Crimson Sword Stalker

by Morgan Blayde

  I wonder if the winds whisper to him. Well, if he has to focus on me, Selene should be able to blind-side him, if only for a moment. With my wings dripping a golden trail not unlike fairy dust, I’m not exactly invisible.

  I thought my dragon moved fast, but this new form had me at the edge of atmosphere in record time. And Anubis did see me coming. The seething currents of bile-green parted, part of the lace trying to keep Selene tangled, the rest of it dropping over me like a convention of pythons. They tried wrapping me, constricting, but my golden wings sliced like swords though the bile-green plasma. The coils that touched my dark body passed through me without contacting my golden dragon magic core.

  A neat trick however I’m doing it.

  Without slowing at all, I crashed into Anubis—make that through him. He passed through me as well.

  Well, that didn’t work. Apparently, being God of Shadows doesn’t make a huge impression. Need a weapon.

  I brought my hands together and drew out a single blade of golden light, like those bristling from my back. I spun and braked with my wings, slowing, stalling, falling. Belatedly, I realized that Selene’s Red Moon was much closer than it should have been.

  It’s falling. Selene couldn’t quite get Anubis to the Red Moon, so she’s getting the Red Moon to him. She really makes insanity work for her.

  I stabbed downward with my new sword, willing its golden length to extend, doubling, then tripling. As it slashed, golden particles hazed off the edges, the sword of a fey god.

  Anubis gestured and a blob of bile-green mists appeared between us. He hardened his mist, pouring his power into the barrier. It became a rough-edged wall.

  My sword contracted as its tip froze in place, but my body kept falling toward the barrier. I poured my will into the blade. It widened five times and thickened as well, a sword on steroids. It bit into the wall, bleeding yellow lightning as it went, dismantling the barrier from the inside.

  Anubis glared at me, his bile-green eyes shining with rage, showing none of their natural red. Getting shown up was knew to him. He’d spent ages with power, but no time fighting to get it, or honing it. The problem with entities born to divine power was the lack of experience in actual warfare using that power. Only Gods of War have that advantage.

  Making use of Anubis’ distraction, Selene hit him with a barrage of red energy, reminding me of photon torpedoes. Unlike computer generated special effects, Selene’s charges burst apart, bristling with needles of force. The bursts rocked Anubis and several of the red needles pierced him.

  He spun away, slashing back at her with bile-green claws of light.

  My golden sword shattered his wall, driving down across his back as I followed his motion, swooping in. I caught him with a second slash. His body had several rifts and holes that seeped bile-green mist as he lost his upper-atmosphere footing and fell toward the planet.

  I chased after him, thrusting along on blazing wings.

  Selene intercepted me, swooping in, grabbing my waist. “In his own domain, we’ll lose the advantage. We need to go to my moon. It gives us the high ground.”

  “Fine. He won’t like being tied down to his world, forced into eternal vigilance. He might be willing negotiate.”

  And I’ll pretend to let him off easy, to catch him off guard. Then will the legendary vengeance of Cain Deathwalker will strike.

  I thought occurred to me. “How the hell can you touch me in my shadow form?”

  “You love my touch, and divine power is a reflection of will. Therefore, I have your permission. Come with me to the Red Moon.” She turned me and I saw the moon filled a vast chunk of sky. She needed to back it off or a collision would destroy both worlds.

  “Fine,” I said.

  And because I agreed, we were on the Red Moon’s surface, near a tangle of red thorns, surrounded by her black iron gargoyles. They tromped off toward the great clearing that contains her mansion. The gargoyles would return to the eaves of the roof.

  Hand in hand, we strolled to the front courtyard. Mother-of-pearl flagstones stretched to an outside flight of red marble stairs. There were bleached bones on the steps, trespassers that hadn’t made it inside the mansion. The types of bones varied each time I visited. We climbed upward to the porch. From there, the soaring, black-iron fortress loomed, crimson stained-glass windows spaced out regularly. They were heart-shaped last time. Now they were bloody diamonds.

  The gargoyles climbed the outside of the building, heading for their perches.

