Chapter Twenty-Seven

Bittersweet Survival

Savannah choked on a laugh. ‘Excuse me?’

‘You’re under arrest,’ Robertson repeated.

A laugh succeeded in escaping Savannah this time. ‘Are you joking?! Are you insane?! I didn’t do this! Of course I didn’t do this, this is my family we’re talking about! I didn’t fucking kill anyone! And, what the fuck do you mean, ‘possession of Class A drugs’?! I don’t do that shit!’

Bradshaw played with a pair of handcuffs. ‘We have found sufficient evidence to charge and arrest you. Are you going to accompany us calmly and without resistance, or do we have to use force?’

Lauren appeared beside her. ‘Not until you tell us what the evi-’

She froze. Her limbs seized up, becoming lumps of lead, and her eyes locked onto something beyond the detectives.

Savannah followed her line of sight and her blood went cold.

There was a field opposite the Glasco-Mason household, which was always vacant save for summer, when they would lie there in the sun with each other and their friends and drink the day away.

And now.

Stalking across the field were three Pirikan behemoths. Their bodies were in a similar state of decay to those displayed in the Assassin’s training simulations. That was where the similarities ended; this trio made the simulated Piriks look like docile children.

The centre Pirik towered above the two flanking him at eight-foot tall. His grey, cracked, peeling body rippled with muscles. Limp, white hair stretched down to his shoulders in unkempt wisps. His left cheek had either decayed, been burned, or cut away, leaving behind a gaping hole through which his blackened teeth were visible. Fixed, unwavering, on Savannah were his coal-black eyes; bottomless pits of pain.

His blacker than tar armour shimmered in the cold light of evening. Made of a metal the like of which Savannah had never come across, it was solid, yet flexible, yet moved and flowed with each movement like a liquid. Spikes jutted from the shoulders, elbows, waist, knees, and ankles. On the Pirik’s back was a blacksteel blade as long as Savannah was tall.

Those on either side of him were less formidable, but not by much. Both were dressed in jagged, spiked armour (though theirs was of standard steel). The Pirik on the left of the behemoth was a foot shorter than him, but wider and stronger, and held a battleaxe capable of cleaving Savannah in two with minimal effort. The one on his right was between the other two in height and weight, and gripped a sword shorter in length, but no less threatening. His skin was in a more alarming state than the others; it was flaky and patchy all over, with rips in his joints, as though his skin was frayed fabric.

The sulphuric stench the three emitted floated over the road and reached them, drawing gags from the detectives.

‘Who in the hell…?’ Lauren said. Her eyes narrowed and she stood on her tiptoes, getting a better look over the detectives.

The detectives turned. Bradshaw gasped, Robertson sagged against him and went bug-eyed. Alexis thumped her way through the house and pushed through the door.

‘What’s going-’ She caught sight of the Piriks. ‘Oh, fucking hell.’

She and the detectives had time for a fleeting examination before someone else drew their attention.

Jeremy, ragged and malnourished, with a skin tone close to that of the Piriks’s, strolled up the summit of the hill. He saw the girls and the detectives, turned his head to where theirs were directed, and strolled over to the Piriks. Savannah, Lauren, and Alexis shared wild glances while Jeremy stood in conversation with the centre Pirik.

‘Right,’ Lauren said to the detectives, who were blocks of ice in stature. She placed a hand on Bradshaw and ushered the pair inside. ‘You two need to go upstairs and stay there. We’ll sort this out.’

‘Wh-wh-h-h-who the hell are those… things?’ Robertson stammered. ‘We-we’re the law enforcement here. If th-they’re a threat, we-we’ll deal with them.’

Lauren cocked her head once they were inside. ‘Really? Be my guest, but I think it’s safe to say you’re wildly out of your depth. Now get inside and stay there!’

Lauren slammed the door shut behind them and whirled to face Savannah and Alexis, her movements rapid and jittery.

