At this, she reached out and gently cupped his crotch. It wasn’t until that very moment that Saul realized that the thought of being with Magdeline had gotten him hard. He was aching, the shape of his manhood hard and perfectly outlined against his pants.
“See?” Magdeline said. “You know you want it. And I’m going to give it to you. But only if you tell your little Nikki.”
“No.”
She was working at the button of his pants now. Saul looked at her cleavage and wanted to tear her shirt off. He did his best to detach himself form the situation, to do anything to move, but her powers were too strong. She had him. Her hooks were in and she was going to have her way.
No, Saul thought. Fight…fight it.
“And if you take me right now and tell little Nikki about it…well, I’ll do anything you want. I’ll put this,” she said, now stroking him through his pants, “in my mouth and make you scream. Or you can bend me over these kitchen counters and abuse me. Or we can go to the bed you’re sleeping in with that that stupid little girl and I’ll show you what it’s like to conquer a goddess. Whatever you want.”
Her hand was peeling apart his unbuttoned pants and he desperately wanted her hands on him. It was a sweet sort of horror, a feeling that he had never felt before and hoped to never feel again.
That was when he caught the flicker of motion behind Magdeline and the sound of something arcing through the air.
It wasn’t until after it had happened that Saul realized that Polyxia had stabbed Magdeline with a knife. She had been aiming for the seductress’s neck but, being too injured and disorientated, had missed and buried the blade in Magdeline’s arm.
Magdeline shrieked and the enchantment she had cast over Saul was broken. Briefly, Saul wished she had kept going; the next instant, he was shaking his head in disgust. The knowledge of what had nearly happened made Saul more certain than ever that he was in love with Nikki.
Magdeline wheeled around on the old witch and the two locked arms in what looked like an old Greek wrestling hold. They both fought for position, the hatred on their faces built over centuries of forced pleasantries. Saul wanted to go to Polyxia’s aid but thought that such interference in a dispute between two members of the Guard could very well result in his own incapacitation. So he looked on, hoping that Polyxia had the brains to match the youth and the brawn that Magdeline so clearly held over her.
Within seconds, Magdeline had overpowered the older woman. Polyxia hit her knees and moaned out as Magdeline twisted her arms to an angle that looked torturous. Polyxia tilted her head back and let out a scream that Saul at first mistook as one of pain. But there was a word burning in her wail, one that had an immediate effect on Magdeline. To Saul, it sounded like Polyxia said something like “Baratamala” in a deep and dark voice.
Magdeline hollered as a nexus of pink light bloomed from Polyxia’s chest. It swirled between the two women and expanded outward with violent force. The pink turned into a hue of red and then exploded like a soft mist of rain. Although the explosion was gentle and noiseless, it sent Magdeline flying back into the kitchen wall. The plaster cracked and a Magdeline-shaped hole appeared in the poor Cabin’s wall.
Magdeline roared as she pulled herself out. Her shirt and hair were caked in plaster and dust. The bestial rage in her scream only exaggerated her beauty which, even in her rage, glowed on her face. She rebounded so quickly that Polyxia didn’t have enough time to follow up with another attack.
The two women went to the floor, Magdeline with her hands going directly for Polyxia’s neck. It was clear that in that simple attack, Polyxia was doomed. With Magdeline on top of her, fueled by a rage that, Saul assumed, reached back through centuries of pent up frustration, Polyxia didn’t stand a chance.
Without much thought, Saul took three huge strides across the kitchen and threw a shoulder into Magdeline’s back. As she went sliding off of Polyxia and across the floor, something monumental dawned on Saul: this was his first blow against a Guard member.
The war was officially underway.
Magdeline got to her feet as she came to a stop against the kitchen sink. She stared at Saul with malice, the emotion making her gorgeous eyes sparkle. The hands that, less than five minutes ago, had been inches away from reaching into his pants, curled into fists and she came barreling at him. Saul foolishly waited for a punch, forgetting that this was no normal opponent.
