A Monster Life

87 - Rising to Power

Handil moaned softly and lightly smacked her muzzle when she swallowed the treated vampire blood. Valdys checked the progress of the spell through her body, and looked at Rachael with a reassuring smile. 'The spread of the curse has stopped. It might take a while longer before it has dissipated completely though.'

Rachael sagged in relief and laid her hand on her lover's chest. 'Thank you. Thank you so much.'

Valdys looked up at Ulric. 'Don't thank me yet. We still have to escape this place.'

'Yes.' he said, and looked around at the bodies on the floor. 'That noisy head guy and Celesta are gone.'

Valdys noticed it as well. 'We don't really have the time to search for them, but it doesn't matter. We're all together again.'

'Yeah.' he said with a little regret about missing out on revenge. 'Girls, we're leaving. We can't fight them all off on our own. Anyone see a way out of this messy place to begin with?'

Conchim flew up higher to peer over the buildings surrounding the courtyard. 'The front gate is pretty close to here. Might as well go through that since we're no longer sneaking around.'

'All right, let's go.' Ulric said, and carefully picked up Susi while Rachael picked up Handil.

Caylais looked around again for a sign of Tipper. 'Wait, I don't see Tipper anywhere.'

Iphigenia and Elzbieta glanced around while they cut down the vampires attacking them, and Elzbieta spotted the dwarf girl using her small stature to slip through the brawling vampires. 'I see her. Looks like she's heading in the right direction towards the gate.'

Ulric and the girls hurried down the stairs. 'Good. Catch up with her if you can. Conchi, guide us from above.'

Conchim waved at Yingshien to catch her attention. 'We're leaving! Help me clear the way to the front gate over there!'

Yingshien spat out a large fireball at a couple of vampires in high windows, who had found bows and arrows, and burned them along with their weapons. 'Coming!'

Together, they cleared most of the vampires on the way from above, while the others called out to Tipper when they caught up with her and fought the few still remaining vampires on their way.

'What about the artefact?' asked Caylais. 'Do we return later to fetch it?'

Ulric grumbled at the thought. 'We don't have much choice because we still need it.'

Tipper chuckled. 'You don't need a choice.'

He looked at her. 'What do you mean?'

She pulled the artefact from her pocket and grinned. 'I snatched it from Malyssa while everyone was distracted.'

Ulric felt giddy from relief. 'Tipper, you beautiful dwarf! I could kiss you!'

She moved a step away from him and handed the artefact over to Valdys. 'No thank you! I don't want to be slobbered all over by you!'

They could afford a laugh and reached the gate when Celesta hurried out of a side door. She gasped at the sight of the party, but Elzbieta's swift sword at her throat prevented her from double backing through the door again. Iphigenia grabbed her roughly by the back of her hair. 'You betrayed us and endangered our family.' she hissed.

Celesta whimpered at the painful grip. 'I didn't mean for it to happen! I only wanted a better life for myself than growing old in the village.'

'At the cost of others, eh?' said Iphigenia and looked back at the others. 'What do we do with her? Quick death?'