Daughter of the Night

“Ready?” Aerrin asked, a predatory grin slowly spreading over his features as he slowly unsheathed Wildfire, the blade gleaming hungrily under the lights of the training grounds. He and I were circling each other warily, a good ten feet apart.

Although I kept my cloak, I had shed my Chanel outfit earlier on in favor of a simple long-sleeved black tee shirt and a pair of torn, whitewashed men’s jeans that I had found kicking around unclaimed. I was wearing practical black work boots under that. When Aerrin had first seen my outfit, he had been struck speechless. It had taken some convincing on my part that yes, I had indeed selected this outfit, and no, it was not because I had lost a bet or because I was being blackmailed.

I flashed him a lethal smile of my own, my fangs extended slightly. I carried no weapons of my own, but as I had said before, vampires don’t need weapons.

A small crowd had gathered around the combat circle, mostly off-duty guards and some palace workers. Aerrin and I ignored them for the most part.

It was three nights after the night I had made the alliance with the Fae. Since then, Aerrin had entirely recovered from his injuries, which was why we were now sparring.

As he sank into an opening stance, Wildfire held before him like an extension of his body, I couldn’t help but notice the way he seemed to morph into a different person. This person was someone I could fight seriously.

“Always,” I replied before disintegrating my form into shadow and blending with Aerrin’s own shadow.

He had relaxed his stance instead of tensing, which was admirable given the circumstances. Still, in less than half a second I had vanished from his view and was preparing to sideswipe him from behind.

Just as I was solidifying my form he twisted faster than I could have imagined, Wildfire singing as it cleaved the air towards my neck. I resumed my shadow form so that the katana passed harmlessly through me before I solidified, rolling to the ground and spinning my legs to kick his feet out from under him. He leaped forward over my legs, landing on one hand and completing a forward handspring while simultaneously swinging Wildfire with precision at my outstretched legs.

I pushed off the ground with my own hands, using my strength to propel my lower body away from the bloodthirsty reach of his sword. As I rolled backwards, I leaped off the ground, spreading my cape to either side and catching myself maybe fifteen feet in the air.

Aerrinaekaiyan and I measured each other appraisingly after our first exchange of blows. The whole thing had taken maybe two seconds. He was crouched catlike on the ground while I was suspended in the air.

“Not out of breath already, are we?” I called down to him.

He smirked up at me. “Stalling tactics? I would say the one out of breath here is you.”

In response I released my cape, allowing me to fall to the ground. As I fell, Aerrin flashed forward, ready to meet me. Wildfire came singing upward, and I spun in the air to kick the blade downward with my boot, careful only to touch the flat of the blade.

Aerrin was not about to fall for this twice; instead of allowing his sword to be buried in the ground, he curved the path of the blade down and then horizontal with the earth, although it took all his concentration to do so. I brought my left hand back and around, aimed at the side of his neck again.

What I didn’t see until a millisecond too late was the way he had blindly pulled Wildfire around and over his shoulder in a lightning stab towards my arm. I pulled my lips back, knowing that the jab was too fast for me to dodge, and I hit him full force on the side of his neck just as Wildfire bit into the flesh of my forearm.

He went flying leftwards, the force of my hit sending him twenty feet through the air. He twisted so that he landed on his feet and one free hand, the other holding Wildfire. I looked at my forearm distastefully. The cut was maybe an inch wide but had severed part of the muscle in my arm down to the bone. It was quite painful, and I felt my arm weakening, but no matter. It had been a long time since I had been injured in battle, and I could feel my adrenaline pumping.

I looked across at Aerrin, who was measuring the extent of his injuries as well. A dark bruise was spreading on the side of his neck where I had hit him, and the way he rolled his shoulders said that his head was spinning.

As I watched, he flickered from my vision. I hadn’t even blinked, and he was gone. I looked up, thinking that he had become airborne, but he wasn’t there. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, sharpening my sense of smell and my hearing.

The only clue I had was the faint sound of wind as Wildfire cut through it from behind me. I disbanded my physical form for one of smoke, and I heard a cough as Aerrin choked on the smoke. I returned to my physical form as I dove towards him, hand outstretched with fingernails hard as diamonds.

