Ex Tenebris: A Dark Fantasy (Nëphyr Book 1)

by Cindy Mezni

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, controlling my voice with great difficulty because all I wanted to do was to scream at him.

  “I expected a welcome more . . . eventful.”

  He looked clearly amused. If he wanted to die, he was on the right track.

  “You expected for my fist to come greet you, maybe? Because if you did, I can remedy the situation,” I said, my tone biting.

  “You can’t know how much I missed you and your warm welcomes,” he said, ironic and smiling.

  My murderous thoughts were getting worse.

  “A fat lot of good that does me! Do I look like I give a fuck about what you feel?”

  He opened his mouth to pronounce something. I beat him to it.

  “No,” I answered in his place. “Now, instead of talking rot, tell me why you’re here.”

  “I came to keep my promise,” he said with calm.

  Obviously, nothing changed between us. He was still ice; I was still fire. He remained phlegmatic when I lost my temper. I already regretted that he hadn’t stayed where he was.

  “Now you remember it? A little too late seeing the critical situation in which we all are,” I told him, bitter as ever.

  If he hadn’t left, maybe all this could have been avoided. Now it was too late. And, whatever happened, I was condemned.

  “It’s not too late, Nemesis,” he assured me while getting closer to me. “I—”

  I motioned for him to stop and he fell silent.

  “Stay where you are or I swear I’ll tear your traitor’s guts out,” I threatened him very seriously.

  I had so much resentment against him I had no doubt that one more step could be one too many.

  “If I were a traitor, as you seem to think, do you believe I would have helped you—”

  “Are you kidding me?” I shouted, interrupting him. “Or are you suicidal? Because, trust me, you’re so close to death right now!”

  “Listen to me,” he grumbled with annoyance, his calm starting to fall apart finally. “I helped you and, as I have already told you, it’s not too late. I resolved your problem of supply by taking advantage of the distraction which you offered to Ezekiel to finalize a settlement with several prisons. In a few days, your Reserve will be as full as the old times. And regarding the current problem, I came back with reinforcements.”

  “What?” I asked, shocked.

  I probably looked ridiculous with my mouth open like a fish, but I couldn’t help it. I’d expected him to announce anything but that. Obviously, my bewilderment had to be the reaction he’d expected because he smiled with satisfaction.

  “I swore to serve you, help you and protect you, didn’t I?”

  I came toward him slowly, still not believing my ears. I stopped a few feet away from him. It was better to maintain a certain safety distance between us because I was still unsure of my reactions toward him.

  “So why did you go if you kept taking care of the clan at a distance? And why did you tell me nothing of your plan?”

  “I had to,” he sighed. “That way, I could deal with the urgent problems of the clan without being watched by the spies of Ezekiel—because I suspected there were some here. Ezekiel thought you were more vulnerable with an ally missing and I believed—wrongly—he was going to come to New Hell. We would have finally been able to catch him.”

  “I can understand all this, but why didn’t you tell me anything?” I insisted.

  “It was essential for you to act as if I was definitively gone.”

  “You could have told me and I would have played my part,” I objected, annoyed.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way but you’re far from being a good actress. Especially when it’s about Ezekiel, who knows you better than anyone,” he said, and I could see how much it cost him to admit it.

  I opened my mouth, then closed it just as quickly, not knowing what to say.

  “I really thought I was alone to face this mess,” I finally admitted.

  His expression softened before being tinged with something else, something I couldn’t name. And abruptly, I realized what I’d just said. Since when did I make tearful confessions?

  “You had Xander.”

  My face became closed off. The innuendo was clear. I suspected he knew, one way or another, that there had been something between us. But if he wanted to make me feel guilty, he was failing. After all, our affair was over for some time now and he’d left, making me believe his departure was definitive.

  “It isn’t the same,” I retorted.

  And without a warning, he held me tightly against his powerful body, his lips on mine. Strangely, I had no desire to push him away. On the contrary, I let my lips dance with his and his tongue fight against mine. I surprised myself by plastering myself against his chest and grabbing his hair. He groaned with satisfaction before seizing one of my legs then the other and forcing me to wrap them around his waist. He pinned me against the closest wall, deepening our kiss while his hands roamed my body. Unfortunately, a scream coming from the residence made me remember the war waiting for me outside this room and I separated myself from him roughly, imposing a certain space between us. Shaken by our sulfurous exchange, I observed him passing his tongue on his lips as if he was savoring the taste I’d left on them. Repressing my desire, I thought that, at least, even if I died soon, I’d had that little moment. It was better than nothing.

  “See you later on the battlefield,” I said to Nathanael and, before he could answer, I left.

