Chapter Sixteen - Worthy
When Kenra reappeared at Twilight’s Gate carrying Raine in his arms, Nova moved to them immediately. Nova placed his hands over where Zea stabbed Raine. Black veins sprouted down his hands.
“That idiotic bitch!” shouted Nova, his eyes glowing red.
Kenra lowered Raine onto the ground, followed by Nova kneeling.
“Bring them to me, but don’t kill them yet,” commanded Nova. Then he added vehemently. “But break that bitch, Elizabeth, for me.”
Kenra nodded before disappearing.
***
Zea reappeared by Leora.
“You stabbed her!” yelped Leora.
“I had to,” Zea winced. The gas in her blood was intensifying greatly after all the exertions. She felt all her muscles were on fire and ready to rip apart down to the fiber level.
“Whoa, you don’t look so good again?” observed Leora.
“It’s fine,” said Zea, who fought with all her might to keep herself from throwing up. “Listen, I fight Kenra while you run—shit!”
Zea pushed back Leora just in time to miss Kenra’s fist that slammed into the ground instead. Chucks of earth flew away where he hit. He smiled at Zea. Then his gaze turned to Leora.
Alarmed, Zea desperately lurched forward to cut his head off, but Kenra caught her sword arm. There was a momentarily fight of strength between Zea and Kenra. Their free hands and legs exchanging blows.
This was all done in a few seconds as Leora fell to the ground.
Crack!
Leora rolled over and pushed up from the ground to see Kenra snapping Zea’s sword arm at the elbow. She started to get up to help Zea out when a hawk, now in the correct size, swooped down. Flurry of talons clawed at her face and she desperately tried to swat the hawk away. She fell back to the ground.
“You bring shame to us,” said Kenra to Zea.
Zea, having no longer the grip, her sword arm fell to her side like it was lifeless and she released her sword. “I'm used to it,” she said through clenched teeth.
As her sword fell to the ground, Zea, with perfect timing, kicked up at the bottom of the handle of the sword with all her might, aimed it at Kenra’s throat.
But Kenra was faster.
He only had his robe sliced off, dodging and then catching the blade before driving it into Zea’s abdomen.
“Fuck you,” said Zea, blood spurting out of her mouth.
Kenra thrusted a forward knee kick against Zea’s chest, and she flew across the ground.
“Stupid bird,” said Leora as she blindly flailed at the air, not realizing the hawk had moved to snatched the scroll and flew away. She turned over to see Zea had slid to stop at the base of Twilight’s Gate.
Before Leora could say anything she felt herself being lifted up by the front of her dress shirt and the next thing she knew she dropped right by an unconscious Zea. “Shit shit,” she panicked upon seeing that Zea had been impaled by her sword. She tried to stop the bleeding, but all she was doing was smearing blood all over Zea.
At the top of Twilight's Gate stairs was Nova and Raine. “I barely saved her,” said Nova. He looked over at the now sleeping Raine. The bleeding from the wound over Raine’s chest had stopped. Then his voice started to get louder, raging, as he got up. “We were giving you an opportunity! A way to bring change peacefully!”
Nova glared at Zea as he made his way down to her and Leora.
“She doesn’t have the scroll,” said Kenra, thumbing at Leora, when Nova reached them.
“I saw what happened. We will go get it after I make sure this piece of shit pays for what she has done,” snarled Nova. “Hold Leora.”
Kenra shrugged. He complied and pulled Leora off Zea. He held Leora’s arms against her sides tightly.
“Hey, you jerk!” said Leora. She struggled, but even with her vampiric strength, Kenra held her down easily. He only looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Don’t worry, Kenra’s going to release you soon,” said Nova.
“Wait, why—mmm!” said Leora.
Kenra pulled Leora close to him where he maneuvered to still hold her arms against her sides and also covered her mouth. “She sounds like she won't shut up,” he said to Nova. “And I am sensitive to high-pitched noises,” he added.
Nova went onto one knee by Zea and made a cut across his hand. Then he shoved his cut hand over Zea’s mouth. Zea eyes fluttered open, drinking blood from Nova.
Then Nova went and pulled out the sword from Zea’s abdomen.
Zea gasped as she looked confusingly at Nova. The blood that was coming out from her gut had stopped, thanks to Nova’s blood. Why was Nova healing her?
“Oh no, that wasn’t a gift,” smiled Nova wickedly. “You wanted to know how I inhabited Peter’s body?” Once again, dark veins branched along his skin.
Zea, horrified, tried to spit out the blood she had drank greedily.