  The front doors opened for us on their own. About to start forward, I noticed Selene giving me a thorough examination.

  She studied my new body. “Nice look.”

  “Not too over the top?”

  “Maybe a little. Try returning to human form.”

  “But I’m so awesome this way.”

  Selene took my hand and pulled me forward. “You need a penis to fuck me while we wait on Anubis to contact us.”

  And just like that, the shadow sank inside flesh, joining the golden dragon magic at my core. I seemed to have all my organs. Normal eyes, ears, touch… I felt between my legs. That was back as well, maybe longer than normal.

  Holy fuck!

  TWENTY-FOUR

  “I can’t help being the most

  interesting thing in the universe.

  It’s who I am, what I do.”

  —Caine Deathwalker

  We entered the mansion’s foyer, ignoring the wide curving staircase to the second floor. An open door to the right led to a parlor with a fireplace, wingback chairs, and a sizable wet bar. I went in, hearing movements and smelling vampire. Kain bent behind the bar, peering down into a minifridge. Zahra sat on a barstool, looking over the bar at him.

  “You’re sure there’s blood in here?” he asked.

  “The white thing,” she said.

  He pulled a porcelain decanter out and closed the refrigerator door. Turning to the bar, he pulled the lid off and sniffed. “God’s ruddy snails! What is this?”

  I strolled toward them, realizing Selene had gone off on business of her own, maybe to beat Anubis to the punch. This world was a monster factory. Selene gene-spliced incredible lifeforms here: bio-weapons. She’d used them against Tartarus when we took down my father’s people and freed their chained goddess. It occurred to me that if we dumped a few thousand of these on his world, Anubis might come to terms with us a hell of a lot faster.

  Of course, for all I knew, she’d gone for a pedicure. Goddesses are unpredictable.

  Kain slanted me a gaze as I reached the bar and took a seat beside Zahra. He said, “What the hell is this stuff?”

  I shrugged. “Blood.”

  “No kind of blood I’ve ever considered drinking.”

  “Demon blood. It’s for making magic tattoos. A black-market item.”

  He looked startled. “There’s a market for this?”

  “In the Talon City Underground there’s a market for everything. I have no idea what Selene wants for it in exchange. If you’re that thirsty, you should check out her dungeons. Who or what’s there is also luck of the draw.” I scanned Zahra’s neck for bite marks. “You’re all right?”

  “I don’t prey on children,” Kain said. “Against my code. Against the law I’ve set for all vampires. Rogues that break that law provide sport at cost to life and limb.”

  There was a dazzle of crimson light on the bar top. When the light-play faded, a blood-filled gold challis with rubies around the rim glinted at us.

  I guess, Selene approves of his restraint.

  Kain pushed the white decanter away and gathered in the challis. He sniffed and raised his eyebrows. “Warm o-neg, human blood.” He drained the challis, then hunted up a bar napkin to pat his lips dry. “Now that hits the spot.”

  Next to me, a shimmering column of stars whirled and flowed into a crimson silhouette of a woman. A familiar shape. The light dimmed away and Selene leaned into me, taking my arm. “I’m back.” She’d exchanged her armor fo
r a red silk gown and strings of red pearls.

  “What have you been doing?” I asked.

  “I liked your thought about dropping off a few thousand of my hell-beasts on Anubis’ world.”

  “Can’t a death god just kill them?” Kain asked.

  I looked at Selene.

  She laughed. “I used demi-god ichor to strengthen them and added some flying cockroach DNA. Almost nothing’s harder to kill than giant demi-roaches. And they get into everything. The food will be gone on planet by morning, then the creatures will start hunting people and were-jackals. Anubis will be one sad puppy. Teach him to mess with what’s mine.”

  I felt her hand squeeze my ass.

  I nodded. “He’ll have to abandon the world until everything starves to death. And then start over.”

  Selene smiled wide. “My babies will lay eggs in the depths of the world. The eggs will last through the sterile times, and hatch when life returns. The creatures will even feed on zombies. And will chomp through the skeleton warriors to drain the marrow from their bones.”

