Eternal Night

by Kerrion, Jade;

  He slashed out at a daeva, but screamed when another daeva bit down on his extended sword arm. His grip slacked, and the sword tumbled from his grasp. He recoiled and pressed back into the alcove. He was out of time, and out of luck. The daevas snickered. They held back, studying him through yellow eyes. One ran a tongue over its cracked lips. Their wiry bodies coiled, preparing to pounce.

  The ceiling panel above them crashed down. A white-clad form leapt from the exposed ceiling and landed in a battle crouch. For a split second, Ashra held still, and then she leapt to attack, a vicious beast in the body of an angel. A flurry of claws and fangs reduced the daevas to quivering bodies in pools of golden blood. Jaden ducked to avoid the spread of her metal-tipped horned wings as she spun into a whirlwind of destruction. Her wings cut through the daevas. The shrieks of the dying faded into silence.

  Ashra and Jaden’s gazes met over a corridor filled with stench of death. His harsh breathing echoed through the enclosed chamber. She was untouched; her white gown stained with blood, none of it hers. Her pale gold eyes, narrowed into predatory slits, widened and then gentled. She dashed forward, her wings lifting her over the carnage she had wrought, and flew into his arms. Her gentle hands pressed against his bloodied, sweaty skin. Her lips sought his in a drugging kiss.

  Jaden closed his eyes and sank into her embrace. He wrapped his uninjured hand in her silver hair, staining it crimson, and pressed kisses along the delicate line of her exposed neck.

  Desperate for her, he nuzzled her neck. With a sharp fingernail, she cut through her vein and threw her head back, baring her bleeding wound for his thirsty lips.

  He drank deeply, the bittersweet taste of her blood filling his senses. Her scent—a heady mix of jasmine and hyacinth—made his head spin. The ache of sore muscles and the searing pain of torn flesh seeped away.

  The small cut on her neck healed, the wound closing.

  He fought down the whimper of need.

  Ashra smiled against his cheek. “Feeling better?”

  He relaxed against her body, seemingly fragile yet stronger than steel. Her fingertips tapped a light rhythm against his spine. “Yes.” He opened his eyes and pushed away from her, gritting his teeth against the faint swirl of pain that washed through him.

  She glanced up at the exposed ceiling panel. “I’ll take you to the infirmary.”

  He inhaled sharply. His father was still trapped—likely dead—within a cell in an area swarming with daevas.

  And the city was under attack.

  He braced himself against the twin pangs of guilt and loss. I’m sorry, Father. He straightened, stiffening his shoulders against the rapidly fading grind of pain. “I’ll be all right. We have to get to the city.”

  She frowned at the sealed fire door. “We’ll have to go another way.” She wrapped her arms around him and carried him up through the ceiling before depositing him on the floor above. “This way.” Half-flying, half-running, she led the way around a maze of pillars to the central shaft. She seized him again and carried him up to the chamber on the highest floor of the tower. From the balcony, they looked down upon a terrorized city. People scurried like ants, screaming and shying from the diving attacks of daevas.

  He gripped Ashra tightly around her waist. He nodded, and she smiled.

  She leapt from the tower, her wings pressed against her back as she accelerated into a free fall. The ground rushed up at them. The daevas clustered at the foot of the tower formed patches of black against the amber glow of the city’s lights.

  Ashra screamed her war cry, the sound vibrating out of her in a triumphant rush of power. The daevas recoiled, cringing into fetal balls. Her wings flared, slowing her descent. Jaden let go of her and leapt to the ground. He was on the daevas before they recovered from Ashra’s auditory assault. His double blades cut through wizened flesh that bled gold.

  Daevas circled over the city; their wings blotted out the pallid glow of the moon. The men and women of the city struggled to marshal a resistance, but their efforts were futile. Panicked people jostled past Jaden, their shrieks rending the night.

  “Get down!” Jaden shoved a child to the ground. He sidestepped the attacking daeva and brought his swords down. The daeva tumbled from the sky, wailing, as its hands separated from the rest of its body. Jaden pulled the child to his feet and shoved him toward a house.

  “Need help?” a familiar voice asked.

