Night Slayer: Midnight War Read online

  I was still contemplating my next move when I spotted a pile of black clothes near the altar. I had not been looking forward to exploring this drafty medieval fortress while bare-ass naked. I’m no prude, but who knew what other nasty surprises were lurking in the shadows. Facing a monster in the dark with my junk hanging out didn’t sound like a good time.

  I inspected the clothes. Black pants, black T-shirt, a Kevlar vest inscribed with runes and glyphs, and a leather trench coat sporting similar strange symbols, had all been neatly laid out next to a pair of badass motorcycle boots. The outfit recalled the uniform I wore in SWAT but with more of a goth flair—the Road Warrior as reimagined by Aleister Crowley.

  I shrugged and got dressed. As I slipped into the black combat suit, I realized the clothes fit me like a glove almost as if the fabric had been tailored to my precise measurements. How had Octurna managed to have clothes in my exact size lying around? The answer was simple if I accepted one crazy idea—magic was real.

  As I moved away from the altar, I wondered if this might be another test. Was the sorceress and her two faceless servants watching me right now, observing what I would do next? I was in no mood to play games. But I was also impatient and unwilling to sit around and twiddle my thumbs while I waited for the lady of the house—sorry, the castle—to grace me with her presence.

  No, I needed to get out of this dungeon. Or at least get some more answers.

  Mind made up, I followed the line of flickering torches which extended down the length of the temple. The shadows seemed alive with movement. Again, I felt like I had gone back in time—this was some medieval fantasy fortress straight out of Castlevania.

  The place sure could have used a woman’s touch, which was ironic considering who called it home. But the sorceress who had saved my life wasn’t like any female I’d ever run into before. Who was Octurna, really? Hell, let me rephrase that question—what was she? A witch, or something far worse? She claimed to be human, but I wasn’t convinced.

  And I had slept with that creature. Well, sort of. I didn’t know how to describe what had happened between us. I’d had intercourse with the hottest woman I’d ever seen and experienced the most mind-blowing yet painful orgasm of my life. Maybe I had died and gone to Hell after all.

  It must have taken me ten minutes before I reached the end of the temple and arrived at a triangular wooden door. The unusual geometric shape added another surreal layer to this place, heightening the feeling that I was trapped in a dream.

  I hesitated only for a beat before passing through the doorway.

  The next chamber was half-moon shaped, the ceiling lower. The longer curved wall contained thousands of books lined up on shelves. The other wall was a giant stained-glass window. Waves of light emanated from the multi-colored window and painted the chamber with blue, red, and green strokes. As I drew closer, I realized the colored glass consisted of numerous smaller windows, each one depicting a unique design or a scene from some story I didn’t recognize. This place couldn’t seem to make up its mind—was it a church, a fortress, a castle, or something else entirely?

  Navigating the chamber, I passed rows upon rows of empty display stands. It felt like I had stepped into a museum where the collection had been stolen. Only three of the stands held objects, which shone in the stained-glass windows’ surreal light. The largest looked like a dinosaur skull, both reptilian and demonic in appearance, with a pair of curved horns sprouting from its bleached forehead. The monster skull would have been at home on any self-respecting heavy metal album cover.

  I thought of the red liquid Octurna had poured into my mouth earlier. Dragon Blood. Was I looking at the skull of one of those mythical beasts?

  Two other stands flanked the main one and held smaller but equally inhuman skulls. One was long and pointy with sharp, extended incisors designed to rend the flesh of its prey. The other appeared more human—except for the fangs.

  “What have I gotten myself into?” I wondered out loud.

  “I’ve been asking that same question.”

  I whirled, startled by the sorceress’ sudden appearance. Octurna had snuck up behind me like a ninja. Shit, my situational awareness was generally off the charts. No one got the drop on me.

  I stared at Octurna, waves of multi-colored light washing over her alabaster features. She freaked me out, but God was she beautiful.

  “You make it a habit of creeping up on your guests?” I said for lack of a better comeback.

