THE ANOINTED 3: PROPHECIES OF FIRE (4 page)

It roared in fury as its claws swung, searching for blood. Kimiko jumped up to meet it, putting one of her blades through its neck. She hit the ground and clicked a button on her RES. The blade she had left went all the way through and felt to her hand. Magnetic bracers. Twisting the blade in her hand, she threw it, cutting through the rest of the skin of the beast’s neck. Calling the blade back, she then went over and cut off the head of the first one that had fallen. A howl sounded somewhere in the night. It was answered by, perhaps, a dozen more.

“This is mission team leader, all squad member units that can hear me, move back to the extraction point. The mission is a trap. You have forty-five seconds before the extraction is complete.”

She knew they had to retreat now. If they stayed here, Pallida Mors would eventuality pick them off until they were all dead. If most of them were not already. The trap had probably caught most unaware, especially with this new trick of dropping their body heat.

“Data Support, this mission team leader Hatoyama. I need you to advise first strike team that the target are traps.”

She and the last guard retraced their steps back the way they came.

“Data Support, did you copy that last transmission?”

“Yes, mission leader Hatoyama, I’m trying to raise the first team now. Their signals are transmitting but I’m receiving no contact. I have alerted a response team to their area.”

Kimiko was calm on the outside as they made it back to the truck, signaling the driver to start the engine, but on the inside, she had a nervous feeling in her gut. She knew what had happened to the first strike team. They met the same greeting that her team had encountered moments ago. Each team member was linked to Data support, so if it couldn’t raise them…

“Data Support, please inform the possession leader that the entire first strike team has been killed or captured. This whole mission was a setup.”

The rain started to fall a little harder with her words.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Cold water jarred Sam awake as the coldness leached the little warmth from her body that had been left to her. Her eyes blinked rapidly against the lone source of light in the room. It took her a minute to see that it was a light bulb with an old-fashioned pull chain that hung from the ceiling. Her head followed her wrist above her and she realized that she too hung from a wooden beam that cut across the top of the room.

Her wrists were wrapped in a thick steel chain that was looped around the beam. She shivered as her whole body was covered in goosebumps. Directing her attention downwards, she ignored the water thrower as she saw that she was completely nude. Thick manacles secured each of her ankles with a thinner chain that ran down to latch themselves into twin rings embedded into the floor.

Where was she?

She shook her head, trying to remember what had happened as they had stormed the horse farm. Her memory was a bit fuzzy, but she could remember the shapes raising out of nowhere like deadly wraiths seeking the blood of the living. Her memory improved a little and she recalled the screams of her men as Pallida Mors tore through them.              

Their infrared technology had not detected them until they were right on top of them. She knew that it had been her time to die as Pallida Mors overwhelmed them from all angles. She was lucky that she had taken down three before a blow to her head made unconsciousness reach out to seize her in its grip.

Fighting it, she almost stayed on her feet. Two things happened at once. Her weapon clicked on empty and another massive blow knocked her backwards, sending her speeding to blackness. That was the last thing she remembered. She understood now why she awoke in restraints. She was a prisoner of war.

The coldness that revived her was starting to make her have chills, and she jerked her head up to finally stare defiantly into the pretty face of a woman that rested herself on the edge of a dark wooden scared table, the bucket still in her hands as she studied her. Sam felt her cheeks redden as she thought of her nakedness and the woman’s open scrutiny, but she refused to break eye contact.

The door somewhere behind her opened suddenly, causing her to forget the woman in front of her as she tried to look behind her. She flinched inwards as a hard grim face came into view on her left side and stared down at her body.

“I see she is finally back with us,” he stated as he came to stand in front of her.

She wished her legs were free to kick that perverted grin off his face. She settled, instead, to spat in his face.

“Fuckin’ shadow scum! I won’t tell you anything, no matter what you decide to do to me!”

The man threw back his head in a laugh that was almost offensive. “She’s got spunk!” he said, turning his head to the woman sitting on the table.

“Well Nalaysia, it’s been years since I met a woman that could match your spirit. Bound in chains and naked in front of her enemy, and she spits in our eye in defiance!”

Turning his attention back to her, he smiled. The spit dripped down the side of his face. He ignored its presence.

“Miss Samantha Cook, head Commander of the Guards of Gabriel. Yes, we know what an honor it is that you are here with us,” he said as her eyes widened.

