Loyalty Oath

by Edmund Hughes

  It was a blast of kinetic force, and it was incredibly painful. It spun Jack around in a complete circle with its strength, but he didn’t stop moving. He couldn’t stop moving. It was all he could do to eject himself from the situation, in a quite literal sense.

  Jack hurled himself out through the hole in the train car’s siding, into open air. His eyes only focused on what lay ahead of him after his legs had already committed to jump. The train was on a bridge. A bridge that ran over a large ravine, with a river at its bottom. A river that looked to be as fast flowing, rocky, and dangerous as they came.

  He screamed. He couldn’t help it.

  It took a second and a half of freefall, which is a much longer amount of time than he would have assumed, to really appreciate how high up the train and the bridge had been over the ravine. Wind whipped against his face hard enough to make it difficult to breathe. His arms and legs flailed hopelessly, and his guts did somersaults as he anticipated the deadly oncoming landing.

  The worst part about it was that Jack had options. The sun was out, but the shade from the ravine meant that he might still be able to cast Shadow Levitation and spare himself from the terror of hitting the water. He also knew that if he gave into that impulse, it would chip into his willpower like the first crack in a glass floor. If he used his blood magic, he’d try to get back to the train. And if he went back to the train, innocent people would die at his hands.

  The water seemed to expand into detail as it came up at him, and the impact approached. It was deep, but there were sections of frothing white that Jack knew required the presence of jagged rocks to exist. He tried to twist through the air and reposition himself over a section of darker, blue water. It was too late.

  He felt his entire body screech with pain as he hit the water, feet first. He bottomed out against the rocks underneath almost immediately, and felt one of his legs shatter like a glass tube hurled into concrete.

  The pain was unreal. Jack could barely think through it, though he was just barely aware enough to realize that his ordeal had only just begun. The river was hurling him forward at max speed. He tried to take a breath as he surfaced and inhaled moisture and froth. The water was ice cold, though his chattering teeth and shaking fingers were a minor detail compared to the chaos of the rest of his circumstances.

  He banged against another rock, shouting as his destroyed leg caught at an angle that amplified his pain level by ten. Jack twisted forward, trying to position himself so his leg was behind the rest of him and a little less exposed. It was a mistake, which he realized as his head slammed into another jutting rock with enough force to scatter his thoughts and send a wave of nausea through his gut.

  He again considered trying his blood magic. The water was sweeping him downriver so fast that the train was already out of sight. He started collecting his blood essence into another spell, when the water slammed him through another series of jagged rocks, distracting him with pain so intense and cruel that it almost seemed deliberate.

  The river seemed to drop off at a point ahead of him, where the water kicked up enough white spray for a small rainbow to have formed in the air. Jack knew what that meant without needing to be told. He tried to kick his legs, including the mangled one, in a desperate attempt to get himself toward the nearest riverbank and away from the oncoming waterfall.

  There was only so much his body could take, even as a vampire. Drowning would mean death for him with as much certainty as it would for anyone else. If the rocks at the bottom of the waterfall broke his body, there was little his regeneration could do about it at a speed fast enough to save him from the water’s embrace.

  He was getting closer and closer. Fifty feet away. Twenty feet away. The sound was a deafening rush of thousands of tons of crushing liquid. Ten feet away. Jack kicked his legs hard and flung his arms forward. He grabbed onto a rock slick with algae and held on for all he was worth.

  It took every ounce of strength he had, along with the willingness to move his broken leg in a way that destroyed it even further, but he managed to pull himself forward. He crawled halfway onto the river’s rocky shore, which was bordered on one side by the towering cliffs of the ravine’s interior, and found that he didn’t have the strength to bring himself any further.

  He was cold. That was the last thought that went through his mind as everything went black.

  CHAPTER 15

  Jack knew that he wasn’t alone when he woke up without needing to be told. Without even needing to open his eyes. There are times when a person’s presence can be felt in a way that goes beyond the senses, and this was one of them.

  That might have been due to the fact that the only way he could see himself having survived the situation he’d been in was for someone to have found him. He’d only made it halfway onto the river’s bank. A surge of water or even just a piece of debris hugging the river’s edge would have knocked him loose, and the waterfall would have done the rest.

  He was alive, and he was sitting upright against a tree. His hands were cuffed behind his back, around the tree’s thick trunk. Katie was standing in front of him, shaking moisture out of her baby-blue windbreaker.

  “You saved me,” muttered Jack.

  Katie stiffened and slowly turned to focus her attention his way.

  “I captured you,” she said.

  “Same thing,” said Jack, trying to smile. Katie didn’t look amused.

  “Not the same thing,” she said.

  He shrugged. “How did you even find me?”

  “I jumped out a few seconds after you did,” said Katie. “Though with my magic, it was easier for me to cushion my landing and navigate the water.”

  Jack nodded slowly, trying to focus. He’d apparently been unconscious for a few hours, as the sun had progressed over the hump, which made the bottom of the ravine even darker. Dark enough to be concerning to someone sharing it with a vampire.

  “Jack…” she said as she walked over to him. “I have so many fucking questions. Questions that are going to need answers.”

