Chapter 7
Teia changed quickly, throwing her red body into the larger black dragon. She would keep him busy while the others took care of the ground troops.
'Treacherous whelp!' the dragon yelled at her. He tried to dart in and bite her shoulder, but she grabbed his jaws and roughly pushed him away.
'Temper, temper,' she teased. Dahlia and Silver advanced on a couple of lionesses while Peter faced off against their pride leader. Bobbi and Mike challenged a teen-male lion while Jezabell and Raven took on another lioness. With the coming of the Millenium all the Night People had developed new and better powers. 'Shifters could now shift into either animal inherited from their parents instead of just their father's. Raven's mother had been a wolf. Sage and the four other wolves banded together to take on another rag-tag pack. Lilli kept dive-bombing people, making even the vampires duck-and-cover. The Harman girls had broken the witches into two teams, one to attack and one to shield anyone in trouble. Blaise was dancing around an older vampire, using the power of numerous gemstones to slow and confuse him. An Isis bloodstone hung by a delicate gold chain around her neck, heating any man's blood she told it to. Heat equaled passion, and that was a dangerous weapon when wielded by Aphrodite incarnate. The witches' powers had simply increased with the coming of the Millenium, which made some of the more experienced ones deadly.
"Hey there, tall, dark, and fangy," she crooned at him, thoroughly enjoying this fight. The three Johnsons ended up in a back-to-back-to-back triangle, facing off against a trio of vampires who all looked like teens, although one of them wasn't.
'We can take 'em,' Derrick bragged to the two girls.
'Whatever you say, sweetie,' Rain replied, chuckling a little at his bravado. Without warning they attacked the three boys, Derrick going low while his sister and cousin hit high. Pulling a silver dagger from her black-suede, knee-high boot, Rain stabbed the made-vampire through the heart and pinned him to the ground. If he had been a vampire a few months longer, he would've learned how not to underestimate even girls.
"Bitch!" he spat in her face, writhing in pain all the while. She took a wooden clip out of her hair, allowing the black tresses to tumble down her face, obscuring her midnight-blue eyes. The point of the clip was like a stake, and she jammed it into his heart.
"Thanks for the compliment," she whispered into his ear as the light gradually died in his eyes. Derrick was being pinned by an older lamia much stronger than him, but he grabbed his diamond-sided dagger out of his belt and used the sharp edge to shear the guy's head off. He licked the blood off his hands and watched Amber and her guy circling each other, wondering who would attack first. He was not a new corpse, and was extremely edgy around the experienced lamia.
"Come on blondie, bring it on!" he taunted. Among other powers the vampires had acquired, they could all judge each other's age. With only a moment's concentration, Amber knew her opponent was twenty-five, and therefore would be harder to take down.
"No problem." A snap kick to his jaw knocked him on the ground, but he threw a bolt of pure psychic energy at her, which grazed her shoulder as she ducked to avoid it.
"Ice him!" Derrick encouraged her.
'No, I'm saving that trick,' she said in his mind. He frowned and left with a pout to go find more action.
"Phooey." When next he looked she had broken his head like an overripe melon, her face and hands covered in dark blood. While Rain went to go find her lover, Amber skipped over to Daemon, who was flinging small fireballs at another male witch. He kept blocking them with rock shields, which angered the younger man.
"Oh, for Apollo's sake!" Daemon yelled in frustration. Blaise heard him and decided to help out- just this once. Dancing over with her hips swaying all the while, she planted herself in front of the Midnight guy and thrust her hips in his direction. That got his attention.
"Hey smoke-eyes, would you moving so I can kill that Daybreaker?"
"Smoke-eyes? Well that's something I've never been called." She fiddled with the zipper on her black midriff, which was probably why he thought she wasn't a threat. Silly men, always making wrong assumptions about women. All at once she yanked the zipper down, exposing a mat of jewels covering her full breasts. The hundreds of colors and scents swirled together into a pungent rainbow of hypnotic power.
"You're… You're beautiful," he sighed, dropping all his defenses.
"Bow before me," she ordered. He obeyed without a moment's hesitation, going to his knees in front of her. Daemon and Amber stood silently on the side, watching the femme fatale work her magick. Blaise raised a slender hand and crooked her finger at Daemon, who grinned.
