Always the Vampire

“They aren’t mad at me, dumb ass,” I snapped at Starrack. “They’re pissed at you. Aren’t you, Normand?” I called to the largest apparition. “You were king. Powerful, important, feared.”


Normand’s spirit dipped to hover in front of me as if he listened. The other ghosts streaked through the air in aimless agitation.

I took a deep breath, and another deep draw on enemy energy, and looked directly into Normand’s ghost-eerie eyes.

“You know you’re being manipulated by a mere wizard, don’t you, my king? You didn’t stand for such treatment when you ruled, and you won’t stand for it now.”

Normand turned on Starrack and growled.

“She lies. Attack her.”

“You see, my king. The wizard is giving you orders. He commanded that you come, and now he demands more. He’s using you.”

Normand’s ghost eyed Starrack then emitted a roar that shook the fort’s coquina foundation. I fell back a shocked step as Normand dove at Starrack. The other vampire ghosts hesitated a beat before they swarmed, too.

“Attack, attack,” Starrack yelled as he ducked, stumbled back and away from Saber, and batted at the ghosts.

Just then, my reinforcements rode in. I didn’t see Triton or Lia or Cosmil, but magical bombs suddenly exploded in the courtyard. Two in quick succession. Two more. Three after that? I lost count, but the number didn’t matter. The Void wavered, its etheric skin fracturing like baked desert soil.

With Starrack’s attention off his creation, I acted. I whirled first to Saber. Yes, the Void chain links had thinned to the size of fishing line. I pulled energy until a black stream ran from the links into my body, until not a smidge of the Void was left on Saber. Then I spun to the blob Void, and psychically sucked energy from its fissures. I sucked until my mouth and nose and lungs were on fire, and then I gorged on yet more of its aura until the blobby mass shrank from towering to toddler size to a shiny wet spot on the grass. I mentally lapped up the last drop.

“No,” Starrack cried.

I whirled to see the ghosts drive the wizard to the turf, then sprinted to Saber where he lay on his back, and fell to my knees at his side. His skin had darkened and wrinkled, and I fought tears as I checked the pulse in his neck.

In that moment of searching Saber for signs of life and finding it, in that split second of murmuring comfort and encouragement to him, in that nanosecond of losing track of the enemy, Starrack struck.

On his feet again, he sliced the blade of his hand through the air, and my chest burned from shoulder to breast. He slashed his hand again, and a second searing sliced at my neck.

“Come back, my pet. Attack the blood,” Starrack screamed, lifting his hand for a third pass at me.

He didn’t get the chance. Another bomb dropped from the gun-deck, and so did my reinforcements.

As if in a movie, Triton hit Starrack square in his back. The ghosts scattered, Starrack went down face-first, and Pandora materialized in full panther form. In one leap, she clamped her massive jaws around the back of Starrack’s neck, puncturing his skin and pinning him with her weight. Rivulets of blood ran down Starrack’s neck, and fat drops dripped on the grass.

Cosmil and Lia materialized, he muttering words, she making magical signs. Suddenly, Starrack was spread eagle, his arms and legs shackled to the ground with iron bands. Pandora never wavered in her hold on Starrack’s neck.

While Cosmil stood over his brother, Lia and Triton rushed to me.

“Let me see your wounds,” Lia said kneeling by my side and peeling back my ruined blouse. I looked down as if from a great distance, the smell of blood beginning to make me gag.

“Your gashes are deep, but not mortal. Can you perform the banishing?”

I gulped bile. “Not until we heal Saber.”

“Look at him, Cesca. He’s already healing.”

I swallowed again and steeled myself, but Lia was right. Even as I watched, Saber’s skin tone lightened slightly, and the deep age crags in his face began to smooth.

I gazed up at Lia. “We finish healing him once Starrack is gone?”

“Of course.”

“Then help me up.”

Triton leaped to take my elbow, one arm around my waist.

“You kicked ass,” he whispered.

“So did you, but you’re not bloody.”

“Hey, at least you wore a red blouse. The blood blends.”

I took a lurching step and grinned at him. “Yeah, and I bought it at Walmart. Easy to replace.”

“Triton, Cesca,” Lia scolded. “Make haste.”

“Coming, Lia.”

“Lia?” Starrack echoed. “Lia, my love, is that you? Let me up.”

“If you believe in a power higher than yourself,” she said as she stalked toward him, “you will beg forgiveness before you are banished.”

“By the little vampire and the dolphin? Not likely. She will be dead in a matter of minutes. My minion was made to kill vampires. Even now, it is devouring her from the inside out.”