  “Why do you need such hellish things?” Kain asked.

  “We’ll be fighting the Flawless in time,” I said. “No weapon is to awful to unleash against them to drive them from any territory they claim. Our hope is that a vast array of new hell-dimensions will offend their sense of perfection and drive them to some distant, unheard of space.”

  “Are they truly so formidable an enemy?” Kain asked.

  “Yes,” Zahra said. “It’s why I and the other gods have gone into hiding—except for Anubis. He has always been a problem child.”

  “He’ll be less of a problem now that he knows we can attack everything he has. Even if he moves on to a new death world, he’ll be years rebuilding. Wait a second,” I stared at Zahra. “You just called yourself a god.”

  Zahra looked at me. Her black eyes were lost in a yellow-green cat-eyed glow. She grinned, baring cat fangs. Her werekitty had decided to poke out.

  “It’s Bastet,” I said, “using her avatar.”

  “I certainly am.” Zahra slid her goddess gaze over to Selene. “Got milk?”

  “Almond milk, rice milk, or cow?” Selene asked.

  Zahra stared, wide-eyed. “How do you milk an almond? It has no teats.”

  I pursed my lips in thought. “I’ve often wondered that myself.”

  “Cow milk it is.” Selene waved. A crimson dazzle of micro-stars came and went, leaving a frosty glass on the bar.

  Zahra pulled it over and drank, making delighted sounds of yumminess.

  “As you continue growing from strength to strength,” Kain said, “at some point, Anubis will have to leave you alone.” He eyed me. “Now, what happened to your plan to become a death god? I saw the tatt. You said you’d worked it all out; that you’d take Anubis’ power from him.”

  I cleared my throat. “I may have been too optimistic.”

  “You made a mistake?” Kain played with the challis, a non-vocal reminder to us it was empty. Selene reached out and stilled his hands and the cup. She withdrew her hand, and the cup brimmed with fresh, warm blood. Kain smiled and nodded his thanks.

  “I’ll take a whiskey,” I murmured in her ear.

  Playing host, she went to grab a bottle from the shelf.

  I cast an annoyed stare at Kain. “It was only a minor miscalculation.”

  “You fucked up.”

  I glowered. “I’m still a god—I can kill you. Let it go.”

  He smiled, oozing charm. “Of course. I am nothing but obliging.”

  “Hah!” I said.

  Not one of my better come-backs. I must be sober.

  Selene put a bottle down in front of me. “I’d like to know what went wrong myself. It could be useful information.”

  I shrugged. “Damn fey part of me. Since become bonded to Fairy, I am one with its life and magic, and its goddesses I suppose. It’s why I’ve been concerned about my dragon and Villager parts getting magically rewritten, why I wanted the reboot spell for insurance against transforming into something I might not like.”

  Kain sighed. “I could have warned you that power always leads to being a monster of one kind or another. I had to accept the loss of my soul—until I found you again—as part of my survival.”

  I don’t want to have this conversation.

  I made a suggestion. “Speaking of survival, maybe we should get back to Earth and check on our people. See what damages we took in the battle.”

  Selene frowned, her forehead threatened to crease. “I’ve been waiting on some message, or sign, from Anubis that we can call off this war he started.”

  There was a loud metal bang from the foyer.

  “And there it is,” Selene said.

  I pushed past her and hurried across the room, hearing everybody follow. I left the parlor and stopped dead in my tracks. There—bouncing on her poor abused shocks—was my stolen Mustang, wreathed in a fading mist of bile-green energy. No longer pulverized by meteor strike, restored to pristine condition, no sign of lightning scoring remained. The paint job looked fresh. I suspected the entire car had been detailed.

  Dazed, enraptured, I staggered to my sweet baby and ran loving hands across the hood.

  Feet echoed close as Kain approached. “My car!”

  “My car,” I reminded him.

  He shrugged. “For now.”

  Selene came up to us.

  Behind her, Zahra trailed, sporting a milk mustache, still carrying the glass. “You should offer some token of amends to Anubis, a sop to his pride. Otherwise, he’ll stew in the embers of his rage until all this starts again.”

