The Homunculus Knight

Chapter 26: Early to the Battle

“Making holy water is easier than shitting with the squirts. Keeping it holy is harder than keeping your shit from leaking down your pant leg when you have said squirts. See, water reflects Aetheric resonance like nothing else and can be forced to take on properties of a certain type of resonance, be it holy, unholy, fae, or other fuckery. But just as water is reflective, it’s also ever-shifting, and if you don’t keep your blessed water somewhere up to the tits in sanctity, then it won’t stay holy for long. So as a rule, unless you are in a Temple or only going to need it for a few seconds, holy water isn’t worth the prayers.” - words of the Gutter Sage Mitri.

Natalie and her wolfpack fanned out around the mayor’s mansion, Cole watching them while keeping an eye out for new threats. After maybe a minute, Natalie found what she was looking for. A carriage port was in the back of the mansion; its doors flung open, its innards empty. The Vampires in charge of the garrison demonstrated their sense of self-preservation and bolted in style once Cole unleashed his wrath.

One of the wolves put its nose to the ground, and Natalie confirmed what she’d caught whiffs of. A carriage pulled by four ghoul horses was fleeing fast as the wind. Looking to Cole, Natalie said. “We can still catch them, but I need some of your blood.”

Cole turned his attention from the nine soot-blackened impalement poles dominating the town square. His earlier bit of pyromancy had reduced the mutilated bodies and their stretched guts into ash. Frowning, he asked Natalie: “Why?”

Tapping her head, Natalie explained. “I’m going to change shapes and want to be able to speak with you. Forming a telepathic link with you is hard without recently feeding.”

Accepting this, Cole offered his wrist to Natalie, and she carefully lapped at the fresh cuts he’d put there for his magic. As she kissed the wound closed, Cole asked. “I don’t think you facing two Vampires by yourself is smart, even with your familiars.”

Natalie took a deep breath and thought about the wolfpack she devoured. “I agree, which is why I’m bringing you with me.”

Exhaling slowly, Natalie let a cloud of red fog billow out of her mouth, nose, and eyes. Carefully, deliberately, she wrapped the growing mass of crimson vapor around herself. Eyes shut, Natalie focused on wolves, their nature, their appearance, their existence. She’d used much of the hollows taken from the pack to give life to them, but Natalie kept a little bit for herself. More than enough to help Natalie sculpt the crystallis of blood she now weaved.

Drowning in the red cloud, Natalie fell forward, catching herself on huge lupine paws. The feeling of soft fur enclosed Natalie’s skin, and a spot right above her hindquarters tingled with new nerve endings. Finally, as the scarlet mist faded away, Natalie opened her eyes and looked at Cole. Mouth open in shock, Cole was slightly indistinct to Natalie’s senses, her new eyes and nose having difficulty with him. Padding forward until she was chest-level with Cole, which was impressive considering she was on all fours, Natalie the wolf asked. + Are you going to keep staring or climb onto my back? +

Shrinking Requiem down and attaching it to his belt, Cole gingerly touched Natalie’s black-furred flank. “I didn’t know you could take such a massive shape.”

Rolling her eyes, Natalie replied. + Neither did I. This isn’t cheap on blood to do, so please just get on top of me. +

Awkwardly, Cole gripped Natalie’s fur and hoisted himself onto her back. Once he was situated the best he could be, Cole asked. “Am I too heavy?”

Looking back at him, tongue lolling out, Natalie replied. + Not terribly, and believe me, I prefer to ride you instead. +

Cole blinked in genuine surprise at the crass joke and muttered. “Alia is dangerous to be around for long periods.”

Chuffing in the lupine equivalent of laughter, Natalie exploded forward, loping towards the front gate of Barlstine with shocking speed. Cole gripped onto her fur and held on the best he could as Natalie’s pack fell in around her. The half-minds bound to each spectral wolf looked at the draft-horse-sized lupine they followed with something close to worship. At Natalie’s command, six of the wolves broke away to finish the search of Barlstine, and old Grist sped off in the direction of the convoy, a message for Mina bound into his mind.

Sucking in breaths of the night air, drinking in the million scents around her, Natalie wanted to whoop for joy as she left the liberated town behind them. The sheer strength and speed afforded her in this shape was intoxicating, as was the new perspective its senses provided. Following the stink of rotting horse flesh, Natalie cut across freshly planted fields. Ten eager wolves followed her, howling their song to the moon and stars above.

