The Blood War: Part II

The blade lodged in his thigh belonged to the enemy commander, he was certain of that. But he should have been fighting Geraldo…

Suddenly Zaharia realised how much he had ignored just to stay focused enough to survive this far. His soldiers had been reduced to a tenth of what they were, a handful of the hundred that were either broken or dying. Selik had cast his last spell, his body withered and turned to dust floating in the wind. And Geraldo? The master of the blade?

Zaharia’s eyes widened as he saw it, his breathing became hyperventilation. The legendary swordsman, lifeless. Nailed cross armed to a banner carried by Prince Cassius, who held him aloft like a twisted trophy.

The broodmaster desperately searched for warriors to fight alongside him, for a chance they could still win. Yet all he saw was blood and ash. Suddenly his foe knelt down next to him, eye to eye. “Your fight is over, Nightshade.” Hector spoke quietly yet sternly. “For a monster you fought valiantly. Your soldiers gave everything for you willingly, that is the sign of a good leader. If I knew nothing more than that I’d have granted you mercy however it is my mission to protect my people.”

“Oh no you don’t, you got to kill the last one and I’m not letting you take away the fun!” Cassius responded after planting his new banner in the ground. He knelt down next to Zaharia and held a small knife to his throat. “Gimme this one. Freak fancies himself a ruler, only true royalty should lead.” He was exuding murderous intent, every fibre of his being dripped in it.

“Settle down, brother.” The sound of Hector’s voice made Cassius cringe. “If you want more blood you’re welcome to search the castle for runaways, but the commander should be defeated by a commander.”

The mad one flicked his blade away and sprang back to his feet, lightning clashed in the short distance between the Weiss brothers’ eyes. “Isn’t that normally reserved for honour killings? You sure you want to honour the leader of some blood suckers? Not sure your loyal followers would appreciate that…”

The pair had a standoff. Zaharia was certain they’d forgotten about him, but he wasn’t sure whether he should run or attack. The elder brother cracked first, before Zaharia could make the decision. He exhaled loudly, “If I give you the other one will you stop being so irritating?” He asked. Cassius’ face lit up “Oh! It must be my birthday, what a wonderful brother you are!”

Hector waved over a pair of soldiers, they had someone else chained up and were dragging him towards the trio. Once they placed their prisoner next to Cassius and took the hood from his head, Zaharia’s eyes widened.

“Fiore?” Zaharia exclaimed weakly.

“What is the meaning of this, Prince Hector?!” The broodmaster’s hand cried, “I kept my end of the bargain, I did everything asked of me!”

The mad prince beside him looked bewildered for all of a second before bursting out laughing. “Yo Fiore, your looking well… or, as well as you can… considering…”

“Hilarious. Now unhand me.” Fiore demanded. Zaharia was at a loss, why were they speaking as if they knew each other?

“Unfortunately, Fiore Nightshade, that will not be possible.” Hector responded. His words cut Fiore’s heartstrings, plummeting the organ into the pit of his stomach. “Your information was helpful. However, we do not wish to leave a job unfinished.”

“Information?” Zaharia asked weakly.

That’s when Cassius took over, kneeling beside Zaharia while still keeping a hold of Fiore. “Y’see, we didn’t come here cause of some half baked intel, no troubled citizen callin’ out for a mean vampire brood to be killed…” he continued, this time close to his ear and whispering “and certainly not on orders from the king, but let’s keep that between you and me, huh?”

He tried figuring it out, but none of it made any sense. If not on the orders of the crown or from a citizen requesting aid… what brought them to the Nightshade?

“We received a letter 3 months ago from a Nightshade. It gave us information in exchange for immunity.” Hector explained. Cassius was all to happy to jump in “hazard a guess as to who ratted?”

It became clear, Zaharia looked at his brother like he would a pet that had bitten him. “Brother?”

Fiore didn’t so much as bat an eyelid.

