Dark Tarot (Dark Carpathians)

Gabriel and Francesca took to the air, two large birds of prey, falling back to aid the brethren in protecting Sandu as he rose with Adalasia. At once, the bats moved, the air darkening with the migration as more joined them. Lightning forked in jagged arcs across the sky. Thunder rumbled and shook the ground hard enough to knock down the dogs, who were baying, giving chase as they did.

Benedek and Petru emerged behind Gabriel and Francesca, two imposing figures in midair, throwing up nets to block the flight of the bats. Nicu and Siv held the sky nets as the bats were driven in. Lightning burst in overheated, white-hot charges straight into the dense cloud of bats. A burst of blue flames lit the sky, and then a horrible putrid odor spread through the air. Ashes rained to earth. The four men chased after the few remaining bats fleeing, those that had managed to escape the net and had been continuing their pursuit of Sandu and Adalasia. Once they were certain they had managed to destroy every one of Nera’s pursuers, they turned their attention to the demons who had taken on the shape of dogs.

The animals raced through the streets, red eyes to the sky, baying, calling to one another as they ran, saliva dripping from their fangs. These weren’t the hounds of hell, not even close, but they could do damage if they found their intended victims. The four guardians used their skills honed by years of fighting the undead to send spears of lightning when they had a clear shot without any witnesses close. Each time they struck, the animal was instantly stopped in its tracks, going up in that same blue flame, the putrid odor permeating the air before it was totally incinerated.

Sandu, the ground, Afanasiv warned.

Below them, the ground shook, and a deep schism widened in a long zigzag to expose a wide wall of skulls and bones. The skulls tipped upward, the empty eye sockets burning red to stare up at them as Sandu, with Adalasia in his arms, flew overhead that exposed wall of human remains. Bones shot out of the wall like missiles, aiming straight for them. Arms with hands, bony fingers reaching, while the skulls directed them, bouncing above them, mouths opening and closing obscenely.

Adalasia sat up straighter in Sandu’s arms, drawing a small curved athame from one of the many loops in her coat as well as a small vial of salt. She faced outward toward the skulls and bony arms trying to rip her from Sandu. Pointing the athame straight in the air, she drew the boundaries of protection around Sandu and her, although she kept those boundaries very close in order to draw the demons using the bones in close as well.

She felt Sandu hesitate when one of those long-dead hands caught at her dangling ankle and slid off before the bony fingers could close around it. Don’t falter for a moment, Sandu. Keep going no matter what.

She began to chant softly under her breath as she pulled more items from the loops in her coat. The scent of white sage drifted into the air. She waited until the skulls and their disembodied arms surrounded her on three sides, and she flung the salt in a sweeping arc, following it with a long cut of the athame. The skulls opened their mouths in a silent scream of pain. A blessed athame could cause pain to the demons even when they had no bodies. They fell back with the sound of rattling bones.

They cannot follow us to Gabriel’s home. Can you destroy them?

Give me another minute or two. She poured conviction into her voice. She wasn’t certain. She’d never been flying through the air before with skulls and bones from the catacombs surrounding her—the demons from hell obviously using them. But they had to be lesser demons. There was no time, and Nera wouldn’t have wasted the effort. She pulled a large piece of magnetite from one of the deep pockets in her coat. As she did, she began to chant a prayer softly, holding the mineral rock in her palm facing out toward the skulls and bones. Each time the light from the moon glinted off the stone, the skulls shriveled and dropped back.

At the last moment, she transferred the stone to her other hand, and taking the little vial of liquid she had concealed behind it, she popped off the top with her thumb. Raising her voice, she dispersed the liquid in a wide circle around Sandu so that the contents of the vial scattered like rain on every bone and skull, little tiny droplets landing on them. Smoke rose into the air, long trails of grayish vapor. Wails filled the night. Bones and skulls dropped from the sky, no longer directed by the demons she had banished.