Chapter 4: A War Waged - Part 2

Kadence felt something warm and wet on his lips; the taste of metal filled his mouth. When he realized what it was, he pulled his head away, trying to escape the bony clutches of the corpse-man. But his struggling waned as he felt the vitality that surged through his body. His heart began to race and he felt more alive than he had ever felt before. He gripped the man’s arm and the bony hand let go of him as he drank deep from the forbidden fountain of youth.

After he had taken almost a pint of blood from the vampire, Victor pulled him off of his arm and Kadence looked up at him with an astounded grin. “This…this is…incredible.” He began to laugh, turning around on his heel, his wounds forgotten. His laughter carried strong for a brief few moments before it seemed to falter, a worry tainting it before it turned into coughs. Blood spattered the floor in front of him and he grunted as he clutched his chest. His heart was hammering so hard he couldn’t breathe and he cried out in agony as he felt it beginning to shut down. His whole body felt like it was on fire, and he writhed upon the ground, biting his lip to try to divert the pain until the room went dark, and his body was still.

“Jesus Christ.” Roland whispered, his thick fingers rolling through his tangled hair.

“Please, spare me that name,” Victor stated, annoyance in his voice.

“R—right.”

A gasp came from Kadence’s dead body as he sat bolt upright, still clutching his chest like he had been when he died, terror in his eyes. A piercing, high pithed shriek escaped James’ lips as the man rose from the dead, and as the echoes of his terror fell silent the other men looked at him, bewildered.

“W—what? The b—ba—bastard was dead!”

Before long the four men had all tasted Victor’s blood, and with it experienced death and rebirth. They all tried to ignore the sounds as Victor fed from Hanz’s body, replenishing his blood between turning the men. By the time that he had finished, his skin had tightened, though he remained aged in appearance. His hands were gnarled, and the talons that protruded from them made him look the monster that he was.

His teeth were like that of a shark, rows and rows of small, pointed knives protruding from his gums, and his ears came to an almost elfish point. Joanna had brought him down a priest’s clothing, and after he had gotten dressed, he led them all into the main church. It was here where he used the moonlight through a window to begin etching a chain of circles and writings of the sorts that none of them had ever seen with his own blood. When the immaculate ritual circle had been crafted, he called the others all together.

“First things first, Joanna. I need back the strength that I lent to you.” Victor reached for her hand, but she pulled away from him sharply, desperation in her eyes. This resistance, however, was short lived as his influence seemed to completely wash over her and she found herself unable to control her own body.

He reached out and grabbed her arm and he dug his nail deep into the back of her palm, where he had placed the mark in the beginning. “My, oh my, Jo, you did well.” She didn’t flinch beneath his control as he pulled his nail from the back of her hand and with it a tendril of black smoke seemed to follow. He spread his palm wide and the smoke followed his call, wrapping around his hands and seeping into his skin. He reared his head back and exhaled a long, pleasurable sigh. When he lowered his gaze, his skin had tightened and his youth had been restored. His sharp, feminine features held an undeniable allure, causing the thinness of his lips and the bend in his nose to go almost unnoticed. His long, raven hair flowed down to his chest, and he grinned from ear to ear.

“Your time with me is almost at an end; after this you will all be free to go. I apologize for any roughery that my requests have caused, but I do hope you find it well worth your while.” His voice had become smoother: a gentle wave breaking against them; harsh, but soft; beautiful, yet commanding. “Joanna, I need you to stand in the center of this diagram. Careful not to smudge even the tiniest bit. The other four of you, I need you to stand around her in the positions of true North, East, South, and West. I have marked them accordingly.”

The group of them moved as he commanded, though Joanna’s steps were timid and her eyes locked onto the air itself—her hands shaking. She was about to stumble through the blood markings on the ground when Victor reached out and grabbed her arm. “Careful now; you’re alright.” His eyes flashed like gold. She blinked absentmindedly and nodded, turning around and maneuvering through the circles and old script without touching a single bead of blood until she was standing in the center of it all.

Victor commanded the four men to each put a hand on Joanna, and when they had, he traced a clawed finger across his wrist. He trailed his blood from the outermost circle, and let it pool a few feet away. When enough blood had pooled he placed his hand inside of the blood. The cut on his wrist healed, and his eyes began to roll into the back of his head. The room seemed to hum as the man began to speak.

“Darus Van Gaellen: protector of the saint’s sword, leader of our Mother’s guard, and betrayer to your rightful king. Let the bond of blood we share be reinstated, and the cold of death be removed from your forgotten soul. I give you a soul for your own to consume, a life for a life, and a body so that you may once again walk beneath the light of the stars.”

The smoke-like essence that he had removed from Joanna coursed into the blood pooled beneath his palm and shot along the trail to the ritual circles. The blood seemed to glow, shimmering a bright crimson as the energy passed through it. As the light began to emanate from the entire circle, Joanna’s body tensed up and her eyes grew wide.

“N—no…please…n—not again. N—not again,” she sobbed.

“What…is this?” Henry stated, blinking as if to shake the sleep from his eyes.

James’ eyes widened as he looked at Victor. “What are you doing to us? I—I can’t move!”

A light chuckle escaped his thin lips as he looked at the four of them from his crouched position. “Did you honestly think I would waste the gift of life eternal on a group of nobodies like you?”

