by J. Armand
“I don’t want to cry or be sad. It isn’t productive. It’s weak.”
“You have a power, but you are still a man and a man has the emotions. That is real strength.” Gianluca put his arms around me to comfort me, but his touch pushed me even closer to coming unglued.
“Get away from me,” I warned him as I felt the tears well up in my eyes. I thought of all my failures. We sunk into the shadows to return to his world.
“You cannot hurt anything here,” he told me as we floated in the sea of darkness. “Release the bad feelings to make the room for the new good ones. Let yourself go of the emotions so you can build a new future. From the destruction comes the creation. It is always this way in history. When it is most bad is when life has the chance to become stronger.”
I couldn’t hold back anymore. I wanted him to shut up, to leave me alone and send me back to Earth so I wouldn’t have to face my inner demons. But he wouldn’t let go. The more I pulled away and hit him, trying to get him to release me from his embrace, the more futile my actions felt. I started to cry, and then I couldn’t stop. More strongly than ever, I felt the sorrow of those I had lost or wronged, the fear of those who sought to destroy me, the anger at myself for when I had failed. It all came rushing to the surface. It was more than I could deal with at once. I thought I would explode, and I did.
I screamed out loud, overwhelmed by my confusing emotions, and a surge of power followed. Gianluca held on tighter as the flood of energy radiating from me persisted. The infinite darkness around us swayed and churned like the ocean in a storm until I finally had nothing left in me. I was barely conscious afterward, but I felt good. I felt more than a weight off my shoulders – my soul had been cleansed. I wouldn’t try to bottle up my pain anymore. I owed the fallen, like my parents, more than that. I couldn’t live in fear of those who might seek to hurt me, or despair for those who tried. I saw now that my time training in Japan was only peaceful because, subconsciously or not, I had been waiting for someone to cross my path on whom I could take out my anger. I’d wanted to prove to myself how much stronger I was. Once that confidence was shaken by the spirits, I had nothing. It was a false sense of strength and not true happiness. There would always be someone stronger out there, someone looking to bring me down in some way, but the secret wasn’t in preparing to deal with those people. What mattered most was living my life for myself.
“You are okay,” Gianluca reassured me. His voice was just barely loud enough to hear as I slipped into a deep sleep.
Chapter Sixteen
It was dark out when I woke up. I knew I was in a room because I could feel a bed beneath me.
“Gianluca?” I whispered as I searched for a light on the nightstand. I was in another hotel room, different than the last. I called to Gianluca again after a few minutes, but there was still no response.
“Please do not be angry, but I have to say this.” His voice preceded him as he stepped into the room from a corner where the lamplight didn’t reach. “I think you cannot fight these Eastern warrior. While you sleep I hear their voices in Hispania. They fight the dead there so I go to help, but many are killed. This happens when you speak to the man with your eyes in Germania too.”
“Then of course I have to fight them. This isn’t a personal grudge. They’re committing random acts of genocide.”
“Er, I am sorry, I do not understand your words, but this is a war. I have seen many people and places hurt by it in the past. You are the only one like me I know. We just meet, but I feel I would still like to know more of you. I enjoy our time very much. You are kind and brave and very beautiful. I do not want to see you hurt, so I feel I must protect you from the battle.”
“That’s nice of you, but we talked about this. I can’t die and don’t say there are things worse than death because I’ve already been through enough of them. Hiding isn’t the answer, right? I don’t like to fight, but I will if there’s a good reason. And I know you’re the soldier, but you can’t do this on your own either.”
“I will find a way. Something brings the warriors back to fight, so I will find the source to stop it.”
“You can’t stop me from helping – well, maybe you can, but don’t. I want to do this.”
“This is not the time to be stubborn, little one. You need your rest. You are too weak to fight right now. I cannot let you.”
“I don’t need to rest. I feel fine, better than I have in years. Noah is probably already looking for me.”
“I will bring you to him. Promise me you will not go after these warriors. They are too dangerous.”
