Yamara - Book 2 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

It came as no great surprise to us when we saw at least two score of orcs waiting for us at the gate. We saw them as soon as we came around the final bend in the road. With barely a glance at one another we continued onwards, showing no fear or concern. I had not worn the hood of my cloak up in several days now, and after a brief moment of thought decided to leave it down. There was no subterfuge left in me.

At the gate they moved to surround us, giving us a wide berth but leaving no route to escape. We were fully committed at that point. The gates opened, all without a word being spoken, and the orcs started forward, us moving along with them out of necessity.

We moved down the main thoroughfare of the small city, past a tavern that doubled as an inn, a general store, not one but two smithies, and a few large buildings that could only be barracks. Off in the distance down side roads we could see other buildings that surely performed functions not dissimilar from those found in any town; a tanners booth, housing for peasants and wealthier folk, carpenters and the like, stuff of such common nature. Were it not for the orcs surrounding us and the native inhabitants being a mixture of human and non-human races generally considered evil, I would have sworn we could have been in any town. It did not have the look of vile and infamy associated with Mardurin. In fact, the town actually looked quite clean.

A smaller wall with a smaller gate soon was before us. Only 8 feet high, this wall could be jumped over by a trained leaper. It would do well to stall the advance of a large group, however, while archers and pike wielders behind it picked them off. The gate opened and we were led through. Once inside we stopped and saw the manor house in which James and Brina now called their home. My breath suddenly left me. It took me a for moments of careful concentration to relax and breathe evenly again without showing any signs of distress.

A man emerged from behind the gate, pale even in the waning afternoon light. He bowed to us and said, "The Master has been waiting for your arrival. Please dismount and follow me."

Evart looked to me and I nodded. I swallowed down the lump in my throat and swung my leg over the horse. A remarkably well behaved orc came forward and took the reigns. Another one did the same for Evart. The orcs stayed behind as we followed the servant into the manor.

The doors opened of their own accord before us, leading us further and further into the house. It did not seem as large from the outside as it appeared to be on the inside. A turn to the right brought us to a large set of double doors, and from there into an anteroom. Another set of doors and we were introduced into the throne room of Baron Palungol. James sat in a royal chair upon a raised dais.

His skin was so pale it seemed nearly made of ivory. His expression was frozen as well, but it was frozen into an amused look. His eyes seemed possessed of an inner fire, though they did not burn with a sinister red light as Brina's did.

With Brina in mind I looked about, wondering where she was. We appeared to be alone in the room with James and his servant. Doing a double take I realized that the servant that had led us through the palace was gone. That left only James and us. I suspected some of the statues were more then just statues as well, but had no way of knowing.

"Welcome, Yamara, to my new home," James said with a dangerous grin. His voice had changed some. It sounded drier then it had before; it had a raspy quality to it now.

"It sounds as though my dagger did not cut deep enough," I responded, anger beginning to build up within me. The wound in my arm suddenly grew warm, making me glance down at it in surprise. It seemed the same as always, hidden beneath the poorly mended sleeve of my blouse.

Evart watched the exchange quietly, poised and ready for whatever happened. He recognized James easily, but was startled at the change in his look and demeanor.

James sneered at me. "A clever move you made, long history now. I should thank you though, for giving me the chance at this rebirth, with Brina forever at my side."

I felt the blood drain from my face at that. What had been growing anger turned into white hot rage instantly. "Where is she you bastard?" I growled at him, stepping forward menacingly.

James chuckled, his voice hissing and further irritating me. "Brina, we have guests you might be interested in."

I followed James outstretched arm and saw shadows move like smoke in the dimly lit room. The moved beside him and, as I watched, they shaped themselves into a human form. Then the shadows disappeared and in their place stood a woman wearing a hooded cloak. My breath caught in my throat as I saw the twin red glimmerings beneath the cowl. She reached up, her hands nearly bronze in color with sharp and cruel looking fingernails extending nearly an inch from her fingers, and laid the hood back from her head.

"Brina!" I gasped. She looked at me and underwent a range of emotions, from the appearance of her face. She was happy for a portion of a second, then enraged, then confused, then sad, then finally she fixed me with a cold hate filled stare.