Natalie's quarry had been forced to use the roads, the posh coach they’d taken unable to go cross country like a wolfpack might. With her new nose, Natalie could smell the hints of perfumed upholstery and well-oiled carriage parts, creating a trail easy enough to follow. Pulled by two teams of ghoul horses, this coach would be incredibly difficult to catch, even for mounted pursuers. To Natalie, the prey fled just fast enough to make things interesting.

Unhampered by the limits of living flesh, Natalie pushed her body to speeds the fastest Dire Wolf would struggle to match. Taking this form was horribly expensive in blood, and maintaining it wasn’t easy. Even with Natalie’s savantism helping, she’d still burned through an entire deer herd's worth of blood, creating this body. Sending Grist to keep Mina informed hadn’t been cheap either; the farther her familiar went from Natalie, the more blood it cost to maintain.

Thankfully, Grist arrived at the campsite quickly and was pulled into the circle of subtlety by Alia. Peering through the farm dog’s eyes even as her main body ran across dark fields, Natalie conveyed her message. “town liberated, chasing fleeing vampires, please help people in town.”

After letting herself enjoy the looks of genuine shock on Mina and Alia’s faces on seeing the undead canine talk, Natalie let Grist dissipate. It would take some time for Grist’s hollow to reform at the Lupus skull, but that was a reasonable cost for sending the message. Returning most of her focus to the chase, Natalie marveled at how quickly she adapted to controlling and seeing through multiple bodies. The crude mind palace created with Isabelle’s help was quickly proving its worth. While casting complicated spells and storing Aetheric constructs was still beyond Natalie, her knack for psychic magic was showing in other ways.

Cole gripped Natalie tightly, his legs clamped around her back, armored hands clutching at black fur. He wasn’t saying anything, but clearly, this wasn’t his favorite method of movement. + How are you doing? +

Leaning forward so he was near one of Natalie’s ears, Cole said. “I’m holding on. Do you know where our quarry is?”

+ They are moving fast, but I’ve got their scent. It won’t be long now. Any ideas on how to deal with them? +

“Overwhelming force, we can’t let a message get to the main army. I can get their attention and kill them. But while I’m engaged with one, the other might just flee instead of helping. Stopping the coward will fall to you and your pack.”

+ Got it. Hey… I know this isn’t probably proper to say, but I like fighting beside you. I’d rather not get into life-or-death struggles, but doing it with you feels much better than by myself. +

Cole was silent for a moment, then he gently patted Natalie’s neck, clearly trying to be affectionate despite her changed shape. “I feel the same. I’ve spent a long time fighting alone in many different ways. Being with you even during this grim work makes it… less grim.”

Putting on a new burst of speed, Natalie replied. + You know, just the way to a girl’s heart. So, let's kill these parasites before they hurt anyone else. +

Tensing his arms and legs in the closest approximation of a hug he could manage, Cole asked. “I take it we are close?”

Natalie sent Cole a few flickers of information through the psychic link they shared. The stink of dead horses was much more intense now, and Natalie's lupine eyes caught the tiniest flickers of light in the distance. As the wolfpack exploded out of the small copse they’d been running through, the source of the light became apparent. Ahead of them and to the left was a finely wrought carriage speeding down a country road, four rotting equines pulling it. Twin lanterns glowing with witch-fire hung from the carriage’s front. Barely visible to Natalie, a humanoid figure sat in the carriage’s driver seat, hunched over with hands gripping the reigns.

Sucking in a breath of damp night air, Natalie howled, a call answered by her pack. Predatory glee bloomed inside Natalie as all four horses turned their heads to look at her. Dead, rotting, and under necromantic control, the horses still knew to fear wolves. The carriage was moving fast along a road nearly perpendicular to Natalie's path. Aiming herself toward the four-wheeled coach, Natalie let blood flow into her muscles, skin, and bone, reinforcing them for what was about to happen.

+ Hold on tight! + Natalie said to Cole as she rammed into the carriage. Catching the coach above its front axle, Natalie slammed six hundred kilos of raging wolf into the vehicle. Wood splintered, dead horses screamed, and wolves howled. Natalie smashed the entire driver’s seat and carriage shaft into scraps, her jaws closing around the unfortunate Wight acting as coachman. As withered flesh and old bones crunched beneath her teeth, Natalie felt Cole’s weight leave her back.

