by Joshua King
The second the magic started to crackle in my hands, sparkling like electricity and glowing a bright blue, the creature’s eyes had narrowed and focused on me. As I blasted it with the ball of energy, it braced itself, taking the shot full on and not hesitating. Then, it charged me. I quickly shot off another blast, which the creature met by speeding up. The magical shots seemed to make no effect on him, and I took off in another direction. Just as the creature crested the area where I had been it stopped abruptly, and the eye began to spin again. It was visibly confused, and I wondered what was going on. Surely it had seen me run to the side.
I began to ball up another blast when the head snapped toward me and the eye focused again. Another intense beam of energy shot at the monster, who was now churning its legs to position itself to charge. I ran again, looking for a place away from the others to lure him to, when the creature charged my last position and repeated its stop and search. I turned to look at my team, most of them assembled together now, but Jaxxim had gone to protect Aurora. She poked herself up from behind the rock and her necklace glinted in the sunlight.
Suddenly the creature spun on its heels and charged her. It ran headlong into the rock wall she had hidden behind and crashed through it, destroying it and sending Aurora scurrying with Jaxxim behind another rock further away. The creature searched again but did not see her and the dawning of realization hit me. Something about light, glinting off the sun, attracted the creature. It was effectively blind except for the shiny glint of something like Aurora’s necklace or the energy that crackled and sparked from my magic.
From behind me, I heard a shout and I turned to see what it was. Bugs stood on a tree branch twenty feet up, his one remaining shoe off and his hand gripping his shoelace.
“Hayden, get that thing to come over here,” he shouted.
He swung the shoelace in a circular pattern over his head and I noticed a bit of cloth at the end. Something heavy and dense sat inside it. Bugs had made a makeshift slingshot, and while I had no idea what he planned on using it for, it was impressive. Not bothering to condense it into a ball, I released another flow of energy, allowing it to spark and sizzle around my closed fist as I raised it in the air. The monster’s eye focused on me, just as I had intended. Holding my fist in the air, I lured the creature toward Bugs. There wouldn’t be more than one shot and I hoped he had some idea of what he was doing with his Shoelace David slingshot.
I used my vampire speed to circle the area, keeping the creature from focusing on anything else but the magic crackling above my head. Bugs made eye contact with me and nodded and I darted toward him. The creature was on my heels now, gaining speed as I got within a few yards of the tree Bugs was in.
Bugs flung the shoelace open, sending the heavy stone he had somehow climbed the tree with, out in a spiral toward me and the creature. I dove to the ground and rolled. Just as I stopped, the rock landed directly in the center of the yellow eye. The monster howled, its legs dancing in multiple directions and the claws clipping at nothingness. The spike of the tail swirled and smashed into trees before darting down directly at me. I moved just in time to not be impaled as the spike dove deep into the earth and the creature’s legs splayed out. The creature was balling itself up now, either hurt and confused or dying, and I knew this was my best chance at eliminating the threat altogether.
I scrambled to my feet and ran toward the tail, balling up energy in my hands and focusing my rage and my magic all together into one singular mission. Channeling it all into one fist, I dove into the air, hovering for just a moment before crashing down violently and smashing my fist into the earth. The force created a crater and the ground began to split. Everything shook as the crack of earth spread toward the sheer wall on one side of us. Rocks began to tumble and fall toward us and we all dove out of the way to the relative safety of the trees.
A split second later my stomach turned as I realized not all of us were there. I turned to look back and saw a massive slab of rock crash down into the creature, squashing it like a tennis shoe smears a spider, but that didn’t matter. Bugs was missing. Finally, my eyes caught him, hanging on to the tree with both arms. He noticed me looking just before we both saw a massive stone tumbling toward the trees near him. Before I could shout or do anything else, he raised one hand as if to wave and the landslide swept the trees away, and Bugs along with them.
24
I ran to Bugs so fast I didn’t even feel the ground beneath my feet. Dropping to the ground, I clawed at the rocks, digging them away. One of Bugs’ arms was sticking up and the top of his head was visible, but the rest of him was covered with the debris of the landslide. I remembered the feeling of the stone crushing me after the first earthquake and fear shook through me.
“Hang on, Bugs,” I shouted. “Hang on. We’re going to get you out.”
The temptation to use magic to get the rocks out of the way tingled through me, but I knew I couldn’t. There was much too high a risk of hurting him more if I started sending rocks flying around. The best chance he had was the eight of us digging him out as fast as we possibly could. Brielle and Lilly could only move one stone for every two the other women could, and that was less than half the speed of the three men, but every rock taken off his body was a step closer to freeing Bugs. I kept talking to him as we worked and finally got a groan in response.
