Shadow's Kiss: Blood, Lust and Magic

by Adria Eustis

  “Go on, do it,” he said, spitting out blood down his unkempt goatee. His brows crossed in anger.

  Nina studied the fresh looking scars on his face, one blackened eye, two missing teeth.

  “You got lucky, he said. “I'm better than you, you know that, they all know that.” He nodded at his watcher. Nina lifted the barrel to his forehead.

  “You're but dust in the wind.”

  Bang! Her shoulders jerked back with the force of the shot. She peered around quickly before scooping up their backpacks and jogging towards the cover of the forest. Nina crashed down under the trees, coughing up fumes from the fire. The warmth over there had made her realise how cold it was in the shade. A deep hatred for humanity lingered within her.

  Searching their bags, she found no more ammunition, but more water and an apple that she hastily ate. Their info-pads made her want to heave as they wouldn't change from the image of the king's mugshot. They had had multiple knifes of all shapes and sizes that she transferred to her own bag, hooking the sharpest one on a strap in her corset. She gained a torch and a golf-ball sized, clear, glass orb that seemed to have no purpose than to look pretty. But she took it anyway, perhaps it could be thrown as a distraction. Before heading away from the crime scene, she checked the scoreboard. 3/50 - too small a number, for such a huge deed. If only she could find 47 more people like those devils back there. Devils who's names it turned out were Devries and Xavier.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  ADMIRAL ADAM

  January, Year of the Pearl Acacia

  Admiral Adam, hoisted him self back up on the side of the sled. The huskies piercing blue eyes seemed to judge him.

  “Six years and you'd think I'd be used to walking on land by now. My sea legs were always better than my ice legs.”

  He dusted the snow from his parka, but only gathered more that stuck to his mittens like glue. They'd been walking for twelve days solid through the freezing temperatures of the unnamed lands in the south. One of his men was snow-blind and sat in the only sled they still had left after the frozen lake had cracked and the other six had been lost at the bottom of the black slush. Drained of energy, with no feeling left in his toes, the only one thing that kept him going was the photograph of his late-wife Melanie, that he kept wrapped in plastic in the pocket closest to his heart. As for the eight seaman that followed his lead, the only thing that kept them going were his promises that they'd be safe if they stayed with him and kept on the move at all times, that he knew, each one of their heads was wanted on a pike, by the king. But they were running fast out of reasons to keep living. Only one reason remained; find the someone whom Melanie had spoken of. At the end of the search was uncertainty, for that was as far as his mission went. Why he should find the someone, no one knew. And they were losing faith in the promise that Melanie wouldn't have sent them for no reason. And so hope to all the gods that the promise came through. Because trekking through no-man's land with only an ounce of certainty that the mission was worth his time, would most likely be the last mission they followed him on. Five years. Five damned to hell years and so far no luck in finding the kid. A kid? He wouldn't even be a kid anymore...

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  JANINA

  October, Year of the Pearl Acacia

  Nina rubbed her sore feet before putting her boots back on. She'd walked for hours and came across nobody. Whether that was good or bad she'd yet to decide. She'd walked through the forest, noticing the shapes of the trees changing by the half hour. Never in her life had she seen so many trees, or spent so much time with nature. Now she appreciated the environment more than ever as she took up hiding for the night in a tight-fit cave created by massive, ancient tree roots. Wiping algae and moss from her skin, Nina breathed a sigh of relief to have finally found a suitable place for a bed. A week ago she would have laughed had someone asked her to sleep underneath a tree. And just the day before she had been terribly afraid of insects, but right now she'd have punched any encroaching spider straight in the face. Every molecule in her body ached. Crickets chirped away, oh what she wouldn't give to be a cricket right now. The days events plagued her thoughts, her hands didn't look like hers anymore – they were the hands of a real sinner now. But it was too late to take it all back. Skirting around the truth was easier. They'd have killed me. They'd have taken Eri's only hope away. They'd haven take my life away from me. My dreams and desires. And wasn't it weird, that her newest desire, could have been the one to take that desire away itself. But, she shook her head, lamented that thought. Some desires were wrong.

