Chapter 27: Vol 2 – Chapter 7 – Every Rose has it’s Thorns

The sounds of the screaming and violence lead us back to our planned rendezvous point at the town square. It was then that we finally caught sight of what had befallen the town, or at least what was left of the poor villagers who had survived. They, like the undead I had encountered on my first day, resembled the villagers who used to live here when they were living. But now, their skin was incredibly pale. Their fingers on their hands had been disfigured into sharp looking claws, with their nails extending an inch or more from their fingertips. They were all barefoot and their feet had been transformed in a similar fashion, with arched heels and toes that curled into talons. They were screeching and wailing in their mindless flailing, teeth sharp and hungry. 

There were about a dozen of them attacking the few soldiers attempting to stand their ground. With everyone split up, their attack had caught us with reduced numbers. One soldier already lay on the ground, bleeding out from a large tear in his neck, his body quivering and spasming as the last of his life ebbed from him. The remaining three weren’t fairing much better. Duncan and the others had better get here fast. 

Kit was immediately ready to join the fray, despite the poor odds. “I guess they were all hiding behind the second door!” He immediately jumped to assist a soldier fending off two of the village vampires as three others had pounced on his partner that had been watching his back. As he lay on the ground screaming, one vampire had latched itself at his throat and was drinking deeply. The soldier slowly lost the will to fight, and he went limp as the other two ripped an arm and leg from his body to feed. 

Kit took advantage of their distraction and seemed to blink across the field. Within a few moments, he had decapitated one, thrown three of his wrist knives into the feeding face of another, and had leapt on the back of the third drinking from the soldier. With an effortless grace, he buried his dagger to the hilt in the top of the skull through it’s head. He had no time to savor his kills however, as two more realized there was new food at the table.

The vampires sped towards him on all fours with an inhuman speed, galloping towards Kit, who was still confirming the three he had dispatched were not going to be getting back up. Everything on the field was moving so fast. I had only had a chance to glance around at each movement while unsheathing Lily, and already there were dead on the ground. Ash took a defensive stance in front of me, staff extended and starting to glow. 

I wasn’t as anxious as Kit to join the fray, but even with the three Kit had killed, we were still outnumbered almost two to one. And against these inhuman monsters, those were not good odds, as I was swiftly reminded as another one of the soldiers lost sight of his predators and then lost his life, as the vampire jumped on his back, unhinged it’s jaw and closed it’s mouth around the top of his head. I turned away as I heard the crunching and ripping with his head being ripped in two. 

“Ash! Amelia! Stay put and back to back! Don’t pick a fight unless one comes to you!” Dorian yelled. He had already pulled out his bow, his targets the two vampires sprinting towards Kit. They were moving so fast, he was barely able to clip them with each arrow he loosed. Dorian was an amazing shot, and to see him barely wing a monstrous villager in the leg or shoulder was unnerving. 

Where the hell were Duncan and the others?

Just then, a vampire vaulted away from a shot from Dorian and dug it’s claws into the side of a building, clinging to it’s side. It roared it’s anger at Dorian, only to spot Ash and me in our defensive position in the rear. Spying what it believed to be easier prey, it pounced from roof to roof in our direction.

“Steady, Amelia! I got this!” Ash grit his teeth and the moonstone atop his staff glowed a bit brighter. 

“We’ll take it together, Ash! I’m with you!” I was terrified but determined. It was the horde all over again, Ash and I facing down yet another terror together, only this time I didn’t want to be saved. I was probably even less capable of defending myself now, but I hated how helpless I had felt then. I refused to back down here. 

I swallowed some of the bile that had crawled up my throat as the vampire made it’s last leap towards us, snarling in midair. Ash thrust the point of his staff at it as it fell towards us, and suddenly a beam of light shot out of the tip! It pierced the vampire in it’s chest and shot through it cleanly, filling the air with an acrid burning ozone smell. The vampire’s trajectory didn’t change, and it collapsed next to us still screaming, but now in pain and agony. Ash had side stepped the vampire’s landing and shoved his staff end into it’s back, pinning the writhing thing to the ground. 

“Now, Amelia!” 

Without hesitation, I copied Kit’s movement of mounting it and plunging Lily directly through the skull of the vamp. Despite not having the upper body strength Kit displayed in his execution, the blade still slid easily into flesh, offering no resistance, and my blade also sunk to it’s hilt as the vampire ceased it’s movement. I got up off of it as Ash released his pin on the limp form and he grinned at me, panting a little at the spell’s exertion. “See? Easy-peasy!”

