Slayers: The Aurora Part 6

"No," The queen snorted out a laugh. "They are very nice and not d.i.c.kheads at all."

"Huh, never would have believed it." Mina said, leaning back to allow the sun to caress her face, amusing the queen.

Her advisors were against her plan from the beginning because it involved people they didn't trust. She smiled when Mina wrinkled her nose. She turned meeting her eyes.

"It will be over soon though? And you will call us if you need us?" Mina demanded.

"Yes, I will call if I have a need of you, now get to business. Tell me about the attack on the Dennis estate." The queen demanded, bringing them back to the reason for the meeting. She needed to get back soon.

The Aurora had no sooner returned home than she felt the tugging pull of a nearby demon covered in a slick slimy layers of darkness. With a sigh she blinked to the location. Only to be surprised with over twenty demons. The Aurora, sighed. Yep, this was going to be a long d.a.m.ned day, she thought. Seconds later with her swords in her hand she was taking out the reptilian lizard demons one by one.

It was about twenty minutes into the fight, she had taken out ten of them and another fifteen had shown up. She knew that she should call for someone to help, but she didn't want to risk another dying on her behalf. She swung at the demon nearest her cutting its arm. She watched it screech, and fall to the ground. She blocked a razor sharp jab from another as she stabbed him through the heart.

It seemed as if the lizard demons kept coming. How many of them were there, she wondered? She heard the roar of one behind her and she took him out before he could attack her. Blood sprayed the gra.s.s, as the demon fell. She hated these f.u.c.king demons. They always traveled in large packs. That was fine most of the time, only when one went dark if they didn't kill him right away then they all turned dark. She wondered if it was that they all shared a collective memory. Not like a hive mind, but like a bank of knowledge that once corrupted only swelled and festered.

These thoughts distracted her and she felt the slice of the demons claws before she could jump away. She knew when she looked down that she needed to hurry this fight along. Dang that hurt like a b.i.t.c.h. Her side was sliced open almost to her hip bone, and she knew that she only had about thirty minutes before her body shut down to heal. If she hadn't been in battle that time would have been cut in half, but the adrenaline would keep her going for an extra fifteen minutes. Blocking the pain was difficult, and only her years of training allowed her to manage it.

She needed this finished so she could get the h.e.l.l out of this clearing. She grunted and got serious about killing the demons who were coming at her. She did notice that when she cut one down another didn't take its place, which meant that there weren't anymore, thankfully. But they were learning her movements and they were becoming harder to kill. That was another reason she hated these demons. They learned patterns fast, making it hard to vary fighting skills enough to kill them all. She was just glad that none of her slayers had felt the call to this meadow. It kept them safe.

She moved watching the last five demons. Time to change the rhythm, she thought watching another one move away from the blow she tried to deliver. She switched feet, moving to the left catching one off guard stabbing his heart. She was almost out of energy she realized. This was going to be a close one.

She moved out of the way of more slas.h.i.+ng claws, stabbing another demon in the heart. Only three to go, she told herself. s.h.i.+t, maybe she should have called someone else, she thought watching the last three spread out coming from different directions. She had one chance she realized. A move that she had perfected over the years, but only used as a last resort, because it was draining. Only that was the only move left to her due to the bleeding slice on her side.

Sighing, she blinked behind the first demon, taking him out. Then she proceeded to do it with the other two. She fell down on her knees, panting. She could feel her vision blurring. She couldn't pa.s.s out here she had to get back. d.a.m.n, she thought looking around at the dead demons around her. Sometimes she surprised even herself with the amount of carnage she was able to create. If they hadn't all been coated in the dark slime of evil she would feel horrible. She was so tired of fighting these battles. She just wanted to rest, but until she killed Morvan, it wouldn't stop.

The evil that one vampire was able to cause still amazed her. She knew from what her advisers had told her earlier today that he was somehow turning Demons dark. He was only able to do it with the lower cla.s.ses so far, and not the more powerful ones. But it was only a matter of time before he managed to figure out how to change more demons.

