Chapter:   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Night Vengeance

Chapter Twenty Three

Rae cringed, as she smelled the noxious fumes of Dragon's Eye dust mixed with Black Poppy. This potent mixture was often used to paralyze warlocks and witches gone bad, making it easier to capture and destroy them. She tried to concentrate on the see through window and shimmer, but her head still hurt from hitting it on the desk leg downstairs.

"Justin, where are you?" she cried in her mind as Salazar blew the paralyzing mixture over her head. Her limbs stiffened, her throat seized up, she could no longer move, couldn't speak; only her eyes and mind were not paralyzed.

"I'm almost there, sweetness. Just hang on!" Justin exclaimed as he leaped up to the first landing and went for the second.

"He's paralyzed me, Justin. I can't move!" she cried out to him.

Justin could feel her panic as he rounded the corner and took the last flight of stairs to the attic. Though his face showed no emotion except anger, Justin was terribly afraid, afraid he'd get there too late to save her.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Devon entered the living room to find George still sitting on the floor.

Concerned, he knelt down at the man's side, his hand resting lightly on his shoulder. "George, are you alright?" he asked.

George nodded. "I gave Justin my blood, so he could save the woman," he said.

"Come on, let's get you out of here," said Devon as he helped George stand.

"No. Don't worry about me. I may be weak, but I won't die, just yet," George said as he pushed away from Devon and leaned against the wall. "You have to help Justin. They're in the attic. Both of you just might have a chance at destroying Salazar together."

Devon nodded, and his admiration of George grew. The man was truly courageous. He left George and ran to join Justin.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Justin reached the attic door, and cursed when he saw the smoke rising from his hand where he'd touched the knob. The knob had been dowsed in holy water. Behind the door he could hear Salazar chanting.

"Cumita Daglytar Hotura Barrakitu!"

A bright light began to filter under the door, and Justin knew if he didn't get it open, Rae would die.

"Think! Think!" he muttered to himself as he ran his fingers through his hair. Suddenly, from deep within his mind, a door opened and a memory emerged. A memory of the first time Rae and he made love, her childhood. He wondered why he was seeing her childhood now, and then it dawned on him. Her childhood memories were the key. Something in them would give him the answer he sought, a means to destroying Salazar.

He sat down on the step and examined each memory that surfaced of Rae's childhood. He saw again the memory of her parents' death, then when she'd skinned her knee and her mother had healed her. Nothing there helped him so he went deeper into her earlier memories.

He sucked in his breath at this one as he saw Rae at the age of maybe two or three. She was sitting on the floor, crying as she saw her mother sitting in a chair, a man stood tall over the chair and blew some kind of powder over her. He saw the woman raise her hand and freeze, she no longer moved.

He heard the cackle of the man, then a crash as the door in the room he was seeing opened and a tall, handsome man came in shouting, "Luminas, Jorakee, Ambutu!"

Justin swung his gaze back to the woman in the chair and saw her move. Her hand came down and she stood up, her face shining, her eyes glittered with stars as she spoke.

"Warlock, you have chosen the black arts as your companion, therefore damning your soul, for this I sentence you for one eon inside the Crystal of Souls, where you will suffer untold torment, until such time that I or another crystal guardian deems your sentence fulfilled." She stretched out her arm palm up and the crystal he'd seen lying on the floor in the living room appeared in her hand.

Before the warlock could move, she pointed the crystal at him and a thin stream of smoke began emanating from it. The smoke swirled and curled around the warlock thicker and thicker until he could no longer be seen. When the smoke cleared, the warlock was gone, locked for an eon inside the crystal. The tall handsome man, Justin assumed was Rae's father, caught the woman before she fell, and then looked straight at him.

"You have what you need," the man's deep voice whispered in his mind, then the images disappeared, and he opened his eyes to see Devon looming over him, shaking him.

"Justin, snap out of it, will you!" He was shouting over the noise coming from behind the door.

Justin blinked at his friend and smiled. "I know what to do," he said cryptically and stood.

Both men walked to the door and nodded to each other. The noise coming from inside escalated as Justin and Devon with their combined strength, lifted a foot and kicked the door down. Fierce wind assailed them, whipping their hair about their heads as they fought their way into the room.

Justin shouted, "Luminas, Jorakee, Ambutu!" and watched as Rae's arms and legs began to move.

Salazar roared in anger and flew across the room at the two men he knew should have been dead by now. He kicked Devon in the stomach and sent him flying against the far wall as he turned and raked his long poisonous nails across Justin's chest.

Rae cried out as she felt Justin's pain. She growled low when she saw Justin's blood, and her fangs grew. For the first time since she'd been turned vampire, her face took on a demonic expression as a burst of strength welled up, and she leaped several feet, landing on Salazar's back, her own long nails embedded in his throat.

"You will die for that!" she yelled.

Salazar cried out and stretched his arm behind him, clamping his hand around her ankle and pulled her off him.

"You bitch! You will die for this!" he shouted and thrust his hand toward her chest.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Stanley had seen the light show from outside and decided to follow Devon in, to see if he could help. At the entrance he saw a medieval suit of armor holding a sword, he pulled the sword from the metal hands and slowly walked up the stairs towards the attic.

The noises he heard as he climbed made him shiver and want to turn back, but he still needed to make things right. So, with some difficulty, he swallowed his fears, and pushed himself onward.

Stanley reached the door, just as Rae flew through the air, and landed on Salazar's back. He shuddered when he saw her face and her gleaming white fangs. Stunned, he watched in horror, as Salazar grabbed Rae by the ankle and jerked her from his back, and then he thrust his hand toward her chest, intending to deliver a fatal blow.

He saw Devon and Justin rise and run to pull her out of the way but knew they'd be too late. So, without conscious thought, he reared back his arm and threw the sword with all his might.

The sword caught Salazar in the stomach, propelling him backwards into the chair where he landed on his back inside the ritual circle.

Justin and Devon fell to their knees beside Rae. Her eyes were closed and from where Stanley was standing, he thought she looked unconscious. Then her eyes opened, she turned her gaze toward him and smiled.

"Thank you Stanley," she whispered in his mind. "You have to leave now."

Stanley nodded, turned and left the three of them to deal with Salazar.

 

©2006 Romance at Heart Magazine.

©2000 Angel Young.

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