The Burns Defiance

by N M Thorn

  Gunz turned toward the hut and his jaw dropped. The hut on chicken legs was gone. Instead, he was standing in front of a modern contemporary home, built of glass and concrete. The front door was opened, and soft music was drifting through the doorway.

  “Please come inside. I believe your undead friend needs a special invitation,” said Yaginya, addressing Gunz. “Make yourself at home while I take care of your wonderful horses.”

  Gunz walked inside the house and halted indecisively. The marble floor was polished to perfection and everything inside the house was perfectly clean and in order. He glanced down at his shoes, covered in a thick layer of road dust and dirt and then at his clothes which weren’t exactly clean either.

  “That’s as far as I go,” said Yaroslav shaking his head. “I don’t want to anger the ancient sorceress by messing up her floors. Something tells me, she dislikes me already.”

  “I’m not a sorceress and a few footprints on my spotless floors are not enough to set me off.” Yaginya walked into the house and took in their less than immaculate appearance. “Let’s do this, boys. First, I’ll let you clean up a bit and once you’re ready, you can join me for dinner here. There is a lot we need to discuss.”

  Yaginya escorted them to the second floor of her house and showed them to separate bedrooms, mentioning in passing that in their bedroom closet they would find something that should fit their size and taste in attire.

  Gunz took a quick shower, dried his hair and body and walked back into the bedroom. After the shower, he started to feel how truly tired he was, his every muscle buzzing with exhaustion from the endless ride. Nevertheless, he didn’t want to waste any time. They had been on the road nearly five days already. It meant that out of the fifteen days Novak had given them, they already used almost a third, and he still didn’t know how long it would take them to find the sacred garden.

  Besides that, he wasn’t sure what kind of game Novak was playing. The necromancer wasn’t an idiot. He knew the gray stones couldn’t kill a Fire Salamander. The magical stones could hurt him, make him as weak as any human, but they couldn’t kill an immortal being. However, they could kill a vampire, no matter how powerful or ancient he was. It was obvious that George Novak wanted them to bring the Apple of Youth and the Water of Life, so why would he make both of them weaker, diminishing their chances to succeed in this mission?

  Gunz opened the closet and found a plain black t-shirt, jeans and a light leather jacket that fit his size perfectly. He threw everything on the bed and quickly placed a fireproofing spell on all the clothes. Leaving the jacket on the bed, he put the pants and shirt on, and grabbed a pair of motorcycle boots out of the closet. After that, he moved his Swiss army knife from his old jeans into the new ones and headed downstairs.

  Yaroslav was there already. He was sitting next to a dining room table that was set for a king. His long hair was still a little wet after the shower. His head was bowed down and the golden strands fell over his chest, leaving damp spots on his white shirt. His long legs, clothed in black leather pants and tall riding boots, were stretched out and his arms were folded over his chest. He looked like he was sleeping, but as soon as Gunz walked inside the room, he lifted his head and a tiny smile warmed his features.

  “How are you?” Gunz asked, registering a hardly noticeable red glow in the vampire’s eyes. “Are you starting to feel the effect of the gray stones again?”

  “A little,” replied Yaroslav, “but it’s not bad. Not yet—”

  “Aw, you both look scrumptious,” said Yaginya as she walked into the dining room. “Good enough to eat.”

  “I hope we’re not on your menu,” said Yaroslav, smirking.

  “Ha-ha,” muttered Yaginya, rolling her eyes. “Coming from a freak of nature who lives on a liquid diet of human blood.”

  Gunz turned to Yaroslav, giving him a warning stare. Then he smiled at Yaginya. “My lady, the Gatekeeper sent us here. We need your help.”

  Yaginya sat down, placing some salad on her plate. “Please, help yourself first. We’ll talk later.”

  Gunz was so worn out that he didn’t feel the hunger, but out of respect to their hostess, he filled his plate and started eating. So did Yaroslav, and Gunz just had to wonder if vampires could eat human food. Whether they could or they couldn’t, Yaroslav had perfect table manners so Gunz couldn’t tell if the vampire enjoyed the meal.

  Once they finished eating, Yaginya touched the table cloth. It shimmered with bright sparks and everything disappeared from the table, leaving it spotlessly clean.

