“Sure,” Reive nodded calmly, gesturing to the monster. “Put it here and go out. Wait outside and guard the entrance. And don’t you try to stick your nose in here. See how you’re scaring the lady!”
The necromancer gestured with his hand and the horrid scream-producing zombie gave me a nod.
A cold wave ran down my spine.
For a second, a blood-red flame flashed in his eye sockets. Then, everything became as it was before.
It occurred to me that this zombie was very lucky: he still had his eyeballs. Now they were yellow-grey, with black pupils. From a distance, they might seem quite normal.
If they didn’t flash with such a hungry red light, of course.
I desperately wanted to huddle against Reive. To seize his hand, to hide behind his back which didn’t shudder like mine from each movement of the zombie.
Then, I realized: a man who could raise the undead was much more dangerous than the undead he raised.
I shifted my gaze to the man I’d met just a couple of hours ago. During this time he’d already managed to knock me out with a spell and save me from a suffocating seizure.
A multitalented man, wasn’t he?
Then, he looked at me in turn. His lips curved in a kindly smile, which it was hard not to respond to.
“Don’t be afraid, little one,” he said, “Zomzom’s already left.”
“Zomzom?” I blinked my eyes in surprise.
Reive shrugged his shoulders.
“A derivative from ‘zombie’. I’m not good at making up names. But we must call him something.”
He spoke as if he was inventing a name for his pet cat. He gestured a little with his long aristocratic fingers and I couldn’t take my eyes away from these unobtrusive movements.
Reive was a unique man. Something in him had broken loose from the ordinary world pattern. Small details, such as manner of speech, his habit of always holding his head high, a certain cautious choice of words not characteristic even of the high-born. All this made me take a closer look at him, attracted my attention and inspired a vivid interest in him.
“Well, you can make up a name yourself if you like,” he offered and waved his hand, as if turning up his palm invitingly.
That’s how it was! Of course, there was nothing supernatural, but still, none of my friends had ever done this.
I inclined my head and narrowed my eyes, “Why did you raise this zombie and how?”
Reive chuckled, moving a little closer again, “Little one, I believe I’ve already told you about this...”
I was a bit nervous because the half-naked necromancer was once again less than an arm’s length from me. I got up from the branches and made a small step towards the entrance, trying imperceptibly to examine the zombie who had settled himself near the cave entrance.
Reive took a deep breath. At this time, I was looking at the motionless body of the zombie. He was sitting on the ground, legs crossed and head lowered. If you didn’t pay attention to the horrific wound on his chest, scary with congealed blood, you might think he was a regular homeless guy.
But the zombie slowly lifted his head and turned to me, as if sensing my gaze.
An icy band of fear wound around my spine, and down into my stomach breathing out its icy breath inside me. A shiver went down my spine. I felt like a hunted animal. I stumbled backwards. And suddenly (I didn’t understand how), I found myself in Reive’s strong arms.
His warm arms embraced my waist. My back was pressed up against the man’s broad chest. Above my ear, I heard quiet but blood-tingling breathing.
The air was forced of my lungs. I shuddered, feeling every nerve become painfully sensitive.
Reive put his chin on my shoulder, embracing and pressing me into his body. Then, his lips touched the nape of my neck.
Oh, the Dark and the demons...
The blood rushed to my head. I closed my eyes, feeling a dizzying pleasure from this touch. Weightless and teasing.
What was this? Was I going mad?
“Of course, we could discuss the nature of necromancy as one field of magic,” Reive said in a purring voice, without lifting his lips from my skin, “but I’d like to do that a bit later...”
He ran his nose along my neck and bit my earlobe, sucking it a little, almost wresting a moan of pleasure from me.
I couldn’t breathe. Just delirium...
His hands came down softly, pressing me into him more firmly. He slid his hand down my legs aiming to pull my dress.
“No, stop,” I gasped in fright, grapping the fingers on his hand.
Reive released my earlobe and said hoarsely, kissing a delicate area behind my ear, on the hairline:
“Are you nervous? Don’t worry, I haven’t had sex for a long time either...” And then, he chuckled in a strange way and added: “I bet even longer than you. A little bit longer...”
He caressed the length of my neck with his lips and suddenly bit its nape.
A hot wave struck somewhere lower down. Damn it, he was driving me mad!
“No, I... Reive, I won’t do... this with you.” I said.
