The Dark Paladin

by Rex Jameson

  He pushed himself from the ground, feeling lighter than ever before.

  “I feel… changed.”

  Julian’s stomach growled. He put his hand over it. The smells around him became even more amplified. There was an aftertaste in his mouth. Metallic. Reminded Julian of iron. He licked his lips as his mouth and throat grew dry. He felt his fingernails hardening and lengthening.

  “You are changed,” Orcus said, “but the next few minutes are crucial. You are a new man—a new being, really.”

  Julian swallowed hard. He heard the men whisper vile things about him. Suspicious things. They saw him changing. Orcus approached him unnaturally fast, but Julian could track him. He watched Orcus reach for him and grab his arm. The Lord of the Undead leaned in until he was but a breath from Julian’s face.

  “There is a pestilence in your blood now,” Orcus whispered. “I gave it to you. It alters your very structure. It tests your limits. It mutates and couples with your body, producing antibodies and cells that will replicate. They record what your structure is right now. They memorize your maximum potential at this very moment. After two minutes, everything you will ever be will be finalized, and the pestilence will leave behind cells that can only ever recreate what my disease has witnessed in you, during this training phase of the disease.”

  “What are you talking about?” Julian asked. “Speak plainly.”

  “You must feed.”

  “Feed on what?”

  He became distracted by light and sound around him. Simon’s heartbeat thundered like a war drum. A deer in the nearby forest flicked its ear, and he could hear the capillaries expanding along its cranium.

  “Everything,” Orcus said. “Nothing. But a large animal drained of all of its blood right now would multiply your strength, regenerative powers and speed by a factor, depending on its body weight. Devour its heart, and you might double that increase. All of its organs, doubled again. And once these two or so minutes are done, you’ll have this strength for as long as you keep consuming.”

  Julian looked out. He heard the deer bat its eyes in the forest. A squirrel jumped from branch to branch, avoiding something foul. The undead approached. He heard and smelled them before he saw them come out of the woods in a line of thousands. The deer bounded away.

  “If you hurried now,” Orcus said, “you might catch it… but… one deer is not enough to protect your beloved. One deer will not allow you to regenerate your flesh as it is being burned off by one of Demogorgon’s fire demons. If you want to protect your people, sacrifices must be made. Power does not come cheaply, not in this universe. You must kill, and you must feed. You have only seconds.”

  Julian looked past his men, searching for the animals of the forest, but they were being scattered by the marching undead. His men formed a circle around the carriage. Kraytos crawled off the litter, across the field toward Jayna, dragging his broken legs. Simon retreated back to the men at the carriage but only to rally them against the approaching undead.

  “To Our Lord!” Simon called. “We will beat the undead hordes back!”

  They led their mounts toward Julian and Orcus. Each step produced a symphony of blood flow through their bodies. Julian watched the veins expand and contract along the neck of Simon’s dying steed, still on the ground with a broken leg after Orcus had shouldered it over.

  “You must feed,” Orcus said urgently. “You must eat to be strong! You must consume more of the living to stay strong. A weak lord is no use to me or your people. Get up!”

  Julian dove onto the dying mount, tearing through its exposed stomach and ripping out organs.

  “Yes!” Orcus said.

  The approaching men gasped and their horses neighed and bucked, refusing to come closer. Julian fed at an unnatural, blurred speed. He pulled organs that he didn’t even know existed into his mouth, consuming them voraciously.

  “Yes!” Orcus said. “Feed! You must protect the ones you love. Demons are coming. Paladins with their Light magic. Dragons come across the sea, breathing fire. Embrace what you are. Be what you were meant to be. You must stand against them.”

  Julian’s throat was still parched. He felt his body digesting the meal and absorbing it immediately. His stomach growled again, and the looks on the faces of his men were dangerous except for Simon. His lieutenant kneeled and drove his sword into the ground. His mouth was agape, and he seemed unable to process what had happened to his horse.

  Julian looked down at his blood-soaked furs, cloth and leathers. His hands were coated in thick, warm crimson.

  “Go, my champion!” Orcus said. “Feed! Feed so you can protect your lands! Feed so you can protect your beloved when she returns to you!”

  Julian sprinted to the closest horse, eviscerating it before its dismounted rider could drop its reins. Julian toppled the creature and devoured its innards. The man swung a sword at him, and Julian lost all control. He dodged the blade, ripped out the man’s throat and swallowed his voice box. He ripped off his breastplate and ran his strong fingers through the man’s breastbone. Julian pulled the man’s heart out and swallowed it whole. He felt his body digesting and absorbing its strength immediately. Another knight swung, and Julian reacted without thinking.

  This man fell, and then another. He ate some of their organs before their bodies hit the ground. They pawed at their intestines and cried to their mothers before screaming no more.

