Vesik 3 Winter's Demon (31 page)

“Wait,” he said.

Before he finished speaking, a black-and-white blur shot from the tree line.

Philip raised his hand to strike.

The panda bear …
changed.
He stood up on his hind legs and his body thinned, his broad head darkened and flared into a helmet. His paws drew down into amorphous blobs before fingers began to show their definition. His legs were just that, and his body was armored, covered with metal scales. It was a yoroi, samurai armor, and his head was crowned with an ornate kabuto.

“Shiawase,” Philip said in disbelief as he stepped backwards.

“That was my name, once,” Happy said, his voice too deep for any mortal. “Now it is Happy.” He took a half step backwards, a slightly curved sword of light extended in his right hand as he bent down and scooped Vicky up with his left.

Alan disappeared into the tree line nearby, chasing down another necromancer. Cassie followed him into shadow.

“You cannot defeat us all,” Happy said.

“I did not come alone.” Philip snapped his fingers.

The Old Man spun beside me. “Son of a—” The vampires came from nowhere, wearing shadows like armor. Bronze amulets glinted on their chests, shielding them from our necromancy.

Zola growled from the center of the shield. “We aren’t all necromancers.”

I heard the crack of the nine tails before I saw the cloud of nothingness explode above a dozen vampires. They vanished from the waist up. Legs and gore tumbled to the ground in a hideous, seizing pile.

Philip laughed. “You should work for me, witch. I’d pay you well.”

“You should have killed me last year,” Ashley said as she snapped two tiles between her fingers and threw the broken halves at a vampire standing beneath a necromancer’s shield. “Frank!”

You can stop a lot with a shield. Almost nothing can break through a well-powered shield. Ashley’s tiles settled on the surface and the glassy reflection turned red before the necromancer began to scream. Frank clamped down on the Uzis and unleashed a leaden hell.

The necromancer died, falling in a heap at the vampire’s feet. Sam was on top of the vampire the instant Frank stopped shooting. Her arm snaked around his neck and she … well, the locals have a saying for opening a bottle of beer. It seems appropriate. She popped his top.

Foster and Cara appeared on either side of Sam. More gunfire erupted behind me and I had to turn away from the battle escalating around Philip. Dell was picking off vampires. Not killing them, but shattering the amulets around their neck. God damn, why hadn’t I thought to try that?

The pepperbox hissed as I drew it and took aim. Just because Zola shielded her amulets, didn’t mean Philip would do the same. Small bursts of sparks told us when we hit the mark. I’d tagged three of the bastards before I realized there were at least ten more.

They were fast. Damn fast. But I could sense their movements once the amulets were broken. Every fiber of their beings was open to me. All I had to do was reach out and pull them apart. But with so many vampires around, it would have been suicide to risk a vision freezing me up when my necromancy showed me their lives.

“Don’t grab them,” the Old Man said, echoing my own thoughts. His words came too late.

Dell dropped his gun as one of the vampires leapt at him. The Old Man was already moving when Dell caught the vampire in midair with his necromancy. His face twisted and turned to revulsion as he came to know the man trying to kill him. Came to know him more intimately than his own mother.

Another vampire moved on Dell, but the Old Man was already there. A soulsword sprang from either hand, golden and blinding as he brought his right hand up and severed the man’s chest and right shoulder from his body in one slash.

They were surrounding us, and fast. Dell tore the vampire in front of him to pieces and then fell to a knee, shaken. I wouldn’t be able to make it to him as the next leapt from the oak tree and landed beside Dell. I raised my hand.

“Minas Ignatto!”
A thin rod of flame closed the distance in a heartbeat, boring a hole through the vamp’s arm. He didn’t scream, he just paused for a second, glanced at the damage, and pulled back his arm to kill Dell. A second can make all the difference.

I brought the focus down as I grabbed the blade rune on my staff. The soulsword sliced off the top of his head at the nose.

“Behind,” Dell muttered.

I turned and caught the moonlight gleaming off the fangs of another vampire.

He turned to ash as a beam as bright as the sun consumed him.

Edgar tipped his hat from the roof of the cabin.

I grinned and set my back to Dell. The Old Man did the same on Dell’s other side.

“Why hasn’t Zola sprung the trap?” the Old Man said.

