I exploded from where I stood, ripping up the earth as my feet left the ground. From the moment the vision had subsided, I never stopped moving. If my body were capable of tiring at all, I didn't feel it. I pressed on, kept moving, never slowing. I knew my target… Mucia. I knew her alias, Mercy Lewis. I knew I had to kill her. It had been decided, but not by me. I was merely the instrument.
I was there. Miles of road and earth had passed underneath me as I zeroed in on her location, led by the searing ringing in my skull that acted as a compass for my target. As I moved closer to her, my heart began thudding again… just as before. The engine of power and murder surged in my cells. It thumped in an ever-increasing tempo of power and speed as the monster inside primed itself for action.
I had arrived at the very place that she stood. I peered through the shadows at the border of a tree line that crept towards a spacious property littered with trails of flame. There was a house, and a few smaller structures tucked away in the further reaches of the large, river-set property. Yet, when I observed my surroundings, I saw many terrifying things. Fires lingered everywhere, separating multiple people who all seemed stuck in strange positions. They looked like they were frozen in time. Then I realized it. It was my friends.
The ones I had come to love and care for were all being hurt in some way. They were utterly helpless, unable to move or defend themselves. Eleanor wasn't frozen like the rest. I saw her rolling around the grass in some kind of agony. Her complexion didn't look right, either. She looked sick. Autumn was right beside her, just watching. She couldn't do anything to help her mom. My shifting eyes saw the tears streaming down her face, and the rage built in my heart.
A fight was actively happening between Martin, another vampire, and someone else. He moved differently from the two vampires. He was like nothing I had ever seen before, taller and thicker with strangely flexed muscles. His right arm was covered in some sort of bone spikes that looked absolutely lethal. A massive spike of bone came out of his elbow, running in line with his forearm. Gauging the situation, I had to infer that it was Phineas, the chimera. He had a plethora of strange features that I could see from out in the woods. I wanted a closer look.
The other vampire, who seemed to be helping Martin, was still a mystery. Judging from the intensity of his attacks, he looked as strong, if not stronger, than Martin. However, the red-haired demon fought off the two vampiric monsters with ease. He toyed with them, prolonging the struggle intentionally. He was just showing off. He gouged his elbow spike through the other vampire's chest.
"I bet that one hurt ya," the red-haired creature taunted the vampire as he pinned him to the side of the burning house with his bony protrusion. From his accent, he sounded Irish.
Then… in the middle of everything stood the one, Mucia. She stood firmly with confidence in the middle of the chaos orchestrated by her power. She was untouchable. At least she thought she was. She was just like the vision, pure evil. The same, eternally youthful face gazed upon all of her future victims without mercy. She was just like the rest before. No different than the murderers I hunted before I discovered the supernatural world.
In front of Mucia was an older woman. She looked too frail to be out in the middle of the violent chaos. She looked out of place, and obviously not with these two immortals. When I looked at her, she looked directly back at me. It wasn't a glance after she noticed something. It was like she was expecting me. She stared for a good ten seconds, smiling at me almost in relief. She looked back at Mucia and said a few words.
I stepped out from the shadows of the trees with one goal: to kill. The faster I killed them, the faster I'd save my friends and all of the ones I had grown to care for. I walked towards Mucia. I had to rip my talons through her and feel all of the stolen lives freed. Death would finally take her from this world, but it would be my hand that did it.
The one I assumed to be Phineas turned his gaze on me. He stopped tormenting and started running straight at me. I don't know what alerted him to my presence, but he would get in my way. I couldn't let him distract me. I had to kill Mucia. But, if I had to kill him first to get to Mucia, I would.
I started allowing my muscles to free themselves from their human form, strengthening, and elongating. I was running straight at Phineas across the still blazing field. My speed blew the hood off my head. I didn't stop. I ran relentlessly, gaining momentum with every step, feeling my heart pound so hard I thought it would explode. My friends would see me. They would finally see what kind of monster I truly was. But… if it was to save them all, then so be it.
I could tell he was the apex predator in most situations. He didn't doubt his strength. He was committed to killing me just as he would anyone else. He was unprepared.
I leaped through the air to meet the charging Phineas. When my transforming body slammed into his monstrous form, a resounding crash echoed through the surrounding trees. Our momentum twisted us to the ground in a violent collision. Claws and talons ripped through the air as we swung at each other. Phineas was fast, dodging my swipes and attacks just quick enough not to get caught. After the initial clash, I could tell he changed his approach. He felt my strength. He wasn't attacking now; he was reacting. He waited for openings as I lunged at him with uncompromising wrath.