  “I’m not big on cooking,” she said with a guilty smile. “So, the magical tablecloth works perfectly well for me. So, how can I help the two famous, undefeated fighters?”

  Gunz frowned. “Undefeated fighters?”

  “Yes, undefeated fighters – Gunz and Alucard.” Yaginya shrugged, an innocent expression on her face making her look young and carefree. “Well, I’m guilty as charged… Sometimes, I travel to the mundane world for some light gambling. A bad habit of mine.”

  “Never mind.” Gunz rubbed his face tiredly. So, she is a gambler, betting on underground fights. Big friggin’ deal! He sighed and continued, “It’s very late, so if you don’t mind, let’s just get straight to business. Yaroslav and I need to retrieve the Apple of Youth from the sacred garden, but no one seems to know where the garden is located. Can you please point us in the right direction?”

  “Are you sure you want to do it?” asked Yaginya, a deep vertical crease etched between her dark eyebrows.

  “Yes, I am sure,” replied Gunz meeting her narrowed eyes. “We have no choice but to do as ordered.”

  Yaginya reached forward and touched the collar on his neck, shaking her head. “I see,” she muttered, and he felt the touch of her magic probing his gray stone jewelry.

  The gray stones reacted to the magical invasion by sending a jolt of electricity through his body. He grunted, his fingers frantically grasping at the edge of the table.

  “Stop, please,” he hissed through clenched teeth.

  Yaginya let go right away and pursed her lips. “We always have a choice, Fire Salamander. Sometimes the choices we have are not ideal, but they are still valid choices,” she said dryly, throwing a frosty gaze at Yaroslav. “You chose to bow down and obey. This is why you are here with this dead leech.”

  “No,” snapped Gunz, his hands curling into fists. “I chose to save my friend’s life and stop a delusional maniac from torturing another person who is important to me.”

  “But let me ask you, oh brainless one,” said Yaginya snidely. “Why does the delusional maniac need the Apple of Youth in the first place, eh? Did you think what would happen when he gets it?”

  Gunz averted his gaze, swallowing hard. “He wants to make an elixir of immortality.”

  “Nice!” hissed Yaginya, slamming her hand on the table. “So, your choice is to save a worthless walking corpse by giving the gift of immortality to a dangerous dark wizard. Is that right, Fire Salamander?”

  “Let me repeat,” growled Gunz, fire slowly rising in him as his exhausted mind could no longer control his emotions, “Yaroslav is my friend. He stood by my side and fought to protect a city full of humans. I don’t care if he is dead or alive, I’m proud to call him my friend! And I would do anything to save him and stop George Novak from torturing Aidan McGrath!”

  Gunz got up, spreading his flaming arms, no longer able to control his power and headed outside. He halted by the door, thinking that insulting the only person who could help them wasn’t a good move and turned around with a sigh. “My lady, I apologize for my behavior and I’m begging your forgiveness,” he said with a bow. “I need a few minutes to get in control. I’ll be right back.”

  He walked outside closing the door and sat down on the steps. The cold night air engulfed him, and he leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his head to suppress the desire to scream. Yaginya made perfect sense – making a dangerous maniac like Novak immortal would hav
e unpredictable consequences. Possibly, deadly consequences.

  At the same time, somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that killing Yaroslav to break himself free would be a mistake. A mistake more dangerous than giving the elixir of immortality to the necromancer. He had no idea how he knew it, he just did, and he was sure that the decision he made was the right one.

  I’m just tired, I’m just extremely tired, he thought, his fingers digging into his scalp. I need a few minutes to calm down and think.

  He felt a light touch to his shoulder and slowly raised his head. Yaroslav was sitting next to him. The vampire was staring straight ahead, his arms powerlessly resting on his knees.

  “Gunz, Yaginya was right,” he said quietly. “We can’t allow this dangerous necromancer to become immortal.”

  “Slavik, please, not you too,” whispered Gunz, lowering his eyes.

  “She is right, Gunz. You have to let me die.”

