Raising an eyebrow, Serena shook her head and chuckled, “Hey! You almost done?”
Maledictus looked up at her and smiled, tossing aside the corpse and stepping towards her as he finished his song, “But we love you still!”
Serena shook her head at him, “Even as a killing machine you’re a smooth talker.”
“Only for you, buttercup baby!” his enormous grin widened as his scarlet aura whipped about around him. Stepping beside her, he shifted his eyes towards Keith, who had watched—wide-eyed and unbelieving—at the scene around him. “Let us break him!” he looked pleadingly at Serena, “Just this once! We WANT to see him inside-out!”
“I know you do, baby,” Serena patted his shoulder, “but there’s far worse in store for him.”
Maledictus scoffed, “There is NOTHING worse than US!”
Serena laughed, “I know, sweetie, but others want to play with him, too.”
The playful conversation between them seemed to shake Keith from his horrified stupor and he narrowed his eyes at them. “Fine! If that’s how it has to be!” he wrapped his fists in his aura, “Then who am I to disappoint?”
Maledictus rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck, “Can we break his legs? No killing—we promise—just fracture his fucking femurs!”
Serena frowned, glaring at Keith and shaking her head, “No, baby. I think I want to do this one on my own.”
A disappointed whimper emerged from Maledictus’ throat, but he did nothing to protest as Serena stepped forward.
“Admirable move,” Keith started towards her, nodding, “Stupid, but admirable, nonetheless.”
“We’ll see,” she sneered, letting her auric bow appear in her hand.
She glared and let out a loud cry and began firing a series of auric arrows as she rushed towards Keith.
“Ah-hah! There’s the brash bitch we know and love!” Keith sprinted at her, ducking and rolling around every auric strike that came at him and drawing nearer.
Serena roared, firing more and more auric bolts at him until their source became a violet blur in her hands, but no matter how many she threw or how fast she threw them, Keith evaded and continued towards her.
“Did you forget, Serena? Have all our years taught you nothing?” he jumped over a wave of bolts and continued at her, “I have always had the upper hand! I’m faster! I’m stronger! And I’m smarter!” Keith grinned and focused his aura into his right hand, elongating it into an auric blade, “And I know all your tricks!”
Serena fired an auric bolt at his feet and he side-stepped to avoid the explosion of turf, “You want to talk about forgetting, Keith?” She fired another wave of auric bolts that forced Keith to redirect his approach and come in from her right, “How ‘bout we talk about forgetting your roots?” She fired more at his feet and forced him into the air before slamming an auric shot into his chest and throwing him to the ground.
Growling, he pulled himself up and started in at her again, “I’ll see you tortured for that!”
“How about we discuss forgetting your place?” She shot into overdrive and repositioned herself several yards away and once again forcing him to recalculate his approach. She sent another set of arrows at him that he easily evaded, “Or how about we get personal, Keith! Like when you forgot which fork to use at Dad’s big dinner with the Keilano Clan leader and you threw a hissy fit and shit your pants?” She laughed and fired directly at his chest, only to arc back around once he’d dodged it to knock him to his side. “Or that time you forgot to wear a belt at that ball in Venice and I pulled down your pants in front of the ambassador’s daughter?” She cackled, sending more auric bolts at him and beginning to clip him in his efforts to get to her. “Did you forget, dear brother, just how unimpressed she was with what she saw?”
“Shut up! Shut-the-fuck-up!” he roared, throwing out another auric blade in his left hand and leaping at her.
Before he could land she’d jumped into overdrive and put another hundred yards between them. “Funny that you accuse me of forgetting when you’ve clearly allowed so much to slip your mind. You see”—she fired more arrows and succeeded in knocking him down once again—“you are faster, and you’re definitely stronger!” She grinned as she hooked another auric bolt around and pulled his feet out from under him and cackled at his rage-fueled roar. Throwing out his aura, he pushed himself off the ground and charged at her again. Serena shook her head, sneering, “But I’m beginning to second-guess that smarter thing.”