“Ah you had nerve gas in you, I see. I was wondering why you weren’t as fast as I remembered,” observed Nova. He quickly turned to Kenra. “Not that you were slower than her,” he chuckled. “Release her.” He jerked his head at Leora.
When Kenra did so, Nova then tossed the sword to Zea.
Kenra raised an eyebrow and eyed Nova.
“Fuck it. Fuck what the council wanted,” said Nova to Kenra.
Kenra smiled and nodded his head in approval.
Leora, not sure what was going on, started to move to Zea.
“Stay there!” shouted Zea to Leora.
Leora stopped. She scrunched up her eyebrows. “Why? I need to get you out of here,” she said.
Zea squeezed her eyes, struggling against something as she shakingly reached for the sword. “I-I….”
“She can’t control her body,” said Nova to Leora. Then he addressed Zea. “When Peter met me I had him unknowingly drink some of my blood along with others in case things didn’t pan out.” He then sighed. “Since you like killing your friends and chopping heads off....”
Zea finally grasped the sword and stood up.
“I am going to let you kill two birds with one stone,” said Nova.
“You will die for this,” said Zea. Sparks of electricity, snapping out of the corners of her mouth as she spoke. “And I am faster than him.”
Zea’s eyes lit up like lightning.
Kenra's eyes went wide. “How do you know that—Nova!” He shouted as she reached out to Nova.
Zea shot herself at Nova like a tendril of lighting. She sounded like thunder as she brought her sword down, Nova having no time to think let alone control his blood that was in her.
Boom!
The whole place flashed for a moment. Dirt and ash clouds enveloped around Twilight’s Gate. When it settled, the air had that unmistakable scent of electricity hitting the earth.
Zea went onto her knees, breathing hard. She wasn’t careful this time, and now her organs were wrecked. She was already a slow healer and taken into consideration that gas she inhaled in the tunnels, she was not in a very good position.
“You are really getting annoying,” shouted Nova, who was somehow still alive. Parts of his body had been burned. His hair was also frizzled.
Where was Kenra? Zea looked a little way to see that her strike had blown him into the base of Twilight’s Gate. He was dead. He must have taken most of the brunt of her attack.
“That was so cool! Your sword lit up!” said Leora.
“Get away now, you idiot!” said Zea, her voice straining.
Zea stood up suddenly. Leora started to back away as Zea awkwardly moved towards her. Struggling, Zea raised her sword over her head.
“You can’t do that twice,” snarled Nova.
Zea somehow managed to turn her head to Nova even though her body was still advancing to Leora.
“Fucking hell after all that?” snapped Nova. More black veins branched out over his skin. “You can’t possibly be resisting only on will power!”
Zea could feel Nova’s blood new onslaught was about to completely take over her body. What should she do? Her body was wrecked and Nova was right—she couldn’t do that move twice.
There has to be a way. Perhaps if she could get Nova distracted long enough? Her mind raced through all of her experiences. Then she recalled how a certain blonde hunter bested her, something she will never admit to the hunter.
“You can’t make me kill Leora,” said Zea in a very strained voice. “Also I fucked your mother.”
“What?” said Nova, surprised and confused.
That little fraction of Nova’s concentration failing, Zea turned the blade onto herself and sliced off her only good arm. She smiled, bloody teeth, at Nova. She wasn’t going to give Nova what he wanted.
Zea’s arm and sword fell to the ground, the sword rolling to a stop at her feet.
“Fine,” said Nova. “Then watch your friend die.”
Kenra, bleeding heavily from his head, was somehow still alive. And he was behind Leora.
He ripped Leora’s head off.
“No!” screamed Zea.
The world slowed for Zea. She watched as Leora’s headless body crashed to the ground. Kenra was laughing at her as he dropped Leora’s head onto the ground. Leora’s head landed with a wet thump.
Zea was still. Bloody tears coming down her eyes once more.
Kenra, still laughing, started to walk to her with obvious intent to end her.
She had failed. Like how she had failed her fallen agents in that disastrous mission. Like how she failed to see how that affected Raine. Like how she failed Peter.
Kenra kicked Leora’s head into the gashed earth.
Poor, innocent Leora who was turned by her own mother. Who didn’t deserve any of this. Leora whom she asked to do this. If it wasn’t for her, Leora would still be happily at Golden Arches, laughing with her friends, and not have her severed head heartlessly kicked like a soccer ball.
Leora.
If it’s the last thing she does, she will avenge Leora.
Electricity sparkled through Zea’s hair and at the corners of her mouth.
