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 Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 11:37 am
Rabid shrieked and tore at her hair, abruptly breaking down into hysterics. Again. It was happening all over again. But this time Julian wouldn't be back.
She shrieked again.
Liam suddenly stepped from the shadows, hugging himself and trembling.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 11:48 am
Crow couldn't scream, though she tried. Her voice was stuck, eyes fixed on the knife. Julian had doubled over, hands wrapped around the hilt, his mouth still working soundlessly. His head flung back and he went stiff, eyes flickering. His pupils seemed to bleed out into the rest of his eyes, going black as pitch.
Her voice suddenly came free, and Crow screamed.
Julian's head snapped up and he tugged the knife free effortlessly. In the back of her mind, Crow wondered about how anticlimatic the possession had been. It was though nothing had even happened. She tottered forward a step, looking for some trace of her brother in this new man's face. She couldn't see him. Nothing and everything had changed.
The stranger drew a breath, exhaling slowly. His breath didn't fog.
"No," Crow said, her voice now little more than a thread.
The stranger didn't speak. He just looked at her, expressionless. Ethan in his corner slid to the floor, unable to stand any longer. The stranger didn't even bother glancing at him. He had spotted Liam. His face twitched, hands curling into fists so tight blood leaked from out between his fingers.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 11:52 am
When being silently threatened by something deathly cold possessing the body of a man neary twice your size, it is best to run. This is why Liam tried to walk back, stumbled over something small and hard, and was forced to skitter backward on the ground, staring wide-eyed up at teh thing-that-was-not-Julian. Rabid had dropped to her knees, shrieking bloody murder adn having apparently lost her mind.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 12:19 pm
The stranger followed, blood flowing freely from his hands. His breathing had grown ragged, face fixed in rage. The Hakin cringed away from him, terrified, holding up their hands in supplication and bowing away.
Crow, sobbing, couldn't move.
Stepping on the dead Hakin, on the fallen Jeddeth, the stranger cast a sidelong glance at Rabid. His lip curled in disgust, and he looked back at Liam.
"Did you think you were clever?" he asked, so quietly it was nearly impossible to hear him. "Did you think you were brave? You have ruined everything. Everything."
He grit his teeth, breathing hard again as he loomed over Liam.
"Stand up and face me, thief."
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 12:35 pm
Liam swallowed hard. Hey, if you were going to go down, you might as well go down fighting. He stood, back erect, staring the thing-that-was-not-Julian straight in the face.
"I did nothing of the sort."
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 6:21 pm
The stranger grabbed Liam by his collar and lifted him, face twisting into a snarl.
"You took him," he said, his voice harsh and grating. "You've upset balances you are far too idiotic to understand...you've destroyed EVERYTHING!"
He slammed Liam against the wall, voice escalating.
"You don't even know what you've done!" he screamed. Pinning Liam against the wall with one hand, he took the Dhev-Anak in his other and slashed it across Liam's chest.
"I will cut the soul from you," the stranger breathed. "And when I am finished not even the dogs will find use for your remains."
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 6:24 pm
Liam coughed a bit of blood and heard a rather unpleasant snap. Not cool. He ignored the pain, though, determined to not give this thing-what-is-not-Julian any satisfaction. He smiled slightly and titled his head to one side.
"You silly little thing, you. You act as if I have a mortal soul to destroy."
He hid his crippling terror rather well, actually.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 6:33 pm
"Again and again you think yourself so clever," the stranger said, fingers tightening around Liam's throat. "Nothing is simple. You think what you stole is nothing special at all, do you. You stole it from the whore. Disgusting and low-born as she is, she is still mine. And I will not bear a piece of myself to be trapped in an animal like you."
"STOP IT!"
The stranger looked at Crow, deeply unimpressed. She shrunk back from his glare involuntarily.
"Please, leave him," she begged. "He didn't mean to-"
The stranger tossed Liam aside, and struck Crow so hard across her face she was sent sprawling.
"You'll have your turn, little b***h," he said. "Go snivel to your pets, and be happy I've let them live this long."
Crow wiped the blood from her split lip and looked up at the stranger, pushing herself up again.
"Leave him. I'll go with you, just please, let them alone," she said, approaching again.
"I've tired of woman's flesh," the stranger said boredly, returning his attention to Liam. The Dhev-Anak flashed in his hand. "Now tell me. Must I cut you open like a fish and dig it free, or will you give it back willingly?"
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 6:39 pm
"See, you apparently don't know how this works," Liam said, a bit of blood running from the corner of his mouth, "I took it. It's part of mine now. And if you hit her again, so help me God, I'll blow us all to Hell."
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 6:48 pm
The stranger stared at Liam a moment, and then his expression shifted, seething.
"Arrak ya ah'yev," he spat, slamming Liam against the wall again. He dropped him, and turned on Crow. "It will not stop, Liam Faar. Any threat you make, any resistance you show, it means nothing to me."
