by Poppet
“She left. She went home. She's fine,” he reiterates.
Zauran indicates the sea of faces behind him, “Grab a drink, we still have a killer to catch.”
I glower at my warden until he removes the offending hand and leaves me alone to sit up. Taking the freedom, I get up, walking to the back and ransacking the bar.
Kidnapping a bottle of Absolut, I uncap it and take a long pull. So she's fine, and she left, and fuck me.
She didn't even stick around to see if I lived or died.
Nice. Real smooth Zena.
Fuck, how did I get your number so wrong?
*
Božena:
Hot fingers caress down my face, my arm, leaving me cold when it moves to my head, repeating the motion.
Opening my eyes, I stare into blue hollows.
“Arsay?” I mumble, my tongue feeling thick and dry.
“You're okay, sweetheart.”
“Where's Sveta?”
“The boys are looking after him.”
I peg straight up, “That's what I'm afraid of!”
Laughing, he pulls me to his enormously wide chest, arms like boa constrictors closing me in, “Not those boys. My boys. Akae and Zarak.”
“Oh,” I sag with relief.
“Is he okay?”
“He's fine.”
Pulling out of his grip, I stretch my legs, looking at my arms and legs. My jeans are stained with dark patches.
“About that,” he says, indicating my clothing with a flick of his hand. “You're never doing that again.”
I swallow, inching away, nerves tingling my arms and numbing my fingers.
“You may notice you are no longer looking like a voodoo doll stuck with pins,” he continues.
“And I'm supposed to say thank you?” I say, annoyed.
Why the fuck does everyone keep saving me when I want to be left alone to die in peace. I'm done with this sucky planet. I'm sick of the term love and the way it's used as an excuse to destroy people who have done nothing wrong. I'm just a pawn sent out onto the emotional battlefield year after year, and every time I stick my head out it gets chopped off.
His eyes ignite and the room swirls into a bright mist, whirling around and around, nausea jumping up to slap bile into my mouth.
“Come with me,” he summons, lifting me, my body feeling like a bubble of helium.
I'm taken to see what I missed, reliving the attack on Sveta, as I would have if I hadn't left the room.
Sobbing at what they do, my heart ruptures, red plyx puffing out in a blinding smoke, veiling the world, hazing my sweetheart.
“Get your facts straight next time. You two have to be honest and face each other. No more running away from life. When you hurt - you talk about it, you don't run off to damage yourself.” His big hands frame my face, forcing me to fall into his endless eyes.
“Božena, you have to snap out of this victim mindset. When someone hurts you, you don't compound the wound by inflicting more. Stop pitying yourself and own your emotions. You can't run, there's nowhere to run, and the afterlife has closed its doors to you. You don't get to die until it's your time, and now is not that time. I am here to prevent you from that escape, I am everywhere, and we love you.”
“What?” I mumble, struggling against the magnetic pull of his eyes.
“We love you and we won't accept you home until you've done what you came here to do. You don't understand this, but you have a very real role to play on earth. It just takes one person to find the strength, and it ripples into the ether, touching lives just like yours. You have to overcome the damage. You have to trust, heal, grow, overcome. You have to change your mind and move away from being a victim and misguided martyr, and live, laugh, and that means daring to fall in love and giving yourself in trust to another. He's here, he's ready and willing to help you. Cut yourself again and I'm just going to keep coming back from the ether to heal you. The last sacrifice has already played its part. The world doesn't need more martyrs, it needs compassion. That starts with you loving yourself. When you love yourself, he will follow your lead and love you more than that.”
“Who?”
“We've run out of time. I have to go.”
He leans close, placing a kiss on my forehead,
“I love you,” he says, washing the sensation into me in a tidal wave of euphoria.
When he leaves my side, I'm so cosy and comfortable it's a struggle to think, to hold my eyelids up.
I am unaware of falling asleep.
*
Sveta:
I look resolutely back at the last two, downing the shot of tequila and standing up.
“I have to go before I'm too drunk to get home,” I announce, again.
Aisyx laughs, punting his knuckles against mine, “Stop getting your ass kicked. Enough drama for one day.”
I arch both eyebrows, no witty comeback appearing in my head.
I'm tired. Fucking tired.
I slap Zauran's shoulder. “See ya.”
He raises his glass in salute, “Cheers.”
Rubbing my chin, I collect my jacket, too pissed to care about my broken heart any longer. Shrugging it on and zipping it up, I amble to the doors, noting the clock at the doors reads 3:33 a.m.
That time again. Pausing, I stare at the illuminated display, trying to calculate the odds. Zarak sticks his head out of the office, staring down the dim passage at me.
“You okay?”
“Yup,” I raise my hand in farewell, shoving my shoulder into the door and stumbling into the crisp wet night.
It smells so fresh and clean, it should feel good, invigorating, but I have a pain lodged in my chest that refuses to budge.
Rattling down the stairs, taking the four steps to my sweetheart, I wipe pooled water off the seat of the Ghost, straddling her, pausing to caress her custom paintwork.
“You'll never leave me, will you baby?”
Leaning down, I kiss the gas tank.
This is my girl.
