Chapter 22

The rest of the walk to the temple was uneventful, thank god. Katie kept us on track, and kept Felice and I laughing, until we were just a stone’s throw away from the building.

“Keep an eye out for Killian,” said Felice, “He could be invisible, watching us and waiting to strike.”

“He’s probably inside the temple waiting for an ambush,” I said, still looking around just in case I was wrong about that. Just as I was making it to the first step, a bright light flashed behind me and Katie.

“Crap!” Katie said as she manifested a fireball, while I pulled my sword, turned around…

And squealed with glee as Rhys stepped through the now-made portal, which closed immediately behind her.

“Hey, sorry I’m late.” Rhys said as she walked over to us, “I think Daniel and the rest of Redemption got things covered, but we had to create a small portal for me, since they’re starting to move camp. Did I miss anything?”

“Some scorpions and a giant worm,” said Katie, “Nothing we couldn’t handle.”

“Uh, what?” Rhys asked.

“We’ll tell you later,” I said, motioning to the temple, “Right now, we should deal with the problem at hand.”

“Ah, good point.” said Rhys, “Let’s get this over with.”

The three of us slowly walked up the steps. Despite the fact that we’d already done this twice over, my heart was still racing, and I could feel the nervous sweat dripping down my face. It was if I was walking to my own death. For all I knew, I probably was.

Rhys seemed to sense my nervousness, since she took my hand and gently squeezed it. I smiled at her, then tried to ignore Katie winking at me when she saw what was going on.

The inside of the temple looked the same as the other two - empty besides the fountain. Since Killian was the guy we were dealing with now, I kept an eye out for any movement that could come off as suspicious.

“Well, well, well… looks like I win.”

Killian stepped out of thin air in the direction he had spoke, near the fountain. It probably would have looked a lot better if he had stepped out of some kind of shadow, but he didn’t.

“Looks like you lost,” said Killian, “I guess that means this is an easy win for me.”

“Deal’s off,” I said as Felice brandished our sword, “We’re getting that gem off you anyway.”

“Deal?” Rhys asked.

“Later.” Katie whispered.

I had expected some kind of negative reaction from Killian, since we were going back on his stupid deal. Instead, his grin almost seemed to get wider, and he started to approach us with a saunter, as though he didn’t care at all.

“As if I figured you would just give up when I inevitably won,” said Killian, “Rebellions make things so much easier, don’t they? Of course, the three of you would know.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Katie asked.

“As if the emperor’s unaware of that precious rebellion that’s been helping you,” said Killian, “Not that it matters, since I plan to end this right now.”

Killian vanished in a cloud of smoke.

“Everyone, get together in a group!” I called. Katie and Rhys came up to me, back-to-back-to-back, and we started moving through the room towards the fountain.

“Here, take this,” said Katie as she passed me her dagger, “Just in case you get a good moment.”

“Thanks.” I said.

“Be careful,” said Katie, “Killian’s a creature of the night, and he’s already proven he’s willing to be a sneaky asshole.”

“We know,” I said, “Stay together.”

Rhys, Katie and I moved inward to the temple, back-to-back-to-back. I scanned the place back and forth, keeping an eye out for anything that could constitute movement. Felice’s energy was flowing through me, ready to strike at any time. Rhys had her hands outstretched, fireballs floating in each of them, scanning the area. Katie had her dagger out and was mumbling something under her breath.

“What’re you doing?” Rhys whispered as we made our way across the temple towards the fountain.

“Trying to get a protection spell going,” Katie whispered back, “But it’s not happening, and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

“Don’t worry about it, we have to worry about the business at hand.” I said, “But we can’t stay here forever, we need some kind of plan.”

“Why don’t we go to cleanse?” Katie said, “Killian has to do something if he’s here before we bust, so let’s give him an incentive to strike.”

“As good of a plan as any.” I said, “I’ll go first, cover me.”

“Right behind you.” said Rhys. I made my way to the fountain and knelt down in front of the water. Scooping the clean water onto my face, plus a little into my mouth as well, felt good, but the dread of the vampire being anywhere in the area was enough for me to still be on edge.

“Alright,” I said as I patted my chin dry of water, “Katie, it’s your turn, let’s get - “

“ARGH!”

Katie’s sudden grunt caused both me and Rhys to spin to her, brandishing our weapons. Killian had Katie in a headlock, mouth down on the back of her neck. Katie’s face was twisted in pain.

“Get off of her, you damned leech!” Rhys yelled. Killian stayed like that with Katie for several more seconds before he moved off and let her go. Katie gasped one last time, then her eyes closed and she went limp.

Katie dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks when Killian dropped her.

“KATIE!” I screamed. She didn’t move. My head was spinning, there’s no way she could have just been killed, after what we had been through. Katie wouldn’t be dead, she’d only go out in her own way. Killian stepped over Katie like she was a dropped wrapper and slowly approached us.

