The Bane of Existence

Published: 29 Jul 2019

Jogging slowly up the hill towards their home cave Zander and the wolves were greeted by Grayson and the others who were still waiting to see if they would be needed.

“Where’s Zane and Duncan?” asked Marko noticing those two weren’t in sight.

“Duncan is staying there for a few days,” replied Zander tersely.

“Hasn’t Rinaldo’s Child returned?” questioned Radesh before Zander could say more and looking at Rogan with concern. They had pledged to protect Zane after he was revealed as Rinaldo’s Heir at their village.

“We haven’t seen him,” responded Grayson, “and we’ve been right here the whole time.”

“He may have ‘ported straight to the cave,” Zander said moving towards the cave entrance. “I’ll check. He was in a kinda mood.”

“A mood?!” Marko simultaneously asked and remarked. “What happened?”

The two werewolves looked at one another in silent communication before Radesh took up the story. “Well, when we got there Thomas and a bunch of other teens, who apparently formed a sort of magic club or something, were being attacked by Rogues. Oh, and Thomas seems to have found himself a battery; another guy who makes his magic stronger.”

“Really!?” piped up Drew showing more interest than before. He had the same in his husband, Karl, a battery to enhance his magic.

“Yes, but to finish my story,” replied Radesh quickly. “Matthew and Jordan were also there and being attacked by another group of vampires. We split up and helped them but during the fighting Matt got hurt pretty bad and before anyone could help a third bunch of Rogues attacked. By the time we had disposed of the vampires everyone was too worn out to do much healing on Matthew so he is still in pretty bad shape.”

“We’re guessing Zane is blaming himself for Matt’s injury and the minor wounds suffered by the teens,” added Rogan with Radesh nodding his agreement.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Grayson asked Derek who had started up the hill to the entrance of the cave.

“Zane needs his family with him,” explained Derek with his hands balled into fists and resting on his hips.

“No. Right now he needs Zander and time to come to terms with the consequences of war,” countered Grayson. “Zander has seen enough through his years as a vampire that he should understand some of what Zane is feeling and be able to get him to see the truth.”

“War is ugly!” spoke Radesh and Rogan together.

“We can’t just stand here and wait. We have to do something.” Zach exclaimed with frustration.

“You’re right,” agreed Grayson with an evil grin. “Marko, lead everyone in a few forms. I’ll watch from the back. Line up!”

“If you don’t mind, Grayson, Radesh and I need to hunt,” Rogan softly requested. Grayson nodded as he moved to the back of the hastily shaped formation.

In the cave Zander walked quietly to the opening of the room he shared with Zane and peeked in. Zane was there half sitting and half leaning on a large stone with his back to the doorway. The brunette teen vampire watched his blonde boyfriend in silence for a moment or two before entering.

“Don’t! Just go!” Zane uttered with low emphasis. “I need to be alone.”

Samhain’s Son paused a second then walked quietly to the stone and straddled it to slide in behind his smaller partner and wrapped his arms around him. “The last thing you need right now is to be alone.”

Zane sank back against Zander’s chest as tears fell noiselessly down his face. After several minutes he whispered, “Why . . . why do people have to get hurt because of me?”

Zander took a moment to gather his thoughts then spoke softly in his distraught boyfriend’s ear, “People are not being hurt because of you. Rinaldo’s Bane would be doing this whether you opposed her or not. You have given people hope and a purpose for using their own magic. By joining you and working against evil they have put themselves in harm’s way and some will get hurt and some might die before this war is done.”

“I never asked them to get involved. I don’t want anyone to get hurt fighting my battle,” insisted Zane turning to face his life partner.

“Of course, you didn’t,” replied Zander looking tenderly into Zane’s emerald eyes. “You wouldn’t but you can’t stop them from doing what they think is right either.”

“Uuggg! I want it all to . . .” started Zane before he wilted and only missed hitting the floor because Zander caught him and held him up.

When Zane’s eyes opened again and he was mostly standing on his own Zander inquired, “When was the last time you fed?”

