Loyalty Oath

by Edmund Hughes

  “Yeah,” he said. “Too bad.”

  He’d been hoping that they’d have more time together. He’d especially been hoping that they’d get the chance for warm, sleepy, morning sex, but staying alive was a more pressing matter than getting off.

  They didn’t have anything extra to carry with them, and after snuffing out the fire, they started off. Jack briefly thought about trying to use his Shadow Levitation to carry them out of the ravine. It might have been possible for him to do if he were alone, but with Katie’s added weight, he knew instinctively that he wouldn’t have the lift to get them both up all the way.

  Instead, they continued downriver, walking slowly to keep from tripping over the craggy landscape in the dark. Jack took point, given that he could see better in the dark. Katie followed closely behind him, sometimes holding onto his shirt when they slipped into sections where the moon and stars overhead couldn’t provide as much illumination.

  They didn’t make the fastest pace, but they traveled steadily, putting distance between themselves and where Reese would be looking for them. Occasionally, they’d come to points where the terrain cut off abruptly, and Jack would have to hold Katie against him and use Shadow Levitation to let them gently glide down cliffs.

  Most of the night had been gone when they started, and the two of them made it out of the ravine and into the adjacent valley just as the sun crested over the horizon. The landscape was green and vibrant, with thick grass, loose clumps of trees, and a terrific breeze in the air.

  “We should rest,” said Jack. “We can figure out where we are in a few hours and most likely make it back to civilization.”

  “It’s so beautiful.” Katie hugged her shoulders and turned in a slow circle. “Like something out of a movie.”

  The river was the vibrant heart of the valley and local area, and vegetation grew thick against its banks. Jack walked over and kneeled at its edge, cupping his hands together and taking a sip of fresh, cold water.

  “Maybe we could catch a fish?” he said, smiling at Katie.

  She shrugged. “If it was still dark, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could manage it. For now, I think we’ll have to settle for what we can forage.”

  She reached down to a berry bush Jack hadn’t noticed and flicked one of its fruits over to him. He eyed it suspiciously until Katie rolled her eyes and ate one first.

  “They’re safe,” she said. “I know what I’m doing, Jack.”

  “Sometimes I do wonder,” he said. “But thanks. Are there more around here?”

  “Let’s find out,” said Katie.

  She split off from him, following the river further downstream. Jack walked up one of the valley’s sloping hills to get a better view of the surrounding area. He found that he was hoping that he wouldn’t spot a road or town immediately, just for the sake of having a little more time with Katie.

  He didn’t see anything and headed back down to find Katie after a few minutes, smiling at their bad luck. She had berries cupped in both hands when he saw her, and she grinned at him as she made her way back over.

  The grin disappeared into horror after two steps. Jack immediately tensed up, wishing it was dark enough for him to use his blood magic. Katie sprang forward, reaching into her pocket, pulling out the handcuffs, and slapping them on his wrists.

  “What?” He stared at her in disbelief. Katie brought a finger to her lips and gave him an imploring look.

  He didn’t say anything else as she pulled him forward by the wrists, over toward a section of trees that neither of them had investigated yet. Margaret stepped out from behind a branch before they’d made it halfway there.

  Jack almost flinched out of his skin. Katie gave his hand a squeeze with soft fingers. This was what she’d told him, when he’d first woken up on the side of the river. She was capturing him, not saving him.

  He considered his options for a moment before deciding that he basically had none. Three men had followed Margaret out of the forest. They looked more like college students than mages of the Order, but he had no doubt that they were along for the ride because they could pack a punch.

  Even if he managed to take all four of them, potentially five, depending where Katie landed, what then? He’d still have handcuffs on and no access to his blood magic or enhanced strength now that the sun was out.

  How long would it be before Reese or Mezolak caught up with him? What would their first command for him be upon returning into the fold? Their second? Their third? He would be forced to kill, again and again. He’d be their tool.

  “Impressive work, Katherine,” said Margaret. “We were expecting to find you injured, perhaps even dead. Instead you brought one of our enemies to heel.”

  Katie gave a small smile and nod, but Jack could see the conflict in her eyes.

  “He’s been helpful,” she said. “Offered up a wealth of information on his employer. We’re not dealing with James Farmoore, it’s—”

  “Yes, yes, we’ll get to that in good time,” said Margaret. “Killian? Would you be so kind as to put him out?”

  One of the mages stepped forward, producing a wand from the pocket of his jeans.

  “Hold on a second,” said Jack. “What is this?”

  In way of answer, he got the tip of the wand pressed against his temple. He had time to hear Katie shout something before his experience of the world turned off.

  CHAPTER 19

  Jack woke up slowly, his entire body turning on in sections, like an ancient computer in the process of rebooting. He was cold, though he still wore the same clothing he’d last had on as far as he could remember. He was also shackled at the ankles, wrists, and neck.

  His cell was dark, which told him something about the nature of his manacles. There was no chance in hell that the Order of Chaldea would ever take the risk of allowing a blood mage to use their magic freely. He tried casting Spectral Hand and received a dull, flattened response from the spell. The shackles probably had an anti-magic enchantment worked into them.

