Blood Stained Tranquility

by N. Isabelle Blanco

  She never would be, but she was forced to ingest it nonetheless.

  Half of the beings she was seeing in her mind weren’t even within eyesight. But their sins were so powerful, that they rushed at her, like gleeful little demons running with their arms and mouths open toward their meal.

  She stumbled, her brain forgetting to coordinate her legs as she watched and heard victims being hurt, cheated, tortured and worse.

  Inside her mind.

  Outside it.

  Everywhere.

  Destroy!

  She wanted to. Needed to so badly.

  She needed to breathe first. Reorient herself. There’d be no killing if she couldn’t even fucking stand up right.

  God, where’s Zeniel? Where was everyone? The only one she’d seen arrive was Xreak. Her emotions and instincts went on a crazy spiral, pinning her between two extremes, and rendering her useless. She knew that she needed to get her shit straight before she jumped into the middle of that fucking mess.

  The ground heaved in another tremor. She could’ve sworn it tilted. Her boots scratched against asphalt as she tried to steady herself. She managed to peel one eyelid open just in time to hear and see the top of another building being hit by a huge, green energy wave. The green energy pulsed along the bricks, crackling. Inside the building, it condensed, gathering into a tight ball, as if the energy were about to implode.

  Bricks, glass, body parts. It all exploded in an instant, spiraling through the air like some fucked-up version of candy falling from a piñata.

  A small feminine hand tumbled through the air. Disconnected from the rest of the body it had once belonged to, drops of blood twirled out of the severed end.

  Eve aimed a scream at the falling debris—enraged, agonized, and utterly unable to control what was ripping through her. Her teeth were bared as she forced herself to close her eyes. She was no good like this. She was going to get herself hurt. She’d just happened to land on the side of the boulevard that was farthest away from the battle, but it was only a matter of seconds before an enemy found her like this.

  Incapacitated. Ripe for the picking.

  If she died, Zeniel died.

  Her brain must have switched into survival mode, because unleashing that thought was just what she needed to get her ass in motion.

  Eve’s head cranked around, her visual receptors kicking up a notch, and taking over where her inner-eye had been in full control. Although her vision was blurry, her gaze landed on one of the only buildings free of damage.

  Up there.

  She didn’t think twice. She heeded the instinct, and flashed onto the roof of a four-story building.

  Zen appeared in front of her just as she landed, his armored limbs stopping her from falling.

  Eve grabbed onto his forearms, her hands sliding across the smooth, black and red layers of his armor. Everything receded. A vacuum must have been somehow attached to her head, because the noise, the screams, the sins, the visions, it all got sucked out.

  The battle below ceased to exist, playing out like a television movie left on in the background.

  “Evesse.” Looking worried, Zeniel pulled her up. His leather-covered hand brushed her hair away from her face, and even through the layer of thick material, Eve could feel the heat of his skin slide into her, coating her nerves.

  Steadying her.

  His hand moved, sliding under her jaw and wrapping around it. “Look at me.”

  Eve hadn’t even realized she’d closed her eyes. She obeyed his command, drowning in his beautiful gray-and-blues, her body liquefying into a mass of pure tranquility. She was being hit by an overdose of straight-up, unfiltered, Grade A peace.

  “Zen . . .” She trailed off on a gasp, taking in the fact that he was wearing what was obviously his war-demon armor, and his physical markings were still visible.

  But there was no denying it. He was calming her.

  “Yeah, baby. It’s me. And I need you to focus on just me for a bit, okay?”

  No problem. She was already there. She was so there.

  “I see all of it, too. Actually I see more, but you know what’s keeping me steady?” He lowered his head and rubbed his nose against hers in a way that made her whimper. “You are. You’re helping me.”

  Unable to stop herself, Eve pulled his head down and meshed their lips together, everything forgotten except for that gnawing hunger that demanded a part of him.

  Zen let her kiss him, but he kept a tight leash on it. Which made perfect sense. Eve might have forgotten about the battle, but that didn’t make it any less real. Or any less pressing.

