Ch. 46

“Carnivore”

My back is still to the voice behind me, and I rest my forehead on the cold metal door trying to catch my breath. In and out.

I hear some chains behind me clank together. In and out.

I turn around quickly, not facing the voice yet, and move across the room and notice a piece of paper nailed into the far part of the wall. I move swiftly across and grab the note.

 

If you find anything useful, let Farrah know. Proceed with caution. She is a compulsive liar as most of these species are.

M

 

Of course. I am not even surprised Mother would want something from this person, creature or whatever it is. Oh, Nyx, I hope it not a person…In and out.

I finally look up to the owner of the voice and I crumble the note in my hand then let it fall the ground without a second thought.

Surprisingly the woman that sits in front of me looks like any normal looking woman at first glance, but something is wrong about her. I can’t quite put my finger on it, yet.

“Who are you?” I ask while crossing my arms over my chest. A power pose that is more to try and keep myself contained and hide my purple turning hands. In and out.

“I could ask you the same thing.” The woman hisses with drawn out letters. She has almost translucent skin. I can see all the veins in her arms and wrists that are cuffed inside shackles bolted to the ground. She has black wild hair that reaches her shoulders. Chunks missing, like they were ripped out. She has bruises and marks all over her body. She is wearing a torn shirt that barely lays across her chest. Her eyes are a deep red, a color I have never seen in any iris before. She tilts her head in random jerking motions.

Thank Nyx, it is not a person…

I am not well versed in all the creatures that wander our world other than the knowledge I have acquired from the grand library, or the ones inked on my skin, but I have an odd feeling that this creature maybe from the underworld. Not a creature from the above. In and out.

I watch the creature for a moment and begin to wonder how Mother acquired such a creature to being with. I walk over and grab the creature’s wrist and see the binding rune almost immediately. Her skin is slick and colder than my own. My purple fingers gripping around her wrist. Shit.

“Who are you? Where am I?” She hiss and spits a black ooze that lands on my cheek. A burning sensation starts to move across my skin. Venom. I’m over her in seconds. Claws coming out of my fingers as I push against her chest causing her to fall backwards on to her back. Claws digging into her skin, and black blood moving around them. Damn undead creatures and their black blood. Disgusting. I feel my face changing as she growls underneath me. In a few blinks my normal form is gone, and the beast is out to play. Kiza roaring inside my skull. Bone cracking, shaping, into unlimited power. The spikes along my back raging a deep maroon. Shit.

“You.” It hiss through its infected, rotting teeth, four long fangs like needles fills the edges of its mouth. Blackness filling around its gums. Like this creature ate a pile of grimy dirt. Gross. “The Samca told Zmeu about you. He has been looking for you. They have been looking for you…for awhile…since the boy.”

What? Are the binded creatures able to communicate with each other? I mean the Samca is also an underworld creature? Who is Zmeu, though? Who’s they? Are they the ones binding the creatures? The boy…How does this creature know what I saw while inside the Samca’s mind? Why can’t I remember the boy? My head throbs. Mother said she was a liar…

Open up, Lady Mihaela… Kiza purrs.

“Who is Zmeu?” I demand.

My mental door and walls fall. There is roaring and vibrations as they come crashing down. I flood myself into the creature’s mind, before I become engulfed in my own, but there is nothing, just dark blackness filling all I can see. Faint noises in the distance of the black void.

“Who?” I say as saliva drips from my fangs now. The world becomes clearer, and the stench of the creatures fills this improved nose. Rotten, death, and dirt.

The creatures closed it’s red eyes and squirms underneath me. In this form it simply shifts slightly under my claws. In my true form this would have been a hard fight, but my true form is not here. Not in this room.

“Answer me.” I growl and snap my jaws inches from the creature’s face.

“They have been looking for you!” The creature screams bounce off the walls. It’s mind is still black, but the noises within are growing. “They are coming for you!”

“Who?” I yell.

In and out. Mother said she was a liar.

Finish this. Kiza echoes.

The creature’s mind is growing louder. Her eyes open and they are no longer red, but white…and glowing. In and out.

Finish her, now! Kiza demands.