  She noticed her info-pad screen change, she had it propped up by her bag, angled so that it's light wouldn't show outside. A wolf? What the...

  The great beast snarled, sharp fangs glowed green on the night-vision imagery. It's large eyes struck fear into her heart. She'd not considered there'd be other dangers out here. It's prey fled through tall grass, barely visible in the darkness. Then the names appeared at the bottom of the screen. Zane #1, Nicoletti #23. Where was the second person? The wolf tore through the field like a fish through water. But the human struggled, arms flailing for balance, grabbing at whatever it could. Nina trembled for them, if only they had her rifle. But when the human came to a stop, cut off by the lake behind the prison, only then, as they stood in the same scene together, did she realise the incredible size of the creature. It approached slowly, one giant paw after the other, teeth gnashing together. She saw the runner's face close, a woman, the dread spread across her features was truly awful. She held a small knife out towards it. Closer, closer it came. She was on the edge of her tree-root seat. The woman whipped around and darted into the waters, water flew everywhere as she realised its sudden deepness and thrashed around it in. The bushy furred beast, stood for a while at edges, as if it were toying with its dinner. Then, it leapt forwards with speed, wrapping it's jaws ahead the human's head. She saw the flesh of her cheek rip open before they dipped underneath the water together. The reflection of the five moons on the surface swished and quivered, if it had of been a coloured picture, the water would no doubt be tainted red. For a moment she thought the girl had appeared, but looking closer she realised that was not the same human that had been dragged under to her death. The man whipped his long wet hair backwards, pounded his bare chest once with a fist and breezily swam towards the shore. “Zane Fiske, 13/20 - Nicoletti Cielson Martyred,” the text read, before the clip started again from the start. Nina pulled on her lip, this wasn't good. There was a shifter out there, a warrior shifter, a damned volunteering-for-this-hellhole wolf-man. Her only comfort was knowing that he was all the way back at the north of the island. Switching of the computer tablet Nina curled her body into a ball, shivering, she blocked out the images of her real sins and eventually drifted off to sleep.

  ~

  Early next morning, she allowed herself a few bites of crusty bread before picking up her rifle and heading off to war. At the edge of the forest she met a drop in the land. And from her vantage point her eyes wandered over the village below. Old and vast, there were tall rectangular buildings and short round ones, half of what could have been a church, and cobblestone roads that snaked throughout. Lichen and vines claimed mottled stone and a sickly looking canal stood between her and the village. It was an archaeological heaven down there, but alas it was out of bounds to such a thing. Her circle was still yellow, but that was hardly accurate and if there was anyone down there, which she was sure there would be as the place was huge with hundreds of places to hide, well she couldn't see them from here.

  Nervously she began to cross a crumbling bridge over the canal. Half way over and a heavy boom from a-far made her drop to her knees and hide behind the wall. Sounded like a grenade. This was a bad idea. She waited, everything was quiet again, only the sound of her footsteps. Nina decided herself a ninja as she sneakily had it to a building and checked inside with her rifle at the ready. Clear, she moved to the next one. Hardly believing that she was doing it at all. The
action movies that Rohn made her watch had become useful after all. Ears pricked, she watched every direction like a hawk as she moved. Passed blood soaked walls, around nature-reclaimed street lanterns, over piles of smashed pottery, through skeletal buildings with nothing inside but unidentifiable rotten debris. Some of them had steps leading to upstairs that didn't exist anymore. It was on one flight of these stairs that she sat mesmerised over her info-pad.

