Okay, for keili77 since she's the only person to find the 'review' button. Keili77, you = AWESOME!
Today's lesson: good things happen to those who review! You may not see it, but reviews make me happy! A rarity, yes, but I have been known to smile when the occasion absolutely calls for it.
Chapter Nine
As Viktor's most effective weapon, Selene was targeted by many. With no vendettas to settle and Selene having been the only constant in his life since it took the direct train to Hell, Michael decided to cover her back as she went after Viktor. He had no training but learnt quickly. Michael hacked, slashed, kicked, sucker punched and head butted as required, determined not to let this woman die as his fiancée had.
The Vycans outnumbered the Death Dealers slightly and had hybrids on their side but a lot of Viktor's forces were older than Lucien's, remnants of his medieval court and thus were very powerful. Blood, both tepid and hot, soaked the floor, seeping from the fatal wounds of the immortals that littered the foyer like discarded newspaper. Hunger gave the combatants' fury an unneeded but undeniably edge.
Selene finally reached Viktor, who had been trying to keep as many combatants – whether lycan or vampire – between them. Viktor withdrew his mighty sword from its scabbard but Selene shot it out of his hands; the actions used her last bullets and she had no more clips so she threw the gun away, preparing to fight hand to hand. She knew it was basically suicide, Viktor was an Elder, centuries older than her, but the memories of her murdered family kept her raging, kept her fierce and fighting.
Viktor took the offensive and swung at her. Ducking under the blow, Selene went to punch him in the gut but Viktor caught her wrist at the last second and gave it a vicious twist away from him. Biting back a yelp of pain, Selene kicked out at Viktor's kneecap with such force that a mortal's bone would have shattered. Viktor growled, forced to drop her wrist but remained standing.
"How dare you strike me?" he yelled. "I gave you everything!"
"You gave me nothing but death," Selene said, "empty centuries of lifeless existence."
"It was more than you deserved," Viktor spat, backhanding her across the face. Selene flew across the room, smacking into the wall twenty feet away and crumpling to the floor dazed.
Viktor moved towards her, the mongrel bodyguard Michael too busy fighting a Death Dealer and a Vycan to protect Selene anymore. "Time to end you, you ungrateful little bitch."
"You talking to her? Or me?" came a voice to his right.
Turning to look, Viktor saw Sonja a split second before her fist smashed into his face. Dancing out of reach, Sonja withdrew a pair of Sais – long fighting knives – from her waistband. "Hello, Father," she said, beginning to circle him.
"Sonja." He matched her movements, step for step.
"So you do remember me then?" his daughter tossed at him. "I thought you would have wiped me from your memory as you tried to wipe me from the histories."
"If it had been possible I would have," Viktor said venomously. "I rue the day your mother died to bring you into this world. I wish it had been you, not her, to die. She may have given me more children."
The pain of his words cut deep but Sonja tossed back her head, defiant. "Indeed. Maybe they would have been unable to think for themselves. Daddy's perfect little soldiers."
"They would have been loyal to me!" Viktor shouted. "As you should have been."
"Why?" the Vycan Queen asked, lifting her chin imperially. "When you were ever loyal to me?"
Viktor's eyes flashed with rage and he started towards her but was thrown back by a booted foot to the face.
Selene had regained her feet and her place in the fight. "He is mine!" she told Sonja.
"I had a fight with him long before you!" Sonja yelled back over the din or snarls and death cries. "Looks like we'll just have to share."
"As long as he dies," Selene said chillingly.
"He will," Sonja vowed.
Together, like the Furies of old, the Vycan Queen and the renegade Death Dealer went after the one they had once considered a father. Viktor's eyes widened at the sight of both of these warrior women bearing down on him and he backed away, not daring to look away. Sonja feinted and when Viktor went to parry Selene darted in, kicking out his leg. Viktor went down on one knee and Sonja slashed across his throat with her blade. Viktor clutched at his throat, blood seeping through his fingers.
Circling him intently, the two immortal females did not notice how all the other fights had quietened then stilled to watch the downfall of Viktor.
Caleb went to intervene but was held back by three Death Dealers. Lucien and Michael made similar moves towards their womenfolk but were likewise held back. Viktor belonged to these two more than anyone. No one would risk their anger by interfering.
Viktor regained his feet. "You should have struck when you had the chance," he told them, wiping the blood from his now healed neck.
"Where is the glory in fighting a man on his knees?" Sonja taunted him.
"Your end with not be swift, or pleasant," Selene said coldly. "You will not be shown an ounce of mercy."
It was a variation of Viktor's favourite phrase, 'you will not be shown an ounce of leniency', one he said often, every time he executed because someone had supposedly gone against his orders. Selene fancied that by this time he merely liked to kill, and needed frequent deaths to remind the Death Dealers of his power.
Viktor recognised it and scowled. "My daughters," he said, looking between them. "Such disappointments. Such whores."
The air was filled with snarls and the snapping of fangs, both in defence of Sonja and Selene. Everyone in the room, whether friend or foe of either woman, knew this was not true. Sonja had fallen in love and shown incredible bravery and loyalty to that love. Selene was a feared and respected soldier, always putting her duty above herself.
Viktor had done the worst possible thing in this situation. He had united the two forces by making them both openly hate him. Whatever chance he had of support was now gone.
CLANG.
Heads swivelled to see Kahn throw down his weapon and fold his arms. The gesture was understood. He was out. He had turned his back on Viktor before but now he would not raise his hand against Viktor's enemies. He surrendered to the Vycans.