When I was given a name through a vision, I only had one speed. Every attack was to kill; no strategy, no plan of attack, it was kill, kill, and kill again. Full speed, no brakes.
My body was still shifting as we came out of the initial clash. I came at him through the flaming field, chaos and fury growing with every second in tandem with my thundering heartbeat. I grew larger and darker, my body burning from within as I changed into the beast that would end them both.
Then, everyone else started firing. Blasts from multiple directions sounded off as the hot silver came ripping through the air around me and the chimera. The hunters were back up and taking action. I felt bullets cut into me as I continued towards Phineas. The gunfire didn't make me falter, but Phineas started taking more aggressive steps and evading me and the bullets. I watched as some silver hit him, but his reaction to it was not as severe as the vampires had been. It seemed he was still afraid of it, but maybe he was more resistant.
Phineas jumped high through the air, over a thick band of flames, to a few parked cars. The bullets stopped screaming towards me and followed him to cover. The Chasses, Wicklows, and Talbots weren't trying to kill me. They kept their focus and sights on Phineas, even as I grew in strength, size, and monstrosity.
With my path currently clear, I turned my attention back towards Mucia. She stood in the same spot, right in the center, eyes fixed on me. She hadn't moved an inch, nor had the older woman beside her.
I stood in place just long enough to push the transformation the rest of the way. The burning ripped through me fast, popping joints and muscles out and into new locations. I used my talons to tear what was left of my constricting clothes from my growing form. In only seconds, I was fully transformed. The monster was unleashed… and everyone could see me.
The bullets stopped firing for a moment; everyone was unsure if they were firing at the right creature. Mucia and the older woman stood in awe of such a powerful and unknown beast. None of them had ever seen anything like what they were witnessing at that moment.
I pushed off from the ground in a rush, flinging my body into a path directly at Mucia. I don't know why she didn't move. Maybe I caught her by surprise, or perhaps it was something else. She was staring fearfully as my talons swung towards her. Her jaw clenched at my approach. Right before my razors ripped the flesh from her skull, I was hit by something substantial and metallic. The little black sedan crashed into me at blinding speed. It sailed through the air, propelled by an unseen force to meet me just in front of Mucia.
The car and I impacted the earth as we landed, like when you drop a rock into mud. It was an immediate stop as the vehicle buried me into the ground. Once my momentum stopped, I flexed every muscle in my gigantic body and shoved the car out of our crater. I leaped from the hole right as the demolished car came crashing back to the earth, totally unharmed. I looked at the witch. Seething rage escaped from my fangs in a low, inhuman snarl.
Phineas was still hiding behind the vehicles, probably trying to heal from the bullets and the few slashes I got in. He wasn't as sensitive to the silver as most other monsters I had read about. I wondered why that was.
The hunters took advantage of the time they had. They had all run and converged on Eleanor, the Talbots all circling them with yellow eyes fixed on the threats that might come their way, and the Wicklows all ran for the cover of the woods. The only one left out with all the monsters was the little old woman standing by Mucia. It was then that I realized it had to be Annabelle. She looked like a Wicklow, and from how Autumn had described her to me, she really seemed to fit the mold. She seemed… unafraid. She was calm in the chaos around everyone.
I could see them struggling to carry Eleanor, who weakly stumbled more with every step. Jane scooped her off her feet with her powerful arms, then disappeared into the shadows on the other side of the property, where more cars were parked.
"Who do you think you are?" Mercy asked in a rage, her voice somehow speaking directly to me from across the distance.
She held her hands out in front of her, slightly shaking. She conjured strange flames around her, like the fire from the vision. They ripped into existence with a fury, spreading faster than wildfire. The fire swelled and expanded to create a barrier around her and Annabelle. About thirty yards of swirling inferno separated me from my target. It was more than hot. It felt like it could burn me to ash in an instant. It started taking on a red hue that reminded me of blood, and it grew even hotter.
Her voice came out of the twisting inferno like she was the very flames themselves, "I've lived for centuries. You cannot touch me, beast."
The fire grew taller, overtaking what was left of the burning house and turning it to cinders. The ground around it was scorched, and it killed anything organic. Even the dirt below everything else started to char and crack. She was turning Wicklow's land into a literal hell on earth.
