The Wielder: Sworn Vengeance (The Wielder Series) (11 page)

I consider for a moment flinging the door open so Znuul’s whatever they are can have a reunion with him.  That idea is squelched when with several large strides his hand is on the door and he’s basically standing over me with a very serious look.

“Hold this,” he says as he slides a huge silenced rifle off his shoulder and tosses it to me “And don’t get any funny ideas.”  The rifle weighs a ton and I almost drop it.  I’m guessing at least a .50 caliber if not more.  He motions for me to stand back and takes a deep breath.

I’ve seen this before. He’s going to breathe out some kind of blue hell-fire.
He opens the door a crack and lets loose the blue flame on the black furries, then slams the door shut. Those red eyes train back on me again.

“I can’t believe you walked right into this trap.”  He shakes his massive head at me in disapproval.  “And so you know, if I wanted you dead – I would have given you a whisper behind the ear from
Killer Kelly there,” pointing to the rifle. "Like I did to those fools."

He reaches into his black duster and pulls out a small yellow device.  He pushes a button and says
, “Kitten, evac at alley front.  Have a red ready for our friend.”

With all seriousness Znuul looks at me. “Get in the Humvee when it pulls up.  Do that healing/cleansing thing you do… several times.  The
Sporgifumes are infectious.  You’ll be given a healing potion.  Drink it. I have to clean this up before some poor bastard opens the door and lets it spread.  I’ll be with you shortly.”

I start to say something but am interrupted
by an adamant, “Go!”  So off I go, lugging his huge silenced rifle with me.

I see a blue Humvee pull up and turn around to look down the alley.  Znuul appears to be stripping down to his skivvies.  Taking a deep breath I open the door to the Humvee and heft
Killer Kelly and myself in.

I slam the door shut and the Humvee takes off.  A bubbly female voice greets me.  “Hi! He’s really been looking forward to seeing you! I’m Kitten.” She wheels us around the block then pulls into a parking place and puts the car in park.

Kitten is a waif of a girl - tiny, with wavy light brown hair and big wide blue eyes.  A little too wide eyed I think. She reaches into the console and pulls out a vial with a red liquid in it – a healing potion. She hands it back to me with the hugest smile, “Master says you need to drink this.”

I tell her “thanks” and drink down the potion, remembering what Znuul said about those creatures being infectious. Then what she said strikes me like a sledgehammer – “Master says.”

I look up at her overly happy, wide eyed perky self and ask for clarification. “Uh, Kitten, did you just say Znuul is your Master?”

“Uh-huh
,” she says back grinning like there’s nothing wrong at all.

‘“So you are his slave?”

“Oh no, silly. I’m no slave.”

I take a breath in relief.

“I’m his pet!” she says with a bounce and in such a way there is no doubt that is the bestest thing in the world… ever.

Crap sticks.  Znuul is taking human slaves. I smile back at her, so not to alarm her to how way beyond acceptable her “pettness” is.  Her radio crackles with Znuul’s deep voice on the other end. 

“Kitten. Evac at rear alley.”

She backs out, spins the car around a corner and takes off in a hurry.  She pulls up
at the opposite end of the alley I was picked up on.  The door to the basement opens and out strolls Znuul.  He stretches his arms and wings. Then he catches ablaze.  Just like that, the flames wink out, he scoops up his clothes and runs to the vehicle. He swings the door open and squeezes his bulk into the back seat, pushing me into the door opposite.

“Go.
Authorities incoming,” Znuul directs.  Kitten obliges.

I start to ask him why he’s taking slaves, but am interrupted by a
n “in a moment” before I can get a syllable out.

There is the sound of popping bones and he begins his transformation into human form. Upon completion of the transformation, he shuts his eyes and mutters some unintelligible phrase and large tattoos appear on his shoulders and torso.  Then he begins putting on his clothes.

“The sporgifumes are highly flammable, so cleansing myself is easy.” Znuul says matter of factly while slipping on his t-shirt.  That explains the bursting into flame. “Not so easy on the clothes though.  Good to see you again Arthur. Real dumbass move walking into that trap though. You were going to say something, before I so rudely interrupted you?”

