by J. Armand
Rozalin was deeper in the library, speaking to the second winged abomination in a language I had never heard. I stayed down, trying not to draw attention to myself. I concentrated on pushing the one off Lyle with my powers, but it stayed latched on to him.
Lyle screamed and grimaced in pain. The hideous bloodsucker sunk its fangs into Lyle’s neck, pinning him to the floor as it drank. Lyle’s blue eyes began to go dark as he lost the struggle. I grabbed the metal poker and aimed for its heart.
Before I could strike, Vivian appeared on the other side of them, wielding a full-length katana etched in a rose motif with matching crimson handle. In one move, she swept the blade up, decapitating the monster and turning it to ash.
We helped Lyle sit up as he dusted off the remains from his clothes. He went to speak, but Vivian pressed a finger to his lips and leaned in to lick the blood from his neck. She bit down on her wrist and pressed it to his mouth.
I didn’t doubt she could handle herself better than she let on, but I hadn’t expected her to go out of her way for us.
Lyle held his neck. When he removed his hand a moment later, the puncture marks had vanished. “I thought bites were supposed to feel good,” he groaned.
“Carpathians,” she said, getting up and licking her own wrist as it sealed. “Their bite is painful on purpose. They enjoy tasting fear in the blood of their prey. More are on the way to aid in their coup d’état. They are fewest in number of the covens, but will storm the chateau with all they have if it means a chance to topple us while our sanctuary has been compromised.”
I gave Lyle my hand to help him up, feeling guilty I hadn’t done more. “How’d they know to come here now?” Lyle asked.
“Because I sent for them!” Rozalin laughed from above us. “Not only did I deceive the Strigoi witch to help me shed my physical form, but I informed the Carpathians of her precious little weapon! It took but a spark to ignite their paranoia. They crawled from their crypts to lay waste to their enemies before it was too late for them.
“They are an ambitious lot who yearn for their chance to reign supreme. It was only a matter of time until the Carpathians made their move to bury the other covens and overthrow humanity. They just required a little push to draw first blood! The creatures they cooked up to infest the city overseas were some of their best yet. With the Strigoi’s weapon dead, the Carpathians felt the witches would cower, and only the Archios would be left to stand in their way. That’s where I came in.
“I care not for the fate of the world. I will watch with glee as the chaos I’ve set in motion crumbles my dear sister’s empire!”
“But I’m not dead!” I shouted defiantly.
“You died along with your family, and have been nothing more than a hollow shell ever since. What good is a living weapon that lacks the will to fight? You are a failure at everything other than playing the pawn to help me start a war.”
“No, you’re wrong. I may have lost everything and wanted to give up when things got bad, but as long as I’m still alive I won’t be anybody’s puppet!”
A wicked smile curled across Rozalin’s face. She vanished in time for us to see the second Carpathian flying down with claws and fangs bared. Vivian readied her katana, but Noah dropped down from a bookcase onto it. He grabbed both wings, pulling back until they tore from the sockets. He finished it off with his swords through its neck.
Noah touched down in the pile of ash and opened his mouth to speak, but a wave of dark flame tearing through the library stopped him. The room blurred past me for a second as Noah grabbed me and ran behind one of the bookcases for cover. Vivian had done the same for Lyle on the other side of the room.
“How do we beat her?” I asked Noah as we took cover behind the shelves. He stared at me, raising an eyebrow with a puzzled look.
“Ready to finally take my advice?”
“I’m ready to do whatever it takes to end this.”
“Good. See these cases? Just like in the hedge maze, don’t get trapped. Always give yourself an escape route.” He pointed in the direction of the safe room. “We have to get her there. She wants you to focus on what she can do to you, not what you need to do to her. Just because you can’t hit her doesn’t mean she’s unstoppable.”
I peeked around the corner to the stairs. More of the Carpathians were joining us. “Don’t worry about them, they’re just a distraction,” he said. “Get to the room and make her follow.”