Plowing through the carriage and skidding along the ground, trying to slow her momentum, Natalie turned her head to see what became of Cole. She felt relief upon seeing he hadn’t been thrown free or injured; instead, Cole had leaped from her back and onto the ruined coach’s top. As the Lupus pack tore through the ghoul horses, Natalie watched Cole ride the out-of-control carriage. Bereft of driver or pullers, the coach hurtled off the road, its damaged front wheels achieving mutual destruction with a worn-down farm fence.

Moving to catch the run-away coach, Natalie couldn’t help but marvel as Cole held onto the roof while the carriage plowed a deep furrow into the soil. Some part of the coach’s axle or something else caught in the ground, flipping the carriage onto its side as it slid to a stop. Still, Cole hung on, his axe’s beak side driven deep into the coach’s wooden frame, keeping him from being tossed off the tumbling carriage.

As the ruined coach finally came to a stop, Cole clambered onto the vehicle's top and did what any self-respecting Vampire hunter would do and set it on fire. A stream of flame flew from Cole’s hand into the broken carriage window, and the ruined roof of the coach exploded outwards as two figures fled the fire.

Moving towards the exposed Vampires, Natalie let her form dissolve around her. The great lupine husk she’d inhabited melted into black blood and quickly flowed back into Natalie’s body. Doing her best to ignore the unsettling experience of having that much blood enter into her through every orifice, Natalie prepared to join the fight.

Cole leaped off the burning carriage and faced the two Vampires as Natalie stalked towards them from the other side, wolves at her flank. Seeing this, the ambushed Leechs realized they were trapped. With human eyes, Natalie could properly see the enemy, no longer interpreting them as clouds of perfume, drying blood, and cold death.

The first Vampire was female, short and petite, wearing what once might have been an elegant dress before the carriage crash. Long claws of hardened blood dripped from her fingers, and her face was a mask of rage and ruined makeup. Something about her disheveled appearance and feral anger brought up unpleasant memories of Dame Lorena to Natalie. At the female’s side was a lean Leech with oiled brown hair and arched features dressed in a noble doublet, with one shoulder bearing an exaggerated epaulet, the other a dueling cape. He held out a thrusting sword in one hand, pointing its tip at Natalie; perched on his other arm was a large carrion bat, carried like a prized falcon.

In a thick Guyenne accent, the swordsman proclaimed. “I am Esquire Aymeric Sicar, direct Scion of Baron Sicar! By attacking my person and that of Dame Adalie Roux, you have violated my house’s sovereignty! My sire, Baron Sicar, claimed these lands by right of conquest, as afforded to him by our Lord Duke! You have no right to this territory, and assailing its lawful nobility will not change that truth!”

Cole and Natalie exchanged looks; the ambushed Leechs thought this was some kind of internal dispute. Assuming Natalie was a member of a rival house, sent to challenge this Baron’s ‘right of conquest.’ As Esquire and Dame, the masculine and feminine lowest ranks of nobility, these two Vampires weren’t anything special. Having been chased out of Barlstine and hunted down, it seemed Esquire Aymeric was trying to hide behind his noble house as a final resort.

Absently, Natalie wondered if this case of mistaken identities might be replicable in the future. Back in Glockmire, the court was remote enough not to have issues with exterior rivals. Clearly, that wasn’t the case throughout other parts of the Duchies. But the minutia of Vampire politics could wait for later; it was time to end this hunt.

Drawing her short sword, Natalie said. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about what house or bloodline you belong to. I do care about the people you’ve hurt, and so does my partner.”

Icy fog started to coalesce around Cole as he stepped toward the two Vampires. Whirling about, Esquire Aymeric pointed his blade at Cole. “Stay back! I don’t know what manner of thrall you are, but that won’t stop me from slaying you!”

Despite Cole’s recriminations not to treat this like a game, Natalie couldn’t help but enjoy the mounting terror in her prey. Neither could she resist the urge to drive the horror of the situation deeper into these monster’s minds. “He’s no one’s thrall. He’s a Paladin of Master Time, and he’s going to kill you both.”

