Chapter 24 - Kalla
Kalla
XXIV
The fae’s blade drove deep into my right shoulder, piercing flesh and sinew straight through to the other side. The pain was sharp, hot, cold, everything at once, and it spread until my arm turned numb and my dagger slipped from my weakened fingers.
The soldier leered at me from under his helmet, his golden eyes filled with knowing malice. He didn’t plan to kill me yet. He intended to toy with me while his friends kept the others busy.
I dared him to try.
I pulled my lips back to bare my fangs and relished his confusion followed by disgust when he realized the nature of his foe.
The quickening of his heartbeat drummed in my ears, and with it came the spicy scent of his blood.
My mouth watered, my fangs elongated, and I latched my fingers around his wrist to drag his blade out of my shoulder.
He shifted his weight and slammed a weapon home a second time, bringing his helmeted face so close to me I could smell his sweet breath.
More pain cut through me. Whatever these fae weapons were made of or coated with, they were not friendly to vampire kind. My arm may as well have been severed for how uselessly it dangled by my side, and now the numbness was leaching across my chest. What would happen when it reached my heart?
Fear trickled through me over the fact that this sneering fae might have ended my long life, and his eyes sparkled with dark enthusiasm when he recognized it.
I thrashed against his hold, refusing to let the bastard take me down without a fight, and he struggled to maintain his weight on the dagger. The blade twisted inside me, and my lips parted in silent agony.
“The sun blessed my night,” he purred in my ear. “Never thought I’d be lucky enough to rid the world of a leech on a simple scouting mission. Be sweet for me and scream again.”
I bit my tongue so hard I tasted blood but still couldn’t hold back my cries when he thrust the weapon deeper into the wound.
Movement in the corner of my eye jerked my attention away from the guard, and a whimper escaped me at the sight of Jael looming behind him. Blood spattered his face and white hair, and the curl of his lip was written with murderous rage.
“The sun blesses nothing here,” he growled. “You spilled her blood, now the night will have yours.”
He swung his arm down and drove his dagger deep into the guard’s throat, The fae’s face turned purple as blood spurted from between his lips, his eyes rolled upwards. and he crumpled to the ground.
Without taking his eyes off mine, Jael closed the distance between us, gripped the guard’s dagger, and wrenched it out of my shoulder.
I wavered on my feet as stars burst through my vision, pain making me retch over the empty ground.
He made to speak, but something behind me caught his eye, and he grabbed my arm to jerk me closer.
His dagger flashed as he stabbed it into another guard’s eyeball.
My heart warmed at his words and protectiveness, but I had no time to bask in it.
The sound of a snapping twig alerted me to someone sneaking up on us, and I tightened my grip on my remaining weapon.
Although my sluggish muscles delayed my defensive sweep, I managed to catch the fae’s blow before his sword struck.
He pulled back, arm raised to swing again, and I ducked out of the way and darted behind him with a burst of vampiric speed to lodge my blade into the gap at the back of his neck.
The numbness in my chest crawled outwards, snaking over my collar bones and down. I tried to shake it off, the sensation nauseating, but a heaviness pressed on me.
More fae approached, and Jael filled the empty space behind me, his back to mine.
Relieved that I wouldn’t need to cover all my angles, I allowed myself to appear vulnerable, and the guards were foolish enough to take the bait.
My right side was open, but I was no stranger to fighting one handed.
Thorn had trained us well. I kept my feet moving and used my speed and dexterity to my advantage, never letting them get close enough to land a blow, leaving them guessing as to where I might strike next.
Duck, dodge, blade to the gap behind the knee.
The fae dropped to the ground but raised their sword to strike from below.
I looped my arm around Jael’s and spun us, giving me a chance to stab the fae coming for him while Jael sliced his fae-made dagger through the downed guard’s shoulder.
Two more came to replace them, and a ragged moan escaped me. How many others were there?
With their armour as bulky as it was, I couldn’t make out the whole scene, but I spotted Corban being dragged away by two guards.
Ria and Pimmin were on them before they got far.
I thought I caught a glimpse of Cliff’s brown hair between another few fae, but a towering guard charged me, his eyes filled with writhing hatred, and I didn’t know if my friend was still fighting or if they’d taken him down.
I jabbed out with my dagger, but my aim was off, my left arm weak with the spreading numbness.
The fae’s sword sliced through the thick leather at my waist, and a fresh burst of pain made me cry out.
Rage filled my blood, shoving out my fear, and I fought harder, moved faster.