Most of the ones effected by his dark powers right now were the weaker demons like lizard demons, trolls, goblins, imps, gremlins and ogres. But it was only a matter of time before it was vampires, wizards, and other more powerful demons his darkness was able to turn. The man was spreading his dark corruption and she had to stop him. He was using dark spells to make these demons do his bidding, and it was going to stop. s.h.i.+t, she needed to get somewhere safe to pa.s.s out for several hours, she thought as her vision began fading.

Blinking to her room to leave a note, she collapsed into the dresser. s.h.i.+t, she shouldn't have come here she realized. She was already pa.s.sing out, and she could not stay here. They would discover her if she did. She should have blinked to Mina or Jayne and let them take care of the note, she reprimanded herself, leaning heavily against the wooden dresser. She tried to get up the energy to blink again, only she was fading fast. Her hand reached out intending to use the edge of the dresser to stop her stumble, only to knock off the vase that sat at the end of it.

The crash was loud, and she knew that if anyone was near they had heard it. She was not going to be able to explain this. What was she going to do? She desperately thought. Right before the door crashed open.

Dominick stood there staring at her in shock. Liza moaned, d.a.m.n. She was caught, there was no way around this now, she'd have to tell him and hope that he would believe her. She really didn't want to die today.

"My G.o.d, Liza." Dominick bellowed, rus.h.i.+ng to her side catching her as she fell. "Liza...Liza who did this to you." He demanded. Cutting his arm, he ripped her s.h.i.+rt up and dripped blood over the wound. When she made out his face above her, twisted in horror. She knew what he thought. She knew that he thought she would die from the four deep furrows in her side. Only she wouldn't, she had to wonder if that was the stone demon's blood she carried influence. She knew that eight demons slayed over the first slayer was the reason the line of slayers came to be. She was the last of that line. The line of pure blooded slayers. Her mother had pa.s.sed that gift to her before she was killed by an explosion at a large warehouse when Liza was six.

Her father was a slayer too, but he wasn't a direct descendant of the first slayer as her mother had been. It seemed that any slayer born of that blood line always had almost undiluted slayer blood. It must be the h.e.l.l hound blood that caused that strange anomaly, she mused fading in and out of focus. She knew that she was the last one, and if she never had a child then the first slayers line would die with her. Not that today was that day, no it took way more than this to kill her. She almost laughed.

First slayers were almost un-killable. The nine types of demon blood all mixed together inside her human body seemed to create a new different demon. One that bled red instead of blue, most likely because of the vampire blood the brother of the first slayer had tried to heal his sister with. Huh, her blinking came from Jinn blood, but the other gifts were a mystery as to which of the nine blood lines had caused the effects on first slayers.

"Liza, tell me who did this to you." He demanded again "I'm...okay." She managed to get out, though she could barely move.

"No, you're not. Liza...you...you're not going to survive this. Tell me what happened and I will avenge you." Dominick swallowed, and looked down at her with tears in his eyes. Liza, smiled. He was such a softy, she thought, drunkenly.

"I...just need rest...th-then I will explain. Please, don't let Lucian know. He can't know, Dominick...pr-promise." She was feeling herself fade. She would have to let herself pa.s.s out soon, but she needed his word first.

"I promise, but Liza."

"Later." She finally manage then she was taken over by the dark bliss of sleep.

Chapter 14.

Dominick made his way upstairs, looking for Liza. It had been two days since the meadow incident. That she was willing to die in order to save Lucian that day had convinced him that Liza was not the one after Lucian. Although, he could believe that it would make the perfect cover if she was trying to kill him. Only he did not think that was the case. But it was still a mystery as to where she kept disappearing to, and what her true purpose here was. It had happened again today, and it was making him doubt his own ability to protect his king. If he was not able to keep track of one human woman, how was he supposed to protect him from any more deadly threat?

