The Phoenix Prince

by Kristen Gupton

  “What in the hell are you talking about?” Keiran asked, stepping back. The audacity of the former councillor was almost laughable. Almost. “You’d go out and kill some innocent girl just to try and defame me? Haven’t you done enough yet, Peirte?”

  “Clearly I haven’t, but I hate loose ends so let’s finish this, shall we?” With that, he slashed forward with his blade and lunged.

  Keiran jumped back and turned to the side, the sword slicing through the air harmlessly. He struggled to come up with a plan. Peirte needed to be taken out before he could harm anyone else. The man was obviously not going to stop until he had achieved whatever end he was seeking. Still, Keiran had never taken a human life, and though some sort of sick elation writhed inside of him at the prospect, he feared giving in. His rage was growing in intensity, rudely starting to push against his higher thought processes. Keiran was being overtaken by instinct and animal drive, and there was nothing he could do to combat it. Besides, Peirte wasn’t going to relent and wasn’t going to give the prince many options. Only one of them would survive this encounter, and Keiran’s self-preservation drive overwhelmed everything else.

  The prince looked at Peirte one more time and then turned to run through the trees. The former councillor cursed and rushed forward, searching for the vampire. The moon had come up, but it was obscured by the clouds and trees, making it very dark on the forest floor. The councillor had been out long enough that his eyes had adjusted a bit, but it was still treacherous going through the forest.

  Keiran’s eyes were fairing little better. Had he still had some benefit going from his first taste of human blood, he would have been seeing as well as any nocturnal animal. That wasn’t the case, however, and he had a lot of trouble navigating in the darkness.

  This particular area of the forest wasn’t familiar to him. He was disoriented and not certain which direction he was going, or where he honestly hoped to get to. The best case scenario would be to find the road and encounter the guards that were hopefully looking for him. Jerris had been there when he’d gone off the balcony, so undoubtedly, he’d sent out the alert.

  He stopped and pressed his back against a tree, closing his eyes. The prince tried listening to see if he could hear Peirte still following him. Maybe the former councillor had fallen or had gone the wrong way. All he could pick up were the sounds of his own jagged breaths, and the pounding of his heart in his ears. Keiran opened his eyes and looked around the tree, seeing nothing.

  Relaxing slightly, he looked down at his left arm. If the demon hadn’t torn off his shirt earlier, he could have used it to make up some sort of improvised sling. Annoyed, he thumped his head back against the tree and started listening again. Off in the distance, he thought he could hear some of the guards’ hounds baying. If luck was on his side, they’d be on Peirte’s trail, but he wasn’t going to get his hopes up about that.

  A long while passed, but the dogs didn’t seem to be getting any closer. The prince started to consider moving again. He was reluctant, however, not wanting to make any noise that Peirte could track him with. If the madman found him again, he wasn’t sure how much further he’d be able to run. His legs ached, and his lungs burned from all the abuse they’d already taken that night.

  * * *

  Peirte had stopped running as well. Keiran was younger and faster, all things considered. If the fight came down to nothing more than a race back to the castle, there was a good chance the former councillor would never keep up.

  He needed help, via more eyes looking. He knelt down on the ground and pulled a small book from one of the pockets within the lining of his cloak. Peirte brought it close to his face, struggling to make out the tiny words in the darkness, but he found what he wanted.

  He hastily drew a circle around himself in the leaf litter with the tip of his sword, before stabbing it down into the ground beside him. Peirte brought the book up again and started to do his best to summon up minor demons, the sort he’d had spying for him over the years. Even if he only managed to evoke one, it would double his chances of finding the vampire.

  * * *

  Keiran straightened up from the tree and walked as quietly as he could. Not knowing which way he was heading anymore, he simply hoped he was moving toward the road. Even going back to the river might not be terrible, he realized. Surely, the search for him would be in that area, too, but his phobia of the water was now tenfold what it had been before. He’d be damned if he was going anywhere near the river for the rest of the night. All he could hope to do was to get moving and put distance between he and Peirte.

  He stumbled over an exposed root, and fell down into a small ravine. The fall had further damaged his wrist, and he curled onto his side in the muddy bottom, gnashing his teeth to push back a scream. Keiran closed his eyes tightly, knowing that if he bothered to look he would see bone protruding from his arm. Maybe if he just stayed put for a while, someone other than Peirte would find him.

  Unfortunately, he got his wish.

  Something slithered across his back. Keiran opened his eyes and lifted his head, trying to see what was there. There was some sort of disturbance in the air behind him, and it was shifting dirt and mud a bit as it moved away from him and down the ravine. He didn’t have any idea what he was looking at, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d started to lose his mind and was hallucinating. He wasn’t aware of any such thing as invisible animals in the forest, and he was tempted to write it off to the stress and the pain.

  The disturbance or entity, whatever it happened to be, scaled the bank of the ravine after moving off a short distance. It vanished over the rim, and everything went quiet again. Keiran let his head fall to the mud, as he once more focused on his injury and his muted prayers for help.

  The silence was pierced by a shrill scream a moment later. There were a few other screams back in response, and Keiran forced himself to sit up. Something was going on, and he was pretty sure he didn’t like it, whatever it was.