"My turn now." A ball of orange energy appeared in his hands, and he lobbed it like a baseball. "Here's the pitch!" Blaise flipped gracefully over the other witch's head and landed softly on the ground, leaving him open for the energy ball to shock him with enough electricity to kill him. Zipping up her shirt again, "smoke-eyes" left to go find another toy.
"Strike three, you're dead!" Amber cheered, clapping her hands together excitedly. Her joy was cut short when Alan landed heavily on her.
"You dumb snake! Sorry Amber," he apologized, getting up and leaping at the anaconda who had thrown him. Tyrna and Matt jumped in to help, each of them grabbing a section of the thirty-foot reptile. Angel and Acilacia were double-teaming against a vampire and a bear.
"I just hate animals," Angel goaded the 'shifter. Acil smiled while keeping her eyes on the two in front of them.
"I couldn't agree more." The Midnight-vampire hissed at the two women, a pure cat-like sound.
"Your tricks won't work, Daybreakers!" she yelled at them. Angel only sighed, tired of always hearing her group being called Daybreakers. Acilacia threw a bolt of power at the loudmouth lamia, snapping her neck like a small twig.
"Youth have no respect anymore," she complained as the two women leapt at the enraged brown bear. 'The only problem with these new powers is you have to recharge for a little while,' she thought grimly. That might be bad if you needed to hit someone a few times before they either collapsed or died. Amy and Alex had backed up against a tree, surrounded by a pack of wolves who had come from CD. Jason saw they were in trouble and howled to the others, who left the carcasses of the first wolves in order to help out.
"Alex, we can't fight all of them at once," Amy reasoned, throwing out a burst of power at one of the braver wolves. Another one was bunching his muscles to jump, but Alex zapped him.
"I'm out for at least fifteen minutes," he told her. Just then another wolf jumped at them, aiming right for Amy's throat. She screamed in response, bringing up her arms to protect her face and neck while Alex stepped in front of her to take on the 'shifter. But another wolf lunged at the first, knocking him away from the vampires. Alex recognized him as a CM wolf, which was very surprising.
"There's Light in the Darkness, and there's Darkness in Light," Amy quoted from the prophecy, realizing that not all good was good, and not all evil was evil. At that point their friends arrived and immediately attacked, catching the rest of the pack off-guard. With most of the pack occupied the couple tackled two others, and John took care of the third one. Patrick and Julie were dealing with a very irate tiger while Derrick, Austin, Delvain, and Rain were fighting another quartet of vamps. Amber and Kalli joined Marik as he took on a bunch of hyenas. Kalli's sisters were teamed up against a cheetah. Luke joined in the snake-fight as another anaconda slithered up. Lilli was now locked in air-to-air combat with a red-tailed hawk.
"Curiouser and curiouser," Melody quoted as she watched the fights unfold, defending who she could. The battle raged on for another hour or so, more people dying every minute. Jason had shifted back into a human and was cautiously looking around for trouble when a vampire jumped on top of him, riding the wolf to the ground. The 'shifter kicked and hit at him frantically, but the corpse he was fighting was three hundred years old, and adept at killing anything that moved. Marik spotted the brawl and whistled to Amber, who stopped feeding on a hyena and raced over to help. By the time she got there Jason already had a wound on his neck from where the vamp had tried to feed off him.
"Get off of me!" he yelled, feeling Amber come up behind him. She tackled his attacker and rolled the guy onto his back, staring at him with eyes gone cold like glacial ice.
"You don't scare me, little girl," he told her. Amber only laughed, a
chilling sound which matched her eyes.
"You should fear me," she warned. Reaching into his body with her mind she grabbed his heart and felt it freeze with her new power. The guy gasped for air, knowing she was killing him. After a few minutes Amber stared down into his dark-brown eyes. "I am the Ice Princess." With that last sentence she shattered his heart just as easily as she would a mirror. With a smile of satisfaction she got off him and hugged Jason, glad he was all right.
