Daughters of the Moon Pt. 11

"Yes, it is."

"It seems like a big thing here. Your families are so big it's almost unbelievable."

"Tallisian women are known for their passion and fertility."

"And the men for not keeping it in their kilts."

"Indeed."

"But anyways, I know not being able to have kids with someone you love would bother you. So I just wanted you to know that we could. You and me. Probably. Or if you met someone else..."

"Stop."

Siobhan's eyes started to burn. She rubbed them furiously. Not wanting to cry right now.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, but I need you to get on top of me and kiss me right now."

"I can do that."

Lucy got up and straddled her and Siobhan pulled her down and kissed her. She stuck her tongue out and tasted her lover. She put a hand in her hair and squeezed, ran the other down her back. She heard Lucy make a small satisfied noise into her mouth.

Then Siobhan pushed her back slightly. She stared up into Lucy's eyes, only inches from her own. Her love's curly, dark hair surrounded Siobhan, making a little private cave for them.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"I'm sorry I say it too much."

"You can't say it too much."

"And tomorrow we're going to go to war and kill every vampire that dares set foot on my peoples' land."

"Every fucking one."

"And after every one of them is ash and bones we'll go south as heroes."

"Siobhan and Lucy, vampire slayers."

"And we'll get a nice position with a kind old dowager on an estate with sun-dappled orchards."

"Oh god, that sounds awesome."

"And we'll get married and we'll make babies."

"So many babies. You're having them though. I think one of your babies would crack me in half."

"I'm not so sure. You have good birthing hips."

"That's so gross. Never say that to me again."

Siobhan laughed, "And we'll live out our days with our family around us and watch them grow up and chase off their suitors until we find the ones we approve of. And have Belletime and Samine feasts so big the tables will sag under the weight."

"God, that sounds great. That sounds so good. I love you so much."

"I love you too."

And then Lucy leaned down and they kissed again. And suddenly Siobhan was not so tired and spent after all. She rolled over until Lucy was under her and brought her hand between Lucy's legs. She felt Lucy gasp and arch under her as she began stroking her clit once more.

...

Siobhan loved the tree she was in. It was tall and dark and thick with branches. A tree like this had stood for five hundred years. It had seen her people come to this land, build their homes, till their fields, and tend their flocks. It was big enough to host an entire murder of crows, it gave her a perfect view of the battlefield, it was far enough away from the main lines of advance that it was unlikely she'd be seen, and its thick branches and leaves hid her from sight. It was the perfect place to survey the battlefield and strike down her prey wherever she found them.

Siobhan looked across the battlefield. It was early afternoon but the sky was covered by dull gray clouds. She knew the clouds weren't natural; they were conjured by the vampires to block the sun so that they wouldn't be hindered by its rays. Still, forcing the vampires to engage before nightfall had been a victory in itself. Now, their night vision wouldn't give them an advantage. The slate gray clouds hovered over a hilly battlefield of green grass and a few scattered rocky outcrops. This had once been a forest that had been cut away for grazing land, with the occasional copse of trees to offer shade to the shepherds and cover for her and her sisters. The land looked flat and simple but her trained eyes picked out gullies and depressions perfect for them to hide in.

Siobhan's eyes scanned those hiding spots, wondering where her sisters were. Some were with their clans and would focus on taking out vampires that were threatening the front line. Some, like her, had hidden themselves among the rocks and trees in the middle of the battlefield to take out the back line and sow confusion, and a few of her sisters were making their way deep behind enemy lines to try and destroy the vampire's blood sorcerers and halt their necromancy. She and Lucy had both decided not to tell the other where they were placing themselves, for fear it would distract them from the battle. Silently, she prayed Lucy was safe wherever she was.

She could barely see the two armies. They were both so vast and so far away that they were just vague blurs on the horizon, but when she looked through the scope on her beloved rifle they came into focus. Her people had organized themselves by clan. She saw the green tree of the Colcan, the blue boars of the Dalacane, and, pride singing in her heart, she saw the black lion of Clan Tibernack, where her father and uncle led her own people to war. She vowed that not a single one of the people that danced around the fire with her on Samine and filled her father's hall with laughter on Belletime would fall this day.

