by Ian Haywood
“Gentlemen, we head north!”
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
Gereziac, Zephal and Barnabus led the mounted soldiers through the city square towards the majestic city gates that protected them from attack.
As they made their way through the streets, people were running alongside them to wish them well on whatever mission was being undertaking.
Children were excitedly running around them – some of which held up imaginary weapons made from whatever they could lay their hands on and Zephal laughed to himself as he remembered how much they were like him when he was a young boy full of dreams of becoming a soldier.
But even though there were scenes of delight, the air was still thick with the smell of smoke and Zephal noticed that a few soldiers remaining in the city were beginning to bring the flaming pyre under control.
Soon whatever burnt remains of Alana existed would be removed and disposed of accordingly.
But what caught Zephal’s sight next physically shook him.
They were feet away from the gates and were waiting for them to be opened when Zephal suddenly noticed that a small number of people were fighting a few metres away from him.
There was no way that he was going to let such behaviour continue, so he instantly called out for them to stop.
But there was no response from the small crowd.
Gereziac and Barnabus looked on in bewilderment as Zephal just dismounted his horse and headed straight towards the rabble to see what exactly was going on.
The first thing that hit Zephal as he began walking was the strong smell of fresh blood.
Someone amongst them was seriously injured, but the fight continued on nevertheless.
“Whatever is going on here,” Zephal shouted, “in the name of Gereziac, stop it immediately!”
Once again, there was no response.
He grabbed hold of one of the men in the crowd and forcefully pulled him back.
The man fell to the ground and snarled at Zephal for pulling him away from the others.
“You stopped me from feeding!”
And the man wasn’t kidding.
His face was completely covered in blood and the front of his clothes were a dark red colour.
Zephal had to hold the man back as he leapt from the ground and tried to join in with the others once again.
Barnabus and Gereziac could see that the situation could quite possibly ignite at any second and decided to dismount their horses in order to help Zephal.
The three men were pulling people out from the rabble one by one and each one that left had bloody faces.
Some of Barnabus’s men jumped in to make sure that those who had left the fight did not return which helped immensely to finally clear the crowd.
And as the last one was pulled back from whatever he had been attacking on the ground, Zephal stepped forward to see what had caused all the fuss.
It was obvious that Zephal was going to be met with the sight of a dead body as it was clear from the faces and behavior of the people fighting that they were all battling to get a taste of blood from whoever was being attacked.
And the dead body that was lying on the ground was someone that Zephal recognized.
But he never expected to see him here.
Back on the beach, Zephal had managed to come back to life thanks to the small amount of blood that had come from Naomi as she was struck by Lucius.
Zephal may have come back to life, but he was still too weak to fight everyone on his own.
He knew that news had to get to Gereziac that his daughter had been kidnapped and that Zephal was doing everything that he could to make sure Naomi remained safe.
So the only way he could do this was to find himself a messenger who could fetch help.
Alana was on the beach at the time and Zephal waited for the right moment to take Harran to a more conspicuous spot where he could do what he had to do to bring him back to life – just like he had done to the other mortals before.
The transformation was incredibly easy and as Harran did as Zephal ordered, it was left to Zephal to try and free Naomi from Alana and Lucius’s grasp.
Harran obviously must have been successful because Gereziac managed to come to Zephal’s aid.
But at what price?
Since his recovery, Zephal had been so caught up with concentrating on Alana’s execution and preparing to save Naomi from the Disciples of Draig that he had clearly forgotten to ask about Harran’s whereabouts.
And now he had his answer.
Harran had managed to save Zephal’s life, but sadly Zephal was not quick enough to save his.
The thing that had sent everyone into a blood crazed frenzy was none other than Harran himself.
He had successfully managed to reach the Great Chambers and convey Zephal’s message and had remained there while Gereziac and his men came to Zephal’s rescue.
But it seems that Harran had not managed to fully change from his mortal self and of course some of the people had picked this up when Harran joined the crowds earlier to see what was going on and in doing so, made himself open for attack.
Gereziac immediately noticed that Harran was the victim too and he could also see the concern on Zephal’s face.
“Don’t blame yourself, Zephal. There was nothing that we could have done to stop this.”
Zephal ignored Gereziac and looked back at the people who were being held back by the soldiers.
Deep down he knew that he could not blame any of them for what they had done because just like him, they all needed blood to continue surviving.
But Gereziac would have known that too – and he should have given Harran some kind of protection so that something like this wouldn’t have happened.