Crow backed up a step, and kicked Jeddeth's severed jaw backwards. It rocked on the floor, the still-rooted tongue lolling.
"Julian," she began, weeping and her voice pleading. Her expression was pitiful.
"Isn't here to save you," the stranger finished. He menaced her, making her trip back against the wall.
And amid the pile of the dead, Jeddeth shifted, one arm dragging across the floor and slowly pushing its torn body up.
"I will do such terrible things to you," the stranger said, voice almost gentle. "And to your friends. Already the boy in the corner begins to die. The Nahenna was a fool but you watching him being eaten from the inside brings more than enough satisfaction to me."
"You know what?" Crow said, cringing and looking up at the stranger through her hair.
"What."
"You talk too much," she whispered slyly. The stranger blinked, and turned.
Jeddeth waved mockingly, and clouted the stranger across the head. He went flying, knocking into the Hakin and rising again with a shriek. He dropped the knife and went after the mutilated creature, tearing at its bony limbs and liberating an arm from its socket.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 6:56 pm
"It's L'Adrien, you p***k," Liam shook his head and smiled. Once again, Jeddeth came to his rescue. What a handy little b*****d.
Rabid suddenly exhaled, having forgotten to breathe over the last few minutes.
Björn, attention suddenly turned from his messy hands, cocked his head at the sight of...that tall guy attacking that little thing. That was barely fair. Without thinking at all, he approached the tall guy and picked him up by the throat and arms. He blinked still, as if he had no idea what was going on.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 7:10 pm
The stranger gave a choked roar of rage, thrashing against Björn. The gathered Hakin shrieked, bristling and gathering in a tight circle. Jeddeth, picking its jaw up from the floor and fastening it back into place as though nothing had happened, spit out a vertebrae that had been caught in its teeth.
"Vishok," it croaked. The Hakin slunk back a bit, and Jeddeth made an odd 'chuh, chuh' noise that Crow suddenly identified as laughter. "How weak you are now, Nahedathal-King."
The stranger spit madly, hissing at Jeddeth in that harsh language.
"Already they're falling from your control," Jeddeth tutted, ignoring the curses. "Isn't one uprising enough for you?"
The stranger's face paled with rage, and he tore at Björn's hands, trying to get free. White fire flickered from his fingers but did little more than provide pretty light. Jeddeth, mouth-face frozen in that rictus grin, still managed a sneer.
"You've outworn your welcome," it said, picking up the discarded Dhev-Anak. "And we are tired."
"If I was stronger-" the stranger sputtered.
"But you are not," Jeddeth reminded him. "You've stretched yourself too far."
"Jeddy."
"Hm?"
Crow, still working her jaw, glanced at the surrounding Zheh Hakin.
"All of this is just a show... isn't it," she said. Jeddeth clicked its newly reattached jaws.
"Seems like," it said. "A month ago, he would have torn your skin from your flesh before you could finish a breath."
"All flash, no substance," Crow mused. "All the pain and suffering...and you can't even work up the strength to do more'n slap a girl around. No wonder you got your head cut off."
"Your brother's," the stranger spat. "I will torment him until the end of his days, I swear it-"
"Jeddy, my senile grandfather is beginning to irritate me. Take care of that."
Jeddeth bowed its head.
"Hold him still, please," it said to Björn. And without another word he plunged the Dhev-Anak into the stranger's chest and turned it like a key.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 7:13 pm
Björn watched in curiosity, head tilted to one side. When the blade was twisted he lifted the body up above his head, peering at the wound and blinking the blood away. Huh. How peculiar.
"Is he...okay?"
"No."
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 7:20 pm
The stranger went rigid, and suddenly coughed out a great deal of blood. His eyes rolled into his head and he went limp, only stirring when Jeddeth ripped the knife out.
"Björn," Julian said, voice hoarse from misuse. "Please stop strangling me."
Crow, all bravado fading, collapsed onto the ground. The sound of falling bodies all around followed suit and she leapt up again as the Hakin slumped to the ground, unmistakably dead.
"What..."
Jeddeth nudged at one of the fallen.
"Stretched too far, for too long," it said. "When he left, they could no longer sustain. All dead."
Crow's blood turned to ice. All dead. She bolted towards Ethan's corner in panic. He was slumped over, blood dripping from his nose and his skin clammy and cold. At her touch he didn't stir.
"Ethan..."
"Did we win?" Ethan asked faintly. Crow's heart jolted.
"Who am I talking to?" she spat suddenly, seizing his shoulders. Ethan's eyes cracked open, confused, and he gave a racking cough.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 7:24 pm
Björn blinked.
"Put 'im down."
Nothing.
"Down. On the floor."
Had it not been for the sudden voice, Julian probably would have been hefted eight feet in the air for the rest of his unnatural life. Instead, Björn placed him down gently and strode over to Ethan-who-was-certainly-now-Ethan.
He paused a moment before speaking.
"You ate a piece of my arm."
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