In a moment of perfectly timed melodrama, Cole exploded forward. Requiem extended into its halberd shape and went for the Esquire’s skull. Aymeric barely dodged the strike and sent his carrion bat forward. Natalie’s attention was pulled from the fight by Dame Adalie lunging towards her. Razor-sharp claws lashed out at Natalie as Adalie pounced. Dodging the furious swipes, Natalie set her wolves upon the Dame. Ecstatic in the wake of bringing down the horses, two wolves went for Adalie’s legs. The Dame kicked one of the spectral lupines, sending it flying and evading the snapping jaws of the other. Or at least almost evading them, the Lupus wolf got its teeth into Adalie’s dress and pulled her off balance. As fabric ripped, Natalie was thankful for her leather armor; skirts and capes didn’t fare well in combat.

Lashing out with her shortsword, Natalie went for the Dame’s wrist; the strike connected, and Natalie felt something break, but the hand wasn’t severed. Adalie’s hands and forearms were coated in black blood, an extension of the claws she’d grown earlier. Noting the technique for later experimentation, Natalie swiped out with her clawed hand, going for her enemy’s gut. Dead skin hardened but not fast enough as Natalie’s talons disemboweled the Dame. Grey withered intestines spilled out of the Vampire, and she shrieked in both rage and pain. Such a strike wouldn’t do much more than infuriate a Vampire, but when the opportunity presented itself, Natalie tried to get some justice for the holy folk of Barlstine.

Acting on well-honed predatory instincts, one of the wolves managed to bite onto the rapidly unwinding guts and pull. Dame Adalie fell to the ground, and the wolves descended, biting and snapping at any bit of dead flesh available. Clutching her shortsword in both hands, Natalie moved in to provide a final mercy. Standing over the downed Vampire, Natalie met her enemy's eyes, her first major mistake.

A voice slammed into her mind like a war hammer. + STOP! +

Natalie felt the psychic blow crash into her defenses, the strike rattling her consciousness. Filled with a Vampire’s desperation, the psychic attack was potent and found an unexpected chink in Natalie’s armor. Her mind wasn’t just her own anymore. The ten wolves attacking the Dame felt the command, and their animal minds could not resist, sending a backwash of submission up through the link connecting them to Natalie. Momentarily stunned, Natalie put all her effort into resisting the command ringing inside her skull. The ten wolves vanished in a cloud of dissipating ectoplasm as Natalie tried to protect herself from the psychic strike. This was her second major mistake.

While the wolves stopped tearing into Dame Adalie at her command, they hadn’t let go of the Vampire until Natalie banished her familiars. Pouncing like a furious wildcat, Adalie launched herself at Natalie and carried both Vampires to the ground. Adalie’s shifted focus, and the bite of her claws in Natalie’s shoulders was enough for the young Alukah to win against the psychic compulsion battering her mind. Reaching up, Natalie caught Adalie’s wrists as her claws went for the Alukah’s throat. Long, sharp talons quested to lay open Natalie’s neck and sever her spine. Leverage wasn’t on Natalie’s side as she tried to keep her foe from taking her head.

Practically laying on top of Natalie, the Dame hissed and spat, giving into feral desperation. Frantically looking around for any advantage but careful not to meet her enemy’s eyes, Natalie found her gaze drawn to Dame Adalie’s throat. Slowly losing the battle of grip, feeling the razor-tips of Adalie’s claws poking her neck, Natalie followed her instincts and, with one final burst of blood-fueled strength, lunged for Adalie’s jugular.

Striking like the predator she was, Natalie bit into Adalie and drank. Pure, concentrated power poured into Natalie. She’d drained those using the Alukah’s blood but never fed like this before. It. Was. Exhilarating! This wasn’t reclaiming power stolen from her enemies; this was perfect predation. Consuming the unlife of a lesser Vampire and submitting the Moroi bitch to the exact terror she’d inflicted on so many.

Adalie weakened, and Natalie grew stronger. Squeezing with new might, Natalie felt her enemy’s forearm bones snap like old tree branches. Pushing upwards as she let go of Adalie’s crippled arms, Natalie flipped their position, straddling the rapidly weakening Vampire as she drank. Natalie didn’t need to suck the blood as she might on a corpse but merely taste it. The black fluid flowed free eagerly as if recognizing a superior master. Ichor flowed out of Adalie and into Natalie in an obsidian flood.

Clutched in Natalie’s arms like a lover, Adalie withered away, her flesh becoming shrunken, her skin waxy. All pretenses of life faded with the rapidly draining blood. Soon, only a withered bag of bones wrapped in leathery skin remained, reminding Natalie of Lord Glockmire’s final moments. Finally, as the last drop of Adalie met Natalie’s tongue, the weaker Vampire experienced true death. Standing up from the pile of ashen clothes and stained bones that once was Adalie, Natalie smiled with unrestrained joy. She’d thought feeding on the living was pleasurable, but oh, there was no comparison.

