But Axle had already slammed the door to run off, the sound of his own laughter growing distant before the door to his own room blocked out his cackles.
Tossing the pillow back on the bed, Serena paused to touch her hand to the electric warmth that lingered on her cheek. Before her mind had a chance to gain any momentum she shook her head, “Stop it, Serena. Grip! Time to get a grip!”
Throwing on her boots, she stepped out of the room and headed to the garage.
She was aching to relieve some tension on her bike.
And she had the perfect destination in mind!
Serena’s started forcing the automatic doors open before she’d even reached the top of the steps and, by the time she’d reached them, they’d been broken from the strain on the motor.
“Oops! Yo, bitch, your boss in yet?”
“Oh, it’s you,” the secretary sneered.
“Damn right, it’s me! Now, where’s your boss?” Serena glared.
Once again, the secretary looked down at the computer for less than a second before looking back up at her and smirking. “I’m afraid they’re, like, not in at the moment. Can I take a—”
“Look, Crayola-cunt, I’ve had enough of you. You speak like you look—broken and painfully dull despite an ongoing effort to appear bright—and I don’t think you could convey a message from me if there was a whole collection of clown makeup offered up as a prize!” Serena glared, “Now you’re going to tell me exactly what’s going on here, or I’m going to throw your broken carcass down the fucking freight elevator and piss down the shaft on whatever’s left twitching!”
“Ma’am, if you don’t, like, totally calm down I will call security.”
“Let me make this crystal-fucking-clear: I am the leader of the Vail Clan—I have dispatched, dismembered, and then forgotten far greater forces than you or your monster-dick security guards—and if you even try to have me thrown out those doors again, I will deal with all of you, have my words with your leader, and then I will leave wearing a brand new fucking outfit with your eyeballs as my new favorite earrings! Now, are you going to tell me what I want to know or do I need to get really nasty up in this shit-hole?”
The secretary pressed the security call button.
“You stupid little bitch.”
“Is there going to be a problem here?” One of the guards glared, “Might we remind you that any unwelcome interference with a clan leader’s business is considered an act against The Council?”
Serena sneered and nodded, “Yes… that’s right. Wouldn’t want to interrupt your boss’s very important business. Okay,” she held out her arms, “take me away officers! Second verse; same as the first, right?
The three guards growled and closed in to escort Serena out.
Shaking her head, Serena forked out her purple aura and snared the two outer guards a split-second before bringing them together with enough force to slam their skulls together and knock them out. Seeing his comrades collapse in front of him, the third gawked—unsure of what had happened—before finally glaring at Serena and drawing a modified Taser.
“You know how to use that toy?” Serena chuckled.
She’d seen this particular piece of “less lethal” device in action. Along with the typical electric shock—albeit a far greater voltage than anything the humans had ever seen—the barbs were enchanted with a set of spells designed to temporarily render any species of non-human completely immobile for several hours.
There was, however, a rather unsettling side effect.
The guard growled, “I’m positive I’ll manage.”
As his fingers tightened on the trigger, Serena jumped into overdrive. Her muscles and eyes shifted—pushed to the next level of movement and perception by her sangsuigan body—and she watched as the room slowed to a time-frozen crawl. Moving towards the guards at a speed that they wouldn’t even register as a blur, Serena retrieved two sticks of the secretary’s bubblegum from her desk. From there, she stepped in front of the mid-firing Taser and, using the gum as a barrier to protect her fingers from the electric current, gripped the two barbs and jammed them into the time-frozen security therion’s shoulder; a momentary flash of electric and magical discharge flaring and the body slowly twitching under the flood of energy.
Repositioning herself in front of the secretary’s desk, Serena made a note of breaking both of the obnoxious sang’s index fingers and wedging the piece of gum she was in the middle of chewing in her hair before finally dropping out of overdrive.
The room came alive with the pained howls of the guard as his body was thrown into spasms and he collapsed to the floor and the secretary shrieked at the sudden flood of pain coming from both hands.
“So glad we could have this little chat, darling,” Serena smiled at the secretary. “Your friends there”—she motioned to the three hulking therions that were sprawled in the middle of the floor—“made a good point: it’s not right to interrupt a clan leader when they’re conducting business.” She shrugged, “Now this clan leader will be returning in the very-near future to conduct her own business, and I suggest you all remember what we’ve learned today and not interrupt. Now, you’re going to have a mess with that one”—she pointed to the Tasered therion—“in about ten seconds when his system voids its bowels, so I hope you have a janitor on call, as well.” Turning, she walked towards the door with an added swagger before pausing, “Oh… and you’ve got something in your hair.” Smirking, she raised her hand to wave, “Like, bye… and junk!”
Serena turned away paused when the automatic doors wouldn’t open and she sighed, throwing out her aura and blowing the glass out before stepping through.
“And your door’s broken too.”
Making her way towards her bike, she frowned as she began to wonder more about what the clan was up to that warranted such secrecy from one of their own.
The whole thing just stank of conspiracy.
