Polyxia, having overheard the conversation as they entered, nodded to Gestalt in acknowledgment. “Yes,” she said. “They don’t care for me any longer. Just as well, as far as I’m concerned. They’ve gotten too power hungry.”
Saul laid Nikki down on the couch and looked pleadingly up to Polyxia. “Please…can you help her?”
“I believe so,” Polyxia said. “But we must first start with the basics. Let’s get her clean and remove as much of the glass as possible.”
“Let us help,” Gestalt said. “What can we do?”
Saul cast him a curious glance, still loaded with questions as to why Gestalt was suddenly being helpful after everything they had been through with one another in the last few days. The time and energy Saul, his clan, and the Marked had put into dispatching Gestalt’s Rogues had been taxing. It was hard to forgive something like that.
Saul summed all of it up with a single question. “Why do you want to help all of a sudden?”
“The Guard betrayed me. It’s like Polyxia said. They are power hungry. They only care about themselves. And if they have their way, they will eventually rule not only the supernatural realm, but the physical world as well. I can’t allow that to happen.”
Saul nodded and, wasting no time, said, “I have a medical kit beneath the bathroom sink. Can you get it?”
Gestalt left without question, heading for the bathroom. While he was gone, Paula sank down to the floor and looked at Nikki’s body with a sick expression.
“I’m sorry for this,” she whispered to Saul. “I don’t even know what I am at this point…or what I’m supposed to do. But if Gestalt wants to help you, that is what I will do.”
Saul had heard that Rogues have the ability to turn people into slaves. Paula’s demeanor certainly suggested that Gestalt had done that very thing to Paula. He felt sorry for her.
Saul stood back as Polyxia looked Nikki over. She made a few hmmm sounds, laying her hands on Nikki’s forehead and whispering some form of enchantment over her. Saul didn’t question her; he let the old woman work, confident that Polyxia’s expertise would be enough to keep Nikki alive.
Gestalt returned with the medical kit, already opening it and removing the few packs of gauze that were inside. He also had a towel slung over his shoulder. “That’s a lot of blood,” he said softly. “I thought the towel might be better than gauze.”
Saul took the towel and helped clean Nikki’s wounds. Paula brought them warm water to help cleanse her. They removed several shards of glass and Saul saw two wounds that looked particularly nasty.
Through it all, he watched Nikki breathe, her chest rising and falling slowly, gently.
Stay with me he thought. I love you, Nikki. And if you just come back to me, I’ll let you know it.
He kept his hands busy, working to clean the wounds while Polyxia performed another enchantment. Nikki’s breaths remained shallow and as Saul watched her face hoping for a flicker of her eyelids, for anything that would give indication that they were out of the woods, it took everything in him not to storm out of the cabin and go looking for the Guard.
2
Jill was on a secluded beach at dusk. The beach was isolated, not littered with tourists or lawn chairs. There was no one around for miles and miles. She was on the beach, serene and quiet, with only herself and the man that was currently trailing a series of soft kisses around the curvature of her right breast.
It took her a moment to realize that she was dressed in a bikini and that the man lying close next to her was running his fingers beneath the strap of her top. He slid it down her shoulder which she freed with one deft motion. Her right breast was now exposed to the dusk and the perfect weather of the nameless beach. The man’s hand slid over it, cupping her flesh gently; soon, his mouth followed in its wake.
Jill sighed and arched slightly against her companion. The man’s other hand was at her waist, gently digging his fingers into her hip and beginning to toy with the strap to her bottoms. The anticipation of his touch below her waist was too much and Jill could feel—
—herself being carried, her feet nowhere near the ground. She could feel a dark energy all around her, pressing in to all sides. There was power here, there was evil. But where here was, she couldn’t be sure. She thought she smelled the forest all around her and, after that, all she could sense was unbearable pain and the feeling of being paralyzed. She began to panic and her mind went to one place: The Guard. They had her.
She tried opening her eyes to get a better sense of where she was, of what was happening. But there was only darkness around her, only pain. S It would be so easy for her to lose herself in misery. . Jill refused to give in; the beach in her mind was her weapon against the pain. It was something she had once done as a child, only there were no beaches and men that she wanted but would never have. Back then, it had been wide open meadows and riding horses towards rainbows.
Now, though, there was the beach and the distraction of a sensual relationship with a man—the type of relationship she had long ago given up as something beyond her reach. Still, the illusion of it was welcome in the stead of the pain that smothered her, instead of the fear. If she had to choose one, she would rather focus on the beach and the way—
—his mouth now breathed softly against the underside of her breast. His hand was no longer on her hip, but softly grazing the fabric of the bikini between her legs. He was grazing lightly, barely touching her, and it was driving her insane.
Jill ran her hands through his thick brown hair and felt the sand of the beach and the salt of the sea caught in the dark strands. She tilted his head up and brought his face to hers. When they kissed, it was intense and electric. Their mouths melded together and when their tongues met and played, she felt a blossoming of hope and love course through her entire body.