Keith jumped at her and swung with his auric blade, nearly taking her arm off as she rolled free, “Oh? Would you care to elaborate?” he growled.
Serena giggled, “Well, for starters, I have to question the sort of mind that can allow a man to forget what his dick is for!” She ducked under another strike and shifted behind him, “Or how you can find reason to boast when you have the body of an eight year old girl! But, more than anything else, Keith, I think you’re a dumb-fuck because you’ve forgotten that I’ve always been better than you at one thing!”
He glared and turned to strike, “And what would that be?” he growled and overshot the attack, only to have Serena drive her knee into his groin.
Serena howled in laughter as he hissed in pain, his aura whipping about in a fit of rage. “See? Your dumb ass has already forgotten!”
“You can’t do anything!” he lunged and missed again.
“Nope,” she smirked at him, “You forgot that I could always piss you of—”
Keith roared in triumph as he brought his auric blade around and stabbed right through her abdomen. Serena gasped as blood dripped down her chin from the attack and pulled back, staring down at the gaping hole in her stomach. The battlefield went deathly quiet as she dropped to her knees and looked up at her still-heaving brother with fading eyes.
“S-see?” she coughed and struggled to smile, “Y-y-you… you did forget…”
Keith shook his head, “I have never forgotten how much you piss me off, Serena! And I think now you’ll remember that!”
Serena groaned and inhaled sharply, nodding, “Perhaps. But you d-did forget”—she coughed up some more blood and groaned—“t-two very im-important… things.”
He grinned and knelt down, “Do tell. What have I forgotten?”
“You weren’t… su-supposed…” she grimaced and threw out her hand to catch her as she started to fall to the ground, “… to kill a member of Vail… without Council consent…”
Keith’s eyes widened as his rage-clouded vision shifted to reveal his mistake and he began to shake.
“And…” Serena chuckled, “… you forgot… about… him.” She managed to point over her brother’s shoulder at Maledictus before her strength left her and she hit the ground.
16
JUST (ice) US
Nikki’s eyes widened as she ran towards Maledictus. The beast had gone berserk with rage after watching Keith stab Serena, and while she was worried for the sake of her friend’s wellbeing—Serena’s usually bold and vibrant purple aura rapidly fading—it was, as much as she hated to admit it, Keith that she was most concerned for.
If he died now, everything they’d just accomplished would be for nothing.
“Maledictus! You must not kill him!” she yelled, her tattoos flaring as she tried to calm the curse. Though the speed and ferocity diminished from the monster’s attacks, it did not stop them. “Help Serena! Maledictus, you can save her!”
This stopped the onslaught for a moment—the half of Keith’s face that wasn’t hemorrhaging and swollen beyond use gazing out thankfully for a pause in the rampage—and the rage-filled face of Zane’s curse turned away from its work to snarl at her:
“WE DO NOT SAVE! WE ARE DEATH! WE ARE DESTRUCTION!” he jabbed a finger at Keith, causing the beaten and bloodied vampire to wince, “AND WE WILL NOT STOP UNTIL HE IS—”
Nikki, now beside him, brought her hand down on the beast’s face, “Shut the hell up and keep Serena alive!”
Maledic
tus snarled and narrowed his eyes at Nikki as he raised a massive clawed hand.
Nikki narrowed her eyes, her tattoos flaring, “If you care about her you’ll be able to stop killing and destroying for five minutes!” The scarlet aura and fiery rage in Maledictus’ eyes calmed and shifted to Serena. “That’s what I thought,” Nikki nodded, “Now do whatever you can for her!”
As it turned out, the Maledictus curse—one that was created to kill, maim, torture, mutilate, and destroy—made the curse surprisingly good at knowing how to treat the conditions of its handiwork. Unable to focus entirely on the task of keeping Keith’s ravaged body from slipping into unconsciousness, Nikki found herself glancing back at the beast as its scarlet aura worked fervently on keeping Serena’s vitals stable. Zoey, after helping Isaac and the others finish off those of Keith’s army who hadn’t fled into the woods after Maledictus had begun painting the clearing with him, had hesitantly stepped beside the strangely calm beast to do anything she could for her friend, though the assistance seemed unnecessary at that point. Stealing another glance, Nikki watched again as Maledictus utilized its knowledge of anatomy and pain tolerance to numb Serena’s agony while keeping her life-force from fading any further than it already had.
