The Pale Princess came to a halt a hundred yards from the imperial fort. A chain link fence topped with razor wire surrounded a compound that had nothing but tents for buildings. Two towers equipped with powerful sodium lights stood in opposite corners, each manned by a pair of soldiers with rifles. The powerful yellow beams split the night like lightning.
As defensive positions went, even an amateur like her could tell it wouldn’t last five minutes against her and Roman. She still thought of the guardian demon by that name, not that it mattered what she called him, but that somehow made her feel safe. After the unfortunate loss of their dragonblood zombies, she’d been a little jittery.
Well, more jittery anyway. She needed to calm down and stay focused. There had to be a wizard here. They’d sneak in, grab her, and be on their way before anyone knew they’d arrived.
“If you prefer to wait here, Priestess, I can collect the prisoner.”
“No, no I’m okay. How do you want to handle this?”
“We stay invisible, leap the fence, and find the wizard. She’ll probably be the only woman in the fort. Once we have her, we resume our journey, not stopping until we reach the temple.”
She nodded. A perfectly reasonable plan, just like all the other plans she’d made. Astaroth willing, this one would actually turn out the way they intended.
Roman went first and she followed a step behind. Even if they weren’t invisible, at this speed, the humans would notice little beyond a blur. She sprang, easily clearing the twelve-foot-high fence and landed beside Roman on the other side.
Now, where was the wizard? Gathering her power, she sent tendrils of dark energy twisting out into the night. Wizards had a different feeling to their life energy and she soon found the target alone in a tent at the center of the fort. She appeared to be asleep. No surprise given the hour.
Roman set out as soon as she located the target. Their connection allowed him to follow her spell as easily as she did.
There were no patrols inside the fence and soon enough they stood outside the wizard’s tent. Roman parted the flap and as soon as he did, a horrible cacophony went up. A blast of flames shot out of the tent.
Roman took a step back, seeming more surprised than hurt. The attack had ruined his invisibility spell, leaving him clearly visible to anyone looking.
The wizard strode out and pointed.
Lightning crackled out from her extended finger.
Roman brushed it aside as easily as a normal man might a squirt of water.
Two quick strides allowed him to close the distance and backhand the wizard, sending her tumbling to the ground. For a moment the Pale Princess feared Roman had broken her neck, but a quick look revealed her life force still pulsing in her chest.
Thank goodness, now they could get out of here.
Roman bent to collect the sacrifice.
Machine guns cracked and bullets pinged off his scales.
So much for sneaking out of here. She summoned dark magic and sent it out in every direction. The machine guns fell silent and soon every man in the fort was dead.
Roman stood with the wizard over his shoulder. “Well done, Priestess. Time for us to go.”
A wall of white flames sprang up around the fort. She recognized those flames, having been nearly consumed by them several times.
A black disk appeared and two figures stepped out. The one on the left had pale skin and wore a black suit. Talon. It seemed he’d gathered his courage enough to face her again. The other she knew all too well. The Reaper’s Chosen. He didn’t fear her in the least and she hated him for that among many other things.
Roman dropped the wizard. “We’ll have to fight our way past them.”
She nodded. It wasn’t like she had a choice.
More flames came roaring in. She jumped right and Roman shifted left.
The earth rumbled under her feet.
Hands of stone appeared and grabbed her ankles.
She dissolved into a mist an instant before flames roared through the space she’d occupied a moment before. Even so the heavenly flames seared a fraction of her essence away. Death lived in those flames. Death for beings like her and Roman surest of all. She could almost feel the flames’ loathing of her.
As soon as her feet touched the ground a pit opened under them.
She fell a few feet before dissolving again.
She flew out of the pit and took a blast of white flames for her trouble. More of her essence burned away. Her mist form offered little protection from his spell.
Staying low along the ground in mist form, she reached out to the dead soldiers. They rose at her command. Mere zombies were no threat to him, but they might at least provide enough of a distraction to allow her to escape.
Might being the operative word.
Talon covered the distance between himself and Roman in the blink of an eye. Seeing that hated figure once again above ground and sort of back among the living filled him with overwhelming rage.
His fist crashed into Roman’s face.
It felt like punching a mountain only harder.
The half dragon took a single step back and turned with a faint smile. “I expected more.”
A clawed hand shot out, faster than Roman had ever moved in life.
Talon barely dodged a blow that would have torn his throat out.
He darted back in and pounded Roman with heavy blows to the body.
They did about as much good as the first punch had. He needed something to give him an advantage. Some kind of weapon.
Pity nothing in the fort was as strong as his fist.
Roman darted in and grabbed him by the throat. “Sad little vampire. And you are supposed to be the first and strongest of your kind. What a joke.”
Talon turned to mist, reformed, and struck.
Not at Roman, but at the wizard beside him. A single hard kick crushed her skull, killing her instantly.
“I may not be strong enough to beat you, but you’ll not be consecrating Astaroth’s temple today.”
