Luke Irontree & the Last Vampire War (Books 8-10), page 30
“Ready?” Luke asked.
Roxi nodded. Together, they touched the tips of their swords to the doors and pressed out. The doors exploded out of the frames, plowing into the rows of werewolves and vampires lined up outside, waiting for what they thought was an orderly surrender. The glowing shrapnel of the doors sliced through their targets, maiming and killing anyone who it touched—the light infusing it with a deadliness beyond steel and glass.
Not allowing their enemies to recover, Luke and Roxi surged forward, reaping death and ruin with their moonlight-enhanced blades. In the back of Luke’s mind, he wished the swords would make a humming sound like a light saber.
Luke waded straight through the crowd while Roxi pressed to the right, hoping to open up a lane for their friends to escape through. The shock of their attack caught the vamps and their pet werewolves completely off balance. With terror in their eyes, anyone within reach of Luke and Roxi’s blades died or tried to run away. Anyone who dared counterattack was quickly mowed down. Soon the crowds began to disintegrate at the back end as those out of reach of the vengeful vampire hunters chose feet over fists and made their best efforts to save their lives.
“Luke!” Delilah cried out.
His ears pulled his head around, finding Delilah and Charlie tied up, wolves and vampires abandoning their hostages. Luke pressed forward, ignoring the burn in his arms from swinging his sword and lashing out with this shield. When he made it to his friends, he slashed through the ropes binding Delilah’s ankles, then cut the ropes around her wrists, the silvery light leaving her unharmed. She leapt to her feet and grabbed a dagger from Luke’s belt and freed Charlie, since the light would hurt the werewolf.
“Go, run. To the south. Pablo has Pearl. They’ll be waiting for you.” Luke darted to the side and took a machete on his shield.
The light slithered down the blade and singed the hand of the wielder, forcing him to drop it. Following with a quick slash, Luke removed the head of the werewolf who’d been dumb enough to fight back. Delilah snatched up the machete and ran, tugging Charlie after her as they fled to rejoin the rest of their people.
“Luke!” Roxi shouted.
He could feel it—the encroaching darkness. Luke turned to the north. A dark column of shadow advanced toward the north wall from outside their breached fort. Vampires and werewolves alike fled before it, scattering to get out of its way and leaving Luke and Roxi alone in the center of the camp.
“Do we run?” Luke asked.
“We need to buy time for our friends.” Roxi, breathing hard, strolled up next to him and stopped.
He let out a ragged exhale. He’d tangled with the dark entity before and barely survived the encounters. He feared his luck might not hold for a third time. Every muscle in his body burned from wounds and fatigue, but he’d have to find a reserve somewhere. “I was afraid you’d say that, but you’re right.”
They looked at each other, love in their tired eyes. They’d fought side-by-side before and come out victorious in the arena. Now they were much stronger and in better condition, though the nearly forty-plus hours of battle had drained them both. But they had little choice. At least they had the backing of Selene and her strength to bolster themselves.
“I don’t know what he’s bringing, but be very careful,” Luke said.
“We can do this. You and I, dōšagīh.”
He loved it when she called him dōšagīh. It calmed the turmoil inside and brought a kernel of peace into his heart.
Luke didn’t recognize the man at the center of the dark column when he finally made it over their log barricade. It wasn’t the same body he’d seen in Wyoming and Belgium. He didn’t know if the entity had picked a new host, modified the old one, or merely picked this one out of convenience and need. Either way, it didn’t matter. The body was incidental in comparison to the entity that drove it.
It stopped, staring back and forth between Roxi and Luke, then formed a blade of darkness in one hand and a round shield of similar substance with the other. Its face remained unmoving and emotionless save for the eyes that slowly moved back and forth between Luke and Roxi, weighing them against some terrible scales only it knew of. Not waiting to offer its usual banter, it charged in, targeting Roxi.
