by Holly Dae
When she took her hand out her pocket, she didn’t hesitate. She released the knife on the pocketknife Julius probably had forgotten he gave her and stabbed him in the shoulder blade with it.
Julius cursed, jumping away from her while reaching behind him to pull the knife out his shoulder. Malakha jumped out the way as Julius let out a cry, but not in the deep smooth voice she had grown accustomed to, the one that wooed her. His cry instead sounded like the voice that created the laugh that had been haunting her for the last week.
“So now you decide to show your true self,” Malakha said backing away in apprehension.
“You haven’t even begun to see my true self,” Julius said in the voice that Malakha had spoken to on the roof of the school, the one that reminded her of Bowser. “I was trying to be patient with you, but now you’ve made me angry.”
A loud roaring sound came from Julius and he began to shift into a large beast, one that was much bigger than the wolf Deverick transformed into. It was long like a snake with black scales, but it was more dragon-like in its appearance, at least by the head, reminding Malakha of the long legendary serpent dragon from one of the Pokémon video games she used to play as a child. It let out a shrill roar, alarming not just Malakha, but the entire block as it rose, rearing back so that half its body was raised, showing off short (at least in proportion to its body) scaly arms coming out the side of its chest.
Everything in the vicinity, even some of the music, came to a grounding halt. So this was what it took to draw attention in Hell. No wonder no one had blinked when she put a scythe to Nancy’s throat.
Julius roared again, bringing Malakha back to the task at hand.
“Fuck shit,” Malakha said for it was the only thing she could think to say that came even close to what she felt about this situation.
There were only a couple of things she could do. The much less dangerous thing to do was go back to earth now, but seeing as she had effectively pissed Julius off, he would probably only terrorize her school more and force her to come back to Hell. The much more dangerous thing to do, but probably wisest in the long run if she came out alive, was to stay back and find some kind of way to not just fight Julius, but make him and anyone that he knew who was terrorizing her school to back off and leave her and her school alone so she could get a little peace of mind.
Maybe if she left now and told her parents that she had been exorcised, they would take her out the school, and she could try to forget about all this. But she had a feeling Julius would only find her again because of the connection he claimed they had.
Still, Julius really wasn’t going to attack her was he?
“Julius,” Malakha said cautiously, hoping that there was some semblance of a human conscience in this beastly form, that it wasn’t consumed by irrational anger directed at her.
His response was a roar and then the serpent dragon began to dive down to where Malakha was standing. Malakha dived out the way, ducking her head under her arms to protect herself from the bulk of the debris caused by the head of the dragon crashing into the ground.
Malakha didn’t wait to see how long it would take the beast to recover, just ran as fast as she could back into the building she and Julius had just left out of. Maybe the fact that there were a bunch of people, no matter how beastly they may be, would pierce into the conscience of the dragon (if there was a conscience left) and he’d calm down.
Malakha was halfway through the dance floor when she heard the other occupants of the place begin to scream. Malakha didn’t need to look back to know that the dragon had crashed through the wall, the music having muffled the sound. She then ran up the stairs of the metal spiral stairs that led to the loft where the DJ had been mixing music before breezing past Malakha to escape the dragon. Malakha didn’t even wait for the man to be down the stairs before she used the scythe to cut through the metal railings that attached the stairs to the loft. One clumsy hack cut smoothly through the first side and another cut the second side. Malakha had never been more grateful for metal weapons that sliced through anything as she was for the scythe that did.
The stairs crashed to the floor just as the dragon got to them. Malakha began backing down the long metal bridge that led to the other side of the loft while keeping her eyes on the dragon who roared and began to slither below, looking for a way to get to her. Malakha ran across the bridge then. On the other side of the loft, there was a doorway with a broken exit sign above it. Malakha went through the doorway and then climbed the stairs to another door that led to the roof. Malakha closed the door behind her before leaning against it to catch her breath. She barely got a few gulps in when she heard the dragon roar before a black blur shot into the air off the ground.
“It can fly?” Malakha asked aloud as the beast roared again.
Malakha barely began to even process what she could do when the dragon crashed into roof. She only just managed to grip the edge of the hole to prevent herself from falling. Seeing her disadvantage though, the dragon launched itself up toward her. With the scythe that was still in her hand, she swiped at the dragon, cutting the edge of its mouth and causing it to fall short of her dangling legs.
She used the scythe to help pull her back up onto the roof and began crossing it to the edge. It was a long jump down to the ground, but the one to the next building was a shorter drop. Malakha took a deep breath and then backed away from the edge to get a running start. When she was far enough, she ran toward the edge of the building. Then she stepped onto the ledge and flung herself off the roof.
Her landing was clumsy, and she fell on her hands and knees before rolling over a few times and stopping on her stomach. She stood up, starting to look for a way to the ground when a strange painful ache in her shoulder caught her attention. She raised a hand to touch it and groaned. It looked just like the wound she had gotten from Eliza.
