Scarlet Dusk

by Megan J. Parker

  Zane sighed and nodded, setting down the tanks and bags and beginning to unpack the supplies. “Yea, that’s not uncommon for my kind. Though we are talking about me, here, so…” he trailed off as he began to work. “Raith, help me out here,” he said, holding out one of the tanks and a roll of duct tape to his friend.

  Raith frowned, “Help? With what? What is all this, exactly?”

  “An entrance,” Zane smirked, tearing a two-foot length of tape from his roll and securing three boxes of nails on one side of the tank before repeating the process on the other side. “Just do like I do, buddy; tape all this shit to your tank—nails, screws, spray-paint; all of it—and don’t stop ‘til there’s nothing left.”

  Nikki’s eyes widened, “Oh gods… you’re not going to—”

  “Whoop,” Zane smirked, looking up at her, “there it is. I knew you’d love it.”

  Nikki smirked and shook her head, “I knew there was a reason I liked you, Zane.”

  “Yea yea, we’ll kiss later”—he looked over as Raith shot him a look—“chill, buddy, it was a joke.” He finished assembling his makeshift shrapnel bomb and stood up, “Now, I need to know where we’re delivering these things, Nikki.”

  The taroe nodded and looked back to the building, her tattoos around her neck—the only tattoos that were left to see—started to glow.

  Turning back towards Isaac, Zane held out his hand. “I’m going to need your shirt, big guy.”

  “My shirt?” Isaac frowned, “What for?”

  “Because in this day and age women demand their werewolves to run around shirtless,” Zane rolled his eyes. “Why do you think, stud? We gotta light these things with something!”

  “So use your own shirt, dick! I like this shirt,” Isaac glared.

  Zane sighed, “Look, this is the only skin I got, big guy. You and Raith, you’re going to be going in there all Hulked-out and whatnot—nice, thick skins to protect you from whatever—and you’re going to have to either lose the shirt before transforming or you’re going to tear through and leave it in ribbons. Either way, you don’t need it! So lose it and let me use it!”

  “Fine,” Isaac growled and shrugged out of the AC/DC tee, tossing it across the rooftop to Zane, “but you owe me a new shirt!”

  Zane nodded and started to soak the shirt in lighter fluid, “Buddy, for this I’ll buy you a whole new wardrobe. Deal?”

  Raith, taking the hint, peeled off his own shirt—Nikki pausing in her task to admire the view—and took the lighter fluid from Zane, replicating the process on his end.

  “So I get the tanks and tape, the screws and nails and the spray-paint, and I get the lighter fluid… but what’s with the office notes?”

  Zane smirked and started slapping a few of the sticky slips of paper along the side of one of the tanks—securing the loose corners with duct tape—before pulling out a Sharpie marker.

  Nikki frowned, “Where’d that come from?”

  Zane shrugged, starting to write his message. “Stole it from the hardware store.”

  Raith raised an eyebrow, “You stole a marker from the hardware store?”

  Zane didn’t bother looking up. “That’s right.”

  Nikki looked back at Raith and Isaac, hoping for some sort of explanation. When none came from them, she looked back at Zane. “Why on Earth would you steal a marker when you’d already paid hundreds of dollars for all the other stuff?”

  “‘Cause I don’t pay for writing utensils,” Zane said flatly, finishing the first half of his message and beginning the process again on Raith’s tank.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way,” Nikki shook her head, “but that’s, like, really weird.”

  Zane stood then, one tank in each hand, and shrugged again. “A man’s gotta believe in something,” he said as he stepped up to the edge of the building. “Now light these candles and tell me where I’m delivering them!”

  Maledictus sighed, taking in the luxury of his post-orgasmic calm as he surveyed the city—bathed in the warm glow of the sun as it cut through the window like a spotlight—and smirked as Celine, chained at his feet, squirmed uncomfortably in the direct rays of the UV.

  “I know you’ve been hearing this a lot lately,” he smirked, reaching down and petting her head, “but you’ll learn to like it, or you’ll die enduring it.”

  “Yes, master,” Celine whimpered.

  “It won’t be long now,” Maledictus went on. “With all the bodies I’ve collected and with every day I’ve been left to focus my powers, I’m nearly ready to bring Hell to Earth.”

