I leaned back away from the sweeping lantern flail, aiming for my face. My submachine gun rattled irritably as it kicked against the flail knights shield. The bullets pinged off, like a water hose point blank spraying a wall. Two hunters of either side of the knight caught the ricochet and dropped to the ground as they yowled in pain.

The lantern did indeed ignite as it past above my face. And I let go of my weapon to catch flail in my right hand. My armoured gauntlet sizzled as the purple magic began to acidly dissolve it.

I pushed out with my own energy. Willing it forward and into the purple fire blazing within the lantern-like flail head. A flash of green and purple light ignited and blinded me for a brief moment.

Something pounced on my back and drove me to the ground. I struck out with an elbow and crushed a nose. Then I rolled and twisted about, striking forward without hesitation, my fangs extended to drive them into the neck of the hunter.

It screamed and gurgled as I drank the essence out of it.

Fire. Pain. Pleasure.

I swam in an ethereal lake of time.

It spun before me showing me the path I’d walked to get here and the branches I was taking.

It would indeed be difficult to within stand satiating myself on theses thralls considering the levels of power I was drinking in. Come to think of it, why didn’t I have any of my own?

This ‘master’ controlled and empowered these thralls. So how do I form my own. Or do I take his? More dark blood flowed through me. Empowering me, strengthening ties I’d lost so long ago.

Something had indeed been taken from me but what? This blood I drank felt amazing, but it was like filling an empty vessel. At the bottom of which was a crack that the substance flowed out of.

I needed something back. Something that fit that crack, that piece, within me. My mind drew to the catalyst of my change. The Ardenai-Prime sample. I needed more of those.

“Marcus, stop!” shouted a familiar voice and I blinked owlishly coming back to myself. Sidney stood before me whimpering, my mouth yawned open to close around her caramel neck. I could hear the repetitive clicking of a handgun, it’s barrel pressed against my gut.

My tongue wanted to flick out and lick a trail up and along her slender neck. Her caramel skin smelled sweet to my senses, like syrup.

Instead, I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth and retracted my fangs. Then I pressed a soft kiss to her neck and stepped away from her.

“What’s up?” I asked ignoring the clicking trigger of Sidney’s empty handgun.

“What the fuck was that?” Nikhara growled angrily at me and I shrugged at her.

“I’m not sure. One moment I caught the flail head. I was blinded, got jumped by a hunter. The next thing I know is that I’m holding Sidney.”

I looked at the psychiatrist worriedly. “I’m sorry.” I said with all the sincerity I could muster, and tried very hard to not stared at her heavy chest or how she swallowed thickly while staring dazedly at me.

“Y-you l-lost c-control didn’t you?” she asked me quietly.

“It seemed more like you didn’t have any control, hon,” Nikhara said and stepped towards me. I backed a step away.

“Just give me some room to breathe a moment.” My body felt no different than when I had drained the previous hunter. I had mind again. So why the sudden loss of control? Because I was potentially overflowing an empty vessel maybe. We’ll stick with the vessel metaphor for now.

The spill off could’ve made my control weaker.

Which meant that until I understood more about this, I needed to be careful and avoid draining more than one. Use it all up first then drain another dry.

“I think I’m good to continue,” I told them. “Are you both okay?”

“Yes,” Nikhara replied just as Sidney shook her head, “no.”

“That’s fair. I am sorry for frightening you again Sidney. Maybe it’ll be better to stick with Nikhara or wait here--”

“Absolutely not,” she spat fiercely, and I took a step back at her sudden vehemence. “You need to learn control. Well… use me to better yourself.”

“But I could kill you,” I pointed out, though a part of me suspected that wasn’t the case. I wouldn’t take the chance either way.

“Y-you won’t. You stopped yourself didn’t you?” she asked me, she didn’t sound as sure as she had been.

“Nikhara brought me back,” I pointed out to her. She still clung to her empty handgun. I ignored the honeyed scent of her, that mixed with the natural earthy herbal scent of Nikhara.

“We need to get moving now,” Nikhara broke the silence and I nodded my agreement. We managed to make our way through the building and down to the bottom floor. Once outside, a deafening roar of thrusters pressed down near us. Pressing down and sucking up all of the air.

The black raven ship twisted and hovered over a nearby park. The area wasn’t at all large enough to properly land the Erebus.

Instead, Andrea maneuvered the ship so that the cargo bay’s ramp could yawn open to scuff the roof of a small apartment building. We ran over and made our way up the apartment building to breach out onto the roof.