"Thanks," he whispered into her ear. Suddenly, the dragon Teia had been fighting threw her to the ground and roared for the others. While she shifted painfully back to human form, the eighty others that were left rose into the air and hovered above the blood-soaked earth. Those people on the ground who weren't dead or dying kept their eyes riveted on the great beasts. From deep within the confines of the CD group came four teens, their white clothes now muddy, torn, and bloodstained. One girl had red hair which tumbled down her back in a wave of scarlet. Her eyes were a strange combination of blue and silver, beautiful and inhuman. A boy with dark, wavy hair stood next to her, defiance clear in his golden-yellow eyes. Another girl had silvery-blonde hair and wide violet eyes; her features delicate like that of a fairy or china doll. The last boy's violet eyes mirrored hers, dirty-blonde hair not quite like that of his cousin's.
"The Wild Powers," Kat whispered in awe. One dragon, apparently the leader, threw back his head and laughed at the teens. The sound grated on everyone's already-raw nerves, and even a few people from Midnight shivered at the awful noise.
"Who are you?" he demanded of the four teens. The red-haired girl boldly stepped to the front.
"We are the Wild Powers; keepers of the blue fire," she said in a voice that rang with authority. This was Jez Redfern, the only half-human, half-lamia in existence. To her right was Delos Redfern; lamia prince of the Dark Kingdom. On her left were Iliana Harman; the pure-of-heart Witch Child, and Kierlan Harman; who CM had tried to entice to their side. They were the Wild Powers, four teens whose destiny it was to save the human race. The dragon merely snorted and pointed his head at them, five horns gleaming evilly in the light. Most of the other dragons had only one to three horns. This guy was very powerful.
"Feel our power, foolish children!" Every last one of them sent a stream of black energy at Circle Daybreak, but the Wild Powers stood their ground and each recited their piece of the prophecy:
"One from the land of kings long forgotten," Delos chanted.
"One from the hearth which still holds the spark," Iliana said bravely.
"One from the Day World where two eyes are watching," Jez added.
"One from the twilight to be one with the dark," Kierlan finished. The vampires sliced their hands with daggers to get the blue fire while the witches loudly chanted:
"Ours is the power of the ages. Ours is the power of the end of the world!" Blue fire shot up from all of them, and then some of the witches saw two women standing near the Wild Powers. While only in silhouette, they all knew who they were.
"Great Goddess, Hecate and Hellewise," Norei realized, her breath catching in her throat. The two ancestors of the Harmans had risen from their milleniums of sleep to be at this final battle. Meanwhile, the blue fire lit up the figures of CS and friends, and night gave way to twilight as the two energies gained speed. The dragons and CM remained unafraid.
"Twilight has fallen, the Night will not yield," Daemon whispered. As the blue fire came closer, Marik noticed a woman standing with CM, and he stopped breathing for a minute.
"Maya," he finally gasped, referring to the first lamia: Hellewise's sister. Everyone had come back to join the party. Angel and Acil all of a sudden realized that they were all standing in between the two groups, right where the black energy and blue fire would collide.
"RUN!" Acil screamed at everyone. When they all saw what was going to happen, they bolted, running for their lives.
"This way, Acilacia. Bring them this way," a soft voice called out. The Luna looked around and saw a beautiful woman standing about fifty feet in front of her. Charcoal-black hair fell straight down to her chin, dark eyes outlined in gold makeup. A white shift hugged the contours of her body, every sensuous dip and curve clearly outlined. Gold and lapis lazuli jewelry decorated her clothing, neck, arms, and bare feet, and a golden crown rested on her head. Skin like that of polished bronze gleamed in the light. She was indeed a picture of renowned beauty.
"Mother? But wha-" Isis held up one hand and silenced her daughter.
"There is no time. Get everyone into a circle and join hands," she ordered. In a moment they had done what she'd asked, and a huge red dragon soared over their heads, startling a few people.
"Daddy!" Teia shouted happily. Rastaban looked at his daughters.
"Change quickly, girls," he told them. A minute later three red dragons were in the air.
"Focus your energy," Angel said to the others on the ground. White light radiated from all of them, Isis and the dragons included, to form a bubble of pure energy around all of them. Out of the corner of her eye Acil saw a man jump into the group- just as the world exploded in flashes of black and blue. Unable to withstand the powerful forces assailing them, the entire group passed out. The land was plunged into absolute darkness.
