Suffocating silence...

The sort of moment where all things beyond what is happening cease to exist...

The sort of sensory deprivation which preceded the storm of inevitability...

And as though a switch was flipped, the once-mild snowstorm began raging in earnest.

The wind howled through the outdoor parking lot, funneling in-between the spacing of parked cars to produce an eerie, unsettling tone. And the nearby Elm trees bordering the parking lot beyond the chest-high, brick wall boundary rustled and occasionally whipped to-and-fro under the wind’s spell, the powdery snow resting on their branches violently dislodging and scattering through the air.

It almost made it seem as though the already barren trees were disintegrating.

Zoé's cold, unblinking green eyes stared out from beneath her tinted sunglasses. Some loose strands of auburn hair danced before her face, having escaped from within the confines of her gray-black sheep-lined hoodie. Her frigid demeanor and perfect posture heightened the aura of deadly sexiness she exuded- a glowing, crystalline ruby rose surrounded by a forest of poisonous thorns. Untouchable. Uncompromising.

The forbidden fruit.

Simply looking at her in that moment was akin to rolling the dice on having your breath, heart, and mind stolen.

She slowly raised her hands, palms open and facing out.

The two hooded men remained motionless, though she could tell by their body language that they could produce sudden, explosive movement.

She also felt their eyes watching her...

She ever so slowly placed her right hand on her left wrist and loosened the tonal strap buckle, then pulled at the glove’s finger tips, slowly, almost sensually sliding the glove off her left hand to reveal dainty fingers and smooth, alabaster skin that seemed to glow even against the snowy backdrop. Her nails were painted a matte indigo, matching her shade of lipstick- her appearance grew markedly more striking.

Tucking the glove into a coat pocket, she repeated the process with her right hand, only this time reaching into a different pocket to remove a black hair tie and tucking the glove into that same pocket.

She demurely placed the hair tie between her lips and pulled back her hood with both hands. The wind at once caught her straight, silky hair and threw it in every conceivable direction. Zoé momentarily became the dictionary definition of a hot mess.

She expertly wrangled her hair with both hands into a low ponytail.

Once her hair was in order, she began undoing the coat buttons, starting from the top-most button on her left clavicle, and gradually moving down the center of her chest. Once the final button came undone, she opened the coat with seductive slowness, revealing a black, long-sleeved roll neck top seamlessly tucked into a pair of dark-washed, high waisted stretch jeans; both garments highlighted her curvaceous, hourglass figure.

However, there were two things that were not like the rest.

The first was the adjustable, tanned-leather shoulder holster retention strap system on either side of her torso with a double magazine pouch under her right arm, one additional magazine slotted per handgun, and on the left- the butt of a black polymer handgun frame peeking out around her prodigious assets.

The second was the matching leather drop leg holster tightly plastered to her outer, upper right thigh- a polished, dark woodgrain grip stood out beneath the thumb break.

The two hooded men simultaneously looked at one another in ominous silence, then back at Zoé.

Zoé noticed the two’s movements but didn’t do anything aside from slipping out of her coat, holding it up in front of herself and folding it in half vertically before draping it over her left forearm. And with her right hand, she reached up and removed her sunglasses, revealing a pair of cold, twinkling-emerald eyes.

Zoé placed the folded coat with gloves onto the snowy asphalt beside her, and gently laid the sunglasses on top.

She then looked up at the two shadowy figures and slowly rose to her full height, squaring her shoulders and keeping her hands loose at her sides. She cracked her neck and lifted her chin, a look of disdain flickering across her face as she assessed the pair.

‘Come on, then.’ Her eyes flicked between the two of them as they simply stood in the same place, in the same way, as they always had.

There were no signs, no tells, no indications.

Zoé’s eyes narrowed as she vigilantly examined the surroundings.

‘What are they waiting for?’

She focused her senses- cold wind and powdery snow brushing against her skin; trees faintly rustled; car suspensions creaked; a hint of gasoline mingled with the fresh, winter air; the minute, electric buzz of the overhead landscaping lights.

‘... the light!’

Zoé’s pupils dilated as her previously still, undead heart uttered a single, profound beat that thudded against her chest like a hammer. The slumbering vitae in her veins awoke with a roaring river- surging through her extremities and causing blackened veins to spread across her entire body, standing out in stark contrast against the skin of her neck and hands. The whites of her green eyes noticeably darkened, her vision abruptly sharpened, and the world around her sunk into a pool of molasses.

The snow momentarily fell slower, individual snowflake patterns standing out amongst one another; tree branches swayed as though underwater; the howling, cutting wind became a soft, single-note whimper.

Zoé moved without hesitation, flowing forward like a goddess overlooking her realm as she stepped into the center of yellowish light bathing a conical area in front of her and to the right. Once inside, she turned in time to catch what appeared to be dozens of indistinct, shadowy tendrils retracting into the darkness at a snail’s pace, having been converging onto the spot where she’d stood only moments ago.