And all that Gereziac could offer as support was to tell Zephal that he shouldn’t blame himself.
But Zephal did blame himself because Harran was in his care and just like any of the soldiers in Gereziac’s army, Harran deserved to be protected.
He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but Zephal felt that there was something strange in the way that his old friend was acting.
CHAPTER THIRTY
The pleasure of breaking the bad news of Zephal’s impending arrival was to be incredibly short-lived as Mortus showed me that he meant what he had said earlier about treating me like he would any other prisoner.
He stretched out his right hand and grabbed hold of my neck and lifted me into the air, constricting any possible chance of me being able to breathe.
His grip was nothing short of vice-like and I genuinely did fear for my life as he slammed me into the bare rock wall with such force that I thought I was going to lose consciousness at any moment.
I could feel Mortus’s warm breath on my face as he stared into my eyes with a look of satisfaction that he was in full control of whether I survived or not.
“You’re not so smart now, are you filthy vampire girl?” he whispered.
I did what any normal woman would do when being restrained by a man.
I kicked out hard directly where it hurts – between his legs.
But Mortus was to prove that he was not like any other man and it was clearly obvious that my quick thinking had no effect on him whatsoever.
Any other man would have crumbled onto the floor in agony.
But the only reaction that came from Mortus was a look of extreme anger on his face that indicated that I should fear what he was about to do next.
Thankfully though, he had loosened the grip on my neck when I had kicked out at him and I managed to take in enough oxygen to stop me from passing out.
But my short-lived reprieve was ended almost immediately as Mortus swung his left hand directly towards my face and the pain that shot through my body as it made contact was immense.
I really thought that my cheekbone had shattered under the force that Mortus had hit me and for a few moments, my vision became quite blurry.
I screwed my eyes up and re-opened them in an atte
mpt to bring my normal vision back and the first thing that greeted me when I opened them was a grinning Tanya standing next to Mortus.
“I can smell the fear that runs within you, Naomi!” she mocked, “But it is still nowhere near enough to mask the disgusting stench of vampire!”
The after-effects of Mortus’s strike greatly affected my motor skills and I found it extremely difficult to respond.
Mortus stood proud of what he had done to me and I soon realized that my legs had weakened so much that they couldn’t take my weight anymore and I crashed down onto the ground inches away from Tanya’s feet.
Incredibly, Mortus chose not to continue his onslaught on me and stood back.
“I am growing tired of this feeble woman, Tanya!” he boomed, “Maybe you could get more fun out of her than I can. I am going to prepare our welcoming party for Gereziac’s arrival. This bitch is all yours, but please make sure that she remains alive long enough to be reunited with her father later.”
“Must you spoil my fun, Mortus?” Tanya replied.
Mortus laughed.
“Be patient,” he said, “I promise that when Gereziac is finally in my grasp, I will allow you the opportunity to kill the fruit of his loins.”
Tanya looked down at me and sniggered.
“It looks like she’s not fit for anything right now, Mortus!” she mocked.
And with that, Tanya swung her leg and kicked me squarely in the chest.
I must have bitten my lip when she made contact because I felt something start to trickle down the side of my mouth and as I wiped it with my hand, I looked down at my fingers and instantly saw my blood.
Tanya continued to mock me.
“Did I just hurt the poor little princess? At least look on the bright side Naomi – I managed to give you a little snack to keep you going!”
Mortus laughed at Tanya’s joke and turned around to head out of the door.
“I’ll leave you two girls to it.”
With Mortus’s back turned and Tanya watching him leave, I decided that this would be the best opportunity to get my own back on Tanya for kicking me.
I used whatever strength that I could muster to leap across at her and instantly wrapped both my arms around the lower part of her legs.
With one swift move, I pushed until her legs buckled under the pressure, bring her down onto the ground with a hard thud with me on top.
Let’s see how she likes being someone else’s punch bag.
All the rage that had built within me after what I had gone through over the last few days brought out the worst in me and it was all going to be brought out on Tanya.
For the first time, I was calling the shots and it gave me immense pleasure to see the shocked look on Tanya’s face as she realized that I was not as timid as she thought I was.
She held her arms up to push me off her, but I just hit out at them continuously until they started to tire, giving me the opportunity to make contact with her face.
And the hits I managed to get in on her were not wasted.
Even I was impressed at how well they connected and my anger turned to a feeling of immense power as I could see Tanya dramatically fighting for her survival.
