THE VROL TRILOGY (42 page)

Turning around he wrapped his arms around
her, using his massive back as a shield against the marauding
troops and whispered, "I'm sorry, Jennie. Please, I'm so
sorry."

His shield cantus was weak and barely kept
the sharp edges of blades from slicing him in two. Suddenly, a
knife penetrated the meat of his shoulder as clubs beat him over
the head, but he was feeling at peace. He had resigned himself to
death. His only regret was that he never got the chance to hold her
- to tell her how he felt.

He was near an unconscious state when
out of his almost nonexistent peripheral vision he saw a brilliant
flash - a blinding white, followed by screams. The pressure on his
back was gone. He had no idea what had happened, but he would die
while near Jennie. Was it Heaven? Was it some sort of afterlife? He
had heard stories of people seeing bright white lights when they
died and were later revived.

Then, without further warning, everything
went black.

Chapter 26 - Regeneration

Kangor had split off from the group and was
dispatching vampires, using the rhodium claw sheaths he always wore
during battle. He suddenly found the enemy much easier to defeat,
as of a few minutes prior. They no longer had a shield they seemed
to possess when they had invaded the castle, and he was able to
take out three times the amount of rotting vampires as before.
While he easily picked off the remaining lower-caste vampires in
his vicinity, he saw Krynos and howled out to his king. Krynos was
about to return the gesture from across the hall, but watched in
horror as an upper-caste vampire nearly bifurcated the lycan with
an uncanny swiftness of the blade, splitting him diagonally and
spilling his guts on the cold castle floor. Krynos screamed (as
much as a phase 3 could) and leaped up to his trusted friend,
turning Kangor's attacker to ash before he could flee the
scene.

The lycan king desperately tried to use his
semi-dexterous paws to push Kangor's entrails back into his
intestinal cavity, but to no avail.

"
Kangor, hold
still. I shall summon Draagh and he shall heal
you
."

"
My liege,
fear not. The ladies do love an attractive battle
scar
."

"Your humor is legendary, dear friend, but
this is no joking matter. You shall be saved."

"My king, if I am to be reincarnated, I
would wish to be your son."

"Kangor, you are my son. Hold still. Help
shall arrive."

The brave lycan soldier closed his eyes and
saw his entire existence flash through his mind. His childhood; the
crippling disease he had suffered as a youth; Lord Draagh using his
wonderful magic to heal him. He always had to work harder than
anyone, and his self-effacing humor made him the life of every
party. He had never married, but he had one love - the one woman he
could never hold - Alea. He secretly loved her – desperately loved
her, but she belonged to Morgus, and he would never covet the wife
of one of his brothers. It was Kangor who discovered the lycan that
had betrayed Morgus, and it was he who killed the traitor in
secret, not wishing to bring shame upon the man's family. Kangor
cared for everyone, and always put others first. Even after Morgus'
death, Kangor attended to Alea as a friend. He harbored his
affections for her in secret, cherishing more her friendship than
her touch. Her treason affected him more than anyone, even Draagh,
who was her last lover before being banished from the Rhönen
Dominion.

In his mind he remembered great battles and
expeditions; he saw the Aurora Borealis wavering in the winter
night sky; he felt the joy that others experienced when their pups
were born. Then, opening his eyes, he saw his king holding him.

"I would really like a cup of mead right
about now, but I fear it would be in waste."

"Why is that, my son?"

"You see, I have this massive hole in my
stomach. In fact, I do not believe I even have a stomach anymore,
so I imagine the mead would spill out onto the floor."

"Kangor, my boy, hold fast. You shall yet
see the sunrise."

Despite Krynos' comforting words, Kangor's
long life expired in a single, sighing breath. Krynos threw his
massive head back and howled, while an almost imperceptible tear
flowed from one of his lupine eyes.

###

Max awoke with a start, sitting up
quickly, but was held down by Draagh, who had arrived moments
before the young man was to meet his end. However, the first
thought in his head was not for his own well-being, but for that of
Jennie.

"Hey Pops, where…is she?" he asked with
a painful-sounding groan.

"Oh my son, please wait. She rests here
on the table. We are safe, yes, quite safe, as I have cordoned off
this room while I heal the both of you. Now, relax for a moment. I
had to remove a spear from your torso, and the healing is not yet
finished. I must say, my dear boy, that if there was not a
substantial part of me in you… then you would most certainly not be
alive right now."

Max's grandfather pointed to at least
half a dozen blood-covered, platinum-covered blades laid out on the
ground - all of which he had pulled out of his grandson's
body.

"I need to see her. Please," he said
weakly. He looked at his hands and noted his normal nails. He was
so depleted he had converted back to his day form, which left him
on par with the mid and upper-caste vampire warriors.

"Draagh, where are they? All of those
vamps?"

Draagh put his hand to Max's shoulder,
instigating another massive flood of salubots to assist in healing
his stab wounds, as well as multiple other cuts and gouges on his
body.

"I merely dispatched them - to the
moat. Well, the ones that remained after Krynos and Donus had
attacked. I find it much easier when they group together. It is
more efficient. Yes, much more efficient. However, I bring sad
tidings. We lost Kangor and Wilhelm to Vladros' forces."

Standing up with some difficulty, Max
looked over to a blood-covered Jennie, who was lying motionless on
the table next to their position. He stumbled over and nearly fell
on top of her. Draagh quickly moved over and steadied him, noting
that the young man's eyes had welled up with tears.

"I'm sorry, Jennie. I'm so sorry, I
should have been more careful. We should have fought them out in
the open. I was arrogant… it's all my fault."

Max closed his eyes and dropped his
head, tears falling onto Jennie's bloody arm, when he felt her hand
brush up against his cheek, with the woman speaking to him in a low
whisper.

