Chapter 24 – Cain
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CAIN
I raise my blade high above the creature’s head, bringing the wrath of a thousand vampires down upon them. Their snarls are feral and rabid. One tries to bite my leg. I stomp my booted foot down so hard on its head, crushing it like a watermelon.
“This wasn’t part of the plan!” Clutch yells as he severs a vessel’s head clean off, black liquid splattering across his face. “Fuck, it went in my mouth!” He spits. “Tastes like shit.” He spits again.
“Behind you!” I yell in warning as a vessel crawls along the table like an animal ready to leap and devour its prey.
It launches at him. Clutch spins, holding his sword up.
The vessel lands on the end, body slumped and dangling.
“Ha, like an appetizer on a stick!” He laughs, waving it around, the head lolling back and forth as he shakes it.
“Won’t come off.” He rears his sword back and hurls it forward, flinging the vessel’s limp, lifeless body across the room.
It collides with the wall before falling to the ground.
“That worked.” He grins. More and more vessels descend on us.
“We’re never going to defeat them. There are too many!
” I yell as I slam my dagger into another’s skull.
“Of course we will! We’re the Crimson Covenant, brother. Just embrace your inner Edwin!” Clutch grins as he slashes another neck.
“My inner Edwin?” I question.
“War! Sing it, brother, it gets the blood pumping.” Clutch grins as he kicks a vessel away.
“War! Huh! What is it good for?! Absolutely everything!” Clutch sings at the top of his lungs as he launches himself, taking out three vessels.
“Pretty sure you got the words wrong.” I heave as I slash my daggers, from left to right.
Flicking one of them to land between the eyes of some approaching vessel.
“Who cares? It’s the empowerment of the song, brother,” Clutch yells as he moves further in, making his way through the vessels, yanking one off, crawling off the back of Hex.
Something catches my eye. I turn to the left, and everything stands still.
My entire body freezes, not believing the sight before me.
My feet move, my focus completely consumed.
“Fiadh,” I call the name, a name I haven’t spoken in hundreds of years, a name that haunts my dreams.
As if in slow motion, she turns, her skin even paler, it’s almost see-through, the dark circle under her sunken eyes.
Eyes that once brightened the darkest of days.
She stares at me, blinking. Her face was void of any emotion.
Clutch launches at her, his sword raised high, ready to end her.
I move quickly, tackling him out of the way.
We both land on the ground, the marble floor cracking beneath us.
“What the fuck, man?” He huffs,
I pay him no heed; my gaze fixed on her. As she still stands there, statue still watching me.
“Who is she?” Clutch asks as he gets to his feet beside me.
“My wife.”