Law of Shadows

Chapter 7: ~Followed~

“Instinct is a mighty thing.”

- A memory of the old ones.

***Carinthia***

I curse my car as the road causes it to bump yet another time. My time of recuperation got cut short when the sisters decided to leave their hideout early in the morning. I wasn’t surprised that they decided to run for it, but their swift and sudden departure caused me to make some adjustments to my plans.

The original plan was to confront them about their presence within my territory. Since they grabbed a car and drove south, I had no choice but to follow… with my red SLK of all things. What devil rode me to take the SLK!? It’s the least useful for mountain roads. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a completely wrong choice, since a sane person would use the motorway to leave the country.

I snort and try to visualize a mental map with their route on it. At first they were headed towards the motorway, then they took a sharp turn and left the city to enter one of the smaller valleys instead, just to take a mountain-road to another valley. And now they are headed for a pass towards Italy. Their behaviour is erratic, to say the least. Or maybe it’s because they are being hunted? Are their brothers on their trail and they can somehow sense them?

It could be a problem if their seven remaining clanmembers catch them. Pushing down the pedal, I drive faster and lean into each turn of the curvaceous road. Okay, maybe taking the SLK wasn’t so bad after all. This is fun.

By using their energy trail, I catch up to their car just twenty minutes later. It’s a random rental car, so I slow down to see where they are headed now. The sides of the road are overgrown with forest and to my surprise, they enter an unimproved forest road which isn’t much more than a logging road for the lumberjacks. Their car manages a few metres, just to get stuck ten metres into the road.

I would never violate my SLK by following them. Instead I drive past them and stop at the next bend in the road, parking the car at the side of the road. Grabbing my gun, I get outside and hike a few metres back through the snow. Just a few metres away from the street the snow is already at the height of my knees. When I get back into sight of the other car, I watch in amusement as the older sister tries to push the car out of the snowdrift in which it got lodged.

When the young one says something her sister gives up her attempts at freeing the car. Both of them hurry to follow the trail into the forest.

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I stay at my post, considering the possibility of a trap. Are they trying to appeal to my hunting instincts? Do they know that I am following them? I am actually torn between hunting them like a wild beast and doing the smart thing and call out to them.

Fiddling with my coat, I try to retrieve the cigarettes. My attempts fall short when a figure dashes down the road and stops at their car. After a short look into their car he runs in the same direction they took. I’ve the gun up within a moment, but all the trees hinder my aim. Lowering the gun, I follow them into the woods, very quickly wishing that I had snowshoes.

The forest is quiet with nobody around, so I channel magic through my feet, taking several high leaps to catch up.

Five minutes later I find them. Annia and Sely are backed up against the wall of a small chapel which is located down a slope. The chapel is situated in a small graveyard. These old buildings aren’t unusual around these woods, as small villages were often abandoned during the dark ages. The chapel was normally the only building made of stone and so the rest of the village disappeared while the religious houses remained, just to be renovated much later by the government or forest owners.

The two sisters are backed into a corner by four men. The sisters are talking about something with their hunters. A quick survey of the area shows me the remaining three men. They have taken positions farther away to cut off possible escape routes. And one of them is just thirty metres away, halfway down the slope.

Given such a good opportunity to reduce the amount of enemies, I can’t resist taking it. Jumping forward, I drop onto my ass and slide down the slope. On the way I draw my favourite knife. It’s a large hunting knife which almost counts as a machete. The blacksmith who made it for me joked that I actually intended to kill a bear with it. Well, it was close enough to the truth.

The man who was biding his time downwards from my position turns around as he hears me sliding over the snow. He was just a little too slow. I collide with his feet before he completes his turn. A grunt escapes him as his feet are kicked out from under him. All I have to do is to hold up the knife.

It sinks right through him as he falls on top of me. I twist the weapon to make sure that he is too incapacitated to fight. A low, keening sound escapes him, but that’s all. I roll us around, taking the top position. Then I pull out the knife and hack at his throat. It takes four strikes and a little sawing, then the head is off.

Unlike as it’s shown in the movies, there is no fountain of blood. Though there is still enough of it quickly colouring the snow red.

When I look up, I grunt, appreciating the fact that nobody noticed the little drama. All the attention is focused on the two women. And from my new position I have a perfect view on the chapel. My victim chose his spot well. I crawl to a nearby tree and get my gun into position.

Straining my ears, I try to understand their voices. My aim sets on the older of the two sisters.

The older one is a real beauty. In fact, she is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Her face is a lovable blend of womanhood and authority. And even though she wears winter clothes, they do a piss poor job at hiding her womanly features. If I just shoot her, then the men will take them and leave my territory.

“Fuck you! You can back off and go home! Tell the clanhead that he can bend over himself if he likes his allies that much. You will never take Annia.”

But if they leave my territory, having achieved their goals, it will set a bad example. I chew on my inner lip, wishing that I had brought some kind of shrapnel bomb to take them out altogether.

“Just come with us. Don’t you realize that you can’t run away forever?”

I aim at the speaker. If I shoot them first, the women might get away and leave my territory.

“We can and we will. Just try me!”

That’s when the girl tugs at the clothes of her big sister. The both of them look at each other and nod. And that’s when everything goes to hell.

The speaker from earlier jumps forward and Sely charges to intercept him. They clash and the man tries to subdue her. Though that isn’t easy, because the bitch is trying to claw off his face, which makes her much less attractive.

