by Sean Stone
‘The battle is going in my favour. Perhaps you chose the wrong side?’ Magraval said as the two of us began circling one another.
I risked a glance around me and saw that he was right. Magraval’s presence had given his followers the boost they needed to push the Orchids back. Seeing Magraval had probably dampened the spirits of some of the Orchids too.
‘The only side I’m on is mine,’ I spat back.
‘Really? It seems an awful lot like you do Dorian’s bidding these days.’
‘Morivar,’ I threw the spell out quickly hoping it would catch him off guard, but deep down knowing that it would not. Magraval’s hand whipped out and he batted the attack aside. The spell rebounded off his defensive one and slammed into a nearby one of Magraval’s followers, killing him instantly.
‘Pathetic,’ Magraval sneered. ‘I didn’t come here for you. I came here for Dorian. If you truly do not serve him then walk away and I won’t stop you.’
To that I tipped back my head and laughed loud enough to be heard over the din of fighting. ‘If only I believed a single word that came out of your mouth.’ I was done falling for his tricks. The second my back was turned no doubt I’d find a knife stuck in it.
‘As you wish,’ Magraval said and then nodded at somebody behind me. I turned as quickly as I could but I wasn’t fast enough. Several of the Hall’s fighters lunged at me in unison. I’d been expecting a magical attack but instead they came at me with fists and feet. Punching, kicking, scratching, and one of them actually tried to bite me. It was a clever ploy, attack me in an unexpected way and I wouldn’t be able to counter as quickly. My surprise did not last long enough to do them any favours. I was just as skilled in hand-to-hand combat as I was in magical duelling.
I blocked an incoming attack and responded with one of my own. I moved quickly, dodging an attack from somebody else. Each time I blocked or dodged I responded with a counter attack and in a matter of minutes my attackers were all neutralised. None of them were dead, but none of them would be rising again any time soon.
I turned back to Magraval to pick up where we left off only to find that the slippery bastard had vanished.
Chapter Thirty-Three
After a moment of searching through the chaotic scene around me, I found my quarry. Magraval had abandoned his fight with me to make after Dorian. The last of him slipped inside the building which Dorian stood on top of. I had no idea what he thought he was going to do when he got there. Unless he had Dorian’s portrait hidden on him somewhere the most he could hope to do was take Dorian prisoner. Which would still be a victory. Dorian might well be immortal but that didn’t make him unbeatable. Vampires were well known for coming up with ways of punishing their own kind without actually killing them. The most popular sentence given to vampires was to brick them up behind a wall, or bury them beneath a building. A few centuries of solitary confinement was usually enough to teach them a lesson, or drive them insane. Magraval likely had a similar fate for Dorian in mind. Unless he had found a way to kill him.
Either way, I could not allow him to get his hands on the immortal. I had no love for Dorian, but if Magraval won this fight then he would have the key to the city and I did not want to know what that would look like. Say what you like about Dorian, but he kept Sangford in order.
I ran through the fighting, shoving people out of my way. A few people foolish enough to step in my way ended up dead. I reached the building and saw several dead Orchids on the floor inside the door. One of them had had his heart burned right out of his chest. I carried on without sparing them a second glance. I climbed the steps three at a time and barrelled my way through the final door that led to the roof.
I was just in time to see the final Orchid fall leaving only Magraval and Dorian on the roof.
‘You again,’ Magraval said with an annoyed sigh.
‘You didn’t really think that lot could beat me, did you?’ I stepped out onto the roof letting the door close behind me.
‘So good of you to join us, Jacob,’ Dorian said politely as if I’d interrupted nothing more than afternoon tea. ‘Why don’t you get on with the job I’m paying you for?’ If the immortal was at all scared he wasn’t showing it.
‘Yes, Jacob. Why don’t you kill me?’ Magraval taunted. His hand moved to his stomach and I thought he was going to produce a weapon. Instead he deftly unbuttoned his jacket and as the material parted I saw the swastika emblem of Thor’s belt which now sat snugly around my enemy’s waist.
