Crimson Dawn

by Ronnie Massey

  The goon that was bearing down on me drew two huge Bowies from sheaths strapped to his legs, and threw one directly at my head as he ran. I waited until the knife was inches away from me, then I deflected it with a kodachi, sending it flying into the trunk of a nearby tree. The advancing man let loose a booming yell, and lifting his remaining knife high into the air, prepared for a downward blow.

  I tensed my muscles and got better grips on my blades, ready to counter his strike and deliver one of my own, but the strike never came,. At least not in the way I expected. The man actually ran behind me so fast that it resembled a flash and planted the 12-inch blade deep into the small of my back. My mind reeled as it tried to comprehend the mechanics behind a non-Vampire being able to flash. Tristan's blood should never have been able to give him that ability, but it had. I thought Tristan was the only one positioned to come out on top, but the Gullah had just as much to gain from the current arrangement as Tristan did, and they were fighting to hold onto it.

  I yowled in pain and dropped to my knees, then I growled through clenched teeth, “I'm gonna take your head for that.” The blow wouldn't kill me, it would heal in a matter of minutes, but I had to get the blade out, it was in a bad place, and I couldn't afford to take my eyes off my opponent for even a fraction of a second.

  The Gullah goon danced around me rolling his head around on his neck, like a prizefighter preparing to enter the ring. Then he backed up, squatted down to see my face and taunted, "Come on now, lil' lady, you come here talking all that shit and this best you can do?" Then the bastard got cocky, turned his head to look at Aurieux and laugh. Stupid move. I sprang forward, ignoring the pull of the knife in my back, with both of my arms extended. The blades of my kodachis moved through the muscles and bones of his neck like a hot knife through butter. His head hit the ground with a soft thump as I tucked my body into a ball and landed in a roll. As I rolled, I saw Priest with his face tucked firmly against his opponent's neck, taking blood as quickly as he could, replenishing what he'd lost in their fight.

  As my momentum slowed down, I screamed with the pain. I'd felt the hilt of the knife break off with the force of my landing, and, with each turn my body made, the blade traveled farther into my flesh. When I finally stopped rolling, I lay spread eagle on the ground with the tip of the blade poking out of my stomach, and the hard sheath's of my kodachis pressing into my back adding to the discomfort. I looked up towards the stars, and Priest was peering down at my face. "How bad?" he asked. Priest’s eyes darted from me to Aurieux who slowly walked towards us.

  "Hurts,” I said softly through clenched teeth, “But I'll do, just get the blade out now."

  Priest didn't waste any time trying to prepare me for the serrated blade's exit through my stomach. He just got a grip and pulled in one swift movement. The instant the broken knife hit the ground, Priest was up and standing over my body, ready for a fight with Aurieux. "You can stop where you are, and we can take you into the CMS for interrogation, or I wax your ass up and down your own yard, and then we can take you in," he called out. "The choice is yours, Aurieux."

  Aurieux stopped not five feet away from us and began yelling, "You come to my city and start stirring up shit. You come to my house and kill my brothers, then think to give me orders. Fuck you, dead man! The only thing you gonna do is die!"

  Priest charged without hesitation. He slammed into an invisible brick wall that knocked him back a few feet. Priest growled, crouched down for a leap, and launched himself into the air in an attempt to try to scale the barrier in his way. I felt the rush of air and a light buzz pass across my skin as a spell slammed into Priest's body. He hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, and began writhing in pain. My body had already started to heal. The bleeding had stopped, and surface layers of skin had knitted back together, but full healing would take at least three more minutes. I was helpless. I focused my ears on the street behind us, and prayed I'd hear the squeal of tires that would signal Irulan's arrival, but I got nothing.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  I turned my head towards Priest and saw him with his mouth gaped open in a soundless scream. His body was turning a deep shade of red and little wafts of pink tinged steam were escaping from his pores. "Oh, Jesus," I said with a panicked tone to my voice. I recognized the spell. The same one had killed Amanda Jones and the nurse yesterday, Soul Fire.

