A Soul Divided (The Blood Fire Trilogy Book 1) (10 page)

Chapter 14: Angela

“When we land.” Drake said, “Don’t look around, don’t make a sound, just run behind me, and don’t stop until I stop.”

Angela struggled to understand Drake’s sudden change of demeanor. She’d only ever seen him acting cavalier and joking about everything. But ever since the computer told them they were landing on Rabbit’s Foot he’d become so serious. The way he spoke made it sound like they would be landing in the middle of a war zone.

“What will we be running from?” Olivia asked.

“The bio weapons.” Drake responded, “Remember?”

“Weapons?” Olivia asked. “There’s more than one?”

“Several thousand of them.” Drake responded. “And any one of them can, and will, kill any one of us without a second thought. So like I said, when we land, don’t look around, don’t make a sound, just run. I know where we can go to get away from them.”

Angela looked over at Olivia. She was trying to keep a calm face and stay dignified like only a princess could, but it was obvious she was just as terrified as Angela.

The small escape pod shook as it entered the planet’s atmosphere, almost knocking Angela out of her seat. After a minute or two the pod stabilized and flew smoothly.

Angela turned and looked out the window. The landscape of Rabbit’s Foot was like nothing Angela had ever seen before. Large stone buildings with magnificent artwork were everywhere. It would’ve been beautiful if it weren’t for the holes blown in most of the buildings, and the crashed ships littering the streets. Even those had their own kind of beauty thanks to the years of unchecked plant growth sprouting all around them.

It was hard to believe something as terrible as genocide happened in such a beautiful place.

The pod lurched, jolting all of its passengers as the landing gear engaged and it touched down on the ground.

“Come on,” Drake said as he opened the pod’s door, “It’s time to go.”

Angela and Olivia stepped out the door.

The destruction hadn’t looked bad from the air, but it was a different story up close. Angela surveyed the surrounding landscape. She saw wrecked buildings, with bloodstains on the walls, crashed spaceships of every size and shape littered the roads. And, despite the lack of corpses, the whole place carried the putrid scent of decaying flesh.

How many people fought in the battle that caused all of this damage?

Something caught Angela’s eye as she looked over the wreckage of the once great city.

It had the basic shape of a man but there was nothing else Human about it.

It wore nothing but small shreds of clothing, its arms were longer than normal, hanging down to the creature’s knees, and ending in sharp claws coming from the tips of its fingers. But most disconcerting of all were the long, sharp, bony spikes protruding from its arms, elbows, legs, back, and head.

That must be the bio-weapon.
Angela thought as she looked at the thing.

Angela felt the fear fill her chest as the monster turned to face her, and its pure black eyes met hers. There was something supernatural about this creature. It was more than just some creation of science. When it looked at her she could feel its intent. It didn’t just want to kill her, it wanted to destroy her very essence; remove everything that made her who she was and destroy even the memory of her existence. When it looked at her Angela could feel its pure hatred.

The monster opened its unnaturally large mouth revealing rows of sharp teeth, and let out a loud, inhuman shriek.

Angela’s peripheral vision filled with Drake’s revolver. A small, glowing, blue ball came from the gun’s barrel and flew straight toward the monster. It gained mass as it flew, taking form as a gigantic icicle. The monster’s scream turned into a quiet gurgling sound as the icicle penetrated deep into its chest. The inertia of the impact sent the beast flying backwards into the wreckage of an old spacecraft, making a loud, metallic clang as it hit.

“Time to run!” Drake yelled as he grabbed Angela’s hand and pulled her along with him.

“Run?” Angela asked, “Didn’t you just kill it?”

“No,” Drake replied, “It’s not dead, just pissed off! Now run!”

Angela turned to look at Drake. His face was serious, and maybe even a little frightened. But Angela wasn’t sure why, the bio-weapon had been easy enough for him to defeat. There was no way it had survived getting a hole punched into its chest.

She heard the same bone chilling scream the bio-weapon had let out before.

The scream had come from the same monster that Drake had already impaled moments before. She stared, terrified, as the monstrosity ripped the huge icicle from its chest, and sprinted toward them, screaming as it went.