Teia changed quickly, throwing her red body into the larger black dragon. She would keep him busy while the others took care of the ground troops.
'Treacherous whelp!' the dragon yelled at her. He tried to dart in and bite her shoulder, but she grabbed his jaws and roughly pushed him away.
'Temper, temper,' she teased. Dahlia and Silver advanced on a couple of lionesses while Peter faced off against their pride leader. Bobbi and Mike challenged a teen-male lion while Jezabell and Raven took on another lioness. With the coming of the Millenium all the Night People had developed new and better powers. 'Shifters could now shift into either animal inherited from their parents instead of just their father's. Raven's mother had been a wolf. Sage and the four other wolves banded together to take on another rag-tag pack. Lilli kept dive-bombing people, making even the vampires duck-and-cover. The Harman girls had broken the witches into two teams, one to attack and one to shield anyone in trouble. Blaise was dancing around an older vampire, using the power of numerous gemstones to slow and confuse him. An Isis bloodstone hung by a delicate gold chain around her neck, heating any man's blood she told it to. Heat equaled passion, and that was a dangerous weapon when wielded by Aphrodite incarnate. The witches' powers had simply increased with the coming of the Millenium, which made some of the more experienced ones deadly.
"Hey there, tall, dark, and fangy," she crooned at him, thoroughly enjoying this fight. The three Johnsons ended up in a back-to-back-to-back triangle, facing off against a trio of vampires who all looked like teens, although one of them wasn't.
'We can take 'em,' Derrick bragged to the two girls.
'Whatever you say, sweetie,' Rain replied, chuckling a little at his bravado. Without warning they attacked the three boys, Derrick going low while his sister and cousin hit high. Pulling a silver dagger from her black-suede, knee-high boot, Rain stabbed the made-vampire through the heart and pinned him to the ground. If he had been a vampire a few months longer, he would've learned how not to underestimate even girls.
"Bitch!" he spat in her face, writhing in pain all the while. She took a wooden clip out of her hair, allowing the black tresses to tumble down her face, obscuring her midnight-blue eyes. The point of the clip was like a stake, and she jammed it into his heart.
"Thanks for the compliment," she whispered into his ear as the light gradually died in his eyes. Derrick was being pinned by an older lamia much stronger than him, but he grabbed his diamond-sided dagger out of his belt and used the sharp edge to shear the guy's head off. He licked the blood off his hands and watched Amber and her guy circling each other, wondering who would attack first. He was not a new corpse, and was extremely edgy around the experienced lamia.
"Come on blondie, bring it on!" he taunted. Among other powers the vampires had acquired, they could all judge each other's age. With only a moment's concentration, Amber knew her opponent was twenty-five, and therefore would be harder to take down.
"No problem." A snap kick to his jaw knocked him on the ground, but he threw a bolt of pure psychic energy at her, which grazed her shoulder as she ducked to avoid it.
"Ice him!" Derrick encouraged her.
'No, I'm saving that trick,' she said in his mind. He frowned and left with a pout to go find more action.
"Phooey." When next he looked she had broken his head like an overripe melon, her face and hands covered in dark blood. While Rain went to go find her lover, Amber skipped over to Daemon, who was flinging small fireballs at another male witch. He kept blocking them with rock shields, which angered the younger man.
"Oh, for Apollo's sake!" Daemon yelled in frustration. Blaise heard him and decided to help out- just this once. Dancing over with her hips swaying all the while, she planted herself in front of the Midnight guy and thrust her hips in his direction. That got his attention.
"Hey smoke-eyes, would you moving so I can kill that Daybreaker?"
"Smoke-eyes? Well that's something I've never been called." She fiddled with the zipper on her black midriff, which was probably why he thought she wasn't a threat. Silly men, always making wrong assumptions about women. All at once she yanked the zipper down, exposing a mat of jewels covering her full breasts. The hundreds of colors and scents swirled together into a pungent rainbow of hypnotic power.
"You're… You're beautiful," he sighed, dropping all his defenses.
"Bow before me," she ordered. He obeyed without a moment's hesitation, going to his knees in front of her. Daemon and Amber stood silently on the side, watching the femme fatale work her magick. Blaise raised a slender hand and crooked her finger at Daemon, who grinned.
