With the situation taken care of, our party continued forth. As we walked in between the horsemen, Radu began probing me with questions again. “Do you still have dreams involving Esmerelda?” he asked quietly. Julius tried to hear him, but it was clear Radu spoke too softly.
“I drank them away,” I answered.
He shook his head. “You gave up a useful tool,” he chided.
“If my fate was to kill Vlad, I would agree. Today, my fate is just to cause as much mayhem for him until the Lord welcomes me into Heaven with open arms.”
My answer didn’t sit well with him. With everything that had happened, my faith in God and His good book would not be rattled. Even in those dark days when I drank my way through bottles just to tolerate the rank smell of dead fish, I still believed in the Lord’s work and His ability to give us His grace.
“Can you at least promise me that you’ll use that sword strapped to your back?” He motioned towards the hilt sticking up, the cross that my grandfather had made especially for it. “That flail is simply crude and ridiculous.”
I went to grab the sword in question, but then my hand shot away. “Maybe one day, when I’m ready to take up a blade again. In the meantime, I think my Morningstar does a fine job.”
He gazed in disgust at the weapon hanging off my belt. “If I had a sword of that power, I wouldn’t pretend to be some circus act with a whip.”
“Where is your sword, Radu?”
I had been tempted to ask since I found him in Cataluña. He hadn’t brought it up willingly, so I figured it was a tough subject to talk about. With him badgering me, the opening was presented.
He hand went down to the right side, where the sword used to hang. His short sword was buckled on the left. “Vlad took it that night. Losing the Dragon’s Fang hurt almost as much as thinking I’d lost you and the loss of the Seer.”
I watched as water began to form in his eyes, tears.
“She was happy to have been given a family name, Radu. She may be gone, but Abigail was happy to be a Dracul.”
“That made one of us,” he said sourly.
Chapter Twenty Six
**France; 1778 the year of our Lord**
T he building Judge Lukas used to hold his court was easily spotted. Outside the front gates, humans hung from the yew trees that sprouted up from the ground. “It seems the good judge has Vlad’s decorating style,” Radu remarked.
The four vampyres we were traveling with seemed reluctant to go any further. However, it only took one glance from Radu to make them realize they were even more afraid of the Dracul relative than they were of Judge Lukas. With that in mind, Gregorio opened the gates and led us inside. We walked up the stone stairs and into the front room where two more vampyres were waiting. These ones were heavily armed.
We were ushered by the armed guards and into the receiving room. Above us, in the balcony, sat the one who was pulling the strings. “What do we have here?” Judge Lukas drawled out in French.
The judge was wearing a red coat, a powdered wig, and a bright white undershirt. It was hard to get a fix on his true size as he was above us. This was a play on power; from his vantage point, he held court. He was always in control. Radu picked up on that too.
The Dracul turned to the ones escorting us in. “Leave,” was all he said.
This brought the judge to attention. Switching over to Latin, he got up and addressed us from the railing. “Just who do you think you are, vampyre? No one commands my men but me.”
When his men followed Radu’s orders instead, two guards stepped forward and blocked the exit. “Where are Claude and Nico?” the judge asked the barricaded men.
Radu chuckled. “Let them leave, Lukas, for yours is the only blood I plan on spilling here.” The French vampyre looked as if someone had kicked him in the groin. “My name is Radu Dracul.”
“Radu,” he said with venom. “Rumors of your demise have been greatly exaggerated I see.”
The judge leapt down from the balcony, landing with a thud. While not tall, he was powerfully built. One of the guards in the back of the room tossed him a huge battle-axe. All told, five guards joined him from their respective posts. They began to form a circle around us in the middle of the room.
The judge spoke to his subordinates first. “You four have failed in your duty. Your deaths will show just how strict I am in terms of loyalty.”
One of the guards went to cut down Gregorio, only to have the spiked ball of a flail knock his helmet off his head. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I threatened.
