The angelic wings that cocooned me blossomed open with another burst of light, and I found myself hovering in the air, glowing with the brilliance of a real star, my restored form revealed to the monsters of the Black Hills. Max’s borrowed leathers were gone, and I was again garbed in the tailor-made outfit Catherine Magos had lovingly crafted for me.

In every way, I was whole again, Amelia once more.

My beautiful purple hair billowing around me, I slowly lowered out of the air and gracefully alighted on the ground. The clearing before me was bathed in a beautiful light from the full moon, still piercing through the magical cloud cover, refusing to be lost in the cloud’s purpose to choke the light.

I gazed around me at each of the snarling vampires frozen in place in front of me, before dramatically shifting my gaze to Bella. She wasn’t cowering in my presence, like they were, but her expression still betrayed the hint of surprise.

Like the last time that I had been touched by the Goddess, my wings faded away once I was back on the ground, but this time my body sustained a faint ethereal glow, and I could feel some of the Goddess’ power still coursing through me.

I instinctively reached across my body and grasped the hilt of my katana sheathed in Minerva, still lodged in the tree to my right. I didn’t know why I did it. I knew the blade was no more, but something called to me from within Minerva’s shaft. I grasped the hilt and felt a tug of power as I slid the broken blade free.

Another flash of light burst from the separation of katana and axe as the newly restored blade was revealed. The sword had been made anew, only now it wasn’t a blade forged by some mortal blacksmith’s hands, with metals found on this planet. Now, it was crafted by the Goddess herself, fashioned of the same star metal as Ash’s staff.

And like me, she was glowing.

I broke my gaze on my opponents for just a moment as I drew the beautiful blade back across my body to observe her, the reflection of my golden eyes brightly staring back at me in the metal. She was glowing an enchanted pale green, like moonlight passing through the trees. I could feel her energy synchronizing with the power flowing in my veins. She and I were one.

Luna.

I knew her name before the word even flashed through my mind.

“What are you!?” Bella finally screeched, surprise filling her voice. Her lieutenants shrieked and cried out along with her, shielding their eyes from the surprising luminescence emanating from the girl they had been hunting.

I was prey no longer.

“You heard me the first time! I am Amelia, Champion of the Goddess, Defender of Eitania! You wanted to play games, you flat chested bitch?”

I raised Luna and pointed her directly at Bella.

“Then let’s play!” I snarled.

Bella snarled back furiously and pointed a clawed finger at me, “Kill her!”

Oh please, make my day!

I was beyond pissed and needed an outlet. The balance of power between predator and prey had been flipped on its head, and now it was my turn.

Despite any fear or hesitation they might have felt towards my new form, the vampires unsheathed their weapons as they obeyed their mistress and charged as a pack.

I instinctively brought Luna up in a two-handed stance to defend from the first pair, and discovered I innately knew how to handle the blade. I knew exactly how I was going to wield her to take advantage of her unique edge and decimate my opponents. How did I know how to do that?!

“I said you’d like your bonuses! You can thank me later!”

Smiling a thanks to the Goddess, I readied for the first two vampires as they attempted to flank me.

They were so slow!

Before, I could barely track their movements as we had fought them and while they had hunted us through the forest. But now? It was almost like they were moving in slow motion. I lifted Luna in a downward angle to easily parry the sword from the vampire on my left in a glancing deflection before following through with a swing of Luna across my body at the vampire on my right. The blade effortlessly cut through his club and skull, splitting both in half.

I released my grip on the katana with my left hand and whipped my fist around to smash it into the side of the face of the first lieutenant. My fist crushed into the side of his skull with a force similar to Bella’s when she had killed her own vamp, and his head whipped to the side violently. I heard his neck snap with the effort, but not taking any chances, I thrust Luna through his head, watching the glowing tip disappear into his skull only to reappear out the other side. With a single tug, the blade easily slid free, and its body collapsed to the ground.

I turned to the three remaining vampires. The next had leapt at me to attack from above with an overhead cleave, which I easily side stepped. A swift downward swing after it’s ill-timed attack, and its head rolled off his shoulders as the corpse slumped over.