“He is coming.” The rune of the creatures wrist is glowing like it’s eyes now. I am drawn into its mind once more.

There is only blackness, but there is a feeling now. Despair. Dread. A smell? Burning flesh. In the distance there is a flame that expands horizontally…like a wing…like when we arrived at the castle…what the fuck? It starts moving closer.

NOW MIHEALA. Kiza screams.

I can’t move. The feeling grows and renders me helpless. It’s coming closer.

MIHEALA. Kiza yells again.

I can see the owner of the strange flames now.

“He is coming…” The creature says again with a rotting toothy grin.

I see the body of a skeleton, dripping pieces of flesh hanging on dearly to a few bones. The skull is not human, or of a man, more like it is a creature of some horrid sort, one I never want to meet. Large, curled horns protruding from its skull. Nothing I have ever seen in this world. Flaming wings spreading from its shoulders giving the creature an ominous glow. They look familiar… The creature jerks it head in a way that is not natural and its skeleton pops from the motion. It’s chest rises and fall quickly or what is left of its chest. This creature is one that many children would fill their nightmares with. It’s head tilts slowing toward me…Smelling the air.

Shit. My smell. It has my smell.

Little bat… His voice whispers in my ears. Like velvet caressing my brain. Shit. I need out, now!

I push against the creature under me and launch myself backwards until I ran into the opposite side of the wall.

In and out.

I can feel my body shaking and the power leaking from the spikes on my back, ready to be released. Deep maroons sparking with faint lights of purples.

“He saw you...” The creature that lies trying to rest on one of its arms but slips falling into the hard stone floor.

“Who, what was that?” I demand as the edges of my powerful body start to fade. “Tell me now.”

“He has been searching for you decades, they both have.” The creatures says while raising one of its hands to its chest and black blood move past its fingers from the gashes I left like a flowing stream. “You were with the blonde boy many years ago, you killed a Samca long ago, and we, he has been looking for you since. He had orders, and he demands it.”

What? How? How do this creature know about the images I saw with the Samca? Who was the boy? He looked so familiar, but I don’t know from where. I can’t remember…Who is this creature? Or better yet what is this creature? Who is the creature I saw in it’s mind?

I let out a hard breath and fill my power start to overflow. The room drops in temperature and my breath can be seen as a foggy iced cloud in front of me.

“Who is he?” I demand again. My wind start to swirl around. My black fur blowing each direction. The creatures red burning eyes widen, no longer glowing like before, and her wild hair pieces start blowing.

“You are the oldest. The daughter, aren’t you?” The creature starts to look around frantically. She is a compulsive liar, and a mistress with false words.

“I will not ask again. Who is he?” I snapped through my fangs and saliva freezes as it hits the cold air in the padded, closed, and locked room.

The creature looks at me wildly, hectic, and in complete shock at whatever revelation it is making. Which I am not sure that is because I seem to be only getting more questions than answers and I feel my body itching to just end this.

“Was that Zmeu?” I inch closer, my paws moving effortlessly across the floors as the wind increases around me. Claws dragging along the hard floor with each step.

The creature’s red eyes moving back and forth quickly still piecing together whatever is going on it it’s thoughts. “Yes, that is he…”
 The creature studies me as I proceed closer. The spike on my back sparking and clapping against each other.

“Any thing else?” I growl through my fangs. I can feel the fire burning along my edges, the winds in the room howling around us, and ice crawling up the walls. “You don’t have much time left.”

“Zmeu is coming…”

Little bat…

Before the creature can even finish the thought my vision blurs and I am no longer the captain of this body, I simply become a passenger as my teeth sink into the creature’s skin, ripping, tearing.

After what feels like an eternity, I feel my eyes flutter. I am now in a far corner of the padded room. Black blood sprayed over every inch and drops slowly dripping down the walls. I use my hand to push myself upward onto my knees. Back in my true form. My dress rip to sheds. Well, it was nice while it lasted. I should have changed before… My skin is covered in black blood, every curve, every strand of hair, and even under my fingernails. Shit.

I look back to where the creature was shackled to the floor, nothing left but a large black puddle. Shit.