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Authors: Carmelo Massimo Tidona

BOOK: Heartbreaker
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«I have no doubt. Just a few hours. Then dawn will come, and this room is very well exposed to sunlight.»

«It is very vile to let the sun do your job.»

He laughed again.

«I don't think you have understood. See, to create my heartless it is not enough to take their heart and eat it. There's another ingredient I need, not easy at all to find. But once the sunlight has turned you to ashes, I will have enough of it to complete the ranks of my army.»

«And once you will have done that, what would such army serve you for?»

«I don't think this is a problem of yours. Anyway you won't be here to see it.»

«Ridiculous. Do you believe you will be able to have your corpses without heart march on the city to conquer it? To do what with it?»

«Conquer the city? Ha! That's not my goal at all. Let's say I will... sell my help to the best bidder. Don't you think there is people who would give anything to have some indestructible creatures at their command?»

«Indestructible as long as you live.»

«Ah, I see you understood. Indestructible as long as I live, sure, but who do you think could kill me with them defending me?»

«You. You will kill yourself. Now». Vivienne's gaze became sharper, something seemed to stir behind her eyes, something that was able to catch the attention of Wilton Grange, binding his gaze to hers. The man flinched for a second, then stood up abruptly. Vivienne felt his power surround him, protect him, then burst toward her like a lightning bolt. She added her necromancer power to that of her hypnotic gaze, trying to repel the counterattack of the man. The air in the room seemed to become denser, as if a weird tension was gathering in it. The power radiated from her, pressing against his. Their energies clashed, merged, as if in an invisible embrace, repelled each other, then clashed again, none able to prevail on the other. Then he laughed again, and Vivienne felt a wave of power like no other she had ever met in her whole, long life. She felt her defenses being destroyed, her body lose control. Again she changed, leaving her human facade behind. Her teeth became fangs, her well-cared nails became curved claws, her eyes fired like torches, then she bent on herself, curling on the floor, and groaned.

«I hope you enjoyed it», he mocked her.

Shim was between a rock and a hard place. He couldn't advance without facing the zombies. He couldn't leave the room due to the creature blocking the only available door. He couldn't stand still because the zombies, now that Vivienne was gone, had started advancing again.

His back hurt. Hitting the table hadn't been pleasant at all, but that wasn't going to kill him. Which didn't change the bitter truth: he wasn't going to leave that place alive.

He had kept using the wand as long as he could, with scarce results. He had kept the last shot knowing that, if the zombies reached and grabbed him, turning the weapon against himself would at least give him a less painful death.

There was only another chance left, something that in a different situation he wouldn't even think about using under such conditions.

Without taking his eyes off the corpses, who had by now almost reached the half table he was standing behind, he opened one of the pockets in his belt. His fingers brushed two little round items and closed on one of them, which he brought up to his face. He whispered a single word and in the heart of the little dark-red sphere a feeble light seem to appear. He quickly threw the sphere in front of him, in the midst of the creatures, and bent down as much as he could behind his only shelter, covering his head with his free arm. There was a flash of light and heat as a huge flame burst filled almost the whole room. There was almost no actual explosion, but still the table was pushed, toppled over him and caught fire. As did the zombies.

The stench of burning flesh soon reached his nostrils, even before he could push away the burning table and risked looking behind it. The undead were on fire, clothes and hair burned like lit torches. And they kept advancing. The most worn out, already damaged by the projectiles of his wand, had slowed down their pace even more; the others just kept going, and if they reached him they were going to burn him alive, as well as dismembering him. Things had become worse.

He decided that it was time to try a last ditch move. He went to the half table that still was between him and the creatures, placed his hands against it, in spite of the fact that it was now scalding hot, and started running forward using all the speed and power he could muster, crushing the zombies and making them fall backwards in a tangle of limbs, knowing that this might have given him some more time, as well as a serious burn to both hands, but nothing more. He only had a chance to seize, after which he was going to join his ancestors in some place he had never really thought about so far.

He launched himself to the door blocked by the other undead – which was still standing motionless in spite of all that had happened – and right before it could try to grab him he aimed the wand for his stomach and shot from up close, tearing a gash into its waist. It started to heal immediately, but before it could close itself completely, Shim whispered something and pushed one hand in the entrails of the monster.

krystorrent04/02/2014 20.52.56672725
CHAPTER 11

Wilton Grange's eyes went wide as if he had just seen a ghost – which by the way shouldn't have been too unusual in his line of work – when he saw the figure advancing trough the corridor in his direction, and recognized the dwarf who had entered his trap along with Vivienne.

He was holding his left hand, which seemed burned down to a stump, against his chest, his forehead was bleeding, his clothes were torn to shreds, but he was alive, and that shouldn't have been possible. No one should have been able to pass by the heartless at the door. No one except the vampire, obviously, because he wanted her to, believing she had succeeded thanks to her abilities and not because the guard had been properly instructed.

