He kept the falchion and rose to stand over her, facing the mutilated monsters. He still had a wind-wall spell prepared, but the timing would be tricky. He needed another illumination spell, but it was probably too late for that. He tried anyway.
Forming a spell without paying strict attention to the process was something he did quite often, but only with spells he had practiced for a considerable length of time. He tried distracting his enemies, but kept his eyes on his hand as he formed the runes to build another illumination spell. “Come to join your brethren in death?” he asked.
The vampires were spreading out into an arc, and one among them spoke to the others. “He’s bluffing. He would have done it already if he could destroy us. He can’t even look at us.”
Will heard the whisper of feet on the floor as they rushed toward him, and he glanced up in a panic. The spell he had been rapidly constructing trembled and fell apart. He tried to swing his sword, but one of them caught his arm in mid-swing—and then they were on him.
The speed of their movements bruised him in a dozen places, not from blows, but from their haste to rip the clothing from his body. Sharp pains assailed him as teeth sank into his skin in dozens of places, his arms, neck, thighs, and a few seconds later, his chest and back. The shock of it all was so great he couldn’t even cry out. A miserable gasp was all he could manage, and then he could barely breathe.
He tried to kick, punch—anything to get them off—but it was futile. They were too many and too strong. His attempts failed to do anything but create tears in his skin as he dislodged their fangs here and there.
Then a light appeared, half-blinding him, followed by a woman’s voice. “Run if you value your lives!” The vampires released him in a panic, scattering briefly, and as Will collapsed to the ground, he saw Janice standing some twenty feet away, a shining light above her head. Two men stood with her, Rob on one side, while Tiny towered over both of them on the other side.
Tiny rushed forward, and Will felt the man’s massive hands slip under his arms, pulling him upward. “Can you stand?” asked the big warrior.
“I think so. Help her, not me.”
Tiny glanced down. “She’s dead, Will.”
“I’m not leaving without her.”
His friend grimaced. “Stay on your feet then. If you fall, I’ll dump her and carry you instead.”
A loud report echoed through the warehouse and Will looked up to see one of the vampires flying back, a hole in its chest. Rob watched the results with a look of hysterical triumph on his face. Will had taught him the force-lance spell months ago, but he hadn’t thought the other student had bothered to practice it.
However, the fact that Rob had had to use the spell at all highlighted a different problem. The light spell that Janice had used had been of the ordinary variety. While it had frightened the vampires, it hadn’t actually done them any harm, and the exit was still a long way away. With twenty vampires still moving in the building, the door might as well have been on the other side of the world.
They had just gathered together around Tiny and started to move when the rest of the monsters returned, clustering around them. “Stay back!” warned Rob, another spell ready above his palm. Will began drawing in turyn, trying to regain his strength. Meanwhile Janice was beginning a force-lance of her own, while continuing to maintain the light spell that hovered above her head.
The vampires didn’t wait. No longer afraid of the light, they rushed forward. Janice and Rob released their spells, sending two of the fiends flying back, but the rest swarmed them. Claws flashed, and a pained shriek came from Janice as Tiny dropped his limp cargo and tried to help her. Will heard Rob grunt, and he saw two vampires had seized his friend’s arms, pulling him away.
He grabbed hold of his friend and shouted at Tiny, who was desperately trying to keep the others off of Janice. “Get close to me!” Will wasn’t able to drag Rob back, but somehow, Tiny seized Janice and managed to drag her along as he rejoined them. The four friends fell then, collapsing under the weight of their attackers.
They might have been crushed under the weight of Tiny and his armor, but somehow the massive warrior rose to his feet again, despite half a dozen undead clinging to his arms and shoulders. Will readied his turyn and tried to adjust his spell so that it wouldn’t kill those he wanted to protect, but then, for just a moment, Janice’s face turned toward him as she struggled to keep from being pulled away, and he saw what had caused her to shriek a few moments before.
Half her face was gone. Her left eye, the cheek below it, part of her nose, and half of her bottom lip were gone, leaving nothing but a ruin of blood, muscle, and exposed bone. The skin and tissue that had covered the wound now hung limp, like a bloody rag dangling from the side of her chin.
Janice’s one remaining eye met his gaze for a split second, and he could see the pain and horror there. She knew she was hurt; she knew something was wrong, but she couldn’t yet tell exactly what had happened to her. The sight shocked Will to his core, and as he tried to release the wind-wall spell, his concentration wavered and the spell shattered.
A moment later another pair of hands ripped her away. Janice’s spell faltered and the light died. Will screamed furiously, but he wasn’t quick enough to grab her hands. Tiny roared and began to charge, but as the light vanished, he found himself suddenly blind.
Will panicked as he realized then that Rob was already gone, and as the vampires tore and pounded on Tiny’s mailed body, the big man fell to his hands and knees, covering his last remaining friend. There wasn’t much else the warrior could do, and Will could feel the shuddering blows as they resonated through the big man’s chest and arms.
Tailtiu was dead, and Rob, Tiny, and Janice would soon follow, all because he couldn’t bear to accept the loss of one friend. Will’s only consolation was that he would be joining his friends soon after their deaths, so he wouldn’t have to live with his shame.
Will could still see, however, and in the weird, gray landscape painted by his heart-light vision, he saw the goddamn cat walk past. He was gazing out from under Tiny’s armpit, and the demigod simply stopped a few feet away and stared back at him. “Help us,” Will gasped.
“This is what trusting the fae gets you. You’ve earned your fate,” said the cat, its voice easy to hear despite the other awful noises echoing through the warehouse. “Farewell.” And then Will watched as the furry bastard sauntered casually away.
A faint whimper escaped Tiny’s lips, and Will felt a shudder go through his friend, but the big man only shifted his weight slightly and pulled his arms in further, trying to keep the enemy away from his smaller companion.
They’re going to kill him while he’s trying to shelter me, thought Will. And the goddamn cat just shows up and insults me. A growl began to reverberate in the back of Will’s throat. He was wasting time and the opportunity his friend had given him. For the moment he was safe, and given enough time, he could do something better than whine in fear.