Unleashed Fury (BloodRunes: Book 1) (42 page)

One of the hounds bayed ominously behind her.
She ground her teeth together, and her hands curled into balls.
How dare someone I hate so much be so much stronger than I am!
No, no she can't be,
Jezebel told herself
, it must be some
sort of trick, there is no way that this stupid little peasant can
be better than me. What is going on here? Why is the King acting as
though this is the girl he's been looking for? What does the mark
have to do with anything? The little whore can't possibly have been
consorting with the King as well as Gryffon could she?

Confusion and frustration mixed with her
anger, and Jezebel felt her control slipping. Now would be the
perfect time to strike, her inner voice said, whilst the King is so
intent upon this little slut. She'd take care of them both right
here, right now. Then she could go back and claim her rightful
place as ruler of the kingdom, announcing that the King's unfitness
for the throne had prompted him to attack her when she confronted
him with it, but her superior talent had overtaken him, and she had
reluctantly been forced to kill him in his murderous guilty
rage.

“What is your name?” the King was asking the
girl, who answered in a halting and trembling voice as though the
word was being pried from her throat.

“Layna.”

Hearing the whore’s name spoken was too much
for her. Jezebel didn't care what the King's plans were anymore.
She didn't need to hear anymore from either of them. She was going
to kill this little slut for messing up her plans so many
times.

She was going to kill them all.

Red haze swam before her eyes and she watched
the proceedings with growing hatred, all sanity lost from her.

*

“Layna,” the man repeated, rolling the word
around in his mouth as though tasting it. “Join me, Layna. I can
feel that you are one too. The same blood runs in our veins,
powerful blood that is meant to rule. We are pure, with the blood
of the Dark King. We are superior. Look.”

He pulled back the collar of his cloak which
had previously obscured his neck, and revealed that just as Layna
did, this man bore the same mark. His was blood red, and Layna
recoiled at the thought that this man should have anything in
common with her.

She could feel the black aura emanating from
him, seeping out like a black liquid, and she shook her head
numbly. Jezebel stood next to the man and Layna shuddered, unable
to control the physical reaction her fear of the woman caused. The
evil coming from her was almost palpable as well. Layna felt dirty
being so close to the two of them.

“They will never accept what we are, Layna.
We must show them what their place is in life, and start a new race
of superior beings like we're supposed to. They will always fear us
because they don't understand. Your place is with me.”

Layna had no idea what was going on.
Where
was Gryffon? He just disappeared into thin air! Why is this man
saying that I'm like him? Who is he? And why is Jezebel here? I'm
nothing like either of them, or the Dark King!
She paused and
had an unsettling thought
. But she had just opened the door,
what if.
.. “What is it you think we are?” Layna asked, both out
of terrified curiosity and in the desperate hope that in the time
it bought her as he talked, some genius plan would occur to her to
get her out of this mess.

“We are the descendants of the Dark King,” he
told her, “the true royal bloodline. He placed upon us this mark so
we could always be identified as the superior race - the race that
he meant to re-populate the planet once the unworthy were disposed
of. We have the power in us stronger than any others can dream of,
and he made improvements to our senses and our minds. We hear
better, see better, feel better, and even taste and smell better
than the common man. You must have noticed your superior nature. We
hold magical improvements within us which once properly unlocked
will make us unstoppable!” The man was gaining in volume, waving
his hands about excitedly as he explained to her. “We can even
delve into his memories if we can find the key! Think of it, he was
so powerful as to have been thought a god, and we could have this
power ourselves! You must have felt the familiarity of this place,
like you had been here before? It’s because you have, it’s in our
blood. The secrets that our blood holds are immense. Together we
will unlock those secrets. The key is hidden right here in this
tomb. All we need to do is take it! Then we can rule together and
bring back the powerful magics of old, and finish the work of the
great Dark King to rid the world of the unworthy and take our place
as the superior race to wake the Sleeping God.”

