by Cindy Mezni
Satan have mercy on these creatures. Their existence wasn’t in vain, after all.
“You done?” he asked, emotionless.
There was no question he’d seen or heard something about Nathanael and I which had hurt his ego. Well, I didn’t have time for such a trivial matter right now.
“Yes.”
He went away, taking the same way as the others. I followed him a few moments later. The scene I discovered looked like those I’d witnessed a few years ago, at the beginning of the Ex Tenebris age. Blood, pieces of bodies, Creatures of Darkness, bestial growls, human screams, gunshots… Back then, I’d loved every moment of the slaughter. Surprisingly, I wasn’t certain that what I was seeing here pleased me. I had a bad feeling. And not only for me but the whole Ameïan clan. No good would come out of it; I felt it in my gut.
“Nemesis!” Nathanael exclaimed, his features, hands and clothes dirtied with human blood.
Obviously, I was the only one to remain inactive. I got a grip on myself and hurried to decimate enemies massively while casting glances all around. Lycanthropes—who were as gigantic, furry, brawny and vicious as in my memories—were more effective than us. In our defense, they were stronger and their impressive stature and repulsive appearance had the mortals fleeing instead of fighting, which rendered them easier to kill. Ferä which had come up to here were already dead on the ground. We were gaining ground and taking back the advantage we’d lost a bit earlier. There were more or less fifty men left in this street. There were probably others, in addition to those Caine was dealing with, but we would take care of them when the ones here were lying on the concrete, soaking in their own blood.
Yet we should have suspected, and myself first, that the humans wouldn’t come only by land. Ten or so helicopters appeared over our heads in a deafening tumult. During a few moments, all the fighting stopped and all the eyes looked up to the sky. And then, firebolts sprung out in the sky, coming down straight toward us. These bastards were bombing us and, obviously, burning their kin was a sacrifice they were ready to make.
“Fegei!*” one of mine said. [* Run!]
Contrary to everybody, I just stood there, rooted to the spot. But not because of the missiles which ripped through the air. No, it was because of what I’d just seen, in about twenty meters in front of me. A hooded and motionless silhouette which couldn’t be a human being, a lycanthrope or a Ferä. It could only be a Nëphyr. A Nëphyr whose reputation had made him a legend. Kemshiëm. The Bane. He was here. Which meant the High Instances and the Trackers would soon arrive and that, whatever happened, it was over for me. And for the whole clan too, maybe. The resignation overwhelmed me and I could have stayed here until a missile pulverized me but Nathanael made me move by grabbing me by the arm and gave me some cover in the hall of a building.
“What the Hell are you doing?” he said, shaking me brutally by the shoulders.
Outside, the noises of explosion were raging. If the majority of mine had been able to take shelter, just like lycanthropes, humans couldn’t have time to run away. At least one positive thing in all this mayhem.
Worked up and fed up of not having my attention, Nathanael slapped me.
“Are you listening to me when I talk to you?”
I extricated myself from his hold, without hitting him back—a first. I went around him and positioned myself in front of one of the windows. Blood and dead bodies had been replaced by a cloud of dust, several fires and debris almost everywhere. A deathly silence hovered over the place. Still, I didn’t doubt they’d start bombing again as soon as they had so much as one target in their visual field.
“Haven’t you seen?” I asked him, feeling here and miles away at the same time.
“What are you talking about? What should I have seen?”
I didn’t tell him anything. I would have preferred to have imagined the Bane, but I hadn’t. I was sure he was real. He was here. Nathanael came to grab me by the shoulders and forced me to turn around to face him.
“What’s wrong with you? There, outside, it looked like . . . I don’t know . . . like you couldn’t care less about staying alive.”
I didn’t bat an eye in spite of the fact that his words were absolutely true. Well, not completely. Strictly speaking, I cared about my survival. But I had no doubt about what awaited me now. Sooner or later—and later wouldn’t be long to come—I was going to die. One way or another. There was no way out.
