by Greg Dragon
The demon scrambled away from her, wracked by the pain that her sword had wrought. His eyes were so red that she thought he would cry blood, and it was then that she knew that something bad was about to happen. He bellowed a deep, guttural roar that shook the earth, and it was so loud and deafening that she was forced to cover her ears. He grabbed a canoe that had been left discarded on the beach and hurled it into her body, causing it to shatter and leaving her bloodied on the sand.
Alysia’s ears were ringing and her bones felt weak. The impact of the boat had knocked the wind out of her, and from what she could see through the blurred daze of her vision, the demon was bearing down on her to finish the job. She climbed to her feet and jumped out of the way, causing him to whiff his grab as he threw his body at her.
When he scrambled to get back to his feet she struck, swinging the sword upwards, then spinning and swinging it upwards again. Her two slashes cut into the haunches of the demon and it screamed, but this time she placed her foot in his side and climbed him, thrusting the blade into his neck when she gained his shoulders.
The demon spun, trying in vain to tear her off as she continued to hack away at his vulnerable neck. When he spun violently in a last desperate move, he finally managed to throw her off and then took off running before she could recover.
“Why do you guys always have to run?” she muttered under her breath as she stood up with her hand on her sore ribs.
Alysia ran onto his back to pin him down as she drove her blade into the base of his neck. The demon didn’t even have a chance to scream when she stabbed him, and as the life poured from his body, he exploded into ashes and she was struck with a new sensation.
It felt as if she had stuck a knife into an electrical socket; the world grew black and her limbs grew numb. The overload of energy that came from the demon’s passing found its way into her, and she floated over the ashes with her limbs outstretched as it took her through a transformation she couldn’t explain.
When it was all over and she could open her eyes, she looked down at her arms and saw that she had grown stronger. There was a sinewy look to her limbs that had not been there before, and the sword felt lighter and more in tune with her blood. As she felt her heart beating, too loudly to ignore, she saw that the blade pulsed in tune with it. The demon’s blood had sealed her to the sword, and she lifted it above her head and grinned despite herself because it felt so good.
“Euphoria!” She yelled the blade’s new name as if she commanded the world to recognize it for the first time. “Euphoria, the Soul Eater!” She finished its name, and the blade took on a new brilliance as if it accepted its moniker.
Once back on the ground, Alysia sheathed the sword and then inhaled the night air. She was happy with herself for a successful hunt. She walked down from the mountain to the beach and then sat on the sand to enjoy the moonlight. She couldn’t recall the last time she had allowed herself to sit, and to just simply enjoy life.
In Yalem, she would always look up at the mustard sky to admire its negative mirroring of her own world. While on earth, in her own world, she had never taken the time to appreciate the beauty of her surroundings. She sat there for hours, feeling the pulse of the sword’s energy and letting her mind roam to happy memories: when her mother was alive, and her father was filled with stories.
No demons came out to harass her as she sat, and when the dawn finally broke and the memories faded, she stood up, clasped her hands together, and slipped into a meditative state. The world grew dark around her form, and she appeared in a bizarre field of orange grass, blue flowers, and a bright yellow sky where two suns hovered brilliantly above. She walked through the tall grass, letting her hands touch the tops of their long, fuzzy stalks.
She always liked it here, the setting being a peaceful escape from her deadly world and the things that invaded. Her walk took her onto a golden highway that cut through the grass and flowed endlessly into the horizon. As her bare feet touched its metallic surface, she closed her eyes, imagining Asia, the Great Wall of China, and the trees that surrounded it. She kept on walking, letting her toes enjoy the coolness of the road, until she no longer felt anything and her world was dark once again.
~ * ~ * ~
“Maria, little Maria?” Jaime asked as they sat around the table inside of the barracks talking. “You were going to kill me! How do you recognize Mr. Knight and not the rest of us?”