I gave him a small smile with a raised eyebrow, “Yeah. Four down, eight more to go. It’s almost one on one!” I sarcastically mocked. 

Ash laughed, despite the danger, “It’s dead, we’re not. What more do you want?” 

Ask, and you shall receive. 

Suddenly a roar bellowed from a side street, and Duncan and company spilled out into the opening, Minerva spinning in his hands. I pointed in the direction of our rescuers, “That!” The cavalry had arrived.

Duncan roared as he swung Minerva with one hand side armed, and cleaved through the neck of the nearest villager, the head spinning off like a top. Chad and Julius were right behind him, Chad with his sword drawn and Julius with a gloved hand aflame. They plunged into the thick of the remaining vampires, the other soldiers right behind them. 

Despite the inhuman speed and strength our adversaries possessed, we now had the superior numbers and had flipped the element of surprise. And Duncan, with Minerva in his hands, was a monster in his own right. He had engaged the dual headed mode for the axe and swung her with calculated swipes, cleaving through limbs and torsos, taking out another three of the remaining barely half dozen foes. Despite not connecting with killing headshots as he had advised, they were now crippled and much less threatening. He kept moving, a whirlwind of steel, as the soldiers behind him finished off what was left of the vamps left in his wake. 

I tore my vision away from the Duncan’s trail of destruction to check on Kit and Dorian. Kit was reverse gripping the dagger in his left hand and, with his other dagger still lodged in the skull of his previous kill, had donned some knuckledusters with menacing looking silver spikes on them in his right. The vampire kept attempting to get in arms reach of him, but Kit was matching it, move for move and speed with speed. I had no idea how he was able to keep up with each attack. His anticipation of what the hungry fiend was going to do next must have been part skill, part luck.

The vampire lunged with an extended clawed hand, only to have Kit thrust his dagger down and into the outreached upper arm. He then pulled the weapon towards him, dragging the monster closer. The monster seemed to be delighted at finally closing the distance with his food, only to have Kit smash it square in the face with his weaponized fist. The monster’s face caved in and body slumped limply to the ground. 

Brandishing his sword, Dorian was not attempting to play with his adversary nearly as much as Kit. He seemed aware of the physical mismatch between them and was more than content to stay out of arm’s reach, staying in a defensive position rather than engaging. Ash and I both rushed over to help and flanked the hungry vampire. I also reverse gripped Lily while Ash started to charge up his staff again. 

The vampire stopped advancing on Dorian and realized it was now surrounded. It whirled from me to Ash, wincing as it did from the glow of light emanating from the moonstone. It snarled as it shielded it’s eyes, and then jumped straight up and away from our circle, landing on a nearby roof. Chad and Julius had rushed over to join us and Julius extended his fingertips to shoot a jet of flame across the space. The vampire howled again and leapt away and out of sight behind the building as the flames licked at it’s disfigured feet.

“Everyone alright?” Chad asked between gasps. He and Julius both were panting for air, finally having a moment to stop from running from wherever they had been when they heard the commotion. 

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“You’re late, pretty boy!” Kit called out. He was lovingly cleaning his freshly removed dagger while kicking over the vampire corpses he had dispatched. I couldn’t tell if he was morbidly admiring his handiwork or looking for something. Chad ignored him and rushed over to me and grabbed my arms and looked me over intently, eyes wide with… was that terror?

“Are you ok?”

I didn’t know how to answer him. I was confused and still a little nervous around him since our kiss that we had yet to discuss, so I just stood there and blinked hard at him. He seemed to take this as an acknowledgement that I was fine, while simultaneously realizing what he was doing. He hurriedly let me go and awkwardly coughed into his hand. He then rubbed the back of his neck and couldn’t seem to make eye contact with me as he stared up at nothing in particular.

“Yes, well… It appears we got here just in time to keep you from coming to any harm, if a bit late to save the lives of our other fallen comrades.” 

Dorian raised an eyebrow at his odd behavior, arms crossed. Julian held his chin in his hand, studying the awkward interaction, but also keeping his thoughts to himself. We weren’t so lucky with Kit.

Sliding up to us, his possible trophies completely forgotten, he stood between the both of us and glanced back and forth at us.

“….. what was that??” he asked, a wide grin on his stupid face. 