  “You need to concentrate and stay steady. Filter out the images.” He was purposely using both sides of his powers to command her. Tranquility and Vengeance rose up in his voice, and Eve’s emotional-psychological infrastructure hit the ground, submissive-style. “I need to know that you are going to be okay. I cannot fight if—”

  “Yes.” Eve stared into his eyes, nailing him with the same steadiness that he’d just instilled in her. She felt her powers rise, this time reaching out to the male before her instead of the battle below. So she let them answer him, feeling the rightness of it settling over her. “Yes.”

  His full lips parted into a brilliant, pleased smile. His hold on her chin tightened momentarily, then he stepped away from her, his eyes morphing. Even though it was daylight outside, his red irises glowed bright within his black eyes. His stare traveled the length of her body, a laser-like focus to it that was almost sexual.

  Her clothes were overtaken. As his eyes trailed a hot path down the lines of her body, a tight, red and black amalgam version of his armor appeared on her form.

  He’d claimed her before, but this was more than Eve could process for a few seconds. The urge to mate was an inconvenient, rude, and blaring signal going off inside her. Frozen by it, she could only stare down at herself as energy and armor trickled down her form.

  “Fucking gorgeous.” Zen bowed his head, and although his eyes never left hers, it was the kind of show of respect that robbed her of breath and made her want to prove herself to her male. Her inner warrior was ready to show her mate what she was capable of. “I need you to return the favor now.” He looked out over the battle below, obviously worried. “There are humans working with the Aviraji.”

  Evesse didn’t need to look. Now that she was calmer, she closed her eyes and simply honed in on what her powers were trying to show her. A single word banged around her head, slamming into her harder than any other.

  “What does Maeltzkon mean?”

  Zen hissed out a breath. “No time to explain. They were supposed to be eradicated centuries ago. Apparently, they’re alive and very, very well.”

  Yes, Eve could see that. The humans of note were in battle suits, most of their faces masked. They were wielding their own version of molecule destabilizers, and suddenly she remembered what Nylicia had mentioned about the old terets being stolen and replicated. Instead of firing pure, white energy, however, these guns fired those vile, black beams she remembered so well. The kind that incapacitated anyone who had an atom’s worth of good inside them.

  Eve opened her eyes. “They’ve been lied to. They’ve been tricked into believing we’re the bad guys.”

  Zen nodded, closing his eyes tight. “You need to tell me who I can punish. Please.”

  She reached into herself, securing the thrumming energy of Justice. “Not our friends. Any of them. And not the humans. They’ve been tricked. Lied to. Everyone else . . . destroy them.”

  He opened his eyes, exhaling in relief, just as a loud cry made them both jump around.

  “Nooo!”

  A girl was running across the rooftop toward them. Her long, platinum blond hair flowed behind her. The sight of it pricked something in Eve’s neural pathways and she blinked hard.

  She knew that hair.

  “You can’t punish him!” the girl screamed, her eyes—chocolate brown, and way too big—were desperate.
/>   Shit. Evesse knew those eyes, too. And the face. It was the same, but older.

  Man, apparently, WTF moments were a permanent part of her life now. Even taking that into consideration, Evesse’s brain threatened to throw up the white flag, pack its shit, and desert her entirely if she couldn’t figure out a way to stop all the crap, or buffer it.

  “You can’t hurt Enteax. Please! He’s the only one I can’t stand to see suffer. Everyone else, I . . . I enjoy it. But not him. Please, not him.”

  As that girl came to a stop in front of Eve and Zen, her teary eyes frantic and pleading, Eve knew two things.

  One, this had to be the holder of Suffering. What she had just said wouldn’t make sense in any other context. The power was already inside her.

  And two, Eve definitely knew her. She would never forget her.

  Holy shit. The world felt way too small. Like it would zip itself up and close in on her.

  Eve just couldn’t believe it, not even when she heard her own voice utter the girl’s name. “Makayla?”

