Clove : Book 4 of Lord Emperor Vampire Series

Okay. I soooo hope that the build up has been worth it. It’s short but dramatic and traumatic so I think I can be forgiven.  I hope.



Thanks for the encouragement. Loyal and True. Mauh! Rosei; romanticfae; k; rosemary;Marin Liliz; dramastarelf; spirit (x2); natana; darma and laur.



I know there are more to list, but my loaner isn’t cooperating with viewing reviews. I will add to the list later.



Enjoy!









Chapter 160: Emperor vs Emperor



I figured I had the advantage of speed and agility.



No body could keep to me usually when I just in normal Vamp mode, so in blue angel…I should be touchless. Err, untouchable, yeah. In theory. Plotting and planning have never been my forte. When I do try to weave a web, I usually end up silly stringing my face and neck…so…it’s fly by the seat of my pants. Father might have gotten good with his black wings in the past seven years. However, the arena wasn’t an undefined space and Father’s wing span was closer to twenty feet. Mine was only about twelve. I was smaller, faster and quicker. This should be a piece of cake.



Yeah. Right.



Armor barely finished saying “Begin” when I whipped my wings out as I pivoted swinging my right leg up in a round house kick. Father ducked but I let myself drop and stiffened my wings so they swept out behind me. I took his feet out from under him. He hit the fine white sand hard enough to send up a whoosh of cloud. I pivoted one more time pulling myself up to full height and jumped forward with my fist raised to punch Claudius in the fangs. My knuckles pounded the sand. He had shifted slightly so my punch past his ear then he rolled towards me , trapping my arm under his neck then shoulders forcing me down to the sand or my elbow would break I worked a wing under his hips and lifting his weight off my arm then I jerked my wing skywards. I flipped Claudius like an omelet. He landed on his feet.



Crap.



I twisted to my back, tensed my stomach and jumped to my feet. My wings dug in the sand to keep me from toppling over. I attacked again. I brought my wing up and out as I had a longer reach with them than my arms. I turned, spinning to the right sweeping my wing up aiming for his head. He ducked, stepped sideways to the right where I nailed him solidly with a hammer fist to the temple. He went down…and came back up just as quick.



Double crap.



I rang his bells. I know I did. A trail of blood leaked out of his mouth. He licked at his life source then wiped it across his lower lip. The scent of cloves filled my nostrils. His eyes flared blue as his now red tinted lips broke into a cool smile.



I am so dead.



Pain filled his face as he willed his wings out. I had a split second to make a decision and I struck again. My punch breezed by his jaw as he danced out of the way. I ghosted past him, turning my back away from him so I could bring my elbow up and arc it high. I caught him hard in the chest just below the base of his neck. He staggered backwards but one huge honking black wing snapped out and I slammed my face into the feather wall. You would think that feathers would be soft. No. Oh no. He flicked his wing. I went flying like a finger flick to a spit ball. I got one flap in the opposite direction in a poor attempt to slow down before I hit the arena wall. The back of head went thunk. That’s actually what I heard ringing in my melon. Thunk. I crumpled.



/Sexy!/



I braced my hands forward to keep my face from bouncing off the sand.



/Sex!/



Who the hell was yelling at me? I crossed my forearms and blocked a kick to my head. Father wanted this over quick too. My arms went numb. I snapped my head backwards to avoid a haymaker punch. I braced my feet against the wall and launched myself forward catching Father in the stomach with my shoulder. He caught me under the arm and used my momentum to throw me off. I don’t know now the hell I did it but it was like a swimmers kick turn when doing laps, I landed with my feet on the opposite wall. I pushed off and got smashed like a spider under a flyswatter. Father’s black wing drove me into the sand. I hit hard enough sand flew up like a puff of flour.



Sand shot up my nose. I sneezed and bounced my forehead off the ground. I felt fingers brush at the hinge where my wing exited my back. If he got a firm hold on me, I was toast. I slapped at the sand with my wings, battering the ground, creating a dust bowl. I sneezed again and squeezed my eyes shut. I was a sand storm. I shuttled across the sand on my hands and knees trying to put some distance between us.



/Sex!!/



/What! Who is this?/



/You forgot me already?/



/Morose?/



/There you are. Move left, now./



I felt fingers just brush past my ear. I moved left about seven feet. /You’re back?/



/Her Majesty needs to speak to you. She hoped our link would be strong enough./



/I’m kinda busy right now./



/Nightshade said you have to get Skell to drop his shield from around you./



Shield?



A black wing came sweeping at me as the sand began to drop out of the air. I dissolved my wings and ducked. I rolled to my back and kicked out the back of Father’s knees. He dropped like a stone. I barely crawled out of the way. I didn’t crawl out of the way. He snagged my ankle. Oh god. He’s going to break it. I kicked him in the face. He let go. Oh crap…oh crap. Move, move, move.



