by J. X. Evans
Mark was overwhelmed with joy and giddy surprise until the vampire’s free hand grabbed him under his own jaw, its nails digging in his flesh, lifted him from the ground and tossed him in the air. The heavy claymore arced downwards yet again and met his helplessly falling body halfway to change his direction and crush him into the ground with enough weight to force the air out of his lungs. And even though the citrine held together and absorbed most of the bone shattering blow that would have surely cleaved him in half under different circumstances, he actually heard and felt his ribs cracking as well as hot, red blood and pain as the blade pierced one eye at a spot where the hood could not cover him.
32. ROCKET LAUNCHER
Rob met the ground with his face, hard and he felt the same pair of hands grabbing him from the back of his head, sharp nails scratching bloody barrows on his scalp, lifting him up and slamming him on the tiles of the floor. His forehead connected once and he saw the galaxies part two and felt a crushing pressure and blood remained at the spot where his face had met the floor; now if it came from his lips, his gums, his nose or his forehead, that he could not tell, probably a little bit of each. He was lifted once again and he managed to see an ankle through all the pain. He grabbed it in a vice of a grip and pulled. The vampire fell with its back onto the floor. Rob rose and he saw that it was Susan, Jacob’s sister, who had undoubtedly returned from hiding to take revenge on behalf of her dead brother.
Rob looked at Perry and he saw him fighting the two vampires alone, in the same time. He was trying to survive to be more exact. The red-headed vampire had pierced Perry’s calf through and through with her slim rapier, and the blade was still wavering inside him with each unbalanced movement. Ulrik was swinging his axe at him, and Perry was trying to dodge and let the blows ride on his duster, but there was no space for him to swing his whip and the rain of strikes, coming from both adversaries was too much to handle and alas he was finally struck down to one knee when Ulrik struck his duster protected temple with the butt of the axe. The female landed her claws in a bear slap at Perry’s cheek with force enough to send him spinning and streaking through the air. The man fell to the ground, skidded on the slippery, still lightly frosted floor and landed on top of what remained of the curtain of ice. A block of ice came free from the impact and fell on top of Perry’s duster-hooded skull, upon which it broke. He did not move to his feet again, he just laid there with half his face in bloody ruin.
A wave of hot rage passed through Rob’s tired, blood spattered face and his mind was taken over by a blank white sheet of illogical fury. He gathered his energy into a tight ball inside his ruby and sent a pillar of scorching almost blue flame spinning towards Susan that was still laid on the floor just as he started running towards the vampires that were closing in on the unconscious Perry. Susan did not possess a noctis gem. The fire made a nest in Susan’s guts almost instantly and from there it started engulfing her whole body. She started shrieking and screaming, her skin shriveling and her pale brown hair seemed as if they had instantly evaporated from the immense heat of the flame. She should have stayed hidden or ran away.
But Rob took no notice of neither Susan’s screams of agony, nor his own smoking and charred leather glove. His whole attention was focused into reaching his helpless friend before he was slaughtered. Rob run and struck the red-haired vampire with his shoulder like a crazed bull, tossed her to the nearby wall that cracked and shattered and her slender body toppled to the floor.
Ulrik was on him then and swung his axe at his neck. Rob caught it by the shaft and pulled. They fell on the floor, straggling but Ulrik came out on top, the handle of his heavy axe crushing Rob’s windpipe. Rob was freaking tired of always getting bested by the vampire; he drew a handgun that was strapped on this thigh and tried to unload it in Ulrik’s torso. The vampire stuck the pistol from Rob’s grip but the burly man found a window of opportunity to land a heavy punch at the vampire’s face. He grabbed the axe and struck him with its butt, before placing his large boot against his chest to fling him off of him. Ulrik landed a couple of meters away from Rob.
The female vampire had gotten back up. Of course she would, they always do unless they are dead. She was running on him again her long sharp nails her weapons. Rob caught a hand in a leather glove and changed its course off his face. He slammed his heavy fist in her dainty ruin of a face. The vampire spun from the blow and Rob grabbed her from her long red hair, swung her and sent her flying upon the white van. And since it was the sole moment that one of the vampires was practically standing still since it was practically in the mercy of gravity, Rob slid the small rocket launcher that he had ‘borrowed’ from Perry’s brother from his back with his right hand and fired it at the vampire. There was a loud explosion and the van erupted in flames and ruble just as the charred pieces of the vampire were scattering around the place. ‘I knew it would turn out to be useful.’
Rob heard a brutish scream and he felt a menacing presence behind him. He moved to one side and the axe did not find his head. He felt a weight leaving his body, his balance shifting and he saw the empty rocket launcher falling on the floor along with half his right arm. A strong kick found the outside of his right knee and bent it the wrong way, as if it was made of green sticks instead of bones. He was pushed off his feet hard enough to slide on the slippery, lightly frosted over floor and slam his head on the curtain of ice next to the still unconscious Perry. Too injured to do anything drastic, anything other than turn to his unconscious friend that had been covered in his red blood from his missing arm and whisper to him. “Perry. Per!” Rob said hoarsely as he tried to nudge him, but his arm and fingers were laid half a room away from him and Brain did not do long distance calls. He never did. ‘Oh…right…fuck.’