“One down, one to go.” Killian said, then to my horror, he wiped his mouth, spreading the blood on his lips. I wanted to vomit. Felice drew our sword, and balls of fire appeared in Rhys’ hands.

Killian didn’t look fazed at all. More… amused than anything. Smug bastard. He strode towards me, leaving Katie’s body behind like a discarded wrapper.

“I’m going to rip those fangs out of your skull!” I yelled, channeling my energy into getting Killian down. Felice brandished our sword, and we threw the first stone, charging into Killian, sword outstretched.

Just as we made it to the pale man, he vanished in a puff of smoke. We spun around, keeping our sword outstretched, and moved back towards Rhys until my back connected with hers.

“Keep a lookout,” Rhys whispered to me, “Vampires can disguise themselves to the human eye.”

“What about an orc’s eye?” I whispered back.

“… Just keep looking.” said Rhys. We spun around, Felice keeping our sword outstretched while Rhys had a string of fire stretched out. I looked to my left and right, but there was no one around.

“NO!”

Rhys suddenly yelled and shoved me, knocking me into a wall. When I got my vision back from the sudden shove, an anguished yell escaped my throat when I saw Killian raising Rhys by the throat.

“Ah, my dear,” Killian said as Rhys clawed at the vampire’s hand to no avail, “I hate to interrupt the two of you, but I need to kill your friend. Nothing personal, just as Kydro would say.”

“I won’t… let you…” Rhys choked out, swinging her legs and trying to kick Killian without success. Killian laughed, and my anger boiled over.

“Get off of her you leech!” I screamed as I grabbed my sword - or Felice did. My anger was unstoppable; I couldn’t tell if Felice was controlling me, if I was doing it on my own, if our anger was combined, if it was just mine -

And none of that mattered as I skewered Killian with my sword. For a moment, everything stopped. Killian looked down at the sword going through his gut as if it were slow motion. Rhys fell to the stone floor as Killian slowly let her go. The vampire’s head turned, as if he were trying to look at me. I ripped the sword back, and Killian turned to me from the force. To my shock, the bastard was still smiling.

“That’s what I’ve been looking forward to.” Killian whispered followed by a grimaced chuckle before he fell to the ground, which just made me even angrier than I had been before. This time, when I went to cut off the gem, I was much less careful than I was with Kydro and Xelsa. Killian’s screams were loud, glass-breaking screams that immediately stopped when the gem was removed.

“… I… thank… you...” Killian whispered, right before he passed out. I stared down at the unconscious man in confusion. After everything he had done, all the times he’d acted like a huge pervert towards me and Katie, acting like he was all in on this thing, he was thanking me? I supposed he had been doing all of this against his will though. My mind was on other things when Rhys waved me over to Katie, who was still not moving.

“Katie, Katie speak to me!” I said, shaking the girl as Rhys felt for her pulse on her neck. Just as I realized her chest was still moving, Rhys called out, “She’s still alive!”

“Oh thank god!” I said, just as Katie groaned and her eyes fluttered open.

“Ugh, what hit me?” Katie said, “Why am I… so weak? Why is the room spinning?”

“Killian got you,” I said as Rhys hoisted Katie up like she was a baby and not a fully grown young adult, “The damned leech nearly bled you dry.”

“I feel really weird,” said Katie between her fast breaths, “My heart’s racing, like I’m having a panic attack or something, but I want to sleep.”

“Your body’s probably trying to make new blood and make up for what’s lost,” said Felice, “We need to get back to the rebel’s camp so you can recover. Looks like someone’s going to have to carry you.”

“And by someone, you mean me.” said Rhys as she turned her back to Katie and squatted down, “Hop on up.”

“Yay, piggy-back ride.” said Katie, “Though, it looks like we’re going to have to wait on that, since Daniel hasn’t shown up yet.”

“In the meantime, let’s cleanse your face,” I said, “We still have to do that.”

“Oh good, I need some water anyway.” said Katie. Rhys helped her over to the fountain so she could wash her face. As soon as Katie dipped her wet hand back into the water, the red pillowed out through the fountain once more.

“Good stuff,” said Katie, “So now we wait.”

As if on cue, there was a flash of light, and the swirling vortex appeared, with Daniel standing in front of it.

“We’ve been watching using a projector we created ourselves,” said Daniel, “We managed to fight off the soldiers, but we had to move camp. No other choice. You’re lucky we’ve manage to dissipate the no-portal shields, or you’d all have to walk back.”

“Sounds good.” I said as Rhys stood up with Katie on her back, and we all started making our way to the portal, “How did things go with that?”

“No casualties,” said Daniel, “There are a couple of wounded, but nothing serious. The soldiers sent after us are usually more of a token effort if anything, but this was much more than that, presumably because the emperor is starting to take us a little more seriously now.”

“Huh, I couldn’t imagine why.” I said as I slipped Killian’s gem into Katie’s bag and followed Rhys towards the portal.