by SL Perrine
Ravana’s hand instinctively swatted at Massimo. “Our relationship was never like that,” she said to Massimo. Then to Anthony, “Massimo and I were created by the same man. It just so happens we were to be married while we were still human.”
“You got your memories back? That’s great.”
“Yes, it is. However, that’s not why we’re here.” Ravana stated.
“Please, do continue with the pleasantries at this god-awful hour. We’re only worried about my daughter’s life, here.” Gianna moved back to fill her glass.
“Gia, please…” Anthony coaxes the woman over to the table to sit.
“No, she’s right, and I do apologize. If this were good news, well, to be honest, I would not be here, but you need us. This kind of thing… it couldn’t hurt to have a couple of super vamps on your side. I also have an entire army of soldiers, paranormal and human, at my disposal.”
The woman’s eyes glassed over. “I appreciate it, I’m sorry. She’s everything to me.”
“I can understand, but you need to stop hiding away. I have been there. Curling up into a shell is not going to help. I can sense so much more in you. We will have to work on that.” She stood and paced the room.
“Your husband has been working on this book for a long time. Can I assume that the book is in your possession right now?”
“It is. It’s upstairs.”
“Good. If he cannot get his hands on it, then he can’t raise the demon. The spirit he intends to insert into the body, so the demon may live, and the book needs to stay far away from each other. From what Delia uncovered, this guy is bad news. The spell requires the sacrifice of an innocent and the soul eaten so the demon and body can bind. Your husband may think this demon is going to make him invincible, but they found the last witch that summoned him dead not long after. His body twisted inside out, literally. He has no loyalty, nothing to bind him to his summoner. His only restraint, and it’s a minor one, is that he must grant five requests and then he’s free. There hasn’t been a single summoner who has outsmarted him.”
She sat back in her chair and crossed her legs and sipped her wine. “We need to destroy that book.”
Gianna nodded and looked at Anthony. “You will help us?”
She thought about it no more than she had before putting her life on hold and getting on the plane. So, with a nod, she looked at Gianna, “Yes, but get in my way, and I can’t promise you’ll live through this.”
Chapter 21
Giovanni stared down at Matteo’s corpse where it had lain on the altar since his acolytes had returned him from the manor. He caressed Matteo’s cold, ashen cheek with the back of his hand. He fought the anger growing inside of him. He had to remain calm for the approaching ritual. Still, this blatant insult leveled at him by Gianna demanded a reply of greater magnitude. Coming to a decision, Giovanni took a deep, calming breath.
“Savino,” his voice echoed slightly in the vast chamber around him.
A man approached out of a nearby alcove. “Gio?”
Giovanni turned to face the man. “Deliver the spic’s corpse to the manor. Use it to draw the Manny out of the Manor so you may capture and return him here so that I can repay Gianna in kind. Make sure you take enough men to ensure that happens or I’ll put you on the altar next.”
Savino shivered. “What about your daughter and the book?”
“I’ll see to that in your absence.” Giovanni stepped closer to Savino and put a finger in his face. “Be back before nightfall.”
“As you command, Gio,” the man replied with an incline of his head.
Giovanni watched as Savino gestured silently throughout the chamber on his way to the door until more than a few men detached themselves from the shadows and followed. When the massive stone doors slammed shut, Giovanni turned back to Matteo’s corpse.
“I have one more task for you to perform, lover. I know you won’t disappoint me.” Giovanni intoned. He claps his hands, and more men appear at his summon. “Prepare for the ritual.”
One of the acolytes bows. “Nature of the ritual, master?”
“We’re forging a barathrum.”
“Master?”
Giovanni whirled on the acolyte, “Did I fucking stutter?”
“No, master, it’s just that…”
“Speak!”
“We require a corpse filled with fresh ejaculate for the summoning, master.”
“Ejaculate or spiritual essence, either provide the proper tether. I think we can manage without the necrophilia. Unless you would like to volunteer to donate your services?” Giovanni inquired with a meaningful glance at Matteo’s corpse.