‘Listen to me. You two stay here. Do not engage. I’m heading back to Archaic; we need weapons and help if I can get it. I won’t be long. If you’re in any danger, teleport out of here!’

She vanished on the spot before Alexis could get her protests out.

‘What the fuck are we supposed to do?!’

Savannah shook her head. She stood straight and took a step forward. The Piriks and Jeremy concluded their conversation and headed towards them.

Savannah’s heart pounded so hard it was in danger of exploding out of her chest. She could feel her pulse thumping in her wrists, temples, and neck. Her thoughts were blissful and crystalline in focus. Her body screamed at her to run, to escape. Her mind resisted these calls. One thing mattered - the quartet approaching them.

The Piriks and Jeremy stopped at the garden gate. Savannah advanced another step. Alexis followed with a tentative one of her own; she seemed to realise she was displaying fear, and she straightened, raised her chin, and added power to her stride.

‘How did you escape?’ Savannah said to Jeremy, her voice even, despite her inner panic.

Jeremy grinned in his toothless manner. ‘I’d like to say I had help, but… I was released. Once the detectives - who look very scared, by the way-’ He pointed at an upstairs window where their christening gown-white faces were visible peeking over the sill. ‘Officially named you as the primary suspect, I was released. Insufficient evidence to prosecute. A pity, really,’ he gave a wistful sigh. ‘Katerina will never get justice.’

Alexis started forward. ‘So you did kill her, then? You’re a sick fucking bastard.’

His grin widened. The Piriks behind him chittered. ‘Yes, I killed her. It was my own stupidity that led to the… unfortunate event.

I was drunk. I went to her house and confronted her - I was sick to death of her audacity. Imagine hating me, when I am more than she could ever imagine?

Well, things got out of hand. I… spilled some information I shouldn’t have - I told her the truth. The whole truth. I don’t know whether she believed it, but that’s beside the point, isn’t it? Can’t have a disgusting mortal knowing the truth. So, I left. I sobered up. And I returned. And I stuck that knife in her. I didn’t initially intend to kill her, just to... have a go at her. But… I opened my fucking mouth, didn’t I? Couldn’t let that information get out.’

‘What information is that, then?’

‘Well…’ Jeremy’s posture straightened and he puffed out his chest. ‘I presume Lauren has introduced you to those infidels who rule the universe?’

At that moment, Lauren returned. She was suited in white leather armour that clung to her like a second skin. Two swords were strapped to her back, and two daggers to her waist. In her hands, she held two double-edged glaives. She tossed one to Alexis, who gripped it like an extension of herself, and kept the second. These had come from the Assassin’s Quarter - the staffs were black, the blades red, and both were interwoven with golden lodes.

Lauren then pulled the two swords from her back and passed them to Savannah.

Savannah caught them, but backed away, shaking her head. ‘Mm-mm, no, I told you I don’t want any part in this.’

Lauren approached her. She placed a hand on her shoulder and looked directly into Savannah’s eyes. ‘Listen to me. I know you aren’t comfortable with this, but we need you. Do it for me. Do it for Alexis. This is kill or be killed, Savannah.’

Savannah’s body tightened and she grimaced, but she tested the balance of the swords and acclimatised herself to the uneasy, arduous nature with which they swung. Nevertheless, Savannah’s heart rate eased; the pounding remained intense, but it decreased. Yes, she had absolutely no desire to be part of this, but… the safety and surety of not just having weapons (even if they were uncomfortable), but having Lauren alleviated a great portion of her worries. Whether this would prove any use against battle-hardened Piriks, however…

Lauren fixed Jeremy with a look of sheer loathing. ‘Ugh. Should’ve known you’d show up.’

‘Welcome back. You’ve just missed my little… confession.’

Lauren tilted her head. ‘Oh, that you killed Katerina? Yes, I figured that was you. Theo couldn’t have been. Aaron couldn’t have been. Katerina? That one has you all over it. I take it you had aid?’ She pointed at the Piriks.

