Emerald Keep

by Edmund Hughes

  He rolled out of the way just as the attack came down. Stumbling to his feet, he held up a hand, trying to use his body language to disengage from the fight. His attacker was a man, not a vampire. He was tall, with a muscular build and tattooed arms, and he didn’t look like he was going to listen to reason.

  The man snarled and hurled himself forward, swinging the club in a powerful arc toward Jack’s head. Jack ducked under it and tried to throw his shoulder into the man’s chest. He ended up taking an elbow to the face instead.

  “Hey!” shouted Jack. “Stop! I don’t want to fight you!”

  His opponent couldn’t understand him, and even if he could have, Jack doubted that he would have believed him. He hopped out of the way of another attack, recognizing that what he’d thought was a wooden club was really just a large tree branch.

  Jack conjured his Spectral Sword and neatly sliced the branch in half as the man brought it down for another strike. The man let out a shout of surprise and stumbled backward. Jack let his sword dissolve into shadow and also took a step back, hoping the encounter would end there. The fight wasn’t fair, even though he was still weakened by the poison. He had no interest in defeating a terrified opponent with a makeshift weapon in a hopeless situation.

  The man stayed where he was. Jack nodded to him slowly and backed off further. He was about to turn around and start searching for Katie again when the man grunted and charged him at a full sprint.

  He felt a mixture of pity and frustration. He couldn’t imagine how desperate and scared the man must be, given his circumstances. But he also couldn’t waste any more time if he wanted to find Katie before she landed herself in trouble.

  Jack lashed out with an open hand, striking the man in the temple with the bony edge of his palm. The man dropped to the ground instantly, jerking once before slipping unconscious. Jack turned to leave, then hesitated. He quickly kicked as many fallen leaves on the man’s body as he could, mostly obscuring him from view.

  “If you can hear me,” said Jack, “then stay where you are. Stay hidden. Wait until daylight, and then you’ll be safe.”

  He turned and hurried deeper into the forest without looking back.

  CHAPTER 22

  Jack had seen a single landmark when he’d reached out to Katie with the Blood Sight. She was near the edge of a clearing, with an old, shoddy barn at its center. There had been a dirt road leading off from it. He’d seen that same road on their way to the Emerald Keep, and knew that it meant that she was somewhere north of where he was.

  It wasn’t much to go off, but it gave him a general sense of direction. He hurried through the dark forest, giving a wide berth to the screams he heard in the distance. Trying to help anyone else would only slow him down, as would ending up in another fight with a desperate person.

  Jack pushed past a tree branch and almost ran directly into a hunched over figure. He took a step back, noticing that there were actually two, one crouched over the other. One feeding off the other.

  The vampire glanced up at Jack. It was a woman, and her lips and cheeks were smeared with blood and bits of loose flesh. She flashed a smile at him, revealing her crimson-stained teeth.

  “You should hurry,” she whispered. “There’s always fewer females than males. You don’t want to end the chase without getting a taste.”

  Jack felt a surge of revulsion, along with pity for her victim. But there was nothing he could do to help. He turned away from the scene just as a high-pitched, feminine scream came from nearby. A teenage girl’s scream.

  It had to be the one he’d seen at the start. Jack had no doubt that she was the one who Katie would want to save the most. He took off through the trees, moving as fast as he could while dodging branches.

  He reached a small clearing with a massive boulder at the center of it, and he found what he’d been looking for. Katie was with there, along with the girl. The girl was struggling, trying to pull away, while Katie was desperately trying to get her to calm down and be quiet. Jack took the last step out of the trees and in their direction. Katie whirled toward the noise, letting go of the girl in order to aim her stolen gun at him.

  “Katie,” said Jack, raising his arms. “It’s me.”

  She didn’t lower the gun. And why would she? Jack had seen that expression on her face before, the last time Katie had seen his darkness. It wasn’t about whether she could trust him or not. It was about what Jack was and what precautions were fair to take with a monster during the middle of a dark, haunted night.