“It’s been a long time since I saw you. The only faces I could remember were James and Tracy’s. I thought you were a team of looters that stole one of my guns a few months ago,” Maria said as she kept her eyes on Tracy. “Hi, Auntie,” she said suddenly, as if she had just noticed Tracy for the first time. “You haven’t said one word to me since I came in. You, more than anyone else, should have something to say. Are you okay?”
Tracy walked forward and sat next to her, touching her hair and brushing it back to look at the lines of age and struggle that ran the length of her face. “Maria,” she said finally. “I missed your entire life. It makes me sad; it really does. Where’s your mom? Angelica?”
“Mom died not too long after you all left to find whatever fountain of youth you did to stay so soft and good-looking. Really, what’s with that, anyway? Why do you look so young? Tell me your secret, Auntie. Why are you so young?” Maria asked as she leaned in and touched Tracy’s face.
“Just go on ahead and tell her,” James said when Tracy flashed him a look of desperation. “It’s bad enough that we have all sorts of craziness killing people all over. Adding in our own brand of crazy to Maria’s reality shouldn’t be anything to worry about.”
“No doubt,” Maria said. “Just tell me. I assure you, I’ve seen it all.”
“After we left the bunker, Maria—which we did to keep the demons hunting Alysia away from the rest of you,” Tracy explained, trying to gather her thoughts and make sense of what she was about to say. “We went into the city, found ourselves lost and missing Alysia. Then we found her and sort of went forward in time. Wait, that doesn’t make any sense. Yeah, we went down into an old subway tunnel where an explosion happened and we all passed out and woke up thirty years later.”
Maria looked as if she was in deep thought. She had put her shades back on, and was leaning back in her chair as if she were the coolest person alive. “Well there WAS a bomb,” she said in response. “One of our so-called allies overseas thought they would do us all a favor and drop a bomb on us to kill the demons. It was supposed to have chemicals that would only hurt them, but a lot of people got messed up from the payload. Buildings fell, cars exploded … yeah, the bomb itself was cool, but it was a bad idea. Plus, the demons merely went underground when it hit. You’ve seen them, I’m sure. The chemical is still in the air so they don’t hang out aboveground anymore, but they’re still here.”
“Where are all the humans?” James asked as he eyed the dark figures that stood at attention near the door. He noticed that they kept Maria in their masked sights at all times.
“Scattered about. There are still plenty of people alive, don’t get me wrong, but the thirty years you missed were survival of the fittest. Robbing, killing, raping, you name it. Whatever a human being could do to another to get over, he did it. Some of us just turned out to be a lot stronger than others … I guess I can thank you two for that” Maria said, with a sad smile. “Mom was a domesticated kitten from the old world, and without Auntie there to protect her, or a big bad soldier like you, Mr. Knight, well, they did her something dirty and left us for dead. The queen demon down there turned her, and I just ran my young ass up to the surface and never stopped running.”
She laughed and then leaned down and knocked a tuft of grass out of her boot.
“How did you come by the doom squad?” Jaime asked, and she looked him up and down before answering.
“You first,” she said. “Where did you get the sword wielding brat pack? They look like they could be little demons, or half-breeds or something. The way that li
ttle one keeps looking at me, I’m beginning to wonder about them.”
“Be nice,” Tracy said. “They’re Alysia’s friends and a part of our team. They’re human enough and they aren’t things, so you could ask them yourself if you’re that wary.”
Maria looked down at her hands and shook her head. “Nah, no need. As for the team back there, they’re mine. That’s all you need to know – for now.” She stood up and spoke to the masked men in Spanish, telling them to go back into the woods and wait for her. They marched outside of the door and she sat down and yawned, looking at each of them with a slight smile on her face. “It’s good to be with you all again … with family, y’know? Just when I thought that every human being was a piece of crap, here you are. Maybe there is a God.”
As Tracy began to talk to Maria, Koko touched Jaime on the hand and pulled him back into the next room.
“Hey, Koko, you okay?” he said when they got inside. Jasmine and Isobel slipped in behind him to face her.
