A Hand in Hell

Chapter 17

I followed her movements as closely as I could, ducking and dodging her claw strikes with careful precision until just the right moment, when I found an opening that allowed me to escape the place where I was pinned between this whirlwind of a woman and the damaged shelving unit. Once again using the speed her brother so loved, I made my way under her arm and around to her back, even emulating her brother so far as to ram my foot into her back, forcing her front-first into the warped metal.

She began to shove back against my foot with a strength I hadn't quite expected, enough to shove me over as she obviously planned to do, and I quickly dropped my foot and leaped backward, over her brother's body, to escape the onslaught of claws that I was sure would come the moment she was freed. Oddly enough, on this front, I was proven wrong, as she turned to face me without attack. Oh, no. She saved the strike for when she suddenly appeared before me, faster even than her brother, inches from my face, and slapped her palm flat against my stomach, digging her claws into my flesh to keep me from slipping away from her.

She mimicked me as I'd mimicked her sibling, flooding me with enough concentrated energy, enough precisely targeted mana, to sear through every organ, every tissue, every ounce of fluid within my abdomen. I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out as the first organ ruptured, the delicious irony of it too much to keep me, even in all this pain, from smiling — my newly grown liver.

I chuckled through the pain, the humor enough to return my faculties to me for just a moment, and grabbed her wrist tightly enough to snap the bones right then and there, even as I tore her hand from my stomach with no care for the claws ripping through my battered flesh. Her free hand hurried toward my throat, flickering with the same pale energy that now surged within me, rushing to regrow my freshly destroyed liver, but I caught it in my own empty hand, smiling wickedly.

"Now, now, Zera dear," I said flirtatiously, pulling her body flush against mine with a sharp tug at her arms, and for the first time, she seemed stunned, though her expression still didn't shift even a hair. "You can't possibly be so eager to end this dance so soon." I pressed my lips to hers forcefully, and, still holding tightly on to her wrists, I forced a stream of raw energy from my lips, from my fingertips, and from every inch of me where our bodies touched. Finally, finally, I saw her empty mask fall away, and as her eyes widened in shock, fear, and pain, I let my eyes drift shut and held her inescapably to me with the very power that now crushed her very being.

She screamed into my lips for the barest moment, then fell perfectly silent, sagging against me. I freed her wrists and caught her in my arms as she dropped, savoring the scent of melting flesh and liquefied entrails as I slowly lowered her to the bloody puddle that made up the floor. I could smell it, fresh on the air — the mingling blood of siblings torn to shreds long before their time. It smelled sweeter somehow since I knew it was their own father who had sent them to their demise, their own father who had watched them die.

When I could feel no hint of a pulse throbbing anywhere within her, I withdrew what remained of my mana and let my arms slip from around her. I opened my eyes to survey my handiwork, finding her cheeks streaked with rivulets of blood, her own eyes having burst long ago. I reached up to touch my own eyelids, finding them covered in the same gory coating that ran down her cheeks. You'd think I would've noticed something like that.

What could I say? She was a good kisser.

I stood and turned from the bodies of my decimated enemies, smiling sweetly when my eyes landed on the leader, on the reckless father who let them die. He looked wholly unperturbed, but I wouldn't let that dampen my good cheer. "Didn't even think about stepping in, did you?" I remarked. "Didn't even consider saving the lives of your own children even though you so obviously could."