A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 6 The Flayer and the mansion

       

Chapter 6

The Flayer and the Mansion             

Callin was standing completely still, his eyes locked on the huge, misshapen creature in the middle of the room. It was the same wiry, silver fur, the same piercing blue eyes, and it seemed to be staring at him with disturbing recognition. With familiarity. Callin met its eyes and a moment of understanding passed between them. They definitely knew each other. This was the same Flayer that had attacked him weeks ago.

The air around the Flayer seemed to shiver for a moment, like a sudden burst of heatwaves had just radiated outwards from it. And then Callin was nearly knocked off his feet by the sudden, impossibly intense scent of blood and pain. It drenched the air with its fiery fingers, calling back across the ages to the purely primal side of life and death. It made Callins fangs burn white hot, it nearly instantly hurled him into the arms of the beast within. He took two steps into the room, eyes locked on the hateful creature in front of him.

He caught himself a moment later, holding still, clinging to the last bit of logic he still had, struggling to understand. Trying to comprehend what had happened here. He knew that everyone inside this building was dead, mercilessly slaughtered by the Flayer and strewn about like bits of human garbage. That shimmer around the Flayer...had it somehow been blocking the scents in the air? He wondered how many other powers it had. And how had it known he was coming here?

The Flayer lifted both of its arms, moving slowly. It held them out towards him, pointedly looking them up and down, then looking over at his arms. Callin lifted his arms, showing the Flayer they were healed. He knew it was asking him how his arms were doing. He knew it was taunting him.

At the memory of the many days of agony he had endured from the way it had stripped all skin from his arms, a dark fury began to rise within. A rage with a focused direction. This wretched thing thought to taunt him, to laugh at the suffering it had caused him? A flickering, wicked blue aura began to crackle up and down his body as his power ramped up. He would return the favor!

The electric blue power suddenly snaked down his body and lashed across the floor between him and the Flayer, accompanied by an ear-hammering crack of sound. It struck the Flayer, seeming to momentarily writhe up its legs like snakes of living, blue fire. Then, it disappeared into the Flayers legs.

The Flayers eyes popped wide, and an instant later the blue power erupted out from its legs, spraying and arcing about the room like thousands of tiny lightning bolts. And the Flayer screamed!

Callin saw it fall. He saw the blood and raw flesh on its legs. He knew his power had shredded every last bit of skin on both of its legs, and he felt a fierce surge of primal elation rush through him. Then, he found himself blinking slowly, wondering why the light in the room was shifting to grey. Wondering why everything was tilting sideways.

Then his head bounced off the floor and tiny, sparking stars swirled about in front of him, further clouding his fading vision. He realized he had over exerted his power. Behind him, he heard the door creak open, and he dragged at the last bit of strength he had, turning his head to see. His last sight was of a beautiful lady holding two swords ready as she stepped through the doorway, her almond shaped eyes looking down at him in concern.

Callin opened his eyes. His mind spun with memories of his encounter with the Flayer, in that office in Alaska. It tried desperately to connect those images, those memories, to the sights and scents that he was now seeing. Was he back in the lab, in one of the medical rooms? Just that thought was enough to make his claws slide out instantly.

He could hear soft beeping, could feel the electrodes attached on his temples and on his chest, and the astringent scent of medical grade cleaners and stainless steel slithered about on the air. It was far too familiar, too terrible, and it snatched his control and his logic away in a white-hot instant, casting him into the jaws of the beast as panic rose up uncontrollably.