  The girl let out a scream behind Katie and took off. Katie swore under her breath and glanced back and forth between Jack and the direction the girl had gone in.

  “You aren’t going to try anything, are you?” asked Katie.

  “I’ll try to salvage the mess you’ve made,” said Jack. “Let’s just pretend that’s what you meant by that question.”

  “Fuck you, Jack,” said Katie. “I couldn’t just stand by and watch.”

  And the fact that it seemed like Jack could, from her perspective, was probably why she still had the gun pointed at him, he realized.

  “She’s going to get herself killed if we don’t go after her,” said Jack. “You can bring her to safety once we find her. I won’t stop you, but I also won’t let you risk your life by doing it alone.”

  “Vampire knight in shining fucking armor,” said Katie, rolling her eyes. “Fine. We don’t have time to argue about it.”

  She lowered the revolver and took off after the girl. Jack followed at a jogging pace. It would have been hard to find the girl in the dark, if not for the obvious path she’d left through the woods. Broken branches, imprints of her knees in the dirt from spots where she’d tripped…

  It was easy to follow, and they followed it straight to where she’d been found.

  Babish stood in front of a fallen tree with the girl in his clutches. He had one arm wrapped across her shoulder diagonally, ensuring that she couldn’t break free and giving him an easy position to sink his fangs in from. He glanced up as he heard Jack and Katie approaching, flashing an evil smile.

  “I’m surprised you’d bring your thrall with you on a Night Chase,” said Babish. “Though clearly it means that you won’t be needing this one. She is a wonderful specimen. Pretty, delicate… and that smell…”

  He pressed his nose into the girl’s hair and inhaled, eliciting a shudder out of her.

  “Jack,” hissed Katie. “Please. We have to do something.”

  She was right. Jack had to do something. The question was what. Attacking Babish and attempting to save the girl would be foolhardy, at best. It could snuff out the alliance between Mira and Volandar before it was ever official. It could potentially lead to Jack’s own death, along with Katie, if Volandar decided to hold him accountable. And he did have a choice.

  Jack could grab Katie and get her out of there. He was stronger than she was, and anyone who heard her shouting would just assume that it was part of the Night Chase. Was it fair for him to risk everything for the sake of a teenage girl that he didn’t know? A girl that was as good as dead, anyway?

  “Let her go, Babish,” said Jack. “She isn’t yours.”

  “Oh, I was hoping you’d say that.” Babish’s smile grew even wider. “Now, I can kill you and have both of them.”

  He threw the girl aside. No sooner than she’d hit the ground did Katie unload with the revolver, firing three bullets in quick succession.

  They all struck true, and Babish reacted to each one, but he didn’t go down. He let out a low groan and straightened his shoulders, shrugging off the damage in a literal sense. Katie had explained to him once that regular bullets were ineffective against vampires, and Jack had survived worse salvos of bullets before. But seeing it from an outside perspective was a little more unnerving.

  “Pathetic,” muttered Babish. “You’re barely worth my time.”

  He exploded forward at Jack, and the real fight began. Jack pushed Katie away from him, not wanting
to leave Babish with an opportunity to take a human shield, if he could help it. Babish slammed a fist into Jack’s chest, and he went flying.

  There was a thick tree trunk directly behind Jack, which kept him from going too far. He felt his head impact against the hard wood with enough force to give a normal human a concussion. For him, it was barely enough to make his vision waver, though it did make him aware of how ragged his body still was after his poisoning.

  He took a staggering step forward and raised his arms to block Babish’s next strike. It was a feint, and Babish punched him in the stomach instead. Jack retaliated with a quick jab to Babish’s chin, but the Valerian vampire dodged out of the way easily.

  They circled each other, both surveying their surroundings without glancing entirely away. Babish had an advantage in that he didn’t have to care about Katie or the teenage girl. Jack’s positioning was as much oriented to keep Babish from having a direct path to either of them as it was to maneuver for an advantage in the fight.

