“No.” Slade gasped. “Please no.” Hands at her mouth, she bit back a sob. “No.”

“No sense crying over it now, sister,” Manny said, meeting her gaze. “The only thing lost in all this was something you’d never have to see.”

Eli coughed, curling into a ball.

Lomos and other werewolves rushed him but Slade didn’t feel worthy.

“Trix....” Shame robbed Slade of the ability to meet eyes with anyone. For Eli...she’d thrown away every conviction for Eli. She was no better than any of them. Two hands under the table, Slade flipped it despite its massive size. It slid to a halt at Manny’s feet. They were all the same. Even her.

Slade stepped before him. “Brother....”

Manny tilted his head back and let out a sigh. “Here it fucking comes. What now, you sanctimonious brat? You just saw it for yourself. Whatever’s happening won’t stop unless that egg is crushed. You’re the one to lord your ‘humanity’ over me at every turn.” He gestured to the floor. “Look at her.”

Slade wouldn’t dare. Instead, she stared at her brother’s chest, pleading, “Don’t use the rune inside it. Let’s...let’s bury the remains. Let’s respect it.”

The sadistic vampire gritted his teeth and shrugged. “Would it be terrible to consider eating it?”

Eyes bugged, Slade screamed, “It’s a life. And until twenty minutes ago, we had no confirmation that it was life that you helped create!”

Manny cocked his head to the side. “All the more reason not to put it to waste.”

She didn’t dignify that with an answer. Instead, she stared the bastard down.

“Kidding,” Manny said with a chuckle. “Mostly.”

This terrible situation couldn’t get much worse.

“Oh, and Barbra,” Manny said, “you’re no longer needed here.”

The dwarf explained, “Um, it’s...Barba-ros, sir. Barba—”

“Like I give a shit,” Manny said, grinning at her actual naivete. “I need this rune relic a bit longer but your job is done here.”

A pouch appeared in her hands moments later.

“Then I should be liking the relic back. After you bleed the harpy of power, of course. That is what Legion wants. A basic extraction incantation is all it needs. I’d say make sure she is compliant but...that’s not always necessary, if you know what I mean.”

Manny raised his right eyebrow at her. “Scandalous.”

“Yes, sir. If—”

“Good, good. You may go.”

Barbra glanced from him then down to Trixie again. “You don’t need me to look after her?”

“Nope.” Manny squeezed the rock in his fist. “Not with the egg broken.”

“Oh.” Barbra sighed with relief. “I wasn’t gonna say nothing about her body her choice but it’s good to see you’ve come around. Respecting women—”

“Yeah. What the fuck ever. Christ. Give you the time of day and you turn into some street preacher. Move.”

The stunned expression on the dwarf’s face faded with one sound.

Crack.

That one little fracture too many stole all the life from the room.

Barbra’s jaw dropped, her breaths came shallow. “You son-of-a-bitch. What have you done?”

“Three weeks,” Manny said, bringing the egg close. “She was right.”

He pocketed the stone and held the egg with both hands.

It cracked again.

Slade backed away. “What the...?” Eyes wild, she focused on Manny finally. “You haven’t stolen its rune?”

“Gave it rune,” Manny corrected.

“From where?” Slade protested. “You’ve got none.”

“From me. Three weeks’ worth.”

The egg broke yet again. That was what he was doing all this time.... He wasn’t absorbing runes into himself, but rather, extracting it. For...for this.

Crack.

Manny never took his eyes off it. “You know how we have that stupid bastard in our heads that keeps wanting to do one thing while we want to do the other?” he explained. “I got to thinking, maybe she’s got something like that. Maybe we all do. Some sort of deity—or a piece of one that’s all about survival. Yeah, she speaks in third person sometimes. But never that much. She couldn’t say I or...or me. And she always could before. Just save Trixie. Well, she said three weeks and I think she meant for me to hatch this thing.” He looked less sure when he met Slade’s gaze. “Right?”

“No,” Barbra moaned. “No. You fool. No. Legion won’t stand for this. No one’ll stand for this. Legion won’t stand for this.”

She lost power, her body limp as she rotated to face them.

“You have Legion’s attention. What is your end goal?”

Manny smirked. “I think we both know....” He held out the nearly shattered egg, “I’ve got more than just your attention, old boy. Shall I prove it?” He glanced at two werewolves hovering beside the dwarf and they caught hold of her arms.

As Manny approached, she twisted and cursed, “Stop. You have no right.”

“What was it you said?” Manny teased, “A basic rune extraction incantation. Whether or not someone’s compliant. Bet you wished you’d chosen better words right about now.”