“I can’t be the only one who feels frightened by that woman,” Koko said suddenly. “Without CeeCee here, I feel so vulnerable in this world, but there is something about that woman that makes me uneasy.”
Isobel spoke up. “She has the glow of a huntress, but no huntress can go undetected by us. Maybe it’s because she’s killed so many of the lost that the stink is on her.” She shrugged her tiny shoulders and looked at Jasmine for answers.
“It’s all so frightening,” the tall girl said, as she wrung her hands and unconsciously touched the hilt of her sword. “I wish CeeCee was here; she would know what to do.”
“I miss her too,” Jaime said. “Maybe Maria’s blatant meanness to you guys is what is setting off your demon radars. She hasn’t really been nice to anybody outside of Tracy and Mr. Knight, so I definitely understand. She was a little cute thing the last time I saw her, riding on Mr. Knight’s shoulders and trying hard to be like CeeCee. Now she’s Sarah Connor, the Terminator’s mother...”
“The who?” Koko asked.
“Never mind. It’s an old movie—I mean, story—that I liked as a kid. Come on girls, she’s cool; just a little, hard, you know? She’s been through a lot; a whole lot, you can tell. When she brought up her mom turning, she didn’t even flinch. So you just got to, like, understand where she’s coming from, okay?”
They all nodded with the exception of Koko, who looked at the doorway uneasily. “Whatever you say, Jaime, but I have to trust my instincts. As long as that woman is around here, I will not be sleeping.”
2
Alysia knelt down and touched the ground. The slight tremors told her that a giant was close, but experience told her that it could very well be the demon himself. She missed the powers from Chaos that Lancert had cleansed.
With his blood she could feel the lost, hear their whisperings, and track them easily. Now she was limited in her reach. She knew which countries and areas held the V’Kosha that she was meant to kill, but she had no idea what to expect when she encountered them.
Chaos had told her that with every killing would come a change, something added to her physiology or mental capacity to prepare her for the Great War. The first demon had hurt Jasmine, and when she finally killed it, she was granted the ability to travel great distances through meditation.
The gift from the second had taken some time for her to figure out. It was a defensive gift: armor would shoot up her arms from the sword, wrapping them in a decorative silver metal. It only went up to her biceps, but danger triggered it, and when she felt the tremors the silver cobwebs climbed her dark arms and wrapped them securely in ethereal gauntlets and vambraces.
She stood on the outside of the Great Wall of China, or what was the Great Wall, and looked around for the source. A few people had seen her walk out from the woods with her sword at the ready, and had run from her as if she were a demon herself. She paid them no mind when she approached the wall, keeping her senses sharp for the thing that she hunted.
When was the last time I ate or slept? I haven’t eaten, slept, or gone to the bathroom in about a week. Have I completely turned into a freak, or am I losing my mind? Her mind went to the letter her father had written, and the sad reality that he was willing to let her go so easily.
She thought of Jaime’s relationship with Koko. In a weaker state sometime in the past, she had decided that she liked him. She had thought that with their travels perhaps something would have developed between the two of them, but she had pushed him away, just like her father, and he had found someone nicer to love.
They could never understand what I have given up to save our world, she thought, but how is that fair? I haven’t told them, I haven’t explained it to them, yet here I am feeling sorry for myself when they don’t know. She played her tongue across the top row of teeth to feel the sharpened canines that were a result of the Turevila blood. She smiled to force strength back into her presence. The dwelling on things lost would do her no good in the upcoming fight.
“Fight or flight, CeeCee,” she said out loud. “You had the chance to run several times and you always fought, so here we are. I’m a big girl, and it’s hunting time; moping time can come when it’s all over.”
She found a demolished area of the wall and climbed it masterfully. Upon arriving at the top, she looked around for the source of the shaking.
A woman in a soldier’s uniform was on the wall, looking out at a mass of demons that were wading through the trees surrounding the wall. She seemed calm and when Alysia approached her, she merely regarded her as if she expected her and then returned to staring out at the trees.
