Sanctuary's Fiend
Chapter 29

My grip tightened on the pen in my jacket. Then I moved it to the pistol on the floor next to me. Why had I put it down? Why had I sat down? Whatever that had been, it wasn’t a glamour.

I heard rushing footsteps, and someone ran past me. Someone tall with long blonde hair. I still felt groggy from whatever had put me on the ground. But things were coming back to me now. Just before I sat down, I’d seen the back of the Fiend. Yes, right, I’d tracked it down to a random back garden, and was about to strike… and then I’d suddenly decided to take a rest. For heaven’s sake, what was going on?

I pushed myself up against the tree I’d chosen as my resting place, staggering to my feet. That tall blonde person that just ran past me, brandishing daggers - had that been… Johnny? With daggers that, at a glance in the dark, looked like Sworn Elvish blades? I hobbled towards the hole in the fence, and leaned my back against it. I carefully peaked around to see what on earth was going on.

There was a jagged hole in the side of the house, with light from inside spilling out into the garden. A figure lay on the lawn dressed in pajamas. It looked like Ariel, but I couldn’t quite tell. Inside the house I saw… yes, that was indeed Johnny with a pair of Sworn Elvish daggers. I hadn’t wanted to believe it. I’d ignored the facts that were right under my nose, literally, when I met them all in the park. And I could have reasoned away the daggers. But Rel was in the room with him. Even then, I could have explained it all away. Johnny could have just been a young, rogue hunter that had won the blades from a kill. But the statue… I couldn’t ignore the gargoyle in the room. Beating on the Fiend. With the help of Johnny and Rel.

I had some questions, is a mild way of putting it. Monsters didn’t live together. Didn’t help each other. Not like this. My old commander in the Scions, who had set me up in Sanctuary, was going to be receiving a very sternly worded email.

A loud crash and a billowing of smoke came from the illuminated room as the Fiend threw the gargoyle upwards.

I gave myself a second to check my gear. Pistol in hand, check. Shotgun over shoulder, check. C4 in pouch, check. I’d added the Scion issue gorget to my impact vest since I last went out in search of the fiend - just in case I found Rel, a bit of neck protection couldn’t hurt. I automatically thumbed the pouch where my Lyfe should have been. Nothing.

I muttered under my breath. ‘No big deal. You’ve gone in plenty of times once the effects have worn off. This time, the effects never started. No big deal. Fiend, Gargoyle, Elf, Draugr, all in the same place. No. Big. Deal.’

Johnny was slammed against a wall, and stayed down. Rel moved like a blur around the plodding Fiend. I crept forwards into the garden. I moved to the fallen girl, and as I got closer, I could see it was indeed Ariel. I couldn’t see any injuries and she was breathing steadily – it looked as though she had simply fainted… How did a happy, innocent student like her get mixed up with these monsters?

Finally, something clicked in my brain. Earlier, that had been a compulsion! Not many monsters could do that. Could she be a… I tilted her head to the side and pulled back her long blonde hair. I recoiled and pointed my gun at the siren. They had been small, not properly formed, but those had definitely been gills behind her ear. Was everyone around here a monster? What kind of messed up place was Sanctuary?

But Ariel wasn’t conscious, and I had bigger problems. I turned back to the fight. Just as I did, I saw Rel slam her fist into the Fiend’s brain. Damn Draugr. That was no small feat. But Fiends didn’t care much about physical damage. Rel must have either been toying with the Fiend, or had never fought one before. I didn’t see any silver on her for the killing blow.

Sure enough, the Fiend shrugged it off, and managed to grab Rel. She struggled, but couldn’t seem to break free.

The Draugr or the Fiend? Who should I help? Surely both were mindless beasts, capable of great harm. The Fiend had left behind two corpses that the news sites had found out about. But the Draugr had hurt my son. Almost killed him. Now, my son wanted to go on a date with it. Her. Reliquiae.

I pointed my gun towards the two. Who deserved my first bullet? I could just wait thirty seconds, and the Fiend would have solved my problem for me. Somehow it had turned the tables on Rel. On a Draugr. That… was odd. I had thought she’d been playing the innocent schoolgirl routine well, but letting a Fiend consume her was real commitment.

A Siren, Elf, Gargoyle, Draugr, and Fiend. All within ten metres of each other. Maybe I didn’t know everything about what was happening here, because that still didn’t make any sense to me at all.

The first four all seemed to be working together against the Fiend, so… clearly I needed to replace out more.

As if the Fiend could sense I had made my decision, it pulled Rel in front of itself, blocking my shot. It hunched down behind her. Hiding from me or ready to bite Rel’s head off, I didn’t know, but either way this was going to hurt her.

I aimed at the Fiend’s throat, the only place that would incapacitate it momentarily. It’s plague glands were hidden at the back of its neck. If I popped one, I’d stun it for long enough to finish it.

Rel’s head was in the way. There was only one choice. I didn’t hesitate. I pulled the trigger, and a second later, Rel and the Fiend fell to the floor.

After the deafening crack of the gunshot, the night was silent apart from ragged, wet gasps from the Fiend. I only had seconds, so I sprinted forwards, holstering my pistol. I jumped over Rel’s body and landed on top of the Fiend. There was a growing puddle of green slime growing behind the Fiend’s head. It stank worse than the time I’d tracked a Djinn through the sewers of Delhi. Well okay, maybe not quite that bad, but I refused to breathe through my nose.

I unzipped my impact vest, and reached inside my jacket. From my inside pocket, I pulled out my pen. I unscrewed the nib and pulled the metal inner out. Between the silver metal, the Oak heartwood, and the blessed ink, this pen was my monster-killing multi-tool.

I looked for the gaping hole in the side of the Fiend’s head, left there by Rel. Normally I’d have needed a point blank shotgun blast, or my C4 to make this hole, but I guess a Draugr fist worked just as well. I dropped the silver into the hole. It wouldn’t have done much to the Fiend’s skin, the monster would have barely noticed. But a shard of silver directly against its brain?

It bucked me off, throwing me against a wall. It convulsed and roared, but the fit was short lived, the sound dying in its ruined throat. I picked up my shotgun from the couch where it had landed next to me. It shouldn’t need anything else, but this was for good measure. Also, I’d come here to relieve some frustration. I moved as close to the thrashing Fiend as I could, and rested the butt of my shotgun against my shoulder, aiming at the monster’s head.

Three shots in quick succession. The silver would remove its ability to regenerate, stopping it from growing back its plague glands and brain. It slowly stopped moving, its head a mess of ruined skin and bone and sludge-green blood. I kicked it hard, just once, just to prove to myself that the fight was finally over, and grinned.

I slung the shotgun back over my shoulder, and zipped my impact vest back up. Time to do the rounds, and check the pulses. Johnny, the gargoyle, and Ariel, all had strong, steady beats. Just had the wind knocked out of them. I chuckled to myself as I walked around the grim scene - these young monsters seemed about as competent as young humans.

Finally I walked over to Rel. There was a small red dot, barely noticeable, right between her eyes. I felt the back of her head. I’d used piercing rounds – I used the shotgun for when I wanted collateral damage to really mean something – so the exit wound wasn’t too bad. I grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the couch. I sat down, positioning her facing away from me between my legs.

I rolled up my sleeve.