Kindling Flames: Flying Sparks (The Ancient Fire Series Book 2) (38 page)

Vicky watched as the figures stood silently in the rain, tall and dark in their wet cloaks. She could feel the tingle of building electricity raise the fine hairs on the back of her neck as Zak danced around in anticipation. Soft words filled with power reached her ears right before a bolt of lightning crashed into the front of the building, causing her to squeak.

Darien quickly pulled up his cloak to protect her from flying debris as the wall exploded under the raw power.

The hounds and wolves let out a bloodcurdling cry and surged forwards into the hole.

The horses and riders joined the hounds
’
cry as they followed in their wake.

Vicky held on to Zak’s mane for dear life as he carried her and Darien straight into the worst thing she had ever experienced.

The inside of the dimly lit building was just as huge as the outside, or it would have been if it hadn’t been filled with a host of demons. The hellhounds and werewolves slammed into the waiting horde with teeth bared.

Vicky could hear the crack of the demons’ thick, black hides as the canines tore into them. Her mind tried to make sense of the dark creatures, but their bodies seemed to shift right before her eyes as they faced off with their attackers. They were vaguely humanoid in an animalistic way that reminded her of the creatures from
Aliens
but without the eggplant head and ten times worse.

Vicky could feel her sanity pack its bags and leave as the riders, armed with bows, let loose arrows that found their marks in sprays of black blood. Panic set in as her flight instincts screamed at her, and Darien pushed her down against Zak’s back. She grabbed onto the horse’s neck, burying her face into his mane. Vicky closed her eyes and tried to ignore the sounds of metal rending flesh as she cried her terror into Zak’s hair.

Darien swung his sword with a skill of something long practiced but hardly used. He was really out of shape for this kind of activity, but it came back to him as his muscles remembered the familiarity of the movements. It also helped that he wielded the blade after which the fay had named him. The black sword may have been old, but it was also very powerful. The edge had no trouble slipping through the tough skin of the demons.

Urging Zak deeper into the fray, he searched for the one creature he really wanted. Zak snapped and kicked at the demons as Darien sliced anything that came near them. The two cut their way through the front lines searching for the ifrit they had come to stop. Darien spotted his target dressed in the same red tunic and pants it had worn outside his office. He kicked Zak towards the ifrit, and the fay turned, eager to reach the thing after Vicky.

“Stay with Zak,” Darien ordered Vicky as his blade sliced up a demon trying to get a hold on his leg. “He will keep you safe.” Slipping from the fay’s back as they closed on the ifrit waiting for him, Darien smacked Zak’s hindquarters to get him moving away from the battle. The last thing he wanted was Vicky anywhere near the ifrit without her medallion on.

His bag would offer her some protection. He had taken the time to put a spell on it to decrease her presence. It wouldn’t protect her completely, but it would make her less of a target compared to the rest of the creatures tearing into the demons.

Zak bolted into an area that seemed to be clear.

Darien shook the black blood from his sword as he turned to face the reason he had come.

“Welcome, vampire.” The ifrit bowed to Darien. “I see you have brought my prize.” The creature’s eyes followed the black horse carrying Vicky off.

“She’s mine.” Darien pulled the ties on his cloak loose and tugged the wet material free. He slung it off to one side before pointing his sword at the creature’s chest in a challenge.

“I will have her,” the ifrit promised. He cocked his head to the side, mocking Darien.

Darien stretched his left hand out and took up a dueling stance. “You’ll have to get past me first.”

The ifrit laughed, a rich noise that cut across the din of the battle. “Your challenge is accepted.” He drew forth a sword from his side. The curved blade of the kilij glowed slightly red with the power of the ifrit, and he held it out towards Darien in a stance that almost matched the vampire’s. Darien looked at the curved edge of the sword made for slashing and evaluated the way he would have to move to avoid the heavy tip. He rolled his sword over in his hand with a flick of the wrist. Grabbing the spinning blade, he brought it down to meet solidly with the defending swing of the ifrit. The swords of the two men rang several times as Darien advanced.

“Very nice,” the ifrit said as they reached the end of Darien’s first attack. “It’s been a while since I’ve faced off against someone with flare.”

Darien twirled his blade around into a more defensive stance as the ifrit started his swinging slash with the Turkish sword. The vampire blocked the swings and gave space to keep the ifrit from curving the heavy tip of the sword around his defenses. Darien caught the last downward slash on the flat of his blade and used his left hand to overpower the cut. He pushed the ifrit backwards out of the attack.

“We should’ve done this three hundred years ago when I was still in practice,” Darien said as he recovered the offensive side. “It would have already been over.” He came at the ifrit with a series of swinging attacks.

The creature blocked them with sweeping curves of his blade.

“Don’t be so sure about that, vampire,” the ifrit taunted. “It has been a while since I took on a worthy opponent.” He pressed back with the long, slashing swings of his saber. Their swords met, and the creature twisted the downward slash around to tag Darien in the left shoulder, drawing blood.

Darien leaped back out of sword’s range as he registered the hit.

“First blood is mine,” the ifrit cried and pulled his sword back to lick Darien’s blood off the tip.

“You can have my blood,” Darien said as he regained his offensive stance. “But you cannot have hers.” He threw himself into the fight, determined to not give the ifrit another chance to score on him. If he lost this fight, Vicky was as good as dead.