The other two also tried to attack me in a flanking maneuver, and I was still in awe at how slow they were moving. My reaction time was faster than it had ever been! I again grasped Luna with both hands and lunged into the stomach of the vamp on my right, then twisted her and sliced upward. The glowing green magically imbued blade cut through bone and flesh as it ripped through its torso and exited up the top of its skull cleanly. I then twirled around with a flourish to give my next attack extra momentum and swung the blade with all my strength to meet the last vampire’s sword as he brought his blade around to block my swing.

I had a moment of anxiety flash through my mind as I remembered the last time I had swung her like this, memories of the shattered katana exploding around me.

As my blade contacted with his, metal again shattered into splinters, but they didn’t belong to me. Luna remained true and cut through the vampire’s inferior weapon, continuing through his torso. His face was a look of shock as his upper body started to slide off his bottom half slowly, only for me to slice back up across his head to finish the kill. Despite the violence used to eviscerate the lieutenants, Luna’s blade remained as clean as she had when I had first unsheathed her from Minerva.

I looked to my last remaining threat.

Bella was backing away slowly. For the first time today, she was afraid.

Good! She should be.

I began to stalk towards her. She wouldn’t escape me. Not after all she had done.

Duncan. Chad. Julius. Kit. She had taken the lives of people I cared about!

“Stay away from me!” she cried. She rose her hand and the dark magic I recognized from the attack on Julius swirled around it before being shot out at me. My enhanced speed and reflexes made a world of difference as I continued to march towards her, swinging Luna to easily deflect the dark energy projectiles being hurled at me.

Three shots, three deflections. Each careened off Luna’s glowing blade and ricocheted to my sides and behind me, hitting trees or the ground. The magical lances exploded on contact, and I could feel the billowing energy and echoes from the destruction. My methodical stalking turned into a run. I needed to close the distance on her, and I was aching to inflict the punishment on Bella that was long overdue.

She continued to back away from my advance, whipping her tail around her defensively to strike and attempt to keep me at range. Unlike her bodyguards, her speed was much quicker. I could only imagine what facing her unnatural capabilities would have been like had I attempted to stand my ground before.

I swung Luna to deflect her swipes at me with her tail, its hardened scales clashing and clanging with the contact, meeting my strength with equal force. After a successful swing to knock her tail down and away from me, I whirled Luna in my hands and thrust her down to pierce the tail.

This is for Julius!

The katana slid through the scaly flesh and snow and into the ground, pinning the writhing tail in place. Bella cried out in pain and terror.

I let go of the blade and charged her. She couldn’t escape me now!

Somehow, I knew I still had them, and I reached into a pocket on my belt.

For Kit!

“If you thought this was going to end swiftly, you couldn’t have been more wrong!”

Whatever she had expected me to do after pinning her in place, rushing her face-to-face had not been it! She wasn’t prepared to defend herself from an all-out assault, and the metal on Kit’s knuckles glistened in the moon light as I caught her with a punishing blow to her face with my fist. She managed to turn her head enough that I only caught the side of her face with a glancing blow, and she slid backwards in the snow as she fought to remain upright. With her tail pinning her in place, she only slid back so far, a fact she realized all too late. But when she turned her face back to me, I didn’t see fear in her eyes anymore. I saw them narrowed with a burning hatred. She wasn’t going to go down easy, and that was fine with me. I wasn’t done beating her ass anyway.

Chad!

I was already swinging with my right and struck her hard in her exposed stomach. Unlike before, where her skin had been soft and inviting, now it was hard, like her face had been when I slapped her. I followed that through with two more quick alternating jabs in the same location before grabbing her shoulders and pulling her down towards my advancing knee which jabbed her hard in her stomach again.

Duncan!

I then grabbed her horns and yanked her head back up to meet mine with an aggressive headbutt to her forehead.