“Almost there, buddy,” I said. “Just hang on.”
It seemed like it took forever before the rocks were finally completely off him. Bugs flopped slowly onto his back and looked up at me.
“Hey, Hayden,” he said with a hint of a smile. “Thanks for getting me out.”
I picked his head up to jostle his eyes back open as the lids drifted down.
“Nope. Stay awake,” I told him. “Brielle’s working on you.”
“Okay.”
The glow of the healing magic was already surrounding him and my hands created the link that amplified the power. His eyes started to close again.
“Talk to me, Bugs. Just keep talking.”
“This isn’t so strange for me, you know,” he said. “I remember what it felt like to be so close to death and have Malakan bring me back.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry, Bugs.”
His head shook slightly in my palm.
“No, Hayden, don’t be sorry. You did what you had to do. This isn’t your fault. Besides, I’m not afraid. I’ve always known it wouldn’t last forever. I went through a portal. Whether I knew what I was doing, or meant to do it or not, it doesn’t matter. I used it and there was always going to be the day when I’d have to pay the price for it.”
The words cut through my heart and I struggled not to let the emotion show.
“Not today,” I told him.
I’d come to really like Bugs, even though I wished he’d put on another shoe at some point, and I couldn’t stand the thought of him dying. Not now. Not ever, but especially not now, here on the mountain when there was still so much more to be done. He deserved better. We deserved him.
“Not today,” Brielle confirmed. “You haven’t had enough adventure quite yet.”
She smiled at him as she continued to move her hands over his body. The sound of bones piecing back together was hard to hear, but also reassuring. Finally, there was a loud crack and Bugs gasped, then relaxed, his eyes closing.
“Bugs?” I said, fear making my voice spiral up higher.
His eyes opened halfway and he smiled.
“I’ve been waiting years for my neck to crack,” he said.
Our laughter was cut short by a roar. We looked around to find the source, but realized it was coming from deep inside the mountain.
“How dare you?” Gora shouted. “How dare you destroy my mountain with that landslide?”
“Destroy your mountain?” I asked. “Your mountain and the creepy-crawlies of doom that live in it are trying to fucking kill us. You need to learn to keep better company.”
“Be more careful,”
Gora demanded. “Or I will rescind the deal.”
That threat hung over us as we continued on for the rest of the day and through the next. Bugs was getting better, but couldn’t move as fast and needed to rest more often. By the time the second night since the landslide ended and we tried to muster ourselves to keep going, we’d kept up our end of the truce with the mountain, but the mountain hadn’t gotten the memo.
“My old foe,” I said to the food cube I held at eye level in my palm. “I knew the day would come.”
“Just swallow it,” Aurora said. “You didn’t eat yesterday or most of the day before. You need something, and the rest of the food was lost when those bags went over the edge.”
We’d lost a good portion of our supplies and the phone in Ashe’s pocket was now smashed and unusable. She refused to discard it and was continuing to cling to it like a security blanket. The reality that we were fully disconnected now pressed in heavily around us and I could feel the discouragement of the rest of the group. Squeezing my eyes closed, I shoved the cube in my mouth and swallowed it without chewing. Whatever it was meant to be, I’d never know. All I got was a vaguely salty residue across my tongue.
“We have to keep moving,” Jaxxim said.
“Not all of us,” I said. “We have to keep pushing, but Lilly says we’re close now. There’s no reason for all of us to scout the mine. Brielle is exhausted from using so much magic. Bugs, you need to keep focusing on healing and not dying. Jaxxim and Bex, come with me. The rest of you, stay here and rest. We’ll come back when we find something.”
Aurora started to protest, but I wouldn’t listen. The nine of us traveling together couldn’t move as fast as just the three of us, and time was sliding away. We needed to get this done. Taking only the most basic supplies, Bex, Jaxxim, and I walked away from our camp and across the mountain in the direction Lilly had directed us. Within a few minutes, we were moving through landscape that looked old and damaged. Signs of destruction to the rocks was encouraging in a solemn way and I turned to point out a cut in a rock that looked like it had once housed explosives. Before I could say anything, the sound of a woman crying stopped me. I listened closer and the sound came again, a whimpering, desperate sobbing that sounded like her heart was breaking.
“Do you hear that?” I asked.
“What?” Jaxxim asked.
“The woman crying. Come on, we need to find her.”
We rushed toward the sound of the crying, tracking it as it bounced off the rocks around us.
“Help me,” the woman’s voice cried out. “Please, help me.”
