Blood Stained Tranquility (48 page)

“I need you ladies to cover me!” Tolsar yelled.

Eve’s head snapped around long enough to take him in.

He shot a beam at three
ceFtuts,
sending them flying back in a mess of broken body parts. Unfortunately, the moment they landed on the ground, those body parts started sliding back together, the creatures reforming.

Tolsar turned to Eve, his cerulean eyes hard. “I don’t have one of those nifty guns. Either get me one, stat, or cover me.”

Eve shook her head. “I didn’t make them. Can’t materialize one, either. What do you plan to do?”

“I can close the portals. Cover me.”

He leaped over her and Dimithinia, running straight for the North
Kystm.

Dimi and Eve exchanged a look. Then they turned, firing at everything that came out of that portal and trying to go for Tolsar as he fought his way closer. Problem with that strategy was that Eve and Dimi now had two sides unguarded, and if they turned away from Tolsar for even a second, he was going to be overrun.

He was already willing the portal closed, his eyes focused on it and his brow drawn. No other
Sesengts
were around, either, so he was their only hope of getting it closed.

Their enemies obviously didn’t care about such things. Evesse felt and smelled the breath of a
ceFtut
as it came within inches of her exposed left side. Her peripheral vision recognized the figure that landed on its back just in time.

Eve was too shocked to stop her head from flying around. Ismini stood on the
ceFtut’s
back, in purple and blue armor, and she’d just ripped off one of the gloves she was wearing. Then the other glove was gone, and as soon as her hands made contact, her energy snaked through every part of it. It threw its head back, giving off a keening cry that made several of the monsters around them pause.

“Holy shit!” Eve stumbled back into Dimithinia, no doubt fucking with her aim and putting them both in further danger. But there was no hope for it. She was too freaking surprised to do anything else. Fortunately, other warriors landed mere feet from them. Some went straight into hand-to-teeth battle against the monsters. Others pointed their spread hands at the street, and energy erupted.

Vy’shis.
They were feeding off Ismini’s powers, their auras connected to hers through a thin, microscopic veil of energy.

Concrete liquefied into cement, either swallowing the creatures, or rising up like a wave to overtake them.

It went beyond any fucking laws of physics humans knew about. It was damned impossible. As was the way the
ceFtut
began to morph under Ismini’s touch. White fur sprouted from its ugly skin and its flat, round face suddenly developed big blue eyes.

Eve’s mind couldn’t accept what she had seen. Ismini was changing its species. Not only that, but once the creature was changed, she jumped off its back and pointed in the direction of other
ceFtuts.
The big, white fur ball wasted no time, obeying Ismini’s command and attacking its former comrades.

“How the fuck did you do that?” Eve asked when Ismini reached her.

“I latched onto the only good DNA inside it and went with that. I don’t know what it was, but I could sense that it was obedient as hell. Behind you!”

Eve turned around, shooting a
Refluth
that got too close.

Dimithinia caught another one between the eyes.

They all ducked as a blazing hot, too-bright laser beam of white energy lit up the sky above their heads.

Chapter 35

Dyletri touched down, his hands extended, glowing like he was the solution to the entire planet’s energy crisis. His form was barely visible behind the white glare that surrounded him. He shot beams out of his hands, disintegrating every enemy around him in mass.

Oh, wow. Sex
really
was good for him. He hadn’t been able to do that before he’d mated Ismini, Eve was sure of it.

“I wasn’t always meant to be God of Fertility,” he said to Evesse, answering her unspoken question before toasting another round of ugly with another well-aimed laser beam.

Okaaaay then.

“No!” Ismini cried, running past him. “Don’t take out all of them!”

“What?” He turned his head, watching as his female ran by him with a confused look. “Why?”

“I’m going to change a few more of them!”

“Baby, this is not the time to go shopping for pets!”

“We need as many things on our side as we can get!” she yelled back rebelliously before jumping on the back of a
Refluth.
It tried to grab at her when she clamped her hands around its big head. Grunting, Ismini shot a wave of power into it.

The change was almost immediate. One moment there was rotting flesh on its hulking form, and the next it shifted, its beige leather skin morphing into something silver and metallic looking. All of a sudden, the
Refluth
went from looking like the berserker in
Gears of War
to resembling a really tall version of the Silver Surfer.

I prayed hard. All those years of reading comic books and playing video games, I prayed to be in one of them. I got my wish.

But it wasn’t nearly as fun as she’d hoped it would be, damn it!

Another armored human ran toward her,
teret
raised. Evesse materialized in front of him and slapped the gun out of his hand. He blinked behind his mask, obviously surprised at how fast she’d moved. His green eyes looked from her to the gun and back.

“Just run, you idiot. I’m serious. What are you even fucking doing here?”

He spun on one foot, obeying her just like that silver, giant thingy was now obeying Ismini and heading back into battle, on their side this time.

“Let me guess?” Evesse called out to her. “That species was obedient, too?”

Ismini gave her a nod.

A hot, white ray blasted past Eve, singeing the ends of her hair. “Dy! Watch it! Mind my fucking hair!”

He glared at her, running in Ismini’s direction.

Yet another
Kystm
shot open one block down.

What started coming out of it made Evesse’s powers go into overdrive. Nearly blinded by the overload that began drilling into her frontal lobe, she staggered backward, grabbing her head with her free hand.

