Chapter 18 #2
You have avoided it because of that fear, yes, but not completely. Like Ryder, you fear far more becoming the person you once were and forgetting the lessons that this life taught you, Christian reminded him.
He caressed his fledgling over their bond. Thank you, Christian, for always believing the best of me. But there is no more time to wallow. Death is afoot.
Balthazar turned towards Wyvern and asked, “Fiona, can Sabine, Aurela, and Sana take us to the king’s tomb now?”
Fiona’s brow furrowed, “I will take you myself, Balthazar.”
“No, you need to stay with Grayson.” Balthazar shook his head.
Grayson immediately said, “If Ryder is in trouble–”
But Grayson did not get more out as Balthazar firmly put a hand on his shoulder.
Grayson was so wasted that, even without him using any Vampiric strength, Grayson could not rise.
The young man groaned and sat back down on the bench.
Daemon was right. If Grayson was not stopped he would kill himself.
Caemorn would tell him death was not the end, but it would still complicate things and upset people.
“Dammit! I’m shot!” Grayson growled. “I can’t even stand!”
He could almost hear Daemon saying, See why I said not to take away even the least modicum of pain? He will drive himself on and on and on.
“We can handle this, Grayson. Trust me,” Balthazar said even as his mind reached for Caemorn’s.
The Kaly slice’s interference had been surprisingly strong, but it was gone now and, immediately, Caemorn reached back for him.
Their minds interlocked and something in Balthazar eased that he had not known was tense.
Relief gushed across their bond both from him and Caemorn.
It was so unexpected that he was silenced for once.
One of the slices left a gift in the tomb. Zradum, Caemorn said, somehow able to ignore the fact that they’d had the mental equivalent of a fervent embrace. Not romantic, but deeply intimate.
Ah… I have no idea what Zradum is–are–oh! That’s horrible! Balthazar gagged. Why did you have to show me that? I’ll never forget them now! Brain bleach is not a real thing!
But they are very real and here, Balthazar, Caemorn said.
Balthazar opened his mouth as if to physically retch from the image Caemorn had shown him.
The Zradum were the offspring of Ickraskas, a giant wasp-like animal the size of an American Eagle.
They laid their eggs in the bodies of the dead and when the Zradum hatched, the corpse burst as they skittered in every direction looking for prey.
They were only half the size of a baseball when born and they needed a lot of meat to grow into their adult form.
And the meat tonight was to be students.
They think the Zradum are coins. The treasure that the Helm promised them, I’m guessing, Caemorn explained. Roan, himself, must be here–
Not necessarily. He’s sliced himself, Caemorn, Balthazar said. Grayson just took out two of them. Long story.
He felt Caemorn freeze around his words as if he couldn’t quite believe them. The instability of slicing a slice–
Yes, I’m sure it’s all sorts of bad, Balthazar said. But he’s done it. So he might not need to be here at all for things to go to Hell.
Another frozen silence. No, he is not. He will be hiding some place he thinks we cannot get to him. He is a coward that way.
You are not a coward in any way. Not even the bitter, burnt end of you that’s inside of Roan, Balthazar stated firmly. You just know the odds and they are not good if you’re in the open.
Caemorn was silent as if digesting this.
Balthazar, of course, could know what the Kaly Vampire was thinking if he just dipped a little further into his mind.
But he had never done that with Caemorn.
It was a violation of their trust. So he certainly didn’t do it now as he was sure that the Kaly Vampire was dealing with his deepest fears about himself.
We’ll be there in a moment. Keep the students away from the Zradum, Balthazar said as he also swept out his mind to nearby Vampires. I’m sending other Vampires to you right now to assist.
Through Caemorn’s mind, he saw that Ryder had turned into his unkindness of ravens’ form.
The hundreds of birds were snapping up the near fistful-sized Zradum, soaring up into the sky and then dropping them to their inevitable, splattering deaths.
Others were pecking the creatures into white globs of goop.
Tarn and Farun were stepping on them and stomping the foul things underfoot.
They liked the feeling of them squishing between their toes.
They were joined by a panther and a snowy fox.
Siban and Demos had joined in on the Zradum killing “fun” even as the students still attempted to surge towards them.
Caemorn was using soul stones to conjure some very neat barriers, but the students were like Grayson’s tidal wave. They would not retreat. They kept pushing themselves forward. The barriers were starting to hurt them instead of keeping them away. Caemorn’s alarm flared.