She began walking forward then, stepping down the four steps from the raised dais to the floor level and walking towards us. She practically floated over the floor, so gracefully and sinuously did she move. Evart's jaw dropped open slightly as he saw her. All we could see was her once angelic, now demonic, face and her hands, the rest was obscured by the cloak. That was enough for him to understand her dark and terrible beauty.

"You left me," Brina said to me as she stopped in front of me. Her voice was quiet and cold. "You killed me and left me to die with him."

I nodded, tears threatening to run down my face. I blinked them away as rapidly as I could. I opened my mouth to respond, uncertain of what I was going to say. I had longed for this moment since that fell day, longed for it and dreaded it. Now that I had it, I did not know what to do with it.

"Yamara understood what was happening, Brina. She understood and refused to let anyone have you if she could not!" James called out harshly from his throne.

Evart bristled at his words, he knew they were prompting me into an action that, once entered, could only be seen through to a grisly end. He was right, James always had a way of pushing me into action.

"He lies," I said, my tone tight and controlled as I stared into the twin pools of liquid fire that were Brina's eyes. "He lies and I will have no more of it!"

I took a step towards James, moving around Brina. Her hand, so deadly with its razor sharp fingernails, laid upon my arm with a gentleness that was surprising considering the hidden strength it employed to stop me. That and the battling emotions playing across her face.

"He is my Master, Yamara," She said to me, the inflections in her voice changing with her conflicting emotions. As she talked I also noticed how incredibly white and equally incredibly sharp her teeth looked. "I must protect him."

I looked at her and felt another surge of warmth in my wounded arm. The tingling in it was driving me crazy. I reached across slowly and tore my sleeve away to look at it. The redness had advanced up to at my shoulder by that time, and as I thought about it I could feel it fighting to sink further into my chest.

"Why did you do this to me?" I asked, looking back at her. My anger was forgotten for the moment. I knew why she had done it, but I needed to hear her say it.

Brina turned her head and looked back up at James briefly before turning back to me. I saw no exchange pass between them but suspected they had a silent means of communication. Regardless, she answered me and he remained where he was.

"You dodged the first bolt," she said calmly, "without knowing it. The second only grazed you, nearly a miss."

"But why?" I asked, surprised. I did not know she had missed me the first time. I began to doubt that I knew her after all. "I can understand wanting to kill me. I would want no less in your shoes. For someone to have done what I did, I would know no limit to my search for vengeance."

"And you ask my why I do this to you?" She hissed at me, practically spitting on me. "In death, Yamara, I became the thing you never wanted me to be. I became more like you then ever you realized."

My jaw hung slack for a moment. Brina had slapped me with words more sharp then any hand could have been. I closed my eyes and nodded, a tear falling to the ground almost in slow motion as my head dipped down. I opened my eyes and looked back at her, my vision blurry.

"I lost everything that day, Brina. I even lost myself. And now, in life, these last few days as your poison works through me, I have become more like you were."

"Enough of this!" James shouted, standing up. He liked our conversation and our shared words little, apparently. He had been hoping for more hatred and angst between us, I think. "The poison works through you too slowly, wench! I shall have my vengeance upon you before this day is done. You were promised to me, whore, I will have my fun with you yet!"

I glared at him and dropped my hands to my sword and dagger. Without realizing it, I had easily torn my arm free of Brina's iron grip. "What makes you think you can succeed now when you failed at the same thing before?" I asked icily.

Brina snarled, though I did not think it was at me, but rather at the pending situation. She backed up and dropped a little lower, raising her hands up in front of her in a way that promised much pain to anyone who dealt with her. James chuckled maliciously at the sight of her. "As much fun as it would be to have you kill her, Brina, I want you to watch instead. I will rid this world of her and her treachery."

"You will find, Yamara, that I am far stronger now then I was before," James said, returning his gaze to me as he stepped down the stairs. Brina backed up slowly, lowering her arms and her head. I could not be certain, but I felt as though her eyes still followed me.

Another wave of fiery warmth spread out from the shoulder, making me grit my teeth and try to ignore it. My arm, while filled with fiery tendrils of sensation, behaved normally and seemed as though it would not betray me and cause my dagger to slip.

"What do you know of treachery, lapdog of Dagrazt?" Evart said, moving beside me. I glanced at him and scowled. This was to be my fight. "Ah, I forgot, you seem to have defined the word, Baron Palungol!"

James stopped and looked at Evart. "Why Evart, I had forgotten you were here. Ever a loyal servant to the Crown, I see. Run along now and I will let you live, so long as you leave Mardurin and never return."

