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  The Vhiri man before it shook so severely that the flames of his torch danced with his fear. His lover was still screaming, but she was not being heard.

  The creature lashed out with a clawed hand, pulling the man up off the ground and toward its face. It immediately sunk its teeth into the man's neck as he screamed, dropping the torch at the monstrosity's feet. The creature's throat expanded before vibrating as he sucked from the man's neck, gulping down gallons of his blood. Within a matter of seconds, the man's body visibly shriveled, all of his internal juices stolen from flesh and organs alike, leaving nothing but a husk of dried skin and bones.

  The body fell and the creature lifted its head up to the skies and screeched. It trembled frantically as its victim's blood traveled through its body, before its dehydrated skin moistened with new life.

  “What is that?” I screeched, backing away from the window to hurry to my friends.

  “Vampire, Kai!” Cerin replied in a rush, grabbing his scythe from beside the bed. “Death and fire! It lives only on blood. Deplete its life force, and it can be easily burnt into ash.”

  We burst into the hallway, where I immediately clashed into Nyx, knocking the breath from both of us. She steadied herself, and blurted to Cerin, “Will blades hurt it?”

  “It can only be hurt by depleting it of blood,” the necromancer replied, glancing over as Anto and Jakan joined us in the hall, still pulling on their armor frantically. “So yes, if you injure it enough, but do not expect it to die easily.” His silver eyes switched from Nyx to Jakan. “You both know the illusion light spell, right?”

  “Yeah,” Jakan answered, loading his crossbow with a clip.

  “You can temporarily blind them with light. Their eyes are extremely sensitive. You both are better suited for aiding us, not fighting them.” Cerin hesitated. “Their strength is immense.”

  “So is mine,” Anto replied, ensuring both of his arm blades were secured.

  Kaaarrriiisss!

  It was a chorus, now. There were multiple of them. Outside of the inn's stone walls, I heard fire explode outward from hitting one of the creatures, before a raspy screech. In the skies came the beating of wings, and the screams of dying people overlapped in the air.

  Azazel was frightened by the noises without being able to see the creatures that made them, but we could do nothing except leave him in the inn to keep him protected. Nyx locked the door behind her to keep him safe, and then we were off, rushing out of the building in an attempt to keep this town and its citizens safe.

  Once we were outside, it was pandemonium. The Vhiri and giants alike were in the midst of a battle with the creatures. Fireballs were hurtling through the air, some of them hitting and others flying past their targets and sizzling into the night sky toward the stars. Other mages with no access to fire were trying their best with the other elements, but it was an uphill battle. Vampires were swooping down from the skies like birds of prey, landing beside elf and giant alike and depleting them of their juices.

  “Something...isn't right!” Cerin insisted, grasping onto his scythe. I took his hesitance as an excuse to give him a shield combining life and fire magic, much like I had done for him in the wyvern's cavern long ago. If the vampires didn't like fire or light, it was sure to be helpful.

  “What's not right, bud?” Nyx retorted desperately. “Talk to us!”

  “Vampires don't attack in packs!”

  “Apparently they do,” Jakan replied, stopping short to let me give him a fire shield, before nodding in thanks. He lifted up his crossbow, releasing a bolt into the nearest vampire as it was in the midst of a regenerating seizure after drinking from a man. It barely noticed and continued on its course to drain the life from another victim.

  Once all of my friends had fire shields, I rushed to the creature, immediately leeching from it with one hand, while building fire in the other. As soon as the crackling of death magic reverberated in the air, the creature spun to face me, shrieking with so much force that blood of its recent victims splattered over my fire shield before melting in its heat. It swiped an elongated cadaverous arm toward me, before screeching again as it caught fire.

  It still did not die, and I'd leeched from it long enough to kill a few mortals. I thrust fire at the vampire, and though it screamed in protest, the element did little to harm it besides scorch its skin. I nearly gagged at the resulting stench, for it smelled overwhelmingly of sulfur and thickly filled the air as if it were tangible. I decided to stick with death magic and started to leech with both hands, desperate to kill the creature.