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Both of our heads whipped backwards with the blow, and I saw stars for a brief instant that I had to blink away, but I didn’t care. I had a savage urge to inflict as much pain on this psychotic vampiress as I possibly could before this was over.

I reared back to strike her in the face again, only to be abruptly thrust away from her by an unexpected force. I flew backwards several yards and slammed into a large, thick rotting pine, the contact forcing all the wind from my lungs. The trunk cracked with my impact, but it had been enough to stop my momentum, and I slumped to the ground. I gasped for air and looked up at Bella.

Her damaged tail again whipped around her, its end a bloodied stump. She had managed to wrest her tail from its trap, but not without cost. Luna still was thrust in the dirt a few feet from her, the rest of the tail still pinned into the ground. She was still recovering from my attack, body heaving in exertion. Her face was gashed open where I had connected with my first hammering blow. I noticed Bella’s right hand was pulsing with a dark energy again.

She had finally recovered enough during my onslaught to react defensively and had hit me with some magical force to put some space between us. From the look in her eyes, I could tell she was furious. She was used to having helpless prey at her mercy. Unfortunately for her, I had unexpectedly closed the power divide between us and had a thirst for an ass kicking. The power around her fist started to pulse ominously as she readied another attack, more powerful than the energy lances from before.

“While it pleases me that you have made our game more interesting, the outcome will still be the same!” she hissed.

Crap.

I instinctively reached around and located Lily still strapped to the small of my back like it had been when I was Amy. I grasped the handle and quickly ran through my options as Bella’s power gathered in intensity in the palm of her hand. Lily was not going to cut it, pun not intended. Luna had deflected her magic, but Luna was star metal and currently sporting some magic of her own. I could throw Lily if pressed but I didn’t like my chances.

I looked around for anything that I could use to defend myself. Minerva lay over where she had been thrown at me a few yards away, and Luna wasn’t within reach either. I had gambled that I could end it with a furious physical assault, and now I had nothing.

“How dare you threaten her!” a familiar voice cried out.

Suddenly, a form in that wonderful shade of powdered blue appeared in front of me.

“Ash!”

Bella screamed as she thrust her arm forward, and the dark magical power spewed out towards us. The dark liquid mass of magic separated into several shapeless arms and advanced on us rapidly.

It was my turn to scream at him.

“Run, Ash!”

He looked back at me and smiled as he shook his head.

“We stand together, or not at all!”

As he said this, I felt the air around us start humming with an energy, almost as if it had become alive. He turned back to face the advancing evil and let out a defiant scream of his own as he thrust his staff forward.

“Ash, no!” I screamed. What could he possibly hope to do!?

The moonstone at the tip of his own star metal weapon exploded brightly, and I saw a sphere of light shimmer up in front of us. The writhing evil magical arms collided with the barrier, bursting, and exploding on contact with Ash’s magical protection as his shield held fast. Bella continued to channel the attack towards us, and the mass continued to push against the wall of light. The arms looked like fingers, searching, and probing for a seam or weakness in his defenses.

His feet planted firmly in the ground, the force started to push Ash backwards, snow rising around his legs as he slid. I had never seen Ash channel this much power at once, and definitely not sustain it like this! I could see blood starting to trickle out of his ears, the veins popping up on his neck. It was taking all he had, and it didn’t look like Bella was going to stop anytime soon. I had to help him, but what could I possibly do? I scrambled up to my feet from the snow and used my body to push on his back, giving him something, anything he could lean on for support.

Suddenly, several arrows flew through the air and started pelting Bella in her upper body. Most of them careened off her hard skin, but a couple hit their mark with hard thunks and stuck in her left shoulder and flat chest. Bella screamed at the distraction, in pain or furious anger I wasn’t sure, but it forced her to break off her channeled magic attack, and Ash gasped heavily as the protection magic also fell.

I smiled, as I knew that pinpoint accuracy anywhere.

Dorian, you beautiful bastard!

“Is it still dashingly acceptable to show up fashionably late?”

Dorian joined us at Ash’s side, two arrows already aimed and ready to go. I was elated to see him. At least I hadn’t lost Ash or Dorian in all of this mess.