  He glanced over his shoulder. Talon somersaulted through the air and landed beside him. The remnants of Tera’s vampire army surged past the elder vampire, running and leaping over the terrified humans. The elder vampire wore a crooked, insolent grin, but never was his cocky insouciance more welcome. Talon rolled his shoulders, tensed his hands into claws, and swung out at the three daeva attacking a small group of humans armed with swords.

  “Michael, no!” Jaden leapt forward to deflect a blade descending on Talon’s neck. With a disgusted grunt, he shoved his best friend back.

  Michael gaped at him. “You’re alive.”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re one of them?”

  “Open your eyes.” Jaden grabbed Michael by the shoulder and spun him around. “What do you see?”

  Talon dispatched the three daevas without breaking stride. He coiled and leapt onto a giant Doric pillar framing the cathedral, twisting in mid-leap to propel himself off the pillar and into the air. He tore a passing daeva from the sky. The daeva was dead, its throat and stomach ripped open, by the time Talon slammed it onto the cobblestones. The elder vampire landed in a soundless crouch and took off again, racing toward a large cluster of daevas hovering over the city square.

  Nearby, a daeva, wings flared and claws extended, leapt toward two young children, but Yuri, the vampire warlord, seized it before it reached the children. Fangs bared, she ripped out the daeva’s throat, before turning to take on another.

  Everywhere they looked, vampires stepped into the fray, defending humans. Ashra and Tera, pale-skinned and silver-haired, soared through the air and tore through daevas with ease; their viciousness contrasted with their seemingly fragile appearance.

  “They’re monsters,” Michael breathed.

  “The icrathari and vampires defend the city. They defend us.” Jaden spun around to stare into the mob of wide-eyed humans gathering around him. He cast his words out like a net, drawing the people in. “They’ve always protected us.”

  “They’ve imprisoned us in the city!”

  “Death lies outside the city. The sun destroys everything it touches. The night offers safety and life.”

  “But Khiarra—”

  “She’s alive, and she is the child of prophecy. She shredded the veil of deception. We were deceived, all of us. The Night Terrors aren’t the enemy. They’ve never been our enemy.”

  “But our children—the vampires culled us like cattle; we’re prey to their sick appetites.”

  “They don’t feed on us. Your children are alive; I’ve seen them. For your sake, help the icrathari defend the city. If they lose, if the vampires lose, we all die.”

  Michael shook his head. The slow motion was hesitant.

  Despair tasted bitter in Jaden’s throat. He flung his arm out. “Then clear the streets. Stay in your homes and barricade the doors.” The vampires, at least, stood a chance of battling a grounded daeva. Humans didn’t.

  “But—”

  He turned his back on his people. The pain of his physical injuries had faded, but the crushing ache deep in his chest lingered. Swords in hand, he leapt into the battle.

  Yuri shot him a tight smile. “Glad you’re back.” She hurled her sword like a spear. It pierced a daeva’s wing. It screeched, plummeting to the ground.

  Jaden was on it before it had a chance to gain its feet. He executed it with two swift strokes, one to its belly and another across its neck.

  Yuri pulled her sword out of the daeva’s twitching wing. Back-to-back, she and Jaden fought their way through the village square. Like partners
in a choreographed dance, they tore salivating daevas off cowering humans and slaughtered the winged fiends. Gold blood blended with crimson and trickled between the cobblestones.

  Talon, the elder vampire, fought beside Jaden and Yuri. Unhampered by his lack of wings, he pounced onto walls of the city buildings and launched into the air at unwary daevas who hovered too low. He twisted in midair with the agility of a feline predator, and slammed the daeva down. With a ground-shaking thud, he landed on its back. Bone broke with an audible snap. The daeva writhed, screaming in agony.

  Fangs bared, Talon seized its neck between his hands and twisted sharply. Bone cracked. The daeva crumpled, its eyes frozen open in death.

  Jaden looked up to the sky, blackened by the spread of wings. Despair clutched at him, its grip icy. There were too many daevas. Ten feet away, a vampire collapsed in front of the children he had been protecting, his body torn apart by a pack of daevas.

  “Talon!” Jaden shouted. He jerked his head at the children huddled together against the corner of a house.

