I couldn’t get a good grip on what was happening – the duel of arch-diviner and vampire-lord was impossible to follow. She didn’t quite have the vampire’s strength, but I got the impression from the after-images of their motions that he couldn’t get close to me without her outmanoeuvring him, leaving an extended weapon in his path – he moved all around and above me but Em’s flight-spell gave Killstop the ability to be wherever she needed to be with far less than a moment’s notice.
The pain was receding. I had no idea how she was doing it, but my fairy was knitting me back together.
And I could still gesture, still will –
You took my teeth, monster.
Red flames birthed my mekkustremin, the only weapon in my arsenal that could hope to match the diviner and vampire in speed.
I growled something, and the towering doll-demon surged forwards on its ridiculously fast legs, its frizzy hair streaming.
“Don’t do that again. You’re weaker than you think. I’m having to use a lot of your energy here.”
Is that… why you looked…?
“Don’t start talking about my looks right now!” Zel growled.
The mekkustremin did its best to clobber the vampire, but the simple fact I could follow its motions meant it wasn’t in the same league.
I barely saw as the vampire landed claw after claw in its porcelain flesh, gouging holes in it – but I heard the result, the squeal of the porcelain as it was torn open to reveal the pitch-black, hollow interior; I heard the wails of the demon as it suffered, its frozen, painted-on lips still smiling incongruously.
Still, it seemed to help – I caught a glimpse of the vampire pinned between the two of his opponents, Killstop behind him, weaving above and below a series of open-handed strikes meant to fend her off while the vampire slew my fiend.
But she took advantage of its distraction, dancing in, driving a wooden stake through the vampire’s collarbone, stepping back, slipping the next two, clumsier swipes to drive the next stake down at his sternum –
He was too fast, and took Killstop’s arm, twisting hard enough to tear the limb off –
She barrel-rolled with the motion, refusing to give him the purchase he’d need to harm her in this way, and went spinning an extra half a dozen times in the air for good measure, wrecking his unnatural bones –
Crack crack crack!
And still somehow managed to bring the second stake down into his sternum, the instant he released his hold.
The blur of enhanced speed left them both as she sped back out of the way, coming close to me to watch as the vampire-lord collapsed back against my mekkustremin, the two wooden weapons protruding from his flesh.
Killstop was gulping in air, putting a hand out to the nearest wall to steady herself – meanwhile my screaming demon was taking advantage of the vampire’s prostration to rain down a torrent of horrific slaps at his face.
I’d seen those pudgy fists turn imp after imp into literal pulp. Now the cobbles beneath the vampire’s head cracked and splintered under the non-stop barrage of blows landing on his near-unbreakable skull.
“Kherem!” I choked as I saw the vampire’s cranium finally split open. I struggled to turn, getting to my feet as red flames returned my minion to its home dimension.
Avaelar gave me his arm and helped me stand; I oriented myself at the vampire-lord, broken on the floor just a few yards away.
“Thamks, Zam, Ammie,” I gasped. I gestured to my piggish little gremlin and rejoined with him. Leaning on my sylph, I staggered a couple of steps towards the vampire.
I glanced over at Killstop, rattled the words out: “Thamk you.”
The arch-diviner just shook her head, still breathing heavily, then she threw back her hood and tossed out her hair, running her fingers through it. She was steaming in the cold night air.
“You didn’t… see him?” she panted.
“Who?”
“Never mind… I’m letting the… the others know. You don’t… sound so good, Kas.”
I smiled grimly as I managed a couple more steps with the sylph’s help. “Smeak for yourselm.”
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And thank you.
Zel didn’t reply.
I didn’t look down at my gut to check, but I was pretty sure she’d virtually healed me. Even my mouth was becoming less sore; my tongue told me that the swollen, broken gums were shrinking, sealing. I spat out some blood.
She spoke up at last. “You need to get an arch-druid to replace the ribs – we left them behind – and the teeth. If I regrew them, you’d feel it, trust me. You’re still suffering from some blood-loss, but between us we managed to keep all your bits inside, patch them up.”
And the bites?
“You’ll be fine.”
I had no idea you could… do so much.
“I’m not saying it was all the sylph’s work, but…”
I winced as Avaelar helped me cover another foot or two of the distance.
Don’t think I don’t know I’d be dead without you, Zel.
“I… well… How many times does this make it, now?”
Oh… at least four or five.
“Four or five!”
I chuckled to myself.
We halted over the white-clad undead creature. I could see the purple-red blood seeping out of his wounds; his glittering eyes were thrown open and transfixed… but the vampire was still alive. Or whatever passed for ‘alive’ amongst his kind. I couldn’t tell from any of the visual clues, but I could feel it. When I passed the wave of my will over him, his soul wasn’t just a little crevasse my sorcerous power couldn’t fill. His was a deep vault, a hidden cavern beneath the rocky shore, filled with bubbling amethyst hatred that descended for miles into the heart of the earth.
