This time, she didn't waste any time letting her power out slowly. She pushed with everything she had from the very start, imagining her reservoir emptying out, grabbing the pillar with giant hands and lifting.
She didn't know if the imagining helped, or if it was just to all-or-nothing attack. Hell, it was probably just the fact that the pillar was already cracked.
But it worked.
The 'scraper groaned overhead, dust filling the room in a blinding cloud, until finally...
Until finally, with a sound like a hundred dying gargants, the massive structure toppled to its side, crashing into the street with a dull boom that rattled her bones and shattered some teeth.
Laura's order was complete. The screamers were now separated from the vampires.
Chapter 33: REAGUNT
ADAM
Kelly was bleeding, but it took Adam a second to realize it wasn't from an attack. She was scratching violently at the device on her left arm, slashing the skin around it into ribbons and getting blood everywhere. She didn't seem to notice. She was just staring off into space without blinking.
Suddenly, the entire street shook as a massive boom resounded from farther up ahead, where most of the fighting was. Adam couldn't really tell what was going on, even with the moonlight. There was a lot of dust in that area, billowing around too much to see.
Not his problem right now. They needed to cover the 'sarians. The angels were doing a lot of damage, but using their light painted giant targets on their heads that even the screamers knew to take advantage of. Without Kat, they didn't have a sniper, which might be an insurmountable problem all by itself. Without Kelly, Adam wasn't sure they'd even be able to contribute.
“Drakela Sanguinas,” he said as firmly as he could. “Wake up, Corporal. We've got work to do.”
She didn't react. She just kept scratching mindlessly.
This was going to become a problem sooner rather than later. It was a miracle she hadn't hit bone yet. Adam tried to grab her hand to stop her, but she just swatted him away, flicking blood in his face.
Okay. New plan. It would either snap her out of her little trance or get rid of dead weight. Either way, they'd be able to continue.
Adam pulled out his pistol, placed the muzzle against her forehead, and pulled the trigger.
She moved fast. So fast he couldn't even see her move. She could give Akane a run for her money. Before his finger even finished pulling back the trigger, she was already moving out of the line of fire. By the time the bullet exited the chamber and the gunshot echoed around, she was standing next to him, her bloody right hand around his throat. She didn't squeeze, but he could feel her claws hovering millimeters above his skin.
“Hello, corporal,” Adam said calmly. He ignored the wet feeling as a few drops of blood ran down his shirt, when his bouncing throat cut itself on one of her claws. “Ready to get to work?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Did you know I would dodge?”
“Of course,” he lied smoothly. Though it was only a half lie, really. He did think she would probably dodge, he just didn't really care either way. This wasn't the night for mercy and sentiment. “We need your head in the game.” He nodded at her arm. “And we should probably bandage that up before doing anything else.”
“The hydra will clot the blood automatically,” she said, distracted.
Sax strode up from wherever he had been hiding—probably helping the medics with the wounded. “No, Kelly, it won't. There's no active hydra in your system any more. Remember?”
Kelly blinked very, very slowly, before nodding firmly. “Right. Of course, you're right. Get me patched up. We have a battle to fight.”
Adam followed both of them to one of the 'sarian ambulances, where George was waiting patiently. To Adam's surprise, he could see tear tracks in the dust on his cheeks. He was taking Kat's turning a little harder than Adam had expected, but otherwise seemed okay. He nodded as they approached, and called over a medic.
The young doctor whistled. “You did a number on yourself there.” He peered closely at Kelly's arm. “Almost managed to rip the needles right out. Now that would have been the cherry to top off the little disaster, eh?”
She didn't react.
He sighed. “Fine, fine. One bandage, coming up.” He pulled a roll of gauze from a nearby box. It looked tinted red in the multicolored light of the moon and the ambulances, but Adam wasn't sure if that was his imagination or not.
Sax saw Adam's look and stepped up next to him. “Bloodmaker bandages. They're infused with an engineered bio-solution for speeding up blood clotting and flesh repair.”
“Sounds useful,” Adam said. A thought occurred to him. “Could I use it? Since I'm a clay?”
Sax nodded. “Sure. The solution is created by the toy maker, but it uses entirely different principals to heal. Even changelings can use it without getting into trouble. Normal people—like you and me—will heal about three times as fast, and it will last a day or two.”
“And people who aren't normal?”
“Kelly was specifically augmented to account for things like this—probably Alex too, but I'm not sure. She'll get a much bigger boost out of the bandage, but it will burn out in a few minutes.”
Adam nodded. Made sense.
Kelly let the doctor wrap the bandage tightly around her wound without a word, all the while eyeing Adam warily.
Okay, maybe shooting her wasn't the best of ideas in hindsight. Or maybe he should have just come up with a better lie. Either way, it was too late now.
“What's the plan?” George asked as he hefted his Minigun. His perpetual grin was still gone, but Adam had a feeling it would be back eventually. He was a tough one.
Kelly finally looked away from Adam, back towards the fighting, or more specifically at the slowly-settling cloud of dust.
“A skyscraper fell,” she said calmly. “Probably Medina's doing. We need to head back there and provide support. Hopefully the enemy forces will be split, and we'll be able to help turn the tide.”