After a few moments of kissing, his lips trailed down Jill’s neck, over her breasts again and then to her navel. She shifted her leg up, letting him know what she wanted. He slowly removed her bikini bottoms, never taking his eyes from her face.
He placed his hand against her sex and pressed gently against it, slipping the point of a single finger into her. She tensed up and slid down onto his hand, urging the finger, and then another, to go deeper. He obliged and worked at a rhythm that had her shuddering against him. She found his wrist, gripped the back of his hand and showed him what she wanted and what she liked until—
—they came to a stop. She could sense them all around her now. Moorcheh, Dominiscus, Benali, Aimon, and now Magdeline as well. They had come to a stop and she could sense them moving around her. She was still aware of the pain floating somewhere in the darkness in her mind, ready to claim her. The dream of the man on the beach was much closer in her thoughts, much more welcomed. Still, she had a better chance of understanding what was happening to her if she left the safety of the beach. She tried to listen for the Guard’s voices but everything was muffled and dark, everything sounded like the—
—crashing of waves just below their bodies, the water mere feet away from them. She pulled away from his hand and removed his swim trunks, freeing what she wanted inside of her. She took him gently into her hand and guided him. She teased herself with his manhood and waited for him to give a throaty sigh of desire before she canted her hips up and pulled him in. She arched her back instantly and went to work, using her hands to guide his hips to show him how she wanted it.
As he found his pace, Jill began to cry out. He was taking her slowly but with force, making sure that she understood that he was hers and he was not going anywhere anytime soon. She felt his flesh against her, the hardness of his chest pressed against her breasts in a way that was more than just sexual. There was something comforting about it, something reassuring that reminded her that this was something beyond sex, something that she had never experienced in her life.
He looked into her eyes as he sped up his thrusts. A wave crashed below them and skirted up the beach, grazing her legs and she felt—
—a hard slap across her face. It stung like bees and instantly connected her to the pain that had been waiting so patiently for her to recognize it. The slap erased any traces of the daydream of sex on the beach with a faceless, nameless man that she hoped she would one day meet and learn to love. The pain came to her and seized her in the exact opposite way of her dream lover and she sensed him fading…
Fading…
Until he was gone.
Now all there was in the world was the pain that swirled through her. Jill felt hands on her, large rough hands that carried her with violence. She felt herself being hoisted up and got the sense that something tight was wrapped around her wrists.
Jill opened her eyes. It was the equivalent of lifting a brick with her pinky. Although she was successful, the action left her squinting painfully against the dimmed light of Red Creek forest. Her head felt like it might explode.
Worst of all was what she found standing before her. Even in a mortal form, there was something about the dark quality of Benali’s skin that was ethereal. His eyes peered out of that dark face like flints of silver.
“This town is ours now,” Benali said. “And as soon as you and your insufferable brother are dead, there will be no other clans strong enough – or brave enough –to fight us. And I do believe we will start with you.”
Jill knew that Benali loved to gloat. She took advantage of the moment by glancing over his shoulder and getting a better look at where she was. She was in the forest, in some sort of an old building. The walls were made of wood and were blackened. Cracks ran between the boards, letting in rays of sunlight.
She saw several other shapes, some in the building and others walking around just outside. One of them was incredibly tall and another had the flawless curves of a gorgeous woman. The rest of the Guard was here with her. They had taken her prisoner. They would use her to draw out Saul, Nikki, and the Marked.
“And the witch,” Benali went on, “is worthless. So don’t expect much help from her. We’ve been waiting for a reason to get rid of her. She did us a favor by coming to you.”
Jill wasn’t certain, but she thought she detected a hint of doubt in his voice.
“Looks like she’s not going to say much,” a voice drawled from a large doorway to her right. Moorcheh stood there, smiling at her.
The doorway and the cracks in the wall—as well as a series of rafters over her head, one of which she was strung to by a piece of thick rope—helped Jill to realize that she was in an old barn. When she looked up, her shoulder went taut and she felt an incredible pressure around her wrists. Her hands were bound together, the rope thrown up over one of the rafters. Her feet barely touched the ground; Jill shuddered, imagining the sort of torture than could be done to her while in this position.
“You’d best speak now,” Benali said. “You won’t have many opportunities between now and when we’re done with you.”
“So kill me, then,” Jill dared him. “Go on. Let’s see how Saul responds to that.”
Benali seemed to consider her words for a moment. Then he grinned at her. “I think no. I’d like him to watch you die. And you know…Dominiscus admired your fighting spirit this morning. I think he likes you. I’m sure he’d enjoy some alone time with you before we kill you. Well…maybe not totally alone. Saul can watch that, too.”
Jill spit on him. Benali laughed right away, wiping her spit off.
“How easily disgusting human habits are picked up,” he said.
With that, he slapped her hard across the face one more time and then left the barn. Jill hung there, anger and fear rising over the pain that still ravaged her body. She listened closely, hearing them talk outside but unable to make out any words. She heard Magdeline’s voice more than the others, and Jill thought she sounded angry and upset.
The game had begun.