Each clan had formed a schiltron. A line of pikes surrounding a mass of musketmen. With the help of the league advisors, all of the clans had trained relentlessly for weeks to learn to integrate the league's new muskets with the traditional pike lines her people used when they went to war. She knew her own clan could release volleys of shots in rapid succession before seamlessly stepping back to let the pikes protect them when the enemy closed.

Farther back on the hills behind the schiltrons were the cannons sent to her people by the league. Each one could hurl a ball of iron and brass across the battlefield. These were the latest, most advanced cannons created in the league artifactories, so the cannon balls had spells woven into them which created storms of fire when they struck the ground. Siobhan had seen a few test firings that left huge scars of burned earth, as if the gods had reached down and painted the ground with an enormous brush of fire.

She used her scope to look to the other side of the field and saw the dead line forming. It was an undifferentiated mass of zombies. Some were naked and some had stiff leather aprons tied to them as rudimentary armor. But most were still wearing the clothes they had died in. They were snapping and snarling at each other, their eyes milky white and their fangs dripping saliva. The league officers had told them this was just the first wave, meant to soak up their musket fire so the more valuable troops could close on the enemy undamaged. Blunting this first wave by sniping out the vampires that drove the zombies forward was one of the most important duties the daughters had been given. The battle could very well hinge on how many vampires she and her sisters could kill in the first twenty minutes.

Banners were raised in the dead lines among the zombies. There were dragons in red, black, and gold, differing numbers of wolves, red mill wheels on blue and black backgrounds, and crescent moons surrounded by stars, keys and arrows. Horns blew among her people's schiltrons and they raised their own banners as they gathered their courage. Then, on some command she couldn't see, the zombie horde surged forward in one huge mass. The battle had begun. The zombies gibbered and screamed as they ran, some on all fours and some in a hunched shuffling sprint. They were terribly fast, able to run at a dead sprint without ever tiring. They would cross the field in mere minutes.

Siobhan raised her rifle, sent a quick prayer to the reaper of men, the Morgen in her most warlike aspect, and searched for her first kill. She quickly found it. Buried in the horde of zombies closest to her was a man with the paleness of the zombies but who walked upright as a man. He was in simple leather armor with pieces of metal sewn in and had a club hammer in his hand. She sighted her gun on his head and squeezed the trigger. The gun made only the slightest puff of air. Like the sound of someone breathing out through pursed lips. Through her scope she saw the vampire jerk and fall. The zombies near where it fell stumbled in confusion, which quickly spread. The zombies the vampire had been leading continued forward but now their movement was jerky and uncoordinated. They moved in a confused shuffle rather than a sprint and the line began to slow and deform around them. Siobhan began reloading, her movements so well practiced she didn't even need to think about them. The strange blue smokeless powder went in first, then the next rune-carved ball of iron and brass. There was no need to ram the ball in like there was with a normal musket because the barrel wasn't sullied by the powder's discharge. In less than a minute she was ready to fire again. She sighted down the scope and found another vampire. This one was in dull black armor with a sword and a helm etched with a stylized dragon. He was the very image of a knight leading his men at arms to battle. She sighted on his helm and squeezed the trigger. A hole appeared in the helm and he dropped among his zombies, who started stumbling just as they had when she killed the first vampire.

There was a rumble in the sky, as if a stampede of cattle was moving above the clouds. Siobhan looked up to see flashes of light traveling through the clouds over the battlefield. She watched in horror as lightning fell on her people all across the front line. People were falling everywhere, blasted to the ground in smoking heaps, as holes were torn in the clan's schiltrons. She resisted the urge to look at her clan's schiltron through the scope, to see which of her friends and family had been struck down. Instead, she scanned the battlefield until she saw a beautiful woman in bright red tinged mail. She put a bullet in her heart and she fell among her snuffling corpse troops.

