Murdering Her Light

by Michael Clement

  “Oh Fuck,” I murmured, as the pain began.

  I fought to lie still. I couldn’t fail her.

  What was her name again?

  I focused on that thought, as the pain increased.

  Maria?

  No, I fretted, as sweat dripped down my brown.

  Adriana? Olivia?

  I forced my mind to focus on the task and ignore the pain, even though I could smell my skin burning.

  My companion woke up and began to use Prudence’s magic to dull the pain.

  Miranda? No, no, no! I wanted to scream, ignoring everything around me.

  What the fuck was it?

  Zebulon let go of the leather when it burst into flames. For a second, all I could see were the flames dancing before my eyes, until they sank into the scales that now pulsed with pain.

  Luna.

  Yes, that was it. Her name was Luna.

  I could feel blisters on my chest and my lower face. But, the real pain was inside the partially awakened spell.

  “Only his blood will soothe the burning and save your mind,” Zebulon insisted. “Now, ignite the spell.”

  It hurt so bad that I could barely focus.

  Buttercup.

  The word began to radiate through my mind. That sick fuck was racing me so that he could rape a child. I had to focus.

  Grinding my teeth, I poured energy into the spell on my neck.

  The burning intensified, as the curse woke up.

  Zebulon picked up a rag and held it up to my face, almost asphyxiating me with it.

  “Breathe in his scent,” the spider insisted.

  I didn’t want to.

  But, I did.

  Calden smelled like sweat, perversion, and disease. He smelled like socks that a construction worker had worn all day and then left out to roast for a week in the sunlight of Texas.

  I gagged and choked, but then the curse woke up.

  “Calden,” I choked.

  I smelled him. His reek radiated up off of the scale under my chin and into my mouth, as Zebulon removed the rag. I could taste his evil scent. It was cloying like cheap cigarettes and whiskey.

  “Go, my hound,” he instructed, picking me up and setting me on the ground so that I was kneeling with my hands down on the floor.

  “Chase the fox,” he rasped.

  -- M --

  I don’t remember leaving the tent.

  Everything was dark. The colors had disappeared and all I could see were shades of black and white.

  The air felt cool against my skin, and I felt more alive than ever before. This time, my head didn’t pound, like when I had taken the previous curse.

  Instead, this time, Calden’s scent was everything to me. It pulled me along and told me so much about this sick bastard.

  He was in his thirties, it whispered to my mind, as I sprinted down the deserted streets.

  He likes cigarettes and old scotch, but he would happily drink whiskey no matter how old it was.

  And, he liked his girls young, before they began to sprout into women.

  Buttercup, my mind whispered, in his words.

  I increased my stride, reaching out with my legs to go faster, as I followed his trail. Black claws slid from my feet, helping me dig into the desert ground. Pads like a cat’s shifted into existence on the bottom of my feet, to protect them from the scorching ground.

  I was becoming something more, my mind whispered, as the ground sped past me.

  His scent told me that the sick fucker had chicken for lunch. Claws slid out of my fingertips, as I envisioned ripping into his guts.

  I heard the whine of the dirt bike, as I ran past a huge silver monument with etched figures on its sides.

  I saw Calden. The bike was moving in almost slow motion, as I gained on him.

  Throwing myself through the air, I tried to knock the pervert off of the bike, but at the last second, he slewed to the right and I slammed into a wall. My body was moving so fast that it rotated in the air and toppled over the wall, slamming me into the ground on the other side.

  Shaking my head, I tried to get up and then fell back to the ground.

  My ankle was broken.

  Screaming in frustration, I slammed my clawed hands into the dirt.

  Buttercup… the word flowed through my thoughts like acid.

  “Not again!” my voice tried to scream, but instead a wolf’s howl rolled over the landscape.

  Visions of myself... And, my uncle Edward, flowed through my brain.

  “It won’t hurt,” he had whispered to me.

  Screaming, I smashed my face against the dirt, to drive him away.

  Then, I pulled strongly on my companion’s magic, instructing her to fix my ankle with Prudence’s tattoo.

  Blue light erupted around my ankle.

  Snap.

  Crack.

  I screamed into the air, as the bones realigned and then healed.

  Spitting blood, I stood up, realizing where I was at.

  I was in the Alamo’s courtyard.

  I was at the fucking Alamo.

  A statue in front of it displayed a victorious Santa Anna in all his royal splendor. His arms were out wide in a gesture of victory; At his feet were the corpses of the bloody defenders.

