by Unknown
When it came, once again he telegraphed every move well in advance. He crouched opposite me like a sprinter on the blocks, one hand planted against the floor with his right held behind him, hand clawed once more. He obviously aimed to leap at me and try to open me up, and I swore to end the fight before he did.
I watched for a tense moment, waiting for him to move. Every second that ticked by brought my blackout a little closer, because I was losing too much blood too quickly. I fought it off, focussing on him, on his movements.
I finally saw it, that slight coil just before he moved. I waited that split-second for him to become committed to the attack, stepping to the right and turning side-on to his assault, and threw all of my weight behind an upward slice with the sword.
For a moment I thought I’d missed, but the spray of blood that spattered the ceiling told part of the truth - the sound of Skadaen’s headless body smashing into his former restraints told the rest.
My vision was starting to cloud, but I noticed with alarming clarity the guard opening the door, moving in with his shotgun raised.
“Sir?” was all he said, and I glared at him.
I used the sword to take some of my weight as I pushed myself up from the weary kneeling position I’d taken, not trusting my knees anymore. However, I gave them the benefit of the doubt as I staggered over to the imbecile whose literal interpretation of orders nearly got me killed. Again.
I dropped the sword and leaned against the door, hoping that proximity would give my glare extra weight.
He looked back at me, utterly oblivious it seemed.
“Are you o-”
Before he finished his stupid question I slammed my knee into his groin, and as he doubled over I caught the slide of his shotgun and brought the weapon up to meet his face, knocking him backwards to the floor.
“You’re fired,” I told him, opening the weapon’s folding stock and using it as a makeshift crutch.
I hobbled towards the medical wing as fast as I could, mustering what mental strength I could to send a message to Corvi through the link.
Maria. Stop her. Important.
I slumped against the nearest wall, finding it a chore just staying upright. I was probably going to pass out again, and I silently told myself that I had to give this shit up.
“Crap, it’s Deimos!” someone shouted, someone familiar, and then suddenly there were people around me. I grunted in pain as someone applied pressure to my wound, swearing as my blood continued to spill around their fingers.
“Shit, get a medic down here, PDQ,” a Scottish female voice said, and I recognised the redhead as Kelly Dumfries, from my old squad. Old friends, people I trusted - a good job I had staggered in this direction then.
“And get Lady Delacore down here too,” she told whoever was playing comms specialist - probably Dan Loften, if I remembered our squad roles correctly. “She’s gonnae want tae make sure this joker’s okay,” Kelly said with a grin. “Isn’t that right, Deimos?” She patted my cheek in that overly-enthusiastic way soldiers did with each other, mostly just to keep me awake.
“I’m sure I have...no idea what you mean,” I replied, grunting again as she pulled a makeshift tourniquet around my shoulder.
“Damn, they train you Sentinels to be tough bitches, huh? Anyway, stop playing coy. Everyone knows, and we’re happy for you.”
“How the hell...do you guys know?”
Kelly laughed.
“Someone should tell your friend Levaertes she talks too much. She talks a lot when she drinks, but she talks a hell of a lot after sex.”
That was a mild surprise. I’d never seen Kelly show any interest in women. I’d actually thought - as did most of our squad - that her and James had been an item, before his untimely death after the Oxford firefight.
“You and Lev, huh?” I asked, more out of curiosity than anything. Lev could do a lot worse. Kelly could do a lot better. Lev was my friend, sure, but as an old squad-mate Kelly was family, and she deserved someone more...emotionally stable.
“Aye, just a casual hook-up, you know? After Oxford. Just...kinda needed a reminder that I was still alive.”
I understood perfectly. After nearly getting killed, many soldiers sought out something that renewed their feeling of life. Sex or alcohol were the popular choices.
Further conversation was cut off as the lockdown alarm sounded, a pulsing whoop-whoop sound that told all on-duty soldiers they needed to ensure no-one left or entered the base. I guess Corvi got my message.
“Fuck it,” Kelly said vehemently. “Look, we-”
“I’m alright now, seriously,” I told her. “Just go, this is more important.”
As my former squad-mates headed off to add their efforts to the lockdown - despite not actually being on duty - I pushed myself back to my feet with the the shotgun as a rest, and continued on my way to the medical wing. Now that the bleeding was stopped temporarily, and I’d rested for a moment, I felt just strong enough to get there.
I just prayed we weren’t too late.
Corvi found me again in the medical wing, getting my shoulder cleaned and stitched up properly. Her expression was positively thunderous, which didn’t bode particularly well for anyone who annoyed her.
Thankfully, it was not a mood she directed at me.
As soon as she’d seen that I was okay, she threw her arms around me in relief.
“Thank god you’re alright,” she said into the side of my neck, and I stroked her back with my free hand.
“Yeah, I’ll live to get wounded another day,” I chuckled, and pulled away to give me a withering look.