Chad’s ears were turning red, and you could almost see steam coming off of them as he stammered out, “I was concerned for the lady’s well-being! It’s the gentlemanly thing to do with nothing out of place about it at all! Why aren’t you also not concerned for her? Because you’re a louse, that’s why!” At that he stomped away, leaving me as the lone center of their curious attention. Great. He hadn’t bailed me out at all, just brought me even more attention I didn’t want. Damn Duncan’s “no hoodie” mandate!

All the boys turned to look back at me, and I realized I had to think fast if I didn’t want more uncomfortable prying questions. I needed a distraction and decided to appeal to their egos. I exaggeratedly fanned my face with a hand and laid it on thick, each word dripping with sarcasm. 

“Thanks to your timely arrival and heroic efforts, nothing got even close to touching me. I’m fine, boys. You should all feel very proud.” I forced my most convincing smile, and the silly idiots bought it. 

Men.

Each of them smiled in acceptance of this distraction tactic, and I hoped Chad’s awkwardness had been forgotten. It was then my turn to cough into a fist and try and change the subject. I turned to Kit, again to stroke his ego, “Well we may not have found pie, but we sprung the trap anyway.”

He continued to smile, “Indeed we did, Kitten. Indeed, we did.” He sauntered over to one of our kills and began looking it over. “I’ve killed a lot o’ things in my day in the pits. Wasn’t always humans. The bigger an’ nastier the opponent, the larger the crowd an’ the higher the bets. Elves, goblins, even the occasional orc.”

His eyes glossed over a bit as he remembered… remembered what? Glory days? Terrors and horrors beyond our imagination? It was then I wondered if he remembered the pits with any fondness. He had just recently made his offhanded comment to me about how life was easier in the pits in some ways. Had even used the term “missed”. Was he re-living savoring some kill in his head?

He shook his head to bring himself back to us and continued, “Nothin’ like this though. Human, but not.” He reached down and used a thumb to peel back the lips and gums of the vampire at his feet, revealing the sharp teeth, and even longer canines. “Not even the undead act like this, with this unrivaled blind lust for food. And their speed?” He stood back up. “Duncan was right. Nothin’ in any texts woulda prepared us for this kinda foe.” He finally acknowledged our dead amongst the rest. “Miracle we came outta this with minimal losses.”

Duncan had gotten within ear shot of the last of it and added to our conversation. 

“Agreed. I am glad to see the rest of you are safe. We came as quickly as we could when we heard the screams. We lost some good men today.” 

It was at this moment that Dorian also wished to change the subject and not linger on our losses. “This attack has to be observed as a good thing though, yes? This is the kind of lead the Crown was looking for. Vampires have returned!” He spun in a full circle, making broad gestures at all of it. “They wiped out a full village with what seems like very little effort. They either efficiently invaded enough the town itself was spared collateral damage, “he shuddered as he completed his rotation and faced us once more, “or they were able to prey on the whole town covertly so as not to rouse suspicion. Either prospect bodes ill.” 

Duncan stood tweaking and pulling at the end of his mustache in thought. Eventually he spoke, “Indeed. I am not convinced this is all the reconnaissance we need, however. These were mindless thralls, easy to turn. A vampire needs very little power to turn a human and point it in a destructive direction. This is not enough evidence to prove a resurgence in their power. Had these managed to bite and turn any of you, the results would have been the same. Horrifying and dangerous, yes. But not something the Crown would consider a threat to the kingdom.”

I cringed a little as I thought of the one that got away from us. “Should we try and follow the survivor?” I asked. Duncan just shook his head.

“No. One of the rules of this engagement remember? We don’t chase, only defend. Is it unfortunate that it lives to endanger others? Yes. But I prefer not to endanger more lives than I can control by chasing it back to it’s own territory. Going underground was not part of our plan.”

I nodded somberly and Ash rubbed a hand on my back. He didn’t like it either, but we understood. 

While we had all discussed our theories on what this attack had meant, the rest of the surviving soldiers had gathered around us. We had lost four members of our group. Duncan ordered them beheaded, if they still had heads attached to their bodies, to not risk them returning to life when night fell. It was gruesome and borderline disrespectful to their memories, but a necessary evil. We then set about beheading the rest of the vampires who still had their heads and piled the corpses outside of town before lighting them ablaze. The fallen were included in the bonfire and we stood in silence as we watched them all burn, reflecting on the events of the dangers of the day and what it may mean for the future. 

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