  There was a hint of a threat in her voice, but he didn’t mind. The fact that she was there, with him, meant more than he could properly express in words. He didn’t see Margaret or Reese anywhere nearby, either, and he was unbelievably glad to be free of them and their clashing egos.

  Most importantly, he could think for himself again. The compulsion wasn’t there anymore, tickling and leaning on his thoughts and actions. Jack thought back to the specific words Mezolak had said when he’d given his command. He’d been ordered to act in good faith on the demon’s behalf during the meeting, and it seemed as though that single qualifier set a time limit on the command’s effect.

  “I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” said Jack. “But first, I need to get a handle on the situation.”

  “The situation is that we’re fucked,” said Katie. “The river swept us both way downstream, and even if we made the hike back up to the train tracks, it’s not like we can reach them from down here. We’ll have to find a place where we can climb back up, which is going to be a bitch, given the state your leg is in.”

  Her words drew Jack’s attention back to somewhere he didn’t want it to be. His leg was still mangled. There was only so much his regeneration could do over a short time period, and while the bones had been oriented back into place, the idea of trying to stand up on it seemed like wishful thinking.

  “I’ll need a little while to rest,” said Jack. “I should be able to heal enough to be walking again by tomorrow, I think.”

  “Really?” said Katie. “After the way you were using your blood magic on the train? Do you have enough essence for that?”

  It was a fair question, and as Jack took stock of the reserves he had left, he realized that she was right to be doubting him. He might be able to heal his leg enough off the blood essence he had left to move with her help or a walking stick, but definitely not enough to be capable of properly hiking or climbing.

  “I’m su
rprised,” said Jack.

  “At what?”

  “The fact that you came after me in the first place,” said Jack. “Along with the fact that you didn’t finish me off once you’d found me.”

  Katie flinched back at his words, and then folded her arms and frowned slightly.

  “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t an impulsive decision,” she said. “Margaret yelled at me to stop as I jumped. She’ll have words for me later, that much I don’t fucking doubt.”

  “So you’re basically her apprentice, then?” asked Jack.

  “Yeah.”

  “Is she stricter than my grandfather was?” asked Jack.

  “Yes and no,” said Katie. “She’s more serious. But we knew each other back before I joined the Order. She requested me as an apprentice, and for the most part, we’ve made a good team.”

  Jack nodded. He leaned his head back against the tree. He had a throbbing headache, and knew it was from his bloodthirst. It echoed through the rest of his body, making the nerves in his shattered leg screech like rusty guitar strings.

  “Your turn,” said Katie. “Jack. What’s going on? Why did it seem like you were about to start taking hostages on the train? I know you’re not that kind of person.”

  Jack exhaled through his nose and gave her a tired smile. There was nothing stopping him from telling her the truth, and moreover, he wanted her to know.

  “James Farmoore, my father, isn’t the one I’m working for,” said Jack. “He’s been possessed by an ancient demon named Mezolak.”

  “Mezolak?” asked Katie.

  He nodded. “He made me swear a loyalty oath to him, bound by magic. I have to do whatever he tells me to do. I’ve tried to resist it… but it’s so hard. It’s not even a matter of being strong enough. It’s like he has a grip on my soul.”

  “Fuck,” said Katie. “Well, that explains a lot. Has he given you any commands that I should know about? I don’t want you going all Manchurian Candidate and stabbing me in the fucking back the first chance you get.”

  “No,” said Jack. “The last one was limited to the meeting with you and Margaret. Though Reese can also give me commands.”

  “The creepy cat girl?” asked Katie. “The one you’ve been feeding on?”

  She gave Jack an odd, suspicious look, and he couldn’t help but smile.

  “She’s not my type,” said Jack. “I have no qualms about fighting her, or letting you fight her, as long as she doesn’t use a command to force me onto her side.”

  “So the two of you haven’t…?”

  Jack rolled his eyes. “Once. But it was before I knew about how deep her loyalty to Mezolak went.”

  Katie scowled at him. “You will never learn how to keep it in your pants, will you? A pretty face and a pair of boobs, and all of your logical thinking capability goes out the window.”

  “I can’t really argue otherwise,” he said, chuckling. The two of them looked at each other for a couple of quiet, gentle seconds. “It’s really good to see you again, Katie. I just wish it was under better circumstances.”

  “That makes two of us.” She crouched down next to him, placing herself at eye level. “Jack. I need to know why you agreed to serve this demon, this Mezolak, in the first place. What in the fucking world possessed you to give him that kind of power over you?”

  He figured she’d ask this, but had still let himself hope that it wouldn’t come up. Jack felt his face burn hot with shame, and it was too hard for him to keep looking at her as he answered.

  “The reason why Mezolak was able to possess my father’s body was because they made a deal,” he said, slowly. “A deal that brought me back to life after the car crash that killed me and my mother.”

  Katie blinked, and one of her hands went to her mouth. Jack continued, wanting to get the rest of it out before it became too hard.

  “Ryoko…” He swallowed, forcing words past the lump in his throat. “Ryoko killed herself, Katie. I… couldn’t live with it. So I summoned a demon, and followed in my father’s footsteps.”

