Ghost Light

“You are nothing but a half-breed, a rodent to crush and bleed,” Melusine shrieked.  “I will kill you and my unfaithful husband both!”

Melusine swung forward, throwing me off balance.  I was slung over her shoulder to come face to face with her pet.  The pit viper glared at me with slit eyes and sunk its fangs into my wrist.  Indescribable pain burst through my arm as venom shot into my bloodstream. I lost my grip on my dagger and my arm fell from Melusine’s neck.

I swung further forward, barely managing to hold onto Melusine’s hair with one hand.  I tried a spinning kick to her ribs, but didn’t have enough leverage.  Instead, I left my flank open to attack.  Melusine struck, whipping her head down as I swung in a lazy arc.  Flesh and leather tore as the lamia’s fangs punctured my side.

Now I could add lamia venom to the killing cocktail in my veins.

Melusine shook her head, tearing her fangs free.  Bloody spittle sprayed across my jeans with the movement.  Sparks of light flashed in my peripheral vision; a likely precursor to blacking out.  I noticed all of this as I fell in slow motion to hit the ground.

Strangely, I didn’t feel the impact as I hit.  Cold crept through my limbs as life poured from my body to soak the grass where Ceff still lay unconscious.  I clamped my hand onto the wound in my side and tried to staunch the bleeding with fingers gone stiff and clumsy.  I dug my boot into the turf and tried to push myself up, but something wet tore inside my gut and I gagged.  This must be what it feels like to die.

I was so weak I could barely lift my head—and Melusine damn well knew it.  With a mad gleam in her eye, Melusine spit my blood at Ceff and raised her blade a foot above his chest.  The bitch was going to kill us both, but first she’d make me watch as she cut out my boyfriend’s still-beating heart.

No way was I going to let that happen.  I gathered my anger to me like an old friend.  I wasn’t going down without a fight.

My skin flashed warm, then molten hot and began to glow.  The cold slush in my veins was replaced by liquid fire.  The sparks of light that I’d mistaken for the beginning signs of unconsciousness gathered around me in a burning cloud of light—and power.

Fire rushed through my body to burn away the venom’s deadly chill.  Energy poured into me as I drew power from the wisps that had come to heed my call.  With renewed strength, I pushed myself up into a sitting position.  I slid my last throwing knife from its sheath and pinched the blade between the fingers of blood-slick gloves.  I held my arm straight and raised it above my head.  In one lightening fast move, I flung my arm forward and released the blade.

The knife struck Melusine between the eyes.

I gasped.  The blade shouldn’t have flown true.  I hadn’t been standing in a proper throwing stance and my gloves were slippery with blood and other fluids.

Melusine dropped the blade from her hand and toppled over, a surprised look on her face.  Part of her large body fell atop Ceff and I tried to rush forward.  I had to make sure that Ceff was all right.  A seven foot tall lamia was no lightweight.  I staggered toward Ceff, but the strength that had filled me seconds before was gone.

I fell to the ground beside Melusine’s discarded blade, vision fading.  As I began my descent into the oblivion of unconsciousness, or possibly death, I sent up one last prayer that Ceff had survived.

The last thing I saw as sleep pulled me under was my own reflection in Melusine’s blade—my eyes glowing like the sun.

Chapter 24

Nightmares tore at my mind—rats drawing blood, children dancing hand-in-hand with the dead, Marvin’s cry of warning, the whip-fast lash of a serpent’s tail, and fangs dripping deadly venom.  The images burned like the fever raging through my body.  I was caught in a typhoon of fear and fire, not sure if I’d ever find my way home.

In the distance, a man held a lantern aloft to guide my footsteps.  If only I could find solid ground beneath my feet.  My boots made a sucking sound with each step.  The bog was pulling me under, trying to swallow me whole.

I took a step forward and plunged into cold water.  I held my breath and struggled to find my way out.  When my boots hit something solid, I kicked and thrashed.  My head broke the surface and I coughed up foul tasting water, gasping for air.

I spun in a circle, blinking water and mud from my eyes as I searched for the man and his lantern.  There.  I swam toward the man, but the lantern flame flickered with an eerie light and I hesitated.  The kind face I’d expected looked frightening in the spectral glow.  This man wasn’t my savior, he was a monster.

I thrashed my arms and legs, struggling to escape.  Water weighted down my clothes and mud sucked at my limbs.  I lost sight of the lantern light as my world was consumed by darkness and the nightmares that linger there.