  Chapter 34

  The blonde’s expression gave Eve a whole new insight into the many levels of shock. She’d obviously gone down the rabbit hole along with Eve, her frozen face near catatonic.

  “It’s . . . fuck. Evesse, it really is you.”

  That cinched it. And it was sad that Eve’s mind had actually been holding on to a little bit of doubt. Just a dash of hope. After all, the girl she’d known years ago had suffered enough with her past and her split personality disorder, and—

  But, shit. That made perfect sense, didn’t it? Who better to carry the powers of Suffering than her?

  “He told me you’d come.” Makayla literally shook herself out of her daze and moved closer. “He told me you would protect me. The . . . things that control him, they want to force me to go with them.”

  The things that control him? Was she talking about the Aviraji? Well, of course they would want her. The power of Suffering under their command? It would be like handing a kid a grenade launcher and setting them loose.

  An image of Nylicia came to mind.

  Fudge. That’s exactly what Eve was about to do by bringing Makayla and her powers into the fold. But they needed as much ammo on their side as they could get. There was also no way Evesse wasn’t going to protect her old friend. Regardless of how much time had passed.

  “Zen?” She couldn’t believe that, after what had occurred almost a month and a half ago, she was going to do this. “Don’t punish Enteax.” There was a flash of that vortex replaying in her mind as she said it.

  The relieved look in Makayla’s eyes almost made up for it.

  Zeniel didn’t look too gleeful about it, but he nodded. The shimmer of a Gnetica pulsing to life filled the sky around the rooftop. It settled into place in a sphere before blending into everything around them, becoming invisible.

  Eve willed her own energy to merge with Zen’s inside the shield, strengthening it. She turned to stare out at the streets below, just in time to see six huge wolves jumping into the chaos. Three were dark brown, one was navy blue with very familiar cuffs around its front legs, and two were black.

  She recognized them by their auras. Cy, Zex, Keiros, Ianthen, Crius, and—

  No way.

  Even as her brain refused to believe it, her powers recognized who the last one was. She’d never met him, yet her instincts were flashing one word in bold red letters behind her eyes.

  Zen came up to a stop next to her. “Hades. He’s actually here.”

  Makayla did the same on the other side of Eve.

  “He’s considered a friend?” Eve needed to make sure. After all . . . Mavrak.

  “Even if he wasn’t . . .”

  She squinted, zooming in on the black wolf with its black sparkling eyes. The information download was instant and just as invasive as before. Details playing at breakneck speeds. There shouldn’t have been any way for her brain to catch all of that, but it did. The story played out behind a red lens, and in less than a second, she saw it all.

  Hades’ crimes, and what had been done to him because of Crius.

  The latter was worse than the former.

  “I don’t want to punish him, Eve. He’s been through enough.”

  Hearing the God of Vengeance say that was a revelation in and of itself. Looking away, she turned to Zen. “Don’t punish him. Everyone else is fair game.”

  Zen spared one last glance at her and Makayla, then disappeared, dematerializing faster than Eve could follow.

  Evesse shot Makayla a look. “Listen, when this is all over, I’m going to need to hear how you ended up here.”

  Makayla’s lips twisted into a wry smirk. “Yeah, I know. Me, too.”

  A portal spiraled open to their left, three blocks down, and a wave of ceFtuts rushed out, followed by seven-foot tall hulking beings with dead beige skin that somewhat resembled the frankenmutts. No mouths. Just red slits for eyes. They were almost as wide as they were tall. Their heads, hands, and feet were disproportionately large.

  Then they started running, heading for she could only guess where. The Sesengts, she finally realized. There were almost a thousand of them, maybe more, all wearing the same armor Xreak had been wearing. Spread out all over the battle, they took on ceFtuts and other beings that resembled Enteax and Lisrn. The tall-as-fuck monsters ran so fast, they sliced up the concrete beneath them, their bodies a blur that cut through the air so hard Evesse’s ears picked up on it.

