Chapter 32 #2
Dark memories formed a kaleidoscope of horror inside Oliver’s head.
Things he had buried so deep in his psyche, even he hadn’t known what was there.
The cries of his victims, the fear in their eyes as they realized that he was not human, but a monster, intent on their destruction.
A monster with no empathy, no conscience, no soul.
He tried to shut those memories out.
“You—lie…” he forced out from parched lips.
The grimaald laughed, his two sets of fangs like a thousand sharp daggers.
“You were so out of it on blood lust you can’t recall a thing.
Let me remind you of how you dressed up in your smart clothes, whispered sweet seductive words, using your Hale charm—oh, those poor little humans.
You took them down dark alley ways with the promise of love and marriage, and left them drained dry.
” The beast spat at the ground in front of Oliver’s feet.
Oliver pressed a hand to his forehead, reeling, unable to refute any of it. Igor was circling him now, grunting, snorting. His breath was a foul stream, his body odor like death itself.
“And you know what cut the deepest? You never even asked my name. Even though you warmed your claws by the same fires in the Wasteland. You ignored us grimaalds, thought we were beneath you. Until you disappeared when some fancy mage saved your sorry ass. And then years later, you dared to come back in your silver suit and tie with your hoity toity superior ways, and pull out your police badge. You knew our habits, where we hid, where we fed, and you washed us out like rats in a drain. And even then, you didn’t recognize me, you never even asked my name.
So now you will hear it. I am Igor, Igor Doskominov, The Terrible One. And you will never forget it.”
Oliver tried to hold up his arm, to ward off Igor’s words, to engage the ring on his finger, but nothing happened.
Igor clapped an arm around Matteus’s shoulders.
“I’ll admit, I don’t like vampires, but this one here, he found me, and he talked to me like I was somebody.
He got to know my name out there in the cold dank mountain caves where we’d been banished.
And we made a deal, formed a partnership, me and my buddy here.
Seems we had a common goal. To develop a superpower that would defeat the valley lands and, most importantly, you, Hale. ”
Matteus muscled in. “Igor had been developing his demonic powers of mirage to shift dimensions. He taught me everything he knew. But we needed a special kind of human blood to maintain such high-frequency magick. And then I got a supply of this incredible blood through my contacts. I knew it was the real deal, what we’d all been waiting for all these centuries.
After that, it was easy enough to bribe a few humans, promise them plenty of coin and eternal life, get them to do our bidding.
And then you, Hale, you fucking had to come along and try to spoil it all.
And steal our little necromancer… our jewel in the crown. ”
Igor slapped Matteus on the back with a scaled claw. “The Kominskys had done a good job, getting the humans to stake your mom and dad and your sister… ah, poor little Effie, you didn’t even try to save her, did you? You left her to die and just flew away.”
Oliver flinched, the pain so unbearable it felt like it was eating him alive.
“Oliver, don’t listen to them.” Clare’s voice seemed to be so far away, so weak compared with the cloud of self-loathing inside him. It was eating into his veins, his tissues, his very bones, and he knew if he did not let go of her hand, he would infect his beloved too.
He was not worthy of her love, he could never undo his dark past, make up for his sins. Because she was good and he was evil, and he would not drag her into hell with him.
Better to forever endure darkness than to steal her light.
Oliver ripped his hand from hers and stumbled backward.
Igor’s horrible little eyes lit up as he saw the connection between them break. “Get her,” he roared.
In a flash, Matteus sprang forward. Grabbing Clare, he plastered her back against his chest, holding her like a human shield. “She’s ours now, Hale. How does it feel to end your life like this? Knowing that everything you’ve ever loved has been ripped away from you.”
Igor howled with laughter, slapping his sides. “Guess what, Hale? We’re going to stake you. And your beloved is going to watch you die.”
Desperately, Oliver tried to force some order back into his beleaguered brain.
Summoning everything left in him, he tried to channel the words of the Hale mantra into the ring, but it remained a chunk of inert metal on his finger.
Oh gods, how futile and hopeless the situation was.
What use were his years of investigative skills, his logical analysis of crimes?
None of it could defeat what they were up against now.
From a long way away, he heard Clare calling his name. “OLIVER!”
He tried to raise his head, but it was as though his life energy had been drained from him.
“OLIVER! Look at me.” This time the sweet, urgent voice of his beloved forced its way past the anguish in his head.
With all his might, he finally straightened his spine.
“Don’t believe them.” Across the space, her gaze held his, and it was if she was gifting him her strength. Just as she had offered him her blood when he was wounded, she now offered him her love, her magick, her soul.