“I can’t promise that and I don’t want to lie to you.” The thought had crossed my mind. “Why don’t we fight together?”
“No. I will go with your teacher if he wish, but you have work. I want you practice your building.”
“I can do that after! There are more important things right now.”
“No. It is not for you.” Gianluca was incredibly stubborn for someone who accused me of acting the same way. Arguing was pointless, but it was nice to feel that someone cared.
“Okay, okay. Can you take me to Noah?” I had no intention of sitting this out. I just needed to get to Noah before he ran into me with Gianluca.
We were returned to the wooded area outside Bath just as the sun set due to the difference in time zones. Gianluca kissed me goodbye on the forehead before he left. It was a sweet gesture that I would have loved to enjoy, but I was on high alert waiting for Noah to drop in at any moment.
I sat alone for half an hour, whistling and scrounging around in the dirt for rocks to break into shapes. Wouldn’t it be amazing if I could sculpt columns with the exquisite Corinthian capitals that the Romans and Greeks used? Right now all I have is a pile of smashed pebbles that vaguely resemble shapes, but maybe someday…
“What the hell are you doing?” Noah dropped down in front of me and kicked my pebbles away.
“Nothing now.” I had to swallow what I wanted to say next and remember there was a nice side to him. “Let’s get going to Japan.”
“First, why don’t you tell me what’s up with your aura?”
“I can’t see auras. You know that.” I didn’t feel any different, but Noah’s squint was unnerving. He grabbed my arm and pricked me with the tip of his sword.
“Ow, what the-” I sucked my finger to stop the bleeding.
“Still bleeding?” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Yes. Wait, yes. Why am I bleeding?” Panic struck. I could still use my powers, but couldn’t heal.
“I don’t know. Does it have to do with you smelling clean for once, or your new obnoxiously cheerful mood? Or maybe the Italian you were kissing?”
“We were not!” Damn. Noah was watching the whole time.
“I told you to stay away from him, dipshit. He tricked you. That took, what? A day?”
Gianluca wouldn’t trick me, would he? He was adamant about seeing me again and protecting me. Did it have to do with releasing so much energy into the Nether Realm?
“I’m sure I’ll be fine. I think. Let’s just go to Japan. I can still use my powers. I’m probably just tired.” Am I still immortal? Did Gianluca do this on purpose so that I’d have to rely on him and would stay out of the battle?
“We’re going to France first. I have to pick up new side swords, since you’re more useless than ever.”
Wonderful, just the place I wanted to go.
---
We made it to Aurelia’s oversized seventeenth-century chateau with little incident other than Noah constantly poking me to see if I’d regenerate. This place was nothing but nightmares. I kept watch out his window to be sure no one was coming from the main house while he selected a pair of wakizashi from his wall to replace the broken ones. Nothing had changed in his room since I had been there last except for a humble shrine displaying a rose-engraved katana. I went over to check it out, but Noah glared at me out of the corner of his eye with a look that said “I’ll
cut your hand off if you touch it.” Candles and an urn were neatly arranged next to the sword in a way that I couldn’t picture Noah doing.
“Ready,” he announced as he swapped out a sheath from a full-length katana to use for the Muramasa. I was going to make a sarcastic comment that I wasn’t the one with the super speed while I waited for his usual grab-and-go approach, but he held the side of his head in agony and grimaced with fangs bared. “Stay here. She’s calling me.”
Very rarely had I ever seen Noah react to pain and it was usually in catastrophic situations. This was a bad omen.
I stayed at my post by the window, looking out at the monstrous chateau looming in the near distance. Many of the lights were on, a mix of steady electricity and flickering candles. It felt like the building itself was staring back at me. She was in there somewhere. If there was ever a metaphor for exterior beauty disguising a rotten heart, it was her house. No amount of fine art, gilded halls, masterfully crafted furniture, and elegant demonstrations of luxury could mask the rancidness festering in those walls.
