Saul turned to Gestalt, hoping to help the Rogue up. What he saw made him pause.
Gestalt was still lying on the ground. The metal spike Magdeline had held protruded from his chest; it had been shoved through his heart. The Rogue was already motionless, and his blood poured freely onto the sidewalk. His eyes were glossy and blank, staring into the sky.
Saul turned back to face Magdeline just in time to see her swinging a large chunk of concrete at his face. It smashed into his skull and he went to the ground instantly. He tried pushing himself up but Magdeline was on top of him at once. Her warm flesh felt like Heaven through Saul's clothes for a split second but after that, there was a fierce pressure as she pushed him to the ground and wrapped her slender yet powerful arms around his neck.
6
Moorcheh was close to defeat. Even with Saul and Gestalt gone, the Guard was outnumbered six to two — not good odds by any stretch.
Still, Moorcheh and Benali fought hard, using every bit of magic that their mortal bodies could contain. It did them little good. Jill, Nikki, and Kara easily matched the Guard in terms of swiftness, and their numbers helped balance out the Guard's strength.
The Marked didn’t have to do much. When Saul and Gestalt left, Kara requested that they act as a border of sorts. Penny, Ray, and Paul had all fanned out and trained their guns on the battle between Nikki, Jill, Kara, Moorcheh, and Benali. If either surviving member of the Guard attempted to escape, the Marked were to open fire.
The only shot fired was from Paul’s gun. Benali, having had enough of his beating at the hands of Nikki and Jill, tried to leap over the Marked. He got a shot in the gut for his trouble. Benali fell to the ground in a bloody heap and simply gave up. When Kara approached him and sank her teeth into his neck, draining his life, Benali almost seemed relieved. There was very little blood in the creature but it did not matter. Kara shredded his neck open with a ferocity she had never known as a human.
Moorcheh, on the other hand, was not as grateful for his death. He fought tooth and nail, managing to land a single blow against his enemies for every four or five he took. One of his eyes had swollen shut and he could barely stand on his left leg after Jill had delivered a kick that had dislocated his knee.
“You’ll all die one day,” Moorcheh said, having long given up on boasting and empty threats. “And on your death beds you’ll have to realize that at no point in your lives were you ever as powerful as I was.”
“Strong talk from a man that can’t even stand up right now,” Nikki said, delivering a roundhouse kick that connected squarely with Moorcheh's bloodied face.
Nikki moved to pounce on him, just to fall back as Jill held a hand out and shook her head. “Let’s not torture him. That’s something the Guard would have done. Let’s just end it.” She then looked down to Moorcheh and gave him a long and calculated look. “Choose who you’d like to send you out of this world,” she said.
Moorcheh responded by spitting in her face. Most of it was blood.
“You’ve made a fine choice,” Jill smiled.
With that, she raised her foot and brought it down hard on Moorcheh's neck. The snapping noise was brittle. Behind Jill, Penny winced at the sound; still, her expression was almost satisfied.
The six of them looked around to one another, as if not sure what to do next.
Jill took a moment to sit down, looking around in a dreamlike state. She had just participated in the downfall of a supernatural force that had bound all supernatural entities for centuries. And now that it was over, she didn’t quite understand how her life was ever going to be the same.
“Are you okay?” Nikki asked, coming to her side.
“I think so,” Jill said. “It’s just—I don’t know. I know this should feel monumental but it’s just too much, you know.”
Nikki nodded, but seemed distracted.
“Are you okay?” Jill asked.
She nodded again, but seemed to be somewhere else. Even the Marked had noticed her peculiar look. They came around Nikki and Jill, waiting for guidance.
Slowly, Jill started to get to her feet as an expression similar to Nikki’s spread across her face. She started looking nervously around the forest, her eyes growing wide with alarm.
“What?” Kara said. “Is everything okay?”
“No,” Nikki and Jill said, nearly in unison.
“It’s Saul,” Nikki said. “He’s in trouble.”
The two women went running in the direction Saul and Gestalt had taken less than twenty minutes ago, and the Marked followed obediently behind.
CHAPTER FIVE
1
Only once in his nearly nine hundred years of life had Saul been faced with the grim reality of death. He could barely even remember the specifics of that time. All he remembered was some overzealous tribesman catching him totally off guard and nearly driving a stake through his heart when he had been feeding in the wilds outside of Haiti in the early 1800s. That night remained a blur to him… as was everything that was currently before his eyes.
The grip that Magdeline had on his neck was like that of a python. But it wasn’t just her physical strength; the very essence of her power—even when stripped of her immortal form—was that men wanted to be touched by her. So although he could barely breathe and he could sense himself choking and inching closer to death, Saul could not help but enjoy the feel of Magdeline's hands on him. Her slender arms resting against his shoulders, her ample breasts on his back and the heat of her sex pressed hard against him… it was all comforting. Her touch beckoned him softly, almost like a lover, towards death.
Of course, Magdeline couldn’t kill him by cutting off his air. She simply needed his conscious mind out of the way. Once he passed out, she’d impale him or decapitate him.