  He looked up to the edge of the ravine, and saw some leaves and pebbles tumbling down the side. As the moon broke through the clouds for a moment, the faint images of several creatures became fleetingly visible. They possessed a ghostly transparence, and looked like housecat-sized gargoyles. When the moon was covered again, they vanished once more, but the indents of their presence were clearly obvious along the rim of the gorge, now that he knew where they were sitting.

  Another surge of adrenaline coursed through the vampire, and he forced himself up to his feet. Whatever these were, they were looking at him, and Keiran understood their presence wasn’t a coincidence. They were Peirte’s minions, and they had found him.

  As ugly as they were, Keiran didn’t need to be afraid of the demons themselves. They possessed no real form and didn’t have the ability to harm him, even if there were several present. They were, however, letting Peirte see through them exactly where Keiran was, and soon enough, he could hear the sounds of someone moving overhead.

  “Damn it,” Keiran grunted, as he started to move down the bottom of the ravine. The edges were too steep for him to climb up without the use of both hands, but it looked like it shallowed out several yards head.

  Peirte appeared at the edge, looking down and spotting Keiran as he continued to flee. Smiling to himself, he followed along. Now that his demons had the trail, they wouldn’t lose sight of the vampire so neither would he. Keiran’s opportunity to hide was gone.

  The prince found a place where he could get out of the gully and moved out to the opposite side of the ravine from Peirte. The former councillor was able to follow, however, as the ravine was just a small depression at that point and easily transversed. He smiled and moved forward at a leisurely pace, conserving his energy while the vampire continued to run himself ragged.

  Pressing onward, Keiran jogged further into the trees, giving no heed anymore to direction. He was hopelessly lost and felt Peirte at his back. Before his legs gave out on him, he slid around a tree once more, l
eaning against it. He fought to catch his breath and knew that he had to make his stand now and confront Peirte. Running any further wasn’t an option. There was nowhere to go, nor did he have the strength to do so.

  Around him, the invisible demons were in the trees, looking down at where he had stopped. Peirte quit moving, seeing what the demons did. If he moved past the prince, he thought he had a chance to lure him out into the open and take him down. He knew what to do and walked carefully, lowering his weapon. He wanted to give off the impression that he was unsure and unsuspecting. If he could make Keiran think that he was lost and unaware that the vampire was near, all the better.

  Keiran held his breath as Peirte walked by, several yards to the left. The former councillor wasn’t making any effort to look back. The prince tried to pick up on the other man’s thoughts, to see what he was feeling, but the trick wasn’t working anymore. That ability had simply washed out with the rest of his strength, and he got nothing. Peirte’s body language made it look like the former councillor was convinced he was still trailing him.

  Exhausted, he decided to take the chance to overtake him from behind. Keiran pulled away from the tree and moved over, trying to get from one tree to the next outside of Peirte’s peripheral view.

  Peirte slowed and stopped, listening closely. Though Keiran was making a good effort to move silently, he was most certainly moving. His eyes closed, and he watched the prince stalk around behind him via the eyes of his minions. He kept his sword held loosely in his hand and slumped his shoulders. Any physical cue he could offer to make himself look vulnerable he put forth. He tried to clear his mind of all thought. Though he knew what he was going to do, he didn’t dare visualize it lest Keiran be able to pick up on his intentions.

  Keiran slid around one last tree, seeing Peirte’s exposed back facing him. He stepped forward slowly, closing the distance between them before rushing forward down a small hill. This was his chance to take the man down.

  Before Keiran reached him, Peirte swung his sword down and flipped it beneath his arm so that the blade was pointing straight behind him. He felt Keiran’s weight hit the blade, and the vampire come in close against his back.

  Keiran had seen Peirte swing the blade in his direction, but it was too late. His momentum in running downhill made it impossible to stop. Kanan had always told him he got careless when he was tired. He realized the former councillor had lured him right in. The steel pierced below his sternum. There was a feeling of terrible cold from the blade, and then the pain set in.

  Peirte staggered forward from the force, before turning around to see Keiran standing there with the sword running through him, buried to the hilt just below the center of his chest. The vampire’s eyes were wide as he stared at him. Keiran stood perfectly still, unwilling to move. The shock he was in helped to push back the pain, but it hurt as much as the arrow had in his chest.

  Peirte smiled in his elation and stepped forward. If he could do a little more damage with the blade and get Keiran down, he would be able to finish the job. He grasped the hilt of the sword and grinned as he twisted the blade inside the prince. The former councillor nearly laughed as he saw Keiran’s reaction. “My God, that certainly took long enough. How stupid you are.”

  Keiran grunted and gasped as the sword was twisted, baring his intact fang and what was left of the other. His right hand came up, shaking badly and he lightly gripped Peirte’s shoulder. The misery of impalement clouded what was left of his remaining human thoughts. Slowly, his fingers curled into the fabric of Peirte’s cloak, holding fast. His lips parted further, a trail of blood running from the corner of his mouth. “Stupid? Yes, for one reason.”

