Twilight 月 Incandescent Moon

Chapter 19: Dog Eat Dog World

(song - Pulse, Highschool of the Dead soundtrack)

Chapter 19 - Dog Eat Dog World

Tiernam

I got a quick glance at Lilia's side of the battle and imediately determined things weren't going good. She already looked defeated, leaning up against the marble wall watching as Severn walked towards her.

The two couples, Peter and Charlotte and Kate and Garret, were all busy fighting. Vladmir and Stefan had all but disappeared in the mid of battle. There was no one to help her.

Currently, Deus latched onto my left arm and attempted to jerk it back, meaning to pull it out of the socket. I simply elbowed him in the stomach with my right before turning on my heels, placing my hands on his chest and shoving him into the wall on our side of the fight. Although he left an indent in the wall, he hadn't stumbled like I had done when he'd attacked. Deus lifted himself out of the wall before we went at each other with a rush. 

Four feet away from one another, I felt a strange tingling vibrating through my body. Across from me, he was changing into smoke, rearranging himself into an animal. I shrunk at the same time, being force changed, but what he hadn't predicted was that I'd be much larger than him. In fact, I was almost as Severn's wolf-form. 

I got a look at Deus's cat form, a scant thing with black fur and red eyes. The red globes grew larger as realization set in that I was bigger but he couldn't stop his momentum. We slammed into one another, but my weight was the deciding force. I landed on top of the black cat and pinned him to the ground just by not getting up. Eventually, he squirmed enough to wrench himself out from underneath me.

I got up to all four paws, which was a confusing thing at first, until I figured out it was no different than moving two pairs of legs at once. I galloped after the cat form of Deus, catching up to him in a matter of seconds. I led him into a corner where he pressed his back up against the marble, lips raised and a sharp hiss escaping from between his white teeth. His tail was completely bushed out, warning me not to come near and he swat a clawed paw for extra measure. 

Still that didn't keep me back.

I shot my head forward, lips raised as well but a deep growl eminating from within my throat. The growl grew louder as I opened my jaws to fit the cat's neck between my canines. Deus attempted to scratch me on my snout in the space of time that it took for me to lunge and crush his windpipe, but it wasn't enough.

When I drew back, I was standing back in my human form. Deus's power had dwindled as quickly as his life. Only a little black cat laid in the corner stained red with his blood. I brought a hand up to my mouth and whipped some off of the edges of my lips. 

"You'll need this." A voice suddenly said, materializing by my side without a single notice.

Vladmir and Stefan had returned. One, Stefan, held a closed dark wooden box in his hand. The blonde pulled out what looked like a single metal spike from the box. The thing had intricate black writing upon its surface in an unknown language.

"Nastly things, Alps are." Stefan shuddered as Vladmir held the spike out towards me.

"Even if you destroy their body with fire, the ashes come back together." The blonde continued what the other had started. "In order to finish them completely, you need to put one of these silver stakes through their hearts."

"Why?" I asked as I took the stake in hand. I wasn't asking why I had to, but rather the reason why the ashes came back together. I worried if my question had been to vague, however, Vladmir understood what I was asking and answered right away. 

"It destroys what connects them to this world." He explained.

Even with that simple bit of information, I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear the rest of it. The way he said, 'connects them to this world' made it sound like the Alps were otherworldly. Luckily, the blonde cut off at the right time and left his explanation at that.

With the silver stake in my right hand, I struck down on the body of the cat where I had heard his tiny heart beat moments ago. Which was odd, because with Lilia, Karissa, and myself, I had never heard our hearts beat. Was that our body's reaction when we were close to death? Strange, but none the less the tip plunged through the black fur and found the dead organ inside.

"You can pull it out." Stefan advised. "It only needs to remain in the body long enough for the soul to disappate."

"And you'll need it if you're to help Lilia defeat Severn for once and for all." Vladmir finished.