Scarlet Night (Limited Edition) (29 page)

“No…” she frowned, looking away, “
Maledictus
doesn’t see a difference between friend or foe
or
their kin!”

“Then you see my problem, right? This broad’s done the impossible! Tamed the savage dragon, soothed the raging beast! For fuck’s sake, you said yourself that Melanoma—or whatever it is—doesn’t
do
this sort of thing! So that means she’s cracked the curse, right? Some sort of loophole in its design?”

“You’re a fool!” she shook her head, “It doesn’t work that way! The curse was created—
designed—
to make your life and the lives of those around you
miserable
! By sheer definition of the symbols you wear, none—no matter
who
they are or
what
they meant to you—should sway the—”

“Dammit, bitch! That’s what I’ve been
saying
! Up until a few days ago she wasn’t
anything
to me! I didn’t know her. I didn’t grow up with her. I haven’t spent year-after-year pining and swooning and serenating this girl.
Nothing
!” Zane laughed as the tattoos started to tingle, “Oh,
that’s
great! See what happened? You went and woke the baby!”

She rolled her eyes as her own tattoos began to glow and she focused on the searing red design visible on his arm, “
Superesse adhuc, Maledictus. Haec hora non indigetis videre ira tua.
”

Zane grimaced and shook as a tremor shook his body and then went still, his tattoos shifting back to normal. “What the…” he examined himself, “What the hell? In just a few days it’s like everybody with a pair of tits can settle this thing down! What the fuck did you say?”

She exhaled slowly, letting her tattoos fade as well, “It’s Latin. And I think I should come with you.”

Zane stared at her in bewilderment, “Wh-what? What are you talking about? Why are you…” he shook his head, “Why should I take you
anywhere
?”

She stepped forward and, though she was noticeably smaller than he was, seemed to overpower him with her stare alone, “Because if this girl
is
as special as you say—if she
does
have power over
Maledictus
—then you may already have your cure and you will need me to administer it.”

Zane shook his head, “And why should I trust you? It was your people that did this to me in the first place! What happened to ‘earning the marks’ and all that shit?”

“Sometimes things change, Zane,” she smirked, “And if both you
and
Maledictus
can come to see the ugliness in yourselves and seek retribution for noble cause, then perhaps the sentence can change as well.”

Zane bit his lip and sighed, “If I find out you’re fucking with me—”

“It is neither my nature nor my interest to deceive you!” she snapped, “So you can either accept my offer and bring me with you or you can carry on as you always have!”

Zane blushed at her fury,
“Fair enough. So who are you, anyway?”

“My name’s Nic
c’oule, but the humans I trade with when I’m short on supplies call me Nikki.”

He frowned, “You trade with humans? Do they know what you are?”

“They know that I am a woman,” she responded, “and they know I am tattooed.”

“Is that
all
they know?”

Nikki chuckled, “What more is there to know? I’ve had no reason to cast around them, so they have no reason to know I have magic, but just as you wear clothes to hide your nakedness, my decision to not reveal my magic does not mean that it is not there.”

Zane narrowed his eyes, “Do they or do they
not
know
what
you are.”

She scoffed and walked by him, “No,
Maledictus
. They do not.”

Zane sighed and shook his head, turning after to follow her, “Couldn’t you have just
said
so? Was all that
really
necessary?”

“Nothing is necessary.” She chuckled, “The decisions we make are motivated by circumstance and desire. We work so that we can afford to live. We bathe and make ourselves presentable so that we can attract a mate and start a family. And we act and behave as we do so that, when we die, we can be remembered.”

Zane growled, “Okay… so what is the circumstances and desires behind all this cryptic bullshit?”

She laughed, “Because it is fun!”

Zane stared after her, shaking his head. “Women…”

“This is taking too damn long!” Zane grumbled, ignoring a brunette woman with a little
kid standing in line ahead of them in the airport terminal. Lowering his voice he leaned towards Nikki, “Isn’t there some—y’know?—
easier
way to get back?

Nikki frowned, “Easier than flying?”

“Yea…” he nodded towards her tattoos, “like teleporting or something like that.”

“Teleporting?” she stared at him, “You want me to teleport us with my magic?”

Zane held his pointer finger to his lips and glared, “Yes, Miss Share-With-The-World! That’s what I mean!”

“Like in the movies and on TV, right?”

“Uh… more or less, yea.” Zane shrugged. “Is something wrong with that?”