‘I wondered where that had gone,’ I said. I ran my finger over the ring that held Thor’s last vestiges of power. It comforted me to know that I had managed to salvage something. ‘I am curious though, why didn’t you feed on him? Gods hold quite a bit of power, even the old and washed up ones.’
‘What on Earth are you talking about?’ Dorian asked, looking from me to Magraval in confusion.
‘Ha!’ Magraval said suddenly. ‘Dorian Gray, the man who prides himself on knowing everything that happens in his city. Not quite as omniscient as you used to be, eh? You didn’t even know that there was an old Norse god holed up in your city, and not only that, but I killed him. You’re slipping, old man.’
Dorian eyed him coldly for several moments before responding. The gaze would have made even the hardest of people uncomfortable, but Magraval kept grinning like a kid who doesn’t know when he’s pushed his parents too far.
‘Why didn’t you siphon him?’ I asked again. I wasn’t going to let their drama distract me from getting the answers I wanted.
When Magraval spoke to me he sounded almost bored. ‘Because I had to kill him before he had a chance to fight back. I hardly had time to bite into him now, did I?’ He turned back to Dorian before he’d even finished addressing me. ‘Your people down there are losing. They’ll all be dead before the sun rises and you’ll be the only one left.’
‘I find that hardly likely,’ Dorian said evenly.
‘Oh, it’s likely. It is going to happen. And once your minions are dead and your city has completely turned against you, I’m going to kill you too.’
Dorian chuckled without mirth. I was certain I could feel his unease. I imagine it had been a rather long time since anybody had threatened to kill Dorian Gray. The fact that Magraval was standing there saying it with such confidence made me wonder if he really could. It was almost enough to make me step back and see if he could. But that was not a risk I was willing to take simply to satiate my own curiosity.
‘And how do you suppose you’re going to manage that?’ Dorian asked, running a hand through his hair, either in nonchalance or nervousness.
‘Wait. And. See.’ On the last word he spoke, Magraval’s eyes flashed with an even stronger glow.
‘The only thing I want to see is what is behind that glamour. Don’t you think it’s a bit pathetic to hide behind a mask? Clearly, I have wronged you in some way. Tell me how. Show me who you are.’
Magraval’s silver eyes flicked my way only briefly before returning to Dorian. ‘You know who I am. I know you do. I do wonder how long it took for you to figure it out. You must have so many enemies that it would have taken you a long time to whittle them all down until only I remained. How many people have you banished? How many people have you hurt? How many families have you torn apart?’
‘Oh, woe is me,’ Dorian said with a sigh. ‘I’m growing tired. Remove the glamour or I shall leave.’
Magraval laughed almost maniacally. ‘And how are you going to go anywhere? Will you sprout wings and fly away?’
‘Would that be so far beyond the realms of possibility?’
‘Drop the glamour,’ I said, stepping forward. ‘I want to know how exactly I wronged you so badly that you’ve decided to torment me. Show us both what we already know.’
Magraval’s cold eyes turned my way once more. There was no laughter, no mocking, no mirth. He stared at me with a hatred that could only have been born from love that had turned sour. His gaze confirmed it before his face
did.
‘As you wish,’ Magraval said in a whisper. Patches of pale skin began to show through the black mask that he wore. Strands of blond hair emerged on top of his head. The fragments of his true self spread and grew, eating away at his glamour until his true face stood before us. His eyes remained silver showing that it was a by-product of what he had become and not a part of his glamour. His eyes themselves were sunken into his face, dark shadows circling them. His skin was thin and stretched tight over his gaunt face. His cheekbones were prominent and not in an attractive way. His lips had darkened to a blackish purple and behind them stood rows of vicious teeth. He had an undercut hairstyle, the back and sides shaved while the top was pushed back from his forehead. He was different now, his good looks were gone and in their place was something sickly and insidious. But beneath the mutilation that siphoning people’s life-forces had created, I could still see my cousin and without thinking I let out a gasp.
