CHAPTER 54:  THE FIRST FAVOR

“Okay,” Shannon said slowly, “so you’re saying all you want is for me to go lose my virginity on either Theo or the barghest—have them break me in first—empty my venom sacs completely by re-enthralling Björn, and then have sex with you so you no longer look like a dog.  That about sum it up?”

Tl'oghk'etnaeyen nodded happily, thrilled that a small-minded Third Lander simpleton had understood so easily.

The vampire queen gave him a protracted stare.  “Get out.”

Tl'oghk'etnaeyen blinked.  “What?”

She lifted an arm and pointed at the door, scowling at him.

Tl'oghk'etnaeyen opened his mouth to argue, to tell her that was the favor he wanted from her, when the door to the front door rattled and Theo stepped inside…

…followed by a Nightlander magi that Tl'oghk'etnaeyen had only read about in books.

Svartr Buðlungr, he thought, tensing all over, the Duke.  Was this the vampire lord that Theo had gone to subjugate?  He couldn’t imagine that had gone well, or that Theo had gone to do so willingly…

“Hey Shannon,” Theo said.  He was smiling and looked pleasant enough, but his jaw had a tension to it that didn’t seem…right.  When Tl'oghk'etnaeyen looked, he saw that the vampire lord’s hands were tightened into white fists.  And, when he looked very carefully, he saw blackness laced through his body along the lines of his veins.

Blood magic, Tl'oghk'etnaeyen realized, his panic ramping up a notch.  He’s bound by seiðr.

But Shannon seemed completely oblivious.  “So who’s the Dungeons & Dragons dude?”

Tl'oghk'etnaeyen sidled up to Shannon, watching the Duke with apprehension.  As far as blood magics were concerned, there were very few magi that could best him, especially not a discarded lordling like Tl'oghk'etnaeyen.

“Introduce us, Theodore,” Svartr Buðlungr said.  Immediately, the strands of black hanging between them tightened, and Theo, like a puppet on a string, blurted, “This is Svartr Buðlungr.  He’s a Duke of the Third Realm.  A vampire lord.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” the Duke said smoothly, reaching out, his hand awash in writhing tendrils of black seiðr.

He’s going to bind her, too, Tl'oghk'etnaeyen thought, on a surge of horror.

#

Shannon was halfway to reaching for the elegant man’s hand when Angus started to growl.  Like a dog.  Like a human actually pretending to be a dog.  “Grrrrr…”  Frowning, she glanced over her shoulder.  “Angus, what the—”

“Dogs are naturally disinclined to appreciate the denizens of the Nightlands,” the Duke said smoothly.  He stepped forward, closing the distance between them, hand still out in greeting.  “I’m actually surprised he’s not attacking me.”

“He’s got a couple screws loose,” Theodore muttered.  “Please don’t hurt him.”

Please don’t…hurt…him?  Shannon jerked back to look at Theo.  He was standing there stiffly at the door, pleading in his eyes as he met the other man’s gaze.  Confused, Shannon looked at Angus.  Why would he…

Then her gaze caught that of the vampire lord, still a full step away from her, and she saw something odd in his face, something that shouldn’t have been there, that automatically set off her Creep Alarm.  She took a quick step back.

If in doubt, strike the groin, Masaaki’s words had repeated, again and again, on endless loop in the back of her mind since he had started brainwashing her.  If we must, we can always explain later.  That monologue had always been accompanied by several hours of mind-numbing lessons on stomping, kicking, punching, elbowing, kneeing, or biting a man’s testicles into oblivion.

The vampire lord’s face darkened and he reached for her.

The creepy look on his face sent Shannon’s leg into an automatic spasm, and before she had a fully-formed thought, she’d kicked the Duke of the Nightlands in the nuts.

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry!” Shannon cried, reaching out for him as he folded to the floor.  “This crazy neurotic samurai dude has been brainwashing me to—”

“Kick him again!” Theo shouted, still standing stiffly by the door.

Shannon hesitated in reaching for the Duke and glanced at her friend.  Theo was sweating, his brow slick in the light, a strangled sound in his throat.  Slowly, she glanced back down at the Duke, saw the look of concentration on his face…

Ninety-nine percent of those who come to you will not have benign intent, Masaaki’s voice repeated.  You must be willing to defend yourself.

Then Shannon saw the black snakes slithering from his fingers, seeping across the floorboards towards her feet.  She remembered similar snakes, sliding from her fingertips, taking out entire swaths of forest…

Even vampire lords have a weakness, Masaaki had said, while showing her how to snap a kick to the apex of the legs.  Use it.