Adam extended his hand, indicating the street before us. “Lead the way.”
She frowned at him, but did as he suggested, George and Jarasax just a few steps behind. Adam hefted his own Caedes and followed as well.
While the Necessarian redoubt was still nominally intact, there were large holes here and there from where the Nosferatu or screamers had gotten too close and started ripping into the wall. The soldiers had managed to push the enemy back away from the barricade, which meant that those same holes acted as pretty good sniping positions.
Adam's Athena was the only thing with a scope. Even though it wasn't exactly a full sniper rifle, it would work well enough. Their targets were only about a hundred yards in front of them, probably less, so even though the others just had iron sights, they wouldn't have too much trouble aiming. The bigger problem was hitting their allies.
Kelly didn't have a scope, but she did have a pair of binoculars she was using to look at the battle. She lowered them and readied her rifle—a Saint Euphemia, if Adam remembered correctly. The 'sarian Saints were pretty popular weapons.
“They seem to have taken care of the screamers,” she said. “There are just some of the crazier ferrets left. Take out the big ones, and the rest will fall into line.”
“Are those Nobles there?” George asked with a grunt. He hefted something heavy-sounding, but Adam wasn't looking at him. “I still owe Cinder for Hathsin.”
“No,” Kelly said. She glanced at him, and smiled a little. “You probably won't be needing that.”
Adam glanced back as well, and was surprised to find the giant toting Kat's sniper rifle. It was so huge that even in his massive hands it looked big, and Adam found himself wondering once again how she even lifted the thing. She had called it a Crisis 04111970, from BOB's Crisis line. More commonly known as the Apollo Crisis. Fitting, all things considered.
“Keep it handy,” Adam said. “We might need it.”
Jarasax sn
orted. “That's an anti-tank rifle. It's overkill even for most warlords. I really don't think we'll need it.”
Adam raised an eyebrow. He still didn't know much about strategy and tactics and so on, but he was learning, and he knew enough to know that there weren't any tanks in Domina. You didn't field that kind of armor in a city—they just don't have the mobility to do anything useful. “Why the hell did she even have one, then?” He shook his head. “No, scratch that, why would BOB even make something like that?”
Jarasax shrugged as he hefted his own weapon, a sleek rifle Adam didn't know the name of. “They're good for other things. Bunker busting, gargant killing, that kind of thing. Not to mention they're one of the few weapons that can reliably one-shot a warlord.”
“Besides, tanks do show up here every once in a while,” Kelly said without turning from the battle. “They have some uses in urban environments.”
George grunted. “Why are we talking about this? Let's shoot something already.”
Adam eyed him. He was in a bit of a mood tonight, though Adam supposed he could be excused due to Kat's turning. Adam hadn't thought they were close, but who knew.
Whatever. He had a point. Adam steadied his rifle on the edge of one of the holes, aimed carefully through the sights, and fired. He was still getting used to the kickback, but he managed to keep it from bucking out of his hands this time.
A small Nosferatu covered in a black carapace—but otherwise seemingly unaugmented—flinched as a small chunk of his head exploded. He wavered on his feet for a moment, and likely would have fallen soon.
But Adam had enough experience with the city now to know better than to ever assume someone was dead. He shot twice more in quick succession, popping the vampire's skull like a tomato. Not even a warlord would be able to survive that, and he proved it by crumpling to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
“They're coming,” Kelly noted dispassionately, as a cluster of vampires split off in their direction. “Don't worry about head shots Just focus on hitting them.” She fired off a short burst from her boxy weapon, and one fell. “Focus on the legs, if you can.”
They all nodded, and braced for the incoming wave.
Chapter 34: PERSEQUEMINI
AKANE
Akane slashed quickly, bisecting the bat cleanly. It burst into a cloud of black smoke, which quickly coalesced into two halves of a young Nosferatu, cut diagonally from shoulder to opposite hip. Underneath the claws and fangs and nighteyes, she was surprised to find an ordinary Asian girl, only a bit older than her.
Not much different from her sisters.
She shook her head to clear away the distracting thoughts. Now was not the time to relive those memories. Kat was gaining ground even as she stood here brooding. She had to catch her before she found victims. She sped forward, her power at about half strength, trying to make up for lost time.
Akane could see her ahead, barely. Kat's tawny coat wasn't the best camouflage for a moonlit night, but she made up for it by turning into a bat every few minutes. Every time she did that, Akane almost lost her.
Where was she going? They were heading away from the battle, past locked and gated shops and apartments. The people here knew better than to poke their noses into a warzone, so at least Akane didn't have to worry about even more screamers yet.
What was Kat thinking?
And she was thinking. There were two types of screamers Laura had identified: The more common “aggressive” types, which were dumb as dirt, and the rarer “defensive” screamers, which seemed at least as intelligent as before their infection.
Kat was obviously of the defensive variety, based solely on the fact that hadn't just turned around and tried to kill Akane. But then that meant she had a plan. Akane just had to figure out what it was.
Kat dodged around a corner, and Akane hurried to catch up. She needn't have bothered. By the time she rounded the corner, the street in front of her was completely empty.
