The room flooded with spectral light as Jerusa’s army of spirits appeared around them. The Monster, who was still clutching Jerusa’s throat, looked about in awe, his eyes stopping on the Acolyte.
“I know you, don’t I?” The Acolyte nodded vigorously. “You didn’t last long. Pity.”
Alicia appeared between Jerusa and the Monster. He turned his attention to her, shocked, but not frightened. She placed her hand on Jerusa’s chest.
“Well, look at you,” he said in an almost adoring fashion. Jerusa closed her eyes, preparing for what was to come.
The deep, bottomless pain, the spiritual lightning, or whatever it truly was, rushed from Alicia’s hand, through every nerve ending in Jerusa’s body, and flooded into the Monster’s hand. The world became a blank, blinding whiteness. A void filled with nothing but agony. Jerusa screamed until her vocal cords snapped and all that could come forth was a raspy growl.
The white void darkened to a black pit, then to a purple fog, then the burning warehouse slowly came back into focus. The Monster was on his hands and knees before her, breathing as though he had been far below the water, and broke the surface just in time. He slowly made his way back to his feet.
“I’ve never met a Hunter like you before,” he said with tainted admiration. “I must add you to my collection.” Jerusa struggled to remove the skewer from her shoulder, but the prongs had been engaged on the other side of the wall, and she couldn’t pull it out. She reached across herself with her uninjured arm, which caused the pain in her shoulder to triple, and attempted to twist the handle to retract the prongs. The Monster drew close to her, but stopped just short of touching her. “Perhaps I will take one of your eyes. They are truly beautiful. I’ve been meaning to get rid of this brown one. Tell me, if I take your eye, will I be able to see what you see? Let’s find out. Hold still, Hunter.”
Three women dropped through the broken skylight, lighting on the ground with the stealth of shadows. “Leave her be, Victor,” shouted the vampire with the long red hair. “You’ve done your damage, killed some Hunters, now it’s time to leave.”
The Monster turned. “Don’t call me that. That name died a long time ago.” He took a few steps toward the women. “Tell me, why have the Furies come out of hiding? And so near to Hunters. Don’t tell me you’ve made peace with your enemies. Give me a little space and I’ll kill them all for you.”
“Not that one.” The redhead said. Though her eyes were closed, Jerusa got the sense that she could see her. “You leave her be. That one is no Hunter.”
The fire continued to creep along the wall, edging closer to Jerusa’s face. The others were still contending with the savages, and Washington was nearly done feasting on the brains of the unnamed pyro.
“If you want her, come and claim her,” the Monster said, extending his unnaturally long arms.
The three women moved in unison, rushing in as if triggered by some silent alarm. The Monster met their attack with brutal force. For a moment, Jerusa forgot all about the pain in her shoulder, about the fire consuming the building, about her friends and the savages. She dangled there, pinned to the wall like an insect on display, watching as the three women waged war with the Monster in a flawless, synchronized attack. They moved as one creature, jumping, flipping, and spinning in a beautiful yet ferocious dance.
Jerusa grabbed the skewer handle, twisted the hidden switch, and the prongs retracted with a metallic snap. It was more difficult to pull the blade from her shoulder than she thought. With her weight pulling down on the thin blade, every tug she made opened the wound another inch, stopping against her clavicle.
She took a deep breath, clenched her teeth, tightened her grip on the handle, and with one last hard yank, pulled the skewer free of the wall and her shoulder. Jerusa crumpled to the ground, but refuse to stay there.
Taos was still on his back, wrestling with the bird-like savage. Washington, finished with this meal, had moved on to Celeste, who was doing her best to keep him back with her own skewer. Though Jerusa wanted to rush to their aid, it was Ralgar that was nearest to her.
The remaining walls groaned as a warning to hurry. Jerusa pushed herself to her feet, her left arm lying dead against her side. Her legs were rubbery and she limped along using the skewer as the worst crutch in history. Trevor’s teeth cracked like thunderbolts just inches from Ralgar’s face. His strength waned, the fight was almost over for him.