He expanded his mind to look for his creature and immediately perceived it, or better perceived the parts it had been made of, now scattered around the room and the corridor, already trying as much as possible to gather in the same place in order to join and start rebuilding the body they had belonged to till a few seconds before. He relaxed, turning again his attention to the place he was standing in. A temporary defeat was tolerable, after all. Also because its author wasn't going to live long anyway.

Shim looked at the scene around him. Vivienne was at a few meters, curled on the floor, with her knees pressed against her chest and her face deep between her arms. He didn't know exactly the purpose of the symbols traced around her, but he knew just enough to understand that she was unable to pass them.

At the end of the room there was the man who had to be responsible for all that.

«You are...» he started to mumble, struggling to say the words so that they could be heard and understood «... under arrest...»

Vivienne slightly lifted her head at the sound of his voice, just enough to let an eye out and look at the detective, who had been able to get there in spite of her thoughts.

Grange too looked at him. Pathetic. He raised one hand and said some words in a language unknown to the most. Immediately the body of the dwarf was shaken by convulsions. A whitish foam raised to his lips, while his chest started burning as if someone had just poked it with a scalding ember. His legs started to tremble.

He forced himself to go on, even though each step required a huge effort, even though he was losing control over his own body. He tried to say something, but only managed to let go an agonizing rattle.

Grange watched him stumble forward. It was remarkable for him to try fighting the effects of his spell. As remarkable as useless. It was a pity that he was too worn to be used as raw matter to create another of his masterworks. Nonetheless, he would have been a worthy sacrifice to further consolidate his already enormous power. As soon as he would let go and lose consciousness for the pain he was causing him, he would put him on the altar consecrated to Death and finish him the right way. It was just a matter of seconds.

Indeed Shim fell soon enough.

He fell on his knees, his body shaken by uncontrollable spasms, only his gaze was lit and alive, his eyes fixed on a single spot on the floor. A spot that seemed to be very far. A spot that was closer and closer.

He made another shuffled step, crawling on his knees with the help of the only functioning arm he still had. Then, with his last strength, he pushed himself as far as he could, and lied flat on the floor, his right hand stretched towards Vivienne. His palm was the last thing to touch the ground, just on the edge of the circle that was trapping the vampire.

The look of triumph on Grange's face was quickly replaced by a mixed expression of surprise and terror as he found himself looking into the depths of Vivienne's eyes.

He hadn't seen the vampire moving, he hadn't even seen her standing up, still she was there, in front of him, with her right hand pushed into his chest up to the wrist.

He realized he should be feeling pain, but all he felt was an unreal sensation. Then nothing more, everything disappeared as his body slid to the floor and his gaze became empty. His hearth, clenched in the hand Vivienne had extracted a second before, beat weakly for a few seconds more, then joined him in the silence of oblivion. She threw it away, disgusted.

«We could call this poetic justice», she said as she looked for something to clean her hand onto.

Suddenly they stopped moving, with no apparent reason.

Wherever they were, they stood still for a second, as if frozen in the last pose they had taken. Then they simply dropped to the ground, again and forever lifeless.

At the police headquarters, Rupert was in the middle of the common room, surrounded by policemen who were seeking shelter behind any possible hindrance to his relentless advance, trying with scarce success to keep him at bay with their best weapons.

In front of him, standing behind an upturned desk, was Celendlinis Delmenar, completely deaf to the calls of the officers shouting him to stand down and not attract attention.

The elf waved his hands in the air, uttering some arcane words, then stretched them toward the undead, with his fingers spread wide. Bolts of light sprang forth from his fingertips, directed toward Rupert. An instant before they hit him, he stopped living – given his could be called life at all – and fell to the floor as the magic raged uselessly on what was now but a common corpse. But from Celen's point of view, things were quite different.

When Shim opened his eyes again, he found himself looking Vivienne's face as if in a dream, much closer than it should have logically been. He barely felt the movement that showed how she was carrying him in her arms, with no apparent strain although his weight was anything but negligible. He knew he was hurt quite seriously, knew he should have been in pain, but there was something in her eyes which seemed to anesthetize him, something that seemed to tell him that there was nothing to worry about, that everything was going to be fine.

Vivienne smiled an enigmatic smile.

Wilton Grange was dead, and along with him the secret for the creation of the heartless was gone.

THE AUTHOR

 

Carmelo Massimo Tidona, employee, writer and translator in his spare time, has been reading and writing since as long as he can remember. Some of his short stories have been published in various anthologies.

For 0111edizioni Carmelo Massimo Tidona published:
“Trittico Oscuro”
, collection of urban fantasy tales (2009, Italian).
“Riflessi d’Ombra”
, urban fantasy novel (2009, Italian)

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krystorrent04/02/2014 20.52.56672725

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