Can you not send the students away from where you are? Caemorn asked.
No. Balthazar’s expression grew grim, which actually had one of the Wyvern Vampires–Sabine, he thought–stepping back from him.
It’s a Roan-special. Basically, if I don’t do this carefully, their minds will collapse in on themselves.
I need to get up close and personal for this.
Perhaps even full touching to undo this work.
It could be a trap then, Caemorn warned.
I’m sure it is, but what else can we do?
Caemorn’s only answer was a mental clasp again. Balthzar wondered if the Kaly Vampire even knew he was doing it. And he wondered at himself at how hungry and pleased he was for the affection from Caemorn.
I see him as my Master. Good gods, I really do, Balthazar realized.
It was not necessarily a new realization, but it was somehow a deeper one than before. But he put it aside for now and turned to his own beloved fledgling. He clasped Christian’s shoulders.
“I need you to remain with Grayson and Fiona,” he said to Christian. “I need you to keep them safe. Call your protective spirits like Caemorn taught you.”
Christian nodded even as his eyes scanned Balthazar’s face.
Just like he could, his fledgling could know all of his thoughts if he wanted to, but Christian never looked unless or until Balthazar told him too.
But there was something in his fledgling’s eyes tonight that told him Christian knew that there had been revelation.
“Master is loved,” Elgar whispered and his silver eyes shimmered with happy tears this time.
He could have meant that Christian loved him–which he did–or that Elgar himself loved Balthazar–which he did as well–but he meant Caemorn. Caemorn loved him and he loved Caemorn.
Good grief. Yes, of course, it’s been this way for some time
“And I love my fledglings,” Balthazar said with a watery smile too. “Love them totally.”
He removed his fingers from underneath Elgar’s chin. But Elgar did not look away.
I love you, Balthazar sent to both Christian’s quick-silver mind and Elgar’s deep and velvety shadowed one.
Yes, Master, both of them sent back with waves of adoration.
Now that perked him right up.
“So if you’re going to fight evil, what are we doing?” Grayson asked.
“We’ll go to the dorms. Grayson, you need food and rest,” Christian said.
“Good. I’ll keep you apprised,” Balthazar promised.
Like with Caemorn, he allowed his Childe to see everything going on through him. Christian nodded. Grayson was scowling. He’d balled one hand up on his right thigh and was thumping it against his jean-clad leg.
“Too weak,” Grayson muttered.
Christian dropped down on his haunches in front of Grayson and said, “Not at all. You brought a tidal wave down and I know you’ve done much more this night in addition to that.”
“But–”
“I know. But you’ve chosen to stay human for a good reason. Ryder and the students will be okay. Let us do our part, General,” Christian said.
Grayson’s eyes widened at the title Daemon had given him long ago on a new fledgling’s lips. “Oh, I–”
“You forget that you have your troops to command,” Fiona added gently. “So the battle is not just between you and them.”
Grayson’s shoulders slumped and he nodded. “I’d just be a burden anyway.” His head lifted quickly though as he pleaded, “Please don’t let Roan and Legion win. Bring us victory, Eyros.”
Balthazar nodded. “I will, Ashyr.”
“We must go, Master,” Elgar urged.
“Yes, it is past time,” Balthazar agreed.
Despite Sabine retreating from him earlier, she was the one to transport him to Daemon’s tomb.
Elgar and Aurela appeared beside them. Despite a whirlwind of Zradum-killing there were still plenty of the creatures emerging from the tomb in a seemingly unending stream.
Sabine and Aurela teleported away again, but immediately returned with shovels. Balthazar lifted an eyebrow at Sabine.
She colored and said. “I figured these would make it easier to splat them.”
She gestured with the shovel towards an invisible Zradum on the ground that she pretended to squish.
“Indeed. Go for it,” he urged. “Though wouldn’t it be better to teleport them to a bath of acid or something?”
She made a face. “Then I’d have to touch them.”
“Good point.”
“Can’t you control their minds?” she asked.
He looked at the Zradum and felt his gorge rise. They were worse than he’d realized. And their minds were nothing like Meffy’s quick and lithe predator one.
“I’d have to touch them mentally,” he explained.
“Oh.” She looked more horrified. “Then definitely don’t.”
