The Darkest Colors

by David M. Bachman

  It happened in less than two seconds. Lady Svetlana closed those last few feet between herself and her foe, apparently intent on grabbing her shoulder and either thrusting her own blade into the Countess’s heart or slashing her throat. There was a sound of sword unsheathing, strangely much louder than before, there was a blur of movement, and then a clang of metal upon metal as Svetlana was practically blasted aside by some sudden force. That sudden force was Raina, who had somehow been quick enough to dash in, shove Svetlana aside, and simultaneously draw her sword and parry what would have surely been another decapitating swing of her blade.

  Raina’s forward momentum carried her closely enough for an instant that they were face-to-face before she leaned away for her next movement. Even from where Brenna stood, she could see the way Wilhelmina’s eyes went incredibly wide with surprise. The shock of the unexpected counterattack gave Raina enough time, just a fraction of a second, to deflect their swords upward and nail the blonde German in the back of her ribs with a solid kick that sent her flying. Countess Wilhelmina plowed clumsily into a nearby coffee table and shattered its glass top as she also tripped over one of the plush chairs beside it, tumbling to the floor with a loud cry of alarm and pain.

  There was almost complete and total stillness and silence among all those who observed the Countess’s first fall. Even Ian was silenced. Cameras clicked and video cameras and cell phones kept rolling as Wilhelmina rolled onto her haunches and looked back at Raina with an enduring look of utter disbelief and surprise. She seemed almost horrified that Raina would have the gall to do what she just had done. They had an understanding, a truce of some kind … right? The Countess had no intentions of killing her, so why should Raina choose to intervene at a time like this? Countess Wilhelmina – or Elizabeth Marie Fallamhain, or whomever the hell she was – was on the verge of completing her quest, her long-burning desire to take down Grand Duchess Duvessa Fallamhain. How dare Raina strike her now? How dare she?

  “Oh … God, no,” Brenna murmured under her breath.

  The sight of Raina having successfully scored the first effective blow against the Countess was somewhat encouraging. Nevertheless, she was morbidly convinced that she was about to watch the love of her life get cut down right before her eyes, just like all the others. Countess Wilhelmina was too skilled a fighter, too experienced. She knew that Raina was good with a sword, damned good, but she had never used one in real life, so to speak … not in real life-or-death combat, anyway.

  “What … what are you doing?” the Countess gasped as Raina stood across from her in a ready fighting position. “Have you gone mad?”

  Raina’s reply was simple and firm: “No more.”

  Countess Wilhelmina arose and shook off a few pieces of broken glass as she stood tall. The expression of shock upon her rather attractive face melted away, replaced again by one of rage. The muscles of her jaw tightened as she glared at what she apparently had believed to be her secret ally, her ace in the hole.

  “Don’t be a fool, child. You do not want to fight me.” She raised her sword slightly in one hand, its blade gleaming in the subtle indoor lighting of the hotel. “You will not stop me from fulfilling my destiny.”

  “No … more!” Raina repeated more firmly. “Enough is enough.”

  “Don’t you see? How can you be so blind? She is a monster!” the Countess cried as she stabbed a finger outward in the Grand Duchess’s direction. “She is using you … just as she used me! She will betray you!”

  “What about Noriko? What about Jen?” Raina demanded. “They never betrayed you. They never did anything to you!”

  “They stood in my way! They tried to stop me. They were her servants,” Wilhelmina replied, pointing her sword in the direction of Jen’s corpse briefly before jabbing it at her. “You are not involved. You are innocent. This is not your fight.”

  Raina readjusted the grip upon her katana and held it near her shoulders, facing her opponent with her side rather than directly. “I’m making it my fight now.”

  “Why?” the Countess demanded. She actually sounded sad about it. “Why would you throw your life away like this? Why would you die for these people?”

  Raina’s eyes flicked to Svetlana, who had slowly brought herself to stand beside her. “They’re my friends.”

  The Countess chuckled bitterly, shaking her head as she answered, “Friends? These are not your friends, child. These are only her slaves. She has ruined their minds. They fight me only because she has misled them for so long. You are not her slave.” She paused. “Or are you?”