Being this close to my ship sparked my HUD with incoming messages and a com-link request by

Andrea.

Her miniature feed materialised in the top left corner of my vision.

“Its soo fucking good to see you’re okay, babe,” Andrea told me. On her end all she would receive was my voice, as I wasn’t wearing a helmet.

“I’m fine,” I told her. “We’ll have a guest accompanying us as well.”

“I’ll make the preparations. She’s stunning according to Niki. But I don’t trust her to tell the difference between a cucumber and zucchini.”

“Andii, not even I’m sure I can tell the difference,” I replied with a light chuckle.

“Yeah, well … whatever. I take it our passenger is staying with me on the Erebus?” she asked me, and I watched as Nikhara jumped off the lip of the roof to land safely on the ramp of the ship.

Then I helped Sidney get across. I wrapped an arm around her mid-back and scooped her legs up with the other. I thought about throwing her across. But my body refused to allow it.

That power- that magic within me pulsed to be used, to be expended. I took a step towards the edge of the roof.

“Uhm… Marcus?” Sidney asked me nervously. She clutched at me as best she could. Because before even I knew it, I crouched down slightly and sprang into the Erebus cargo bay, going past Nikhara to land lightly in a skid.

Then I stood a little straighter and released my grip on the psychiatrist. Sidney squeaked and tightened her arms around my neck as her heeled feet touched the cargo bay floor suddenly.

“Show off,” Nikhara snorted. Yet I could see she was impressed.

“Andii, take us out. I want to land as close to the agency building as quickly as possible. Has the man made it there yet?” I asked her and braced myself in a chair. The psychiatrist still clung to me and tumbled into my lap as I sat down on a chair in the bay as the Erebus lifted.

I watched the view outside swivel and slide as the Erebus twisted, lifted up some more and began to accelerate.

“He’s about two minutes out,” Andrea informed me.

“Hmmm…” I rubbed my chin as my other hand rested on Sidney’s stocking thigh. She didn’t seem to mind so I kept it there. Her skin was soft, supple and warmth beneath my touch.

“What’re you thinking?” Nikhara called to me over the roar of the Erebus. Oh yeah, she wasn’t in the com-link between Andrea and I. I sent her a quick invite and she accepted.

“I was thinking of leaving you here. Wait!” I said loudly before both of my wives could object to the plan. “Nikhara, you’ve now got a sniper rifle. I want you to stay on the Erebus, in the cargo bay here. Mount the rifle and cover the building. I’m going in. If it gets heavy in there, either Andrea pummels it with the plasma cannons on the Erebus, or you grab your sword and leap in to save me.”

“That is a … seriously stupid plan, babe,” Andrea noted helpfully. “Why don’t I just blast the building right now!”

I didn’t have a good answer to that. It would stop the man. But I needed answers.

“Marcus?” I looked at Nikhara with a questioning eyebrow. “You’re worried about losing control again aren’t you?”

I nodded reluctantly. “If I’m in there alone, I won’t potentially hurt any of you. I mean I was mere inches away from draining Sidney to a husk. I need to learn my limits. Against that man. The ‘master’ I think I’ll get some answers.”

“That is so dumb. Why can’t I just blow his ass up as well--”

“Okay,” Nikhara agreed with me, interrupting Andrea.

“Thank you,” I told them both. They were simply concerned about me. I guessed that Nikhara had kept Andrea in the loop of what was going on.

“Fine!” Andrea spat. “Sent the fit ass doctor up here at least while you decide to commit suicide.”

“Thank you, Andii,” I told as she grumbled a ‘whatever’ at me followed by ‘your hair sucks by the way.’ I patted Sidney’s thigh and helped her stand as the Erebus levelled out. She adjusted herself and followed after me. I lead her to the elevator and pressed the button for the operations deck.

“I’m not staying with you?” she asked me as I walked her into the elevator, holding the door open.

“No. I’m going in alone. Nikhara will be covering me with her sniper rifle.”

“Wait- why’re you going in alone,” Sidney shook her head in confusion.

“I need to learn my limits. And… I need some answers,” I told her and released my hand off the door. It slid shut and sent her upwards.

Turning around I rubbed at my face.

I grabbed a spare helmet and slid it on. Thankfully my HUD hadn’t glitched in a while. So connecting with the neural-link was easy. My helmets holographic display immediately aligned with my neural-implant. A glance down at my right arm showed my blurring red negatives for several sections of my suit.

I ignored them and walked back into the cargo bay proper. Nikhara came over to me and leaned the front of her helmet against my own.

