The Battered Lamp Ch. 22

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The forest vanished. Britney blinked in surprise, looking around. She had wandered into a classroom. Her hair stood up, and she hissed, racing for the door. She burst into the hall and nimbly avoided colliding with the sprinting Fatima.

"What the fuck happened?" Kyle's wife asked her, leaning against her flaming yari.

"An illusion befuddled us."

"I thought magic wasn't supposed to work in here."

"Our weapons are magical and they work. We only cut off external magics. Whatever the illusion was, it was internal. He drew on the power already contained within the circle. I suspect it was shamanism."

"So Burke may not be as powerless as we thought?"

"Yes. Let us find your brother and Fumi."

"Right!" Fatima raced ahead towards the front of the school. Britney easily caught up.

The office was ahead and Kyle strode through the doors. They slammed behind him, a purple energy springing up around the door. Fatima ran into the barrier, bellowing with all her fiery passion.

And bounced off, flying back into Britney. The Rakshasa caught the girl, the pair falling onto the hard floor. Fatima rolled over her, regaining her feet. Britney hissed as she flexed her back, popping out into a crouch.

"Holy shit," the smaller girl gasped. "What was that?"

"Burke has activated some sort of barrier. I am afraid your brother is on his own."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Energy roared up behind Kyle. He glanced back at a purple barrier, wavering in and out through the door and walls like water in an old video game clipping through geometry. Fatima crashed into the energy and bounced back into Britney.

Kyle grit his teeth. If Burke wanted to fight Kyle alone, then he was more than happy to give the bastard that.

Kyle kicked the flimsy door open to the dean's office. The hollow door splintered in, the cheap door frame ripping apart. He strode in, his sword held before him, ready to kill his dean. Burke was waiting, a dagger to his mom's throat.

"Hello, Kyle," he grinned, his brown eyes hard, narrowing.

"Let my mom go, and I won't kill you."

"Threats, Kyle? Do you even know whom you are dealing with?"

"Nope. And I don't give a shit. You let my mom go and this can end here."

"Did you kill the Vicar?"

"The man with the staff? Yeah. I cut him almost in half." Kyle grinned, the man's blood stained his blade. "And I won't hesitate to do the same to you."

The knife tightened at his mom's dusky throat, pressing in just enough for a bead of blood to run down to her blouse. His mom didn't react to the pain. Instead, she pleaded with him: "Kyle, you have to cooperate with him. He'll kill me."

"Then I'll kill him." Kyle said, trying to sound as hard and cold as he could.

"Now, now, Kyle," Burke purred. "Why be so blase with your mother's life? I know how much you love her. I watched the two of you last night. I could see how much you loved her body when she was gasping beneath you."

Kyle's grip was sweaty.

"Just give him what he wants, and I can be all yours," she husked. "You are an amazing lover. The best. So much better than Fatima's dad. I can be all yours."

Burke grinned, almost friendly, almost the kind-hearted dean he pretended to be. "Just hand over the Djinn, and your mother can walk away."

"I can't," Kyle said. "I won't. I won't give you my wife."

"Then your mother dies."

"No!" Kyle's arms trembled, his stomach clenched. He needed to do something.

He reached into the earth below their feet. He could cause a small earthquake, jostle Burke's dagger away so he free his mother. It was dangerous, but he couldn't just sit here and let the man kill her. He commanded the earth to shake.

It resisted.

Never before had the earth failed to obey him. He put all his will into the sword, channeling it down into the earth. Shake! Rumble! I command you! Obey me!

Another's will prevented him, ordering the earth to be still and calm. The will was far stronger than his own.

He caught Burke's eyes, saw the smirk on his lips.

"How?" Kyle gaped. "Your magic can't work in here."

"I have long studied shamanism. You may have cut me off from my witchcraft, but there are more...primal powers that can be used. Now, lay down your sword, or I will kill your mom."

He looked his mom in the eyes. He couldn't just stand here and watch her die. What choice did he have? Fatima loved her mother. Kyle wouldn't hand over Aaliyah, but he could hand over himself. He lowered his blade.

"N-no!" his mom shouted, her face suddenly contorting in pain. She was fighting Burke's domination. "Y-you ca-an't. H-he'll kill..."

Burke snarled as his mom's body shook, trying to move in his grip, like her limbs were bound by invisible chains.

"Mom! Fight!" Kyle shouted, his spirits buoyed. He lifted his sword into a defensive stance.

"Drop that sword or I'll cut her throat!" Burke hissed.

"No!" his mom shouted! "I-I love...you!"

He stared into Faiza's eyes. She shoved her body forward. The knife cut into her throat. Her blood was a dark flood pumping out. A numb horror came over Kyle as she let out a gurgling gasp.

"I love you, Mom."

She smiled for a moment, then she fell limp in Burke's arms, blood sheeting down her body.

"Stupid bitch!" Burke threw his mom's body to the floor, then pointed his dagger at Kyle.

Kyle attacked, swinging his sword. His anger was a cold fire that drove his blade. He would avenge his mother mother. He would cut Burke into a thousand pieces.

Burke shimmered, his body melting like wax into a blob on the floor. Kyle's swing went through where Burke's chest had been. The blob became a gray-furred wolf that snarled and leaped, striking into Kyle's side. Teeth snapped and blood spurt from his arm.