The hellhounds were growling louder now and
Layna spared a glance in Jezebel's direction as she listened
incredulously to the man's tirade. She was surprised to see that
Jezebel had stopped glaring at her, and was now glaring at the man
with new hatred in her eyes, her fists clenching and unclenching as
he spoke.

“And what if I did join you, what about her?”
Layna asked, pointing her chin in Jezebel's direction, wildly
grasping at a thin hope of a plan.

The man hardly spared Jezebel a look. “She is
nothing compared to us,” he answered callously. “Sometimes too much
inbreeding in the stock produces ones like her, and the only thing
to do with them is cull them out of the gene pool once they have
served their usefulness. But you, you are pure and powerful. I can
see the way now, and it must be you who takes the place by my side.
Such strength and such beauty you possess.”

The hellhounds were practically foaming at
the mouth now, and Jezebel looked ready to blow herself. “You
aren't even a purebred royal!” Jezebel screeched at him with poison
on her tongue. “You are just a good-for-nothing bastard who lied
his way to the top! You don't deserve to be King! And that that
whore
is not better than me!”

Her voice rose to a high-pitched frenzy, and
the man looked back at her casually, “You are one to talk about
honesty,” he commented, “I don't think you even know the meaning of
the word truth. ‘Bastard’ you call me? I have the blood of the Dark
King running through my veins. Being a relative of Edward is
meaningless. The Dark King is the only true royal, and he would be
ashamed to have a descendant such as you.”

One of the hellhounds jumped forward, biting
at the air. “How dare you!” Jezebel screamed and leaped forward
herself, her hands outstretched with tiny fires burning on her
fingertips.

The man didn't bat an eye, but waved his arm
in Jezebel's direction. She went flying against the opposite wall
as though struck by a giant invisible hand. She hit the stone with
a thud, and fell in a heap to the floor.

The man turned his attention back to Layna.
“So,” he continued as though he had never been interrupted, “Will
you join me?”

“No, no I don't think that I will,” Layna
answered and burst into motion. She grabbed for the power while
leaping away from the spot she had just occupied.

She was not quite fast enough, and she gasped
in pain as a stalactite brushed up against her back in its fall to
the floor after being severed from the ceiling by a bolt of
lightning that burst forth from the man’s fingers. It removed
several layers of skin and she heard the fabric of her tunic
ripping.

The man lashed out at her a second time and
rocks exploded all around him as he triggered traps that were then
smashed and deflected by his magical barriers.

Light flashed by Layna's head to explode into
the wall, creating a huge crater. Layna spun around to face him,
throwing her hands up in a feeble attempt to fend off the next
barrage of power that he threw at her.

The barrier she was able to erect bowed under
the pressure of the force he was throwing at her. She fell to her
knees, feeling bruises starting already as they harshly hit the
rock below. She moaned in pain and effort as the barriers slowly
collapsed in on her, and tendrils of the light licked at her
hungrily, burning her like acid wherever they touched.

The man suddenly gave a howl of pain and the
onslaught paused, giving Layna a chance to recoup. She dragged
herself to her feet, crawling behind a large outcropping of rock
that had fallen.

She looked back at the man and saw that a
hellhound was clamped onto his arm. He swung it wildly around,
trying to get the beast off.

“How dare you set your beasts on me!” the man
raged as he attempted to dislodge the hound. Layna saw with
surprise that it was the hound she had freed, Weylyn. She could
feel the difference in his aura.

The King finally got him to let go by
throwing him roughly against a wall with a strength that was
greater than any normal man. Weylyn hit the stone with such force
that Layna heard bones snapping, and he fell limply to the ground
with a whimper.

Layna cried out for him and as she watched,
he tenaciously pulled himself to his feet with difficulty. Layna
let out a moan of pity for the poor creature, and willed him with
all her might to understand her urgent mind plea. -
Find
Gryffon!
-

The creature cocked his head sideways at her
and she redoubled her efforts, thinking as hard as she could about
Gryffon's face.