  A few moments later, I found myself outside the residence and dashed toward the zone of ambush to position myself. As I ran, I tried to forget any unwanted thought in my mind, any thought having no relation with the fight to come. In case the progress of the humans would be more important than what had been said, I went to the roof of a high building by using the fire escape of the facade which I climbed. I observed my surroundings. From where I was, I saw some kin positioned on roofs, some buildings away from me. I pricked up my ears and focused on the sounds. If my people made little noises, the humans were anything but discreet. I followed the sounds of footsteps and voices I was hearing. I found myself on the roof of a building lining the street in which the humans were. Given the number of them it wasn’t surprising they weren’t quiet. What a bunch of reckless idiots . . . Anybody knew it was better to move in small groups rather than to come en masse as they did. They were spoon-feeding us the work. A raindrop came crashing on my arm. I looked up. The sky was dark gray. The characteristic gray of the stormy days. Without doubt, a thunderstorm was brewing and it was going to break soon. All the chances were definitely on our side. Soon, the visibility for the humans would be reduced because of the low luminosity and the rain, but we would have no problem getting our bearings.

  It seemed their God was done with his “sheep” and wanted to get rid of them. It would be my pleasure if such was his wish—and even if it wasn’t—to answer his prayers . . .

  Giving one last glance downwards toward the spot where I needed to land, I jumped into the void.

  19

  Facing the Enemy

  “Don’t move!” one of the soldiers screamed, pointing his assault rifle at me.

  I landed with agility on the wanted spot in front of the humans. The men who were in the front line before me seemed nervous. One of them even removed the safety catch of his weapon. Obviously, the minds became heated quickly among the mortals.

  “No problem,” I said, casual, as I raised my hands in the air.

  “Where are the others?” another man shouted furiously, casting glances all around.

  I smiled, mocking.

  “What others?” I asked, using my softest voice.

  And knowing me, it was hard to believe I could look harmless. Yet several humans in front of me seemed perturbed. You couldn’t judge a book by its cover, I’d learned during my second life. Even if I looked as innocent as the lamb who just had been born in my little black dress, in reality, I wasn’t. Some of them
seemed to really believe I represented no danger because they lowered their rifles a few moments later. So easy, I thought with satisfaction.

  “Don’t fuck with me!” said the first man who’d spoken to me.

  He didn’t believe my act. He came toward me until the barrel of his weapon touch my forehead. Did he seriously intend to blow my brains out? No, because if that was his idea, I was going to get angry. A bullet in the head was always very painful and it was also very complicated to remove if it got stuck somewhere in your skull.

  “Where are they?” he repeated, accentuating every word as if I was half-witted.

  “I don’t know who you’re talking about,” I answered with calm.

  A muscle in his jaw twitched. Was I annoying him? It hardly surprised me. I had a real talent for that.

  “I’m going to repeat my question for the last time,” he told me, controlling himself with difficulty. “Where are the others?”

  I decided it was time for these preliminaries to come to an end.

  “Sëia. Yunä nien’Yenssä fen’Tëra. Nëgä,*” I said with a voice devoid of emotion, which contrasted strongly with the tone I had used so far. [* Here. And they’re going to kill you. Every one of you.]

  His eyebrows furrowed. He didn’t understand, of course. I smiled from ear to ear. He didn’t have to wrack his brains. In a few moments, he and his kin were going to deduce the sense of my sentence. As I looked him straight in the eye, I emitted a deafening cry that resounded in all the street. There was a short moment of silence during which the humans looked around them to find the invisible danger. The time seemed suspended, the moment heavy, filled with tension. A concert of bestial screams answered my call. My people arrived massively. They came from all sides. From the rooftops, apartments, balconies, neighboring alleys. Several tens of humans were already dead, throats torn apart, hearts extracted or necks broken as new Nëphyr kept appearing from the shadows. And the first gunshot hadn’t even rung yet.

  The first shot finally sounded. The effect of surprise gone, the humans were moving into action. I looked at the one who was in front of me and who looked at the apocalyptic and bloody scene which was taking place. He was still pointing his weapon in my direction but had lowered it without even realizing it. With an abrupt gesture, I snatched it away from his hands and, in the next second, I pierced his chest with it. My jaw transformed, I bit into his throat and dug through his flesh. He hadn’t even had time to understand what was happening before he was no longer part of this world. The bloodstained corpse of my victim hadn’t even fallen before I was already pulling off the head of another man who tried to shoot me in the face. I kept going and became more inventive in my way of killing. The predator in me was deliciously satisfied. But the pleasure couldn’t last eternally. While I attacked an umpteenth mortal, I received a bullet to the stomach. Obviously, one wasn’t enough and others followed. I howled with pain and fury. I abandoned my prey and turned around just in time to receive a knife near my heart. Bastard! I raised my eyes to the stupid biped which had inflicted that on me. It was a young man who was about twenty years old and, given his flabbergasted look, he’d truly believed a blade right in the chest was going to kill me. Ignorant. Obviously, he watched too many shitty and inaccurate TV shows and movies about us. Everybody knew it did nothing to us, except increase our rage. And I was very angry. I grabbed him by the neck. I got ready to burn him by using the Pyronnaë when a hand pierced his chest back to front. I dropped the corpse of the human, his stunned eyes still opened and on me. I furiously stared at the Nëphyr which had stolen my victim. Nathanael. Of course . . .

  “What is your damn problem?” I said as more and more gunshots and screams were heard.

  “I just wanted to give you a helping hand before he ended up making holes in all your body,” he answered me.

  “I don’t need your help. And I had the situation under control,” I said in an aggressive tone.

