Burke snarled as his mom’s body shook, trying to move in his grip, like her limbs were bound by invisible chains.
“Mom! Fight!” Kyle shouted, his spirits buoyed. He pulled his sword up.
“Drop that sword or I’ll cut her throat!” Burke hissed.
“No!” his mom shouted! “I-I love…you!”
He stared into his mom’s eyes. She shoved her body forward. The knife cut into her throat. Her blood was a dark flood pumping out. A numb horror came over Kyle as she let out a gurgling gasp.
“I love you, Mom.”
She smiled for a moment, then she fell limp in Burke’s arms, blood sheeting down her body.
“Stupid bitch!” Burke threw his mom’s body to the floor, then pointed his dagger at Kyle.
Kyle attacked, swinging his sword. His anger was a cold fire that drove his blade. He would avenge his mother. He would cut Burke into a thousand pieces.
Burke shimmered, his body melting like wax into a blob on the floor. Kyle’s swing went through where Burke’s chest had been. The blob became a gray-furred wolf that snarled and leaped, striking into Kyle’s side. Teeth snapped and blood spurt from his arm.
He stumbled into a bookshelf, the wolf-Burke snarling at him.
“You killed her!” Kyle snarled, swinging at the wolf.
Burke shimmered into a small cat, leaping nimbly out of the way. In mid-air he melted into a cougar, snarling and swiping his claws at Kyle’s legs, raking through his jeans. Kyle stumbled, catching himself on the desk.
He swung at the cougar as it advanced. The office was too small for the big cat to move effectively. Burke shimmered into a wolverine, launching at Kyle’s wounded leg as Kyle sword swung over Burke’s furry body, the blade crashing into Burke’s desk.
Kyle ignore the pain of the wolverine’s razor teeth biting into his calves. He reversed his blade, stabbing down at the wolverine’s head.
Burke became a serpent warped around his thigh. Kyle’s blade missed by an inch, stabbing into the floor. Fangs sank into leg. Venom burned, shooting pain up into his groin. Kyle stumbled back, dropping his sword, tears blurring his vision.
“No! You’re not going to beat me, Burke!” The pain swelled with every beat of his heart. He reached down and grabbed the serpent’s neck, prying it away from his leg, squeezing with every ounce of his strength. He would see the man dead even if it killed him.
Burke shimmered and flowed like wax. Kyle’s hand squeezed harder, but the serpent’s neck grew thick. Burke stood before him, Kyle’s hand gripping the man’s shoulder. The dagger, red with his mom’s blood, stabbed into Kyle’s side.
Kyle collapsed.
“I do not know why I was so fearful of this confrontation,” Burke said, standing over him, the dagger stained with both Kyle and his mom’s blood. “You were far weaker than I gave you credit for. Celestite must have been a fool to have been defeated by you.”
Kyle struggled to hold on as his vision swam with black.
Burke knelt down, the dagger poised over Kyle’s heart. “I guess it’s just old age. I have lost that recklessness of youth. When you’re young, you think you are immortal. That nothing you do can ever go wrong. But the older you get, the more you realize that you can die. And when you’re as old as I am, well, you become too cautious.”
I can’t die. He’ll kill my wives. He’ll drain Aaliyah. I have to fight.
Kyle reached out his aura to his discarded sword, holding his hand before him, pointed at Burke’s chest.
“Is this some last, desperate attempt at life?” Burke asked, amusement tinging his voice. “Humans always struggle to the bitter end. I love it. I’ll make sure your wives fight—”
With a flash of golden light, Earthbones appeared in Kyle’s hands, the blade thrusting right through Burke’s chest. The principal’s brown eyes widened in shock. He struggled to speak but the katana had ripped right through his heart.
“Your heart’s not beating,” Kyle croaked. “You only have a few seconds before your brain consumes all your oxygen and you black out. I’m the last face you’ll see.”
Burke gurgled, then his body collapsed forward atop Kyle.
Blackness threatened to overtake Kyle. His blood pumped out of his side and the venom burned through him. At least I protected my wives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Something changed inside the circle. Zaritha could feel it. A great power had been snuffed out. Burke was dead. The bastard was dead! She wanted to laugh for joy.
But she had her mission to accomplish.
She ripped Aaliyah’s powers away from the witches. The three of them stumbled, breathing heavily as the silver circle vanished.
“Kyle did it,” Christy breathed.
Zaritha gathered her fires. It was time to kill the Djinn and fulfill her true master’s orders. She lashed out with her fist, flames wreathing it. Aaliyah turned to face her and…Zaritha hesitated. Her fist stopped right before it burned through the little houri’s throat.
Why did I hesitate?
“Zaritha!” Christy gasped. “What are you doing?”
“You serve Rashid ibn al-Marid.” Aaliyah eye’s widened. “You were sent to kill me?”
Zaritha didn’t understand why she hesitated. She had dispatched her Sultan’s enemies for two thousand years without mercy, betrayed her own Sheikh for Rashid. But she couldn’t bring herself to kill this little waif. The witches were spreading out. They would beginning to cast binding spells. She had to act.
She seized Aaliyah and pulled them both into the Unseen Realm. If she couldn’t kill the bitch, she would drag her to Rashid and let her Sultan deal with her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The crow watched its Master die through the window. The crow didn’t care that the man who called himself Burke had perished. The crow didn’t even care that for the first time in almost a thousand years, it was free of the man’s control. The crow ruffled its feathers, flicking off the drops of water that penetrated through the pine trees boughs.
The Goddess seized the crow.
The crow had felt the Goddess’s touch once before, that day in the crows distant memory when it had come across the drowned corpse of the knight on the lonely strand—Alphonse of Toulouse. The Goddess had reversed the knight’s fate and had set the crow to serve him. And now she seized her servant back.
The crow took flight, landing on the window sill of Burke’s office. The glass was enchanted by Burke to allow the crow’s passage and it stepped through, hopping on it’s black-scaled legs. It cawed once, savoring the smell of blood in the air.
But the Goddess wouldn’t let the crow indulge in its hunger.
The crow alighted down on the woman’s body, peering into her sightless eyes. The crow opened its mouth and swallowed the soul escaping her corpse. Its task complete, the crow took flight as a girl cried out in horror and pain, and phased through the window and out into the downpour.
To be continued…