Bound By Blood (21 page)

             
The
Nosophoros’
numbers were
so
great
that
they resembled masses of angry wasps, swarming from every dark, hidden
pit of a
place.
Samanthŕa
and the others grabbed whatever weapons they could find to fight them. Like the
Lycãons
, the Nosophoros fought in packs. Not one, not two attacked you
,
but even more
, g
rabbing at your legs, arms and whatever else they could lay
hold
upon.
Phãegens
screamed,
as Samanthŕa’s assumptions were right; the creatures went for them first. They sensed who was weaker and then made a smorgasbord of that.

             
Samanthŕa held tig
htly to the arms of one young
woman in a game of tug of war.
The Priestess aided in the birth of this one, bouncing the child upon her knee until she was too big to be held. She had blessed the girl into womanhood and would have spoken the words at her Handfasting with another Phãegen male in just another few weeks. That night would never come, as b
lood splattered against Samanthŕa’s face and dress
. The last of what would ever be known of the female ended in screams . . . cries that slashed the Priestess's
ears
while the Creatures
ripped the poor thing in half. Samanthŕa let go,
dazed with shock as another
pack
played
leapfrog
over the ones gnawing savagely at the
Phãegen
’
s
parts
, forcing
Samanthŕa
into the rocks. She swung a long warrior’s sword
,
slicing them as they tried to tackle her. Their bodies
when
sliced open spilled black oozing poison
o
nto the sacred ground. The soil revolted, sizzled and collapsed.

Another jumped her from behind a
nd
she made a strong
feint
to avoid its
clamping jaws. Their mouths
contained hundreds of venom transferring fangs, snapping and extending outward with frightening speed. The fangs bent inward so that their prey would be locked
in
.
It was
the venom
which paralyzed you
,
yet left you feeling everything
, f
eeling them eat you alive.

             
From behind the C
reature,
Dǒntáe
swung his sword.
His features were slightly changed
to that of a large feline
as the warrior within surfaced.
You could see his beast crying to shift behind his eye
s.
But a beast would lack the arms that
pulled
Samanthŕa
up
. He
forced her behind him
, using his body to shield hers while
m
ore and more
of the monsters
came from the darkness.

             
“There
are
too many. I must get you away from here
,
”
h
e yelled.

             
“My sisters…”
Samanthŕa
said
,
panicked
,
“I’ll not leave without them
,
”
but
Dǒntáe
was given no chance to reply.
Instead,
more of the
Nosophoros
hurled
themselves
towards them.

             
“There are too many! To the
Lairs
!”
Kaléé
yelled as
Lycãons
protec
ted her from the crazed feeders
.
Surrounded by beast, s
he looked up
ward
towards the caves li
n
ing the side of the mountain
above
,
which
housed
their Lairs.
“We will build fires there where the rain cannot touch them.
To the Lairs!
”

             
It was
a
hope. That’s all. Whatever was causing all this could easily prevent them from making more fires.
For the sake of the bloodlines,
they
still had to try.
If all else failed, they could at least
fight
at
one entrance of the cave
instead of having the
ir attackers
dive for them from all directions.

             
Samanthŕa
struggled to help
Kaléé
,
but she could not even help herself. Two more tackled her
,
causing her to fall
back
upon
the sharp edges of the
stone
s.
Dǒntáe
was pushed
in
the opposite direction
by at least six
more
hurling
down
from those
stones. She
kept trying to call forth her powers but nothing came. She
elbowed
them off of her
and attempted to run them through with her weapon
, but
one grabbed her sword with its mouth and ran with it. She
crawled with haste
toward
a dagger which had been dropped nearby.
Dǒntáe
worked his way
over
to
her,
slashing and
dropping them one by one. It gave her a second to catch her bearings
as he jerked her up by the sleeve of her dress that ripped from his grasp. So that she did not fall again, he sco
o
ped her up by her wa
i
st,
clutch
ing her small frame against him while he swung with the other arm at his enemy.

             
She saw
Dezarãe and
Sameŕald
fighting off another lethal pack in the distance.
Rameŕas
was forcing his way towards them and the other sisters.
Dǒntáe attempted to leap the
fie
nds slashing for their legs when Samanthŕa’s body was brutally jerked away from his. He
was but a shadow underneath the swarm which had him now
;
Samanthŕa
struggled to get out from under them.

