Candy: Book 5 of the Lord Emperor Vampire Saga

AN: I have had an epiphany regarding souls. Every blood and human has one. I’ve previously mentioned that Britta’s was a ribbon. I’m going to leave the ribbon imagery as the human trait. Vampires souls are close to a human’s but wider. It would be like comparing a human’s ¼ inch wide ribbon to a vampire’s 1 inch wide ribbon. So eventually, as you know this is first draft, I will be going back and changing Lycan souls to the new *ahem* reality. Don’t you just love flashes of brilliance that come at the end of a labor of love. (Rummages for Tylenol.) 


Chapter 226: Come up screaming

Ripley was sucking everything that was vital out of me. How the hell did I know this? I was crumpling like an aluminum beer can on a freshman’s forehead at a kegger.

When we started this, I was standing at the Dark Fey’s side. I’d seen Dad do his mojo and I’m sorry to say it, he was never this elegant or refined. Whatever spells Ripley was invoking was done with a concert conductor’s grace. I could feel little ripples of power dance through my veins as he set off the magical symbols glowing on his arms. They hurt. Those little ripples. Little shocks that didn’t add up to much in the beginning but the cumulative effect had me reeling. What ever plain I was in contact with began pushing at me. The sensation was a kin to taking a garden hose and covering almost the whole end with your thumb. This is the spigot I had opened and now that I was getting tired and weak, the power was trying to push past me.

Sex turned into a motivation coach. He screamed in my head to buck up and keep it together. Skell was a little more pragmatic. He hit me with Healing Light. It was like a sugar rush to my system but it faded just as quickly. The aftermath left me feeling worse. I snapped my wings wide then dug them into the ground using them as crutches to keep me upright. I had knelt before Orel Wessel once. I wasn’t doing it again. No blood was ever going to be doing that again. If I had to hang off the hinges of my wings to keep from falling down, by the Blue Line, I was going to do it.

Finally Ripley called out the words I needed to hear.

“The barrier around that building is down.” Ripley called back then slammed both of his arms forward as if he just two fisted someone in the chest.

I keyed the walkie talkie. “Shield is down. Shield is down.”

As expected all hell broke loose. The claxon finally garbled to a halt. That God for that. I expected Ripley’s draw of me to lessen after the shield around the main facility was down but it kept steady. One leg buckled and I think I finally groaned out loud. Ripley looked over at me.

“How are you doing, Lover?”

“Get done what you got to get done.” Skell hit me with a shot of blue juice.

“I’m chasing down the chicklets. The hen has still hidden herself. Her presence is a trail everywhere. I’m searching for the freshest one.”

I closed my eyes. I wasn’t going to last. The Phoenix used to burn me up physically, making me weak and hungry but this was far, far worse. I was so tempted to slam the power conduit closed. But it had to be kept open. Serephina had the power to stop us dead in our tracks. Maybe she could draw on...what the heck did Ripley call them, chicklets? Even if she didn’t draw strength from them they were competent enough to get in our way. If this was all I had to do while Claudius and Gregory did the dangerous stuff, like search and liberate my son, I was going to keep the electrical mystical mojo flowing.

Skell’s healing gave me enough strength to pull my legs back under me. I swayed but felt a little more in control.

The distraction of us was working. Orel Wessel was five kilometres in that was way beyond my range for sweeping much less mindfucking. Aside from Hades orders crackling over the airwaves, I didn’t know what the hell was going on My legs crumpled. I gritted my teeth together but my wing began to shake. Do what you gotta do Ripley but do it faster. Do it way faster.

“Don’t think so, my dear.” Ripley looked like he was doing tai chi as he glowed brighter and brighter. I couldn’t even look at him anymore. He was burning into my retina. I ended up having to close my eyes; then squinting; then turning my head; then burying my head under my trembling wing.

“Sonofa...” Since I had my eyes closed I didn’t see it coming. Ripley slammed hard into my wing as Serephina slapped back at him with her magical power. We ended up toppling over on the grassy knoll. While I might have feathers, wiping out doesn’t mean I’m landing in a soft feather bed especially when I have another hundred and fifty-four pounds of fairy landing on top of me. I clung to the magical connection as hard as I could but it was slipping away. It was like trying to catch light with your bare hands.

/A little help here!/

/Incoming, Xavier./ Skell’s voice was strong and confident. I hesitated for all of a moment. He felt that. /I am in control, brother. I will not let my feelings get away from me./

/We have friendlies out there, little brother. We’ve buried enough of our allies this week./

/Understood./

Our body was weak. The magical stream that Xavier held onto so long and hard just skittered away from me. It was like a barrier slammed down hard. The connection was broken. Ripley let out a scream and twitched, more like spasmed off me onto the ground. The bright light that he was went pop like an old fashioned 40 watt bulb and we were in the deepening twilight of the night. My losing the magical connection snapped his concentration and now the magical bitch had him at her mercy. The golden silver fey writhed on the ground. Serephina had no mercy.

