The giant’s head snapped up, and he lunged so fast Theron barely had time to jump aside. He caught a glancing blow to the head from the giant’s right hand that nonetheless sent him flying toward the far wall. When he landed, the woman was laughing again.
“He doesn’t have to be,” she said.
“I guess not,” Theron admitted.
The giant, meanwhile, had turned around to face him again. The wall behind him had so many thin cracks it reminded Theron of a spider’s web. Every time the behemoth slammed into a wall the whole building shuddered. And the noise! Soon the city guard would descend upon them if he didn’t do something to end this quick.
Theron looked at the cracks in the wall, and he had an idea.
He dodged aside as the giant came again, this time he jumped toward the woman, who tried to step away to the left but failed as he wrapped his arms around her neck. Theron jerked her head to the side and jabbed his claws into her lower back. She screamed at the pain, and the giant turned around again, growling something Theron could not understand.
The two circled, Theron holding the woman between them as a shield, using the claws in her back to prod her in the desired direction. She grunted in pain and tried to rake her claws across his body, but Theron swallowed the pain and kept his hold on her. He would heal the wounds soon enough. The giant seemed unwilling to attack while his mistress was so vulnerable. Perfect.
Once in position, Theron twisted his claws, making the woman scream in pain. The giant stood for a moment, indecision stamped on his face, then he lunged again. Theron tossed the woman at the giant’s feet and leapt aside as the two tumbled over each other. The giant crashed into the weakened wall and smashed right through it. He fell into the street below and right into the waiting arms of the city guard, who immediately tried to place him under arrest.
Theron heard the shouts of pain from the humans in the street. It would not take long for the giant to kill them all, so he didn’t have much time. He grabbed the woman, who squirmed in pain on the floor in a spreading pool of blood, and pulled her to her feet. She wobbled, and he realized that both her legs were broken. So much the better. He pulled her close and sank his fangs into her throat, drinking deeply. She groaned and swatted at him with her right hand, but it was a weak and ineffective attempt. She had lost too much blood.
Right away he felt a surge of strength. Bachiyr blood was much richer than human blood, but the Council frowned upon the Father’s children feeding on each other. Theron didn’t care, he needed blood, and she had it. Damn the Council and their rules. They were hunting him already, anyway. This would just give them something else to be angry about, provided they bothered themselves with it at all, which he doubted. He drank from her until she stopped moving, which didn’t take long.
He cast her body aside and listened as the sound of fighting outside grew more intense. Men screamed in pain and fear, while others shouted orders. An occasional deep grunt and the sound of bodies smashing into buildings punctuated the general din. He walked over to the hole in the wall and peered out to see how the giant was doing against the Athens city guard.
At least a dozen men lay broken and bleeding as the giant Bachiyr whirled and danced in the street. For such a large man he moved deceptively fast, and the city guard found their numbers dwindling until a second squad joined the first. The captain of the new squad, a wizened old soldier about half the size of the giant, ordered his men to throw a bucket of pitch on the frenzied devil in their midst.
Once the giant was covered in black, sticky tar, the captain threw a torch at him. The resulting fire flared high enough to make Theron back away from the hole on the second floor. He had seen enough, anyway. The sound of the big Bachiyr’s scream rattled the wall and confirmed Theron’s suspicions. The giant would not survive the night.
He looked around for a way out of the building but saw only the wooden door the giant had come through. He checked it anyway, hoping for a rear exit. Instead he found only the remaining chambers of the woman’s sanctuary, which confirmed what he’d already suspected. To escape, he would have to fight his way past the city guard.
He checked the scene outside and saw that, for the moment, most of them were distracted by the flaming giant. The huge Bachiyr kept the soldiers at bay with his wild flailing and deep bellow, but several of the men had drawn crossbows and were getting into position. Ordinarily, such puny weapons would not have much effect on one so big, but with the flames eating at his flesh the giant apparently thought better of continuing the fight and instead sprinted down the street, headed for the ocean. Two dozen guardsmen gave chase, their white cloaks streaming behind them as they fired bolt after bolt into the giant’s back.
Theron watched them go, amused by his good fortune. Not a single one of the guardsmen had remained behind to investigate the building. Now was his chance. He vaulted through the hole in the wall and fell to the street below. It wasn’t a long drop, but he bent his knees and rolled into his landing anyway, just to be safe. The last thing he needed to do right now was break his leg. He could heal it, of course, but that would take time, and the city guard could return at any moment. Better to be far away by the time they did.
He ran down the street, heading away from the ocean and deeper into the city. He had no idea where he was going. The city had changed so much since he’d lived here that the only familiar landmark was Acropolis. Fortunately it was visible above the rooftops, which allowed him to keep his bearings. While he ran, he thought about what the woman had said. The Council had offered a position within the Halls to anyone who could capture him.
A high prize, indeed. Only the elite of his race were permitted to live in the Halls of the Bachiyr. Adonia had nearly turned green with jealousy when Ephraim offered Theron a place within its walls. She had tried unsuccessfully for centuries to gain the notice of the Council, and she was far older than Theron. Such an offer would tempt every vampire from Rome to the far eastern cities and beyond. Not only would he not be safe in Athens, he realized, he would not be safe anywhere in the world. Bachiyr from every corner would come looking for him, all with visions of glory running through their minds. The Council had left him with no place to hide.
His stay in Athens would have to be very short. From this point on, he would have to keep moving in order to stay ahead of his pursuers. Most of them would be minor Bachiyr with dreams of grandeur, who would have no idea of the kind of power he possessed. They would be little more than annoyances as long as they didn’t band together.
But there were other powerful Bachiyr in the world, and not all of them had already secured a place in the Halls. Theron could think of a dozen, at least, that he would prefer to avoid if at all possible. Adonia, for example. By all reports, she still lived in Athens, and if the woman and her giant friend-Theron realized then that he’d never gotten their names-knew he was in the city then Adonia surely did, as well. Which meant she was probably prowling the streets even now, looking for him.
The thought caused him to slow his pace, no sense in drawing attention to himself. Even at this late hour people walked the streets of Athens, but few of them ran. Better to try and blend in as much as possible, at least until he could find a safe place to spend the day.
Of course, blending in was difficult to do with blood all over his clothes. He would need to replace them, and soon. He scanned the street, looking for a suitable candidate. After locating several men who had a height and build similar to his own, he settled on a drunkard weaving his way through the streets in the direction of Acropolis. Judging by his shabby clothes, the man was not on his way home. Only the wealthy lived in the shadow of the great hill. He was probably headed for the taverns. It didn’t matter. Wherever the man was going, he would not get there.