  Aurieux was pacing back and forth at our feet. "Tristan told me to spare your life if you came calling at my door, woman, but after what you did, I just can’t do that.” He drew his leg back and landed a fierce kick to my ribs, then kicked my swords out of my immediate reach. The bones gave way and cracked under the impact, I bit down on my lip to keep from crying out.

  "Your boy there gonna bake nice and slow like a damned potato, but you," He went down to his knees and tore my tattered shirt away from my body leaving me in my bra and sheaths. "You, I'm gonna have a little fun with, gonna see what kind of lay you are before I send you on to glory."

  "Touch me and I promise you, instead of a quick and painless death, I'll make sure you die slowly and in excruciating pain," I said, with growing strength in my voice.

  Aurieux humped his hips and palmed my left breast, "Making threats? You're in a bad position for threats. You think I don't see your body healing? I want you strong, wanna feel you bucking beneath me while I'm riding you, but don't let that fool you into thinking I can't handle myself against you. Just look at your friend over there.” I snarled and tried to rise, but I hit a wall of heat so intense it forced me back to the ground.

  Aurieux jerked back and looked at me with a perplexed look plastered to his face. "You know, that spell was meant for the both of you. Don't know why you're not as bad off as your boy there.” He dipped his fingers under the edge of my bra and tweaked my nipple causing it to harden at the touch against my will. "But it don't make no never mind," Aurieux said. "This way works out better anyway."

  I tried again to rise and escape from his touch, but the heat held me down just as securely as the right amount of iron chains could have. "Now, now there,” Aurieux crooned, "I'm about to join you, don't waste any energy that could be best spent one me, baby.” He dropped a quick kiss to the tip of my nose before he stood and began undressing. Articles of clothing began dropping to the ground, first a shirt, then a wife beater. One more minute, I had one more minute before I was fully healed. Hopefully, I was strong enough to break any hold he had on me. Once I did, I was gonna pull his heart from his chest with my bare hands. I looked over to Priest and saw that the same huge blisters as before, were covering his face and arms.

  So much happened in so little time, my mind raced to figure out how far we had actually run and subtracted the fifteen minutes I'd guessed we'd been here from that. If Irulan didn't get here soon, Priest would die his final death. That was assuming the spell wasn't broken when I killed Aurieux.

  The sound of Aurieux's belt unbuckling and the whir of his pants zipper drew my attention back to him. His pants and underwear soon joined the rest of his clothing and he dropped back to his knees, straddling me, his swollen erection coming to a rest against my thigh. I released a growl from the back of my throat as Aurieux leaned down and began kissing me on my neck. "When I'm done with you, you're gonna curse your mother for giving birth to your sorry ass!" I cried savagely.

  I pressed as hard as I could into the cold ground beneath me, as if I could tunnel my way out from under Aurieux by sheer force of will. I concentrated so intensely on everything around me that every blade of grass touching my exposed skin felt as if little knife blades were bearing into my skin. The feel of Aurieux's tongue as it trailed up and down my neck made me close my eyes and grit my teeth. I'd rather be slathered head to toe with dog slobber. I endured the feel of his tongue as it swirled in circles up and down my neck and across the rise of my breast for untold minutes, and then, all of a sudden, his tongue was gone. I opened my eyes and saw nothing but a sprinkling of stars against the night sky above me. I hesitantly l
ifted my hand into the air and found nothing but cool air above me. As I tried again to get up, I found that I could without any problem.

  I rolled over into a low crouch, grabbed my kodachis, and looked back over my shoulder. "You certainly took your sweet, damn time getting here, Irulan."

  Irulan walked by me with one arm extended, the fingers on her hands splayed open and she held Aurieux immobilized in midair. "You try keeping one eye on the screen of a phone and one on the road without causing a wreck," she replied. I stood up, and she took note of my state of undress. "You're covered in blood, but that seems to be the norm for today. What did he do to you?" she asked.