“And who will provide said essence, Master?” the acolyte asked as he looked around at the men surrounding the altar.
“All of us.”
“That much essence would create-”
“Yes.”
“Master, I believe this is thoroughly against the laws of magic and nature,” the acolyte stated as he squared his shoulders.
Giovanni flashed forward and seized the man by the throat. He squeezed while forcing the man to his knees. The acolyte clawed and beat at Giovanni’s arm trying to escape. His gurgles of distress abruptly ended when Giovanni tore his Adam’s apple from his throat. As the man sank to the ground, his eyes wide and blood pouring from his throat, Giovanni dropped the flesh from his throat beside his corpse.
“Anyone else believe this is thoroughly against the laws of magic and nature?” Giovanni asked the room quietly.
The acolytes immediately became a hub of activity; stripping and washing Matteo’s corpse while placing the appropriate ritual items upon the altar. A few of the acolytes meticulously inscribed glyphs and runes on the exterior of the silver pentagram surrounding the platform. Giovanni walked the exterior examining their work, occasionally ordering they rework or use a different sigil. When preparations met his stringent expectations, Giovanni ordered black candles lit at the five points of the pentagram.
All the men in the chamber stripped bare. Giovanni was the first to project his essence into Matteo’s corpse while reciting the arcane words that would summon a spirit from the abyss. He continued his intonations as the other men in the chamber contributed their addition to the corpse one after the other. When everyone in the room had added their essence, Giovanni brought the ritual to a close.
A few moments passed, and Matteo’s eyes snapped open. His dead, milky eyes stared about the room as he climbed jerkily off the altar. When it finally spoke, it was with a far away, sibilant voice that was never Matteo’s.
“Why have I been summoned?”
“To bring death on my enemies and acquire what is mine,” Giovanni stated.
The animated corpse of Matteo leered evilly as the acolytes within the room drew back several paces. “A task worthy of my summoning in a vessel properly prepared. Command, and it is yours.”
Giovanni smirked at the construct. “Walk with me, barathrum.”
“Jax?” Nico’s voice carried to the four in the dining room
“In here,” Anthony called.
They could hear Nico’s shoes on the tile in the hall as he approached the dining room. When he entered a moment later, he pulled up short. Anthony watched as Nico slowly ran his eyes over the two newcomers in the place and performed an initial threat assessment. When he decided there was no immediate threat, he fixed Ravana with a relaxed smile as he addressed Gianna.
“Everything okay here, Mrs. Moretti?”
“Everything is fine, Nico,” Gianna replied. She gestured to Ravana and Massimo. “Allow me to introduce Ravana Moon and her associate, Massimo. I’m sorry, Massimo, I never got your last name.”
“Quite alright, Gianna, I never gave it,” Massimo answered readily.
Nico quickly shook hands with the two of them and looked at Anthony. “Allies?”
Anthony nodded agreement.
“Nice to meet you two. Sorry to cut the meet and greet short, but we got company. Severa
l vehicles just broke the perimeter beams.”
“How long?” Ravana asked as she placed her wine glass on the table beside her and stood.
“They’ll be pulling up by the time we get to the front door.”
The group exited the dining room and briskly made their way to the foyer. They could hear the racing motors of vehicles approaching. As the five of them took up positions to look out the windows, six vans pulled up with a squealing of tires.
“Christ, there’s about thirty of them,” Nico observes.
“Thirty-six, but who’s counting,” Ravana corrects. She points at Anthony and sweeps her hand towards the door. “Should we keep our guests waiting?”
“Ravana, I know you prefer to meet your enemies head-on, but something tells me that this is something different.”
“I know there’s something more to Giovanni Moretti than the average magic-user, but I still believe that the best offense is a better, more ruthless offense.”
“Is that your answer to every-”
“Anthony Jackson!” A thunderous voice interrupted from outside.
Anthony looked at Gianna and Ravana. “What do they want with me?”
“Only one way to find out, stud,” Ravana replied.