Taking a couple of moments of silent thinking Zane looked into his boyfriend’s chocolate eyes and answered, “I don’t remember.”

“Come on,” urged Zander wrapping his arm around Zane’s waist. “Let’s go get you some blood.”

All eyes riveted on the two leaders of Z-Troop as they exited the cave and the impromptu training session ended. The guys gathered around all asking questions and commenting at once.

“He will be okay,” Zander informed the group leading Zane through them down the hill. “He’s just tired and needs to feed. We’ll be back soon.”

After feeding on a black bear and a lost prison escapee Zane and Zander returned to the cave and Zane seemed to be back to normal. A few days later Duncan showed up with good news for the Troop. His dad arrived the next day and with his help Matt made a complete recovery. The druidess, Ms. Craig, came out of retirement and was mentoring Thomas’ magic club; she had already taught them a lot of defensive spells and a few more attack spells that were useful against vampires.

Beldane, Duncan and Thomas’ dad, also brought a new book of spells he had acquired during his journeys. It had some interesting charms that Thomas and Duncan used right away. Duncan pulled out his sword and pointed it at Zane. Fire flashed all along the length of the blade in an eerie yellowish-green color.

“What is that?” Zander almost demanded as he stepped to the side of his lover.

“It’s a charm for swords to be used against vampires,” answered Duncan while quickly pulling his sword back away from his brother. “Any time a vampire is near and the sword is drawn it bursts into this colored flame. We haven’t had a chance to test what it does yet. I’m hoping to get to be with the next team that goes out so I can find out.”

“I think we can make that happen,” inserted Grayson while keeping his distance from the weird flame.

“Is yours the only sword charmed?” asked a cautiously approaching Marko.

“No. We did Thomas’ sword and Matt and Jordan’s too.”

“This will be interesting to see what it does,” commented Zander relaxing slightly. There were nods of agreement from several of the others gathered around.

A week later came the opportunity for the troop to see what the charmed swords could do. A squad of Rogues attacked a college club meeting in Kentucky. The group of magic users knew enough and were strong enough to hold off the vampires but weren’t able to defeat them. Grayson sent Duncan along with Marko, Zach and Derek to assist them.

Marko sent Duncan and Derek to attack the Rogues from the rear and had Zach get in a position to contact the college students and better organize their battle tactics. He held back to watch leery of getting a scratch from Duncan’s sword by accident. It was a good thing he did for it was soon apparent that any wound from Duncan’s charmed sword started a fire that the vampires could not extinguish.

Between Duncan’s sword work, Derek’s savagery and Zach organizing the students to form groups and concentrating their attacks on the closest opponents the squad of vampires were soon vanquished. Zach convinced their leaders to join the online network of magic users that were spreading across the country and was starting to cross the oceans too.

Back at the cave Marko and the other three reported the outcome of the battle and especially the effects and usefulness of the charm on the sword. Zander voiced a willingness to try charming his sword but both Zane and Grayson were against that until they had a way of stopping the flames. The small blonde vampire wrapped his arms around Zander and let him know he was taking no chances that an accidental nick would take his lover away.

Time marched on and so did the war. Z-Troop was called or ‘heard’ attacks that they sent a crew to help against the vampires. Although none of Zane’s friends got more than a few light wounds some of the ones fighting on their side did have serious wounds and they lost a few to the attacking Rogues. The raids by Rogue squads were expanding across the U.S. and growing in number. Reports of a few attacks outside the U.S. had come across the internet as Zach, Derek, Duncan and Thomas monitored their computers.

They had also noticed a new group interested in magic popping up occasionally as they kept watch. It took several tries before Zach was finally able to tap into some of their messages. What he found was deeply troubling and was reported to Zane and Grayson immediately.

This new group of magic users were not on the side of good, although there was no sign that they had joined with the Bane yet. In this new faction were warlocks, necromancers and Dark Druids along with a few other minor mages and sorcerers. If they joined forces with the Rogues and Super Rogues fighting for the Bane it could cause major problems for those on the side of good and right.