Jerusa planted a solid kick to Trevor’s face, popping his head up just enough for her to skewer him through the right eye. She twisted the switch on the handle and the four sharp prongs released within his skull, turning his savage brain into puree. Trevor’s arms shot out straight, he convulsed violently, and his flesh instantly began to bubble and turn black.
“Get him off of me,” Ralgar screamed. It was the first time she had ever heard him sound afraid. Jerusa shoved to the side, peeling Trevor back like an unwanted film of scum. Ralgar jumped to his feet. “You better step back.” She figured that was the closest thing to a thank you that she would get from him.
Ralgar sent a spout of fire down on Trevor so intense that it baked Jerusa’s skin and licked up all the moisture from her eyes. Poor Trevor, whom she never liked but never wished this fate upon, writhed in the flames for a moment before dissolving into a swirling column of ash and glowing cinders.
Another wall gave way to the fire, and the warehouse became considerably smaller. The upper windows had all been twisted shut and the doors were all buckled or covered in burning debris. The air was now too hot to breathe.
“C’mon,” Ralgar said, pulling Jerusa along by her leather duster.
Jerusa pressed toward her friends. She raised her skewer, tossed it like a javelin, and caught Washington in the upper chest. Celeste grabbed Jerusa’s skewer with her left hand, while managing her own with her right. Jerusa circled in behind the savage, kicked his legs out from under him, giving Celeste the leverage to force him to the ground. Jerusa took back control of her skewer and the two of them held the struggling savage in place until help could come.
Ralgar tossed a couple of softball sized fireballs, hitting the bird-like savage on the back. She writhed and screeched as the fire burned through her clothes and scorched her flesh, but never halted her attempt to eat Taos’s face off. Ralgar tossed a few more, this time aiming for her head. It was a more difficult target, and two out of three missed, one nearly hitting Taos in the face.
“Hey,” Taos shouted. “Watch what you’re doing!”
Ralgar came in from the side. The savage’s head flicked toward him, a roar of warning spilled from between her withered lips. “Oh, do shut up,” he said, then kicked her in the face.
The savage snapped back, giving Taos just enough space to free his hands from her throat. Taos shot a concussive blast of fire into the savage’s chest, igniting everything from her waist up, and sending her soaring into the air. Ralgar hit her with a wide, yet hot spray. The savage exploded into a thousand glowing cinders as she hit the concrete floor.
“Can we get a little help over here?” Jerusa shouted. Washington was proving harder to retain than she thought. Their skewers couldn’t penetrate the concrete, therefore they couldn’t lock him down with the prongs. He kept pulling the skewer tips out of his chest, and each time, it became more difficult to land a solid hit on him.
Taos and Ralgar rushed to either side of Washington, blasting him with enough fire to smolder their leather jackets. The savages, who sadly had been the Hunters of Midnight Fire just ten minutes ago, were all dead. Jerusa wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but the fight wasn’t over. The three women continued to battle the Monster in an acrobatic display such as she had never seen before.
“We need to help them,” Jerusa said. The air temperature was unbearable, and speaking soon wouldn’t be an option.
“Forget them,” Ralgar said. “I’m not helping them. And I’m not going near the Monster. We need to get out of here or we’re all going to die.”
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Jerusa couldn’t argue with that, but when was there a time when she wasn’t about to die? She ran to the three women, ignoring the curses Ralgar threw after her. Taos and Celeste fell in next to her.
Just as they neared the battle, a large chunk of the remaining wall exploded outward. Ming stood just outside, her face painted red by the firelight, giving her an air of the demonic. She thrust her hands forward, and Jerusa felt a massive, invisible hand snatch her around the waist. Ming pulled her arms back and Jerusa, Ralgar, Taos and Celeste, all were dragged from the burning warehouse and tossed roughly to the ground.
Jerusa pointed to the three women still inside. “Don’t forget them.”
