The Impact (Book II)

Prisoners

Her arm was gone.

Rayi jumped back from her father and ripped off the bottom of her shirt. Using her teeth and other hand, she tied a mock tourniquet around the stump of her right arm, gone from the elbow down. Sweat poured down her face and she struggled to level her breathing while Tavor watched from several feet away, amused.

"Five is your limit, I see." His scimitar sliced her detached arm in half.

The girl had blacked out from the pain. Through gritted teeth, she spat, "Bastard."

The fight was beginning to leave her. Shock threatened to overtake her; she needed to end this quickly. Lightning shot from her chin but he dodged it and closed the distance between the two. Clumsily, she held the dirk in her left hand, but it shot out of her hands the moment the scimitar made contact with it.

Tavor smirked. "That's right, you're right-handed and Melanie is left-handed. This must be terribly inconvenient for you."

He knocked her leg out of the way when it rose and he pushed her back from him. She fell to the floor and found the blade of his scimitar pressed against her throat.

He said, "Before you decide to try to get up, perhaps you should take a look around."

Warily, she did as he told and her eyes widened. While there were only a handful of demons left, only William, Sariel, Zach, Orlene, and Chris remained as Heaven's forces. They were currently on their knees with the demons removing their masks. One demon made the mistake of removing Sariel's mask and dropped dead the moment the Angel of Death's breath made contact with her skin. The demons were hasty in placing his mask back on.

"So," Tavor drawled, "do you yield?"

She felt the girl return and thought to her, Just do what he says. He'll hurt them if you go against him.

She thought back bitingly, [Death would be kinder. I won't go back to Hell in chains!]

She was given no response but felt the silent plea, and the blade dug a little sharper into her throat. "I said, do you yield?"

Sighing loudly through her nose, Rayi stepped back and Melanie took her place. The white in her hair remained.

"We yield."

Melanie

Power neutralizers bound our wrists, or in my case, throat. Our ankles were shackled together with me in between Zach and Chris, and Sariel was behind Chris. Will was in the front. They took Orlene elsewhere. I fretted about Belua when I didn't see his body.

Zach was shoved and we were forced to march down the streets of Sector C like a circus act. Demons jeered and threw things at us, shouting profanities. I clenched my fist, humiliation burning my face, but Chris, Zach, and Will were screaming right back at the demons. I could almost hear Sariel roll his eyes as he mumbled something about stooping to their level.

At the prison, my eyes found Zane's corpse. Mikayla kneeled beside him, wailing at the top of her lungs. The sight broke my heart.

His legs were folded underneath his body, his black eyes milky and lifeless. A hard lump formed in my throat and I couldn't stop the sob.

I thought of the times he comforted me after Tavor had been harsh, of all the times I crawled into bed with him. Directly after Mama's execution, he purchased Belua for me. I was so happy I daresay I hero-worshipped him for a little while, following him around and watching him train. He even began teaching me some of his moves, but they never coincided with my own fighting style.