Chapter Four= Liabilities

Burning Inside The Black
EncoreDeZiza
All Rights Reserved
2013

Chapter Four- Liabilities

Screech. Jab. Move.

A gurgling sound came from behind, ringing in his ears as one tried, tried to move, tried to breathe through the poison, tried to alert whatever remained through the thick poison gas that invaded his lungs. He was slowly and inevitably dying. It was his own fault, he supposed, for trying. God admire his will, but it wasn’t welcome here, not for the damned. Lifting a gun, he fired, shooting as he ventured through the wreckage. He wasn’t at all surprised when the gurgling stopped- He never missed.

            He closed his eyes, bending at the waist, his fingers lightly brushing across the Seeth’s face, gently pulling her eyes closed. He didn’t hide his disappointment as he looked around the battle ground, his heart plummeting. This war was taking a toll on him, on his entire family, and it hadn’t even begun.

            The sound of crunching rubble and bones urged him to look up as two brown boots came into view, “Brother,” He greeted.

“This is only the begging, Morghale.” The man stated plainly, boredom lacing his tone as he adjusted the cuffs of his shirt. “It will get worse and worse, and-“

“There are other ways, you know-“ The eldest stated, standing slowly, “This war, the war that you’ve created, it doesn’t-“ He was momentarily distracted as Men began filling the scene, his brother’s men, coming to kill him, “The options are endless.”

“Ah, but this is so much more fun!” Tabistiel announced flashing a wide smile and throwing his arms out to the side. “This is the future, Morghale! Our future.”

“No,” Morghale quickly rebuked, “This is just another of your games, Tabistiel, the bodies that lay here are of your doing.”

“But what a story it will make!” Goosebumps rose as Morghale realized just how far gone his brother really was. His men moved in, the circle tightening around the brothers divided by ancient, spiteful misunderstanding.

“Chevellian, brother, are cold-hearted, cowardly and unfaithful.” Morghale informed, “They don’t love you, they fear you. They will abandon you for something, anything, that points a gun to their heads. You are nothing to them. You’re empire will fall, you will die, and spend an eternity in hell.”

“My Chevelle’s are bonded by blood!”

“There are stronger ties than blood.”

“Did your God tell you that?” Tabistiel sneered. Morghale said nothing, his eyes on his brother as he waited for the two words that were bound to come from his mouth, “Kill him.”

“Let this be an example, not a threat.” With that he released a gun and shot left, right, behind the shoulder, right, left, and then front. The Chevellian panicked and ran, leaving Tabistiel standing in the thinning smoke.

Tabistiel drew a dagger, “You can’t quit the war,” He stated with a confident, cunning smirk.

“No, but I do have something you’ll never have.” Morghale stated, pocketing his gun.

Tabistiel snorted, “You have nothing.” He hissed, tossing the dagger like a dart. Before it even struck home, a young blonde had leaped in front of Morghale, a young man had pulled her and Morghale down as a third Seeth had grabbed the dagger, mid-air.

“We have loyalty,” Morghale offered, opening his arms to the tow girls, the guy keeping pace as they turned their backs on Tabistiel and the field of corpses.

“This isn’t over!” Tabistiel yelled, Morghale turned on his heal, stepping forward and grabbing Tabistiel’s arm that held the dagger. A clap of thunder sounded as their skin collided. 

“If it’s a war you want,” Morghale began as the rain began to pour, “Then it’s a war you’ll get.”

“Kiss the girl goodbye then,” And Morghale knew exactly who he was talking about. Richelle Moxx, a fierce Seeth, had fallen in love with Ashton Grey, a fierce and respected Chevellian- well, until he began defying his authority, which happened to be Sebastian Pheonix, Tabistiel’s only son. If that wasn’t enough to earn her place in Tabistiel’s Top-Ten, she later killed Sebastian. Richelle, in short, was richly and vastly protected by the strongest, fastest, smartest and all around best Seeth that remained alive. Tabistiel didn’t stand a chance at getting to her. “Tell your God I’ll be thinking of Him when I’m burning his people.”