“Uh, yea.”  I think how to choose my words, but how do you choose those words?  “What the hell, Znuul – you’re taking humans as slaves?” I look at Kitten to emphasize my point. “Grey would shit himself.”

Znuul’s face is no longer a “great to see you” face.  I struck a nerve. Probably the Grey reference, which I am regretting. After all, who wants to be in the backseat of a car with a pissed off demon of legend?  He regards me with a seriousness and intensity, then turns away, closes his eyes and begins rubbing his temples. “It was not a deliberate, calculated thing – it just happened and there are complications.”

“Nothing’s complicated!” Kitten injects.  “He picked me and I’m happy!  I take care of him and he takes care of me.”

Znuul is now squeezing the bridge of his nose and his jaw is clenching. “Thanks Kitten,” he says in a most neutral tone.  I recognize that tone, it’s the same one I use when I’m pissed at one of my summonlings, but don’t want to exercise my emotions because it would cause them stress or harm. His hand moves from the bridge of his nose and he turns to regard me. “We can talk of this later, in detail when we are in private. You know I am a master of all forms of domination.  Pain and pleasure are two most common means. Pleasure is particularly insidious in that the dominated often does not wish to be released.” 

His eyes roll over to Kitten, twice.

I don’t even have words.  My mouth I think starts to form them, but nothing comes out.  I think Znuul is telling me he screwed her into submission and slavery. Not able to verbalize a coherent thought, “What the heck, Znuul?” comes out.

“It just happened, I didn’t mean to. You know the old man kept my
pecker on ice for a reason. She just cracked open and I accidentally…”

The car slams to a stop and both of us bounce off the seats in front of us. ‘It was not an accident!  You picked me!  You wanted me!” Kitten turns around and looks at Znuul sternly. “You’re not going to reject me again, are you?”  Car horns blow behind us.

That car dealer smile crosses Znuul’s face as he regards her.  “No way darling.  Arthur just doesn’t understand all the nuances of our relationship.” He reaches up and strokes her cheek. “Drive on please, we don’t need to make a scene.”

With a huge smile on her face, Kitten quickly bounces around and drives us on.

Znuul’s very large hand reaches over, grabs my thigh and squeezes so I pay attention; pain does that.  “Can we resume this conversation later, privately?”  Again his eyes roll over to Kitten.

I get it. He doesn’t want to ruffle her feelings.  At least that is good – consideration of her feelings that is.  So I nod
“yes” and he releases my thigh and I feel the blood return to my leg.

He falls back into his seat and runs his hands through his
long black hair. I take a deep breath. This is really awkward.

“I know how the old man would feel Arthur.”

“Yea, if anyone would, Znuul.”

That gets him to turn to me. His eyes are sad, I think.

“Damn I miss him Arthur.” 

With that
, he turns away from me again to look out the window. He asks Kitten how long we have and she lets him know the GPS says about three hours.

“We have business
- you and I, Arthur,” Znuul says still looking absently out the window. “We have the business of revenge.”

Znuul turns to me. “We have three hours in this car and only one thing matters.  You and I bonded in purpose.  You are already sworn to revenge against Maldgorath for your and Svea’s family.  I am sworn to revenge against him for mine too because, yes, he was behind my loss as well. So, the question, is Arthur – are we not brothers?  Brothers
in sworn revenge?”

I look into his eyes and see nothing but earnest and intensity.  This isn’t him asking as much as him making a statement.  I get that. I get that we have a sworn common enemy. I look at him again.

“What do you mean brothers? We’re not going to do some funky blood bonding ritual thing are we?”

That brings a chuckle.
“No, nothing like that.  It’s much simpler,” Znuul smiles. “We agree to be as kin until the bastard dies.  We look out for each other and equally participate in his demise. Brothers in purpose and deed. Agree?”