How could it have survived? That icicle should have destroyed its heart and its lungs. Nothing could survive that.

Her eyes widened as she saw that the hole left in its chest was closing over.

After seconds, what had been a gaping wound was now brand new flesh. Angela turned and ran behind Drake as fast as her legs could move.

The sound of the monster’s scream grew in volume as similar cries echoed from all around them.

“Run faster!” Drake yelled out, “We’re almost there.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Angela saw Olivia trip and fall to the ground.

“Olivia!” She yelled out.

One of the monsters came barrelling out of a nearby abandoned building and pounced at the princess, its claws out, and its oversized mouth wide open. A fireball shot from Drake’s revolver, smashing against the creature in mid air; the force of the impact sending it reeling backward.

“Keep running!” Drake yelled to Angela, “Get into that building and wait for me!” Drake pointed to a huge castle-like structure about a hundred yards away. “You’ll be safe there.” He called out as he ran to Olivia’s side, shooting out several fireballs at the monsters swarming in toward him.

Angela turned and ran.

She could hear the wailing of the monsters following close behind her. They moved so fast, she was sure they would catch her any second. She could almost feel their breath on her neck as she ran through the massive doorway of the castle-like structure.

It wasn’t until she entered that she realized the building was a massive library. She looked around searching for anything that could protect her from the monsters. How was this place supposed to be safe? There were bookshelves everywhere, although it was hard to tell that they held books through all the dust piled on top of them, it even smelled like dust. The carpet lay in shreds, and there was a picture drawn on the floor in what looked like dried blood. But there was nothing useful that Angela could see.

She turned back toward the door. To her utter shock, the monsters had stopped at the doorway.

They let out low guttural growls for a few seconds before three separate icicles smashed into them.

Angela gasped as Drake came jumping over the bodies of the three monsters carrying a hysterically screaming Olivia on his shoulder as if she were a sack of potatoes. His knees doubled, and he fell down as his feet hit the floor.

“Knune’s Fire, Princess! You’re a lot heavier than you look.” Drake said as he lifted himself from the floor. His usual cavalier tone had returned to his voice. Olivia continued to scream for a moment before catching her breath.

“How did those things do that!?” Angela yelled out. “Why did they stop outside of the building?”

She felt like throwing up.

“Those things,” Drake said, pointing at the monsters that were still sitting in the doorway. “I call them Nightmares. They can’t be killed, I can’t say I understand the physics of how it works, but I know that no matter how you hurt them, they’ll heal from it. It’s cool in a super scary kind of way.”

Angela and Olivia both stared at him blankly.

“How can you be so calm right now!?” Olivia burst out.

“Well,” Drake said, “I’ve been here before, so I know we’re safe.”

“What stopped them from coming in?” Angela asked. She was feeling more at ease. As strange as the timing of it was, Drake’s attitude took the edge off of the situation.

“That did.” Drake said pointing toward the blood picture drawn on the floor. Angela walked over and looked closer at it. It was a circle with some writing in some kind of ancient language making a pattern on the inside of it.

“What is it?” Olivia asked as she moved over to take a look.

“It’s a Vhy’ Rai command.” Drake said. “It stops anybody without a whole soul from entering within a certain radius of it.”

“What?” Olivia asked. “A whole soul? What does that even mean?”

“I always forget that the Human Empire is full of Atheists. Your soul is the immaterial part of you, like who you are as a person, instead of what you look like.” Drake said.

Olivia stared back at him, obviously not comprehending.

Even Angela felt confused.

She knew the Mystics believed in some mysterious and powerful being who supposedly created them, but she didn’t know they believed people had invisible parts that they needed to enter certain buildings.

Their religion was more primitive than she had thought.

“Look,” Drake said with an exasperated sigh, “It’s hard to explain what a soul is if you don’t even believe in a god, but the Nightmares only part of one so they can’t come in here. Just be happy with that explanation for now.”

“I’m not sure I’m following you.” Olivia replied.

“I’ll explain it to you later. You know; when we haven’t just escaped a horde of flesh eating monsters.” Drake said as he pushed aside a table and opened a hatch that had been hidden in the floor.

