Band of Demons (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Two) (39 page)

He appeared in great distress, seemed to be holding back.

“Is it true what you showed us?”

The woman in white only nodded at him. She knew what was troubling him.

“What have they done?” he asked. His eyes filled with tears. “They burned my home. They burned Purcellville.”

“And they will burn much more,” the woman in white replied. “Unless you help me. Unless you fight.”

He didn’t hesitate. He looked her straight in the eye, the pain of what she had shown them still visible in his face. She saw her own anger and hatred of her opponents reflected in those eyes.

“We will fight for you,” he said. Behind him were hundreds of men. “We will stop them.”

“Form a line,” Kate said. “Move out of the trees along the bluff. Wait for my signal.”

Clinton Hatcher nodded and responded with a clipped, “Yes, m’am.”

Kate felt angry, exhilarated and exhausted at the same time.

Calling them had taken enormous energy, more than she even thought possible. But this place was one of death and sorrow—and she could use it.

The men emerged from the trees then, forming a solid line of ghostly forms, a final union of the blue and the gray. Few had been professional soldiers in life—most were simple farmers and villagers called up in the early days of the Civil War, when they had assumed the battle would be fought and easily won. But in death, they had a professionalism that escaped them in life. Now they stood without fear, without sadness, only determination.

Aillen didn’t look up until he was on the field. He had been so intent on the chase—so focused on killing the Horseman—he hadn’t been focused on where they were headed. When he looked up, he saw a line of soldiers emerge from the trees and could see their guns.

“No,” he said, but his words were snatched away by the wind.

Tell them to stop
, he told Elyssa.

Stop,
she called out.
Stop!

But it was too late.

Kate signaled to Clinton.

“Ready,” she said. “Aim.”

The front row of soldiers knelt down and aimed their weapons while the second row readied their rifles.

The Headless Horseman came racing across the field and she waited. The closest animal was 10 feet behind him, but Kate did not want Quinn caught in the line of fire. When the Horseman reached the line, his horse jumped, sailing far over the heads of the soldiers.

“FIRE!” Kate screamed, and the stillness of the night was shattered by dozens of gun shots.

Many in the first row of animals went down, yelping. The rest came colliding into the line, some launching themselves at the soldiers.

From there, it was chaos. Soldiers battled creatures with bayonets or knives stuck in their belts. Kate saw one creature dig its claws into a soldier, another sink its teeth into his neck. There were screams of people mixed with the screech of animals. She saw one soldier jam its bayonet into the eye of a dobhar-chu, which went down shrieking. Kate saw blood, but didn’t know if it was from the soldiers. She didn’t know if they could bleed.

Then she saw the flames. Aillen was off the horse, which had now transformed into a larger dobhar-chu. Flames were shooting from his mouth. He paid no attention to his own troops—he incinerated soldier and animal alike.

Kate rushed to meet him with her new sword. The dobhar-chu put its massive bulk in front of her, its huge jaws snapping.

For a minute, she was frustrated. She could see Aillen burning everything, turning the tide away from them. She swung her sword at the creature, but it dodged away easily and snarled at her. The beast kept snapping, its row of teeth getting closer each time. Kate thought about turning incorporeal, but she couldn’t have wielded the sword if she did so.

The creature pounced then, hitting Kate full-on and knocking her backward. The dobhar-chu advanced, looming above her. She tried to bring up her sword but it was pinned beneath her. The creature slowly crawled on top of Kate, its claws digging into her. Kate tried to turn back into a ghost then, but her energy was waning and she failed.

Quinn, help!
She thought, but was unsure if he could even hear her.

The dobhar-chu opened its mouth and reared back to strike at Kate’s head. She would have to become incorporeal to survive, but it took enormous energy. She wasn’t sure she had enough left.  

Quinn, I love you
, she thought.

A second before the beast struck, she heard footsteps and felt, rather than saw, the Horseman slam into the dobhar-chu, knocking it off her. The two were in a tangle on the ground. When they came up, the Horseman rose to his feet and the creature backed away from him.

Kate looked to see Aillen still burning half the battlefield. The trees behind them were now on fire. She could see soldiers and creatures fighting with each other.

I have to take him out
, she said.
Can you handle her?

Yes,
he responded.
Take this.

As the Horseman and dobhar-chu squared off, she saw him hurl something in her direction. It landed near her feet.

“Perfect,” she said.

She picked up the shield and advanced on Aillen. When he saw her coming, he turned his fire in Kate’s direction. She held up the shield and felt the searing heat around her. But it didn’t touch her. She kept coming.

Aillen closed his mouth.

“Good,” he said. “I’d rather fight a girl anyway.”

He swung his sword at her. She was unsure of herself— she only knew how to fight from Quinn’s memories—but she parried the blow. Everything Quinn was, she was. She was Quinn and Kate at the same time, the woman in white and the Headless Horseman. There were no differences anymore. They battled across the field, trading jabs and blows.

The Headless Horseman watched the lead dobhar-chu lope away, heading back to the line of trees at the top of the bluff. He hated to be so far from Kate and Aillen, but knew he had to finish off Elyssa first.

His horse came to him and he mounted and rode forward, trying to catch up.

*****

Kieran was in the line of trees, watching. He nervously checked his watch. It was just 10 minutes before midnight now and his window of opportunity was closing. At midnight, both Princes of Sanheim would lose their powers. More importantly, however, Sanheim would lose his ability to “give him a sign.”

He didn’t want to kill Kate, but he had no choice. He had come this far—he had to complete his task.

