Tempest of Vengeance

by Tara Fox Hall

  “It’s true, I heard them,” Lash interjected.

  “—and I told him if he screwed up again, that was it, we were finished.”

  “Do you really believe he’ll let you go, if he screws up?” Rosalyn said, looking at me like she was surprised I could be so naive. “Which, by the way, is a question of ‘when,’ not ‘if’?”

  I was beginning to get annoyed. It was one thing for me to think Devlin was a jerk. It was another to hear someone else say it, after how much he had been trying lately not to be one. “Yes, I just signed a paper not three hours ago—”

  “No, I know he won’t,” Lash hissed, his eyes locked on Rosalyn’s. “But if that happens, I’ll ask Sar what she wants to do. If she wants to leave him, I’ll help her do it.”

  “You’re going to kill him for her?” Rosalyn said quietly. “Because you and I both know that’s the only way he’ll ever let her go. He’s never relinquished anything he considered his.”

  “I’m not killing him, not ever!” Lash hissed, baring his fangs wide. He got to his feet, and stared at her. “And we are done here. I don’t have casual conversations with creatures that ask me to kill my friends. And know that if you weren’t helping Elle, I’d torch your office with you in it, just for saying that in front of me.”

  Lash strode to the door, and through it, slamming it hard behind him. Ros seemed unconcerned, and turned to me.

  “Sarelle, I’m sorry, if my questions upset you—”

  “They don’t upset me,” I said, getting to my feet. “I just think they are pointless. I need Dev’s protection. I have a child with him. And part of me just flat loves him, despite what he is, and was—”

  “And will be?” Ros added, looking up at me.

  “That too,” I said, and turned to leave.

  “Sarelle—”

  “Why did you ask us to come in and talk now? To upset my mate? What?”

  “I want to make sure you are making choices for the right reasons.”

  “What are the right reasons, Ros? Because I want to, or because it makes the most sense? Because of emotions, or because of reason? You talk to people, and some say one and some say the other—”

  “Which is yours, for Oathing to Devlin?”

  “Both,” I said, looking at her with my hand on the door. “Because down deep, it’s what I want right now, to live with Lash and he at Hayden, to be with my daughter, and to be near Danial, even if he doesn’t know me.”

  “Then you did it for the right reasons,” Ros said, looking at me with a serious expression. “I truly hope it works out for you.”

  “Me, too,” I said quietly, and then I left, shutting the door behind me.

  * * * *

  The day of the fight approached. Devlin and Lash spent a good deal of time sparring in the gym each morning. Every following afternoon, women came to feed Devlin, to replenish the blood and energy he lost at Lash’s hands. The intensity of their training was impressive, especially as the fighting they were doing was hand to hand combat without any weapons, save fangs. Devlin had explained that his fight with Ulysses would be with no weapons, and no armor, giving me angst that Ulysses would find a way to bring in some hidden weapon, a concern I didn’t voice. This wasn’t my Oathed vampire’s first Challenge. Like Theo before him, Dev needed my surety in his triumph. My belief in him, coupled with his relentless training worked. Each morning when he got up, Devlin seemed stronger and faster than ever. Yet by the end of the day, Devlin would be so exhausted he would fall asleep in my arms right after we kissed goodnight.

  Lash took the opportunity while Devlin was feeding in the evenings to spend time with me. He would often tell me he wanted to thank me for lunch, and spirit me away for a few hours of gentle lovemaking and talking in his bedroom, or Devlin’s.

  One afternoon, as Lash was drawing a bath for us in his room, I was jerked out of my languor, seeing a familiar speck struggling in the water. I made a lunge, almost shoving Lash into the filling tub as I dove for the drowning spider. He went to one knee with a surprised hiss, but he caught himself with his fast reflexes, steadying himself. “Sar, what the hell are you doing?”

  I didn’t reply, frantically reaching for the little dot, but missed, the dying creature swirling through my fingers. I made another slower grab, but missed again, and let out a little cry of frustration. I bit my lip, and slowly cupped my hands underneath him, and brought him up out of the water, breathing a sigh of relief. I very carefully dripped the dot in some water on the edge of the tub, and watched hopefully for signs of life. But though the legs of the spider twitched a few times, he didn’t scuttle away. I decided with sorrow that I’d been too late, and settled into the water with a dejected sigh.