“There’s a panic room down there. It has canned food that’ll still be good. It’s not delicious, but it’s food. There’s water down there too, and a couple beds. Go spend the night down there. I’ll explain things to you in the morning.”

Angela followed as Olivia moved to the hatch and climbed down the ladder. She turned to face Drake before descending.

“Are you coming too?” She asked. The thought of leaving him was terrifying. She hadn’t expected that.

“Not for a while.” Drake replied. “I’ve got things to do. Don’t worry, I’m not planning on leaving without you. I’ll keep you safe.”

Angela wanted to beg him to come down with them.  But she already knew that he would say no.

“You’d better.” She said. “I don’t want to die here.”

Drake smiled.

“I’ll get us out of here. You can count on that.”

Angela smiled back then climbed down the ladder to join Olivia inside the dense walls of the panic room.

Chapter 15: Vahn

Epystilium was a complete dump.

Most of the buildings were in ruins; just one good kick to their walls would collapse them completely.  Half starved, homeless children lay in the garbage on the side of the road, and the streets smelled like a public urinal.

The war had taken its toll on the border planets. They were under constant threat of attack from the Mystics, and since the Human Empire diverted the majority of its resources to the war with the Hostiles, the border planets were dreadfully under supplied.

Vahn looked into the faces of several starving people that scowled at him as he walked by. Until the Hostiles could be defeated, this was the best life these people could hope for.

They must hate me.
He thought as he looked down at his military uniform. The people here weren’t even told that the Hostiles existed. That would have created a panic. The only thing they knew about what the government on New Earth was doing for this war was that they had stopped sending food and weapons and left them to be ruled by thugs.

Vahn threw them some money then lifted his eyes from the homeless in the road to look at a trashy neon sign that said,
The Galaxy’s Edge
.

This bar looks worse than the rest of this city.
Vahn thought as he walked through the swinging, saloon style doors.

He surveyed the room, searching for Titus. The people of this bar looked like a mix of the worst all the worst kinds of criminals. Many of them were Mystics who’d probably been banished and taken refuge here.

The people on the border planets had long stopped caring what race a person was. Everybody just hated everybody else. Whether you were Human or Mystic if you had money they were happy to steal it from you.

Every person in the room carried a weapon, and most of them looked on edge enough to actually use them if provoked. Most of them had swords, axes, or some other handheld weapon, but some carried pistols on their belts. Although Vahn realized they were probably empty. A few people here may have one or two shots, but bullets were a rare commodity on the border planets.

Vahn suddenly regretted bringing a fully loaded assault rifle with him, but not wearing his V.A.L.O.R. armor. It made him a target for this lawless filth. The expertly forged saber he carried at his side was also likely to be stolen if he didn’t leave here soon.

“That’s a beautiful weapon.” A large ex-mystic said as he stood in Vahn’s way.

He was a Faelus Hominis. It was rare to see his race in the Human Empire anymore. Most of them had gone over to the Neutral Zone years ago.

Vahn had seen a few in his early enlistment days when he’d been nothing more than a foot soldier fighting against the Mystics. They looked like a hybrid between a tiger and a man, except that their fur was blue instead of orange. This one stood a full eight inches taller than Vahn.

He would have been imposing to most, but he wasn’t bulletproof, and Vahn was carrying an assault rifle.

“Yes it is.” Vahn replied as he put the gun’s barrel into the Faelus’s stomach. “I’ll show you how it works if you don’t take your seat.” Vahn didn’t like being so harsh and forceful, but he knew it was what this cretin would respond to best.

“Will you?” The Faelus responded, motioning his head toward an unsavory looking group of ex-Mystics gathered around a table. All of them had large weapons although only one of them had a pistol.

“I have enough bullets to show all of them what this gun can do.” Vahn replied.

“I guess we’ll see.” Said the Faelus, as he motioned to his friends at the table who rose from their seats and walked toward Vahn.

“You can’t win this fight human.” The Faelus said.

“Yes he can.” A deep voice came from behind the Faelus.

Before the Faelus could even turn to see who had spoken, he was lifted into the air and thrown across the room.

“You won’t get away with this Titus.” The Faelus moaned from his landing place on the floor.