As she returned to the alley where she’d parked her bike, she frowned at the familiar scent of fresh blood and spotted she saw a leg jutting out from a pile of trash. Frowning, she stepped over and, kicking a few of the topmost garbage bags out of the way, uncovered two more of Axle’s friends. Just like Zoey had described of the first one, the two bodies were horribly mutilated; most of their skin having been torn off completely or left in shredded ribbons. All over each of them were the unmistakable tracks of claws and teeth, though not like the kind that Serena was used to seeing from therion attacks.
Cursing under her breath, she pulled out her phone and dialed Zoey’s direct line.
“Serena? What’s up?” Zoey’s voice already sounded worried.
“I found two more of Axle’s friends,” Serena informed her. “Same situation as the first.”
“Oh my…” Zoey sighed, “How bad are they?”
“It looks like they were a main course in some twisted buffet for something,” Serena sneered, “Doesn’t look like anything we’ve dealt with before. Completely different calling card if you ask—hold on.” Serena narrowed her eyes at something that glistened under the beam from a streetlight behind her. I hadn’t been until she’d shifted her body and allowed the light to flood over her shoulder that the small something caught her attention.
“Serena?” Zoey’s voice called out through her phone, “What is it?”
Serena looked at the small object for a moment before finally bringing it to her nostrils and sniffing it.
“Oh shit,” she gagged.
“What? What is it? Serena?”
“It’s fine, Zoey. It’s…” Serena sneered and tossed the clue to the ground, shaking her hand in disgust once it was free of the clue, “It’s a giant scale.”
“A what?”
“A scale! Like from a giant-ass snake or something! Thing smells like an iguana’s taint!”
“Do I want to know how you’d know—”
“It was a joke, Zoey! Can you just send a cleanup crew? Maybe somebody who might know what we’re dea
ling with.”
“Okay, Serena. I’ll forward the cleanup crew the location on your cell phone’s GPS. See you soon.”
With that, the two hung up and Serena hopped on her bike and headed back towards the clan, making it there in only half her normal time.
Heading inside, she was greeted by Zoey, Isaac, Nikki and Raith.
“Where’s Axle?”
“He wanted to be alone after I told him the news,” Zoey bit her lip.
“That’s fine for now,” Serena sighed and looked back to Zoey, “Any word from the brains what could’ve done this?”
“There was, but you’re not going to like it.” Zoey frowned.
“Of course I’m not going to like it,” Serena shook her head, “With the exception of oiled-up, psychopathic Scotsmen with a taste for mythos flesh, I doubt this is something I’m going to be taking immediate interest in enjoying the company of. Now what are we dealing with?”
“Everything you told me points to ykali.”
Serena shook her head, “No, that can’t be right. Those things are almost extinct; they’d never do something like this and call attention to themselves.”
“You said it yourself, Serena: what else could it be if not the ykali?” Serena shrugged.
“You’re asking me to believe that a six-foot lizard-man just went ‘what the hell! I’ve had a good run on this planet, right? How ‘bout we just waddle our scaly, big-clawed, sharp toothed—fuck me sideways there really is an ykali in my city,” Serena buried her face in her hands. “I swear to fuck it’s like the goddam plagues of Egypt are targeting my sweet blonde ass!”
Zoey frowned, “It gets worse…”
Serena kept her face cupped in her palms. “Of course it does.”
“They think there’s more than one.”
“Oh fuck. So we have a whole pack of those things hunting in our streets?”
“That’s the weird part. The only attacks we’re getting word of are with the found bodies of Axle’s gang. There has been no other sightings or attacks.” Zoey sighed.
“Well, we’ll just keep our eyes open for anymore attacks and hopefully we can even capture one to study it,” Nikki offered, looking over at Raith who had begun to itch his arms suddenly as he bit his lip.
“You alright there, Raith?” Serena frowned, noticing as well.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I think I’m going to call it an early night, though. I suddenly don’t feel so good,” he frowned, his voice coming out deeper as he headed to his room.
“Do you want to go check on him, Nikki?” Serena frowned.
“I think he needs to be alone for some reason…” Nikki frowned more, biting her lip.
Serena frowned, nodding after a moment and smiled softly at Nikki, “We’ll check on him later.”
“For now, we have to worry about finding the source of these attacks and what they want with Axle’s gang,” Zoey sighed, shaking her head.
“Agreed,” Serena looked over at Nikki and the others. “I guess I’ll go talk with Axle then.”
“Axle?” Serena called as she knocked on his door.
After a moment of no answer, she reached past the door with her aura and unlocked it from the other side before letting herself in, finding Axle crouched on the floor, clutching his head in pain.
“Axle! What happened to you?” She cried out as she kneeled over by him.
“It hurts…” He shook his head and looked over at her, the pain stretching through his face, “My head hurts so bad!”
“It’s alright now…” Serena placed her right hand on the side of his face to send healing energies while cupping her left hand on his shoulder, drawing in the bulk of his pain and panic. “It’s okay now.” Then, smiling, “How would you like to go for a run?”
“A run?” He looked up at her.
“Yea. The forest here has some amazing trails,” she smiled. “A little fresh air and exercise is always good for the head, right?”
He smiled and nodded, “That’s true.”
She smirked, taking his hand and leading him outside and into the thickness of the forest that surrounded their clan’s headquarters.