He was walking past the hallway where Liza and the king's chambers were when he heard a thump. Stopping to look down the hallway wondering at the noise. It had sounded like someone had b.u.mped into something, but he wanted to be sure that it was not something he needed to check out. He could hear heavy almost labored breathing. He took a few steps towards the sound. Then there was a crash as something was knocked off. He blurred down the hallway towards Liza's chambers where the noise was coming from.

He slammed the door open and almost died. Liza stood holding onto the edge of the dresser. She had a wound on her side beneath a ripped s.h.i.+rt he had never seen her wear, and she was bleeding profusely. She was also falling, he realized.

"My G.o.d, Liza." Dominick bellowed, rus.h.i.+ng to her side catching her as she fell. "Liza...Liza who did this to you." He demanded. Cutting his arm, he ripped her s.h.i.+rt up and dripped blood over the wound. He looked at it, and his heart almost stopped beating. In her side there were four deep furrows dug from her hip to about the middle of her abdomen. Ones that no human could survive. Her stomach and hip were laid open making him almost cry. He knew that if she died his king would surely pine away, Lucian was already bonded with her. Her last injury had proven that.

His heart ached with his own loss, and he could not imagine Lucian's reaction. He needed to know who had dared to do this to her. They would pay. He knew that Lucian would torture who ever had dared to harm her for days, possibly weeks.

"Liza, tell me who did this to you." He demanded again "I'm...okay." She managed to get out, though she could barely move or speak.

"No, you're not. Liza...you...you're not going to survive this. Tell me what happened and I will avenge you." Dominick swallowed hard, his voice cracking, and he looked down at her with tears in his eyes. Liza, smiled up at him. That shocked him, she was smiling while she died. That did not make sense. If his ears were not as sensitive as they were he would not have heard her whispered response.

"I...just need rest...th-then I will explain. Please, don't let Lucian know. He can't know, Dominick...pr-promise." She breathed. He could see that she was pa.s.sing out. He figured that telling her what she wanted to hear would be kind, and when she gasped her last breath he would hunt for whoever had done this to her, and whoever that was, would die.

"I promise, but Liza..."

"Later." He heard the barely audible sound and his heart squeezed. He waited for her last breath to sigh from her lungs, yet that did not happen. He realized after twenty minutes that she was not dying. He looked at the wound he had never covered only to see it was closing slowly, knitting back together. It was shocking. Giving her his blood would not cause that wound to heal. Vampire blood could be used to help close wounds. It did not heal wounds that were as bad as the one in Liza's side, which made him wonder what the h.e.l.l was going on. Who was she and what the h.e.l.l had she been doing to get a wound that bad.

Then another thought occurred to him, if Lucian came upstairs there would be no way to hide her healing body from him. What the h.e.l.l was he going to do? He really hoped that the vampire council members who had come to speak with Lucian today would keep him busy for the rest of the afternoon. If they didn't there would be no way to hide this from him. As it was with his scent on her it was going to be hard to come up with a plausible excuse. d.a.m.n, he was in trouble. He thought watching her on the bed. He had moved her there when he realized that she was not dying.

For the next two hours he sat beside the bed watching the wound in her side close. It was amazing and he wondered how the h.e.l.l it could be possible. It also explained a lot about the other day in the meadow. Although, he knew she had taken chances with her life, it seemed that they were not the ones they had thought she was taking. She had not been afraid of the slice in her wrist because she knew she could survive it, but she would not be sure that they would not kill her if it didn't. He sat there beside her needing answers and nearly crazy that he had to wait for them.

Liza began to stir, and Dominick was glad. He was not sure that Lucian would not show up at any moment, he had questions. It was obvious that she was not human, but what she was had become a mystery. She smelled human, but somehow she was not. It made no sense. Her eyelashes fluttered but she did not wake. Liza finally opened her eyes after another thirty minutes.

She sat up slowly looking at him. "How long?" She asked.

"Two and a half hours. What the h.e.l.l is going on, Liza?" Dominick demanded.

"Huh, I healed faster. I wonder why. Normally a wound like that would take at least four hours."

"Focus, I have been waiting for over two hours to hear your explanation and my patience is at an end." Dominick told her coldly.

