Blood Moon, page 17
part #1 of Lord of Shadows Series
"I’m coming!" I yelled back, only a couple feet left between myself and the count. My sword sang a deadly melody as it struck out like a snake. The tip of my blade pierced through the cone of light, causing an explosion. My left arm absorbed the blast, breaking and bending under the force. But I bit through the pain.
"Pierce!" I ordered. A spear of dark shadow magic rose from the soil beneath the forest’s edge, and struck the count’s back, ripped him open and flew right through him. Karma is a bitch, I thought, remembering the priest doing the same to me only a couple minutes ago.
"Payback is early!" I shouted, pressing the attack on. The cone of light that had bound the werewolf, evaporated as the orb of light shattered in the count’s hand. A thousand tiny fragments of dim light flew in all directions as the remaining power was released back into the world.
The werewolf pushed himself up and stood beside me, towering above my much smaller body. Its wicked stare threatened me to scream out in fear. He truly was monstrous up close.
"Not half bad," he growled low, then turned his head north. "We go." He leaned in on all fours and darted off toward the northern part of the camp. I shook slowly, turning to Vera walked up to her. She was shaking like a leaf, unable to stand from exhaustion, and followed him
The camp was in disarray, and bodies were strewn around everywhere. Luckily, almost all of them were the count's soldiers. We had really done in a number on them. Hundreds of soldiers dead, hundreds of families that would grieve for their husbands, brothers, and sons. But we weren’t at fault here, they attacked us. We defended our lives and property, nothing more.
I carried Vera up the northern barricade and put her down in a tent. To my luck, Andrej was milling around, and helping with the wounded.
"Take care of Vera, please," I said and pointed at the tent. The little boy nodded and ran off, closing the tent flaps behind him. "How many little boys and girls will cry for their dads tonight? Was it worth it, father?"
I found myself standing at the improvised palisade entrance, staring at the carnage my girls had brought down on the invaders. Still, the Werewolves changed the tide of battle up here. I looked around me, staring down at the bloody soil.
“Drink,” I whispered, calling out to my faithful servants.
Crunching sounds from the right drew my attention. And then I finally saw them, the pack. Boris, whom I assumed was the alpha and the largest of them stood over two cowering survivors, the priests.
"Wait!" I yelled before anyone of them could come up with a way to dine on the prisoners. One of the two was Katya’s sister, but the other was a large man, badly wounded, but alive.
"You want to take my dinner?" the alpha growled as he rounded on me. Be it that I’ve seen him in action, or that I was too tired to care, I didn’t flinch and instead stared right back at him. Even though he was two heads taller.
"No. Maybe, I don’t know. Let me talk to them first, then you can have the man at least. Besides, there are hundreds of dead and dying littering the field around the camp. Dine on them, Boris."
The werewolf’s eyes opened wide as he tensed up.
"You would do good to forget that name, newborn."
"No, I won’t. It belongs to the Werewolf I owe a debt to. You saved my life, and that of the civilians," I replied, pain lacing my every word.
"I see. A noble Vampyre, no? How strange. Our races are supposed to be mortal enemies, yet I came to your aid, and here I have a Vampyre swearing a debt to me? What has the world come to."
I shrugged and frowned.
"How come you can talk like a human in that form?"
Boris laughed at me as if I’d asked the dumbest question ever.
"When in battle, I tend to get carried away, but when I’m calm enough, I can talk. So can my family," he replied nodding at the three others. None of them said anything but nodded in affirmation of sorts.
"Right. Now, do you know where Hana’s and Katya’s bodies are? I want to give them a burial meant for kings and queens,” I whispered, my voice wavering. He shrugged as if he didn’t even care about my pain.
"I have no idea who this Katya is, but Hana aint dead, idiot. She’s far stronger than you can even imagine, especially after bonding."
My heart skipped a beat, no two. Then it skipped another beat. What was this feeling? Jealousy? Guilt? She’d survived, but had bonded with someone. Who? It surely wasn’t me as I’d been fighting the count.