I look away from him
taking in the implications.  Then I look back. “Yea, brothers in revenge.” 

He holds out his hand and I take it.  I just made a deal with a demon.
  We had to have passed over a crossroads.

The three hour drive to wherever it is we are going was spent catching up.  Znuul explained how he stayed “off the grid” thanks to the glyphic tattoo he summons upon himself along with access to all of Grey’s hidden financial accounts through a pouch he was given.  I caught him up to speed with me which included our close calls with death, meeting the vampiress Lucrezia, and much to Znuul’s delight, my now intimate involvement with Sheyliene
. That bit of information, of course, got an “about time” response from him along with other off color jibes.

W
e pull off the expressway and wind through wooded country roads, that eventually turn into a long unpaved road that leads to a large metal building surrounded by trees.  Kitten pulls up, pushes a button on the visor to open the garage door, and parks us.

“Welcome to the bunker Arthur
,” Znuul says wasting no time getting out of the vehicle as he is not fond of tight spaces. Kitten is quick to his side with a hug and then flits ahead to open a very large door for him and I to enter.  I follow, looking up at the large doors – it is his house, makes sense he wouldn’t want to duck under the doorway when in his larger, more natural form.

The living area is an immense open space with two banks
of rooms to the side, and stairs leading to rooms above.   There’s a spacious kitchen, sliding doors to a rear outdoor patio unit and small hallways straight ahead off the kitchen with one leading to another set of oversized doors.

“Nice spread
,” I tell him.

"Thanks
,” says Znuul with a smile and he points to the banks of rooms.  “Sixteen rooms, seven of you. Summon your friends and pick which ones you want.  They’re not large – but private.  And oh, one other thing...”  With that he beckons me to follow, so I do, to a large front door.  He touches the casing around the door and a series of glyphs lights up all over the building in a faint yellow glow that then fade away.

“Those are the
wards to keep prying eyes out.”  Then he touches the casing again and a series of red glyphs light up. I look around to see all the windows, doors and walls also light up too, then fade away.   “Those are the protective wards to incinerate anyone who tries to enter unbidden.  Or… leave.  Please don’t open the doors or windows.”

I look at my large brother in revenge
, “Hostage?”

“Guest.  At least until my doppelganger makes another appearance.  That way you and your merry band of summonlings will have no doubt of my innocence. Come.” 

Before we can take a step a giant mottled brown furball comes trotting across the large great room space and bumps into Znuul’s legs.  It’s Hunter, his big main coon cat from the chateau. Hunter regards me from in front of Znuul’s legs, so I bend down and hold my hand out so he can get a sniff.  He sniffs and gives an acknowledgement that I am remembered. Short of a little hairless patch on his tail, he shows no signs of being involved in the carpet bombing.

Znuul bends down and gives his cat a pet.  “I sent him a telepathic warning when I sensed
the helicopters.  Lucky for him, he listened.” Hunter's attention is on his buddy and buddy likes that. “Aren’t you a lucky cat?”

We walk to the kitchen
, followed by hunter and Znuul opens a well stocked refrigerator. Then he opens the top side freezer to reveal it is stocked full of bottles of Stoli. He grabs a bottle and asks me if I care for one. 

"Not really, thanks" is my polite response.

He twists the top and takes a large pull. “Come on; let’s say hi to the troops.” Znuul knows I don’t like to keep my gang in their holding area of nothingness. We walk back to the living room and he plops down on the large leather sofa in a slouch, taking another large swig. Hunter jumps up on the sofa too and makes himself useful as Z’s neck warmer. “So, who’s first?” he asks, meaning who do I summon first.  Then he holds up a hand.  “Wait one sec Mac.”

“Kitten!” he bellows out. “Come meet the rest of our guests
.”

Feeling like we might be a while I sit myself down in a large leather chair and roll up my sleeves.  “Hjuul first
,” I tell my host.

“Ah… the bond of a man and his hound…”  That gets me a toast
of the draining bottle.  I’m thinking maybe I should call Pffif first so Znuul has a drinking buddy.

