Loyalty

by Charles E Yallowitz

  A tightness in her stomach warns Mab that she is on the verge of collapsing, so she bares her fangs and makes a wide turn toward an archer. Instead of stopping to feed, she runs by the mortal to deliver a quick bite. The blow sheers away a chunk of armor and allows her teeth to pierce warm flesh. It is enough for the vampire to get a brief slurp, a trail of red falling on the ground behind her as she goes for another victim. Learning her lesson from the first attempt, she aims for the barely protected legs and gets away with a mouthful of blood-dripping meat. She becomes faster and stronger with every success, but she refuses to let her victories cloud her judgement. Mab avoids the armored warriors to focus on archers and priests, who spread out to make it harder for her to move from one target to the other. With renewed energy, she finds it easier to evade the paladin who chases her for a few steps. The holy warrior back off and hurries to heal the wounded while keeping an eye on the agile vampire.

  Deciding to get one more snack, Mab sprints towards a priest and is about to bite when the woman’s body surrounds itself with light. The surge of holy magic burns the vampire’s face and sends her stumbling away. Eyes partially melted and nose on fire, she depends on her ears to sense incoming attacks. Making large movements to avoid getting hit, Mab is driven toward the center of the area. Arrows nick her body and blasts send shrapnel into her flesh, the wounds sapping her recently acquired strength. Hearing the paladin coming closer, she takes a guess as to how he will swing and leaps forwards. The impact to her chest cracks all of her ribs and a burst of holy energy punches a small hole through her body. Crashing at the edge of the central dig site, the vampire growls and tries to stand when she feels a tug on her cloak. The Duragians are converging on her when Mab yelps and is yanked into the shadowy underground.

  Minutes pass before the paladin gets close enough to peer into the darkness, his hammer ready to strike. The man shouts when a figure leaps out of the depths, the night cloak making him think it is Mab. It takes the mortal a moment to realize that the person is taller and there are long strands of knotted hair going down to their ankles. Before he can give a warning to his allies, the new combatant grabs the paladin by the head and effortlessly pulls it off the rest of his body. The holy warrior’s death snaps the confused priests and archers into action while another swordsman charges. Instead of gracefully dodging the attacks, the stranger runs at the largest group of enemies. Those in front see the flash of fangs before the cloaked figure crashes into them and people begin to die. Limbs and heads are sent flying as the terrifying vampire murders his way through the mortal forces. Coming to the other side of the pack, Clyde pushes his hood back enough to reveal his dirt-covered face. With his fangs buried in the throat of a flailing guard, he faces the rest of the army and continues eating. After getting kicked in the shins and knees, he covers himself once more and casually rips his meal in half.

  Finished with his food, he tosses the corpse aside and chuckles at how the frightened mortals back away. Not waiting for them to recover their nerve, Clyde goes on the attack and becomes a streak of black that leaves corpses in its wake. Heads are stomped into the ground and people find the limbs of their friends shoved through their chests. The attacks are so quick and brutal that every mortal remains alive long enough to realize they have been killed. Through it all, the vampire dines on whoever smells the juiciest and cackles whenever an enemy attempts to pray for mercy. Any sword that manages to find Clyde’s flesh is shattered and the broken end is shoved deep into its confused owner’s chest. Even when the priests and warriors attempt to retreat, he continues hunting them down and decorating the landscape with their corpses. Seeing that only one enemy is left on the far side of the former valley, the vampire grabs a piece of lumber and hurls it at the woman. The projectile hits her in the back of the head and drives her into the nearest tree where her body dangles a few inches from the ground. Standing amid the death and destruction, Clyde pulls his cowl further over his head and enjoys the feeling of wind on his naked body until he hears movement coming from the central hole.

  “You had me waiting for fifty years, Mab,” he says in a predatory voice. Approaching his old partner, he hoists her out of the ground by the scruff of her neck. “Needless to say, I’m pretty angry that nobody came to find me, especially you. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t add you to this collection. Are you crying?”