“She’s channeling all her power into that shield,” I said. “Maybe she’s not aware.”

“We need to have her drop it. Philip’s there. The trap is set. Time to spring it.”

More gunfire echoed from the other side of the cabin. I could hear the fairies’ call to battle.

Six vampires circled us, far more wary than they’d been at first.

“Get down!”

I glanced to my right to see who was speaking. It was James, and he was making an intricate series of gestures with his hands, forming squares and runes and circles in midair.

“Shit,” the Old Man said. “Down!” He dove across Dell and tackled us both flat to the grass.

A stream of bubbles flowed from James’s hands. I almost laughed until a bubble hit the first vampire. It stuck to him and he began to turn to ash by inches. He screamed and tried to pull the bubble off with his hand. The hand was gone when he pulled it back. His scream died a moment later as his body collapsed into the bubble and vanished.

Those clear orbs of death floated past us, trailing the vampires as they started to run. Their eyes stayed locked on the spell, like it was hypnotizing them, making them move more slowly.

“Ha,” Dell said as he fished his gun out of the grass. “Not getting away from that.” He started shooting kneecaps. The vampires went down and the bubbles devoured them.

When I looked back for James, he was gone.

I helped Dell up and glanced at the Old Man.

He nodded. “Let’s go.” We started for the back of the cabin.

The scene awaiting us was gore and blood and horror. There were enough body parts I wasn’t sure if we’d lost any of our own. Alan stooped over a shredded cloak, his chest heaving. A few necromancers stood in circles, some shielded, some armed with daggers, guns, and more mundane weapons.

“You alright?” I said as I came up beside Alan.

He growled and his eyes widened. I took a step back. His head hung down and he nodded. “Yes, sorry. Carter and the others are in the woods with Happy. Vicky said there is something else approaching.”

“What?” I asked, not sure if I meant to ask what it was or what the hell was next.

“Drop the shield!” the Old Man said.

Zola continued chanting, her eyes closed, completely absorbed in the spell.

“Adannaya! Drop the fucking shield!”

Philip stared at the Old Man. He looked at his surroundings for a moment, and then dropped to his knees and began chanting. His aura flared and his voice began to boom in the rhythm of a march. A harsh wind rattled the trees behind him, swirling and snapping branches. The wind took form, a body made from rapidly moving debris, a sphere for the head, dozens of smaller spinning spheres formed the body. The eyes glowed, dirty and fiery like red-hot coals.

“No!” A voice rumbled from nowhere and everywhere. “Drop the shield.”

At that command, Zola did. She swayed on her feet as the shield fell. The Old Man sprinted in, scooped her up, and retreated as the earth beneath the circle exploded.

Aeros rose like a mad god. Dirt and rock shot forward like shrapnel. At least two men fell in the hail of debris. Aeros brought his fists down on another pair like whack-a-moles. Very gory whack-a-moles. He struck out towards Philip with a backhand.

“Impadda!”
Philip said, his shield sprang to life, catching enough of Aeros’s blow to spare him, but it still threw him several feet through the air.

Another necromancer called a shield. Aeros put his hands together and hammered down on the man, driving the shield a foot into the rocky earth before it shattered and the man’s body collapsed into a mushy puddle.

“Aeros,” the winds hissed, drawing the name out for several seconds amidst the howling debris.

“What the hell is that?” I asked.

“Gurges,” Aeros said. “God of steam and winds. He will attack from a distance. Be wary.”

“What now, Adannaya?” Philip asked from the edge of the trees. “You always rely on the rock. Predictable.” He laughed and crossed his arms as he stepped into a beam of moonlight. “Ah, but the Blade of the Stone. I did not expect that.”

A cry thundered above us. The Piasa Bird circled, eyes focused on Gurges.

“Stay back, old friend,” Aeros said. The Thunderbird rose higher into the night, becoming a shadow amongst the stars. Aeros did not raise his gaze from Gurges, but I knew he was speaking to us about the Piasa Bird. “He is no match for this beast.”

“Your men are dead,” Foster said as he let a vampire’s body fall at his feet.

“That is no concern of mine,” Philip said. “They did their job well. I know every last piece you brought to the game.”

“You and Ah have unfinished business,” Zola said. “Ah do wonder … if you want Ezekiel dead, why attack us here?”