“Someone is real interested in talking with you, that is, after we have our fun.”

“If you lay one finger on me pervert, I’ll find you hell or high water and feed you your own cock and balls!”

The man shook his head in disappointment. “Such vulgar language is really unbecoming of a young lady.” He gripped her jaws suddenly in his right hand, mushing them together. “Let’s be careful that you don’t lose your tongue and have to write down the answers to our questions.”

She snatched her head away.

“We are wasting time sir,” the woman urged behind him.

“Eager to have your fun Nalaysia? Very well,” he said, stepping away from her.

“I can hardly deny a wish when you express so few of them. She’s all yours. But I think I will watch.”

Nalaysia now sat the empty bucket on the table and rose to walk over to her. They stared into each other eyes, challenging the other’s spirit. The woman started to trace the curve of her neck, down pass her collar bone and across her breasts, to play with Sam’s nipple in lazy circles.

Sam cursed herself and the woman touching her. Despite her best efforts, she found her nipples growing hard under the woman’s caress. “See Alan. All you need is a woman’s touch to get the desired results. Even from one that wants to kill you.”

“If you don’t get your filthy hands off me tramp, it’s going to be me and you when I get out of these chains. And know that I will kill you.”

It was the woman’s turn to laugh with a husky quality. Her hand reached out to caress and tease the other nipple before dropping lower. “Why do you insist on useless threats when you are helpless Commander?” Her hand was at her abdomen now.

“All your men are dead. There is no one coming for you and all your clothes and gear have been destroyed. So, tell me please, how do you even hope to make good on your promises of death? Bluffing only works in poker and that’s only when you have the upper hand.”

The woman’s hand had reached her pubic hairs and Sam tried to twist her body away from the woman’s violating touch. “Be still,” she whispered as she leaned close to her ear. “You may find yourself enjoying it.”

Sam felt a finger brush her womanhood. She gritted her teeth in fury. Someone would die for this, she vowed silently to herself. Through her rage, she felt a presence that compressed her body in the room. The woman in front of her was yanked off her feet backwards. She flew across the room to crash into the wooden table, breaking it into pieces. The man who stood slightly to the side went on instant alert, reaching for the weapon in his shoulder holster.

His face suddenly went pale as he started to choke violently. Sam’s attention was drawn to the far corner of the room where a silhouette of a person was standing. It was impossible to see the person’s features through a veil of darkness that made his face blur when one tried to look at it. But the one thing that was clear was the glowing green eyes. As pissed off as she was, Sam found herself in awe at what she was seeing.

She had gained valuable experience in killing the werewolf half of Pallida Mors, but even those horrors had not prepared her to take in the dark and powerful presence in front of her.
Was this the vampire half of Pallida Mors?
she asked herself. The choking sounds stopped as the man withdrew his hand from his weapon and he sunk to the floor with fear in his eyes before placing his forehead to the ground in submission. The woman who had been thrown from Sam went pale in the face as she watched from her spot on the floor. She did not dare rise, she scrambled to copy the man’s submission.

“Forgive us omnipotent,” stated the man. His voice vibrating off the floor. “We obeyed your orders. We are yours to command.”

“No. Cornelius is your commander. I will rule by our true master’s side. But I would like to know exactly what you were doing?” The voice held an underline threat of violence.

The silence that followed was almost painful.

“Those were not my orders. I told you to capture the woman and let the Pallida Mors kill the rest. Is this how the fame Avalanche team passes time? With amatory interrogations?” The snicker was one of contempt.

Sam thought for a second that there was something familiar about the sound tugging at her as she listened. But what was it? She would had known if she had been in the presence of such evil before. Its very presence tried to swallow the light coming from the bulb in the room.

“The next time I give you a task and you defile my property, I will bleed the blood from your bodies slowly from your pores as you hang upside down by your ankles.”

Property?
Sam asked herself. What the hell was going on here?

“We apologize to you.”

“I am the master’s omnipotent. Everything I claim as my own is for the dark lord. To defile what is mines is to defile theirs. Now, I am bored by this talk. Leave us now.”

Avalanche 1 and 2 hurried to their feet to scurry from the room. Sam suddenly felt terrified at being left alone with the demon. No other word could describe it. And the word
property
still rung in her ears.