A black jet of what looked like tar came erupting out of Magdeline’s fist. It struck Saul in the chest and he staggered back. The black substance burned like the hottest sunlight and felt like millions of hornets stinging his flesh. He cried out and fell backwards, barely aware that Magdeline was still coming towards him, the black residue still swirling over her hands.
“A shame, really,” Magdeline said. “I wanted your little bitch to watch you die.”
She drew her hand back and then froze.
Polyxia approached from behind, both of her hands held together as if in prayer. Little sparks of white light swirled between her fingers playfully. As Polyxia lifted her hands skyward, Magdeline began to rise off of the ground.
“Release me, old woman,” Magdeline said.
“Of course,” Polyxia said with a smile.
The old witch drew her hands apart, the white sparks darting back and forth between them like electricity. She then slapped her hands together and the cabin was filled with a sound like thunder. Magdeline was thrown backwards with incredible force. She stuck the front wall of the cabin, breaking away the foundation of it and pushing through the other side where she hit the porch rail and cracked it in half.
Magdeline stumbled to her feet like a broken doll.
“You’ll regret that,” Magdeline said, pointing a finger at Polyxia. It was clear that Magdeline was badly hurt but her voice did not betray her threat or her strength.
“Show me, then,” Polyxia taunted.
But Magdeline had had enough. She stumbled down the porch steps and staggered towards the woods.
Saul watched it all in a detached fashion through the hole in his living room wall. He moaned at the pain in his chest and felt himself wanting to go to sleep.
“Stay awake,” Polyxia said, sidling down beside him. “Her weapons are strong but easily countered. I can have you feeling better in seconds.”
“Please do,” Saul said. The pain wasn’t terrible but seemed to be growing by the moment.
“Your poor home,” Polyxia muttered as she placed her hands into the black residue on Saul’s chest. “It’s taking a worse beating than any of us.”
The truth in her words suddenly hit Saul and it made him profoundly sad. This was the home his father had chosen, the home his father had built to protect them. And now it was falling apart because of a series of unlikely violent events—all of which planned and administered by the Guard.
Saul may have been hesitant to raise a hand against the Guard, to truly begin their imminent war. Now, lying in the floor as Polyxia tended to him and staring through a hole in the wall of his father’s cabin, Saul could hardly wait to continue.
4
The trees seemed to all be leaning in towards Nikki as she stumbled through the forest. There were times when Nikki wasn’t sure if the forest was moving or if she was—everything was simply a blur as the world passed by. Quite honestly, she really wasn’t even sure where she was headed. All she knew was that she needed to get to Saul.
Nikki drew Saul’s gorgeous face up in her mind, focusing on the way he looked at her first thing in the morning, and followed her instincts. She knew that if she focused her mind on him, she would end up where he was. It was something she felt in her heart, right down to its very darkest corner.
As Nikki made her way through the woods of Red Creek, she began to understand that she was very close to dying. She wasn’t sure if she had just enough mortal influence within her body to die of natural means or if she had to be killed in the manner of a vampire to die. And quite frankly, she didn’t
want to find out. All Nikki knew was that she was in immense pain form the Guard’s attack and that her vision was getting increasingly poor as she continued into the forests.
Her foot struck a root and she went falling to the ground. She struck her side and the pain of the recent fight came back tenfold. She wailed out, pretty sure that she had never experienced this kind of pain in her life—not even during the particularly unpleasant phase of her turning.
Nikki was certain that at least one shard of glass from the library’s door had gone a bit too deep and punctured something. There was a twisting sort of burn in her left side and everything from her armpit to her waist either felt as if it were on fire or totally paralyzed.
Nikki thought that she was no more than a mile or so from Saul’s cabin, but she was so disoriented that she couldn’t be sure. Even when she stopped moving, the ground, trees, and sky all seemed to still be on the move, rushing by in different directions all around her.