             
Her
dagger ripped and stabbed as she kicked one and hit another. She dodged their blood
,
as it was like poison to their prey. It moved through the skin taking down their victim the same way their venom did. It took great power to withstand such a weapon
, power
which she didn’t
have
,
because her
power was being drawn from her body as she fought them. It became apparent that whoever or whatever was helping the creatures was feeding off of their
own
power to do it. The more they fought, the more they raged, the more strength they used against their enemy was in turn feeding their enemy
’s master
and making th
at foe
stronger.

             
Her feet were grabbed from underneath her as her body went down once again
,
slamming hard into the ground. They were coming from the air, the sides, all over. They were everywhere and it seemed
as if
the more they slaughtered them, the more came.

             
Her breath left her causing her to feel as though she had reached her end when once again silence
fell.
Even t
he
attacking
creatures came to a halt. The rains immediately stopped a
nd
a scorching bright light came
--
not from the sky
,
but from the forest. It was so hot
and brigh
t that it nearly blinded her. She
shield
ed her eyes
,
feeling them sting with pain.

             
Bodies fell like burning infernos all around. The light
was
caus
ing
their attackers to explode. Somewhat like fireworks they
crackl
ed and burst. With her heart
racing,
she looked up from where she la
y,
in the muck, the blood, and the mud, only
to see seven cloaked figures leap from the forest and into t
he ruins. Smoke, cinder, and lighted bits of debris and ash
fell from the air like snow.
It looked like the aftermath of a volcano erupting.
The dim of n
ight returned to normal. The light faded as if it were never there. A small bit of fire returned to the Drągýn's mouth. Slowly, there was movement . . .

             
Everyone who had survived looked up in complete shock and awe. They rubbed their eyes, trying to focus. The light was just so bright and consuming. None of them ha
d
ever
seen such power invoked.

             
“
What in Hadãe
?” Dǒntáe asked, shaking the mounds of ashe
s
off
his
stained chest which was soiled with the remains of death like the rest of them.
"Can you stand?" He held his hand out to her.

             
Before they could register what had happened, reinforcements spread from the forests like a disease. The rain fell relentlessly again as if nothing
had
ever happened.
Samanthŕa
had just managed to get on her feet when she was tackled back down to the ground. Jaws of death snapped in all directions a
nd she jerked
her head frantically
,
trying to avoid them. She heard her sisters’ scream
s
, swords swipe through the air, chaos spread
ing
.

             
Samanthŕa
lifted a log, beating the thing
s
off of her
while one even clamped his jaws down on the piece of wood and locked
them.
She struggled to her feet again
,
trying to catch sight of her sisters
while she wrestled the cursed thing,
when
once more
she was thrown back against the sharp rocks. Her
unsteady
vision caught a glimpse of the strangers.

             
Time froze
like it did in the forest
.

             
All was in slow motion. They threw off their cloaks
. The large one was wet from the rain like she was.
He
was the most gigantic male she had ever seen. She
’d noticed
this at the
T
avern
and
in the
forest
,
but now for some reason he seemed surreal in size, larger than life. His cold blazing eyes locked with hers
;
immediately he threw one of his swords
,
which severed the heads of the two holding her
down. She shivered with shock until a
n odd smile stretched across his
chiseled
face. Was he amused
?

             
After tearing herself from his
gaze,
s
he looked down to his arm. She saw the reason for his smile now. He held a dagger to his flesh a
nd
blood trickled to the ground. The first drop fell. It pounded against her ears like thunder. She could hear her heart rapidly beat. Her senses became ten times stronger. His powerful essence
called her entire being to attention.
In its third dose--once smeared across the horse, and second by her heal when she grazed his cheek with her boot-- it was even more potent.

             
For the first time she felt the tips of her fangs emerge.
Hunger. A true obsessive hunger that could not be cooed by fire or element.
Shock and horror spread her eyes
wide
as her fingers went up and touched the peak
s
of them. A strong, sweet, ambrosia-like scent evaporated from her body.