  “Is that really you?” Mab asks, her damaged eyes making it difficult to see. She touches Clyde’s face and slips a finger into his mouth to rub one of his fangs. “I’m so sorry that I didn’t get to you sooner. The Duragians controlled this place, but that’s no excuse. I needed permission from Xavier to search for you or I’d be left to die if the enemies arrived. Our people are at war with the world since the Great Cataclysm. Everyone thought you were dead, but I knew you had to be alive. It wasn’t until Kai and Nadia told me that things had changed that I decided to come here and-”

  The world spins and Mab’s legs hang limp as she starts to lose consciousness, the lack of blood and severity of her injuries finally getting to her. She has a vague sense of rough fabric against her skin and her body getting draped over something. A low muttering makes her think Clyde is talking to her, but she cannot make out any of the words. Feeling hands on her neck and shoulders, she senses that he is reclaiming his necklace and squints when she spots something glint on his bare chest. The vampire does her best to smile before she lets out a cough of bone chips and everything goes black.

  2

  Red is all that Mab sees when her eyes open, the crimson sheen making her fear that her eyesight has been permanently damaged. A soreness runs along her body and every movement is met with a painful tickle down her spine. The smell of blood fills her nose and she takes a deep sniff, which results in liquid rushing down her throat. Her instinct is to gag from the sudden meal, but the taste is too delicious for her to risk throwing up. Gulping the mouthful down, it takes her a moment to realize that her body is wrapped in chains and she is hanging by her ankles. Disoriented from her ordeal, the vampire struggles until her head bangs against the side of what she thinks is an iron cauldron. Mab sticks out her tongue to get another taste of the ichor that she has been suspended in, the blood having come from multiple sources. Ravenous and still injured, she greedily drinks the liquid while repeatedly testing the bonds that make it impossible to move more than her head and toes. When the large meal is low enough to expose her chin, Mab is lifted clear of the cauldron and held at face level with Clyde.

  “I’ve been buried for fifty years, so what’s your excuse for looking like crap?” the grinning man asks as he wipes some blood off his friend’s cheek. With a flick of his hand, he breaks the chains and catches the woman by her shirt. “I got a little information out of your babbling, which is why I’m calmer and you’re still in one piece. Not that I would have killed you, but you know how our tempers are. So, everyone thought I was dead, except you, but Xavier wouldn’t give you permission to dig me out because of a war? He always was too cautious for his own good. Then again, considering what I found when I emerged, I can’t really blame him. You’re lucky I was done eating all the workers they sent down there or I wouldn’t have been close enough to grab you. Are you just going to silently glare at me?”

  “It isn’t only my shirt you’re squishing,” Mab calmly replies before she is suddenly released. Landing on her feet, she finds that they are next to a river and goes about cleaning her face. “I’m still in shock about all this. Not that you’re alive because I’ve spent the last fifty years swearing that you were. It’s that . . . what happened to you down there? You were always fast and vicious, but you were a glorious monster back there. I’ve never seen anything like it and can barely believe it really happened. With that kind of power, you could save all of us from the Duragians, the hunters, the adventurers, and anyone else who threatens us. Maybe the vampires could even rule all of Windemere.”

  “Or you could sit down and explain what’s going on,” Clyde says whi
le adjusting his stolen shirt and pants. The black clothing feels itchy due to being soaked in their former owner’s blood, but he knows it is better than roaming around naked. “Look, I’m going to take a bath with my clothes on and chop my hair down to something I can work with. I can feel strands knotted around my ankles and it’s making me want to punch something. You can talk about what happened to me and how things have changed. Then, we’ll split a snack I’ve tied to a tree over there. Idiot thought it would be smart to mug us. Don’t worry. He’s still alive, but most of his bones are broken. Now, what is the Great Cataclysm?”

