Darkness Comes This Way

by Pixie Lynn Whitfield

  When the attack began, Draven holstered his gun and smiled darkly. The silver aura glowed brighter around him and he could feel the power drawing up from his center. He would likely be fighting without his weapons as well.

  “So cold…” a Rogue barely whispered, shivering and choking, as Draven held him by the throat high in the air above him.

  “…Your eyes…”

  Draven continued to watch in silence until the Rogue in his hand was frozen. Then with a loud Snap! his head broke away from his shoulders and fell, shattering into tiny shards of ice on the concrete floor at his feet.

  It had all seemed to have happened in slow motion, but everything was blurring from happening in only a matter of seconds.

  When Draven turned after dropping the frozen body of the Rogue, he was met with two more attacking his back. He couldn’t react in time to get a grip on either one, or reach for his holster, as they both charged and body slammed him into the wall. Seconds later, gunshots fired and the two in front of him fell from wounds to their heads. He looked up and almost sighed in relief.

  “Didn’t think I would completely abandon you in here, now did you, Guardian?” Thomas asked with a smirk before he joined the fight.

  ***********

  Zarah’s consciousness was clouded. She was in and out of a constant stupor, noting the silver restraints still bound on her wrists to keep her in place.

  She tried hard to remember the small details. Why she was there? What had happened?

  Her body shook from the poison dwelling in her bloodstream. A sharp pain throbbed in her neck. And when she regained her full sense of awareness, the memories all came rushing back to her.

  The Rogue had attacked her, though not viciously. It was almost as if he tried to be tender. Surely not? When her screams had finally subsided from the surprise, she saw through his eyes, having seen all the darkness that resided through him. It made her shudder in fear. She’d realized who he was. He’d been the one to change Thomas rabid. She didn’t get the time to discuss that.

  Then he came. The Commander.

  “Ethan!” a low growl sounded from somewhere in the room. Before she could blink to focus on the figure floating toward them, the Rogue was ripped away from her and thrown across the room where she heard a lot of crashing.

  “You idiot!” he boomed.

  “I strictly forbade anyone from touching her until I arrived!”

  Zarah watched through drooping eyes, her head bobbing to the side as she continued to lose blood and fight the poison in her system. The Commander, cloaked again as before, was standing above her with his back facing her. She heard Ethan let out a dark chuckle and saw that he lay in a pile of rubble where he’d been thrown against the far wall. Blood dribbled from his mouth onto his chin. Some of it had been hers.

  “Do you really think that you’re the one who’s going to bring this world to its knees? You’re too old. They need someone fresh. Besides, I might want a queen. And she’s quite lovely on the eyes. Tasty, too.”

  Her stomach churned. She had no idea what was going on, but her insides felt ready to expel at any moment.

  Ethan stood from the rubble and swayed, holding his head in his hands.

  “Whoa.”

  He began to shake. Clutching tightly at his temple and squeezing his eyes shut, Ethan stumbled along the wall and tried to remain steady on his feet. The air in the room was feeling electric and from somewhere deep within her, something swelled with power. A fuse was waiting to be ignited, but Zarah still didn’t understand what exactly was happening.

  She watched him as best as she could, her eyesight going hazy but still there enough to see him. Swallowing, she thought briefly that at one time, Ethan would have been handsome before going Rogue. He was tall with curly blonde hair and leanly muscled. Then he lifted his head while still holding it, frowning as if he had nothing left but an exhausting headache, and she saw his eyes.

  They were no longer red.

  They were silver.

  The Commander growled and charged him. Zarah started to shout. She wanted to know what happened. All she knew was that whatever it was, it was because he had fed from her. Before she went unconscious, she saw them fighting—yelling at each other mostly about power and standings and herself, and then she heard a helicopter somewhere in the distance. Fear sparked in her chest. Humans were going to know. The world was going to change.

  She could hear fighting somewhere outside, but it couldn’t be. Her mind was confused, fuzzy. Zarah thought maybe she was just hearing things. Maybe she was just imagining the helicopter, too. She tried to hope.

  Then the hood of The Commander’s cloak fell and she gasped.

  “Nathanial!” she breathed before the blackness took her.

  After the memories flooded her when she regained her consciousness, she looked around, hoping against hope that it hadn’t been Nathanial she’d seen as her enemy. But it dimmed when she saw him standing at the far end of the room near a table. Ethan was gone. She didn’t know if Nathanial had killed him, or if he had just simply left. At that moment, she didn’t care. She only thought of the situation she was in and the man that was in the room with her then.

  “You were like a father to me. How could you betray me like this?” she croaked, hating the weakness that overtook her as tears sprang to her eyes.

  Nathanial turned to face her with a rueful smile.

  “No, Zarah, I was like a father to you so you would trust me. So that I could betray you now. It’s time for our species to rise up in this world. Humans are inferior to us, and you are a special gift to our kind. Rogues are like cockroaches. You can help change them, all the while we can gain our rightful place in the world. A new species entirely sounds rather enticing.”

  She swallowed hard.