Jeremy shrugged. ‘Katerina was all my work. The other two… I needed help. Of course, Alexis was supposed to be crushed along with the little mite, but… complications. And, Lyra, well… she made my job a tiny bit easier by removing herself from the equation.’

‘You’re a cunt! How could you fucking do that?! Your own fucking family?!’ Alexis’s knuckles were white on her glaive. She rocked back and forth, restraining herself from springing.

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‘You’re not my family. You were a command. ’

Lauren’s lips parted. ‘What do you mean?’

Jeremy pulled out a cigarette and lit it. He inhaled deeply, then powered the smoke out through the gaps in his teeth. ‘You have told them of Jasper, I assume?’

‘He hasn’t come up. He’s somewhat... irrelevant, these days. Three thousand years in prison tend to have that effect.’

Jeremy broke into a cruel grin. ‘Irrelevant, you say? Not for long. It was his command. His Malevolence instructed me to procreate, so procreate I did.’

Lauren’s head tilted further. ‘What link do you have to Jasper?’

‘Hold up,’ Alexis said, holding out a shaking hand. ‘This cunt has links to our world?’

Jeremy laughed; a vile, throaty sound. ‘Yes. You are what I was meant to be.’

‘Holy shit,’ Lauren said, stepping back. ‘You’re Vasilios. You’re his son.’

Jeremy spread his arms out wide and breathed out another smoke cloud. ‘Yep. Jasper is my father. Kyla, my mother. Meaning… you two,’ he pointed at Savannah and Alexis. ‘Are the grandchildren of the two greatest evils in the universe. How delectable.’

Savannah glared at him. She didn’t care. These words were irrelevant. He was the person behind the murders, after all this doubt. The one behind her pain. The one responsible for the deaths of her family. Everything else was immaterial.

‘You killed them. Directly or not, you killed them.’

‘Yes, I did. I had to. You two are next. You were an experiment, just like I was. Unlike me… you were successes. I can’t allow that. I can’t allow you to take what’s rightfully mine. You have to die. You all have to die. I’ll tell my mother you died as the result of a truly tragic accident. And that,’ he pointed behind him. ‘Is why my friends are here. They’re going to kill you, and take me home when you lie in pools of your own blood. Then… well,’ he grinned at Lauren. ‘You mightn’t die, but you’ll be maimed beyond belief. And we’ll meet again, one day soon. A war is coming, Lauren. You’ll want to make certain you’re on the right side of it.’

Jeremy turned on his heel and walked back down the hill, his head turned towards the Piriks. ‘Meet me in the centre of town when you’re finished here. I don’t care who bears witness. If you come across anyone on your way down, kill them. Titus - don’t fail me.’

The middle Pirik pulled his sword from his back. It gave an agonising, drawn-out screech. He tore the gate off its hinges and hurled it behind him. The trio filtered into the garden, and Savannah, Lauren, and Alexis backed up and spaced themselves out.

Lauren sprang forward. Her glaive clanged against Titus’s sword - though it should have taken his head off, such was her speed. He stepped back, then went on the offensive, striking up and down, left and right, Lauren matching him inch for inch.

The other two Piriks watched him for a moment that was all too brief. Their heads turned slowly towards Alexis and Savannah. Swinging their blades, they came forward.

Savannah mimicked Lauren and drove the offensive before her Pirik could. She lashed her left sword at his neck, he parried, and she drove her right blade up. He slipped to the right, away from the strike, and pulled his sword down, taking hers with it. She lost control, and her blade came up like it was on scales whose balance had shifted. She lurched to her left, distancing herself as his sword came up, slashing for her throat.

Her Pirik pressed the offensive, pushing Savannah back to the house. He swung up, and she backed away further. He came in with a ferocious strike that bore the strength of a train. She ducked, rolled beyond him, and brought her right sword up behind her. She failed to nick him - he whirled and blocked the strike. He kicked at her stomach with the force of a battering ram. With a grunt, she went tumbling, clutching her stomach.