  Man after man attacked until no one but Simon remained. He fell back to his haunches, still staring at his horse.

  “This is a nightmare,” Simon said to no one in particular. “I’m still back in Kingarth. I’m dreaming.”

  Orcus chuckled.

  Julian rested a bloody hand on Simon’s clean pauldrons. A crimson stream flowed down the lieutenant’s breastplate, and his pupils dilated as fear swept over him.

  “I’m sorry,” Julian said.

  His hunger was insatiable, but after seeing Simon’s face, his mind had reined his urges in.

  “Lady Jayna!” Kraytos moaned, still crawling toward her. His pain and focus had been such that he must not have seen what Julian had done.

  The two knights who had gone to Jayna dropped their swords and ran down the road toward Shirun. Unlike Kraytos, they had been paying attention to what their lord had become.

  Orcus strolled toward Jayna. He beckoned Julian to follow. Julian forgot his strength and speed, and sprinted past Orcus so fast that he pushed the demon lord aside.

  Orcus laughed again.

  As Julian knelt down beside her, he felt and heard her weak pulse.

  “She’s still alive!” he said.

  “Yes,” Orcus agreed. “Otherwise, the pestilence wouldn’t work.”

  Orcus squatted and pulled her to his chest so she faced Julian. Her eyes were panicked, and tears streamed down her face. The smell of urine was powerful, and he noticed that her dress was damp and so was the stone she had landed on. She had lost control of her bodily functions.

  He could hear her blood flow. The hunger returned, and he forced it back down.

  “She’s paralyzed,” Orcus said. “Her back is broken, and she doesn’t have much time. Shall I give her the dark gift? Shall I share this pestilence?”

  Julian turned toward Simon, who stared into the woods as his mind tried to digest what had just happened.

  Julian nodded. “Do it! Save her! I’ll do anything!”

  Orcus bent down and bit into her neck. She shuddered and emitted a small whimper. Within seconds, she was convulsing.

  “It’s OK,” Julian said. “Honey, you’re going to be alright.”

  Orcus offered her to him, and Julian pulled her into his arms.

  “It’s going to be OK,” he repeated.

  He ran his fingers through her hair and moved strands to frame her red locks on either side. He rocked her in his lap.

  “Lady Jayna!” Kraytos called from a few dozen paces away.

  Jayna’s eyes flitted open and closed. Her hands squeezed hard ag
ainst Julian’s arms and shoulders. Her breathing strengthened. He watched as her fangs formed, wondering if this is how others must have seen him.

  Finally, she opened her eyes and reached up to touch his jaw.

  “I was dying…” she said. “I felt… so helpless…”

  “My love,” he said.

  “You’ve saved me,” she said. “Haven’t you? I prayed for a miracle…”

  “And now you have it,” Orcus said, “but you must embrace what you are. There is no time.”

  The line of undead had stopped on the other side of the road. They stood there like an army of scarecrows.

  “She must feed,” Orcus said, still squatting near the rock. “The pestilence is testing her limits. In a couple minutes, she will be as strong and fast as she will ever be. She must go. Teach her what she must do. Be what you were both meant to be!”

  Julian looked down the road, searching for the fleeing knights. He heard the weak tinkling of metal-on-metal far away. Before the hunger, he asked to save his knights and people. Now, he looked at them as prey. Not just prey. Food. Medicine. Sustenance.

  Before his dark curse, he was a man who could die in a carriage accident. Now, he had the power to change his future—to make himself and his love immortal. There was no jugular too precious. There was no noble person too irreplaceable. Only Jayna and him, and the rest of the world who would mock their love would tremble at the thought of ever crossing the Mallories again.

  “There’s still time to catch them,” Orcus assured him.

  Julian turned instead toward the carriage. Jayna followed his gaze.

  “Master Kraytos!” Jayna expressed in shock.

  Kraytos had stopped crawling. He looked up from the grass in horror.

  “Julian…,” he said. “Jayna…”

  Jayna rose from the arms of Julian and walked to Kraytos. His mouth trembled. The pain must have been awful. Julian could smell the blood in his master’s mouth and streaking across the grass from his severe, compound leg fractures.

  “Can you?” Jayna asked Orcus while pointing toward their long-time servant.

  “I made a deal with your brother,” Orcus said. “You and him. No one else will receive my blessing.”

  “Can’t you make an exception?” Julian asked. “He’s in pain. His legs are broken.”

  “Then relieve him of his pain,” Orcus said. “That was part of the deal, if you remember. You demanded this. Your people are yours. I will not touch them. That’s what you asked. Besides, I’m needed elsewhere and so are you. A foreign prince has arrived to the south with dragons. They burn your villages and deprive you of men and food—which as you’ve noticed, both of you will need lots of. There are other battles to the north and west that I must see to. Take control of your territory. Fight all invaders. Be the lord and general that I and your people need. I will see you both soon.”