I’d believed that Sam had been hiding beneath the glamour for some time now, but there really is a difference between believing and seeing. Thinking that my cousin had faked his death and returned to Sangford to taunt me and everybody else was one thing, but seeing the proof was something else entirely. This cemented his betrayal. It confirmed that the cousin I had loved was truly gone and only this creature stood in his place like a cruel mockery. A mockery that I was going to destroy.
‘So, Samuel Graves has come home,’ Dorian said lightly, not in the least bit surprised.
‘Despite being banished,’ my cousin added, staring at Dorian with more malice than I knew a single gaze could hold.
‘Well, I can see you’re bitter about it, but really, it’s been fifteen years. This is too long a time to hold a grudge.’
‘Is it? I’ve been banished for fifteen years, it seems only appropriate that I bear this grudge for just as long. I’ve spent this time learning and preparing for the day I would have my revenge. Tonight. Tonight all of the people who betrayed me and cast me out will suffer.’ He was doing his best to keep his voice even and steady but I could hear the anger that he was struggling to restrain just beneath the surface. He wouldn’t be able to stop it from flying loose soon. But I’d heard enough of his whining.
‘Nobody betrayed you. You broke the law and then ran away.’
‘Ran away? I was banished!’ he shouted.
‘With good reason,’ Dorian pointed out.
’I was a child. What kind of a man casts a child out of his home?’
‘The kind who doesn’t want said child to steal the lives of any more of his people. I should have sentenced you to death that day. It would have saved me an awful lot of bother.’
‘Yes, it would have. But you aren’t as smart as you want everybody to think, are you Dorian?’ Sam said. ‘If you were you would never have stood in such a prominent place where I could get to you so easily.’
Dorian scoffed and shook his head lightly as if Sam were nothing more than a silly little boy. ‘You got to me so easily because I allowed it. I positioned myself where you would be able to see me no matter where you were on the battlefield. Didn’t you think it odd that I was so scarcely guarded?’
Sam took a step toward the immortal. ‘It’s almost like you wanted me to come and kill you. Have all your years finally caught up with you? Are you finally tired of living? Do you long for the next life?’ Sam moved in slow rhythmic steps, his eyes never leaving Dorian, and his voice taking on a distinctive snake-like quality. Dorian didn’t move, not even a bit. He stood stoically still and watched his enemy approach.
‘I simply wanted to get you away from everybody else. Out in the open. Isolated and alone. So that Jacob can kill you.’
Sam laughed without humour. ‘You think my little cousin has it in him to kill me?’
‘Yes,’ Dorian and I both said together.
Sam’s eyes flicked my way briefly and I saw something akin to hurt in them. He couldn’t possibly be upset by that after all he’d done.
‘And do you think he can do it before I kill you?’ Sam asked.
Dorian gave him the same smile I’d seen him give many other people. It was a smile of pity. ‘If you even could kill me there might be some menace to that threat, but as it currently stands it is empty. Even more so because I’m not even here. I never was. Get it done, Jacob.’
Sam’s and my face furrowed in confusion mere seconds before Dorian varnished from the rooftop. He must’ve had Simon astral project him here to trick Sam. Simon had done such a good job that it had tricked me too. I hadn’t the slightest inclination that Dorian had been a projection, no doubt cast from the safety of his mansion.
And now I was left alone on the roof with my psychopathic cousin. I never got a chance to say what was on my mind because a sudden chorus of screaming rose up from below and snatched my attention. Sam and I both ran to the edge of the roof, keeping a safe distance between us. Monroe had turned up to the fight and he hadn’t come alone. If I hadn’t been seeing it with my own eyes I would never have believed it. Monroe was leading a small force of vampires. He’d led the vampires of the South End into the North from which they had been banished. Now, they were leaping into battle, tearing out throats and hearts as they brought down Sam’s soldiers from the rear. Simon continued to lead the Orchids from the other side and the Hall’s members quickly found themselves boxed in.
‘Well, another time perhaps, cousin,’ Sam said. He quickly stepped back from the roof’s edge, one hand fumbling in his pocket. His eyes had dimmed and his expression had turned apprehensive. I smirked as I realised that even in his lunacy he’d retained a healthy amount of fear for Monroe. Most people would admit to being more afraid of Monroe than they were of Dorian. Without the vampire at his side, Dorian would probably have lost the city a long time ago.