It seemed to me that now I ought to feel better. But suddenly, the man turned me around to face him, holding my waist firmly, and looked closely at me.
His dark-brown eyes scorched me and carried me away to some unknown gulf, deep and enticing. It called to me, as if this gulf was exactly where I was meant to be.
No one had ever looked at me like that.
Then, the necromancer raised his hand and softly touched my lips with his finger. He passed his finger over my lower lip, both stroking and caressing me.
From this movement, sparks flamed in my stomach.
“Why?” he asked so feelingly that I wanted to let him do everything.
I blinked slowly and opened my eyes. I swallowed hard with a gulp, and trying to stop my voice trembling so treacherously, said, “Well, first, I hardly know you...”
“That’s not a good reason, little one,” he said smoothly, gliding his hand behind my head and drawing me to him. “You want it yourself.”
His low voice echoed inside me with an alarming aching vibration.
I shivered. His every movement was so confident and determined, but, at the same time, careful and sensual, that I couldn’t help but react. I responded to his movements like a cat does towards its owner’s hands.
Still, having taken a deep breath, I said, “And second, I’m a virgin.”
Reive froze. Then, he leaned back a little, looking straight into my eyes. Without any of the irony or mockery that I would have expected, to be honest. Who ever heard of a girl who was a virgin at twenty-three? It meant that she hadn’t caught any boy’s fancy so far.
Of course, there’s another possibility: the girl might be high-blooded. Among the nobility, marriage was only welcomed with a virgin.
I, alas, came from the first category. During all the time I studied at Academy, masculine attention was centered on everyone but me. I didn’t know, maybe, I wasn’t attractive enough for my fellow-students, or, maybe, I didn’t find anyone whom I liked.
Reive sighed deeply. He suddenly smiled, gently passing his bent index finger along my cheek.
“Of course, the first time shouldn’t be in a cave, little one...”
I looked at him. I couldn’t believe that he was smiling. My necromancer friends would hardly be embarrassed by such things as the spiritual sufferings of a virgin who didn’t want sex in a bear’s lair.
Reive drew back as if with effort. Continuing to hold my hand and gently stroking my palm with his thumb. As if he didn’t wanted to let me go. His brown eyes shining with a honey tint in the setting sun, spoke more eloquently than his words. Alas, I couldn’t read exactly what they said.
Suddenly, he raised his eyebrows and looked somewhere to the side. As if he’d seen someone behind my shoulder.
At this moment, it also seemed to me that I saw a shadow out of the corner of my eye.
I felt terror: either the bear had come, or Zomzom had gone mad and decided to eat our bowels anyway.
However, there wasn’t anyone.
When I looked at Reive again, he had turned pale with his jaw clenched. He let go of my hand and smiled stiffly.
Suddenly I felt cold.
What’s happened?” the girl asked anxiously.The necromancer clenched his teeth. It seemed like he was going crazy.Was this a side effect of being raised from the dead? Or was it because of the damned locusts who’d been finishing him off for seven hundred years?“It’s okay. I just remembered something unpleasant,” he said, scarcely hearing himself. His gaze was focused a little to the left of the girl – to the place where once again his old enemy was standing. Damn Ulfricus Ayris, smiling repulsively.Yet, Angelina obviously didn’t see anyone.Reive slowly closed his eyes, mentally ordering the spirit to get lost. To the place ordained for traitors.“And where is the place for people like you, Reivy?” the ghost smirked.The necromancer opened his eyes, but that asshole Ulfricus didn’t disappear. Inste
The remains of the fire glowed drearily before my eyes. The sun was going down, and I was no longer thinking that I had spent the whole day with a stranger who was really strange. That I had almost slept with him in a bear’s lair. That I had almost died from a seizure. And now, I’m watching the dying embers with him in the company of an undead called Zomzom.For the first time in a long while, I was feeling calm and comfortable. Even though everything should have been the other way round, I felt good. I had already told Reive the history of my own birth. I told him something that no one else had ever heard from me during the five years I studied at the Academy. During my whole life! So, there was no point in holding back from telling what will happen.“In a month, there will be a royal wedding,” I uttered gloomily. “My birth father has found a new fiancée. And now, all the rich and high-born people are gathering in the