  Jack shifted onto the offense, launching a quick salvo of punches which he followed with a kick to the leg. Babish smiled as he blocked each of the blows. It was so different from his fight with the man wielding the branch, and the consequences for him losing would extend beyond just himself.

  He left himself open with a punch that went a little wide, and Babish seized the advantage. Jack felt a fist slam into the side of his temple and his jaw. He tasted his own blood as he fell to the ground, and Babish kicked him hard in the ribs and then the groin. The pain was as bad as anything he’d experienced before.

  He tried to rise to his knees. Babish grabbed him by the neck and scooped him into the air as though he was a child. Jack gasped for breath, clawing at Babish’s hand as he felt the grip tighten and begin to squeeze close his windpipe.

  “You’re weak,” said Babish. “That’s the worst thing one of our kind can be. You have no instinct for killing.”

  Killing. The word echoed in Jack’s head. He hadn’t been trying to kill Babish, and that was where he’d gone wrong. Babish tossed him back, throwing him into a thick section of bramble bushes and laughing as Jack tried to contort away from their jagged, needling points.

  He needed to kill Babish. It wasn’t as simple as defeating him in a fight, as his opponent was not going to surrender under any circumstance. Jack took a breath and gathered his blood essence for a spell. He conjured his Spectral Sword, whipping the ethereal blade in a quick cut to clear the space nearby of brambles.

  “Go ahead and cast your spells, blood mage,” said Babish. “They’ll do nothing for you.”

  Babish hurled himself forward as soon as Jack was on his feet, clearly hoping he could get within the effective range of Jack’s sword. Jack cast another spell, unleashing a Spectral Hand tendril from his palm and wrapping it around Babish’s ankle. He gave it a jerking pull to the side, neatly tripping the enemy vampire.

  Babish was only on the ground for an instant, but it was long enough to give Jack an opening to fly forward. He sliced downward with the sword, missing Babish’s shoulder by less than an inch. Babish punched him in the ribs and attempted to grab Jack’s head with his other hand. Jack’s sword came up into one of the Kendo blocks he’d practiced, almost taking Babish’s hand off.

  “You’re still slow,” said Babish. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  Jack felt a cold smile spread across his lips. For once, Babish was wrong. He knew exactly what he was doing.

  He only had so much blood essence available, given how long it had been since he’d fed on Katie that morning. He let himself focus on his surroundings, entering the calm state he needed to utilize Shadow Form. Babish let out a snarl as Jack evaporated into the darkness. He threw a punch into the empty space where he’d just been.

  “Coward!” shouted Babish. “Show yourself! Fight with honor, you stupid—”

  Jack materialized behind Babish and slammed his Spectral Sword through the vampire’s back. He let his hand settle onto Babish’s shoulder as he slowly pulled the ethereal blade out, inch by inch.

  “You’re right about one thing,” whispered Jack. “There is no honor in killing. It’s all about instinct.”

  Babish let out a bloody gurgle and fell to his knees. He clutched at his stomach where the blade had come out in front. Blood continued to gush from the open, unreachable wound in his back.

  “This won’t kill me!” shouted Babish. “I’ll heal. And when I do, your bitch thrall will be who I’ll take revenge on first.”

  Jack wrapped his fingers through Babish’s hair. The vampire tried to lash out with his hands and claw at him. He leaned out of the way and whipped his Spectral Sword in a hard, cleaving strike. It barely slowed down as it went through Babish’s neck.

  Killing was all about instinct. It was messy and oftentimes chaotic. But the space left in the wake of a fresh death was something that Jack enjoyed. He felt guilty at how much he enjoyed it. Guilty at how much pleasure it brought to know that Babish would never bother him, or anyone else, again. Guilty at how soothing it was to look down at the freshly spilled blood, the unmoving body, and the severed head. It wasn’t clean, but in a way, it was as neat as anything could be.

  Katie and the teenage girl were watching him. Jack let his Spectral Sword dematerialize and wiped his bloody hands off on his leather duster.

  “Get her to safety,” muttered Jack. “If you can. But be careful, and don’t let any of the vampires get near you.”

