Ace of Swords (Work In Progress)

Chapter Six (Part II)

Juliet narrowed her eyes at Drusilla. The pity that dwelt in them turned icy and froze. With the elegant wave of her slender hand through the air, Juliet's power swept away the furniture that lay in her path to Drusilla. It banged nosily together against the wall. The witch laughed and opened her arms encouraging Juliet to come forth.

I wanted to move, to place myself between Juliet and Drusilla to protect my Queen and sacrifice my life on her behalf. But I could not move my limbs or voice a warning. I watched helplessly. Juliet curled her fingers and two balls of glowing orange flames appeared and sat on her palms. She held them above her head and directed them squarely at Drusilla. At any other time I would have pitied the recipient of those fire balls but I knew Drusilla enough now to know that they would not hurt her. I stared dumbfounded as the witch thrust out her own palms and elegantly caught the fire balls.

I fancied Juliet's expression was not dissimilar to my own. Drusilla held them up and stared at the neat curls of flames in wonder. For a moment I thought she might direct them back at Juliet but she simply blew gently at each one and they fizzled out to smoke in her hands.

Juliet was quick in thought and action and as Drusilla was blowing the second fireball out, two small daggers from the display above the fireplace and underneath Marcus's painting of his father were hurtling towards her in mid air. Drusilla was able to repel one of the daggers with the wave of her hand but the other dug sharply into her breast with force. She gave a loud cry and Juliet advanced, reaching out her hand to draw a ceremonial spear from a coat of arms from the wall across the air and into her grasp with ease.

Drusilla grunted with pain as she pulled at the dagger in her breast as Juliet aimed the spear in her direction and came even closer. I stood still, to Drusilla's side. I did not offer any help or any comment but I could feel my lips twisting with devilish satisfaction in watching the females war with one another. Drusilla dropped the offending dagger to the floor and covered her bleeding wound with her hand. For a brief moment she looked down at her wound. Her twisted freakish face frowned and contorted with disgust.

'Now look what you have done, Juliet. You have ruined my beautiful blue gown with blood stains. I shall make you pay.'

She caught the sharp end of the metal spear as Juliet targeted her heart. She would not be able to finish the witch in that fashion but it would have incapacitated her long enough to find a way of removing her head to end her immortal life. But this time Drusilla was quick to offer her reaction. Holding the sharp blade of the spear with a tightness that drew blood from her hands, she began tugging Juliet closer with it.

Juliet held her ground pulling back on the spear. Drusilla began to chant in a language I vaguely recognised as the one Xavier had used in waking Juliet from her long sleep. It seemed that with the words she recited Drusilla grew stronger. I watched her wound heal miraculously in front of my eyes and all of a sudden Juliet seemed to be finding it difficult to hold on to the spear and gain any ground.

Eventually the struggle was won and Drusilla whipped the spear from Juliet's hands. My Queen's hands and whole body were shaking. Her eyes that had turned black in her fight suddenly dissolved back to green. Her power was depleted. Her fine features bore the effects of exhaustion. Still Drusilla chanted, her voice rising an octave with excitement as she viewed the growing results of her ghastly spell upon my Queen.

Juliet found herself falling to her knees bemused. Drusilla continued speaking her rhythmic archaic words and turned the spear around. The small voice that was all that was left of my human goodness cried out in protest at Drusilla in my imprisoned mind and it was to go unheard. Drusilla thrust the spear into Juliet's stomach with a force that could have only been driven by fierce hatred. I felt as though my heart were being ripped in two as I watched Juliet shake and groan with the terrible pain inflicted upon her.

Drusilla pulled the spear out from Juliet's flesh and stopped chanting. She held it up and revelled at the sight of Juliet's blood spread thickly upon it. She laughed down at Juliet as she fell back against the floor, her hat falling from her head as she did. Drusilla brought the end of the spear closer to her face and to her lips. Her lithe tongue resembling more of that which belonged to a wolf than a human licked the blood from the blade. Her eyes closed as she shuddered and savoured Juliet's taste.