"Where is she? And who did she-- bond with?" I demanded, my voice an octave higher than I’d intended. A rustling from behind startled me in turning around. My eyes widened at the sight of a bloodied and battered Hana.
"Shh," she said, putting her finger over my lips. Her face was cut up from chin to right eye, but it was closing slowly. It was strange that it took so long for her, but it made me appreciate her beauty even more.
"I thought I-- lost you," I whispered.
A weak smile crept up her face.
"You will never lose any of us," she whispered as Katya appeared beside her as if out of thin air.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
My heart leaped into my throat. I couldn’t breathe, speak or think. They were alive, both of them. As was Vera. Blood trickled down the corner of my eyes as I stood there, frozen in time and place. Both women walked up into my arms and embraced me.
"I thought I lost you," I whispered.
They squeezed me harder, pressing their battered bodies against me. I could feel the scent of death around them as if it were a barrier that wouldn’t let me see further into their souls. We were dead, it was only normal we reeked of death.
"Never in your wildest dreams, will any of us leave you. If we die, we die together. As long as you survive, we have a chance of regenerating. Our bond-- saved us," Katya whispered and placed her lips against mine.
"How about we get these two over with first, then you can grovel all over each other and die for what I care," Boris snapped.
"Boris!" Hana squealed and ran off. She put her arms around the enormous werewolf, pressing her head against his chest. "I knew you’d come. I knew you wouldn’t let us die," she cheered.
"This is embarrassing. How about you get hold of your woman. I don’t see any of my girls swooning over you,” Boris barked, but then he sighed and put his enormous paws around her. “I left you here for one reason only, and that was so you could find someone worthy. I’m--glad you did."
"Oh, come now. You can’t fool me. I know you still have feelings for me, and I do too. I’ll never even try to hide it, and you better do the same."
A werewolf, slightly taller than Hana walked up to them and growled menacingly.
"It’s alright, Estera. No one will ever replace you," Boris said as he pushed Hana off him and his muzzle against Estera’s.
"You do realize there’s a lot to talk about, no?" Hana said. "What you did for us, for me, it can’t be just repaid with a thank you."
"I know. That’s why I’m taking the female priest with me. I’ll turn her into one of our own. If she survives, she might turn out to become a powerful ally and something that binds both your man and me together. I know who she is. And he should too when he hears the name Marya."
Katya peeked at the priests from behind me and gasped.
"Marya? Is that you?" she cried. Her feet carried her much faster than I’d thought she could after brushing shoulders with death.
The half drained priestess turned to Katya who stormed past the growling werewolves and knelt beside her.
"Katya? I’m so sorry. But I thought that if I killed Ivan, I could get you to come home again."
Katya dropped her face and pressed it against her sister’s.
"I can never go back. You know that. And say, why do you know Ivan?"
"Yes, sister. I do, but hope was all I had. After the clergy took me from that place, and after you left, they did-- things to me. Things you don’t even want to begin to understand."
"I see," Katya whispered and kissed her forehead again. "I assume you won’t change your mind?" Katya asked as she turned her head to Boris.
"No. She dies or becomes one of us. And this other guy is food. After you have your word with him, that is. That is the price of our help.
Katya looked at me pleadingly. But I was as shocked as she was. Marya, the young girl from years back. There was no way I was willing to try my luck with Boris, not even for her. Not now, but maybe in the future. Something in her broke. I could feel it through our bond, but she didn’t say anything.
"How long can you give us?" Katya asked.
Boris shrugged.
"Half an hour? We can eat in the meantime, and prepare food for our pack. Once your time is over, she comes with us, or dies."
"What if we find you--"
"No! Thirty minutes is all that you’re getting, Vampyre. Be grateful!"
I stepped up to the werewolf, hand on the pommel of my silver sword.
