Arthur took one last glance at his men and the women who fought at their side, then gazed down at the beautiful, brave little witch at his side, her hair a fiery halo of curls surrounding a small pert face. Green eyes full of determination gazed up at him. Something inside him shifted as he marveled at the beauty before him so full of passion and strength.
He felt humbled, awed and possessive. By the gods, he loved her and for her,
he would fight this battle. For her, he would lay down his life to protect.
He turned to the soul eater bearing down on him, raised Excalibur and prepared to engage.
* * * *
Gwen’s breath caught at the love shinning in the dark depths of Arthur’s gaze. Her heart thumped heavily against her rib cage like a bird fighting to be free. Dare she hope? Could he give her what she so desperately craved?
Arthur met the oncoming giant with a powerful downward swipe of his sword singing in the air. He ducked and sidestepped, avoiding the heavy mace as it slammed down where he just stood.
Arthur continued the deadly dance with lethal grace as he swung low, the blade cutting deep into the soul eater’s hamstring. Without a sound, the beast dropped to his knees, swinging his mace above him, giving Arthur no opening to finish him. The mace snapped out from the end of its chain.
Deftly Arthur avoided the deadly missile and attacked with a downward thrust, decapitating the soul eater with his powerful blow, the body turning to dust before the head hit the floor.
Gwen tore her gaze away, scanning the horror steadily closing in on them. Would they even live through this nightmare? She squared her shoulders, chin lifting in defiance. Everything hung in the balance. The promise of a future she glimpsed in Arthur’s dark eyes, their happiness and the world teetered on a precarious edge ready to slip into the darkness.
Not if she could help it.
Gwen pulled the magic deeper into her, feeling it respond, waiting for her bidding. She built a shield around Arthur as she readied a sphere of white-hot energy. Pulling her arm back, she let loose with a pitch a professional baseball player would be proud of. Her magic hit three soul eaters nearest her, turning them to ash.
The eerie silence filled the air, raising the small hairs on her arms and the back of her neck. Not even a moan came from the ones she destroyed and the others just shuffled forward, more replacing the hole she made in their ranks. Flashes of light hurtled through the air, taking more of them out and again, no sound came and others replenished their ranks.
Somehow they needed to get to Vance or no one would survive tonight.
It seemed Arthur read her mind as he started edging toward the soul eaters. “I need to get to Vance. You stay with Drake, Merci and Juliet perhaps if you combine your magic, we can slow them down.”
Instantly, the horde stopped, their jaw’s widening, and a high-pitched screech pierced the air, the noise threatening to bust Gwen’s ear drums as she clasped her hands to her ears, nearly driven to her knees with the pain stabbing into her temples.
Frantic, she looked around her at the others, her skin turning cold and clammy with dread. They all were nearly senseless by the high-pitched scream. Desperation clutched at her throat, threatening to take her sanity. She needed to find a spell, something to combat the mind numbing, ear-splitting sound. She grasped for anything she could think of, willing her brain to function in the midst of such utter chaos. Slowly, her brain came on line,
there
, almost within her mental reach she found what she needed. She struggled for a moment more until she grasped it.
Clutching the crystal in her hand so tight it cut into her palm, she recited the words and let the power flow over them dulling the paralyzing effect and bringing them back from the brink.
She would have sagged with relief if that ended the assault, but she soon found out it was only the first phase in their strategy. With jaws completely unhinged and elongating into grotesque characters from some horror movie, a buzzing noise built.
“Oh, shit, incoming!” Merci screamed.
“Shields up, Now,” Drake demanded on a snarl just as millions of what looked like black shinny beetles burst from the soul eater’s gaping maws.
A loud shout followed by a curse came from Darius as several of them landed on his arm before the shield activated. He tore them off with savage force, crushing them under the heel of his boot. “By the nine levels of hell, they’re flesh eaters,” he snarled, wiping the blood streaming down his forearms with loathing.