“That isn’t funny, Deimos,” she admonished, though she still touched my cheek affectionately. “What happened, anyway?”
“The prisoner,” I told her. “He stalled for time, then jumped me. I’d told the guard to wait outside, but there was enough noise being made to communicate something was wrong. Bloody idiot didn’t do a thing to help.”
“I’ll see he’s disciplined,” she said fiercely, but I shook my head.
“I already drove his balls up between his ears and broke his nose, and told him he was fired. I think he’ll do better from now on.” I looked back at her, concerned about her and the cause of her mood.
“I’m guessing the lockdown didn’t work?”
She turned away for a moment, running a hand through her dark hair in a rarely-used harried gesture. When she turned back, she had marshalled her expression into one of calm stoicism, but her eyes - and our link - told the truth.
She was hurt, and furious. She had been betrayed by someone she had thought she could trust, and now she found it had been a lie.
“It didn’t,” she told me quietly. “We can’t find her anywhere. She must have disappeared just after she said the prisoner requested you.”
I swore viciously in Vampiric, a habit I’d adopted when I realised several Vampiric swear words don’t translate into any mortal language - they were more vehement than any mortal had yet conceived, which was perfect for me at that moment.
Corvi’s sudden change in expression suggested she’d reached the same conclusion. Or, more likely, she’d been in my head again.
“It was a trap,” I stated. “She used Skadaen to stall me and give herself time to get away.”
Corvi swore as well.
“That means any day now I’m going to get another call from Our Ladyship, expecting answers for yet another problem that I could have sorted if she told me about it.”
I was rapidly growing to dislike this woman, despite the fact I’d never met her. I just hated the way she treated my lover - it was still hard not using girlfriend, a word I was at least familiar w
ith - and I swore that some day I would get my own answers on the matter.
I heard Corvi asking the nurse when I’d be released, and apparently the answer was ‘soon’ - my clavicle had actually prevented Skadaen from getting his teeth in too deep, so the injury wasn’t as bad as it first appeared. I wasn’t really focussed on the conversation though, since I was too stunned by the idea that one of our own was either a spy of some kind or just a straight-up traitor.
The fact that it was Corvi’s own aide was somehow even worse.
Her gentle touch against my arm brought me out of my reverie, and she looked at me with her more familiar affection once again.
“Are you free tonight?” she asked quietly, and I shrugged with my good shoulder.
“I’m not sure, hon. I should probably check with Lev and see if there’s any training or reading she wants me to do, but if not...I can come see you about seven?”
She nodded, adding I love you telepathically, and I told her the same. I had to admit, that link was useful.
She walked off again, no doubt back to whatever crisis meetings she would have to call and sit through for the next stupid amount of hours. Meanwhile, I had to endure a couple of hours of stitching and dressing my wound, a couple of injections for pain relief and antibiotics, and a weary walk back to my quarters.
When I got there, my training officer was waiting for me.
“Hey Lev, come on in, I’d offer you a drink but I can’t be bothered to make it,” I announced tiredly as I opened the door.
“Thanks, I’ll be ok,” she said with a laugh. “I went past the cells earlier, saw your handiwork - that was pretty damned impressive, D.”
“Yeah, his teeth felt fucking impressive too.” I collapsed onto my bed, hoping to just get some rest for five minutes.
“Sorry, should’ve asked - how are you feeling?”
“Like shit,” I said. I wasn’t in the mood to play the stoic warrior. “I’m tired, fed up, my lover is being harassed by her boss, I failed to help stop a traitor and I narrowly avoided getting killed yet again. On top of that my shoulder hurts like hell and the two cracked ribs I never told anyone about aren’t helping. Aside from that, I feel shit.”
I felt the bed depress as she sat next to me, placing a book on my chest.
“That’s your homework. Nothing exhausting, just a bit of reading. Then take the night off and spend some time with Corvi.”
I pushed myself up on my elbows, wincing as my injured shoulder bore weight it wasn’t happy with yet.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure, dumbass,” she replied with a chuckle. “She’s pretty riled too. She could do with seeing you tonight. Besides, I intend to get you back to training tomorrow, so it’s only fair.”
I looked at her for a moment, surprised at the change in her attitude.
“You two talked then.” It was a statement, not a question, and she nodded.
“Yeah, we talked. It’s not like you left us much choice!” She chuckled again at that, but sobered fairly quickly. “D...I’m sorry. I’ve given you a hard time about her, and I’ve given her a hard time in general...which made you feel shit, and I’m sorry for that. You were right - she really does care about you, more so than I’ve seen in a while.”
“How long have you known her?”
“On and off, about seventy-odd years. She was already a few centuries old when she met my cousin and me - well, we found her, we were looking for an older vampire to offer us some advice.”
