Scarlet Dawn (18 page)

“I don’t think anybody would!” Serena laughed and watched as he threw the heart on the ground and frowned at the body they’d been huddled around when they’d first arrived.

Unsurprisingly, the remains belonged to more of Axle’s gang members.

“Where are these things coming from?” Raith frowned as he eyed the bodies too.

“I have a feeling this isn’t an accident; any of it,” Serena picked up her phone and called for a clean-up crew. When she was done, she turned to Raith, “Let’s get back to the clan. I’ve got some questions that need answering.”

When they finally got back, Zoey was waiting with Isaac and Nikki; their faces all holding what Serena already had been feeling: suspicion.

“None of this has been an accident,” Serena explained. “These ykalis have been being used as some sort of weaponized distraction. There’s somebody who is tracking down all of Axle’s old friends and executing them, and these ykali ‘attacks’ have been a convenient cover story that puts the blame on them while simultaneously destroying any evidence that the
real
culprit might be leaving behind. Like a goddam serial killer feeding the corpses of their victims to the pigs. And there’s only
two
things that have changed in our jurisdiction since this all began: the victim—Axle—and who I’m beginning to suspect has been behind this mess the entire time,” Serena clenched her fists and looked up after a moment, “That new clan!”

“Serena, not again…” Zoey frowned.

“Zoey, I can promise you… I
will
find out what I need to know from that clan! Those fuckers haven’t even allowed me to
see
their leader—hell, we
still
don’t know who’s running that show!—or even get inside enough to find out anything more!”

“Do you truly think they are responsible?” Isaac frowned.

“I do,” Serena nodded, “And I wouldn’t just push on this instinct if I didn’t believe they had something to do with this!” Serena frowned, “Zoey… please, you’ve got to believe me.”

“Alright, Serena,” Zoey sighed and nodded, “Just don’t get yourself into any trouble if they refuse to see you again.”

“I make no promises.” Serena smirked.

“I wasn’t expecting you to,” Zoey laughed. “If you had I would’ve known you were lying.”

“Has Axle been around at all?” Serena frowned.

“No. I haven’t seen him since last night,” Zoey frowned.

Serena bit her lip and nodded slowly, “I think I need to go talk to him.”

“You’re back…” Axle stepped over as Serena let
herself in.

“Y-yea, how’d you know I was gone,” Serena asked, realizing he had been waiting for her.

“Could we… maybe spend some time together?” Axle frowned; ignoring Serena’s question and looking down.

Serena noticed the confusion in his eyes and slowly nodded, “Sure. But is something wrong?”

“I…” He looked away, “I’m not sure.”

As she watched him, he stepped over towards her and took her hand in his as if testing something. Still watching Axles experiment, Serena watched him study the sight of their clasped with an eye of familiarity.

“Come on, let’s go,” Serena smiled, keeping their hands laced and guiding him out of his room, “Let’s go for another walk.”

Though the idea of being alone with Axle with how he was acting made Serena nervous, she knew that, in the event that there was some volatile moment growing within him, it would be better to have him outside and
not
in an underground confinement where he could hurt himself or somebody else.

The moon was full, and though a part of Serena still liked to imagine that nights like this motivated the therions across the world to lose all control and explode into their bestial forms, the truth that, while
everybody
seemed to get a little crazy, it didn’t play out like an old horror movies. Despite this, she wasn’t entirely convinced that Axle wouldn’t be an ironic catastrophe in the making.

As they navigated the
moon-lit forest, Serena struggled to feel at peace for once. Looking over at her companion, however, made that effort an unlikely dream. Though the violent outburst she’d been working against didn’t seem to be making an appearance, there was a definite war going on within him. Serena frowned; she wanted to make him feel better but had no idea what to do to help his situation.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, just…in thought.” He smiled, “had another bad dream.”

“Oh?” She tilted her head, “Can you tell me about it?”

“It’s not important…” Axle frowned as the two continued to walk deeper into the woods.

His eyes continued to drift over her and she felt a shiver as she noted the possessive gaze he was giving her.

“Axle, why do you keep looking at me like tha—”

Serena’s words were caught in her throat as she was pulled against him, pressing her to his chest.

“Serena… I want you.”

“Axle? What are you saying?” She looked up, stunned by his sudden desire and force. “Stop this! This isn’t you!”

“ISN’T ME? THEN WHAT
IS
ME? WHO AM I IF I’M NOT WHO I AM?”

Serena narrowed his eyes, “Axle, don’t make me punch you in the nose
ag—MPH!”

His lips crashed down on hers and she felt…

Nothing.

The thrill and pleasure that his lips had held before were now nothing more than desperate jackhammers.

