Their plan had worked perfectly, and Kyle knew that in no time, they would wipe out every last one of them. They had them surrounded, outnumbered, and it had been a slaughter fest. Rynd’s shapeshifting trick had worked, as Kyle knew it would, and that girl Polly had been stupid enough to fall for the bait. Now, there was nothing left to stand in his way. With all of these vampires dead, it would only be a matter of time until they cornered and slaughtered Caitlin and Caleb.
Kyle’s latest victim, in his sights, would be Samuel, Caleb’s brother. Samuel was strong, but he was too outnumbered, and beaten down, and Kyle had him on the defense. The more they fought, the more confident Kyle became, and Kyle knew that in just moments, Samuel would be finished.
That was when the disruption began. Kyle didn’t understand what was going on, but suddenly, all of their men had begun fleeing, running for their lives, as if scared of an incoming attack. And just as Kyle had been about to plunge his sword into Samuel’s chest, that was when he stopped and saw it.
Kyle turned and was amazed to see Sam, Caitlin’s brother, approaching the battlefield like a madman. He had never seen anything like it, anyone fighting so quickly, so powerfully. It was like a whirlwind. Kyle had seen rage throughout the centuries, but he had never seen rage like this. This was the rage of a creature that had nothing left to lose. That wanted to die.
Sam was a one-man disruptive force. He was slaughtering Rynd’s men as if they were dolls, and as Kyle watched in horror, Sam squared off with Rynd, and within moments, killed him, impaling him on that lance.
That was when everyone else on the battlefield fled. Everyone. Even Aiden’s men. Sam was clearly not distinguishing between good and bad. He was simply killing anything and everything in his path.
For a moment, Kyle thought about fleeing himself.
But then he decided otherwise. Kyle had enough of running. Now, he figured, was time to stop and fight. To make a final stand. If Kyle was going to die, this was the time and place he wanted to go out. After all, he had vowed to make this time and place his last, had vowed that if he couldn’t kill Caitlin and her people now, then he would die trying. There would be no more chasing, no more going back in time for him.
And now it was time to die trying.
*
Sam approached the battlefield in a rage so white-hot, he could barely see, barely distinguish what he was doing. Sam had never experienced anything like it before: his rage was so consuming, so overwhelming, he felt it lifting him into its grip, taking him over as a force of its own. He couldn’t control it if he tried.
Instead, he let it consume him. It moved his arms and legs, dictated who and how he should fight. Since Polly’s death, Sam had nothing left to live for. All he had left in him was to destroy. To avenge. And anyone and everything in his path would pay the price for being alive on this planet while Polly was not.
Sam had enjoyed killing Rynd. As he jumped off the roof with him, and impaled him through that lance, he had felt a shiver of electricity run through his body, felt Polly watching him from above, appreciating the vengeance he got for her. He was beginning to feel satisfied.
But he was nowhere near done. He looked for someone or something else to fight, and he was dismayed to see everyone fleeing from him, as if he were some sort of monster. But there was one creature that stood still and faced him, Sam was delighted to see.
And he was even happier to see who was: Kyle. The disgusting, disfigured, mutated Kyle. The arch enemy of his sister, the being who had so tortured and pursued them throughout the centuries.
The very creature who had captured Sam himself, back in New York City, and who was responsible for Samantha turning him in the first place. The man who had tricked him into using shapeshifting against his own sister.
Sam smiled with delicious delight. He squared off with Kyle, and tossed his heavy longsword from hand-to-hand as if it weighed nothing. This was a battle he relished.
Sam wasted no time. A split second later, he brought his sword down with two hands right for Kyle’s head, with enough force to slice him in two, several times over. To Sam’s surprise, Kyle managed to raise his own sword and to block the blow just in time. Kyle was quicker than Sam thought.
But he was still no match for Sam. The power of Sam’s strike cut Kyle’s sword clean in half.
Kyle looked down at his sword, clearly shocked that anything had enough force to do that.
Sam didn’t hesitate. He reached up and kicked Kyle’s shield square on, smashing it into Kyle’s face, and sending Kyle flying back through the air, thirty feet, and landing on the dirt.
In a flash, Sam was already on top of him, grabbing him, spinning him, and tossing him like a ragdoll through the open-air, smashing him hard into the stone wall of the castle.
Kyle, dazed and confused, outmatched, looked up at Sam through bleary eyes, as if wondering how anyone could move that fast, have that much power. Kyle slowly rose to his feet, but Sam was already there again, and kicked him with such force that it sent him back another thirty feet, and smashing right through the castle wall.
Before Kyle could even think to sit up again, Sam was already on top of him, with a knee on his chest, pinning him to the ground. Sam looked down at this pathetic creature in disgust. He reached back and extracted the dagger that was used to kill Polly, the one he had found near her body.
“Any final words before I send you to hell?” Sam snarled, through gritted teeth Kyle snarled back up, blood oozing from his mouth, gasping for air, and locked eyes on Sam’s.
“I only wish that I was the one who had killed Polly,” Kyle spat, with a bloody grin. “I heard she died slowly and painfully.”
Sam snarled, raised the dagger high, and brought it down right into Kyle’s heart.
As he did, Sam felt a tremendous rumbling in the universe, felt the ground beneath him shake.
He watched as shadows of dozens of small black demons appeared, hovered over Kyle’s lifeless body. He watched as they grappled with the black spirit leaving Kyle’s body, as they carted it off down below, beneath the ground, towards the depths of hell. This was followed by a huge flash of purple light, and suddenly, Kyle’s body disintegrated before Sam’s eyes, first rocketing up to the clouds, then turning down and shooting beneath the earth.
It was an epic death, and it was clear to Sam that a huge force had just been extinguished in the universe.
At the same moment, as Sam watched, a part of the black spirit that had left Kyle’s body at death, suddenly rose up, and descended over him. Sam felt it covering him, creep into his bones and settle there. Sam vaguely remembered once being told that, when one kills someone of such evil, there was a danger of taking on his spirit. Of becoming as evil as him.