by Megan Parker
She couldn’t be injured!
She wouldn’t be injured!
They would be sure of it!
“I won’t—” he snarled as they crashed to the floor on the other side of the wall and the world went redder and hotter. “W-we…” he smirked and set Serena down carefully—making sure to keep her out of his and the therion’s range—and nodded to himself, finally allowing the pain to come, “WE WILL NOT LET YOU HURT HER!”
The change came all at once, hitting him out of a mutual need rather than simply wanting to see him suffer from prolonged agony. One moment he was in Hell—howling and cursing in agony—and the next they were whole.
Perfect!
The therion that had caught him off guard huffed angrily at the sight of them on the other side of the wall and sprinted on all fours towards them. Seeing their opponent’s reaction, a mouth far-too-big for its face curled up in an amused sneer that tickled the lobes of their misshapen ears and they ran a long, narrow tongue over the bottom row of razor-sharp fangs. Catching sight of this, the therion’s face shifted—its once confident dark-orange aura recoiling as fear settled in—and it halted in mid-stride to rethink its approach.
But there was no other option for it.
No choice that wouldn’t ultimately lead to the same outcome.
“DEATH!” They cackled and leapt through the hole they’d made in their previous form.
The therion’s eyes went wide and it scrambled to turn in the narrow hall and flee only to have them come down on its back; a talon from one foot slamming down and hooking the vertebrae of the whimpering therion’s spine.
As they relished in the succulent cocktail of terror and pain that rolled from their prey in great waves, a shiver coursed through their body and their scarlet aura shot from their chest and ensnared the therion. Retracting the talon and stepping down, they hoisted the massive mythos into the air to face them in all their glory; that it might know—when it landed in Hell—what not to fuck with!
“YOU WERE WRONG TO PISS HIM OFF, MUTT!” they cackled, running a clawed hand across the therion’s sternum and letting its life gush down its torso and flow in torrents to their feet, “BUT WE ARE VERY GLAD THAT YOU DID! NEVER BEFORE HAS HE LET US OUT SO FREELY!” They wet their black lips before extending their tongue and dipping it into the gaping wound in its chest. They moaned as their enemy’s life-force flowed into their mouth, and the light spectrum shifted momentarily as their eyes reacted to the energy. “OH YES! VERY GLAD, INDEED!”
The therion whimpered again, trying to struggle against them, its aura sagging more and more as its death became a certainty.
“WE HOPE YOU’LL UNDERSTAND,” they came down with their claws once again, taking the front half of the therion’s face off and letting it slam wetly into the wall before leaving a trail to the floor, “IT’S JUST BUSINESS!”
Zoey was certain that she hadn’t blinked her eyes once since waking up alone on the forest floor to the smell of smoke and the psychic cries of her clan-mates. The journey from the woods was torturous, each step bringing her that much closer to an already agonizing truth that she wanted so desperately to prove false. Isaac’s absence and her clan’s attack couldn’t be a coincidence—not with how he’d been acting the night before—and she had ignored every sign just so she could…
She choked on a sob that was soon-after drowned out by the howling of sirens.
As a fire truck shot by—flashing lights and blaring wails warning any in its path to move aside—she threw out her aura and hooked it. As her psychic tether pulled her off her feet, she drew herself in until she was able to grab hold of the roof-mounted ladder and hitching a ride with the EMT caravan to whatever remained of the Vail Clan’s headquarters.
Though it seemed like hours, the truck came to a screeching halt in front of the building only minutes later, and as the crew began to flood from the vehicle, Zoey threw her aura out and carried herself to a ledge on the third-floor and snuck in through a window.
The elevators were already out of service in response to the fire, and the shriek of the building’s alarm made any sort of clear thought as to how to get underground difficult. Finally, fed up with logic and calculations, she opted for the more Zane-like approach and tore the elevator doors from the wall and lifted the cab out of her way to open up a straight drop in the shaft.