She started weeping. She couldn’t help it. The pain was beyond intense and she could feel it tugging her toward some unnamable dark place—a mental space that would never allow her to beat the Guard.
With the world still spinning and her legs moving only because her most inner instincts demanded them to, she nearly collided with the two people that stood before her. They seemed to come out of nowhere and when Nikki came to a stop, she nearly fell over. She braced herself against a nearby tree, sure that these two figures were Guard members.
Instead, she saw another familiar face—one that angered and appalled her.
Nikki opened her mouth to say something but no words came. She tasted blood in the back of her mouth. She wanted to spit it at the pair in front of her.
Gestalt and Paula stood before her as if they were simply out on a leisurely stroll. Gestalt looked different somehow—far different than Nikki remembered him from the fight at Filth Camp.
“It’s okay,” Gestalt said. “I’m not here to hurt you. I want to help you.”
Nikki gave him a wary glance even as she began to sway on her feet. She heard his voice as a muffled echo and as she stared at him, his body slowly lost its shape – turning almost ghostlike.
My God, she thought, I’m dying.
Gestalt took a stride towards her, followed by Paula. They said something to one another. Paula nodded and went to Nikki’s side. Nikki turned her head sleepily, realizing that the color was beginning to slip out of everything, like the world was some weirdly over-moistened water color painting.
“Can you talk?” Gestalt asked.
“Maybe,” Nikki said and she had no idea why it sounded so funny. She had to focus just to get that word out.
“Well don’t,” Gestalt said. “We’re going to help you. Are you trying to get to Saul?”
Nikki nodded.
“Okay. Do you trust me?”
Nikki shook her head. No.
“Too bad,” Paula said, placing an arm around Nikki. Nikki leaned into the woman, allowing her to take her weight; the relief from her feet and tortured left side was blissful.
Nikki was dimly aware that Gestalt was at her other side and that, together, the two of them were lifting her. Her left side seized up a bit but then relaxed as she felt them carrying her forward.
“The Guard is already here,” Gestalt said. “We met Benali last night. I imagine the rest of them can’t be far behind.”
Nikki knew that she should be troubled by this bit of news, but the worry seemed to slide right off of her. She felt tired all of a sudden, like she could sleep for a hundred years.
She watched the tops of the trees pass by in a blur of fading colors as a man that she knew as her enemy carried her to what she hoped was safety.
5
Kara had slept on and off for what had remained of the night and well into the morning. When she awoke at ten thirty in the morning, she felt fuzzy but ultimately refreshed. Her shoulders were sore; she found herself wishing that she were waking up next to Jess. She missed him in a detached way and found it hard to believe that he was dead.
But Kara had no time for remorse—no time for sentimentality. There were tumultuous times ahead that she was pretty certain might mean her death. She needed to remain focused, no matter how unbelievable the circumstances were getting.
As she put on a cup of coffee and got dressed, her cell phone rang. Kara grabbed it and was surprised to see that it was Malcolm Talbot, an officer from the Red Creek PD. She had never known Malcolm well and couldn’t figure out why he was calling. Sure that it couldn’t be good news on the other end, Kara answered the call.
“Hello?”
“Kara. Hey. It’s Malcolm. Are you still in town?”
“Yeah,” she said. “How about you?”
“No. I left about fifteen minutes ago. Packed up the wife and kids and got the hell out. Kara…what’s happening there. Do you know?”
“No, I don’t,” she lied.
“You should get out, too,” Malcolm said. “When we were leaving, I saw…I saw something when we passed by the library. There was something standing in front of the library. Something tall. Like a monster….Kara…I don’t know how to even explain it and I—”
“Malcolm, it’s okay,” Kara said. “Just keep going. Don’t stop.” Then she thought she might as well get some information out of him. She hadn’t yet gotten an outsider’s perspective of what had happened in Red Creek.
“Still there, Kara?”