With my hand on the throttle, ready to fire up the bike, my boot resting on coarse gravel in the dark shadows beside Pravus, a sensation dances down my spine, snapping fingers next to my ear and creeping plyx around my nape.
Pausing in my movement, running an agitated hand through my cropped hair, I inhale instinctively.
Immediately my vision switches to neuri, burning my eyes with the brilliant glow of maple syrup.
I'm a chestnut redhead and my plyx is fiery, it masks the world with my energy so I survey it with intuition and instinct.
Footfalls clap on stone.
Twisting my torso, I look behind me, the vision slamming a fist into my heart.
Frozen, I watch long legs stretch and tense on heeled boots, dragging my gaze up her incredible body to perfect hips, a tight waist, a voluptuous swell...
Long wavy blond hair flags behind her in her haste, her lips parted with urgent breath, so perfect, so sexy, her eyes so very green, long lashes blink and they are glossed with fresh tears.
She is female bling.
I want it.
Blinking to hide my neuri fire, I set the stand back down, raising from the bike and pulling a glove off with my teeth, already striding toward the damsel in obvious distress.
My movement draws her focus and she reaches hands to me, and I want her to run.
Run to tata, let me catch you and disappear into the night with you. Let's forget Zena and make sweet passionate love until the sun comes up.
“Oh God! Please help me!”
That's all the encouragement I need, breaking into a run.
I'm coming.
She stumbles weakly, catching her fall with a hand on the side of Zauran's car, and I finally notice the blood dripping from her fingers.
Blurring into true speed, I catch her before she falls, lifting her up, inhaling the redolence of someone truly unique.
“I've got you,” I reassure her.
Staring into her glazing eyes, I'm shocked by
what I see there. A bloody hand plants on my heart, burning into my skin with power, marking my naked chest with her vitality.
It's another crimson shock to the heart, and I'm beginning to feel like I need a kevlar vest. I should have zipped up all the way, too late now.
“Who are you? What happened?” I ask the strangeling.
“Ch...”
She slumps in my arms, her words lost to the mercy of unconsciousness.
I check her heartbeat and breathing. Then I focus on the trees. Darkness tightens its cloak around us and I spy the shadows advancing fast.
The others are here, and I'm holding the one they hunt.
There's not a second to spare. Instantly sober and lucid, I bolt for the stairs, yelling through the ether for the demons and neuri still inside.
Telepathically drumming the panic button, calling all men to defend, to snare the fucker right here.
Blasting through the red doors, I dump her into Aisyx's arms, yelling, “Zarak! Akae! He's here!”
Zauran bolts past me, ripping his shirt off, rushing outdoors in neuri form, an alpha on the hunt for the scent, ready to defend his territory.
I'm an alpha too!
Frantically unzipping my jacket, I hurl it, morphing into neuri form while I run.
Backup's coming Zauran!
Flying into the night with my neuri vision, my body immovable in strength, I have a bad feeling I'm about to have my ass handed to me for the third time today.
Chapter 25
Zauran:
Racing into the stand of trees, I grind to a halt, faced with a troop of red eyed vampyre, most of them turning into dissipating mirages as I reach them.
Sveta goes the other way, closing off the opposite escape, and in tandem the urge grabs us and we send a blast of plyx into the night, illuminating the monsters.
A tall silhouette stands behind them, his form familiar.
Sveta is almost on him when Zarak appears out of fucking nowhere, solidifying apparating vampyres, clamping them to his will, binding them instantly.
Running, I don't have time for the minions, I need their leader, but he's sauntering away, his casual gait belying the impossible speed he's moving at.
Sveta mirrors me, following my lead, and we shoot after the leader of the hunt, but he's gone when I reach the last place I spied him, even though I kept my eyes riveted to the prick.
Dropping to my haunches, I read the signature in the sand, closing my eyes and conjuring his image.
This was all we needed to hunt him, track him, to incarcerate him for his crimes against humanity.
My eyes snap open just as Akae appears between the boughs in front of me.
“Arelstin,” he states unnecessarily.
“Yup,” I nod, standing, surveying the area, knowing he's long gone.
Zarak joins the party, two captives attached to each of his hands, “He was after the slakax according to these squealers, but something else appeared tonight.”
Zaria! My petal! Moving, I start sprinting, “Zaria is unguarded! She's slakax!”
Sveta's eyes light up like bog lights, flaring orange balls to pinwheel into the darkness, “Zena's just as vulnerable.”
Zarak booms after me, I'm almost to the parking area, “The goddess is here! He wants her more!”
I don't care who he wants right now, my priority is Zaria and the boys growing in her belly.
*
Sveta:
Slamming to a halt, I turn and face Zarak, “What?”
“The vesna are coming down from the mountain, they're fleeing.”
“The vesna?” That chick with the hot legs, she's vesna?
The vesna never leave their mountain hideaway. They're more myth than fact they've been hidden for so long. They don't breed, they're a female only race, immortal, they do not mingle with the great unwashed masses. They are the holiest of the holy on this land.
This day is never fucking going to end, is it.
“Vesna?” I ask again.
“Yes Sveta, vesna. You have her blood on your chest, you've bonded already, and she's bonded with Arelstin because he's the one who cut her open.”