  Lash climbed in with me, but didn’t speak. He and I watched the spider for a while, but it didn’t move. I blew a little on the motionless creature, but only succeeded in blowing him off the edge of the tub into a dark shadowy spot between the tub and the wall. At least I won’t have to see the tiny corpse.

  “Is she dead?” Lash said quietly.

  True, most spiders were female, though I’d always thought of them as male. “Yes, he’s dead,” I said, feeling tears start immediately. “I was too late, and I didn’t notice in time.”

  “Sar, it’s okay, it’s just a spider, there are a lot more outside—”

  I began to bawl in earnest, and Lash pulled me over close to him in the water so I was cradled against his chest, not saying anything. He held me for a long time, and rubbed my back, and eventually, I stopped crying.

  “I would never have guessed you had such a soft spot for spiders,” Lash whispered, kissing my forehead. “But maybe I should have, seeing how you feel about snakes.”

  I smiled a little at that and hugged him, but I didn’t tell him what the spider had represented to me. What I’d shared with Danial had been between us, and that long ago spider that had surely perished when my house burned. I hadn’t saved either of them, in the end. But when I’d had a choice to help, or not help, I’d done as much as I could. That had to count for something.

  When Lash and I got out of the bathtub, I went to his sliding glass door, and out on his deck. It was a beautiful sunny day, almost sixty, very abnormal weather for this time of year. But tomorrow, the day of the fight, a snowstorm was coming in, and the temperatures would plunge back to freezing. Lash had taken the afternoon off, saying days like this came only once a decade in winter, and he wanted to enjoy it with me. I sat down looked out over Hayden, thinking about how beautiful it would all look in summer. It would be partly mine, too, something I still found unbelievably exciting.

  “Sar, come quick!” Lash said from inside the house. “I think your spider is alive!”

  I bolted to my feet, and ran inside. Lash was shining a flashlight into the dark corner where the spider had fallen when I’d blown on him. I looked, and sure enough, the spider was sitting there. I blew on it a little, and it scuttled quickly away into a crevice. An overwhelming sense of relief flooded me, that I hadn’t been too late after all.

  “Now I’m going to have to remember to look for Frank every time we do this,” Lash commented with a rueful smile. “I don’t want him to die now, after he’s gotten a second chance at life.”

  “Frank?”

  “Why not? If we’re going to save his life, and you’re going to cry over him, we might as well name him. And you know I like Miller.”

  I giggled. “That’s as good a reason as any, I guess.”

  * * * *

  The day of the fight dawned, with gusting snow and bitter cold. At high noon, Lash and I drove Devlin in one of the Hummers to the site of the battle, a towering graveyard mausoleum high on a hill that had recently been completed. The granite wasn’t weathered, the carvings in the stone very easy to read.

  Ulysses was already there, waiting in his car.

  Everyone got out of the vehicles as soon as we’d parked. Like Devlin, Ulysses was completely clothed in armor, with a visored helmet.
As agreed, he’d brought only one of his men with him, but though the man was not a demon, he was as big as Titus.

  “Polar bear. And Alpha, I’m guessing,” Lash said frostily. “I wonder what Ulysses promised him for his help.”

  “Money and revenge,” the bear snarled loudly, hearing him. “I used to work for Ebediah, Lash. All of us polar bears did. You should pick a master who has less enemies.”

  “I’d rather pick one I can trust,” Lash said easily. “Is your master ready?”

  “Why’s she here?” the bear growled. “One second only was agreed.”

  “I’m not fighting,” I said, showing him my hands. “Pat me down if you want to. But I am part of the spoils going to the winner, as Devlin’s Oathed One. I deserve to know if he’s fallen, to be one of the first to know.”

  “Fine, but you are to stay back from the fighting, and I’ll search you for weapons,” the bear said. He proceeded to do so, and pronounced me clean.

  We five went inside, and Devlin and Ulysses proceeded to take off their armor. I hadn’t seen Ulysses since that night I was his prisoner, and seeing him as vampire left me unnerved. His green eyes were glowing bright as traffic lights, and his skin shone as Devlin’s did. He’s been training hard for this, too.