Amazed, Slade watched Manny’s careful advance as he muttered.

Blue dust seeped from the dwarf, curling around her in a swirl. Still holding the egg out, Manny arrived close enough to hold her forehead with his left hand. The dwarf lost power and sagged.

“Amazing,” Manny marveled. The cracking came faster. “It just eats up runes like it’s nothing. And not just runes...but gateways.”

Slade’s body jerked. She looked down at herself, confused. Her chest jerked again.

Leave. Get us out of here before he seals us off! Leave. A vampire with no Legion is no vampire! Leave. You’ll have no power without me.

Once Manny was satisfied with his incantation, he told the werewolves, “If she moves, end her.”

“Yes, Sovereign.”

Manny turned his sights on Slade and her body trembled. “What—what are you doing brother?”

He didn’t seem to know. “It’s a chance for you. Do you want it?”

But she didn’t know what it was.

“I wonder why it does this,” Manny marveled. “And...somehow I know, just holding it, I know how to use it. Isn’t that amazing?”

Two white wings spread behind him and Slade gasped. A head peeped up along with it.

“Legion,” the voice called.

Eyes wide, Manny went rigid. He couldn’t see what was behind him but Slade could and she struck Lomos to get him in motion. “Get Eli.”

Lomos complied but gasped. “Sovereign. He’s healed.”

“Get him up,” Slade said, refusing to peel her eyes off the winged beast huffing behind her brother. “Evelyn Monroe, rise up.”

Eli obeyed like a puppet on a string. If he was healed, then he should be able to run, though that couldn’t take him far.

Manny meandered when he turned, ever cautious but eager. Upon seeing what became of Trixie, he gaped, amazed, “Harpy. You....”

Brown hair now blonde, Trixie stared at him behind the curtain of yellow which hung before her. The horns were gone, replaced by a golden circle of horn fragments which drifted around above her head. She was fortunate to be wearing clothes, but they were still harpy garb, and nothing for the creature they beheld.

“So that’s what you are?” Manny said, smiling. “You’re an ange—”

Trixie backhanded him, sending him flying across the room.

She flapped her wings and gave off a terrible shriek as she climbed higher into the air. Her hands held flames and she made a fist and zoomed down the open corridor and into the courtyard.

Slade and Lomos raced to the yard in time to see the angel rise above Manny’s barrier and head for the forest, burning trees and anything else below her path.

Morons! Absolute morons! You've let it out. You idiots have let it out! Get Manos up. He’s the only thing that can stop her now.

Slade ignored Legion and turned to ask Lomos, “What the hell did I just see?”

The werewolf still watched Trixie’s path. “I thought they weren’t real. If angels are real, does that mean dragons are real?”

“At this point, I’d even believe in Santa Claus.”

Trixie didn’t get far at least. Instead, she circled one area, setting the forest aflame.

Manny groaned as he braced himself on his left forearm. He still held the partially cracked egg. “My Legion says we can stop her.”

“Are you sure we should?” Slade tore her eyes away from the growing forest fire. “Between an angel or a Legion, isn’t it best to trust the angel?”

The angel is also a Legion, you stupid fuck. You’ve just unleashed a destruction you can’t comprehend. Take the egg with you. Put it against any part of her bare flesh.

As Legion explained, Slade found her own lips moving as she explained it. She looked to Manny for help only to find him speaking in unison with her.

“Any part of her bare flesh touched by that egg will neutralize her. But you best hurry. She’s not what you think she is and she’s unstoppable the longer she runs wild!”

Once the stark warning ended, Slade and her brother still remained where they stood.

Manny sighed. “At this point, my panic button’s broke. What’s your excuse, sister?”

“Honestly,” Slade confessed, “I’m not moving till I get more information. Or at the very least a sweet deal outta this.”

“I know,” Eli whispered. He staggered toward Slade. “What Legion is.”

His knees gave out and he crumbled to the ground. Barbra looked down at him with a sigh. “Did this asshole honestly just faint after saying that? What is that, five words? And he couldn’t have just led with ‘Legion is such and such?’ He’s fucking useless.”

As much as Slade hated to admit it, she agreed with the dwarf.

Screams rang out and Lomos said, “Sovereign Sophie. She’s heading for the army camp. There’s a lot of innocent people there.” He turned to add, “And fairies.” Worry made his voice shaky. “Best we get this under control before it morphs into something we can’t contain. We can get there fast. We’ve got a car—”

But a car engine roared to life and tires screeched shortly after. Lomos rushed out onto the steps and gasped. “Marg.”