But Kate and Aillen were out in the middle of the field now. He would have to run blindly through a field of soldiers and animals to reach her. The odds of one side or the other picking him off were high.

He struggled with where to go, what to do, when he saw a massive black shape coming toward him.

“Bloody hell,” he said.

Elyssa was hurt and angry. She knew she should focus on Quinn, knew the Horseman was the greater threat. But when she saw Kieran in the trees, she was too furious to stop herself.

It was his fault this was all going wrong, she knew. If he hadn’t interfered—hadn’t switched sides, they would be winning. Instead, they could lose. Decades of planning were coming undone.

She rushed toward him.

Kieran turned and ran further into the trees. He only stopped when he came to the top of the bluff. Looking down, he knew there was no way he would survive the fall.

He pulled the knife from his belt and wheeled around. He hadn’t wanted to get into the fight—he’d told Kate he had to dedicate his psychic energy to helping her and couldn’t get physically involved—but it looked like he had no choice.

The dobhar-chu came up in front of him and stopped. He held the knife unsteadily in front of him. He moved to the right so his back wasn’t to the cliff face.

“How are you doing, Elyssa?” Kieran asked.

The beast snarled in return.

He glanced at his watch. Nine minutes. He didn’t think he could survive that long in a fight against this thing, but he wasn’t sure he had much of an option.

The dobhar-chu snapped at him so quickly he nearly lost his knife. It moved quickly toward him, snapping again, its jaws wide. Kieran pulled back till he was against a tree. The only way out was down.

He was finished and he knew it.

“I’m sorry I failed you again,” he said to the only woman who mattered. The one who loved him until her end. He’d thought he could make up for that mistake. But he supposed everyone pays for their sins in the end.

The dobhar-chu crept toward him, its alien eyes regarding him. It knew it had won. Kieran could see that in its eyes, could see Elyssa enjoying this. Kieran held up his knife and waited for her to strike.

*****

The Headless Horseman rode into the trees, trying to find his prey.

Where has she gone
? he wondered.

He couldn’t believe she had fled. It was near midnight now, he knew he had to finish this before they lost everything.

In his mind, he could hear Kate fighting Aillen, the two of them still clashing against each other. She was holding her own, even against his periodic attempts to blast her with fire. A strange thought came to him. He had thought he was Fionn of the Fianna, the legendary warrior that vanquished Aillen from Ireland once and for all. But it turned out it was Kate. Which was good, he thought. Quinn had enough trouble being the legendary Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. Besides, Kate had turned out to be a surprisingly effective general.

The Horseman kept searching, his horse turning in circles.

Then he sensed her. Strangely, she appeared to have forgotten about him entirely and was advancing slowly toward someone else. With alarm, Quinn saw it was Kieran and knew that if he didn’t act quickly, he would die.

The Headless Horseman rode at her, using every last ounce of energy he had left, pulling from the darkness inside himself, the full power of All Hallow’s Eve.

The dobhar-chu was so focused on Kieran, never wavering from its target, that it didn’t hear the horse—its pounding hooves—until it was too late. Snarling, it whirled its head around just in time to catch a sword blow to its neck. The creature’s head sailed into the air and fell down the cliff side.

From far away, the Horseman heard someone screaming and knew it must be Aillen. The dobhar-chu continued moving, its claws scratching at the dirt, scrambling around as if it could find its missing head and reattach it.

The Horseman dismounted and approached the beast, unsure if it was still a danger. Blood flowed from its neck and its claws lashed out. The Horseman raised his sword to strike again, but the dobhar-chu finally stumbled and fell. As it collapsed into the dirt, it became Elyssa again, her head nowhere to be seen.

The Horseman turned to Kieran to see if he was all right. Kieran stood wide-eyed against the tree, the knife still in his hand. He looked at his watch and saw seven minutes to midnight. How in the world could that have only been two minutes?

“You saved my life,” he said. “Thank you.”

The Horseman bowed, acknowledging the compliment, and turned to head back to help Kate finish off Aillen. He could sense that the fighting in the field had turned decidedly in their favor, the soldiers outnumbering their attackers, having wounded or killed most of the animals.

He prepared to mount his horse when he sensed a familiar figure emerge from the trees. Dressed in a crisp black suit, he cut a strange sight amid all the carnage. He stepped over an animal’s body without looking. His blue eyes flashed when he saw Quinn.

“You’ve done well, Mr. O’Brion,” he said. “Some had their doubts, but I never wavered. The kind of bond you and Ms. Tassel have—it’s unmatched, in my opinion. You two could defeat anyone who stood in your way. Which, unfortunately, means we now have to part ways. I regret this, Quinn, but it’s necessary.”

Sanheim turned and looked directly behind the Horseman.

“Change of plans, Kieran,” Sanheim said. “Take him instead.”

The Horseman felt a hand pound him on the back and a strange lightness in his chest. Without meaning to, he transformed back into his human shape. Quinn turned around and looked at Kieran in confusion. He couldn’t understand what was happening.

“I’m so sorry, Quinn,” Kieran said. “I’m so, so sorry.”

The lightness near his heart bothered him.

Quinn looked down to see a knife point coming out of his chest.

*****

The banshee traded blow after blow with Aillen, the two evenly matched as they fought alone in the field. The rest of the fighting was now near the trees, but they were in the center of the battlefield—two figures in white battling for the world.

Their swords rang out in the night air.

Kate could feel the fight going her way, could sense her soldiers dispatching the remaining animal pack, even sensed it as a few animals lay down and surrendered.

She knew Aillen must have known it too.

“It’s over, Sawyer,” she said. “Give up.”