I couldn’t see her face. So I sent her a request for a shared link and her display lit up in the corner of my helmet. The small window projected her face to me.

“Love you,” I told her and closed my eyes.

“We love you as well, hon,” and I heard the unspoken, ‘no matter what happens’ tone in her voice. We parted and she bent down to start mounting her sniper rifle near the ramp. I unslung my submachine gun and held it against my chest as I took deep breaths.

“We got contact,” Andrea’s voice blurred over the ship’s internal speakers. I connected to her com-link.

“How many and where?” I asked her. For a moment there my mind had flashed to a battle field. My own thralls bowed in a crouch as I moved among them.

Blazes of blue, green, and purple magic shot everywhere chaotically. I gestured my thralls to leap from the ship and descent on the battle field. Then I leapt after them to join the fight.

“Three knights, just stepped outside of the agency building. They’re holding the entrance for the running man.” Running man? I questioned myself and then realised Andrea meant the ‘master’ guy. He had ran the entire way from the building atop the underground facility to here that quickly.

“Blast the entrance, Andii,” I ordered and readied myself. “Once you’ve done that lower us down and let me out jump out the back.”

“Got it, babe,” Andrea chirped.

The Erebus shook and rocked twice, as presumable twin blasts of plasma shot forth from the Erebus front cannons. Plasma was pretty much deadly to everything in its path. They were volleys of cloudy storm-blue. And they pretty much destroyed everything they touched.

“The knights and the entrance are gone. The running man entered anyway. Fucker didn’t even stop to check if it was okay to either.”

“I doubt he cares about a few burns,” Nikhara noted. And I nodded my agreement. The Erebus tilted backwards, and I saw the ground of the street coming up. When it was no more than twenty feet away I ran and jumped out.

There was nothing artful about my short flight and landing. I hit the ground, bounced, rolled a few times and managed to twist so that I skidded on my hands and knees.

My gun drawn and aimed towards the building.

“There’s going to be soooo many stair’s,” I said in growing realisation. “Maybe I should’ve had Andii drop me in through a window higher up.”

Hindsight. It tends to club me over the head after the fact.

“Uh-captain, you know we can hear you right?” Nikhara asked me and I heard Andrea snicker. I had a tendency to talk to myself when I was alone.

I stood scanned the nearby building’s quickly as the Erebus sped off to circle the building. Then I ran for the front entrance. Pushing more of my magic—or whatever it was called—through my limbs. Pushing my legs to go faster. I shot through the scolding front entrance felt the bare skin on my left arm sizzle almost instantaneously and bit back a scream of agony.

The moment I breached through, down the corridor and blasted onto a flight of stairs going up, the skin had healed over.

I felt a larger drain on that trickling energy within me because I was healing. This reminded me of my early days, learning about my ‘small wound regenerative ability.’ If I had learned early on that cutting myself over and over would improve the speed of my regeneration as it learned to heal those sorts of wound. It would’ve made my life ten time’s easier. It wasn’t until I was in the military that I learnt to do that.

It had been a painful experience but one that had helped to save me a number of times.

Was my enhanced regeneration the same. Could I say burn my arm over and over so the healing process would become more finite in detail. Instead of curing the whole of the wound straight away could it heal the damaged tissue first and let the rest slowly crawl to recovery.

I bounded up each flight of stairs. Bursting past the floors one after the other. There, I skidded to a halt and checked through the open door for floor thirty-eight.

The interior of the building was dark and deserted.

I had seen no bodies other than the molten corpses of the knights at the entrance. There was also power active still in the building. All I did was swipe my hand over a switch and the entire room beyond the corridor lit up with light.

It also drew the attention of the knights and hunters gathered within.

The room was more an office space, with rows of cubicle ands desks. Each with a slim terminals display and filling cabinets.

My gun rattled violently as I charged inside. The rounds peppering three hunters in quick succession, then I dove to my right as a roar of purple flame shot down the aisle. It stream passed me and swept overhead. Roaring through the thin plastic walls between the cubicles.

Pale green motes radiated off me and surrounded my body in a tight barrier. I seriously needed to understand how I was doing this. My magic was reacting instinctively, without my control nor consent. I was glad for it as it was saving my life. But not knowing would hurt either me or someone else in the end.

Hence why I wanted to come alone.

I shot up in a crouch and sprang to the other side when the fire stopped streaming. My gun rattled in irritation as I sent rounds spraying across the yawning flame jawed knight. A brief green glow vomited out as it went to spray another burst of purple flame at me.