“You bastard!” Kadence growled.

A purple smoke began to pour across the floorboards wherever Victor’s blood touched, and it began to surround Joanna, swirling around her feet and slowly raising up her legs. Paralyzed in fear—knowing what was to come—she could not move as the purple fog took over her vision and she began to breathe it in.

The men around her dropped one by one as their bodies seemed to shrivel up and cave in on themselves. Kadence held his ground, falling to his knees as his hand and body seemed to wither away. As his vision began to fade, the sound of breaking glass exploded in his ears. The knives had come through the window first, and as Ellis rolled through the ritual circle and barreled into Joanna, knocking her to the ground. Victor roared out in anger, pulling the knives from his chest, but even afterward the wound burned fiercely, and Victor could smell the garlic that had been rubbed on the edges of the weapon.

Ellis stood quickly, but by the time he had blinked his eyes, Victor was in front of him, his eyes ablaze as his clenched fist slammed into Ellis’ gut—sending the man rocketing backwards and smashing through a second window, landing outside. Ellis coughed, his body aching from the punch, knowing that the vampire had likely re-broken the ribs that he was working on fixing. It didn’t help that his left arm was covered in savage burns, and the sleeve was missing from his trench coat on that side. The blessings of the Crusaders of the Lord were good enough to make simple recoveries quickly, but nothing was going to repair all of that in such a short period of time.

He grunted as he got to his feet and cracked his neck. Old man preacher packs a punch. Ellis sighed as he rolled his shoulders, hearing the bones grind together as he loosened himself up. When Victor came through the window after him, Ellis’ eyes caught the path that the man would take, analyzing his movement as quickly as he possibly could, and he was still only able to catch a glimpse of it.

Ellis moved to the side, spinning on his heel and attempting to brush off the attack, but as he spun his shoulder bumped into the bony chest of his adversary. His eyes widened and he knew in that instant that he was horribly outclassed. He did not know if the man’s hand had always been around his throat, or if he had done it so fast that there had been no show of movement at all.

“You should be dead.”

“So…that was your…handiwork…huh?”

“Me and a good friend of mine, yes. I must say, your tenacity is quite endearing. How is it you managed to escape the explosion, hunter?”

“I didn’t…your buddy…made a good…meat shield…though.” Ellis chuckled, though his face was turning red, and his head felt like a hot air balloon. As his eyes began to roll back into his head, he felt a surge of air fill his lungs—the grip around his neck released. His legs gave out on him and he crumpled to the ground, unable to stand. His vision began to falter, but he met Joanna’s crazed eyes for a moment, seeing the woman gripping Victor’s wrist tightly.

“I won’t let you do this to anyone…ever…again!” she screamed, pushing the hand to the side that she had grabbed and then spinning in a full circle, bringing her fist all the way around to gain momentum before planting it square into Victor’s cheek and sending the vampire blasting into the stone walls of the church. The structure shook as Victor slammed against it, the dust from the old stones falling around him as Joanna took sporadic, steps, each one a battle against herself as she neared him.

“You…you monster! You made me do all of those things. You’ve cursed me to hell!”

She jumped upon him swiftly, straddling the vampire as her nails grew to a savage point. She swung her clawed hand down upon him, her remarkable strength and speed shocking Victor. Her claws cut through his flesh, leaving a deep gauge across the man’s cheek. Her eyes grew wide and crazed as she saw the blood and she lurched down toward it, but halfway through leaning down to drink her head snapped still and she could not move.

‘You will regret drinking his blood, woman. If you consume it, you will find his influence take hold of you once again.’

“Shut up!”

‘You think that he is unable to move beneath you? You think yourself stronger than him?’

“Get out of my head! I won’t let you control me! I won’t let you have my mind!”

‘I am not an enemy. I am not here to take control of you. It was Victor who was trying to force me into your body. You have to believe me. You need to run. Now. You and the Hunter are both a large part of this war, now, and you have no means to kill Barlowe. You need to escape him before he has readjusted to this world. He is still weak.’

She bit her lip as she hovered over Barlowe. He looked up to her, his body motionless beneath hers. He looked bored as he stared up at her, and she narrowed her eyes, clenching her fists. She wanted to strike him dead right there, but something told her that the voice was not bluffing. Her heart hammered in her chest, and her shoulders heaved with the sobs that she could not stifle. She backed slowly away from the fallen vampire, and she wiped the tears from her face as her eyes remembered every single detail of the man she had sold her soul to.

“I am going to kill you. I don’t care what it takes. I won’t rest until I watch the darkness fade from your eyes, demon”

“My dearest Joanna. There is nothing you could ever do to stand up against me. I will be the King of the Dead.” The building continued its resonate shudders as a smile cracked Victor’s features. He was about to strike out at Joanna when the first stone dislodged itself, the massive piece of rock slamming down on Victor’s leg. He looked over his shoulder to see the shuddering walls begin to topple forward, and he slammed his fist against the boulder pinning his limb, sending it launching through the trees. He saw the shadow stretch out over him, and as he looked up, the stone wall of the church was already upon him, crashing over him and pushing his body down into the soil. By the time he had broken through the stone wall, Joanna and the unconscious hunter were gone.