She parried its vicious overhead slash and darted around to the side, shoving it toward Luke with her shield. With the entity off balance, Luke knocked its sword aside and slashed into its torso. Instead of blood, it leaked black smoke from the wound for a brief moment before the cut sealed itself. Roxi took advantage of the distraction bought by the wounding to thrust forward into its lower back where the kidneys should have been. This time, the creature let out a shrieking scream like a wounded Nazgul and arched its back around Roxi’s sword.
Luke spun to the front and delivered a vicious backhanded slash to the entity’s throat, cutting off the ear shattering screech, then danced back. Roxi pulled her blade out and opened up space. Despite what should have been two mortal wounds, or at least debilitating wounds on a vampire, the cuts spewed that same oily black smoke, then sealed.
Luke’s eyes widened and his face sagged as the empty pit in his gut widened and deepened. So far, their attacks could hurt, but they couldn’t kill. He couldn’t tell if the wounds sealed just as quickly or if they took longer. He wanted them to take their toll. If they couldn’t do any lasting damage, they’d eventually tire, even with Selene’s strength, and make a mistake, possibly a life-ending mistake. At least the wounds had earned them a moment’s reprieve.
“No mercy,” Luke called to Roxi.
“No quarter,” she replied.
As the last wisp of smoke from the entity’s throat disappeared on the breeze, a terrible growl rumbled up from its core as it peeled its lips back into a snarl.
Before the creature could take back the lead, they reengaged, striking and creating more wounds as they knocked aside ineffectual sword thrusts and shield blocks. Somehow, the entity and the new body didn’t seem to be entirely in sync yet. The dark nimbus would draw back its sword arm to strike, but the body would be a split second behind, moving in a slightly different manner. With each tiny miscue, entity flexed and squeezed, forcing the movement. But instead of increasing its link, it only exacerbated the issue. Luke wanted to keep the two parts of it fighting with itself to prevent it from achieving mastery over its stolen vessel. Luke pressed harder, striking more deadly blows but only getting brief puffs of smoke in response.
Unfortunately, they didn’t appear to be doing enough damage, and the entity was gaining control of the body. Soon, Luke and Roxi were struggling to land blows, instead forced to block and dodge. Raising his shield to take a particularly savage slash from the entity, Luke lost the top quarter of his moonlight scutum, the slivers dissolving into the night sky. Leaping back, he reformed his shield, though it felt thinner, as if he’d lost part of the substance and had less to work with. Even the moonlight blade was taking nicks. When he lost that, he’d have to hope his silver and magic infused blade would hold out.
Falling back on his nimbleness and training, he tried to avoid taking more direct hits to his shield, using his sword to parry and shield to divert instead of outright block.
As he leapt away yet another time, he stumbled slightly, his muscles burning with fatigue. He barely raised his shield in time to catch another brutal attack from the entity. He lost another chunk of shield and staggered back. Roxi, who’d been darting in and out, charged in, slamming her shield into the side of the darkness. She knocked it away from Luke, then slashed low, catching it across the hamstring before slipping away.
Her move bought Luke the time he needed to regain his footing, but instead of reforming his shield, he formed a matching sword for his left hand. The substance wouldn’t have made a thick enough shield, and a paper shield was nothing to stand behind.
Shifting back to the attack, Luke rained blows down on the entity, slashing high and low, thrusting where he could. Though he didn’t land any of the big hits he had earlier, he opted for a death of a thousand paper cuts, landing shallow slices and thrusts in less vital areas. The speed and power of his counterattack opened up gaps for Roxi to land harder blows. It seemed to work; the wounds taking longer to seal as they belched oily acrid smoke.
When the entity caught a hard hit on its shield, Luke noticed it begin to throb and expand until it exploded outward in a three-sixty radius, knocking Luke and Roxi away and to the ground. Luke struggled to get up, pushing himself away from the entity. Roxi seemed to be having a similar struggle.
Luke’s chest heaved, and his brain throbbed as he tried to catch his wind and get his muscles to respond, but they felt sluggish and unresponsive. Fear bordering on panic surged through him as the entity stalked toward him, its face an emotionless mask, though the dark column seethed with hatred. Luke barely blocked the slash it directed at his head. The blow shattered the moonlight sword, sapping Luke of more of Selene’s strength as he tried to scuttle away from the being stalking toward him.
