Chapter 6

“Get up,” the whispered words created a swell of panic in my chest. I awoke immediately, Starke leaning over me, a finger to his lips.

“Something’s out there.”

I nodded in understanding and with his help, got to my feet. Everyone was awake and hovering anxiously as Bixby and Luke slipped silently inside.

“What is it?” Gordo whispered.

“Not sure. Not leeches. Could be QL’s or ravagers. Whatever it is, I don’t believe they know we’re here. They’re moving too erratically. Let’s just stay low and hope they move on.”

Starke retrieved his sword and I did the same with my sai, before taking position behind one of the shelving units. My sai weren’t meant to be a killing weapon. More for self-defense. But they were sharp enough to cause damage if I needed them to. Holding them eased some of the fear bubbling in my chest.

We waited in silence, our shallow breaths hanging in the air like tiny puffs of cloud before disintegrating into the frosty room. My ears strained, listening for any telltale signs of what was outside. Bixby said they weren’t sure. Could be things from this world. Could be things from another. I truly hoped it wasn’t Asha and her minions. We would be on the losing side of that battle.

I started as a voice floated on the night’s breeze. A voice speaking words I understood, so not creatures then.

“Are you sure they were spotted around here?”

The voice was male and raspy, like it had spent too many years smoking crap cigarettes.

“Yeah, the lookout said they passed on this highway a few hours ago.”

“They can’t be that far then. Keep your voices down. Idiots won’t know what hit them.”

My gut clenched and I swallowed the lump in my throat.

Please. Please just move on. Don’t notice this dump.

I jumped as a warm hand found mine in the dark and squeezed. Starke reassuring me everything was going to be alright. I sucked in a shaky breath hoping he was right.

Scruff started to growl in the back of his throat, and I felt Gordo’s movements in the dark as he whispered to the dog, trying to calm him down.

“Easy, boy. You’re okay. Quiet now.”

The dog obeyed. No one moved. No one spoke. No one dared breathe. We stayed crouched in position for so long my thighs started to scream in protest. I almost wept in relief as the sounds outside tapered off as the voices moved away. Whoever it was had passed on. Luke got back to his feet, his massive girth blocking the moonlight streaming through the collapsed ceiling.

“I think we’re safe.”

Scruff’s frantic barking was our only two second warning before Chaos erupted. Shadowed bodies began to fill up the room. Dropping from the hole in the ceiling. Leaping through the busted windows. Storming the shattered door.

Screams exploded as gunfire erupted around me.

Sharp barks pierced the air, underlined by Starke’s yell of, “Jette, run”, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

I spun in a circle, confused and terrified. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t tell who from who as bodies collided with each other in the darkness.

I raised my sai, a scream caught in my throat as something big collided with me and knocked me flat out. I slid across the floor on my back, slamming into the steel shelf blocking my way. Excruciating pain exploded in my shoulder and black spots swarmed in front of my eyes. Shaking my head, I squinted up at the hate-filled face hovering above mine.

I must have hit my head harder than I thought. The face staring back at me looked like some demented punk rocker. A mohawk sat high on the tattooed face, piercings flashing in the slivers of light filtering through the broken windows.

A knee smacked me in the chest, knocking any breath I had left out of my lungs as hands pinned my arms on either side. Demented Ozzy lowered his head toward me, the stench of his rotted meat breath causing bile to rise in my throat.

And then he smiled. His sunken eyes and black lips stretched like some fleshless skull, and I knew at that exact moment I was looking into the face of true madness.

“Well lookie, lookie. Don’t you look nice and well fed,” he rasped like he had rocks in his throat.

Wha? Did this fugly eighties throwback just call me fat?

I tried to free my arms so I could stab my sai into his hideous face, but he was stronger than he looked. Screaming in fear and frustration I raised my head and smacked it hard into his grinning skull, ringing reverberating in my head.

Blood shot from his nose, appearing black in the moonlight. His eyes opened wide as if he couldn’t believe what I did. Then he snarled, spitting the dripping blood from his nose into my face.

“You’re going to pay for that you little, bit…”

Whack!

The boot appeared out of nowhere, the toe connecting painfully with his temple. His eyes rolled back as he toppled over. With his knee out of my sternum, I could breathe again, and I sucked in air as I stared up at my savior.

“Come on,” Jill screamed at me as she reached down. I grabbed her hand and leapt as she pulled, landing on my feet. She started dragging me towards one of the busted windows and away from the melee happening all around us. My senses focusing once again, I yanked my hand from hers.

“You go. I need to help.”

“Are you crazy? Come on.”