Nikki rolled her eyes and turned to face him, “Okay, let me break down what you’re asking me so that you can understand how stupid you sound. Now, you want
me
—somebody you’ve known only several hours and is more likely to
kill
you than offer kindness—to use
my
abilities to take
both
of us apart molecule-by-molecule. Then—now being
nothing
more than a microscopic jigsaw puzzle of myself—consciously direct
both
of us, in our molecular multitude,
hundreds
of miles away to a pinpoint location beyond sea, city, and forest that I’ve
never
been to and then, assuming that enough of me has survived this trip and is still actually all together and not spread out halfway across the planet,
re
assemble
both
of us into something
hopefully
resembling what we look like now. That about wrap up what you’re asking of me?”

Zane shook his head at her, “Anybody ever tell you that you’re a really abrasive fucking cunt sometimes?”

The brunette ahead of them whipped around and jabbed a sharp finger into Zane’s face, “Excuse me!” she hissed at him, “There is a
child
here!”

Zane frowned and looked down at the little boy; shaggy brown hair, a hooded sweater
that was several sizes too big for him, tiny jeans with the ghostly remnants of grass stains on the knees that couldn’t be washed out, and a pair of red Converse shoes that needed to be re-laced.

In a word: typical.

“Yes. Yes there
is
a child here! And I’m certain he’ll even grow—as children have a way of doing, I’ve heard—into a young man where he’ll sprout some god-ugly acne and all sorts of body hair and start borrowing your fashion magazines for prolonged trips to the bathroom. Then, when he’s done pumping protein into
every
piece of fabric in your home, maybe he’ll march off to college and, if he’s miraculously avoided knocking up some future pole-dancer, maybe even get a job that
won’t
leave him selling drugs to make rent on a shitty studio apartment. Shit, lady, he may even grow up to be
president
some day! So bravo, toots, you’ve reproduced; now, while I thank you for showing me that there is, indeed, a child present, I’m going to return to the conversation I was having and you’re going to turn around and shut your fucking mouth!”

The woman’s eyes grew wider and wider with every sentence as her jaw dropped lower and lower. By the time Zane had finished, he wasn’t sure if the woman would attack him or if her head would just pop off her shoulders from sheer rage. Fortunately for both of them, her son, having overheard the rant but not understanding most of it, provided a distraction:

“Wow, Mommy! Can I
really
be president some day?”

The woman, still shaking with rage and barely registering her son’s words, shook her head. “No, Eric! Don’t listen to a word he says! He’s a crazy ma—” then, suddenly realizing what she was saying, turned to the boy as the first wave of tears cascaded down his cheeks and he ran away from her with a shriek.

Firing Zane one final death glare, the woman sacrificed her spot in line and began running after her traumatized son.

Zane smirked and stepped forward to the now-open spot.

Nikki, frowning at him, shook her head as she stepped up beside him. “That was
horrible
!”

“I agree.” Zane nodded, “No parent should discourage their kid like that.”

“You know what I mean!” She looked past him towards where they had run off to, “I just don’t see how you find that funny.”

Zane shrugged, “Serena would’ve thought it was a riot.”

Nikki frowned and stared at him, “Is that the one you were talking about? The one that calms
Maledictus
?”

Zane nodded.

“So what do you know about her?” Nikki asked.

Zane sighed, “I know that she’s stubborn and arrogant and obnoxious and an overall pain in the ass!”

Nikki raised an eyebrow, “And
this
is the woman that soothes—”

“In my defense, I
did
already point out that it makes
no
goddam sense!”

“But…” she shook her head, “but there must be
something
about her! Some goodness or sincerity or affection or magic!”

Zane shook his head, “Only magic with that woman is how she can bust my balls over and over again and
still
irritate the shit out of me every time she opens her mouth.”

Nikki laughed and smiled, “I like her already!”

“Yea,” he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose and advancing as the line moved ahead, “I’m sure you two will hit it off just great! She’s already turned one of my clan mates to the dark side, too!”

“Well at least she’s making friends, right?” Nikki smiled, “So what’s your clan mate like? Are they romantic with one another?”

Zane laughed, “I severely doubt it! Though I wouldn’t mind seeing
that
!”

Nikki frowned in confusion.

“My clan mate’s a
girl
, Nikki. Her name’s Zoey, and I don’t think she
or
Serena swing that way.”

“So you
are
in love with her!” Nikki chided.

“I’m not…” he sighed, “It’s not as simple as that! Sure, there’s something there, but there’s a big fucking mess in the middle of it all.”

“A mess?” Nikki frowned, “What sort of mess?”

“Like the ex-boyfriend-slash-fiancé sort of mess!” Zane sneered.

“Oh. Is he trying to get her back?”

Zane shook his head, “Not anymore. Your precious curse saw to that.”