“Goddess, you know I’ve missed that very pretty face!” he said, with one of his stupid dashing smiles that I normally would’ve hated. “But the real question is, did you miss mine?” he winked.

“I suggest you stay focused on the task at hand, Dorian. There will be time for flirting with the lady later.”

At that, Julius also strode up on the other side of us as he put a gloved hand on Ash’s shoulder. His robes were covered in blood where the earlier surprise attack had blasted into his torso with what had looked like a near fatal wound. Ash must have expended some serious effort mending him up, as his flesh beneath showed no signs of the attack.

“I thank you for your assistance, my friend.” He calmly said to Ash. “And now, it is time for me to show my appreciation by removing this pest from our midst.”

Ash had slumped forward, leaning on the staff to not collapse completely. I held on to him gingerly to help keep him steady. In addition to the blood streaming out of his ears, he also had dried blood streaking down his face from his nose and eyes. The strain on his body from the magic he had channeled to heal Julius, as well as defend from Bella had been enormously taxing. I could tell he was spent, but his face was still set with determination, never breaking his gaze on the powerful threat still standing before us.

Julius continued to walk forward past Ash, ready for his turn, undaunted by the vampire before him. I was sure Julius felt like he and Bella also had unfinished business. Dorian stalked closely behind, his shot still lined up and ready. Julius smoothly put the tip of a gloved finger from his left hand in his mouth and gripped it with his teeth to pull it off his hand. He then started to roll up his left sleeve, further revealing more of his skin that I had never seen uncovered before.

His hand was lined with black ink, like a ritualistic tattoo. It traced down from each fingertip to a circle on the back of his hand, which then tracked down his wrist and up his forearm. The lines seemed to trace his veins specifically, bringing them to prominence.

“Your power has been observed, witch, and it has been found wanting!” He removed a loaded syringe from a pouch on his waist and forcefully thrust the needle into a vein in his forearm. He then depressed the syringe and forced all of its strange colored liquid contents into his arm.

“And now, it is time to return the show of power you hurled at me!”

I could hear him grinding his teeth as the tattoo… no, his veins outlined by it, started to glow! They looked as if they were catching fire, as the blood in them slowly turned a molten red. He called a flame into his left hand which started to flare up wildly as he channeled more of his power into it. Even standing a few feet away from him, I could still feel it’s heat as he gathered power into the spell. I winced looking at the fire growing in his hand, as it took on the appearance of a small sun. The flesh on his fingertips started to char.

“Tell your master the kingdom of Man will not be enveloped so easily by the darkness of your Night, not while we stand ready to defend her!” he shouted.

Bella snarled and prepared an attack of her own, but Ash had shrugged himself out of my grip and managed to limp next to Julius, the tip of his staff glowing as brilliantly as before. Dorian stood lined up on Julius’ other side, the tips of his arrows close enough to the billowing fire magic to light them aflame.

“Your game is over, monster,” Dorian sneered. “You lost!”

With a glance at each other, they unleashed their joint attack towards Bella, light and fire coalescing into a large energy force barreling toward the vampiress, with Dorian’s arrows buried somewhere inside it all. She screamed again as the magical attack struck hard with a deafening explosion, engulfing her in a ball of fire.

Immediately after releasing their attacks, both Julius and Ash slumped over, the cost needed from their bodies taking its toll. I didn’t know what physical sacrifices Julius was forced to make for his body to absorb whatever concoction he had used, but I had a better idea of what limits Ash had pushed himself to and was surprised to see him still standing.

I finally snapped out of my shock from the unfolding events and ran forward to support them. The four of us watched as Bella continued to burn, but she still stood defiantly, refusing to fall. Limbs writhed in anger and frustration, her screams increasing in volume. Suddenly, we saw her violet eyes cut through the inferno, lined with hatred.

“Mark my words, I have memorized each of your faces! And I will feast on you all before you meet your end at my hands!”

A claw extended through the fire, pointing at me,

“Especially you!”

