Blood Stained Tranquility (32 page)

He’d thought she was pure of deed. That she was the kindest of beings.

Kind his motherfucking ass.

He locked eyes with her, panting from blossoming rage and hate.

She was still as attractive as he remembered. Strawberry blonde hair. Purple eyes. Elfish features. Slowly but surely, however, her features transformed, the lines switching from their previously horrified state and into something totally wicked. Sick satisfaction sparked in her eyes and mixed with the bitterness already brimming over in there. A face that was unrealistically beautiful became the very picture of ugliness. Just like that.

Rhalira wasn’t an elf. She wasn’t a kind being. She was from a deceitful species, and one of the worst. One of Maivera’s handmaidens. An illusion nymph created by the Goddess of Illusions herself.

Zeniel felt so nauseated he could barely breathe. She had touched him and used making love to him as the means to fool him. The fact that she had enough power to deceive Mavrak, of all beings, was staggering.

And dangerous.

Mavrak roared inside Zen’s head, making the arteries leading to his brain pound.

“You lied to me,” he snarled, wishing his damn body would stop attacking him so he could attack
her.
Unfortunately, another female other than his
R’ma
had touched him, and now there would be hell to pay.

“Careful, Zeniel, one would think you liked the view better when you didn’t know who was really riding your cock.”

He bared his teeth at her and clutched his stomach. “I’m mated. To someone else.”

“I vow to you,” Rhalira said, every word trembling with her rage. “I will kill this female you belong to. I will destroy her. And I’ll do it slowly so that
you
feel every moment of her death as it sucks you into your own.”

She disappeared before he could fling himself at her. He roared out loud this time, infuriated that she would dare vow such a thing, and that he’d ever cared enough for her to worry about hurting her. Deceitful bitch. As long as she lived now, she’d be compelled to find a way to kill Evesse. She’d have no choice but to try to follow through, which meant that Zen’s decision was simple.

Rhalira had to die.

He tried to stand upright, but each inhale burned him like acid. His lower abs ached like someone had used them as a punching bag then kneed them for good measure. Clinging to the side of the house, he tried his damnedest to get it together.

Then his connection with Evesse opened.

Hard. Painful. Without mercy.

Her thoughts and emotions, everything she was experiencing in that instant, flowed through him like a tsunami.

She was in pain. She had been hit with images of him and Rhalira, and not just what had happened seconds ago. No, the
R’mannev
was in full-on attack mode, torturing her with images from Zen’s past. Of him sleeping with another female.

Not only that, but wherever she was, she was in the middle of battle.

His mate was being attacked by their connection while in the middle of fucking
battle
.

Chapter 23

Spari took off first, rounding the escalators in front of the Macy’s and running headlong toward the creatures. Cursing, Dimithinia and Evesse ran after her. Spari reached the turn leading to the parking garage. The closest
ceFtut
stopped, its head veering hard in her direction.

“That’s right you bitch!” Spari slammed the goggles over her eyes. They turned on, glowing with gold light as she jumped up and down and waved her arms like the lunatic she obviously was. “I’m over here. Come and get me! I know you can sense me now!”

Evesse and Dimithinia took a second too long. Hesitated even longer. The second
ceFtut
was fifty feet behind the first one.

It jumped onto an unsuspecting woman, its gigantic mouth snapping over her upper body.

A scream.

The sound of snapping bones.

One last gurgle before the upper half of the woman’s body was ripped off and almost swallowed by the beast.

“No!” Evesse screamed, just as the humans around started panicking, their frantic shouts deafening as they tried to run.

Her insides heaved, disgust and sorrow for that poor woman battling within her.

The blood. Dear God, people were slipping in the growing puddle as they tried to get away. It pooled out of the
ceFtut
’s mouth, out of what was left of the woman’s body. So much of it. Everywhere.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dimithinia chasing the
ceFtut
that was after Spari.

Evesse locked onto the other one, the one still chewing away at the woman it had just torn apart. With a roar, she flew at it.

It moved away from her before she could get her hands on it.

She slipped in the pool of blood. Skidded and collided with the lower half of the woman’s body.

The legs were still twitching.

Eve squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head and telling herself to keep it fucking together. Later. She could lose it later. First, she had to get at the creature. She had to stop it before it ate anyone else.

When she opened her eyes, it was running toward the parking lot door. It completely ignored everyone. Despite the fact that she had only dealt with them once before, she realized its behavior wasn’t normal. Eating the human had been normal. The fact that it was disregarding all other humans to give chase? That wasn’t typical. It was chasing after someone.

It had to be Spari.

Eve shot to her feet. Humans were scrambling, running the other way. Good. There were other exits in the mall. Dozens of them. They could escape.

Barring any more
ceFtuts
showing up.

She had her phone to her ear in a flash. She didn’t even wait for Ismini to finish saying hello.

“We’re being attacked.
ceFtuts
. Queens Center Mall. They’re eating the people!”

She had no clue where her expensive-ass phone ended up after that. She didn’t care.