“How do you like it when you’re on the receiving end then, Tanya?” I screamed as I reigned blows down on her, “You think that I am going to lay down and take your shit anymore? Let me tell you, in a few moments only one of us will be alive – and I can assure you that you will be long gone before my life comes to an end!”
I don’t know what happened within me, but I suddenly gave out a roar that echoed throughout the room.
A sudden red mist came over me and the only thing I wanted to do was to end Tanya’s life quickly and in as gruesome a manner as physically impossible.
I felt every muscle in my body contract so hard that I thought they were going to burst out through my skin at any moment and judging by the expression on Tanya’s face, it could be possible that my facial appearance could be too.
I snarled and as I did so, I became aware that my two incisors had grown incredible longer and all I wanted to do was puncture Tanya’s skin with them.
I grabbed hold of her hair and forcefully lifted her head off the ground.
I wanted to repeatedly slam it down with such force that it would smash her skull to tiny bits and nothing was going to stop me from doing so.
Or so I thought.
I was using every single one of my newly acquired powers to end Tanya’s life – but I forgot about one thing.
Mortus.
He must have heard the roar that I had given out a few moments ago and he had obviously run back in to find out what had made it.
Of course he would come to Tanya’s aid and I suddenly felt myself being pulled off a helpless Tanya to be thrown across the room straight into one of the dying women who were tied up.
Tanya took this opportunity to struggle to her feet and she stood directly behind Mortus, relieved that she was still alive.
All three of us stood motionless, waiting to see who was going to make the first move.
And judging by the expressions on their faces, they both knew that I was now a force to be reckoned with.
It may be just Mortus and Tanya in the room with me right now to contend with, but I had absolutely no idea how many more Disciples there could be outside who would be more than happy to cause me harm.
I definitely knew that Zephal and Gereziac were heading my way to save me.
But they needed to get here fast.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
A couple of soldiers who were carrying out their duties taking care of what remained after the execution had noticed the scuffle between Zephal and the bloodthirsty townspeople and had come over to see what all the fuss was about.
They were amazed at what they saw and it must have been something incredibly serious as two of their best Generals and their King were involved in bringing order to the chaos.
Gereziac ordered the soldiers to take over their duties and he ordered Barnabus to remount his horse and continue with their mission without any more interruptions.
Barnabus did what he was told to do and Zephal climbed back onto his horse and as soon as Gereziac got on the back of his steed, everyone made their way out of the city gates to head towards the Northlands.
As soon as they reached the open countryside, Gereziac turned to Zephal who had not said a word since seeing Harran’s body and tried to brighten his mood.
“I hope nothing else happens that will delay us any further.”
Zephal turned to Gereziac with an expression that showed that he was not too pleased with the comment.
“Is that what you would call the death of a man who was nothing short of a hero? A distraction? I owe my life to him and he may have given us more time in order to find Naomi before anything terrible happened to her. So you should be thanking him right now rather than making humour at what happened to him!”
It had been a long time since Zephal had spoken to him like that, but no matter how much they were friends, Gereziac was not going to let him get away with such subordination.
“Do I need to remind you who you are addressing right now?”
“I know exactly who you are!” Zephal snapped back, “And quite frankly, as your closest friend I see it as my duty to speak truthfully without fear and it seems that you were so caught up in your own personal vendetta against Alana that you forgot more important matters – like protecting those who needed to be.”
Barnabus was shocked to see Gereziac and Zephal verbally argue as they joined him in leading his men.
“Gentlemen,” he interrupted, “maybe your discussion should be delayed until a better time away from the men.”
Gereziac glared at Barnabus, who immediately dropped his head and stayed silent.
“I would prefer it if you would stay out of matters that don’t concern you, Barnabus! I will conduct myself in whichever way I deem fit!” Gereziac snapped.
&
nbsp; This made Zephal’s blood boil as he listened to how Gereziac had belittled Barnabus and it gave him more fuel to his argument – and he was determined to say something, whether it was welcome or not.
“And right now that is nothing like the Gereziac we have all grown to respect! General Barnabus is one of our finest Generals as you well know, but you speak to him as if he is nothing more than a child in front of his men.”
If Zephal was looking for a fight, he certainly was in the right place for one.
“I am starting to get sick of hearing everyone trying to tell me what I should be doing when none of them have ever been in my position before. It seems that everyone knows better and whatever decision I choose to make is always the wrong one, no matter how many lives it could save in doing so.”