When he swung his katana down on my unprotected back, I called my cloak forward and hardened it into a shield. Wildfire smashed into it with more strength than I had anticipated, forcing me back. I used my cape to force Wildfire upwards while I myself ducked under the blade and came around on the other side of him, twisting to hit him fully in the shoulder of his sword arm.

He expected my blow and rolled forward, coming up with his katana blocking me from him. I thought we had reached another hiatus in the sparring, but he came at me with blinding speed, raising Wildfire in a powerful double-handed overhead blow. Knowing that to take the hit was at the minimum a severe injury, I leapt forward, crossing my forearms in a double block against the hand holding Wildfire. Bringing all my strength into blocking the blow, I felt the katana forced to a stop inches above the tendons in my shoulder. My cut forearm screamed with the effort.

Although he had the momentum built up, I was stronger, so for an instant we were straining against each other before I shoved his sword sideways and ripped the hilt from his hands, throwing the sword spinning behind me.

We were maybe two feet apart, and I was in between Aerrin and his sword. “You’ve lost your sword,” I said. “Do you yield?”

His gave went from my face to Wildfire and then back to me. “Never.”

With that, he produced two wicked daggers from somewhere on his belt and spun them expertly in his hands before throwing himself at me, one of his daggers aimed at my eye while the other aimed at my stomach.

I shot my hand forward to block the dagger to my face, but I didn’t count on my arm weakening as it did and allowing him to slip by my guard. His dagger nicked a neat line across my upper cheek as I leaned away and brought my other hand straight down on his other dagger in an attempt to trap his hand against the ground.

He hit the ground in an attempt to avoid my downward strike and I struck forward with my weakened arm towards his face. He brought one of his daggers across his face as a shield and sent the other one up towards my heart.

I pulled out of my blow to his face, instead using that hand to knock away the dagger to my heart, at the same time pulling my elbow downward into his stomach.

He rolled out of the way so that my elbow only clipped him on his hipbone, coming to his feet and leaping towards Wildfire, which was lying in the dirt. I kicked off the ground to intercept him in the air, but he flung both daggers with deadly accuracy towards my heart and my gut. I contemptuously knocked both of them aside with my hands.

He came up with Wildfire again in his hands and this time he went straight for me, the patterns on his blade glowing hot orange-white and dancing eagerly along the edge as it came towards me in a decapitating blow.

I ducked under the blade and brought my fist forward towards his chest in what was sure to be a killing blow. I held off from finishing and was about to congratulate myself on the win when I felt air brush against my neck from the force of Wildfire’s halt, less than a centimeter above my shoulder.

Aerrinaekaiyan exhaled as he realized how I was poised to kill. “I guess this is a tie,” he finally said.

I grinned. “I was going easy on you, you know.”

He smirked. “I was just going to say the same thing.”

“Are you tired?”

“On the contrary, I’ve never been more awake,” he replied mischievously.

“Then let us continue.”

“By all means.”

The next ten minutes were a whirlwind of power and agility, attacking and blocking and dodging, to the point that my every thought was consumed with his next move and my every action was a response to his movements.

We stopped dueling when Aerrin’s eyes darted to a location behind me and his expression changed from joyful abandon to something akin to disappointment.

I turned to see Queen Morhiannara coming towards us, her eyes flashing. I wasn’t sure if she was angry or simply interested in our skirmish. Today the Queen was clad in a pale green tunic with golden embroidery and soft grey leggings under that. Her hair pulled back into a long braid over one shoulder, giving her a demure look, yet her power was not at all undermined because of it.

I exhaled slowly, and for the first time I noticed my own appearance. I was bleeding from a dozen minor cuts all over my body, and besides the wound on my forearm I had another injury along my shoulder.

Aerrin, however, was suffering more from contusions than actual bleeding. He had a blackening eye, the bruise on his neck, two fractured ribs, and several large contusions on his torso hidden by his shirt. I had managed to rake his shoulders with my claws, however.

“One lacerated, the other beaten black and blue,” she remarked, her face giving nothing away.

Aerrin dropped to one knee out of respect, but I remained tall.

“This is not how I would prefer my warriors to retain their edge,” she said stiffly to Aerrinaekaiyan.

