84__Fighting evil with power, magic and fire

Viktor saw the arrow even before it was launched from its bow. In the split second that it flew at him, slicing through the air with sharp precision, he swung his arm to the side, grabbing Kamilla, even as she dived at him for Lord knew what reason.
Grabbing her, Viktor spun around, putting his back to the assassins so that she was shielded by his body.

Kamilla stood stiff in his arms, her heart racing at a million miles per hour. With wide eyes, she stared down at her hand, the fingers tightly clenched, bleeding with the arrow clutched in it. In shock, her mouth parted. She caught it.
Raising her free hand, she ran it over Viktor’s chest and scanned his body carefully. “You’re okay!” she said shakily. “Oh, thank God!”

Unable to move an inch for a moment, Viktor only looked at the blood dripping from her hand as she busily checked that his body hadn’t been pierced.
She’d caught it. He released a disbelieving breath. She’d really gone and caught a flying arrow! What was *wrong* with this woman?!

Kamilla saw how he was staring at her, his expression a mixture of fury, awe and puzzlement.
“You’re okay, right?” she asked, glancing behind him. “Who are those guys?”

Viktor looked behind him to see a band of assassins pounce out from the woods, their swords and knives drawn as they raced toward Rogan who’d taken his stance before them, protecting Aiden who seemed to have collapsed behind him.

“Shit,” Viktor muttered, his gaze sharpened on the masked bandits. “Kamilla, stay hidden!” He looked at her, carefully pulling the arrow out of her hand and tossing it to the side. Unable to stop himself, he quickly scanned her cut and released a breath. “For fuck’s sake, Kamilla, why did you—” Another arrow flew past their heads, making Viktor curse. “Keep this hand clean,” he told her quickly. “And stay hidden, goddamn it!”

Before she could say a single word, Kamilla watched Viktor yank off his coat and turn and stalk towards the battle, his step not even deterred by the four masked assassins currently heading his way.

Crouching low behind a tree, Kamilla watched with wide eyes as Viktor and Rogan went absolutely berserk on the assassins. More than once, she’d had to close her eyes and turn away when Viktor ripped open someone’s throat or when Rogan snapped someone’s neck. They were ruthless.

One very ambitious assassin managed to slice a cut across Viktor’s turned back with his long sword, making Kamilla shoot up from where she’d been hiding with a startled gasp.
Viktor’s entire back very quickly became red, the blood draining through his clothes as he grabbed the ambitious assassin and brought a painful end to his ambition. Kamilla had been about to release a sigh of relief when, suddenly, another wave of the assassins suddenly swarmed in like black ants over a freshly discovered piece of meat.

Kamilla could barely stand still, her entire being screaming at her to get in there and kick all their asses! Biting on her lip, she glanced down at her cut hand. Damn, did she want to risk it?
Not the hand. A lecture from Viktor! He’d already looked at her like she belonged in a padded room because she’d caught that arrow when he could’ve easily avoided it, so there was already one lecture heading her way. Did she really want to jump in this bloody battle and risk the little peace Viktor might consider giving her after scolding her ears off?

Caught up in her indecision, Kamilla’s gaze wandered wildly about the battle scene and came to a sharp halt when her eyes caught something.
With a frown, she watched as one of those sneaky masked bandits, snuck behind a tree and began to slowly make his way toward Aiden, who was lying irresponsive on the ground.
Kamilla gasped. Oh, no! The King of Geminor was in danger. These must be the bastards who’d attacked his sister for Lord knew what reason and were now back to attack Aiden.
She clenched her teeth as the assassin drew out his sword. Not on her watch.

Mentally storing Aiden’s vulnerable position as an excuse for her disobedience to Viktor, Kamilla threw off her coat and took off running, heading for the clueless assassin who kept inching toward Aiden.
When his eye finally caught her coming at him like a torpedo, it was too late. The assassin didn’t even have a second to react before Kamilla came flying at him, her knee connecting solidly with his jaw.
A rough grunt escaped him, along with a scary crunch of bones as the assassin fell against the ground, his head slamming against the dry forest floor.

Kamilla stood panting, watching to make sure he wouldn’t move an inch. The guy was as still as the dead, so Kamilla turned away, rushing to Aiden’s side.
Her eyes wide, she looked up at the battle around them. This was behind the band of protection that was Viktor and Rogan so she would stay here, thus minimizing Viktor’s scolding her later. And she could keep an eye on Aiden, making sure that none of those other assassins got to him.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, an arrow whizzed behind Kamilla’s head, close enough that it sharply flicked her hair. Startled, she looked up to see an assassin throw aside his bow, unsheathe a long sword and come at her with the sharp, glinting metal.

With no weapon in her hands, Kamilla snatched off her thick scarf and stretched the length of it in her hands, preparing to swing. The assassin came flying at her like someone straight out of a Kung-Fu movie and Kamilla dove forward, hooking her scarf onto his ankle and dragging the sucker down to fling him to the ground.
He landed with a thud as his head smacked the floor, blood seeping out from underneath his body where he fell on his own sword.