Dear Hecate, now we are up against flesh eaters? When will this madness stop?
Only one man could stop this and, as his gaze locked onto hers, she knew what he planned to do, and knew this could very well be the last time she saw him alive. The memory of the convent crystallized in her mind, of Lancelot standing behind her in the small receiving room reeking of blood and death. She remembered his words given in a low emotionless tone of Arthur’s death. Camelot finished and the world forever changed.
“I go with you,” Gwen stated it as fact, no question and no room for argument. He studied her for a brief instant, yet his gaze seemed to stroke lightly over her skin, bringing the sensation of raw passion to life so fierce with its demand she nearly gasped out loud from the sheer perfection of it.
He gave her a slight nod.” Then let’s do this. Together.”
Gwen let out a shuddering breath she didn’t know she held. Arthur turned his attention to the soul eaters and raised Excalibur high. The steel seemed to pulse with excitement, ready to bite deep into another enemy. She followed, throwing her magic at the ones foolish enough to try and hem Arthur in. At times, the beetles obscured their vision as they clung tenaciously to their shields. The angry high-pitched buzz of their wings filled the air as they tried to breech Gwen’s shield magic.
Sending an electric charge to both Arthur and her shields, their view cleared as the beetles fell away, leaving her with the sight of Excalibur swiping up into an arch, then in a powerful down stroke as it cut through the soul eaters with fatal efficiency, leaving only a pile of dust on the floor. Over and over Arthur swung and slashed with the force of a berserker, thinning his way toward his goal.
* * * *
Arthur tried to block out the sounds of battle around him as he sliced a path toward the cause of the nightmarish existence he now found himself in. Guilt ate at him at the thought of losing a single man to this war. And then there stood Gwen, hurtling her magic with deadly precision, fighting with him as they neared their quarry.
She was a female of worth, a queen to be admired, a lethal fighter, the king’s lady,
his lady
, in every way, which mattered. If they made it out of this, she would never again know the feeling of being discarded. She would be at his side, making decisions in all things. He avowed silently to himself.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched with dread as Darius went down under the assault of three soul eaters, heard Simon’s shout and Rhea’s howl of rage and terror. Shots rang out, sulfur and smoke blending with the taint of the decay around him.
He caught the flash of Lancelot’s blade as it swept in an arch, two heads rolled off the shoulders of the soul eaters pinning Darius to the ground. Neil took aim and fired. A hole blossomed in the forehead of the other, stopping it long enough for Simon to cleave his sword through the solid neck. Juliet conjured thick green vines, which coiled around soul eaters, leaving them immobile while Colin removed their heads.
Viviane held tightly to a terrified Nimue, encasing them both in a shield as they watched on. As a goddess she could not affect the outcome of this battle, could only watch with horror as those she cared for fought to the death.
Arthur’s attention swung back seeking Darius, only to find him lying still and pale. Anger mixed with dread clutched his heart in a brutal vise. The very thought of losing Darius distracted him. The man fought with honor and struggled more than any of the others with his gift. Grief at the possibility of his loss stabbed deep in him.
The swarm of beetles obscured his vision and again, Gwen fried the beasts, clearing the way. He pushed all thoughts out of his mind save one. He
would
defeat Vance. No other option was acceptable.
He slashed his way to his prey with single-minded determination and found Vance, a madman lost to the dark promise of his black magic.
* * * *
Suddenly, Vance appeared from the thinning monsters, his dark hair whipped about his pale face, eyes wild with manic delight. The air around him crackled with power as he continued to push the soul eaters to advance. His head swung in their direction. His stare pinned her to the spot, a slow grin of anticipation forming on his face made her shudder with apprehension.
“Ah, there you are, little witch. I feared you perished, but look at you, so strong and full of potent magic! Morgan will be very pleased with your blood.” Vance nearly clapped in delight.
Arthur placed his body in front of her and growled at Vance, “You will never lay a hand on her, but I promise you will feel the touch of Excalibur’s kiss.”