“They wait for you to come and challenge their master,” she said evenly, with a thick accent.
Alysia stopped and stared at her with her hand on the Soul Stealer. “How do you know who I am?” she asked, staring at her to see if there were any signs of her being a V’Kosha like one of the lost.
“We are legion,” the soldier said and laughed. “We know that you hunt us to fulfill Chaos’s prophecy. We also know that you are more dangerous than you were before. You broke the spell that Chaos had on you to bind you to the realm of Yalem. Now you are deemed dangerous by everyone, including the ones who would be your allies. A rogue member of the Bloody Garot, one whose head comes at the price of property, slaves, and immortality in the yellow realm.”
Alysia looked around to make sure she wasn’t being tricked into an ambush of some kind. She looked at the woman and decided that she was pretty; she was not an outsider but a Chinese woman that had been converted. Converted to what though, Alysia wondered as she thought about what the woman had said. Legion. The word indicated that she was indeed one of the six.
“So let me get this straight. Chaos knows that I am no longer his and has put a bounty on my head. Easy enough, though it makes me wonder why he hasn’t just come out to get me, unless he himself is afraid of me. Now what confuses me is your timing … you are magically here in the same place as one of the other elites, where you somehow knew I would be.”
She raised a silver gauntlet up to touch her lip. “So, then you are some sort of demon bounty hunter, which makes no sense since Chaos controls all who he has contact with. So, you were once a sister of the Bloody Garot then, that odd name that I never got the meaning of. What is a Garot, sister?” she asked, smiling at her as she did.
She continued. “On Yalem it means hive, Alysia Knight, like a hive of bees. Bl’dee is our word for Chaos, the usurper king to be. We are Bl’dee G’rowt, you see, and do not call me sister – traitor. You have been tainted, and I must find a way to rub you out.”
Alysia shifted her stance to her rear leg and let her sword hang in anticipation of the woman’s next move.
“You can relax; there will be plenty of time for us to fight. Chaos lied to you about Dibolosa, by the way. She was a glorified babysitter to his brood of hatchlings that you thought represented the G’rowt. Chaos has many groups just like them, led by one of the chosen—one like you and me. Fu
ture generals that will lead his little bees into battle with him once the lost are in full retreat back to Yalem. You took over for Dibolosa; I took over for the spear-wielding, Darisa.” She smiled, and shifted her stance to show the pistol resting on her right hip.
“This is all so confusing,” Alysia said. “Chaos sent you for me, but you are one of the six that I’m meant to kill to rid the world of the V’Kosha. I guess it makes sense being that Chaos is behind all of this, but why are you so forthcoming? It’s like you want me to win.”
“Words mean nothing to a dead woman,” the soldier said and nodded towards the pistol with a smile. “Silver bullets,” she whispered with a wink, and then eyed Alysia’s sword as if she wasn’t impressed.
“I bet you expected me to have some sort of old, edged weapon like Dibolosa, didn’t you?” she said. “We would lock swords like ancient swashbucklers, and you would best me with your gifted speed and sword mastery. Not today, traitor girl. Whenever you are ready, we can begin your punishment and eventual death to honor lord Chaos.”
“Wait,” Alysia said.
“Well, this is a surprise. Is the slayer of the lost, Alysia Knight, about to beg for her life?” she said, a mocking look of shock on her face.
“I’d sooner fall on my own sword than bow to any of you,” Alysia replied. “I had a question about Chaos. Answer it for me and we can begin the duel.”
“Hmm, I can’t guarantee that I will answer it, whatever it is, but you can ask me, dead girl.”
“You said that Chaos had many sects, but he sent me to kill six major demons of the lost. Did he give you the same mission … to kill the six? And if so, how many have you killed, and how many other women like you and I are out there hunting them?” she asked, hoping that the sarcastic woman would answer her honestly.