  It was Astra. Astra versus Nix. She was at the beach, no doubt waiting for herself, Bridget and Opal to arrive. The sea wind was strong against the two of them, Nix's short yellow hair obscured her vision as she attempted to lob pebbles the size of her hand at Astra. The large pebbles exploded, shattering into tiny fragments as they collided with bolts of shooting stars from the white-haired witches palms. Her face was alight with joy as she fired off her astral magic, one hand at a time. Why she had to toy with the poor girl Nina couldn't understand. With the expression of a roaring grunt, Nix tore her entire body towards Astra – arms outstretched, as if to push her down, the frustration on her face was unreal. She almost managed to collide with Astra, but at the last second, a missile of glittering violet light hit her dead on in the chest. Nix's body was flung backwards, toes and fingers meeting half way through the air. Nina cringed as she watched her hit the rocky beach hard. Astra, huge smooth round rock in hand, stood above Nix, flashed her pearly teeth at the semi-conscious girl. Nina looked away, she knew what was coming next. Astra had 4 points now. She must have scored one whilst Nina slept. She did her usual checks, Bridget, Opal and Lasiah must be very good at hiding, they were all still on no points. The gorgeous yet creepy Cain had strangely only amassed that one point. Obviously getting unlucky with finding any victims to take out his cruel brutality on. It still bothered her that he hadn't take a shot at her back at the stream. People seemed to like playing with their prey in all kinds of different ways.

  A loud, rippling sound pierced the silence, causing her to jump. Nina stepped off the heigh stone staircase, with a thud onto the floor, she backed up against the window, a small round hole. Another shot rang out, closer this time. Sounded like a hand-gun, but no other sound followed. No screams, no yells, nothing. Her pulse raced, palms sweat around her rifle. She trembled, as another crack split the air and echoed around the ruins. Birds flapped their wings as they fled, then, silence again. She willed her breathing to quieten, she needed to get whoever it was by surprise, it was the only way. A minute passed, but seemed like an hour, she peeked through the window, but her only view was the close-up of the next building. Damn. The doorway had a better angle. She crept over, there was no door, just a big arched hole. Flat on the ground she used the scope of her rifle to see out far. Not a person in sight. Maybe he'd gone. Maybe he'd shot himself? Three times? Perhaps it was three suicides. Nina was about to retrieve her info-pad from the top of the stairs where she'd dropped it when... Click! Eyes wide in horror she craned her neck around to the window that she had been at just a minute ago. A gaunt looking guy in a dark brown rain-coat stood glancing at her through the opening, a sudden panic spread across his face. He'd just tried to shoot her, but by some miracle he was out of bullets. Nina rolled over on the floor, pointed her rifle at him and squeezed the trigger without a second to waste. Bang! She hit the wall, stone flew everywhere, and he had moved. She could hear him reloading, she struggled to her feet, nearly tripping over, head throbbing. Out the door she went, running to the side of the building hoping to catch him before he finished reloading. He was crouched in the alleyway, muttering to himself, “come on, come on.”

  Long dirty fingers fumbled with his small black hand-gun. The desperation in his brown eyes, made her hesitate to fire. Rifle at her shoulder she aimed at close range, “stop!” She said. Mixed emotions buzzed through her, she didn't want to, but she had to, it was him or her. Be quick, be quick, someone else might be here. Don't get caught with your back to danger. She looked around quickly, then back to the rain-coat. He had both hands in the air, stumbled over his words, “please don't kill me, let me leave, I won't come back.”

  “Who were you shooting at before?” She asked, with urgency in her tone.

  “The birds, the birds, I was hungry, please.” He put his hands together, lowered his head.

  “You tried to shoot me. Why shouldn't I shoot you?”

  He had no answer, only sobbed and stared at the ground. The noise of rubble being disturbed came from somewhere to her left. He was probably not alone. Startled, she pulled the trigger. Click, click, click, click. Her heart lunged into her stomach, she lost it, she dropped the empty rifle and fled to her right. Running, jumping over walls and bushes, she gasped for air. Only seconds after taking off, the rain-coat had fired a shot at her, it tore past her and sent shards of bark flying out from a tree. Every shot that came, she flinched and then mentally celebrated his miss. She took a turn around a corner, weaving in and out of derelict structures. Thoughts of everything she was about to lose ran through her mind, Eri, Rohn, her jewellery store, falling in love, getting married, seeing the world, Cain. No, not thinking about Cain, seeing Cain. There he was ahead of her, at the end of the long corridor between two houses. She turned around to run back, but rain-coat appeared, arm outstretched with his hand-gun. Sandwiched between them, with nowhere to go. She couldn't believe that a split second decision of either turning that left or that right had brought about her end. Nina dropped to her knees, exhausted, mouth dry, she looked up at Cain. His features smouldered in the ray of sunlight that hit him from one side. He appeared unarmed, standing calmly like a statue, eyes fixed above her head at the guy behind her. Crack! He fired. Her eyes bolted closed. Good-bye cruel world. She felt no pain, nothing.

