Zoey smirked and nodded, “Yes! Let’s!”
Zane frowned, “Wait…”
Everyone looked over.
“What about…” he touched a hand to his chest, “I mean, I’m glad I’m back—and I’m goddam thrilled to hear that you guys can make everything right—but what about Axle? What’s going to happen to him?”
Serena bit her lip and turned away, a small whimper seeping past her lips as she fell against Zoey.
Sighing, Zoey wrapped her arms around her friend and looked up at Zane. “He didn’t make it back,” she explained. “Serena took him to see his fiancé and the orphans that he’d been caring for—she was hoping that there might be a chance to save both of you, but decided it would be safer to offer them some sense of closure in case something did go wrong—and, on the way back, he fell asleep. By the time Serena got back with him and brought him to us, his orange aura was gone; replaced by yours.”
Zane frowned, “He… died?”
Zoey nodded, “Whatever happened to him—whatever put you inside him—did a lot of damage to his aura in the process. When your dormant aura found Serena, you began to wake up and, as your aura grew stronger, it began to consume and merge with Axle’s. Eventually, you two were more a single mind than two, and as things went on it became that much more vague of where ‘Axle’ ended and ‘Zane’ began…”
Nikki nodded, “You’d nearly completely taken over to the point where even Maledictus could sense you in him.” She motioned to Raith, “As soon as you two were close enough, that crazy bastard came out of hibernation and went into a frenzy to try and take you back so he could be whole again.”
Zane sneered, “Maledictus? He’s still alive in there?”
“He never stopped,” Raith confessed, “But without your aura to fuel the process, the curse lay dormant.”
“So why isn’t he going crazy now? I mean, he’s here, I’m here; shouldn’t things be… you know, crazy?”
Serena sniffed and shook her head, glancing back, “I knocked him out when he started to go crazy.”
Zane raised an eyebrow, “You knocked out Maledictus when he woke up?”
Raith laughed and nodded, “You bet your ass she did!” He rubbed his head, “And you’ll have the lump to prove it soon enough!”
“No…” Zane shook his head.
Serena frowned, “What do you mean ‘no’?”
Zane backed away from Raith, “I mean I’m not going back in there if that thing is still alive! I… I can’t; I won’t!”
Serena bit her lip, “But—”
Zane looked at her, “Baby, I’m… I’m sorry. You know I’d do anything—fucking anything—for you! But what’s in that body… it… it’s done things—made me do things—that can never be undone! You can’t ask me to just climb into a cage with that sort of monster…” He sat down on the chair he’d woken up in and shivered, scratching at the phantom tattoos that had begun to burn on his shoulder.
Nikki narrowed her eyes at the gesture before looking at Raith’s arms—studying the intricate tribal tattoos of her people that had bonded the Maledictus curse to him—and, finally, she looked back at Zane.
“If I can get you your body to you without the curse, would you go back then?”
Zane looked up at her, “What are you saying? There is no cure for the Male—”
“I’m not talking about a cure,” Nikki smirked, “I’m talking about the chance to be rid of that monster once and for all, and the chance to kill it with your own two hands.”
Serena blushed, “Nikki?”
Nikki nodded to her, “Get me a body, Goldi-fucks. And make sure it’s ugly enough to hold what I’m going to be putting in it!”
Serena frowned, waiting by the door as Zoey and Nikki worked the ceremony.
“Serena?” Zoey’s head popped out of the door and she smiled, seeing Serena’s look of concern. “It’s fine. Zane’s out in the back, waiting for you.”
Serena nodded, not wasting any time as she jumped into overdrive and rushed towards the forest to find Zane.
Spotting him—the real him; standing and waiting in his own body—leaning against a tree, she couldn’t bring herself to drop out of overdrive or stop.
Instead, she allowed herself to crash into him at full force.