Then, without even a warning, Serena rushed off ahead of him.
“Hey! Wait!” Axle called, starting after her, “No fair!”
“All’s fair in forest-runs and warfare, slowpoke!” She called out as she laughed, jumping up onto the branch of a tree that hovered over the trail.
Waiting, she kept an eye on the trail below her and, as Axle passed by beneath her she smirked, putting up an auric shield to hide herself, and dropped down behind him.
“HOLY SHIT A MOOSE!” She cried out right as she let her shields drop.
“Wha?” Axle howled in surprise and jumped almost high enough to hit his head on the tree branch, turning towards her and smirked. “You’ll pay for that.”
Serena, laughing too hard to hear the threat, had to steady herself against the tree to keep from collapsing.
“Oh it is on!” Axle smirked.
Serena raised an eyebrow, “Is it?” She jumped into overdrive and appeared behind him, “I’m afraid that’d mean you could catch me,” she mocked before turning and sprinting down the trail.
Axle, expecting this, started off after her, still chuckling at her prank, and soon had caught up and started a steady pace beside her as they ran through the forest.
Making their way along the path that fed out into a wider clearing that was typically used as a camp site in the summer season, Serena stopped.
“I’m really sorry about your gang…” She sighed, looking over her shoulder at him, “I know all of this must be really tough.”
“It’s alright,” he sighed and shook his head, “Well, no. It’s not okay; it’s pretty far from okay. But it’s not your fault, and I know that they wouldn’t have liked the idea of me being upset over their deaths.” He looked over, “It’s the same way I’d feel about knowing they were suffering over me.”
“That’s a good way to look at it, I guess,” she smiled softly and turned to the small fishing pond that bordered the camp site.
“I’ve been having these really weird dreams…” Axle finally said, “Nothing clear, but I think there’s something in them that might offer some answers.” He sighed, sitting on a nearby log that was next to her. “I’m hoping that it may be able to tell me what I’m trying to remember so desperately.”
Serena blushed and sat down beside him, “What sort of dreams are they?”
“Nothing clear enough to describe yet,” he sighed and shook his head, “Just flashes of emotions and voices and sometimes colors, but they’ve been getting more vivid.”
Serena smiled and nodded, “Well, keep me posted on them, okay?” She stood up, “Feeling better?”
He nodded.
“Good,” she held out her hand to help him up, “Come on. I’m famished, and that must mean you are too. Let’s head back and get some grub.”
If there had ever been any doubt to Axle’s species or the degree of starvation that his lifestyle up until that point had been, the degree of his consumption more than cleared the air. Though Serena was certain that the clan’s pantry was stocked for well over the next couple of years, there were periods in his ravenous consumption and immediate return to refill his plate that made her wonder if they’d have enough to sate the onslaught. Finally, however—issuing a triumphant belch and letting his head fall back—he announced that he was, in fact, full and ready to get some sleep.
Still smiling from the spectacle she’d witnessed, Serena escorted him back to his room, eager to get to her own, as well. As they reached his door, Serena stopped and smiled. “You promise you’re feeling better?”
He smiled, “I promise. Thanks for—”
“Don’t you say it!” Serena playfully scolded, “And don’t you go kissing me on the cheek again.”
Blushing, Axle nodded, offering a solemn “I won’t,” that convinced Serena it was safe to start towards her own room.
/>
Before she could turn away, however, his arms were around her and pulling her against his chest as he pressed his lips to hers.
The kiss was gentle at first, almost testing her reaction. Gentle, yet filled with an emotion Serena hadn’t felt in so long. When the gesture earned no response to sway him, the kiss deepened.
Serena gasped as his lips melded harder with hers; his passion came out and she lost herself in the kiss as she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck to bring him closer to her.
The warmth.
The desire.
The need for this.
It was too much.
Too much…
She was getting lost in Axle’s embrace, filled with fear and longing as she desperately clawed at her core to find the strength to resist the urge to go on.
However, at that moment Axle did that just for her; abruptly, pulling away as he held his head and groaned in pain before stepping into his room. “I-I’m sorry! I need to get some rest…” He growled out before shutting the door in Serena’s face.
Serena frowned, biting her lip as she glanced once more at the door and allowed the guilt to consume her as she ran for her room.
Serena, close your eyes; I’ll be your lover tonight.
Axle blinked at the words that echoed all around him, unable to fully grasp their meaning. The pain in his head had spread and become a misery that consumed his entire being.
A misery that now seemed to taunt and condemn him.
A misery that seeped like a dense, pale fog from deep within his chest until he was surrounded in the cold, bitter clouds of his own despair. He whimpered, feeling the powerful self-loathing come down on him, forcing him to gasp against the weight of his own hatred; a hatred that turned the air in his lungs to ice.
Serena, close your eyes…
Just outside the ghostly wisps of fog were the dark phantoms of leafless trees that slowly began to define a forest that he suddenly found himself surrounded in. All at once it became clear that he was trapped there; condemned to the frigid, barren forest of his own condemnation.
Scarlet Dawn: A Scarlet Night Novel (Behind the Vail) Page 12
