Blood Heavy: Ascension

by S. L. J. Shortt

  She put the bottle down and blinked and suddenly her green eyes had vanished. They had been replaced by oily black balls with yellow and orange flecks where the iris's should have been. It was almost as if there was a total eclipse happening inside them.

  She blinked again and her eyes returned to their normal light emerald color. Jerry was so stunned that he almost fell backwards off his chair. She had done it on purpose.

  He'd never seen those kind of eyes before. Certain types of vampires had different eye color, or iris's, and most monsters had disguising characteristics but he'd never seen or heard of anything like this. Her new attitude put up a lot of red flags in Jerry's brain. She snapped when she thought she was being denied but freely admitted being bad with rejection. She feels entitled but is strong enough to know that she doesn't need to whine or beg, not when she can simply take what she wants.

  “What are you?!” he breathed.

  “I'm...complicated...just like you,” she reached over again to grab his beer, this time with her right. She chugged the rest of it down and placed the empty bottle on the bar.

  She took the bottle with her left before but her right this time with no change in physical momentum whatsoever. She was ambidextrous. His mind was running on Nitro tonight. He was starting to get worried that his body was responding this way not because of some magical seduction that she was using but because it knew it was in serious danger.

  “Look, I appreciate everything you've done for me and I do want answers about my blood, I really do, but I'm not giving up my whole life to get them,” he was trying to find his defiance again but it seemed very far away at that moment.

  “Then let me make it really simple for you Jerry,” she hissed in a low but deadly voice while looking very annoyed. “You will do exactly as I tell you to or I will level this entire city!”

  Okay, now he was scared. Not just because he didn't know what she was but because he had a horrible feeling that she could actually do something like that. “That family over there can be ground zero,” she nodded to the booth where the children were still having a great time, completely oblivious to what was happening only a few feet away.

  The moment Aria started to rise out of her seat Jerry folded. “Okay, alright. I'll go with you, just don't hurt anybody.”

  Suddenly that sexy smile and those enticing eyes of hers were back and she seemed perfectly happy again. “See, that wasn't so hard now was it?”

  She got up and started walking towards the door beckoning him with a flirty nod and wink. When Jerry was standing next to her he realized that she was actually taller than him making her at least six foot three. The leather cowboy boots she was wearing didn't give her much extra elevation so it was all due to her. Aria's mane of smooth blood red hair drifted down all the way to her lower back and danced from side to side as she walked.

  She stopped at the doors to the restaurant and turned to him. “Oh, one more thing.”

  Suddenly she grabbed Jerry by the back of his neck and yanked him towards her. He only had a second to realize how strong she was before her lips pressed against his. They were soft and warm, everything that his memories of kissing Cassandra weren't. She wasted no time in parting his mouth and rubbing her tongue against his. She took charge of the entire kiss and moved her hands over his chest.

  He would never admit it but he couldn't help feeling excited and eager. She was frightening, powerful and quite possibly very, very evil, but he was still a teenager getting kissed by hottest woman he'd ever seen.

  And he loved take-charge women.

  She broke away from him and licked her lips before smiling seductively. “Mmm, I've been waiting for that. Don't worry, lots more to come.”

  He just stared into her big green eyes. He felt his face heating up and a lingering tingle on his lips but she hadn't flushed at all. In fact, she almost seemed to get paler. He hoped it was just because of the light. She winked before walking out of the restaurant leaving Jerry flush, dizzy and very confused. Now he didn't know what to think about her. He snapped out of it and walked outside but froze a few seconds later.

  Aria had stopped and was looking ahead at three black SUV's parked outside. The doors of all the cars opened at the same time and over a dozen vampires stepped out. Last to exit was the pureblood Dimitri himself.

  His wings were out but folded subtly at his back and his long black hair and short beard stood out against his pale skin. He seemed to be wearing a long dark tench coat that had been specially made to accommodate his extra limbs. His henchmen all gathered behind him, wearing dark jackets and jeans, ready to do whatever he ordered. They couldn't have been dressed more like vampires if they tried.

  “Friends of yours?” Aria asked with a smirk.

  “Oh, yeah, we're old poker buddies...” Jerry groaned.

  “Daniel Jericho, such a pleasure. Time to come with us,” Dimitri smiled.

  “Sorry kiddo, he's mine,” Aria said sweetly stepping in front of Jerry, “finders keepers.”

  “Get lost little girl, this doesn't concern you,” Dimitri hissed, not affected by her looks.

  “I beg to differ. Jerry belongs to me.”

  He didn't like being call someones property but in a strange way it was actually kind of sexy. She was the dominatrix and he was her boy toy. A second later he shook that idea from his head realizing that kinky thoughts were probably not the best idea when he was about to be attacked by an army of vampires or kidnapped by some unknown uber-hottie.

