I exploded from where I stood, ripping up the earth as my feet left the ground. From the moment the vision subsided, I never stopped moving. If my body was capable of tiring at all, I didn’t feel it. I pressed on, kept moving, never slowing. I knew my target… Mucia. I knew her alias, Mercy Lewis. I knew I had to kill her. It had been decided, but not by me. I was merely the instrument.

The journey had been long, each mile blending into the next as I pushed forward, the endless stretch of road and earth rushing beneath me. The landscape changed subtly, the monotony of the highway giving way to winding backroads, the trees growing thicker, their branches interlocking overhead, casting shifting shadows on the ground. I could feel the weight of every passing moment, the distance closing between us as I homed in on her location, a place that seemed to pulse with a dark, foreboding energy.

Finally, I arrived. The air was thick with the acrid scent of smoke, the ground beneath my feet scorched and blackened. The border of the tree line loomed before me, the shadows dense and protective of me as they encroached upon a sprawling property. The trees seemed to whisper warnings as I approached, their branches clawing at the sky, framing a scene of devastation.

Beyond the tree line, trails of flame crisscrossed the land, like fiery veins spreading across the earth. The house stood at the heart of it all, a hulking silhouette against the eerie red glow of the flames. Smaller structures were scattered farther back, half-hidden in the gloom, their shapes twisted and indistinct in the wavering light. The river that bordered the property glimmered ominously, its surface reflecting the chaos.

As I surveyed the scene, my eyes were drawn to the figures within the fire’s grasp. They were everywhere, positioned as if caught mid-action, their forms eerily still despite the inferno that surrounded them. But they weren’t dead, I knew that for certain. It was as though time had abandoned them, leaving them trapped in an eternal moment of horror. My pulse quickened, dread curling in my gut as recognition dawned. Those faces, those forms… frozen in time… they were my family.

The ones I had come to love, the people I had fought so hard to protect, were all suffering in ways I couldn’t bear to witness. They were utterly helpless, caught in a nightmare from which there was no escape, unable to move, unable to defend themselves from whatever torment was being inflicted upon them. It was a vision of pure horror.

But then, there was Eleanor. Unlike the others, she wasn’t frozen. She was writhing on the grass, her body contorted in some kind of unspeakable agony. Panic gripped me as I noticed how wrong she looked, her complexion a sickly pale that made my heart skip a beat. She wasn’t just in pain… she was suffering in a way that went beyond the physical. Blackened lines jagged and creeping inched across her body.

And there was Autumn, right beside her mother. Her distant form trembling as she watched helplessly. The sight of her, so scared and powerless, broke something inside me. I had never witnessed this side of her… of any of them. She was crying silent tears that streamed down her cheeks, reflecting the flames around us. All I could see in her eyes was a deep, unbearable sorrow. She couldn’t do anything to help her mom.

My eyes darted between them, my heart pounding in my chest. Fear and rage churned within me, twisting together into a dark, violent storm that rocked the direction of the monster for a brief moment.

A fight was actively happening between Martin, another vampire, and someone else. He moved differently than the two vampires. He was like nothing I had ever seen before, taller and thicker with strangely flexed muscles. His right arm covered in some sort of bone spikes that looked absolutely lethal. A more massive spike of bone came out of his elbow, running in line with his forearm. Gauging the situation, I had to infer that it was Phineas, the chimera. He had a plethora of strange features that I could see from out in the woods. I wanted a closer look.

The other vampire that seemed to be helping Martin was still a mystery. Judging from the intensity of his attacks, he looked strong, if not stronger, than Martin. However, the red-haired demon fought off the two vampiric monsters with ease. He toyed with them, prolonging the struggle intentionally. He was just showing off. He gouged his elbow spike through the other vampire’s chest.

“I bet that one hurt ya,” the red-haired creature taunted the vampire as he pinned him to the side of the burning house with his boney protrusion. From his accent, he sounded Irish.