Julius rounded up the four. “Follow me, quickly.”
As they left, the judge seemed dumbstruck over what just happened. “A human hunter? Things have truly become most interesting.”
Radu nodded towards the sword on my back. It was with some reluctance that I rolled up the flail and unsheathed the sword. There was silence as I freed the blade from the wooden scabbard. The steel blade shined all the way down in the dim light, except for the part that was blackened, closest to the hilt. I held it out in front of me, ready to take on whoever was foolish enough to challenge.
The judge snapped his fingers. “End them, quickly.”
The guards moved on his command as the judge sat back and watched with a villainous grin on his face. Unfortunately for him, that sadistic smile wasn’t meant to be seen for long. As the first guard charged me, he underestimated my skill. I ducked his attack with a polearm and cut open his belly. His organs fell out of the gaping hole as he collapsed to a knee. I grabbed the cross and staked him in the forehead, killing the creature.
The second guard to attack was the one whose helmet I’d knocked off. He came in a little less sure of himself and for good reason. It didn’t matter. As he slowly waded in, I had no time for his dawdling. Reaching for one of my special daggers, I flicked it at him with the twitch of my wrist. The needles ripped through his unprotected face, blinding him. As he screamed in French, words I didn’t understand, I ripped the dagger free and sliced him in the artery along his neck. I left him there to bleed out.
Radu had made quick work of the three vampyres who chose to fight him. The only enemy left in the room was Judge Lukas. He sighed and removed his red jacket. “A fight worthy of my skill. It has been too long since that has occurred.”
He swung his axe around effortlessly. This wasn’t going to be a simple task, like the henchmen were. I replaced my sword and rearmed myself with the flail. I didn’t want to get anywhere near that axe.
Julius’s voice broke the silence of the impending fight. “Radu, catch!”
We both turned around in time to see a sword flying through the air. Radu deftly caught the scabbard and unsheathed it in one motion. The blade was almost transparent. I’d never seen metal folded in such a way!
Recognition formed on my companion’s face. “The Holy Spirit’s Brand—just how did you get ahold of this, Lukas?”
I looked back and saw an empty space along the stone wall where it had been hanging before Julius pulled it down. Something told me one of the vampyres who was with him told him of the blade. The judge cast an ugly glare in that direction; the unspoken threat was well received, based on their panic.
“It was a gift from Vlad for my loyalty, something you know little about, traitor.”
“I’d rather be known as a traitor in his eyes than an enabler.” He whipped the sword around a few times. “This blade will replace the one stolen from me very nicely.”
Lukas was losing his cool. “If you think for one moment that I will let you leave here alive and with my most treasured possession, you are sadly mistaken.”
I cracked the flail on the floor. “I don’t believe you get a choice in the matter, Lukas.”
The time for threats and spoken words was over. Lukas readied himself with his axe, opening his stance to allow for multiple opponents. He dug his black boot in, giving himself a firm base for attack. Radu and I exchanged glances; we were both as ready as we would ever be.
I attacked from range first. I got the flail up to speed quickly and snapped it in his direction. The broad head of the axe made an excellent shield and he used it expertly. However, my attack was one to distract. As soon as the attack was blocked, Radu was in his face jabbing with his newest acquisition.
Lukas took the first attack to the shoulder, unable to avoid it. Blood began to seep from the cut, but Lukas didn’t seem to care. He pushed back and tried to deliver a deadly blow to Radu’s head with the butt of the axe. The Dracul was much quicker than he and avoided it before the damage could be dealt. But Lukas used his strength to counter Radu’s speed, and with an underhand cut with the axe, pried loose stone from the floor. The shrapnel flew in all directions.
The largest chunk hit Radu in the chest and knocked him to the ground. He was still alive, but I was left one-on-one with the vampyre lord until he freed himself.
“I’ll take pleasure in ending you, fool,” he goaded me.
