by Alana Melos
What have you done with her? I snarled as I looked at him.
Out of my mind! he commanded. The psychic representation of him looked strong, powerful, and young. He raised his arms and warded the blows I gave him, using his crimson red to make shields. Each blow I struck caused him to shrink away, and the red glow to dull little by little. I assaulted him with everything I was, enhanced by Thomas’ fading boost and my emotions. I sunk my hands into his meager psychic boundaries and ripped them away. He might have been strong-willed, but without his magical wards this playground was mine.
It was all brute force, no finesse or strategy to it. I wanted him out of her. I needed him out. I heard the Siren shouting from somewhere far away as she covered my back, protecting me against the other magi who tried to save their boss. I was vulnerable, open and naked to assault. If it weren’t for the Nacht Sirene, I likely would have died while I bullied my way through his wards. If I pulled away now to help her, he’d get his wards back up and I’d never get in again as my strength and boost faded. It was now or never.
I shoved his consciousness aside with a contemptuous look as I looked for Adira, shouting for her. Her presence was conspicuously absent, fueling my anger even more. Where are you? I called as I swum deeper into his mind. His red darkness engulfed me, displaying horrific images from his past. The mutilated dead, the blood on his hands, the legions of innocents which had suffered under his experiments… all these and more moved past me. His sadistic streak mirrored mine. It expressed differently, but the pleasure he took in his defilements was unmistakable. With effort, I shook it off, focusing on my search. I called out, looking for her cool confidence and soft voice. The feel of her skin against mine and the smell of her perfume were the lights I used to search.
Caprice? came a weak, wavering voice.
Adira? I asked, moving that direction. Pain cascaded through me as my body was hit by something. I was too deep in his mind to know how bad it was. Where are you?
Here…. came the whispered reply.
I moved with purpose, angling towards the voice. When I emerged, I found myself in a blood soaked laboratory at the very bowels of his mind. Adira lay on an operating table, strapped down with rusty leather restraints. She struggled weakly against them as the shadows moved around us, and the dead whispered.
“Adira?” I asked, hearing my voice as if I were talking. When you went this deep into someone’s head, it was more real than reality. Hyperreal was the best term I had for it.
“No,” she said, her voice weak.
“Huraiva,” I said as I willed a knife into existence and cut her free. As she sat up and rubbed her ankles and wrists, I asked, “Where’s Adira?”
She turned her sad brown eyes down and shook her head. “Gone.”
“What do you mean, ‘gone’? She can’t just… he can’t….” Cold rage filled me as my voice trailed off. Of course he could. She was a vampire; he was a necromancer. Maybe he couldn’t remove Huraiva’s human soul, but he certainly could the vampiric spirit which resided within her.
Like a streak of hellfire from the depths of Hades, I flew up the layers of his mind to where his consciousness stood. He’d taken the time to start constructing his wards and defenses anew, and I battered them aside. I didn’t need Thomas’ boost or Clarity to fuel my power. Rage did that, which gave me all the strength I would ever need.
Launching myself at him, I dug into his psychic body with my bare hands. I ripped out chunks of his psyche. It manifested as raw red meat which smelled like garbage. My rage and hunger for sensation drove me onward. I lusted after Richter’s death. I put every ounce of my energy into my assault. Like a skyfaring raptor, I dove down on my prey, intent on devouring him. His mind became clear to me, and his pretty colors swum into view. Predominant among them was a fat yellow thread, colored pale and sickly: fear, fear of me specifically. I watched it spring into existence, and laughed myself sick over it. He hadn’t been afraid of me before, but now he was.
Faintly, from the back of his mind, I heard Huraiva actually ask for mercy for this thing inside of her body, which drove me on even more. Determined, I grabbed the intruder in her mind, the interloper who had been the cause of this tragedy. Every thread I touched fed me. His emotions and thoughts spilled into my mind one over another, until they mixed together, confusing my senses. I balled them all up and squeezed them in my mental hand, white hot rage and red hot hunger overwhelming me. With a jerk, I snapped them free. When I tilted my head back, I drew on something from behind the block. It bulged, and the barriers I’d thrown up hastily in my head bent, but they held, allowing me to complete my action.
I swallowed him whole.
Sweet satisfaction filled me as I consumed all of him. Every bit of him which made the man what he was was mine to devour. My rage abated, leaving behind a sweet contentment the likes of which I’d never felt before. I had no want for sex or violence, no need to move onward or push forward. I was content.
Huraiva’s visage swum into view, glazed with yellow. She was scared of me too, oh-fucking-well. “What did you do?”
Something shifted inside of me, a faint voice echoing the question. “I ate him,” I said, then gave a laugh. Maybe I was a cannibal after all, just a psychic one.
“I don’t think you should have done that,” she said.