“I apologize, my Queen,” he replied. “I got… carried away.”

Her gaze turned to me, and I held her gaze. “I was measuring the prowess of your Summer Knight,” I told her. Several people in the crowd snorted skeptically, but I ignored them. “I’ve decided that he’s adequate for the post.”

From the corner of my vision I saw Aerrin roll his eyes, and I had to bite back a smile.

The Queen looked at me for a long time before turning away. “Report to the hospital wing, and then both of you report to me at the midnight bell. We have things to discuss.”

With that, she was gone. Aerrin stood up and stretched.

“Well,” he sighed, “I guess we’re done here.”

“You weren’t kidding about living in the hospital,” I noted.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “I wouldn’t joke about something like that. Well, I would, but nothing too offensive. Anyways, Lem won’t be too happy to see me again.”

“Lem? As in Lemariastra?”

“You’ve met her?” he asked.

“Briefly,” I said. “She offered me a place to stay in the Summer Palace and I sort of blew her off. Not that I regret it.”

He laughed. “If anyone could take you on, she could. Be careful with her. The infirmary’s this way.”

Within ten minutes we were at a cozy hospital ward, warm with mostly unoccupied cots. There was a fireplace in the corner, casting a warm glow to the surroundings. It irritated my skin.

“You may need attending,” I told Aerrin, “but I’m fine. Seriously.”

I heard footsteps behind me as I said this and then someone’s fingers wrapped around my arm in an iron grip and pushed back my sleeve, exposing the deep cut on my forearm. Taken by surprise, I jerked around, pulling my lips back and snarling with fangs fully extended. It was all I could do not to attack with my free arm.

“Calm down,” said Lemariastra, pale grey eyes flashing as she studied the wound. “Aerrinaekaiyan, this looks like your work. I was under the impression that you two had reconciled?”

“We did,” Aerrin protested. Lem pushed my shirtsleeve past my elbow before looking up at him and inhaling sharply.

“How? By practicing killing moves on each other?”

“By sparring,” I said, irritated. “If we came out of it unscathed, I would hardly call it an efficient practice.”

“Did you grow up in Sparta?” she asked sarcastically. “Or is that just vampire mentality?”

I was about to reply with a scathing remark, but Aerrin cut me off. “It’s warrior mentality, my dear Lemariastra. No pain, no gain, right Cross?”

“That’s one way to put it,” I acknowledged.

Lem measured me with her eyes before telling Aerrin to take his shirt off so she could gauge the extent of his damage.

I actually felt pretty bad when I saw the large splotches of black and blue across his skin, because there were plenty. He didn’t seem to mind that his skin was more purple now than tan, but it looked painful.

She had him hold packs of ice to the worst areas while she got some assistants to apply a healing salve. Once Aerrin was swarmed by medics, Lemariastra turned to me.

“I’ve never worked with a vampire before,” she told me, “so I’m not sure if my medicines will have the same effect or not.”

“I don’t need your help,” I informed her. “I will heal without salves or bandages.”

Lemariastra pursed her lips. “Not if those wounds are from Wildfire. They’ll take longer than usual to close. And doesn’t a vampire take longer to heal than one of the Fae?”

My lip curled. “It depends on how soon I hunt and the quantity of blood I consume.”

She blinked at my straightforwardness before shaking it off. “Then you should hunt as soon as possible. In the meantime, I will do what I can for you.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but she planted her hands on my shoulders and forced me to sit down on one of the cots. She disappeared and then rematerialized with a wet cloth and an ointment that smelled of disinfecting alcohol.

She swabbed my cheek with the damp cloth, ignoring the hostile stare I was giving her. She then proceeded to gently wash the wound on my forearm and then the one on my leg. The ointment she applied stung like a swarm of enraged hornets, but it faded after half a minute or so.

When she began unrolling a roll of white bandages, I tried to draw the line. “No, absolutely not, nobody will take me seriously if I’m partially mummified-”

The bandages went on anyways. I supposed I should learn to pick my battles.

When Lemariastra released Aerrin and me from her clutches, we were slightly less worse for wear, but we still looked like we got into a fight.