Instead of gambling my luck with the two struggling opponents, I align my sight with the only man who is standing still. The two others went for the girl who immediately charged into the chapel. I press the trigger and the fragmentation bullet digs into his temple, coming apart. The upper part of his head disintegrates in a shower of bone and gore, painting the snow with little red globs of brain.

That’s when Sely twists her legs around her opponent, while he has her hands pinned to the ground. I feel the surge of magic and a jet of flames shoots from her mouth. It shoots up twenty metres into the sky, incinerating everything in its path. The man screams and tries to get away from her as his flesh is peeled from his skull. She doesn’t let him, her legs tightly closed around his waist.

He pulls a knife and slashes at her, drawing blood. It doesn’t save him though.

And then fog erupts from the chapel. I try to get another shot, but the fog is unnaturally thick. It spreads and quickly covers the chapel. Having lost my target, I change my aim to the other two lookouts. One is gone, but the other is running towards the fog. I shoot and miss, switching to automatic fire as he approaches the magical fog-bank. I don’t care for using my ammunition sparingly as the bullets impact all around him.

Just as he disappears into the fog, I score a hit in his torso. Sadly it’s unlikely that it was a lethal shot.

I eject the empty magazine and replace it with a new one. Everyone except for me is now inside the fog and the damn stuff keeps spreading and creeping closer. I stand up and slide down the rest of the slope, into the fog. Following the screams, I advance, my sight restricted to not much more than three metres.

A few steps into the mist, I hear the crunching steps of someone charging through the snow. A figure appears out of nowhere and barrels into me, driving the air out of me. We go down and then Sely’s face is in front of mine. Her soft body lying on top of me, I notice that she smells good.

She opens her mouth and I can see that hellfire charging up in her mouth. My hand clamps around her throat and I squeeze, shutting down that damned spell of hers. Her nails go for my face and I buck her off of me. Then I grab her by the neck and hold her down, so that those dangerous lips face away from me. She squirms and bucks, but I hold her faced to the ground.

“Let go of Sis!” Another fury throws herself at me, hitting and kicking for all its worth.

I take it, feeling the restraints of my self control being stressed to the limit. They violate my territory. They cause havoc and now they even attack me.

Another person appears out of the fog and raises a hand, shooting out a blue orb of energy. I grunt as the energy impacts my chest and throws me off the woman. The power is absorbed by my wards, but my reason is gone to hell.

A red haze of bloodlust sinks over my vision as the newcomer grabs the girl and tries to pull the woman to her feet. I can smell blood, their blood. My magic surges as I release all restraints, and I charge. All my instincts tell me to wipe out all offenders who set foot on my territory.

The man lets go of the women and shoots another pulse of blue energy, but I charge right through it, red shields of power deflecting most of the attack. Then I am on him and for a moment we wrestle with each other. Stepping forward and between his legs, I twist my whole body and throw him. He lands hard and I kick his head. While he is stunned I punch down at his spine, wrapping my hand in red energy.

My fist goes neatly through and squashes his heart. Then I howl in triumph and return my attention to the other two, my vision still red with rage. The woman is still squirming on the ground while the girl is trying to pull her to her feet. Two steps bring me to their side and I haul the woman up.

Instead of fighting me, she plants her lips on my mouth and fingers at my belt. There is a red light in her eyes.

“Get away from her! She isn’t yours!”

The voice of yet another man reminds me of the fact that there is still killing to be done. I push the woman away since she has clearly lost it. Once an Old One gets overtaken by their instincts there isn’t much to be done until it has run its course. Then I charge at where the voice came from, my sight completely red.

My reason returns much, much later. The red retreats from my vision and I can somehow remember that I lost it. The other Old Ones also went into a frenzy and battled it out with me. My body is burning, which is why I don’t like losing control. It happened to me only once before, so I take pride in my control. The slapping sound of flesh returns me to reality and I realize that the girl from earlier is calling out to me. She is hiding behind one of the gravestones which are surrounding the chapel.

“…derstand me? Hello?”

I blink. “What?”

“Oh, good. You are back. Now get off of my Sis! I think you two had enough fun.”

Her words make no sense until I realize that I am on my knees, my hands on Sely’s soft behind and her neck. She is on all fours and having fun with my erection, her clothes a torn mess. Her behind slams enthusiastically against me, impaling herself. I hold absolutely still, realizing why my body is burning and shivering. Suddenly Sely breaks the rhythm and presses against me, grinding her hips and guiding me to her g-spot. I can’t help it and explode, gasping.

I shove the wench away, feeling somehow violated. A good fist of snow on her neck returns her to her senses and she screams in outrage, crawling away from me.

***Carinthia***

***Sely***

What the heck happened? I’ve never lost it like that. Ever! Did I really prostate myself like a bitch in heat in front of that guy? I don’t even know him. And why is my sister hiding behind that gravestone?

“You are both coming with me.” His eyes flash red and he gets to his feet, trying to get up his trousers. His face is a mask of rage.

So he is also an Old One. It’s then that I remember. How he attacked my brother, and how I found it hot! And how he pushed me down… No! Not that I care about a few lost brothers. I hated them anyway. It’s still fucked up. There is no way that we will just go with him so that he can send us back to our clan.

“Stun, Annia!” I call out. Annia reacts without question and shoots a stunning spell at the Old One.