Alexi leaped up slashing her sword along the side of the dragon. Sparks showered down on her as the blade scraped against hardened keratin.
The beast jumped with its legs sailing into the air to land behind her only a few feet away. The ground rolled underneath her feet. She dropped to a knee to keep from falling. The air cracked as the tail whipped her hand. Fire stung her fingers and she reflexively let go of the blade. It skittered across the ground. An immense weight slammed down on her back squashing her to the ground. Dirt and rocks pelted her face and she felt blood flowing from above her eye. Claws dug into her and suddenly she was flying backward through the air. She had a moment to appreciate the claws having let go.
She tried to steady her tumble to no avail. She crashed into the ground—again. She felt one of her ribs crack as she rolled to a stop. She put a foot under her to move—
Claws like giant iron bars crashed do around her. The pad of its claw crushed her to the ground. She choked out a curse as her hand patted the ground in a vain hope her sword was near. Her bones creaked as he pushed down. Alexi heaved with both arms trying to push back. She had no illusions that she could move it.
“Let her go,” Savanna screamed from the mouth of the cave. Alexi craned her neck to see the witch hold her pitiful dagger up to the dragon. The thing shifted its weight to face Savanna. The clawed hand holding her twisted. Her leg, already at a bad angle, popped as the knee was wrenched backward. Alexi screamed.
Savanna chanted under her breath as she plunged her dagger into her arm. The buzz of magic in the back of Alexi’s head turned into a roar as Savanna flung her blood at the ground. The dragon whipped its body around. The tree-trunk sized tail arced through the air toward Savanna. Alexi screamed—the tail crashed into an invisible bubble and bounced off.
It wasn’t prepared for the momentum shift and its own strength forced it to stumble as it tried to recover its balance. Alexi’s clawed prison vanished. She rolled to the side and scanned for her sword. It was in the dirt ten feet away. With her leg screaming in pain she leaped at the blade. Her hands wrapped around the hilt as she rolled past it to jump up into a run. She angled the blade forward with both hands.
The dragon roared at Savanna. Its maw stretched wide and Alexi heard the telltale sound of its fire breath. She fought the pain in her knee as she charged. The blade crashed into the dragon's soft underbelly splitting scales and spilling blood.
Black ichor like swamp water gushed out of the wound knocking Alexi back. She stumbled and fell on her butt. The dragon swayed then fell away from her. The ground shook as its bulk hit the dirt.
Savanna lit up with a light that burned through the air. Fire followed the beam as it struck the center of the fallen dragon. It roared in pain as the light vaporized huge chunks of its flesh. Alexi’s head pounded from magical energy Savanna produced.
Alexi dragged herself across the ground toward Savanna. Her leg popped as her regeneration mended the bone and knit tissue. She reached Savanna’s feet and was able to stand. Her stomach growled from her hunger. The energy she used to fight the dragon was the power she stole from Shaughn.
Savanna let the spell drop. The light and fire faded and all which remained was the dragons writing form.
As they watched, scales, flesh, and bone melted into the ground to crash together and reform as a much smaller creature, barely the size of Alexi’s arm.
Savanna pulled the dagger out of her arm. The severity of the wound caused blood to flow freely down her forearm.
Alexi reached behind her and pulled the flask from her pocket. On a hunch, she unscrewed the cap and poured a small amount over Savanna’s wound. The liquid hissed as it hit her skin. The blood washed away and the wound was no more.
“Wow, I wish we had that stuff at home,” Savanna whispered.
Alexi handed her the flask. “Drink some,” she said. Her sword Was only a few feet away. She limped over. Her leg ached now more than hurt. She knew within a few moments it would be as if it never happened. She let out a grunt as she reached down to retrieve her blade.
“What are you doing?” Savanna asked.
“Ending this thing,” she heaved the sword up in an overhand swing. The dragon was a shadow of itself now. A small writing mass of flesh and scales no bigger than a house cat. It twisted and growled in a puddle of black tar that used to be its skin.