"You will die. I will take your life… your power… and it will strengthen me," she told me as fact. Her voice was growing more confident with every word as she unleashed her real power.
I was so distracted with the urge to kill, to run through the blaze that I never saw Phineas coming. I was peppered with sharp little spikes all down my left side. I looked down at the searing flesh that felt like it was boiling from the inside. They looked like the small bone spikes from the chimera's arm. I looked up and saw him coming, his confidence back. He slammed into me with that bony elbow-spike, wedging it into my monstrous frame before sending me flying. He actually hurt me…
Phineas was stalking around me as he prepared for the killing blow. He was significantly larger than before... and stronger. He didn't have my size, but he did have an even more monstrous transformation. He stood only about a foot shorter than me, right arm littered with even longer spikes of bone. His snake-like hiss was now accompanied by a forked tongue that licked the blood from his face. His eyes were yellow like the werewolves, but his pupils were vertically slit like a cat. He had a yellowish-orange flesh with black stripes, like needles pointing towards his centerline on both sides of his chest and back. He was a mix of countless beasts. He was by far the most interesting creature I had ever seen or read about. The strongest, as well.
"That'll be the venom working through ya', mate," the chimera hissed. Even his monstrous voice had a bit of an accent. "You're feeling it now, aren't ya'? Just like tha' little hunter lass with the rifle," he said as I lay on my back. "Your strength's fading, your senses goin' bye-bye. That's what the sting of a manticore'll do to ya," he laughed. "I've fought things stronger than me b'fore. Ya' might be the strongest, but ya' no dif'rent. My venom'll weaken and eventually kill ya'. But before it does, I'll take the best parts of ya' for myself," he explained.
My mind went to Eleanor. The same venom that seared me from the inside had been rushing through her body every single second since she had been hit. It must have happened just before I got there. I had to end this. I had to finish him, then Mucia. Then, maybe with the help of the gypsies, we could save Eleanor.
Phineas laughed through his narrowly set fangs before rushing in for the kill. For him, this was it. He'd kill me and move on to the fleeing family that I had come to know and love. His fully extended body, fangs bared, had almost made it to my neck. He was my "Plan B" in the flesh. He could be the one to do it…
I pushed myself off the ground so fast he couldn't react in midair. I clamped my talons around his neck, twisting him around me and jamming his face into the charred earth beneath us. A crack echoed out from his spine as the pressure I placed on his bones surpassed their durability. A squealing hiss escaped his maw.
"If you could kill me," I spoke directly into his ear, "I might have welcomed it at one time." My beastly voice deepened with the words, "You die now. Then it will be her."
"Wait… how are you…" He tried to speak through the strain I was putting on him. He couldn't get the words out.
I shoved my hand through his spine and into the earth. The cracks were multiple as his bones separated and sheared his spinal column. I felt his resistance drop off entirely as soon as his massive spine was severed. I went into a frenzy, clawing and ripping through the flesh that held his head to the rest of him. I didn't know what a chimera could do for sure, but I was reasonably certain he couldn't come back to stop me without a head.
Shortly after, I stood again in front of the twisting inferno. Only this time, I held the bloodied head of the chimera in my right hand.
"Phineas," the words came from the red blaze, "it seems you've failed me, too. No matter. One less useless underling whose hand needs to be held." She was inherently vain and thought herself to be the highest of them all. Everyone was beneath her power. "You think you can kill me next, beast? Go ahead… step into the hellfire. You will be turned to dust, just like the rest."
I didn't wait. I didn't care about the witch's taunts. I didn't care that this fire would hurt like hell, literally. I didn't know what hellfire would do to me, if that's what it indeed was. I only knew one thing. I had to kill.
I took a deep breath into my monstrous lungs and sprinted wildly into the bloody flames. I broke through the barrier and felt the change instantly. I felt like a leaf in a hurricane. The power was like nothing I had felt in my entire life. It took everything in my strength just to stand in place and not have my feet taken out from under me. I knelt to the ground to stabilize myself inside the inferno. The flames licked every inch of my flesh, burning away the layers one by one. I could feel the heat ripping me to pieces. It tore apart everything from the forefront of my mind. I couldn't hear or see anything except for crimson flames and the roar that accompanied them. The thundering beating of my monstrous heart continued, however. It was the only thing that felt unaffected by the flames.
Then, a different voice spoke through the flames. The dark, ominous voice of the entity said one word, "Fall!"