Shadow: Bloody Fairies Part 24

Tony screamed. Hippy and Clockwork ploughed into the group around them with drawn daggers.

"They don't put up much of a fight you know," Clockwork said when they met in the middle.

"New vamps." Hippy shrugged. "Hey, is that all there was?"

They looked around. Apart from Tony pinned to the ground by a peac.o.c.k, there were no living vamps in sight. From across the garden drifted the dulcet sounds of somebody being kicked in the head.

Hippy and Clockwork set off through the bushes, Ralph at their heels. The garden swallowed everything. The paths wound and twisted. Trees cast shadows so deep they could have led into caves. Not another soul appeared.

Then they burst into a big clearing where a six foot high marble fountain rose like a dancer from a mob of angry vamps. On the fountain stood Mr Silver, with Doris wound around his shoulders and torso. Loops of her body coiled into the water. She slid like a lover across Mr Silver's shoulders, raised her head and hissed.

The vamps closest to the fountain quailed, but only for a second. They surged forward. Whenever one climbed the fountain, Doris reared her head back and struck faster than the eye could see.

"That looks like the fun place up there," Clockwork said.

Hippy still had her new favourite s.h.i.+ny thing over her knuckles. She stalked up to the back of the circle and punched a vamp in the kidneys. When he whirled around to face the attack, she punched him in the face.

Clockwork set to with his sword. They ploughed straight into the thick of the vamps. Hippy took the dagger from her belt, since she'd lost her spear and gun, and cut anything that came within reach. This happened to mostly be hands reaching out for her, so she left a trail of fingers in her wake, along with a few fangs that got too close to her s.h.i.+ny, s.h.i.+ny fist. Clockwork swarmed up the fountain and she would have followed, except for the crowd of angry vamps that dragged her back to the ground.

Hippy shrieked and struck out with renewed fury. Fangs crunched. Fingers yanked at her hair, bringing tears to her eyes. She snapped her head back and hoped the unmistakable sound of a skull cracking wasn't her own. She snap-kicked a vamp in the knees and smacked another one in the nose, but there were so many now she could barely breathe for the stink of metallic vamp-breath and the fingers crus.h.i.+ng her face, digging into her arms, her back, forcing her head inexorably aside while those pale, predatorial faces descended like knives.

She found a throwing dagger on her wrist. Loosened it. Fangs sc.r.a.ped her neck and without a second thought she buried the blade in flesh all the way up to her hand. Warm, wet liquid oozed through her fingers. The vamp went blue and fell, only to be replaced by another and another. There were too many. She was going to die, which meant she'd never have to worry about Pierus again, and Ishtar would never know she'd been right.

"Hang on Hippy!"

The voice came from very far above. Something s.h.i.+ny and jagged and circular fell from the sky and buried itself in the forehead of a vamp who was inches off biting her. Then another and another.

Hippy balled a s.h.i.+ny, deadly fist and struck at everything that moved until two pairs of warm fairy hands grabbed her by the shoulders and the hair and hauled her onto the fountain.

She scowled, brushed her torn dress down and pushed her tangled hair out of her face. "Stupid vamps!"

"Are you okay? Did you get bit?" Clockwork grabbed her in a fierce hug. "I'm sorry, we couldn't find you for a minute there."

Hippy allowed herself exactly three seconds to bury her face in his shoulder, shudder and wish they could go off somewhere and kiss some more instead of all this fighting. She looked at Mr Silver over Clockwork's shoulder and thought she saw a peculiar look of regret in his face when he met her eyes. She raised her head. "What's the score?"

Mr Silver glanced over the garden, where the vamps had regrouped and once again clawed at the fountain. "The score is we're all still alive and this is the stupidest pack of vamps I ever met," he said. "Badora's either losing his touch or humans don't make very intelligent bloodsuckers."

Fluffy Ducky scuttled onto Hippy's arm. She gave him a stern look. "Where were you two minutes ago? You be sure to come right back to me, okay?"