A supernatural shriek drew her and her opponent’s attention.

Titus was on his knees with Lauren’s glaive impaled in his calf from behind. She strolled into his field of vision, her grip remaining on the glaive. Her eyes on his, she ripped it from his leg. He howled. She kicked him under the chin, and his eyes rolled back into his skull. She abandoned the glaive and pulled a dagger out of a sheath on her thigh. She grabbed Titus by the hair, heaved his head to her and his body into a sitting position, and pressed her dagger to his throat.

Titus launched himself upwards, the top of his skull colliding with Lauren’s chin. She stumbled back and lost her grip, but retained her consciousness. Dazed, yet intent, she attacked Titus again, limiting his recovery time. She slashed, again and again, each one more brutal than the last. Titus swayed beyond her reach.

Lauren feinted with a high swing. Titus went to dodge, and Lauren intercepted, moving in close and stamping on his wounded leg. Titus howled and went to his knees again. Lauren seized his scalp, pressed her dagger to his throat with one hand, and picked up her glaive with the other.

She stabbed it through Titus’s uninjured leg, pinning him to the ground.

Savannah took advantage of the distraction and ran her left blade across the Pirik’s thigh. He screeched and swung his sword in a wild arc. She leaned away, and she lashed the right blade in a wild swing of her own. With a huge shard of luck, it sliced his stomach. He screamed and punched her in the side of the head with his free hand.

Everything went upside-down. Savannah lost focus and staggered back, concentrating all her efforts on staying conscious and righting her vision. She snarled, and he came for her.

Her Pirik kicked the swords from her grip. Helpless, Savannah tried to follow their flight, but she couldn’t focus. He kicked again, driving her legs out from under her. She felt his clammy, dead fingers grip her neck and lift her off her feet.

As she was raised to meet the Pirik’s face, her eyes swam back into clarity and she turned her head to Alexis. Her heart stopped.

Alexis, battered and bruised, fought on her final vestiges. She stumbled away from her Pirik, her glaive swings unaimed and rash. He grabbed her arm and snapped it like a stick. She screamed and fell to her knees. He walloped a kick at her chin. It picked her up off the ground and flew over the garden wall, smacking into the road beyond.

Alexis’s body was limp. A trickle of blood ran from between her lips, pooling in the middle of the road. Her Pirik shook out his shoulders and strolled towards her.

There was nothing Savannah could do, but scream, ‘LAUREN!’

Lauren looked up from where she was, her blade still at Titus’s neck. Her mouth widened and she started towards Savannah. Savannah shook her head and looked out at Alexis. Lauren understood.

Lauren sprinted for Alexis instead.

Savannah felt strange. Her brain whirred. Something was wrong. What, though, she couldn’t identify. Her heart pummeled against her ribs, its beats uneven and panicked. An overwhelming focus on getting out of the situation filled her. Her lung squirted and popped, each breath was ragged and insufficient. She looked down.

The Pirik’s free hand gripped a knife hilt. The blade was submerged in her chest.

‘Oh,’ Savannah whimpered.

Shadows sprung up around her all too late.

They speared the Pirik in every possible place.

He released her.

Savannah fell to the ground. The strength left her muscles.

She looked to Lauren, who had succeeded in killing Alexis’s Pirik, and was back at Titus, with Alexis, safe, lying on the ground next to her.

‘Lau-Lauren,’ she whispered, her vision clouding.

Savannah vanished.

*

Lauren dragged her blade across Titus’s throat. He gargled, his blood spilling down his body in waves. He slumped to the floor.

She scooped Alexis’s body off the ground and took her to the Healer’s Quarter.

Nyla gasped upon her entry. She hurried over to her, directing her to the nearest bed. Alexis was alive, and she was breathing. Aside from cuts and bruises all over her body, a few broken bones, and her lack of consciousness, she was fine. Well, she would survive, at the very least.