Fine. Just...fucking fine. I climbed to my feet making sure I took myself back out of wing range. I shivered and called on my metal wings. The weight was a comfort and it felt like I just like my ole armored myself. I looked down and only saw myself in fighting leathers. No beloved kilt for me. It had to be expected since the Unending Plain slammed the power stream closed as soon as it felt me. Xavier might have tapped the keg; but it was no booze for youse. For me.

Fine. I’d work with what I got.

There was a brief flash of silver as the fancy little fey tried to kick start his engine. Darkness surrounded us again. I couldn’t see anything that the Sorceress was doing to him but she was working hard at fucking up our little shield. Time to do something about that. I forced my wing blades wide setting them under his black and carefully rolling the magician down the knoll behind me. I tapped something metallic but it slipped off the sheer face of the north side of our position. Whatever. I took my mark, trotted down the hill and took a deep breath. The blue line came easily. I turned my spear into a sleek javelin with an explosive head. I took it in my right hand and tested the balance.

“Fire in the hole, Hades!” I keyed the mic then lifted my head and let a warning howl loose from my throat. Not as good as Azrael nor Xavier, but at least I didn’t sound like a whelpling pup-I hoped. My cry carried through the abnormal silence. I waited until it got picked up and telegraphed forward. I sent as much a warning as I was able. One breath. Steady your heartbeat. Two breaths. Focus. Three breaths. I began to run back up the hill gathering as much speed, balance and accuracy as I could. Just before I let the javelin loose, I jammed more blue line energy into it.

It lit up the sky like a rocket. I slammed my right wing hard into the ground to keep from spilling over the top of the knoll. My eyes were watching the trajectory. It would make 5 km. Where it landed...only Hades would know. A flash of purple neon streaked after it. I blinked to make sure that I was seeing everything clearly. Xavier was almost blinded by the brightness that was the fey.

I turned back and looked for the Dark Fey. He looked like he was in a struggle of life and death with something invisible. Three, two, one. Kaboom! The ground rumbled under my feet. That was enough of a distraction. Serephina had to break off the attack. At best I could only assume that it would have been close. I didn’t bother with the hope that it was a direct hit. I could never win a game of “Battleship” with Sex. I doubted I could do so with a Sorceress. I could rock the boat hard though. Ripley groaned and he brought a hand up to his face. I set my wing tips on the ground on either side of him and hunched down over him. The next bit was a little hard to do but I had discovered that I could arch my razor sharp feather daggers up at a ninety degree angle from their normal lay and make myself something like a porcupine ball—well a half ball. I enclosed us in my feather defence. Better to be safe than have a bullet in your ass.

I reached down and cupped the back of Ripley’s neck with my hand and pulled him up to my chest. Pain was easily read in his eyes. He blinked as I angled my head and pressed my lips against his. He grunted but I pushed my tongue into his mouth. Our tongues intertwined but there was nothing. I frowned. Maybe I wasn’t doing it right. I flicked my tongue up and rubbed the roof of his mouth. His hands came up and he started pushing against my shoulders. Our kiss broke with a loud resounding pop. Ripley lifted the back of his hand to his mouth and he stared up at me.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Skell, nothing happened?”

“If you were trying to give me an erection, you succeeded. If you were trying to connect, there was nothing.”

I let a quick smirk cross my face, “No, my older brother would have an erection for you.”

I stunned the quickly little fey into silence.

I did a quick but comprehensive sweep of the area, found that we were alone so I opened my wings so we could get fresh air. So I couldn’t recharge Xavier’s fey but I could do something. Ripley was still laying flat on his back. I laid my hand on his chest and let the Healing Light flow through me. That was strange. The Darkness, which I now knew was an Unending Plain let me pull energy through it; but whatever Plain liked Xavier didn’t like me. While I had the conduit open for the healing light, I leaned forward again and pressed my lips against Ripley’s. He tried to turn his face away. I slid back across his body until I was straddling his hips. He just looked up at me shocked. I took his chin in my hand and pulled his face back to mine.

“Open, little Fey.” This time when our tongues slid along each other it was like tonguing a car battery. A dark light flickered between us then began to grow steadily in intensity. It began to pulse in time with my heartbeat. I could feel his side effect thumping against the underside of my leather covered ass. My silver wings reflected his black light making our grassy knoll shimmer with garish day-glo colors. I looked into his eyes and they were a deep vibrant purple, more a violet than anything in the reflected black light.