  “Ah! I can't see!” The rain-coat yelled. She turned to look, his hands were grasping at his face, he flopped against the wall. Then without looking he pointed his weapon at her again, circling it around in the air as if trying to decide where she might be. She collapsed flat in the dirt. Through crunching thuds, it sounded as though Cain was sprinting across the gravel towards her. A shadow past over her, it all happened so fast. Cain's arm drew back, he drove his fist into the rain-coat's nose. Then seized the back of his head and forced his hooded head into the wall with a splitting crack. She spat out dirt, thought about taking off whilst they were distracted, but something inside told her to stay. Perhaps stupidity, or that this was the second time he had saved her life – if, just if, he didn't turn around and do her in next. They fought for a while, but it seemed the strength was one sided. Rain-coat muttered again and again that he couldn't see, “I'm blinded, my eyes, my eyes!” He cried, as he fought madly to point his weapon at his attacker. Cain held him against the wall with one hand gripping his neck, his other hand detained his wrist. Forcing it to aim the gun to the ground. Cain brought his knee up, smacking it into the guys ribs. Again and again. Finally he dropped the handgun into the dirt. Cain elbowed him in the face, knocking him over into a heap, scooped up the weapon and without hesitation fired point-black into his heart. Rain-coat's body gave one last bounce before coming to a still.

  Still catching her breath from the chase, Nina scraped her boots against the gravel, trying to stand. She half expected the gun pointed at her when she finally got to her feet. Instead, he just lingered there, arms by his sides, that alluring look of mystery across his stunning face. Dusting herself down and checking for gun-shot wounds, she allowed herself an eye-full. Why not, probably the last time she'd see a hot guy up close in person. Nina didn't think a man could look good in leather pants, but he sure made her suck back her drool. Fingerless gloves, covered his large hands, she wanted them all over her. He wore a v-neck white t-shirt, sprayed with mucky water, that tightly caressed his athletic body. In the gentle breeze his dark waves dances against his pale forehead. The look he gave her was unreadable, somewhere between dreamy fantasizing and a contemptuous “I hate everything”, with a lashing of lustful agony thrown in. She shot him back a sombre “please don't kill me,” l
ook as she awaited her fate. It was still sinking in that she'd survived until now, she thanked the gods that he was a very bad shot and had missed her every time.

  The staring competition ending and she seemed to have won, but the silence was killing her. Cain pulled the gun apart, glared down the chamber, and tossed it to the side.

  “Its out,” he said.

  “Guess you'll have to beat me to death,” she replied.

  He ignored her, got down on one knee and patted down the rain-coat, delving his hands into the dead man's pockets.

  “Nothing good here,” Cain said, standing up, “let's go.”

  “Let's go?”

  “Yes. Let's go, we made a lot of noise, we need to move.” Cain started down the alley.

  “Aren't you forgetting something?” She asked.

  He turned back to her and stopped walking, full lips straight, not even offering a hint of his thoughts. Cain looked around the floor of the narrow alleyway.

  “Your easy point?” Nina added.

  “Its not points that I'm after. Stay here or come with me, I'd prefer you came, you're routes are sightly off my course.” His voice, deep and smooth, charming her like a snake in a basket.

  Nina furrowed her brows, what the hell was he speaking in riddles for? He started off towards the way that they'd came, she stayed still as she watched him leave. Even his walk was beautiful. Ever since she had first laid eyes on him, on the TV set at the Vice's mansion, she'd be intrigued to get to the bottom of him. That she couldn't deny, nor could she deny that she stood a much better chance of surviving with him at her side. She hurried after him, butterflies flapping away madly within her.

  “I left my backpack somewhere,” she said, trying to think which turns she took, there'd been so many it was going to be hard to trace her way back.