But now the zombie horde had reached the range of the cannons and it was their turn to answer. There was a series of rumbles that sounded strangely similar to the actual thunder the vampires had conjured. Enormous gouts of fire blossomed among the zombies and hundreds were set aflame. The zombies that were set alight began running and screaming in panic, spreading the fire as they collided with their fellow undead, and the whole line flinched back in confusion. Even though the fire did terrible damage, the wave of undead kept coming, their numbers seemingly inexhaustible.

There was a strange rustling overhead and she looked up to see thousands of bats, enough to blacken the sky had it not already been obscured by clouds, rushing over the battlefield. They moved like arrows shot from ten thousand bows, straight toward the cannons on the hills on the horizon. Siobhan looked through her scope and saw the countless black specks approach the cannons. Before they could descend there was a burst of light in the back lines. Sparks and ribbons every color of the rainbow rose from the ground as the war mages struck at the bat swarm. The bats rose back into the sky and circled in confusion as the mages burned them and tore them to pieces.

Siobhan shook her head, cursing herself from becoming distracted from her duty by the sheer spectacle of the battle. Her people were counting on her. She raised her rifle again and saw that the zombies had reached the maximum range of the muskets. There was a chorus of pops and smoke billowed from the schiltrons. Zombies began flopping to the ground, heads torn open and limbs shattered as heavy bullets riddled them. The chorus of pops became a regular rhythm as each line of musketmen stepped back to let the next line fire, and the pikemen slowly walked backward to maintain the formation. Finding the vampires hidden among the zombies became increasingly difficult as the bullets pouring into them caused chaos and confusion among the horde, but after a few moments she found another figure in bright red mail and dropped her with a shot to the head.

As she reloaded, the zombies reached the pike line. More than half were dead, dropped by bullets or burned by the flaming cannonballs. But that still left an enormous horde of snarling ripping monsters which crashed into the pikes. Siobhan sighted at the front line and saw the pike lines breaking. Men were dropping their pikes and fleeing as rippling distortions in the air washed over them. Others lowered their pikes and stared in awe at vampires that stalked toward them, entranced by their smooth movements. Some of her people were hurled to the ground as vampires gestured at them and summoned powerful blasts of force. Siobhan had been briefed on this; the vampires were using their magic to break holes in the lines. Zombies poured into those holes, arms reaching and lips peeled back over fangs. Siobhan sighted an armor clad vampire but before she could fire he jerked and dropped, slain by one of her sisters. She scanned quickly and found another, a rippling heat distortion the men of Clan Airtear stumbled back from in terror. Siobhan took her best guess where the haunt hidden inside would be and fired. The distortion disappeared as the haunt fell. The clans' warriors poured musket fire into the breach the haunt had made, small contingents of swordsmen hacked the zombies to pieces to further plug the holes, and the pike line reformed. All across the front the schiltrons were holding. They were closing the holes the vampires opened with their awe and their terror and they were standing strong. Siobhan felt a surge of pride at the strength of their people. No matter what horrors the dead sent against them, they would not break.

Siobhan surveyed the battlefield and saw the next wave approaching behind the zombies, the true threat had finally arrived. Blocks of skeletons in dead black armor wreathed in green light marched in perfect unison towards the front line. There were also blocks of mercenaries with banners raised and muskets ready to fire. Scattered among them were men and women in low runs, their hands sporting black claws over an inch long. Worst of all, enormous beasts, part wolf and part bat and as big as oxen were loping between the formations, salivating at the feast before them.

Siobhan sighted her rifle on one of the huge beasts. The league military had theorized they were actually a new type of vampire that had never been seen before that could transform themselves into these enormous monsters for battle. She was about to test the theory. She breathed out to steady her aim and fired. The beast's head sent out a spray of brain and it flopped to the ground. She briefly had a glimpse of its flesh twisting and distorting as it shrank into the body of a woman before a square of skeletons blocked it from view.