  I pointed to the headless body with the tip of my sword. "He's the guilty party. He ran a big bowie knife through the small of my back, but as you can see I took care of it."

  I sheathed my blades and went to Priest’s side, careful not to touch him for fear of meeting the same fate as the nurse. "I need your help here, Irulan.” I couldn't keep the fear out of my voice as I looked at Priest. Blood bubbled from the corners of his lips, and his skin was dry and flaking off in large patches. Pink tears slid from the corners of his eyes, but the heat emanating from his body evaporated them before they could hit the ground.

  He moaned softly and tried to talk but only succeeded in coughing up more steaming blood. "Irulan, now!" I yelled. "He's dying! It’s Soul Fire, and I don't know what to do!"

  Irulan came to her knees on the opposite side of Priest and passed a hand over him inches from his body. "This isn't Soul Fire. This feels new, something made to mimic the effects.” She moved to catch him on either side of his face, and I reached out and grabbed her hands. "Don't, you can’t touch him. Remember what I told you about the nurse."

  Irulan leaned forward over Priest and frowned, "If this were true Soul Fire, it would have consumed him in under a minute and he wouldn't take others with him. I suspected as much before, but I needed to see for myself. They created Soul Fire to use it as a fast and painless punishment for the condemned. Once the fire hit, it consumed the body almost instantly and cauterized all the nerve endings that deal with pain. This spell is heartless, no better than torture."

  Irulan’s voice had taken on a cadence that was reminiscent of Great Britain in the 1800's. If you want to get a feel for the true age of an Extras, then listen to them talk when they're upset. Their accents and dialects become more prominent when their emotions are running high.

  Priest moaned out loud, and a thick plume of steam escaped from his opened mouth. His blonde hair was drenched in so much sweat it looked closer to brown. Irulan gasped and turned towards Aurieux, "You will fix this now!" The look of calm on her face couldn't mask the storms that swirled in the depths of her eyes. With a simple wave of her hand, Aurieux moved quickly through the air until he was hovering three feet in the air next to us. Once he was close enough, he looked down at the three of us with contempt in his eyes.

  Irulan stood so she could look him in the eye, pointing to Priest as she spoke. "Whatever you did, you will now undo, post haste, before he is too far gone."

  Aurieux looked down at Priest and then spat in Irulan’s face, "Fuck you, go ahead, kill me." Irulan’s glamour faded slightly, and I could see glimpses of her true form beneath the ruse as she fought to keep control of her emotions.

  The fingers of her hand slowly began to come together to form a fist. As they got closer together, Aurieux began to scream out in pain. Under the shrill cries, I could hear the sounds of bones breaking. Irulan clenched her fist into a tight ball and blood began to run from Aurieux's nose. His body trembled in pain, but he still looked at her with defiance in his eyes, "Go ahead, get it over with, Fairie bitch."

  The eerily calm laughter that came from Irulan sent a chill down my back. She looked completely at ease, and she was unafraid of the possibility of failure, although failure would lead to Priest's death. She held her hand out over Priest's body, and as she did so, Aurieux's hand did the same. "It's not often I come up against a magic wielder that can best me, even temporarily, as you did,” she said with a sly look on her face.

  "I don't like it. In fact, I view it as a failure on my part. To me, it means I'm lacking in some area, and I don't handle failure very well.” She went to her knees and lowered her hand, bringing his body closer to Priest's, only then did Aurieux's façade of calm break and reveal how nervous he really was.

  Irulan's calm settled over her like a blanket as she saw him begin to crack. "Since you're so eager to die, why not share the same fate you've consigned my friend to?" Aurieux was now so close to Priest that he had broken out in a sweat from the heat that was radiating off him. When faced with the prospect of being a victim of his own spell, he broke and began begging for his life. "I'll move you once he's safe," Irulan replied as she moved him even closer.

  Aurieux was yelling by this point. "Please, anything you want, just don't let me die like this, please.”

