The Mourning Woods - 03 (30 page)

Arcs of energy pulsed from the ball, silencing the crowd. “VERY WELL. THE TWO SIDES WILL VET THEIR DIFFERENCES IN ONE ON ONE COMBAT. FREEWILL, THE CHALLENGE HAS BEEN MADE TO YOU. AS LEADER, ONE OF YOUR FACTION MAY ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE IN YOUR PLACE.”

“I will fight for the Freewill,” a voice said from behind me. Nergui’s.

However, as Sally had surmised, he was shot down. “NEGATIVE. HONOR GUARDS ARE FORBIDDEN. ONLY ONE OF THOSE SEATED AT THE TABLE MAY FIGHT IN HIS PLACE.”

This was it. No way was one of Francois’s men putting their ass on the line for me. In fact, each of the fuckers started going through their notes as if they hadn’t even heard.

“Are you sure about this, Sally?” I whispered out of the corner of my mouth. There was no response. “Sally?” I turned to look at her. She was just staring straight ahead. “Yoo-hoo, Sally. I understand if you want to back out. It’s just...” The words died in my mouth as I noticed the glazed look in her eyes. She wasn’t backing down, she was under a compulsion. Fuck! Had Francois gotten to her after all?

I quickly turned to where he sat, and found that, sure enough, he had a smirk practically wide enough to split his face. Fuck me! The asshole had set me up again.

“What’s going on, Bill?” It was Ed. He and Tom had both noticed Sally too. This wasn’t good. I knew my roommates. They were good friends, sometimes a little too good.

Rather than answer, I said, “Don’t even think about it,” then stood up.

“I fight my own battles,” I said, somehow managing not to squeak it out. My inner voice was quick to point out,
that’s why you always get your ass kicked.

* * *

“What the hell happened?” Tom asked.

“Change of plans,” I replied. “Sally’s been compelled.”

Ed, putting two and two together, said, “You should have let me shoot that dick when we first met him.”

I nodded. “From here on in, consider yourself to have free rein to shoot whatever asshole vampire you want...minus me, of course.”

“THE CHALLENGE IS ACCEPTED.” No shit, Sherlock. The moderator then went on to ask the other faction the same thing. Each and every one of Turd’s little shits wanted in on the action. Unsurprisingly, though, Turd shot them all down in favor of handling this personally.

Oh, fuck. I could feel a quiver of fear running down my spine. Suddenly my knees felt unsteady and my throat was very dry.

“What do you want us to do?” Ed asked.

“There isn’t much you can do. Get Sally to the sidelines. Tom, I can’t believe I'm saying this, but go see if maybe Christy can do something to snap her out of it.”

“Got it,” he replied, for once not adding a snide remark.

“What about you, Bill?”

“Go see if one of us packed a squeegee,” I replied. “When this is done, use it to scrape what’s left of me up.”

“THE FIELD WILL BE CLEARED, SAVE FOR THE COMBATANTS.” With that, the ball pulsed again and suddenly zapped the table. It began to disintegrate before our eyes. I quickly snatched up my blood bottle before it could tumble to the ground. No point in letting it go to waste.

I unscrewed the cap and chugged it down. I doubted it would do much to steady my nerves, but at least I wouldn’t die parched.

“Take this and toss it...” I started to say when suddenly I doubled over. “OH, GOD!” I screamed, falling to my knees.

Tom and Ed were both dragging Sally’s still unresponsive form to the sidelines. When I went down, they nearly dropped her.

“What is it, Bill?” Tom cried.

What indeed? It felt like a nuclear bomb had gone off in my stomach. I had felt similar sensations before, but never even remotely this intense. Suddenly I knew why James had been winking at me. He had filled my bottle with blood all right, vampire blood.

Any vampire in the world takes a sip from another and they’re going to finish the day puking their guts out. Not me, though. However strong the vampire I take a bite out of, I temporarily add their power to my own. I only knew one vamp this powerful who might take a chance like this. I had no doubt James had filled it with his own blood.

My god, so this is how he felt? Before my friends could utter another word of concern, I bounced to my feet. Well OK, I first bounced ten feet into the air. I felt incredibly light as the blood continued to pump into my veins.

“Bill?” Ed’s voice rang in my ears, several times louder than it should have. My senses were amped up too. “Are you OK?”

I smiled, feeling my canines elongate. “I’m right as rain, motherfuckers.”

* * *

Suddenly I staggered again. What the hell? Something was wrong. My body was still reacting to the blood, but it was going beyond just strength.

Oh, no!

I looked down at my hands. My nails had extended into claws, albeit they seemed longer and sharper than usual. That wasn’t all, though. I noticed that the hands they were attached to looked bigger too.

