Demon Chord - A MaxTul Supernatural Thriller

Chapter 8 - Quiver

Max eased the back door to his bungalow open silently as he drew the fixed blade knife from his thigh sheath. He had sensed the creature as soon as it set foot on the sandy beach outside his home.

Peeking around the corner of the door frame, he was surprised to see the Wamphyri sitting in the open at the kitchen table idly playing with its phone. The enemy was dressed casually in board shorts, a wrinkled t-shirt, and flip flops – hardly battle attire. Max re-sheathed his knife and instead drew his long blade from his shoulder scabbard. Walking without a sound, he stepped in front of the creature and placed the point of his blade against its chest right where its heart would be located.

The Wamphyri looked up slowly from its phone, Max saw that it had the face of a young man about his own age, but he knew the creatures were immortal – this one could be hundreds or even thousands of years old. Though most people would consider the man staring at him with a slightly crooked grin handsome, Max knew the outer beauty concealed an inner monster.

"You're not very smart, creature; entering the home of your sworn enemy without a weapon."

The creature's grin grew into a smile as it asked, "Are we sworn enemies?"

Max pressed the tip of the blade harder against the creature's chest – though he knew it would not cause it any pain and replied, "We are."

"In that case, let me introduce myself so that you will know the name of the one who brought your death" taunted the creature.

Now it was Max's turn to smile, "I don't need to know your name - as you are the one who is standing defenseless at the tip of my blade which was forged with angel magic."

He was happy to see the smile of the creature slip at the mention of angel magic– even though it was so subtle he almost missed it.

"She's my weapon" stated the Wamphyri with a slight tilt of its head to the left.

Max felt rather than saw the woman as she stepped out of a shadow that should not have existed in the sunlit room. Keeping his blade pressed firmly against the Wamphyri' s chest, he turned to see a young woman with a face to rival that of a cover girl model with dark blue hair and a slender but muscled body clothed completely in black; but her most outstanding feature was the Glock pistol she had aimed at his forehead. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid, thought Max, a potentially fatal mistake - he was so surprised by the sight of the casually clad Wamphyri that he had forgotten about the creature's thrall.

"Her name is Kate" smirked Tul as he sensed the slayer's initial attraction to his companion.

Max turned back to the seated Wamphyri and hissed, "I have heard rumors that the Wamphyri were taking witches as thralls, but I didn't believe it."

Kate laughed as Tul replied, "She's not a witch. You humans butchered them into extinction centuries ago. But she is a death dealer, I trained her myself on the many ways to kill a slayer".

Raising his hand and gripping the blade lightly between his forefinger and thumb, Tul continued, "Now that we have established that we are both well-armed and neither of us would likely survive this stand-off; let's lower our weapons and talk like civilized people."

Max snarled, "You aren't a person", but he still lowered the sword and returned it to the scabbard.

Tul made a downward motion with his left hand and Kate hesitantly lowered the gun, though the look of confusion stayed on her face. What was Tul doing? They had clear orders to kill the slayer and she never missed at this distance. She was confident she could drop the slayer before he had a chance to plunge the blade into Tul's heart. Maybe not knowing Tul's plan is what was causing the tightness in her chest.

Seeing the woman return the gun to her thigh holster, Max pulled out the chair opposite the creature and sat down. Neither spoke but stared intently into the other's eyes; each of them trying to get a feel of the other.

As the two men stared at each other, Kate began to feel...off. Her chest was burning, and her heart was doing weird things, could this be ....

Ignoring that train of thought for the time being, she quietly took two steps forward, drew her pistol and hit the slayer on the back of the head hard enough to knock him temporarily unconscious.

Surprised, Tul stood up quickly, knocking his chair to the floor and shouted, "What the hell, Kate?"

She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards the door, "We need to talk. Now."

Trusting that Kate knew what she was doing, Tul took one last look at the unconscious slayer and followed her out the door.

As soon as they were outside, she re-holstered her gun and took a couple of deep breaths.

"You like him" she stated simply.

Tul laughed, "Don't be ridiculous."

"Then why didn't we kill him like Vlad instructed?"

Tul didn't answer right away, so Kate said again, "You like him."

Tul slowly shook his head in the negative, "I find him slightly interesting, but I do not...as you say...like him."

Kate blew out two more deep breaths and said, "Your ka quivered."

Tul blinked in disbelief, "No. It didn't."

"It did" she answered. "At first, I thought I might be having a heart attack, which we both know is impossible. But my heart started beating faster the minute he walked into the bungalow. When you two were staring into each other's eyes, it stopped beating altogether and then it...quivered."

"How do you know?" he questioned in a voice so low it was almost a whisper

"I just do."

"What does this mean?" he asked with voice still low and now Kate could detect slight waves of anxiety rolling off him.

"You know what it means" she answered firmly, "Maxiin the slayer is your one and only twin flame – your literal other half."

With a stronger voice, he countered, "I don't know of a single Wamphyri who has ever met their twin flame. I honestly thought it wasn't possible."

"Well now you know that it is, because your ka definitely recognized him."

"This complicates things" said Tul as he rubbed his face with both hands.

"Well, duh..." smirked Kate, "You can't kill your destiny; or allow him to be killed, even if he currently thinks that he hates you."

"Do you think he feels it? The connection between us?" Tul questioned, now totally on board with Maxiin being his twin flame, because if he was honest with himself, he knew there was something between them the moment he looked up from his phone and saw his face.

Kate shrugged her shoulders and answered, "I have no idea, but I think the safest thing for us to do is go back to the hotel and think this through, we don't want to be here when he comes to. He won't be happy about that knock on the head and I'm doubly sure he won't be receptive to hearing that you and he are destined to be together."

Just then, they heard a low moan from inside the bungalow.

Kate grabbed Tul's hand and teased, "your boyfriend is waking up, we gotta go."

"He's not my boyfriend" Tul grinned.

"Not yet" she laughed as they both started to run down the beach towards their jeep.

Author's note:

A twin flame is an intense soul connection, sometimes called a "mirror soul," thought to be a person's other half. It's based on the idea that sometimes one soul gets split into two bodies. One of the main characteristics of a twin flame relationship is that it will be both challenging and healing. This is due to the mirroring nature of a twin flame; they show you your deepest insecurities, fears, and shadows. But they also help you overcome them and vice versa—your twin flame will be equally affected by you. While a person can have many soulmates come and go throughout their lifetime, there is only one twin flame.