There was a brief sucking sound, followed by a clap of displayed air. Then the knights head exploded.

I got up from my crouch behind cover and started laying into the next load of hunters pouncing over the cubicle walls.

I pulled the trigger and cursed as an arrow took off my trigger finger. It shot through the trigger’s guard and cleanly took off my index finger.

I dove forward, blasting through a plastic wall. My left hand bracing the handgun on my thigh. I hit the ground and rolled. My handgun whipped out and fired on the ranged knight shooting arrows at me. I let go of my submachine gun, and it fell to my side. It has a sling, so I wasn’t worried about losing it.

My heavy pistol barked a cacophony of bullets, plastering a knight rushing me with a spear. It flopped dead at my feet. My rounds having punctured holes through its sternum and throat. The spear’s tip nudged against my foot and I picked it up. My index finger burned annoyingly as it began to regenerate.

Which was something I had never witnessed before. Well I had lost fingers, but could never grow a new one. The lost finger would have to be attached to an open wound in order for my ability to heal over and reattach.

This however… I watched as the skeletal bone of my finger mended. Building up and up, like small grains of calcium sand gathering. I saw the same pale green veins in the bone as before, and felt the burn of regeneration intensify as the skin and flesh began to regrow.

My handgun kicked angrily as a hunter sprinted around a corner and leapt for me, snarling. The magic within me diminished again as my finger fully healed. I looked down at the dead hunter, then at the dead knight next. Whose spear I’d taken.

The ranged knight was still shooting at me, and a few more hunters remained in the room. The purple aura surrounding the spear, evaporated to be replaced by crawling rivulets of pale green veins. They splintered up the black bone shaft of the weapon.

Looking up at the wall behind me, I noted how sturdy it was. I just hoped I had enough juice in the tank to do this. I jumped up and twisted. My body rolling into a spin as I went horizontal. I threw the spear out, and my feet braced against wall behind me. I uncoiled my legs and sprang off the wall, blasting across the room.

My thrown spear smashed into the ranged knight. Its loosed arrow scraping across the shaft of the spear. The knight blew backwards off its feet and smashed into the window behind it. The glass split into a cascade of glassy shards around the knights dead body.

My handgun boomed in the face of a growling hunter as my other hand caught the lip of a plastic wall. I flung myself around and snapped my feet out. Sticking them through the plastic wall parallel the one I’d caught.

My feet crushed the hunters face and neck behind it, and I followed through to tumble into a backwards roll. My gun kicked in my grip and punched bullets through the legs of two more hunters rising to leap over the aisle for me.

Their feet vanished from their ankles in a spray of dark arterial blood.

All this happened in a slow finely tuned moment. As if the universe was bending to allow me a fraction of free-flowing ease of access. Moving everything in orders of which I could easily approach. My body flowing in tandem alongside some unseen rhythm.

I rolled back onto the balls of my feet and stumbled slightly, bracing as I caught hold of cubicle wall. Except for the two hunters missing feet, all else was silent.

“Captain, is everything alright?” Nikhara’ slightly concerned tone asked me through the com-link.

“I don’t know…” I murmured softly and my shook head slightly. I walked around to the next aisle and found the two prone hunters crawling across the ground heading for me. Their fixation on attacking me was adamant. I’ll give them that. But the hunters were more pet’s, or beast. They followed instinct more than order.

I blinked at them. I had drained what? three hunters I think so far. One had been dead, whereas the other two hadn’t if I’m correct. Was there a difference in the potency of what I drained, depending on whether its dead or alive. Or as alive as a hunter or knight thrall could be.

Larger gains from an alive thrall, lower gains from a dead one?

“Fuck it,” said I, muting the com-link. I removed my helmet and set it down on a desk.

Then I marched forward and kicked away the offending hand of the closest hunter trying to claw at my shin. I crouched and picked it up, twisted it head and bit into its neck without hesitation as it tried to scrape at me with its claws. My fanged burst through its skin like revitalizing fruit. The dark blood flooded my mouth, all at once sickening and yet satiating my thirst for it.

The hunter’s feeble bashing withered as I drained it dry. I felt myself gushed with its essence filling my draining vessel and sending electrifying sparks shooting through my system. I hiss in and blew out a breath of cold air. The world was in a sharper contrast all of a sudden. I threw the husk aside and pulled the last hunter to me. My mouth yawned open and closed around the hunters throat as it screamed pitifully.

This novel is the work of Rhys Thomas. If you are reading this and it has not been published by Rhys Thomas, then this work has been stolen. Please report this to Amazon and me at email: [email protected]