Scarlet Dusk (10 page)

Eager to see his long-running nightmare finally dead, Zane jumped into overdrive and rocketed towards Maledictus. No matter what he’d done to his new body, the monster was still bound by the abilities of an ykali; he had their strength, their swiftness, and their agility, but there was no way that he could keep up or fight back against a sangsuiga at their speed—a speed that could only be seen and followed by
another
sangsuiga; a speed that rendered bullets in flight seemingly motionless in midair. There wasn’t a chance Maledictus would survive—

Unless he was somehow able to
also
jump into overdrive…

Unless he was to match Zane’s superhuman pace and begin leading him deeper into the lumber treatment yard…

Unless every expectation of his capabilities was suddenly proven wrong…

Exactly
like he was doing now.

Oh, sweet, naïve, dumb-as-a-fucking brick Zaney-boy! Always acting on emotion and emotion alone! What a predictable dipshit you are!
Maledictus’ voice echoed within Zane’s head as he chased after his target, proving that he
also
had retained  at least some of his psychic abilities; and if he could move like a sang and manipulate minds like an auric he was even more dangerous than Zane could’ve imagined.
Didn’t stop to think that me ROTTING in your guts for all those years might actually have offered me at least
some
benefits upon our parting, did you?

Zane didn’t respond. He couldn’t. Only a perfect vampire—one like Serena with
both
sang and auric abilities—could send psychic messages while in overdrive. Sound didn’t work at that speed, though this didn’t stop Zane from roaring in a rage as he charged after Maledictus.

Zane rocketed up a steel staircase to an overpass that bridged between three towering wood chippers that formed a triangle grid around a massive pile of woodchips partially covered in a series of tarps. The glimmer of sleeping blades beneath him created a foreboding illusion of a hellish creature’s hungry mouth waiting beneath the long, narrow bridge, and Zane quietly entertained the idea of hurling Maledictus over the railing and into the waiting—

Banking around a corner to intercept his target, he ran directly into Maledictus’ waiting elbow.

Zane pitched back, clutching at his broken nose and stumbling out of overdrive as blood poured down his face; the throbbing burn in his face blinding him. Beyond the rolling, hot waves of red, he caught a blurred glimmer of movement a split second before one of Maledictus’ giant fists plowed into his stomach with enough force to lift his feet off the steel platform. His breathing faltered through his broken nose. His eyes strained against the well of tears that had erupted in response to the assault on his sinuses. His guts folded and rippled within his stomach around the kinetic force still rolling through them. Sensing his body drifting in midair, he made a desperate grab for the railing before he was fed to the sleeping-yet-deadly teeth of the machines beneath them.

His grip faltered on the railing, dropping him another three feet until the fingers of his right hand found purchase on the platform.

Then one of Maledictus’ talons pierced through the back of his palm and through the grating beneath his hand.

“Oh no, no, no, Zaney-boy! You ain’t dying
that
easy!” Maledictus chided, reaching over the railing and dragging Zane up by his arm and planting him back on the platform. Zane teetered and strained to focus on Maledictus, succeeding in getting a clear view of the monster as both of his hands clapped around his head, boxing his ears and kicking up another round of ringing in his head. Staggering forward, Maledictus maintained his hold on Zane’s head, dragging his face down as he drove his bony knee into his face—sending another wave of agony rolling through his already broken nose—before tossing him back onto the platform. “There’s still so much I wanna show you, old friend; especially now that I’ve got a chance to show you first-hand what I’ve been making
you
do for
years
!” He laughed and started towards him, “Like what I’m going to do when I take that whiny cunt down there
and
our favorite blonde bitch all at once!”

Zane couldn’t bring himself to rage at that point. He could barely see, his vampire senses were warped by the scent and taste of his own blood, and he felt as though the slightest movement on his part would force not only every meal he still had within him but
also
most of his organs out one of his ends…

If not both.

“You don’t look too good there, little buddy,” Maledictus squatted down in front of him, resting his forearms across his knees and letting his long tail snake between his feet and inch closer to Zane’s face. “And I can’t help but feel like this isn’t at least
partially
your fault.” He stood, “Now I can’t give you
all
the credit—that wouldn’t be fair to me, after all—but it was
you
that underestimated me; if you’d have stopped and considered all the sweet, tender fucking years we’d had together as ‘roommates,’ you
might
have anticipated what I’d be capable of on my own. After all, you can’t just
hand
a lizard an evolutionary advantage like
me
and expect it to
remain
a simple lizard, can you?” He scoffed and shook his head as his tail began to gently brush Zane’s cheek, “I’m just as fast as you now, and I can—as I’m sure you’ve seen—even manipulate and change my body”—he made a note of framing his face between a square of paired clawed thumbs and pointer fingers—“courtesy of that crotch-sniffing mongrel buddy of yours.”

Zane groaned, fighting to get his bearings; to get back up; to fight. “So how do you explain the—”

“The mindreading?” Maledictus beamed, yanking his tail back and cutting the left side of Zane’s cheek on one of his barbs in the process. “Oh come now, Zaney-boy, I should be allowed at least
a few
fucking secrets, shouldn’t I? Like what I intend to do to you, for example. Sure, I’ve got all sorts of plans for that red-headed codpiece of yours down there, and all the squirming little dingleberries scurrying about the Vail Clan—oh, the things I’m gonna do to that blue-haired cunt; do you think the carpet matches the drapes with that one?—but you… oh
you
, Zaney-boy, are in for an outright amusement park of torture. And what makes my plans for you all the sweeter?” He leaned in, gripping either side of the railing in his hands and lowering his body—shoulders popping and unhinging as he brought his face so close to Zane’s he was certain the monster would try to kiss him—so that he could whisper, “I can bring you back from the dead to do it all over again.”