  “Leave now or you will suffer!” Dimitri growled.

  “Suffer?” Aria laughed sounding almost childish. “What do you know about suffering?”

  She took a few steps forward, not a hint of fear in her. Jerry gulped, this was about the worst place on the planet to be standing right now.

  Ground zero.

  “You know, I was there when your species was created. I knew then that you'd be disgusting parasitical vermin but I never imaged that you'd garner such an ego for yourselves,” she said causing Jerry to look shocked and confused. Vampires had been around for thousands of years. No one knew exactly how long but there was evidence of them existing as far back as three or four thousand B.C. If she was older than that then what the hell was she? “I'll admit, the humans are mostly to blame. Praising you for no apparent reason. I'm hoping it's just a faze.”

  Jerry watched her with stunned disbelief as moved around so causally. She was acting like the pureblood was as much a threat to her as a rabbit was to a T-Rex. His eyes were pulled away when he saw something even more jaw dropping.

  The black SUV's that the vampires had arrived in began to float into the air. They just hovered silently about twelve feet off the ground. The vampires were so focused on Aria and Dimitri that even the slight creak of the hydraulics loosening as the weight was lifted off them didn't make them turn around to see their own vehicles levitating.

  “I'm ever hopeful that humans will one day wise up and see you for the filthy, pathetic, back-stabbing, gold-digging, bottom-feeding abominations that you truly are.”

  The trees around the restaurant started to moan as if there was a heavy gust blowing through except there was no wind. Jerry started to back up slowly.

  “As for the suffering you mentioned, well, I don't think you have any idea what real suffering is. But don't worry...” Her eyes suddenly turned black again with burning eclipse iris's. What looked like electrical surges shot from her back and the space behind her shimmered like a mirage. “You'll learn.”

  Jerry fell backwards in shock and the vampires eyes went wide with fear and panic as a pair of enormous metallic black Swan-like wings appeared from Aria's back. They stretched out as they uncloaked showing their full glory. She must have had a thirty foot wing span!

  Suddenly, the levitated cars collided in mid air with such force that both their gas tanks ignited.

  BOOM!

  The blast blew out the windows of the restaurant and the shock wave sent Dimitri flying forwards. With
one swift movement, Aria's right wing sliced him completely in half. The two pieces of his body burst into sparks and ash just as branches broke off from the trees and began flying through the air like wooden spears. They flew straight into the chests of three vampires while bits of metal and glass debris came to life and attacked the others.

  Any that tried to run were yanked back into the carnage by some kind of invisible bungee cord. None of them stood a chance as she slaughtered them without even touching them.

  Seconds later, nothing but ash piles remained of Dimitri and his entourage. The restaurant patrons behind her didn't dare look up from the tables they'd hidden under and instead continued to cower. Aria seemed quite satisfied with herself, as if all this had just been a quick work out for her. Electrical sparks flew from her back again as her wings disappeared into nothing.

  She turned to look at Jerry with a grin on her face. That grin faded that moment she saw that he was gone.

  “I knew he'd do that...” she sighed while rolling her eyes.

  CHAPTER 13 – BANG-FLASH!

  St. Cloud – Minnesota

  Jerry bolted down the road as fast as his legs would carry him. He dodged the odd civilian that he past on the quiet street heading straight for The Nearly Departed.

  Had that really just happened? Did he just watch a ridiculously beautiful chick with wings waste a pureblood and his entire entourage with nothing but her mind? Was the creature that had been protecting him this entire time a complete raging psychopath?

  Did she really kiss him?

  Screw it! He wasn't sticking around to make sure he hadn't just hallucinated all that. He bolted around the corner into the ally that led to the entrance of the Nearly Departed. The Harvey Kietel lookalike bouncer was stood outside as usual and he perked up the moment he saw Jerry.

  “Hey, Jerry, everybody's been looking for you...”

  Jerry shot straight past him as if he wasn't even there and through the door of the supernatural bar leaving him a little stumped. A second later he came running back out and without a word, grabbed the bouncer and hauled him inside with him. As soon as they were inside Jerry spun around and shut the doors, locking it in every way possible.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” the bouncer growled.

  Out of breath and panicking, Jerry practically jumped out of his skin when someone put their hand on his shoulder. Claire was there with a guy he'd had never seen before. Despite the crap with his uncle, he'd never been so happy to see her in his whole life.

  “Jerry! Where the hell have you been, we've been looking everywhere for...what's wrong?”

  “Bird lady, bird lady, bird lady!” he yelped before running to the nearest table and dragging it over to blockade the door. He didn't care that there were people sitting at it or that what he was doing knocked over their drinks. They seemed a little too confused to complain.