“What happened during my absence?”
I came back to the present moment and stared strangely at Nathanael. Had he forgotten what was going on when he’d decided to leave and in which situation we were at the moment?
“The descent into Hell,” I said with bitterness. “That’s what happened, Nathanael. And I just landed in the furnace, with no possibility of escaping alive from it.”
Lost, his eyebrows furrowed.
“By Hell, what do you mean?”
What was the point of speaking to him about it? It would change nothing. And if I announced him the ultimatum of Néfrat, the presence of the Bane, Nathanael would try to prevent the inevitable. I’d already failed to keep my promise to Efflamm and had sent this clan into the turmoil because of the obsessional grudge Ezekiel had against me because I’d taken his damn throne. If I could avoid it, I wouldn’t drag anybody else down with me.
“Nemesis!” Nathanael insisted, vehement.
By an extraordinary stroke of luck, Xander entered the hall at that very instant. He seemed suspicious but I ignored it. I took advantage of this bargain and jumped at the chance to change the subject.
“Why don’t we hear any shooting or explosions anymore?”
“No more ammo,” Xander answered. “But it won’t be long before you hear them again. Some helicopters went looking for some, according to Caine.”
I clenched my jaw. We should have destroyed them and prevented them from stocking up on weapons and bombs.
“When they come back, we’ll have to make their helicopters useless,” I told Xander and Nathanael.
They agreed. Proof that chaos was underway was the fact that, for the first time in ages, we were all on the same wave-length.
Barely a few minutes later, a precarious plan in mind, I found myself in the middle of the war zone where bullets whistled from everywhere. The noisy sound of propellers pursued me wherever I went during the battle. Soon, it wasn’t only the sound. The flying devices were again just over our heads.
It was time for me to come on stage.
I roared as strongly as I could to give the signal. Nëphyr and lycanthropes stopped their fights and ran at inhuman speed outside the battlefield. Fortunately for lycanthropes, they also understood the animal language since we both had the same. I glanced all around me to make sure that my people and lycans were all far from here; it would be better for me to kill none of them if I didn’t want my clan to be in for another war later. I eventually caught sight of Nathanael, not far behind me. I glared at him. What was he waiting for to leave? Did he really want to play with fire and end up burned alive? Looking away, I forced myself to forget him. After all, if he finished charred, it would be his fault. I focused on my difficult task, namely a long and exhausting solicitation of the Pyronnaë. I looked at my hands on fire and tried to impose my will on the flames. It was only a foretaste compared with what was going to follow but I had to start small before thinking big. Still, I was taking a big risk here. I’d never required such a fire power and tried to control it. I wasn’t certain to succeed in doing it today. But our victory depended on it. If we wanted to get rid of these humans, I had to master the Pyronnaë. The problem was that it wasn’t enough to dominate fire during a few moments. There were the unwanted and certainly remarkable side effects which were going to follow such an operation. Effects like an extreme weakness, an increased hunger and a momentary loss of my other gifts. Without forgetting that I should decrease the power of fire little by little or the effect could be all the opposite. I clenched my fists. Immedia
tely, the flames disappeared. By all the damned! What inspired me to have such an idea? It was completely crazy, dangerous and absurd!
“I can’t,” I grumbled to myself while looking at my fists clenched to the extreme.
“Focus. You can do it. I know it and you do as well.”
Nathanael. Of course . . . My jaw clenched. Easy to say for somebody who’d never had to use such a gift. Nor any gift, actually.
“I can’t,” I repeated, gritting my teeth.
“Stop that!” he said with irritation from the place where he was sheltered. “You’re one of the most powerful Nëphyr I know. One of the most powerful Nëphyr of our race, in fact. You’re capable of doing it and we both know it.”