“Vivi!” He stepped out into the open and shouted. “You ready?”
“I was waiting on you,” Vivian called out from her hiding spot across the library. “Do you think you can keep up, chéri?”
Noah was gone just in time to evade another burst of black flames from Rozalin. I crept along the outer path, keeping my eyes on the center of the room, where Rozalin was stirring up mayhem. She didn’t seem too concerned with friendly fire as she let loose bolts of black lightning and flame in all directions, occasionally hitting the Carpathians as they flew by.
“Why do you run?” she laughed. “Is there nothing more delightful than the sweet embrace of death?”
Three of the Carpathians were chasing after Noah. He ran up the side of a giant column and backflipped, vaulting over them. Throwing both wakizashi downward, he skewered two of the Carpathians to the floor through their hearts and hopped on the back of the third. In one quick move he broke its neck, causing it to fly out of control. Noah grabbed Vivian’s katana out of her hands as he passed and used the borrowed sword to cut his ride to pieces. He threw the katana back, impaling the Carpathian she was fighting, and winked at her.
“Is it not natural? Is it not beautiful?” Rozalin continued her taunting. “Why do you run from the inevitable?”
Noah dodged another of her attacks while putting an end to the two Carpathians he had staked. I heard the flapping of wings close by and readied myself for a fight, but there was no one there.
Something slithered up my leg. One of the shadowy tentacles had me snared. I heard a deep rasping voice behind me. “Parasite likes you, yes? You taste good now, yes?”
A Carpathian stood between me and the middle of the room, clicking the claws of one hand together. Over his shoulder I saw Noah wasn’t far away. He was skillfully cutting his way through a crowd, sending one after another to their final grave.
“Go to hell.” I held out my hand and sent him soaring backward to Noah, but he didn’t make it that far. A stray bolt from Rozalin disintegrated him on contact. It wasn’t exactly what I was going for, but that worked, too. I felt a twinge of excitement watching him die, but I had to tell myself it wasn’t a step toward becoming like them. Up to now I had only “killed” mindless creatures.
I fought to free my leg just in time for another of the Carpathians to notice me. I stayed with my back to the wall to avoid getting hit in the crossfire.
“That’s right! Shed the tiresome burden of this mortal coil and join me in everlasting death!” Rozalin was still running her mouth in the main area. She was taking so much joy in all this I couldn’t help but think we were still playing right into her hands. How could any individual be so twisted and starved for attention that their only source of entertainment was making others fight to the death?
I didn’t even give this next one the chance to try and intimidate me. I pinned him to the wall by exerting pressure on his head. He was a lot more resilient than anything else I had fought so far, and while he wasn’t going anywhere fast, I was having a hard time doing damage.
The closer I got the tougher it was to walk against the force from my powers between us. This feeling reminded me of two magnets repelling each other. I couldn’t tell whether I was hurting him or not, and his face was already so ugly it wasn’t much indication. Another step and the Carpathian caught fire, thrashing wildly until he died.
“Holy shit,” I said to myself, and looked around if anyone else saw what I had just done. Vance stepped out from the next row of shelves, holding his book in one hand and a fistful o
f fire in the other.
“Oh, it was you,” I sighed. “Don’t even think about sneaking away. I still have questions I need answered.”
“You’re welcome, and if this place wasn’t sealed tight I would have already been gone.” He paused and glanced down at the ashes.
“What is it?” I asked as he kneeled to inspect the pile.
A bang across the room startled me. Vivian had just spun out of the way of two Carpathians chasing her and cut the chain holding up one of the giant chandeliers. It crashed down into her pursuers, right through Rozalin, who exploded them to bits.
“Why cling to life so desperately? Such a frail and fleeting state,” Rozalin mused as she floated around causing anarchy. “Soon you will all be with me enjoying an eternity with your new master.”
“We found someone who likes the sound of their own voice even more than Noah,” I said.