“May he forgive you,” Morghale replied before dropping the arm. Instantly, Tabistiel’s arm dashed forward, Morghale caught it, and didn’t hesitate to bring the needle to his neck as great sorrow filled him. “May Heaven forgive you,” He prayed as his brother slowly dropped, unconscious, “May God, the creator, heal your soul, and may Heaven bless you, dear Tabistiel Pheonix.”

 

 

 

 

            “There’s something wrong with her.”

“Of course there’s something wrong with her!” Hale snapped, Ashton stiffened, his yellow eyes hardening, daring Hale to continue pushing the matter.

“She’s not cut out for this,” Zi stated, taking the heat off Hale, “She’s not cut out for war.”

“She’ll die in her first fight,” Hale put in, Zi nodded.

“I don’t give a s**t what her chances are!” Ashton roared, slamming his hand, palm-down, on the table, “She’s my girlfriend and I will protect her!”

“No one’s saying you shouldn’t,” Zi spoke quickly, confidently, swiftly cutting Hale’s opinion from the conversation.

“I am,” God damn it… “Take your precious girlfriend off the battlefield before she kills us all.” Zi whirred to glare at Hale, but stopped when she saw a yellow-faced Richelle in the doorway.

“Guys,”

“If we abandon her, she dies.”

“Guys.”

“So stay with her,”

“Damn you! She’s a person.” 
”Guys!”

“She’s a liability!”

“HALE!” Zi barked. Ashton leaped across the table and Hale swatted him like a fly, he crashed into the counter before falling to the floor. Zi was in front of Hale in seconds, pinning him to the wall; he froze, his smoky-blue on Zi. “Richelle is a living, breathing person- NOT a liability. She’s family,” She added, venom seeping through her tone. Even through her blinding anger, she managed to notice how intoxicating he truly was. She mentally cursed herself, wasn’t she mad at him? Kinda hard… But he’s an idiot! He’s a really, really attractive idiot. Her teeth scraped her bottom lip, gently leading it into her mouth. He could be my attractive idiot… She contemplated, her wolf purred and her heart leaped into her throat. What the… ‘I guess blood’s not the only thing that makes you tick’ she joked. It growled in response.

            Snapping back to reality, she noticed Hale’s eyes on her and instinctively blushed. He didn’t say anything just continued to stare at her with a sort of burning curiosity. “Z-“ He was cut off by a deep, throaty growl. Zi’s head snapped to the window, she dropped Hale and freed her guns, cautiously walking towards the window, she pressed her back to the wall and took a large breath before turning to peer through the glass. She pressed herself to the wall again, taking quick breaths. She looked at Ashton, “Cover Richelle,” She grabbed her coat from the rack and swung her arrows over her shoulder. She turned to pass Hale a long, hard look. He stiffened before nodding and crossing the room to grab his own coat. Zi took another deep breath before turning to the window, she stepped backwards and ran full speed.

 

            It happened in slow motion, the final step, the way the glass exploded, falling around her, piercing her jacket. She watched in slow motion as the thousands of people clashed, metal on metal, guns were shot, someone screamed and that’s when her boots hit the pavement and the whole thing came right at her. Some idiot had pressed play.

            Locking her jaw, she waded into the crowd, shooting, dodging, but always moving.

 

XXX

Hale moved, releasing the dagger from his watch and slicing it through the mans’ neck. It screamed in protest before he withdrew and spun, placing his spiked boots into the on-commers stomach, it screamed and lashed out, dragging a set of dirty, grey claws down his arm. He tossed the dagger like a dart, striking home, hitting the thing between the eyes. It stumbled backwards as he freed a gun, shooting it in it’s unbeating chest. He cursed- at this point, he didn’t care what he was killing, so long as it died. It was a wise strategy considering he hadn’t made it out of the doorway yet. Placing the gun back, he snatched a sword and cut off it’s head, taking back his dagger and looking at the hall. It was crowded and, to say the least, an absolute gorgy. He wasn’t prepared for the abrupt weight to smash into him, throwing him to the ground like the idiot he was for not paying attention. He cut off the things head before leaping to his feet, he drove the sword through the air, cutting left, right, left, right- he didn’t anticipate the black dots that floated in his vision as a seriously heavy thing smashed into the back of his head, he turned, shoving the barrel of his gun into the a*****e’s mouth, driving his dagger into it’s ribs, before pulling the trigger. He used the body as a shield against the gun shots and poisoned blades, as his right arm used the gun to fire at on-comers. They’d all turned on him, which made sense considering he was a threat to all of them, because he was killing everything, everyone. He kicked the body, using it to restrain some random, fragile looking opponent and chucked his dagger at them; too fast for him to think about it, he freed another gun and began shooting everyone in the head. Unfortunately, one of them saw the pattern, and fired, Hale ducked, the bullet barely grazing his arm as he shot the man in the head.