“The Furies are not my concern. Their deaths are craved by the Stewards more than the Monster’s.” Ming raised her hands, knitting her fingers together. She brought them down like a hammer and the roof of the warehouse buckled. She hammered once more, and the remaining walls crumpled. Just before the entire warehouse imploded into a burning heap, the three women dove through the shrinking hole in the wall. Ming’s lip curled in a snarl. “Well, at least we got the Monster. We need to go. The humans are here.”
The Furies approached. Ming and Ralgar took position, ready to attack, but Jerusa stepped in front to them. “No. They saved us. Whatever fight you have with them, it’s on hold. There’s been enough death tonight.”
Ming reluctantly agreed and Ralgar seemed too tired to argue.
“We need to talk,” the redhead vampire said. Her eyes remained closed, as did the black woman’s. The one with the white hair watched them with her large expressive eyes, and Jerusa couldn’t shake the feeling she was actually looking at one being instead of three. “Let there be a truce between us…for now.”
Ming nodded. They turned to go, but stopped when the noise of twisting metal and snapping wood rose from the burning warehouse. Out of the inferno came a large form, fully engulfed in fire and screaming with wild rage. The Monster rushed off into the night like a comet, leaving a great deal of firemen and police with a story no one would ever believe.
The vampires went the opposite direction, each of them secretly hoping they’d never have to see the Monster again.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Furies followed the Hunters away from the fire, and hopefully, away from the Monster. He had been a shooting star, skipping across the ground last they saw him, but the three doubted very much that he had perished. Not that one.
The three stayed far to the back of the group, watching for any sign of betrayal from Ming or Ralgar. The others seemed honorable enough, but still, you could never be too careful. The three weren’t sure this was a good idea, seeking out Silvanus’s fledgling, especially now, considering the company she kept. But the rumors they had heard clear across the planet, of a risen savage army, had drawn them out of hiding. What they had found here in America was worse than they had imagined. Shufah needed to know, but in all the time they had been following the fledgling, they had not seen her.
They moved fast through the city, climbing the walls and taking to the rooftops. They wanted to go back, to search on their own, but they had exhausted their options. Shufah seemed to have vanished, and the odds of finding a Divine Vampire were astronomical. They needed help. Perhaps the girl and her unique gift could point them in the right direction.
The three halted on the roof of a half empty machine factory. Alecto, having the only set of eyes, scanned the night around them, while Megaera listened for the smallest of noises. They were being followed. Was it the Monster? No, he had fled the other direction. It would take him a while to heal. The one following them was timid, more curious than aggressive.
“I’m sorry, are we going too fast for you,” Ralgar said. He had lost none of his subtle wit and charm over the centuries.
“What is it?” Ming asked. She was more controlled, and far more dangerous of the two.
“Nothing,” Tisiphone said, speaking for the three. There was a moment when they considered telling her about the vampire following them, but the fledgling had been right. Too many had died tonight already. “Lead on.” The three of them motioned forward with their hands in unison. Unconscious looks of discomfort filled the faces looking back at them. Their synchronized movements always brought that reaction out in others. They couldn’t help but smile, in unison, of course.
The group continued back to the seldom used parking garage filled with husks of old cars. It had once been a haven for human crime and depravity before the Monster’s disciples had cleaned it out. Now it was neutral ground for warring vampires. They halted near the black Escalade, which, in earlier days, would have been stripped down and sold for parts the moment they had left it. The three stayed close to the edge should the need for a speedy exit arise.
“I need to contact the Watchtower,” said the cute little vampire with short hair. When the three glanced up at her, she added in a nervous stutter, “To tell them about the Midnight Fire team. They probably already know, but I have to report it.” Ming nodded for her to go and she scurried off to a more peaceful corner.
“Okay, state your business, traitors,” Ralgar said, pacing back and forth like a feral wolf. “And make it quick. The prize on your heads grows more tempting as the seconds pass.”
The three gave a mocking curtsy. “So nice to see you, too, Ralgar. You’re as pleasant as ever.”
“You don’t see anything,” he shot back. He pointed at Megaera. “And neither does your friend there.”
The three smiled. “We see well enough.”
“Wait, hold on a second,” Jerusa said, stepping forward. “Who are you? Why have you been following me?”