Ripley finally pulled his head back and he lay gasping under me. His chest heaved as if he had just run a marathon. He held up his dark glowing arms and looked at the magical symbols which were now darkening like tribal tattoos.

“You ready to go kill some things?” He glanced up to me. His eyes were back to dark grey and silver since I had moved my wing’s reflective surface back.

“Hell, ya.”

I shut everything down—the Healing Light and the Darkness’ connection. Ripley dimmed but he didn’t have a black out like before. I climbed to my feet and folded my wings back. He was still sitting on the grass. I held out my hand to him. He leaned backwards a bit and looked at me intensely. “Whatever the hell you did has got her spooked. Which was good because that power drop almost fucking killed me.”

“You used Xavier up.”

He took my hand and I jerked him to his feet. He bounced on my chest and I wrapped an arm around his waist. He blinked and looked at me. “What are you doing?”

“Taking this side show a little closer to the main event.” I pulled him closer and splayed my hand across his ass. I spread my wings listening with joy to the grating sound they made as they spread at my call. I willed my weight lighter and angled my wings for take off. Ripley ended up grasping his arms around my shoulders and neck as his feet left the ground. I rose straight up keeping my eyes on the prize in the distance. Next thing I knew, he had his legs hooked around the back of my waist.

“I’m not going to drop you.” Ripley had strong muscular thighs that were clamping down a little too tightly around my waist.

The air was moving over us a little damp with the coolness of the evening.

“Not scared of a lot of things but, heights freak me out.”

“How the hell would height scare you? You’re a fairy!”

“I’m not a fairy. I’m not frigging ‘Tinkerbell.’ That’s a whole different subspecies of Fey.” Five km by the way the crow flies is pretty damned close. I could see a fire raging turning the ground orange and red. I missed the top secret compound building but I scored a direct hit on the armouries. Ha! I guess I did sink her battleship.

“Down...down now.” Ripley twitched and the energy I had recharged him with exploded into a dark aura.

I angled down hard and swift. My stomach lurched into my throat and Ripley tried to break me in half as he clung tighter. I landed harder than expected and Ripley slipped right off and went plop on the ground. He rolled a couple of times then landed on his knees with one arm down on the earth, his palm flattened completely. The ground rumbled under my feet then physically rippled outwards in a concentric circle from him. The Fey was the epicentre. Impressive.

“Do you need me linked to you?” Carnage and mayhem was all around us. Lycan ripped out throats. Hellcats scratched out intestines. The scent of blood and the dead and dying was in the air. It was a battlefield. I felt at home here.

“Whatever you filled my tank with is fine. I thought I was getting high test, you gave me plutonium. When this is over and done with, we need to have a conversation about this over a pot of tea.” Ripley looked up. His eyes were filled with dark power and the air pulsed around him. “Destroyer, go kill some things and find your son.”

I heard the gun shot. My reactions were instinctive and immediate. My wings snapped out in a shield and I grunted as it ricocheted off. The force of it staggered me forward but it gave me enough time to clear my own Glocks. Trying heat trail vision was useless because of the amount of heat the burning munitions barracks but I could see him in the firelight. Orel Wessel grey. I shot him in the forehead.

“Merci.” Ripley called out.

“Nada.” I did a quick sweep and found Father and the Lycan horde still inside the building. I folded my wings back and ran forward to the outer wall of the compound. Electricity was still flowing to this place. They would have a back up generator hooked in to automatically switch into place when the regular flow was interrupted. Efficient but predictable. All the high security doors were electrical. Get rid of the power, they just become doors that could be kicked off their tracks or hinges. Step one: Take out the power supply. I hoofed it around the side of the building looking for the power supply intake. There it was.

An Orel Wessel ran at me with his standard issue hunting knife. I flipped my wing forward and blocked his initial strike then slammed it backwards. He went flying off his feet like a piece of paper. I put a bullet through him before he hit the ground. He didn’t move. I turned my attention back to the problem at hand.

Silent speak was hard for me. Between the brotherhood it was easy but for some reason when I tried it in the real world my ‘silent voice’ was a scream. Sorry Father.

