The Vampires of Soldiers Cove (27 page)

Samuel spun around as he heard Hermes approach to help, but before Hermes could do any good, Samuel thrust his weapon outward skewering the poor
satyr through his stomach. Hermes fell to the ground attracting a cluster of revenants. They smelled the blood and were quickly on him. Hermes had not died right away; the revenants took care of that by ripping his body open with their jagged fangs and eating him alive. His horrifying screams were too much for me to hear. I broke the contact on purpose and decided to focus on the one place I could help.

I sat for a moment and fought with everything I had to push down my anger. 
Mariah had helped to visit this carnage on us all and I wasn’t going to let her kill Angus. My mind was going a hundred miles a minute; I had to think of a way to get her out of here so I could warn Angus and get him into the tunnel.

“Oh no,” I said.
“I need my ring.” I put my hand in my pocket and eased the ring off my finger.

Slamming her hand down on the table she began screaming. 
“Well you can’t go get it now,” she said.

“I’m not leaving here without it, and if I leave for a minute to go get it you won’t know what’s going on.
Please Mariah, can you get it for me. You’re the quickest.” She looked skeptical.

“Take a guard and go retrieve it,” Angus said
.

“Angus that’s crazy.”

“Go! Quickly! We owe her that much,” he told her. Mariah stomped out of the room and we heard her yell at one of the guards to accompany her.

“What is it?”

The moment I thought it was safe I swiftly moved to the hatch in the floor and opened it. “Time to go,” I said.

“Why?”

“No time to explain. Go. Now!” he moved toward the hole and began his descent.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“Lock it behind you. Mariah is a traitor, and I’m not leaving Gavin.” Angus hesitated. He began to say something but I slammed the lid down cutting him off. I heard the lock trip from the inside and then turned around to face the door. Mariah would be back any moment and I had no good explanation as to why Angus wasn’t here.

I opened the door
, sword in hand as the lone guard came to attention. “I’m going out there, on Angus’ order,” I said. He nodded and moved to let me pass. I heard the click of footsteps coming from the other direction. Mariah and the other guard were coming back. I had to reach the door to the outside before she got back to the room. I took a run and stretched my hand out to get the knob. The door opened a slight crack just barely letting in the noise from outside when I heard Mariah’s voice from behind me.

“Get her!”
Instantly one of the guards was behind me slamming the door closed. Mariah was there just as quickly. “Where are you going?”

“Angus ordered me out to the courtyard.”

“You’re lying.”

“I swear,” I said.
One of the guards put his arm around my neck restraining me.

“Let’s go ask him ourselves.”
When the door opened to the empty room Mariah began growling. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know.”
Racing to the trap door she tried with all her force to open the hatch but it was locked. Realizing she’d been had she drew her sword and put it to my neck, fangs out and wild with rage.

“Why would he go without us?
What did you say to him?”

“Nothing.”
I was doing a terrible job of lying, even I could tell.

“Fine,” she said taking the sword from my neck.
“Kill her.”

“We can’t kill another vampire without a direct order from
Angus. She’s not an immediate threat to us. We can put her in lock up if you wish.” One of the guards said.

“Let me make this perfectly clear,” Mariah was railing at them now.
“Kill her, or be executed. In a few hours this clan will be under the control of Samuel and if you don’t do as I say, you will be on the execution list along with all of your families.” They were stunned. “You know I can do it.”

“I’m sorry,” the one directly in front of me said.
He raised his weapon and pointed it at my heart as Mariah left the room to go join in the fight. Trembling I closed my eyes and prepared to meet my final death. I had failed. 

I was going to be killed because I just hadn’t been fast enough to warn Angus, and worst of all, I wouldn’t be able to protect Gavin. 
Just then there was a commotion outside the council room doors.  Mariah screamed and soon after fell silent.

The two
vampire guards stared at each other wondering what they should do next.

“Let me go,” I begged.
“Mariah was a traitor; she put pendants in the trees so that the revenants and Samuel could enter the sanctuary. We have to go help the others…Please!” They were still unsure. They hesitated too long in making their decision because as soon as the words were out of my mouth the door flew open and Gavin was standing there with Aries.

Gavin quickly skewered the one holding me by the neck turning him to ashes.
I was free now and backed up against the wall so that Aries could get the other guard. He threw his sword and it cut sharply through the second vampire’s neck taking it clean off his shoulders. The head landed on the council table with a thud, and then a moment later softly whooshed into ashes.

“Mariah…,” I tried to tell them.

“She’s dead,” Gavin said. “Where’s Angus?”

“I distracted her and got him in the tunnel before she realized I knew.”

“Good job,” Gavin and Aries were heading back outside. “Lock this door and stay here,” he yelled and disappeared. I was about to protest but they left so quickly I didn’t have a chance to do so. I took a decorative sword off the wall and put it through the latches. It was the only way I could think of to lock it as I didn’t see any other means to do so.

I stood there for a few moments shaking.
I had almost died. Gavin and Aries had saved me. I knew Gavin had felt my fear, but how had Aries even known? After a few moments I decided I couldn’t cower and hide while everyone else was in danger.