“No, we…” an arm swung from the darkness, moonlight glittering on the deadly blade. I ducked, pushing Jill out of harm’s way. The blade swished over my head, so close I swear it sliced a hair in half. Planting my right palm flat against the floor, I leaned back and bent my knee. With all the strength I could muster, I kicked my foot into my attackers’ stomach. The woman flew backwards through the air and slammed against the far wall, sliding down and sprawling on the floor like a spaghetti noodle. Flipping nimbly back to my feet, I yanked my sai up and spun it so it laid flat against my wrist just as an iron bar flashed my way. The crowbar connected with my sai with so much force it nearly ripped my arm out of the socket. I stumbled backwards as a jolt of pain lanced down my arm from my injured shoulder. Black spots flashed behind my eyes, every inch of my arm and shoulder pierced by a thousand needles. I winced, biting back a scream. My attacker didn’t give me time to recover. The bar swung again, and I leaped out of the way as the iron punched a hole through the wall where my head had only been moments before. The crowbar stuck in the hole as its wielder struggled to yank it out, giving me the few saving grace seconds I needed. I didn’t stop to think what I was about to do; I simply reacted to the fact that some dude had just tried to kill me. I stabbed the sharp end of my sai into my attackers’ shoulder. My stomach churned at the sickening squelch as I yanked it back out, accompanied by a fresh spurt of blood. The guy screamed, giving up on disengaging his crowbar from the wall. Instead he turned to face me, holding his shoulder and trying to stop the blood flow. I shot out with the blunt end of my other sai, striking him square in the face. I heard the sickening crack of bone as he sank to his knees, groaning in agony.

“I’m so going to enjoy skinning you alive, girl, and roasting you over a flame,” he gurgled through the blood.

Fear shot through my body, freezing me in place for a second. These people weren’t just any old attackers. They were the cannibals Bixby had told us about. The fear quickly gave way to anger as the guy tried to struggle to his feet. I lifted my boot and smashed him in the chest.

“Not today, turd breath,” I sneered, sending him careening into the metal shelving. My victory was short lived. I was grabbed from behind, arms pinned to my sides. I struggled, trying not to breathe through my nose as the noxious odor wafting from my attacker threatened to make me violently ill. My struggles did no good. A woman emerged from the melee, yanking my sai from my useless hands. The bands of steel encircling me, started yanking me backwards, toward the door. He was trying to drag me outside where others possibly waited.

“Starke,” I screamed, before a calloused hand clamped over my mouth. Immediately I bit into the fleshy mound, gagging as the copper filled my mouth along with other tastes I didn’t want to comprehend. The guy swore before lessening his grip. I took advantage. Stomping down on his instep, I tore myself from his grasp and whirled on the ball of my left foot. Before he could grab for me again, my knee was already on its way to its destination. A woosh of noxious air hit me full force in the face as my knee collided with the dangly bits between his legs. He went down without a sound, but he was the least of my worries right now. I glanced around the room, now awash with the pre-dawn light and my heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach. In the dark, I thought for sure we stood a chance. But now that I could see… there were so many of them. Too many. We couldn’t defeat them all.

The crazy witch who’d stolen my sai screamed and leaped at me, the sai held above her head like a knife and aiming for any vital part of me.

I raised my arm in defense, preparing to weather the pain as it embedded into my skin. It never connected.

I wasn’t able to comprehend what happened next. One moment the room was filled with screams, and chaos, and the overwhelming scent of blood. The next was like time stood still. Literally. The whole room exploded into shadows and light, and it felt like every atom of air was sucked out, even as everyone in the room froze in place. I could see what was happening, but my brain couldn’t grasp it.

The room practically glowed with a red light so intense it magnified everything. Like HD crystal clear. I really wished it wasn’t. I didn’t want to see them in all their glory. These people were terrifying, like something out of some apocalypse warrior movie. Over the top with their shaved heads and piercings and furs. I gagged as I realized the crazy witch frozen in front of me had a necklace of fingers hanging around her neck. Freakin’ fingers! What kind of crazy weirdo did that?

My brain went into overdrive trying to process what was happening around me. Everyone, even my people were frozen in mid battle, weapons that had been clashing with cannibal munitions, stilled. Faces contorted in fear. Anger. Unresponsive, like I had just paused some fight scene in a crazy-ass video.

Gordo had been caught in place, trying to remove some psycho’s hands from his neck while Scruff was in midleap, spittle still on his lips like he was about to rip the guys throat out.

Luke had been in the process of tossing another cannibal across the room. The guy was poised in midair like he was doing a backstroke.

Bixby, her face twisted as her attacker had stopped mid-punch, his fist in her cheek.

