Reaper Kissed

35. Eye of the Storm

"Ryder wake the fuck up!" Chloe yelled, slapping him across the face. Ryder opened his eyes, his vision momentarily blurred by a pinky-purple film.

"Wha...?" He blinked, regaining orientation. He heard the distant screams and his gaze darkened with alarm.

"It must be Lauren – we need to go. We have to stop her-" 

Ryder was already on his feet, apron tossed aside. Chloe raced after him as he charged the length of the kitchen, diving over the counter top before sprinting across the canteen.

"Ry... wait..." Chloe wheezed as they pounded the pavement. She gazed hopelessly at the back of his head as the distance between them grew further and further. Chloe cried out, staggering to a stop and clutching at the pain in her side. Through teary eyes, she looked up to see Ryder disappear around the corner, leaving her behind.

                Bloody handprints clawed at the Storm gate, from where members of the crowd had – in their last moments – thrown themselves at the gates, begging them to open. It was the scene of a slaughter. The vampires hissed and brayed, hot blood soaking their fronts – blotting out their ranks and medals. The straggling survivors begged for mercy, on their knees in the blood-soaked filth. Some the vampires taunted them, playing with their food. Others drifted away, lusting for more prey – their minds bent on the citizens of Gemini still hiding in their homes. There were shouts and screams as soldiers forced their way into the housing blocks across the district, attacking the occupants.

Ryder came upon this scene. He'd been expecting to find Lauren, killing in her wild hunger for souls but instead found her absent – this atrocity not her doing. A vampire, straddling a young man, raised her head. The mans life's blood was smeared across her lips and she hissed threateningly at the warlock. Ryder's nostrils flared in disgust.

He raised his hands and blue fire erupted from them. The vampire screeched, caught in the face by the full blast – she was sent flying, her head smacking against a lamppost and splitting open down the middle. The ground trembled beneath Ryder's feet in a rumbling warning. He threw back his head and the air turned frigid around him.  Small stones and dust rose off the paving slabs, hovering suspended mid-air as the survivors' breaths created auras of fog.

The vampires looked confusedly down at the ground and about them. Suddenly, there was a rush of wind – a storm that instantly numbed those caught in its eye. The human citizens of Gemini shielded their faces as thick cloud engulfed them, flinging with it - dirt and hailstones. The vampires shrieked, thrown to the ground by the onslaught of the blast. Ice exploded in all directions, the shards slicing through the immortals, pinning their limbs to the ground.

The vampire with the split open head howled, as five blades of ice thrust into her chest – surrounding her un-beating heart. In the dark, Ryders eyes glowed like beacons surveying the sea of chaos around him. A rain of bullets pelted down on him and Ryder swung his arm in a sweeping arc, sending out a blast of crackling dark blue. The bullets shattered, crumbling to dust before they could touch him.

People screamed, in fear for their lives as pavement slabs ripped up from the ground – smashing to jagged pieces and flying through the air. Ryder gasped, sweat dripping down the back of his neck. He stared down at his trembling hands, at the flames that refused to burn out. At last, as he'd feared he one day would, he'd lost control of his powers. He wasn't creating the storm, it was creating itself through him.

Ryder breathed deeply, trying not to panic as he gazed around him at the thick fog, obscuring everything with not a sound breaking the ominous silence. His heart seared with a dreadful thought. Had he killed everyone? Had he destroyed Gomorrah? A loud explosion fired and Ryder cried out, a canon ball and chain striking his chest. Ryder skidded across the rubble as he was thrown violently backwards. He felt his clothes turn damp as blood gushed out from his side.

Groaning, Ryder rested his head back against the cracked tarmac – trying to breathe. A ringing filled his ears and he could hear nothing else. Rummaging around in his side, his fingers found a chink of iron – lodged in his torso. He clawed at it, prizing it with his fingers and yanking it out. He clamped his mouth shut but the tendons in his flushed neck stood on end as he resisted the urge to cry out. Shrapnel removed, Ryder gasped – panting heavily.

Snowflakes spiralled down around him. Ryder felt his blue flames creep up his body, unbidden by him. The flames reached his injuries and Ryder howled, his eyes wide and frantic as the dark magic scorched through him.

                  Chloe rolled onto her back, what the hell had just happened? She touched her head and her palm came away shimmering with blood. Groaning, she sat up, trying to peer through the dense fog around her. Was the fog Ryder? She didn't understand what was going on. She shivered as the temperature continued to drop. Flakes of snow caught in her hair and she rose shakily to her feet, wincing as her body protested.

"Ryder?" She called out, crossing her arms in an effort to preserve warmth. Her lips were quickly turning blue. She heard movement behind her and turned to face it. Listening hard, Chloe made out the sound of something scraping against the ground. She opened her mouth to call out once more but her words froze at the next terrible sound. Clicking.

Chloe's skin prickled with fear as she held her breath. The clicking grew louder, accompanied by the clacking made by slowly scuttling crab legs...

                    Ryder stopped screaming. His body was slick with sweat but he rose quickly to his feet, hands patting his freshly mended torso. Catching sight of his wrist, he was shaken to realise that his tattoo had vanished. Ryder flipped his hand over, hoping to see Lauren's name miraculously on the other side. Gone, all gone. He heard a rush of movement and barely had a moment to react.

In an instant, Ryder found himself caught between Frederick and Lucjan. The two vampires circled him menacingly, their tank-like armour whirring with life. A machine gun appeared out of Lucjan's mechanical armour plating and let rip. Ryder didn't throw up a shield – it burst out of him, seeming to vault out of his chest.

Ryder struggled not to show the physical pain this was causing him as his skin glowed an eerie ghost blue, his dark hair dripping flames – making him look (unknown to him) very like Maverick, the spirit of blue light. The shield was titanic strong and the bullets ricocheted off, assailing the vampires and smashing in sparks against their robust armour.

The bird on Lucjan's breast plate became malformed as the metalwork dented, causing the birds beak to warp. Now it appeared to be attacking its young, rather than feeding them. The beak consuming their fragile eager heads.