Brightblade

by C. T. Phipps

  “Did she get away?” Sam asked.

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Jessica,” Clara said, spitting out a variety of profane words seconds later. Some of which I wasn’t sure were still swearing but that was the 1940s for you. “That traitorous hagfish killed Bella!”

  “She has the wand,” Sam said. “She was listening to us the entire time.”

  “We thought you were going to betray us,” Clara muttered. “Turns out she was just waiting to find out where the damn head was.”

  “Then we’ve got to get there first,” I said. “Alex, stay here, I’ll call an ambulance while we’re moving. Sam, what’s your fastest car?”

  “I’ll be fine,” Alex said, getting up despite it being clear he was just barely alive.

  “Just give me a bit of your strength. I can teleport you there. We can signal the others to meet us there and head Sophia off.”

  This is a terrible plan, Zadkiel said. Even with your powers of healing.

  I didn’t have powers of healing. I’d healed one person and it almost killed me.

  I reached down and touched his shoulder, using my empathic powers to take some of his pain away.

  “Bloody hell,” I said, doubling over. “You’re hurt worse than you look, and you look terrible.”

  “I’ve had worse,” Alex said, clearly expending every bit of his not-inconsiderable power not to keel over this very second.

  “You lie,” I said, shocked he was even trying to stand.

  “Yes,” Alex said. “But it doesn’t mean I can’t fight.”

  “Yeah, it kind of does.”

  “I can turn you, Alex,” Sam said. “It may be the only way to save your life.”

  Alex looked sick, though not disgusted at the prospect of vampirism but something else.

  What happens if I heal him? I’d say tell me the truth, but you haven’t bothered lying to me yet.

  He will live, Zadkiel said. For a time. He is not afraid of becoming a vampire. He is afraid of living.

  What? I asked.

  You sense it but deny it, Zadkiel said. Alex has a death wish. It is not a wish to die by his own hand, though. It is a wish to die in battle for a good cause. A warrior’s death. Hence he goes from battle to battle, cause to cause, monster to monster. He carries a terrible guilt on his soul from childhood on and hates himself even as he seeks to cleanse himself. If he survives now, he will feel the need to seek out another impossible quest.

  I knew at least part of that was correct. He feared becoming a vampire, not because it would make him a monster. He felt like he was one of those already. It scared him because he would possibly live forever.

  “Alright,” Alex said, reluctantly keeling over.

  “Let me help you,” Sam spoke, putting her hand on my shoulder.

  “To make me your Blood Servant,” Alex said. “Never aging.”

  “Is that so bad?” Sam asked.

  Alex didn’t respond.

  “Is there anything that can be done for Bella?” Clara asked.

  Sam looked back at the lizard woman. “I’m sorry but resurrection is not one of my powers.”

  “She had a good run,” Clara replied. “I just hate that she fell in the final stretch at the hands of someone she trusted. I can’t imagine what Sophia could offer her worth more than the bond we shared.”

  “Sometimes, when you’ve been in pain too long, pain becomes all you know and the only way you can think to let go of your own is to inflict it on others.” At least some of us picked assholes to take out our frustrations on.

  Sam channeled her power through me into Alex. It took longer than expected, perhaps enough that we lost our lead.

  He’d live, though.

  It was time to go finish this.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Spooky Cemetery, Dark Rituals, and other Clichés

  Alex could teleport us all around town but I still wasn’t sure he had it in him after he’d been all but eviscerated in the magical battle between Sophia, Jessica, and who knew who else out there when the house’s magical defenses had been activated. In the end, though, he managed to speak a bunch of nonsensical words that I was pretty sure came more from Harry Potter than Enochian, then slide the three of us across space/time.

  What greeted us was Elmwood Cemetery, which was largely absent any life (ha!) after night. Cemeteries were traditionally holy ground and a vampire that ran into blessed ground tended to start thrashing about like he was on fire until he left. That was assuming he could enter at all. Vampires could enter regular houses just fine but the whole, ‘cannot enter unless invited’ applied to churches, mosques, synagogues, and other places of worship. I briefly looked to Sam to see if she was suffering.