"Easy there, big guy. Don’t want anyone to get hurt just now, alright?" I said, my voice cold as the steel in my hand.
He held my gaze for a long moment, then turned to the other guy and ripped his head off with a single swipe. Marya gasped and looked away, closing her eyes. Katya pulled her sister to her feet and walked off into the camp, disappearing behind the half constructed palisade.
An awkward silence enveloped the group. Hana put her hand in mine and pulled me away toward the southern entrance.
"Thirty minutes!" Boris called after us. Hana put up her hand and gave him the middle finger as we walked off.
A heavy silence reigned between us as we stepped up the pace. I could feel that she wanted to ask me something, but she kept quiet. We stopped in front of the count’s corpse. She leaned down and ripped off his ring finger, together with his ring. I frowned, lost at what she was doing, but then she took my hand, and slid the ring on.
"You do know what this means, no? You, as a rightful heir to his estate, have the right to inherit it without any opposition. Just imagine how much safer my-- our people would be inside of that massive palisade around the estate. And you would rule over everyone."
“Wait, you mean that he wasn’t bullshitting me earlier?”
She shook her head and handed me the ring.
“I don’t think so. He had other, better ways to do it if just to spite you. Besides, who the fuck knows anyway? If you have the ring and the army, who will question you?”
She had an excellent point there, and why give the estate to someone who didn’t deserve it? Besides, we all longed for safety and a place to call our own in this wicked world.
"We’ll see. After all, we killed all of their men. Who will be left to serve us? Women and children?"
A grin made its way to her face.
"No. These men were mercenaries from the holy city. They were no locals, their fighting skills were too good."
The guilt I felt earlier washed away partially. Sure, they were someone’s fathers, brothers, and sons, but at least not from anyone in the estate. Maybe there was a chance all of it could be taken care off peacefully.
"Does anyone else know?"
Hana shook her head.
"I found out about a bastard daughter who had given birth to a half human, half magical baby boy. It was said, that she had been dealing in dark-- shadow magic. The reason I found out, was because of your shadow abilities. And listening in on the count while he was explaining it in finer detail, that is."
"But wait, if you found out, surely others must have as well, no?"
Hana shrugged.
"Not unless they know Tierney as well as I do."
"Right," I said and frowned, having no idea what she meant with it. But I didn’t push. "So the first order of business is to take what is mine, and then what?"
"Hah, silly Vampyre. The clergy will never stop coming after you. Not until you’re dead. But gaining a title and land meant that they couldn’t come after you like they have the last few days. And we need to see what we do with the Werewolves."
"Right. Boris didn’t seem the-- bad sort, no matter how you looked at it."
Hana shrugged.
"He isn’t that bad, or at least, he didn’t use to be. I’ve known him for a while, and he’d been the most compassionate man you’d ever meet. But then his crops got ‘ruined’, and since there was no way of paying the taxes, the soldiers tried to confiscate his tools, whatever they could find at the farm. He fought back, but his-- wife and kid were caught in between. In the end, they stabbed him a dozen times and left him for dead. The next thing I knew, was that he’d returned from the dead."
"Wait, as a Vampyre?" I asked, shocked by the story Hana just told.
She shook her head sadly.
"No. I had no idea what he was before he turned into this monster. He looked perfectly human, but there was this stench of death around him, present at all times. I mean, it wasn’t so bad that you couldn’t be around him, but if you focused hard enough, you could feel it."
"And then he started raiding the count’s troops?"
"Yes. He gathered a small group of people who were like him and lost everything. First, it was small things, like food wagons, one at a time, then weapons, and once he started hitting the taxes, the count launched a raid on Boris. The one where he was wounded, remember?"
I nodded my head slowly.
"So he hasn’t been like that for a very long time yet?"
"No, he hasn’t. The thing with him is, that he had nothing more to live for but revenge. It ate him up. I’ve seen him turn into the monster while he was still human. I have no idea how it happened.”