“This isn’t good,” Vance said, ignoring my joke. He pointed to the remains. The ashes were traveling on their own across the floor to the center of the room. I scanned the rest of the room and noticed all the remains were doing the same thing, forming one big mound under Rozalin.
“That’s why she doesn’t care that her own allies are dying. She’s going to bring them all back under her control anyway.”
“I’m not sure that’s her plan,” Vance disagreed. “Why sacrifice a stronger army for a weaker one? She’s drawing power from all the souls of the dead, but the ashes must mean something.”
Vance’s eyes glazed over as he got lost in thought. I didn’t think he was paying attention until he casually raised his hand to another incoming Carpathian and froze it in a sheet of ice.
“Carpathians aren’t known for their intelligence,” he told me, “but at times they can surprise you.” He placed his hand on the block of ice and exsanguinated the frozen body, drawing the blood into himself.
“That’s smart,” I praised, “but we’d have to freeze them all to stop whatever she’s trying to do.”
Vance still wasn’t listening. Instead he was writing in blood on the floor again. “We need a crystal or something like it to bind Rozalin once we trap her,” he said.
I remembered the jewelry cases upstairs, but it was unlikely I’d make it that far and back again. I left Vance to his work and went to find the others. Noah was almost impossible to keep track of as he dove into one crowd of enemies, dismembered them, and then moved on to the next in mere seconds. Vivian was holding her own better than I thought would be possible in formalwear. At one time she did a somersault with her katana out, cut a group of the Carpathians to ribbons, and landed perfectly poised on two feet.
Rozalin spotted me and sent a blast of dark energy my way. I just barely dodged and ran for cover again. The unnatural light in the room was hurting my eyes, but I saw a shadow over me a second too late. Sharp claws went right into my shoulders from behind and I couldn’t strike back without seeing who was attacking me.
There was a shout and suddenly I was released, wincing as the claws were dragged out of my body. Lyle stood over the monster, jamming his trusty fire poker into its chest. He was in considerably rougher shape than when this had started. His clothes were bloodied and torn to shreds and he was covered in cuts and scrapes.
“I hate these stupid things!” he screamed at the body as he kept stabbing it.
My arm and back hurt a lot less now. I checked the damage and watched in amazement as the wound healed shut right before my eyes. I grabbed at my back. The deep lacerations there had gone away too.
Lyle finally stopped his frenzy and stepped back with his gun out. He aimed and shot at the oil lamp above, causing the black flames to immolate the paralyzed corpse.
“You good?” he asked, and snatched the metal poker from the fire. The tip of it had caught some of the Carpathian’s clothes and was still burning like a torch.
“Heads up!” Noah shouted. A body came dropping down on us, but Noah dashed underneath and cleaved it in two with a swipe of his sword. “You guys tired already or something?”
The severed torso was still moving and snarling at Noah, who put his boot on its head to hold it in place.
“I need some of Aurelia’s jewelry, like a necklace or something with a crystal in it,” I told him.
He decapitated the torso and put the creature out of its misery.
“This isn’t really the time to explore your feminine side,” he grinned.
“No, idiot! Vance needs it for the ritual.”
“So go pick out something nice upstairs. I’m having fun here.”
“You left Vivi by herself!” Lyle pushed past us.
“She’s a big girl, she can take care of herself,” Noah said calmly and pointed to a bunch of the Carpathians that had her surrounded. “Look, she’s already made friends.”
“We need to help her,” said Lyle, but Noah grabbed my shoulder to stop me.
“Don’t get involved unless you understand the situation. Watch your allies just as closely as your enemies, or an attempt to help could end in failure.”
I took his advice and watched from a safe distance. The Carpathians had stopped advancing and turned on each other, clawing and biting themselves to pieces while Vivian stood in the middle of them until they were done. She delicately tiptoed over the remains and joined with Lyle.
“She’s the last person in here you have to worry about,” Noah finished. “She’s been at this longer than me.”
All but a few of the Carpathians had been defeated, but that was just as troubling as when they were swarming the place. Their ashes slunk toward Rozalin, who was still raining down destruction.