  The vampires were intensely powerful, for I was going on a full minute of leeching with both hands, and it did not die. It continued to thrust its long arms at my shield, though it refused to try to bite me given the fire that reflected off its black eyes. As I continued to drain its life force, I noticed that the moisture of its skin was fading, before it became crusty and dry once again. Putting two and two together, I then thrust fire at it, and this time, the creature's flesh began to disintegrate, starting from where I'd hit it and crawling outward to its extremities before it was little more than a pile of gray ash.

  One vampire down, at least a dozen to go. Bodies of Vhiri and giants alike were scattered through Tal like trash, in various states of mummification from dehydration. The more the vampires ate, the stronger they became.

  There was a flash of orange light that sizzled through the air, and I found Altan in the midst of wielding his fire-imbued chain like a whip, the muscles of his arms bulging and straining with the effort. The Sentinel cracked the chain out to one of the vampire's necks, the steel and flames wrapping around the creature's throat. Panicked, the monster grasped at the binding weapon, its long hands turning to ash as it tried to free itself. As Altan ripped the chain back from its victim, the rough steel sliced through the tissue of the neck, causing the blood of its most recent casualty to leak from its gray flesh. The fire of the chain turned the edges of the wound to ash before the rest of the body followed.

  I made my way to Altan, giving him a fire shield. The Sentinel glanced over at me, pleasantly surprised. “Thanks!”

  A vampire landed a few yards away from me, and though the Vhiri woman before it threw fire, it had eaten from many victims before her and did not immediately turn to ash. It thrust its head toward her neck, and she attempted to dodge it. The creature's sharp teeth sunk into the side of her face instead, the fangs penetrating the soft parts of her mouth and eye, before it sucked from her body all the same. She shriveled into nothing more than dried flesh stretched over bone, and even before the corpse fell, her pants did, no longer fitting.

  A breeze hit my face, and a whirlwind of silver and green spun into the creature, shredding newly moisturized skin and releasing its contents. Blood fell from the vampire like rain until Anto succeeded in tearing its body apart. It fell to the grass in two lumps, though the top half of the creature started hissing and crawling toward the orc, its long claws pulling its torso with little effort, leaving streaks of blood in its wake. I threw fire at it, and it burst into ash.

  “Kai! Kai!” Nyx skidded to a stop beside me. The shield I'd given her earlier was nowhere to be found, so I gave her a new one. Her black eyes were wide and shocked as she relayed to me, “The fuckers can see me when I'm invisible!”

  “Then don't go invisible,” I breathed.

  Nyx laughed sarcastically before she rushed back off into the fight. She ran straight up to a vampire which had just landed and lifted a hand up to its face. A burst of blinding white illusion light flashed over her hand, and the creature roared in pain, backing away from the spell defensively. Nyx followed straight after it, gouging at its throat with a dagger as the fire of her shield burned its flesh.

  “Ya sons of bitches!” I turned to glance over to the western side of the town, where Maggie was in the midst of having her way with two vampires at once, whipping her war hammer around like it was a toy. The weapon clashed hard with the creatures, shattering bones w
hile they were still within flesh, and rendering the monsters broken and disabled. They still crawled after her, but the hammer was brought down into their skulls, time and time again until they split and leaked with blood. It was the first time I'd seen the inside of a vampire's head without it bursting into ash, and it did not appear to have a brain.

  I hurried to give Jakan a new shield because he'd lost his and was in the midst of backing away from yet another vampire. My boot hit something in the grass, however, and I surged forward. When I hit the ground, the breath was forced from my lungs.

  I glanced toward my feet. I'd tripped and fallen over yet another body. There were so many of them. If we didn't kill the rest of the vampires soon, the entire town of Tal could be wiped from the map. And it wasn't a small town by any means. Hundreds were dead. There were thousands more, of course, but we could not dally. As I rushed to stand, I saw only two more of the creatures, though I heard a third one screech from over the walls of the stone building beside me.

  Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

  I spun, my eyes falling on Tal's massive graveyard. The grassy ground was bursting in front of gravestones, decomposing arms pulling corpses from their underground prisons. My heart thudded in my chest as I realized Cerin was raising the dead. There were still so many people here. All of them would be able to watch their loved ones rise, and the fear that would instill in them would not combine well with the despair they already felt from having to fight so many vampires.

  “Cerin!” I screamed, trying to find him. The necromancer had just shielded Jakan since he'd noticed the thief needed protection much like I had. He glanced at me, alarmed at the volume of my voice.

  “What?”

  “Stop raising the dead!”

  His silver eyes raced to the graveyard, where they widened when he noticed the corpses. “Fuck, Kai, I'm not!”

  Time seemed to slow. Bhaskar's words from just before he left Tal a week ago fluttered through my mind. My eyes darted around for the culprit even as I regenerated my shield, preparing to fight with the dead.

  An Alderi man with an eye of gold stalked down the grassy street beside the graveyard, wearing nothing but a ragged, thick black robe. One of his eyes was completely white with dense scar tissue, proof of having been severely injured in the past. What little I could see of the deep purple flesh of his neck was scarred, multiple blade wounds lining his throat. His face was no exception. Many scars sliced across it, including one that looked as if he'd been stabbed through the mouth and between his teeth. He was scarred even worse than Ricco had been, and Ricco was tortured for over two years.

  Hades. I rushed toward him. Cerin and I were the only ones who could take the god out, so I left most of his dead to the others to vanquish. Bhaskar had been right. Hades was on his trail, and he was willing to decimate an entire town to get to him.

  Hades thrust both palms to the ground, and hundreds of black tendrils skidded over long grass at least ten times more quickly than I'd ever seen, racing to reach the farthest of corpses at the edges of town. As soon as the defenders around him started to realize he was an enemy, they swarmed him. Hades was quickly surrounded by giant and Vhiri alike. Both weapons and elements were thrown at him, and they were barely making a scratch in his flesh.

  Two deep purple hands were held together, palm facing palm. Black death magic built rapidly between them, swirling chaotically until he threw it to the ground. The magic exploded much like my own element bomb spells, only this time, it was a black fog that burst outward to engulf all of the others around him. Man, woman, child, Vhiri, and giant affected by the spell immediately fell dead. Black energy surged out from their corpses before it imploded back into the god.

  I skidded to a halt. Hades had just leeched from over a dozen people at once, and in a split second using a necromantic spell I did not know.

  I thrust an arm out, giving myself a ward. Once it encapsulated my body, I then built an alteration spell in my palm, giving myself a second shield that would absorb any energy Hades threw at me. If I had double the protection, perhaps I could kill him.

  Hades noticed the glimmer of my shield, and his eyes met mine. He did nothing as I closed our distance, immediately starting to leech from him.

  One corner of the god's lips rose with amusement as I started taking from his life. “You think you can kill me, half-breed?” Hades's voice was as raggedy and tattered as his robe, reminiscent of the ghostly hisses I would often hear from my own dead minions.

  “I'm the only one who can kill you,” I retorted, leeching from him with both hands, doubling the spell's effect. Immediately, my head was filled with trembling power, already high with the energies of a god who had lived longer than any other. Even still, Hades grinned at me, only entertained.

  “Let us time it, see how long it takes,” the god taunted, his mismatched eyes flicking to the side as he was approached by another defender. He thrust an area-of-effect leeching spell to the ground again, immediately killing them and another man who'd accidentally gotten too close. My alteration shield absorbed the energy of the spell which hit me, and my high only grew stronger. My mind was so full of power that it felt like my brain was trembling in the skull surrounding it. It had been so long since my battle with Malgor, I'd nearly forgotten how good a high could get.