“I’m going to kill you slowly for that.”
“Come on then.”
Quick as thought Roman grabbed him again by the neck, this time with dark energy crackling around his claws.
When Talon tried to turn to mist his power failed.
Roman squeezed.
He had no need to breathe, but soon enough his spine would snap then a quick yank would separate his head from his body and that would be it. A meaningless death for one that had lived for over two thousand years.
Conryu blasted a zombie to ash and frowned. The little brat had to be around here somewhere. He’d hit her twice, glancing blows to be sure, but the white flames must have done some damage. He wouldn’t have had to weaken her much to ensure she had no hope of escaping through his wall of flames.
Another zombie came shambling out of the darkness only to find its final rest in a blaze of fire.
On the far side of the fort Talon’s blows sounded like explosions in the night as he pounded Roman. Hopefully he was having better luck than Conryu.
“Can you tell where she is, Prime?”
“No, Master. She’s dispersed her power enough that I can’t tell her from the zombies.”
“So, if I blast all the zombies, whatever’s left will be her, right?”
“That’s one option.”
“Do you have another?”
“Not at the moment.”
Smart-aleck book. Conryu shook his head and set out to hunt zombies. Ordinarily he’d leave the small fry to the ninjas, but he didn’t want to risk one of them getting grabbed. Until the temple had been neutralized, they were staying out of any fight that involved the hellpriest or Roman.
He switched his blasts to regular flames to conserve magic and blasted the first zombie he saw. Normal fire reduced it to nothing nearly as quickly as heavenly flames. That told him all he needed to know about how weak they were.
He rounded a tent and froze. Roman had Talon by the throat and some kind of dark magic shimmered around his claws. He was saying something which Conryu couldn’t quite hear. On the ground beside them lay the corpse of a woman in uniform, probably the fort wizard.
“Some magic to block Talon from escaping I suspect,” Prime said.
Conryu had no intention of letting his friend die. Or whatever you called it when a vampire ceased to be.
A disk of white light appeared at the tip of the staff and Conryu launched it at Roman’s extended arm.
The spell struck right at his elbow. Light magic sizzled and sliced through flesh and bone.
Roman roared as Talon fell to the ground, the clawed hand still around his throat. The former emperor vanished and Conryu hurried over to Talon.
“You okay?”
Between the two of them they pried the hand off Talon’s throat and Conryu reduced it to ash with white flames. Ordinary fire didn’t even touch it.
“Many thanks, my friend. It seems you may need to live as long as I have just so I’ll have a chance to repay you for the many times you’ve saved my life.”
When they stood, the bruises around Talon’s neck had already healed.
“What—”
A gathering of dark power interrupted his question. It grew then quickly vanished. Conryu vaguely sensed something pass through his wall of flames, but that was the only indication he got that something had happened.
“The Reaper take them both!” Conryu spat in the dirt. “They forced their way past my wall. Kai, she’s gone. Can you finish up the zombies?”
She no longer felt the need to respond to his rhetorical questions. Conryu was confident that the zombies would be dealt with in short order.
“So what happened?” He nodded toward the dead woman.
Talon shook his head. “I don’t know. Roman felt vastly stronger than when we fought before. My fist didn’t even make him flinch. I couldn’t worry about the wizard and fight him. She was collateral damage.”
Conryu offered Talon a hard look, but the vampire didn’t flinch and offered no more details. Given the circumstances, this was certainly not the time to discuss it further.
Talon held up his hand and squeezed his fist until the knuckles cracked. “I can crush boulders with a single blow and he didn’t even blink. How could he be more powerful now than he was in life?”
“That’s a weird question for a vampire to ask,” Conryu said.
Talon stared at him for a moment then snorted a laugh. “I suppose it is.”
“Did you not see the gem in his chest?” Prime asked.
Conryu and Talon exchanged looks.
“I noticed little beyond my desire to see him destroyed.”
“And I was focused on getting you free not his bling. Why, what did you see, pal?”
“Roman had a gem, or more accurately a crystal in his chest. It was filled with dark magic. My guess is that it’s the temple core and Roman’s body is now host to the guardian demon.”
“That certainly explains the power boost. I’ve never fought a guardian demon and a hellpriest at the same time. I’ll grant you that this hellpriest isn’t as impressive as the last one, at least from an offensive perspective, but if I had to take them both on at the same time, I’d be in trouble.”
“You won’t have to fight them alone,” Talon said. “But I need a weapon if I’m to fight him again. My bare hands aren’t going to do the job.”
“I can help with that. I’ll get you kitted out with what you need then we’ll find the pair and finish this once and for all.”
Kai chose that moment to appear. “The last of the zombies has been eliminated, Chosen.”
“Outstanding, Kai, thank you.”
“What now?” she asked.
“Talon and I are going to make a quick trip to Black City. Hopefully the forge masters will have what we need to deal with Roman and his mistress once and for all.”