*-*-*

The blade left a shallow valley on Sofia’s neck, but it had torn through Lucian’s arm. He had managed to pull her back and block the strike with his body. He cried out in agony, his arm barely attached to his body. Sofia tried to hold it into place, the Nightshade didn’t give her the luxury to tend to her husband. Their attacker targeted the wounded, only this time it was Sofia that managed to get a block up. It was clear the vampire was stronger than her. He put more pressure on and each swing pushed her further back.

Just before it made contact, she managed to shift her weight and let the scythe slide down her sword, quickly scrambling out of the way and spinning enough to line up a swing.

Not a wasted motion. Her slender blade sliced through the monster’s neck like warm butter, quick like lightning.

Lucian screamed again, this time it wasn’t his arm. Sofia hadn’t realised it, she looked down at the carcass below and noticed that he too had made one last attack. An upswing that had caught her in the chest, managing to avoid the bone but pierce the heart. In a mere moment she felt it all, and fell limp on the ground. Lucian caught her before she hit the floor, the scythe still lodged in her chest.

The pain in his arm was numb, he’d forgotten all about it. Instead now he felt the life draining from his love, and try as he might there was nothing he could do. Blood was pouring out of the open wound and she coughed more up that was spilling into her chest. Each cough sounded weaker than the last, and each inhale was sharper and more strained. Lucian covered the wound with his hand and pushed down to try and slow the bleed but it wasn’t working, he panicked. “Stop… please stop! C’mon! Stay- stay with me, Sofia! I’ll get you home! You’re going to be fine!”

She glared at him with lifeless eyes, “no” she struggled to speak. Each time she tried to open her mouth, it would fill up with blood, somehow she managed to cough out her last words. “…d-die… die… your… your…”

“No no no, I’ll fix this! Just stay with me!”

“Your… fault.”

He turned grey. It was if the world itself had stopped for them.

“Hate… you.”

Sofia Hawthorne died on the cold floors of the Nightshade estate, cursing the man she married.

In the moments following her passing, Lucian was dead silent. His shaky hand cupped his ears and he touched the concrete with his forehead, tears fell on the floor like a waterfall. Sofia Hawthorne died on the cold floors of the Nightshade estate… her husband Lucian soon followed, and The Headhunter was born.

He picked the scythe from his loves’ torso and hobbled away from his abyss, clutching his bleeding arm. A dark smile took place on his face and the words “kill them all” were all he muttered, until he disappeared into the forest.

*-*-*

“Brother…”

“10 points to bloodboy!” Cassius called out. “Your bro sent us a scathing review on you Zaharia. There was a full page dedicated to the plan just to kill you. I must say Fiore, it was such a good read. I had it by my bedside, helped me sleep.”

Zaharia stared at Fiore without uttering a word, it slowly got to the younger brother. “Think staring at me will change anything?” He asked snarkily. He turned to his brother, revealing how emotionless he actually was.

Zaharia stared at him but looked confused. “You are Fiore, aren’t you?”

This aggravated Fiore, his brow furrowed. “Good lord, you are so stupid Zaharia. I tried to play your games, now look where that got us. Had you actually listened to me today would be like any other, had you named me your heir instead of your snot nosed kid you wouldn’t have had to die.”

Fiore’s words also hit Cassius. He dropped the psycho smile and subtly looked at his own elder brother.

Fiore continued, “I would’ve built an army even Lilith would be jealous of, I would have fought the humans and carved out our names in history! No longer would we have to sneak around in the shadows, we could live proudly! You on the other hand, you act like you care but just do what father did. You locked yourself in with your little council and pretended the walls weren’t closing in around you!” While Fiore listed his grievances it began to chip away at his brother. “So you decided turning on us all, killing our entire community was the best way to save us?”

Fiore threw sand at the commander. “Shut up. Cull the weak and start again, that’s how it’s always been. I made a deal with King Atlas, you would die and he would be rid of his Nightshade problem. In exchange, I’d survive. I’d get to start again, without being told what to do.”