  Raina hesitated for a moment, either considering her words carefully or simply mustering the courage to reply … or both. At last, she drew a deep breath and then spoke.

  “I hereby challenge you, Countess Wilhelmina von Reichenbach,” Raina declared formally, loudly enough that everyone present could hear it clearly. “Will you fight me?”

  Countess Wilhelmina simply stared at her for a few moments and then smiled, shrugging her shoulders begrudgingly. She began to step around the ruined coffee table and chairs that she had damaged in her fall.

  “I tried to save you. I tried to help you. I tried to stop you from making the same mistakes that I made. But she has poisoned your mind … just like all the others. I was too late to save you,” she lamented. The Countess glanced in Brenna’s direction. “Your friend was easily misled because she is weak. I expected that. But I had hoped you would be stronger. I hoped that you would be smarter.” She let out a heavy sigh. “I am very sorry … but I must fight you.”

  “I know,” Raina replied. “I’m sorry, too.”

  Countess Wilhelmina rubbed her side sorely, shrugged her right shoulder a few times as though to test it, and switched the sword into her left hand for a moment to ball her right into a fist and loudly crack her knuckles. She re-sheathed her sword, waited for a moment, and then made an expectant gesture to Raina. Catching her meaning, Raina surprisingly chose to stand tall for a moment, sheathe her katana, and face her enemy-turned-ally-turned-enemy, both of them glowing visibly with the bioluminescence of their High Court genetics. Both stood with their hands at their sides and bowed to one another respectfully. It seemed bizarre, almost comical, considering the chaotic, ruthless manner by which the Countess had dispatched everyone else beforehand. Apparently, the sisterhood of betrayal Wilhelmina/Elizabeth felt that she shared with Raina was enough to make her actually feel some measure of respect for Raina … and perhaps even a bit of genuine guilt, although not enough to stop her drive to carry out her vendetta.

  Duvessa snapped her fingers loudly and made come-hither gestures to William and Svetlana. “You and you, over here, right now. Everyone else, stand aside. Give them space.” She pointed to Robert sternly, who was still holding down a sobbing Ian. “Do not let him interfere.”

  Obediently, everyone in the surrounding area spread out widely in the lobby. Even the members of the media and the hotel staff stepped away until their backs were against the surrounding walls. Mary had to physically pull Brenna away, even as she was struggling to contain her own emotions of sorrow as she continually glanced to the corpses of Noriko and Jen. Duvessa calmly turned her back upon the scene for a moment to walk away a bit farther, glancing at Brenna. Something uncomfortable crossed her face, some strange look that she gave Brenna for just an instant before it vanished, and then she abruptly turned toward her bloodspawn again.

  Raina took off her blazer and turned her head slightly to murmur something to Svetlana. The lovely but tough blonde Russian Commoner looked at her blankly for a moment, and Raina repeated whatever she said to her, apparently telling her to leave. Svetlana reluctantly nodded, re-sheathing her dagger before taking the blazer from her. She began to walk away, then paused to turn and look at Countess Wilhelmina one last time with a sneer.

  Svetlana said something to the Countess in Russian, literally spat upon the ground near her feet, and made an unfamiliar but angry gesture at her before continuing on to stand wit
h Duvessa as William neared her, too. Brenna knew nothing about the Russian language, but she could easily guess what it was that Svetlana had said just by the hateful tone of it. Apparently, she and Noriko had been very close, as it seemed everyone was in the House of Fallamhain. Regardless of whether or not she was privy to any of the Grand Duchess’s secrets, or if she knew anything about Countess Wilhelmina’s motivations, two of her friends were dead, and more were sure to follow suit.

  Countess Wilhelmina started things off by drawing her sword and twirling it about expertly, giving a few demonstrative slashes that whistled and swished as she cut at the air. She then assumed that same low samurai-like stance she had used before, facing Raina directly while aiming the tip of her sword at her. Raina did not draw her own sword, but she did turn her right side toward her and bent her knees slightly as she spread her feet apart approximately shoulder-width.