The ifrit laughed with joy and welcomed the eagerness with which Darien came at him.

***

Vicky held on to Zak’s neck as he rode off towards a hall, leading deeper into the abandoned space. She had tried to protest when Darien slipped from behind her, but her voice had cracked under the pressure of her fear. How could he leave her like that? The demons Darien had kept away with his sword were now chasing them as Zak ran for the more confined and easier defended space.

The fay kicked and bit at them, but there was no way for him to keep them off his legs without stopping to fight them. If he stopped, the nightmarish creatures would swarm them. One zealous demon launched itself up and landed on Zak’s back, digging its sharp claws into the horse’s flank. He reared in pain and dumped the creature from his back. Unfortunately, Vicky had turned to try to kick the creature and slid off with it.

They fell into a pile on the ground, and Vicky’s flight instincts turned to fight. She shoved the thing away from her as hard as she could.

Zak wheeled around and brought his hooves down on the demon as it recovered from the unexpected attack. He let out a cry for help that drew the attention of a few hellhounds nearby.

They turned from their attacks to assist as Vicky scrambled to her feet. She wasn’t tall enough to get back on Zak’s back without him dropping down for her, and if they stopped for that, the demons would overrun them.

Zak nudged her with his head to force her through the doorway into the wide tunnel.

Vicky found her feet and ran as Zak tried to keep the demons from following her.

Three hellhounds and two wolves surrounded Vicky as her feet carried her away from Zak. She looked back to try to see her friend, but one of the hellhounds nipped at her, speeding her away from the danger.

More demons came from the sides, and the hounds each peeled off to defend the woman as she ran.

The two wolves guided her deeper into the complex, but there didn’t seem to be any place free of the black creatures. It was like they were coming from the shadows themselves.

Vicky saw a brightly lit area and changed her course towards it, hoping the light would keep the creatures away.

One of the wolves turned and took on the demons gathering behind them.

The last wolf, a tawny wolf, whined and nudged her with its head, pushing Vicky on before turning to help the other wolf before the demons tore it to shreds.

Vicky ran as fast as her aching sides would let her go.

One lucky demon slipped past the two wolves and closed in on Vicky as she ran. Its long fingers grasped onto her cloak, and it squealed in delight at catching the little thing running away from it.

Vicky let out a scream as she fell to the ground backwards.

The demon gurgled its joy as she rolled over to try to get away. The thing had a grip on the woven cloak and pulled Vicky closer, savoring the chance to kill something that was not trying to kill it.

She struggled trying to get away, but the creature held her fast. Scrabbling at her chest, her fingers found the silver cloak pin, and she twisted the ring until the bar slipped free, releasing the material from around her. Scrambling to her feet, she turned to face the creature as it launched itself at her. Lacking a real weapon, Vicky was sure she was about to die as she swung her right hand up and sunk the pointed bar of the cloak pin into the demon’s temple.

The look that crossed the demon’s twisted face was pure shock as the pin ripped through the thing’s brain, and it dropped to the floor.

Vicky cried as she turned away from the dying creature to run towards the ring of light. She wiped the dark blood on her pants, trying to keep from throwing up. Vicky slowed her pace as she saw shapes moving inside the circle of light, but they weren’t the same twisted shapes of the dark demons.

These were the tall forms of what looked to be two humans dressed in elaborate robes. One stood at the center of the fifteen-foot ring of light over a table filled with strange objects, and one leaned against a pole, clutching its wrist.

Vicky could hear a low chanting voice coming from the figure at the table as she stepped up to the edge of the light. She tried to step into the light but grunted when she ran into something hard.

Both figures looked up to see what had caused the sound.

Vicky immediately recognized the man leaning against the pole. She had looked into those hazel eyes many times.

“Tim?” Surprised, she stared at the handsome man she had once been so in love with.

Standing up from the pole, Tim snapped at the figure at the table. “I thought you said she was dead.”

“She belongs to Ma’awiya now,” the man at the table said back. Vicky gasped as she recognized the voice of the man hidden by the dark robes. “She is as good as dead.”

“Alex!” Vicky cried angrily. She slammed her right fist into the hard air keeping her from the light.

The sound of the demons in the hallway drew Tim’s attention, and he looked past Vicky into the darkness.

Focusing on the men, she didn’t turn around. She did not want to see what was going on behind her.

“Let her in, Alex, or they’ll get her,” Tim pleaded as he stepped towards the table, clutching his wrist. Vicky could see a wet stain down the side of his robes as blood leaked from a cut in his wrist.

“I did not agree to this.”

“Shut up!” Alex screamed at him. “She deserves what she gets! Don’t you remember the pain she caused you? To us. She left for no reason.”

Vicky’s anger grew. “I left because you were a psychotic freak, Alex!” she yelled as she banged on the air again.

“Shut up and die, bitch!” he screamed at her.

“
Let her in!
” Tim rushed the man at the table.

Alex grabbed up a curved blade from the table and sunk it into the stomach of the already-injured man.

“
Nooo!
” Vicky screamed as she slammed both fists into the air. She may have left Tim for not loving her, but she still cared for him enough to not want him dead. Her right hand stopped on the hardened air, but her left hand passed through and ended the swing by her hip. Vicky’s eyes widened in surprise.