Taking
a deep breath I removed the sword from the door. Then took the one of the weapons the guards had been using and raised it in front of me. Slowly I crept toward the large exit doors once again, keeping an eye out in all directions so that I wouldn’t be stopped a second time. Before I ventured out I closed my eyes and connected with Gavin’s mind so I’d know better what to expect.

I saw the courtyard, there was a cloud of dust in the air, what I could only presume were the remains of dead vampires.
There were bodies of at least three more satyrs being feasted on by one or two revenants each. The nymph sisters however were fighting furiously.

Samuel was in a direct fight with Malcolm now.
Whereas Gavin and his father had struggled to fight with him, Malcolm was matching him blow for blow. Their swords struck each other again and again, so quickly that if I’d been watching it with my old human eyes it would have been impossible to see. Both were very old and powerful, but Samuel had embraced a part of himself that seemed to give him a very small advantage.

Unfortunately that
was all he needed because a few seconds later Malcolm didn’t connect with Samuel’s sword in time. Samuel cut off both Malcolm’s hands causing his only defense to fall to the ground; and with another swift motion pierced his heart. Malcolm was no more. I couldn’t help but think about how it was almost his time to go to sanctuary. His family would have the planned funeral for him, but after hundreds of years it would finally be his last.

If a
vampire like Malcolm couldn’t beat Samuel then it stood to reason that none of the rest of us could. I resolved right then and there that I was going to die, and so was my love. But at least we would die fighting side by side. I took a deep breath and opened the door to see the scene with my own eyes. It was even more horrible than I had imagined.

The moment I stepped out one of the awful creatures spotted me and charged. I jumped out of the way just in time as his claws, which were aiming for my neck, stuck into the wooden door behind me. It pulled the claws out, screaming and contorting its face as it did, and came at me once again. The yellowed and rotting skin gave off a smell so putrid that it was all I could do not to buckle over and vomit right there. Another disadvantage of my newness I reasoned, because none of the other vampires seemed to be bothered by the smell.

I held my sword out directly in front of me at the last moment and the creature skewered itself through the heart.

Thankful for the lucky break I ventured out a little further. John saw me and came to my aid. We stood back to back as more creatures made their way toward us. John had no problem taking on the one that made a charge for him, me however, I swung my sword wildly. I did manage to slice it open, but it healed just as quickly causing no real damage. It was about to come at me again when Gavin appeared behind it, liberating the head from the body. I breathed a quick sigh of relief.

“What are you doing out here?” Gavin said pulling me off to the side.

“I couldn’t stay in there while you were out here. I’d rather die out here with you than in there alone.”

Suddenly Samuel was behind Gavin and before I could open my mouth to warn him, Gavin was being held by the throat.
Samuel threw him to the ground and quickly pinned him there with two swords that he buried into the ground up to their hilt in his arms, and then added two more in his legs.  Gavin lay helpless, screaming and struggling.

It all happened too fast for me to take any kind of action.
Samuel then had me by the throat and was holding me down on the ground next to Gavin, who couldn’t move.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he hissed.
“You’re the one who’s been watching. Look around you.” He twisted my head so my eyes met with Gavin’s.

“Does it look like you’ve managed to do any good?
Your people are dying, your leader will soon be caught on the other side of that tunnel, and I’m about to cut off your lover’s head.”

“No!” I screamed.

“No?” he said. “Try and stop me.” He jumped off me and stood over Gavin preparing to lower the blade on his neck. “Say goodbye,” he said making eye contact with me.

That was a mistake.

I thought quickly and pictured his hands in flames and
at that very moment they were. Samuel dropped the sword to the ground and screamed out in pain. I took the opportunity to remove one of the swords from Gavin’s arm making him instantly able to free himself.

Samuel’s hands were burned so badly that they charred and fell off.
New ones were growing in their place but for the moment he was defenseless. Gavin quickly thrust his sword through the exiled vampire’s heart. He looked at Gavin, mouth open in disbelief; and an instant later he was only dust.

A horrible noise moved through the crowd of
revenants. A sloshing, and slimy, noise. As their maker died they too died, turning into piles of jellylike flesh and bone, shrieking and panicking in the process. Samuel was dead, and so was his army.

Gavin dropped his sword in exhaustion and relief
, and then threw his arms around me. It was over and we had won. Looking around the field we knew we had paid a terrible price. Then, watching Aries lay himself down next to what was left of his dead brother, we realized, some had paid a more terrible price than others.

Chapter Twenty Six

The vampires from the other clans left almost immediately, but the satyrs and nymphs stuck around. It was the custom in both races to burn their dead and so two separate funeral pyres were made. There was one for the nymph who had been killed; and another for the satyrs who had lost seventeen of their brothers. Aries was searching frantically for any remains of the satyrs, stopping to comfort the others who were knelt by the funeral pyre with grief. Since the revenants had dined on them it was mostly just bits and pieces to be found.

James was gathering wood for another fire to burn the remains of the
revenants. We were all happy to be alive but the gruesome task was not lost on us. Everyone was quietly solemn.

“I’m going to gather some wood.
It’ll all be over soon,” Gavin said.

“Thank god,” I added.

Gavin went into the brush and I stood against a small tree to collect myself. The smell of dead revenants was just as bad as the living ones. I thought about just going inside but that didn’t seem right. Everyone was doing something and I figured it was my duty to help as well.