I clenched my teeth even more. I looked at my hands again and opened them, palms up. Flames began to crackle very quickly. I made them become bigger. I began to relax, letting my power be one with me. It could work. It had to work. I stared at the ground and imagined a circle of fire all around me. It took a few seconds but it eventually materialized. I was surrounded by fire and an exhilarating sensation of all-might submerged me. At this moment, I felt invincible, untouchable, knowing I risked nothing because I controlled the flames and they were going to get rid of my opponents.
“Keep it up,” Nathanael encouraged me.
I could perceive his certainty and also the pride in his voice and it didn’t left me indifferent. I immediately forced myself to focus on my gift again. It really wasn’t the moment to pay attention to Nathanael.
The first bomb was dropped near me. The ground shook under my feet. I promised myself it was the last time I let them use one of their weapons of mass destruction on my territory. While they prepared to drop another bomb, I focused on the fire created by the first and made it grow, grow, grow… Very quickly, an enormous blaze took shape, flames getting bigger, rising along the facades of buildings to the point of touching the sky.
“Focus,” I heard Nathanael say again and again in the distance.
I cleared my mind, which was only focused on the Pyronnaë. I ordered fire to extend to all the street, as well as to the helicopters flying over the zone ravaged by a phenomenal fire.
It took several seconds, never-ending seconds during which I believed I didn’t succeed, before it occurred. Detonations followed one another. The addition of the blasts of all these explosions were so powerful I was thrust away. I didn’t see where I landed. I saw almost nothing. Fire, ashes, smoke . . . The atmosphere was stifling and it was impossible to see more than a meter away. But one thing was certain at least: there was no more sound which meant the helicopters had been blown up and, consequently, the ammunition and bombs, too.
“Nemesis!”
The voice of Nathanael was a little bit muffled but I recognized it. With the help of my trembling arms, I sat up and stood up. I staggered a little, but I still managed to walk. Flames were everywhere. They were no longer the size of a building but they were still hearty. And even if they didn’t burn me, heat was well and truly present. I tried to get rid of them. Impossible. I had no more capacities, no more strength to do it. I was weakened, suffocating, and the only thing I wished was to escape from this furnace deserving of the infernal blaze which welcomed the damned souls down below. And additionally, to find Nathanael because I doubted I could get out of here on my own. I felt horribly vulnerable, even more so than when I was human.
“Nemesis!”
I spun round to discover where his voice came from, but to no avail.
“I’m . . .” I began, breathless.
“ . . .trapped,” somebody said in my ear.
A cold shiver ran along my spine. My blood turned to ice in my veins. I was frozen. I would have recognized this voice anywhere. I got a powerful knock behind my head that brought me to my knees. At the mercy of the enemy, I tried all the same to get up. Too weakened, I didn’t succeed. The last thing which I perceived was the noise of my cervical vertebrae when they were broken.
20
Trapped
“Nap time is over, princess!” someone near me said with irony.
This male voice was totally unknown to me. Still, given his smell, it was a Nëphyr.
“Open your eyes and get up, bitch!” he added vehemently when I didn’t react.
I had a hard time opening my eyes. I blinked repeatedly before becoming used to the luminosity of the place where I was. By Lucifer, where was I? And who was this Nëphyr who stood in front of me? The memories of the last events were hazy in my mind. I recalled we were at war but how I’d landed here was a mystery. Anyway, my priorities had just been modified. The war wasn’t my main concern anymore and I would be well-advised to worry about me now and not about my clan. Because it was obvious I was in a deep mess. I sat up, my gaze never leaving the dark-haired male who was staring at me with haughtiness. Paying attention to the scenery, I noticed we were outdoors and we hadn’t left New Hell, we just had moved to another zone.
“You better get a move on,” he grumbled as he caught me by my arm to force me back on my feet. “We don’t have all day.”