  Returning to the cauldron for another drink, the burglar gathers her thoughts. “Fine, but you share your story after I talk. Nobody really knows the cause of the Great Cataclysm, but it changed the entire face of Windemere. Continents moved, changed, and the eastern one simply disappeared. Magic went crazy for about five minutes and a lot of people died. A few kingdoms and races have been wiped out, but most survived and are gradually rebuilding. You’ve only been buried for fifty years, so the world is still a mess. One thing to remember is that we’re currently on a continent called Ralian, which used to be the southern one. This place is the mortal kingdom of Serab, but it’s a small piece of what falls under Xavier’s territory. The divisions between our nobility are all over Windemere, which is a reason why we’ve only been able to survive instead of win this wear. The Duragians have gathered other temples and recruited hunters under a call to wipe us out. Guess they figure now is as good as time as any since we’re still disorganized. Most of the nobles attempted a big battle long ago, but their armies were destroyed. Are you still listening?”

  Noticing that Clyde is barely moving even with the current, Mab throws a rock and watches it bounce off her friend’s head. He vanishes for a second and reappears next to the startled burglar, who is left wondering if she hit an illusion or not. Watching him move, she cannot shake the feeling that there is a bigger difference in him than she originally thought. A slight flicker of bloodlust repeatedly appears in his eyes, the sensation unlike the usual predatory aura that vampires give off when hungry. There is an eerie grace in Clyde’s steps, but it comes in stutters as if he is restraining his entire body. His footsteps switch between being silent and thudding, the effect seemingly ignored by the man himself. Mab reaches up to touch her shirt and finds tiny holes from her partner’s fingers, which also pierced her skin. As her friend cuts his hair short enough to tie into a comfortable ponytail, an idea pops into the burglar’s head and she opens her mouth to speak.

  “I think I’ll ask you to help with this later because I don’t like it anymore,” Clyde states while holding out his hair. With a shrug, he slashes it off near the base of his skull and lets his remaining hair rise into a slight mess. “A deal is a deal. My plan was to use my execution as a distraction and make off with the Orb of Durag. You must have figured that out by now and you were there to see how everything went wrong. By all rights, I should be dead and I was probably a few seconds away from that fate. Those priests wouldn’t stop even as the ground swallowed us all. Everything is a blur as their magic stopped and I found myself healed. I’ll admit that I didn’t know what was going on at first. There were hundreds of people trapped with me and nobody’s magic worked except for my illusions. They were easy prey and I tried to ration my meals, but I must have still gone unfed for at least the last twenty years. For some reason, I couldn’t dig my way out without something dragging me back under or the earth collapsing around me. That is until those idiots made such a large hole. After that, I waited in silence until I caught a familiar scent. Didn’t want to come out into a new world without someone I trust by my side.”

  “Do you still trust me?” Mab asks with a crooked smile. Pulling out a comb, she beckons for her friend to lean forward and does her best to make him look presentable. “Not to point fingers, but you should have sent me a clear message or contacted Xavier. All of us talk about the old days and how we miss you, but it got too painful for the others to believe you were still alive. It became a distraction and a few of our younger friends got killed because they weren’t paying attention to the present. That’s why I stopped trying to convince people to follow me. Too many members of our gang died listening to me before I learned my lesson.”

  “What happened to Titus?”

  “Xavier uses him and the Vengeance Hounds to go after holy threats.”

  “And Decker?”

  “Switches between training new turns and leading squads into battle.”

  “Any word from Chas . . . you know who?”

  “I assume she’s off somewhere with her legs wide open.”

  “Where is this somewhere since I’m sure you know?”

  “She has an establishment on the far side of the kingdom.”

  “Is the old fang still kicking?”

  “Pretty sure that hermit is going to outlive us all.”

  Clyde chuckles at the comment and moves away from Mab as his head feels like it is being squeezed. He falls to his knees as the sensation runs down his entire body, the nearby cauldron the only thing preventing him from collapsing into the mud. A banging in his ears causes them to bleed while his chest aches with every shallow breath. He tries to speak, but all that comes out is a disgusting gurgle. Feeling nauseous, Clyde presses on his stomach to help eject a spray of white foam and solid clots. The blast dissolves as soon as it hits the grass, which turns black and rots into the soil. Exhaling slowly, he gradually regains control of his body, but has trouble standing again.

