Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume (38 page)

They both looked up at him,
completely stunned. The others in the room did as well, but like
always, Dax paid none of them any attention.

"If you promise to leave Salem and
to never to bother Aradia again, I will set you free," said
Dax.

Everyone in the room gasped
including the prisoners.

"Well?" Dax snapped, tired of this
reaction. "Do you promise this?"

Dunc and Tavis smiled as they
looked up at him.

Tavis spoke first. "We the
McAlester’s promise that from this day forward to leave Salem and
never bother Aradia: the last witch again."

"Do you give me your word?" Dax
pressed.

The two of them nodded eagerly as
Dax stepped closer. It was anyone's guess that what Dax was going
to do was cut them loose. Roy lunged forward to stop him, but
before anyone could say anything Dax raised the sword and sliced
both of the McAlester's torsos in half! Their bodies then burst in
dust, and began to scatter like ashes in the wind. Everyone stood
stunned, and stared at Dax.

Finally, Roy managed to gasp, "But
you said..."

"They were lying," Dax stated
firmly, "And we all knew it!"

"But then you lied too didn't you?"
Tristan pointed out trying to restrain the gloating in his
voice.

Dax turned away, and placed the
sword onto the bar.

After wiping his hands on a towel,
he muttered, "I wasn't lying. I was just reminding myself how
having the wrong kind of people make promises to you often make
things worse."

Mother, he thought sadly, but only
for a second as turned to face the crowd. He then gathered his
emotions and demanded, "Well what are you blokes waiting for? We
have the directions!"

He brandished the map of the trace
in front of everyone, and shouted at the top of his lungs. "Let's
go find Aradia!"

Aradia was so frightened, and had
no idea what to do. According to Korrigan, all he had to do was
drain, have sex with her, and in the following three nights she
would become his vampire bride!

"What about children?" Aradia
demanded, trying to dissuade him from taking this course of
action.

Although Korrigan had been taken
back by her question, he had laughed nevertheless and told her not
to worry.

"But you said we could make more of
our kind," Aradia protested, "Remember? So I would no longer be the
last witch. I am pureblood so I can only mate with other
pureblooded witches to make more of us. You said we could do that!
But if I am a vampire then I can't possible conceive!"

Korrigan shrugged. "We still can,
you never know."

"But what if we can't?" Aradia
persisted.

Korrigan stood up, and slammed his
hand on the dining room table, making it crack in two. "Look
Aradia, the sad truth is, we have no idea that even if you weren't
a vampire you would still be able to make more witches."

"Why?" Aradia could not stop
herself from asking.

"Because," he roared, "You might as
well face it that no matter what you do the hidden witches are
gone! Gone forever! Our people will never exist again!"

Aradia was scared
silent.

Korrigan, upon noticing this,
softened his tone. "But look at this way. Do you really want to
remain the last of your kind? To be the last witch forever? To have
that kind of legacy? To be seen as a threat or political tool for
the rest of your life? Is that really what you want?"

Aradia said nothing, which
unfortunately Korrigan took as a good sign for he swept her into
his arms and once again took her to the guest room.

"The place looks pretty damn
secure," Phil said to Dax as he appeared at his side and continued
to say. "I have checked the front and back and there are guards
everywhere."

Dax merely grunted but Roy looked
to him and said, "So what the hell do we do?"

Dax sighed, pressed his hand
against his face, and turned to look at everyone. Lamont was with
the other shape-shifters, Roy was in his werewolf form with his
werewolf relatives, Xan was with their sisters, and Tristan had his
guards. They all stood staring at Dax, awaiting his
orders.

"Okay here's what we are going to
do," he finally said and pointing to Lamont, Tristan, and Xan. "You
three will storm in through the front, and catch them off guard.
Roy and I will go around back and try to look for Aradia. Any
questions? If so keep 'em to yourself!"

Dax began to ease through the
bushes while Roy trailed after him.

By the time they were there, Roy
tugged on his arm and asked, "How do you know so much about
battles?"

Dax rolled his eyes and turned to
look at Roy with his claws drawn and fangs bared. "I'm British
mate," Dax said to him, "My people have fought in over a thousand
civil wars it runs in our culture."

Blocking out the sounds of the
thunderous crashes coming from the front, Dax and Roy crept around
the back of the house. So far, they had no luck in finding Aradia's
location in the house until Dax spotted something amongst a pile of
broken glass.

"Aradia's phone!" He said as he
grabbed it.

"What's it doing out here?" Roy
asked but before Dax could answer, he heard something horrible: the
sounds of ripping cloth, and a young woman shrieking!

"Aradia!" He yelled, and he looked
up to the window above him where the sounds were coming from. He
then extended his claws, and began to climb up the wall
swiftly.

As he burst through the window, he
saw the horrendous sight of Korrigan on top of Aradia! He could not
see Henry's face, but he could hear him giggling as he tore at
Aradia's clothes. What he could see though was Aradia as she
struggled violently. She was shrieking, and trying to free herself?
Without a moment's hesitation, Dax grabbed Korrigan from behind and
threw him straight into Roy's awaiting arms. Roy then proceeded to
throw him down onto the floor, and punch him! Dax looked back at
Aradia who was quivering.

"Dax," she whispered weakly not
daring to believe it was really him.

"Oh Aradia," he said just as weakly
and scooped her into his arms.

Clutching her as she trembled, Dax
softly whispered into her ear while stroking her hair. "It’s
alright love, it's alright I am here with you."

He quickly tore the ropes off her,
wrapped his coat around her, and cradled her in his arms as they
walked out the door. He did not notice Korrigan throwing Roy out
the window, and dashing after them.