“No,” Savanna said.
“What? It nearly killed us, and I’m sure the Fae won't be sad to see this beast go,” Alexi said confusion coloring her words.
“It’s not at fault here. Whatever is corrupting the Isle has done this to the poor beast. It is as angry and confused as the rest of this land. Spare it, Alexi, please?” she asked.
Alexi looked down again. She could almost see it through Savanna’s eyes. The menacing, vicious dragon was gone. Now it was just an ugly lump of flesh with one eye much larger than the other.
“Fine, I hope you get eaten,” she muttered. She turned to Savanna with a nod.
“Thank you,” Savanna said. Savanna handed the flask back to her. She slipped it in her pocket.
“Did you see that way he—shifted?” she asked the witch.
“Do you thin the Fae have something to do with the werewolves?” asked Savanna.
Alexi shrugged. In truth, she didn’t know. Warren seemed to think the zombie plague was caused by the Fae. It might be. What else could the near immortal elves be responsible for? What would the Fae do with an eternity of boredom?
“It sure looked like the way Victor shifted. He always said it was magic.” She looked around back the way they came and toward the way they needed.
“Either way, we’ve got a long walk, let’s go.”
***
Dominus watched as the two women hobbled down the path toward him. They were strong for mortals. How he longed for the days when his people could move freely from the Isle to Earth. His thoughts wondered to friends long dead. To the days before the war, before demons and vampires. He waved his hand, the image on the top of his scrying pool vanished.
He moved to the back of his room passing small trinkets he’d collected over the years. A lock of bright red hair from an Irish girl he wooed, a sword from a legionnaire who bargained for long life, a painting from a human who wanted to be immortalized in canvas, things that had meant so much to him, now were only mere trinkets collecting dust.
He left his trophy room to step into the small circular room. A crumbling well stood directly in the middle, it’s stone edifice replete throughout with cracks. He dipped his hand into the water swirling it around absently. The touch invigorated him.
Dominus smiled as he thought of the chaos outside. The Fae deserved it. For what Tamlin did he hoped she would be forced to stay in her precious keep for all eternity. If he couldn’t walk on the Earth, no one would.
He left the room to find his relief. The library, covered in books from floor to ceiling, would prove the distraction he needed.
He spied a book with a worn cover from its many readings. He flipped it over, ignoring the warning in his heart. He wanted to feel it, at least then he would feel something of her. The book was one of drawings. Sketches of a girl in the bloom of womanhood. Her soft features and large eyes stared out from the page to him. He didn’t need a sketch book to remember her. He could smell her perfume, taste the salt on her lips, and imagine the softness of her skin as he glided his hands across her flesh.
The vision of her humanity vanished in an instant, replaced by the beast Tamlin cursed her to be. He shook his head. Only then noticing the splatter of tears on his book.
He collapsed into the chair. He held his chest as if to hold his heart in. Once he could breathe again he closed the book and pushed it away from him. She was gone, forever. Locked away in a place not even he, with all his power could retrieve her from. If only he hadn’t let his pride keep her from spending the winter with him. If only… he shook his head. There was no point and nothing he hadn’t already considered a tho
usand, thousand times. All there was left now, was revenge.
He chuckled. It wouldn’t be long now before the Isle collapsed and nothing would be left of any Fae, and then he would have his vengeance.
SIXTEEN
Savanna’s hand throbbed. It was a dull ache, that pulsed in time with the beat of her heart. She willed her fingers to close—nothing. Her skin flaked away in large clumps. The color of her hand was now all black and blue. Savanna pressed a fingernail gently against her dagger—the nail peeled back and fell off.
With her good hand, she stretched the fabric of her shirt down to wrap her sick appendage. The magic garment slithered to form a tight glove which covered her hand all the way to the wrist.
“You okay?” Alexi asked over her shoulder. The vampire stopped for a moment to hand her the flask of mead. It was refreshing for sure. The ache in her legs vanished and she felt as if she had woken from a good night sleep. All except her hand of course.