The background noise in head briefly got clearer for a moment and she heard Sabrina say, “Oh my God! Her arm! Malak! What’s going on?”
“I’m looking!”
Malakha tried to split her focus then, but found that hard when she saw the dragon shoot up into the air and start to make another descent. Malakha jumped off the edge of the building, again rolling a distance on the dirt ground before stopping. Her entire body ached, but she got up anyway, looking at the scythe in her hands and deciding to put it to good use.
She stood her ground and began to swing the scythe in her hands. When the dragon dived down upon her this time, she ran toward it, sliding under its body and cutting its underbelly. The dragon roared and collapsed to the ground, but Malakha knew better than to think it was down for the count though and ran away from the town, hoping to get the dragon into open space. Malakha wasn’t sure that was particularly wise, but it would at least get the dragon away from everyone else.
“…a pr… or chant… It in… I don’t know…”
“Are you sure… work?”
Malakha only heard bits and pieces of what her two friends were discussing as she was so focused on putting as much distance between her and the dragon as possible, but obviously Malak had found something. When she was at least starting to get out of the crowded downtown area of the city, Malakha began to slow down and turned to see if the dragon was behind her. She caught something in the sky headed toward her and began to swing the scythe in preparation to knock the dragon out of the sky.
It was only when she heard its loud shrill caw that she realized it wasn’t the dragon, but Julius’ overgrown bird Malakha wasn’t sure that was a good thing, and she instinctively fell forward on her stomach, the bird’s talons barely missing scratching her back as it landed behind her. Malakha rolled over to look at it as it circled back around and cawed as it headed toward her.
“Hold on!” Malakha yelled rushing to her feet. “Remember me. Julius’… friend,” Malakha said though she was pretty sure that didn’t stand true anymore.
The bird cawed again, this time not diving down on her, but circling
above her like a vulture or something.
“That doesn’t bode well,” Malakha muttered and then she… well Malakha wasn’t quite sure what happened, only that her reflexes or something had gotten better because she jumped out the way before she heard the wings or roar of the dragon and jumped onto its head when it dived after her again. She ran backwards down the length of its body as it curved around to attack her. Malakha swung her scythe, missing her target, but caused the dragon to rear back.
Once she was back on the ground, Malakha began twirling the scythe again and the dragon slithered around to face her. When it dived at her again, mouth open wide, Malakha charged ahead and swung the scythe into its teeth. The scythe didn’t cut them, but forced the dragon to rear back for another attack. Malakha didn’t let it and continued to charge forward while swinging the scythe at the dragon. The dragon continued to slither back and Malakha even got a few good hits in. Then the dragon realized Malakha’s only advantage was the scythe, and it used its arms to try to grab the weapon out her hands.
Malakha had no intention of letting the weapon go, but the dragon shook her off the weapon and then threw the scythe away from them.
“That’s not good,” Malakha muttered and decided once again to try to get through to the beast. “Julius. Do you want to go back to talking this over like civilized human beings?”
The response was a roar as the dragon dived down at her again. Malakha wasn’t fast enough and though she wasn’t hit directly, the force sent her flying into the side of a building, a building Julius’ eagle was now perched on. When the dragon dived to attack Malakha while she was disoriented, the eagle cawed and pecked at the dragon to keep it away from its perch. Annoyed, the dragon reared back and lunged at the eagle. The eagle flew into the air and then dived toward the dragon. It managed to grip the dragon in its talons for a second before dropping it when the dragon tried to bite out its chest.
Malakha stood up, ignoring the ache in her body, particularly the one in her shoulder, as the eagle dived once more to try to grab the dragon, but missed. As it was beginning to ascend again, Malakha ran toward the bird and latched onto its tail feathers. The bird cawed as its balance was thrown off, and while it faltered in the air, Malakha pulled herself up to climb onto the eagle’s back near its neck.
The only two times she had been on the bird, Julius had steered it in the right direction so Malakha wasn’t sure exactly how to tame the bird. All she knew was that it had something to do with the feathers.
The eagle was about to dive again, but Malakha didn’t want that, so she tugged on the bird’s feathers, forcing it to continue ascending into the air. The dragon followed.
“Okay,” Malakha said as the eagle circled to face the dragon. “Now let’s see how hard a dragon falls.”
Malakha didn’t try to stop the eagle as it flew headfirst toward the dragon. It flew out of the way the first time and the second time, even the third time, but on the eagle’s fourth try, it managed to grab the dragon by the tail and circle the air with it before swinging it into a building and letting go.
The eagle cawed in triumph, but Malakha was certain the dragon wasn’t down. She was proven right when the dragon roared and took to the skies again, but this time it was shaky, unbalanced.
“The tail,” Malakha said. If she could damage it enough, she might be able to bring the beast down, but the scythe…
Malakha frowned, unable to quite describe what she was feeling. It was less than a shock or jolt, but more than a tingling. It almost felt like a numbing sensation, but a warm one. Whatever it was made Malakha able to stand on the back of the eagle even as it got ready to strike the dragon head-on again. When it began to make its charge, Malakha ran up the bird’s back, neck and head and leapt onto the top of the dragon’s head. She held out her hand and the scythe from earlier flew to her waiting hand. Then she began to slide down the scaly back of the dragon, and when she was little more than halfway down, she pierced its tail with the scythe and made a long gash along the length of its tail.