Lauren stalked from the Healer’s and sprinted over to the Imp’s Quarter. She charged through the door, and the tiny brown creatures, no taller than her knees, approached her, chirruping and begging to help her.

‘I need a cleanup contingent, now.’

Thirty scurried up, each carrying a different cleaning product. They arranged themselves into three equal lines, their chins raised and chests puffed out. They joined hands, and Lauren entered the centre of the first row and linked up with the imp at the front of the middle line.

They were back in the Glasco-Mason garden and the imps wasted no time in getting to work. Some removed the bodies, taking them back to Archaic, while the rest set to removing all shreds of evidence.

Lauren scanned the garden, turning around several times.

‘Where the fuck is Savannah?’

She walked over to where Savannah had fought her Pirik.

‘Wait,’ Lauren said, holding out a hand to the imps preparing the Pirik’s body for removal. At her command, they placed him back on the ground and set about cleaning the black bloodstains that had dyed the grass. She crouched beside him.

He had entry wounds all over. Two in the side of his neck, another in the front, eight in his chest, twelve in his limbs. Savannah’s weapons lay metres away from him; the thin trail of black blood on one of the blades did not result from this level of damage. There was no way that Savannah could have caused such brutal harm to the Pirik by using these blades alone.

Lauren turned, and her breath caught in her throat. Behind her was a pool of red blood. She looked back at the Pirik, and he was covered in it from the chest down.

She moved away, and the imps reconvened on the body. Her head darted both ways, but Savannah’s body was nowhere to be found.

Lauren went back into the house, checking every room on the ground floor, calling out Savannah’s name - to no response. She advanced upstairs.

She was greeted by the two detectives. Both were slumped against the wall, pale green with their mouths screwed shut like they were fighting against a vomit explosion.

‘Shit, I forgot about you two,’ Lauren said, rubbing her forehead. ‘Have you seen Savannah?’

Bradshaw shook his head, his dinner-plate eyes on the ground. His face twitched with each word. ‘She was… being held by that… thing… then… she v-vanished. Poof. Into thin air… haven’t seen her since…’

‘Fuck me... okay. I’ll find her.’

‘W-when you find her,’ Robertson said, standing straight, but trembling. ‘Bring her to us. She n-needs to answer for her crimes. And y-you need to tell us what the fuck has just happened.’

Lauren cocked her head and smiled. ‘I don’t need to do anything. Your investigation has concluded. You’re going to forget what happened here and no one beyond us is to discover the truth. You are going to report that Savannah has left the country and you are unable to find a trace, and stick to that story.’

‘W-why would we do that? With this… th-this is unprecedented. Fucking zombies?’ Robertson said, wringing her hands. ‘That we c-can’t keep to ourselves.’

Lauren stepped forward and her smile slipped. ‘You are going to keep it to yourselves. Because if you don’t, I have no other option than to silence you for good. Besides… you really think anyone’s going to believe you? You’ll lose your jobs, at best, with countless subsequent psychological examinations. Your careers will be ruined, your reputation will be in tatters. It’s in your best interests as well as mine to keep these events quiet.’

‘You-you’d kill us?’ Bradshaw said, slinking back further.

Lauren sighed. ‘I have a duty to a power far beyond your comprehension. If you want to avoid that power and the consequences I can guarantee you it will bring, you’ll leave here without a word to anyone. Are we agreed?’

Bradshaw and Robertson shared multiple furtive glances.

They nodded.

Lauren backed away, removing her hand from the dagger she’d slipped up her sleeve. She swung around the bannister and headed upstairs to check the top floor, just in case.

Savannah wasn’t there.

‘Where the fuck?...’

She raised an eyebrow and teleported to the Plaza of Quarters.

Standing on the cobbles, the late evening sun blood-red in the sky above her, she spun this way and that, searching for a glimpse of Savannah.

Someone exited the Assassin’s Quarter carrying a bundle almost too large for her.

Her heart skipped four beats.

Elianna.

Carrying a white, lifeless Savannah.