  “I don’t get too many visitors.”

  No shit. I wonder why.

  “I apologize,” Octurna said. “My social graces might be a little… rusty. I haven’t seen another living person in over a century.”

  Talk about a conversation stopper. I pondered Octurna’s words for a moment.

  “You’re over a hundred years old?” I said dumbly.

  Octurna nodded, no trace of humor in her expression.

  I shook my head. “What’s next? You’re going to tell me that you’re a vampire?”

  Octurna narrowed her eyes in irritation at my flippant comment. “Please, don’t insult me. The Shadow Cabal created vampires.”

  Damn, there were way too many things wrong with that sentence.

  “So vampires exist?” I asked, my voice a raspy whisper.

  “Nightmares are real. I thought you’d figured out that much by now.”

  I shrugged. I guess I can be a slow learner.

  Almost as if she’d read my mind, she said, “You must unlearn everything you thought you knew about the world, Jason.”

  “I’m beginning to figure that out.”

  “Good. It will make the next part a lot easier.”

  I was almost afraid of what she meant. Instead, I asked, “So are you like immortal or something?”

  The sorceress shook her head. “Far from it. But the magic inside the fortress slows down the human aging process. We are beyond space and time in this place.”

  I was still trying to wrap my head around Octurna’s latest revelation when another thought occurred to me.

  “If you haven’t seen a living soul in a century, then I’m the first guy you’ve…”

  I broke off, feeling like some foolish teenager.

  Octurna’s expression turned business-like. “Don’t read too much into what transpired between us. It was the only way I could transfer some of my magic and link my powers to you.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “Are you serious?”

  I felt tempted to reach out for Octurna. What would her lips feel like? They looked soft. Despite the craziness of the situation, my attraction hadn’t waned. I weirdly wanted her more now than ever.

  But the warning in her gaze was implicit—don’t touch me.

  “We aren’t lovers, Jason, and I’m not looking for any sort of intimacy.”

  I stared hard at Octurna. Was she serious or trying to convince herself of her own words?

  “What happened earlier was part of a ritual. A means to an end. Do you understand?”

  I didn’t. Not really. Then again, nothing much was making sense around here. But I could accept when a girl wasn’t interested, and Octurna had cooled considerably. I backed off and did my best to change the subject.

  “So these tattoos…”

  “They’re conduits for the magic I’ve shared with you.”

  “What are you saying? I can cast spells now?”

  “Something like that. You’ll need the proper training, but yes, you now can tap into the craft.”

  The craft? What was this, a goth teenager’s fantasy? I felt myself growing frustrated, and it had nothing to do with being shot down by a beautiful and mysterious woman.

  “Listen, lady, don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful you saved my life, but I need some answers. You said you wanted me to be your knight or slayer or whatever? To fight some kind of war against monsters and magic?”

  “The Midnight War. The battle between light and dark, science and magic, order and chaos, mankind and dem
onkind.” Octurna’s voice hummed with emotion while I struggled to follow her.

  “Okaaay.” I shook my head. This whole thing was just getting crazier by the minute. “I’m sorry, but you’re losing me here.”

  “A short history lesson might be in order. I forget how little regular people know about the real world.”

  You mean ordinary people who don’t live in castles and whose ideas of hot first date don’t include bathing in blood and having sex on stone altars, I thought.

  “I live in the real world,” I said tightly. “I fought two wars in the real world.”

  Octurna’s penetrating gaze bored into me. “I understand that all of this can be a bit overwhelming. But you’ve been lied to all your life, Jason. There is much more to reality than you could have ever imagined.”

  I could feel the muscles in my face working, and I balled my hands into fists.

  “Let me show you,” Octurna said.

  With that, the room spun around me, and I was transported into a large cavern. A bonfire produced leaping shadows against the rough, glistening cave walls. A scraggly haired primitive man faced the flames and gesticulated wildly with his hands, his thick lips forming words in some guttural tongue. With a hiss, the fire jumped into his fingers and engulfed his whole form, imbuing him with an inner light without burning his flesh.