At that moment there was a hum. It felt like the very air was vibrating. Siobhan's teeth itched and she smelled bile. Then a ripple of dull green light passed over the vampire army as some horrible work of necromancy came for her people. It flowed like a crashing wave through the air, but before it could reach the schiltrons it broke on a wall of blue light. As the wave shattered, fountains of multihued fire splashed in every direction in the sky like an enormous fireworks display. The league's battlemages had decided to focus on countering the vampire's necromancy and let the cannons inflict damage, and that plan seemed to be paying off. In the next moment the cannons fired. They ignored the zombies, who were being held fast and destroyed by the schiltron's pikes. The cannonballs arched over the front lines and landed among the skeletons and mercenaries. They tore holes in the lines with gouts of flame. The skeletons marched forward heedless of the destruction, but some of the mercenaries were already falling back, their morale broken by the screams and the smell of their comrades' roasting flesh.

Siobhan finished reloading and raised her rifle. She sighted a vampire in black armor, a dragon banner on a flag coming out of his back. He was shouting at a battalion of mercenaries and they were reforming, their fear washed away by their masters' magic. Siobhan took aim and shot him in the chest. He fell to the ground and the mercenaries broke anew.

She scanned the battlefield and saw something odd. There was a vampire running around randomly, faster than a galloping horse. It raced among the grass and leapt over rocks and crevices. It was moving so fast it was just a streak and Siobhan had trouble keeping up with it through her scope. She followed it as best she could until it suddenly stopped at a large rock. The vampire grabbed at something and Aiofe, one of her sisters, tumbled off the rock, her dull gray camouflage cloak carried away by the wind. Aiofe sprawled on the ground for only a moment before rising swiftly but the vampire was on her before she could react. It grabbed her and brought its head to her neck. She saw her Aiofe stiffen and a moment later the vampire threw her to the ground. Then it blurred away.

Siobhen kept her fury clear and cold. They had been discovered and were being hunted, but Siobhan and her sisters were not prey. She followed the racing vampire as best she could. And when it stopped Siobhan pulled the trigger.

She missed.

The vampire bent down faster than she had expected and pulled another of her sisters to her feet. She couldn't make out her face before the vampire pulled her head down and drained the life from her.

Tears in her eyes, Siobhan desperately reloaded. Hands shaking with fury and she had to admit a little bit of fear, but she was still ready in less than a minute. When she brought her scope up she found the vampire easily; it was coming right for her. Pressing her fear and her anger to the back of her mind, she emptied her lungs of air and prayed to the Weaver of Ruin to guide her bullet to the vampire's heart and squeezed the trigger

She missed.

The vampire moved suddenly to the right, Siobhan knew it was impossible but it was almost as if it had seen the bullet coming and dodged. Siobhan feverishly reloaded but she knew it was too late. She wouldn't have a shot before the vampire reached her. Just as the next bullet settled in the barrel there was a woosh of air and the branch she was on dropped away. She tumbled through the tree, smacking into branches on the way down, but she curled into a ball and put her arms over her head and weathered the heavy blows of the branches. When she cleared the branches she reached and grabbed the lowest one she passed. The bark tore the skin from her hands and the pain was enormous but she slowed her fall and hit the ground safely, with only the wind knocked out of her. She took a breath and got to her feet, lungs burning, and grabbed her rifle in her flayed hands. The vampire was only fifteen feet away. She tried to raise her rifle but she was slow and clumsy from the pain.

The vampire was giving her the time she needed though. It wasn't moving. She knew it could be on her in an instant but it was just staring at her.

Then the vampire took off its helmet and Siobhan felt a brief moment of confusion. It looked like a woman, barely more than a girl, and not the cold, dead thing she was expecting. She had a wide forehead and round cheeks but a strong jaw and chin. She had a cute button nose and a big mouth that looked like it would break into broad smiles. Her eyes were a light forest green. She looked like one of Siobhan's cousins. One of the airheaded ones that was always drinking too much on feast days and getting in trouble for being alone with boys.

The vampire, the girl, looked at her, her green eyes were wide with shock, confusion, and pain, "Mom?"

Siobhan did not allow the utter impossibility of that word to throw her. She brought her rifle up as best she could and fired. The shot took the vampire in the stomach and tore a hole in her bright red mail. The vampire screamed, dropped her sword, and fell to her knees.