  Celine looked up at him, “M-Master…?”

  Maledictus frowned, looking down at her, “Speak.”

  “If you… if you raise all the dead, are you sure that we won’t be killed as well?” Celine shivered.

  “Fucking fool,” Maledictus backhanded her, sending her sprawling as far as the length of chain around her throat would allow. “I am a controller of death; it—like you—is my fucking bitch! You speak of it as others should speak of it—permanent and looming over all—but me? I am above death! And if you continue to obey me and be a good little whore, then you—as my servant—will be spared!”

  “Y-yes, Master. F-forgive me,” Celine begged, crawling back to his feet.

  Maledictus scoffed, “A whore must earn forgiveness! Isn’t that right?”

  Celine shivered again, but still brought herself to rest her head against Maledictus’ leg. “Yes, a whore must—” she stopped and squinted at something through the window, “Master, what’s happening over there? On the roof; there…”

  Maledictus frowned, catching sight of several silhouetted figures moving bout the ledge of the building across from them. “Oh my…” he smirked and stood, starting towards the window to watch, “Are they about to jump? How absolutely delightful! A fucking group suicide, and I’m at front-row-fucking-cent—” he squinted against the glare of the sun, “Wait…”

  The figure closest to the edge threw something—a pair of somethings—with enough force to clear the distance between the two buildings.

  “What in the blood-drenched fuck?” Maledictus jumped back as the two objects—a pair of tanks that had been strapped with a bunch of boxes and cans—crashed through the window and rolled across the floor, a pair of flaming cloths burning near the open valves. Across the side of one tank, Maledictus saw a row of yellow paper that read “KNOCK KNOCK” and, on the other—though its message was partially hidden by the angle it had fallen in—he could make out the word “ASSHOLE”.

  Maledictus sighed, “Fuck me…”

  SERENA WAS LIKE A CAGED ANIMAL IN FRONT OF Zoey, who watched her friend as she continued to pace the room.

  “I can’t believe he’d just leave me like that!” she growled. “Asshole; total fucking asshole! Fuck, I love him so much! I’m… I’m going to marry that wonderful, spectacular, horrid, suicidal asshole! I should… I should just follow him! That’d piss him off—piss him off like he’s pissed me off!—that’d show him! Yea… totally stick it to him! And you know he’s going to need our help; it’s the right thing to do! This is stupid; so stupid! Damn him! Suicidal asshole! Telling me to wait here like a good little woman! What’s he thinking? He’s probably in trouble, Zoe! Ugh! Okay! Let’s go!”

  Zoey sighed and nodded, “Would you believe that’s pretty much how I expected this ‘conversation’ to go?”

  Serena rolled her eyes, “Yes, you know me so well. Now are you coming?”

  “Wouldn’t be much of an accomplice if I didn’t,” Zoey smirked.

  “There’s my girl!” Serena grinned, “Alright, Zoe! Let’s suit up! Momma’s gotta go to war!”

  “We’re gonna need some big toys for this trip, Zoe!” Serena grinned, unlocking the doors to their munitions room and heading for the rear-storage that contained most of the clan’s top-level weapons. “Ohh! I didn’t even know we had this much selection!”

  “Serena… let’s try and at least pack a little lightly,” Zoey
paused, watching her friend grab a chainsaw. She sighed, “That’s not even for fighting! That’s for clearing fallen braches that fall in front of the garage! I doubt you’re even going to use that thing!”

  “Well, it’s sharp, loud and can slice through shit! In my book, that’s a weapon, toots. It’s exactly what I need!” Serena smirked, opening another closet, “Oooh! Leather outfits? ZOEY, you dirty little deviant! Why didn’t you tell me we had these awesome Charlie’s Angels outfits? Oh! This is too fun! Let’s wear them!”

  Serena started to undress, picking out the purple leather jumpsuit and admiring it as she slipped out of her pants and yanked her shirt off. She smirked, watching her naked leg disappear into the deep purple leather leggings of the battle suit and began to zip it up her stomach, admiring the way the leather pressed to her body. Smirking, she looked into the full-length mirror, seeing Zoey behind her in the reflection as she began to undress as well.