Nikki looked around to make sure nobody was listening before responding: “She’s still interested in you after you
killed
her previous lover?”

Zane growled and shook his head, “No, dammit! It’s not… he was
already
dead!”

Nikki stared at him, “But you just said—”

“I know what I said, okay! I even know how it sounds! But ever since I found her and her phantom baggage it’s become normal, everyday bullshit! Just one more way for her to drive me up the fucking wall!”

“A ‘phantom’? You mean her lover? He was a
ghost
? Then how did you”—she looked around again and lowered her voice—“how could you kill him if he was already dead?”

Zane narrowed his eyes at her, “Did I stutter, Nikki? I. Don’t. Know! He was trying to possess me so he could have my body to be with her again. Halfway through the process our angry friend came in and ripped his aura to pieces
.”

Nikki studied him, “You can do that?”

“Apparently.” Zane glared, “I wasn’t exactly asking for a physics lesson while I did it! One moment his aura was there—working
very
hard to steal my body—and the next he wasn’t.”

“Then the
Maledictus
reacted to protect your body from being taken?”

“I guess so.” Zane frowned, “But I’m not about to
thank
it if that’s what you’re saying.”

“No, I wasn’t going to say that.” Nikki said, turning her head to watch a plane taking off through the window.

Zane looked over, “Then what
were
you going to say?”

Nikki was silent as she watched the plane lift off the ground before turning away and looking back at Zane, “I was going to ask if that had ever happened before?”

“What do you mean?”

Nikki sighed, “You said that Serena’s dead lover—as an aura—tried to take control of your body; to
possess
you so that he and Serena could be together again.”

Zane nodded, “Yes. That
is
what I just said. What’s your point?”

“My point,” Nikki said, narrowing her eyes at him, “is to find out if he’d ever done something like that before!”

T
he 24-hour window that Serena had given the others to make their decisions was nearly up, and while she was confident in her strategy and hopeful of the overall plan, her nerves had kept her from getting too much rest. Despite what was coming, she was surprised to find the majority of her fragmented sleep interrupted and haunted by thoughts and chaotic dreams of Zane. At times she’d feel as though he was beside her—his tattooed skin only inches from her body—and she found herself waking up to try to move closer to him only to be reminded that she was alone. Scenarios played out within her, refusing to let her mind slip into unconsciousness for hours at a time, and entire conversations—supportive and loving as well as scornful and enraged—were scripted from start to finish. In every case that she imagined, no matter how they entered into the conversation, it ended in the same way. This thought, again and again, was carried with her into what sleep she was offered, and her dreams became an erotic flurry that enacted what she had, in her waking moments, led up to. Then, drenched from both sweat and arousal, she’d awaken, certain that Zane was lying beside her.

And the cycle would begin once again.

Finally, fed up with being teased by her own subconscious, she decided to punish her own depraved mind by refusing to let it titillate her any longer with broken promises of sleep. Instead, in an effort to focus her mind, she followed the route Zoey had shown her earlier to the munitions room and began to explore the collection of high-powered weapons. Though most of them were far more complex and a great deal larger than anything she’d ever handled, she still found herself feeling more and more comfortable with the idea of strolling onto the battlefield with one of the impressive guns slung over her shoulder. As the range of firearms increased in size the deeper she explored the room, she became evermore enticed by them; the fantasy of toting a shiny automatic weapon that was longer than she was tall and sporting a belt of ammunition that stretched for nine yards.

She smirked at the idea of unloading
that
into the wide-eyed Keith’s chest.

The whole n
ine yards!

She laughed to herself as she ran her palm over the cool metal surface, reminding herself once again that killing was not an option, and moved on to the next violent fantasy.

Despite all the ogling and fantasizing, Serena found that she’d only been able to kill forty minutes in her excursion. Carrying a few of the more modest and “less lethal”—as she’d been able to convince herself—guns from the room in a duffle bag, she started back for her room to think of her
next
mundane distraction.

And then she saw her!

The length of the tunnel Serena was walking through centered her on the end as she looked around the main corridor; clearly lost. Though she was still a ways away, Serena could see that the strange woman—with skin like milk chocolate and bright red hair—was
not
one of Vail’s warriors
or
a part of Isaac’s pack!

And that narrowed her list of potential comrades to only one other that knew their location
…

Keith!

As the intruder continued to peer down the numerous passageways, still oblivious that she had been spotted, Serena set down the duffle bag and reached in for the first available gun.

Suddenly “less lethal” was no longer a concern.

She wanted something—anything!—that was a part of Keith and his bullshit
dead
!