“The ashes!” I yelled. “She’s collecting the ashes for something!”
Lyle and Vivian were untangling themselves from the shadowy structures reaching out for them. The black fire on the end of Lyle’s makeshift torch burned them away. He threw it like a spear at Rozalin just as she launched more dark lightning at him. Vivian pushed him out of the way. Even though the poker went right through her, the flames caused Rozalin to scream in anguish.
Rozalin’s laughter didn’t return after that. She was seething with anger now and targeting Lyle, who was too busy looking around for Vivian. The ashes swirled around Rozalin, forming one of the ritual circles like Minerva and Vance used. She killed off the last of the Carpathians herself and added their ashes to the rest.
“Do not let her complete the circle!” Vance warned from the floor above. He cast his own magical fire at Rozalin. Right as he was climbing down to lead her to the trap, she blew up the ladder, barely missing him in the process. Vance didn’t move from under the collapsed bookcases.
It was up to me now. I willed an oil lamp from its fixture and flung it at Rozalin. She caught fire momentarily and was now after me.
“I will reunite you with your family one way or another!” Rozalin screamed at me in rage.
She floated over the circle and brought it to life with dark magic. The ashes rose up to form a cloud surrounding her. It pulsated and crackled with energy, and from it came the tormented faces of all those trapped within. Everything near the cloud withered and decomposed. The closer it got, the more clearly I could hear the victims’ screams of despair from inside.
I ran for the safe room, pulling more oil lamps down and chucking them at the cloud as I went. It absorbed the flames, but did not slow. The mass of darkness decayed the wood and stone supporting the building as it passed.
I vaulted over rubble and into the trap room, making sure Rozalin was still in pursuit. The doorframe and wall around it eroded instantly upon contact with the cloud. My skin was flaking off as it drew near, but regrew over and over.
For a moment I wondered what would happen to me and how bad it would hurt if Vance’s trap didn’t work, but I didn’t have to. The floor illuminated with her inches from my face. I stepped out of the way, but she couldn’t follow and her deathly cloud dissipated as the magic circle trapped her.
“You think you are s
o clever,” she smiled. “You cannot contain death. You cannot avoid it, not forever. I will have so much fun in the Underworld when I amuse myself with your family’s souls.”
She was looking behind me at something. A tall, lanky figure in a full-length coat, wide-brimmed hat, and peculiar bird mask was watching us.
“What did I tell you? You cannot contain me, I am death! There is a war coming and when it arrives a darkness greater than you can imagine will swallow you all whole and grind your bones to dust!”
I backed out of the room, trying to keep my eyes on both her and this new person. “Now, stop gawking and release me!” she commanded the figure.
Noah and Vivian were observing from a vantage point behind the stranger. It was hunched over on a cane for support and cocked its head inquisitively at her demands.
“I said release me!” she screamed. The stranger chuckled at her from behind the mask and hobbled off with the aid of its cane. “We had a deal!” she screeched. “I will slaughter you and what’s left of your pathetic coven!”
The stranger ignored her tantrum as it made its way to the stairs. Rozalin let out a deafening high-pitched wail that shattered the rest of the oil lamps and sent the library up in flames. The noise was so loud my ears were bleeding and I was seeing red. Noah, Vivian, and Vance were next to me now, but I couldn’t hear if they were saying anything. Noah tore the choker from Vivian’s neck and threw it in the room. Vance read an incantation from the tome and the shrieking stopped as Rozalin was sucked down into the amethyst jewel.
“Please tell me that’s the last we’re gonna hear from her,” Lyle said from a cautious distance before coming over to us.
“I’m disappointed, Vi. You’re slowing down in your old age. I killed at least twice as many as you,” Noah bragged.
Vivi handed him her sword and walked over to pick up the necklace. “I did it in heels.”
“What is that?” I asked, referring to a rumbling from upstairs. Noah disappeared from the library, followed by Vivi. “Come on,” I waved to Lyle.