It was wrong.

And, most importantly, it wasn’t Zane.

Zane was still out there!

She knew it now more than ever!

Extending her fangs, she bit down on his lip; releasing only when he yelped and tore his lips away from hers and cupped a hand over the two puncture wounds. His eyes widened as he saw the blood and he looked up at Serena, his eyes filled with torment and his stare oozing panic and confusion.

“Axle… you need to—”

“Zane…” He whimpered.

Serena’s eyes widened, “What?”

“He… he came to me in my dream last night. He attacked me; said that I wasn’t meant to be here and I had to make things right…” He looked up and wiped his already-healing lip again, “Who is he? What does he mean?”

Serena’s lip quivered, “Zane… H-how can that…”

“I’ve lost to him… haven’t I?” Axle looked up at her.

“Axle… there was
never
a competition. I’ve been looking for Zane ever since an accident took him away from me, and when I find him
he’ll
be who I’m with,” she stepped towards him, placing her hand on his shoulder.

“Then who am I?” Axle whimpered, shaking his head. “It… it felt so right being with you, like
that’s
where I was meant to be…” He growled and his eyes flared with rage and his voice came out in a low growl, “WHO THE FUCK AM I?” He roared as he turned away from Serena and slammed his fist into a tree.

A thunderous crack echoed through the forest, scaring various pods of animals that scattered away from the source.

“Who am I…?” Axle whimpered, dropping to his knees as the tree collapsed onto the forest floor.

“Axle…” Serena frowned and stepped forward to try and calm him.

“Stay back,” he groaned, “It feels too good to have you near me…”

She watched as his body began to shake and he clasped onto his head as he let out a loud scream. Suddenly, he fell to his knees still clutching his head in agony. Serena finally disregarded his order and stepped over, placing her hands on his shoulder.

“We need to get you some help,” she frowned as another pained shudder wracked through his body. Serena helped to lift him and carried him back to the office, where Zoey and Isaac sat together going over some notes.

“Zoey!” Serena cried out, “I need your help!”

Finally, unable to hold him up any longer, Serena started to lose her grip and Axle started to fall forward. Isaac rose from his seat then, swooping in and catching Axle by the shoulders and the two frowned at Serena.

“What happened?” Isaac asked.

“I don’t know,” Serena whimpered. “He’s been holding his head this entire time; complaining of headaches and telling me he doesn’t know who he is!” Serena frowned and looked at Zoey, “Zoe! He’s dreaming of Zane! How is that even possible?”

Raith and Nikki—clearly having heard the commotion—rushed into the room. As they approached the group, Raith cried out and clutched at his head, starting to cackle as tears of agony rolled down his face. Turning to try to offer some comfort to the suddenly hysterical Raith, Nikki’s magical taroe tattoos sparked to life and began to glow brightly as she tried to work her magic to ease the situation.

Axle looked up through hazy eyes and smiled weakly at Isaac, “H-hey, Babe Ruth… you hit any home runs with that killer wood of yours recently…” stammering on the last syllable, Axle passed out.

“What the hell is going on?” Nikki’s eyes widened.

“
M-Maled
—” Raith let out a loud, inhuman growl, “
Maledictus
! He’s awake! He’s awake and—AAHH! H-hee…” Raith smirked, his eyes drifting up in his head, “We want
him
!” He pointed a finger towards Axle, and as everyone watched in shock, the limb began to jerk and crack as the fingers began to break and shift—the finger slowly beginning to lengthen in Axle’s direction.

“What the fuck?” Serena cried, “
Maledictus
has been inactive since Zane’s been gone!”

“He’s back!” Raith’s voice came out in a rattling hiss, “He’s back! He’s back!” his eyes darted towards Serena, the right eye’s iris beginning to shift to silver, “BA-A-A-A-
AAAACK
!” Raith howled and clutched his eye, a trail of blood beginning to seep from his right eye!

“G-get him out of here! Get me away from him! K-k-keep us
apar—AAHH! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU ALL! GIVE HIM TO US!! GIVE HIM TO US NOW OR WE’LL RAPE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR CORP—”

“SHUT UP, ASSHOLE!” Serena brought her two fists down on Raith’s skull, knocking him out. Panting, she shook her head, “Haven’t missed
his
ass one goddam bit!”

Zoey slid over to Axle and frowned as she placed a hand on his shoulder. “He’s not Axle anymore,” she explained, looking up at Serena. There’s two conflicting personalities struggling for dominance, but neither is sure who they are or where they become the other.

Serena’s eyes widened.

The dreams.

The obsessive behavior.

The rage…

She froze as she stared down at Axle, suddenly knowing that Zane had found his way home.