Jill, a silent scream on her lips as she was being dragged off by two more cannibals, that were now as unresponsive as she was.

The whole scene was surreal and so hard to comprehend, that I had to bury the hysterical laughter threatening to erupt. Was I actually seeing this? Or was I hallucinating? I really wasn’t sure anymore.

My eyes landed on Starke. Unlike the others, he was not in combat, nor frozen in place. He crouched to the floor; hand splayed on the concrete stained red with blood. The runes on his arm and neck glowed bright with an ominous radiance, like they took on a life of their own. Words dropped from his lips. Words I couldn’t understand but they caused the whole area around him to be inundated with that same red aura, and I swear I could taste sulfur. His head swiveled slowly toward me and I gasped as black eyes stared my way. Black. Not green.

A shiver snaked up my spine. The way he looked in this state made my heart twist in fear. I couldn’t help but feel there was something terribly wrong with it. With him.

“This is going to hurt,” he rasped in the eerily quiet room, just as the vacuum broke and everything rushed back with a cacophony of sound and movement.

I’d never experienced an explosion in my life, but I assumed it would be something similar to this. A force struck me in the chest, reverberating through my body and whipping away any air I had left in my lungs. Then it hit my head and I swear I felt my brain rattle in my skull, pain radiating down my neck. I closed my eyes as I was assaulted by a wind that felt like daggers ripping at my skin.

Then, just like that, it was over. I stumbled to my knees, sucking in air and trying not to pass out.

Oh, crap! The chick with the finger necklace.

My eyes popped open, as my arm instinctively went up to protect myself. But she wasn’t hovering above me. Not like I feared she would be. Instead, all I found was my sai sitting on top of a tiny pile of ash.

What the hell?

I glanced around the room, checking for any immediate danger. What I found were the dazed and confused looks of my companions. Gordo was on his knees shaking his head in disbelief seconds before he puked his guts up. Even Scruff was whining in confusion, as if he didn’t quite understand what was happening.

You and me both, boy.

“What the hell just happened? Where are the ravagers?” Bixby was the first to speak. Her voice quivered like she was fighting total confusion.

Sudden clarity hit as realization kicked in full force. Starke happened. All that was left of the ravagers were the tiny piles of ashes dotted about the station floor and floating lazily through the dawn’s light. He’d incinerated every last one.

He was still kneeling, his palm still flat to the concrete, but he was hunched as if straightening up was way too much effort for him right now. Scared shitless, I pushed myself to my feet and staggered to him.

“Starke—"

“Don’t touch me,” he snarled, obsidian eyes flashing my way as his bloody palm halted me in my tracks. He didn’t have to tell me twice. I didn’t recognize this Starke in front of me at the moment. This one filled me with absolute terror.

I watched as his runes dimmed and the darkness faded from his eyes, replaced by the beautiful green I ached to see. I watched as he gained control of his blood magic, pulling himself together. Only then did he allow me to approach and help him to his feet. I eased my arm under his as he stumbled, and I suddenly realized how weak he was. How much using blood magic had cost him when he was already on empty. My heart ached for him as he smiled at me in gratitude. I should be the one grateful to him. He’d just saved us all but at what cost?

“Holy freakin’ awesome,” I grinned his way, trying to cover my fear with flippancy. I don’t think it worked. He saw through it. He saw the fear and uncertainty and recognized it for what it was.

“I told you it was something I did not wish for you to learn.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I agree. But you did what you had to do to save us. Thank you.”

“What the heck just happened?” Gordo wiped his lips with his sleeve, his eyes wide in excitement and not the least embarrassed we’d all just watched him puke. “Did…did you just turn all those ravagers to dust? Like they were freakin’ vampires or something? Did you just do magic on them?”

“What do you think, idiot? They all didn’t just suddenly decide to leave and go to Ikea.” I was impressed how quickly Bixby regained her sarcasm.

Luke rolled his shoulders and glanced about the room, battling the confusion on his face. “Everyone accounted for?”

I did the same. Everyone was accounted for, even if they looked dazed as all heck.

“Well if I wasn’t a believer before, I sure as hell am now.” Luke approached us, dropping a hand on Starke’s shoulder. “That was…impressive, my friend. To say the least.”

Starke grimaced. “I would call it more unfortunate than impressive. Taking life is never easy.”

He tried to stand on his own but scowled in pain and leaned heavily on me again. “But I’m afraid we are not out of the woods yet. Blood magic has a price, and we will have to pay. We have to move fast.”

His words caused another wave of unease to swirl in my gut. “Why?”

“Blood magic used to this extent will leave a trail. With no other magic at my disposal, I cannot hide it, or us. Asha will track it in record time.”