Necromancer Chronicles Pt. 13

The wards weren't powerful enough to break their shields, even with just ten of them that was still more than enough to resist. But it would make it easier for us to break them. I trusted Bell to protect Katrina and ran to back up Katie's position. Between the wards, witches, fae and humans there, not to mention the vampires physically pounding on them, the shield buckled the moment I hit it with my dagger.

I didn't hesitate to plunge it into the first chest I saw, routing the energy to my healing amulets. I managed to get one more before the vampires finished tearing their bodies up. I felt Katrina's familiar energy rush by and snag all the dead, and start rebuilding bodies.

Katie looked beyond pissed when her body finished reforming.

She growled, "Next group," and we all followed her as she ran for the hallway.

All the humans were in the house and I could feel the last eight groups reconfigure as they became four and started knocking down walls. I wondered if we should retreat, this wouldn't be good. Sure, the odds went down, it was three groups to their four now, but I wasn't so sure we could breach their shields anymore.

"Oh fuck," slipped out of my mouth.

Katie asked impatiently, "What now?"

I asked, "Can't you feel it?"

She looked to retort sharply, but then her eyes widened...

-Katrina-

I closed my eyes, I felt Allie get torn apart, and the rest of that group was following. The enemy had doubled the size of their groups and I wasn't feeling very hopeful we could breach them as we were now. Katie and Jeremy's group was too far away for us to join up anytime fast.

"Holy shit," I muttered when I felt it.

There were thousands of humans coming this way. I sent the signal to retreat and we ran for the basement. I didn't think we were going to make it as one of the groups got in our way and started attacking. I knew my shields wouldn't last long when they focused their attack on me. I was channeling from over three hundred souls now and focused purely on defense, but I was just one person.

I felt Bell's shadows rise around me and smiled at her. I didn't want to run, but we could rebuild the house and most of the people if I lived. But then I felt the attack stop cold, it was no longer there. Bell hesitated a moment and held back teleporting us.

I looked curiously at the group of twenty humans before us. Their eyes had gotten wide and panicked, and then I felt it. The shield that had risen up between us, it was a second shield and not theirs. It closed in around the hunters and squeezed. The sound of snapping bone and compressing flesh was horrifying as they all were all turned to mush.

I was in shock as I felt all the hunters in the house dying around me. The power behind the strikes was the combined might of the thousands of humans I had felt outside. My power started reaching out and snatching them all up, almost by habit.

They weren't even running, still in shock from their violent deaths. I now had close to three hundred and ninety souls. I'd be happy if I never had to take another one. But there was a mystery, why would all those humans have come to our defense?

I wasn't sure how to feel about that, outside of grateful I mean. It was just so... surprising. I also felt incredibly vulnerable. I was sure they could reach out and crush the house and everyone in it like a bug with all that power behind them.

I looked at Bell gratefully when she put an arm around me and squeezed my shoulder. We walked in the direction of the front of the house even while I pumped out magic, repairing the bodies of the revenants that had been destroyed. Luckily, Sue was fine. Unfortunately four of the twenty vampires died, I let them choose, and three of them were old and ready for the next life, one of them chose to stay and became a zombie.

It was a hell of a sight when I walked out the front door. Jeremy took my hand and we were staring at them. Two humans separated from the immense crowd and came forward, my knees almost buckled when I saw who it was.

Fran Burnheimer said in a voice both annoyed and apologetic, "Sorry we were late, sometimes those damn visions are so hard to pin down."

My mouth dropped open, "You saw this, and gathered all these people?"

She nodded, "Remember when we met, I almost fell on the floor. That nice woman that was with you caught me. Anyway, that's when I saw it. Well, my husband and I started spreading the word and everyone that has met you volunteered.

She made a face, "As you can see, after that it sort of snowballed. We weren't about to let a bunch of hoodlums kill one of our own. We don't hold with murderers, so we came to put them down."

I was speechless and felt my eyes start to water.

I cleared my throat, "Thank you."

She nodded, looked at the house, and said critically, "Well, at least it's still standing. I'd meant to get here earlier."

I giggled, "Don't worry about the house; that we can easily fix."

She said, "Let me know if you need help with anything, or just someone to talk to."

It was in a kind of daze when I agreed and we said our goodbyes.

-Jeremy-

It took less time than I thought to fix the house. In less than a week, with all the zombie labor we had and a few people with knowledge of building, we had the house back. Supplies were easy to arrange. Katrina had sent us out shopping for wood, replacement doors, siding, and windows. Bell had easily moved it all straight from the lumber yard so we wouldn't have to wait for delivery.

I did eventually get that date with Sue, and we hit it off even better than I had expected. I'd always gotten along with her around the house, but after some one on one time she felt like family. I found her attractive, but it didn't really bother me that she didn't feel the same; she had no problem sharing a bed with me though when Bell joined us later that night.

It seemed like the hunter problem was really over now, there were none left. The battle made its way on the news and we, and our city, were shown in a good light. Katrina was ecstatic about being so welcome and we pushed forward with our plans and Sue's store.

I wasn't sure what the future would hold, or even where the next enemy would come from. It was a harsh life sometimes, and I was sure some asshole would start a fight sooner or later. But I was happier than I'd ever been. I had five women who loved me and we were a family. We also had a city that accepted us and valued us for who we were and what we could provide, instead of what we were born as.

I'd just take life as it comes, and with my family at my side I couldn't wait for what might come next...

Authors Note: Hope you all enjoyed it. This is the last story for now in this world, but you never know. I'm thinking about doing another story in the Jezebel/Ashley universe, or maybe something altogether new. Either way it could be a while for my next post as I have another project to finish.