/CARNAGE!/

/Holy hell, Skell./

/TAKING OUT PRIMARY POWER FIRST THEN GOING AIRBOURNE TO TAKE OUT BACKUP./

/Understood./

I backed up from the power lines and the junction boxes. It was still a spear of blue line but I did like what Xavier called it – my thunderbolt. I fashioned one and let it fly. The whole damned facility sparked in a blue that almost matched the same vibrant hues of our Blue Line. Then everything went black. Sparks flew out from the destroyed boxes. I couldn’t see the magical power struggle going on around me but I could feel it. My hair rose up as if on its own and crackled with energy. I turned. Ripley and the blonde woman known as Serephina stood facing each other. I knew they were doing something but to now magical being it looked like they were just standing there staring, or maybe glaring is the correct term, at each other.

Light began to flicker in patches around the compound. Damn. I spread my wings and took flight. Twenty feet up I flipped and located the backup generator. I called up another thunderbolt and just as I was ready to release I got slammed into on my left wing and spun until I was facing the sky. The bolt shot up as I dropped out of the sky. There was that purple streak again this time spiralling off of my wing then darting up after the bolt. What the hell...

I slammed hard onto the roof of the blood building. Oooff. I laid flat on my back staring up at the sky. Something hit me. Hard. What was it?

/Skell?/

/WORKING ON IT!/

I could imagine that I could feel Father wince.
I rolled to my knees then up to my feet and hiked it back to the end of the roof. Fine. I could do it from here. Thunderbolt. I slammed the blue line down into the generator hard. The concussion slammed into me and I ended up getting blown across the roof top about twenty feet. The world around me fell to natural darkness with the fires burning sending nightmarish shadows on whitewashed walls. Lycan didn’t need light. Hellcats didn’t need light. Vampires didn’t need light. I just tipped the scales to our favour and jammed the fulcrum. The screams of the dying was a balm to my old wounded core. My bones creaked as I pushed myself up into a sitting position. I dissolved my wings. I felt like I had just run full tilt into a brick wall.

/I have him! He is unharmed./ I let a smile break across my face.

/William and I will secure the entrance./ Hades voice ranged after Father’s.

I glanced over at the mage’s battleground. Ripley was doing his elegant tai chi thing. Serephina was countering but by no stretch of the imagination was she elegant. Her movements were choppy and even to my untrained eye a little frantic. No need to get involved there. Us switching had almost taken the Dark Fey down. I’d leave him to his speciality which then meant that I could ply mine.

I climbed to my feet. I blinked my eyes until I got to what Sex called “soul o’vision.” I was still of the ilk that the brotherhood didn’t need to overlap skills to make us into a complete and effective Blood Emperor, however, Sex was right. If we as individuals had been given a gift, then we had the responsibility to hone it and use it for our benefit. I’d heard enough of Azrael’s bemoaning the lack of Blue Line talent to know that denying the extra things that I could do was a slap in his face. I had practised ‘seeing’ but I had never tried to call one. Killing should be a personal thing.

I concentrated and stared out into the night was suddenly dotted with little blobs of light. Every creature, blood or human, had a soul. I knew from experience that humankind didn’t believe that, otherwise how could Orel Wessel and other zealots justify the horror they inflicted on our living creatures. Size, texture and colors ranged between the species and individuals. The hellcats were bright green balls of light. For something being so small, those souls that came to Xavier for oblivion packed a hell of a punch. Fourteen greens dots were ranging through the compound. Lycan souls were bright concentrated bars of light. As they got older their light indicator just moved down like a gas tank going from full to empty. Three Lycan bars were missing. They had fallen in battle.

I could sense movement below my feet. Reaping souls was not my speciality. Sex and Xavier had mastered that. I could do it but I needed the help of a friend. Maybe it would be more correct to say, that My Dearest could do it if I was her point of stability. Sex had gone quiet after I switched with Xavier. I could only assume that he was taking care of his younger brother. Sex truly was the heart of our brotherhood.

I was on my own. Bloods were moving under me toward the exit. They would all be in a terrible state. Even though the pockets of fighting now were ranged around the compound those Blood that had survived the tender mercies of Orel Wessel would be weak and vulnerable. I reached up and closed my hand around the warm and familiar hilt of My Dearest...Endellion. Together, she and I would open a safe corridor for the freed hostages to walk.

/My Hashmalliam./

“Feed, my Dearest. I offer up the human souls of my enemy to feed your hunger and to give you strength to protect my charges who cannot protect themselves.”

/You are such a dear boy./

Endellion. Eternal. A weapon that devoured souls and rejoiced in destruction. So much like me. I pulled her free from the black sheath. A black blade in the black of the night should have been lost in the dark veil but a sheen of blue line coursed along her sharp double edge. Once she had been formless but that was a far distant memory. I pulled myself together and jumped off the roof, willing my weight lighter and lighter until I touched down with the grace of a dancer. Hades didn’t flinch as I landed beside him but William jumped. Liam was the battle hardened veteran, William for the best part of his young vampiric life was a paper pusher. Was this really the place for William to be right now?

