Children of Fey and Night: Chapter Sixteen

The Legion of Thieves

Children of Fey and Night



Maximilian Martell

"Everybody stand close!" I shouted and slammed the butt of my spear into the ground. A wall of light flared around us shielding us from the battle going on around us. I watched as two vampires tackled an ogre and rip into him like two lions on a buffalo. I cringed and turned back to the others. My barrier bought us sometime to catch our breath but with sunrise hours away I was running on limited reserves.

"Thanks Max." Xaro said kneeling down to catch his breath. The fights with Visania and Hawker must've taken a lot out of him. "That didn't go the way I planned. I thought the queen would grant me an honorable challenge... and hadn't counted on the vampires showing up."

"It certaintly threw a monkey wrench into the plan. I still can't believe Alyssa is your daughter!" Pratt exclaimed.

"Yeah well to be honest that is the first time I had ever seen her." Xaro confessed. He looked down and smiled lost in his thoughts.

"Hate to spoil the mood guys, but there's a massacre going on out there!" Lissa said pointing with her stake. As if to prove her point the decapitated head of a vampire slammed into my barrier and slowly turned to ashes. "We need to stop it!"

"Right!" Pratt said cocking his guns. "What's the plan Xaro?"

Xaro shook his head. "There is no plan. Look around, the battle's over."

We looked around, the fighting had died down, dead faries and piles of ash and blood were strewn across the clearing. The surviving fairies were retreating into the woods and a handful of vampires gathered far away from us. One of them, with dark hair and red eyes nodded at us before he and the others leaped into the air and flew off.

"So... now what?" Lissa asked.

"They'll be preparing for war." I stated, "It's just like I told Maekar, Visania will stop at nothing to get Alyssa back. Even of it means wiping out every last vampire on earth. The Vampire Lords will hold an emergency meeting to plan their next move. No matter what they decide this won't be the last time the faires and vampires clash."

"I meant what are we going to do?" Lissa demanded. "I mean we've started a war, we can't just walk away from it."

"Why not?" Xaro said standing up. "Technically my daughter and her boyfriend started the war. We just got caught in the middle. Once the war actually starts neither side will notice or even care about us."

"So we're done?" I asked. "We're just going home?"

"Look I'm not happy about loosing out on ten times my weight in fairy gold either, but..."

"That's not what I mean Xaro." I said cutting him off. "I did a lot of research on both the faires and the vampires. Based on their numbers we're looking at World War III if we don't do something."

Xaro pressed his fingers to his temples. "So what do you want me to do? The faires hate me and at this point I doubt even giving Alyssa back will placate their wrath."

WIP