Pulling out the first gun her hand touched, she frowned at the strange design. All her life
it had been the simple, small things; two parts that mattered: trigger and barrel. One you pulled, the other killed what it was aimed at. Simple! What she held now was at least two-times longer and far heavier than anything her father had shown her before she’d left the clan.

Suddenly she wished she’d paid more attention to what he’d been saying instead of waiting for archery practice.

The handle and trigger she recognized; simple and where it belonged. Good!

The barrel, though a lot more intimidating than what she had seen before, still faced forward when the handle and trigger were held as she’d been shown
;
the length made aiming a little more complicate
d
, but still familiar. Excellent!

Then there was all this shit in between the two; shit that looked important: complicated, foreign, confusing.

“Fuck,” she grumbled, trying to decipher the gun’s components by glaring at it. Suddenly she remembered what she’d been doing and looked up towards the corridor again.

The stranger was gone!

Serena frowned, “Double-fuck!”

Clutching the gun, she shot down the hall and into the corridor and spotted the intruder as she peered down one of the other tunnels. As she glared, Serena felt her fangs extend and she began to shiver with the anticipation of the impending fight. Suddenly, as though hearing her excitement, the woman turned and looked at her, smirking as she spotted her.

“Ah! You must be Serena!” she turned and started towards her.

Serena’s eyes widened at the advance and she whipped the gun forward and held it how she assumed she was supposed to, hoping to catch the intruder off guard long enough to plan an attack that relied less on the mechanics of a military weapon.

The woman’s green eyes went wide and her hands went up as she took a step back, “Whoa! Okay! Bad start! I’m—”

Serena hissed, “I know who sent you!”

“Who sent me?” she frowned and shook her head, “Look, you’re confused. I’m sorry if I startled you, but Zane was—”

“Zane?” Serena’s eyes widened. This woman—this
bitch
—knew Zane? How? If Keith was sending his subordinates to them then he must have captured Zane! She snarled and threw down the gun and charged the woman, “Where is he, you bitch?”

“No! Wai—”

Serena slammed into her, knocking them both to the ground as she reached out with her aura and pinned her down, holding her fists up and baring her fangs, “Tell me where he is or I swear I’ll fucking—”

“Didn’t I tell you she was a charmer, Nikki?” Zane’s voice echoed down the passage as he descended the ladder. “I swear, Serena!
This
is why we can’t have guests over! ‘Hi, nice to meet you! How was your day? Let me take your coat. Hope you don’t mind if I eat your face’” he shook his head and chuckled.

Serena’s eyes widened as her aura deflated and withdrew into her still chest as she struggled to remember how to breathe. “Z-Zane? You… you’re here. You came back!”

Zane nodded, “Well yea! What? A guy can’t go on a calm relaxing stroll without panicking the little lady?”

Serena glared, “You were gone for
four
fucking days!”

“Yea…” Zane rubbed the back of his neck, “Sometimes calm and relaxing strolls are more like trips to other continents and dangerous hikes up unexplored, mountainous terrain. To-may-to, to-mah-to, right?”

“You ass-hat!” Serena threw herself off the still-shocked woman and drove her knee into Zane’s stomach and brought an elbow into his solar plexus, “You
left
us here with
no
idea of
where
you were or
when
you’re dumb ass was planning to come back! I thought you were
dead
, you inconsiderate fuck!”

Zane heaved and keeled over as he dropped to his knees, “N-nice… to see… you too!”

Serena glared down at him, “You’re lucky my ass doesn’t know how to work that piece-of-shit gun or I’d shoot you in the dick!”

“
Glad to see…” he groaned and curled tighter into the fetal position and began to cough, “… I’m one of the fortunate ones.”

The woman that Zane had called Nikki stood and frowned, looking down at Zane as he writhed about in pain.

“Incredible! The magic isn’t even awakening!”

Serena looked over, still breathing heavily from the rush of adrenaline, “What are you talking about?”

Nikki knelt down and pointed at Zane’s tattoos, “See? They’re still black! Not even a spark! After something like that the
Maledictus
would have taken over—
should
have taken over—but there’s nothing!”

Serena sneered, “What’s this about Megatron taking over?”

Though he was still groaning in pain, Zane started laughing only to cringe and clutch his stomach tighter, “Oh! Damn!”

Nikki blushed, standing up, “The
Maledictus
; the curse! The beast that he turns into!”

“That thing has a name?” Serena frowned.

Nikki shrugged, “More-or-less.” She shook her head, “No matter what you call it, it
should
be on a rampage after the beating you just gave him.” Staring at Zane’s tattoos a moment longer she chuckled, “I wouldn’t have believed it in a
million
years! You really do calm it!”