The Font (21 page)

* * * *

Elisha and Sebastian hear
d
the fighting before they caught sight of the
old
mansion.  The front entrance door hung open, and some of the battle spilled out on the cracked front steps.

None of the combatants outdoors was Heriolf, but Elisha caught sight of the vampire lord through the open doorway, standing at the foot of the stair
s
.  He was throwing Elisha’s co-conspirators about like dolls, breaking their bodies with each thunderous swing.  Elisha read Heriolf’s mind, felt the giant Norseman’s triumph.  He also felt Heriolf’s strength had returned.  The bastard had fed on Naya.

Dropping to the ground at the bottom of the grand entry steps, Elisha spied Naya
inside the mansion
.  The collar of her dress was stained with blood.  She was two-thirds down the staircase, drunkenly swinging an ancient battle axe at both sides of the fight.  As he stared in open-mouthed shock, Naya split the skull of one of Heriolf’s guards, the blow landing more by luck than skill. 
Elisha’s
heart swelled with pride for his little elf.  Drained and outnumbered, she was
still
fighting with all she had.

He also noticed the conspirators were not concentrat
ing
so much on destroying Heriolf as they were trying to get to Naya.  He readied to charge the whole crowd.

Sebastian grabbed his shoulder and shouted to be heard over the cacophony.  “I will go to her.  You must stop Heriolf!”

Elisha’s instincts fought against it, but he knew his friend was right.  Only he himself could hope to defeat Heriolf.  He would have to trust Sebastian to protect Naya. 

“Go!” he shouted.  Forcing himself to concentrate on his enemy, Elisha launched himself at Heriolf, fangs bared.

* * * *

Naya’s arms ached with fiery agony as she swung the heavy axe.  No longer able to lift it over her head, she indiscriminately chopped at the waists of Heriolf’s loyal
henchmen
and the conspirators overwhelming
them
.  As Heriolf’s enemies swarmed at his blockade, the polished wood rails on either side splintered and broke.  Staggered posts accusingly pointed at the ceiling like stalagmites.

Elisha suddenly appeared like a force of nature, smashing bodily into Heriolf.  Naya loosed a scream of combined joy and terror to see her lover join in the fray.  The struggling pair fell down the stairs, holding onto each other as they crashed down to the marble floor at the bottom, clearing a swath of vampires as they went.

For an instant everyone stilled, shocked as the evenly matched foes went at each other in a maelstrom of violence.

Mariel’s voice rang out in the startled hush.  “Let them fight!  Let them destroy each other!  She is the one that must fall.”  Her arm rose to
point,
indicat
ing
the exhausted Naya.

In a blur of movement, Sebastian suddenly stood before Naya, a silver
-
bladed knife held out in front of him, warning off the conspirators.  They gaped in turn at him and the thrashing Heriolf and Elisha. 

Gratitude for the former slave’s support somehow made giving up easier for Naya.  She touched his shoulder.  “Let it happen, Sebastian.  They’ll turn on Elisha and kill him if he wins and I’m still alive.”

Mariel smirked.  She stepped closer, within arms’ reach of Naya’s would-be protector.  “She’s right.  Step aside, Sebastian.  Let us end this now.”

Sebastian’s deep voice was easily heard over the grunts and crashing bodies of Elisha and Heriolf.  “I cannot.  He loves her, Mariel, and you know Elisha will not make himself king.  Let her live.  Let them be happy.”

“It is not worth the risk.  But if you will be the fool, then you may die with them too.”  With that,
the hand she’d kept hidden behind one thigh flashed out. 
Mariel thrust a long silver-infused
knife
into Sebastian’s chest
before he could react
.  Sebastian gasped, his own knife falling to the stairs and bouncing down to the landing.  Mariel yanked her blade free and metal flashed
again
in the flickering light of the chandelier and sconces.  Sebastian’s head
flew through the air and
disappear
ed
over the side of the stairs.

Naya’s heart filled with rage at the sight.  “No!” she screamed. 
Before his body had finished crumpling where it stood, s
he swung the battle axe with a rush of furious energy
.  The next instant
, Mariel’s head went in the opposite direction of Sebastian’s. 

* * * *

Elisha had no idea how well Sebastian and Naya were doing on their end of the
fight
.  He
still
hadn’t fed since
rising
, and Heriolf had glutted on Naya’s blood. 
Elisha
could smell his beloved all over the hated tyrant
.  A
nger
,
even more than desperate animal hunger,
helped to make up for the slight edge Heriolf had on him in strength.

The more ominous
threat was Heriolf’s warrior cunning
when it came to
fighting.  A thousand years of battling enemies for what he wanted had given him far more skills than Elisha possessed.   The vampire lord was dealing out
a greater deal of
damage than he was taking.  Elisha knew he was in grave danger.

They’d fought to and fro in the entryway, staggering over bodies that lay already dead.  Heriolf had Elisha backpedaling.  The bastard had gotten hold of a sword, and he brandished it with ruthless expertise, seeking to make Elisha’s body into two parts.  Elisha ducked and elevated over Heriolf’s head in turns, trying to find a way to get past the flashing blade and somehow hurt his foe.   When Elisha flew, Heriolf followed him up, his grin savage as he chased the younger vampire.

Elisha landed on the gore-slicked tile floor then bulleted towards Heriolf’s exposed midsection.  The Norseman had raised his sword high over his head as he descended down, and Elisha took advantage of the lapse in self-protection.  His shoulder drove into Heriolf’s belly, making the would-be king grunt satisfyingly.