  I spat at him, then, I focused on Calden’s scent again. I got down on my hands and knees and breathed deeply.

  There, my mind screamed. He went That way.

  I ran full tilt at the wall in front of me, leaping to its top and then flowing over as I ran after the bastard.

  Not again, my mind screamed.

  The moan of his motorcycle was in the distance, but the hound could move. The world flew past me, as I took a direct approach. He went around obstacles. I went over, under, or through them.

  His scent became stronger, until -- on top of a building -- I saw his motorcycle roaring down an empty lane with dead trees on either side of it. I looked up at the Tower of the Americas, which in this world was called the Tower of the Sovereign. It loomed over me, over seven hundred feet tall.

  Cursing, I vaulted off the top of the building and hit the ground running. Ruined red brick walls lay on either side of me as I flowed up the lane, following his scent.

  I could taste his fear in the wind.

  Calden hated magic and women.

  And, I was both.

  I ran after him and he sensed me, somehow.

  Screeching to a halt, he pulled a gun and fired at me.

  Where the fuck had he gotten that? I wondered.

  Shocked, I forgot to dodge, even though the bullets moved so slow that I could see them swimming through the air.

  The first hit my shoulder, knocking me off my feet.

  The second entered my upper left leg, twisting my body off balance.

  I landed in a pile of rubble, screaming in rage and pain, tasting blood in my mouth.

  No one human had guns here.

  Why did this dirtbag have a gun?

  My companion went to work, as I rolled onto my stomach and threw up. Fuck! The pain was so intense. I felt the first bullet push its way out of my shoulder, as I started crawling forward.

  Calden screamed in rage , when he saw that I was still alive.

  His gun clicked and clicked. Empty.

  “Fuck!” he screamed, throwing it down. Then, he twisted the bike’s throttle and rocketed away from me.

  The second bullet was ejected from my healing flesh.

  I needed time… just a little time.

  Buttercup.

  My mind screamed, and I howled into the air again.

  Crawling to my feet, I forced myself down to stumble down the lane.

  That fucker wasn’t going to win, I swore.

  I limped and hobbled down the road. In the distance, I heard the bike’s engine turn off.

  A pain in my throat that I had ignored suddenly became intense. It throbbed and burned with each step. I needed to cool it with Calden’s blood. Nothing else would do.

  F
aster, I swore, making myself run despite the pain.

  When I reached the bottom of the Tower, I saw that the elevator had broken years ago, it hung from the edge of the structure about twenty feet in the air.

  But, the door to the stairs was open, and I could smell my prey.

  It was time for Calden to die.

  - 29 -

  I ran up the stairs, two or three at a time. My wounds were healing at an enormous rate, but I couldn’t wait until they were whole.

  Luna needed me.

  In my world, there were almost a thousand steps in the Tower of the Americas. My father had taken me up them once. He told me that the fastest person to ascend the tower took somewhere around five minutes.

  I think that I beat him.

  But, I wasn’t fast enough.

  Calden stood in the middle of the wreckage on top of the tower. On the Tower of the Sovereign, there wasn’t a restaurant or a bar. Instead, there was a large open-air amphitheater. A Shadar who I hadn’t seen before stood in the middle of it, on the central stage, with Luna standing next to him.

  Calden stood in front of the spider, grinning from ear to ear. He looked dirty and out of breath.

  “You lost,” he spat out, as he gulped down lungfuls of air. “I won the race.”

  I walked towards him with fire in my eyes.

  “The girl is mine,” he announced, throwing his hands out wide. “And, I’m a free man.”

  The hound launched herself down the aisle, vaulted the stage’s steps, and threw herself at Calden.

  Together, we tumbled off the stage on the other side, rolled twice and slammed into a wall on the edge.

  My head throbbed, and I nearly blacked out when my skull struck the wall.

  “Get off of me!” he screamed, as I shook my head and held onto him tightly.

  Then, he rolled on top of me.

  “Stupid bitch,” he screamed, as his hands gripped my throat.

  I could barely see him. My skull was pulsating with pain from hitting the wall, and the curse was shrieking in my mind.

  I snapped.

  The Hound took over completely.

  Claws ripped from my fingers and drove up into his stomach. Then, she yanked her hands in separate directions, bathing her flesh in blood.

  Calden screamed in pain, releasing my throat.

  Growling, I rolled, placing myself on top.

  Then, my mouth opened wide and bit down hard on his throat. My omnivore teeth were gone. Instead, the Hounds canines -- meant for ripping and tearing meat -- yanked from side to side.