When I spoke it was slow, slurred, as I struggled to pronounce the words.
“Be mine,” I whispered.
Nothing.
“Be mine.” Louder.
Still nothing.
I opened my mouth to shout, uncaring how much it hurt. “Be –!”
The creature’s flesh still didn’t stir – but I felt the surge as the bubbling amethyst hatred turned hot once again, rose up like a geyser –
Danger sense.
Crimson lights birthed Aunty Antlers, and I brought her through so that she would crash with her forehooves straight down onto his upper body.
I sagged against Avaelar from the effort, but I’d not been wrong to act when I did – the very moment the gigantic elk-demon’s bulk of untextured red fur landed atop him, my enemy tried to move, surge up, claw at me with his savage fingers.
He got nowhere and was thrust back down beneath her weight, snarling and growling incoherently.
“This is a curious one, Master,” she commented, gazing down with burning eyes at the spitting, agonised-looking vampire.
“You’re fully healed, I see,” I replied, checking her over.
“My gratitude, Master.” She nodded her head, dipping her massive black antlers, seemingly unperturbed by the thrashing vampire-lord just beneath her hooves. “And my gratitude for the entertainment, when last you dismissed me. We have come to an accord, Khikiriaz and I. He will fight your enemies alongside me – have no fear of mutiny, for I have found him lacking in many things, and took time to set him aright. Might you… beckon him to the Material Plane, Master? He dreads the day he is called upon to face you again, face your rage. I would assuage his fears, and have you permit him to put himself back together again.”
The ikistadreng… is still torn apart?
I didn’t have the energy left to shudder as violently as it warranted.
“Let him fix himself,” I said. “I didn’t call on you for a conversation, Aunty. Let’s keep this strictly professional.” I looked down at the vampire. “Why won’t you bend the knee, creature? What’s stopping you?”
“I… was once… as thou,” he spat, “and may… not… be… commanded!”
He put on another burst of strength, trying to rise, but it was futile.
I saw the way the stake in his sternum wasn’t quite there yet – the one in his collarbone was buried deep, but the one in the centre of his chest could’ve done with being pushed in deeper. I was pretty sure that was why he was still in the realm of the living.
“Hate to tell ya, man, but being able to resist isn’t exactly going in your favour, this time, is it?” I grinned benignly down at him. I could feel the way my smile was lopsided, half my face almost unresponsive. “If you’d let yourself be commanded, I could keep you around, but if you insist –“
“I do – not; I – cannot!” he gargled.
I gazed down at him, understanding at last.
“You… actually can’t give in? Can’t be controlled?”
He shook his head, purple tears smoking as they fell from his eyes.
“Slay… slay me, upstart,” he spat again. “My brother… will not… fail…”
He’s an archmage?
“He was. Only a lich would retain his natural powers, though. He’s just like a vampire elder.”
He was like me, once.
“A super-murderous version of you, yeah.”
And if I kill him…?
“He goes to the shadowland. For a very long time.”
Until he gets his body back?
“Essentially. He could become a spectre… The process of eldritch-reincarnation is a little more comp-“
Okay, I cut her off grimly.
I leaned over to press my hand down on the stake, impale his heart –
Right then Em arrived, sinking down in front of me, bringing a white radiance into the muted red glow of my ikistadreng. I straightened back up to receive her as she leapt into my arms, wordlessly embracing me.
“We shall never… never let you…” the vampire-lord hissed, “never cease… our struggle. Mund’s fate will… will not… be ours… wi-“
“Great place to cut you off.” I looked at Em, and pointed. “Do you want to do it, or should I…?”
She spun out of my arms, judged it, then stamped her boot down on the blunt top of the stake protruding from his chest.
Purplish blood gushed out around the wood. My demon stepped away at my gesture.
In spite of the fiend’s withdrawal, the vampire arched his back, his face and hands contorting as though he were still struggling against an immense weight pressing down on his torso. Killstop came forward to watch as his flesh and hair started to pulse, becoming purple, transparent, shadowy –
Then it was gone. The two wooden stakes, no longer drenched in blood, lay amidst the collapsed-in clothing.
“Come on, let’s get back to the others,” Killstop said. “Spiritwhisper hasn’t connected you back up, and that really doesn’t bode well.”
I waved my demon back to Infernum, joined with Avaelar, and let Em take me by the arm before my wings had sprouted, carrying me off on the heels of the arch-diviner, soaring away into the moonlit night.
* * *