The doors behind us crashed as Gregory and his Alphas ripped them off their hinges. I glanced back to see the tired and relieved eyes of Vampire and Lycan crowding behind them in a zombie shuffle. Starvation was the least of what they were suffering.

“Let’s get to work, Dearest.” I took off like a shadow. Endellion only needed the blood essence to take a soul into her hunger. She didn’t need to draw it, just –how do I say this? Smell it? Yes, how can a katana smell? I don’t know, but she does. She is more than a black blade. The nose of the Bloods were sensitive. Lycan more so than Vampire but Endellion was like a shark. She could find something bleeding from kilometres away. I ran down the most direct path that would get the rescuees the farthest from the fighting the quickest. I ran like a wushu character with her behind me in my right hand. The last thing I needed to do is trip and fall on my Dearest. She liked me but she was not above devouring any soul offered. Hashmalliam’s soul would be tasty and a power spike of monumental proportions.

Orel Wessel dropped where they stood as I ghosted past. Flashes of light stirred the air as ribbons of soul were sucked into Endellion’s hunger. The Hellcats had done a good job in this direction. I didn’t need to offer any orders as the ragtag survivors began to trail up after me. They were escorted by the Hellcats. Those Blood who couldn’t keep up were draped across the backs of prehistoric cats. Snowflake the sabre tooth tiger had three young vampires clinging to his fur. They were in good paws.

I backed off and called on my wings. Endellion was still bared in my hand and the twenty or so souls that had fed her were just the appetizer.

/To the southeast, my boy. There is a bunker below ground.../ Pure feminine laughter rang in my head. /The brown one is destroying their minds one by one. So much easier to feed when they are just cattle./

Marcus.

I sheathed my Dearest and stuck her through my web belt. I went airbourne. Up in the sky, a Lycan call is an eerie thing. I watched the bars of light retreat back from the out buildings. I reached for the walkie talkie mic and sent out the same message to the Loyal. “Fire in the Hole.” I called my Hand of Light and began to systematically destroy each and every building. I was Zeus throwing thunderbolts. I wouldn’t say I flitted around in the sky, but I knew better than to hover in one place. I sincerely doubted I could out fly a stray bullet.

/MAMA!/ A sharp shout of a child’s voice rang in my head.

Mama? I twisted in midair and that purple streak that had knocked me out of the sky before slammed into my left wing. The force of the hit ripped my wing backwards and I began to spin in a crazy corkscrew down to the ground. Pain shot up from my shoulder right up and down my spine. I tried to bring my wings in but my left side wouldn’t respond. There was another jolt and I began to spin faster my stomach moving into my throat. Damn it. I dissolved my wings and went into a freefall. I tried to recall my wings but there was nothing.

/Mama?/
I flipped onto my back and tried to stare up at the purple streak. I was still spinning so I couldn’t make out what the hell it was but it took me out of the sky twice. I was going to hit the ground hard. All I could think of was the pure agony that Sex had gone through when he shattered his hip when he and Father fought for the Head of the House. I couldn’t be left that defenceless here and now.

I called on the Phoenix. I didn’t like the burning feeling. Deep within my core I was scared of it. The brotherhood had explained it but it was still brought back the memories of terror and fear when I would suddenly just burst into blue flames. The connection between the mind and heart was there but instinctively, I would always treat this fire within as something foreign. Not of this body.

My fall halted and I hovered in the sky. I was a super trooper hanging in the air sending out blue light in all directions. Shadows were in stark relief and the brief bit of distraction I gave sent more Orel Wessel to their grave.

/MAMA!!/

That purple streak ripped toward me and this time it hit a cushion of healing light I formed around my chest. Instinctively I brought my hands up and captured the...dragon? The body was the size of a house cat, but the tail was long and wrapped around my forearm. The neck was serpentine and it was topped with an equine shaped head. Intelligence burned in those amethyst eyes and stared up unblinkingly at me. Two winged arms opened wide and the three talons at the end ripped into my rib cage as it threw itself against my chest and wriggled just like a kitten trying to get petted.

/Mama./

Stunned just doesn’t encompass what I was feeling. Flabergast? Shocked? Staggered? I had a dragon clinging to me like a gibbon monkey. It wasn’t going flambé as I burned with the fiery phoenix wings. It’s body was leathery and shimmered in my light. The head rubbed against my chest then the long neck lifted up and the little mouth opened and those amethyst eyes stared up at me.

/Mama, hungry./

A dragon wanted me to penguin it in the middle of a battlefield. And it called me Mama. Oh, holy hell.


* * *