Something ignited deep within him, a flame, that grew by the second.
There was light, where moments before there had only been darkness.
Hope, where there had been fear.
Love, where there had been self-loathing.
“OLIVER!!!” Urgently, she called out his name a third time.
Her eyes begged him to listen. “Whatever you did, whatever happened in the past, it is not who you are. You are good through and through. And I love you, unconditionally. For eternity.”
Her words flowed into him, and finally, he was able to hear them. He was not the evil being he’d believed he was for so long. He had been lost, but just as Waldo had said, he was now found.
By all the gods in heaven, he deserved Clare’s love.
And just as she had saved him, he would now save her.
Rising to his full height, Oliver held up his hand, and the Hale ring shot out a beam of silver light that zapped Matteus right between the eyes.
Matteus recoiled, cursing, and released his grip on Clare.
She ran and threw herself into Oliver’s arms, her face upturned to his.
“Oliver. I love you with all my heart and soul. Nothing will ever shake my love for you. It is yours forever. If they stake you, they stake me too.”
“That—shall—not—be,” he gritted out, as his arms came around her, binding her close.
“Then you must bite me. Turn me.”
“Clare, NO!”
“YES. You must, Oliver. Trust me.”
She had said those words before … and he had trusted her then.
He must trust her now.
Suddenly, he saw it for what it was. What it had always been. All these years, his desire to bite her, to turn her, was not his addiction manifesting. It was not his evil—it was the purest, truest love.
She was his beloved.
His mate.
“Yes,” he murmured. “YES.”
“Do it. NOW.”
Over her shoulder, he saw Igor advancing, the wooden stake held high in his hulking arms.
It would pierce Clare first, then him.
He would never let that happen.
“I love you,” he whispered against her lips. “For eternity.” Then, wrapping his wings around his beloved, he circled his left hand in the air. The ring formed a force field of shimmering silver around them.
“Amore conqua multu. LOVE WILL CONQUER EVIL.” He roared the ancient words of the Hale clan, and as Clare arched her neck, he plunged his teeth into her jugular. Deep, deeper they sank, until he felt the letdown of his venom from his fangs and pumped it into her vein.
With a tiny gasp, Clare went limp, heavy in his arms.
Time lost all meaning as he closed the wound with his tongue, then murmured words of endearment into her hair.
When finally he raised his head, he saw Igor trying to batter through the force field, roaring to his minions to help.
Oliver took a deep breath and channeled everything he had, every last drop of his energy, into the Hale ring before pointing it at the center of Igor’s chest.
“Be gone, dark being. Hell awaits you.”
Arcs of light zapped into the demon’s bloated body. Black blood spilt from the wound, and the beast’s flesh started to melt. Soon Igor was an amorphous mass of putrid, foul-smelling liquid. But still he screeched for Matteus to save him.
Matteus flew at the force field, bounced off it and began waving his left hand and cursing wildly, trying to get the ring on his finger to activate. But the diamond remained lifeless.
Swiftly, Oliver pointed his left hand at Matteus. Sparks shot from the Hale crest like a volley of bullets and Matteus crumpled as they hit their mark.
“You are done, Matteus. Finished,” Oliver said with a sneer. “The Kominsky clan will no longer be tethered to dark forces. Your power base has dissolved.”
“Don’t take my invisibility away, you bastard,” the other vampire whined. “It took me fucking years to get to where I am now.”
“Bad luck. Igor has been banished to the hell realms where he came from. You no longer have access to dark magick, Matteus. You will finally face the justice system you and your family have evaded for centuries, and be tried for every fucking crime you have ever committed.”
As Oliver watched the vampire writhing on the ground, ropes of silver cord appeared. They bound Matteus’s arms tightly to his sides and looped around his ankles. Oliver had to hide his own surprise at the powers imbued in the ring.
Meanwhile, Matteus rolled around, cursing the Hale name, his gloved hands clawing at the bonds, which merely grew tighter the more he struggled.
“The Motham PD eagerly awaits your return,” Oliver growled, as the ring sent out one final beam of silver light. And then, in a billow of black smoke, Matteus disappeared.
And then, nothing.
No Igor.
No Matteus.
No citadel full of grimaalds.
Just Oliver, holding Clare unconscious in his arms.
A vast abyss of stillness opened up at his feet, like a silent, bottomless lake.
A sense of peace spread through his body.
Clasping his beloved to his chest, Oliver closed his eyes, took a step …
And fell …