Asshole. I didn’t know who he was but I was going to make sure for him he wasn’t disrespectful to me again. I let my jaw transform. I was ready to tear out a part of his body, regardless of which one it was. But I wasn’t fast enough and he quickly found himself behind me, firmly holding my arms in my back with one hand and grabbing my throat with the other. I struggled. In vain. I was too weak. I remembered I’d managed to control the Pyronnaë. Obviously, now I was facing the consequences. I was at the mercy of this damn Nëphyr. For sure, my strength would come back. I just had to hope he would leave me alive long enough for me to have the capacities to beat the Hell out of him and then kill him.
“No, no, no . . . Don’t even try,” he said while holding me tight against him to the point of asphyxiating me in order to prevent me from kneeing him in the groin like I was trying to. “I’m not one of those who allows a female to beat him. Contrary to some . . .”
I had the strange feeling there was a sous-entendu here but I forgot it almost immediately. The annoyance due to my offended pride and weak state was stronger than my curiosity.
“Let go of me,” I ordered him.
He snickered.
“I forgot to tell you I’m not one of those who allows a female to command him either.”
The muscles of my jaw twitched. This impertinent with his extreme male chauvinism was going to pay for the disrespect he showed toward me. I swore it.
“I decide and you execute, female,” he whispered in my ear, his warm breath against my skin.
Then he forced me to turn around and pressed me against him, his arms still wrapped around me to prevent me from moving. A shiver of aversion ran through my body. There was a glimmer of unhealthy desire in his eyes. And Satan knew which squalid fantasies he had in mind right now. I never wished so ardently to make a living being suffer before today.
“Dream on!”
“Oh,” he said, feigning being offended. “Did I forget to tell you I really adore the females who are never at a loss for something to say?”
Hell. I was in Hell. What had I done to deserve such punishment? This male was a real calamity!
“I—”
“Sucks you’re off limits,” he interrupted me.
I frowned as the incomprehension and the surprise came over me. What was he talking about? Or rather, who was he talking about?
“‘Off limits?’” I repeated.
For an answer, he offered me only an enigmatic smile. I turned things over in my head. Who could it be? Xander? I doubted it strongly. Nathanael? I doubted it even more. He couldn’t know them, otherwise I’d have already heard about the arrogant Nëphyr that he was or I’d have seen him before. He had to be speaking of somebody else.
Oh . . . I remembered all of a sudden. The voice I’d heard before somebody had broken my neck, the fact that I had never seen this male before today. He was talking about Ezekiel, of course.
/> “Where is this bastard?” I asked while casting glances all around.
“You’re smarter than you seem,” the male said without even bothering to answer my question. “I’d bet with Clay you’d take more time to put two and two together.”
I didn’t know who Clay was, nor why these males made a bet about myself, but I couldn’t care less.
“Where is he?” I insisted, irritated.
I was starting to lose patience. He was going to pay tenfold for what he was putting me through.
“Calm down, sweetheart. All things come to those who wait,” he said and smiled lustfully. “By the way, have we already told you that you are a turn on?”
There was no doubt about it: it was an exile of Ezekiel’s clan. Only somebody having been in his company during a long time could say idiocies such as ‘all things come to those who wait.’ Proverbs and quotations, it was Ezekiel to a tee.
“Many times. And, most of the time, it was coming from the mouth of the shit head you’re serving. Have we already told you that your master, your king or no matter what you call him doesn’t like that we look at what belongs to him and even less that we touch what is his?”
He lost his smile right away. For sure, Ezekiel had known how to impose his law on his new clan. I couldn’t refrain from giving him my most condescending expression.
“Oh but guess what? This is exactly what you’re doing! You’re touching me and you’re staring at me hungrily. In passing, let me tell you that the thoughts crossing your mind are crystal clear. And what you’re currently imagining will never happen. First because you excessively disgust me and also because, for your own good, it would be better if you get these ideas out of your head and if you go away from me if you don’t want for your dear Ezekiel to take care of your genitals. Speaking of which, did you already hear the story of this male who’d dared graze me and—”
“I know it,” he interrupted me with a curt tone.
I smiled from ear to ear.