The momentum carried them both off their feet—a deafening roar echoing as a shockwave emanated from the site he’d been standing and tore several of the trees from the ground—and they slammed into the ground with enough force to skip and roll and dig up the earth like a bullet had been shot into the dirt. As their bodies crashed and slammed across the forest floor, they wrapped their arms around each other and kissed one another with an intensity that put their careening bodies to shame. When they’d finally skidded to a stop, Serena pulled back briefly.
“Are… are you hurt?” She asked.
Zane shook his head.
Serena beamed, “Good. That means I can be rough with you.”
As he looked up at her, his mismatched gaze—the brown and blue she’d come to recognize over the past few months; a sign that the Maledictus curse was truly gone—glimmered with his familiar charm and he pulled her back to him.
17
Moon Dance
“I can’t believe how much I missed you. It was, like, making me crazy-retarded!” Serena held Zane’s arm tightly to her as they headed through the forest and she smiled, leaning against him.
“Wow! You’re awfully affectionate, huh? Maybe I should disappear more often,” he chuckled.
Serena hauled back and punched him in the arm as they stopped in a clearing in the forest that was filled with fireflies that lit the clearing showing the greens, blue and purples that had begun to glow off of the flowers and grass. “You ever do something like that to me again, and I’m gonna make Maledictus look like an appetizer to this world!”
“Holy shit,” Zane nodded slowly, “Well then, for the sake of the world, I must be certain to never allow myself to be killed or injured on an auric level ever again.”
Serena giggled, “You’d better fucking believe it.” She smiled at him and kissed his arm where she’d punched him, taking in the sight of the tribal tattoos that were now just that: only tattoos. “What’s it like now that he’s gone?”
Zane followed her gaze to the taroe ink and studied the tattoos with a new eye, “Well, for starters I guess I can start appreciating these things a little more.”
Serena smirked, “Oh? Then maybe we can talk about me getting one without you throwing a fit?”
Zane laughed and shrugged, “I suppose that’s fair. Though I think I’m about two-hundred ahead of you?”
“Challenge accepted,” Serena nodded.
“So did Zoey or Nikki say when he’ll wake up?” Zane looked over.
Serena chuckled, “You’re pretty eager to see Maledictus stand in his own body, huh?”
Zane frowned, “Only so I can cut him down once and for all,” he scoffed, “I still can’t believe you put him in an ykali’s body.”
“Really?” Serena rolled her eyes, “Ugly monster deserved an ugly monster body. Now you don’t even have to see that thing as a person when it wakes up.”
“Good thinking,” Zane nodded, staring off into the distance, his blue aura shifting and rolling with a level of confidence that he’d never before been able to muster.
Seeing him like that just made the moment seem that much more perfect, “Kiss me, Zane.”
Leaning down, he pressed his lips hard to hers, the emotion that had been hidden for so long—for too damn long—once again engulfed the two. The sound of rain began to patter around them and, as they were drenched in the heavy rain, they began to undress one another.
As Serena’s aura whipped around in a passionate frenzy, the rain around them began to sizzle from the heat and steam wrapped around their bodies as more and more skin became accessible. Zane’s shirt was the first to go as Serena ripped it open, exposing his toned and tattooed chest.
“It doesn’t matter; it’ll be long enough! Just take me!” Serena gasped in pleasure. “It’s been too damn long for both of us!” She gasped as he pressed her against an oak tree, covered in the oak’s leafy embrace, the steaming rain continued to pelt around them, shrouding their passion in a misty visage.
Zane’s hands explored Serena’s body, reacquainting himself with every contour of her form as more and more clothes fell to the forest floor.
“Oh fuck! Yes, I missed this so much, baby!” Serena cried out as his mouth found her left nipple and he let his fangs pierce her.
The sudden sting was quickly masked by a throbbing heat as his tongue went to work; his hands continuing to explore her hips and back.
As Zane pushed her further back against the tree, her legs wrapped tightly around his waist as his iron-hard member throbbed against her soaking-wet folds. With neither interested in prolonging their union any longer, each thrust against the other; embedding-slash-enveloping one another in one single moment of synchronicity. The ferocity and passion that had come to define their day carried over in their love-making as both gasped and moaned at the intensified efforts that the other offered as a tribute to their long overdue coital bliss.