Saul clung to rationality against the onslaught of Magdeline's charm. He knew it was a losing battle, however; soon, he would be unable to resist her appeal, would be powerless over the temptation of simply letting go — of giving up. So Saul made one last gamble: He sent a mental message to Jill and Nikki at the same time, putting what seemed like the last of his strength behind it. Whether the message made it through Magdeline's magic, he had no idea. All he could do was hope.
“I’m not sure why you’re fighting this,” Magdeline was saying, voice soft in his ear. “I can feel the desire in you. You want this. You want me. You want to let me kill you. Don’t you?”
Saul was unable to speak. His neck felt as if it was in a vice. He felt himself needing to cough but could not push air up through his lungs.
Then he saw his opening. Magdeline was getting cocky and, as always, slightly too enamored with herself. She loosened her grip around Saul's neck and slid a hand down his chest. She dug her fingernails into the fabric of his shirt and raked them up softly. As she did this, she gyrated against his back, making sure that he felt the heat of her. He was actually surprised to find that she was wet. He had always assumed that Magdeline did what she did as a means to an end. To find that she actually had urges, just like a normal woman, was something new. Sensing her letting up and enjoying the torture she was inflicting, Saul used all of the energy he could summon to push himself up from the ground. As soon as his muscles tensed, Magdeline reclaimed her grip, but Saul had moved just enough to allow for a meager attack. As he sprang up to his feet, he let himself fall back to the ground, this time on his back. As he fell, with Magdeline still clinging to him, he managed to rock his head backwards, landing a head-butt that produced a harsh cracking sound. The move hurt his own head, but the sound it created was beyond satisfying.
Magdeline let out a surprised shout and then, as they hit the ground, a sinister laugh. She pulled on his neck harder and bit into his shoulder. The pain was insignificant but the pulse of lust it sent through him was repulsive.
Magdeline slid her arms further down Saul's body, locking them around his chest. He fought against her as he gasped in glorious air, but he was too drained to do much damage. With her arms st
ill locked, she tilted her hips and rolled him over. It was a violent move but somehow sensual at the same time. When she was done, Saul was lying on top of her. They were face to face, their bodies perfectly aligned. He was pressed hard against her and he could feel her breasts beneath him and, God help him, he wanted to bury his face between them and suffocate.
“I don’t see what you’re so upset about,” Magdeline said. “Do you know how many men would die perfectly happy while lying on top of a gorgeous woman?”
“You’re no woman,” Saul said. “And I don’t intend to die.”
Saul angled his head and tried to head butt her again. But Magdenlie saw through his actions and tilted her head to the side. She took advantage of his disorientation and kissed him - if what she did could be called kissing. Magdeline kissed Saul with the ferocity of a hard right handed punch, sending more emotions than he could identify storming through his head and heart.
Saul broke the kiss with a scream, flexing his arms and managing to break Magdeline's physical hold over him as well. He rolled over and got to his knees. He tried getting to his feet, but Magdeline was too swift. She threw a high knee that connected with Saul's jaw, sending him to the ground directly beside Gestalt’s corpse. Desperate, Saul sought the only weapon at hand — he pried the twisted metal stake from Gestalt’s body and wheeled around in a flash.
Magdeline saw the attack coming but wasn’t able to move back fast enough. The make-shift weapon caught her just below her navel, deep enough to draw blood. Magdeline winced, but continued smiling at Saul. She extended her hands and shot out a small pulse of white light that struck Saul squarely in the chest. He went to the ground again, feeling as if a car had just hit him.
Magdeline stalked over with a seductive smile on her face. She was bleeding from the wound in her side but seemed oblivious to both the blood and the pain that accompanied it. Her own bloodlust was too strong. She knelt down, at Saul's side, and looked him with eyes filled with fury and something very much like pleasure.
“I’m going to kill you,” she said. “I’m going to kill you and end your clan. And then I’ll build the Guard all over again. But first, you’re going to give me what I want.”
With that, she reached over and unbuttoned Saul's pants. He tried to crawl away but was unable to move, Magdeline's magic buzzing beneath his skin. He realized that he was temporarily paralyzed. The exception, of course, being the stirring he felt below his waist as Magdeline unzipped his pants, reached in, and cradled his manhood. She stroked him with eerie care, making him fully erect in just a matter of seconds.
“I may kill you in the middle of it,” she said. “It really just depends on how good you are.”
Magdeline crawled on top of him, straddling him and positioning herself over him. She brushed herself lightly against his sex and Saul spat in her face. Magdeline only smiled in response. She lowered herself and bit him playfully on the chin. Then she tilted her hips and he could feel her heat. Her next move would be a gentle easing down onto him and then he’d be inside of her. And God help him, he wanted it badly.
“Many men have killed for what I am about to give you for free,” she said, running her hands through her hair. “Enjoy it while you can.”
He tried to fight, still unable to move.
She was breathing hard, tilting her hips and—
Magdeline's eyes went wide and Saul felt something wet and warm on his chest.
Saul peered over her bare shoulder and saw Nikki standing behind her. She had plunged a large picket from a fence through Magdeline’s back, pushing it all the way through her chest where it came out just above her left breast.