/Sex. Skell is holding back your strength…/



Strength. Crawling around in the sand kicking at my Father was not my strength. I was the flyer in the family. Claudius was going to crush something if he got a hold on me. I needed a bigger venue. I rolled on my back and held my arms up toward the domed roof of the arena. ‘FIRE IN THE HOLE!” I sent a hand of light blast up and shattered the darkness. Assassins dived and ducked for cover as the bright light of the midday sun flooded the arena. I cowered under my wing as debris landed around me. I opened my eyes to find a huge black wing arched over me protecting me from steel and chunks of concrete. I snapped my eyes up and saw his blue eyed gaze looking down at me.



We had a moment.



He was my Father. He was my Lover. He was my Protector and he always would be.



He just wouldn’t listen to me.



I rolled free and ran up the side of the wall, lightening my weight as I clawed my way up to the sky. I ripped my hands open on exposed rebar but I scrambled free and launched. The wind hit my wings. Oh my god. It’s been so long. Orel Wessel wouldn’t let Skell fly. He could drop off buildings and jump between roofs but he wasn’t allowed this freedom…and that is what this was. The wind in my hair, through my wings up my apron. I actually missed the kilt.



I turned and hung in the air suspended for a moment and saw Claudius rise of the debris straight up like a harrier jet. What the hell? Liam could rise straight up as well. It had to be wing size. I could only do that when I was in phoenix mode. I really had wing envy. I watched the black wings clear the roof. God was beautiful and iconic. Like an avenging angel rising from hell. Holy crap…he moved towards me. Fly, fly, fly.



Claudius was like an eagle to my falcon. Where the hell did he practice? Maybe Mom and Dad let him practice in the woods. I would have loved to see him all fledgling like slamming in to trees and free falling into the leaf piles. I would have laughed my head off the way Nightshade had done for X. He had strength but I had maneuverability. The last grapple, I actually had ripped two feathers out of his wings. I got a kick to the stomach for that but still…



“Skell! Skell!! Edward the Second!”



“I’m still learning this. Stop calling me names.”



“Queen Nightshade said you are blocking us. You have a shield about us. You need to take it down.”



“How do I do that?”



“It’s your shield, little brother. You built it. You dismantle it.”



Oh, I twisted and looked around. I lost him. How the hell can you loose a 6 foot, one inch black winged emperor? I heard the rustle of leaves and shifted my wings but still got smacked hard from behind. He grabbed into my wings and twisted. OWWWW. He was trying to rip my wing off. I grabbed at the black hair flipping in the wind of our short free fall and yanked hard. He twisted my wing again. I dissolved them and got slammed hard into his chest by the wind resistance. I twisted from his rib cage and fell back behind him, still hanging onto his hair. I ripped my wings wide and hovered. His hair ripped out of my hands…oops, I still had some. He circled, banking beautifully. I flapped backwards lifting up higher and higher. I couldn’t have him blindside me like that again. It felt like my lungs were crushed from behind.



I folded my feathers and dive bombed toward the forest. The new arena was near the international airport. It was a little further out but there was a huge acreage of old growth trees there. Until I blew most of it up, the Warehouse blended nicely with the landscape. If you discounted 200 black limos scattered around the woods. Vampires old and young were ranged through the forest to see the challenge for the end of the House of Assassins. So far we had managed to beat their expectations. I mean, who the hell expected your killing/training ground to get a sunroof in a radical way? I squinted as I made for the tree canopy.



Bigger is better. Ha! Not if you have to salom, baby. It was the jedi speeder bike ride through the forest again. Well at least Father knew what the reference was now. Angle right, shift weight left, keep legs together.



“I got it!” Skell shouted to me.



I got hit with a power spike. It was just like an EMF pulse. It dropped me right out of the sky. Thankfully, I didn’t hit any trees but I skidded in a tangle of vines and wings for about twenty feet. Ooww. I flopped onto my back and just looked up at the underside of the canopy rather loopy. I saw a dark shadow pass over head. I was going that fast, or I was faster. I turned my head and watched him break back up through the canopy toward the sky.



Get up. Get moving. Come on…up up up. I managed to get myself into up right position number one. My wing twitched and I got pain all the way down my spine. He only said no hand of light. I burst into healing light. Even that came easier and brighter. I got a rush right thought my body.



“You all right?” Skell.



/Sex?/



/Shade?/



“Sex?”



/Sex./



“Wait” /Wait/



I climbed shaky to my feet and had to brace myself. /I got too many talking in my head at one time./ Oh that would be a therapist’s dream.