  “Ethan said it wasn’t about a cure.”

  “Not entirely, no. It’s a process during the change of creating the new species from your blood, though, so… Two for the price of one, I guess you can say.”

  Zarah sucked in a sharp breath.

  “I’ve lived at The Compound all this time. Why didn’t you just make your move then?” she suddenly snapped, angry.

  “Because I had to be sure that you were going to develop any of the Fallen traits. Once I was sure, that’s when I began to make my plans. I started with Thomas, my dear. The ambush on you and him that night he was turned Rogue. That was my doing. It was Ethan who turned your brother and he was already intelligent because I stole a vial of your brother’s blood from the hospital wing and fed it to him.”

  When her eyes widened in surprise, he continued in a low growl, stepping closer to her.

  “You see, Zarah, even Thomas had some traits passed onto him from your filthy Fallen mother. His body could fight the Rogue virus hard, but not strong enough to cure. He would still be lost to the bloodlust—having the same red eyes, same malicious need to attack and drain humans—but he would be better controlled and continue to keep his mind intact. I noticed this after viewing his blood samples several times, interacting it with Rogue blood samples, until I finally fed Ethan with his blood and he went intelligent just as I’d expected. I wanted to test you, but there was only one way I wanted to test you. So I set up the ambush, and waited patiently for Thomas to seek you out and turn you himself. Everything happened exactly as I’d expected.”

  Zarah could feel her building fury and hurt. He did it. He caused it all. Thomas being Rogue, his turning her…the loss of that human group she brutally murdered and is haunted by in her dreams. All. Of. It.

  She tried to pump her fists and to pull at the restraints but her arms were heavy and she was tired.

  “How could you?” she asked, out of breath. He was approaching her with something in his hand and she was getting dizzy again.

  “Simple. I hate Fallens and I hate humans. Create a new species with your kind of power and we could rule them all.”

  “Or they will hunt us all down like a game. You don’t think abou
t shit, Nathanial,” she hissed.

  He didn’t respond. His eyes were too crazed as he knelt down in front of her. She saw what was in his hand then and tried to back away, only striking wall.

  He had a needle.

  Gripping her arm roughly, he brought it forward and found her vein at the crook of her elbow. With a yelp, she felt the needle glide in and then saw blood flow into the vial behind it. He looked into her eyes and smirked.

  Twenty-Seven

  Nathanial had five small glass vials of Zarah’s blood before he stopped. Her stomach clenched again. He was harvesting her blood to use and it made her nauseous. She rolled her head back against the wall in exhaustion.

  Setting the vials down on the table, he came back to her and patted her head. She winced and shrank away from his touch, disgusted.

  “I heard you fed Draven. I’ll just have to dispose of him later. He’s too attached now. I should have never forced that Bonding Pact, I guess. That was a mistake on my part. I thought I could have him keep an eye on you without worrying about any kind of affection.”

  “There’s not any affection there.” She heard the doubt in her own voice. He laughed loudly and shook his head.

  “I’m not that stupid.”

  Her emotions peaked thinking of him. She wondered briefly if he was alright. He had been caught in that fire at The Compound just before Ethan had drugged her and taken her away. Swallowing nervously, she watched Nathanial in silence as he glided around the room, playing with her vials of blood, no longer paying attention to her.

  “And me? What are you going to do with me now that you have what you want?” she wondered out loud after an awkward pause. Pain snaked through her body each time she talked, and her head spun wildly, but she continued to fight to stay awake, afraid that if she fell into unconsciousness one more time she may not wake again.

  He turned slightly, staring over his shoulder. No emotion showed on his face.

  “You will die in the morning sun or given over to the humans. Whichever comes first.” Then he shrugged.

  She raised her head and that’s when she noticed the small window at the top of the back wall. It wasn’t big, not enough to have fit a body, but big enough to let in the outside light. At her angle, it would let in just the right amount of sunlight to hit and burn her to a slow death. She started to struggle against the restraints again.

  “It’s no use to fight. The drugs and silver poison in your system have made you too weak,” he sneered.

  “You can’t even bring out your Elemental power, I made sure of that.”

  With that, he turned back to what he was doing at the table. She saw him take a vial, open it, and drink it down as her tired eyes widened in horror. Nathanial couldn’t get a power. He wouldn’t control it.

  Through the chaos of her mind, she heard everything again. There was definitely fighting outside somewhere. Shouting. Shooting.

  She heard him somewhere close by the closed door of the room she was in. Draven’s voice. He shouted something intangible on the other side of the wall. It sounded distant, faint, but it was definitely him. She sucked in a sharp breath. Her hand slapped the wall in a weak attempt to pull herself up.

  Strange warmth blossomed in her chest. Determination gave her an unexplainable strength, and before she could react, the silver cuffs broke silently from her wrists. Nathanial hadn’t noticed. He was too busy frowning in confusion at the empty vial in his hands.

  “Nothing’s happening.” He mumbled out loud to himself, still ignoring her, and then she knew. In order for a change to take place, one would have to feed directly from her or another Elemental. Not a tainted glass vial that had been diluted with air pollutants or metal.