  Out of the blue, what looked like a bayonet pierced his lower back until the end of the weapon came out his stomach. As quickly as it’d entered, the weapon went out from his body. Nathanael grimaced and turned around at Nëphyrian speed. He seized with both hands the head of his aggressor and turned it on itself. No doubt, the man had just lost his head. It fell on the concrete in a faint noise the following instant.

  “I—” Nathanael began to say as he faced me.

  “Let me remind you that we aren’t here to drink tea and have a little chat,” Drake interrupted us while getting rid of a soldier near us.

  I went back to work again, chasing Nathanael away from my mind even if he was in my field of vision. The only thing that mattered was my mission: to kill the largest number of humans and that, as fast as possible.

  Within half an hour, there were no more living human souls in the immense street. The ground was scarlet. Bodies and their various pieces were scattered everywhere on the asphalt. The corpses of kin were on the ground, too, but, fortunately, it wasn’t definitive for the majority of them. But certain humans had apparently found the necessary strength to neutralize mine for good, and this without having heavy artillery. I’d always thought a mortal couldn’t kill one of us, except by having a grenade or a bomb. Yet some of them had managed to do it. I dared not to imagine the extent of the losses if reinforcements arrived with big guns. As I thought of it, the real danger showed up, coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

  “Hanëm!*” one of my kin screamed while rushing toward a small adjacent alley. [* Watch out!]

  Few of my people succeeded in reacting in time. I was one of them. Missiles came at us and, suddenly, a shower of explosions happened. I was ejected several meters away in a lightning blast before crashing pitifully to the ground.

  “We’re in deep fucking shit!”

  I wouldn’t have said it like that, but Volker was right. We were being defeated and big time! The losses in our camp were still negligible, but the real problem was that the humans managed to gain ground and make us retreat. We were in a street a little farther, waiting for the moment when the humans would fall on us. Cursed be their weapons such as bombs, grenades and other explosives of the same kind.

  “We have to find a way to—”

  “You’re not telling us anything new,” Drake retorted curtly, interrupting Volker.

  The jaw of Volker contracted violently when Drake smiled sardonically at him. We were already all on edge so Drake could abstain from making the situation worse.

  “It’s not the moment!” I said as I positioned myself between both duelists. “We have—”

  A concert of close gunshots followed by many explosions prevented me from finishing my sentence. With one of my hands, I made a sign to Drake for him to go take a look. He complied. I instinctively turned toward Nathanael. He looked confident and was almost smiling. What the Devil did he know? And why did the humans begin to fire since we weren’t over there? To dissuade us from approaching? No, that made no sense. They were here to eradicate us, not to scare us away. So the only possible explanation was they were indeed fighting against something. But against what? I had no idea.

  Drake was back soon and he seemed almost dumbfounded. Which was surprising given he wasn’t the kind of male to be easily surprised.

  “So? What’s going on?” somebody asked, his voice not familiar to me.

  Understanding dawned on me and I faced Nathanael. Apparently he’d waited for this moment, seeing the way he was staring at me. I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and took him aside, a little way away from the clan. I didn’t fail to notice the wrathful look of Xander in passing.

  “It’s your doing, isn’t it?” I asked him in a low voice for the others to not overhear us.

  “I told you I’d come back with reinforcements.”

  Indeed, but I hadn’t really paid attention to it due to all his other revelations.

  “And what reinforcements did you bring?”

  He kept quiet. I was about to insist when Drake c
ame by our side, looking anything but friendly.

  “Your little private conversations at the most inconvenient times are starting to get on my nerves. Now, Nemesis, if you were willing to focus on the fact that damn werewolves and Ferä got involved in our war, it’d be a good thing.”

  “What?” I exclaimed, taken aback, and spun around to look at Nathanael again. “You brought lycans and Ferä? Seriously?”

  When he’d spoken about reinforcements, I hadn’t thought of other Creatures. Especially not Ferä.

  “Yes for the lycans. No for the Ferä. They came on their own. The appeal of the fresh flesh, I suppose.”

  A bomb exploded not far from us, shaking the concrete and the buildings all around.

  “Well, are you going to stay here to play the cowards who got nothing in their pants, leaving all the work to the others? Or are you going to finally move and give these humans the beating they deserve?” Xander said with an expression of pure sadism.

  I couldn’t refrain from rolling my eyes at his speech. Growls and roars echoed. Some approved his words, others took offense at them. Without further delay, the members of the clan ran at a brisk pace in the direction of the battle zone. I held Xander back at the last moment by catching him by his arm. Nathanael passed near us and stared at us, feigning to be impassive. If Nathanael didn’t appreciate my little private meeting with Xander, Xander didn’t seem any happier. He wore his Reaper’s face. In other words, his features expressed nothing.

  “Do you know how the fight is going?” I questioned him, eager to know what the actual situation was.

  Xander was in constant contact with Caine, thanks to walkie-talkies both of them had with them.

  “Caine and the new Nëphyr are dealing with the troops who are entering the city. And I’d never have believed to say that one day, but according to what he told me, Ferä are somewhat useful to diminish the enemy’s ranks.”