A green glow extended from Vance’s hand, solidifying into a sword. “Then let’s end this, shall we?”
Chapter Fifteen
With as much control as he could dredge up, Arthur stood against Vance’s taunting, keeping Gwen at his back, and waited, Excalibur poised.
With a vicious snarl, Vance engaged Arthur with his sword up and ready to swing. Arthur shouted a war cry and met him with a ring of steel against steel. Sparks flew as the blades kissed with a hissing promise of death, their bodies met with a meaty thud. Vance stepped back, his sword a blur of movement, the air whistled with the velocity of his strike. Excalibur met each potentially deadly blow.
Arthur parried another, then another strike, forced to take defensive action as Vance’s onslaught forced him to take a step back, then another. His fingers numbed on Excalibur, his muscles burning at the onslaught. A fine sheen of sweat beaded on his forehead from the strain of holding back Vance’s attacks. Sparks sizzled from the contact of blade to blade, burning his hand, yet he fought on, waiting for an opening.
Vance aimed high, clashing with Excalibur with a clang of steel, then shifted in blinding speed to Arthur’s unprotected side, sinking deep into muscle. He gritted his teeth against the searing pain spreading through his trembling body. His heart raced at the thought he may lose against Vance.
Arthur blocked another strike, took another step back. Another vicious blow made his arm tremble. He felt his blood pulse hot from the wound at his side weakening him further. He stumbled and fell to one knee, his breaths coming in ragged gasps. He lifted his head and took the full measure of the madman staring down at him with wild eyes, lips twisted in a smile as cold as death.
“You will die again by my hand, and I will then have your bitch. I will summon Morgan and there is nothing you can do about it.”
“Oh really? I can,” Gwen’s voice rose strong and confidant above the sound of battle.
Panic seized hold of Arthur and his pulse raced as fear clogged his throat. His mouth moved, but no words came out. He experienced an unfamiliar sensation of helplessness to protect Gwen as his death came closer.
He watched in agonizing despair as Gwen moved between Vance’s sword and him. Magic thrummed in the air, sparks of it glinting against her pale arms as she filled her palms with magic, then hurtled it toward Vance in a blinding flash.
Vance hurtled through the air, slamming him to the earth against the urn which upended, spilling the ashes of Morgan over the floor. Vance screamed his denial as he came to his feet, his eyes turning as red as those of the soul eaters. “I will have your head for this, you bitch!”
“Um, yeah, I’m a bitch. No surprise there, can you come up with something more original?” she taunted as she knelt beside Arthur and placed one glowing hand against the wound.
The pain diminished, muscle knitted and strength surged through his body. Gwen grinned down at him and winked. Backing up a step, she gave him room to stand as he rose to his feet and leaned close to brush his lips against hers in a chaste kiss, which promised a whole lot more.
“Go get ‘em, tiger,” she whispered in his ear, the confidence in him sparkling in her blue gaze gave him all he needed to fight.
Vance already shook off Gwen’s spell and with a fierce snarl, bared his teeth that seemed a bit too sharp. He launched himself at Arthur. Even so, this time Arthur expected the brute force of his opponent and prepared accordingly.
Knowing Vance’s bull-in-a-china-shop strategy, he met him in a bone-crushing collision of flesh and steel. Excalibur rang out with a tone so pure the soul eaters cringed, clasping their hands over their ears, screeching in pain.
Vance leapt away, slashing out with his blade. Arthur felt the air whoosh past him as he arched into a back flip and landed in a crouch. He dodged left, feinted right and quickly changed course, feeling Excalibur cut through Vance’s thigh. A smile thinned Arthur’s lips at the indrawn hiss of pain.
Payback is a bitch!
Not giving the enemy a chance to recover, Arthur slashed again and scored another hit to Vance’s sword arm, darting away from the blade lashing out wildly at him. Good, he thought, watching the fury darken Vance’s features. The more enraged Vance became the less control he would have.