“You’re not the first one to promise that.” Titus replied. “So far nobody has ever lived up to their word.” Titus, the massive Draco, turned to face Vahn.

“We have business to discuss.” He said. “Come sit at my table.”

“After you.” Vahn replied, following Titus to a small table in the back of the room.

“Let’s get straight to business.” Vahn said as they sat down. “I want to know everything you know about what happened in that prison.”

“Money first.” Titus replied with a slight edge in his voice. Titus obviously wasn’t new to this.

“You’ll get the rest after I get my information.” Vahn said as he slid a small box full of denarius notes across the table.

“What do you know of the Vhy’ Rai Taboos?”  Titus asked as he opened the box and examined its contents.

“I’ve never heard of them.” Vahn replied, “Care to enlighten me?”

“They’re mostly spoken about in legends.” Titus said. “The only ones who have ever seen them done are dead because....”

Titus’s paused as the sound of screaming came from the road outside.

Mystic soldiers came pouring in through the entrance, cutting people down with their swords as they went. Vahn sprang up from his seat, firing his assault rifle at the soldiers, killing five of them in a matter of seconds.

The Mystic soldiers raised their hands and pointed them at Vahn as if to use their Vhy’ Rai. Surprise filled their faces as their power failed to do anything.

Their surprise turned to panic as they saw Titus bounding across the room with his huge sword drawn out. Not only was Titus larger than them, and wearing his thick Draco armor, but as a Draco Hominis he had the gift of cancelling their Vhy’ Rai.

Vahn lifted his rifle to fire at more of the Mystic soldiers. This time he would take more careful aim to avoid wasting bullets.

A large clawed fist smashed into the side of his head before he could fire a shot.

The force of the impact knocked him to the ground and sent his rifle skidding across the bar.

Vahn reached up to feel the blood coming down the side of his face. There were now three large scratches running down his cheek. He turned to see who his attacker had been.

“Not so tough now that Titus is busy, are you?” The Faelus said mockingly as he moved closer to Vahn, his long, retractable claws extending out of his fingers as he walked.

“I don’t need Titus or a gun to win against you.” Vahn said as he rose to his feet and drew out the steel saber from his sheath.

“This should be fun.” The Faelus said as he swung his huge clawed paw at Vahn’s face again. Vahn ducked under the attack, swinging his sword toward the Faeulus’s exposed ankle. The Faelus pulled its leg back, easily dodging Vahn’s attack, and then bringing its foot forward again to deliver a kick to Vahn’s already bleeding face. Vahn went reeling backwards, landing hard on his back.

This Faelus is tougher than the last one I fought.
Vahn thought as he stood back up and tried to catch his breath
. I’ll have to step it up.

Vahn lifted his sword into a defensive position to wait for the Faelus to charge at him. Out of the corner of his eye Vahn saw one of the Faelus’s friends coming at him fast, with a sword drawn. This one was an almost human looking Mystic but with green skin, and no nose. Vahn spun, parrying the Mystic’s attack to the side, and knocking him to the floor.

Without a second thought Vahn ran his sword through the back of the fallen Mystic’s head, then drew it out to face the Faelus once again.

Instead of charging, like Vahn had expected the brute to do, the Faelus picked up a chair with one of his massive arms and hurled it at Vahn. Vahn ducked and watched the chair whizz over his head, shattering as it hit against a table about ten feet behind him.

With his free hand, Vahn reached down and grabbed the sword from the dead Mystic’s hand. With a sword in each hand, Vahn charged toward the Faelus, raising the sword in his right hand above his head and bringing it down toward the Faelus’s head. The Faelus raised it’s hard, sharp claws and caught the sword between them. With the sword in his other hand, Vahn slashed toward the Faelus’s stomach. The Faelus roared in pain and leapt backward as Vahn’s sword made contact.

Vahn stood back up straight, holding his swords out offensively toward the Faelus. Something caught Vahn’s eye behind where the Faelus was standing. There was a large mirror on the wall, and in the reflection Vahn could see another one of the Faelus’s former table mates. This one looked something like a large, ugly frog that could stand on its back feet.