“Don’t be afraid, my dear Samantha, I will not hurt you. Well, at least not unjustly anyway. I am here to offer you a proposal. Join us and live in luxury and power forever.”

Sam felt laughter seize her and she gave in. “You got to be kidding me. First, you ambush me and kill all my men. Hang me naked from wooden beams while some freak has her way with me, and you have the nerve to ask me to join you? I am disappointed. I thought the shadows of Anais had real style when they recruited people’s souls.”

The green eyes studied her for a moment before the chains around her wrist and ankles shattered like brittle glass. Sam fell to the floor on her knees. Her arms felt like they had almost been pulled from their sockets from holding her weight for hours.

“You are right; I apologize for the aboriginal way you have been treated so far. Those responsible will be punished.”

The demon sat down in the shadows behind him, like a chair, and calmly watched her. Sam did not want to move as she was aware of her nakedness, more than ever now. The evil thing in front of her must’ve read her thoughts.

“There is no need to feel ashamed. I do not have sexual feeling or thoughts when I look at you. I see you as my daughter, not some common Quean.”

Sam’s anger burned red hot at the words. “A daughter?” she asked, looking up at the green eyes. “It was some evil twisted thing like you that killed the only man I considered my father. And it is my vow that those like you will answer for his death. So, stop with the ‘daughter’ B.S. If I get the chance, I will cut your throat. That is, if you truly have one. That is the answer to your ridiculous proposal.”

“Do not think too hastily daughter, chances to sit as a true daughter of fire will be rare and a very honorable place in the upcoming world. You could rule when the father of darkness is reborn and tightens his hold on this physical plane. There will be a thousand years of chaos and fire.”

“I just told you to quit the ‘daughter’ thing, didn’t I? You can keep your daughter of fire crap to yourself as well, the world will never get to see those thousand years you speak of because your master will not be reborn. We will see to it.”

“There’s no way you can stop it. It’s foretold for centuries. Do you not feel the darkness spreading over the world? The signs of the coming of Armageddon are plain for all to see. How long can your sect hope to stand in the way of what is prophesied?  A few days, a month, a year? You can’t hope to keep him at bay forever. Each time, he is closer to attaining his gateway back into this world. What I offer you is life, instead of death. Power instead of being powerless and at the mercy of dark creatures like myself. Come rule at my side.”

“Well, you shadow dwellers really know how to lay it on thick, don’t you? You seem to be leaving out the part of me giving up my soul. And for one the chosen of our bloodline, it’s a fate that will be worse than death at the end.”

“It will only take some getting use to, but I believe you can survive it as I did.”

“Wait…are you saying that you were once of the bloodline?”

The black veil that blurred his face vanished as the creature revealed himself. Sam’s gasp of shock was audible as she drew back in total confusion. She couldn’t believe what her eyes were telling her. Half of the shadow dweller’s face was purely skeletal on the right side. The other half had the face of Andrew.

Her dead uncle.

“No! You lie shadow dweller! My uncle died fighting evil like you. How dare you use an illusion to trick me?”

“This is no illusion or trick, Sam,” the creature said softly. “It is I, changed, but for the better. This is what happens when you mix our blood with the shadows.” He held up a skeleton hand and flexed it. “I went over to the winning side, Sam. A side that will win, despite all of the Vae Victis efforts since we were formed and given that doomed mission. It can’t be avoided Sam. Eventually, Vae Victis will fall and the lord of darkness will destroy all who oppose him.”

She thought about everything that had happened and the pieces started to fall into place.

“It was you that betrayed our people to Anais! Too many have died because of your twisted idea!”

“Of course. I gave Anais the locations of the Eclipse, along with their security and defense procedures. It was how I would show my loyalty to the shadows.”

Sam found herself scrambling to her feet, as hatred for the man who sat in front of her was like a fever in her mind. The slap to his half human face sounded like a shot in the room and she didn’t know that she had raced across the room. She was so angry; she couldn’t think straight. Her uncle, the man she loved as a father, was a traitor to the sect.

Worse, he was responsible for the deaths of people that became friends and trusted him with their lives. He was more than a turncoat; he was an abomination. More for what he had done, not what he had become. Her hand reached back again to slap his face again. The red imprint of her last slap glowed like a neon beacon and it landed with another satisfying sound. Time skipped a beat as she stared into her uncle’s now demon colored eyes.