Like an Olympic diver, she hurled herself over the platform and into the plunging depths of the pitch-black elevator shaft; relying solely on her aura to gauge the distance to the bottom. As she plummeted in a nosedive, she threw out several auric tendrils and began ripping each level’s door free from the wall, positive that their escape would be hindered if they were forced to clear them on the way out.
With the bottom fast approaching, Zoey focused her aura into three sections and secured a hold in the shaft as a fourth tendril shot out and broke through the passage to their clan’s lobby. Using the auric slingshot she’d set herself into, she launched herself through, using the momentum and added force to catapult herself into the depths of the inferno and following after the familiar auric signals of her friends.
It wasn’t hard to find them.
Zane had already transformed and was dripping in the blood of more therions than she cared to guess. Scanning the area, she “saw” Serena, unconscious and badly beaten, in a room on the other side of the hall and she started towards it before coming across Zane’s handiwork.
Bits and pieces of his previous opponents—still wearing the color and claw of their bestial forms—littered the bloodied hall and adding the stink of blood to the lingering traces of agony and terror left behind. Her eyes took in the aftermath of her friend’s onslaught before coming to rest on him as he squared-off against another therion.
One with an all-too-familiar aura…
Her eyes widened, “Isaac!”
A myriad of questions went through her head as she watched the two circling one another, searching for an opening to rip through.
Had Isaac been planning this the entire time?
Was his affection for her really just an act?
Was he responsible for whatever had happened to Serena?
And, probably the most burning question of all:
Did she care if Zane ripped him apart?
She shook her head, again abandoning the burden of thought and rolling on pure instinct, and went to rush towards the two. An angry and tortured shriek tore past her lips as she approached, causing the two to shift their gazes at whoever was crazy enough to come between their death match. Seeing Zoey coming at him, Isaac turned his body to face her; his usually fierce and intense eyes now glassy and dull. Zoey stopped several feet in front of him and frowned at the empty expression—no sense of recognition or familiarity; neither love nor hatred to give away his motives—that he gave to her.
There was nothing of him in those eyes.
Trapped in the dead orbs, Zoey wasn’t aware of the newcomer until their guttural growl echoed through the hall and up her spine. Daring to look away from Isaac and towards the sound, she saw that another therion—aura boiling over with rage from the evidence of its allies’ deaths surrounding it—that zeroed its sights on her and started a mad-dash in her direction.
It couldn’t see the vacancy in Isaac’s eyes.
It couldn’t see the concern hers.
It only saw what it wanted to see: a vampire standing in front of its leader amidst the strewn body parts of countless other therions.
She cried out and took a step away from the approaching threat. “Isaac!”
But he didn’t respond; didn’t even bat an eyelash as the other therion grabbed her by the throat and pinned her against the wall, snarling as it pulled back its opposite hand for the killing blow.
Seeing this, Zane let out a furious bellow and grabbed her attacker’s shoulder to pull it back. Dead-set on Zoey’s death, the therion blindly rolled its shoulder free and threw Zane back. He crashed into the ground and growled as he lifted himself up
again.
They were down, but they were most certainly not out of the fight!
But the filthy dog’s efforts had bought it enough of an opening to slaughter Zoey before they could get to them. As its claws came down at the screaming Zoey, their eyes widened to take in the horrific yet enticing sight of the impending death.
But it didn’t come.
The other dog—the one they’d been ready to maim moments earlier—suddenly seemed to have a change of heart and held his comrade’s arm only several inches from Zoey’s face, bearing his fangs at him as a warning before pulling him away from her and shoving him down the hall, not shifting his gaze until the other was gone.
Zoey looked up at her unlikely savior, her eyes shimmering with an expression they didn’t understand. “Isaac!”
The therion grunted and puffed its chest, but made no move to attack her.
Their eyes narrowed at the two as the scene unfolded. “YOU KNOW THIS MONSTER?”