I felt the hunger in my belly stir again and sighed. It took very little these days to force me to hunt. My dependency on human blood was unnerving, and I didn’t like it.

“We should go report to Morhiannara,” Aerrin said and began walking confidently in a random direction. I followed, pulling my cloak over my shoulders in an attempt to hide the bandages.

“How come she didn’t attempt to mummify you?” I asked angrily.

He laughed. “She hates expending supplies on me. I’m the sole reason she ever runs out of materials to work with. And anyway, it’s not like she can do much for cracked ribs.”

As he said this, his hand wandered up to Wildfire’s hilt and grasped it. It was truly an extension of his body.

“You were relatively impressive,” I said as we walked towards the Court. “I suppose I can imagine how you came to be the Summer Knight.”

“I appreciate that,” he smirked. “It’s so difficult to wring a genuine compliment from you, so I’m going to savor this moment.”

I snorted as he closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and raised his hands as if to bask in the glory. “I’d tell you that you were somewhat adept as well,” he explained as he held the pose, “but you already know that so I don’t really see the point.”

“Consider it noted.”

We arrived at the Court in high spirits even though we looked like crap. Aerrin’s black eye was more prominent than the scratch on my cheek, but we still looked equally beaten up.

When Morhiannara saw us, she was as expressionless as usual, except that she had an air of resignation around her.

“Greetings, my Queen,” Aerrin said, sweeping his arm forward and bending in an elegant bow.

She dipped her head slightly in return. “Summer Knight.”

I was unsure of proper etiquette, so I reciprocated her tilt of the head with a “Hail, Queen.”

She tilted her head again at me. “Daughter of the Night.”

My eyebrows rose slightly at the new title, but I bit back a remark.

“I have requested your presences here and now because my Advisors and I have discussed and agreed upon our next move against the Court of Dracula. We have come to the decision that, in order to strengthen our cause, we need to form an alliance with the werewolves.”

I stiffened angrily and Aerrin did the same beside me. Werewolves? Seriously? They were a bunch of illiterate dogs with nothing to offer except fleas and a lack of anger management.

Aerrinaekaiyan broke our silence first. “My Queen…” he began hesitantly. “The werewolves? Are you certain that they would be a beneficial addition to our alliance? I mean…”

“Do you doubt the Court?” Morhiannara cut him off, her voice like ice.

Aerrin looked as if he was selecting his words carefully. “I don’t doubt your wisdom, of course, but the Fae cannot erase the past. We aren’t exactly on stellar terms with the werewolves. It’s more of a mutual enmity, really.”

“Do not presume to lecture me on that which is common knowledge,” the Queen said sharply. Softening her voice, she added, “I understand your reluctance, Summer Knight. And it is to be expected, for you speak the truth. Our history reminds us why we dislike them so, and yet the time has come that we need to form relationships anew in order to rid ourselves of the tyrant who calls himself Dracula.”

Aerrinaekaiyan bowed his head in submission. I was struck with the realization that I had never bothered to figure out why the Fae hated him so much in the first place. What had he done this time?

“I can appreciate the logic behind this,” I allowed, “but there is a problem with the practicality. The werewolves are structured into packs across the country, but there is no sole monarch or governing body that we could ally with. The mutts- werewolves are too unstructured for us to form an alliance with as a whole.”

Morhiannara nodded as if she had been expecting this. “There is no permanent system of power, it is true. However, if an issue carries relevance to the species as a whole, a conference between the pack leaders can be called to order. If we can convince the werewolves to call such a conference, we have our alliance set up.”

“But what is our role in all this?” Aerrin asked. “You don’t mean for us to… barter with them, do you? What if they want… hunting grounds in the city?” He visibly suppressed a shudder. I realized that he was voicing the voice of the Fae as a whole, and that this was not a happy subject for any of the faeries present.

“Your assignment is to convince the werewolves to call one of their conferences,” Morhiannara said, implacable in her apathy. “Once you have achieved that, I will attend personally and see to the negotiations.”

I shifted my weight onto the balls of my feet, ignoring the sharp response from the wound in my calf. “I don’t understand how my presence in all this will help matters,” I pointed out. “I’m on worse personal terms with the werewolves than even Aerrinaekaiyan, and I don’t think that marking me out as an important ally is going to get you much support from any of the werewolves.”