"Unlike you, coward, I will stand by my duties and my charge unto my very death," Evart vowed. I snorted softly at his claim.

"You truly are cursed, Yamara," James said, chuckling and moving towards me again. "Not only will you die, but you will be responsible for Evart dying as well. Ironic, how far you've come only to meet this grisly end. Tell me, how does the poison feel Yamara?"

Again I felt a surge within me, and this time it was accompanied by one of the stomach cramps I had experienced lately. This one was different though, instead of being in my bowels it was higher. I gasped and bent over to spit out some dark blood on the floor. Evart looked at it with wide eyes, suddenly understanding what had made me rush to relieve myself so many times recently.

"You're dying," he said softly, realization settling in.

"Leave me here, you fool," I hissed at him, wiping the back of my hand on my chin to clear off the leftover blood and bile. I spat a few more times to try and clear the foul taste from my mouth.

"No."

Evart drew his broadsword and stepped in front of me protectively. James just laughed more loudly. He drew his own longsword and dagger and advanced on Evart. "Very well, bastard son of the whore of a Havrin, you die first!"

Evart lunged forward first, sinking his blade into James' belly deeply. James brought his sword down in a mighty blow and smashed it into Evart's blade, causing the newly purchased sword to shatter. Evart looked in shock at the broken hilt in his hand, then glanced up to see James' dagger slash across at him. He tried to react but only managed to avoid the worst of the blow, it still cut deeply into his shoulder and sent him reeling backwards.

James advanced on him and swung his sword across in a crude attempt to behead my companion. My friend. My only friend. I rose up, ignoring the pain in my stomach and shouted, "No! You're fight is with me!"

Evart ducked under the cut but met James steel-reinforced boot in the chest, driving him up and off the ground a few feet from the force of the impact. He crashed back down, not moving. James turned to me then and grinned. "Very well, bitch, let us fight."

It was obvious to me that James' strength was far greater now then it had been before, seeing what he did to Evart. As he walked towards me he reached down and pulled the piece of Evart's broadsword free from his abdomen, then discarded it carelessly. Seen through his torn clothing, his skin looked whole and uninjured.

I charged him, knowing my only chance, if I had one at all, was to keep him off balance. I lashed out with my weapons, finding my speed was surprising even me. Each cut or thrust landed, though the ones with my dagger healed up instantly. My shortsword, a remnant from the world of my birth and possessing a magical dweomer that kept its edge keen, caused lasting wounds upon him. Wounds that did not bleed. They reminded me of the wound in my arm.

James reacted as soon as he felt the first bite of my magical blade. Realizing I possessed a weapon that could harm him, he growled at me and tried to cut me down. I dodged the blow, knowing that to block it would probably mean my weapon would be knocked free from my hand. From there we began to move more cautiously at one another. I dodged or deflected his weapons whenever possible and he did the same to mine. My skill and speed was still greater, but his strength and apparent disregard for his own safety made up for my advantage.

Also to his boon was the growing fire in my gut. It stabbed at me from inside and demanded that I collapse and succumb to it. The poison, with my heart rate up, spread throughout my body. It brought it's warm tingling throughout me, reminding me of the shared dream I had with Brina when she first tasted the blood of the demoness. I fought a battle on two fronts, on with my weapons and another one inside my body.

I saw that Evart had managed to roll over but was in no condition to move. He coughed up blood himself, with broken ribs sure to be the cause. His shoulder leaked blood heavily down his arm and onto the floor as well, but it did not spurt out, giving hope that with some pressure or a bandage it might not prove mortal.

Brina stood watching the fight, her hands flexing in agitation. Other then that and a pinched expression on her face, she betrayed no movement or interest.

We traded blows for many minutes, circling one another and lashing out often. James should have bled from over a dozen wounds but as yet he seemed unfazed by any of the rents in his flesh. My sword had even opened up a gash in his right cheek deep enough to see his teeth. His response had been a macabre grin.

What surprised me as much as his seemingly immortal nature was my stamina. Outside of the pain in my gut, which had begun to lessen now that the poison had free reign in my system and pulled at the edges of my consciousness, I felt no lack of energy or strength from the prolonged fight. Neither did I breathe as hard as I expected to. Then I felt my heart beating within my chest. It actually slowed down a little, scaring me, and beat with a dull dual thud. I did not know what Brina's blood would do to me that would prove fatal, but I vowed I had to fight off it's effects long enough to see James destroyed once and for all.