Almost an hour went by and the knot in my stomach tightened with every tick of the clock. The tiny pokes left by Noah had healed over. This was the only positive I had to cling to. Gianluca did say I was weak and needed rest, so maybe that’s all it was.
A thud in the open doorway broke my concentration. Noah was leaned against the doorframe, then staggered into the room. Every inch of his body was covered in deep slices that dripped blood. It was hard to look at and even harder to watch him try to walk. Any mortal would have died from those injuries.
“Are you all right?!” I exclaimed, even though the answer was very obvious.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” He barely finished his remark before falling face-first onto the floor, leaving a trail of blood on the way down. I didn’t know what to do. I was scared to go near him, expecting him to lash out at me if I tried to help. A good fifteen seconds passed and there was no sign of movement, so I slowly made my way to his side.
His injuries were beyond disfiguring, but he was still alive since he hadn’t turned to ash. I rolled him over on his back, which was confirmation enough that he wasn’t getting up. He hated to be touched and so much as brushing up against him usually resulted in violence.
“Noah?” I tried calling to wake him up. I knew he needed blood, but I didn’t know what it would do to me if I gave him mine while I was so weak. There was a mini-fridge disguised as a nightstand with wine bottles full of blood that I remembered him using in the past.
Only one half-empty bottle was left, but it would have to do. I popped the cork and sat next to him, unsure what to do next. I just knew the second I touched his face to open his mouth he would leap up and beat me to a pulp.
“This is for your own good,” I prefaced my actions. “I’m trying to help, so don’t hurt me.”
I cringed as I lifted his head and put the bottle to his lips. This was like bottle-feeding a wounded tiger – a very angry tiger with a long history of mauling people. There wasn’t much blood, but it was enough for him to open his eyes a bit.
“Uh, any better?” I asked, but there was no response. His eyes were gazing off in the distance vacantly. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to look for more.”
I put a pillow under his head and left the room. The building we were in was a smaller chateau reserved for guests. Its main inhabitant was Noah, who I supposed was considered the help. Still, it was tremendous enough to host several large weddings without any parties ever running into each other. A map and a compass would have been a nice handout at the door.
I checked every cabinet, closet, and cupboard, until I finally found a single unopened bottle. I opened it to make sure it was blood and not the only bottle in the house that contained actual wine, but I was in luck. I flew back to Noah as fast as I could, bar a few wrong turns down the marble corridors, and fed him the whole bottle.
He recovered enough to sit up on his own and mumbled something.
“What?” I asked, unsure if he was addressing me or just issuing a general exclamation.
“You fucking heard me,” he groaned and sat against the bed.
“No, I didn’t, but whatever. What happened?”
“I said thank you,” he growled with anger in his voice. It seemed more painful for him to thank me than to endure whatever had inflicted his wounds.
“Don’t mention it. Actually, I’m surprised you did at all, but what happened?”
“She needed blood for her stupid dinner guests.” Noah winced in anguish. Even sitting against the bed was painful with his back all cut up.
“So?” I wasn’t getting it. Did she make him go hunt something like a werewolf?
“So she fucking took it, what do you think?”
“Aurelia did this?” She hated getting her hands dirty and the wounds looked like they came from a weapon, which I also couldn’t see her bothering to use.
“Not personally. She ordered someone to. Now drop it.”
“Noah…” My heart ached for him. She made him kill his own lovers out of spite, deceived him into becoming undead in the first place and leaving his family behind, enslaved him to do her bidding, and now tortured him for the pleasure of her guests to top it off. “Has this happened before?”
“All the time. Now drop it. Go get me more blood if you want to help. There has to be more around here somewhere.”
“Why couldn’t she have used any of that blood? Why did it have to be yours?” I was stuck on this. It was traumatizing looking at him. I couldn’t imagine how he felt. This was another situation that nothing I had been told could have prepared me for. I had learned about war crimes in school, and heard about heinous acts of abuse in the news, but to see it staring me in the face was another level.