She bit her lip and turned back to Keith, throwing another wave of magic into his body to keep his heart beating and hoping the impact hurt him.
It just seemed so… unnatural.
As dawn approached and the sun began to take its scheduled journey over the horizon, a roar of vehicles grew in the distance. Being so deep in the forest, the sound of anything motorized—short of the occasional dirt-bike or four-wheeler driven by thrill-seeking campers—was an alien one, and as every ear in the clearing still attached to a living brain was made aware of it, all attention turned towards it.
When the first of the pitch-black SUVs broke through the brush and into the clearing—kicking up clumps of frosted earth under its belted tires—and skidded to a violent stop, it became very evident that campers were not the source.
This Jeep was soon after joined by several others that were just as dark and tinted and ominous, and as they came to stop around the first their doors swung open simultaneously and a team of Mythos in equally dark suits stepped out. With nearly three dozen seemingly identical figures strategically placing themselves around the clearing—some casting out their auras in preparation for whatever might be stupid enough to try something while others kept their hands close to whatever gun or bladed weapon they’d strapped to their waist—and making sure that anything that could surprise them would be unable to. After a moment, one of the aurics that had stayed nearer to the parked caravan reached out with a pine-green aura to each of the others and took a psychic reading before giving a final sweep of the clearing and nodding to somebody in the back of the center SUV.
As the door opened, the clearing went ten degrees colder. With every eye glued to the him, an immaculate vampire with slicked-back blond hair and a finely-trimmed, matching goatee and sporting a blood-red three-piece suit stepped out and nodded to the auric.
“Thank you, Angelo. If you and the others can begin to tidy up I’d like to have a moment alone with our new friends.”
The auric nodded and quietly turned and began gesturing to the others. In a flash of activity, the sangs in the group vanished into overdrive and the aurics began a choreographed sweep of the area with their auras. In less than ten seconds, nearly all of the dead bodies had vanished and all evidence of the battle stripped from the landscape.
“So graceful…” Zoey stared in awe.
“Aren’t they, though?” the blonde vampire chimed in a smooth Italian accent as he stepped towards them, beaming a perfectly-white smile beneath a pair of perfect green eyes, “It’s always fun to watch them work.” He quirked an eyebrow at the sight of Maledictus and lingered on Serena’s body before moving his gaze as he took in each of them, “What? Why’s everyone so tense? Oh my, of course! Where are my manners?” he bowed slightly, “My name is Damiano Moratti—fifth chair of The Council—and I’ve come in regards to a troubling message from Vail-heiress, Serena.”
Zoey frowned, looking down at Serena for a moment, “Troubling?” she frowned at Damiano, “What do you mean? When did she—”
“I believe her exact words were…” he frowned and shook his head, reaching into the breast pocket of his coat and pulling out a small piece of parchment, “Ah yes! ‘Incompetent sheep-fuckers’—so delightfully charming, yes?” he glanced at the leering Maledictus and nodded, “You have a keeper, my friend!”
Maledictus sneered and stifled a growl.
“Down, Dino. We’re here to help,” he waved a condescending hand at the beast as he turned his back on him and started towards Keith. “Yes… quite troubling indeed. I daresay that for one to use such…” he smiled, “… colorful words when addressing us is a sign that things may have gotten out of hand somewhere.” He knelt down in front of Keith, rubbing the flat of his thumb against the bottom of his goatee, “wouldn’t you say so, compagno?”
Keith whimpered and groaned in pain as he tried to put distance between himself and Damiano and forgetting that Maledictus had, true to his word, fractured both of his femurs. The tremor of pain and ensuing threat of shock reminded Nikki that she had stopped casting on him when The Council had arrived, and she went to give Keith another dose of magic.