Zoey looked at them and shook her head, “Zane! You don’t understand! He was being contro—”
Snarling, they stepped towards the two. Their scarlet aura whipped free and slashed at the walls, raining down debris on all of them. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? LOOK AT WHAT THEY—”
“Enough!” Zoey glared at them and threw her sea-blue aura out and pinned them against the wall, “This is hardly the time for me to have to explain to you when you’re like this!” she closed the distance between them and slapped her hand on their side with enough force to drive her point.
And then they were tired.
So very, very tired…
Zane groaned, slumping to the floor as a nauseating dizziness turned the world on its side. In the distance—off in the real world, far from the haze he was trapped within—he could feel his body shifting and tugging; hearing the pops and snaps of a body doing what it was never meant to do:
Become something else.
As the sounds and sensations faded, so did his grogginess, until he finally felt secure enough in the world to sit up without fear of slipping into orbit. As he’d suspected, his body was once again his own. He blinked at the sight of his own fingers before looking up at Zoey and the therion. Luckily, his pants hadn’t been ripped too badly and, by some miracle that seemed only to work in comic books, were able to stay on.
“Y-you’re getting too good at that!” he shook his head at Zoey and sighed, “And wasn’t this place on fire a second ago?”
Zoey shrugged, “I put them out.”
“You can do that?”
Another shrug, “No oxygen, no fire. All I had to do was—”
“You know what,” Zane held up a hand to stop her, “I just remembered that I have a headache and your big words won’t help that. Straight to the point; fire is gone! Now, more importantly:”—he turned his attention to the therion and glared—“who is this and why am I not killing him?”
Zoey bit her lip and glanced up at him before looking away again, “He’s...” she blushed, keeping her gaze down.
The therion whimpered and Zane almost thought he saw the creature blush.
Zane shook his head and sneered, “It doesn’t matter, either way! They are our enemies!” He glared, “Or have you already forgotten about Grego—”
“Gregori’s death had nothing to do with them or their kind!” Zoey snapped. “Like it or not—despite all his wonderful qualities—he was an old and bigoted vampire with a vendetta against anybody that wasn’t a vampire! We’re at the cusp of a new chapter for this clan, and I suggest you shed all the unnecessary prejudices he taught you before they poison us any further!” She looked back at the therion and gave him a slight nod and watched as he started to change back. “Besides, Zane, we have the same enemy, and they can help us fight!” she shook her head angrily, “Assuming you didn’t kill all of them!”
Even the therion, still in the middle of his transformation, looked surprised at her outburst.
Zane scoffed, “Our enemy? Helping us?”
She had a determined look in her face, “It was Keith! He’s been manipulating them from the start! He was controlling Isaac—using him to give his pack commands against his will—until”—she blushed and looked at him—“he saw I was in danger.” She sighed, “Look, I can’t blame you for this—none of us can!—just like you can’t blame them! We’ve both lost allies because of Keith! They deserve a chance to avenge their own… and besides, we could use the help. Even you can’t deny that!”
“What I can’t deny,” Zane said with a disgusted sneer, “is that your boyfriend had better find some place to hide that thing!”
Zoey frowned and followed his gaze to Isaac’s rapidly changing body and turned bright red as she realized that he had no clothes.
“Seriously! I’m willing to let bygones be bygones if you’ll tell Babe Ruth here to put away the slugger before he puts somebody’s eye out!”
The therion finished his transformation, his skin tightening around his lean frame as several of his ribs noticeably shifted into place. Ignoring Zane’s remark and making no move to cover himself, he took in the carnage around him.
“Keith will suffer for every one of them!” he swore under his breath
“I’m suffering here and now, wild stallion! You want to put that thing in a stable so we can talk like civilized—”
Isaac glared, “Nobody’s asking you to look!”
“Oh, right!” Zane rolled his eyes, “Let’s try not to notice it! I’m surprised it hasn’t tried to bite me!”