  “It’s probably worth mentioning that these aren’t just any kind of outfits, Serena! I personally designed these to withstand high-and-low temperatures, underwater missions, and they are coated with a latex-infused, enchanted polymer that’s flexible but can still guard against most attacks.”

  Serena stared at her, “Whoa!” She looked at her reflection with a greater admiration, “Can they stop bullets?”

  Zoey bit her lip, “Uhh… sometimes.”

  Serena looked back, “Sometimes?”

  Zoey shrugged, “Let’s leave it at ‘no’ and consider anything else a miracle, okay?”

  Serena ran her hands across the outfit. “Oooh. So sciency!”

  Zoey rolled her eyes and continued to undress the rest of her body to fit into her own, blue jumpsuit. As she began pulling the zipper up along the front, her breasts blocked the teeth and she had to pause to tuck them in.

  Serena looked over, a glimmer of light catching her eye. “Are those… no fucking way!”

  Zoey turned bright red.

  “Zoe, are your nipples pierced?”

  Zoey bit her lip, knowing it was already too late to try to hide the jewelry adorning her nipples, and offered a nod, “Y-yea… Isaac says they’re sexy.”

  Serena raised an eyebrow, watching the pair of jeweled tits disappeared into the blue jumpsuit before nodding. “Well, you can tell him he’s right! Hubba hubba!” She turned back and began to lace up her boots. “So how come Zane or the others don’t wear one of these?”

  Zoey shrugged, “He said a while back that they looked too much like a prop from Charlie’s Angels—small world, I know.” She laughed, “After that, none of the guys wanted to be seen wearing them.”

  Serena frowned, “That’s it? Vanity?”

  “Well,” Zoey cleared her throat, “that and the fact that I still haven’t quite worked out all of the kinks.”

  Serena chuckled, “Zoe, between your pierced titties and my hot ass, these suits are rocking all the kink they’ll ever need!” Serena grinned. “Plus… color coded! See, I get to rock my fave: purple, and you get one that matches your hair… and anything else that might be dyed blue.”

  Zoey blushed even more, “Alright then! Come on, Serena! Let’s finish up!”

  “Okay, okay! I’ll stop!” Serena laughed, starting out of the munitions room and into the garage, “Now… for the ride that’ll take us to Zane in style.”

  Zoey cocked her head, “You know, you seem a lot less jittery than before.”

  “I’m hormonal, Zoe. Either you take me out to kill monsters or you’re going to have to watch me sob over Brigid Jones into a gallon of Ben&Jerry’s while I complain that my labia don’t glisten like they used to.”

  Zoey shivered, “So let’s find a car, shall we? I don’t suppose I could drive this time?” She looked back, biting her lip.

  “Not a chance, girlfriend,” Serena grinned, stepping over to Zane’s cherry-red, 2014 Jaguar F-Type. “That’s my bitch!”

  “Oh god,” Zoey coughed. “We’re going to crash and die before we even get there!”

  “Well, that’ll give us a chance to test out the durability of these suits then, won’t it?” Serena smirked, jumping into the driver’s side. “Besides, let’s be fair, when have I done you wrong? Really, genuinely done you wrong?”

  Zoey smiled at her friend and shook her head. “Never. You have never let me down.”

  “Then, trust me to not let you down once again!” Serena laughed, twisting the key in the ignition and beaming as the car came to life. “Oh, Mama, yes! Their slogan is so true! It really does roar!”

  Zoey sat next to her, still adjusting to the leather outfit and shook her head, “It is way too hot to be wearing leather!”

  Serena looked to her friend as the garage door opened and she revved the engine. “All the more reason to drive ridiculously fast!”

  Serena hit the gas then, and they shot out of the clan’s garage, shooting down the private back road towards the onramp to the expressway. The wind slapped against Zoey’s face and she took a moment to calm herself down before turning to Serena, who had cut her hair shortly after coming back to the clan to accommodate for the unevenness after all of Maledictus’ torture had taken its toll on her locks. Now that she was sporting a lower-neck-length style, she looked more mature than she had before.

  “So tell me, Zoe, why do you dye your hoo-hoo?” Serena asked.

  Zoey blushed, “You know about that? I thought you were just bluffint!”