“It just can’t be,” I gasped, looking into the mocking dark-brown eyes. “The descendant of the very King of the Dead? Can I touch you?”I carefully put my hand on his knee.What was going on in my head? Something like “there’s a great necromancer’s blood in his veins! I’m touching a legend!”In fact, everything looked rather strange. Reive stiffened, and then he glanced sideways and said with a fixed smile:“Angel, you do remember I’ve got nothing on underneath this coat, don’t you?”I started back in fright, biting my lips nervously. True, he didn’t have anything...Oh, the Dark!The next moment, the necromancer shrieked with laughter. And it seemed to me that I blushed even more.“Don’t worry,” he added with a slightly guilty smile. “That I’m sitting here half-naked is my fault, not yours. So, I’m sorr
“Who’s shy here? You know what this jacket was like? Everyone dreamed of having such a thing! Ah, what do you know anyway?”Reive gave a wave of his hand and huffed angrily. It seemed to me I hadn’t had such fun for a long time.For some time, we just looked silently at each other, and I was even managing to get used to Zomzom’s silent presence. By the way, I began to like his name more and more as if no other name could suit the undead.“Reive, aren’t you going to... kill the zombie?” I said thoughtfully.The undead shifted his scary but altogether too clever gaze to the necromancer.“No way.”The dead eyes flashed red then went dull.“I’ll need a servant and a porter soon,” he continued. “And to expend my energy on raising someone else is...”“To expend your energy on raising the dead?” I snorted. “In such a situa
“Yeah, it’s a tradition.”Now, I shook my head, “What for?”I really didn’t understand this.“Necromancy’s absolutely useless nowadays. Well, you can raise the dead. But who needs that now?”I tried to spread my hands in a gesture of incomprehension, but suddenly, the ring fell through my fingers and dropped down to the bottom of the pond, lost between the thick water plants.“Oh, no!” I exclaimed. “I’m so sorry!” I was about to go into the water when the necromancer stopped me.“Wait, there’s nothing to panic about,” he said calmly, turning to me. “Except that you think necromancers are useless.”Unexpectedly, he frowned. I wouldn’t have thought that the loss of the family ring would distress him less than my opinion about the twilight science.“But really isn’t it so? What use to the wor
Bones and blood… Dark and twilight demons. It’s cold. It’s so cold. No feeling. Cold – at least I’m used to that. The zombie sat motionless six feet from the brightly burning campfire and stared at it with an unblinking gaze. Damn flames. I hate fire. Fire burns my blood. It eats up my spirit.Bursts of orange light were reflecting in the zombie’s dead eyes, causing an uprush of fear in him. The remnants of his brain that still hadn’t decomposed when Reive read the raising invocation called forth clear images. Images of burning yellow tongues on his hands and breast. Hungry fire greedily devouring his passively rotting flesh. And blood-red eyes flashing with evil crimson magic.The zombie had to obey. The rabbit’s body was laying at his feet. The animal’s skin wasn’t damaged anywhere.The zombie easily caught the rabbit. Zomzom had already recovered his senses after his awakening, and
Reive wanted to watch the sunrise. The first sunrise after hundreds of years in darkness. He woke up just as the amber light of dawn appeared on the horizon. He went out of the cave, taking note of everything as he moved. The zombie was still securely attached to the man and sitting obediently at the entrance to the lair. The twilight vision told him there were no people or large predators at any great distance from them. It was quiet.For some time the necromancer walked through the forest, heading towards a hill on the edge of the trees not far away. From there he thought that a fine view would open out.He was right. Sitting on a hillock covered with soft grass, Reive locked his hands together, planted his elbows on his knees and gave himself over completely to watching the golden dawn.It was really beautiful. It aroused not only a thirst for life in the necromancer’s heart, but also other deeper emotions. It aroused desires of which he hadn&rsqu
In a split-second, the necromancer turned into an animal at bay. He leaped away from me as if he had seen the most horrible beast in the world. Something like a roar or a scream came out of his throat. I hadn’t seen such horror in his eyes before. And I couldn’t even imagine what it could be.“Reive, what’s it? Are you afraid of an insect?” I asked, slowly bringing my hands that held the locust back and letting the insect go.There was a loud buzzing of wings, and the ‘horrible monster’ flew away.The necromancer was breathing heavily, and real sweat appeared on his forehead, as if he had just run five miles. His dark-brown eyes turned black. His pale face turned into a waxen mask.“It’s... it’s all right,” he whispered, leaning against a tree beside him. He closed his eyes and tried to breathe.I saw his hands were shaking.When a person was in such a state, you didn’t