"Geez, no need to get your panties in a bunch. I told you I would explain." She glared at him from the bed.

"Now, Liza." He growled.

"Fine, but you need to promise that you will not go all Conan the Barbarian on me." She said, watching him.

"What are you, Liza. Just tell me. Nothing can be worse than what I am thinking."

"What are you thinking?" She asked, curious.

"Some new form of changeling, maybe? I do not know, but Lucian can arrive at any moment and you do not want me to tell him about this. So what the h.e.l.l is going on?" He practically screamed at her.

Liza let out a heavy sigh, there was no help for it. She would have to tell him. "I'm a slayer." She said, matter of factly.

Dominick jumped back from the bed as if she had announced that she had a deadly disease. He drew his sword aiming it at her.

"The h.e.l.l you say! They kill demons." He watched her closely.

"Yes, evil demons. We don't kill just any demon, only the evil ones, Dominick. We get the bad reputation because we are not afraid to kill demons that no one realizes are evil. We see auras, and that is how we know that a demon should die. We are not indiscriminate killers as many would have all demons believe." Liza glared at him.

"That is not what history has proven." He told her stubbornly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I know our reputation, but tell me then why have I not killed all of the demons here then?" She demanded, getting angry.

Dominick stared at her, she was kneeling on the bed and her eyes were glowing an eerie green that seemed to be lit with fire. He had never seen her eyes look like that before and it was shocking.

"Your eyes are glowing." He told her dumbly.

"Yes, that is normal when I get angry. Unless I use my glamour, and right now I am too tired. Healing a wound that close to deadly always drains me." She informed him grimly.

"How long have you been a slayer?" He asked.

"Since birth." She quipped.

"Birth?" He asked paling. How had they not known that a slayer was in their midst? He asked himself. Vampires and demons were taught from young ages to fear the slayers. They were said to kill demons without thought or mercy, but having known Liza since she was eight he could not mesh that view with the child who had laughed and danced with him in the meadows around the manor, or the girl who had cried on his shoulder when a boy of thirteen had broken her heart. No, Liza was not a killer who did not care about her victims. She was a kind and she loved his king.

"Birth. I am the last born slayer in the world." She told him grimly. "I am the boogie man you've been warned about your whole life. I am the Aurora, the light. I am the queen of all the slayers who destroy innocent demons, and their minions. Ha, that is who I am, and I am proud to say it. I will not tell you that I am ashamed of my heritage or my people. We fight evil that you have never known, and we do it without thanks or welcome. We are hunted. We are killed. We are the only thing between the world and the devouring darkness that would seek to consume it, so be grateful and understand that we will not stop until the last demon filled with the darkness is dead." By the time she was done with her speech, Dominick realized two things. One Liza was not just a slayer, she was The slayer. And two she had the bearing of a queen, which would suit her well when she became queen of vampires after fully mating with his king.

"I see." He said, looking at her with new eyes. He understood now why something had always bugged him when he was with her. It was this, this other woman hiding inside her, this queen. She was everything that Lucian needed, he realized. Only now he needed to take out whatever had hurt her earlier. It was obvious that she had been too injured to fight whatever had come after her, which meant it was still out there. "Where were you attacked? I will go and take care of the demon who did it. I know you were too harmed to do it, so tell me and I will handle it."

Liza looked at him with those eerie eyes for several moments, then she began laughing coldly. "You think anything that left four deadly cuts in my side is still alive?" She asked with a scary smile, and he knew that his student had far surpa.s.sed her teacher. When she was younger he had trained her with the sword. Only he had a feeling that she was even more deadly than he was, and a smile lit his face. That meant that his king was even safer than he could ever make him. He liked knowing that.

"I thought you were too injured to fight." He replied.

"Every one of the lizard b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are dead. It just p.i.s.ses me off that when one goes dark they all do." She told him her eyes losing some of the glow.

"How many?" He asked, it worried him to think of her facing a den of lizard demons. They were viscous, even though they were fairly easy kills, they always traveled in large groups of about ten.

