Page 24 of Bite of the Gargoyle

I look at the bed, and there is Derith.

He’s wound around a woman who… when I see her face, I feel my stomach drop.

Because she looks just like me.

Chapter Eight

“Balor,” Derith says in this dream vision while sitting up in the bed to face his brother with a stony look.

“It seems I’ve interrupted you,” Balor responds.

Derith swallows hard. “You were bound to find out, eventually.”

“It would appear thateventuallyhas come upon us, brother,” Balor responds, and his words slither over me like snakes. Even with goose flesh on my arms and a lump in my throat, I don’t look away as Balor turns his attention to the woman, who hugs the sheets protectively around her breasts.

“Get away from him, Suisse,” Balor seethes and, of course, I recognize the woman’s name—it’s the same one Derith called me when we first met. Now I understand his shock upon first seeing me—I truly have an uncanny likeness to this woman.

Balor lunges. There are more words exchanged, but I don’t hear them over the violent scuffle.

And then everything is in motion—all three of them moving too quickly for me to make much sense of what’s happening. It isn’t superhuman speed, which confuses me, but it’s a considerable speed nonetheless. I hear a grunt and figure someone’s landed a punch. There’s another grunt, a crack, then several more in rapid succession.

The woman in the bed, Suisse, screams for the fight to stop. I see mouths moving, both brothers shouting back at Suisse, but I don’t hear the words above a dull roar rising inside my head. But whatever is being said it seems to increase Balor’s rage at his brother tenfold.

He turns back to Suisse with his arms around Derith’s neck. Then Balor flexes, turns abruptly, and with the sound of bone snapping clean from its moorings, he breaks Derith’s neck. Derith drops to the ground, his eyes now sightless and dead. I feel my stomach drop because that shouldn’t be able to happen—not to a vampire.

The images around me begin to change then. The world swirls into a barrage of colors until the hag and I are no longer standing in that desolate bedroom. Instead, we’re atop a castle’s tower. It’s pouring rain, falling in a slanted assault against the ground. It’s bitter cold and through the gray of the sheets of rain, I’m able to make out the shape of a woman. As the scene begins to delineate itself, I recognize the woman: Suisse, again.

She’s standing on the edge of the open window in the tower, clothed in just her camisole. The rain beats against her as it’s carried by the relentless wind. Her hair snaps against her skin in soaking ropes. The wind, though strong, still can’t cancel out the sounds of her sobs.

With no ceremony, not even a muttered few last words, she lets herself fall.

After a few seconds. I hear her smack against the ground below. And the vision grows black, dead. I turn my head slowly in the direction of the old witch.

“Come,” she says, and I shakily obey.

The image changes again as she grabs my hand.

This time, we’re transported back to her cottage, and for a moment, I think our time-traveling odyssey is over. But I couldn’t be more wrong. She clutches my hand even more tightly, and another vision explodes behind my eyes.

“Balor,” a woman says. And I recognize the witch.

“Hag,” Balor addresses her. His dark hair and piercing eyes are as striking against his pale skin as ever, but there’s something missing from his appearance. He looks different from the day he took my parents and sister. He looks, in fact, human. He even has bags under his eyes.

“I require a favor from you,” he tells the witch.

“Favors are not mine for the offering.”

“I’m in no mood for your riddles,” Balor says and glares at her. “We are both aware of your power.”

His voice is different too. It hangs heavy with regret. You can see the regret in his eyes, as well.

“What do you ask of me?”

“I need you to bring back my wife from the land of death,” he responds.

“And why would I do that?”

He breathes in deeply and then pauses for a moment or two. “I know you owe my family a favor.”

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