  “Let me give you a hand,” Mab says while taking him by the wrist. She immediately jumps back and lets her friend fall to the ground, her eyes wide with fear. “You have a pulse! I know you didn’t make an illusion too. What is going on here, Clyde? You can’t be human again after what I saw you do, but vampires don’t have heartbeats.”

  “This is new to me too, so let’s keep it between us,” Clyde requests as he puts his fingers against his neck. He is about to gesture a spell to cover the unexpected change, but he finds that the trick appears with the merest thought. “Okay, I have it masked and we’ll get it checked out once we can visit Gregorio. I did say that things felt really weird down there, right? Well, I’m saying it now if that counts. Anyway, we don’t want to keep Xavier waiting. He might not be expecting me, but he’ll want to know where you are. I’d rather meet him on friendly terms than running into his men. What’s say we grab a bite and head out?”

  Cocking her head to the side, Mab casually reaches out with long claws and calmly tears open up her friend’s chest in one movement. “Yeah, it’s beating. Looks tasty, which is kind of gross to think about. I mean, I’ve seen plenty of vampire hearts in my time and they’re usually dull red with black veins. This reminds me of the time mine was nearly torn out by that troll and you had to hold it in while fighting since I was dismembered too.”

  “Do you mind, Mab?” Clyde asks, smacking her hands away. Pushing his ribs and flesh together, he has his heart quickly pump blood through his veins and heals the wound faster than expected. “That was unexpected. Looks like I can produce my own blood too. Probably explains why I haven’t been starving and pouncing on anything even remotely edible. That might change after I get more active and maybe this little wrinkle will go away too. We’ll have to stop on the way to Nyte since I need a new shirt now. Did you have to open me like a wardrobe?”

  “Sorry, but now we’re even.”

  “For what?”

  “Think back to the earlier part of our conversation.”

  “Oh, like you ever complained about the rough stuff before.”

  “That was her, not me, you jackass!”

  Clyde rolls his eyes and turns his back on Mab, who grinds her teeth in anger. “Yup, it’s good to be back.”

  *****

  Titus and Decker leap to their feet when the castle doors open, the pair still showing signs of their recent battles. To their dismay and relief, the only person who enters is an elderly vamp
ire and a large dog that helps her walk. Sitting back down, Titus goes back to rubbing salve on the ugly wound that runs down his entire left side. The herbal goo prevents what little blood he has left from escaping by sealing the gash, but he can already tell that it will scar like the ones on his chest and back. Hearing a guttural grunt, the tall vampire turns to find Decker offering him a mug of blood mixed with enough ale to give him a slight buzz. Taking the drink, Titus waits for the one-armed dwarf to pick up his own wooden cup, which is sitting on his neatly wrapped severed limb. Smoke wafts off the package, the acrid stench of holy magic threatening to ruin their appetites. Clinking glasses and chugging the welcomed snack in unison, the pair are happy to do something other than wait in silence. Neither one has wanted to speak since word arrived that their old friend is alive, the message giving both men a sense that they should be prepared for a violent reunion.

  “Do you think he’s really going to come in looking for a fight?” Titus finally asks as he sits down. Grabbing a needle and thread, he goes about stitching up his wound, which is hissing in response to the salve. “Can’t say I blame him since we never tried to dig him out. I know I’d be pretty angry. Then again, I’m sure Mab explained the situation, so he has to understand what was going on.”

  “It may be some time before Clyde understands. The world went on without him, which has to be disorienting,” Decker replies while unwrapping his arm. Pressing the limb to his bleeding stump, the dwarf closes his eyes and moves his blood to heal the injury. “All we can do is explain ourselves and hope he agrees that we did the right thing. It isn’t like we haven’t regretted our decisions, but what we saw back then was . . . unreal. It was like Windemere itself devoured the man. Who are we to question the world’s desire?”