He stumbled into a bookshelf, the wolf-Burke snarling at him.

"You killed her!" Kyle snarled, swinging at the wolf.

Burke shimmered into a small cat, leaping nimbly out of the way. In mid-air he melted into a cougar, snarling and swiping his claws at Kyle's legs, raking through his jeans. Kyle stumbled, catching himself on the desk.

He swung at the cougar as it advanced. The office was too small for the big cat to move effectively. Burke shimmered into a wolverine, launching at Kyle's wounded leg as Kyle sword swung over Burke's furry body, the blade crashing into Burke's desk.

Kyle ignore the pain of the wolverine's razor teeth biting into his calves. He reversed his blade, stabbing down at the wolverine's head.

Burke became a serpent warped around his thigh. Kyle's blade missed by an inch, stabbing into the floor. Fangs sank into leg. Venom burned, shooting pain up into his groin. Kyle stumbled back, dropping his sword, tears blurring his vision.

"No! You're not going to beat me, Burke!" The pain swelled with every beat of his heart. He reached down and grabbed the serpent's neck, prying it away from his leg, squeezing with every ounce of his strength. Kyle would see the man dead even if it killed him.

Burke shimmered and flowed like wax. Kyle's hand squeezed harder, but the serpent's neck grew thick. Burke stood before him, Kyle's hand gripping the man's shoulder. The dagger, red with his mom's blood, stabbed into Kyle's side.

Kyle collapsed.

"I do not know why I was so fearful of this confrontation," Burke panted, standing over him, the dagger stained with both Kyle and mom's blood. "You were far weaker than I gave you credit for. Celestite must have been a fool to have been defeated by you."

Kyle struggled to hold on as his vision swam with black.

Burke knelt down, the dagger poised over Kyle's heart. "I guess it's just old age. I have lost that recklessness of youth. When you're young, you think you are immortal. That nothing you do can ever go wrong. But the older you get, the more you realize that you can die. And when you're as old as I am, well, you become too cautious."

I can't die. He'll kill my wives. He'll drain Aaliyah. I have to fight.

Kyle reached out his aura to his discarded sword, holding his hand before him, pointed at Burke's chest.

"Is this some last, desperate attempt at life?" Burke asked, amusement tinging his voice. "Humans always struggle to the bitter end. I love it. I'll make sure your wives fight--"

With a flash of golden light, Earthbones appeared in Kyle's hands, the blade thrusting right through Burke's chest. The dean's brown eyes widened in shock as the blade materialized inside his chest. He struggled to speak, but the katana had ripped right through his heart.

"Your heart's not beating," Kyle croaked. "You only have a few seconds before your brain consumes all your oxygen and you black out. I'm the last face you'll see."

Burke gurgled, then his body collapsed forward atop Kyle.

Blackness threatened to overtake Kyle. His blood pumped out of his side and the venom burned through him. At least I protected my wives.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Something changed inside the circle. Zaritha could feel it. A great power had been snuffed out. Burke was dead. The bastard was dead! She wanted to laugh for joy.

But she had her mission to accomplish.

She ripped Aaliyah's powers away from the witches. The three of them stumbled, breathing heavily as the silver circle vanished.

"Kyle did it," Christy breathed.

Zaritha gathered her fires. It was time to kill the Djinn and fulfill her true master's orders. She lashed out with her fist, flames wreathing it. Aaliyah turned to face her and...Zaritha hesitated. Her fist stopped right before it burned through the little houri's throat.

Why did I hesitate?

"Zaritha!" Christy gasped. "What are you doing?"

"You serve Rashid ibn al-Marid." Aaliyah eye's widened. "You were sent to kill me?"

Zaritha didn't understand why she hesitated. She had dispatched her Sultan's enemies for two thousand years without mercy, betrayed her own Sheikh for Rashid. But she couldn't bring herself to kill this little waif. The witches were spreading out. They would begin to cast binding spells. Zaritha had to act.

She seized Aaliyah and, using the boon granted to her by the Sultan, pulled them both into the Unseen Realm. If she couldn't kill the bitch, she would drag her to Rashid and let her Sultan deal with her.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The crow watched its Master die through the window. The crow didn't care that the man who called himself Burke had perished. The crow didn't even care that for the first time in almost a thousand years, it was free of the man's control. The crow ruffled its feathers, flicking off the drops of water that penetrated through the pine trees boughs.

The Goddess seized the crow.

The crow had felt the Goddess's touch once before that day in the crow's distant memory when it had come across the drowned corpse of a knight on the lonely strand--Alphonse of Toulouse. The Goddess had reversed the knight's fate, and had set the crow to serve him. And now she seized her servant back.

The crow took flight, landing on the window sill of Burke's office. The glass was enchanted by Burke to allow the crow's passage, and it stepped through, hopping on its black-scaled legs. It cawed once, savoring the smell of blood in the air.

But the Goddess wouldn't let the crow indulge in its hunger.

The crow alighted on the woman's body, peering into her sightless eyes. The crow opened its mouth and swallowed the soul escaping her corpse. Its task complete, the crow took flight as a girl cried out in horror and pain. The crow phased back through the window and soared out into the downpour.

To be continued...