46. Sling Blades #2
‘Let go of me!’ Serafin snarls, grabbing another dagger from her S.I.N. box. Her eyes shift slightly before she tries to plunge the knife into my side. Instead of it penetrating the skin and going deeper, I feel the knife skim over my side and into the tar at my leg.
‘Fuck!’ Serafin screams as she pulls another knife while her eyes flash with determination.
I have no idea if my tar is going to save my life, but I urge more threads of thick black tar to wrap around her body, forcing her closer to me. If she’s closer, she won’t be able to shove those knives into me.
‘Die,’ she hisses, just as I see a flash of turquoise come up from beneath me.
‘No, you,’ Rez growls, slamming into Serafin, knocking her out of my grasp.
No! Rez, what are you doing?
Rez and Serafin tumble in a blur of blue, propelling away from me.
Horror fills me as I see bright red blood mix with their scrambling bodies as they continue to fight.
I can’t tell who’s hurt, as their bodies are entwined.
Their tails pump back and forth as both of them swing their arms as if they have weapons in their hands, while their insults ring back and forth.
I’m afraid that if I try to help, I might hurt the wrong one. But if I try to use the tar whips, it seems to help. I grind my teeth, but decide to say fuck it and help anyway, but before I can, I feel someone grab for me.
‘Ugh, what is this?’ a soldier yells, looking down at his hand and the tar that’s rapidly spreading up his arm.
‘Your worst nightmare,’ I hiss, feeling the tar heat up, causing his skin to rapidly bubble and peel back, exposing his bones.
‘It’s fascinating, isn’t it?’ A breathlike whisper reaches me as a ghost of a cloaked rider appears by the soldier.
The black robe and scythe in his hand pretty much give away who I’m seeing. The question is, why?
‘That is simple, young one. You need to wield the scythe of Death, and what better way to do it than in this form while your tar whips work.’
My eyes travel back to the tar as it continues to crawl up the soldier’s arm, over his shoulder, and across his chest.
‘Death can be a beautiful process, one that needs to happen to allow others to be reborn and live once again, but it’s a balance. It’s the one thing I did not learn, and I paid the price in the end. I hope you do better than I.’
It’s not until my tar starts crawling up his throat that I’m broken from the hypnotic spell where his screams flicker off note that I feel as if I need to end his suffering.
Turning to Death, I ask, ‘How? How do I wield it?’
‘You simply call your weapon to you, and even in this form, you can control it by thought.’ Death extends his arm out with his palm up, the scythe lying in his hand, and beckons me to try. ‘Go on.’
Focusing on the scythe, I picture it coming to me, my weapon, a part of me, my soul, and it blinks out of Death’s hand, floating in front of me.
There’s an absence of light around the weapon as it pulses with energy, but I focus on the soldier and command the scythe to silence him by cutting him down.
Fuck, what am I doing?
‘A perfect reaping,’ Death whispers before his faint image disappears.
‘Levi, spin the other way. It can help while I try to direct it from here,’ JP calls out.
I look up and find Levi trying to move against the cyclone that’s pulling his body into its depths.
Levi resists the pull in the opposite direction while JP slowly tries to manipulate the tides from the bottom.
It must be from my Horseman powers, but I’m able to see and track JP’s outline just fine.
Or maybe it’s because we have our own relationship, who knows, but I’m grateful for it.
From here, it looks like he has a pretty good handle on it.
The other cyclone is already out in the wild, so hopefully that’s not causing too much damage.
BOOM!
‘Miska!’ someone sobs. I catch sight of one of the twilight twins running out of the room and Moni’s perplexed look before a scream catches my attention.
Shit, Rez and Serafin.
I spin as I catch sight of two motionless bodies floating in a red mist of blood.
‘REZ!’ I scream, teleporting to the haze, my heart pounding in my throat. I frantically look around before seeing Rez and Serafin drifting motionless, and I spot blue and yellow in the distance. Is that blob Ryker? ‘Ryker, help!’
I urgently nudge the bodies apart as Ryker comes up from the other side.
He flips over one body that’s so scratched up and covered in open wounds that I can’t identify who it is.
As Ryker flips the other one, the massive slash across the chest into the abdomen is the clear culprit as to where all the dark blood is coming from, as their entrails slide out of their body.
‘Shit. Rez?’ My body starts shaking out of control with nerves as Ryker’s tentacles move to push back the dark hair out of the way so we can see the face, but damn it, the dark blood pouring out of her obscures her features.
I need to know, and by the look of the trembling of Ryker’s tentacles, he’s feeling the same way.
‘Don’t you dare feel sorry for that dead bitch,’ Rez wheezes, and I twirl around to see Rez holding her side where her skin is slowly knitting back together as she pushes her hair out of her face.
‘Rez!’ Ryker and I shout, and we both tackle her. Well, my tar ensnares her.
‘Yeah, just cut up, but I’m already healing,’ she points out, giving us a small smile full of sharp teeth as she shows us her biggest slash across her ribs.
‘Sweet, can we get out of here?’ I ask, trying to calm myself down. I don’t think I can handle something else happening to Rez or anyone else in my family. I don’t want to press our luck any further.
‘Yeah, we’re pretty much done here,’ Ryker agrees. ‘They will come down to collect the bodies and give Serafin a royal burial.’
‘Good riddance to the bitch!’ Moni snaps.
‘Moni!’ Rez looks at her bestie like she’s crazy.
‘What?’ Moni bobs up and down like a yo-yo. ‘You know she was horrible, and she got what she deserved, finally.’
‘Guys, let’s go!’ I call out, and I’m answered with a loud groan echoing deep within the grotto behind me.
‘Moni, please tell me that’s your stomach,’ Lynx asks.
‘Nope. I’m all dieseled out,’ she admits, sounding small.
Rocks break loose and crash into the water as an eerie, deep roar creeps into the grotto.
‘I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to stay around to find out what can make that sound,’ Lynx points out.
‘For once, I agree with the hairball,’ Knots agrees.
We all turn in the direction JP points and come to a halt as we notice the fallen rocks are blocking our exit.
‘Moni. Can you start blasting a way out for us? Ryker, can you help? The rest of us, let’s see who our guest is,’ Levi instructs before turning towards the back tunnel.
Aww fuck, I was hoping he wasn’t going to say that.
‘On it!’ Moni lets a boom go into the rock wall, and it cracks a massive boulder, but it doesn’t shatter or break it up. ‘Hmm. This might take a little longer,’ she says, turning a little pink.
Another groan rips through the tunnel, preceding the guest that can make that sound as a massive shadow emerges and something squeezes itself through the tunnel and into the grotto. I watch as the creature unfolds itself to its full height, and my stomach drops to my hooves.
‘Death comes to those who face me,’ the creature taunts.
‘Great, because we’re rubber and your glue. Whatever you say, bounces off of us and sticks to you,’ Lynx cackles back.