"I don't know about twenty or maybe twenty-five." She said, shocking him again. h.e.l.l, that was a lot of demons.

"You were injured after killing most of them I suppose."

"No, one of the first ten caught me lost in thought and the little b.a.s.t.a.r.d got a good clawing in. I finished them off, and came here to leave a note that I was out for the afternoon before leaving. Only we both know that it was a mistake and I ended up finding you instead."

"You fought twenty lizard demons with that wound? What the h.e.l.l were you thinking Liza? They could have killed you!" Dominick roared, glaring at her.

Liza sighed again, knowing that he was overprotective. "Dominick, I have been fighting demons since I was seventeen. I know what I am doing, and yeah tonight I was a bit reckless, but I know my limits. Let it go. I am not going to take well to a lecture tonight. I am not in the mood. Now I have told you about me, and I will ask that we keep this between us for the time being. Lucian cannot know yet."

Dominick could not believe that this woman was the same Liza who was meek and soft spoken most of the time. Reconciling that softer, meeker woman with the hardened warrior queen before him was difficult. Then another thought occurred to him, why was she here. He had known for weeks she had another agenda, and now he knew that this was the warrior queen's agenda, not Liza's.

"Why are you here? Do not insult me by saying to be with Lucian. Although, I am sure that is part of it, it is not the whole story. Tell me."

"I am hunting, and that is all you need to know." She informed him with a hard look in her eyes.

"Hunting who?" He demanded, his look just as hard.

"No one you will miss. I can promise you that."

"I still want to know who."

"He will be at the ball. I will not tell you more. I will tell you that I have a suspicion that he may be behind the attempts on your king's life." She leaned back against the headboard on her bed, watching him.

"Morvan." He spit the name, seeing her surprise then her nod of affirmation. "I think that will do nicely." He said smiling.

"Indeed." She said, grinning back.

Chapter 15.

Lucian returned to his room, p.i.s.sed off after dealing with the council for more than three hours. Those idiots had been talking in circles for hours, and they were no closer to finding a solution to the rouge vampire issue they were having. Three more had been discovered by humans just a week ago, and it was causing problems. If the majority of humans found out that demons existed then they would be hunted even more than the already were. They already had to contend with slayers and other demons. They did not need to have ma.s.sive amounts of humans coming for them too.

As he entered his room he scented Dominick's blood from Liza's room. Suddenly not tired he blurred to the door. His senses picking up Liza's blood too making him hear a roaring in his ears, and his vision turned red. If Dominick had touched her then he would kill him. Liza was his. He burst through the door to find Liza on the bed with Dominick across the room. It was the only thing that saved his oldest friends life.

"Did you touch her?" He bellowed.

"Lucian, calm down. She was injured during training and I had to give her blood." Dominick looked at him. His hands held up in front of him, trying to calm him. Only he was not calm. He still wanted to murder the man.

"Why was I not called!" Lucian demanded.

"You were on the phone with the council." Dominick stated as if that was an acceptable response. He turned to Dominick intending to show the man the error in his thinking, when he felt Liza pulling on his arm. He looked at her.

"Please, I asked that he not disturb you. Be mad at me not him." She whispered in a raspy voice, sounding tired. He growled, scooping her into his arms.

"Back to bed. Do we need to go to medical to replenish your blood? It smells like you lost a lot." He carried her towards the door to his chambers, ignoring Dominick's surprised look. He had better remember that Liza was not just another love slave to him, or the man may find himself dead.

"I'm fine, Lucian. I'm just a little tired." She buried her face against his neck as he carried her to his bed, he kicked the door closed behind them not even speaking to Dominick. He lay her back on the covers. Then he came down on top of her his mouth taking hers in a possessive claiming. She moaned, clinging to his shoulders. She wished she could tell him the truth, but his overprotective behavior might make him cancel the ball. She needed the vampire ball to continue as scheduled. She was tired of losing her people, and now that Morvan was the possible threat to Lucian she would not rest until the vampire was dead.