CLANG. CLANG CLANGCLANGCLANG!
The remaining Death Dealers followed Kahn's example and were soon in Vycan custody. At least, they watched the fight with their hands behind their backs, a Vycan standing guard over them.
Viktor spun slowly in a circle, looking for one remaining loyal soldier.
Amelia pushed through the crowds to stand beside him. "I will not surrender to dogs and turncoats!" she spat.
"Then you will die," Elizabeta said, stepping forward. Turning to her mother and Selene she said, "I understand that you want to divvy up Gramps, but I've wanted this bitch since she killed me back in 1765. 'Kay?"
Both Sonja and Selene nodded once.
"That was a good day," Amelia said, bending into a fighting crouch.
"Not for me," Elizabeta growled. It was still a sore spot that her grandfather's paramour had managed to kill her. Even if it was only until her heart grew back.
The fights started again, Selene and Sonja versus Viktor, Elizabeta against Amelia. Viktor had several centuries on both of his opponents but it was two against one. Amelia out-aged Elizabeta by a couple hundred years but was only a vampire where Elizabeta was a hybrid.
Overall, they were pretty matched fights.
Viktor lunged at Sonja who ducked and sliced a thin cut across his middle. She threw her other knife to Selene who twirled, opening Viktor's flesh from hip to shoulder across his back.
Amelia punched Elizabeta who spun with the force, using the momentum to spin and sucker punch the vampire Elder, throwing her several feet into the wall of onlookers. Amelia was pushed back into the middle to face the ninja hybrid who was grinning with feral glee.
Viktor managed to grab Selene and bit down hard on her neck from behind causing Selene to cry out and Michael to fight against the men restraining him. Sonja jumped on her father's back, holding one Sais above her head in both hands, bringing it down sharply to puncture Viktor's shoulder. The dagger slid in hilt-deep and Viktor roared, throwing Selene away from him and rearing back causing Sonja to fall from her perch.
Elizabeta and Amelia exchanged blows, blocking and thrusting fists and feet until Elizabeta managed to grab a fistful of Amelia's hair, dragging her head back. "Next time you rip out someone's heart," she hissed in Amelia's ear, "make sure it can't grow back."
"I still keep yours in a glass box on my mantle piece," Amelia growled, trying to scratch at Elizabeta.
"Sweetheart, that's gross," Elizabeta said. She drew back her other fist and drove it into Amelia's chest, breaking through skin, muscle and rib to close around the vampiress's heart. "I'm not going to keep yours. You're not worth it."
With an almighty yank, Elizabeta ripped out Amelia's heart, releasing the dark hair as she did so. Amelia's (permanently) lifeless body fell to the floor with a sickening thud.
Everyone stared at Elizabeta and her gruesome prize, her arm soaked up to the elbow in blood and gore, the vampire heart clenched in one fist dripping blood onto the already stained marble floor.
"Finish this," she told Selene and Sonja.
"YOU BITCH!!" Viktor roared rushing her.
"YOU'LL NOT TOUCH MY CHILD!!" Sonja screamed.
Selene dropped into a crouch, sweeping Viktor's legs out from underneath him. The vampire lord went crashing face first down on the floor. Sonja leapt once more onto his back, grasping his head and pulling it back. "It is over now, Viktor," she hissed. "This war and your tyranny are over."
With that she bit down on his neck. Viktor's eyes widened in pain and disbelief, blood bubbling up to dribble out of the corner of his mouth as his daughter's fangs sank deep. With a horrible riiiip of tearing flesh and muscle, Sonja tore out a huge part of Viktor's neck and spat in onto the floor, blood staining her mouth and streaking her chin.
"He will die from this eventually if we do not let him heal," she told Selene. "Or you can finish him now."
Selene walked up to the vampire Elder that had been her undisputed Lord, teacher...father, for over seven hundred years, looking up at her from where he lay, now on his back, the blood seeping out of the gaping wound in his throat. "I should let you die slowly, painfully for what you have done," Selene said, looking down on him. "But why infect the world with your evil any longer?"
Before Viktor finished comprehending her words, Selene moved. Like a viper, she struck, her teeth unerringly finding the tattered neck, her powerful jaws closing tight and ripping out what remained of Viktor's throat. Like Sonja, Selene spat the hunk of flesh out before she could accidentally swallow any of his blood. She did not want any part of him inside her. She was sullied enough without him contaminating her further.
"Viktor is dead," came the deep, powerful voice of Corvinus. The crowd respectfully parted for him, Vycan and vampire both stepping aside for him to walk unhindered through them to the impromptu ring. "So ends this war. Your armies are decimated. Should you want your races to survive you will have to learn to accept each other to live together peacefully or tolerate each other enough to exist on this planet without fighting. The choice is yours.
"But know this. My men and I will be watching, protecting the humans from proof of your existence. Should another war break out, justice will be swift and without mercy for those responsible.
"Bury your dead with honour. It is sunrise and the beginning of a new day. A new era.
"Now, if you will excuse me," Corvinus said, waving his men out of the front door into the weak sunlight of a Hungarian winter – the vampires hit behind whatever lycan was closest to them – "I must convey this message to the rest of the world. Remember, justice will be swift, and without mercy. Good day to you all."
And with that, Corvinus swept out of the house, leaving the crowd in an uneasy silence.
AH MA GAD! VIKKI'S DEAD! Took me long enough to get here, but now I have you can all show your appreciation by reviewing. :P