Sitting on his butt, he blocked another attack toward his head, though his light enhanced real sword held up to the strike as he thrust it away. If he didn’t get to his feet, he’d be dead. Desperation fueled his movements as he parried another attack, then another, forcing all his will to survive into keeping the entity from skewering him.
Behind the entity, Roxi had abandoned her shield and had pulled all the light inward, forming a cavalry bow. When she drew back the string, an arrow of pure moonlight formed and lanced out, streaking into the entity’s back. As it hit, she drew back again, releasing another bolt of moonlight.
The shots halted the entity’s advance toward Luke as it shrieked in agony at the pure moonlight arrows piercing its body. Instead of disappearing, the arrows formed bright lances of light, smoke pouring from the wounds. With each arrow launched, Selene’s glow around Roxi diminished. Closing his eyes and putting his faith in Roxi and Selene, he pushed the goddess’s strength toward Roxi, save for a small portion he pulled into himself to stave off utter exhaustion. The glow around his gladius blinking out.
With the added power, Roxi continued pounding arrow after arrow into the entity’s back until the creature’s screams became raspy gurgles. And yet she didn’t stop shooting until the last arrow representing the borrowed power of Selene, pulling the energy from the bow as it flew, plunged into its back and the bow winked out.
Forcing himself to his feet, Luke staggered toward the creature, marshaling the last of the retained light and pushing it through to the gladius, lighting up the moon and star on the side dedicated to Selene as it set the cutting edges to glowing. Luke reached out with his left hand and grasped the hair of the entity. Roxi, who’d gotten to her feet after filling its back with arrows, kicked it in the back of the legs, sending it to its knees. With a harsh yank to expose its neck, Luke hacked into its throat, black, oily smoke pouring from the deep cut as Luke forced the blade the rest of the way through until the headless body flopped to the ground, leaking a fetid black ooze that stank of death and things worse.
Despite not having a body, the eyes stared at Luke, its mouth forming into a hateful snarl as the same black ooze leaked from the stump of its neck. Luke drew back his sword and plunged it into its eye, twisting hard before removing his sword and ruining its face and destroying the brain. Finally, the mouth and jaw went slack, hanging open. Luke tossed the head onto the body.
“Roxi, grab one of those gas cans, please.” Luke’s voice was rough and weak, his body near the end of its ability to keep him upright and moving.
“Right.” Roxi, looking just as tired as Luke felt, stumbled her way to one of the sheds and grabbed a gas can they’d prepared for the chainsaws.
Unscrewing the lid and the air valve, she dumped the entire can on the body, then tossed the can away, moving to stand by Luke. He rummaged around in his pouch until he found the small box of matches. Striking one, he tossed it on the body, igniting the gas—except the body itself went up as if it were as flammable as the gas Roxi had doused it in.
As it exploded, sending out a dark wave, Luke and Roxi were thrown backward by the palpable edge of the destructive shock wave. A column of light-eating blackness launched into the sky above the burning body until all of the entity had fled the body, the last of it disappearing into the night.
He forced himself over to Roxi and pulled her head onto his lap, cradling it gently. Roxi, with the last of her strength, reached up and grabbed his hand. Just before Luke lost consciousness and tipped over, he saw the werewolves that had fled his wrath earlier pouring back over the wall. At least at this last moment, he held Roxi.
Someone or something jostled Luke’s body and his arm flopped to the side, dangling in the open air. Forcing his eyes open, he was greeted by the worried face of Sam. The sight of his friend quirked up the corners of his mouth.
“You can go back to sleep now, Luke. You’re safe.” Sam squeezed his hand.
“Roxi?” Luke whispered weakly enough that Sam probably wouldn’t have heard him if she weren’t a werewolf.
“Alive, but unconscious.” Sam appeared on his other side and picked up his arm, setting it next to him. “You should try to rest.”