Anthony took a shallow breath, turned, and opened the door. He descended about halfway down the stairs as Ravana, Nico, Massimo, and Gianna came out behind him and spread out across the top of the steps. He eyed the skeletally thin, tall, stringy-haired man standing beside the van parked at the foot of the stairs.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Anthony asked.
“Savino. I work for Mr. Moretti.”
“Well, that explains who you are but not what you want.”
“Mr. Moretti wanted me to bring your friend, so you could see him now that Giovanni’s finished with him.”
“My friend? Finished with him?”
“You know, your friend. The one you invited to visit you.”
“Daniel?” Anthony asks in confusion.
“Is that the spic’s name?”
“Anthony, no,” Ravana calls from behind as he takes a heated step towards Savino.
Anthony stops but throws an angry look at Ravana over his shoulder before facing the skeletal man again. “Where’s he at?”
“I told you. We brought him here so you could see him.”
“So, let me see him.”
Savino nods at a couple of his men, and they move to open the back hatch of the van. They drag Daniel’s body out of the back, carry it forward between them, and throw it carelessly on the ground. Riveted in place, Anthony gazes at his friend’s face; still frozen in a mask of fear from the time of his death. When he observes the gash in Daniel’s throat, he realizes his friend is dead. Everything crawls to a stop. Only the breeze through the nearby bushes signals that time is still moving forward. A heartbeat, another heartbeat, and Anthony exploded in a fury; heralded by the bestial scream that tears from his throat.
Anthony closes the distance between him and Savino in a microsecond, and Savino is dead before Gianna has realized Anthony has moved. Savino’s head rolls under a nearby van. By the time two more men fall to Anthony’s onslaught, Ravana is among them dealing her own brand of death. Some of Savino’s henchmen pull guns and begin firing on Anthony and his friends while others attack magically. Seeing Anthony in danger, Gianna unleashes her own power while descending the stairs to join him. All while marveling at the change that has come over the man she loves.
Massimo blurs among the men and vehicles with dagger and sword at the ready, he tears through the men. Another of Giovanni’s men attacks from behind, but he moves his sword backward and slices clean through his torso before spinning to take the head of another.
From the top of the steps, Nico pulled two handguns and is firing among their enemies with little effect. By the time he has targeted an enemy and fired, they aren’t there. His own shots draw the fire of the men wielding firearms and Nico has no choice but to enter the fray with his magic. His mind works only a fraction slower than the movements of their enemies, and he expends a force of power that pushes his attackers to the ground, but they jump up in a blink.
“They’re magically enhanced!” Ravana calls out as she takes the head off a man with her sword. “Keep moving, don’t make yourself a target!”
Ravana kneels and uppercuts a man who’d gotten too close to use her sword against. Her ring, a small sword worn on her middle finger, protrudes through the man’s neck, up into his throat. Blood fills his throat and pours from his mouth. She releases him and steps back. The man continues to move forward. She blurs around him, separating her sword from its twin and, from behind, she overlaps her blades and slices from both directions. The man’s head falls to the ground, blood spitting up like a fountain before the body falls to the ground.
“Decapitation seems to do the trick,” she yells into the fray.
Gianna attempts to join Anthony, but the way he moves is unlike anything she’s ever seen. One moment he’s near her, another he’s twenty feet away. The men they’re fighting move in almost the same manner. Only her ability to magically toss Giovanni’s men aside as they attack keeps her alive in those first seconds. Gianna slams one man entirely through a van and marvels as he returns to the fight moments later. Moving Giovanni’s men around with her will isn’t working. Bodies are breaking; though men keep advancing.
The vampires are little more than colored blurs that periodically leave dead or dying behind them. They seem to move in concert with the other, one defending the others back to allow an attack before attacking while having their back defended. Massimo grabs one of the men and rips his throat out with his fangs. He spits and sputters the blood from his mouth.
“They’re foul tasting, Red,” Massimo calls to Ravana. “Don’t bite. No teeth, just nails, luv.”