During a time of group meditation, several of the more sensitive mages in Z-Troop noticed another phenomenon. The amount of magical energy available from the atmosphere, ground, plants and animals was on the rise. As they discussed it afterwards the web watchers commented that they noticed a rise in magic users recently also.

It wasn’t long before several members of Z-Troop who were not as magically as strong as some others noticed a marked increase in their magical abilities. Zach, especially, seemed to gain in strength and in the complexity of the spells he was able to use. Gavin also realized he had a much easier time using his body size and strength enhancement spell and was capable of using more spells than before.

Many of the stronger mages in the group found they could now teleport almost any time they wanted without borrowing magic energy. Although this seemed great it came to the troop’s attention over the next several fights that the Rogues and Super Rogues were also gaining magic strength.

Over the next several months there were several pitched battles among some lesser fights between the two sides. It was soon apparent that at least some of the group of warlocks, necromancers and Dark Druids had decided to fight for Rinaldo’s Bane. This weighted the fights toward the Rogue vampires and caused Z-Troop to have to send larger squads to help. Zane’s friends were getting tired and needed more help.

The computer network helped by making the groups connected to it stronger with the sharing of spells, techniques and strategies. Beldane dropped by every once in a while with new magic books the group tried then shared with the network. But it wasn’t enough and Rinaldo’s Child and his friends needed something else to turn the tide back in their favor.

The assistance they needed came a bit by accident a few months later. During a skirmish near the West Virginia-Kentucky border an archery club was practicing and saw the fight in a dip below them. A few of the archers knew some of the mages and noticed they needed help.

They hurriedly explained what was happening to the others and implored them to join the fight. Everyone agreed so the archers turned their bows toward the advancing Rogues and fired. One of the mages recognized the twang of bowstrings, looked up and hastily recited a fire spell. He was only able to ignite about a third of the arrows but quickly got his neighbors attention and she also sent a hasty spell igniting about another third.

Of the sixteen arrows fired nine were flaming and all nine found their way into a Rogue. Two of the normal arrows severed the spinal cords at the neck nearly beheading the vampires hit, two caused only minor wounds and three missed altogether.

The archers fired again; this time four of the mages sent up spells lighting all the arrows while the other seven kept up shield spells to protect them. This volley took out five more of the Rogues evening the playing field somewhat with seventeen of the twenty-two vampires being dead or severely injured. It didn’t take long for the group of magic-users to win the battle and only had two members get injured.

Once they made sure all the vampires were vanquished the mages and archers met and discussed what they had accomplished and made plans to work together against any other attacks. Not thirty minutes after the two groups went their separate ways, members of each group were on the internet contacting others in their respective fields. Within a week it was common to see archers and magic-users combining their talents against Rogue incursions.

After many, many reports about successful battles with the growing number of Rogue vampires the magic using clubs and groups that didn’t have ready access to an archery group started actively searching for archers in their areas to form a cohort to assist in their battles against the Rogues. The same was being done in places that had a cadre of archers but no mage, sorcerer or druid outfits available.

It did not take long as this cooperation spread around the globe for the tide of the war to swing back to favoring Zane, Zander and Z-Troop as they fought against the malevolent forces of Rinaldo’s Bane and her Rogue vampires.

This swing in fortunes also meant that the cohorts in Z-Troop did not have to intervene as often as they did before. They were now able to concentrate more of their time to their own training and to working on a way to track the Bane to her own hideaway.

As often as they could the group as a whole or sometimes just several of the members would combine their magic and search for magical hot spots around the country. During one such sweep a powerful magic user was noted in close proximity to the group.

After much discussion, deliberation and one or two disagreements they decided the individual needed to be investigated. At the end of more consideration, Grayson, Marko, Drew and Karl were appointed to see what they could discover about this individual. They left the next morning.

Are you enjoying Jeikor’s tale? Let him know you are reading: Jeikor at CastleRoland dot Net

25,510 views