Fluffy Ducky leaped, sailed over Doris's head and clamped onto a vamp's eyes. The vamp screamed, broke from the pack and ran into the bushes, clawing at his face.

Mr Silver's grin turned positively evil. "I like that spider a lot. What do you say we cull these vamps a bit faster, kids?"

Clockwork gave a little excited jump. "Have you brought what I think you've brought?"

Mr Silver crouched, since he couldn't bend with a twenty foot long snake on his shoulders, and picked up a bag. From it he took two grey items that were egg-shaped but as big as two fists, and handed one to each of them.

"What's this?" Hippy pulled a pin-shaped item from one end. "Oops. I think I broke it."

Clockwork's grin stretched from ear to ear. "Uh-"

Mr Silver's voice was dry. "It's a grenade. Throw it, Hippy. Into the vamps."

Hippy shrugged and ditched it into the thick of the vamps. The air split. A deafening blast almost threw her backwards into the welling fountain. Flames billowed and a cloud of black smoke engulfed the crowd. Vamp ash rose into the night air like leaves where the grenade had hit. Those nearby who'd caught fire screeched in terror and redoubled their efforts to climb the fountain.

Hippy kicked one off the marble rim, then jumped up and down and clapped her hands. "Yay! It went bang! You do it Clockwork!"

Clockwork whooped and ditched his grenade into a group that had escaped the first attack and were fleeing. The second explosion, every bit as loud as the first, set a tree on fire.

Hippy put out her hand. "Fluffy Ducky!" she yelled.

Fluffy Ducky swung out of the darkness, landed on her hand and scrambled onto her shoulder.

"Well-trained spider, that." Mr Silver scanned the damage. "I'd say that's a severely dented vamp army. Clockwork, get the hose and put that fire out. You can meet us at the house. Hippy, with me." He strode away.

Hippy trotted after him. The snake followed. She glanced over her shoulder once and saw Clockwork hosing down the burning tree. She wished she could go back to him instead. The flush and excitement of battle hammered through her blood and made her want things she'd never even thought about until that one little kiss with a Freakin Fairy. She could just imagine Ishtar's face if she knew.

They broke free of the garden and stopped. Doris kept going. Her sinuous coils slid over the path and the road and straight into the thick of a battle far fiercer than the one they'd just left.

Fitz and Ana fought for their lives on the marble steps. A circle of seven vamps surrounded them, all armed with steel poles. Other vamps lay dead and scattered around the road. From inside the house came the sound of smas.h.i.+ng gla.s.s, a woman's yell, gunfire. A vampiric roar sent shudders down Hippy's spine. She knew that war cry. The b.l.o.o.d.y Fairies had heard Rustam Badora's call to arms every night since the vamps first attacked.

Mr Silver laid a hand on her shoulder. "I cannot in good conscience keep you from the Apple of Chaos if it means the death of your tribe." His voice was thick, each reluctant word dragged from someplace he didn't like to go. "It's your choice, Hippy, if he takes it or not. Just remember, what happens after that depends on you. Go and find the muse king. I can help Fitz and Ana."

Hippy looked up at him and swallowed, hard. Her stomach coiled. There were a lot of things she wanted to say to Mr Silver right now, and some of those involved some very bad words.

She raised her s.h.i.+ny fist. "Can I keep this punching thing?"

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.

Hippy scaled the walls of the house with her eyes closed. It wasn't something she would normally do, but she could hear both Poppy and Pierus underneath Badora's periodic bellows and she needed to locate them both.

The wall vibrated beneath her fingers. Gunfire. That would be Poppy. Hippy clambered sideways to reach the nearest window and peer through.

Poppy was on her own in a huge kitchen fighting three vamps. She used her gun to fend off a blow and then ducked and dived instead of just killing them. Her hair had all fallen out of its bun and her nice suit was torn down the back. Her gla.s.ses barely clung to her grimy face.

Hippy lifted the window up, put Fluffy Ducky through and then swung in after him. "Hey!" she yelled.

The three vamps looked around. Poppy took the opportunity to kick one in the nether regions and clout a second in the head with her gun. There, that was more like it, although it didn't slow them down that much.