  “Bird lady?” the man repeated with a dumbfounded look on his face and a heavy Irish accent. He looked to be about thirty with short brown hair, a square jaw and a large amount of stubble on his face. He was about six feet tall and was wearing a long dark duster that practically dragged on the floor. A second later he pulled out a hip-flask and took a sip.

  “Jerry, stop, slow down!” Claire said actually grabbing hold of him to stop him. “What's happening?”

  “Psycho bird lady is after me!”

  “What?! Make sense!”

  “The bird lady! The chick, the one that killed Black Forest, she after me!” Jerry said sounding like he'd completely lost his mind.

  “Take a deep breath and explain,” she said forcefully.

  Jerry did take a breath and almost forgot to breathe out again. “I was kidnapped!”

  “By the woman that killed Black Forest?!” Claire gasped.

  “No, no, by the human dude, but she killed him and then she kidnapped me and then Dimitri showed up and -”

  “Dimitri?! Dimitri's here?!”

  “No, she killed him too! And about twenty of his buddies and she was making shit float and she blew up their cars and she has a very strong tongue and...” he broke off before he started to hyperventilate.

  “You're saying Dimitri's dead?” she stared at him wide-eyed.

  “Yeah, she like sliced him in half with her bird wing!” he said quickly before taking a look around. He jumped out a grabbed the Irish guys hip-flask out of his hand, swigged it then threw it back to him before he could even complain. It was very strong whiskey, thank God.

  Everyone in the bar was staring at him. The strippers, Louis the barman and about seven or eight patrons had all stopped what they were doing the moment he came crashing through the doors. Most of them were looking at him like he was on a bad acid trip or something.

  Claire thought for a second before speaking to Jerry again very slowly. “What is she?”

  “She's the bird lady!”

  “Bird lady...we'll you lot are anything but dull,” the Irish dude snorted and put away his flask.

  “Vic, cloak this place!” Claire suddenly ordered.

  “Because of the bird lady?” the Irishman now known as Vic questioned with skepticism.

  “Just do it!”

  “Fine,” he groaned and walked over to the door. He pushed his palms again the wood and a strange shimmering wave poured out from them. It was like they were turning to water or something but then he pulled his hands away and the shimmering disappeared. The doors seemed completely normal.

  “What did he just do?” Jerry twitched.

  “He's hidden the entrance of bar. Now it just looks like a brick wall,” Claire said. “Alright, Jerry, you're safe. Now tell us what this b-woman looked like?”

  “Err, she was tall and had long dark red hair and -”

  “She wasn't stunningly beautiful by any chance?” Louis suddenly called over. He wasn't looking at them though. He was staring at the TV screen next to the bar that was a direct feed from the security camera outside.

  They all walked over and looked at the screen. Jerry let out a squeak of terror. “That's her! That's her! The bird lady!”

  Sure enough, on the screen, Aria was standing in the alleyway. She was looking around casually, scanning the area. Then her face moved up at she was staring straight at the camera which caused Jerry to cower. It was as if she were looking right at him.

  “She doesn't look like a bird lady,” Vic shrugged.

  “She had wings...but they're not there now...” Jerry said meekly.

  On the screen, Aria seemed to almost smile with amusement. She reached into her cleavage and pulled out a cellphone.

  “Who's she calling?” Claire asked.

  “Oh crap!” Jerry said in sheer terror. A second later a beeping noise came from his chest.

  They all turned to see where it was coming from as Jerry lifted up his shirt revealing the device attached to him.

  “I knew I should have taken that off...”

  “What is that? Why is it beeping?!” Claire demanded pointing at the bomb.

  “Because it's going to explode!” he squeaked.

  “What?! Why the hell do you have a bomb strapped to your chest Jerry?!” she screamed.

  “Because it goes with my shoes. YOU THINK I DID THIS ON PURPOSE?!” Jerry roared back still sounding out of his mind.

  “Okay, okay, calm down! How long do we have?”

  “Not long! You guy have to run! Get away from me!”

  On the screen they saw Aria tapping her wrist where a watch would be and was still grinning. She couldn't see the entrance but she knew it was there. She couldn't get in but she could make Jerry come out.

  “Vic, could you?” Claire asked.

  “What?” Vic looked like she'd gone crazy. “You're out of ya mind! I could take off half his ribcage!”

  “He's about to explode! Risk it!”

  Vic sighed in anger then marched over to Jerry and pushed him against the wall. “Don't move a bloody muscle!” he warned.

  He opened his
palm above the metal box on Jerry chest and focused on it. Suddenly strange blue particles began to appear in the space between his hand and the bomb. They started swirling around like a whirlwind, circling the box. The faster they got the brighter they became. Unfortunately, the beeping from the bomb was also getting faster.

  “Whoa, what is this, what is he doing?!” Jerry panicked.