She then shrieked one final time before her fiery form leapt off the ground and disappeared into the clouds.

I breathed a sigh of relief at her retreat. We were safe for now. We had won! The Goddess’ residual power left over from my transformation, and the accompanying glow, had started to ebb away shortly after Julius’ appearance, and I didn’t feel confident I would have been able to match her blow for blow again without the boys continued support.

They were violently shaking and physically drained. Julius had staggered a couple of feet over to a nearby tree and was leaning on it for support, his forehead drenched in sweat and his face grimacing in pain. His breath was hot and heavy in the air as his body heaved in recovery. The skin on his left forearm and hand looked like it was melting, with steam and heat coming off it in waves.

Ash was leaning both into Dorian and his staff to remain standing. He had fresh blood streaming down his face and was almost limp in Dorian’s grasp. Still, he looked up at me with a warm smile. With all the effort he could muster, he whispered to me, “I never doubted. Not even for a moment.”

His eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed unconscious in Dorian’s arms. After checking on him, Dorian also looked up at me and smiled.

“What took you so long? I’d say we’ve missed you, but I guess you really didn’t go anywhere, did you?”

He then looked away sheepishly, “I’m—Well—Hey, I’m sorry. I know you’ve needed us, and me, recently and I haven’t been there. I wasn’t being the kind of friend you needed. But I promise, with all my heart, never again.”

I smiled back at him, “No apologies needed, Dorian. I wasn’t there when you guys needed me either.”

With much difficulty, Julius managed to stand on his own. He pushed his glasses back up his nose, and finally addressed me with a pain laced grunt.

“Amy? How are—? What did—? What are you?”

It was amusing to hear him ask that, considering the display of power he had just used to make Bella retreat for good, but I merely smiled back at him.

“What’s wrong Julius? Not the dirty stray you remember from before?”

But before he could give a reply, we each heard a rustling to our left. I looked over at Dorian to confirm he still had Ash. With a subtle nod, he reassured me he was good, and I rolled forward, crunching through the snow, toward Luna. Her glow had also faded as I whipped her out of the ground and the remnants of Bella’s tail and brought her to bear on our newest threat. Instead, my eyes opened in shock at the sight that greeted me.

Limping into view, dragging a sword behind him, and covered in blood, was Chadwick, who was being supported by an equally bloody Kit.

My boys!

They were alive! They were all alive!

An elated rush filled me once more as I saw them both. Despite the dangers we had faced, all six of us stood together again. Not to say we came out of it completely unscathed. I looked them over and, short of Dorian, each of them was in seriously bad shape.

And we had still lost Duncan.

I turned back to Chad and Kit to look them over. The right side of Chad’s face was covered in blood, with deeply clawed gashes streaking down the entire side, cutting through his hair line, down his cheek and jaw further into his neck. He was covered in other injuries down his body and his clothes were dirty, torn, and bloody where the vampires he had battled had gotten some licks in.

Kit looked only marginally better, miraculously only having a few extra marks on him from when I had seen him last. The blood from the puncture wounds on his neck where the vamp lieutenant had bitten him was dried and the wounds had somehow already closed.

How they had survived, I had no idea. Kit had been buried under multiple thralls when I had been forced to leave him and Chad had been hunted by four of Bella’s lieutenants, including the tall vampire who appeared to act as her second. I had dispatched five of them myself when I made my stand against Bella, but I had just gotten a supercharged booster shot and had the newly forged Luna. How had he—?

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. It didn’t matter right now! I dropped Luna in the snow and ran to their sides, practically tackling them to the ground as I wrapped my arms around them tightly.

They both squirmed and winced in my grip, but I wasn’t letting go. Not until I was sure they were real.

“Amelia!” Chad rasped, and I could see a faint smile on his lips. Kit had no words, and just looked at me wide-eyed, his mouth gaping open, not understanding what he was seeing before him either.

“You’re back! Our star is back!” Chad exclaimed, coughing up some blood.

All his energy spent, he then collapsed unconscious in my arms.