  “Magic has been with us since the beginning, Jason. It has always been part of the human story. It could produce wonders…”

  Images of the pyramids and Mayan temples replaced the cave scenery. I felt like I had stepped into a virtual reality program where I was watching highly detailed, fully immersive 3-D holograms of the past.

  “And nightmares.”

  My surroundings morphed again. The change was so abrupt that it triggered a wave of vertigo, and I nearly lost my balance as a brand-new landscape erased the pyramids. Nausea bubbled up my throat, and it required a great act of will to maintain my equilibrium. I now found myself in a dark, fog-enshrouded forest straight out of some fairy tale. A piercing shriek cut through the night, and I whirled.

  Directly up ahead, an armored knight sat astride his horse, sword up as he confronted the darkness. Another shriek reverberated through the forest, and a bat-like humanoid monster erupted from the night. The creature dodged the knight’s sword in midair and tore the doomed hero off his mount in one violent swoop. Mercifully, the giant wings hid what happened next to the writhing knight in its cruel talons. The man’s blood-curdling screams drowned out the sounds of rending flesh and told their own terrifying story.

  A howling sound behind me turned my blood into ice, and I pivoted on my heels. A giant wolf—no, a werewolf, I realized—exploded from a copse of gnarly trees and leapt at me. Fur dark as night, eyes shining with fierce intelligence. And those eyes were locked on me. Somehow, I had ceased to be a mere observer and was now part of the action. Great! Before I could shield my face from the werewolf’s surprise attack, the forest rippled and warped, and I was back in Octurna’s fortress.

  I exhaled sharply, wiping a film of perspiration from my forehead.

  Octurna’s lips curled with a hint of a smile. Was she amused by my suffering?

  “It would take centuries before we mastered the arcane arts,” she explained. “Once we did, the magic began to flow freely through our world. Some practitioners used it to create miracles and wonders. Others allowed it to corrupt them. The worst of the lot conjured demons with their newfound powers and mixed the blood of beasts with the lifeforce of devils.”

  I could still taste bile in my mouth. I wanted to spit on the floor, but I didn’t think the sorceress would appreciate it.

  “Could you repeat that, please,” I asked. “In English.”

  Octurna cocked an eyebrow in irritation, her patience running dry. “Mankind created the monsters of myths and legends,” she said as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

  Teaching wasn’t the sorceress’ strong suit. Hey, I didn’t even blame her. I wasn’t exactly a model student. Never had been. Part of me was still in denial about all this craziness. I didn’t want any of it to be true. Dammit, I wanted reality to go back to normal.

  “Okay, monsters are real,” I said reluctantly, still not believing it.

  “The practitioners of magic knew the danger their power represented to the world, and so the Cabal was formed.”

  “The Cabal? Is that like the Church of Scientology?”

  Octurna smiled thinly. She clearly wasn’t amused. “A magical society made up by the Lords of Light, enlightened souls who had mastered the mystical arts, all of them dedicated to using their abilities as a force of good. And to ensure no one would dare break the Cabal’s covenants, an order of combat magicians known as the Guardians was formed. The Guardians were entrusted with the responsibility of policing the black arts.”

  With each successive revelation, it all sounded more and more ludicrous. Lords of Light? Guardians?

  Octurna’s features darkened as she proceeded with her twisted history lesson. Even when I wanted to shake my head at her words, I couldn’t stop looking at her. She exerted a magnetic pull on me, and the memories of our intense coupling sent a shot of heat straight to my groin.

  Hey! Snap out of it, buddy, and pay attention!

  Either unaware of the effect she was having on me or unwilling to acknowledge it, Octurna continued her story. “Things took a dark turn a hundred years ago. Ruthless and reckless magicians arose with horrifying plans for humanity. The seven Dark Masters, as they would become known, decided to seize control of the Cabal. There was a terrible magical war. And unlike in the myths and stories, the good guys did not win. The Lords of Light were slaughtered, the Guardians hunted down. The seven Dark Masters gained control of the Cabal, and it became the Shadow Cabal. Magic would remain in our world, but the followers of the black arts would control its use and rule a new world of darkness and monsters.”