“Hayden, be careful,” Bex cautioned. “Remember the forest. It could be a Dark Fae trick.”
“I know,” I said. “But we’re far from the forest. It isn’t likely a Dark Fae would be here. I can’t just ignore her if she really does need help.”
The unyielding crying led us down a path toward a more densely tree-covered portion of the mountain. A few yards ahead of us, a man lay draped across a row of jagged rocks beside the path. I ran to him and saw his condition was grave. A gaunt, almost skeletal body clothed in little more than rags was covered in puncture marks and streaks of dried blood. Most of the skin on his fingertips and palms had been torn away like had been crawling over the rocks. His dry, cracked lips moved and he said something, but I couldn’t understand it.
“Brielle,” I said to Jaxxim. “Go get Brielle.”
“Blood,” the man managed to get out. The bony fingers of one hand curled around my shirt as if to hold me closer. “Blood…farm.”
“Blood farm?” I asked, trying to confirm I’d heard him.
His eyes widened as he took a gasping breath that rattled in his chest and his body went limp. I tried to pull him up, but he didn’t respond.
“Should I still go?” Jaxxim asked.
I shook my head.
“He’s dead.”
The sound of the woman crying rose up again and I looked up to follow it, finally seeing her standing behind a nearby tree. She kept most of her body behind it as if trying to protect herself from something. Even through the tears, she was beautiful and I started toward her. The closer I got, the more I noticed how pale and thin she was. It wasn’t as severe as the man, but it was obvious she had been through something.
“Who is that?” I asked. “Is there something we can do?”
She shook her head.
“No. There’s nothing that can be done for him. You have to get out. It’s far too dangerous here.”
I reached out a hand to her.
“Are you all right? What can I do to help you?”
“Go!” she said more desperately. “You have to get away from here.” She looked behind her and then to either side of the tree, the darting movements of her eyes frantic. “Come with me. I’ll show you the easiest way.”
“The rest of my group is waiting for us to come back,” I told her. “My friend is in serious trouble and I’m trying to save her.”
Fresh tears pooled in the woman’s eyes and her expression became more fearful.
“Please,” she said. “You can’t stay here. You can’t let them get to you.”
“What does that mean? Who?”
“There’s no time to explain now. Every instant you stay here, your life is at more risk. Come with me. I will help you escape if you will take me with you.”
“Hayden,” Bex said, but I ignored him.
I took a few steps toward her outreached hand. An instant later I heard Lilly’s voice screaming from behind me.
“No!”
The dagger tore from my belt as she grabbed it and launched herself at the woman.
“Lilly!” I yelled. “What are you doing?”
She grabbed the woman and spun her deftly in her arms, lifting the dagger up and dragging it across the other woman’s throat in one swift, clean movement.
“Where did you come from? What the fuck are you doing?”
“I felt like you were in danger,” Lilly said as she let the woman’s gurgling body slide to the ground at her feet, “so I came to check on you. I’m glad I did.”
“Because I was trying to help this woman?” I asked incredulously. “Actually, because she was trying to help us?”
Lilly gave me a stern, cold look and dropped to her knees beside the woman. Without flinching, she grabbed her thick hair and held it tightly as she used my blade to remove the woman’s head before letting the rest of her body drop back down to the ground.
“She wasn’t trying to help you, Hayden.”
As I watched, the beautiful, delicate features of the face contorted and changed, the hair going stiff and gray until nothing was left but a gruesome head.
“What was she?” I managed to choke out.
“A succubus,” Lilly said. “One of the evil kind. When I first told you what I was, you were shocked. That’s because this is what you likely thought about. This type of succubus is a horrible being. She can make herself beautiful and alluring, crafting her image into anything she thinks will appeal to you, so she can draw you into her control. She wasn’t going to help you.”
“Then what was she going to do?” I asked.
Lilly looked around and her eyes locked on something behind me. I turned around and saw a gap in the side of the mountain ahead of us.
“She wasn’t going to help you escape. She was leading you right into the mouth of the mine.”
I straightened as Bex and Jaxxim stepped up behind me.
“Go tell the others,” I said.
“What are you doing, Hayden?” Lilly asked.
“I’m going to find out what she wanted to show me.”
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About the Author
Joshua King is a Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy writer that loves a killer story mixed with a few ongoing fantasies. Strong gorgeous women, super evil villains, precarious situations, and a normal dude that gets transformed into making it happen are all part of the fun.
When not writing, he's watching movies, traveling the US with his wife and son, or paying homage to the God of War. He's hoping to entertain you and give you a few minutes of heart-racing fun or mind-bending mystery in the various worlds he's created or the ones he plans to create.