'Your power is so potent Queen of Talus. Yet now you are unable to use it against me. I have paralysed you. Now I will take it all for myself.'

Juliet looked up at her.

'I won't let you do this . . .' she panted.

'You have no choice. The Knight of Sword's blood runs strong in my veins in the potion my apothecary Orlatha mixed with the assistance of my binding spell. Your power is attracted to it. It cannot be separated from his . . . See it comes to me.' Drusilla began reciting more archaic words with determination as she came to stand over Juliet.

My Queen shouted my name, begging me to fight the poison that dwelt within me and come to her aid. But my will was contaminated and this evil that invaded my soul controlled me with a firmness I could not break alone.

A red glow was lifting from inside Juliet's body, permeating the open pores of her skin into the outside world. The process caused Juliet great pain. Tears sprang from her eyes without warning as she fought a mental battle to hold on to her powers. But her strength was diminished by her paralysis and the severe wound that cut a hole through her stomach. It was a battle she was not to win.

With a final strangled cry Juliet's power was torn painfully from her soul like a babe from a mother's womb. The glow separated into fine strands of scarlet energy that found their way to Drusilla. They began to weave around her body, tighter and tighter until Drusilla could bear no more of their strangulation and cried out. Then with a suddenness they seeped into her body burning through her flesh and into her blood to join my own.

Juliet forced herself to sit up on her side as Drusilla looked down at the singe marks left on her clothes from where the energy had passed through her body, laughing with triumph. She quickly leaned down and leered into Juliet's face making her blink and reel away from the spittle that sprayed forth from the bitterness of the witch's words and her foul face.

'How does it feel? How does it feel to lose everything? Your power? Your mate? They all belong to me now. You are nothing!'

Drusilla gripped hold of Juliet's hair and pulled her to her feet and off them, suspending her in the air. With an angry pull of Juliet's hair she threw Juliet across the room towards the window. She landed heavily under it and was trying to lift her dazed injured body before Drusilla reached her but the witch was nimble in her foot. Again, she pulled Juliet up by her hair and thrust her face against the window pane.

'Look. Your knights came to your rescue but they are too late. Now they are mine too. See how they fall to their knees clutching their heads. They are like helpless children, they cannot fight my power, especially now I have yours as well.'

She began to drag Juliet back towards me. She forced Juliet to look at me. I will never forget the betrayal that cloaked Juliet's tired darkening features. I had failed her yet again. I was not fit to be her Knight of Swords. Gabriel was right. The dying human inside me turned away defeated. Drusilla laughed at my reaction.

'There is still a little too much human in you Nathan. You have fought the poison well but you grow weak. Juliet I am going to give you a chance to escape me. I love games, don't you?'

Juliet glared at her and spoke no words.

'What's the matter? Cat got your tongue? Never mind. I am going to let you see how far you can get out of here. Maybe I will count to a hundred and then I am going to set the Lycans after you and my Knight of Swords.' The witch's eyes flashed with glee. 'Now, beware if Nathan catches you, he must kill you. I anticipate that you will not last very long with your wound. It is beginning to heal but my draining of your powers has left you weak so I think you won't make it out of the castle. They say there is peace in death. Now you will find out. Run, former Queen of Talus.'

She let go of Juliet who eyed her with contempt.

'I won't let you get away with this. I will take back my powers and my throne and I will kill you,' she thundered at the witch.

'One, two . . . I'm counting you better run.'

Juliet gave me one last piteous look and clutching her bleeding wound she dragged her aching body from the room as fast as she could manage.

Drusilla continued counting as she picked up her mask and put it back on. My heart pounded as I thought of Juliet taking flight alone and the role I was to be forced to play in her demise. Drusilla walked back to the window.