“Thanks for the heads up.” She slices a man across the throat, and his body shudders at her touch. The iron and silver flakes in her nail polish eat at the man’s flesh. “Not entirely human, Mo. We got some demon minions.”
“I like me some demon in the morning.”
Ravana laughs and spins her blades around, attaching them together to use as one. She pulls the dagger from her hip holster and throws it into another minion. The iron blade eats his flesh, and Massimo smiles broadly at the sight. He moves in a blur of color to the dying man and back to Ravana producing her sword. He gives an exaggerated bow and flourish and is away again.
Gianna sees two men approach Anthony from either side. Knowing he can’t defend against both, she pushes one aside with her power to watch him tumble across the lawn like a ragdoll. Even from a distance, she can hear his bones cracking and breaking as his limbs twist and turn at impossible angles. When he begins to slowly climb to his feet again moments later, Gianna’s distraction as she watches the bizarre sight is almost her demise. Only Anthony’s sudden appearance between her and an attacker saves her life. The man is dead, and Anthony is gone again before her attacker can hit the ground.
Ravana takes another man’s life beside Gianna to buy her a moment to breathe before twirling and smacking Gianna across the ass with the flat of her sword. “Fight to kill, Gia!” The vampire orders and hands her the small iron dagger before vanishing into the whirling horde again.
Some of the men the group has put down climb to their feet again as Gianna watches. Realizing that she hasn’t been up against anything like she now faces, Gianna redoubles her efforts. She kicks her shoes off and splits the skirt of her dress. As an attacker aims at her, she uses her power to hold him still. The dagger plunges into the man’s throat to the hilt. She pulls the knife, spins, and kicks him to the ground.
Anthony discharges a horrendous amount of power from his right hand that blows a hole clean through his enemy’s chest in a cacophony of crackling, sizzling sound. The smell of burnt flesh permeates the air. Almost without thinking, his left-hand rises into the air with the palm open before closing and jerking down
. The motion calls forth a mass off tree limbs that explode from the ground and wrap around another man’s body like a cage. When they drop back into the earth, the man entrapped comes apart in a hundred pieces as if passing through a wooden sieve.
A gun barks nearby and Anthony jerks in pain as the round creases his side. Blood flows warm and wet down his side, but Anthony notes it as a flesh wound and keeps moving. He turns and grabs a van with his power, propelling it into the man with the gun and pinning him between the two. The sound of metal bending and folding rends the air. Anthony launches himself into the air and soars across the driveway. He lands on another man and rides him to the ground while twisting his head off; utilizing his magic to strengthen his arms. When he stands, he tosses the bloody head at another of Giovanni’s men with enough force to take him off his feet.
Several men, who have decided the female vampire is the most significant threat, attack Ravana in force. The vampire hunter tosses her hair and fixes the men with a mischievous smile. “Who’s first to die, boys?” She asks.
Her calm, relaxed demeanor causes Giovanni’s men to pull up short. They shoot muddled glances between them. Ravana uses their confusion to launch her assault. Separating her sword, she pirouettes impossibly, yet elegantly, in her high heels. Four heads leave their shoulders and spiral through the air beneath their falling bodies. One of her attackers manages to duck the slice of her swords and closes the gap between them. He drives a dagger to the hilt between Ravana’s breasts with a dull thump as he slaps a palm against her face with magical power behind his push.
Ravana’s body performs several backward somersaults across the asphalt drive before coming directly back to her feet. She pulls the dagger from her chest and whips it at the man who attacked her. The blade finds a home in his eye, piercing his brain, and he falls to the ground in a heap. Ravana hooks a thumb through the hole in her shirt created by the knife and shakes it at the corpse. “I loved this shirt, you prick!” Ravana screams before she charges back into the fight.
Nico is unable to move as fast as the men they’re fighting and has taken numerous small wounds. The magic he’s been using has been ineffectual so far. Growing angry, he switches tactics once again. As a man rushes towards him, Nico holds a hand before him, as if willing the man to stop. A heartbeat later fire erupts from his hand and immolates the man before him. The human shell screams in agony as the skin sloughs off the demon contained within.