James outmaneuvered me then, so caught up was I in my condition, and I was forced with the only choice of blocking his sword with my dagger. The blade of the dagger, forged of hard steel as it was, was no match for the cruelly wrong longsword he wielded. The blade snapped off at the tang and did little more then deflect his sword. It sliced through my leather jerkin effortlessly, cutting deeply into my left breast and grating along the skin of my stomach before it's perilous arc carried it away from my body. I gasped in pain at the wound, stumbling backwards several steps out of harm's way.

I reached for another dagger and remembered through my misery the magical blade I had been given by King Avercrombie. I pulled the dagger out from the sheath in the small of my back and without waiting, threw it at him. Surprised at the missile weapon, James reacted late to it and felt it sink into his flesh between his right shoulder and his neck. He spat out a curse at me and yanked it free, throwing it far from me to the ground in disgust. The wound stayed, being made by a magical weapon.

I cast about me for some other source of a weapon but saw nothing. I had only my short sword in my hand to do battle with now, while he had both a dagger and sword at his disposal. And he was well versed in the use of two weapons.

I glanced down then at my chest, expecting to see the reason behind the burning sensation along my chest. What I saw amazed me. The wound was there, a deep cut through my breast missing my nipple by a scant inch and then a more shallow groove a few inches along my belly. My shock came at how very little blood flowed from it.

I looked back up in time to see James had reached me and now punched out at me with the hilt of his dagger. It crashed into my face and sent me reeling. I crashed into the ground, ending up on my back with my short sword several feet away from me. I shook my head to clear the effects of the stunning blow and tried to remember to scramble away from him.

Not in time though. James' boot crashed into my side, sending me rolling with the force of it. I tried to roll away but he followed to quickly, kicking out at me again. The blow only glanced off of me, but it still caused me to gasp in pain. My breath had been driven out of me with his first kick, and while that distressed me, it did not have as much an effect on me as I would have otherwise thought.

It was then that I saw the dagger tucked into my boot. The dagger I had taken from the orc so very long ago in the sewers of Standopolis. The dagger that had the symbol of Dagrazt on it. What better irony then to use it on him, a servant of Dagrazt!

I got my chance to retrieve it after James' next kick landed on me squarely in the abdomen. I doubled over in pain, spewing out what had to be the last of the bloody mess in my stomach upon the ground. While curled into the fetal position I kept my senses about me enough to pull the dagger out and reverse my hold on it so I could hold it concealed against my forearm.

I lay there coughing, gasping, and retching for a few blessed moments of relief when no further kicks came. When I finally looked up I saw James looking down upon me with a victorious sneer upon his face.

"I had expected more from you, Yamara. You disappoint me yet again."

"My Lord, will you hold a moment so that I may repay her for her kindness to me." Brina's words were cold and sent chills down my spine. The chills were nearly welcome, since the rest of my body burned with the unholy fire of the poison within me.

James chuckled. "Of course, do what you will with her, save only that you leave the final blow for me."

Brina walked over to me, her footsteps making no noise upon the cold stone floor. She knelt down next to me and with a strength I had not known even she possessed, she rolled me out of the puddle of my own vomitus. I was a mess, but unknown to both of them, I was not beaten quite yet. My only hope was that Brina would not weaken me so much that I could not have my final attack on James. It was a small thing, but it was the only thing I had left to leave me focused enough to continue my fight to live.

"I loved you once greater then any friend or sister could," she said to me flatly. I tried to ignore her words, to not hear her so I would not lose my focus on the one thing I still needed to do before I slept.

Rather then continue to speak, she leaned over me and spread my shredded jerkin. I dimly found it more then a little odd. She bent over further and I felt her cold lips upon my breast, kissing it softly. Then I felt a fiery drop of liquid fall into my cut. She had bitten her tongue and bled into me, further poisoning me with her blood. I gasped at the sensation and felt my resolve weaken. Surely I would be dead long before I found the strength for my final thrust.