“OK.” Luke closed his eyes and let his total exhaustion carry him to sleep.
When he next woke, he felt the gentle sway of the road under him and heard Antony and the Johnsons’s cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” playing over the speakers. He tried to move but was strapped to a gurney, much like he’d been after his rescue from the arena. He turned his head. Roxi lay across from him, also strapped down. She smiled weakly at him.
“You’re awake,” she said.
“As are you,” he replied.
“You should both try to get some more rest,” Maggie said, stroking Luke’s hair.
“Hi, Maggie. I kept him alive for you,” Roxi said. “Although he’s a little worse for wear.”
“Thank you, Roxi. I’m glad you came back. Did you solve your problem?”
“I didn’t. Luke did. He threatened a god for me.”
Maggie chuckled. “That sounds like something he’d do. Try to get some rest. We’re still a ways out from the farm.”
The farm. There was no place he’d rather be, save for home. It would be the perfect place to rest and regain his strength. He was curious how things had gone after he’d passed out, but if they were driving home, it mustn’t be too bad. Though he wanted to ask, the gentle movement and sound of the road lulled him back to sleep.
By the time they arrived at the farm, Luke still felt nearly unable to move, so Maggie set him and Roxi up in one of the pack’s small cabins. That way, he wouldn’t have to navigate the stairs to get to his room.
Over the next few days, Maggie nursed them back to, if not health, at least the ability to move around a bit. Since he’d not been able to use his rudis on a vampire, he’d have to heal the old-fashioned way for now, and he had plenty of it to do with a series of stitched-up cuts and other smaller wounds—though the real wound was the exhaustion and the aftereffects of another battle survived against the dark entity.
Several of the wolves were being sent to the farm to recuperate after surgeries to remove bullets and other debris that had been healed over in the heat of the action. Luke knew his turn would come to go under the knife, but the pack doctors wanted him stronger before scheduling his surgery. He imagined the same held true for Roxi.
Maggie, after giving them both yet another physical exam, handed out cookies she’d baked. “You two are ready to move into the house. Be sure to use the handrails on the stairs and don’t overdo it, but you’re on the mend.”
“Thanks, Maggie, for everything,” Roxi said, swinging her feet onto the floor. “I don’t mean to be ungrateful, but do you have a spare room I could have? I could use a little alone time. I’m still not used to being with this many people all the time.” She winked at Luke.
“We have plenty of spare rooms in the farmhouse. You’re welcome to have one to yourself,” Maggie said.
“In that case, I’ll go see about getting one.” Roxi gave Maggie a quick hug, then squeezed Luke’s hand before leaving them alone.
“Oh, Maggie, I’ve missed you so much.” Luke smiled softly at her, hoping his nerves didn’t show in his eyes.
“I missed you, too, Luke.”
He took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “Maggie, may I stay with you? I mean, if you’re still… If you’d like…” Not sure why he was having trouble finishing his thought, he closed his mouth.
Maggie nodded. “I’d like that. It’ll give us a chance to talk and check in with each other.”
Luke sighed in relief. “I’d like that.” He sat up and caressed Maggie’s cheek, a content smile spreading over his face.
“I think there’s lunch ready and people who want to see you.” She took his hand and led him out of the cabin and back up to the farmhouse.
As soon as he stepped through the door, Maggie moved aside and made room for Gwen. Although much gentler than a younger Gwen, she was just as excited to see him.
“Oh, it’s good to see you, little one.”
“I’m glad you made it back. I missed you, Luke.” After her hug, she stepped back, clasping her hands in front of herself awkwardly.
“Tell you what. Let me shower and have lunch, and we’ll sit down and play some cribbage, and you can tell me everything you did while I was away.”
Gwen smiled and nodded. “OK, I’ll set up the board.”
“Hey, Luke! Glad to see you moving,” Sam called from the kitchen. “I’ve got some potato soup ready for you when you’re done showering.”
Luke poked his head into the kitchen. “Hey, Sam. Are we meeting soon to fill in Holly?”
“Tomorrow, if that works for you?” Sam replied.