A sing-song
, “I’m ready!” announces Kitten’s presence. She’s dressed in a green silky robe and from the looks of things, nothing else.  With a cute little shuffle she makes her way to Znuul and then drops into his lap. She smiles at me from his lap and lets me know this is her house uniform.

Keeping
to courtesy I compliment her, though still a little un-nerved at Znuul’s keeping of her.

Knowing my crew has been away for hours and probably worried about me, I waste no time. First up my big hell hound Hjuul. I trace my finger along his sigil and call him forth. Kitten’s eyes go wider than their normal state when the air ripples and my dog-bear appears.  I get up to give my mammoth
hound a scratch and to tell him we’re okay.  His eyes turn to our host who in turn tells him, “Welcome hound. Don’t even think about chasing the cat.”

Next up is Sheyliene.  Figuring she’ll think we’re in danger because of our host, I don’t sit back down.  The air ripples and Shey appears.  Sure as shootin’ she quickly fetches her bow and trains it on Znuul. So I step in front of the line of fire.

“It’s the general!”  Then she looks at me and notes my lack of panic, “Are we prisoners?”

“Sort of.”

“You are guests, until all doubts are erased,” Znuul corrects.

“You killed the pope guy!  And hurt lots of people.”

Kitten comes to Znuul’s defense but he quickly shushes her.  “Little Sheyliene,” Znuul says softly in his very deep tone “I did no such things.  But…you would be doing me the biggest favor - there are two words I so want to hear you say.”

Shey looks at him and then at Kitten, then back at me.  “She’s a
thrall.” I nod back at her and clarify that she’s a pet, which gets Shey putting both fists on her hip.  “You know that’s just demon word games.”  The bow collapses, gets tucked away and she trains her glare on Znuul.

“Come on pixie; say those two words I’ve missed for so long.”

“Fuck you?”  Znuul nods no.  “Go die?”   

I am laughing on the inside, because I figured it out.  So I give her a hint – “Come on, what is he?”

Shey looks at me quizzically. “Ass monkey?”  That makes me giggle.  Znuul groans. Her face lights up at my giggle and she blurts out “Demon scum! He’s demon scum!” and then she crushes me with a hug for doing such a good job of remembering.

Znuul is applauding her revelation, but Kitten doesn’t seem as pleased. “I don’t like her
,” she shares with the room.  That gets Shey’s attention in a negative way, but before she can release me and tell Kitten what she thinks I hug her a little tighter and whisper in her ear, “You were rude to her master."

She nods at me, lets me go then turns around and sticks her tongue out at Znuul.

All I can do is shake my head. Luckily Znuul is much more amused than anything – after all he did co-exist with her for two years. He whispers something in Kitten’s ear and she seems to relax a bit.  Znuul explains the wards to Shey and asks her not to leave, which of course gets a sour reaction. After all we’re in the middle of woods that would be good to explore.

Pffif is next.  He of course, is a bit shocked at the revelation of who our host is, but after explaining he now has a drinking buddy
, he relaxes a bit.  Znuul holds out the bottle of vodka to him and that gets a smile from the little guy, who steps over to take the offered bottle and a gulp that makes Znuul’s look small.  He hands the bottle back and turns to me with a burp, “Right good hospitality.” Then he jumps up on the sofa to take a seat next to Znuul and Kitten. “So, ye be havin an imposter do ye?”

Znuul smiles at him and toasts him with the bottle, takes a pull and hands it over to the little guy again. Good
politic on Z’s part. 

I bring out Vets next and there is no fanfare, she just looks at me from behind her death’s head skull helmet and says
, “I presume we are safe?”  After telling her "yes" - we get a “good” from her and she stands over to the side.  That’s my Vets.

Silithes
follows.  She appears and her eyes glance over Znuul, Kitten and the rapidly becoming inebriated Pffiferil. Then she turns to me, “Good, you’re okay.”  She looks back to Znuul, “You rescued us?”

“Yes
.”

“Who’s the cutey?”