  The elder vampire nodded. His muscles coiled. Two bounding leaps set him in front of the crying children.

  The daevas’ eyes widened. The anticipatory grins on their wizened faces drained away.

  Talon’s claws extended, bone sliding against flesh.

  The daevas turned to flee, but Talon cut them down, his claws ripping through their thin frames. Bodies collapsed, one on top of another, a mound of death. The threat eliminated, Talon turned to the children. “Go! Get inside.”

  A gust of wind heralded a rush of wings.

  Talon twisted around.

  A daeva screeched. Its clawed hands flailed, inches from his face. With a steely slither, the tip of a sword emerged through its stomach.

  Jaden kicked the injured daeva off his blade and executed it. “Watch your back.”

  Talon gave him a quick nod of acknowledgment.

  A scream of anguish howled through the night.

  Jaden spun.

  Another vampire died, his blood spraying over the woman and the child he had defended from three daevas.

  With a hiss of rage, Talon threw himself at the daevas, drawing their attention away from the humans. Inches away, Yuri hacked down a daeva advancing on a cowering man.

  Across the city square, two vampires barring entry into the cathedral were slaughtered by a winged mob of daevas. A panicked cry rose from the humans taking shelter in the building.

  Tera swooped down. Deadlier than an elder vampire, she tore through the daevas like a knife cutting through paper. Her wings spread, carrying her into the air. She hovered over piles of twitching daeva limbs. “Yuri!” she shouted.

  The vampire warlord nodded, sprinting across the square to defend the entrance of the cathedral—a hopeless task. Daevas died in tens, vampires singly, yet the tide of the battle inexorably shifted to favor the daevas.

  Jaden scanned the city. His breath shuddered out of him.

  Blood ran through the city’s streets, more crimson than gold. His people were dying. The icrathari were outnumbered. The vampires would perish, and the city with them.

  A hand seized his upper arm. He spun around.

  Michael’s direct stare pierced him. “You’re right. We will follow you.” Behind him, humans, armed with swords and bows and arrows, nodded, pale-faced but grim.

  Jaden took a single step back, his gaze sweeping over reinforcements numbering in the thousands. Hope fluttered in his chest. “Archers in the towers. Bring down the daevas so that we can fight them on the ground. Avoid the icrathari—they can hold their own. The rest of you, rally around the vampires. Take the pressure off them. They’re our last line of defense.” He raised his voice and gestured as he issued orders. “Michael, you and your men stay with Talon. Clear the city square and then push out. Laird, your team goes with Yuri. Start at the periphery and circle in.”

  Vampires and humans alike nodded their assent. The townspeople surged past Jaden like a tidal wave, crashing through the city center, and hacking down the daevas who were attacking the hard-pressed vampires.

  Yuri’s sword flashed, killing two daevas that Tera had ripped from the sky. Accompanied by a few vampires and a horde of humans, the vampire warlord raced north through the narrow streets to clear the outskirts of the city.

  Talon kicked a daeva off his sword and then turned to Jaden. Their gazes met briefly over the battling humans as they dragged down the daevas through sheer weight of numbers. The elder vampire inclined his head to Jaden in a gesture of thanks as humans gathered around him, willing to follow his lead.

  Both Jaden and Talon looked up sharply as a daeva, larger than the rest, hovered over the city square and snarled. Six daevas broke off their attack and followed the lead daeva to the upper levels of Malum Turris.

  “They’re going for the ark,” Talon shouted. He threw Jaden a glance. “Go! I’ve got this under control.”

  Jaden sheathed his swords and looked up at the two streaks of silver slicing through the black spread of bat wings. “Ashra!”

  One of the silver streaks twisted in midair and plunged through a curtain of daeva wings. A distant scream pierced the air. Golden blood drizzled from the sky. A shrieking daeva, its wings shredded, plummeted to the ground. Jaden sidestepped the grisly missile and held up an arm. Ashra swooped down, caught his arm, and pulled him into the air.

  “The ark.” The rush of the wind tore his words away, but Ashra nodded. Her massive wings beat down, carrying her effortlessly through the air. She pulled him close to her chest and wrapped both arms around him. Her grip tightened.