The enormity of her situation sank in as Jill hung in the empty barn, listening to the murmuring voices of the Guard. They were terrifying, as always, but something seemed different now that they had donned mortal forms. It wasn’t just their flesh that had undergone a change when they had shed their immortality. Their minds seemed to have changed, as well – gaining the same emotional complexities that humans were often plagued by.
Despite her pain and the impossibility of her situation, Jill found that piece of information strangely reassuring.
When it came to emotions, even the most powerful of beings could be rendered tragically vulnerable.
3
Kara was starting to feel like a vampire. She found herself impatient with the cheerful light that streamed through her windows, almost tapping her foot as she waited for night to fall. Things just seemed to make more sense in the dark nowadays. In The annihilation of an entire town certainly made more sense when all was enveloped in shadows.
Given what had happened during the last few months, Kara wondered if it becoming a vampire was not in fact a smart course of action. Now that she was in charge of the Marked and was actually taking part in a supernatural battle that she still didn’t fully understand, she thought it might be better to actually be a part of that supernatural world herself.
As Kara pulled her car into Saul’s driveway with the rest of the Marked, she thought she’d mention this to Saul. It made her a bit nervous to think of what his reaction might be, but at this point she could not afford to neglect anything that could help her and those who depended on her. Furthermore, she felt that she was an important enough member whatever it was that was going on for Saul to take her seriously.
Still, as Kara walked across the yard with Ray, Penny, and Paul in tow, she couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous. The sight in front of her did nothing to soothe her nerves.
Kara saw that the cabin was in even worse condition than when she had last seen it. The entire front wall looked as if it was caved in slightly, the ransacked look complete by a hole almost directly in its center. With the missing door added to the picture, the Benton cabin now looked like some long forgotten house one might stumble upon while trekking through the woods.
Kara knocked lightly on the cracked frame where the front door had once been and –stopped mid-knock. Gestalt was standing in the living room. Kara’s hand instantly went to her waist, where her service pistol was ready and waiting.
“It’s okay,” came Saul’s voice. He was standing by Gestalt, worry naked on his face.
Kara felt dizzy for a moment as she took in the sight before her. Nikki was lying on the couch, pale and – more importantly – completely unconscious. An incredibly old lady sat near her on the other end of the couch, bent over in some sort of… prayer, it looked like. Saul stood by Gestalt, peeling open a package of gauge. Behind all of them was Gestalt’s woman—Kara thought her name was Pauline or Paula or something like that.
Kara blinked.
“What the hell is going on?” Kara asked.
“We’ve had a very interesting couple of hours,” Saul said.
Saul invited Kara and the rest of the Marked inside and did his best to explain the last several hours. He told them about Polyxia’s sudden appearance and how she was now helping them fight the Guard. Kara listened carefully as Saul retold his encounter with Magdeline, then her fight with Polyxia. Gestalt’s sudden interest in helping against the Guard had Kara snorting in suspicion. Nikki’s condition was troubling, and Kara did not like the defeat in Saul’s tone when he explained that Jill was missing, apparently abducted by the Guard.
“Damn,” Paul said. “That does sound like a busy day.”
“Is she going to be okay?” Penny asked, nodding toward Nikki.
“I don’t know,” Saul said.
“It’s promising,” Polyxia said. “But with half-breeds—those that have not fully turned and still have mortal blood within them—it is hard to be certain.”
The horror of it all finally became too much. Kara stepped up beside Saul and, giving him her best authoritative stare, said, “Is there somewhere you and I can talk in
private?”
It was clear that Saul was not eager to leave Nikki’s side, but he nodded. “Sure. Come on.”
He gave Nikki and Polyxia one last look, then led the way to the kitchen and through the back door. Before Kara followed him out, she turned to Paul, Ray, and Penny and held up a finger. One moment, she mouthed.
Standing on the back porch was a sweet relief. The tension and pain that was filling the cabin wasn’t as thick out here. Even the air seemed fresher; and Kara took a deep lungful of it.
“Are you okay?” Saul asked.
“Yes, I’m fine. And right now, I’m just going to cut to the chase.” She paused to collect her nerves, and did her best to go on in a steady voice. “So…as a human, this whole ordeal is crazy. To think that I’m part of some legendary group that is supposed to ward off evil and bring peace…whatever you want to call it…it’s too much. And, as a human, I ultimately feel that I am going to fail.”
“You’ve done remarkably well so far, Kara,” Saul said quietly.
“Thank you,” Kara said. “But this thing isn’t nearly over. You know it as well as I do. I can feel it in my guts – and that’s without any supernatural powers.”
“Is there anything I can do to make this easier on you?” Saul asked.
“Yes.” Kara stopped there, hoping that he was not going to make her ask. She’d thought Saul would simply know what she was getting at, but it didn’t appear that this was going to be the case.
“What?” Saul asked.
Kara took a step forward and did her best to hold his gaze. When she did, she was reminded of that almost blinding lust she’d had for him a few months ago.
“Turn me,” she said.
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