“Because mine is better quality. I’m the child of an Ancient. If you aren’t gonna help then just leave me alone.”
“I’ll get blood.” I ran through the house, frantically searching, until a noise outside sent a chill down my spine. It was a very distinct sound I had heard once before. It was the sound of glass shattering, followed by wicked shrieks of laughter.
That was none other than Rozalin’s signature laugh. We defeated her. She should be sealed away somewhere. What, or who, released her? And better yet, why?
I tore rooms apart for blood like an addict looking for a fix. There had to be a bottle here somewhere. I’d take anything I could get so we could leave. There was no telling what Rozalin would do and I didn’t want to stick around to find out.
“Oh thank God!” The irony of my praise in this situation wasn’t lost on me. A glass-fronted cabinet containing wine bottles of blood was waiting for me in the basement. I broke the glass to get past the lock and collected as many bottles as I could hold. In my hurry I nicked myself on the broken glass. Regeneration wasn’t fully back yet. Great.
Thunder boomed and lightning struck amidst more fits of raucous laughter outside from Rozalin. I reached Noah’s room just in time. Noah was on his feet steadying himself against the bedpost and snarling in Korean at the wind spirit, who was over by Vivi’s shrine. The man picked up the rose-engraved sword in its sheath, carelessly knocking the urn of ashes and some of the candles onto the floor. Noah tensed up and with an enraged roar tackled the wind spirit through a wall.
I couldn’t let Noah fight in his condition. Without blood he was more powerless than I was. I threw the bottles on the bed and pulled the two apart before the wind spirit could snap Noah’s ankle in a leg lock. Getting people to attack me was a talent that finally came in handy. I goaded the spirit into fighting me with a shockwave to the face. He retaliated with a gust of wind that sent me through the window. Sharp pains and the warm trickle of blood down my extremities quickly reminded me of my reacquired mortality.
“What fun! Another twisted soul joins the party!” Rozalin cackled at me from overhead. She soared through the air with her gown of woven shadows billowing in the breeze like her hair. “I will be the
re soon, my dear!”
She was engaged in battle with the other two spirits, but she seemed to be enjoying every second of it. Black lightning crackled from her fingertips as she traded blows with the long-haired man, who summoned his own storm of bolts. I didn’t know who I should be rooting for. No matter who won, it was still a loss for me.
“Isn’t this so delightful? I was beginning to think I would never see you again!” She continued to mock me from the sky while she conjured pillars of black flame. I rolled out of the way at the last moment and redirected the wind spirit into the fire as he attempted to pounce on me. The unholy flames seared him and kept on burning until he transformed into air to put them out.
Even among all the mayhem I could still feel Aurelia’s authoritative presence as she watched silently from the chateau steps. Around her neck was the amethyst pendant used to seal Rozalin away. I guess that answers who released her, but I thought they hated each other.
The geisha from our encounter in Bath called upon the water below the stone fountain to put out the flames around her.
“Fool! You cannot squelch the fires of the Underworld with mundane elements!” Rozalin jeered. “I will teach you what the power of a billion burning souls can do.”
The winds began to churn around me, but it wasn’t Rozalin. The spirit had recouped from being tossed in the fire and created a vortex of slicing wind to surround me. I had been through this before. I couldn’t fly up and I couldn’t stay on the ground. I had learned something since then, and calmed my mind to the point of the serenity I felt in the Nether Realm with Gianluca.
A psionic force flooded outward, silencing the storm. The very earth beneath me disintegrated in a perfect circle and the wind spirit fell from the sky with a thud. Neither of us could move. I was too exhausted after that to fight, but it was worth it if I bought Noah enough time to recover. I lay there semi-conscious as the battle continued without me. Both spirits engaged with Rozalin weren’t making much progress against her. She seemed completely satisfied to drag things out by alternating between her own otherworldly elements to torment them.