  Instead, she looked fine. “Someone has done a desecration here.”

  I had no idea what that meant.

  Holy ground ceases to be holy if you murder someone on it, Zadkiel said, putting it in laymen’s terms.

  Huh, I thought.

  Rape, torture, and other sins also qualify. The major ones at least.

  Good to know, I thought back, not really wanting to know which had recently been committed.

  The place was full of beautiful stone markers, mausoleums, statues, and immaculately cut grass with plenty of trees growing wild. It was exactly the sort of peaceful place you’d want to put your relatives if they could be buried on consecrated ground. Plenty of cemeteries, secular or not, refused to do it for known vampires or other supernaturals.

  “I would assume there’s a division of the vampire government that deconsecrates any ground in Detroit that needs it,” I said. “Probably called the EPA for maximum yucks.”

  “Well, they would be cleaning up an environmental hazard,” Sam said.

  “Yes, let’s joke about the place where my husband and children are buried,” Clara muttered, clearly not happy.

  “Oh, sorry,” I said, grimacing. “Uh, nice to meet you. When you’re not trying to kill me, at least.”

  “I wasn’t trying to kill you,” Clara said, staring at me with her lizard-like eyes. “Just trying to get the wand. Jessica had trouble lighting fires in oil drums. When she had that wand, she was able to knock over giant stone statues. This isn’t going to be easy.”

  Alex looked like he was barely able to stand. He conjured a staff to lean on and it made him look a bit more like a classical wizard, albeit a few decades too young. “Did you tell Arthur and Ashura to come?”

  “I was busy trying to save your life,” I said. “And they’ll be here too late to help us now.”

  “Yes, that’s one theory,” Arthur said, suddenly behind them with Ashura, Tracy, Minji, and Bryce. Ashura’s chauffer was absent.

  “Goddammit!” Alex said, almost falling over from the double take. “How the hell did you get here?”

  Ashura shrugged. “I had Mr. Jones put a tracker on Sophia’s car while you were distracting her.”

  I blinked.

  “What, you didn’t think we were just going to let her get away did you?” Ashura asked.

  “I think she’s gotten away with enough already,” I said.

  “Perhaps,” Ashura said. “Arthur’s powers to keep things hidden benefited us. We know where she’s presently located and how many goons she’s brought with her. She doesn’t seem to have found the head yet.”

  “Saul Baron isn’t here either,” Arthur added. “Which means his daughter is throwing him under the bus.”

  Were vampire politics important right now?

  “Or that Saul expects the Nakoso to turn her into one of his play toys as soon as he wakes up and Saul wants to be far away and reap the benefits later,” I said. “But it won’t matter once we poke her full of sharp pointy things.”

  “Attacking her may not be wise,” Sam replied.

  “How the hell do you figure?” I asked, offended. “She’s the sole reason there’s a threat.”

  “Well, she managed to defeat Alex in a wizard’s duel before Jessica acquir
ed the Wand of the Nakoso for her. Oh, and she’s a necromancer.”

  “Yeah, and?” I asked.

  “We’re in a cemetery,” Sam finished.

  “All the more reason to attack her quickly and overwhelmingly,” I said. “The more time either of them must use their magic, the less time we have for breathing. Those of us that do, no offense.”

  I agree, Zadkiel said. Our sacrifices will save the world from untold evil.

  Yes, with fewer sacrifices of us and more of them.

  That’s not what sacrifice means.

  Yeah, but just think, if we don’t die here, you can sacrifice us later!

  Very well. You’re probably right. Only half of us will be destroyed if we all attack at once.

  The rest of the group didn’t look particularly impressed with this plan.

  “Very well,” Ashura said. “Only if Arthur stays behind.”

  “I’m not leaving you behind on this,” Arthur said.

  Ashura rolled her eyes. “You’re a baby vampire, my creation, my lover, my husband. I fought Renaud and lived. I’ve also fought demons and worse. Arthur, you need to stay safe so that I have something to live for.”