Then… in the middle of everything stood her… Mucia. She stood firmly with confidence in the middle of the chaos orchestrated by her power. She was untouchable. At least she thought she was. She was just like the vision, pure evil. The same, eternally youthful face gazed upon all her future victims without mercy. She was just like the rest before. No different than the murderers I hunted before I discovered the supernatural world. She thought she was untouchable.

In front of Mucia was an older woman. She looked too frail to be out in the middle of the violent chaos. She looked out of place, and obviously not with these two immortals. When I looked at her, she looked directly back at me. It wasn’t a glance just after she noticed something. It was like she was expecting me. She stared for a good ten seconds, smiling at me almost in relief. She looked back to Mucia and said a few words.

I stepped out from the shadows of the trees with one goal… to kill. The faster I killed them, the faster I’d save my friends and all the ones I had grown to care for. I walked towards Mucia. I had to rip my talons through her and feel all the stolen lives freed. Death would finally take her from this world.

The one I assumed to be Phineas turned his gaze on me. He stopped tormenting the vampires and started running straight at me. I don’t know what alerted him to my presence, but he would get in my way. I couldn’t let him distract me. I had to kill Mucia. But, if I had to kill him first to get to Mucia, I would.

I started allowing my muscles to free themselves from their human form, strengthening, and elongating. I was running straight at Phineas across the still blazing field. My speed blew the hood off my head. I didn’t stop. I ran relentlessly, gaining momentum with every step. My friends would see me. They would finally see what kind of monster I truly was. But… if it was to save them all, then so be it.

I could tell he was the apex predator in most situations. He did not doubt his strength. He was committed to killing me just as he would anyone else. He was unprepared.

I leaped through the air to meet the charging Phineas. When my transforming body slammed into his monstrous form, a resounding crash echoed through the surrounding trees. Our momentum twisted us to the ground in a violent collision. Claws and talons ripped through the air as we swung at each other. Phineas was fast, dodging my swipes and attacks just quick enough not to get caught. After the initial clash, I could tell he changed his approach. He felt my strength… and I felt his. He wasn’t attacking now; he was reacting. He waited for openings as I lunged at him with uncompromising wrath. I didn’t change anything about my approach. I only had one thing in my mind that pushed me forward; one thought that made my body move. KILL!

When I was given a name through a vision, I only had one speed. Every attack was to kill; no strategy, no plan of attack, it was kill, kill, and kill again.

My body was still shifting as we came out of the initial clash. I came at him through the flaming field, chaos and fury growing with every second. I grew larger and darker, my body burning from within as I changed into the beast that would end them both.

Then, everyone else started firing. Blasts from multiple directions sounded off as the hot silver came ripping through the air around me and the chimera. The hunters were back up and taking action. I felt bullets cut into me as I continued towards Phineas. The gunfire didn’t make me falter, but Phineas started becoming more evasive and actively avoided me and the bullets.

Phineas leaped high through the air, over a thick band of flames to a few parked cars. The bullets stopped screaming towards me and followed him to cover. The Chasses, Wicklows, and Talbots weren’t trying to kill me. They kept their focus and sights on Phineas, even as I grew in strength, size, and monstrosity. I pushed it harder, forcing the monster out as fast as possible. It burned harder as it ate up my human form and took shape in reality.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

With my path currently clear, I turned my attention back towards Mucia. She stood in the same spot right in the center; eyes fixed on me. She hadn’t moved an inch, nor had the older woman beside her.

I stood in place just long enough to push the transformation the rest of the way. The burning ripped through me fast, popping joints and muscles out and into new locations. I used my talons to tear what was left of my constricting clothes from my growing form. In only seconds, I was fully transformed. Murder in the flesh.

The bullets stopped firing for a moment; everyone was unsure if they were firing at the right creature. Mucia and the older woman stood in awe of such a powerful and unknown beast. None of them had ever seen anything like what they were witnessing at that moment. Panic and dread swept the area as a deep guttural snarl ripped out of my fanged face.

