~Part Fourteen~


Michael couldn't remember a time when he felt more confused or guarded.  It was as if the logical side of his brain was battling the side that told him this was no ordinary man, this was a dangerous man.

Watching the figure in the shadows creep forward menacingly, he held his breath as the looming sunlight fell on something in the intruder's hands, something that made his blood run cold.  A thick wooden crossbow, armed with a single arrow, was aimed directly at them.  Directly at her.

"Michael..."  Maria's voice came out frightened but firm.  If he stayed, he placed himself in danger.  He didn't deserve to be stuck in the middle of this. 

He didn't give her a chance to finish, however.  "This guy thinks he actually hunts unicorns?"  They were standing in front of a nut case.  That was just great.  "Well, sorry pal but we haven't seen any around, so..."  Michael grabbed Maria's arm and started pulling her back to the protective cover of the forest.

Laughter erupted from the man in the shadows, sounding anything but cheerful.  He took one more step forward where Michael could finally get a good look at him.  His dusty blonde hair was short, and slicked back.  The nose protruding from the middle of the man's face reminded him almost of a bird's beak, long a sharp.  His eyes though, they were the eyes of a killer.  The eyes of someone who held no remorse for what they've done and would willingly do again.

"So, you've made friends with it, have you?" Khivar seethed out, obviously amused at the pair in front of him.  "Two hundred years later, and it's consorting with a human.  Don't tell me you're starting to warm up to our kind," he said, looking pointedly at Maria.  Circling the two of them, he stopped in front of the path clearing, cutting off their intended exit.

Glancing over at Maria and her frightened state, Michael didn't falter.  "Look, I don't know who you are or what kind of death wish you've got, but if you don't get out of our way you'll be needing a lot more than that crossbow to save you."

Khivar just smiled wickedly at Michael's words.  "I do believe you are the ones who seem to need the saving right now."

"Michael, leave."

Michael looked over at Maria, tightening his hold on her arm.  "No."

Of all the pigheaded humans she'd watched over the years, this one had to be the first to speak to her.  "This isn't your fight, Michael.  Get out of here.  Now."

Michael stood his ground, daring her to try and make him leave.  Whether or not she wanted to admit it, she was a part of the lives of everyone in Albythia.  A part in his life, and he wasn't going to let her get herself killed.  Not if he had a say in it.

"What do you want from us?" Michael asked the man in a cold voice.

Laughing quietly at the foolish boy, Khivar rubbed a finger down the length of the arrow poised and ready to be released.  "Simple.  I want to kill the creature you seem to be intent on saving.  You fool yourself if you think it could spare an emotion for you."

"She is not a creature and if you try to harm one hair on her head I'll..."

Another booming round of laughter tore from the man's throat, cutting Michael off.  "Fine, if you insist on being specific.  I'm here to kill the unicorn."

Michael couldn't believe it, Maria was standing right in front of them and the man still insisted that she wasn't human.  "I don't know what you're on pal, but..."

"I'll make a deal with you," Khivar stated, letting a crooked smile creep up his face.  "If she can promise you right now that she's not a unicorn, that she is human," he paused, moving his gaze to meet Maria's.  "I'll leave."

Maria stared at Khivar, hating him in that one moment, for the first time in her life.  Even if she could lie to Michael, she wouldn't and Khivar seemed to understand that.  He seemed to understand so much about her, and at the same time so little.  It was only logical though; most times even she couldn't comprehend everything about her kind, about who she truly was.

The day her village was slaughtered was the day she lost herself.

Shaking her head and turning away, Maria let her gaze fall slowly to the grass.  "I can't."

Turning his eyes to stare at her, Michael's mouth fell open.  "What do you mean, you can't?  Maria..."

"I'm a unicorn."  Her voice came out so softly, he wasn't even sure he'd heard her.  "It's what I am."

Michael couldn't believe what he was hearing.  Was this her way of trying to get him to go?  Well, it wasn't going to work!

Forcing himself to look at Khivar, Michael held his ground.  "I don't care if she's the devil incarnate, you're still not going to lay a hand on her."  The words poured from his mouth, followed by a searing glare.  Nothing was going to happen to Maria.

"Oh, I promise not to lay a hand on her," Khivar replied, lifting his crossbow.  "But I can't make any promises for this arrow."

Stall.  Michael had to stall him until he could figure out what to do.  "Wait!"

Khivar looked at him in interest, wondering how far his conviction for this hideous creature would make him go.  Perhaps he should just pull the trigger now...

"Why are you after her?" Michael asked, grasping at the only thing in his mind he possibly could.

Bringing the crossbow down for a moment, Khivar sneered.  Did the man in front of him truly want to ruin the image this unicorn had created of herself?  Did he really want to see her in the light that Khivar himself saw her?  The thought only seemed to increase his smile.  Even if the man didn't, he did.

"For two hundred years I've been hunting that thing," he told Michael, pointing a ridged finger at Maria.  "It was because of her that I lost everything precious to me; my friends, my life...my beloved.  Because of that unicorn I've become a walking ghost."

Okay, this guy was one wall short of a barn.  "Two hundred years?  You sure don't look like a ghost to me."

"Well now, that would be because I haven't killed her yet."

Michael ignored the insistent tugging of Maria's arm trying to be pulled from his grasp.  She really needed to stop doing that.  "Why would killing her make you a ghost?"

Smiling almost humorously, Khivar said, "Because...I sold my soul."

"You sold..?"

"After the creature killed my fiancé, I took a band of men with me to her village so I could kill her.  When I got to the village, however, every unicorn I killed, along with every unicorn the others killed, didn't look like her.  They weren't her.  If I couldn't kill the one that killed my love, I vowed to hunt it down until the day I died, and I would kill it."

"There was a hermit in my village, a man that was rumored to be able to perform enchantments and curses.  A powerful man," he told them, running a finger back down the wood of the crossbow.  "So, I went to him and asked him to help me.  After offering him enough money, he agreed."

"Two spells he cast, two spells that would help me on my quest to find the evil I wished to seek out," Khivar said, pointedly at Maria.

"What were they?" Michael asked, trying to draw the man's attention away from the trembling girl.

Looking back at Michael, Khivar frowned.  "The first was that I would be able to track her.  A sort of sixth sense, as it were.  The old fool didn't mention that it would work both ways though.  She would periodically be able to sense me coming, just as I would be able to sense myself getting closer to her.  For two hundred years I couldn't seem to catch her."

"This last time though, I waited.  I circled the area for days just to get a knowledge of her location so that she wouldn't have enough time to escape me.  Seemed pretty useful, didn't it?"

Doing his best not to show any emotion, Michael clenched his jaw.  If only he could find some way to divert the man's attention away from them.  "And the second spell?"

"Ah, yes.  The second spell."  Khivar actually grinned at that, showing off a set of straight, snarling teeth.  "This one would seem to have no loop holes.  You see, the deal was that I would live my life until the moment I could witness her suffer.  The moment I could see her in pain, just as she witnessed my pain so many years ago."

Michael couldn't believe this man was so intent on killing Maria, so intent on killing someone who he couldn't imagine ever doing harm to anyone, even the man standing in from of them.

Khivar was a monster.

Lifting the crossbow back up and aiming it directly at Maria, a darkness flooded Khivar's eyes as a cold and calculating chuckle tore itself from his throat.  "That day has finally come."

Without another thought, he pulled the trigger.