  “Jesus Christ,” muttered Katie. “Jack…”

  She put a hand on his shoulder. It was a small gesture, but the support it represented was anything but.

  “She’s alright now,” said Jack. “Well, alive, at least. And she’s kind of a, uh, water nymph. But she’s still Ryoko. I’d do it again if I had to, in a second. It was my mess, and I had to clean it up.”

  “Your mess?” asked Katie. “Ryoko had issues, Jack. I’ve known her for longer than you have. I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but trust me… you shouldn’t blame yourself for her actions and her mental state.”

  “She was fine until I entered her life,” muttered Jack. “Everybody was. You were fine, Katie, and then—”

  “I still am fine, thank you very much,” said Katie. “Please don’t start up the fucking pity party. I’m happy with my life, Jack, and I’m not interested in hearing you mope about things that weren’t your fault.”

  She held his gaze, and he could tell that she was serious. He was still shivering a little from his damp clothing, and after a few seconds, Katie glanced at the handcuffs that bound him to the tree.

  “Can you walk?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Jack.

  “I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” she said.

  She took the handcuffs off him, but only so he could shift away from the tree trunk. Once he had, he felt them click back into place on his wrists, securing his hands behind his back.

  “I don’t blame you for not trusting me,” said Jack. “Just so you know.”

  Katie shrugged. “It’s less about trust, and more about how pissed Margaret would be if she found us and you weren’t restrained.”

  “I am a blood mage,” said Jack. “It’s not as though I couldn’t escape from them, if I really wanted to.”

  “I know,” said Katie. “If you really wanted to, you could do a lot of things that would end badly for me. So to answer your question… yeah. Of course I trust you, Jack.”

  Her words struck deep, and he felt a strange, vulnerable sensation spreading through his heart and chest.

  “I’ve missed you, Katie,” he said. “So much.”

  She squeezed his hand.

  “I know,” she said. “I’ve missed you, too.”

  CHAPTER 16

  “Alright,” said Katie. “It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to make it out of this ravine before nightfall. We should start looking for somewhere to spend the night.”

  She slipped one of her arms under Jack’s shoulders on the same side of his body as his injured leg and slowly began helping him forward. Having her in such close contact was an immediate reminder of her rich, intoxicating smell. Like fresh-squeezed lemons being stirred into a pitcher.

  “Why are you smiling like that?” asked Katie.

  “No reason,” said Jack.

  They made slow progress, as much due to the terrain as Jack’s injury. The ravine wasn’t a conveniently traversable location, and several times they were nearly stopped by drop-offs and places where the riverbank left no room for walking.

  “There,” said Jack. “There’s a cave ahead of us.”

  “I see it,” said Katie.

  A large section of rock from higher up the cliffs had broken loose at some point in the geological past, and it had fallen in such a way as to create a large, triangular-shaped cave. It was open enough to stand up in at its highest point and relatively secure-looking. Perhaps more importantly, it was currently uninhabited by anything else.

  Katie helped him inside, and Jack was surprised by how roomy the interior was. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to camp in the world, especially given how unforgiving the rock was as a floor, but it was pretty clean and would protect them from the elements.

  “Home sweet home,” said Jack. “Let’s hope we don’t have to stay more than one night.”

  Katie nodded. She helped him into a sitting position,
and her face took on a pensive expression as she stepped away from him.

  “Jack…” she said. “I’m going to have to take you in, once we get back. To Margaret and the other wizards from the Order.”

  “Really?” he said, rolling his eyes. “And I thought the handcuffs were just for kinky playtime.”

  “I’m serious.” Katie crossed her arms, the fabric of her windbreaker rustling as she hugged herself. “I don’t really have any other choice. I can’t just let you go, given what you told me about the loyalty oath and the demon’s power over you.”

  “I know,” he said. “I get it, Katie. I don’t blame you for it. You’re just doing your job.”

  She brought her gaze to meet his, and Jack saw the conflict in her eyes.

  “It’s my job,” said Katie. “But you’re my friend. More than just that. It’s not like it’s an easy decision.”

  “I won’t fight against you, Katie,” said Jack. “I’m tired. Tired of not being able to make my own choices. Tired of acting like the monster you always said that I was.”

  Katie sucked in a quick breath, flinching back as though he’d just struck her. Jack winced. He hadn’t meant the words to sound as accusatory as they’d come out.

  “You aren’t a monster, Jack,” said Katie, after a few silent seconds.

  “Aren’t I?” he said. “For once, I can really see how easy it would be for me to give in. To sow chaos and destruction across the world and reap the rewards of being a callous bastard.”

  “If you were a monster, you wouldn’t have that much insight into your own actions,” said Katie.

  “I’m not so sure about that,” he said, but he let the point drop.

  Katie spent the last few minutes of daylight canvassing the area around their cozy campsite. She collected small chunks of driftwood as she went, and by the time the sun set low enough to darken the ravine, she had enough to start building a fire.

  “You never mentioned Mira before,” said Katie. “Is she okay?”