  “No,” objected Gunz flatly. “I’m not going to give up on you or on Aidan for that matter. Plus, even if I let you die, I still have the collar on my neck, and Novak is the only one who can take it off. With the controller in his hands, he can bring me down to my knees even if I’m in a different world.”

  “That’s not entirely true, Gunz. And I’m sure you know it,” said Yaroslav. “During our last conversation, Mrak Delar said something that made me think. He said if Kal was in your place, he would be out of these restraints in a matter of a few minutes. If Kal can do it, you can do it too.”

  “I heard that evil son of a bitch,” muttered Gunz. “And he probably said it just to hurt me. He succeeded. Nevertheless, I’m not going to let you die, Slavik. So, let’s drop this conversation.” He raised his eyes, meeting Yaroslav’s scarlet gaze and shook his head. “How long has it been since you had something to eat?”

  He reached into his pocket and pulled his knife out, but Yaroslav seized his wrist, stopping him.

  “You’re too tired and I don’t want you to deal with blood loss on top of it,” he objected quietly. “I know, I sound like a broken record every time when you offer me your blood. And every time I feed on you anyway… But you have no idea how horrible it makes me feel.”

  “You’re right, Slavik. You do sound like a broken record. I need you alive. I swore to your mother that I would bring you home to her.” He took a few deep breaths, suppressing his fire and slashed his wrist with his knife. Dark streams of blood trickled down his hand, dropping on the soft dirt under his feet. “Drink. Don’t make me kick your undead ass.”

  Yaroslav sucked in a sharp breath and seized Gunz’s bleeding wrist, his icy fingers trembling. He pressed it to his mouth, carefully piercing his skin with his fangs. Gunz turned away, feeling slightly nauseous and weak as the wave of warmth spread through his body. The vampire let go a few seconds later, squeezing his wrist to stop the bleeding.

  “Thank you,” he said, wiping his lips with his hand, his voice sounding hollow, void of emotions. “But to be honest, you couldn’t kick my ass even if your life depended on it.”

  “What are you saying?” asked Gunz drowsily. “We sparred before… in training. And I killed enough of your kind—"

  “Those other vampires you killed, they were nothing like me. And in sparring, you fought me, but I didn’t really fight you back.”

  “What are you saying, Slavik?”

  “Why do you think Akira chose to turn me? She had never done it before and has never done it again. Have you ever asked her about it?”

  “No and I don’t care—”

  “You should,” roared Yaroslav rising. Levitating a few inches above the ground, he spread his arms throwing his head back. His vampiric energy lingered around him like a stormy cloud and his hair fanned, surrounding his face and shoulders. “I have some powers unlike any other vampires you’ve met before. I’m a monster, Gunz. I killed more humans than you’ve met in your life.”

  Yaroslav spun in the air and a moment later, a giant golden wolf was standing in his place. He snarled, a low growl rumbling in his throat and charged Gunz. Gunz didn’t move a muscle, not even when the wolf pushed him back and placed his thick paw on his chest, his terrible fangs less than an inch from his face. The wolf growled, his eyes burning with a bright scarlet light.

  “Are you done with your shenanigans?” asked Gunz unimpressed. “Enough with theatrics, Yaroslav. I’m not going to let you die.”

  The wolf yelped, backing away and a split-second later, Yaroslav assumed his human form. He sighed, lowering down on the step next to Gunz.

  “I move faster than any average vampire and I’m stronger than any average vampire. I can shapeshift into a wolf or a large bird, and I can glamour humans and kill them before they know what’s happened to them,” he said quietly. “I haven’t killed in years, but before that…” His voice disappeared into the silence of the night forest. “Gunz, you must kill me. Aidan is a god. He’ll find a way to get himself out of this situation. Your loyalty to me and Akira is the only thing that keeps you on this destructive mission. You kill me and you’re a free man to stop Novak from achieving his goal, whatever that might be.”

  “So, why did Akira choose you as her only son?” asked Gunz, unfazed by Yaroslav’s heated speech. “I’m sure when you were a human boy, you didn’t have all these wonderful powers.”

  “No, I didn’t have any powers, except the power to suffer and die a miserable death,” he whispered, dropping his head. “I was a twenty-year old boy, dying of consumption… It was my blood that Akira sensed. I wish she let me die!” He punched the marble steps he was sitting on with his fist, leaving a tiny crack in the stone.