Flustered, Kamilla hurried back to where Aiden lay and reached out to gingerly tug the assassin’s sword toward her so she could at least have a weapon.
Dropping her gaze to Aiden’s face, Kamilla was startled to see his eyes looking up at her.
“Oh!” she said in surprise. “You’re awake!” His vision was blurry, but still Aiden tried to sit up. Kamilla gently held him down. “Uh, your majesty, I advise you to stay down here! You seem to have lost a lot of blood, I don’t think you’re—”

“Queen of Onyx,” said Aiden in a voice clearly expressing the pain he was physically feeling. Slowly sitting up, he winced in pain, but looked right at Kamilla. “Do not be harmed.”
Leaving her with his rather strange well wishes, Aiden pushed himself onto his feet and turned to face the bastards who’d been attempting to take his life for the past month. His jaw clenched. He would deal with them.

Kamilla blinked, speechless as she watched Aiden walk towards where Viktor and Rogan were killing the assassins even as more arrived.
Her already speechless state became nearly comatose, however, when, with a wide open mouth, Kamilla watched Aiden rip off his shirt and, from a flame starting at his fingertips, his entire body suddenly became a roaring fire.

The fire flamed up until Aiden grew to be double the height of his human body, literally shocking Kamilla into a frozen state.
She’d never seen anything like it! Viktor and Rogan seemed to be unbothered, carrying on in their unexpected partnership in battle as Aiden flamed over their heads and threw back about thirty assassins with one roar of fire.
He loomed over them, twelve feet of blaze, destroying every enemy in his path. The sight was equally terrifying and majestic so Kamilla wasn’t sure whether she was awed or scared.

The assassins dried up like flees before Aiden’s fire, dying off to the last ones. There remained a few ambitious ones who avoided Aiden’s ire and attempted to face Viktor or Rogan which ended with their rather painful and bloody death.
The scene was disastrous, it looked like a real bloodbath. Kamilla just sat where she was, bloody sword and dirty scarf clutched to her chest as she watched the battle come to an end.

Once all the assassins were killed off, Aiden stood, blazing to the sky, as he looked at Viktor and Rogan who just looked back up at him with, what Kamilla was surprised to see, were identical quizzical expressions.
Slowly, the fire began to burn low, the brightness dimming and before they knew it, Aiden had returned to his human form and fell unconscious on the ground.

“Goddamn it,” muttered Rogan as he crouched over him. “What kind of idiot uses their strongest power when the human form is practically dead?!”

Viktor frowned at the state Aiden was in. Whoever sent those assassins after him was dead the minute he got back on his feet. Viktor had heard a lot about Aiden, King of Geminor. Viktor looked away. “Get him to his Kingdom.”

Rogan glared. “Who do you think you’re ordering around?!”

Ignoring him, Viktor turned around and scanned the area until his gaze fell on Kamilla where she was crouching, shell-shocked into a statue-like state.
“Kamilla,” he called to her and she immediately rose, going to him even as he came to her. Viktor’s hands framed her face, the fingertips not touching her skin so as to not put blood on it. “You okay?” he asked. “What are these?” Taking the sword clutched against her chest away, Viktor chucked it into a bush and drew her close, hugging her tightly against his chest.
“I think I’m fine,” Kamilla said against his chest. “Wait, are you okay? That creep cut you, your back was bleeding and—”
“Rubbish, it was merely a scratch,” Viktor said with a shake of his head.

His nonchalant tone eased the worry in her heart and Kamilla released the breath that had been caught up in her lungs for the past few minutes. She glanced at Aiden as Rogan moved him. “Is he okay? He was... on fire?” she asked in a tone of utter confusion.

Rogan rose with Aiden hanging over his shoulder. “He is Aiden,” he muttered irritably. “Aiden means ‘god of fire’. He’s the King of the Kingdom of Geminor, where I am now currently forced to take him.” He turned his gaze from Kamilla to Viktor who was looking intensely at him. Rogan didn’t want to say anything at all to him anymore. He’d seen how Viktor had taken out an assassin aiming for Rogan’s neck, but that didn’t mean he had to be grateful. Viktor and his family owed him far more than that for taking from him the only woman he ever loved. His mother.

Viktor’s jaw clenched harder the longer Rogan stared at him. “Rogan,” he said. “Never... and I mean, *never*... return to Onyx again.”

Rogan’s mouth curved. “I wasn’t planning on it. Do us both a favor, Viktor... and never show your face to me again.”

Dragging his dark gaze away from Viktor, Rogan turned and let out a low whistle, carrying the tune up until Aiden’s horse came galloping back to where they stood. Pulling the beast close, Rogan sat Aiden on it and swung on behind him, ready to make the damned trip to Geminor.

None of this was part of his plans. He’d stay in that Kingdom for no longer than a minute! Just long enough to dump their King back on them and be on his miserable way. He should find death somewhere along the way, it couldn’t evade him forever.

Giving Viktor and Kamilla a final glance, Rogan dug into the horse’s sides until the beast was galloping through the dark woods. He rode out of the kingdom and away, the clouds rolling dark as he left the land behind.
He left it behind him, but the scars, the anger and the hatred he’d borne in Onyx, that, Rogan kept within him and with little more than his deep-rooted rage accompanying him, he finally left the Vampire Kingdoms behind to form a part of his dark past.