Page 24 of Bound By Darkness

Now I’se extra pissed, ‘cause I had me a whole speech prepared an’ everything. So I turn to King Shadow Taint, figurin’ maybes he wanna hear my story? “If Cambion hadn’t told me tospy on Pretty an’ the vamp, I wouldn’t know half o’ the nothin’ I currently knows!”

King Elf Ass’ head snaps back my way and he narrow his eyes real mean, like I jist said too damn much. King Shadow Dump’s reaction is similar.

“Cambion told you to spy on them?” He sounds mad but I ain’t here to protect nobody no more. No way. No how. I did my rescuin’, ‘nough to last me a lifetime. And let me tell you, I ain’t got no intention of doin’ any more hero work unless there’s a mighty big wage increase, if ya catch my drift.

“So what if I did?” the elf snaps back. “Are you really going to get on your moral high horse after failing to tell me theangelis a fucking a Succubus?”

I hear a gasp from the lady. Now it’s her turn to look shocked. I let out a burp that tastes an awful lot like that nasty shit Lord Shadow Kitchen cooked up.

“Cambion, I didn’t know!” Eilish starts, shakin’ her head real determined like. She sounds scared as she face him and her eyes get this big look to ‘em.

“You think I believe that?” he spits back before he look at the whacked out vamp again. “Who told Baron to return to the stone because I sure as hell didn’t! You saw what it was doing to him, but you told him to go back to it anyway! You’ve been sabotaging us all along!”

Eilish’s eyes glow bright with tears. “I didn’t have anything to do with Baron returning to the stone! And I didn’t know I was Succubus! I’m not lying to you!”

I ain’t usually one to interfere but I ain’t never been a fan o’ bullies—an’ if I know one thing, it’s that Eilish is bein’ bullied by Limpy Stick. “I don’t know ‘bout no sabotage, but the angel was with me when Vamp Bat decided ta go callin’ on that stone agin.”

“She’s no fucking angel!” the angry elf yell with pissed-off eyes.

“Angel or no angel,” I says with a shrug. “We came back and found the vamp like this. She didn’t tell him nothin’ first,” I assure him. Eilish shoots me a look o’ gratitude.

“Cambion, calm the fuck down,” Dragan say.

“Don’t tell me to calm down!” shouts the elf, super not calmed-down-like. “I’m done taking orders from you! You’ve gotten us nothing but captured, hungry, and no closer to defeating Variant than when we fucking started!” The elf’s face get real red an’ it look like steam ‘bout ta come out his ears.

“Cambion,” Dragan warn, but the elf done lost his damn mind. “We still need to talk to Baron about what he learned from the stone. And we need Eilish’s memories restored to her.”

“That was when we thought she was on our side,” Cambion nearly yells. He’s shaking, real angry-like. He right scary when he so upset. “Everything was different when we thought she was an angel. Now we know she isn’t, you have no authority to tell anyone what to do.”

Cambion open his mouth to speak but he stopped short by a crack so loud I think there must o’ been beans in that shit slop Dragan made.

We all turn to look and see Eilish standing in front o’ the vampire. Baron’s awake, but he lyin’ on the ground an’ in front of him be the stone. But it ain’t orange now, an’ the fire sparks are gone. It’s broken in two pieces, laying there all sad, gray and lifeless. The half angel look down at it, shocked.

“What have you done?” asks the vampire, blinking his way back to reality.

“I tried to wake you up!” Her voice is still high an’ emotional as she back away real slow, like she afraid he gonna leap up at her an’ suck her brain out her nose. Oh, wait, that be zombies what do that.

“It’s broken,” the vamp says, an’ he look at the pieces of rock like they’re what’s left o’ his dead child. Then, he look up at Cambion. “Fix it.”

The elf shake his head, his gold hair shiftin’ as he moves. “I can’t. It’s been broken. It can’t be unbroken.”

“There must be a way,” say the vamp.

I heard his tone a zillion times before at Anona’s, when her victims went through withdrawals fromAtacamite. There ain’t no reasonin’ with them people. They want one thing an’ if you don’ have it, you better stay out their way.

“I don’t know of any way to fix it,” Cambion say with a big ol’ breath. “I’ve never seen anyone break aTransmutation Stonebefore.” Then he glare at Eilish. “What the fuck did you do?”

“I just… touched it, and it broke,” she admit with a shrug. I can tell she’s disappointed too ‘cause that stone carried inside it the key ta unlockin’ all her own memories. “Can’t we make another one?”

“I AM NOT,” I start, “FLYING BACK TO THAT FUCKING RIVER!” I’m impressed by how far my little voice carries. A few birds stop their singin’ and leave the trees.

That’s right, you little bastards,I think.Fly away, ‘cause Flumph ain’t flyin’ with you! I’se keepin’ my fat ass right here on the ground!

“Even if we had the supplies… it would take another full day,” Cambion say, an’ he shake his head with a sigh. “We’re malnourished and exhausted, and we’ve already wasted too much fucking time.”

“But my memories,” Eilish say, real sad-like.

Cambion glare at her. “What are you hoping to see in the stone that’s going to help us, anyway? The long list of male victims you’ve fucked and destroyed?”

---