“Skell I’m fine. By the Power of Greyskull….” I felt strong. Energy tingled in my body from my toes to my fingertips. I sparked my hand of light tazer. It was easy and it didn’t drain me. “I am the power.”



Father dropped out the tree in front of my and I barely dodged a punch to my head. I blocked a knee to the gonads, partially blocked a forearm to my head then sidestepped and ducked a hammer fist to my temple. He kicked me in the shin. That hurt! I snapped my arm out and punched with the back of my head along his left cheek. He twisted with the force of it and I barely missed getting decapitated with his black wing’s leading edge. I took it on the shoulder and staggered to a maple trunk. I felt the wind shift and I dived behind the tree in time to see his wing hits the truck solidly. His whole body quivered as it rang through him.



I jumped out and tried to coldcock him. I got a face full of wing and he flicked me skyward. I willed out my wings and flapped up through the canopy.



/Sex!/



/What?/ Father’s wings actually made a whoosh rustle noise as he flew.



/Wrap it up. There are reports of unidentified flying objects in our area. Police are coming to investigate./



I sounded like broken bottles in a bag. /Okay./



I banked and turned back toward Claudius. It was like watching a train wreck. Two immoveable objects locked on one track. This was playing chicken in the sky. We slammed into each other hard. Since I was on the downward dive, I had more momentum and drove Claudius backwards. There are eagles in the east that have a ritual called freeling They clasp onto a fish at a unbelievable height and basically corkscrew down toward the earth. The first one to let go, went hungry. We locked hands and felt our faces deform as we dropped toward the ground at maximum velocity. One of us was going to have to break free or we were both going to crash.



Apparently domestic flight 73 had other ideas. It descended close to us and we got hit with the heat of the engines followed by the overpowering scent of jet fumes then turbulence. We crashed together hard, “SEX!”



Then everything went dark.







/Sex! Sex! SEEEEXXXXX!/



I snapped my eyes open and saw the clouds spinning crazily above me. I had to stop that before I threw up. I forced myself over and now I saw the earth spinning wildly. This was going to hurt. I gritted my teeth and forced my wings up and wide. It felt like someone tried to jerk my spine out my by wings. But I halted to a slow hoverlike fall and the world stabilized. I had an ostrich egg on my forehead from where I collided with Father.



Where was he? I saw a black object falling to earth in a fast spiral. His winds were curled around him but trailed after him like a tail Oh my god, he was out cold. And falling too damn fast. I angled myself toward him. The wind ripped past me but I kept my eyes on the prize. I slammed into his unconscious form from the front trying to stay clear of his own goose egg. I wrapped my arms around his chest and locked my hands under his wings. I pulled the rip cord on my wings.



Claudius wrenched right out of my hold and now spun slowly, but still falling. Shit. I flapped and angled my way toward him again. This time I approached from behind. I hooked my arms under his wings and armpits. I wrapped my legs around his waist and locked my ankles then pulled the rip cord again.



Too heavy. My wings were too small. I slowed our descent but it was nothing Wake up. I burst into healing light and hugged Father to me. Wake up. Wake up. Sasha… Sasha!!! I began flapping backwards trying to slow our fall. Nothing. I needed bigger wings. We were about a hundred feet up from the ground. I needed bigger wings. If I phoenixed I’d burn him. Wake up. A heat shield. I could form hand of light into weapons, couldn’t I do the same with the healing light. I just never tried before. I tightened my hold on Father’s limp form and concentrated on creating a concave shield. A fluid moving shield that covered Father and protected him. It worked. Oh thank god it worked. It was like a blue water mirror. My arms hand legs extended into the shield but it work…seventy five feet. My wings glittered away. I concentrated hard on keeping the healing light flowing then let the Phoenix loose.



The blue fire flashed once then flared white hot as the healing light fed it. We slowed. I keep a firm grip on Father, concentrating on keeping the healing light shifting and I flapped backwards. The wings flared and arced under Claudius. NO! I pulled them up and spread them wide, trying to turn them into a parachute. We were coming in too hard. I slowed us but it was still going to be a hard hit. I counted down.



Five…



I gritted my teeth and forced my wings wider.



Four…



I poured more healing light into the shield. The Phoenix reacted but glowing brighter. The white at the tips spread past the midpoint of the shaft of the fiery feathers.



Three…



I used one wing and tipped us so I was now on my back facing the ground. I pressed Father’s face to my chest and tried to curl around him. I had to absorb as much of the impact as possible.



Two.



I love you Sasha.



One…



I forced my fiery wings wide and threw all the force of the power that Skell had release into an air mattress of healing light between me and Father. I hit hard enough that my phoenix spluttered out. My head followed right after that and then there was nothing…don’t know if that’s good thing.