“Not so fast.” Seeing loose chunks of stone near him, I flung the flail forward into them. The stones broke apart upon impact and the dust went everywhere, impairing Lukas’s vision momentarily. I twirled the chain twice and sent another attack at the stumbling judge—this one hit true in his chest. The ball thudded off him and fell to the ground harmlessly.
Lukas rubbed his eyes clean and laughed. “The heart is one of our truest weak spots. I have taken added precautions.” He unbuttoned the top three buttons to show a piece of dried bull hide tied to him. The material was perfect, tough yet light, and wouldn’t impede his offense. Dammit.
My turn to go on the defensive had arrived. I rolled to the side to avoid the first axe blow and put the flail away. My sword was ready just as the sharpened edge of the axe came back around for a second pass. The blade blocked it and the length of the steel gave me some leverage to use against the monstrous strength of the vampyre. Even so, I was losing this fight as the axe began to creep down towards my head.
“Give it up, human,” he growled.
“Never!” I countered. For a moment, the hilt warmed up under my hands as I barked back at him. I found a second boost of strength and pushed away just enough to get out from under. Free, I hopped backwards twice to give me some space.
I landed beside Radu, who had freed himself. “He’s a tough one, isn’t he?” Radu cracked.
“Got any ideas on how to penetrate his defense?”
The judge loomed large in front of us. “Are you two little girls going to keep chatting or is there any fight left in you?”
We both inched forward. “We were only taking a moment to discuss how weak you were,” I taunted. I knew this could be a dangerous gambit, but Lukas was a skilled combatant. “I guess I just expected more from someone so close to Vlad’s inner circle.”
He roared his anger in a primal yell. “You dare call me weak, human?! Just who do you think you are, insect, to question my abilities?”
“Doesn’t the crest give it away? I’m Maximus Brinza, the latest in a line of daemon killers. Your head would be quite the trophy to display.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Brinza,” Radu warned softly.
I did. Keeping an enemy unbalanced was the best way to break their defense. With Lukas on the edge of becoming a berserker in attack, he would be wide open for flanking counters. He just needed one last push. “C’mon Radu, let’s go. Why kill someone who isn’t worth it.”
It was the same sentiment that Vlad had used on me. It had the exact same effect that I remembered. “How… DARE YOU?!”
The reckless nature of anger took over. Lukas left all intelligence behind and came at us with his huge axe leading the attack. He separated us with a plunging strike where we had both just stood seconds prior. His axe sunk into the ground, deep. He ripped it back out and swiped to the left at Radu, and then came back to the right towards me. The force of the blow pushed me to the ground, flattened on my back.
Since it was me who had incited this rage, he continued his efforts to remove me from the living. He slammed the butt down again in my direction, just missing me. He then lifted his axe high up in the air, evil intent written all over his face. “Once I remove your head, your blood will taste so sweet.”
He made one fatal error. In his hatred towards me, he forgot that standing behind him was a vampyre even more dangerous than he. The Holy Spirit’s Brand made an appearance, cutting through the bull hide from inside his chest. Lukas looked down, stunned. Radu kicked him off the blade and the vampyre fell undignified to the floor, face-first. He was dead before his nose smashed opened and spilled his blood.
“I think word of this will get back to Vlad, don’t you?” Radu asked with just a hint of humor.
All I could do was chuckle. “Was that a joke, Radu?”
His piercing eyes met mine. “Don’t make me regret jesting with you,” he said with a raspy growl.
Yes, sir, I said to myself, not wanting to irritate him any further, no matter how much fun it would be.
Chapter Twenty Seven
**Switzerland; 1779 the year of our Lord**
S ix months had passed since our successful raid on Nice and Judge Lukas. We chose the Swiss Alps as our base of operations due to the numerous mountain pathways that led in and out of Italia. Rumors, whisperings, and speculation quickly became our currency, and there was no one better at collecting it than Julius.