“
S
erena?” Axle’s eyes fluttered open as Serena steered his convertible around a bus and merged back into the lane.

“Hey,
sleepy-head,” Serena offered a weak smile as she took the exit towards Sierra’s orphanage. “Anybody ever tell you that you snore like a fucking bear? What is it with you therions and—”

“Where are we going?” Axle sat up in the seat and looked around.

Serena forced a scoff, fighting the urge to break out into tears, “I’d imagine
that
would be obvious!” She motioned ahead of them, where the dilapidated building’s roof could be seen in the distance, “We’re going to go visit our friends. It’s been a while since you’ve seen the kids…” she glanced over, “And Sierra.”

Axle’s eyes lit up at the name; his shoulders and neck returning to the bouncy playfulness that she recognized as Axle’s own.

“You like her, don’t you?” Serena asked. “If I had to guess, I’d imagine you two went way back, am I right?”

Axle looked over and, blushing like a little boy, nodded. “We were in the orphanage together growing up. She wound up doing a lot of work for the younger kids, even helping the kitchen staff plan out the meals and doing whatever she could to raise funds so they had toys. The others used to pick on her—some even tried to beat her up a few times—and I started watching out for her,” he looked over. “She called me her ‘bodyguard’, and I told her I’d always protect her.” He nodded to himself, “I promised her every night that I’d never let anything bad happen to her.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t marry the girl,” Serena played the role she knew he needed; the role of the bitch. If she let on that something was wrong—let it show how much she was torn up on the inside—then she’d risk losing him to another slip into his own mind.

And she wasn’t sure if she’d ever get him back from that.

Whatever was left of Axle—the one,
true
Axle—was hanging on by less than a thread. If there was any hope of saving both him
and
Zane, then she had to play along and keep Axle from slipping away.

Axle blushed and nodded looking out at the passing scenery, “Can I tell you a secret?”

Serena nodded, “I guess. Unless you’re coming out of the closet; too many of my gay friends come out to me ‘cuz they think I’m a guy?”

Axle looked over, laughing, “They think
you’re
a guy?”

“Well, not a guy in the ‘traditional’ sense,” Serena let go of the wheel long enough to provide air quotes, “but they think that I have a dick and they hope that I’ll serve as some sort of emotional bridge. So, naturally, I let them fuck me, and, I’ll be honest, Axle, I’m not sure my heart can take another one of
those
kinds of relationships.”

Axle stared at her. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Of course I’m joking!” Serena laughed before offering a slight shrug, “Nah, I fuck them!”

“What?” Axle started to laugh.

“Well, naturally. I mean, they just
came out
! They don’t want to use a chick-with-a-dick like they’d use any other woman. They want a chick who can give it to ‘em nice and hard while still providing a gorgeous feminine physique to look upon while they’re getting reamed.”

“You’re disgusting.” Axle announced, “You’re disgusting, I’m in the car with a disgusting woman, and I want to be with my pure-hearted orphan friends and the innocent, beautiful woman of my dreams and completely forget this conversation ever took place.”

“Oh stop pretending that you’re all ‘white knight’ and shit! You and I
both
know that you’d love nothing better than to have me looming over you with a can of WD-40 and a spork.”

Axle groaned, “What’s the
spork for?”

“If you have to ask,” Serena looked over, “you don’t
wanna know.”

They both laughed.

Though for outward appearances she was taking Axle to the orphanage for a long-overdue visit to both the kids he’d worked so hard to protect as well as his childhood sweetheart—something that Serena
also
hoped would motivate the part of Axle that was convinced he loved her, due to Zane’s own feelings melding with his lingering personality, to remember who
truly
held his heart—it was, in fact, an act of precaution and closure. The goal, when everything was said and done, was to get Zane’s aura moved back to his own body and to try and nurse what remained of Axle back to full strength. However, the threat of losing Axle in the process was too great a threat, and though Zoey had been insistent on acting immediately, Serena felt that it was only right that Sierra and the kids get to see Axle—the
real
Axle—before they risked losing him forever.

It was only right to offer them that closure.

However, there was a far greater worry lingering in Serena’s mind.

Whoever had been tracking down and killing Axle’s gang had been well informed. Well informed… and thorough. And while driving into a possible slaughterhouse with Axle was just about the worst set of circumstances Serena could imagine, the benefit that could be earned by the happy reunion
far
outweighed the threat of Axle’s mind slipping away forever.

From what Zoey had told
Serena, hitting a pothole the wrong way might be enough for that to happen.

“Driving a little slower than normal, huh princess?” Axle teased, looking over.

Serena frowned and shrugged, “Well, you know, with gas prices what they are and all, how can you
not
do all you can to conserve our resources, right?”