Shannon kicked him again, hard, then three more times, until the black snakes slithered back into his hand and he was moaning on the floor in a fetal position, clutching his groin with both hands.

“Now thrall him!” Theo screamed.  “Do it now!”

The vampire on the floor made an enraged sound and fisted his hand and Theo started choking, the veins in his neck bulging as he remained utterly bowstring-tight, every muscle taut.  Already, the lord was starting to unfold on the floor, staggering to his feet with a look of vengeance in his eyes…

Shannon had a split-second to realize she could either stay and fight or run away.  Her instincts said run.  Masaaki was screaming at her to kick him until he stopped moving.

Samurai do not run, she thought, they kill their enemy the first time, or die trying, so that others will not have to run in their place.  She glanced again at Theo, who was trembling all over, sweat slick on his face, struggling with something she didn’t understand.

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“Ah fuck it,” she said, dropping onto the robed man’s back.  She tore his robe away and, even as he was howling and twisting to throw her off, drove both fangs into his back and squeezed.

Even as the pleasure of releasing her venom started coursing through her, however, it was abruptly cut short.

“Off!” the vampire screamed, rolling and bodily throwing her through a wall before her venom had a chance to penetrate.  He was panting and wide-eyed as he climbed back to his feet, robes hanging in tatters from his belt, horror-filled gaze fixed to the icy silver dribbling from her wrists to spatter the floor by her feet.  He glanced at his back, saw the dribbles tracing down his skin, and returned his attention to her with a mixture of fear and disbelief.

He was too fast, she thought, still feeling the cold venom still sliding in pulses from her fangs, along with the tides of pleasure that came with it.  Dammit.  Panting, desperately fighting the arousal, she balled her fists, willing the fangs to slide back into her forearms.  They only retracted partway, stubbornly staying within view.

The Duke was already wrapping himself in writhing bands of shadow, roiling around him in a terrifying swath of living darkness that made the very walls sway and vibrate like something out of The Mummy.

Should’ve run, Shannon thought, nervously taking an unconscious step backwards at the roiling power unfolding between them.  Yep, Captain, totally should’ve run…  Who the hell was she to fight some vampire dude who could sling black snakie things out of his fingers?  She should’ve gotten the hell outta Dodge…

But, for some reason, even with all the power roiling between them, the vampire hesitated.  His eyes flickered to the blood staining her wrists, then back to her.  There was a long pause, like he was waiting for something.

He could obviously squish me, Shannon thought, feeling the very house roared with the swirling blackness coming from the man.  Why isn’t he squishing me?

Then she watched as the stranger’s fear slowly faded from his face, replaced by a somewhat sheepish grin.

“I forget how young you are,” the stranger said, relaxing.  “Theodore, go hold her down.”

Immediately, Theo lunged forward and slammed her to the floor.  He wasn’t as strong as the barghest—not by a long shot—but he was fast, and he hit her hard enough to knock the wind out of her.  Theo is enthralled? her startled mind panicked.  She had thought only another queen could enthrall a lord. 

“Tighter,” the Duke warned.  “I don’t want her kicking me again.”

And Theo, grinding his teeth and his gaze begging her for mercy, did exactly as he was told, cracking ribs with the sudden force of his hug.  Shannon gasped and scrabbled to loosen the vampire lord’s arms from her chest, struggling for air from how tightly he squeezed her ribcage, pinning her to the floor.  It was like trying to fight an iron statue of a pissed-off Spartan.

“Theo, what are you doing?!” she gasped, unable to get enough air.  “Let go.”

“It’s not his fault,” the man sighed as he stepped closer.  “It’s a clusterfuck all around.  Pretty sure the gods are involved—it reeks of their arrogance, and I can’t wait to drop the butchered heads of their champions at their feet for wasting my time.”  Then, casually, he squatted beside her.  “But, until then, we can’t have you trying to enthrall me again…” and, with a practiced flourish, a blade of darkness extended from one of his palms, shaped like a wickedly-curved dagger.  “Pity.  You reek of latent seiðr.  In another place, another time, I would have enjoyed training you.  As it is now, of course, I have strict instructions to burn it all out of you.”  The void-black dagger flared with purple veining too bright to look at, illuminating a face that appeared apologetic.  “Theo too, while I’m at it.  His new master is no master of seiðr and he wants to keep his hide.”

Beside her, Theo’s whole body tensed.

Looking almost regretful, the vampire lord reached for her throat, placed his warm fingers on the side of her jaw, twisted her head so that her temple was facing him.  Then, slowly, he lowered the blade to the skin just behind her eye.

Searing agony drove through Shannon’s whole body from that single point, tightening her lungs in a scream.

“Hold her,” the lord warned, when Theo’s grip loosened. 