  “Oh?” Peirte found himself locked in the vampire’s gaze, readying to shove Keiran away and to the ground, so he could finish the task at hand. He hesitated, however. Though Keiran wasn’t trying to do so intentionally, he was projecting the pain of the sword running through him well enough that the councillor felt it, making his breaths harder to draw in. He started to feel like he was going into shock, though he wasn’t actually injured. It made him dull and oblivious to the tightened grip the vampire had on him.

  “Not doing this sooner,” Keiran growled.

  Peirte didn’t get the chance to respond before Keiran jerked him forward. He instinctively threw his head back and started to try and push the vampire away frantically. The prince’s eyes landed on Peirte’s exposed throat, the sight of it snuffing out his last conscious thoughts for the moment. Somehow, he could actually see where the major veins and arteries were under the man’s skin clearly. Without hesitation, he snapped his head forward, driving his fangs and teeth into the Peirte’s neck, tearing the side of it open.

  Peirte screamed out and thrashed wildly, getting himself loose from Keiran’s grasp. The amount of hot blood pouring down his side soaked through his clothing and his strength faded. He fell back onto the ground, clasping his hands over his wounded neck, trying to stem the flow. Each breath bubbled and churned in his throat as he started to drown in his own blood.

  Around them, the minor demons that Peirte had summoned started to climb down from the trees. They knew he was dying, and with his ability to control them waning in his last moments, they surrounded Peirte and the vampire. They weren’t physical entities and had no interest in his body, but would gladly devour what was left of their former master’s energy. Like vultures waiting for a lion to leave a kill, they circled the two men, hungrily waiting.

  Keiran reached down to take hold of the sword’s hilt and drew it from his body. He gave up a hiss from the pain, a torrent of his blood escaping from the site. His mind swam for a second, but he pushed past it. When it was freed, he stabbed it down into the dirt next to where he stood. Though he could use it to end Peirte once and for all, he had other plans. He knelt down beside him, twisting his good hand into the front of the former councillor’s shirt, pulling him in close.

  Peirte’s eyes were wild with terror, and this time it wasn’t an act. His lips moved with inaudible pleas, begging for mercy. His destroyed throat could no longer vocalize. One of his blood-soaked hands moved forward, weakly trying to push Keiran back. There was one last bit of hope in him that Keiran would prove himself to be a good man, and grant him a reprieve.

  “Just remember, Peirte, you did this. If that’s the last damn thing you take from this world, let that be it,” Keiran whispered, the sight of Peirte’s flowing blood arousing his baser instincts and forcing him onward. From the small taste of blood he’d already gotten from the initial bite, his strength was returning and his wrist mended, allowing him to reach up and pull Peirte’s other hand away from his neck.

  Helpless to do anything against Keiran, Peirte let out one muted cry as the vampire’s lips found his neck. The last thing he was aware of was the feeling of his own energy and blood coursing away from his body and into that of the prince. Peirte’s arms flailed pathetically a few more times, his legs kicked, and then his body was nothing but dead weight in Keiran’s arms.

  Time stopped for Keiran as he drank, losing himself in the act. There was an ecstatic rapture that burned through him. The feeling was stronger than any he’d ever felt in his life, and it refused to abate, urging him onward. He’d never taken so much blood in all his life, and even when he was sated, he took several more swallows. His mind cleared up as his anger seemed satisfied, fading away along with the pleasure of drinking. He slowly let Peirte’s body slide from his arms to the forest floor. He remained on his knees for several more minutes, feeling his body being restored. Not only was he being healed of the injuries that he’d sustained since his last feeding, but his entire body was resetting to a different state. All of the wasting and degeneration he’d been slowly suffering over the last several years was being reversed.

  When the changes all seemed complete, Keiran stood up and dragged the back of his mended left wrist across his lips. He stared down at the dead councillor, realizing that the small demons which had been following them
in the forest were swarming onto the corpse. Thanks to his renewed strength and vision improved beyond human limits, he could actually see them.

  Keiran stepped back, watching as they moved over and around the body. He wasn’t sure what they were doing, but he knew he didn’t really want to be a part of it. A white mist bubbled up from the ground near Peirte, and solidified into the demon that had pulled him into the river.

  Keiran’s ability to sense feelings were back and stronger than before, and he felt no fear. The demon wasn’t there for him. She no longer cared about the vampire at all. Instead, she was focused on Peirte’s body. She lowered her head and started to tear Peirte apart, eating him as the minor entities crawled and wriggled about, all of them feeding somehow.

  There would be no afterlife for the councillor. Everything that he had been was being absorbed into the demons. He had chosen his own path. Keiran understood this on some level, having been told about the fates of those that dared to evoke demons. Eventually, the entities always overtook their masters. Peirte had reaped his justly earned punishment.

  The prince forced himself to turn away from the scene and start walking again. He tipped his head back and took in a long breath, honestly smelling the scents of the castle, horses, and his men. Knowing he was going in the right direction, he moved with confidence between the trees.

  He stepped out onto the road, halfway between the town and the castle. Jerris was there with a company of guards, and when he saw Keiran emerge from the forest, he flew from his horse and ran to him. “Keir! My God, we’ve been looking everywhere! I was afraid you’d been washed out to sea!”