33. FIRE
Mark tried to ignore the pain and lift himself off the ground. A kick found his chest and he tumbled in a ball of flailing limbs. The vampire moved closer and stood at his feet. He was tall and slim and scary. He was wearing a lustrous suit with a purple tie and it was riddled with bullet holes underneath which gleamed a rich armor. He was holding his large sword, tight in one arm and with his other he was stroking his jaw at the place where Mark’s blow had landed. The vampire lifted its blade for the final blow and Mark saw his life passing before his eyes. Or he waited for it to happen at least. There was the loud noise of a large rifle being fired from afar, a noise that Mark thought he had been hearing on and off for about a minute now, and the vampire’s knee buckled from under its weight, blood and bones exploding from the impact of the bullet. There was a second one and the round hit the vampire at the center of its back, penetrating the armor but not resulting to anything close to a lethal blow.
The vampire started running forward as if it never even noticed that its knee had been mostly blown to bits, lifted Mark from his neck as it passed him by and started dragging him on the floor until they had turned the corner of the house and they were out of the shooter’s line of site.
Mark had a strong hunch that Thanos had just prolonged his lifespan, though probably not by a lot. He would not be able to return the favor which was less than common courtesy.
The vampire pinned him to the wall of the mansion, and started squeezing the life out of him. Mark, his lungs burning with every notion of a breath, took his trusted pistol out and aimed at the vampire. The vampire slapped the pistol off his hand and Mark shot a weak blow to the monster’s jaw and a weak kick to its shattered knee. The vampire was mostly annoyed rather than pained and it landed a heavy fist in Mark’s stomach for revenge. A blow that finally urged his half-digested breakfast up and out of him. Mark fell to the floor, spewing his stomach contents, though he did not remember eating so much ketchup with his eggs. ‘Oh…its blood.’ Mark lifted his eyes and looked at the old man and the two children. They were half visible from between the vampire’s legs.
The old man was crying yet again but there was no fear in his eyes. What there was though was desperation, resignation and heavy re
solve. The old man lifted the pistol, aimed it at one of the bundled children and pulled the trigger three times at the spot where the child’s head should have been and then moved his hand to aim at the second and last bundle.
The vampire moved faster than Mark had thought possible. It had covered the ground that spanned between Mark and the old man in less than two seconds, letting a brutish scream from its lips all the while. The vampire landed a punch at the side of the old man’s neck that laid ruin to everything that held his neck together. Muscles, tendons, blood vessels and connective tissue, all tore and shattered and the old man was flung to the nearby wall that enclosed the mansion’s grounds. His neck angled in an unnatural, inhumanely disfiguring manner, but his glassy eyes and half broken smile revealed a mad relief, a crazy joy. Maybe the man finally snapped. Maybe he thought he was doing the kids and his soul a favor. Maybe he did, or maybe he didn’t.
Mark found himself unable to move. His chest was moving peculiarly, not as it was supposed to and he felt that each time that he tried to inhale a breath, the right side of his ribcage was trying to expel it, constricting instead of expanding. His injured eye was causing pain enough for him to faint from that injury alone and he could only see red and black from that side. Mark had heard the sound of an explosion a little while ago, but from then on, the straggling from within had almost seized, which was either a good or a bad sign, but it was a given that his end was nigh. If it is time to go, then one should go with a boom. He had no strength to stand, but he could still gather his magical energy, make a last attempt. The noctis gem can after all nullify only so much free magical energy, there is a limit; not that he could surpass it but if it is your time, why not go the extra mile? If not then…when?
He put his hand in his pocket and drew the silver zippo lighter that Perry had gifted him almost two years ago. He had refilled the oil yesterday night and it was almost completely full. The vampire turned towards him, angry but sure of itself. Mark tossed his lighter towards it and followed with a forceful release of his energy from within the cracked ruby. The huge lance of almost blue flame exploded from Mark’s palm, increasing the temperature of the cold air by several degrees, and streaked towards the vampire. The vampire lifted his right wrist up and when the lance of flame was nearly upon it, the noctis gem started absorbing it with gluttonous ease. The zippo got caught into the pillar of the scorching flame, the fuel caught on fire and the lighter exploded like a small Molotov centimeters away from the vampire’s face. The flaming oil and metallic shrapnel spattering and piercing the vampires eyes and face and its clothes.
The vampire fell on the floor, rolling around and started taking its clothes off and Mark continued fueling the pillar of flame that was continuously streaking from before his open palm. His left arm was feeling as if it had been plunged in a lake of molten lava and he could smell the nauseating odor of his own burning skin. Nevertheless, he persevered until the ruby itself had caught a blaze of its own that grew and grew, until the small gem cracked again and then burst apart; spewing tiny burning missiles of sharp ruby, some of which launched straight into him, some towards the vampire and most in the various surroundings.