Zane growled and locked his lustful gaze with hers, the glow in his mismatched eyes announcing his impending release and, seeing before her what she’d dreamed of for so long, Serena joined him and they shook with pleasure as the scalding wetness that surrounded them was mimicked from within.
Their heavy breaths continued as they held the other in their embrace, neither one having the energy, nor the desire, to break their grip.
“Never leave me again…” Serena repeated as she nuzzled her face into Zane’s broad chest.
“I won’t, but you gotta promise the same,” Zane leaned down and kissed her head softly.
Serena nodded, “I promise… I’m not going anywhere.”
As the rain began to die down, the two finally finished catching their breaths and, though reluctantly, parted so that they could retrieve their clothes.
“I so don’t want to leave this moment,” Serena confessed. “Everything beyond this is total fucking chaos.”
“I know, babes,” Zane frowned. “I feel the same…”
“There’s a fat fucking ‘but’ looming overhead, isn’t there?” Serena sighed.
“Yeah. There is: it’s what we have to, Serena. You’re stronger than ever and I’m back with the sort of vengeance that Hollywood makes movies about,” he smirked, “together we’ll be unstoppable. And we both know there’s some major fuck-wads with an even more major ass-kicking coming their way.”
Serena smirked, “Would you believe I almost forgot what a brilliant dirty talker you were?”
“Yea, well… you’re not too shabby yourself.”
As they headed back to the clan, the two held the other just as close and Serena sighed, things were finally starting to look up.
“Serena! You’re back!” Zoey cried as she rushed out with Isaac.
“What’s up, Zoey?” Serena frowned.
Zane stepped forward, “Is Maledictus awake?”
Zoey bit her lip and shook her head, “Not yet, but we were able to track the ykalis’ next move!”
“What? Where?” Serena glared.
“A run down building. We didn’t understand why at first, but there’s kids in there! It’s filled with mythos children!”
Serena growled, “The orphanage! They must have traced Axle back to it…” She punched the nearby wall; not batting an eyelash when her fist erupted through the other side, “Those fuckers! They must have tailed me when I brought him there earlier! Isaac! You and Zoey take my bike! I don’t care what you do to the bike—blow the damn engine to shit for all I care—but you get that speedometer to peak and you don’t let it drop one single cunt hair or I’ll fucking hack your balls off! Zoey, keep the cops off his ass and the assholes in the slow lane; you keep that aura moving double-time! Zane, you’ve got two minutes starting NOW to get yourself, Nikki and Raith suited up and waiting in the fastest car the garage is holding. If you don’t have the keys, you hotwire that fucker. If the owner tries to stop you, kill them; I’ll bury the body later. Any and all available warriors had better be prepped and briefed by the time I have my left boot buckled, otherwise they’re inviting my right boot up their ass! Now let’s go!”
18
Rising Darkness
As the group reached the orphanage, they could already hear the screams of the children as the ykali attacked.
“How many are there, Zoey?” Serena frowned as she jumped out of the car and started towards the building.
“Six or seven at most. It looks like there was more, but they’re ripping their own apart in there! They’ve gone into a berserker state. Be careful!”
“Good call, Zoe! You and Nikki take the high road! Isaac and Raith, join us when you’re wearing something sharper! GO!”
Serena rushed to the entrance with Zane right behind her. Near the entrance, Serena spotted Sierra’s body lying on the ground by the entrance and fought the urge to check for any signs of life; she could already see there were none. Biting her lip, she pushed past the body and threw out her aura.
“When you’re in there, you focus on keeping those kids alive!”
“Got it,” Zane nodded. “You got the door?”
“Not quite,” Serena snarled.