Looking about the battlefield, she found Cole a few steps away, his eyes wide and halberd at the ready. The headless body of the Esquire lay maybe twenty meters away but perfectly visible to Natalie’s inhuman eyes. If she had to guess, the fool tried to run from Cole and merely delayed him long enough to stop the Paladin from interrupting Natalie’s meal. Wiping some ash from her mouth, Natalie waved to Cole. “Hey! How’d it go!”

Cautiously, Cole asked. “Natalie, are you injured?”

Smiling, Natalie wandered over toward the ruined carriage, a bounce in her step as she did. “Never better! I dealt with the Dame and got plenty of blood to boot! Say, do you think we could fix this thing?! It would be nice to ride in comfort! Just the two of us! Some jagging privacy and those nice plush cushions it would be great!”

Squatting down and peering into the torn open carriage, Natalie clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Oh damn, all scorched. Whatever they made this thing out of, it’s not very flammable, which makes sense, but now it will just stink of smoke for-”

Cole’s gentle hand rested on Natalie’s shoulder, and she spun about, gripping his hand and pulling him into something resembling a ballroom dance. To her incredible annoyance, Cole didn’t settle into a couple’s waltz-like she wanted them to, instead using his strength to put Natalie at arm’s length. “Natalie, did you devour the female Vampire??”

Smiling like a well-fed cat, Natalie took a theatrical bow. “I did! What tipped you off, the ash all on my face or the fact I feel AMAZING!!!”

Spinning on one foot, Natalie suddenly pointed at Cole. “I want to have a lover’s name for you! Isabelle calls you darling, and I want one of my own! Hmmm, how about my Pal?! Cause you’re a Paladin, no, that's stupid! Oh, oh, my knight! Yeah, that could work!”

Cole grabbed Natalie more firmly, and he looked into her eyes. “We can talk about that later; your eyes are red.”

Rolling said eyes, Natalie snapped. “Of course they are! Did that fucker with the rapier hit your head?!”

Shaking his head, Cole explained. “No, the whites of your eyes are red as well. Tell me, are you hearing voices?”

A little confused now, Natalie answered. “Just yours! Should I be hearing more?!”

Cole’s expression became a deep frown, “When a Vampire consumes another of their kind, they usually have hallucinations for a few nights after the deed. Along with other side effects…”

Looking down at her hands, Natalie said, “I feel fine! I’m the Alukah afterall!”

Clearly unconvinced, Cole gestured at Natalie’s eyes. “Somethings wrong with you, and I don’t know enough to be certain what. Natalie, you are acting oddly, and I’m concerned.”

Shrugging, Natalie found her shortsword from where she dropped it and checked herself over. Finding the cuts in her shoulders, she sighed. “Stitching those is going to be a pain in my spectacular ass! Well, how about we head back to the wagon and get Isabelle’s opinion on-”

Spinning about, Natalie held up a hand to silence Cole; pouring blood into her ears, she whispered. “Something’s coming! Something… rather big!”

Facing the direction she thought was north, Natalie enhanced her eyesight and swore violently. A small hill of fur and muscle was thundering over the distant fields heading in their direction. It was a bear, a very big fucking bear. Suddenly feeling a lot less confident, Natalie said. “Hey, Cole, I think I know what broke the gates of Barlstine.”

Cole couldn’t see whatever Natalie saw, but he could hear it. Like distant thunder, behemoth footsteps signaled the arrival of a huge beast. Another major threat was coming, and while it bared down on them, Cole’s other concern would need to wait.

Glancing at Natalie, Cole grit his teeth in silent worry. He’d seen people dosed on powerful stimulants, and the effect was remarkably similar to Natalie’s current state. But he’d never heard of a Vampire reacting to anything like this. Vampire cannibals suffered all manner of maladies: hallucinations, obsession, foreign memories, and odder symptoms, but not the mania gripping Natalie. The story of the Rabisu and her children suddenly came to Cole, of how the original Alukahs devoured their mother and offspring alike. Perhaps the first bloodline of Vampires reacted to cannibalism uniquely?

Taking Natalie’s hand and pushing down his worries, Cole asked. “What can you tell me?”