A new sensation joined the others. A sharp pricking sensation as though I had been pierced with a splinter or a needle. Then more followed and I understood Brina had just bitten me. She pulled what little blood that was in me to surrender to her mouth and swirled it around on her tongue before she swallowed it. She shuddered once, briefly, then looked up at my face. She looked at me then with an expression on her face that caused my failing heart to nearly give up altogether. It was a look mixed with such joy and such sorrow that I had never seen it before. Tears of blood ran down her face.

"Give in to the blood, it will make you strong enough to do what you must," she whispered to me so silently I was not sure if she had spoken the words or if I had heard them in my head.

I closed my eyes and struggled to breathe. What she said made no sense, it would kill me. Yet I knew from the look on her face that she would never cause me harm again. Even now, after the tragedy that had been her life with me, something had somehow changed her mind. She had found some memory or some hidden thing within herself that let her fight James' dominion of her. I was doomed and accepted it. Brina knew it too. She must have also known then that the only way for me to finish what I had come there to do was to do as she bade me.

I surrendered to the sensations coursing through me. I relaxed my body and let the darkness in my assaulting my head overcome me. I lay there and collapsed in upon myself for a moment, with time seeming to come to a standstill. I heard Evart's every shallow gasping breath clearly, heard my own heart beat slowly but clearly in my chest, I heard the rasp of my clothing on the floor as I shuddered. I felt the slight wind on my skin as Brina sat up straight and looked down sadly upon me. Then she stood and moved back behind James.

In a rush everything sped up again. I was clearly alert and fully conscious. Aware of every inch of my body, I had never felt more alive. I felt strong too, stronger then I had ever before. Brina had given me some of herself, enough to sustain me through the dark time ahead. I knew then that the crossbow quarrel had been meant to kill me, but to do so slowly and to force me to endure the visions that I had seen. It was meant to make me suffer before I died.

However, the magical potion I had drank had changed that outcome. Instead it allowed me to fight it off long enough to partially co-exist with it. It also allowed a bond to form between Brina and I. Her blood was magical, and because of that she sensed my distress at the visions and knew what she had been told was not the truth of it. Or at least she suspected there was more to it.

I knew then what I had to do as well. It was as I expected but it involved more then I would have known. The unlikely nature of it all struck me as far to well thought out to have happened coincidentally. Nevertheless, hiding my dagger behind my back I cut into the only flesh I could readily reach, that of my right buttock. Brina's gift made me acutely aware of the pain of the magical dagger slicing into my behind. Nevertheless I endured it silently and coated the blade with as much of my own poisoned blood as I hoped I could, given that I could not see it.

"Finish her, Master, I have had my fill of her," Brina said. James' eyes had never left me, so great was his obsession and hatred of me, so he never noticed the streaks of bloody tears on Brina's face. His hatred and obsession was so powerful it was nearly a match for my own.

He sheathed his dagger and stepped so that he towered over me. Using his now free hand he grabbed my short hair and yanked me to my knees by it. I kept my face downcast as much as possible to avoid him seeing me. He raised his sword in one hand, keeping me steady with the other and prepared to finish me off.

"I'm almost going to miss having you around to hate, Yamara, you above all else have kept me strong all this time. I suppose I will have to do with Brina, she is such a charming creature, don't you think?" James said sweetly, thinking he was treating me to a final condescending show of his power.

"Let. Her. Go!"

James looked back over his shoulder to where Evart tried desperately to regain his feet. He had crawled over to where my shortsword lay and even in his near death was preparing to try and defend me. I used the distraction he provided to my benefit.

Lunging up far faster then humanly possible, I swung the now poisonous dagger around in an arc gathering inhuman speed and power. I pulled a very surprised James to me so that my chest touched his and speared the dagger deeply into his back. It knifed through his spine and pierced his heart from behind. James' head twisted around to face me, surprise and pain evident on it. He gasped a few times and then laughed.

"You stupid bitch," he said, trying to push me away. "You can't destroy me like that, this body has already been dead!"

My strength was greater then he expected though, and he was unable to push me away. More so as I had severed his spine and with every bit of force his arms exerted he realized that his legs were not supporting him as he teetered off balance. I rode him to the floor when he crashed there, making sure I kept maximum pressure on the dagger.

"What did you do to me!" He screamed at me. He reached down and tried to pry me off again. I ignored his fingers as they clawed and tore at my skin, trying to find a good purchase with which to rip me away from him.