I pushed off from the ground in a rush, flinging my body into a path directly at Mucia. I don’t know why she didn’t move. Maybe I caught her by surprise, or perhaps it was something else. She was staring fearfully as my talons swung towards her. Her jaw clenched at my approach. Right before my razors ripped the flesh from her skull, I was hit by something substantial and metallic. The little black sedan crashed into me at blinding speed. It sailed through the air, propelled by an unseen force, to meet me just in front of Mucia.

Metal screeched and tore as the car collided into me, the force of impact crushing the car and slamming me into the ground like a rock driven into mud. The earth swallowed me, halting our momentum with brutal finality. It looked like I was buried with a little sedan as my headstone. My muscles coiled with raw power, and with a violent surge, I heaved the car out of the crater, sending it flying. I vaulted from the hole just as the mangled wreckage crashed back down.

I turned to the witch, a snarl of seething rage rumbling from deep within, venomous and feral. Blood dripped from the cuts the jagged metal had torn into my flesh, but they were mere scratches. In moments, the wounds sealed themselves, knitting back together until I was whole again, the fury in my eyes burning brighter than ever. That was the power I had been looking for. That was the kind of strength I had hoped to find and end my existence. But… not anymore.

Phineas was still hiding behind the vehicles, probably trying to heal from the bullets and the few slashes I got in. He didn’t seem as deathly sensitive to silver as most other monsters I had read about. I wondered why that was. However, it still took a toll on him unlike normal bullets would.

The hunters took advantage of the time they had. They had all run and converged on Eleanor, the Talbots all circling them with yellow eyes fixed on the threats that might come their way, and the Wicklows all ran for the cover of the woods. The only one left out with all the monsters was the little old woman standing by Mucia. It was then that I realized it had to be Annabelle. She looked like a Wicklow, and from how Autumn had described her to me, she really seemed to fit the mold. She seemed… unafraid. She was calm in the chaos around everyone.

I could see them struggling to carry Eleanor, who weakly stumbled more with every step. Jane scooped her off her feet with her powerful arms, then disappearing into the depths of the woods. In just a few short moments, the massive group of friends and family faded into the shadows.

“Who do you think you are?” Mercy asked in a rage.

She held her trembling hands out in front of her, fingers splayed wide as if grasping at the air itself. A flicker of something unnatural sparked between them. Then suddenly, flames burst forth, wild and untamed as if they had been summoned from the very depths of a nightmare. These weren’t ordinary flames; they were vicious, alive with a sinister energy that crackled and hissed as they tore into existence.

The fire erupted, consuming the ground in an instant, faster and more ferocious than any wildfire I had ever seen. The inferno surged, swelling and expanding like a living thing, until it formed a swirling barrier around her and Annabelle. A ring of fire, nearly thirty yards across, separated me from my target, a churning, seething wall of heat and fury that seemed to pulse with malevolence.

The heat was unbearable. It was more than just scorching. It felt as though it could strip the flesh from my bones, reducing me to ash in the blink of an eye. The flames shifted, taking on a deep, menacing red, a hue that reminded me of blood; dark, thick, and ready to consume. The air shimmered with intensity, and as the fire grew hotter, I could feel its deadly hunger. A force that threatened to consume everything in its path, including me.

Her voice came out of the twisting inferno like she was the very flames herself, “I’ve lived for centuries. You cannot touch me, beast.”

The fire grew taller, overtaking what was left of the burning house and turning it to cinders. The ground around us scorched and killed anything organic. Even the dirt below started to char and crack. She was turning the land into a literal hell on earth.

“You will die. I will take your life… your power… and it will strengthen me,” she told me as fact. Her voice was growing more confident with every word as she unleashed her real power.