Znuul introduces Kitten to Sil and Kitten excitedly proclaims her pettness.  That gets a big smile from Sil who glides over to them and gives Kitten a big hug and lingering kiss on the cheek.  She tells her “I think you must be the best pet ever.” 

"Thank
you!” says Kitten followed by proclaiming, "I like her." I guess there’s nothing like validation. Sil slinks back by me to the other sofa, stopping to whisper at me, “You have a pet too.”

Znuul leans in. “He’s still not giving you what you need, is he dear?”

Sil shakes her head “no” with a sarcastic smirk.

Big Z’s eye train
s back on me again and I know what’s coming. I take a deep breath and mutter “okay, let’s hear it.”

That gets a brief laugh out of Znuul
, “You really need to think about giving that poor succubus what she needs.”

“She has what she needs,
Z, just not what she wants.”

“You see what I have to deal with
,” is Sil’s contribution to the subject complete with a rolling of her green alligator like eyes as she sits in the plush leather sofa across from Znuul.

Znuul cracks a huge smile, takes another swig off the now almost empty bott
le, hands it to Pffif, wraps a huge arm around kitten’s tiny waist and readdresses the subject  “Brother, you have no idea what you are missing out on.  That wonderful creature there can do things the pixie could only fantasize about doing. You know…”

“Shut up!” Shey’s off the sofa an
d is standing between Znuul and me in a flash.  “Arthur doesn’t need a skanky succubus.  He loves me!  We’re getting married and adopting babies.”

My face goes blank
in shock – I’m what?  The room goes silent.  Pffif drops the bottle - and that never happens. Even Ahtsag Znuul himself is silent for a moment. I can only imagine the look on Sil’s face.

This silence is broken by Pffif’s scurry for the bottle and
a muttering of, “Toads and snakes.”

Znuul’s composure
now regained, he looks away from Sheyliene to me.  “Congratulations Arthur, it’s a great thing, you making an honest girl out of her – I’m invited to the wedding, right?” He looks back at Sheyliene, “A Spring wedding would be most beautiful wouldn’t it?”

I’ve heard enough and Znuul egging her on isn’t helping.  “There’s no wedding and we are not adopting babies.”

This statement gets Shey’s attention.  She spins around with a look on her face that says shock. “But I thought...”

“You thought wrong.  I mean, I have love for you – you know that.  But I am not re-marrying.  And adopting?”
I sit there with my jaws slack and head shaking “no”.

Shey stands there with a wounded look on her face;
her eyes blinking in reflection processing the information just given to her.   I turn my head towards Sil and she’s just shaking her head in disbelief.  She catches my glance and gives me a shrug. 

“Little bit, you need to do a better job of separating
your fantasy world from the real world," Sil says. "Come sit back down before you embarrass yourself more.”  Sil pats the sofa invitingly next to her.

Shey is caught in paralysis, looking at me and then at the sofa. “Maybe you need to sit down
,” I offer.   She takes my advice, but makes sure to sit on the opposite end of the sofa from Sil.

“That leaves one more” I announce.  I touch the glyph for Arix and call him forth. With the customary ripple in the air, he appears. He opens his third eye, scanning the room
, stopping on me with his know it all smile. “Ah, either we’ve defected to the other side, or the Devourer of Souls and Destroyer of Hope has an imposter.”

Znuul casually
ushers Kitten off his lap and stands.  Arix regards him, that know-it-all grin still on his face.  Znuul returns the grin and takes a large casual stride towards him. With a suddenness not expected for one of his size he palms Arix’s head, lifting him from the ground.  Znuul’s fingers and hand begin to turn their “normal” color of dark purple as they dig into Arix’s pale white flesh.  Arix, in panic is flailing about.  Then just as suddenly as he grabbed him, Znuul crushes Arix’s head.  Arix stops flailing about and begins liquefying and turning to steam the way my summonlings do when they are killed.

Znuul stands there for a brief moment then turns back to look me in the eyes. 

“That one is not welcome in my house.”