  Blood sprouted into the air, coating my body in cool , refreshing blood. The pulsating agony that had been radiating from the hound’s scales ceased, as Calden screamed and thrashed beneath me.

  The hound bit deeper. Then, she twisted, ripping out Calden’s throat.

  More blood sprayed everywhere, as Calden shook. His eyes grew wide. The child molester arched his back and convulsed as his fluids sprayed me.

  I watched as he died.

  Then, I ate his soul.

  -- M --

  I rode back to the compound in a daze in the back of a large truck, covered in blood.

  My mind couldn’t figure out if it was the hound, or if I was Truth.

  Who the fuck wanted to be Truth, I decided, as my vision fluctuated from black and white to color and then back again.

  “You lost,” Comfort mocked me.

  I extended my claws and dragged them down the metal vehicle’s interior. Gouges of metal peeled up. The noise was intensely invasive and predatory.

  Just like I liked it.

  “Stop that,” she commanded, as my vision became black and white again.

  Grinning -- showing off my new fangs -- the hound kept dragging her claws.

  Comfort began to look worried.

  She turned her back on us -- like prey -- and looked out the canvas that covered the back of the truck.

  I wondered what spider would taste like.

  Her soul would be spicy and savory, I decided, as the truck roared into a parking lot under the Citadel.

  Comfort shot out of the back of the truck, followed by the Hound. We were tired of putting up with her shit. It was time to feast .

  “Stop,” a powerful voice proclaimed.

  We looked up at the Master and wondered if he would taste like chicken , as well. I bet he would taste more like a hamburger, juicy and full of grease.

  Black lightning jolted us, making our body shake, quiver, and collapse onto the ground.

  Darkness filled our mind.

  -- M --

  Kara was watching Daniel and Tori while they made love. Tori was on top, thrusting her hips backward when Daniel suddenly moaned out his climax.

  Tori pouted when he started becoming limp within her.

  “I didn’t give you permission,” she threatened, more than a little mad at him. Growling, she grabbed his left nipple and twisted hard.

  “Sorry, Mistress,” he replied quietly, shocking the hell out of me.

  Then, he laughed, rolled her over, slipped down and began working to bring her with his mouth.

  Kara rolled her eyes.

  “Humans are so disgusting,” she whispered to my mind.

  I shrugged. Somehow, I was peering out of her eyes. But, I didn’t know where my body was or why I was suddenly sharing hers.

  We kept watching them. Eventually, Tori screamed out her climax. But, by then, Daniel was hard again. He flipped her over and slipped into her ass, which made Tori moan.

  It went on long enough that I began to agree with Kara.

  Watching someone fuck, when you didn’t have a body was boring.

  “Why are we here?” I grumbled.

  “Just watch,” Kara insisted.

  Tori and Daniel both came again.

  As they lay panting, Daniel said, “When do I get to kill her?”

  Tori laughed. “For a priest, you’re kind of bloodthirsty.”

  “I hate that we have to share Prudence’s magic with her,” he complained. “Truth makes my skin crawl. I hate the way she whines about everything.”

  My heart sank.

  “We need her,” Tori insisted, “at least for a little longer. We need Truth to keep distracting Zebulon, at least until we get the book.”

  Then, she said. “After you strangle her, I will help you cut Prudence’s tats off of her.”

  “Good,” my former lover agreed. “Can we do it while she’s still alive?”

  “Of course,” Tori said. “That’s always more fun. Then we can harvest her soul energy for the ritual.”

  Daniel grinned malevolently, while my soul snapped and splintered into oblivion.

  I was so sure that they were my friends.

  We had slept together, eaten together, shopped, and had even talked about deep feelings and desires.

  I had even told them about my uncle.

  I hadn’t told anyone about him.

  Daniel and Tori were my whole world.

  “Why do we need her at all?” Daniel complained, breaking through my despair.

  “Zebulon is head over heels in love with the idea of returning to his lost homeworld ,” Tori explained. “We need him to focus on Truth. He loves the idea of an apprentice and the prestige of opening the Shadarstalk. It makes him weak.”

  “But, isn’t he going to give you the book, after they leave anyway?” Daniel asked.

  “I don’t want to wait years and years to destroy the Shadar,” Tori exclaimed. “Letting them escape back to their homeworld is unacceptable! They killed my Father! I need that book now!”

  “Alright, Baby, ” Daniel agreed. “We’ll do it your way. The bitch can live… until we have the Book.”