“Thanks,” Savanna said. She wanted to say more, to talk to her friend, but something inside of her made her clamp her mouth shut. There was a wall and she couldn’t speak past it.
“Savanna, what’s wrong?” Alexi asked. Savanna shifted her gaze to the ground, unwilling to look Alexi in the eye. Instead, she handed the flask back to her and looked off into the distance.
“How much further?” she asked.
“Distance is weird here, maybe a half mile?”
She could hear the question in Alexi’s voice along with the hurt. Savanna couldn’t blame her since they had come to the Emerald Isle she’d been distant. She couldn’t explain it to herself, how was she supposed to speak to Alexi?
Did she resent, Alexi? She searched her feelings for a moment and discarded the idea right away. She loved her friend, she was a sister in ways no one could have ever been for her. Why then, could she not talk to her about this?
“Well, crap,” Alexi’s voice interrupted her thoughts. Savanna realized she hadn’t been paying attention to where they were going. She had walked next to her while she looked inward.
In front of them, stretching up to the clouds, stood a sheer wall broken only by small crevices and outcroppings. Savanna looked down to her useless hand, there was no way she could climb it.
“Can we go around?” she asked.
“The map says up,” Alexi responded looking right and left, “besides, the wall goes on for a while.”
Savanna tried to gauge her own exhaustion, even with the mead she doubted she could muster enough magic to levitate. The mead helped her physically, but magic still cost blood and who knew how far up it stretched?
“Climb on,” Alexi said.
“What?”
“On my back, you know, like a piggyback ride. It’ll be fun,” Alexi said with mirth Savanna did not feel.
Savanna wrapped her good arm around Alexi’s shoulders and chest, her injured hand around her waist and then hooked her legs as well.
Alexi shifted for a moment, bouncing slightly to push Savanna up higher on her shoulders. Alexi placed her hands against the wall, running her fingers over the grooves and cracks.
“Okay, hang on.” Alexi flexed her legs and leaped. Savanna gasped as Alexi cleared ten feet to latch onto the wall, which to Savanna looked as sheer as the rest of the wall. Within a moment the vampire was moving up the wall with alarming speed. Savanna watched as her fingers gripped crevices no larger than a fingernail in width.
“Why are you acting funny?” Alexi asked suddenly. Savanna clutched her tight as they moved horizontally to what the witch could only assume was better handholds.
“I…I wish you hadn’t made that deal, is all,” Savanna said with her face buried in Alexi’s neck. She didn’t want to look down. Part of her gnawed at her too, but she resisted.
“That—” she stopped as she bounced on a tiny ledge before leaping ten feet. When they landed she continued, “—Not all of it,” she finished as she moved horizontally a few feet.
Could Alexi sense the truth from the proximity of her heart to the vampires back? Or was it obvious? Savanna bit her lip. She shook her head and squeezed her friend tighter. Her head swam from the idea of how far up they were now.
“I screwed up, Alexi—” She clicked her mouth shut before could say anything else. She cursed herself, she didn’t want to talk about this. She didn’t want to think about it. Now, it was too late. Her pain and sorrow welled up in her and demanded release.
Alexi leaned in close to the wall for a second to rest. She turned her head to the side to be as close to the wall as she could.
“Savanna, you didn’t screw anything up, hon. You saved all our lives, heck, without you the world would be dead right now. All I did was get the hell beat out of me while Connor blew everything up.” Alexi turned her blue eyes to Savanna. She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t.
She knew Alexi spoke the truth. Savanna couldn’t see it, though. Her shame slammed a wall down on her heart. She needed to speak and the only way she would ever feel whole would be to confess. In a rush, she spoke before she could talk herself out of it.
“I want to be brave, Alexi. I see you rush headlong into danger to help others and I want to be like that. But I’m not. I’m the one who freezes or runs away. I’m not brave, I’m a coward. When Sing was dying I thought I could help him. I transferred the contagion from his wound to me.” Savanna croaked out a sharp sob. She squeezed her eyes shut as her breath came in ragged gasps and her body shook.