  Brenna had sat through several of her practice sessions, and she had watched Raina practice on her own at home in the gravel-and-dirt lot of her yard at night. This strategy she seemed to be employing was one of the two sword fighting styles she had studied, something called Iaido which, to Brenna, seemed to be nothing more than a lot of fancy ways of drawing a sword, making a cut or two, and then poking it right back into the sheath almost immediately. Countess Wilhelmina, on the other hand, seemed to exclusively focus more upon a straightforward combat style, if not shinkendo then at least something very similar to it, because she always seemed to prefer to have her sword out and ready to go.

  Raina seemed utterly calm and still, completely unafraid of the fact that she was facing her own death at the hands of another High Court vampire. It was completely uncharacteristic of her personality. Raina was not a cowardly spazz, but she definitely had a history of panic attacks – why not now? Brenna almost found herself wishing that the beautiful female she was watching square off against the Countess was not the same shy, anxiety-prone, introverted Raina Delgado whom she had come to know and love all these years. Raina had gone into hiding, it seemed, replaced with some kind of fearless warrior woman that certainly looked the part but acted nothing at all like Raina. Was this really the same person she had, only a night or two ago, seen running to the bathroom to throw up because she was so nervous about having to face a bunch of news reporters and cameras? Who was this person, and what had she done with the real Raina Delgado … um, Fallamhain?

  Raina held her place as the Countess advanced slowly. She seemed almost cautious in the way she regarded Raina, not only for her seemingly relaxed stance but also her rightfully unexpected and sudden self-confidence. Did Raina know something that she did not? What sort of tricks did she have up her sleeve? The curiosity was impossible to resist. The Countess had to test her. And so she made her move.

  The attack was simple but lightning-quick. She made a forward thrust right at Raina’s face, much like the one that had killed Noriko, and Raina dodged it with a deft lean to one side. Not even hesitating for a second, the Countess followed this by drawing back and making a diagonal and downward slash at her neck. Raina ducked this, as well, although just barely. Raina skipped back and Wilhelmina took a step away, too, apparently planning her next attack. The attack had been closer to its mark than Brenna had first realized, as she soon noticed a small trail of blood making its way down the side of Raina’s neck where the blade had apparently just nicked one of her pointy, elongated High Court ears. Raina hadn’t even drawn her sword yet, and already she had very nearly lost her head.

  “First blood,” Countess Wilhelmina declared with a proud smirk. “Point for me.”

  Before Raina even had lowered her hand again after seeing the blood upon her fingertips, her opponent moved to strike again. With one hand, Raina drew and simultaneously parried the downward slash while sidestepping out of the way, making it look as though she were simply swatting the Countess’s sword down. Their swords scraped and tangled for a moment as Wilhelmina tried to raise it again and Raina deflected its intended upward slash, taking her sword into both of her hands now. They faced off for half a second, swords locked, before Raina knocked one of her enemy’s feet out of place with a kick of her heel to Wilhelmina’s ankle. The small but painful blow, right on those sensitive nerves at the end of that bone, was enough to unbalance her and allow Raina to shove her away. Wilhelmina stumbled backward and nearly fell, but caught herself just in time to maneuver her blade to block Raina’s attack as a horizontal cut at her midsection came her way.

  The clangs, scrapes, swishes, and other sounds of sword fighting that filled the air with sounds Brenna had thought were only reserved for cheap kung-fu flicks on late-night television. The action was almost too quick and too complicated even for Brenna’s eyes to follow. She had seen Raina practice sparring and executing choreographed forms with others as a human, and while that had been quick and impressive, her newfound vampiric strength and agility meant that her potential for speed now almost bordered upon absurdity. Raina had poured her heart and soul into her training for a long time, even more so after her parents had died. Apparently, this was the big payoff for all of that dedication.