"It's ok, hun. Draagh came, but we
still need to go back out there. Move back and let him do what he
does best."

Max looked down at Jennie's slightly
bruised face. Her eyes - those amazing eyes - they seemed to
reflect hope, and he used that hope as his strength. He reached
down and brushed her bangs out of her face, and to his surprise she
appeared to welcome his touch, slightly moving her cheek toward his
hand, while gaining a soft, but weak smile.

"Max, you're in the way. Move, you
dumbass," she insisted, this time with a bit more force to her
voice.

Backing up, Max turned around and
looked at his grandfather. He was feeling the effects of the
salubots flowing through his system as they regenerated missing
tissues and healed wounds. Then, looking at his levels he noticed
that they were all peaked, which was unusual, as he hadn't consumed
anything of nutritional value. Looking at his grandfather he asked
how that could be.

"Draagh, my levels… they're peaked.
How?"

"My boy, I have certain… abilities, yes
I have. I am only glad I arrived in time, as I was rampaging
throughout the castle, racing Krynos and Donus and having quite a
good time hunting the invaders - but I heard you - I heard your
cries, I felt your anguish and hopelessness. Now stand back, and
let me heal this wonderful young woman who had her sword over your
back, guarding your spine while you used your body as a voluntary
lycan carving post in order to protect her."

Max gazed at Jennie with utter
astonishment - he thought that she was out of commission and
helpless, but she had used the very last of her energies to help
protect him. She had prolonged their lives - and their mortal
embrace.

It was a matter of about twenty minutes
more before the two were up and on their feet. Draagh quickly
conjured a nutritional drink much like what Alea had given him
during his phase 2 training (sans the force-feeding tube), which
they both consumed. The two actually felt better than normal - they
felt supercharged, like they were amped after drinking a
super-powerful yerba mate.

Completely rejuvenated and ready to
fight some more, they made for the main door while Draagh bid them
good luck, the ancient one taking off to yet again assist Krynos
and Donus in their castle cleanup. Knowing they were about to go
into a battle zone, they entered the courtyard - but with caution,
making sure they would not be cornered off, and giving themselves
ample room for flight in the case they were again overwhelmed.
Seeing numerous vampires on the walls, Max started to use
low-energy unspoken cantuses to knock vampires down off, working in
conjunction with the remaining normals, who were using
palladium-tipped arrows to pick off the scattered vampire troops,
turning them into little piles of ash.

Standing in the middle of the courtyard
was a group of approximately twenty high-caste, shielded vampire
soldiers, surrounding and protecting an aged and mildly decomposing
man in their center - Vladros. The vampire king had arrogantly
believed that his troops had taken the castle, and he certainly
hadn't counted on the two alien lycans arriving at his
location.

As soon as the rotting liege saw Max
and Jennie he cried out, "Kill them! The ones who took Ladros from
us!"

At once, half of Vladros' protective
forces charged out at the two youngsters, who had again gone to
phase 2, instantly doubling their strength. Jennie and Max split
up, forcing the attacking vampires to do the same, which they
unwittingly did in equal numbers. The lycans were going to spread
the enemy out - not make the same mistake they had made inside the
hall. Experience can be a cruel, yet effective teacher, and they
had learned, nearly at the cost of their own lives.

As she approached an open area, Jennie
performed a series of back flips, landing on her booted feet and
crouching low. She feigned a jump, but instead shot forward,
sliding on her knees over the rough stones of the courtyard floor,
and leaning back used her katana to amputate the legs from four of
her five attackers. As they fell to the ground screaming in
blood-squirting agony, she popped up and gave them the
not-so-sympathetic gift of instant death via
decapitation.

Her remaining opponent charged at her,
his mouth open in a silent scream as he slashed and hacked away at
the young woman, who, although in her battle form, was still
amazingly attractive, even though she was sporting a bit of hair on
her jaws and chest, and the majority of her upper torso was covered
in dried blood.

Her attacker hissed and screeched,
"Lycan bitch! I shall rend you limb from limb," and surged forward
with his sword pointed at her, which she quickly sidestepped,
allowing her to comically slap him on his hindquarters with her
sword as he passed by.

"Hey Max! I did the butt thing! I did
it! Woohoo!"

The grotesque, rotting soldier then
spun around with a confused look on his face, not understanding how
the woman could have taken joy in such an ineffective
counter-attack.

Again he surged forward, with Jennie
performing a forward jumping flip over her attacker, severing one
of his arms while flying through the air and upside-down. Landing
softly, she turned and smiled.

"There! I've disarmed you!"
paraphrasing a silly line from an ancient Earth movie.

The vampire wailed and attacked, his
remaining arm waving his sword around wildly, as blood gushed out
from where his severed arm used to be. Then, waiting until the very
last second, Jennie did a backflip and landed low, swinging her
katana out 180 degrees at her face-level, which happened to be
about mid-thigh for the attacking ghoul, making him into nothing
more than a one-armed living corpse, writhing and bleeding out all
over the stones of the courtyard ground.

A few meters away, Max took on his
attackers in a completely different fashion, 3D slipping behind
them and cutting off one head, then slipping to the other side and
cutting off another, while Vladros screamed in rage, his face
nearly turning a very light shade of purple.

"He is a mage, you idiots!"

The three remaining vampires looked
around, back to back, not seeing him anywhere.

"Above you! He's above you!" roared the
vampire king.

Simultaneously looking up, they saw Max
standing above their heads, as if on an invisible platform. Looking
down, he gave them a cocky grin and waved, as he silently executed
the same cantus that Jennie had used days before to give Ryder
Johnson a most unwelcome sunburn.