Morhiannara tilted her head, appraising me with her amber brown eyes. “While you are correct in that you personally will not be popular among the werewolves, know that your power behind our cause would be a comfort to them strategically. Also, it would be better to present yourself in a straightforward fashion than to reveal your part in the alliance after the werewolves had joined, for that could be taken as treachery.”

I mulled over her words for a while before admitting to myself that she was right.

“That aside,” Aerrin said, “how would we be able to convince them to call a conference?”

I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw the ghost of a smile flicker over the Queen’s face. “It is known that the werewolves are a somewhat… confrontational people. I imagine that combined, you could handle this with your… physical prowess.”

My curiosity piqued, I admit it. Morhiannara, suggesting we challenge werewolves to a duel to convene a conference?

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Aerrin asked, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. “Not to sound brutish or anything, but that’s a bit more my speed.”

I got the impression that Morhiannara had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes, although there was no way I could be certain with the way she wore her stony mask.

“While you are undeniably a warrior, Aerrinaekaiyan,” the Queen informed him with a patient monotone, “you are also a diplomat of the Fae. Do not forget that.”

“Of course, my Queen,” he said sincerely, dipping his head again.

“I am sure you are aware of the location of one of the larger werewolf packs,” Morhiannara went on. “It should be a simple matter for you both to travel to Brooklyn tomorrow and confront the werewolves. Peacefully, of course.”

“’Simple’ isn’t the word I’d use,” I muttered under my breath. Aerrin heard me and flashed me a grin.

“Cross, I have no direct control over your actions, but the Court has agreed that this is the best action you could take to aid us,” the Queen continued, acting as if she hadn’t heard me.

“And I am in accord with the Court on this matter,” I responded. “I shall assist your Summer Knight.”

“Excellent,” the Queen said brusquely. “Now, if there are no more unanswered questions, I suggest you prepare for your journey tomorrow.”

“My Queen,” Aerrinaekaiyan said reverently before turning and exiting the ballroom.

“We’ll return when we’ve accomplished this task,” I told the Queen before turning and following the Summer Knight. I caught up to him in the great hall outside the ballroom, where his composure began to slip a bit.

“Werewolves?” he asked nobody in particular. “I can’t believe this! The Fae hate werewolves! And they hate us! Morhiannara had better have something amazing up her sleeve, otherwise this plan is going to fail epically.”

“I’m sure she does,” I soothed him. “Just look at her. If she doesn’t have every maneuver from now until six months from now planned out, I’ll eat my cloak.”

Aerrin snorted. “That’d be something to see.”

“And anyways,” I went on, “this ‘assignment’ involves us assaulting werewolves in one-on-one combat. That sounds pretty good to me.”

His emerald eyes glittered with a predatory light. “That is a bonus, I’ll admit.”

I nodded, and then looked away, my thoughts elsewhere.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Aerrin said after a minute or so of silence.

“Twenty bucks.”

“That’s outrageous!”

“Fine,” I replied loftily.

He exhaled angrily. “Alright, twenty bucks.”

“It’s just that, I’ve never seen you intentionally demean yourself before others,” I admitted. “Yet you so freely subordinate yourself before the Queen.”

When I looked over at Aerrin, he was smiling slightly, looking towards the ground as if lost in memories.

“I have great admiration and respect for Morhiannara,” he said, “and she is my Queen, after all. My docile attitude, which I’m relatively certain is what you’re referencing to, isn’t just because of that, however. Queen Morhiannara represents the will of the Fae, and I serve the people. Even if I do not approve personally, I will always carry out the interests of the Fae as a whole. That is what it means to be Summer Knight.”

“You act so innocent at times,” I noted, “and so mature at others. You’re an enigma, did you know that?”

He smirked. “If I was easy to figure out, I doubt you’d be so eager to accompany me all the time.”

“Perhaps,” I said evasively. “But then perhaps I would trust you more easily.”

“Ouch.”

We continued our banter as we passed through the Summer Palace in preparation for our escapade back to the Big Apple to take on the werewolves.