Slade ran down the steps with him. “Fucking Christians!”

Lomos shifted and broke into a run. He caught up with the car but his attempt to leap in was met with a swerve. Margarite took a sharp turn, revealing the baby still firmly in one arm. She was desperate, desperate enough to put her son’s life at risk.

“Lomos, it’s no use,” Slade called. “We have to find a different way. Find the closest open field nearby. We need horse-power.

“Whatever it is you’ve got planned,” Barbra said, yanking two large daggers from behind the back of her. “I’m in.”

Slade turned and hurried to her. “No. You stay here and look after Eli.”

“The hell I will. I’m looking to fight.”

“That’s gonna be pretty hard without blood.”

Barbra’s stupefied expression faded when Slade grabbed her by her beard then shoved her head back. She bit into the dwarfs throat, savoring the warm liquid in her mouth made her feel full.

By the time she stopped, she dropped the dwarf with ease.

Manny had already taken pieces of Trixie’s bed and used it to secure the egg to his torso. When he saw them, he paused and asked, “What? I’m not letting this outta my sight.”

Lying on the floor withering, Barbra cussed, “Fucking vampires. No one can trust you.”

Slade scoffed, “Says the woman with an active Legion in her.”

“That was a trick! I was tricked. All I did was answer a damn ad.”

The dwarfs blood was a base rune so that meant a slow reaction time. The moment Slade could float, she rose up and sent off, screaming, “Lomos. A field.”

The first family of centaurs lounging in the night air that Slade saw, she snatched up a branch and took a running start. She jumped and landed on the stallion. The animal bucked, showing its non-appreciation.

“What in the devil?” The centaur protested. “Do you mind?”

Whack. Slade slapped the stick against him with all her might. It got the thing in motion but not without vocal discomfort.

“You crazy piece of shit! What are you doing?”

Slade landed a backhand when it tried to look back at her. It worked. It faced forward and she grabbed a handful of hair and used it to steer him.

“E-yah!”

“E-yah, my ass. Fuck you. Get the fuck off me.”

Whack. The next one after that brought a change to the centaur who settled on pleading. “I’m sorry. Just stop hitting me.”

Whack.

“I need to catch that angel,” Slade explained, urging him on with the heel of her feet. “Now.”

“Angel? What in Sam hill—who? When did we suddenly have angels?” Upon seeing Trixie’s destructive path, he slowed to a trod. “Whoa. We are not going there.”

Another whack got him to move.

Lomos wasn’t far behind. They found the limo partially in a ditch, engine still on, door wide open.

Margarite didn’t even waste time with common sense precautions.

Baby still in her hands, the half-vampire ran, screaming at Trixie.

It seemed impossible that Trixie could hear from this distance, but she paused in her fire-making long enough to regard her.

Wheezing from the exertion, Margarite got to the top of the hill and held her child higher, begging, “Please bless him. Bless him, please.”

Trixie wasn’t listening, at least not at first. When Margarite knelt and began to pray, the former harpy turned midair to regard her.

It was doing something, and Slade prayed it’d keep on doing that something until Manny could get close enough. Chances were, with him already using up three-weeks’ worth of runes, he wouldn’t risk flight. He was heading their way in another car by now.

Trixie’s fire stopped. In fact, she looked almost pleasant as she lowered to the hill.

The sight of Margarite holding her baby up at the angel descending should have been a pleasant sight but Slade struck the centaur and gained speed.

“You can just ask, you cruel b—”

Whack. “Don’t call me that word.”

Trixie landed and Margarite bowed, baby still held up for display.

The angel studied her, curious at first, then wore a pleasant smile when it held Margarite’s chin and used it to guide her to stand.

Slade dreaded the pleasing sight. She shouldn’t have, but she did.

The angel held Margarite’s face with her left hand. The right, she rammed into Margarite’s chest until it came out her back.

Lomos lost power and took a tumble from the shock. Not Slade, she watched on, feeling sick and terrified when Trixie took Margarite by the hair and tossed her as if she were no more than trash. The baby fell from her hands with the upswing, not suffering quite as hard a fall as his mother who slammed into the ground when she landed.

“Holy...shit.” The centaur stopped hard, buckling at the knees. “I’m going nowhere near that.”

Once he came to a stop, Slade said, “It’s all right.” She bit into his throat and refused to let go until its body stopped twitching. She needed the runes. The ‘where from’ no longer mattered. Once she got enough and could get airborne, she took to the skies but the angel was gone.