Deciding ‘to hell with it’, she dematerialized and appeared in front of the large glass doors leading outside. The
ceFtut
couldn’t see her; it had no eyes. But it definitely sensed her and opened its mouth to take a chunk out of her as it barreled her way.

She bared her teeth, feeling downright psychotic. She was going to make it hurt. Before she ripped its skin off, it was going to hurt so bad. She ran straight to it, jumping out of the way of its teeth. Her arms snapped around its muzzle, slamming its filthy, blood stained mouth shut. It shook its head. Lifted her off her feet.

She held on, loving the sound of its bones breaking.

“Oh my God. Mommy, look. She’s a superhero.”

Her head snapped to the side at the sound of a boy’s voice. Fucking hell, there were people cowering at the entrance to the bathroom, too scared to run to safety with her and the
ceFtut
wrestling mere feet away.

She needed to get it outside before she killed it. She didn’t want that cute little boy seeing what she was going to do it.

With a grunt, she slammed her feet back down onto the floor. The creature fought her all the way, putting the whole of its strength into loosening her grip. Eve tightened her hold, digging her feet inches into the tile beneath her.

She lifted the
ceFtut
up into the air, and twirled around as much as she could until she had a good momentum going. Then she let go, sending it flying like a giant discus—right through the glass doors to the concrete parking garage outside.

Its massive form took the entire entryway with it. Glass shattered, metal twisted, and wires fell in a display of sparks from the ceiling.

Evesse followed. Launching herself onto the
ceFtut
once again, she dug her fingers into its rotting, leathery flesh. Red mist came to life around it like a vortex, showing her all the beings it had eaten in the last few weeks.

The mist also showed her the beast’s intentions, how it had been ordered to go after one specific being.

It wasn’t Spari. They had been sent after Dimithinia.

Eve let out a cry that was definitely not human.

With relish, she pulled her lips back from her teeth and began tearing the skin off the
ceFtut
’s body. It gave off one of its shrieks, and because she was on its back, her eardrums shattered. Blood oozed from her ears as the creature writhed, trying to get her off its back.

She threw a four foot chunk of skin behind her and went to work on its head. It reared back and shrieked again and again, but she was deaf at that point. Even if she hadn’t been, she wouldn’t have cared.

Kill. Make it suffer.

Yes. She was going to. She was
so
going to.

Digging her feet into the raw, exposed muscle on the creature’s back, she hung on and peeled off its skin. Even when it headed straight toward a parked car, she continued ripping. It still wouldn’t be enough to kill it. She knew that. The only way to really kill
ceFtuts
was to penetrate the spot below their chins.

The
ceFtut
slipped, landing on its side. She rode it like a surf-board and kept pulling at its flesh, taking satisfaction in the fact that the exposed muscle on its side was grating across the cement. Shifting her weight, Evesse pushed the beast straight into the car. She jumped off right before impact, landing in a crouch and watching as pieces of crushed metal pierced the creature.

Her ears began to heal and her hearing was just starting to return. It was enough for her to realize that thing had stopped shrieking. Pitiful, dog-like whimpers were all that escaped it. She would have loved to go at it some more. She was hungry, thirsty, aching to impart more violence.

If this is how Mavrak felt when faced with the world’s sins, she couldn’t blame him for what he did. Couldn’t and wouldn’t.

There was no part of her that felt wrong for what she’d just done. The only thing that felt wrong was the fact that she couldn’t continue. Spari was screaming, and behind that, Eve heard the grunts and growls of Dimithinia fighting the other
ceFtut.

The life of the one in front of her had to end.

Now.

Evesse straightened, and headed toward the creature. She opened her mouth on instinct, and her voice box sounded without her consent.

“You are unworthy of existence.” The warped, split voice she’d been hearing in her head was now coming out of her mouth. “You deserve to suffer. You will die because I say so
.
”

As she got closer to the creature, she knew exactly what she was doing; what the words coming out of her mouth meant.

Justice.

Plain and simple. That thing deserved to die, and she was more than happy to deliver its fate.

The
ceFtut
managed to push the mangled car off, but was panting hard and seemed in too much pain to rise.

She remembered about the new
terets
. She willed the one that Nylicia had given her into her hand. One blast killed the creature and destroyed two cars next to it.

The body of the other
ceFtut
flew past her, slamming into the wall behind her. Half of it, anyway. The other half—the part with the head still attached—was in Dimithinia’s hands.

That shouldn’t have been enough to kill it. These creatures could reanimate and grow back any missing body parts, as long as you didn’t destroy them completely via
teret
or stab them through the chin.

But Dimithinia stood ten feet away from Evesse, ripping the creature that she had torn in half once already. The sound of muscle tearing and bone cracking filled the air. Dimi panted loudly while a black whirlwind of power tore at the air around her. Her eyes, completely black, flashed and locked on the remainder of the creature in her hands.

“You die,” Dimithinia said, her voice guttural and split as well, “when I say you die. You die because
I
say you die.”

Evesse could not look away from what was happening to Dimithinia. The air all around them was
tainted
and her instincts screamed out.

Death.