“He cut her open?” The thought of the vampyres hurting women pisses me off. They can kick my ass but picking on women is what cowards with small dicks do.
My hands unconsciously move to my chest, feeling her dried blood imprinted on me.
Hey, it's a nice thought, but I'm in no shape to foster a new relationship with anyone, vesna or not.
Looking at Zarak, I indicate we should move, “I have to get my jacket, I need to check on Zena. Arelstin just lost his bounty, so he's probably going to target the consolation prize.”
I don't really recall anyone called Arelstin.
Zarak reads me, his eyes flaring so red he looks like he's erupting, “He's Ellindt's lover, guard, and mate.”
“He framed his lover for his own murders?”
The vampyre sink lower and lower in my opinion with each passing transgression.
“She's the most powerful vampyre on earth, and he knows all there is to know about her power, her reign, her reach, and the people in her pockets. He's had a long time to build an empire using hers as a foundation. I knew the bastard was evil, but to think he tried to dethrone her by framing her, and removing the neuri in the process so there's no one to stand in his way and stop him, that takes balls.”
Time's a wasting.
“I have to go,” I repeat, urgency beginning to ratchet spurs in my soul.
Zarak shakes the minions on either hand, “I'll take care of these.”
He vanishes, leaving me alone, everyone gone their separate ways in the aftermath.
Bolting for the steps, I need to get my jacket and get to Zena.
*
Aisyx:
Holding the glorious creature, I'm instantly afraid my grip is too strong.
Loosening my hands, I hold her like a newborn, overwhelmed with the scent of holiness encrusted in her skin.
Venix's words come back to me, “Spirit is thankful to you for keeping Božena alive, you will be rewarded with the mate you've been pining for.”
“What are you?” I whisper, taking her to Zauran's office and laying her down on the couch lining the wall.
Caressing long hair off her face, it's instinct to examine her arms and legs, looking for the wound that caused the bleeding. My t-shirt is now saturated with her crimson loss, and it alarms me.
Akae appears out of nowhere, with Venix.
The archangel doesn't hesitate, closing the gap in a stride, laying his hand on her and blasting angelic power into her, closing the gouges.
Then he looks at me, “Take good care of her. There are only four vesna left.”
Disappearing as suddenly as he arrived, I look at Akae, fucking confused.
“Vesna?”
“Vesna are messengers. Oracles. They only appear to humans in spring. They live so high up in the mountains very few have ever seen them. Goddesses, females one and all.”
Snatching my focus back to the goddess, I carefully trace her cheek, “Who are you?”
Long dark eyelashes rest delicately on the top of her cheek, and they part to stare bottomless pools of serene green at me.
She stares so long with her berry blushed lips parting, and her hand clutches her chest. Blinking three times in quick succession, she stuns me with an unexpected smile.
She points at herself, “Nada.” Then frowning, she traces her blood all over my white shirt with her fingertips, “You?”
Where are my manners!
Still on one knee like a knight swearing allegiance, I lean in, kissing her on each cheek as is customary, then taking her hand, which is so tiny in mine, I use my free hand to point at myself, “Aisyx.”
“Chased,” she gasps, her eyes widening, too bright with fear and unshed tears.
“Not anymore. Now you're safe,” I smile, giving her hand a little squeeze of reassurance. “Are you thirsty? Can I get you
a drink?”
She furrows her smooth brow, “I know you.”
I shake my head, she must be in shock.
“No, I doubt it. I'm half neuri, half vampyre, and never go near your territory.”
She plucks at my t-shirt with her fingernails, pinching and lifting it, as if reading my soul through the blood smears, like a sage seeing the future in tea leaves.
“I know you,” she says again, determined, resolute.
Green eyes morph to aquamarine, then deepen to green so dark it looks black. “You make safe.”
The harsh slap on my shoulder jars me out of her spell, “Well that settles that. Looks like god thought you were worthy enough to land a vesna. Now keep her safe and lets drop the curtain on this endless night.”
Glaring at Akae, I don't know what to do. I can't take her home, surely? Or, maybe... what the hell. There's only one way to keep her safe from the hunters, and that's to keep her with me, but, damn... I haven't been laid in forever and she's fucking gorgeous.
She blushes bright red, as if I said it out loud.
A seer, a messenger, an oracle. Great. So she knows what I'm thinking?
She nods, a lusty laugh caressing my skin when she smiles.
I am so fucked.
Sitting up, cradling my hand like a teddy bear, she leans close and whispers in my ear, “You make safe.”
*
Sveta:
I need to get home and get my phone. I won't disturb Božena, but I will leave her a message so she knows I'm concerned.
Driving the Ghost down her road, I survey the area, seeing nothing untoward. Satisfied, I accelerate, heading for home. I need a shower, a change of clothes, and a peace offering.
*
Arelstin:
These neuri alphas are beginning to piss me off. They have the demons in their pockets, and they police so effectively they seem to be everywhere.
The youngest drives across my view, ruining the party.
Dimming my light entirely, I freeze, waiting for him to fuck off. When I hear the guttural chug of the bike accelerating away, I breathe out, solidifying and resuming my activity.