“Squish away.” He turned to Elgar. “Let’s go help your Grandsire, shall we?”
“Is he not only Christian’s Grandsire?” Elgar asked. “You turned me in your old form, which was not turned at all, unlike your current one.”
Elgar actually half asked the skull and half asked Balthazar. Balthazar considered this progress and he considered what Elgar had said.
“While I see your point, this relationship is more than blood, Elgar,” Balthazar answered.
“I see then I shall eagerly accept him as that,” Elgar answered.
“Excellent. Now let’s go before he kills the students. Or the students kill themselves. Hard to tell, which is more likely.”
He and Elgar swept towards where Caemorn had set up a brilliant blue, translucent barrier to keep students and Zradum separated.
Balthazar was reminded of tragedies at concerts where people were so tightly packed together that they were crushing the others in front of them.
Every time that seemed on the verge of happening, Caemorn released the students, only to reassert the barrier.
But that meant the students were getting nearer and nearer the Zradum.
Not to mention, that a few times the ones in front were shoved so violently by the pressure of those in back that they nearly fell down, which would have led to them being trampled by their fellows.
“You’re here. Finally,” Caemorn added dryly.
“Yes, well, there were things to discuss and I was sure you had it in hand. Oh, dear, her face looks quite smooshed against the barrier, doesn’t it?
” Balthazar leaned nearer the barrier to look at a student who had pressed themselves so tightly against the barrier that their lips were creating smudges with their lips, teeth and tongue.
“My natural powers are not geared towards protecting people from themselves,” Caemorn pointed out. “Ripping their souls from their bodies, I can do.”
“If you did that, Grandsire, could you put them back in again?” Elgar asked.
Caemorn lifted an eyebrow at the title, but just said, “Not without damage to them on a deep level, Elgar.”
“Ah, we must find another way,” Elgar said.
“What we need are some Ashyr Vampires to hold them in place,” Caemorn said. “And then you could work on them all you like.”
Balthazar touched the minds of the Ashyr, Dani especially. “They are coming, though some are headed to the dorm to look after Grayson. They are not pleased with us using him as bait for the Marrowstalker.”
“I am certain they are not. I knew that without reading their minds,” Caemorn replied a little sniffily.
“Are you getting tired or something?” Balthazar asked.
Caemorn who had his arms up to direct the power from the soul gem to create the barrier didn’t give him an answer to that. At least not one out loud. Balthazar tried not to laugh.
“All right, I think we can send them into sleep, can’t we, Elgar?” Balthazar asked.
He felt Elgar’s senses sweep outward to the crowd. “Yes, but a light sleep, Master, is best. Otherwise you risk harming them.”
“Yes, well, we can't have that. At least, the press are not here,” he muttered as he sent a wave of sleep over the students.
He watched as faces beyond the barrier went lax. The students sagged into one gigantic pile of sleeping, snoring, twitching humans. The stomping behind them continued. Caemorn had the barrier encircle the humans. Balthazar turned back to look at the carnage of the Zradum.
“This was definitely interesting, but I expected more,” Balthazar said.
“If Grayson had been human, there would have been his terrible death,” Caemorn pointed out as he stepped up beside him.
“Perhaps we caught them unawares here. And the Zradum were the best they could at short notice. Plus, beguiling the students, of course, in a rather nasty way, but… I don’t know.
It feels off to me.” Balthazar gestured to the tomb.
“Elgar, you said that death walked here and you were sure it was the tomb. And Caemorn, you and Ryder came here, because–ah, this was where Weryn died last time! How gruesome!”
“If Grayson was killed we might have missed this attack altogether,” Elgar pointed out. “Then students and Grayson would be gone.”
“Yes, yes, I suppose, but–”
“I agree with you, Balthazar,” Caemorn said. “This–”
The ground shook as an explosion rent the air.
Their vampiric reflexes kept them upright.
They swung around. The light sleep on the students was broken, but that was not what drew their attention.
The orange flames on top of the Kaly palace were blazing twenty-feet higher than normal.
And in that Halloween-light, Balthazar saw soul after soul pouring out of the palace.
He thought of all those soul gems that contained Daemon and their old enemies.
These souls did not stream up into the sky in a vapory mist, but landed on the ground with very physical thuds. Hundreds of them. Maybe a thousand.
“Now I know why Roan didn’t send the damned press here,” Balthazar said. “He has them watching a show.”