Mark fell to the floor completely and with his last tiny bit of energy that remained he tried to fuel his diamond, turn the ice towards him and bring some measure of peace to his burning agony. It helped, though not by a whole lot. His arm was blistered and charred black and other parts of his body as well as some his long hair that he so loved had been burned severely as well. At least he had managed to put the flames out with his diamond. “I tried to go with a boom…it was not big enough”
Mark looked at the vampire. It was standing tall with seemingly no damage upon it. The zippo had done almost nothing, not that he was expecting much more than that. And the noctis gem had held fast and it was now glowing a dim dark red color and streams of smoke were rising from its glowing surface, not that he was expecting something much more than that. ‘At least I tried…’
Mark looked to the side and he saw a tall, slender figure in a duster much similar to his own running towards him, the beams of the sun shining on twin short blades. It could have been neither Rob, nor Perry and Thanos would be an extremely improbable candidate. He let a low, sad laugh escape his bleeding, blistered lips and turned his attention towards the vampire yet again. A mad grin had taken over most of its face and it was standing upright marveling at the gem at his wrist. Mark’s gaze wavered to the old man’s unnaturally bent corpse, and he felt sorry for the fear and sorrow ridden old fool. He took a last look at the murdered children, and thought of how Rob would have been disappointed. One of the bundles was red and decorated by three bullet holes while the other bundle…was a bundle no longer. The blanket was empty, it simply laid on the floor. Mark got a bit confused, because he was in too much pain and had lost too much blood in order to be properly flabbergasted. He searched the space around him and he noticed a girl, slim and pale and seemingly malnourished with long black and grey hair and a pair of the deepest, glowing violet eyes that he had ever seen in his entire life. It was the girl from before. The girl from the paper. The one that they had come to find and that he had laid there, behind the bush wrapped in that old blanket.
The girl walked up to the vampire, one arm extended towards him and it seemed as if she was mumbling something under her breath but Mark could barely understand her. Something about a candle, and something about the dark and something else. He could not understand her very well. The vampire saw the girl and mixed feeling of enthusiasm and doubt passed from his face and he seemed as if he wanted both to move away and grab hold of the child and assist it, watch it. The girl placed a small hand on the noctis gem that was still glowing red and the vampire tried to draw his hand away but it was as if her hand was a mountain and the gem had been glued to it. Her eyes shone a brighter violet and colors, but mainly red, started swirling around in the noctis gem.
Mark felt uneasy, as if something bad was about to happen and he wanted to stand up and leave; but he found it to be too much work for him right then and there so he focused his efforts in trying to erect a half-decent citrine shield around him. He made a pretty good job on making the shield half decent but his timing was almost perfect.
There was an explosion of light and pure energy with the noctis gem as the epicenter. There was a mild sound of energy release that did not resemble that of a physical explosion in anything other than that there were the sounds of the trees being crushed, the bushes being uprooted and walls being torn down. The force reached him almost instantly and he was flung along with the wave of energy through the mansion’s walls where he almost managed to see a blood splattered fight scene before he was swept through another set of walls and finally found himself to the other side of the mansion’s garden; half his vision still in red and black, and the other half fading to black.
34. REHAB
Mark woke up in a hospital room, with two other beds in either side of his own, it was big, had plenty of light and it smelled of flowers. He looked to one side with his single uncovered eye and he saw Rob’s sleeping, unconscious body. He seemed a bit pale but his breathing seemed normal and he was peaceful. He was covered in bandages almost from top to bottom while one arm and one leg were covered in plaster and supported by pulleys and ropes. He looked to the other side and he saw a similarly mummy-bandaged Perry staring back at him.
Perry informed him that it had been almost two and a half days since their little raid. Zora had tried to leave in the cover of night with a duster under her armpit with orders from higher up the chain of command to do so. Thanos had never even considered not to tag along with them in the first place. He encountered her on his way back to Orpheus’ house and he shamed her into coming to help. He said that it seemed as if she was the width of a hair away from turning him black and blue but it seemed as if the professional in her held her from doing so. So they came. Not with the best timing, but they came early enough to save their lives at the very end.
They gathered them up, put them in Thanos’ car and he rushed them back to his brother’s hospital. Thanos made a phone call and Orpheus was waiting for them by the door of the emergency room with three teams of surgeons, three gurneys and three operating rooms ready for immediate use.
Mark leaned over, feeling pain in every movement, and grabbed the chart from the foot of his bed with his right hand; since his left one was covered in layers upon layers of bandages. There was a list that read the total of his injuries. Major penetrating eye trauma. Sternum fracture. Multiple broken ribs bilaterally, with the presence of flail chest, pulmonary contusion and pneumothorax on the right side. Multiple bruises, abrasions, and generalized first and second degree burns on the whole of the body and especially the upper left quadrant of the thorax. Third degree burns on the whole of the left arm and fourth degree burns in a circular area around the wrist.
“Fourth degree eh?”
“Yeah, it has passed through the skin completely and it has partly charred tendons and bones in the area.”
“Yikes.” Mark looked at his left wrist. “I don’t feel any pain, and I can move it a bit.”
“That’s because most of your nerves are still dead. Burned to a crisp. It will be itching like crazy in a week or so, and then there will be pain.”
“It is going to heal, right?”
“Oh it will heal. It will take a little longer than usual until it has done so completely though. It’s not a simple bullet wound, it will take more than a good night’s sleep.”