  Serena smirked. “Well, I know now,” she winked

  “Damn…” Zoey sighed. “Well, I suppose it started more as an OCD thing for me—I didn’t like the idea of having two different hair colors on my body—but when Isaac got a look at it…” she shrugged, “It just sorta turned into a thing.”

  “Makes sense,” Serena nodded. “Speaking of which, what is your natural hair color?”

  “Actually I’m a blonde, too.” Zoey looked over and saw Serena grin.

  “Well then I guess it’s a good thing you dye it! ‘Cause there can be only one blonde in this sisterhood, and I’d hate to have to kill you!”

  The two shared in a laugh as they made their way into the city, and the two frowned, seeing a large crowd forming around the building that Kristine and Celine had acquired for their clan headquarters.

  All around them were growing crowds, mumbling about explosions and shrapnel-related injuries and crazy people jumping off the rooftops.

  “Well, Zoey, it looks like we’re a little late to the show. I’m going to get out here. Would you mind parking this beast and keeping the perimeter clear of… well, anybody? I need to make sure no one gets through to the South Terrace block! If you spot anybody who’s clearly seen too much, sweep their minds. The last thing we’re going to need after all this is The Council creeping up our asses.”

  “Can and will!” Zoey nodded, “Good luck, Serena, and try to stay safe.”

  “Safety is my first priority, Zoe!” Serena smiled and slowed the Jaguar enough to give Zoey the time she’d need to take her place before she climbed out of the driver’s seat. Moving to the back of the car as Zoey took control behind the wheel, Serena positioned herself on the trunk of the car.

  “See you soon, girl!” she called back.

  “I’ll hold you to that!” Zoey shot back.

  With that, Serena jumped off and, tumbling with the impact and effortlessly rolling to her feet and jumped into overdrive.

  Here we go!

  AFTER ALL THE THAT HE’D BEEN THROUGH, THE explosion from Zane’s homemade shrapnel bombs was like a 4th of July celebration; every bit as beautiful and awe-inspiring as—

  “GET DOWN!” Raith cried out, yanking Nikki to the rooftop as the screws, nails, and jagged bits of spray-paint cans peppered out from the busted window.

  Zane let his mind slip into overdrive for a moment, watching as the flying bits of shrapnel froze in the air and letting him appreciate the view. Maledictus, who’d practically been standing on top of the propane tanks when they’d went off, was ca
ught in midair, his face twisted in shock and pain and most of his body already plastered in bits of scalding-hot metal and paint. Knowing better than to waste all of his energy in overdrive just to watch, Zane dropped to his belly and, in the process, back into normal time.

  He couldn’t stop laughing.

  “Oh god! Raith! It was so B-E-A-FUCKING-UTIFUL! The motherfucker was all”—he twisted his face in a mock-imitation of Maledictus’ agony.

  Nikki couldn’t help but giggle, “I take it you took a moment to admire it?”

  “How could I not?” Zane smirked.

  “God dammit, Zane!” Isaac growled, yanking several woodscrews from his shoulder, “You realize how many innocent people you just hit with all these?”

  Zane looked back and chuckled, “Three things, Isaac: one—Zoey’s gonna fuck the shit outta you when she sees how badass you look; two—Nobody’s innocent; nobody; and three—while I’m sure all that clipped a few people—yourself included—I doubt it’ll do much more than hurt like hell and give them an excuse to take the day off from work. Not like they were sitting at ground-zero—trust me, that is the sort of thing most people wouldn’t survive—and, to be fair, a few nails to the noggin is a kiss from the angels compared to what Maledictus is going to bring down on the world if we don’t take care of business. So let’s take care of business!”

  Nikki was still chuckling as they stood, shaking her head. “I gotta hand it to you; you sure do know how to make an entrance.”

  “So I’ve heard,” Zane drew one of the two katanas at his back, spinning the sword in his palm to get a feel for the balance. Three grams heavy on the handle, he noted to himself, wishing he’d been smart enough to test the pair before he’d left. Taking a deep breath and trying to breathe out both his growing anxieties and the swelling irritation from the sun-poisoning he’d slowly been absorbing all morning, he took a few steps back and nodded to the others. “Don’t wait up.”

  Raith nodded, the signs of his transformation already starting to show on his shoulders and arms. “Don’t kill ‘em all before we get there.”