  He was surprised at how the situation left him feeling. He wasn’t panicking. There was no sense of claustrophobia, despite the cell barely being large enough for him to lie down in. Instead, Jack felt relieved.

  His deepest fear when he’d been under Mezolak’s thumb, and even when he’d been with Katie, in the cave, hadn’t been the Order. It had been what he might have to do next. Who he might have to kill next.

  He wasn’t thrilled about being a prisoner. The cold floor was certainly less comfortable than his penthouse bed had been, and far less accommodating of visitors. But he was safe. Safe from himself, and the place where the sum total of his stupid choices had led him.

  Jack rested his head back on the stone. He hoped Katie was handling the situation like a mature adult, and he really hoped she hadn’t accidentally said anything to implicate herself in the closeness they’d shared and how she’d let him feed off her.

  Footsteps sounded from the hallway outside. Jack sat up and felt an odd, lurching sensation. The floor was moving underneath him, swaying from side to side. As far as he could tell, he was on a ship.

  The jail’s outer door opened, and a woman’s silhouette stepped through. She flicked a switch on the wall, and the lights turned on with intense, crushing brightness. Jack winced, but that was more due to the basic laws of light sensitivity rather than him being a vampire.

  “Ah,” said Margaret. “You’re awake. You were out for a while, you know.”

  Jack smiled at her. If she was expecting him to get unruly, she was in for a surprise. He was ready to tell her everything and anything that he knew, as long as it didn’t put Katie or anyone else he cared about in danger.

  “My head still feels a little groggy,” he said. “How long was I out for?”

  “Sixteen hours,” said Margaret. “Long enough for us to bring you to where you are now.”

  Jack shrugged and opted to take the bait. “Which is… where, exactly?”

  “The S.S. Demeter,” s
aid Margaret. “My personal flagship. We’re in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean right now, far from any chance of escape you might have been hoping for. The cell you’re in is one that was originally designed to hold violent warlocks, though it works just as well for containing blood mages.”

  “Cool,” said Jack. “Good to know.”

  Margaret walked over to the bars of the cell. There were two other empty cells on the same half of the room, one to either side of Jack. Margaret reached her hand up to something that Jack couldn’t see, up against the upper lip of the cell’s door frame.

  His chains went tight, pulling his limbs and head outward in a sudden violent movement. They apparently retracted, and in their retracted state, Jack hung aloft. His arms and legs were stretched outward, almost like someone connected to a torture rack. His neck, along the same theme, was pulled upward with the sort of tension that let him know that his life was at the mercy of whoever was operating the mechanism.

  “I want to make the situation you’re in completely clear to you,” said Margaret. “The reason why I took you to my ship, and not to any of the numerous Order bases we have in the continental United States, is quite simple. There is no escape for you, Jack.”

  “You don’t say?” said Jack, smiling a little.

  “Even if you somehow broke free of your chains, escaped your cell, and killed everyone on the ship, you’d still be in the middle of the ocean,” said Margaret. “The Order would simply send out another vessel to apprehend you.”

  “I get it,” he said. “No escape. I’m at your mercy. This isn’t my first rodeo, Margaret.”

  Margaret watched him for a couple of seconds. She wasn’t smiling, but the set of her posture and relaxed demeanor made her seem like she enjoyed what she was doing.

  “How many people are involved?” asked Margaret. “What’s your end goal? What were you trying to do?”

  “My employer, the demon known as Mezolak, is planning an attack,” said Jack. “He’s acquired a powerful artifact and corrupted it with necromancy. He has a few hundred corpses locked up in a freezer just outside Arc City and plans on making them into incarnates. They’re like what ghouls would be if each one was more capable and had a superpower.”

  Margaret didn’t say anything and didn’t let much show on her face.

  “Katherine told us a similar story,” said Margaret. “I’ve no doubt that if I asked, you’d give me an exact address to send my people to, where they’d find these supposed bodies.”

  Jack frowned. “I take it from your tone that you’re a little skeptical?”

  “More than a little,” said Margaret. “You saved my life once, Jack. You had an opportunity to let me die, or at the very least, enthrall me, and you chose not to take it.”

  “What can I say?” said Jack. “I’m a gentleman.”

  “You’re smart,” said Margaret. “Smarter than people give you credit for.”

  Jack shrugged. He really didn’t like where Margaret’s train of thought was taking her, but he still took a compliment when one was given.

  “You’re a manipulator,” said Margaret. “See, you knew at the time that the Order has the capability of detecting if someone has been enthralled. You knew that by leaving me alive, and being the one who saved my life, you could foster goodwill within the Order of Chaldea.”

  “That’s kind of a revisionist take on what actually happened,” said Jack.

  “With Katherine, too,” said Margaret. “You’re so careful never to enthrall, while simultaneously feeding her stories to repeat back to us. I have no doubt that you’re working similar machinations on your father, as well.”

  “I haven’t spoken with my father in over a decade,” said Jack. “James Farmoore is possessed by a demon. Mezolak. He forced me to swear a loyalty oath to him, and—”

  “I’ve heard all of this from Katherine,” said Margaret. “It makes for a compelling tale, albeit a convoluted one. In my experience, the truth is simple. The obvious truth here is that you decided to lure in the people around you. Make them sympathetic to your plight, and find ways to bend them to your will.”