  Arthur looked furious.

  “How very male,” Ashura muttered. “I do, of course, expect you to commit suicide if I die first.”

  “Of course,” Arthur said, dryly.

  “Kill Minji too,” Ashura said.

  “Wait, what?” Minji asked.

  “Listen, it would just not be appropriate for you to survive if both of us died,” Ashura said.

  “Tracy, what do you think? You must be spared to carry on our legend to future generations. Still, I want to hear your thoughts despite this gruesome fate of living in a world without me.”

  “Why does she not have to—” Minji started to say.

  Ashura used her vampiric influence to force Minji to shut up, making a little hand gesture to go with it. I could tell it was magical since I felt a little twist in the air.

  “Don’t commit suicide?” Tracy suggested. “I mean, maybe use the wand to resurrect you?”

  “Oh, splendid!” Ashura said. “Yes, do that instead.”

  Minji felt her head.

  Arthur did the same.

  “This is so cool,” Bryce said. “Wait, do I have to commit suicide?”

  “You’re Tracy’s property so no,” Ashura said, pausing. “Or wait, are you Minji’s? In which case yes.”

  “No one is committing suicide” I snapped. “Okay, does someone have an idea that isn’t sneaking up on them and then killing them a lot? Everyone seems to dislike it except the scary angel sword, but I haven’t heard any alternatives.”

  Clara crossed her arms, reminding me in that moment of my grandmother. “This is a real bunch of winners you’ve got here, Sam.”

  “They’re actually quite formidable,” Sam replied. “Just…quirky. Very-very quirky.”

  She had us there.

  Clara pointed down the graveyard where there were a bunch of flashlights looking around. “Well, we could just go to the head directly and grab it. Then destroy it someplace else. I’m not happy about Jessica betraying me. We shared a lot over the decades. More than most married couples.”

  “So, you were—” Bryce started to say.

  Tracy gave him a dope slap to the back of the head.

  Clara frowned. “But I’m not going to let revenge get in the way of living well.”

  “Actually, that gives me a better plan,” Alex said, blinking, “We should let Sophia perform the ritual.”

  We all exchanged a series of confused looks.

  “I assume there’s more and you’re just pausing for dramatic effect,” I replied.

  “You know me so well,” Alex said. “We let her perform the ritual and ambush her when she’s distracted, and the magic is at its most complex as well as uncontrollable.”

  I tried to think of a better plan. I couldn’t. “Sounds good, assuming the magic doesn’t backlash and kill us all.”

  “That is entirely possible. However, it’ll probably only kill us and be confined to the cemetery.”

  That’s the spirit! Zadkiel proclaimed.

  “Who wants to live forever?” I asked.

  Ashura raised her hand. All the other vampires, including Sam, were about ready to raise their hands. Which left me, Alex, and Clara as the only ones who didn’t. Bryce looked confused as to whether he should or not.

  “Rhetorical question!”

  “Where’s the head?” I asked.

  “Nearby,” Sam replied. “My mother told me where it was but wasn’t exactly clear on specific details. She said she buried it in the Civil War section under a great hero’s tomb. So, Unionist.”

  “Yes, I would think so,” Clara said, with the dryness of someone who took the Civil War personally.

  “How many confederates are buried this far north?” I asked.

  “You’d be surprised.” Alex said.

  “Probably. But we don’t need to find it, we just need Sophia to.”

  She’ll find it with the wand, Zadkiel replied.

  The power of Lugh’s spear will call out to him.

  Like the One Ring? I asked.

  If you want to make such a direct comparison? Zadkiel asked. Yes, basically.

  The group slowly moved through the cemetery, some force from the vampires among them being able to keep them from being sensed. They were able to move close enough to get a good look at where Sophia and a small army of goons were gathered. Almost as many as forty, a good chunk of the Baron’s army of ghouls as well as several other vampires. They weren’t wearing black robes, being about the only thing that wasn’t cliché about the group, and had the bodies of the cemetery groundskeepers piled in front of a mausoleum.

