Scarlet Night (Limited Edition) (33 page)

Zane bit his lip and glanced back at Serena as she fired two auric arrows through the chests of a pair of attackers and, using her hold on them, drove them into one another with bone-crushing force. As they collapsed in a broken heap she turned to Zane and nodded, “Do it!” she urged him, “Just leave Keith alive!”

Zane growled, “If I lose control of it and threaten the cause”—he grimaced and gasped as both of his arms twisted and shattered; stretching under their own weight until his fingers nearly met the frost-tinted turf—“you
need
to stop me, Serena!” His eyes bulged as another wave of agony hit him and he slammed into the ground as he began to pop and contort. “N-no ma-matterrrr…
what
!” he shrieked as the lower-half of his spine elongated with a wet crunch and left his upper torso sagging under the poor support, “
You… must… s-s-STOP
—” Zane’s eyes went wide from pain and the words caught in his throat as his body seized and froze in mid-writhe. The battle paused for a moment—friend and foe alike craning to see what had happened—as his body went limp and sagged under its own heft before exploding into the beast’s form and sneering. “
YOU
WON’T
STOP US!
”

Serena’s eyes went wide as
Maledictus
raised to his full height and grabbed two of Keith’s followers in his hands and scooped up another five in his aura. Dangling his captives high above him—forcing them to watch his activities—he began cackling as he crushed the first from the middle and then, tossing the still-dying vampire aside, twisting the other’s limbs free of his joints one-by-one until he finally grew tired with him, as well, and pulled his head off like a doll’s.

Serena
watched this for a moment, chuckling at the child-like exuberance in the midst of his “play” before turning away and returning her focus to the battle.

Nikki smirked as she leapt over a towering therion, driving her Sais into its shoulders and cartwheeling over its head as her tattoos flashed and the pale-white magic crushed its skull; splattering a layer of gore across her face like war paint as she landed on the other side. “You think he’s having fun, Serena?”

Serena laughed, “I do! I was actually starting to get jealous!” She punctuated her last word by firing an auric bow into the chest of an approaching freak as she shook her head. A
freak
! Keith—Mister High and mighty Council-supporter—had been turning humans into raving, psychopathic, deranged third-generation vampires solely to build up his army. That was something, which, in and of itself, was
at least
three broken laws punishable by execution and
multiplied
by each and every ravenous Mythos mishap she saw thrashing about.

Shrieking at the auric arrow in its chest, the freak foamed at the mouth and began to charge at her still. Sighing, she shook her head and began
expanding it inside him, causing his upper torso to burst and leaving his legs to kick about in momentary confusion.

Nikki laughed
at Serena’s show and nodded her approval before shifting her focus to her left, “Isaac! Cover the flank!”

Nodding his fox-like head, Isaac barked and snarled, gesturing to the other therions from his pack and directing them into battle around the edge of the clearing before charging forward on all fours and jumping into a pod of enemies head-on. As the unsuspecting sang in the middle was speared by Isaac’s dive into them,
the others spilled in either direction like bowling pins from the impact. Before they’d had a chance to hit the ground, Isaac had already torn his enemy’s throat out and, spitting the bloody wad from his mouth, stood to his full height and backhanded the nearest vampire before starting in on the others.

“Zoey, check his blind-side!” Nikki called as she threw a Sais into an enemy’s chest before drawing it back to her with her magic.

Darting and weaving like a dancer between enemy attacks and letting her bubbly blue aura do the dirty work as she put each of Keith’s followers behind her, Zoey closed-in on Isaac like a Hell-born ballerina—leaving a trail of headless foes behind her—and leaping gracefully into the air and pulling Isaac off the ground and out of the path of several enemy therions.

Isaac’s animal eyes widened for a moment as he floated over the battlefield before coming to rest and beam
ed over at Zoey, who nodded—blowing him a kiss—before letting him drop down onto the confused Mythos below for the slaughter.

Nikki continued to bob-and-weave like a glowing ninja while shouting commands to the others around her. As Serena watched, the efforts of their small band of fighters began to open a pocket in
the middle of the clearing that left Serena,
Maledictus
, and Keith to handle their end.

“Why do you
”—
Maledictus
sang in his multilayered, gravelly voice—“
build us up, butter-cup baby,
” he hurled one of the last four Mythos he’d been playing with nearly one-hundred feet into the air, as his aura lashed out behind him and began pulling another’s limbs off before dropping them—crippled and useless—to the ground to bleed to death, “
Just to let us down?
” He smirked as he threw out his hand and caught the still-shrieking airborne Mythos and holding them to his face as he sneered, “
And mess us around! And
worst
of all…”
the vampire let out one final cry only to have it cut short as
Maledictus
drove his forehead into his face and caved it in. Pouting playfully at the gory remnants of his enemy’s face,
Maledictus
shook his head, “…
you
never
call, baby, when you say you will.
”

Raising an eyebrow, Serena shook her head and chuckled, “Hey! You almost done?”

Maledictus
looked up at her and smirked, tossing aside the corpse and stepping towards her as he finished his song, “
But we love you still!
”

Serena shook her head at him, “Even as a k
illing machine you’re a smooth talker.”