Elisha shot backwards just in time to avoid his quickly recovering enemy’s stab.  Unfortunately, the younger vampire’s feet tangled in one of the bodies underfoot, tripping him.  Elisha fell hard to the floor.

His gaze met Sebastian’s glazed eyes.  His dear friend’s
bodiless
head lay face to face with him, mere inches separating them.

With a victorious roar, Heriolf charged at Elisha
.  The vampire king’s
sword poised
over his head to deliver a skull
-separating slash
, one that would make Elisha like the man who had been his brother of the heart
.   Not even thinking about what he was doing
,
Elisha rolled towards the onrushing vampire, coming to a stop and driving his feet
with all of his strength
into Heriolf’s midsection. 
With a look that was more surprise than hurt, t
he king of Savannah flew backwards in the air towards the stairs.  He landed on the upward stabbing slats that had so recently supported the hand rail. 

The splintered mahogany staves impaled him, one stabbing through his spine
.  The combination of momentum and gravity sent the wood
traveling through his heart
until it
exit
ed
out of his chest.
  He
riolf
stared
at the thick splinter
.  It
seemed to grow out of him as his weight drove him further down onto it.  Horror registered for
a
brief instant before his eyes went blank. 
Heriolf uttered a strange wheez
e
, like the cry of a distant storm wind.  He made no other sound. 
His body slowly slid down the railing impaling him, skewering him deeper and deeper.

Heriolf, vampire
king
of southeast Georgia, was dead
for the final time
.

* * * *

The conspirators seemed to be in equal shock over
Sebastian and
Mariel’s beheading
s
and Heriolf’s staking.  They were
frozen in
that unearthly motionless
ness
only
vampires are capable of.  The triumphant howl
Naya initially felt rising in her belly died unvoiced in the face of that terrible stillness.  She
waited to see what would happen next, the rush of strength gone from her body, the pitted double blades of the battle axe resting on the step between her feet. 
It was all she could do to remain upright. 
She couldn’t have lifted
her weapon at this moment
had Heriolf risen from his bow-backed arch to snatch her away once more. 

Into the weighted silence, Elisha bellowed, “Heriolf
has gone to his final death.
  His tyranny is done!”

At the roaring power of his voice, Heriolf’s two remaining guards threw down their silver-plated w
eapons.  They cringed, crying “M
ercy
!” and “S
urrender
!
” with no real hope.

One crawled to grovel at Elisha’s feet.  “We only did Heriolf’s bidding for fear of our lives.  Do not kill us!”

Elisha didn’t spare him a glance.  Instead, he waded through the crowd to get to Naya’s side.  Those who still lived parted before him, allowing him to reach her.  Her heart pulsed painfully
for her lover’s loss
as he took a moment to look upon Sebastian’s fallen
and slowly disintegrating
body near
her feet
.  For an instant grief suffused hi
s
features
and she took his hand.  He looked into her eyes and drew himself up with effort, turning to address the still cringing guards.

“I have Heriolf’s powers now.  I can tell if you lie.  You were afraid
of him
, but your greatest cowardice lies in not doing what you knew was right; to rise up against Heriolf and keep our people safe.”

The second guard who remained on the stairs knelt at Elisha’s feet.  “I will serve you as I did him.  Spare me, and I will be the most faithful servant to your kingdom.”

Elisha looked at Naya, and she
saw
his horror.  “I will not be your king.  I only wish to see the council restored, with the wisest of us keeping
all vampires
safe once more.”

A vampire at the bottom of the stairs, his slashed flesh slowly knitting together, spoke with a weary hopelessness.  “How can that happen as long as the Font lives?”

Elisha sounded determined.  “I will take no more of her blood and defend her against all who would.”

Another conspirator cried out, “You will not have the strength!  Someone will eventually claim the power she offers.”  The other vampires murmured their agreement.

Naya forced her exhausted body to stand tall before them.  “Elisha will take my blood.  As will every member of the council.”

Elisha turned to her in shock.  Everyone waited in breathless silence for her to continue.

“A few drops each night donated from my veins to the seven members of the council, one of whom I believe you have elected to be Elisha?”  At the murmurs of assent, she went on.  “This will allow the entire council to know the truth about those who approach them.  No one like Heriolf will be able to destroy them as the last council was.  They will know those who would put the vampires in peril for their own selfish gain.”

Despite his many injuries, Elisha’s expression was one of pride.  Of approval.  The others were nodding amongst themselves.

Naya told them, “I will belong to only Elisha, but I will share with those you desire to lead you.  No one will have too much
power;
no one will have too little.”

Elisha’s arm slipped about her waist.  He called out, “What say you to this proposal?”

Someone called, “Yes.  I say yes.”

A chorus of affirmatives joined in.  His arm tightening around Naya, Elisha asked, “Do any oppose?”

The silence ran out, and Naya sagged a little in relief.  She thought it might be all right.

Elisha said, “Will the surviving members of the council elected by those who opposed Heriolf join me?”

Four vampires in various states of injury came up the steps to stand with Elisha and Naya.  He addressed them.  “You have heard the will of the vampires of southeast Georgia.  We will reconvene to vote on this when replacements for Mariel and Sebastian—” Elisha’s voice wavered momentarily as he spoke his longtime friend’s name.  He swallowed and continued.  “Until we have voted as a full council, will you temporarily accept this proposal of sharing the Font’s blood for the good of all?”