I seized her neck and lifted her up. Her will was no match for mine, and would never be. She was weak and useless and not who I wanted. “I think you should keep your fucking opinions to yourself,” I snarled, then released her. The sweet contentment which had filled me only a second ago had vanished, leaving behind unspent fury and directionless grief. “Adira’s gone for good. Her … spirit’s been destroyed.” I knew this was true. I didn’t have to ask, I simply knew. Hell, I had a memory of it which bloomed into life from Richter’s point of view. After I had collapsed, he’d overpowered the vampire easily, and his minions had knocked the Siren out. Blood poured from his nose, and he’d known he was going to die within moments of an aneurysm that my mental attack had caused. He didn’t have time to do anything else except an experimental spell, to call on the darkest of the death gods he knew to transfer his essence into Adira’s body. And now in possession of her body, he saw a way to maybe… just maybe… fool people long enough to get the answer the Reich had been seeking and take down the spell the witch had cast, trapping them in Axis. He hollowed out her spirit and wore her like a second skin, like Ed Gein had done with actual skin.
What did you do? Richter said from somewhere in my mind.
The same thing you did to her, I replied, understanding that I’d take his psyche into myself. I cast him down into the depths of my mind and constructed a cage, just to hold him temporarily until I could take care of the situation and exorcise him from my mind. In the meantime….
He screamed as the cage grew chains and hooks, the idea of Hell coming to my mind from a movie somewhere. They tore him apart slowly, bleeding him through a thousand psychic wounds as Huraiva’s consciousness shook mine.
“I’m here, but we need to go.” Sounds of battlecontinued around us, though fainter and more sporadic. With a thought, I pushed us back to awareness. When I opened my eyes, the other mages were gone or dead, half eaten by Wolf, or blasted to bits by Erasmus. Lee stood to the side, his hands giving off the fog of cold as he waited to see who would win the mental confrontation. The Nacht Sirene nursed a bloody lip and a bruised face as she scouted the immediate area looking for more threats.
When the both of us moved, the Siren tensed and Lee raised his hands, ready to blast ice. “It’s me,” I said.
“Adira!” Rebekah said, bounding forward with her arms outstretched for an exuberant hug. She drew up short as Huraiva shook her head. Lowering her arms, the diminutive soldier blinked her wide eyes “What happened?”
“She’s gone,” I said with all the grace of a hammer. Richter’s screams from the depths of my darkness made me flinch.
Huraiva gave a half a sob as Lee l
ooked confused and Rebekah looked hurt. “And Richter?” the Siren asked, then pressed her lips together.
“He is too,” I said as I surveyed the damage they’d done. Hearing a choked sound from her, I glanced over my shoulder. “You won’t have to worry about him ever again.”
Epilogue
It was a swift matter of going back to Italy, and catching a ride home from there after contacting the witch to let down the barrier for a few minutes. Alistair was out of it. Outwardly, he looked fine, together and imposing. On the inside, I knew he hurt. I saw the haunted expression in his eyes when he thought no one was looking, and the silent words he formed with his lips, words which should never be spoken aloud. He longed for the madness, with almost as much fervor as he hated it. He was going to be useless save for research from now on. I had known better, but it was worth a shot. An untested weapon was a useless weapon.
Rebekah took him home. We didn’t speak about the hand. It weighed on her, even though she got back into the habit of using her right hand once more, as if she’d never lost it. I congratulated myself again on taking care of Richter. I poked at his cage in my mind, delighted with my cleverness. I hadn’t even known that shit was possible. That had been what I was looking for my entire life. It was muted by the fact that we had failed. One of us had died. The irony was the immortal among us had died.
Lee split after Rebekah and Alistair left. He shakily patted Huraiva on the shoulder, gave me an inscrutable look, then wished ‘you bitches’ a good night. Good riddance. He annoyed the hell out of me, even though he’d been pretty quiet on our return. That left me, Rory, and Huraiva.
“Let’s head home,” Rory said.
“No,” I said, looking at Huraiva. “It’s not her home.”
Huraiva winced, but looked resigned. “It’s not her fault Adira’s gone,” he said. I glanced at him, but he refused to back down. “It’s not. She’s human. Where else is she going to go?”
“Anywhere else?” I said. Gesturing to her, I spit out, “She’s not even protesting. She knows.”
“You’re just going to let her walk?”
Red tinged grief pulled at me, and I shook my head. “It’s not that, Wolf. It’s--”
“Seeing me is too much of a reminder,” Huraiva said, cutting through my harsh words with gentle ones. When we both turned to her, she looked resigned, but not sad. She’d known this was coming, and wasn’t hurt by it. I stretched out with my telepathy, and found her sad, yes, but relieved. “And now,” she continued, “I’m a liability, not an asset.”
I nodded in agreement. Rory relaxed, though his face fell. “You don’t have to go,” he insisted. “Not if you don’t want to.”
She shook her head, her wild curls bouncing. “No,” she said. “It’s not my life. It was Adira’s.” Huraiva took a big breath, and exhaled slowly. Though tiny yellow ribbons of fear still floated in her thoughts, a deep placid blue had mostly colored her. “I was so afraid to try and live before. Life was… it was terrible. I wanted to die, so I gave myself to her. So many years later, now that she’s gone, maybe I can find the courage to live.”
I rolled my eyes at such a Hallmark moment, but Rory stepped forward and took her hands in his. “You’ll always be pack to me,” he said. “Where you gonna go?”