James made a strangled noise then. The mixture of my blood and Brina's was pushing through his system. His heart, unnaturally beating after his death, continued to pump in spite of my steel sawing into it with each pulse. It pushed the poison into his limbs further and further with each moment, going up and into his brain as well. Unseen to me, who only had eyes for James, Brina turned away from the gruesome spectacle.

He lay there, paralyzed and frozen as it worked its way through him. His jaw moved and he struggled to talk, his eyes following me fearfully. "No," he managed to gasp out, "this cannot be! Master, help me!"

A great gust of ethereal wind blew through the room then. It chilled my already abused and ravaged body to the bone. Evart collapsed back to the ground with a grunt. Brina shuddered and fell to her knees. I rolled off of James' body and slowly stood up.

Upon the dais stood a new figure. He was covered in a hooded cloak not so different from Brina's, save that a gut clenching fear emanated from him. Had I not already faced my worst fears that very day, I would have been senselessly wallowing on the ground and wetting myself.

"Master!" James gasped again, reaching up towards him.

"No, James, you have failed me," The figure said, a powerful voice said out from beneath the hood. It reminded me of a great many things at once. It sounded like a snake hissing, yet at the same time it had the deep pitch of a giant of a barbarian. I heard the voice of a small girl in it and an elderly man. It was impossible to fully understand the voice, yet we could hear it clearly. The only thing that was truly unmistakable about it was that it belonged to a being of enormous power.

"I told you once to not grow so obsessed that you neglected your duties. You have disappointed me."

"Wait," James said, struggling desperately to speak. "I -"

James never finished his sentence. He burst into flames suddenly before my very eyes. The figure did not move at all, he simply stood there silently watching.

"You destroyed him as surely as I, Mistress Blackcloak, would you be the Baroness Palungol?" It asked me. I shivered at the thought of it.

"No, I will strike no deal with you. I will die soon, best to leave it as that, I have seen to much to go on," I said without hesitation. I knew of wizard and priests striking deals with demons and wanted no part of it, especially considering this being was far more powerful then any demon I had ever heard of.

"Very well, the seat shall be empty," he said. "You must leave this place, girl, I will accept your presence no longer."

I nodded. "Gladly, Dark One."

He chuckled, his odd voice reminding me of a nest of angry hornets buzzing about. "I admire your courage, girl, you have spirit. For that I will grant you this one and only boon."

Suddenly I felt weak. My legs collapsed under me and I crashed to the floor. I shook my head and realized that I felt like a child. Everything seemed muffled to me. I had trouble breathing, my heart hammered in my chest, and even my vision seemed to be dimming. Some boon, I thought.

"Your body is your own again," he said to me. "You will live your short human life."

I slowly picked myself back up, an ache or a pain in every bone as I did so. My body felt bloated, so full of blood was it once again. I looked to Brina, who was still kneeling on the ground too terrified to even shake. Evart was likewise paralyzed, but his was a paralysis of shock, he could not comprehend fully what was going on.

"The druid was right, you are unnatural and have no place here on this world. Leave it and never return."

"How?" I asked, sensing my interview with the supreme evil being was about to be concluded.

A glowing nimbus of light appeared next to him on the dais. "One person only may enter, if it is not you, I will see to it that you are imprisoned and tortured for a thousand years."

The warmth returned to the room then suddenly. It was gone.

I looked at the waning color in Evart's face and saw that Brina was still kneeling on the floor, too horrified to move yet. I rushed over to Evart and pulled out my S.E.T. badge. I pressed it into his hand and said, "Use this, my friend, or you will not survive to make it out of this room, let alone these lands."

Evart looked at me thoughtfully. His fingers fumbled with it for a minute and then he performed the same procedure he had down what seemed like a lifetime ago in the swamp. He sighed as the healing magic coursed through him, restoring his lungs, shoulder, and ribs to their proper condition. He rose shakily to his feet and stretched a little, smiling.

I turned from him and walked up to Brina. I knelt next to her and lifted her face to look at mine. Dark streaks showed the tears that fell from her face. I pulled her to me and hugged her against my chest. My leathers still lay open but my wounds had been healed. Brina sobbed against me for several long minutes.

When last she could speak she said to me, "I am sorry, Yamara. Sorry to have ever doubted you!"

I hushed her before responding. "You did as any would, Brina, and you were not wrong in doing so. I used you poorly at the time and handled the situation so very wrongly. The fault is mine. Wholly mine."