“Oh no no no, bella, that will not be necessary. From what I’ve gathered on my way here our dear Keith is quite capable at taking care of matters himself.” His green eyes shifted for the first time to something terrifying and the air chilled-over once again in response, “Isn’t that right?”
Keith shook his head, trying to form words with a broken jaw but only succeeded in offering an airy whistle as it passed through the series of broken teeth in his mouth.
Damiano stood and folded his arms behind his back, nodding to Nikki, “You’ve done beautifully, dear, but we’ll take it from here.” He sighed, shaking his head, “I must say, Vailean, I’d wanted to like you—this is not to say that I ever did; to be perfectly honest I and many of the other chairs found you to be something of a nuisance—since your father was held in such high regards with us.” He shook his head, “But, when Gregori refused the offered chair that you so enthusiastically volunteered for, we were, though disappointed at his decision, hopeful that you—of his own blood—would serve to some adequate respect in his honor.”
Zoey and Maledictus stared at Damiano in awe.
Gregori had been offered a chair with The Council?
“However, as we’d feared, honor is not something you’d know too much about, and while we would have liked nothing better than to see you serve as a feeder, we do have an etiquette to abide by,” he shook his head at that, “And, with no reason to bleed you like a wine grape, there was nothing we could do.” He sneered and reached out with his bright yellow aura and pulled Keith to his full height—keeping his toes an inch above the ground—and keeping him conscious despite the growing pain, “‘Incompetent sheep-fuckers’ indeed. You have, to say the least, disappointed us, Keith, and, as you will come to find out over the next few months of your sentence, we do not take well to disappointment. This will perhaps go without saying, but you are aware of our affinity for protocol.” He nodded to several aurics that had been waiting nearby and glared at Keith as they stepped forward and wrapped him in a reinforced, auric-blocking straightjacket. Thrashing and groaning, they pulled his head back and held his mouth open as Damiano’s aura reached out and tore his fangs from his gums. As the severed teeth slowly floated into the vampire’s hand, the auric guards pushed Keith forward and slipped a metal guard over his bleeding mouth and, using a small drill that one of them drew from their pocket, drove several screws into his jaw to hold it in place to keep him from biting.
Damiano’s posture straightened and his voice shifted to one of authority, “Keith Vailean, for your deceit against The Council and your crimes against the Mythos community I, D
amiano Moratti—fifth chair of The Council—with the unanimous written-and-spoken consent of the other chairs, do place you under formal Council arrest. All rights and privileges bestowed by your superiors are hereby stricken and all benefits and protections offered by your comrades are hereby revoked. For the severity of your crimes you will be denied trial and bail and none, with the exception of the unanimous consent of all Council chairs, will be permitted to cease or alter the conditions of your punishment. Do you understand and acknowledge?”
Keith narrowed his eyes and let loose a series of muffled grunts and whines from behind his surgically-attached mask.
Damiano grinned and nodded, “I will take that as a ‘yes’.” He nodded to the aurics, “See that he’s secured before you leave and be sure that there’s a holding tank and a fully-equipped surgical team waiting for him in Rome; the others will want to put him on display immediately!” he glared at Keith as they dragged him away, “This will not be pleasant. I promise.”
As Keith was dragged away by the aurics, Damiano adjusted his jacket and turned to the others, his bright smile and sunny demeanor suddenly returning. “Again, my friends, I thank you for calling this situation to our—”
“Save her! WE KNOW YOU CAN!” Maledictus growled as he stood and glared at him.
Nikki frowned, “Maledictus!”
“Maledictus?” Damiano paused, “Ah yes! The maledetto! Gregori’s warrior; the one with the Taroe curse, yes?” He nodded at the beast before him as though he approved, “Impressive. A tad excessive, I must say, but it has appeared to have gotten the job done.”
Scarlet Night: The Complete Trilogy Page 21