“My girlfriend’s, for now,” she said as she squeezed his hands. Letting go, she put her hand into a pocket and brought out the small carved wolf and offered it to him. “She wanted you to have this,” Huraiva said. “Richter never bothered to empty out the pockets or change jackets.”
He took it and glanced down. When Rory looked back up, his face was screwed up like he was trying not to cry. “Thank you.”
With a sob, she threw her arms around him and hugged him. I managed to bite down on my groan and look away, annoyed. I didn’t hold anything against her, really. She just wasn’t who I wanted. And, she was right. She was just a liability now. Better to cut ties cleanly. I walked away to let them say their goodbyes. I had other shit to do anyway. That, and the stupid pollen Wolf inevitably let loose everywhere was bothering my eyes.
I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Gerard. He picked up after a couple of rings.
“Where’ve you been?” he asked, his voice sour.
“Why hello, Caprice, my how it’s good to hear from you, everything going ok? Why thanks, Ger, it’s going fine, how’re you?”
“Hmph,” he grunted. “Where have you been?”
“You’re not my father, old man,” I said. “Though if you play your cards right, I might let you spank me.”
“Hmm,” he said, his voice changed in a heartbeat. “Though I have to ask since three’s the magic number. Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you since you pulled your last job.”
“Axis,” I said, and gave him a quick rundown. At the end, I finished with, “And so I need your help to keep that block sealed up, nice and tight. I don’t think I can do it by myself, telepathy or no telepathy.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?” he asked, his voice cautious and careful. I frowned as I came to a stop under a street lamp. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Rory and Huraiva talking a block away or so. Rory wiped at his eyes and I rolled mine for the millionth time tonight. I might be feeling sad because Adira was gone, but I wasn’t going to cry in front of anyone. Again. “Maybe it’s for the best to tear it down and let everything come… you know, out. If it’s repressed memories and all that.”
“I don’t think soURGHK!” I dropped the phone as my body convulsed. Electricity flowed through me as I got tased… and not the little bitty tasers they used on normal people. Oh, no. This was a heavy duty cattle prod type taser, stiffening my muscles and rendering them useless. I reached for my teke to lift me up, see who was attacking me, but when I tried to use it, it was like I didn’t have any powers at all.
The electricity stopped, leaving me panting. Strong hands lifted me up. I struggled, but weak as a newborn, the struggling didn’t amount to much. My arms were forced behind my back. As feeling and motor control came back, I turned my head to see what was going on, and blinked in surprise as I saw Septimus standing there.
“What?” I asked, my voice thick and rough from the impromptu shock therapy.
He ignored me and turned to the side where a nondescript Latino man stood. “Thanks, Null,” he said as he clapped on the massive power negating bracelet the cops had in this world. It took up almost my entire forearm, unlike the dainty unit the Axis and Origin folks had. “You can let go now.”
“What the fuck is this?” I snarled, feeling more of my sassafrass come back as the tasing wore off. As I struggled in the cops’ grasp, I glanced behind me where Rory and Huraiva had been. They were gone. “What are you doing, Septimus?”
“Working with ICPD to bring in a dangerous and deadly criminal,” he replied, his blue eyes stern and his handsome mouth set.
“It is for the best,” a feminine voice said on the other side of me. I turned and saw Lee’s red-haired sister Haika standing there, her Asian features looking exotic coupled with her snow white skin. “You are dangerous, but you can be rehabilitated.”
“You guys both know about the deal with Imperius,” I snarled, struggling in Septimus’ strong grip. “So let me the fuck go right goddamn now, you cocksuckers!”
“Oh, it was only for crimes you were wanted for at the time,” another familiar feminine voice said. Bluecoat stepped into view, her ICPD uniform perfect down to the last crisp crease. Her blue hair was tied back in a ponytail, and her eight feet of height towered over me. “Not for the crimes you weren’t wanted for then.”
“What crimes are that?” I demanded.
“It gives me such great pleasure to say that Capricious Whim, you are under arrest for murder--”
“Assault with a deadly weapon,” Septimus interjected. Well, that was fair. I did stab him after all.
“Theft, breaking and entering,” Haika continued. “As well as conspiracy to commit those crimes… and
others.”
Bluecoat cracked her gloved knuckles. “So are you going to come peacefully, or do I get to exercise a little police brutality?”
I looked around. Those three weren’t alone, and they were all metahumans. While Septimus wasn’t that impressive in the offense department, Haika and Bluecoat were. In addition to them, a half dozen of ICPD’s finest stood, all with guns drawn. I glanced at Haika and swore that Lee would pay for this. He had to have been the one to rat me out, that little fucking rat bastard.
I weighed the odds, and they weren’t in my favor. “I’ll come peacefully,” I said, relaxing so that Septimus loosened his grip.
Well… fuck.
VILLAINESS #5:
THE QUEEN OF DISKS
ebook Edition | Copyright ©2017 Alana Melos
Cover Art & Design by Rev. Jotham “Pipes” Talbot Copyright ©2017
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