I suddenly knew what was happening. I was changing. James was at least twice as old as any vampire I had previously sampled. His blood was too powerful. It was awakening the beast inside of me. The creature, whatever it was, that had escaped only twice before - both times under extreme anger - was ripping free of its chains.

“Bill?” a voice, a human one. It was starting to get hard to think. I knew that voice...Fred? Red? Oh, yeah, Ed. My roommate...my delicious, human roommate. Wouldn’t his blood taste...NO!

“Run!” I yelled at him. Before he could protest, I roared out, “RUN!”

Neither he nor Tom needed to be told twice. They grabbed Sally and dragged her from the arena floor.

I felt my sleeves begin to rip as my muscles went from flab to fab. Whatever was happening, it sure as shit beat going to the gym three times a week.

I looked up to see Francois’s buddies still standing there, looking at me in shock. My vision began to flash red and I understood. These creatures before me weren’t my betters. They weren’t even my equals. They were food, plain and simple. I was the predator of predators.

And still, the changes continued.

“COMBAT WILL END WHEN ONE OF THE COMBATANTS CAN NO LONGER CONTINUE.”

Combat? With these pathetic creatures in front of me? Don’t make me laugh. Almost as if sensing this, they broke and fled. Foolish prey. Did they truly think they could escape?

Suddenly a shadow loomed over me. It was the beast with the stupid name. Odd, I remembered him being larger. A snarl was on his face, but my senses told me different. There was an undertone of fear. Perhaps the creature wasn’t as stupid as it seemed.

*WHAM*

Perhaps not. I was suddenly airborne, and not of my own power. The blow had been massive. It would have been more than enough to break a weaker creature.

But, I was not weak. That was a lesson the brute in front of me would soon learn.

I got back to my feet and leapt, feeling the thrill of the joined battle coursing through me.

Did somebody get the number of the bus that ran over me? What about the three before it? Holy shit, when I go on a bender, I really go on a bender.

I shook my head to clear it a bit, then looked down at myself. My clothes were a mess: torn to shreds and covered in dirt, blood, and whatnot. Fuck! Mom was gonna be pissed. She always hates when I come home for the weekend from...

Hold on. I’m not in school anymore, haven’t been for a couple of years now. I blinked and looked around. It took a few seconds for the world to come into focus. No wonder why. There was a big crack in my left lens. Motherfucker! I liked these glasses. Good thing I have a spare back in...my hut?

I looked around again, suddenly remembering where I was. Creatures of all shapes and sizes sat in crude bleachers looking down upon me. Why were they looking at me? Oh, yeah. I was just about to get my ass handed to me by Turd.

What the hell happened? Did I faint? That would be just my luck. Sally’s never going to let me live that one down.

Speaking of which, where is she? Hope she didn’t get her hand chopped off again.

The fog in my head cleared some more. Oh, yeah. Tom and Ed dragged her away after I...drank...that...blood.

Oh, boy.

“FREEWILL, YOU ARE THE VICTOR. YOU MAY DETERMINE TURD’S FATE.”

What the fuck? I reached up and slapped myself across the face. I felt a spray of blood shoot from my nose as my head rocked back from the force of the impact. Ouch! Holy crap! Guess I must've still had some residual strength running through me. Gotta watch that. Wouldn’t do me any good to knock myself out.

But, it did the trick. My head cleared. I saw Turd lying a few feet away. Bruised, bloody, and with what appeared to be a dislocated jaw, he looked like someone had driven a freight train over him. He was still breathing, but seemed to be out cold. Thank God for small favors.

Whatever the fuck just happened, I had won...somehow. Apparently, it was just in the nick of time for the worst of the effects from that blood to wear off too. Goddamn!

“FREEWILL, I REPEAT, THE BATTLE IS YOURS. WHAT IS YOUR VERDICT?”

It was then that I finally noticed the sounds of the crowd again. Howls, grunts, and screams. This time, though, I sensed a decisively different attitude toward me.

“Kill him, Freewill!” something shouted.

“Death to the vanquished!”

Still more joined the chorus, encouraging me to kill my foe.

Yeah, well fuck that. They could get some other monkey to dance for them.

I held up my hand to silence the crowd. They did, surprisingly enough. Guess people listen when the champ speaks. I could get used to that.

“We’re done here for today,” I shouted, partially to the crowd and partially to the glowing thing still floating above me. “Clean up Turd (heh) and make sure he’s back at the table tomorrow.”

The crowd started in again. Some of them approved of my decision; others were quite vocal against it. I couldn’t have cared less about any of them. I scanned the audience and saw my friends. Christy was with them, apparently working some magic. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be working. Sally still had a thousand-yard stare on her face.

I wandered over as the crowd began to disperse. Christy got a momentary panicked look on her face, presumably over what had just transpired on the battleground. She held her ground, though. I could respect that.