Zea watched Kenra stop laughing as she kicked up the sword with her foot. She caught the handle of the blade with her mouth. The electricity was now running down the blade once more.
Kenra’s eyes widened. He stopped mid-stride to her.
Zea jolted through the air like lightning arcing through the clouds. Her teeth felt like they would crack as she clenched down her mouth over the sword’s handle as tight as she could when the sword’s blade sliced into Kenra’s skin. She slid to a stop a few feet away from him.
Kenra gurgled before blood spurted out of his neck like a fountain. He fell onto his knees, grasping at nothing. Then his head slid off and fell onto the ground followed by his body.
Zea let the sword drop out of her mouth. She collapsed onto the ground. She just had enough in her to roll onto her back so she could gasp her last breaths in dignity.
The price she paid for doing that move as reckless as she did was her life. Without her organs to absorb the energy which they already have two times already, her heart took it all. Soon she will die.
Nova loomed over her, his face disgusted. “Are you happy? That didn’t change anything,” he said. He looked back at Kenra, who was now truly dead. He had a moment of sadness before returning his attention to a dying Zea. He kneeled down and picked up her sword. “Do you want me to close your eyes before you go?”
A flash of light that lit up the whole area from the other side of the gashed earth. The flash held for a few moments. There was a weird humming that vibrated through the air.
“What is going on there?” said Nova as he shielded his eyes.
Then the light receded. Strangely, on the other side of the gashed earth, there was nobody where he could have sworn Zea’s other friends and those hunters were at. He was scanning, following the ridges of the gashed earth to see if they were elsewhere when something came into his view.
“Fuck off. Impossible.” said Nova, stunned.
Standing from the ridge of the gashed earth was Leora. Her head somehow escaped from the depths of the earth and reattached back onto her body. Her hair undone and fluttering in the air despite there being no breeze. Her furious red eyes looking down on him.
Leora raised a hand up.
Sensing he was in danger, Nova tried to scramble away but an invisible force caught him and he was thrown back. He rolled onto his feet, miraculously still holding onto the sword. Instinct telling him to run, but he could not ignore this. One of his duties was to protect the Council.
“Clearly you are more than some fresh bloodling who was lucky to be the only vampire to develop sun immunity,” he said as he tried his hardest to stop his teeth from chattering. There was this fear that was making all the hairs of his body stand. He beat it back. Now was not the time to be afraid of the unknown. “But the Council is mistaken on what you are. No vampire can survive getting their head torn off!”
Nova skin erupted with black veins crawling all over. There were so many black veins that it looked like his skin had transformed into a sheet of entangled yarn. He continued, growling. “And that is why I cannot let you live.”
Blood ripped out of Kenra’s body as blobs. Blobs that formed and hardened into sharp red, jagged rocks. They went sailing through the air, flying to Leora.
Leora did not move.
The blood rocks stopped half a foot from her. They shook. Nova gnashed his teeth so hard that he bit his tongue. Blood dripped out of his mouth. “C’mon! I need more!”
Blood blobs started to come out of Zea’s mouth.
Leora waved a hand.
As if there was an invisible hand guiding, the emerging blood blobs went back into Zea’s mouth.
“How can you do that? My blood only obeys me,” said Nova. “No, no, you must be stopped at all cost!”
He rushed at Leora, sword held high. He hoped that his blood rocks would occupy her while he struck her down. However, like his blood rocks, he froze before he could do so, trapped in some sort of psychic force field.
“You tell the Council not to touch any of my friends. If they do, I will destroy them. Got it?” said Leora, speaking for the first time since her apparent resurrection. “Also tell them to leave me the fuck alone.”
Nova could not give an answer if he wanted to. He couldn’t speak. Also, he was ripped apart into a thousand pieces. All of his blood rocks melted back into blood blobs that spattered the ground and over his many pieces.
Leora then floated over to Zea. She softly landed beside the fallen vampire. She knelt down and gently pulled Zea’s head onto her lap.
Zea gasped. She looked up at Leora in a daze for a few seconds before closing her eyes. Her chest stopped moving.
Leora bit one of her index finger, causing a bleeding wound.
“You told me you were unworthy,” she said softly.
She opened Zea’s mouth.
“But you are worthy,” smiled Leora.
Droplets of blood fell into Zea’s mouth from Leora’s bleeding finger. After a few moments, the bleeding stopped from her finger. Leora then closed Zea’s mouth. Already she could see Zea’s arm regenerating.
Then she waited, watching Zea’s chest start to rise and fall like the waves.
Chapter 17 - The Healer