“How old are you? I’ve never asked before.” I know they say you should never ask a woman her age, but that’s bullshit as far as I’m concerned.
“Five hundred and...”she seemed to be counting in her head. “...sixty-eight.”
“So you’re effectively half her age? Weird.”
She raised an eyebrow in question.
“Well, it’s hard to believe there’s half a millennium between you two, and yet you look the same age. It’s just odd, from a mortal’s perspective.”
Lev nodded, but didn’t say much else.
“Anyway, I’m goin’ to get in touch with the other Sentinels I know, see if I can scare up any more info about Maria. You rest up, then go see Corvi, alright?”
I grunted in reply, being half asleep already.
“See you later, D,” she said gently, before getting up and letting herself out.
I awoke a couple of hours later, mostly because I had shifted during my sleep and put some stress on my shoulder again, causing it to flare in pain. I figured I may as well get up, since I needed to get changed before I went to see Corvi. As I sat up the book that Lev had left with me fell to the floor, and when I saw it I couldn’t help but laugh.
‘Homework,’ indeed. She’d left me a copy of The Bourne Identity. Hopefully she meant it as a cautionary tale, and not an advice manual.
I picked it up and grabbed a couple of changes of clothes, since I figured I’d probably be staying with Corvi that night. I enjoyed a brief shower, washing yet more blood off myself and checking my various bruises, marking the different wounds in various states of healing.
It was bizarre to think how many injuries I’d sustained in such a short span of service, and I felt it didn’t bode well for the future.
After I’d showered and changed, I felt a bit more myself again, but I was still early for meeting Corvi so I dropped by the mess hall for some much-needed food.
If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s a good meal at a base that serves military personnel. There was a great beef curry served that evening, so I had a bowl of that and a fresh roll, and spent most of meal-time being congratulated, and deflecting idiotic questions of the ‘what was it like?’ variety. I wasn’t even sure what I was being congratulated for, since I only did my job, and still didn’t manage to stop Maria from escaping.
Finally fed and rested, I went to see Corvina at last, determined to make her evening a bit better than her day had been.
She greeted me almost the instant I knocked at her door, which suggested she’d been waiting for me. She smiled her usual warm smile, which said that she was in a fairly good mood despite the day’s events.
“You seem happier,” I told her, my surprise evident as I closed the door behind me.
“Yes, my beloved, because you’re here now.” She flashed a disarming smile at me, the kind that melted my heart every time. “If I think too long about today, I’m likely to kill something, so please...no work?”
“Works for me,” I said with a smile, and kissed her. What I had intended to be a simple, soft, gentle kiss, she turned into something more longing. As I went to pull away from my kiss she placed her hand on the back of my head, pulling me back in as she kissed me more passionately, her tongue working past my lips before I’d even registered what was happening.
I kissed back using the same passion she did, dropping my hold-all in order to pull her against me, and she wrapped both arms around my shoulders as she luxuriated in the moment. It was the most intense kiss we’d shared since that time she’d lost control after the bonding ritual, full of the need and longing we’d kept held in check for what seemed like an eternity. All of my senses were filled with her, fuelling my need to be with her, and through the link I could feel her own hunger.
At length we parted from each other, mostly because I needed to breathe, and I could see that same hunger reflected in her eyes. She blushed suddenly and looked away, moving to her dresser to pour herself a drink.
She seemed to need a moment to compose herself before she spoke again.
“Ahem...well. That...was long overdue,” she told me, knocking back a double measure of her lighter-fluid whiskey.
“I can’t argue with that,” I told her with a grin, and she opened the bottom cabinet section of her dresser from which she pulled a small bottle.
“I know you don’t like this-” because you have no class, she told me with a mental laugh - “so I got you something else instead.”
A bottle of Hobgoblin ruby ale. She had obviously been picking up on my various likes and dislikes.
I popped the lid with a bottle opener she had dug out of somewhere else in the dresser, taking a long swig of the lightly spiced drink. It was damned refreshing, after the last few days.
“I hope you realise,” she told me, with all the gravity of someone making a deadly threat, “that you aren’t leaving me tonight.”
She sat in her usual spot on her chaise-longe, her eyes still full of hunger when she looked at me.
I gestured to the hold-all as I replied.
“I wasn’t planning to - hence the kit bag.”
“Good.” I took my place at the other end of the seat, and as expected she stretched out, lowering her head into my lap. “Lev told me she plans to have you training pretty solidly for the next few days, so I want to take advantage of having this time together.”
“Sounds like a very good plan to me,” I told her as I leaned in to kiss her again. “You know, on another subject though, I’ve been wondering something.”
“Hm?”
“How come you never learned Vampiric?”
“Oh, I’d never needed to. As you may have noticed, I’m a pretty strong psychic, so people could just speak to me in their minds and I would know what they wanted. Your own grasp of the language is very impressive, you know. Many mortals take ages to get it.”