  I studied her face. “How do you fit into this crazy story?”

  Sadness filled Octurna’s expression as she spoke. “I was one of the Guardians. The only one to survive the Midnight War.”

  I stare at Octurna, seeing her in a new light. She too appeared to be a survivor. “How did you escape?” I asked.

  “While my fellow Guardians were slaughtered like cattle, I used my last reserves of power to escape Earth and construct this fortress.” Octurna swept a hand to indicate our strange surroundings.

  “And where is this lovely castle?”

  “The Sanctuary is a fortress outside of time and space, a place between dimensions capable of materializing anywhere on Earth. It’s beyond the reach of the Shadow Cabal and its agents of chaos.”

  I thought about it for a moment. “So you’ve been hiding in this magical castle of yours for a hundred years?”

  Her eyes flickered with sudden irritation. “Not hiding. Surviving. The Shadow Cabal put a death spell on me. To set foot in the real world would kill me within seconds. I would perish before I could draw my first breath. Believe me, there is nothing that I miss more than the sun shining down on my face or to breathe fresh air.”

  Sadness fell over the sorceress’s perfect face like a veil.

  At least that explained Octurna’s ghostly pallor. I usually preferred ladies with a healthy tan, but her pale skin didn’t detract from her attractiveness. It merely added to the otherworldly quality of her beauty.

  I went over the details of her story in my mind, trying to think about it like a Marine instead of a terrified man out of his depth. “So this Shadow Cabal believes you’re dead?”

  Octurna nodded grimly. “Yes. They think all the Guardians have perished.”

  “But you’re trapped here?”

  “That’s correct, Jason. It is both a fortress and a prison.”

  I pondered this for a moment. I would have gone nuts being stuck here with no one to keep me company. Almost as if Octurna had read my thoughts, she said, “Many would have succumbed to madness. But I had my hatr
ed. My desire for vengeance. And the knowledge that I might be humanity’s last hope. I couldn’t succumb to my personal demons when real ones threatened the world. I owed my masters that much. And thankfully my two constructs offered me the illusion of human company.”

  On cue, the two faceless beings I had met earlier materialized from the darkness. I took a quick step back. Had they been hiding in the shadows all along? So much for believing that we were alone. I eyed their mannequin faces, a shiver running up my spine. I couldn’t imagine spending a day, much less a century, with those creepy creatures.

  “I think I’d rather be alone,” I said, suppressing a shudder.

  Almost as if to prove the foolishness of my thoughts, the featureless visages shimmered and rippled. Suddenly I was looking at two gorgeous women, one a fair-skinned redhead with rosy cheeks, the other an exotic brunette.

  “My constructs can be whatever you want them to be,” Octurna said with the ghost of a smile.

  The faces changed again, turning into male models straight out of some CW show.

  “What are they?”

  “Some cultures call them golems, artificial beings powered by magic. There is nothing to fear from them. They are manifestations of my will and loyal to me.”

  I didn’t draw much reassurance from those words. I was still trying to figure out how I felt about this sorceress, much less her two magical companions. Another thought occurred to me.

  “If you’ve been trapped in here all this time, how did you know about me? Somehow I doubt Castle Grayskull comes equipped with a police scanner.”

  Octurna tilted her head toward the giant stained-glass window. “Magic,” she said simply.

  5

  Octurna took a seat on the rough-hewn throne that faced the stained-glass windows. The high-backed chair was made of black stone and radiated immense power, immediately commanding respect.

  The sorceress gestured at me to study the windows. I was curious, so I went along with it. As the distance shrank between me and the colorful glass, more details jumped into view. The images didn’t tell some biblical story, as I had first believed. What I had initially thought to be a vast mosaic of church windows, I now realized was something far more elaborate.