  “There’s proof!” snapped Jack. “Go to the storage facility! 432 West Cedar Drive! You will find exactly what I said.”

  “I’m sure we would,” said Margaret. “Even now, you’re still doing it. Scraping your fingernails for every last inch of leverage you can get.”

  Jack sighed through his teeth. He leaned back against the chains he was hanging from. He already knew how it was going to end.

  “There isn’t anything you can tell me that’s going to stay your execution, Jack,” said Margaret.

  “I don’t doubt that for a second,” he said. “You’re just going to assume that anything I say must be a lie.”

  “Why wouldn’t I assume that?”

  Jack thrashed an arm, making the metal chain hiss as the links clinked together.

  “You’re putting people’s lives at risk!” he said. “Paranoia is one thing. But you’re basically sticking your head in the sand.”

  “Putting people’s lives at risk?” Margaret smiled. “Do you even realize how that sounds, coming from you?”

  She watched him for a few more seconds before stepping back from the bars of his cell. The mechanism holding Jack up released, and he fell to the ground before he could get his legs underneath him. Margaret left without looking back.

  Jack tried to return to the state of detached resolve that he’d felt upon first waking up in the cell, but found that he couldn’t. It infuriated him to think that after everything he’d done to subvert Mezolak’s agenda, he’d still end up having essentially no impact on how things played out.

  If anything, he’d helped Mezolak overall. He’d brought him Zedekiah’s Scepter. He’d served as a useful distraction to keep the Order of Chaldea from catching on to his real plan. And now here he was, scheduled for execution in the place of a real monster.

  Jack curled up on the floor of his cell, shivering from the cold. At least he could finally get some rest. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

  ***

  The door to the jail opened. Jack didn’t open his eyes immediately. If Margaret wanted to interrogate him again, he was going to make her work for the answers this time.

  “Jack!” hissed Katie. “Wake up! I don’t have much time.”

  Jack lifted his head, wincing as he felt a stiff pain in his neck.

  “Katie,” he said. “I didn’t think they’d let you visit.”

  “I didn’t think that they would execute you once they got a proper grasp of the situation,” she said. “Especially considering what you did for Margaret. She’s so caught up on the idea of you being the true threat that it’s affecting her judgement.”

  “I think that’s a fair assessment,” said Jack.

  “I’m not going to let her have you executed,” said Katie.

  “No,” he said, automatically. “It’s a bad idea.”

  “Fuck you,” she said. “When have you ever not done something just because it was a bad idea?”

  “Katie, they’ll know it was you,” said Jack. “It doesn’t take a psychologist to figure out which of the people on the ship would be the most sympathetic to my plight.”

  “Which is why we need to be fucking quick!” she snapped. “So that my alibi will continue to place me somewhere else.”

  She reached into her windbreaker and pulled out a small vial, which she passed through the bars to him.

  “What’s this?” asked Jack.

  “An acid potion made from Manticore venom,” said Katie. “It’s strong enough to burn through your bonds. But you have get them off, completely. The enchantment blocking your magic is in the cuffs, not the chains.”

  “What happens if it touches my skin?” he asked.

  “You don’t want to know,” said Katie. “Trust me.”

  Jack didn’t like that answer, but he nodded and closed his fingers around the vial. “Alright. Thanks.”


  “Wait ten minutes, and then move as fast as you can,” said Katie. “The dinghies are on the ship’s starboard side. Take a right after you leave the jail, head up the stairs, and then take another right.”

  “Got it.” Jack stood up and moved forward until he was all but pressed against the cell’s bars. “I wish we could have had a better reunion than this.”

  She smiled at him, taking his hand through the bars.

  “You told me that once before, back when you first came to Lestaron Island and this whole thing started,” she said.

  Jack cupped her cheek through the bars, and then kissed her. The angle made it a little hard, and the sensation of steel bars against his chin and forehead was annoying, but it still made his entire body hum with emotion. He didn’t deserve her love.

  “Jack…” she said, in a soft voice. “I don’t know what happens from here. The next time we meet, we might very well be enemies. For real this time.”

  “You’ll have as much chance of convincing me of that as you will at getting me to call you Katherine,” he said.

  “Fuck you.” She smiled, but it was a little forced. “If it does turn out like that, I’m sorry. I really am.”

  “You should get going,” said Jack. “Before your alibi runs out.”

  She nodded and headed to the door, hesitating for a moment before passing through completely.

  CHAPTER 20

  Jack forced himself to stay patient as he waited. Katie had said to hold off for ten minutes. He didn’t have his phone or any real means of telling the time, and had to resort to counting each anxious second in his head.

  When it felt as though it had been long enough, he rolled the vial of acid through his fingers and then popped out the cork. The smell was strong and sour, like bleach mixed with the inside of a battery. Jack winced as he considered the actual mechanism of what he was about to do.

  Why hadn’t Katie brought him some good old-fashioned bolt cutters? Hell, he would have taken an acetylene torch or even a rusty hacksaw over having to pour acid in such close proximity to his skin.