  Julian and Jayna watched Orcus walk through the ranks of the undead and then head northwest toward Perketh.

  “We have two minutes to feed you,” Julian said. “It’s not a lot of time. If you don’t eat, you’ll be weak forever, and I won’t be able to protect you. You could die in another accident, and that’s not something I will allow…”

  Jayna bent down and stroked the head of her whimpering teacher and confidant.

  “Lady Jayna,” Kraytos said, “you must… resist…”

  “Of course, we will resist,” Jayna said, patting his shoulder. “We are Mallories… The Bastions of the East. We will not fall—no matter the cost.”

  Kraytos closed his eyes and sobbed. She ran her fingers through his hair comfortingly and then snapped his neck.

  “Thank you for your service,” she said.

  She rolled him over and ripped him open like a deer carcass. Julian watched her devour the man who had trained him in swords, table etiquette, and politics. He thought he’d be more attached than he ultimately was. Instead, his hunger came back. He looked at this man like he might a perfectly-tender steak. But this was not his meal. This was not his time to grow stronger.

  He turned toward Simon, who watched Jayna’s grizzly work. For the briefest moment, he thought of flaying his lieutenant, but he restrained himself.

  “Come,” Julian told her, pulling her by the arm away from Simon and down the road toward the two knights who had deserted their charges. He could think of no more fitting punishment for desertion.

  She looked back over her shoulder at Simon as he pulled her away. She smiled mischievously, and Julian found himself getting aroused at how she had taken to their new condition. He kissed her, sharing in the wet, crimson meal on her lips.

  “My love,” she said.

  He kissed her again as they walked. He could hear the metal clanking of the two knights in the distance, and he picked up speed. She ran with him. They broke into an unnaturally fast sprint, giggling as they caught the plate-wearing deserters. They played with their food, pushing the frightened men between them. Julian ran his fingers through her hair as she devoured their hearts. One carnal act led to another, and their shared lust became a game with no end.

  “I will never lose you again,” he said. “You will grow strong, and we will build our walls a hundred feet taller if we have to. I’ll murder the whole world to keep you safe.”

  She leaned her head against his wet, bloody shoulder—for there was nowhere clean on his person. He held her hand and they played with each other’s sticky fingers.

  “What about this Dragon Prince?” she asked. “Orcus says he burns our villages. Do we let him?”

  Julian’s stomach growled and she cooed at him.

  “Poor baby…”

  “We need our subjects,” Julian said. “We’re their lords. They provide us with their blood, sweat and tears.”

  He licked his lips at the mention of blood, and she giggled at him.

  “Of course, we’ll come to their aid,” he said.

  “I wonder what dragon tastes like,” she said.

  “I wonder what a Visanthi prince tastes like,” he replied, smiling down at her.

  They slipped from their grotesque clothes and rubbed on each other’s naked bodies before searching for new victims. They moved from house-to-house in the Vossen lands, far away from their own people, silent as snakes, depopulating a whole province of men, women and children. And when they were full and could eat no more, they made love on a cliff overlooking the Small Sea—the kind of place Jayna had talked about building a house on and watching their children grow. She fell asleep in his arms, and he rested his bloody chin on her cheek. There would be time to deal with the invaders in the morning.

  The End of

  The Dark Paladin

  Book Two of the Age of Magic

  The Age of Magic continues in

  The Dragon Prince!

  The Age of Magic Series

  The People’s Necromancer

  The Dark Paladin

  The Dragon Prince

  The Red Poet

  The Queen’s Consort

  The Blood Chief

  The Holy One

  About the Author

  Rex Jameson is the USA Today Bestselling author of the Primal Patterns series, the Age of Magic series, and half a dozen short stories. An avid history buff and an unabashed nerd with an appetite for science fiction and fantasy, he loves to create complex speculative fiction with layered characters. He earned a PhD in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University and researches distributed artificial intelligence in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. Rex and his wife Jenny live in Pittsburgh where they enjoy hosting family and friends.

  Other Fiction by Rex Jameson

  The Primal Patterns Series

  Lucifer’s Odyssey

  The Goblin Rebellion

  Shadows of our Fathers

  The Perspectives Series

  Angels and Demons: Violent Afterlife

  Elves and Goblins: Father’s Rebellion

  Other Fiction

  Hallow’
s Ween

  “Don’t Mess with the Meadow” in the Pink Snowbunnies Ski in Hell Anthology.

  “Saving Suzanna” in The Pride Collection.

  If you liked this book and would like the series to continue, please be sure to leave a review on all of those amazing online places where readers congregate to find good books. Also, tell your friends!

  Author website: http://www.rex-jameson.com

  Newsletter: https://rex-jameson.com/new-releases-email-list