I thought my cousin was simply going to join the fray and try to defeat the Orchids but then I saw the small raisin he produced from his pocket. ‘You’re running away? After all this planning, months of build-up, you’re not even going to stick around to see the outcome? I thought you wanted me to pay for whatever imaginary slight I inflicted on you?’
‘Not yet!’ he snapped, turning back my way. His razor teeth were bared and his eyes were bulging furiously. ‘Not yet,’ he said again a little more calmly. Then he tossed the raisin away from him and a circle of green energy opened up in mid-air. ‘Don’t worry, Jake. Our time will come.’ Hearing him call me Jake after all this time sent a shiver rattling down my spine.
I was already fumbling around in my own pocket while he spoke. My fingers closed on the key Cheirvorn had given me. He was not going to get away again. We ended this tonight. ‘Our time is now,’ I told him before I flung the raisin-like key at the portal.
‘What…’ he said as he saw the little Fae key go tumbling toward his portal. He was so perplexed that he didn’t even try to stop it. As soon as the little yellow key touched the green portal, the portal’s light died and it irised closed with a small pop.
My cousin looked back at me, his eyes wide with curiosity and amazement. He hadn’t been expecting that. The key had worked. I had to kill him now or who knew what Cheirvorn would do with me.
I didn’t waste any time. I needed to get the upper hand before Magraval could. He wore Thor’s belt. Every aspect of his power was doubled and I would have to keep him disorientated if I wanted any chance of winning. With that in mind, I charged across the road, the look of amazement on his face confirmed that I was taking him by surprise. I slammed into his midsection before he had a chance to react sufficiently. All he could do was cry out in shock as my momentum carried us both over the edge of the roof.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The two of us came apart as we hurtled downward. I smashed to the ground and rolled off down the street like a wheel free of its vehicle. On this street we were alone, the fighting was on the other side of the building we’d fallen from. I pushed myself to my knees, ignoring the pain from the grazes and cuts that had opened
across my body. The shield I’d projected could only protect me from so much damage. I was lucky nothing was broken, although my leg did feel fractured. I closed my eyes briefly and spared myself a couple of seconds to heal my leg. I didn’t have the time to heal it completely but it was good enough to stand on.
‘You’re so belligerent, little cousin,’ Sam said as he rose to his feet. Several cuts on his face were glowing as he magically closed them. Healing, one of the few areas in which he was better than I was. ‘I said we’d do this later but you just couldn’t accept that. Everything has to be done on your terms, doesn’t it? Sinair!’ He launched a stream of burning fire at me which I only just avoided by throwing myself back to the floor and rolling away.
‘We need to end this!’ I shouted back as I stood up again.
‘As you wish. Rabole!’
I brought up a shield to protect me from his attack, but with the power of the belt added to his own, he was far stronger than I’d been expecting. His spell blasted through my shield and sent me tumbling through the air. The window of the department store behind me shattered under my weight. Mannequins went flying and piles of folded clothing latched onto me, twisting around my limbs and body. Then I realised I wasn’t just tangled, the garments were actually attacking me. Sam had enchanted them. If I wasn’t fighting for my life I would have been impressed.
‘I had such plans for you, Jakey,’ Sam said, as he walked calmly down the street toward the broken window. ‘I wanted to deal with Dorian first. I wanted that idiot to watch me take his kingdom and start pulling it apart bit by bit, like pulling wings off a fly.’
‘I bet you know all about pulling wings off flies. Trapped any cats in old fridges lately?’
Sam continued with his speech as if I hadn’t even spoken. ‘Then, when Dorian was at his absolute lowest, I was going to kill him. Next, I was going deal with my pathetic excuse for a father. And once he was nothing but ashes, then and only then, was I going to come for you. I wanted to break you the way you broke me. I was going to take everything from you. Every friend, every lover, every business, every home. By the time I was finished with you I was going to drive you from this city and then hunt you to the ends of the Earth. And then, finally, I was going to kill you.’