"I did not know truly what to do with you when you were on the floor at James' feet. I did not know what to think. I had to be sure, or I would have tried to do something sooner!" She said in a rush.

"I had to know what went through your head and your heart, no words could tell me and we had not the time," she continued. "I had to take your blood in me, had to know what you knew."

I nodded, that made sense. It worked both ways, by giving me her blood she had given me visions of what she had experienced, and by doing to opposite she had been able to see what she needed to.

"I saw what you did and how you felt, before during and after. I know what you went through and I understand better then you do what it is that you have done to yourself." Brina paused and looked up at me, the most tender expression on her face I had ever seen. Long ago had the mischievous little girl I had met on Acathia disappeared. In its place had grown a beautiful woman. Even if she did have the occasional desire to rip the heart from a newborn and feast upon it, we all had our faults.

"Feel no grief anymore for me, Yamara, I should have never left Acathia. You are the one meant to travel and do more deeds. I was a simple moth who tried to live to close to a flame."

I did not like the way her words coming out. "Hush Brina, we will get you out of here. There must be some way for you to come with me and we can put all this behind us. So your eyes glow in the dark and you prefer to feast on the raw flesh of innocents, we can always find a way to get by."

She smiled at me and shook her head. "No, Yamara, I am done here. With James gone I can pick my own fate now, and I pick the fate that you and he once gave me."

"Brina, No, I forbid it!" I said, my voice thickening and my eyes starting to tear again. "We've been through to much now for you to give up!"

"You heard him, Yamara, only you may leave this world and you must do it. I have done to many horrible things to continue to live. Even knowing what I have done makes it impossible for me to live with myself now that I am free of James' control." Brina looked sad but resolute, and I finally accepted what must be. "I can never be normal again. I can never go among people like this. I will always have the overpowering urges the demoness gave to me. I must be destroyed, and you must do it."

"No," I breathed, shaking my head. I could not do it. I had killed her once, to do it again would destroy me forever. "I can't, Brina. Not again. Not ever again!"

"You must, Yamara," she said. "I will have no one else show me this most desperate act of love, sacrifice, and mercy."

Tears fell freely, obscuring my vision. I pulled Brina to me and hugged her desperately, trying to come up with any other way of making things work. I felt her cold tears against my chest, leaving bloody tracks dripping down my chest. Finally she pushed me away.

"Do it now, before we lose the heart to do so. Already I feel the urges in me to rise up and lash out."

I nodded, moving slowly to my feet. "How?" I asked, managing to choke it out between deep breaths.

"Grab James' sword and sever my head in a single blow. Quick and painless and it will be over. I will be gone but know that you will forever carry my memory and my love with you."

Numbly I walked over and picked up the longsword that James had used against me. It was warm to the touch and hummed with an inner energy. I walked back over to where Brina knelt and moved behind her. Not thinking clearly, I positioned the sword and drew it back for a single swift cut.

"Are you ready?" I asked her, my voice subdued so as to not crack.

"Wait," she whispered. Her hand came around in front of her and, unseen to me but witnessed by Evart, she parted her cloak to reveal that she wore nothing underneath of it. Her hand, sporting those cruel edged fingernails, rested for a moment just underneath her rib cage. "Take this and carry it with you forever."

I saw her arm suddenly jerk inward. Evart watched her hand plunge into her chest and behind her sternum. She latched onto that which she sought and with a single spastic pull wrenched her heart free of her chest. I saw her pull the organ and hold it in mid air and nearly fainted at the sight of it. It was still beating. Her thick and dark blood ran down her arm and dripped to the floor. She squeezed it in her hand, her movements becoming jerkier by the second, and then she opened her hand to display a small tear shaped ruby resting in her palm.

I grabbed it up, knowing I had to move quickly now. I had a job to do and if I had failed her time and again before, this last time I was not about to do so. I resumed my prior position and swung the sword as hard as I could. It connected with her neck and in less then a second it was over. There was a powerful flash and I was thrown from my feet to the ground. When I came to my senses a few minutes later all that remained of Brina was her empty cloak on the floor and the ruby in my hand.

I crawled over to the cloak and held it in my hands, trying to catch a last smell of her scent. There was nothing to it. I clutched it in both hands and let the tears flow freely a final time. I did not know how long I lay there grieving, nor did I care. Only that at the time nothing had any meaning for me in the world.

Continued in Epilogue

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