  An involuntary shudder of doubt slid down my back, and I turned away, seeking a spot from where to watch at a safe distance. I found a rough box that had contained brass handles for the crypts, and turned it over near one cold granite wall, fashioning myself a rough bench. I sat down and waited, anxiously wrapping my long wool coat around myself. It’s freezing in here.

  Lash and the bear took up watchful positions by the door, as Devlin and Ulysses began circling. Surprisingly, this was done without any words, or posturing by either of them, something I found surprising, at least from what I knew of both of them.

  Devlin struck first, and knocked Ulysses to the ground with a quick blow to the face. But Ulysses was up in an instant, and he bloodied Devlin with two kicks to the face. It was hard to see them move, as both of them were moving as fast as they could, much faster than a human could move. Before long, Devlin and Ulysses were both bloodied, but they healed almost as soon as the blows were struck. I’d never seen vampires heal that fast, the fight before me reminding me of some of the climactic battles in recent vampire movies I’d watched, lending it a surrealist quality that I tried to focus on to ease my quaking nerves. He’s defended his throne for two hundred years. Calm down. Wait for the signal.

  Maintaining their speed and the constant healing was exerting an enormous strain on them both. Both of the vampires began to falter slightly, their wounds ceasing to heal completely. Ulysses launched himself at Dev just a little too slowly, bloody fangs bared. Instead of sidestepping, Devlin crouched and came up under him, slamming him down onto his back with a crunch of breaking bone. “Now!” he shouted.

  Everyone erupted into action. I bolted to my feet, and ran toward Devlin. Ulysses was struggling hard, his spine already healing, but Devlin was holding him down. The alpha bear charged the grappling vampires, but Lash’s whip shot out, and sending the bear sprawling. I reached out for Devlin, diving for his outstretched hand. The instant I felt his fingers touch mine, I teleported us to Hayden’s basement.

  We landed in a heap, and Ulysses snarled at me, lunging with his teeth to try to bite me. I scuttled away from him, and into the arms of Titus, who shoved me behind him, baring his rows of teeth at Ulysses. Devlin grabbed hold of Ulysses, slamming him back to the concrete floor with another hard snap of bone.

  “How did you do this, make her both demon and vampire, while still making her seem human?” Ulysses snarled. “She is no faerie! We met on holy ground to prevent any teleporting!”

  “Bastard,” I said, glaring at him as I stood. Then I disappeared, teleporting back to help Lash. I arrived to find the mausoleum empty, and ran to the door.

  Outside, Lash was fighting hard in the gathering snow. Ulysses hadn’t planned for teleporting, but he’d planned for Devlin’s ultimate destruction should anyone but he and his bear come out of the mausoleum alive. There were ten dead bears on the ground, most half changed with claws and fangs, flakes still melting on their cooling bodies, and gaping holes where their hearts had been. Lash was fighting the last two on their feet, Ulysses’ alpha bear with Lash’s knife in his heart just to the left, feebly trying to crawl away. I watched him but didn’t approach him, because even mortally wounded, he was probably more than a match for me.

  Lash broke the neck of one bear with a hard snap, and the other, realizing he was the last one left, ran. Lash tripped him with the lash of his whip, and dragged him backwards, screaming.

  With a sharp crack, Lash broke his neck, too.

  He looked up at me, and I motioned to the alpha bear. Lash bared one fang in a grin, and strode over to him. The bear swiped at him with a hand grown into a claw, but Lash stepped aside, evading him almost effortlessly, and deftly pulled out his knife. The bear gasped in a single breath, but never had time to scream as Lash severed his head from his body.

  I felt my stomach turn, but forced my bile down. There was still much to do. There was no time for getting sick. The snow was coming down faster and faster now.

  Lash reached into a leather pouch on his belt, and pulled out a piece of paper and a vial. He read it, while pouring a tiny bit of the powdered mixture into his hand. A second later, a small ball of blue fire sprang into life in his hand. He threw it on the alpha bear’s body. Seconds later, there were only ashes. He did that over and over, until the only evidence left were the two weremen with broken necks, and rapidly disappearing ashes on bloody snow. Lash tossed the two weremen in the back of the Hummer, and after checking it over for traps, we both got in. As agreed, I teleported it to Hayden’s gate, and then did the same with Ulysses’ car, a black Pathfinder. Something nagged at me, but I couldn’t think what. I had too many other things to think about.