I sighed and cracked my neck, then stretched out. Not that it helped with anything, but old habits die hard.
"So," I started again, "do you still feel anything for him?"
Hana first scowled, then burst out in laughter.
"Jealous?" she teased.
"Not really," I replied, trying to sound as cold as I could.
"Whatever, I can see easily through you, Ivan," she whispered.
"I need you here," Katya suddenly yelled through our mental link.
"Alright. Be right there," I spoke out loud in turn, then slapped myself mentally for revealing my secret.
"I see. Telepathic, huh? You need to tell me all about it once we have some time for ourselves," Hana purred in my ear.
Where the hell did I go wrong in life? This woman would to cost me my life one day.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Katya and Marya stood to the side huddled against each other, while the four werewolves ate the dead mercenaries. Many an onlooker stood at the palisade and barricades, but most of the camp was a hive of activity. Wounded soldiers and civilians alike lay on improvised beds, with a handful of nurses caring for them.
"Do we even have enough to go around? If they get infected, death will only be at an arm’s length," I asked.
Hana squeezed my arm and nodded.
"We gave them a mixture of medicine and Vampyre blood, just enough to let them heal. They do know that something’s-- off, but most of them know about the supernatural world we live in. It’s something we teach them within the first two weeks of joining us."
"Oh. That was-- unexpected, to say the least," I replied, caught off guard.
"So, what now?"
I shrugged.
"No idea. Katya just called me over, nothing else. Speaking of which, let’s join her before Boris gets any funny ideas."
Boris walked up on Katya and Marya just when we arrived. The younger sister hid behind my lover from the big brute. Baring his teeth, he growled at the two, looking ready to rip them apart.
"So, what have you ladies decided?" I asked and stepped in between Boris and the women.
"I have a much better proposal. It equals death if it goes wrong, so Boris here doesn’t lose anything in the long run," Katya offered.
"Go on," he growled, narrowing his eyes at Katarina’s.
"We will make a spy out of her. You’re being hunted by the clergy, even more than we are, generally speaking. This tonight was something the count orchestrated, so it can’t be taken as a general statistic. I will bond her to you, and whatever she sees and hears, you do so as well. It will be something like a second voice in your head that ticks at the back of your mind. And whenever you want to see what she does, you’ll just have to say a few words, and again a few to cancel the spell. There will also be a possibility for her to establish a link with you, and speak telepathically with you. That way, you don’t have to observe her all the time. She can just warn for you to tap into her sight."
Boris perked up, his ears pointed at Katya.
"I see. If there’s one thing that can be added to the spell, yes. Otherwise, I stick with my former demand."
"Ask, and I’ll see if it’s possible," Katya replied with a nod.
"Bind her in such a way, that if I recall her, she will do anything in her power to return to me. I can’t have her try and escape from me."
"Do I get any saying in this matter?" Marya exclaimed. “Ivan! I thought we were friends-- and even more than that!”
"No, you don’t," I interjected before Boris had the chance to do something stupid. He was a werewolf after all, and an unknown to me. Losing temper looked like something he didn’t have any problems with. “Besides, you admitted you were here to kill me. Our friendship ended there, Marya.”
She shot me an angry glare, but I imagined it was only pretend play. The two must have hatched this out while they were by themselves. I couldn’t have done it any better, if I may say so.
"Proceed with the spell. I want it over with this instance, so we can retreat into the forest," Boris ordered.
"Very well," Katya and stepped up to Boris, pulling Selina behind her. "Put your palms out, both of you."
Selina’s hand shot out to Katya, followed by the werewolf’s massive paw. She unzipped her skirt and pulled a dagger from her waist, then slid it across both of their palms. Thick red blood gushed from the deep wounds and spilled onto the ground.
Katya’s mouth started moving as she whispered something I couldn’t quite hear. It didn’t take long before the blood started floating in mid-air and boiling. The two puddles danced around each other before mixing together.