            When none of them stood, he turned to the room, Ashton and Richelle just stood in the doorway, pale and awe-struck. Annoyance filled him as he urged them out, “Quickly, quickly!” They sprang into the hallway,

“You’re head’s bleeding,” Ashton stated.

“Yeah, well, win some, lose some.” Hale replied, effortless swinging his sword like a golf club and cutting off all their heads, just to be safe.

 

XXX

Zi locked her jaw, holding out her hand, “Come here, sweetheart, I wont hurt you.” To prove her point, she set her guns down, never breaking eye contact. The child’s large brown eyes watched her every move. When the guns hit the pavement, she leaped from the sewer and into Zi’s arms. Zi’s arms closed around her as she held the now weeping child, “Shh, shh, it’s okay., Everything’s going to be okay.”

“They killed her,” The girl rushed as Zi bit back the urge to ask her age. She looked six. “They killed my sister, right in front of me; I told her I’d save her and they…” She hiccupped, “What’s going on? Is it- is it the Germans?” Zi stiffened, “Americans?” She pulled back to look at the child. Dear Lord, she’s human… “Italians? Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter. It’s World War Three, isn’t it?”

“Unfortunately,” Zi gave a sad, tight smile as a searing pain jolted up her body as something pierced through, her wolf leaped into action, claws tearing through the flesh of her finger tips. She dropped the girl but found her dead already, the blade in Zi’s stomach had gone through, into the girl.

            Her attacker withdrew, the girl dropped but ZI acted. She grabbed the sword and pulled, her attacker counter-pulled, but she was stronger, pulling until he was jerked into the shards of glass covering her jacket. She smirked and placed her hand on the tip, shoving it back out. She grabbed her guns, putting them away and turned back to the crows, snatching up her new sword and watching the blood on her palm dry and crust-over, the wound? Gone. ‘Stay awake’ She told her wolf. It snorted.

XXX

“Morghale?”

“Come in!” He called, cutting the thread before smiling encouragingly to the young Seeth, “you’re all stitched up. Anything else I need to care of? A headache, stomach ache,” he winked, “Hunger?” She beamed up at him but shook her head as the door gave a little squeak. Morghale stood, turning to see Regan, his smile fell. Regan was a war specialist and a damned good one. It wasn’t really like he needed one, but he tended to spend the majority of his time training the younger generations. 

“A word, sir?” He turned to excuse his patient, but seeing as she was no longer there, he gestured for Regan to enter. “Chevellian released a massive amount of creations  against Richelle’s hotel this morning-“ She stopped talking when the pen in his snapped, ink running over his hand and spilling to the floor. She swallowed, “Are you alright?”

“How many?” He asked, looking to the wall, “How many deaths?”

“We don’t, sir. The battle ended with a blast.”

He winced, “Dragons?”

“No sir, we believe it was set off by agents Parker and Blackburn.”

“And the couple?”

“Miss Moxx and Mr. Grey are reported to be living.”

“How many agents remain?”

“98, sir.”

He closed his eyes, “Does that include Parker and Blackburn?”

“yes.” He flexed his jaw. Father… “sir, everyone’s waiting, do you want to counter their attack?”

“No.”

“But sir-!”

“Richelle needs time. She’ll go into shock if we jump-start this war.”

She hesitated, “Okay, thank you, sir.” He didn’t miss the shuffling of her socks against the carpet as she headed for the door.

“Regan?”

She stopped, “Yes?”

“Don’t call me sir.”

 

She giggled, “Forgive me, Mr. Morghale.”

Author's Note

YAY! Action!