  Katie had that look on her face again. The one that made Jack feel like the monster that he probably was. But this time, she was trying to force it back. Trying not to react to the horrible thing he’d just done, probably because she knew that it was necessary, this time. She probably also knew that he’d done it for both their sakes, even if he’d enjoyed it.

  She took the girl by the elbow and pulled her off into the forest without looking back.

  CHAPTER 23

  Jack stared down at Babish’s bloody body and severed head. It was a little unnerving how quickly Babish had gone from being a person to being just a mess to clean up. And he would have to clean it up, or at least hide the incriminating pieces.

  “You fought well,” came a voice, from behind him. A voice Jack recognized. He swore under his breath and turned around to find Vyara staring at him amidst the trees. Her huge eyes looked like tiny, bottomless pits, and her face was completely expressionless.

  “He attacked me,” said Jack.

  “You gave him a reason to,” said Vyara. “This death… was not in the spirit of the Night Chase.”

  “The spirit of the Night Chase?” Jack shook his head and let out a dark chuckle. “Chasing after innocent people? Trying to inspire as much terror as you can?”

  “They… are not all innocent,” said Vyara. “Are you going to try to kill me?”

  “What would be the point of killing you?” asked Jack.

  Several more vampires stepped out of the nearby forest, moving to encircle him. Jack sensed the instant when they’d effectively cut off his escape. He’d passed up on his only chance to get away, and he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because he would be as good as dead, anyway, if he failed to follow his role in Pierce’s plan to fruition.

  “My father would speak with you,” said Vyara.

  “Speak with me?” asked Jack. “Or execute me?”

  “Speak with you,” repeated Vyara.

  More rustling came from the nearby trees, and another vampire appeared, dragging Katie along by the arm. She caught Jack’s eye for a moment and gave a small nod, assuring him that at the very least, the girl had managed to escape. Jack exhaled, feeling a small amount of his nervous tension release. At least he hadn’t taken a stand and killed Babish for no reason.

  “Fine,” said Jack. “Let’s go.”

  He tried to stay as close to Katie as he could as the two of them were escorted back to the Emerald Keep. As soon as they were across the drawbridge, Vyara and the vampires around Jack immed
iately pulled him off in a different direction.

  “Hey!” he said. “I’m not leaving my thrall alone!”

  “Do not worry,” said Vyara. “They will place her in your room.”

  Jack wasn’t exactly reassured, after dealing with Babish and getting a sense of how often the vampires in Volandar’s flock seemed to take what they wanted. But he didn’t have a say in the matter. He tried to keep himself focused as Vyara led him up the stairs to the second floor.

  Volandar was waiting for them in the hallway. He smiled at Jack, though there was a cold and hollow element to the expression. Volandar gestured to the door next to him, opening it and waiting while the vampires escorting Jack roughly pushed him through.

  He’d been expecting a jail cell, but the regal décor of the room that greeted him was about as far away from that as he could have imagined. Volandar followed him in, closing the door firmly behind the two of them after a few minutes of hushed conversation with Vyara.

  “Have a seat, Jack,” said Volandar. He gestured to a small sitting table near the side of the room. A bottle of wine and two goblets were already set out on top of it.

  Jack lowered himself into the chair, frowning as he took stock of the space. A couple of bookshelves lined the walls, along with a small, mostly empty wine rack. The room looked more like a private reading room than anything that seemed in line with what a vampire would need.

  Or was it? Volandar wasn’t an animal. He wasn’t Babish, enslaved by his impulses. He was a vampire, sure, but so was Jack.

  “Vyara tells me that you killed Babish,” said Volandar. “Is that true?”

  Jack didn’t see anything to gain in lying.

  “Yeah,” said Jack.

  “Why?” asked Volandar.

  He didn’t have anything to gain in lying, but perhaps he did have something to lose. Telling the truth about why he’d stopped Babish from treating the teenage girl as his own personal feast would reveal too much. It would make him seem weak, or at the very least, bad at controlling his “thrall.” Which, he had to admit, he was.