Hippy wiggled her s.h.i.+ny fingers at them. "I'm over here."

"So what?" The tallest of the vamps looked from Poppy to her. "You can wait until we're finished with this one." She motioned one of her companions to Hippy. "Hold the little girl. She's next."

"Oh, but my blood's so much more wholesome. I'm a b.l.o.o.d.y Fairy, see." Hippy stalked toward them.

"Fairy?" the tall vamp looked around sharply. "She's the one he wants," she hissed.

"Oh yeah, that too. Rustam Badora wants to kill me himself. Blah, blah, blah. If you ask me, he should be keeping an eye on his army. Oh, but he can't, he's only got one left." She put her hand in her pocket, took a little sharp blade out of it and aimed for the nearest vamp's face.

The vamp caught her upraised arm in a vice-like grip. "We were warned about you," she said. "Secure her."

"Oh." Hippy gave her a mock pout. "Someone help me. I'm so frightened of the scary vamp."

Poppy raised her gun and fired. Half of the vamp's head disappeared and Hippy's face was sprayed with blood. She squeezed her eyes shut and shrieked. "Ewwwww! Did you have to?"

"What the h.e.l.l's wrong with you?" Poppy shot a second vamp when he leaped at her.

Hippy buried her blade in the face of the third. "Wrong with me?"

"We're killing people!" Poppy yelled. "And you're taunting them!"

"They're not people, they're vamps." Fluffy Ducky scuttled back to her shoulder. Hippy grabbed Poppy's arm, took her to the door and peered out into the empty hall. "Poppy you have to get out of here. If you see any more vamps, just shoot them like you did there, that seemed to work. I have to get Pierus and get back to Shadow now. Do me a favour and tell Clockwork-" she stopped in the middle of the hall. "I don't know. Tell him something."

Poppy shoved her gla.s.ses more securely onto her nose, then looked at her over them. "Now Hippy Ishtar you listen to me-"

Hippy shook her head vigorously. "It's no good. I have to go back, I can't leave my tribe to be slaughtered. No matter how much I might want to stay." She blinked rapidly to hide her eyes tearing up.

Poppy tipped her chin up and looked sternly into her face. "You do what you have to do, but be careful. That is a very bad man you're throwing your lot in with."

"I know," Hippy whispered.

"My offer stands, if ever you want to come back." Poppy stayed one moment longer, looked like she wanted to say more, then changed her mind. She ran down the hall.

Hippy stood alone in the dark and listened to the click of her friend's boots retreating. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. From the front of the house came the rumble and crash of battle. Behind her, nothing. Above and below, footsteps. Rustam Badora's bellow shook the walls, a sound to stir the remaining vamps into fever pitches of violence and blood l.u.s.t. Maybe she should take out his voice box next. If she'd kept the eye, she could have had a vamp king souvenir collection.

Hippy's eyes snapped open. Wow. Now she was thinking like a b.l.o.o.d.y Fairy. And she was covered in blood and didn't care. Today was a big day.

She made an excited squeak and did a little jump to celebrate, then set off down the hall at a run.

The roar came from above.

Hippy ran up the steps two at a time. She slowed and tip-toed through the hall, listening. At first there was nothing. Then a whisper of sound. She needed more than just the little blades she had left to take on Badora. She went into the weapons room, chose a spear and continued down the hall.

A door to her left reverberated under the force of a roar. Hippy jumped back, took a deep breath and went closer. It was closed. Locked. Weird. She spun a couple of times to work up some momentum and broke the lock with one blow of her foot before bursting into the room.

Gaslight gave a gloomy tint to a s.p.a.ce that contained only a huge four-poster bed and a vampire. The light gave the vamp's white skin a bluish glow. He wore a patch over his missing eye. His other eye flashed bright red when he turned away from the window. He opened his mouth, roared again and sprang toward her, but then snapped back as though secured by some invisible bond to the bed post.

Hippy raised her spear and circled. "If you're practicing your singing, don't give up your day job."