Axle stared at her. “You’re joking, right?”

“The environment’s not a joking matter, jackass!” Serena stuck out her tongue.

“No. No it isn’t,” Axle nodded, “But you giving a shit about the environment
is
a matter that would only come up in jokes? So why are you
really
driving like an old lady all of a sudden?”

Serena sighed, “I’ve just got a lot on my mind with work and all.”

“Anything you wanna talk about?” Axle looked over, the sincerity in his eyes nearly pushing Serena over the edge.

“Nah, nothing
that
important. Just trying to do right for you and Sierra and the kids while keeping the fact that I’m harboring a wanted criminal in my clan’s walls secret from the bulk of my clan mates
and
the very, extremely nosy Council.”

Axle chuckled, “Makes sense,” he smiled, “Do you really think you’ll be able to help Sierra and the kids?”

Serena nodded, “That’s certainly the point of most of this. Which reminds me,” she nodded towards the glove box in front of him, “Can you grab me something out of there? It’s this little black box”—she chuckled—“my,
that
sounds cryptic when you’re in a car with me, doesn’t it?”

Axle laughed, “Like a black box would
survive
a crash with you driving.”

The both cackled as Axle reached into the glove box and pulled out the small, black, velvet box.

“What is this?”

Serena smirked, “Open it.”

Doing so, Axle’s eyes widened as he took in the wedding ring that Serena had picked up a short time earlier while he’d been passed out in his auric-induced sleep. After convincing Zoey to help her probe Axle’s unconscious mind for the details to his and Sierra’s history, his dreams—dreams of getting out of trouble with The Council and finally establishing himself in a role that would allow him to finally propose to the girl he’d grown up with—and to figure out what
one
gesture would genuinely push for the best to come of things.

Though Serena and Zoey agreed that using their mind-reading abilities to create the
perfect
romantic scenario between the two was pretty cheap, Serena figured that shelling out a few extra thousand dollars on the ring would balance things out.

“
Wh-what is this?” Axle stammered.

Serena rolled her eyes, “Well clearly you’re not a golfer.”

“Huh?”

Serena shook her head, mumbling about “uncultured therions” before she nodded towards
the ring. “I got a deal for ya, stud.”

Axle bit his lip, “What would that be?”

“I’m sort of a sucker for happy endings and all, but I’m also sort of a manipulative bitch. So, what I’m going to do is move you, your lady friend,
and
all the kids into the Vail Clan’s headquarters as official, registered members. I’ll push all the paperwork to have your history forgiven—explaining that you were trying to care for these unfortunate children and that I’m personally taking responsibility for your rehabilitation and helping to repay whatever losses for whatever shit you and your boys made off with in your all your fun-havings.”

As Serena’s explanation went on, Axle’s eyes grew wider and wider until she was certain they would fall out of his skull. “S-so what’s the catch? I… I mean, you
did
say this was all part of some deal, right?”

Serena nodded, “Right you are, sport. So, as you can see, I’m busting a
fuck-ton
of awesome, life-changing shit on your lap, right?”

“R-right…” Axle answered, obviously nervous about what was coming.

“So what I want from you—and what you’ll fucking
give
to me if you expect
any
of this fairy tale bullshit to come true—is that when we get there,” Serena looked over and nodded at the ring, “you drop on your knee in
true
old-skool fashion and deliver the single most heart-warming, birds singing, roses blossoming, church bells tolling, panty dropping, condom-popping speech that you can come up with and ask Sierra to marry you. If I’m going to offer a life-changing experience, you need to take a life-changing step in return.” Serena took a deep breath and offered a sidelong glance, “So we got a—boy, tell me are you not
crying
all over that ring!”

“Axle!
S’rena!” Fang cried out happily and charged the door as the two of them stepped inside.

Catching the little vampire in mid-leap, Axle laughed and rustled the boy’s hair, “There’s my little buddy,” he rustled the boy’s hair. “Have you been behaving while I was gone?”

Fang smiled and nodded, “Of course!”

Axle raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Have you bitten anybody?”

Fang smiled and nodded, “Of course!”

Both Serena and Axle couldn’t hold back their bouts of laughter as they walked deeper into the building.

“So where is everybody?” Serena asked.

Fang giggled.

“What is it?” Axle looked down at the boy.

Another giggle.

“Fang? Is somebody keeping secrets?” Axle tickled the boy, earning a fit of giggles and writhes. “Come on! Fess up, kid! What secrets are you hiding?”

“Sierra and the others are in the other room waiting to surprise you!” Fang announced.

A short way’s away, the sound of all the kids groaning at their blown cover grew and they stormed out to chide their friend about ruining surprises.