“This is Alecto.” The olive skinned vampire with white hair bowed. “This is Megaera.” The tall black vampire tapped her chest, just over her heart. “And I am Tisiphone. We are the Furies, sometimes called the Erinyes.”
“How come you’re the only one that talks?” The fledgling was most curious, and just as lovely as Silvanus described.
“Because I am the only one who still has her tongue. Just as Megaera is the only one that retains the power to hear. Alecto is our eyes. But these are all questions for a different time. We’ve come to find Shufah. Does she still live?”
“That’s the million dollar question,” Taos, the beautiful blond giant, said.
“She was taken, about a year ago, by a group called the Light Bearers Society,” Jerusa said. “She’s still alive, but we’ve been unable to find her.”
“How do you know she still lives?” The question brought terrible sorrow to the fledgling’s face.
“I can see the ghosts of dead vampires,” she said, without a shadow of fear. “If she were dead, her spirit would have come to me.”
“Silvanus told us you could commune with the dead. That’s a very rare talent among vampires.”
Jerusa’s face snapped with shock. She took a step forward. “You know Silvanus? You’ve seen him? Where is he?”
“We met your maker not long ago. He came to us searching for the other Divine Vampires. And for the secret of how to finish in you what he started.”
“Hold it right there,” Ming said, her voice as menacing as a lion’s roar. She stomped over to Jerusa and pushed her against the Escalade. “This Silvanus, your maker, he’s a Divine Vampire? An actual Divine? The ten want nothing to do with blood drinkers. Why would they create one?”
Jerusa slapped Ming’s hand away. “He’s not one of the original ten.”
“This Divine is the one that killed Kole after he went savage, isn’t it?” Ralgar asked.
“Technically, he’s the one who caused Kole to go savage first,” Taos said. “So it was only fair that he kill him.”
“I knew it,” Ralgar said, a smug grin curling the corners of his mouth. “I knew there was no way you losers could kill a savage like Kole by yourselves.”
“Oh shut up,” Taos said. “We did our part, too. If it wasn’t for Jerusa and Alicia, we wouldn’t have even kno
wn where to find Kole.”
Ralgar laughed. “Yet, her precious ghosts have done nothing to find Shufah or Suhail.”
“They’re trying,” Jerusa said. “It’s not as easy as it sounds.”
“Enough,” Ming shouted. She turned again to Jerusa. “Those things that killed Quinn and Mikael, tell me the truth of them.”
“I don’t know what they are,” Jerusa said. “They are from the Light Bearers Society, which is the same group that tried to capture Silvanus when he first woke up. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine.” She turned to the three. “Where is Silvanus? He could help us rescue Shufah.”
“I’m sorry. We don’t know where he is. He let us feed from his blood, but vanished before we could say our proper goodbyes.”
The fledgling’s countenance dropped like a rock. Fury burned in her eyes as she glanced at the three. “He let you feed from him?”
“You’ve nothing to be jealous of, young one. His heart yearns for you, not us. And though it would be an honor to be loved by a Divine, our interests lie elsewhere.” Her mouth relaxed and her eyes softened. “How long has it been since you fed?” Jerusa and Taos both flinched as if jabbed with a sharp stick. “Your eyes and your lips have the marks of thirst. And the wound in your shoulder continues to bleed. You haven’t ever fed, have you?”
“What?” Ming shouted. Ralgar turned on the girl as if he might burn her right there. “You’ve never fed?” She searched the girls face, confirming the signs.
Taos rushed in between Jerusa and her accusers. “Hold on! Just hold on! It’s not her fault. She wants to feed, but Alicia won’t let her.”
“I don’t care who won’t let her,” Ralgar spat. “It’s forbidden to fast. Ming, she must be destroyed.”
“I know the law,” she snapped back. “But we need her to find Shufah and Suhail.”
“Let me burn the blood witch and be rid of her before she brings down the wrath of the Stewards on all of us.”
Perpetual Creatures, Volumes 1-3: A Vampire and Ghost Thriller Series Page 74