  She smiled slyly at her freedom and Nathanial’s ignorance, approaching him with the grace of a cat. She could feel her power, immense and flowing in waves over her body. Her fangs extended in excitement.

  She tapped his shoulder and he spun wildly. When seeing her he was dumbfounded, unable to find his words. She gave him no time to react, reaching out in blinding speed without a word, to grip him by his throat.

  “Of course it won’t work. You’re not worthy,” she seethed with clenched teeth. She saw that her body glowed again, this time a much brighter violet. She almost laughed in spite of everything when seeing the aura. It reminded her of neon. He choked on whatever response he tried to give.

  She smiled, evil yet beautiful, and then tossed him through the door with such an extreme force it burst apart from the hinges and frame, sending chunks of wall plaster and twisted metal soaring out with him, before following his flying body out of the room.

  **********

  Draven was in the midst of fighting, with Thomas nearby, when his attention was brought to the back of the bay after a large crash came tumbling through the door of the room where he knew Zarah was. A scream as a flying body landed through the rubble of concrete and steel echoed around them.

  And then there she was.

  Zarah stood in the doorway with a vicious smile curving her lips. A bright violet aura surrounded her body, and her eyes glowed vividly. He saw the faint cut on her cheek and could sense not only the silver poisoning in her system, but the intense power that fought around it through her emotions.

  He looked down at the body in the rubble and his own enraged emotions boiled over upon seeing who The Commander had been. Nathanial. A low rumble erupted from his chest as he thought of the betrayal. A snarl escaped between his teeth and his lip curled up in loathing.

  Zarah hadn’t seen Draven. She only had her focus on Nathanial as she stepped over the rubble toward him. He struggled to stand. With a simple wave of her hand, she used a magical force to lift him in the air, causing him to shout in alarm. Wind began to howl around them, kicking up dust and debris into a cyclone.

  Draven continued to fight through the attacking Rogues, using his own power and silver daggers as he slashed away or froze them with a single touch. All the while, his attention strayed to watch her.

  The wind she had brought on whipped her long hair around her face and as she dropped the breezing cyclone around her, he could see through the falling dust that she was gripping Nathanial by his throat against the wall. She stood an arm’s length away from him. The glow from her aura was even brighter than before.

  He swallowed. Fear and admiration consumed him.

  Zarah looked like a goddess.

  During his lapse of attention on the surrounding fight, he felt a sharp pain in his arm and looked down. A Rogue had managed to get in a strike, making a small gash at his shoulder. He let out a hiss before he charged and threw his weight into the monster. When he did, he placed his hand on the Rogue’s chest, and in a matter of seconds, ice formed beneath his fingers, spreading rapidly until it covered the length of the body. The Rogue continued screaming until his last breath was sucked out by shards of ice in his throat. In a final gesture, Draven raised his silver blade and brought it crushing down upon the frozen body to shatter it into a million tiny pieces, skittering across the concrete floor by his feet.

  The fight with the rabids inside was done. The group was destroyed. He didn’t know how the fight fared outside with the other Guardians and the Fallens that had arrived to offer their services.

  Turning again, he saw that in the moment, Zarah was close to Nathanial’s face. She was saying something, but he was too far away to hear. Then her power swelled, electrifying the air around the entire base. Nathanial began to scream, choking from her grip.

  Thomas approached and stood by Draven as the two watched from a distance, cloaked in the shadows and the destruction of the slaughtered Rogues, as Zarah began to slowly destroy Nathanial. Despite the poison in her system, she didn’t lunge for his neck to have his blood. He didn’t have enough honor for that kind of easy death. Draven didn’t blame her. He wouldn’t have done it either.

  He swallowed a forming lump in his throat.

  Nathanial was burning from the inside out. Smoke curled
in a slow dancing rhythm toward the ceiling, before the fire erupted along his pale skin, leaving a stench that burned Draven’s senses. In seconds, ashes of their former mentor and boss fell softly through her slender fingers before floating through the air. It was apparent her “gift” was fire…but was it everything? Zarah stared down at her hands questioningly.

  She turned and saw him then, the violet glow immediately fading and exhaustion taking over her features. He took a tentative step toward her when she started toward him. But when she began to collapse, he ran, catching her before she could hit the concrete.

  ***********

  “Draven,” she whispered, realizing he had caught her.

  “I’m here. You’re okay. We got you.” His voice came out in a rush, and he pushed her hair away from her face.

  All of the power had drained her completely. The poison in her system was doing its work again. The only way to combat it would be to feed. Draven was hugging her and she could smell him. It made her lick her lips. That glorious scent—cherry and rich spices that were like no other—filled her and she had to suck in a deep breath to keep her hunger down.

  Draven must have sensed it though. He pulled back and stared deeply into her eyes, tracing a finger over the thin cut on her cheek, before glancing back to where Thomas has been. She followed his eyes. Her brother was no longer there, probably having gone out to check on the fight there.