  Anto rushed toward us, prepared to help and defend me. “No!” I screamed at him, desperate to keep him safe. “Stay back!”

  The orc came to a stop when he finally saw Hades's golden iris, breathing hard with battle fatigue. He glanced between the two of us, his brown eyes conflicted.

  “Stay back, Anto!” The desperation in my voice must have finally convinced him. My friend backed away, deciding to battle with the dead instead.

  Hades watched me carefully when my eyes met his again. I still leeched from him, feeling so much power in my head that it started to hurt. A tear rolled from the corner of my eye, uncomfortable with the pain.

  “We have many things in common, you and I,” Hades finally said, looking at me with interest. “We are both hunted by the other gods, cursed to roam the land with few friends and many enemies. I have heard whispering of you, Kai, but I did not know you were this beautiful. You seek power, do you not?” His ruined eyes glanced down to the funnels of black between us. “I offer what I have to you. I have so much power I don't know what to do with it. It intrigues me to know there is another god who wields death.”

  “Call off your dead,” I pleaded with him, impatient with his ramblings.

  Hades's eyes moved past me and gazed into the streets of Tal, where its populace continued to die. “You worry for the mortals?” He chuckled, the noise coming out raspy between his teeth. “How young and naive you are. You are just a babe in this world, you know.”

  “Please. Stop your attack,” I breathed, both of my eyes leaking with the pain of my leeching high.

  “I seek someone,” Hades replied nonchalantly, “and I will not stop until he is dead.”

  I said nothing. I didn't want him knowing that I knew who he spoke of.

  “Where is Ciro?” Hades questioned, watching as I broke the leeching spell. My brain felt like it was cracking in two from its new power, and I nearly fell with the pain.

  “I...” I trailed off, grasping my head. Hades smiled, pleased with how his power had affected me. “I don't know.”

  “Do not lie to me, Kai.”

  “I don't know,” I repeated. “I have come to Tal seeking him, myself. I saw a flash of light and figured it was his.” I wasn't sure if the lie would be believed. I couldn't know the extent of the other god's knowledge.

  “Then let us seek together,” Hades murmured. “I have no quarrel with you. You are already turning Arrayis into a world of the dead, which is something I find most attractive. Help me in my quest, and I will help you with yours.”

  “My quest is my own,” I insisted, before glancing back to the town. Hundreds more were dead. “Please, Hades. Ciro is not here. I have searched for two days.
Do not take this out on the people.”

  “I do so love when a woman pleads,” Hades purred. He glanced up toward the town, before I heard hundreds of corpses fall, dispelled. A lone vampire lurched into the air, its wings beating arduously as it flew to the highlands, going back to the cave it came from. It was the first time it dawned on me that Hades had summoned the creatures.

  The town was now silent. Hades had called off his minions, but most of the people were already dead.

  “You are still so naive,” Hades murmured, reaching out to hold the side of my face. His touch was cold, leaving the skin chilled even after he pulled away. “Come find me when you would like to join forces. You will consider it, yes?”

  I swallowed hard. Hades had forced his minions to retreat. I didn't want to do or say anything that would get him to change his mind. “...yes,” I finally breathed, placating him.

  “Mm. Good.” His lips curled up into an arrogant smile. “Until then, I will leave you with a gift that will empower you. Enervat.”

  “Kai! What are you doing? Kill the bastard!” Altan's voice was screaming, but it was hollow and fading in my mind. I felt debilitated with power, even still, and the world was starting to spin.

  Hades stared past my shoulder with mild interest, before he spun, his black cloak fanning out around him. He stalked away without a care in the world. A fireball whistled past my ear, casting the side of my face in thick heat before it fanned out over Hades's back, catching his cloak on fire. As the god continued to walk away, he only slipped his cloak off, throwing the burning garment into the tall grass where it spread its flames. Hades kept walking without it, disappearing into the blackness.