She released her hold on her vitae- the black veins disappearing beneath her neckline and up her sleeves, while her pupils reverted to normal.

She smugly turned to the two men, placing the palm of her right hand on the thumb break covering her custom Colt 1911.

“Anything else?” she asked, her expression flat, but voice menacingly frigid.

The two men slowly turned their heads to look at one another.

And all hell broke loose.

The man to Zoé’s right threw out both hands and moved to find cover behind an SUV, a surge of coruscating liquid-shadows swirling around his forearms like serpents. The darkness beyond the boundary of her landscaping light angrily churned and indecipherably shifted as he took control.

The man to Zoé’s left took off at a dead sprint- directly at her. His back foot cracking the asphalt as the instant acceleration proved too much for it- the sound echoing through the parking lot before being swallowed by the small snow storm ravaging the area.

‘Disrupt the Oblivion wielder. Stall the brawler. Keep them guessing.’

Zoé expertly popped the drop leg holster’s thumb break and fluidly drew her suppressed Colt 1911 into the Weaver firing stance: right foot back and her left side turned toward the target while her right arm was extended, and her left elbow was bent. She held the handgun in a two handed grip with her left hand cupping the right as she naturally brought the iron sights onto the distant Shadow in one smooth motion and opened fire while steadily walking forward to the edge of the light.

The muffled report of silenced gunfire was quickly swallowed by the snowstorm as two nickel-plated, brass jacketed hollow point rounds tore through Shadow’s chest.

Zoé’s enhanced vision picked up on some of Shadow’s vitae splattering the snowy ground as the two rounds viciously mangled his upper torso and sent him staggering back to drop on one knee.

The sharpened, elongated shadow tendrils approaching her from every direction shuddered in response to their master’s lapse in concentration- their shapes wildly fluctuating or entirely falling apart.

Zoé trusted her instincts and risked taking one more shot before being forced to duck beneath a wide, horizontal haymaker aimed at her head. Before she ducked however, she saw her third round blow open Shadow’s right shoulder as the bullet expanded perfectly to cause the most amount of damage possible at that angle- sending him sprawling onto his back.

‘Ten seconds at the-’

Zoé was bringing her handgun up when suddenly Runner closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye, delivering a brutal snap-kick to her right forearm.

Zoé bit back a scream as the bone’s in her forearm fractured and her right arm was thrown wide, exposing her right side- though she managed to keep a death-grip on her beloved pistol.

Runner followed up inside her guard with a series of blindingly fast open-palmed strikes and vicious elbows to or around her solar plexus. He managed to land over half a dozen blows and break half as many ribs before Zoé could retaliate.

Unfortunately, with Runner inside her guard and with a broken dominant hand, her only choice for retaliation was regrouping.

Zoé twisted with the momentum of her arm being thrown aside and managed to gain enough distance to clumsily holster her Colt and fall into her own balanced fighting stance- her best option was defense until her arm had enough time to heal.

‘Eight seconds.’ Zoé mentally restarted the estimate she had for when Shadow would need another dose of lead.

With a grimace, Zoé channeled her vitae, her heart uttering a single thump in time to meet Runner’s flurry of attacks.

Zoé dodged a combination of open-palm strikes and narrowly avoided a back-foot pivot spin kick that whipped through the space her head had been before. She then twisted aside to avoid a follow up snap kick to her midsection and had to use her left forearm to deflect a wide strike and used her leg to kick his thigh back as she read a wind-up kick coming from his posture.

Runner stumbled back from the momentary loss of balance, but Zoé didn't follow through with her advantage, instead standing her ground as she felt her ribs and forearm bones shifting back into proper place and mending themselves into perfect condition.

Zoé sniffed, cracking her head and standing straight while turning her left shoulder to face Runner with her mending hand held behind her back and her left extended out. She made the ‘come-hither’ motion with a condescending smirk.

‘Three.’

Runner clenched his hands into fists, eliciting a series of cracks before he blurred forward and launched into the air. Zoé’s vitae-enhanced perception allowed her to track him until the very last second- when she twisted aside and tucked in her left arm to her chest in time to avoid the overhead heel kick.

Everything slowed to a crawl as her eyes further darkened under the effects of her vitae.

And just as Runner’s torso passed her shoulder height, she lashed out with her left elbow like a shotgun blast.

A sickening crack could be heard as the falling Runner took the brunt of the blow on his torso and folded in on the strike, crumpling sideways midair and striking the asphalt hard enough to break even more bones while flailing and rag-dolling across the snow.

“Zero.” Zoé softly muttered, drawing her Colt and turning toward where she’d downed Shadow.