“Yeah. Malcolm, can you tell me anything else about what you saw before you left town?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“I’m still here in the middle of it,” Kara reminded him. “I just need to hear it from someone else.”
Malcolm chuckled. “I thought it was zombies at first, like in those shitty movies. But it was vampires, Kara. Vampires. For real. I saw at least twenty people die, right in front of me and when I tried shooting the damned things, it didn’t do anything. And then that thing on the library lawn right when I was leaving town…it looked like a giant.”
The Guard, maybe… Kara thought.
“Thanks, Malcolm. Now please, get going and don’t turn back.”
“Why don’t you do the same?”
“I will. Thanks, Malcolm.”
Kara ended the call and for a moment she wanted to take Malcolm’s advice. She wanted to get into her car and haul ass out of Red Creek.
But this was her business right now, whether she liked it or not. And apparently, the fight was underway. If the Guard was already in town, what did that mean? Had things already started without the Marked being notified?
It made her nervous. And honestly, it made her feel a little left out.
With hands that were beginning to shake with the knowledge of what was to come, Kara studied her phone for a moment. After only the slightest hesitation, she started calling every member of the Marked.
CHAPTER FIVE
1
Saul was amazed at how quickly Polyxia was able to eliminate the pain Magdeline had inflicted upon him. The stinging sensation of the black substance was nothing more than a phantom itch by the time Polyxia was done. Saul had never fully understood magic but as he watched Polyxia at work, he came to appreciate it on a whole different level.
Saul made his way to the couch where he stretched out and caught his breath. “Do you know where Jill and Nikki are?” he asked the old witch.
“They went out to the library to see if they could find anything about Red Creek that might help with the coming battle. But…” She paused here, tilting her head up and pondering something. “I sense something is amiss.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. I think—”
She was interrupted by a shout from outside the cabin. It had been no more than twenty minutes since Magdeline had made her retreat and to think that something else could already have potentially gone bad made Saul feel true panic for the first time in his life. This was all happening far too quickl
y.
Saul got up, alarmed by the shouting male voice coming from the front yard. He walked through the doorway—less than three feet away from where Magdeline had gone sailing through the wall—and stepped onto the porch.
When he saw Gestalt standing in his front yard, he felt white hot anger flooding through his body. But then he saw what Gestalt was carrying in his arms and the anger faded into something deeper than sorrow.
Nikki.
Saul raced down the stairs, ignoring the weakness that still lingered in the wake of Magdeline’s attack. As he neared Gestalt and his mate – Paula, Saul thought her name was – he was surprised to see genuine sorrow in Gestalt’s eyes. Saul did not spend too much time considering Gestalt’s apparent change of heart, however; in that moment, he cared nothing about Gestalt and his motives. All he cared about was Nikki and the fact that she was covered in blood and shards of glass.
“I got her here as fast as I could,” Gestalt said. “She was doing okay for a while propped against us but then she just passed out.”
“What happened?” Saul roared as he snatched Nikki’s limp body from Gestalt’s arms.
“The Guard. They’re here,” Gestalt said. “We missed what happened, but from the little bit Nikki was able to tell us before she passed out, she and your sister went head to head with a few members of the Guard: Moorcheh, Dominiscus, Aimon, and Benali.”
Holding Nikki to him, Saul was relieved to find that she was still alive. Her blood was warm against him. Given that Nikki’s blood still closely resembled that of a mortal’s, Saul found himself grudgingly admiring the amount of restraint Gestalt had shown in getting her back to him.
“Magdeline was here, too,” Saul said as he carried Nikki towards the cabin. “She and Polyxia fought and she made a hasty retreat.”
“Polyxia?” Gestalt said. “They fought?”
“Yes,” Saul said as they entered the cabin. He didn’t particularly like the fact that Gestalt and Paula followed him into the cabin uninvited. Still, had Gestalt not been there to help Nikki, she might have never made it back to Saul. He owed the Rogue now, and Saul was not a man to go back on a debt such as this one.
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