Beings. Hundreds of them. All of them resembling Enteax and Lisrn in freakiness.

And, she knew instantly, all of them were enslaved.

Vermylea, Goddess of Bondage, had just sent her fucking army.

Evesse knew what they were after. “No.”

She dematerialized before any of them could see her, reappearing in the alleyway between the building where she’d left Makayla and another just like it.

No! Go back . . . kill. Guilty. All of them.

She freaking knew that, but she had to check on Makayla first!

The thing inside her wasn’t too happy at her decision. It clawed at the tissue of her brain, sinking its nails angrily into the sensitive fibers. Fucking shit, she could barely focus enough to dematerialize up onto that rooftop—when she did, she landed on the ledge, right before the
Gnetica
actually began. Because she’d helped will it, she could see inside it, and Makayla was still standing there, eyes frozen on the battle below with a scary glint of satisfaction.

For the first time, Eve had to wonder just what exactly she was doing. Was protecting Makayla a good thing? Could she be trusted? That look in her eyes was almost crazed. Too damned happy considering what she was looking at.

She was given the power of Suffering. It’s not her fault. Nylicia gave her those powers for a reason.
Besides, Eve’s powers were going berserk, aiming furiously at most of the beings below. But when she looked at Makayla, she didn’t get any urge to punish her. None.

The ledge shook, and Makayla’s head snapped around, her eyes going wide. Eve turned, seeing Enteax perched on the ledge mere feet from her. He was bleeding dark blood from a huge wound on his shoulder.

Makayla cried out his name, running closer to the ledge.

Enteax shook his head subtly, those completely light-blue eyes locked on Eve. “No,” he whispered, as if he could see and sense Makayla behind the shield.

He could, Eve realized, staring at him. Which meant he had to have some type of connection to her in order to sense her. A really strong connection.

Well, didn’t this fuck up things even more?

Makayla covered her mouth with her hand. The gleeful glint in her eyes was completely gone. Tears shimmered there, making Eve want to shake her head.

“He’s the only one I can’t stand to see suffer,”
Makayla had said, and at that moment, it was more than obvious.

Mind-scrambling, too.

“You will protect her,” Enteax whispered, his voice barely loud enough for Eve to hear. He unsheathed his sword, assuming a battle stance on the ledge. “Vow it to me . . .
please
.”

Holy fucking mother of everything that ever could and would be unexpected.

“Vow it to me,” Enteax gritted out from behind his clenched, black teeth.

She surged to her feet, materializing her own weapon. “You don’t get to ask anything of me. I should just kill you right here.”

“Evesse, no. Please.”

Ignoring Makayla, Evesse locked eyes with Enteax. And felt like her whole world was spinning. This was the same motherfucker who had kidnapped her and Ismini. The same cocksucking bastard who had slapped her into the side of that mountain in the desert, and threatened her with a sword in her face.

The same asshole who had led them there so they could be thrown into that vortex and die. And he’d succeeded, too.

There was no denying that he was pleading with her. Even as he shifted on one foot, preparing to come at her, facial expression frozen in battle lines, his eyes were pleading. Funny that she could see that even though his eyeballs were the same color as his skin.

She still couldn’t believe she was about to vow anything to him.

“You’re lucky she’s an old friend. Or else I wouldn’t be doing shit for you. You get me?” She had to make that abundantly clear to him.

He gave a nearly imperceptible nod, acknowledging with that one movement the wrong he’d done to her.

Evesse didn’t have the whole story, but as she swung her sword around, the lack of hunger to see him bleed took her completely by surprise. He’d done crimes in the past. That was a given. But right then, right there, he was so ready to die for the girl on the other side of that shield, that it completely overlapped everything he’d ever done before then.

That was the moment Eve understood what constituted true evil and what didn’t. Selfishness and selflessness stood on the opposite side of the spectrum. Right then, Enteax was clearly standing on one side of it.

“I vow it. I shall do everything to protect her.” She felt the words slide around her atoms and soul, binding her. As an immortal, she would now be compelled to do anything and everything in her power to keep Makayla safe. The compulsion to keep her word was already starting to take over a corner of her mind.

The resulting relief on Enteax’s face was so palpable that she nearly forgave him that very second.

“Make it look realistic. Rip me apart if you have to.”

She understood what he was asking. He’d be killed if anyone suspected what he was really up to.

“God. No. Please don’t hurt him.
Please
, I’m begging you.”

Evesse rushed at Enteax, ignoring Makayla once more. They raced across the ledge at each other, swords raised—the impact rang out across the streets, their blades heating up and firing off sparks.

They were pushed back away from each other. That didn’t last long. He came at her, barely holding back, his sword thrusting at her side. She blocked it with her own weapon and elbowed him in the face, pushing him back again. His leg shot out, catching her in the arm and sending her flying off the ledge.

Eve rematerialized behind him. He flipped on his hand, cartwheeling on the ledge until he was facing her.

Eve shot after him, flashing in front of him, swinging her sword and catching him in the arm. More of his dark blood arched out. Makayla gave a muffled whimper. Enteax cranked back his other hand and caught Evesse across her cheek, splitting it open. She grabbed onto his injured shoulder, digging her fingers in, and dragged him close enough to knee him in the stomach.