  Leaving the two cars and prisoners in Nick and Keith’s able hands, I teleported Lash and I back to the basement just in time to see Devlin sink his fangs into Ulysses’ neck, and began swallowing him down. Ulysses screamed, and tried to fight him off, but Devlin held him almost effortlessly.

  Devlin reared back, and turned to Lash and me, his face a mask of blood. “Bring Danial!” he said loudly, holding a struggling Ulysses in his grasp. Then he sank his fangs in again to the hilt, and Ulysses screamed once more, still fighting hard, though his efforts were weakening. I shivered, backing away, remembering being under those fangs myself, years ago.

  Lash was up the cellar stairs in a moment. I just watched, telling myself this wasn’t murder, it was justice, that Ulysses had hurt Danial, and he deserved to suffer for it, to die as he had planned that Danial would die. Devlin continued to drink from him, and Ulysses still tried to fight him, but soon, he was only struggling feebly in Devlin’s grasp.

  Lash came down the stairs, carrying Danial in his arms.

  “Lay him down here,” Devlin said, rearing back again to sink his fangs in a third time.

  “No,” Ulysses said weakly. “I’ll not end like this. I can’t! My sister, she—”

  “Your sister got what she wanted,” Devlin said, his voice hard, but without malice. His golden eyes burned. “If you knew her at all, you knew Heather was self-destructive. I knew when I turned her years ago that she wasn’t going to be one of the ones that made it. Just as you aren’t going to make it, either.”

  Devlin sank his fangs in one last time, and then snapped his head backward, ripping out Ulysses’ throat. Ulysses’ eyes bulged, and his hands went to his throat, but Devlin grabbed them, twisting them behind his back with one hand and grabbing Ulysses by his hair with the other. Then he lowered him over Danial’s prone form, letting the blood drip onto Danial’s face.

  I didn’t want to see this. Lash put his hand on my arm, and squeezed gently. I turned and buried my face in his chest, hugging him, glad the worst was over.

  “Most new
vampires don’t last,” Lash whispered to me. “They get drunk on the power, or forget what time of night it is, and they get destroyed. There are more than a few hunters who target new vampires exclusively, Sar, ones less than a year old.”

  I was going to ask him why no one had sent hunters after Devlin, since Ulysses had, but Lash saw my look, and answered before I had the time to ask it.

  “They usually won’t go after Rulers, not of any territories. Vampires don’t work together, save for one thing, and that when they feel personally threatened. Rulers are untouchable, so far above regular vampires as to be almost Gods. You remembered what happened with Samuel and the others, when Danial was drained. Ulysses was declared persona non grata. He would have been killed on sight by any vampire anywhere who saw him. He only challenged Dev because he had to become a Ruler, to save himself. As a rule, Rulers don’t kill each other, or even fight, though as you’ve seen with Devlin, sometimes it happens. And there are no rules for that, just survival of the fittest. Treachery is normal, even expected. I know Samuel and the rest will be relieved to hear Ulysses is dead, just as I know Dev’s standing with them will increase, since he killed Ulysses when none of them could.”

  I didn’t reply. Some of this I’d heard before, that day with Devlin and Steven back months ago. The rest I’d surmised.

  There was sudden movement, and Ulysses let out a sharp cry of pain. I looked to see Danial holding him tightly, swallowing him down in great draughts. Devlin had released Ulysses, and was standing over Danial, watching in pleasure, blood still on his smiling lips. For a long time, there was no noise, save the sound of Danial’s drinking, and Ulysses’ soft cries. Finally, those died off, as Ulysses slipped into unconsciousness.

  “No more,” Danial said, his voice raspy from months of disuse. He pushed Ulysses off him, and lay back on the floor. I noticed that he looked like his old self again, no longer a statue. I wanted to run to him, but stopped myself. It was possible he was not the Danial I had loved, and Devlin had warned me to be careful of him, not to go to him until Devlin had made sure it was safe.