"My turn now." A ball of orange energy appeared in his hands, and he lobbed it like a baseball. "Here's the pitch!" Blaise flipped gracefully over the other witch's head and landed softly on the ground, leaving him open for the energy ball to shock him with enough electricity to kill him. Zipping up her shirt again, "smoke-eyes" left to go find another toy.
"Strike three, you're dead!" Amber cheered, clapping her hands together excitedly. Her joy was cut short when Alan landed heavily on her.
"You dumb snake! Sorry Amber," he apologized, getting up and leaping at the anaconda who had thrown him. Tyrna and Matt jumped in to help, each of them grabbing a section of the thirty-foot reptile. Angel and Acilacia were double-teaming against a vampire and a bear.
"I just hate animals," Angel goaded the 'shifter. Acil smiled while keeping her eyes on the two in front of them.
"I couldn't agree more." The Midnight-vampire hissed at the two women, a pure cat-like sound.
"Your tricks won't work, Daybreakers!" she yelled at them. Angel only sighed, tired of always hearing her group being called Daybreakers. Acilacia threw a bolt of power at the loudmouth lamia, snapping her neck like a small twig.
"Youth have no respect anymore," she complained as the two women leapt at the enraged brown bear. 'The only problem with these new powers is you have to recharge for a little while,' she thought grimly. That might be bad if you needed to hit someone a few times before they either collapsed or died. Amy and Alex had backed up against a tree, surrounded by a pack of wolves who had come from CD. Jason saw they were in trouble and howled to the others, who left the carcasses of the first wolves in order to help out.
"Alex, we can't fight all of them at once," Amy reasoned, throwing out a burst of power at one of the braver wolves. Another one was bunching his muscles to jump, but Alex zapped him.
"I'm out for at least fifteen minutes," he told her. Just then another wolf jumped at them, aiming right for Amy's throat. She screamed in response, bringing up her arms to protect her face and neck while Alex stepped in front of her to take on the 'shifter. But another wolf lunged at the first, knocking him away from the vampires. Alex recognized him as a CM wolf, which was very surprising.
"There's Light in the Darkness, and there's Darkness in Light," Amy quoted from the prophecy, realizing that not all good was good, and not all evil was evil. At that point their friends arrived and immediately attacked, catching the rest of the pack off-guard. With most of the pack occupied the couple tackled two others, and John took care of the third one. Patrick and Julie were dealing with a very irate tiger while Derrick, Austin, Delvain, and Rain were fighting another quartet of vamps. Amber and Kalli joined Marik as he took on a bunch of hyenas. Kalli's sisters were teamed up against a cheetah. Luke joined in the snake-fight as another anaconda slithered up. Lilli was now locked in air-to-air combat with a red-tailed hawk.
"Curiouser and curiouser," Melody quoted as she watched the fights unfold, defending who she could. The battle raged on for another hour or so, more people dying every minute. Jason had shifted back into a human and was cautiously looking around for trouble when a vampire jumped on top of him, riding the wolf to the ground. The 'shifter kicked and hit at him frantically, but the corpse he was fighting was three hundred years old, and adept at killing anything that moved. Marik spotted the brawl and whistled to Amber, who stopped feeding on a hyena and raced over to help. By the time she got there Jason already had a wound on his neck from where the vamp had tried to feed off him.
"Get off of me!" he yelled, feeling Amber come up behind him. She tackled his attacker and rolled the guy onto his back, staring at him with eyes gone cold like glacial ice.
"You don't scare me, little girl," he told her. Amber only laughed, a
chilling sound which matched her eyes.
"You should fear me," she warned. Reaching into his body with her mind she grabbed his heart and felt it freeze with her new power. The guy gasped for air, knowing she was killing him. After a few minutes Amber stared down into his dark-brown eyes. "I am the Ice Princess." With that last sentence she shattered his heart just as easily as she would a mirror. With a smile of satisfaction she got off him and hugged Jason, glad he was all right.