  “Peace is more than he deserves,” Selene said.

  “That’s certainly true,” Zahra said. “But he’s a male and males must be managed to ensure peaceful days.”

  I looked at Kain. “See, it’s all your fault. You give manhood a bad name.”

  He looked back at me. “Seriously? I’m at fault for boys being boys?”

  I nodded. “Big of you to admit it.”

  “I didn’t admit anything!” he said.

  Gotcha!

  I smiled. “Oh, sorry for overestimating you.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Were you this mouthy before you became a god?”

  “Yes,” Zahra said.

  “Yes,” Selene agreed. “But he has a redeeming feature.”

  I growled at her. “Can’t you think of anything but my monstrous cock?”

  She smiled, heat in her gaze. “Not at the moment.”

  Zahra lifted her eyebrows, still speaking as Bastet. “And I thought I was a slut.”

  I said, “Gods know, it’s not that I hate recreational down time, but we have unfinished business to wrap up on Earth.”

  “Which is why I haven’t yet dragged you off to my bedroom,” Selene said, “chained you to the bed, and broken out the feather duster with the dildo grip.”

  “Such language! Not in front of the child.” I pointed at Kain instead of Zahra.

  He rolled his eyes. “Don’t think you won’t eventually suffer for making light of me.”

  “If I’m your missing soul,” I pointed out, “you are abusing yourself.” I looked at Selene. “Please open a portal to Earth and bring the Red Centipede Rider through, along with her trusty steed.”

  “Here? In my home?” she asked.

  “Fine, drop them off in Anubis’ throne room. He can make a deal with her for pest control. Maybe she’ll rent him her centipede for a while.”

  Zahra looked thoughtful. “Hmmm. That could work.” She finished the glass of milk and handed it back to Selene. “Deliver this Rider to me. I’ll go act as mediator and return Zahra to you later.”

  So, I get two seers. Great!

  “One thing, Bastet.” I caught her gaze. “We want Anubis preoccupied for as long as possible. You might accidentally let it slip that the Rider is the last virgin warrior-goddess in the universe, and that she has promised to be the fuck toy of anyone who can beat her with
a sword.”

  Zahra stood there, musing. “He’s not a war god, as such, but with the right temptation dangled in front of him like candy, he might start training.”

  I smiled. “Good. Let us know when we can take the Red Moon home.” I crossed to Selene and turned her away from the others, guiding her toward the stairs. “Everyone should have a red-headed goddess to call their own.”

  We started up the stairs but paused a few steps later. I looked over the railing at Kain and Bastet/Zahra. She was there only a moment, then gone in a yellow-green splash of light that faded, leaving nothing where she’d been.

  Kain lifted innocent eyes to meet my gaze.

  I didn’t like his proximity to my car. “I’m going to be busy for a while. You don’t need to sit around and wait on me if you’ve got better things to do. We’ll meet up back in Shreveport.”

  “No more hot women around here?” he asked. “You’ve set the bar high for me.”

  I said, “If you want to go and try your luck with the Rider, don’t let me stop you. You could wind up with your own version of Selene. And a red centipede.”

  “There’s only one of me,” Selene said. “Centipedes not included.”

  I kissed her to shut her up. I didn’t want Kain running loose in the mansion while my back was turned, light-fingered bastard.

  He considered. “My own goddess? I can’t say the thought doesn’t have great attraction. And I have seen this Rider. She has much to commend her.”

  “And you’d be one-upping a death god while you’re at it. If you’re not afraid of him, of course.”

  He barked a laughed. “I am the first vampire. I conquered death once; I can do it again.”

  “Don’t forget to take pictures,” I said. “You’ll want to immortalize the event.”

  “Good idea.” He nodded and gestured, causing a phantom wheel of spectral green energy to appear, his spirit gate. He stepped through and vanished. The portal closed.

  Selene and I were alone. We continued up the steps. My hand gripped her fine ass.

  She said, “Not that I’m complaining, but I thought you wanted to check on the troops.”