Eyes wide, Natalie said. “There’s a dire bear accompanied by… knights? Yeah, a whole troop of them headed this way. I don’t think they are friendly, judging by how much that bear smells like rot.”

Turning to Cole, she asked. “How did they find us? We dealt with the garrison easily?”

Rolling his shoulders and checking his equipment, Cole cleaned his axe, noting the little bit of red blood mixed in with the tarry black. Realization struck Cole, and he ran toward the Esquire’s body. Natalie followed behind him as he found the pile of clothes, bones, and ash that once was Esquire Aymeric Sicar. Gripping the dead Vampire’s shirt, Cole looked at the strange epaulet on one shoulder. Crafted from boiled leather, the decoration’s top held two raised loops of scuffed material.

Fingering the twin loops, Cole looked at Natalie. “He had two bats! I killed one, but he must have sent the other ahead of them earlier.”

Looking at the epaulet, Natalie nodded in understanding. “It’s like a falconer’s glove, right?”

Cole bobbed his head in confirmation and asked. “Can you take that wolf form again?”

A smirk spread across Natalie’s face. “What? Eager to be on top again?”

Seeing Cole’s frown, Natalie slapped her cheeks with both hands. “Right, right, not the time. I could, but I don’t know if it’s’ a good idea. Even if I’m faster than them, they’d get my scent and follow. We don’t want to lead them back to Barlstine, and maybe I could evade them till dawn, but I’m not certain.”

Staring in the direction of the approaching bear, Cole asked. “How much blood do you have in you?”

Smiling, Natalie gestured over her shoulder at the Dame’s remains. “Lots thanks to her!”

Deciding not to comment on Natalie’s nearly chipper response, Cole said. “I want to try something dangerous.”

Still smiling, Natalie asked. “Like freeing an entire town, just the two of us?”

Looking at his hands, Cole nodded. “If my mental map is correct, we aren’t far from Fort Carnum; that’s probably where the invaders are attacking. The bear and knights are most likely the enemy rear guard coming to investigate whatever warning the dead Esquire sent. They are probably expecting other Vampires.”

Pausing momentarily at Natalie’s look, Cole amended himself. “Duchy Vampires, and a force of them. Punishing that assumption might be enough to let us win. If we can beat them or at least maul the enemy rear guard, we might give Fort Carnum a fighting chance, that is, if it still stands.”

Accepting that, Natalie asked. “I know we’ve both gotten a lot stronger but isn’t this a little reckless?”

Hands passing over his bandolier and belt, Cole said. “We can’t avoid this fight, but we can maybe tip it in our favor. Can you sense a body of water nearby?”

Natalie shut her eyes and rubbed the wolf-skull attached to her waist. After a grunt of effort, all seventeen members of the Lupus pack materialized around them. Dashing off in every direction, the wolves and dog scouted at Natalie’s behest. According to Natalie, the enemy was far away, only visible thanks to the sheer size of the jagging bear, so they had a few minutes to make the best of things. After burning one of those precious minutes, Natalie opened her eyes and pointed at the edge of a nearby field. There’s a sheep pond that way; does that work?”

Nodding, Cole said. “Take me to it.”

They walked quickly, practically jogging to the edge of an oversized puddle glutted with spring rain. Looking over the watering hole, Cole said. “A stream would have been better, but this will do.”

Opening a pouch on his bandolier, Cole pulled out a set of beautifully crafted prayer beads. Jumping into the pond, ignoring the chill water, Cole said. “I need you to act as bait. Let them catch sight or smell of you and your wolves. Once they are committed to the attack, run towards the pond and jump across. I’ll bless the water and use it to break their charge. If possible, use that confusion and chaos to deal with the horses and their riders. With the knights destroyed, we can probably escape the bear if it comes to that.”

Natalie stared at Cole for a moment before saying. “Where was this cleverness back in Glockmire? You’d have torn through the Charnel and Varcolac without issue.”

A bone-weary sigh escaped Cole. “This is how I prefer to fight; situations just haven’t been favorable for a long time. And… well, I wasn’t much of a Paladin and barely a Knight back when we first met.”

Meeting her eyes, Cole said. “Thank you for helping me change that. Now, can you do as I’m planning? I don’t like asking you to take such big risks, but-”

Natalie was already running toward the coming rear guard, the wolves following her. Right then, Cole almost called out to tell Natalie to stop. She hadn’t been acting like herself after eating the Dame. But after swallowing down a lump of nerves, Cole decided he just needed to trust his love.

