Yamara - Book 1 - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

James found himself floating, alone, in a room filled with darkness and emptiness. Not a room, he realized, but an entire world. It was as though all of his existence had suddenly ceased to be, with the sole exception of his mind.

"So it's over and I'm dead at the hands of that bitch," James said. Or at least he thought he said it. He realized he felt totally disembodied, was he speaking of merely thinking?

It need not be finished, the words came out of nowhere and everywhere at once, surrounding James in a cold blanket of fear. Still, the hope it offered he leapt at.

"What do you mean? Show yourself, be you friend or foe?" He challenged.

You could not behold me and survive, Earl James, the ethereal voice responded. The air surrounding James seemed to press in on him more, though he still felt as though he had no body for he was unable to move.

"Dagrazt?" James whispered, filled with fear.

There was no response save that around him it seemed he heard a rustling and a chattering of creatures. Hundreds and thousands of beings whispering and moving. Laughing. At him.

"What do you mean, it need not be over?" James asked in spite of himself. Terror gripped at him and he strove desperately to hold onto the one thing that promised refuge from the horde of creatures that would at any moment tear him apart. The one thing that seemed a pinprick of light in the insufferable darkness. The one that was hope.

The voice was amused when it returned. Join with me, James, and I shall grant thee more station and power than that of a puny Earl. You can be a Lord in true form and power, answerable only to me, with minions to control and treat as you wish.

"At what price?" James asked, the strength of his voice dropping as he felt himself slowly growing weaker.

There is no price. Serve me and you shall live, deny me and you shall die. But choose, Earl, the voice made the title sound puny and insignificant, and choose quickly, ere you depart forever the realm of the living and pass beyond my powers to return you.

"Brina!" James gasped, realizing the voice was right, he was fading rapidly now, losing even his fear of the gibbering demons he imagined were surrounding him in the darkness.

I will give her to you, and she will serve you, but remember well your own parting from her.

"Vengeance," James said next. He felt himself slipping away almost to the point of no return, but he knew he would have no other chance to barter terms for his soul.

The voice seemed amused, though it made no sound of laughter. So long as you do not interfere with my realm or my plans, you may have it!

James had heard enough. He grabbed onto the receding pinprick of light with all his consciousness and ignored everything else. Hope was all he had left to him. "I accept! Return me to life... My Lord."

The last thing James remembered was a sense of satisfaction and amusement. Around him, the unseen but felt horde seemed disappointed. Then he knew no more as the nearly non-existent spot of light expanded so rapidly that it overwhelmed him and sent him into unconsciousness for the last time.

With the upset woman out of the room, the shadow hiding under the bed crawled out and leaned over the spent form on the floor. There was still faint traces of life in the girl, though it was fading as it pondered the situation. The man, the shadows new Lord, stood behind her, surveying the situation and waiting impatiently for the shadow to obey his orders. It took form then, the shadow gathering and merging until a figure of dark feminine beauty stood towering over the dying mortal girl. Scraps of clothing the color of shadow revealed more of her curvaceous and shapely figure then they concealed. She stood easily 7 feet tall, with skin the color of blood and fire merged together. Black reptilians wings stretched from her back, expanding to their full span of nearly 12 feet from the tip of one to the other before folding back in and resting behind the demonic woman. Two small black horns graced her flawless forehead, one above each smoldering eye. Her tail, a single sinuous length, curled suggestively around her leg and ended in a sharp fork that seethed with deadly intent.

The demoness knelt next to Brina and opened her full and sultry lips to reveal sharp white teeth, with enlarged canines that spoke of the ability to pierce and rend anything placed with them. Her tongue slipped out from between them, red and flexible and impossibly long. The demoness licked at the wound in Brina's throat, which had all but stopped bleeding by then. Brina's body shuddered then, convulsing and seizing at the fire that spread from the contact and threatened to consume her. When she demoness retreated Brina's throat was whole and unmarred.

The demoness bit into her own wrist then, letting blood that sizzled when it hit the floor drip down her chin and her arm. The wound was placed over Brina's mouth. With the first drops of blood into Brina's mouth her body responded, though her consciousness had already tried to depart the dying shell of her body. She latched onto the wound in the she-demons wrist and drank from it, infusing her body with an unnatural and unholy warmth that chased away the chill of death that had been creeping into it.

Elsewhere, Brina realized she was returning. She had been prepared to sleep for a long time, she was so weary. With her return to wakefulness she remembered what had happened. Grief and terror overcame her and she tried to hide from it, tried to let go. Unable to do so she tried to fight at whatever it was that was pulling her back from the release she now sought.

Brina's eyes opened then, and she stared up at the demoness that held her while she suckled from its wrist. Fury overtook her when she saw James standing behind the creature, staring down at her with trepidation. James had changed though, he looked different. Paler, yet more substantial and daunting. His eyes were different too, they burned with an inner light she could not understand. She felt rage at seeing him, and felt her strength growing with every swallow of the life giving nectar she was drinking.

The demoness misjudged how much of her life she had given Brina, and further misjudged the strength of the Acathian woman. She tried to pull away from Brina then, to separate from the drain that she put on the demoness. Brina would not let go, however, and sucked more fiercely at the wound. She bit at it, trying to increase the flow of the blood into her mouth.

James smiled, realizing how strong his bride would be if she succeeded. Always full of surprises, that Brina. He hoped she would not hold anything against him for his earlier actions, but everything had been perfectly planned and orchestrated until Yamara returned. If only she had been captured and killed when he sent her to Gneiss with that foolish fop of an elf!

A few minutes later the demoness lost the last of her substance and faded back into the realm of shadow, trying in vain to escape the pull of the budding powers of Brina. Brina would not let her escape, and continued to inhale, sucking in the shadow essence of her now. The lamps and candles in the room flickered once as Brina was finished and the demoness was now contained within her, then they burned more brightly with its unholy presence dispatched.

"Come my love, this is no longer the place for us," James said, his voice darker and deeper now.

Brina nearly floated up off the floor. Her own skin was flushed with life, stolen from the demon. She glared at James and meant to leap at him and tear him apart with her own hands, which she was sure were now easily capable of the task. Her will was thwarted. She simply stood there, staring at him in open hatred.

"Hate not me, Brina, for I am not the one who plunged the sword into you," James said, seeing her look. "We are to be together for eternity, my bride, let yourself love me as you once wanted too. Yamara we will deal with when the time is ripe for us to do so."

Brina knew then some of what was happening. By accepting the demoness' gift, she had bound herself to James and whatever dark power he served. More, she had bound herself to a dark and unnatural existence from which death could not release her.

Continued in Book 2