Badora curled his lip back over his teeth and bared his fangs. "You. I expected you brought to me in chains."

Hippy shrugged. "Your army was too stupid. Now it's mostly dead. Shouldn't you be trying to kill me by now?"

Badora took a deep breath as though working himself up, then let out another roar. The window shook. He leaped at her again and this time almost swiped her before he was snapped back to the bed.

Hippy tilted her head. "Something's weird here."

The vamp leaned against a bedpost. His eyelids lowered. He smiled, which was a frighteningly toothy sight. "Little Hippy Ishtar. Not the brightest bug in the spotlight. He didn't send you then?"

"He? Pierus? What have you done with him?" Her eyes widened.

Badora's laugh was like a blunt axe chopping down a tree. "All I have to do," he said, "Is reach the right pitch of noise and I'll break it. I know the muse king's tricks. He can't keep me here long. I'm surprised he sent you. But then, maybe he knew I was hungry." He took a deep breath and roared again. This time the very walls shook and plaster showered over their heads. Hippy covered her ears and head, thinking the roof was going to fall in.

A resounding snap lashed through the room. Badora disappeared and the door slammed shut.

Hippy slowly turned around. He leaned against the door, still giving that nasty grin. "Came in here to kill me while I was captive, did you? Stupid b.l.o.o.d.y Fairy. I'm going to make you pay for my eye." He leaped for her.

Hippy drove her spear at him, but it stabbed only thin air, taking her off her balance when it failed to find a target. She stumbled. A blow to the back of the head knocked her to the ground and the spear went flying from her hands. She rolled and landed on her back.

Badora landed on top. His fingers pressed into her face.

Hippy curled her s.h.i.+ny fist and punched him in the nose. Cartilage crunched. Blood spurted over his mouth.

The vamp king yelled a very bad word and pressed harder into her face. "I'm going to make you suffer," he hissed. "I'm going to keep you on a chain for the rest of your miserable life and feed from you."

Hippy grabbed his wrists and tried to remove his hands from her face before he put holes in it. "I'm going to make you sparkle like a rainbow."

"I'm going to kill your family while you watch."

"I'm going to tell the muses to inspire some writers to make vamps fall in love with humans and get all starry eyed andandchivalrous! You'll be all like, I can't drink blood I'm good now!"

Badora took his hands from her face and pinned her wrists and throat instead. "I'm going to drink your brains!" he roared.

"You can't drink my brains, they're not liquid!" That was all she had breath for once he started crus.h.i.+ng her windpipe. Hippy struggled for air. There was nothing she could do. The one red eye burned into her, fierce, hungry, deadly, and she remembered why the fairies feared his very name. Shadows crept into her brain.

The door crashed open. Her spear clattered and was swept off the floor. A spark of fear in Badora's eye. A sickening crunch when the spear shaft made contact with his head. The weight left her ribs and throat. She rolled aside, gasping for breath, and got to her knees. Air flooded her lungs.

Badora bounced off the bed post. She got to her feet and staggered against the wall. Words coiled through the air. A low voice chanted sounds she didn't recognise or like. The room iced.

Hippy stumbled out of the room and into the brightness of the hall, where she collapsed, just breathing and savouring oxygen.

A roar echoed behind the closed door and finally she understood. It was the roar of a caged animal. A caged animal she'd almost set free.

The door opened and Pierus came out. He locked it, turned around and leaned on it. He looked Hippy up and down, but did not move toward her. "Tell me," he said. "Because I'm very uncertain. Are you my enemy or my ally?"

Hippy rubbed her fingers gingerly over her throat. "Ally," she said. "I'm your ally." She took a deep, shaky breath.

"Hippy." He crossed the hall, helped her to her feet and smoothed the hairs out of her face. He had a wild look about him, three thousand years of arrogance and cynicism stripped away by the night's battle. "Hippy, my love, what were you trying to do? He could have killed you!"

"I was looking for you," she said. "I thought from all the noise you must be fighting him."

A roar shook the door behind them.