'She is crossing the courtyard and out into the hills. She has gone further than I thought. She has surprised me again. She does indeed have spirit.'

I backed away from the witch in a desperate attempt to run from her power over me so that she could not use me to kill Juliet. It was with great effort that I turned from her.

'Nathan,' she snapped. I suddenly felt an energy all around my body that rooted me to the spot on which I stood. 'Where are you going? I thought you would have fully transformed by now. You are a fighter. I cannot help admiring how you have fought me but you cannot win. Go to her Nathan, and bring her head back to me.'

I turned to stare at her but it was not with horror. The monster inside me smiled back at her and I was suddenly springing free from my paralysis and running out of the door to pursue Juliet. One of Drusilla's guards outside the door handed me a sword as though he had been waiting. I felt my human side grow fainter. I had little time left.

I ran down the steps followed closely by a transformed Marcus and Richard who I presumed were also under Drusilla's power. They retained their human upright form, arms and legs but their bodies were black apart from a spine that rose in an arc and was made prominent by a redness to the skin that covered it. Each Lycan bore a shaggy mane of hair that covered their heads and half of their back. They wore no clothes and their prowess hung free and long between their legs. They followed me across the courtyard that was now covered with snow in the fading grey light.

Juliet was beginning to scrabble up the hill, hampered by her wound and her long dress. My knights were joining with me. But there was one missing, Gabriel. I had no time to wonder where he was or Xavier for that matter. I was being driven on against what little was left of my conscience.

I heard a loud sob utter forth from Juliet's lips above me on the hill that rose from the courtyard. I could see her dig her fingers into the freezing snow and earth to help her climb the hill side. The demon inside me forced me to slow my pursuit curious to see what would happened when she neared the top and found that she had nowhere to run. It was a foolish place to run but then she had little where else to go. The castle sat on a rock surrounded by hills and a loch.

I climbed the hill slowly, instructing my knights to stay back but the Lycans to follow me. A wicked smile lit my features as I watched Juliet continue to climb for her life. Finally, she reached the top and I picked up my pace. I believe she thought she may be able to climb over it and make her way down the other side. I watched her stand and look over the praecipe and shock force her to step away from the edge. I came to stand at her side.

The Lycans surrounded her. I looked over the edge. It was a high sheer drop down a slate cliff to grey rocks and the loch at the bottom. It was a long way down. Even for a Taleian hybrid vampire, the injuries may cause untold damage that would hamper her existence for an eternity and make her easy prey should she fall or even jump.

Jump? Would she even consider it? But she would. I caught the stray thought from her mind. I shook my head at her. She stepped away from me, sniffing back her tears, determined to look upon me with hatred rather than fear. She turned sharply realising she had nearly backed into Marcus with his large white snarling teeth. A part of me died inside as I felt the strength of her fear.

'There is nowhere to run Juliet. You cannot escape your death. My mistress will have your head.'

They were not my words yet they came from me. The darkness closed in around me. There was no escape for me either. I could no longer fight what I was becoming. The witch had taken my soul. Juliet remained silent. She glanced over the edge once more and back to me. She was desperate.

The wind howled around us, driving biting ice against our faces and lifting our hair around our faces. Blood still seeped from Juliet's wound through her fingers as they vainly attempted to plug the hole. She stepped closer to the edge. I grew confused and narrowed my eyes at her. I had no further time to waste. I raised my sword.

'Nathan, please . . .'

With the hardness that now enveloped my heart I brought the sword crashing down towards her neck. I heard her take an almighty breath as the blade cut through the air and then I watched her step serenely over the edge. Her eyes never left mine until she disappeared over the ledge. They were determined, regal and devoid of fear. Bemused, I looked over the praecipe to watch her fragile body land hard against the rocks like a broken doll and slip down into the loch to sink. I felt the last of the darkness consume me and I knew no more.




Writing this chapter was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me!  I would love your comments on the story and where you think it will go from here.  Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Sara