Zane’s eyes widened.

Back from the dead?

He looked up at the monster’s leering face, studying it for
any
sign of deceit. There was none.

The body at the cemetery… had that been—

Maledictus nodded in response to his thoughts, “It’s taken a little practice, I’ll admit. Whatever I
was
capable of has grown a tad rusty, but I assure you that I have the means to make the dead walk. And when I’m back to full strength, I wanna try a little trick.” He stood, his shoulders once again popping and grinding as they returned to their sockets, and he made a note of shrugging to show that no damage had been done in the process. “See, I’ve been having this dream—least I
think
it’s a dream; could be a memory, ‘cept the fucking thing is just so goddam… well, you get the point—and, in this dream-memory-thing, I am causing all sorts of sweet fucking mayhem; like, fucking
world changing
mayhem. And I
like
it! And it won’t be long ‘til I’m strong enough to do it here,” he smirked as his tail whipped excitedly back-and-forth, slamming against the railings with each pass. “I’m going to torture, rape,
and
murder
every-fucking-one
that has ever meant a damn thing to you, then I’m going to rip you apart piece-by-bitchy-bloody-piece and
then
I’m going to stitch you back together and bring you back. Again and again and a-fucking-gain, Zaney-boy! And I’m going to get stronger and stronger each time I do; your agonizing deaths and rebirths are going to charge whatever batteries I’ve got waiting inside me.
Then
I’m going to bring the entire world—vampire, mythos, human, ghost, angel, My Little fucking Ponies,
God
…
all
of it!—to their fucking knees!”

Zane groaned and shook his head, scoffing after he’d spit a wad of blood over the edge of the platform, “Obviously putting you in a lizard body was a mistake; same old insanity, half the brain capacity, eh, Mega-dick-face?” He sneered up at the leering monster, hoping that stealing one of Ben’s “accidental” interpretations of Maledictus’ name might spark him to keep talking. Anything to give him just a little more time. “Hell, you were better off sharing a mind with me!”

“YOU’RE A FUCKING FOOL!” Maledictus hissed and lurched forward before catching himself in mid-lunge. Zane smirked at that. He really
didn’t
want to spoil his plans by just killing him then and there. His enraged hiss drew on a moment longer as his talons clacked incessantly on the platform, “I’d have been better equipped sharing the body with a fucking earthworm!”

Zane grinned, fighting through the pain to look entertained by his opponent’s rage. Just like Serena had taught him. “Kinda says something about the dumb fuck you’ve gone and evolved yourself into, huh?” He made a note of mockingly framing Maledictus between a square of paired thumbs and pointer fingers, “My speed, Raith’s transformation, the auric abilities from the land of eerie-mysticism-and-bullshit… and a crippling retardation courtesy of peanut-brain filled to the bursting point with raw, ludicrous insanity and the lingering rage that you
still
can’t find your dick in that hand-bag you call a body!”

Maledictus’ body shook with rage as he backhanded Zane, sending him skidding across the platform. “THE TWO OF YOU FESTERING FUCKWADS HAD BETTER LEARN TO SHUT-THE-FUCK-UP ABOUT MY DI—”

Zane, though hurting, laughed at that, “The two of us, huh?” He finally mustered the strength to drag himself to his feet—clinging to the railings as he forced his legs to accept the burden of his weight—and narrowed his gaze at Maledictus, “You deceitful cocksucker; all that talk of being with her—all your cocky, arrogant swagger—and you can’t even
scare
her into fucking you, can you?” He cackled, nearly toppling over under the force of his own laughter. “You… you
pathetic
little iguana! You’re nothing but a—”

He didn’t see Maledictus coming, but he felt the aftermath as the two of them careened over the railing and slammed into one of the stairwells before chaotically rolling down the narrow, steel column.

Zane groaned, looking up at the furious face of Maledictus when they’d finally come to a stop, “Oh my… did I find a tender spot, princess?” He nodded towards the wound on Maledictus’ face, “Are you still fuming that my girlfriend got to penetrate you but not the other way around?”

“Maybe I’ll kill you now, after all,” Maledictus growled, “So that I can carry on your torture
without
being forced to listen to your relentless fucking banter!”

Head still swimming, Zane’s eyes swam in an effort to focus on his attacker once again. In the daze and confusion, he caught sight of something that brought a smile to his face, and he felt a flower of confidence bloom in the back of his mind.

“That sure does sound swell, asshole—it really does—but, before you go through with all that, y’know, killing and bringing ponies to their knees and whatnot, you might wanna work an extra step into your plan.”

Maledictus sneered and started towards him, clenching his fists. “Not that I particularly care what a dumb shit like you thinks, but
what
—pray tell—are you babbling about?”

Zane was already laughing at what he knew was coming.

“You might want to watch your back.”

Raith had never met Zane’s informant, Ben, nor was he particularly trusting of the call that the club-owner had made to the clan. Though he’d been curious how somebody would have access to their private line, the message took precedent over any other questions he might have had.