Several others of the beasts growled and had
started to lunge at the man as well, spurred on by Weylyn's attack.
The man held up a hand, stopping them in midair, and Weylyn snaked
out around behind her while he was preoccupied, giving Layna a
frantic sense of hope that Gryffon would come to her rescue.

The man brought his other hand up and pointed
at Jezebel, who had pulled herself to her feet. She hastily raised
her own arms and sent bursts of fire towards him, while weaving a
shield of fire before her.

The two were locked in a battle of wills for
a long moment before the tables turned in favor of the man. Slowly,
but surely, his lightning made its way down the path towards her,
eating away at her fire.

Finally, it reached her and she gave a
strangled cry, the fire around her flashing into nonexistence. The
man let his lightning fade as well and he watched her with an evil
smile.

Jezebel looked down at her hands and shook
them as if trying to rid them of something foul, and she gave
another cry.

The man laughed, and Jezebel’s head snapped
up towards him, the hatred now so intense on her face that Layna
could have sworn that her eyes had turned black.

Jezebel screamed and threw herself at the
man, clawed fingers outstretched as though she would tear him limb
from limb with her bare hands.

She didn't make it two steps, however, before
the first of the hellhounds pounced on her. Layna reached towards
her with the power, and found to her amazement that Jezebel's
channels had been burned raw. Layna saw, as clearly as the
hellhounds must, that Jezebel’s control over them was practically
nonexistent in her exposed magical state.

The first buried its teeth into her arm and
yanked, and Jezebel screamed in agony as it tore off a huge chunk
of flesh. Blood poured out and splashed onto the ground. Jezebel
brought her other hand around to cover the wound, but a second
hound clamped down on that arm and shook its head in a morbid game
of tug-o-war. Layna felt a splash of wetness on her face and she
turned her head away, nauseated.

More of the hounds were surrounding Jezebel
now, and Layna tried to use her power to ward them off, but had to
abandon her efforts as the man resumed his attack on her. Jezebel's
screams as the hellhounds ripped apart her flesh echoed dully in
Layna's ears as she once again fought to keep the man at bay.

The screams finally ended in a gurgled moan,
and Layna almost lost the contents of her stomach as she caught a
glimpse of the remains the hounds had left. Her distraction gave
the man the edge he needed, and he broke through her defenses.

Layna's world erupted into pain. The pain was
all she knew, her heart beat pain through her veins, every breath
was a dagger being stabbed into her lungs, and the air burned at
her skin as a caustic gas would.

Then, just as abruptly as it had begun, it
stopped. Layna panted, kneeling on the ground on all fours.

“You are strong,” the man commented to her.
He strolled over to where she whimpered on the ground, and he knelt
beside her. He lifted her chin so he could look her in the face. He
tilted his head to the side, examining her, and then roughly
dropped her chin again and stood. “But not strong enough to
withstand me. Join me or die. Those are your only options.”

Layna felt blood welling in her mouth and she
spat it at his feet in answer.
I will not be like them. I don't
care about the mark on my neck. I am NOT THEM!
She jutted her
chin out stubbornly and stared him down.

His eyes darkened and he sighed. “So be it.”
He lifted a hand and the pain returned. Layna wished for it to end,
waiting for the light they always said would appear when you died
so she could run for it with open arms. She would welcome death to
stop the pain, and she willed it to happen.

A bright light filled Layna's sight, and she
felt the warm glow of it enveloping her. She reached for it happily
and it surrounded her, a white peace which she sank gratefully
into. The pain faded to a dull memory, and she drifted through
space and time with no concept of either.

Something familiar tugged at her
consciousness and she let the thought through, opening her eyes to
her surroundings. The entire landscape was white, and tiny sparkles
filled the air with a strange sense of pattern to their
movement.

As she watched, Layna decided that these
sparkles must be some kind of spirit being, perhaps to guide her to
her final destination. They floated closer and closer to her, and
then converged around her. As they did so she felt the pain of her
body returning and she silently begged them to keep her there.