“Oh.”

Both were interrupted. Cassius interjected, “about that.” He paced a little, it was clear that he wanted to word it all out perfectly but it wasn’t exactly falling into place. When it did, he wrapped an arm around Fiore. “Remember when my bro said we don’t like leaving jobs unfinished? Well… unfortunately for you, that job was a complete extermination.” He smiled as if he was helping out a friend. “Sorry bout that, Fio~” his playful words were followed by a small dagger being thrust violently into his neck with all his might. It had been stabbed in so far the point was coming out the other side. Blood pooled in Fiore’s throat. All of it drained when the madman twisted the blade, making the wound even bigger.

Zaharia looked on in terror. He reached out but after everything his brother had done, it wasn’t so surprising that it didn’t hurt. Fiore shook violently, his widened eyes stared deep into Cassius’. “Shh… it’s okay, it’ll pass. And when it does, I’ll decorate the streets with your guts.”

“…why…” Fiore managed to eek out.

“Why? Smart boy like you should know that Fio… you aren’t as valuable as you think you are. Think the king gives a damn about upholding an agreement with a bunch of monsters like you? Think he’ll be sad hearing you died? Course not. My question is, if we were gonna kill your entire clan, what good does it do us to keep your skin safe? May as well take you all out! Makes sense right?! Zar, you understand right?”

Zaharia didn’t respond, he hadn’t heard the rhetorical question over the sounds of his younger brother dying. It didn’t bother his murderer either way, he was enjoying watching Fiore squirm. Hector however, had tired of the show. “Enough toying with your food Cassius, we have to make sure there are no survivors and I would like to be home before mother’s birthday.”

Cassius rolled his eyes, “yeah yeah I’m on it.” Another blade sank into Fiore’s flesh, this one on the other side of the neck to the last one but slightly higher. He held both knives in a way that he was face to face with Fiore, close enough to feel his dying breath. “Sorry bout this Fio, save a seat in hell for me.” With his last words spoken, Fiore pleaded with Cassius to save him, without even knowing if that was possible. It didn’t matter either way.

Without hesitation Cassius pulled his blades across the neck, scissoring the meat in between and decapitating the younger brother.

Zaharia watched the head roll, it went downhill and stopped beside Prince Hector who simply nudged it out of the way with his boot. The prince stabbed his sword into the ground at Zaharia’s feet. It was to be a ceremonial killing. “As I said before, Nightshade, you fought valiantly. With that comes honour. With your death, I will end your clan and promise to tell your legend.”

The sword lifted from the ground slowly, methodically. Zaharia started to panic, seeing the headless corpse of his brother, thinking about those still in the castle. In the end, he saw his daughter’s smile, one last time.

He saw the day she was born, the family he once had, and made one wish. Because of that, his heir lived on.

*-*-*

I don’t remember how long I was in that cabinet for, fearing that I’d come out and be found by soldiers. Every so often I’d wake up to the sound of footsteps, and I’d cower away even longer.

I got so scared that at some point, I felt like I was already dead, like I was living in so much fear that I’d never leave.

When I finally did come out, their bodies were gone. Any trace of war be it blood or ash were deleted, it was almost like it never happened. Because of that I started hoping that it was all just a horrible nightmare and that they would all come back to me. The day I gave up on that… is the day I met you.

Aiyana smiled with tears falling from her face. “I wish a day would go by when I didn’t miss them, I wish I could forget… maybe then it wouldn’t hurt so much. And since I met you, it’s been a little easier to let go.”

“I don’t ever want to cower away and watch someone close to me die again. So I don’t care if we can’t find a cure, and I don’t care if he does come here and finds us.”

She held me in her arms, her face so close to mine. “I don’t want to leave you, and I don’t want you to leave me. I’ll fight this battle with you, and if it doesn’t work…”

“I’ll die with you.”