When Julius returned after his latest dealings, there was excitement in his face. “According to rumor from the Vatican, a convoy of delegates from Munich and Vienna are coming.”
When we took over this mountain cabin, one of the first things Radu openly wondered about was when Vlad would send for Bathori and Renard. After months of nothing, it seemed as if the time for a convention was coming together. With the chess pieces appearing on the board, the question became a matter of our next play.
Radu paced the old wooden floors. “If Lady Bathori and Count Renard are coming this way, they won’t be expecting an attack from us in this position. I’m sure Vlad has looked everywhere to smoke us out.”
That was the other benefit of a remote outpost like this one. The cold, snowy weather made it almost impossible for weaker daemons to come. Only twice since we took up operations did we see any monsters on the mountainside. Most of our dealings had been on our ventures down into the valleys. Even though we were in exile, we didn’t want stories of our exploits to grow cold.
Julius’s main contribution to the cause, besides being excellent at gleaning information from travelers, was his ability to read a map. He quickly unfolded his and began to trace the most logical routes from each city. It was strenuous work and we were quiet until he poked his head back up.
When finished, he explained his best guesses to us. “Bathori would first come through the western pass on the Austrian side. A few weeks later, I’d expect Renard’s party to come through the eastern pass, about two days’ travel from where Bathori’s path takes her.”
“How long would you expect it to take them to get here?”
“Are you asking how long do we have to prepare, Radu?”
Our time spent together after Lukas’s death had brought the three of us close. We were like brothers-in-arms, knowing our strengths and weaknesses. The most amazing part of this was Radu’s gradual transformation back to a more human outlook. The man who’d given up his humanity when we first met was starting to realize he wasn’t the monster he made himself out to be.
He was still a dangerous daemon, but his soul still lingered.
Julius made some more calculations, examining the different locations. “I’d say we have two weeks to prepare and move out. Within a month, Bathori will be arriving and our window isn’t the most open of ones.”
My eye lingered even further to the east. There was one last general in Vlad’s Hell army that we hadn’t heard anything from. “Do you think he’ll leave the werewolves in Transylvania?”
Rumors of Dread Howl reached us, even in the Alps
. One traveler told Julius that the werewolf problem in Transylvania was so bad that the neighboring states were on high alert. The man went as far to say that Dread Howl was even worse than the previous wolf that terrorized those parts.
“Once,” the story started, “the Church deemed a small village of practicing Protestants was to be cleansed. What they didn’t tell people was that the cleansing involved the wolf hordes ripping out throats and killing children.” That’s when the name Dread Howl was actually used. “Dread Howl walked in after it was over and feasted on the entrails his wolves left. I saw it with my own two eyes, I did.”
The traveler went on to describe other horrid acts to Julius including digging up the village’s cemetery and desecrating the corpses. The picture he painted was one of horror and disgust. Whatever circle of Hell Vlad plucked this beast from, the world would be a much better place if someone put him back.
Neither man said anything, both probably reliving the tales just as I did. Radu, Abigail, and I once dealt with The Jackal and his horde; the idea of dealing with a newer, even more feral and sadistic wolf and his pack was not ideal.
Radu said what needed to be said. “If the wolves come, they come. We dealt with them once, we can deal with this Dread Howl and his legion if needed.”
As the morning sun rose above the mountain, the three of us laid down. I couldn’t speak for my companions, but a seed of doubt began to fester in my stomach.
I wasn’t sure when my thoughts stopped and when Esmerelda’s took over. It had been years since my last visit into the thoughts of my so many times great grandmother, but I returned. Vlad wasn’t around, it was just her and Radu’s once betrothed, Ariana.
Two younger woman approached Esmerelda. “The death of Lukas has shaken our master. Has any word spread of who committed the act?”
The witch didn’t know. “I talked with the one who took over the area. The assailant came in like the wind, killing Lukas in his sleep. We always told the fool not to be so relaxed during the day.”
Malice of the Cross Page 14
