Coveted [New/Revised Version]

CLANDESTINE DESTRUCTION

A/N: Thanks to the lovely Edgar Allen Poe for the word tintinnabulation, "The Bells."

Sky clenched his teeth to muffle his cry of pain as his back hit the ground. Pretty as it may be, the snow provided no cushioning whatsoever. He cracked everything back into place with an arch before leaping to his feet. He was dusting himself off when the thud of Zairian landing in front of him made him look up.

"Did you really think black belt Barbie would keep me occupied long?"

"Not really," Sky smirked. "Just long enough."

His body slipped into autopilot, a weapon of complete destruction unleashed on the hybrid. His limbs moved of their own will and he was all kicks and punches. Rapid motion and deflection.

At some point, the hits started coming faster, harder his way. Bones fractured, shattered, and then melded together again. His skin was torn at and around the swipe that nearly severed his windpipe, Sky grasped he wasn't just fighting to distract the hybrid anymore. He was fighting for his life and Zairian was out for blood.

Sky was strong. Stronger than most vampires surpassing his mere eighty years, but Zairian was much more powerful. That was simply the law of nature and he accepted it as Zairian grabbed him by his jacket and sent him soaring into a tree trunk. Splinters stabbed and raked at his face and he grunted at his shoulder dislocating from the collision. However, Sky wasn't accepting defeat.

Zairian's cruel laughter echoed. "It's always so touching when someone tries to play guardian. But who guards the guardian?"

"I don't need guarding." Sky grunted then flipped up the tree and pushed out toward Zairian.

They were a tintinnabulation of jarring hit after hit to the point Sky's fists started cramping while they pummeled Zairian in every direction. His breathing grew more haggard the more he continued engaging the hybrid.

"Don't tell me you're getting tired." Zairian side kicked him in the stomach and doubled him over against the platform. "Here I thought for all your youth and cheek, you had the stamina to rival it. Sad little things you are. Pureborns striving to be humane. Human."

"Don't worry." Sky rasped. "I'm just warming up."

He used his hands to help him vault backward on to the stage. He revealed his ghastly vampiric form and lunged for Zairian. The hybrid proved stealthier by evading him a hair's breadth before he and Sky would've collided. The landing wasn't too kind for the young vampire and he screeched when his ankle shattered. Zairian honed in on him immediately and grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket.

His already poor footing was lost and he was falling back with Zairian on top of him in an entanglement of thrashing limbs. All of Zairian's weight pinned him down. He floundered, taking a few punches and missing the snapping of the hybrid's teeth at his neck, before he managed to land a punch squarely in his Adam's apple. Zairian rolled off him with a gurgle, reflexively clutching his injured throat.

Sky grabbed him by his loose hair and slammed his head into the corner of the platform. He gripped the fabric of the other man's blazer to wrench him back violently.

The dark, glistening hollow at his temple was exposed when he hit the ground in a billowing of snow. He groaned, rolling to his side as Sky readied himself to pounce. Quicker than a flash of lightning, Sky found Zairian standing in front of him and on the ground at the same time. He cruelly drove his elbow into the Pureborn's nose. He staggered, catching his nose as a deluge gushed out.