“Oversexed, horny bitch,” Nikki spat.
Magdeline fell to the side, gasping for air as blood erupted from the wound. She gripped the pointed end of the stake as if she intended to pull it free. But in the end, her fingers only grazed the side of it. She looked up to Nikki with surprise and hate. She opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was blood.
Nikki knelt by Saul and checked his vitals. “Are you okay?” she said.
“I've been caught with my pants down, it seems,” he joked. “But I’m okay. She hit me with something…not sure what it was. I can’t move.”
“I can probably figure out how to fix that,” she said. “I’m just starting to understand exactly what Polyxia left me with.”
“The rest of the Guard,” Saul said. “Are they—?”
“All dead.”
“No more Guard,” Saul said.
“Yeah. No more Guard.”
Saul saw Jill standing over Gestalt’s body, looking sadly down at him. She then looked back down the street, towards the peaks of trees that rose up over the buildings. He knew what she was thinking because he could feel the same worry in himself.
They had saved the town but not the people. Aside from defeating the Guard, had they really saved anything at all?
He didn’t know. And for now, it was too much to think about.
Saul lay there and did his best to calm himself while Nikki rested her hands on him and learned the ways of Polyxia’s magic as she tried to heal him.
2
An hour later, the Marked arrived along the same street that Saul had battled Magdeline. They were crammed in Kara’s car and when they all got out, Saul was impressed at how confident they seemed. Everything that they had been through together had cemented their union. Kara, leading them towards him, was going to make a fine leader.
Penny, Ray, and Paul all looked tired and beaten. Paul was walking with a bit of a limp and Penny was holding her arm close to her body as if she had sprained or broken something.
After some trial and error with her newly acquired powers, Nikki had managed to break the paralysis that Magdeline’s final blow had caused. Saul was still sore all over and the memory of just how close to death he had come clung to the forefront of his mind.
They made a circle in the center of the street. Saul was still sitting on the sidewalk, his arms resting on his knees. Jill and Nikki sat to either side of him. Every member of the Marked remained on their feet, as if not quite trusting that the worst of it was over.
Overhead, the sky was perfectly blue. The day was beautiful. Saul wondered if the silence and eerie calm of Red Creek was what it felt like to walk through a ghost town in the American west.
“Forgive the stupid question,” Ray said, “but is that it? If the Guard is all dead, have you won?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Saul said.
“You have to understand,” Jill added. “With the Guard no longer in existence, the supernatural realm will be in disorder. True, the political games that have been held over us all for so long will be no more, but there will be many clans and factions that might try to take advantage of the Guard's presence being gone.”
“What sort of advantage?” Paul asked. He was still holding Kara’s shotgun. It would take some time before any of them truly relaxed.
“There will be vampires of all kinds coming out of the wood work,” Saul said. “Imagine what the general American public would do if every form of government was shut down.”
“But there are other groups that were higher than the Guard, right?” Kara asked. “Magdeline told me as much when she told me about the Marked. The Elders, or something?”
“Yes,” Saul said. “There’s one group, but they are basically sentient. They won’t intervene unless it’s something of worldwide importance.”
Saul stood up then, indicating that he was done talking. Nikki stood up with him, took his hand, and placed her head on his shoulder.
“So what now?” Penny asked.
Saul shrugged. “As the Marked, you and your group can do as you please. I don’t know what your duties are or if you even want to uphold them. But I imagine your services may be called on again in the future.”
Kara smiled briefly at this, as if the news pleased her. “What about you?” she asked.
“I plan on sleeping for
several days,” he said. “But I hope to see you all again soon.”
With that, Saul and Nikki walked away from the group, headed back down the street. Eventually, Jill fell in behind them, giving them their space.
Minutes later, Penny and Ray left. They were also walking hand in hand, wandering down the street like two lovers that had just woken from an especially abstract dream.
“I have nowhere to go,” Paul told Kara as they watched their other companions walking down the street, with sleep and the act of love in their future.
“Do any of us?” Kara asked with a smirk, slapping him playfully on the back.
They sat there for a moment as the quietest afternoon in the history of Red Creek started to wind down. The sun was bright, the sky was clear, and everything was eerily quiet.
To Kara, it felt like the calm before a storm that didn’t know that it was supposed to be on the way.
CHAPTER SIX
1
The ocean was thrumming with a quiet energy that Nikki could feel in her muscles. It fed in through the shore and channeled up across the beach to where she stood on the edge of a wooden patio, looking out as the sun set on Ascension Island. She and Saul had the place practically to themselves. There were a handful of tourists on the other side, but as far as she knew, they were alone here on the western edge of the island.
Because of the quiet, Nikki was able to focus on the surge of the ocean until she could feel it like a heartbeat. She heard Saul stirring in the small bungalow behind her. He had just come in from a swim, something he had done twice a day for the three days they had been here.
They had left Red Creek two days after the final confrontation with the Guard. From there, Nikki and Saul had travelled to Ireland, where they returned to the castle they had fallen so in love with during Saul's brief stint with the Guard. They had stayed there for a week and had then come to Ascension Island for no other reason than it was remote, beautiful, and Saul had never been there.
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