  It literally appeared as though they were fighting in fast-forward. They would hack and slash at one another, seeming to take turns at playing the aggressor while the other would back away, and then they would break and pause for just a moment or two to consider their next approach. Now, this was more like the kind of legendary duels of which she had heard. She simply couldn’t believe that the star of this moment was Raina … sweet, shy, somewhat naïve Raina. The pretty girl who couldn’t ever seem to get a boyfriend, who got nauseous at the thought of facing news cameras, who had probably never so much as been in a fistfight in her entire life, and who would have preferred death over being forced to sing karaoke in front of a bar of drunken strangers. Here was Raina, holding her own against a century-old High Court vampire that had recently taken out a majority of the House of Fallamhain with the very sword that she now used to fence with Raina. Brenna was beyond impressed, even proud of her dear, sweet, shy, somewhat naïve Raina … and also scared to death that these would be the last few moments of her lover’s time in this world.

  “Stop toying with her, Raina!” Duvessa cried out impatiently. “Take her head and be done with it!”

  Brenna glared at the Grand Duchess angrily but said nothing, and she did not fully turn to look at her. Duvessa didn’t care about Raina, not nearly as much as she’d tried to make everyone believe. She was more concerned with having her around to do her dirty work, to be her shield so that she did not need to face up to her own responsibilities as Grand Duchess. It was true that Raina had rather recklessly volunteered herself to fight the Countess, but Brenna was sure that if she hadn’t done so, Duvessa would have ordered her to fight in her place, anyway.

  That bitch! This was really why she had liked Raina so much from the start? Not because she felt sorry for her, not because she was making amends for Duke Sebastian’s sins, and not because Raina was, in fact, a kind and innocent soul in the matter. She had liked Raina because she had happened to be as handy with a katana as she had been with a syringe. Duke Sebastian had not simply picked her at random; he’d been given the Grand Duchess’s blessing in advance, which is why he’d sought her out in the first place.

  Why her, though, out of all the people in such a huge metropolitan area as Phoenix, one of the largest cities in the entire country? Raina didn’t have that many awards for her shinkendo and iaido skills, or any of the other martial arts she’d practiced, and the ones that she had earned were small potatoes – token awards given by the sensei of the small-time dojo that she attended. Raina had always been too shy, too humble, and too self-doubting to have voluntarily entered herself in any competitions before this. And while she was undoubtedly a skilled phlebotomist, and she had a good reputation for her work in both the hospital and among her after-hours clientele, it wasn’t exactly something that would make for worldwide fame … was it?

  A ch
ange in the action brought Brenna’s attention back to the moment at hand, as she had very nearly spaced out the current situation entirely in her state of semi-shock. With their swords engaged high as they each struggled to force the other’s blade aside, Countess Wilhelmina seemed to give in to some bit of frustration and forgo the sword in favor of reaching a hand out for Raina’s face. Raina turned her face away to avoid being gouged in the eyes, and instead found the steely grip of Wilhelmina’s fingers wrapped around her throat. This was not good. Even with one hand, Brenna knew that a vampire could literally rip another person’s throat right out. Before she could be given the chance, however, Raina twisted and kicked a heel at her opponent’s foremost leg, striking the side of her knee as it bore the majority of Wilhelmina’s body weight. The Countess shrieked in pain and released her grip as she fell back and aside, and Raina immediately followed the kick by grabbing the wrist of the hand Wilhelmina had been using to choke her. Raina stepped, spun, and twisted, and forced Wilhelmina’s arm around over her shoulder. The twist of her arm was painful and forceful enough to bring Wilhelmina to stand upon her toes and arch her body in such a way that even though she still held her sword in her right hand, she could not effectively swing or thrust it at Raina. She held her there like that for almost a full second, either punishing her with the pain of the joint lock or deciding what to do next, and finally Brenna thought she heard a soft popping sound before Wilhelmina cried out again, and Raina finally thrust her sword at her.

  The tip of Raina’s katana pierced the Countess’s side slightly from the back and it did not penetrate very deeply, perhaps only an inch or so, though it was damaging enough. Raina again kicked out at her, this time with her left foot, and released the Countess’s wrist as she shoved her away. Wilhelmina tumbled to the carpeted lobby floor and rolled a bit before winding up on her hands and knees. She tried to get up, but the pain of her injuries halted her for a moment. For whatever reason, Raina did not pursue her; she instead held her sword low in both hands, facing her foe directly, and waited, watching her.