  His heart sank. Oh, damn.

  He forced himself to keep his eyes open as she spun and twisted to avoid the grasping claws of the daevas. Her flight path took her straight up, parallel to Malum Turris. They skimmed inches away from the unyielding surface of the tower as daevas tried to claw her from the sky. Jaden’s scream was, mercifully, lost in the painful gusts of air rushing past him. She could not possibly have emerged unscathed—no, her shoulders and arms were bleeding, as were her legs, but her speed and strength did not falter. She screamed. The sound shattered the glass doors on the balcony attached to her suite. Glass sprayed, scattering on the floor, glittering dully in the pale moonlight. She twisted sharply and soared through the ruined doors.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the door of Khiarra’s antechamber was open and caught a glimpse of a pale hand—an adult hand—flung out lifelessly on the floor beneath a pool of red-gold blood.

  “Khiarra!” He twisted, trying to break out of Ashra’s grip, but her greater strength and momentum drove them forward. “Wait!”

  Ashra shook her head. “We’ll come back. We have to get to the ark.” Two powerful wing beats later, they were through the suite and diving down the central shaft to the ark.

  The door of the ark was open. Phillip’s body was sprawled on the floor; his eyes were wide and unseeing, his white coat darkening with his blood. Ashra skimmed low to the ground and released Jaden before soaring up to take on the five daevas circling the high ceilings of the ark.

  A solitary daeva stood at the console. Its clawed hands tapped keys. Pods flashed red, clusters of them lighting up in sequence until all of them glowed.

  “No!” Jaden raced forward.

  The daeva spun around, its hand poised on the button that would alter the chemical composition of the pods and kill all the hibernating children. Jaden lunged and grabbed the daeva by both wrists.

  The creature beat down with its wings, lifting them both into the air. Jaden swung his legs up and wrapped them around the daeva’s waist, leaning back as the daeva tried to claw his eyes. It flapped its wings, carrying him high above the rows of pods, and twisted to shake him off.

  Vertigo pounded through Jaden’s skull. The daeva spun into a dizzying display of aerial acrobatics. Jaden kept his eyes fixed on the daeva’s glowing yellow eyes and hideous grimace, but it did not calm the nausea swirling in the pit of his stomac
h. Its wings flapping hard, the daeva launched itself forward.

  Jaden’s back smashed against the wall. A gasp of pain ripped from his throat. Blackness flashed across his vision. His grip slacked for a split second before tightening again. The daeva chittered, a sound of triumph. The massive wings flapped back, drawing both of them away from the wall, before driving forward again.

  At the last second before impact, Jaden twisted, throwing his superior weight to the side to spin the daeva around.

  The daeva smashed into the wall. Its left wing crunched from the impact. Its yellow eyes flared wide and then closed. It dropped like a stone. Jaden spared a brief glance over his shoulder. Panic clawed through him. They were too high. He would not survive.

  A slender arm wrapped around his waist, pulling him up from his death dive. Ashra’s wrist closed around the daeva’s arm. “Let go,” her voice murmured in his ear.

  He released his grip on the daeva. Ashra flung the unconscious daeva away from her. It smashed against the far wall and crumpled to the floor. “Creatures without wings don’t belong in the air.” Amusement sparkled in her voice.

  Jaden closed his eyes and prayed the darkness would settle his spinning stomach. It didn’t work. “I couldn’t agree more.” Even his whisper trembled.

  She set him down in front of the command console. He slumped to the floor and raised his head wearily. His body ached. His vision blurred as much from his dizzying, un-winged flights as from exhaustion. The bodies of the five daevas Ashra had killed sprawled over the glass life pods.

  Ashra’s fingers flicked over the console, tapping in the commands to reverse the damage the daeva had done.

  “Are the children all right?” Jaden asked. He dragged himself to his feet. Khiarra. He had to find Khiarra.

  Ashra nodded. “They’re fine, for now. We have to secure the ark.” She spun around at the sound of running feet. Tera burst into the room, followed closely by armed humans.

  Tera scanned the room, her gaze drifting over the corpses of the six daevas. “Is this all of them?”