“
Only for you, buttercup baby!
” his enormous grin widened as his scarlet aura whipped about around him. Stepping beside her, he shifted his eyes towards Keith, who had watched—wide-eyed and unbelieving—at the scene around him. “
Let us break him!
” he looked pleadingly at Serena, “
Just this once! We WANT to see him inside-
out
!
”

“I know you do, baby,” Serena patted his shoulder, “but there’s far worse in store for him.”

Maledictus
scoffed, “
There is
NOTHING
worse than US!
”

Serena smirked, “I know, sweetie, but others want to play with him, too.”

The playful conversation between them seemed to shake Keith from his horrified stupor and he narrowed his eyes at them. “Fine! If
that’s
how it has to be!” he wrapped his fists in his aura, “Then who am I to disappoint?”

Maledictus
rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck, “
Can we break his legs? No killing—we promise—just fracture his
fucking
femurs!
”

Serena frowned, glaring at Keith and shaking her head, “No, baby. I think I want to do this one on my own.”

A disappointed whimper emerged from
Maledictus’
throat, but he did nothing to protest as Serena stepped forward.

“Admirable move,” Keith started towards her, nodding, “
Stupid
, but admirable, nonetheless.”

“We’ll s
ee,” she sneered, letting her auric bow appear in her hand.

She glare
d and let out a loud cry and began firing a series of auric arrows as she rushed towards Keith.

“Ah-hah!
There’s
the brash bitch we know and love!” Keith sprinted at her, ducking and rolling around every auric strike that came at him and drawing nearer.

Serena roared, firing more and more auric bolts at him until their source became a violet blur in her hands, but no matter how many she threw or how fast she threw them, Keith evaded and continued towards her.

“Did you
forget
, Serena? Have all our years taught you
nothing
?” he jumped over a wave of bolts and continued at her, “I have
always
had the upper hand! I’m faster! I’m stronger! And I’m
smarter
!” Keith grinned and focused his aura into his right hand, elongating it into an auric blade, “And I know
all
your tricks!”

Serena fired an auric bolt at his feet and he side-stepped to avoid the explosion of turf, “You want to talk about
forgetting
, Keith?” She fired another wave of auric bolts that forced Keith to redirect his approach and come in from her right, “How ‘bout we talk about forgetting your roots?” She fired more at his feet and forced him into the air before slamming an auric shot into his chest and throwing him to the ground.

Growling, he pulled himself up and started in at her again, “I’ll see you
tortured
for that!”

“
How about we discuss forgetting your place?” She shot into overdrive and repositioned herself several yards away and once again forcing him to recalculate his approach. She sent another set of arrows at him that he easily evaded, “Or how about we get personal, Keith! Like when you forgot which fork to use at Dad’s big dinner with the Keilano Clan leader and you threw a hissy fit and shit your pants?” She laughed and fired directly at his chest, only to arc back around once he’d dodged it to knock him to his side. “Or that time you forgot to wear a belt at that ball in Venice and I pulled down your pants in front of the ambassador’s daughter?” She cackled, sending more auric bolts at him and beginning to clip him in his efforts to get to her. “Did you
forget
, dear brother, just how unimpressed she was with what she saw?”

“Shut up! Shut-the-fuck-up!” he roared, throwing out another auric blade in his left hand and leaping at her.

Before he could land she’d jumped into overdrive and put another hundred yards between them. “Funny that you accuse me of forgetting when you’ve clearly allowed so much to slip your mind. You see”—she fired more arrows and succeeded in knocking him down once again—“you
are
faster, and you’re
definitely
stronger!” She smirked as she hooked another auric bolt around and pulled his feet out from under him and cackled at his rage-fueled roar. Throwing out his aura, he pushed himself off the ground and charged at her again. Serena shook her head, sneering, “But I’m beginning to second-guess that
smarter
thing.”

Keith jumped at her and swung with his auric blade, nearly taking her arm off as she rolled free, “
Oh? Would you care to elaborate?” he growled.

Serena giggled, “Well, for starters, I have to question the sort of mind that can allow a man to forget what his dick is for!”
She ducked under another strike and shifted behind him, “Or how you can find reason to boast when you have the body of an eight year old girl! But, more than
anything
else, Keith, I think you’re a dumb-fuck because you’ve forgotten that I’ve always been better than you at
one
thing!”

He
glared and turned to strike, “And what would
that
be?” he growled and overshot the attack, only to have Serena drive her knee into his groin.

Serena howled in laughter as he hissed in pain, his aura whipping about in a fit of rage. “See? You’re dumb ass has already forgotten!”

“You can’t do
anything
!” he lunged and missed again.

“N
ope,” she smirked at him, “You forgot that I could
always
piss you of—”

Keith roared in triumph as he brought his auric blade around and
stabbed right through her abdomen. Serena gasped as blood dripped down her chin from the attack and pulled back, staring down at the gaping hole in her stomach. The battlefield went deathly quiet as she dropped to her knees and looked up at her still-heaving brother with fading eyes.

“S-see?” she coughed and struggled to smile, “Y-y-you… you did forget…”

Keith shook his head, “I have
never
forgotten how much you piss me off, Serena! And I think now you’ll remember that!”

Serena groaned and inhaled sharply, nodding, “Perhaps. But you d-did forget”—she coughed up some more blood and groaned—“t-two
very
im-important… things.”

He smirked and knelt down, “Do tell. What have I forgotten?”

“You weren’t… su-supposed…” she grimaced and threw out her hand to catch her as she started to fall to the ground, “… to kill a member of Vail… without Council consent…”