  One Sesengt almost got run over. A female. She jumped into the air, her long purple hair flowing behind her. The creature managed to grab her and the sound of her body and armor being crushed seemed to echo above the sounds of battle.

  “Wait here!” Eve screamed at Makayla, frantic to get down there. “Don’t fucking leave this Gnetica!”

  “I got it! Just go!”

  Eve didn’t need to be told twice. She jumped off the rooftop, and broke her molecules apart, moving faster than she’d ever moved before. A blink of an eye later, she was crouched on the shoulders of that thing, materializing two swords and sliding both into its head.

  It dropped the female guardian it had been holding, its back arching into a deep C and its wide hands coming at her. Eve pushed her boots into its shoulders, pulled back on the blades, and dangled her upper body out of reach. The fact that the drag helped her swords slice through half of the creature’s head was just a nice bonus.

  Blood gushed as she jumped back down to the ground. Her combat boots hit the cement at the same time the large creature’s body did. Even with half its head sliced open, and its brains spilling out in a wet slushy mess, it flopped around, its hand grasping for her.

  A war cry sounded in Eve’s ears just as a large blade came down in an arc, slicing through the creature’s arm. It didn’t stop there, either. The blade glinted in the light, twirling rapidly and coming down on the monster’s neck. One slice, two. That neck was chopped up like a thick roll of sushi, until the head was disconnected and promptly kicked, like a football, out of sight.

  The purple-haired Sesengt turned and gave Eve a smile, her gray eyes crinkling at the corners. “You’re the new Goddess of Justice, right?”

  “Yeah,” Eve called out over the noise, watching as the female’s armor repaired itself, the cracks and dents in it disappearing.

  “Cool. I’m Seraphi. These nasty things are the Refluths. Killing them is super simple. Take the head off entirely and get it away from the body. Thanks by the way.” With that, she was gone, taking off and jumping into the air.

  Another Refluth came to a stop before Eve, blasting her with air in the face. Fucking hell. Huffing, she pushed her hair out of her face, and met that red-eyed stare head on.

  “What? You got a problem, you piece of shit?”

  Its nostrils flared. Too-big fingers flexed, curling into fists.

  Eve tilted her head, allowing her senses to expand. The play-by-play she got was just as nasty and wrong as she’d expected. And e
xactly what she needed to get her powers in gear. The creature slid one leg back, getting into position, looking like a bull ready to go. She didn’t give it a chance. She let loose her powers, condemning it.

  “You’re going to pay. You’re going to die.”

  Her swords sliced up into the air, ready to finish what her words had started.

  Black and red mist collided into the creature like a smoke bomb going off. The wraiths had been lying in wait inside it, and at the moment of contact, they began to shred.

  Zeniel.

  She flipped around, trying to find him, trying to see above the flying debris and smoke. He was nowhere to be seen, but when she turned back around, the Refluth was falling backward, its skin being ripped off by the wraiths, and the mist swirling around it like a typhoon.

  There was another one right behind it, running straight for her. She raised her sword, pointing at its head. “Die.”

  This time, when the mist hit, the wraiths sunk their shadowy claws into the creature’s back, and pulled so hard its legs went up in the air with the momentum. Its entire body was suspended in the air for a brief moment, its gigantic feet pointing toe-up toward the sky, before all eight-hundred pounds of it met the concrete with the kind of bang that shook whole buildings.

  Then the wraiths went happily to work, and Eve realized those fuckers were growing on her. Hell, anything that rushed to obey her commands happily deserved a pat on the head, at the very least.

  She dodged out of the way of a two-foot wide piece of asphalt that came gunning for her head. Looking for her mate in the middle of all that was probably a bad idea, but she couldn’t control it.

  One of the wolves landed lightly on its paws behind her. Large golden eyes stared at the Refluths being torn apart by the wraiths and—

  He popped out of his wolf-form, naked as the day he was fucking born. Evesse’s mouth fell wide open, her eyes getting a good gander at the fact that the male had tattoos in places she really didn’t want to know about, and that, obviously, all gods were way too well-endowed.