“No one can defeat Ezekiel,” Philip said. “I just want a little more enjoyment out of this life. And killing you and your apprentice is on the top of my list.”

“You’re lying,” Zola said. “You’ve always been a bad liar.”

Philip laughed and leaned against a tree. “Not always. Not always. For example, if all your friends leave now, I’ll let them live.”

Zola stared at him.

“Am I lying?” His lips curled up into a vicious smile.

“We should take his offer,” James said from the roof.

I wanted to shoot him.

Aeros and Gurges began circling each other.

“Gurges,” Philip said, “finish this quickly.”

The Old God didn’t respond in words. He spun and ran a translucent hand through the air in an arc. The tree beside Aeros splintered and an explosion of red rock leapt from his left arm. He grunted and put his hand over the wound. Molten rock dripped from the gouge and smoke rose from the grass where it fell.

“Bloody hell,” I said. “Aeros!”

“Concentrate,” Aeros said. “I am not your concern.”

“Fuck this,” Dell said. He leapt over the firewood and ran behind Aeros, setting up across the backyard from Philip. Three shots rang out.

Philip laughed as they hit the tree around his head. He hadn’t raised a shield, the lines hadn’t shifted around him at all, and no glassy shell appeared. “You can’t harm me so long as Gurges shields me.”

“Then Gurges dies,” Cassie said as she swooped in from behind with her sword extended. It was a perfect strike, the blade sliding through the back of Gurges’s head and out through its left eye. It screamed and its body turned away from Aeros. Only it didn’t turn like a mortal creature, its back simply
became
its front, its left eye became its right.

The Old God spread its translucent fingers and a blade of wind cut through Cassie’s chest. Dead center. Blood sprayed from her armor and her eyes widened as the tree behind her fell from the same attack.

“Now, Frank!” Ashley said from the shadows of the forest.

A handful of tiles sailed through the air. A flash of sunlight burned a hole through Gurges’s chest. The Old God stumbled as Ashley unleashed a cry to send the devil running for shelter. The nine tails cracked and Ashley ran directly into the black cloud. She vanished for a split second and then reappeared on the other side of Gurges, her body covered with blood. Something glistened in her hands. It was the damaged eye of the Old God. She smiled and jammed it into a pouch on her belt.

“Thunderbird!” Aeros said, the world shaking with every syllable. “Take your sacrifice!”

The Piasa Bird dove from the stars, claws out as it neared the stumbling form of Gurges. The Old God looked up at the last moment, in time to see the Piasa Bird pluck his last eye from his head. The Old God collapsed, dissipating in a quiet breeze, and opening the view across the field.

“Cassie!” Zola screamed. “Cassie, no!”

Cassie’s body started to fold in on itself. The ley lines sparked into a blinding spider web of power around her.

Cara jumped in front of Foster and held him back as he tried to run toward Cassie. “She’s gone. Look away. Look away!”

But I couldn’t look away. None of us could look away as the ley lines siphoned the skin from her body, tearing and shredding her wings until there was nothing left but an outline of fairy dust where they’d been a moment before. Then the screams began. And I screamed with her as the muscles spun and unraveled around her naked flesh, exposing her organs, her skeleton. Her entire being began to drift away and still she screamed. Until the end. Her bloody armor was on the ground, the outline of her body floating above it, remnants of our friend in the fading fairy dust.

And Foster’s screams. The battle had stopped, both sides struck dumb by the nightmarish vision of Cassie’s death.

Everyone but Philip.

“Take him, James,” Philip said.

The Watcher was fast. Impossibly fast. He was down from the roof before I could blink, wrenching Dell around and forcing his arm behind his back. There was a wet pop and a grunt of pain as Dell’s shoulder dislocated.

“Anyone moves and I pull the trigger.” James forced the barrel of a small revolver up against Dell’s head.

Zola was closest, and I wished her gaze could sear the flesh from James’s bones. “You won’t leave here alive.” Her eyes trailed back to Philip. “She was our friend, you monster.” Her voice grew low, dangerous beyond words. “How did Ah ever love such a thing?”

Philip raised the hand of the dead king.

“In all the ways this world betrayed me, you were the worst,” Zola said as tears began to roll down her cheeks. “Never again.”