Most of the front-facing wall burst inward as Serena drove her aura into the side of the building, as the sudden burst of debris threw the ykali frenzy off, she and Zane jumped into overdrive and rocketed into the building. Zane went to work snatching the kids that were time-frozen in their moments of panic and getting them safely outside. Matching his efforts halfway, Serena kept her focus on the chunks of debris that floated about overhead, using her aura to redirect the portions that posed a threat to those that she didn’t want to see wearing the fragments in their skulls. As the orphans stopped being a risk, both of the vampires dropped out of overdrive.
On your six! Zoey’s voice rang inside her head and Serena threw her foot back and caught one of the giant lizard mythos in the throat before Zane appeared behind it with a length of wiring and began to choke it.
Overhead, a bright blue auric bubble carried Zoey and Nikki to the second level at the top of the staircase—an auric tendril sweeping out and cutting one of the ykali’s legs off before Nikki dropped down and embedded her twin sais into either side of the teetering monster’s neck.
“Wolf pack incoming,” Nikki announced, her taroe tattoos glowing brightly under her Kevlar vest.
Both Isaac and Raith barked out in unison—announcing their arrival—as they charged in and let loose a pair of howls that stopped every heartbeat in the building for a split second.
At that moment, the ykalis’ lizard brains registered with true panic.
“S’RENA!”
Serena quickly honed in on the familiar voice and she rushed forward, avoiding overdrive and scanning ahead of her to hone in on where the source was coming from.
“BELOW YOU!” Zoey called out.
Spotting a vent grate that fed into the boiler room, Serena took a page from Axle’s parkour book and dropped into a slide that carried her through past the panel—her aura tearing the vent plate free from the wall before she crashed into it—and down the vent shaft. Spotting the ykali that was tracking Fang, she threw her aura out, wrapping the ykali in a tight purple bind, crushing its lungs from inside its chest as she ran past and scooped up the sobbing vampire boy and returned to the upper level.
“Fang, you need to get as many of the others that you can and get them outside, okay? There’s bad things—real bad—but you gotta be brave for everyone and trust us to keep you all safe, okay? We’ll stop them!”
Despite his terror, the little vampire nodded.
She smiled, “That’a boy! Go now! We’ll find you soon
!” Fang nodded and vanished into overdrive, leaving Serena to blink in awe. “Wow… who knew.”
Turning back, Serena watched as Zane smashed his fist into the ykali’s face, caving in half its skull.
“THERE’S MORE OF THEM COMING IN!” Nikki announced, her tattoos glowing and an overhead beam tearing free and falling on three ykali that were stalking after her. Though two were killed instantly, the third hissed and dragged the upper half of its body—the only half not crushed beneath the beam—and shrieked in surprise as Nikki brought her boot down on its neck.
“Looks like they’re coming to us then!” Serena grinned.
Isaac and Raith appeared beside Serena and Zane then, standing at their full heights and roaring.
“Fuckin’ A!” Zane smirked.
As a particularly daring ykali tried to drop down on Serena, Raith pulled the flailing monster out of the air and tore its arms out at the shoulders before taking it by the ankles and swinging it at breakneck speed into another who had a similar idea. Both hit the ground dead a moment later.
“Hey, Ink-doll! Zoey!” Serena beckoned.
Nikki smirked, “Talk to me, Goldi-fucks!”
“I’m here!” Zoey called back, casually using her unique, ballet-like martial arts to twirl and duck below the ongoing attacks of three Ykali.
Serena chuckled, “I think we might actually score some decent purses out of all this.”
All three girls laughed.
Zoey giggled, “I think Isaac might need a new belt,” she chimed in as she ducked backwards beneath a swiping claw and brought her foot up in a high kick that separated an ykali with its lower jaw. Returning to an upright position, her blue aura forked off; the first coiling around a lunging ykali and crushing it until the creature resembled a nearly empty toothpaste tube, while the second barreled into an ykali at her right and sending it hurtling into a hanging portion of the upstairs railing that had been severed when Nikki brought down the beam. As the impaled carcass weighed the beam, it slowly bent downward, allowing the carcass to slide free and slam into the ground.
Scarlet Night: The Complete Trilogy Page 38