"Thanks," he whispered into her ear. Suddenly, the dragon Teia had been fighting threw her to the ground and roared for the others. While she shifted painfully back to human form, the eighty others that were left rose into the air and hovered above the blood-soaked earth. Those people on the ground who weren't dead or dying kept their eyes riveted on the great beasts. From deep within the confines of the CD group came four teens, their white clothes now muddy, torn, and bloodstained. One girl had red hair which tumbled down her back in a wave of scarlet. Her eyes were a strange combination of blue and silver, beautiful and inhuman. A boy with dark, wavy hair stood next to her, defiance clear in his golden-yellow eyes. Another girl had silvery-blonde hair and wide violet eyes; her features delicate like that of a fairy or china doll. The last boy's violet eyes mirrored hers, dirty-blonde hair not quite like that of his cousin's.
"The Wild Powers," Kat whispered in awe. One dragon, apparently the leader, threw back his head and laughed at the teens. The sound grated on everyone's already-raw nerves, and even a few people from Midnight shivered at the awful noise.
"Who are you?" he demanded of the four teens. The red-haired girl boldly stepped to the front.
"We are the Wild Powers; keepers of the blue fire," she said in a voice that rang with authority. This was Jez Redfern, the only half-human, half-lamia in existence. To her right was Delos Redfern; lamia prince of the Dark Kingdom. On her left were Iliana Harman; the pure-of-heart Witch Child, and Kierlan Harman; who CM had tried to entice to their side. They were the Wild Powers, four teens whose destiny it was to save the human race. The dragon merely snorted and pointed his head at them, five horns gleaming evilly in the light. Most of the other dragons had only one to three horns. This guy was very powerful.
"Feel our power, foolish children!" Every last one of them sent a stream of black energy at Circle Daybreak, but the Wild Powers stood their ground and each recited their piece of the prophecy:
"One from the land of kings long forgotten," Delos chanted.
"One from the hearth which still holds the spark," Iliana said bravely.
"One from the Day World where two eyes are watching," Jez added.
"One from the twilight to be one with the dark," Kierlan finished. The vampires sliced their hands with daggers to get the blue fire while the witches loudly chanted:
"Ours is the power of the ages. Ours is the power of the end of the world!" Blue fire shot up from all of them, and then some of the witches saw two women standing near the Wild Powers. While only in silhouette, they all knew who they were.
"Great Goddess, Hecate and Hellewise," Norei realized, her breath catching in her throat. The two ancestors of the Harmans had risen from their milleniums of sleep to be at this final battle. Meanwhile, the blue fire lit up the figures of CS and friends, and night gave way to twilight as the two energies gained speed. The dragons and CM remained unafraid.
"Twilight has fallen, the Night will not yield," Daemon whispered. As the blue fire came closer, Marik noticed a woman standing with CM, and he stopped breathing for a minute.
"Maya," he finally gasped, referring to the first lamia: Hellewise's sister. Everyone had come back to join the party. Angel and Acil all of a sudden realized that they were all standing in between the two groups, right where the black energy and blue fire would collide.
"RUN!" Acil screamed at everyone. When they all saw what was going to happen, they bolted, running for their lives.
"This way, Acilacia. Bring them this way," a soft voice called out. The Luna looked around and saw a beautiful woman standing about fifty feet in front of her. Charcoal-black hair fell straight down to her chin, dark eyes outlined in gold makeup. A white shift hugged the contours of her body, every sensuous dip and curve clearly outlined. Gold and lapis lazuli jewelry decorated her clothing, neck, arms, and bare feet, and a golden crown rested on her head. Skin like that of polished bronze gleamed in the light. She was indeed a picture of renowned beauty.
"Mother? But wha-" Isis held up one hand and silenced her daughter.
"There is no time. Get everyone into a circle and join hands," she ordered. In a moment they had done what she'd asked, and a huge red dragon soared over their heads, startling a few people.
"Daddy!" Teia shouted happily. Rastaban looked at his daughters.
"Change quickly, girls," he told them. A minute later three red dragons were in the air.
"Focus your energy," Angel said to the others on the ground. White light radiated from all of them, Isis and the dragons included, to form a bubble of pure energy around all of them. Out of the corner of her eye Acil saw a man jump into the group- just as the world exploded in flashes of black and blue. Unable to withstand the powerful forces assailing them, the entire group passed out. The land was plunged into absolute darkness.