The battle downstairs was still
being raged on while Dax carried Aradia to the front
door.

He had barely reached for the
doorknob when Aradia shrieked in his ear, "Look out!"

Dax turned quickly to see Korrigan
leaping from the balcony after them Dax quickly but gently dropped
Aradia by the door, and grabbed Korrigan by his shoulders. He then
pushed him away, and skidded on the marble floor but that only
stopped him for a second. In no time he was up and running towards
Dax again who socked him in the face. He then side stepped, and
kicked him into the staircase. Korrigan collided and broke the
banister, but now he looked even angrier than ever. Once again, he
ran to Dax who readied himself for another strike. When they were
only inches apart, Korrigan avoided Dax's punch, tripped him, and
began to beat him on to the ground.

"And so," Korrigan gasped in an
eerie psychotic voice. "The fun begins!"

Aradia felt numb with shock, and
fear.

She had almost been raped a second
time by the same guy in the same house, in the same bed, and in the
same hour! Now as she looked around, and saw her friends raging
what looked like a small war with the vampires of the house she
felt like she had to do something. She saw Lamont turning into a
bear, and trying to rip apart a vampire. Instead, he was almost
speared in the back with a pool stick! Roy burst through a side
window only to be thrown by yet another vampire, and crashing into
the centerpiece on the table near the staircase! Tristan tried to
blast someone with another ray of yellow light, but he missed his
target. After trying to do round house kick on his opponent, his
leg was grabbed, and he was then thrown right into the
wall!

Her friends were being pummeled,
and Aradia knew she had to help but her emotions and thoughts were
still scrapped raw. The fear of what Korrigan had done to her still
coursed through her veins like poison. However, as she looked
around and tried to motivate herself to do something she saw Dax
being thrown onto the floor by none other than Korrigan himself.
Aradia then stared long and hard at the two of them.

As Korrigan pinned down Dax onto
the marble floor and made his claws longer, Aradia sprang into
action. She ran to Dax just as Korrigan brought his claws down, and
with one swift punch Aradia sent him flying right into the
wall!

She quickly turned around to check
on Dax who just barely managed to point and say, "Aradia behind
you!"

Aradia turned; Korrigan was racing,
and leaping towards them. He jumped into the air like a pouncing
lion while stretching his claws towards her. Aradia stood her
ground, and clenched her fist as it shook with anger. It shook so
hard that it began to look as if smoke was coming from it. As
Korrigan got nearer Aradia thrust her arm forward, and as swiftly
as a sword, she managed to plunge it right through his chest! For a
while, Korrigan did nothing except gasp looking shocked at his
impalement by Aradia's arm. Half of the other fighters both good
and evil stopped as well to look at them both.

However, they became even more
stunned as Aradia looked into Henry's eyes, and screeched as angry
as a banshee screech. "Burn bitch! Burn!"

Henry's entire body then burst
right into flames, and became nothing but a pile of ash and soot
lying at Aradia's feet. The entire room was stunned into silence,
and stared at Aradia in amazement and fear.

She slowly looked around at the
rest of the people in the manor. Nobody moved or even breathed
while Aradia surveyed the crowd.

At least until finally she said,
"Boo!" at the top of her lungs.

This was when all the ones who were
fighting against her, dropped everything, and dashed out the front
door. At first, all Aradia could do was chuckle until a sudden wave
of fatigue enveloped her and she fainted right into Dax's arms. All
she could hear or do at that point was listening to Dax's shouting
as the spiraling darkness took her hostage.

"Aradia!" Dax cried out,
"Aradia!"

Chapter
Thirty-Three

"She what?"

The Sovereign screamed at the
cowering wounded vampire who merely trembled on his knees. The
Sovereign then shot up from his throne, and began to pace. He could
not believe that all this had happened and in just one year! The
political upheaval that Aradia had caused with her notion of
"promoting amelioration" was bad enough but now according to this
vampire she was now doing something much worse.

The vampire who was a security
guard at the head of the vampire clans in all of Pennsylvania main
manor had only just arrived seconds ago in his bat form, and with
tremendous amount of difficulty had transformed and kneeled in
front of the Sovereign. He then informed him of the whole incident.
If the severity of the attack was not enough to make the Sovereign
nervous, the significance sure as hell was. The Sovereign had been
a courtier long before he had been a vampire, which in his mind was
the reason for how he achieved his power as the youngest Sovereign
of all vampires in the history of their species.

While most would observe of what
had had happened with Aradia as just a heroic tale of no real
importance, the Sovereign saw it very differently. In his mind, it
was a survivor of a long dead race being captured and yet somehow
being able to rally all the hidden whose hatred of one another was
as ancient as the earth then getting them to put their differences
aside, and rescue her in an organized army like fashion! In other
words, the Sovereign saw this as a tremendous threat to his power.
For a while, he merely paced as the wounded vampire lay slowing
bleeding on the floor of his throne room.

Until finally he shouted "Morgan,
Morgan Where are you?"

At once the familiar black smoke
and gnarled green woman appeared. Before she could even perform the
proper introductions, the Sovereign picked her up by her collar and
said, "Two things! One, get this vampire healed and bring him to my
study so I can properly interrogate him. Two, summon Rome I must
speak with him."

Morgan merely nodded in response to
his orders.

However, despite her haste it was
still a couple of hours until Rome finally did appear. The moment
he showed up, he threw himself at the Sovereign's feet, and begged
for forgiveness for his lack of punctuality. The Sovereign paid no
mind he merely motioned Rome to stand up.

"Never mind your apologies Rome,"
the Sovereign said dismissively, "There are more important things
to do deal with."