As the dragon roared in pain, Malakha leapt off its tail and back onto the back of the eagle. The dragon fell from the sky and crashed into the ground, kicking up dust and debris into the air. When the dust began to clear, Malakha was able to make out the form of the dragon shifting again, back to its human form. Malakha frowned. She wasn’t even sure she could call these things any kind of human despite how they looked.
Somehow, she forced the eagle to get close enough to the ground so that she could jump off, deciding that she would ponder how exactly she managed to land neatly on her feet like she was at all athletic later.
By the time she was standing next to him, the dust had already cleared and Julius was back in his human form more than a little worse for wear and naked.
“Now let’s talk about those demons terrorizing my school and you trying to seduce me buddy,” Malakha said putting the scythe near the Hell prince’s neck just in case he had any more surprises besides being able to shapeshift into a dragon.
******
“Bastard,” Malakha muttered.
“Don’t you have any other insults?” Julius asked.
“Bastard seems to be the only one befitting to you,” Malakha said as she continued to wipe the blood off the inside of Julius’ legs.
She had no idea how he managed to talk her into cleaning his wounds instead of leaving him to bleed in the middle of the street since she was pretty sure it would take a lot more than that to kill him. He convinced her somehow though and even after she had defeated him, he still managed to act like an arrogant jerk. Then again, what else could she expect from a Hellion prince.
“Don’t be like that,” Julius began, but Malakha cut him off.
“Don’t even start. If I recall, you saying that to me is how we got to fighting in the first place. Don’t make me have to kick your ass again. Next time I’ll just leave you naked in the middle of the street.”
Julius huffed, not seeming at all shamed that Malakha had seen him in such a state, even after she said earlier, “Well this is a nice change. Now I see what you mean about that view.”
“It was a fluke. Where did you get all strong like that?” he asked.
“Secret,” Malakha said blandly as she stood up. The truth was she wasn’t sure, but Malakha didn’t think he needed to know that, only that she’d figure it out and do it again if she had to.
He gave her a sly grin.
“Now that you’re all clean,” Malakha said tossing the ruined cloth into a broken chair lying in the even more ruined building they were in, “Let’s talk about you and your little minions haunting my school.”
“Well how else am I going to get you to come back here?”
Malakha grabbed the scythe off the ground—the ability to summon it having disappeared earlier—and pointed it to Julius. Julius laughed.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Don’t try me,” Malakha warned.
Julius rolled his eyes, still looking more amused than anything, and said, “Fine. You win. No more terrorizing people to get your attention, and I’ll see what I can do about the other stuff.”
“There’s no seeing. If I have to come back here, you’ll end up like that harpy I stole these boots from.”
“I hope you’re very aware that this isn’t doing anything but making me want to find a way to force you to stick around more, right? You’d make a good queen of Hell.”
Malakha glared at him pointing the scythe at him once more.
“That’s no way to say farewell to a friend.”
“All things considered,” Malakha began, “I don’t think we classify as friends. Be glad I’m leaving you alive.”
That was more for her benefit than to show any mercy toward Julius. She wasn’t sure what kind of relationship Julius had with Lucifer, but she was pretty sure Lucifer would not be happy if he found out she had killed his son and that meant more trouble for her.
Malakha turned around to leave, looking again
for the background noise, but she stopped as another thought came to mind. That and Julius was standing in front of her as she did so.
“I guess you’re not as hurt as you look,” Malakha said dryly, pointedly avoiding looking anywhere but his face. He was still naked after all. Before he could respond she asked, “Why did you tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“Tell me that you were behind everything, that you had the power to stop everything. Seems like you could have just led me on the entire time. It might have been much easier to seduce me to your way of thinking. I would have never suspected you.” She actually had been starting to really like him, but Julius didn’t need to know that if he didn’t already know.
Julius laughed. Then he said, “Because while it’s entertaining to watch a person fall and have no clue they’re falling, it’s much more entertaining to watch a person fall when they know they’re falling and there’s nothing they can do to stop it. It will be an entertaining challenge.”
Malakha huffed. “You’ve just made things harder for yourself.”
She began to search for the background noise again and seeing the faraway look in her eyes as she found it, Julius asked, “Leaving without a farewell kiss?”
“This isn’t a farewell. It’s good-bye. And don’t push your luck,” Malakha said raising the scythe between them.
Julius didn’t seem to care and began to close the gap between them anyway, but by then it was too late. Malakha already felt like she was floating again, as Hell began to blur and she saw what looked like a mirage of her own world that was getting clearer and clearer as she floated towards it. Then she was back in her world and back in her body, but she didn’t gain control over her body again. Instead, as soon as she registered the pain her body was in, she promptly blacked out.