hakon and the others crashing back, while Josias simply turned and staggered out as they struggled to get up, to wade past the incredible force field.
“You’ll regret this mortal!” Hakon yelled. But Josias was gone and inside they heard his car start up before they could even get to the door, the energy had formed a barrier between them and the exit. The stench of the decomposed body, mangled and torn before them made them nauseous, but together, linking arms they pushed through as if battling an invisible hurricane.
Outside Eloise held her stomach and fell to the floor and Jason was immediately beside her.
“I know it sounds gross, but take some of my blood, it will restore you, it won’t make you like me,” he ushered her wrapping his arms around her, cradling her to him as he sat beside her.
“No thanks. No offence, but that would make me puke!”
Loudly, Darren interjected, “He’s right, you fought bloody well and God only knows what else is out there! You should take it, no mortal can fight like that and continue,” he stopped, distracted by a shrill cawing from above and looking said, “How about that, something to do with you Hakon? Odin got your back?”
Hakon screwed up his face, strode over to Eloise, glanced at Jason before locking eyes with Eloise and saying, “No, my friend, they have nothing to do with me, but everything to do with her.” Crouching closer, his face inches from hers he whispered, “You don’t know what Josias did to you, he’s a powerful witch and I know he’s definitely done something, otherwise he would’ve killed you for siding with us. Not that I can blame him. Karl, he is a bastard, but, well, anyway you should take Jason’s blood. Many other monsters lay out there,” he stood up to let her take in his advice, eyeing her. He didn’t like mortals.
Eloise looked confused and running her tongue over her dry lips, she knew that if Hakon, who hated mortals, gave a human advice, advice to live, it was probably something. “But we killed the beast, the Wendigo’s dead.” Swallowing hard her throat was parched, raw and she muttered, “Now the rest will die surely.”
Jason looked at Hakon, who sighed and looked at Darren. Jason, his voice soft, almost too quiet to hear said to her, “No El, this is just the beginning.”
In the few moments as she wondered, a choice to take his blood but if she did her life would never be the same, would it? But it wasn’t now, so...
A stirring from the wood stopped her in her thoughts, a scream high and piercing made them all jump. “We must go, now!” Hakon demanded. “We cannot fight them all.”
Jason grabbed El’s arm pulling her up, her brows knitted as she said, “No, we should fight. What about the people?”
“You can’t save them all, and you’ll die trying!” Hakon snapped.
Reluctantly she followed Jason to his car. Morning started to break, a warm tint peeking through icy mist. Staring out the window as Jason drove them to her house, she watched people getting ready for work, bustling on the streets, in line for the buses and not for the first time she wondered how the hell she’d ended up in this dark underworld of monsters and demons.
“I think you should stay with me for the time being, especially as Josias knows where you live!” Jason remarked.
“I can’t, I’ve got people round today to view my home,” she muttered too tired to argue. The image of the crumpled and torn body firmly fixed in her mind, she didn’t hear anything else and was surprised when Jason dropped her off and followed her in.
“I’ll sleep on the couch,” he smiled.
“You can’t, the estate agents arrive at two! I thought, assumed, vampires slept like the dead throughout the day?”
“Wake me at one, I’ll be fine, now go rest.”
What would happen next, she didn’t have the energy to care right now but went to the bathroom to change and wash off the blood and God knows what else then without looking at Jason she fell on the bed, set three alarms and fell asleep.
Kill Me.
Banging on her front door woke her and flustered that she’d slept through all the alarms she rolled off the bed, went and shook Jason who didn’t stir and panicked that she had people, normal people to view her home with a vampire covered in Wendigo guts sleeping on her couch. Glancing at her watch it was twelve- thirty.
They’re early? Going to the door her stomach tightened but she opened it anyway, curling her right hand in a fist just in case.