I was so distracted with the urge to kill, to run through the blaze that I never saw Phineas coming. I was peppered with sharp little spikes all down my left side. I looked down at the searing flesh that felt like it was boiling from the inside. They looked like the small bone spikes from the chimera’s arm. I looked up and saw him coming, his confidence back. He slammed into me with that bony elbow-spike, wedging it into my monstrous frame before sending me flying. He actually hurt me…

Phineas was stalking around me as he prepared for the killing blow. He was significantly larger than before, and stronger. He didn’t have my size, but he did have an even more monstrous transformation. He stood only about a foot shorter than me, right arm littered with even longer spikes of bone. His snake-like hiss was now accompanied by his forked-tongue that licked the blood from his face. His eyes were yellow like the werewolves, but his pupils were vertically slit like a cat. He had a yellowish-orange flesh with black stripes, like needles pointing towards his centerline. He was a mix of countless beasts. He was by far the most interesting creature I had ever seen or read about. The strongest, as well.

“That’s the venom working through ya’, mate,” the chimera hissed. Even his monstrous voice had a bit of an accent. “You’re feeling it now, aren’t you? Just like that little hunter lass with the rifle,” he said as I laid on my back. “Your strength’s fading, your senses goin’ bye-bye. That’s what the sting of a manticore’l do to ya,” he laughed. “I’ve fought things stronger than me b’fore. You might be the strongest, but you’re no dif’rent. My venom’l weaken and eventually kill ya’. But before it does, I’ll take the best parts of ya’ for myself,” he explained.

My mind went to Eleanor. The same venom that seared me from the inside had been rushing through her body every single second since she had been hit. It must have happened just before I got there. I had to end this. I had to finish him, then Mucia. Then, maybe with the help of the gypsies, we could save Eleanor.

Phineas laughed through his narrow set of fangs before rushing in for the kill. For him, this was it. He’d kill me and move on to the fleeing family that I had come to know and love. His fully transformed body, fangs bared, had almost made it to my neck.

I pushed myself off the ground so fast he couldn’t react midair. I clamped my talons around his neck, twisting him around me and jamming his face into the charred earth beneath us. A crack echoed out from his spine as the pressure I placed on his bones surpassed their durability. A squealing hiss escaped his maw.

“If you could kill me,” I spoke directly into his ear, “I might have welcomed it at one time.” My beastly voice deepened with the words, “You die now. Then it will be her.”

“Wait… how are you…” he tried to speak through the strain I was putting on him. He couldn’t get the words out.

I shoved my hand through his spine and into the earth. The cracks were multiple as his bones separated and sheared his spinal column. I felt his resistance drop off entirely as soon as his massive spine was severed. I went into a frenzy, clawing and ripping through the flesh that held his head to the rest of him. I didn’t know what a chimera could do for sure, but I was reasonably certain he couldn’t come back to stop me without a head.

Shortly after, I stood, again, in front of the twisting inferno. Only this time, I held the bloodied head of the chimera in my right, monstrous hand.

“Phineas,” the words came from the red blaze, “it seems you’ve failed me too. No matter. One less useless underling whose hand needs to be held.” She was inherently vain and thought herself to be the highest of them all. Everyone was beneath her power. “You think you can kill me next, beast? Go ahead… step into the hellfire. You will be turned to dust, just like the rest.”

I didn’t wait. I didn’t care about the witch’s taunts. I didn’t care that this fire would hurt like hell, literally. I didn’t know what hellfire would do to me, if that is what it indeed was. I only knew one thing. I had to kill.

I took a deep breath into my monstrous lungs and sprinted wildly into the bloody flames. I broke through the barrier and felt the change instantly. I felt like a leaf in a hurricane. The power was like nothing I had felt in my entire life. It took everything in my strength just to stand in place and not have my feet taken out from under me. I knelt to the ground to stabilize myself inside the inferno. The flames licked every inch of my flesh, burning away the layers one by one. I could feel the heat ripping me to pieces. It tore apart everything from the forefront of my mind. I couldn’t hear or see anything except for crimson flames and the roar that accompanied them.

Then, a different voice spoke through the flames. IT cut through everything; the pain, the raging noise, the scorching heat, the rage… it all bowed to the voice. The dark, ominous voice said one word, “Fall!”