  As he realized that Irulan would actually carry out her threats, and he faced the prospect of his own death, all the bravado Aurieux had displayed earlier flew out the window. It was a side of her I had never seen before, but one she was totally at ease with displaying. I briefly wondered what type of life she'd led when she was an active member of court in Tir Na Nog.

  Finally, Aurieux relented and agreed to release Priest. He struggled to keep his lips steady as he mouthed the words to the incantation that would end Priest's suffering. Once set free, Priest's complexion quickly returned to normal. He took deep breaths, drawing air into lungs that scarcely need it, the act brought on more out of fear than necessity.

  "He's gonna need blood as soon as we can get it, to heal this much damage, Irulan," I said.

  Irulan jerked her hand through the air causing Aurieux to drop to the ground beside Priest. "Here, let him be the generous donor. He made this mess, he can help rectify it.” He tried to crawl away from us, but the broken bones in his arms and legs prevented him from getting very far. I dragged him back by one ankle, lifted him over Priest’s body, and bit into his neck.

  As Vampires feed, we release small amounts of toxins in our saliva that enter our donor’s bloodstream. The toxins, Combined with our glamour, help induce strong emotional responses from those donors. Most of the time, we choose to induce pleasure, but we can also inflict great amounts of pain. Aurieux got pain in spades. When I pulled away from his neck, he was shrieking at the top of his lungs. I held the bleeding wound over Priest lips, letting the blood run down into his mouth.

  The reaction was instantaneous. Priest's arm came up and around Aurieux to hold him tightly against his greedy mouth while he fed. Contrary to what movies may portray, it takes time to drain a Human body of all its blood, two or three minutes just doesn't do it. In reality, it takes about fifteen minutes for a vamp to drain an average sized body, which is yet another reason our Council frowns on total consumption of a Human. The longer you feed from one person while hunting, the greater the chance for being caught, which means exposure.

  Priest fed for five minutes then rolled Aurieux's body off him and jumped up stretching his arms and legs. "Next time, super dyke," he said as he flexed his arm, "We all come at once, no splitting up, even if I have to carry you on my back while I run."

  As far as Priest went, that was a heartfelt 'thank you for saving my skin'. Irulan and I both stood up with smiles on our faces, grateful to whichever god that watched over us for sparing his life. Irulan patted him softly on the side of his face. "I must admit you're growing on me, dead man, but if you call me dyke, lezzy, carpet muncher or any other derogatory remark concerning my taste in lovers one more time, the next time I take your voice, you won’t get it back."

  Priest took a step back with both hands raised in the air in a show of mock surrender. "Whatever you say, Sexy Red, whatever you say.” A low moan of pain from Aurieux drew all our attention back to him. I motioned to Priest, and he hauled him up into the air by the neck. It took a level of control I had no idea I possessed, fo
r me not to sink my hand into his chest and pull out his heart as I threatened. I shifted my face back to normal and ran a hand across my stomach where the knife had been earlier.

  "You realize, Aurieux, you attempted to end the life of two Sentinels while they were in the line of duty. One alone is enough to get your mind wiped. Two is a death sentence. But what would you care about that, the laws of the CMS don't apply to you, right?" Aurieux's only response was another moan. I reached out and held his head up, so I could look him in the eyes. "What happened to the big bad man that was all geared up to commit rape a few moments ago?" I asked sarcastically. Aurieux tried to jerk away from my touch, but I held firm, "We came for answers," I said. "Now, you're gonna give them."

  Aurieux weakly shook his head no, in protest. "I can't, can't give yah what ya’ll want."

  When Irulan spoke, her voice still had a soft English lilt to it. "You're hardly in a position to deny us, Aurieux. Either you answer the lady's questions, or I see what other bones I can break in that fragile body of yours."

  A single tear made its way down Aurieux's face, "Do what you have to. Broken bones ain't shit compared to what Tristan will do to me if I dime him out."