The ugly frog goon picked up Vahn’s assault rifle from the floor and pointed it at Vahn’s back.

Vahn dropped to the floor as the frog opened fire.

The bullets sailed over Vahn’s head and straight into the unsuspecting Faelus’s chest. The frog stopped firing as it realized what it had done. Vahn took advantage of the frog’s confusion, throwing his extra sword at the amphibian's head.

The frog had the sense to duck the oncoming sword, but was too distracted to see Vahn charging at him.

Vahn’s sword ran through the frog’s skull like a knife through butter. He was dead before he could even make a sound.

Vahn picked up his rifle from the hands of the frog’s carcass and opened fire on the Mystic soldiers still entering the bar. He killed ten of them before his magazine ran out of bullets and his rifle became useless. He threw it to the side as he walked toward the remaining soldiers with his sword drawn.

In the distance a loud horn blew. He’d heard it before as a soldier on the front lines. It was the Mystic’s signal to retreat.

Vahn looked around the bar, hoping to find Titus, but the Draco was nowhere to be found.

Vahn looked over at the Faelus’s dead body that was now surrounded by his remaining friends. They were in shock right now, but they’d be out for revenge soon.

Vahn sheathed his sword and walked out of the bar. He stopped in the road as he felt a vibration in his pocket.

He pulled the Line Transceiver from his pocket and saw the words unknown caller displayed on the screen.

“Captain Ashbell speaking.” He said as he pushed the accept call button.

“That’s a fun title, Vahn.” The voice on the other end of the line said, “Don’t let it go to your head though. You’ll always still be a sissy in my book no matter how many people call you captain.”

“Drake?” Vahn said. “I can’t believe that you’re still alive!”

“You doubted me?” Drake said, “That hurts Vahn, you should have more faith in me.”

“Did you kill 169?” Vahn asked, not responding to Drake’s sarcasm. “Is the princess alright? Where are you?”

“One question at a time Vahn.” Drake answered. “It bothers me that none of those questions were to see if I was ok, or if I needed help. You’re a sucky brother.”

“I’m sorry Drake.” Vahn said irritatedly, “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine.” Drake replied, “Thanks for asking, you know it really means the world to me to know that you care.”

“Are you going to answer my questions Drake?” Vahn asked, his irritation growing even worse.

“Fine.” Drake replied. “169 isn’t exactly what you would call dead. But I locked him in a closet and sent him jumping around the galaxy. That’s a good accomplishment right?”

“It’s not what we hired you to do Drake.” Vahn replied, almost ready to end the transmission.

“You’re right,” Drake answered, “You hired me to save the princess, and I did.”

“I want to talk to her.” Vahn said.

“She’s asleep, so you get to talk with me.” Drake said. “Anyway, the reason I called is that I need you to come pick us up.”

“Where are you?” Vahn asked.

“Well, we’re on Rabbit’s Foot,” Drake said, “In the royal library, we can only stay here till morning. Please tell me you’ve got a ship with a Tachyon drive to come here and get us.”

“Drake,” Vahn replied, “Even if I had a ship fast enough, Rabbit’s Foot is quarantined, and it had a sky killer bomb detonated on it. The atmosphere would burn out the engine of any ship you tried to use to leave. Getting you off of that world is going to be complicated.”

“Fine,” Drake said. “Then I need you to come get us on Rhysin.”

“Where?” Vahn asked. “I’ve never even heard of Rhysin, and if you can get there by yourself then why do you need my help?”

“Don’t question my methods, Vahn.” Drake said, “They’re working a lot better than yours are. Like the mustache for instance, you thought it was lame, but 169 didn’t even recognize me. It was pure genius, and you mocked it.”

“It didn’t matter if he recognized you or not, you still got in a fight with him.”

“Well that element of surprise helped me win that fight.”

“Are you sure? Because it kind of looked like you were losing when the two of you disappeared, and you weren’t able to kill him.”

“Are you going to meet us on Rhysin or not?”

“I don’t know where that is Drake. How can I pick you up there if I don’t know where it is?”

“I’m not sure if I remember the Human name for it.” Drake said, “I think it’s Mora.”