Lance Hayward
Water splashed above. I reached the second floor. Yuki was standing in the dark, water slowing around her. She slapped it down into something that buzzed in the dark. The light from my lance banished back the dark.
She faced the Maggotborn, a misshapen fly. Its wings buzzed, its multifaceted eyes gleaming in the light. It spat out something green from its narrow mouth. Yuki slapped it down with her water. I raced to join her when a door opened behind me.
I spun around to see a dagger flashing out of the dark. It slammed into my leg. Pain burst. I gasped and my leg folded out from beneath me. I landed on my side to see a weeping hunchback stepping out. Fat tears spilled down his face.
I knew this creature. The Weeper. He had a statute. This man killed my great-grandfather. He advanced on me with a dagger in his hand. Pain burned in my leg. He threw another blade at me. I blocked it with my spear. As he rushed forward.
"I'm so sorry," he wept, but there was joy in his eyes. Glee.
"Hey!" roared behind him.
The Weeper turned around and gasped. He raised his dagger and blocked an attack. I used my lance to stand, the pain in my leg throbbing. He fought... Bella. She had blood on her thighs, but she looked mended. Only...
She had a stone right arm. A prosthetic she had fashioned from her own stump. She swung a sword held in that hand, attacking the Weeper. She traded blows as I limped up behind the attacker, the dagger twisting in the meat of my thigh.
The Weeper cursed and turned to attack me. Bella slammed her sword into its arm and cut off the stump. I buried my spear into its chest. I slammed the Weeper to the ground and pinned him there to the floor. He spasmed and formed a dagger in his left hand.
Bella lopped that off.
"You're okay?" I asked her, glancing at her arm. "I'm fine."
"Yuki!" Hannah shouted. My Stripper-Maid ran past us both and threw a ball of fire. It struck the Maggotborn. It screamed, this awful, grating sound, as it burned. It staggered back, wings crisping. "Master! Get him!"
I snarled and formed a new spear. Yuki jumped back as the burning Imprisoned tried to lunge at her. I threw my lance. It slammed into the thing's bulky, swollen head. Ichor spurted as it fell back on the ground, thrashing as the fire burned out, leaving it burned and wheezing.
I slammed another lance into his belly, pinning it to the ground.
"Fuck," I snarled, my leg throbbing in pain.
"Stop it, Seductress!" Asuka cried from farther down the hallway.
Wind swirled. A woman laughed.
I wrenched the dagger from my thigh, adrenaline screaming through my body. The pain vanished. I ran on my wounded leg. Black hair swirled before me. The Seductress stumbled back as the wind slammed into me.
"What are you doing?" demanded Felicity. She rushed forward and slammed a stone shield in the Seductress. The Demon-Maid stumbled back from another painting.
She snarled seized Felicity by the throat, lifting her off the ground. My Concubine-Maid kicked her legs, her green garter flashing. She gurgled, unable to breathe. Wind slammed into the seductress again, billowing her hair.
"STOP!" I roared.
The Seductress's hand released Felicity. She dropped to the ground in a heap, coughing. Wheezing. The Seductress turned around and faced me, a wild glee in her all-black eyes. Such delight shone in them. Her bodice was open, blood splattering her breasts.
"Master," she said with such a mocking tone.
"KNEEL!"
My voice shook the air. She gasped and dropped to her knees, looking astonished. She squirmed there, struggling to sand. I formed my lance and leveled it at her. My leg throbbed as I marched at her. A smile spread on her lips.
"Did you enjoy my wedding present, Master?" she purred. "What an exciting night! Mmm, Nancy found it—"
I rammed my spear through her throat, cutting off her words. she gurgled, pain bursting across her face. The spear burst out the back of her neck. It would have killed a human, severing the spinal cord. She just gripped it and stared at me. She opened her mouth, trying to speak.
"She cannot die," said Cali as she came up behind me.
"Serena, get over here and nurse your father," Bella said as she marched up. She put her stone hand over my bleeding leg. I grinned at her.
"She's bound to the Hay like I am for eternity, Master," Cali continued. "That doesn't mean her nature has changed."
The Seductress shook her head, such delight in her eyes.
"Are there any more Imprisoned loose?" I demanded. "Or have I impaled them all?"
"The maids are sweeping the manor," Cali said. "If they find any more, they'll engage them. I think this is all of them. The Gizzamuluke attacked right away. If it hadn't, she could have freed far, far more."
The Seductress winked at me.
"Seal them back up," I ordered Cali.
She nodded and headed back to the pair I left in the corridor, the Maggotborn and the Weeper. Cali didn't hold any more garters. So more of my maids had died. That was something. I stared down at the seductress as Serena came up to me.
"Master-Daddy, you're bleeding badly," she said. "You have to drink."
The Seductress mouthed at me, that insolence in her eyes. My blood boiled as I leaned down to nurse from my Daughter-Maid's breast. Anger burned in my heart. It beat with such violence. Aunt Nancy and Mrs. White were dead. My wife was maimed.
My poor Bella had lost her arm.