Zoey blushed and stepped in front of him, “I’ll… uh, find him something to wear.”
“Please do,” Zane sighed, “And I’ll try real hard not to ask how you’re still walking.”
The auric’s already bright-red face blossomed with another flush of color and she started to herd the still-glaring therion down the hall.
“Send out a call to any survivors to meet us on the roof, if we’re going to work together than we might as well do it right.” He sighed and looked off towards the hole at the end of the hall and started towards it, hoping Serena hadn’t taken a turn for the worse, “And make it fast! This place looks ready to come down and I don’t want to be in it when it does!”
Stepping through the opening, he approached Serena’s unconscious body and lifted her easily and started towards the lobby to wait for Zoey. While he hated the idea of abandoning the clan’s headquarters—even more than how much he hated the idea of trusting a pack of therions to keep him alive—he couldn’t deny that it was the only option.
“C’mon, Serena,” he sighed, looking down at her face, “Let’s get out of here!”
The ragtag group of survivors—composed of the vampires of the clan lucky enough to survive the fire and the therions of Isaac’s pack fortunate enough to have survived Zane—were able to flee the building. Utilizing a psychic cloak that Zoey and the other aurics had put around them to avoid being seen by the slew of humans that had begun arguing amongst themselves over how a fire of such magnitude could magically squelch itself. Though they were able to avoid being detected, the combined force of the auras was not able to shade them from the sun, and the sang vampires, who were far more sensitive to the sun’s radiation than any of the others, soon became restless and agitated.
Including Zane.
“Shit! Where the hell will we go now?” Serena frowned, her own skin beginning to itch under the UV assault.
“The only fucking place we have left!” Zane growled, glaring at Serena and growling when she glared right back at him. Finally, seeing that neither of them was about to back down from the other, he looked away, “Gregori had a backup plan for everything! Global battle, invasion, natural disaster… fuck, even Z-Day was considered!”
Zoey frowned, “Z-day?”
“Not now, Zoey!” Zane snapped at the skeptic tone, “The point is that he was prepared! And, given the shit we’ve found ourselves in, I’d say that what we need most is a place to hide and prepare!”
“Prepa
re for what?” A young blonde sang trailing behind spat. Though he wasn’t of age to be a warrior, his brashness made it clear that he was eager, and, while Zane admired his tenacity, he was hardly in the mood for his attitude. “Our leader’s dead, our home has been destroyed, our clan has been reduced to a joke, and we’re planning on a full-scale attack on a Council member with the help of a bunch of ass-sniffing dogs! What is there to plan, huh? Who shoots who first? ‘Cuz if you’re the best we got, then I’d rather take the bullet right here, right now!”
Zane’s eyes shifted back towards him and his fangs extended as his rage grew, “Don’t tempt us, boy! I don’t have the time or the patience to deal with your shit and I’ve got more than enough ways to kill you and twice as many reasons to do so, but I’m hardly the one you should be watching out for.”
“Oh yea, tough guy? And who should I be watching out for?”
Zane smirked wickedly, “The ass-sniffing dogs. See, where I’m trained in a number of ways to kill you before you’d even know it; they’ve lived in the wild their whole lives; surviving by using tooth and claw to take apart anything that threatened that survival. So, you arrogant little shit, while you might not care if I end you with your dignity intact, I suggest you watch your fucking mouth around the ones that would tear you open and rape your insides with the sort of equipment whales would envy.”
The young sang stayed quiet.
Serena sighed and shook her head, “Dick!”
Zane smirked and nodded, “Exactly!” as they approached the outskirts of town and into the shady canopy of trees the sangs of the group let out a simultaneous sigh of relief, “Anyway! Though Gregori hated the wilderness”—he glanced back at the therions—“even though there’s nothing wrong with it; he also knew that many others shared his distaste. So, in the event of a takeover and the need to retreat to someplace less obvious and more secluded, he had this built.”