“But what,” Alexi whispered.
“The only reason we're here is to help me, and now you’re going to be trapped here forever.” She couldn’t hold the tears back anymore. Her vision clouded and she couldn’t keep her eyes open as she sobbed into the back of Alexi’s neck.
“I just wanted to be more like you, and all I’ve done is doom us both,” she said sniffling, “I should have found a whole and let the disease take me.”
Alexi started leaned out from the wall to look up. She pushed off with her feet and they were on the move. Savanna cried for several minutes as Alexi climbed.
“Since we met, you’ve sacrificed your life twice, you’ve run into danger against forces that were far more powerful than us and you’ve done it all without even asking for a thank you.” Alexi jerked her arms hard as she spoke. She leaped to a small ledge, grabbed the edge and scrambled up to stand on it. There was enough room for both of them to stand. Savanna climbed off with as much care as she could.
“You can’t heal, you’re not a wolf, god Savanna, you can barely open a stuck door,” she turned to look at the witch, “You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met in my life,” she whispered.
Savanna stared up at her friend, unable to believe the words she heard. How could Alexi think she was brave?
“Alexi,” she tried to speak but she couldn’t form the words. Overcome, and unable to think she wrapped her arms around Alexi. Savanna pulled her tight and held on as if her life depended on it.
She felt Alexi’s hands on her head running her fingers through her hair.
“There, there, Savanna, it will be okay,” Alexi whispered.
After a few minutes, Savanna sighed. All the pent up emotion, the angst, all the regret fell away with her spent tears.
“Now, no more sullen talk, okay? We’re here fighting the good fight. One problem at a time, okay? We’ll find the Well, heal you, then worry about the rest. Between you and me I’ve had quite enough of the Fae, and would happily never come here again.”
They both chuckled as Savanna climbed back on. Once they were ready Alexi cleaved to the wall and pulled herself up.
Savanna’s arms started to ache from clenching on to Alexi. She looked up and still couldn’t see an end in sight. There had to be a way in other than over. She scanned the wall, leaning back as far as she dare to see further.
A dark hole a dozen yards to their right caught her attention.
“Alexi, look over there!” She tried to point but ended up slipping. Her hea
rt clenched and she jerked her whole body tight against Alexi. The weight of her one-inch fall pulled Alexi’s right hand off the wall. The two girls spun back and pinwheeled against the wall with Savanna taking the impact. Alexi’s feet scrambled for purchase. Her fingers slipped and they slid down a few inches.
“Shit,” Alexi screamed.
Pain spiked through Savanna as her diseased hand hit the wall. With all her weight on one hand, she wasn’t strong enough to hold herself up. She slid down Alexi’s body scrabbling for purchase as gravity took over. Savanna screamed.
Alexi snatched Savanna’s wrist in a vice like grip ending the witches fall after only a few feet.
They hung there against the wall, only the tips of Alexi’s fingers preventing them both from plummeting to their death.
Savanna spun slowly, desperate to not look down or move at all lest she force Alexi to lose her grip. Suddenly, Alexi pulled on her. The vampire grunted as she lifted Savanna. The witch winced from the pain in her shoulder. Alexi stopped and let her back down.
“I can’t get the leverage to lift you up. If I try…” Savanna didn’t need her friend to finish her thought. Savanna mustered all her courage, pried her eyes open and looked down. A wave of dizziness hit her as she realized how far they had come. The ground was hundreds of feet below. Which meant, she had time.
“Drop me,” Savanna whispered.
“What, no way, give me a second I can get you back on,” Alexi said between clenched teeth.
“Drop me, I can probably stop my fall at the very end… maybe,” Savanna said, fear welling up in her. She had to act soon or her heart would explode.
Blood Sacrifice (Faith of the Fallen Book 2) Page 15