With my grip steady on the guard’s arm, I leapt off the ground and rolled over his shoulder.
A snap echoed in my ear, followed by a sharp squeal, and when I landed in a crouch, he fell on his back, clutching his shoulder.
My blade was already in my hand, and I skewered his throat.
Blood warmed my face and my heart hammered against my ribs.
Pain aside, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had so much fun.
Especially with Jael fighting with me. He stuck close to my back, fighting off one, two, three fae as they crowded us.
His moves were quick and focused. No wasted steps.
He wasn’t a natural fighter but had clearly practised until every strike came smoothly.
Every time he left an opening, I slipped in to take it, and every time my weak side dragged me down, he was there to cover the gap.
We moved as if we’d fought together all our lives, and along with my racing heart came a throb in another part of my body.
Not even the advancing burn in my veins was enough to distract me from the flood of desire and the rush of battle.
More fae fell, then Cliff was by my side.
Blood soaked the side of his face, but he didn’t slow down.
Ria slipped in beside Jael, her arms shaking, missing more strikes than she landed.
Gradually, the other Coynfare joined us, sliding into the middle of the vampires, and we wiped out the rest of the guards until there were no more guards left to wipe.
My chest heaved, my pulse raced in my ears, and I took in the survivors of our tiny band—even tinier now than we had been.
“Birch?” I asked.
“Here,” he heaved from the ground a few trees away. “Barely.”
Cliff rushed to his side and set to work patching up our friend. Black blood spilled out through a hole in Birch’s side, but it must not have been a fae-made blade that had done the damage. With a wound that severe, I doubted he would have survived this long if it had been.
“Hopefully that was the group Jael and I heard the other night,” I said. “Maybe if we’re lucky, we won’t have anyone else on our heels.”
Jael’s expression was grim. “Or they’ll send more.”
“Can we get moving?” Corban asked, showing not the smallest concern for future threats or his wounded allies. If anything, he looked annoyed as he took in the surrounding carnage.
I found his reaction odd but didn’t have the strength to question him about it.
I didn’t have the strength to stand. The numbness branching from my wound had taken over both arms, and its fingers crawled up my neck and down my legs.
My heartbeat, which should have been settling now that the battle was over, sped up, and my breaths grew harder to suck in.
Black spots danced in my vision, and I stumbled where I stood.
“Fuck.” Jael darted towards me. Cliff grabbed his arm, but Jael shook him off and caught me before I could hit the ground. “She was stabbed by a fae-made blade. They cut sharp and deep, and some guards coat them with poison. Fuck! Kalia, where did he get you?”
“Her name’s Kalla, dickhead,” Cliff snapped, but Jael ignored him.
“Come on, lutrena me. Was it only in your shoulder?”
I managed a nod, my tongue not in the mood to cooperate.
He didn’t hesitate to tear into my armour, paying no attention to Cliff’s attempts to warn him away or Corban complaining about the waste of time.
A groan slipped from between my lips as Jael wrenched my arm out of the stiff leather. Pain squeezed my muscles and hummed under my skin, morphing from a deep, grinding agony to a tickling, buzzing torture in my fingertips.
“Someone hold her,” Jael commanded.
Cliff sputtered at being ordered around by a fae, but Ria shoved him towards us. It took a second for my friend to remove his head from his sphincter, drop behind me, and take my upper body in his arms. “By the blood, Kal, you’re burning up. I don’t think vampires are supposed to run this hot.”
That would explain the uncomfortable sensation running under my collar, like someone had submerged me in a hot spring.
“Hold her arm just like that—perfect. Okay. This will hurt. A lot.” Jael reached into his pocket and pulled out a cloth bag.
“If you kill her…” Cliff warned.
“Cliff, be quiet,” Ria snapped. “If he has a way to save her, let him.”
“He’s fae.”
“He’s with her!” I could barely make out her words as consciousness slipped further out of my grasp. “If you don’t believe he wouldn’t hurt her, then what the fuck are we doing out here?”
Cliff pressed his lips together, then nodded.
“These herbs will counter the toxin,” Jael explained, “but we have to act fast. The more it spreads, the less effective the antidote will be.”
He met my eye, his green stare bright even in the darkness, and the remorse shining through it made my chest clench.
“Hold on tight to something,” he warned.
He tipped the bag towards my wound and tapped out a few grains of powder. For a breath, nothing happened. Two. Three.
I opened my mouth to ask if he needed to use more, if my vampiric nature was getting in the way, when a spark lit. Fire raced through my veins, and my question turned into shrieks of agony as death beckoned.