Natalie ran over ill-kept pasture land, enjoying the wind in her hair and the sheer pleasure of movement. Cole was making his stand in the middle of a collection of abandoned fields, a stretch of reasonably flat ground clearly once cultivated but now left to run wild. During their travels, Natalie noticed lots of land similar to this stretch. The Southern Marches were fertile and chaotic. People came and went with the land’s shifting fortunes. Even here in the supposedly safe part of the Marches, villages sprang up and withered away like summer weeds. Natalie didn’t know what stroke of good or ill luck left these lands in Aunt Huntress’s care, but she did know running across them was really jagging fun.

Suppressing the urge to whoop with giddy joy, Natalie bounded over fields of wild greens. Cole was probably right that something was wrong with her, but for now, Natalie couldn’t care less. Avenging the people of Barlstine and drinking that Dame bitch to death was incredibly cathartic considering the last Vampire Dame Natalie dealt with. In her element as queen of shadows, Natalie let herself enjoy the feast of blood flavored by victory.

Jumping onto a crumbling stone fence, Natalie watched the undead rear-guard approach. Silhouetted against the night sky, her wolves circling about, there was no way they missed Natalie. Once she was certain the enemy knights adjusted their course in her direction, Natalie lept off the wall and ran back towards Cole at an almost leisurely pace. Wolves ran circles around Natalie, providing a constant vision from every angle. She’d need to consult Isabelle about the psychic weakness, but for now, Natalie would just need to avoid grappling with a fucking Moroi for the time being.

The enemy was close enough that Natalie could hear the thunder of hooves beneath the steady drumbeat of the bear. Putting on a bit more speed, Natalie managed a glance behind her and drank in her foe. Twenty-one armored warriors on barded horse skeletons charged after her. All but one of the knights were helmed and wielded lances. The last went bareheaded, revealing his Vampire nature; an oversized spear was clasped in one gauntleted hand. Natalie could see rictus-rage on the Vampire’s face as he spat curses hidden even from her ears.

Running towards the pond, Natalie shook her head in bleak amusement. Her pursuers probably thought this was just a territorial squabble. Mouth wide in a cruel smile, Natalie hoped the butchering bastards unlived long enough to realize their mistakes.

Reaching the pool's edge, Natalie leaped across, her wolves following her lead the best they could. Midflight, she saw Cole crouched down among overgrown reeds, his mouth whispering prayers, the black pearl beads suspended a handspan above the water. As Natalie’s feet found the other bank of the pond she started worrying about how Cole would avoid being trampled. Before Natalie could dwell on that thought, a noise like a temple bell mixed with cracking ice split the night, and Cole’s voice rang out over even the Dire bear’s steps.

“AME! KWEK! MORTAE!”

Cole was speaking saint speech; the tingle his words left in Natalie’s ears was enough to confirm that. Turning about, Natalie watched as the undead horses entered the pond, its stagnant water reaching a little below their knees. Where the water touched, Necromancy came undone. The first horse’s front legs buckled beneath it, and the charger collapsed forward into the shallow pond, sending its rider over the pommel. Other horses met similar fates, their animated bones falling apart like twig sculptures, dropping armored knights into the blessed water. Oily smoke billowed from the soaked knight’s armor, their faceplates morbid chimneys. Struggling against the holy water miring them, the knights tried and failed to free themselves, every step or movement letting more of the blessed liquid touch them.

Only one of the riders handled the destruction of their horse well; the Vampire leaped from his saddle, escaping a watery end and landing on the bank near Natalie. Cole was busy hacking apart the undead knights, taking advantage of the Wights’ weakness to end their threat. Leaving Natalie facing a far more dangerous Vampire than the earlier petty nobles.

Drawing her shortsword, Natalie sized up the spear-wielding Vampire. She could tell he was stronger than the two before. Natalie didn’t know how she knew this, but she did. Thinking to the Esquire, who lost his head to Requiem and his final warnings, Natalie wagered a guess. “Baron Sicar?”

Pointing his spear at Natalie, the noble said. “You know who I am, yet you dare impinge upon my territory?! Tell me who you serve, and I might offer you a measure of clemency!”

Smiling, feeling the power coursing through her, Natalie said. “I don’t serve anyone, except maybe a God, when he asks politely. My name is Natalie Striga, and I’m going to eat you if my knight doesn’t split your skull first!”