Musashi's sword, this was an annoying hunt. At least with monsters I knew what they were looking for, so she could predict them better.
Akane stalked forward. She hadn't lost her entirely. She could still hear her screaming with that weird sixth sense all the Paladins had, but it wasn't accurate enough to pinpoint her location.
“Hey.”
Akane stopped dead at the sound of the soft, feminine voice.
Unlike the screaming, this was easy to find the source of. To her left, from the bottom floor of the building, just a few doors from the corner. A large horizontal metal grate covered the door and windows, an anti-theft measure that proved equally adept at deterring wandering murderers and zombies.
“You're not a ferret,” the voice said. It was a female voice with an accent Akane couldn't quite identify. It wasn't Romanian though, and she didn't sound like her mouth was overstuffed with teeth, so the chances of her being a Nosferatu were low. But still, Akane couldn't take any chances. She nodded politely in her direction and headed forward again.
“Wait!” she hissed. “You're chasing that fel screamer, right? We can help!”
Akane stopped and glared suspiciously at the door. “Why?”
“Trade for information. C'mon, get in here.” She opened the door wider and unbolted the grate.
Akane grimaced and then slipped inside the dark building. She knew from experience that if someone offered you help on a hunt it was always best to at least hear them out, but usually Derek did that part.
Once inside, it took her a second to find the person she had been speaking to, hidden behind the door. As the woman stepped—or rather, slithered—out of the shadows, the first thing Akane noticed was that her legs had been fused into long, sinuous tail, which was clearly strong enough to hold her upright. An ophidian? In vampire territory, no less? Odd.
But on second glance, Akane realized she was mistaken. Her horns and red skin marked her as a marilith, not an ophidian. That was pretty odd all on its own. Mariliths weren't all that rare, but ones who got the full package definitely were. And the Nosferatu were not exactly friendly to outsiders, so it was strange to see anyone flaunting their toys so blatantly.
As she locked the grate and door behind them, Akane noticed a few other people scattered around the room, lit by dim light coming from one of the doorways. Two were normal demons, but one was covered in fur, had a long and powerful tail, and had the face of a goat, with the horns to match.
First a marilith, and now a bulezau? Akane hadn't seen one of those in person since Shendilavri.
“This is the demon embassy to the Nosferatu,” the marilith said as she slithered over to the others. On second glance, Akane could see the demon flag hanging on the wall. It was probably outside, too. “We boarded up immediately once the fighting started. Is it really screamers out there?”
Too many people. “Yes.”
The woman frowned. “Are we safe here? I don't even know what their powers are. I can't find a way out without more information.”
The main draw of the marilith subculture was not the package, but the environment they had created—that was, the culture itself. They got accused of being armchair tacticians a lot, but most of them were actually extremely cunning strategists. It wasn't at all uncommon to find one of them hired to help another subculture with one of their fights. They tried to stay out of politics, but even maintaining neutrality as a mercenary was difficult. Mostly, they helped defend against the fey.
The bulezau shook his head. “Superpowers... I still can't believe it. What's next? The angels will grow wings and open the gates to Heaven?”
“The aves are working on wings,” one of the other demons said. “And depending on your definition of Heaven—”
“That's not what I meant and you know it.”
“Safe,” Akane cut in before they had a chance to really start sniping at each other. “...probably.” She indicated the door she had just entered through. “Keep locked.” She blushed when she noticed they were all staring. “A
h... and the fel?”
The marilith clapped her hands. “Right, of course. It's not much, but we do have some nets that should prove useful. Sobber is a birdcatcher.” She nodded at the bulezau. “He'll go grab one.”
As the goat-demon growled left, the man he had been arguing with seemed to notice Akane's confusion. “His name is Song of Blood, but he hates it—for obvious reasons. Call him Seth.”
“Well, that's what happens when your parents are chem-head vampires,” Seth said as he returned from the next room, with a folded net in his arms. It was pretty big, but the holes were small enough that a bat shouldn't be able to slip out. “They come up with really weird names and think they're a good idea.”
Akane blinked. The toy maker was invented fifteen years ago. The vampires, the first culture, rose about six months later. Chems were a bit harder to pin down, but even if they threw that out completely, that would mean this bulezau was less than fifteen years old.
He could easily pass for thirty.
That was one of the side effects of the toy maker. It was hard to pin down someone's age when they could change it on a whim.
Regardless, Akane took the net with a grateful nod. She still had to find Kat, but once she did at least she'd be able to catch her.
Although it increased the awkwardness more than a tad, Akane left as quickly as she could, with the marilith locking the gate again behind her. They had clearly wanted to wring her for more information, but that was hardly her strong suit. She made a mental note to tell Laura about them later. She could decide what they should know.
Akane closed her eyes, took a deep breath of the cold night air, and concentrated. The screaming was... ahead, above and to the left.
She snapped her eyes back open. As she suspected, the screaming was coming from a building, a 'scraper some forty or fifty stories tall. Hopefully it was an empty one, but she doubted it. This area wasn't exactly residential, but it definitely wasn't abandoned either.
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