  The hagfish, Jessica, was also present. She looked ecstatic and even from a distance, I could feel her sense of anticipation. There was powerful magic beneath the ground and gathered underneath the tiny stone building that was marked with the name MORGAN. It caused me a bit of discomfort and I wondered if it was a relative underneath.

  Can any of them hear us talk? Because I’m constantly surprised how many people can.

  Arthur and Ashura can read your mind due to their bloodline connection to you and thus hear us. Sam and Alex can because they are worthy, Zadkiel said.

  Sam is worthy? I wonder if she knows that. Her emotions are conflicted. Her curiosity drives her, and she does things that make her feel guilty, I thought, trying not to be weirded out by the ritual they were starting before us.

  Something you should be very familiar with, Zadkiel said.

  Me? I’m not like her. The very idea.

  Not conflicted? Not hiding a layer of guilt under a drive to accomplish something to make your existence justified? Zadkiel asked.

  Not…. I trailed off. I don’t use a masculine shortening of my name. Fine, we may have some things in common.

  You do have some differences, Zadkiel spoke. She has learned enough of being a vampire that she used your healing of the FBI agent to make him her Blood Servant. It has helped solidify her self-control for now but means that she can also influence his emotions—vice versa as well, though I do not believe he would do so.

  So, the difference between us is she can just screw up the emotions of one guy.

  I didn’t have time to think about anything else because I saw Sophia start working a ritual with Jessica’s help. The other vampires held hands and began chanting, some quite obnoxiously and clearly without much magical ability.

  They were members of Saul Baron’s human trafficking and prostitution rather than necromancers. They also didn’t last long as lightning streaked down from the sky and skipped from one to the other, causing them to burst into flaming ashes one after the other. I could feel their shock and horror as they clearly weren’t aware that Sophia had planned them to be a human (vampire?) sacrifice. The deaths of so many generated massive amounts of magical energy and I felt the ley lines bend
and warp.

  The mausoleum exploded and sent shards of stone in every direction, some landing a good few away from me. A blood red circle appeared in the ground around the ghouls, the hagfish, and their mistress as a terrible miasma seemed to rise from it. It was a like a crack in the Earth that led to hell itself, something I had not believed in like so much else in the supernatural world before receiving unfortunate proof positive in that instant.

  Sophia Baron chanted in a language that was indecipherable to her ears but that Zadkiel translated for her. “Arise, Nakoso! I invoke thee in your old names, Lugh, Lug, Lu, Balordeath, and the Long-Armed! I offer the blood of these vampires to feast your spirit and raise you from the ruins you have been divided into. I, your descendant, call upon your divinity and bring you back from the half-life you have existed in!”

  A terrible inhuman force gathered in the air, pushing trees like a strong wind. I felt an inhuman powerful force, not hellish like the cracks in the ground, but every bit as evil. I sensed then one of the most horrible, evil things I had ever been in the presence of. It was like the Wire Woman, full of malevolent hatred and sadistic glee. I almost choked on the horror of it all. Instead, I clutched tightly the hilt of my sword and prepared to order a strike.

  “Come forth, Nakoso!” Sophia shouted, lifting the hilt of the wand that was very clearly the end of a spear and some of its shaft now that I got a good look at it.

  “Yes,” Jessica said, grabbing the shaft from her hand with a tentacle then shoving it into Sophia’s chest.

  Okay, that was unexpected.

  That was when the Nakoso manifested.

  “Attack!” I shouted, charging with my sword raised high in the air.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The Big Epic Boss Fight (Hope we leveled up!)

  It was annoying when you got yourself all set up to fight your evil archnemesis and then she got herself stabbed in the back by her underling. It reminded me a bit of the Scouring of the Shire (removing that from the Lord of the Rings movies was criminal—not that I’d ever admit that to Arthur), when Saruman was stabbed in the back by Wormtongue. Spoilers, I know. Any chance of a big epic showdown was ruined, which was probably a good thing for the Hobbits.