  Yaroslav fell silent and Gunz didn’t dare to say anything, horrified by the anguish in the vampire’s voice. After a few minutes, he finally asked, “Yaroslav, what was so special about your blood? The blood of a Russian royalty, Prince Potemkin?”

  “No, of course not.” Yaroslav threw a quick glance at Gunz, a bitter smirk on his ashen face. “I was nothing but another bajstryuk – bastard. My biological father didn’t know about my existence. And I doubt he would care about me even if he knew. It was the blood of my poor, destitute mother that drew Akira. The bloodline of Vlad Tepes… You know him as Vlad the Impaler.”

  “Dracula… He was real?”

  Yaroslav laughed humorlessly. “When are you going to put it through your thick skull, Gunz? Everything is real.” He sighed. “So, I’m the last of Dracula’s bloodline and I’m a vampire… Life made a full circle. This is why I can do some things other vampires can’t. This is why Akira chose me, Gunz… And this is why you should kill me. I’m dangerous and what we’re planning to do makes me even more dangerous. Think about it – a vampire with extreme abilities controlled by a powerful immortal necromancer.”

  Yaroslav got up and unsheathed his katana. Then he lowered down to both knees, offering his sword to Gunz, holding it with both hands in the Japanese manner.

  “Set me free, Gunz,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to be a weapon in the hands of evil. Never again…”

  Gunz got up and took the sword from Yaroslav’s hands. He stared at the blade, slightly tilting it back and forth to let the bright light of the full moon play on the polished steel. Yaroslav gathered his long hair and moved it to the side, exposing his neck.

  “Do it, Gunz,” he said, without raising his eyes. “Just the way my mother taught you. Make it quick.”

  Gunz sighed and sat down on the ground in front of Yaroslav, placing the katana between them. “I’m not going to kill you,” he said dryly. “This is bullshit, Slavik.”

  “What is?” Yaroslav lifted his face and there was so much pain reflected in his eyes that Gunz shuddered.

  “Everything you just said is,” replied Gunz, anger slowly rising up in him. “Of course, I know you’re dangerous. I always knew it. But I also knew that you didn’t kill in years. Maybe a century, maybe even longer. I went through hell, Slavik, just to find you. The amount of pain and humil
iation I had to suffer to get closer to you… And after all that, you want me to kill you? If you want to die, all you have to do is run faster than me. And from what I understand, you’re a lot faster than I am. You put more than hundred yards between us and you’re as good as dead.”

  “There is no honor in that kind of death,” said Yaroslav quietly. “I refuse to take my own life.”

  For a moment Gunz stared at him, his eyes widened, his anger quickly melting away. Then he pressed his hand to his mouth and turned away. Possibly it was his exhaustion that was playing with his frazzled mind, but at the moment, this whole situation seemed to amuse him. He stifled the laughter and picked the katana off the ground, slowly rising to his feet.

  He stood over Yaroslav, biting his lip, as the vampire bowed his head, moving his hair away to expose his neck, again. Gunz raised the katana and gently lowered it to the vampire’s neck, drawing a few drops of blood. Yaroslav didn’t move, remaining still like a statute.

  “I would rather die than take the life of my friend,” said Gunz coldly, lowering the sword and extending his hand to Yaroslav. “We’ll figure it out, Slavik. We always do. We’ll get the Apple and we’ll find a way to stop the necromancer before he becomes indestructible. And if Yaginya doesn’t want to help us, we’ll find some other way.”

  Yaroslav looked up at Gunz, shaking his head but accepted his hand and got up. He took his sword and sheathed it. “When it comes to your friends, you have a blind spot, Gunz, and one day it will be your undoing,” he said, his voice hoarse.

  “I second that.”

  Both Gunz and Yaroslav spun around to find Yaginya standing right behind them.

  “Yaginya,” said Gunz, raking his fingers through his hair, “how long have you been standing here?”

  “Long enough,” she replied frostily. “Long enough to see that a vampire has more common sense than a Fire Salamander. I should have a word with Kalidus first chance I get. Nevertheless, what I witnessed, made me change my mind.”