“Fuck you,” Theo whispered.  But, though his face twisted in agony, his arms tightened again.

“Just another moment while I cut it out…” the Duke said, slowly sinking into her mind, his face tight with concentration.

Then Angus’s voice clearly rang out, “You want to banish the knife.”

The purple-laced shadow disintegrated from the vampire lord’s hand and he frowned down at his palm in startled confusion.  Then, eyes widening suddenly, he spun to face Angus, who had been watching the scene from across the room, a bubble of firefly-green energy glimmering around him.

“You!”

With total calm, Angus continued, “Shannon, the first favor I collect of you is to lick the blood from your wrists and swallow it.”

The strange vampire lord’s eyes widened further and his attention snapped back to her, his expression shifting from surprise and accusation to horror.

But the green energy that had settled into her chest was now powering her, operating her body around her like a puppet, and Shannon had her mouth to her wrist, slurping in the dribbles of vampire lord’s blood that still stained her wrists, swallowing them like sips of ambrosia.

Where there had once been patronizing and disdain in the vampire lord’s eyes before, now they were filled with horror.  He released his hold on her jaw and scrabbled backwards across the scratched hardwood floor, attention fixed on her, mouth open.

“Shannon, the second favor I collect of you is—”

The vampire lord shrieked and, in a coiling blast of shadow that toppled everyone in the room, vanished.

“Fuck, fuck!” Theo screamed, un-cinching his arms and crab-crawling away from Shannon.  “Fuck!  Shannon I’m so sorry fuck.”  He glanced around them, looking almost panicked.  “Where’d the fucker go?  Why’d he stop?”  He twisted to look at her again, the blood-web of his body afire with pressure and the hammering of his heart.  “Did he cut you?”  He reached up, touched her temple, and came back with blood on his thumb.  “Oh no…”

“She’s fine,” Angus said.  “The blade didn’t cut past the skin.”

“But you must be fine,” Theo said.  “The blade didn’t get deep enough.” 

Shannon turned to look at Angus with a frown.  What in the…?

The dog seemed content to sit there and watch them placidly.

Sounds of savagery made her turn back to Theo.  Even then, the vampire lord was tearing at his own wrist, biting the skin away, revealing blood, milking his arm like a farmer milked a cow…

“Gotta cleanse his spell from me before he comes back,” Theo said, glancing nervously over his shoulder as his body started pumping his own lifesblood onto the floor.  In it, she saw writhing snakes of darkness, flopping around like flatworms with nowhere to go.  “Ech!  Fuck!”  He quickly sloughed more of the worms from his body, then kicked them across the room, then lunged to his feet.

“We’ve gotta go,” Theo said, grabbing her by the arm and bodily hauling her from the floor.  His damaged wrist, Shannon noted, was already almost healed, probably spurred by adrenaline.  “I don’t know why he left—probably some sort of fucking trap—but we have to go.  Now.  Before he comes back and brings that native shithead with him.”

“Angus did it,” Shannon said, frowning and trying to push Theo’s grip from her hand.

Theo hesitated.  “Angus?”  He glanced across the room.

Angus wagged his tail and woofed.

Theo seemed to melt in a tide of relief.  “Oh, he’s still alive.  Odin’s hairy asshole, I saw Svartr try to kill him and I just about lost it.”  He went over, oblivious to the green upside-down bowl of energy sizzling around him, and rubbed Angus’s fuzzy head.  “Good boy.  Good dog.  We’ll take you home and get you some vampire lord steaks, how about that?!”

Angus woofed again, jowls dripping.

“Yeah,” Theo said, moving agitatedly across the room to check the door.  “Crap, that almost really sucked.”  Now he was swirling with shadows, though they did not hold the same intensity as that of the Duke.  “Come on, Shannon, we gotta get out of here.  Now.”  He turned to glance at the ‘dog’ over his shoulder.  “Angus, come.”

The mastiff obediently got up and trotted over to follow them out the door.

“What happened to Masaaki?” Shannon asked.

“I don’t know,” Theo said.  “He might still be in the truck.  Fuck what I wouldn’t give to be able to walk the Void.”

Thinking of the infinite tapestry of luminescent threads inside the freezing darkness that Angus had called the ‘Void,’ she said, “Angus can walk the—”

Angus stomped on her foot, hard, with a paw.

“Ow!” she cried.

Theo frowned and turned back to her.  “Ow what?  You twist your ankle or something?”

Scowling at Angus, she muttered, “No.”

“Good,” he said, slinging Angus over his shoulder, “’cause things are about to get rough and I need you to keep up.”  And then he started to run, and Shannon had to struggle to keep pace.