Thank you Airlia. And Ririka decided to change the entire story round. Any one who is interested in a slightly different version, mail and I'll send :D
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The Inferno
Chapter 6: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf… The Big Bad Wolf… The Big Bad Wolf…
The first thing Cassia felt was the roiling migraine trying to punch its way out of her head, then of course there was the cold pavement floor she was lying on. She suppressed a shiver and immediately knew that she wasn't alone, she could feel about three vampires in the room with her right now. Not every hunter could do that, but she seemed to have acquired an asthmatic sense when it came to searching for Night World scum. There was no way of getting out of this situation by playing dumb or staying asleep and the longer she was incapacitated on the floor the longer she was unprepared for a fight. Cassia opened her eyes and blinked for a few moments before being able to focus on the face peering down at her.
Not an ordinary face, no it could never be described as ordinary. But a beautiful face, so beautiful in fact that all Cassias senses were screaming vampire. He was tall 6ft maybe a little shorter, he had short ash blonde hair that made him look extremely attractive but when Cassia came to the blue/green eyes. The eyes of aqua water she froze, there was nothing at all in those eyes. Nothing. No emotion, no interest. Not even animalistic hunger. These were the eyes of a dead man. So bespelled by his beauty was she that it took a second take for her to actually recognise him. He was the one she had spotted on the roof of one of the warehouses, the one who seemed to have been instructing the Night World strike team. This man was the one who she thought she should recognise, but couldn't. To fill in the tense silence and hide her apprehension she spoke allowing her sarcasm to shine through the bubbling fear.
"Nice decor." She said, looking around at the dilapidated warehouse. It was empty apart from some containers over in the far corner to the right; it also smelled like something had died in here more than a decade ago. The owners of this place definitely needed a cleaner.
"Glad your liking it already..." The blonde Adonis replied, he paused momentarily. Then his eyes did seem to take on some emotion that appeared to be interest. "Because you're going to be seeing a lot more of it."
Cassia studied his profile again whilst vaguely taking in the position of Adonis' flunkies. "Yeah well, gotta make the best out of a bad situation. I mean who would stay with you if they weren't tied down."
She heard both of the flunkies inhale sharply, but Adonis just smiled. "Let me have her master. I'll show her a real good time." Flunky number one pleaded. He was about her height but had short red hair, he was dressed in PVC which showed certain parts of his anatomy very clearly. Cassia almost scoffed, why the hell did most vampires think they could pull of something as S n M as PVC?
"You wouldn't have what it takes to show me a good time." Cassia answered, not even turning to acknowledge him. Her eyes were all for Adonis.
"Well then, in that case I'm the only one here that meet your requirements." The blonde vampire told her, he now seemed very interested. His eyes swirled in waves of furious blue, and his voice had that cold edge, the edge that tells you that whatever he had in mind would not be pleasant at all. Cassia stood up looking down at the handcuffs that still bound her arms. It was cowardly. She was outnumbered three to one; not to mention that one leech against one human would be enough in the right circumstances. She got to her feet, not at all graceful. The damn headache prevented her from caring about that though, and it was bad enough that she began to get dizzy from the waves of pain that side winded her. Cassia pushed it away glaring at him. Whatever it was in his eyes at that moment was the trigger that brought his identity rushing back to her in a blinding flash.
Cassia mentally kicked herself, she was so mentally challenged. It should have been obvious who he was, every respected hunter in the world were after his hide.
"Ah Flame Azure, the notorious Night World assassin. You're the council's favourite little lap leech. From what I'd heard I expected you to be taller." Cassia announced, she was actually proud at how steady her sounded.
Flame gave an evil sexy grin before answering. "Well I've got it where it counts."
"Enough with the sexual innuendo already. Just hurry up and kill me or whatever." Cassia told him, this whole thing was becoming tedious.
It was flunky number twos turn to add his two cents worth. "We've gotta better plan than that. We're going to kill you but you're going to suffer first. Inferno Bitch."
Cassia sighed, vampire dialogue just wasn't what it used to be. "Inferno bitch? Is that the best you can do?"
Flame stepped closer, and she felt him brush against her mind. No way was he getting the jump on her again her shields were firmly in place. "How about-" he began. "Cassia Edwards, age eighteen born in Chicago Illinois. Currently residing with the late Mr and Mrs Maguire and their little granddaughter Maria." The way he said the last part of his sentence told her that he had indeed met the Maguires, his tone oozed mockery. They were all dead, she was certain of it. And it was all her fault. Cassia wasn't even aware of her movements as she made them. In a blur of speed that made her head throb harder she kicked him him in the jaw. His head moved fractionally to the side but nothing else seemed to register. He actually laughed, the bastard, he actually laughed.
"The little girl squealed like a pig when we ripped her fingers out. And the old vermin were pathetic, pleading and begging for their lives." Flame intoned looking at Cassia waiting for her to react. She didn't she just stared back expressionless.
"Whoops. I think we broke her already. And we haven't even started."
Cassia turned on him then, she had seen countless traumatic incidents during her very short life, and this would just be another she had to deal with. "Well then by all means do your worst leech. I never really like that family anyway The brat screamed at me constantly and the grandparents were always on my case. So you did me a favour anyway." Flame turned to her and Cassia saw the evil appreciative grin he sent her way, if he hadn't been a blood sucking creature of the night she might have felt happy about it but since he wasn't the grin only served to piss her off.
He almost looked like an angel in his golden halo of power, The angel of death, she decided grimly. Flame turned back to her all business like. His appearance chanted angel but the eyes were empty, no light no emotion. Just cold. "Now, what would you say was your worst fear?"
She considered this question for a moment, they already knew exactly what her worst fear was, they were just playing with her to see if she would answer truthfully." Well probably being changed into that which I hate most." She said, as she stared at the grey crumbling walls of the warehouse.
"Now would that be werewolf or vampire?" Cassia kept one eye on Flame and the other on the flunkies who were making a lot of noise to her right side. They were laying out various implements designed for torture, just great death then torture then more death, her day had just gotten so much better.
"I'd have a better chance at killing you and the PVC Brady Bunch if I were a vampire," stated Cassia simply.
Flame closed the distance between them in five long strides and brushed up against her as he laughed. "Oh that sounds like fun, bring it on baby." He then shifted his attentions to his goons. "Bring in the rabid dog." Cassia didn't like the sound of that, she watched annoyed as two of the flunkies disappeared through one of the doors. The other leech was staring at her smiling with himself, pleased. "While we wait, why don't I tell you just how terrified the Night World Council are of you. They paid me an obscene sum to make sure you all die." Flame added, cheerful.
"Oh." Cassia muttered, vaguely interested. "How much?"
"2 Mill."
Cassia gaped at him for a moment. "It's satisfying to know that something can scare the crap out of you worthless blood sucking bastards." She replied, eventually regaining her brainpower. Cassia braced herself for a beating or a snappy comeback, but as Flame opened his mouth to respond the two flunkies appeared with a rampaging he-wolf. Definitely a he-wolf. It was clawing at the leeches and only the cattle prods they were lashing it with were keeping it from tearing them in two.
"What the hell is this some kind of demonstration?" Cassia asked, her voice remarkably steady.
"After a fashion," said Flame. The two flunkies let the dog off its leash precariously, and backed away. Then so suddenly the wolf's attention shifted from the undead suckers to what it believed was the easiest target. Don't even think about it terminally furry, Cassia thought silently. Willing the stupid mutt to hear and understand exactly what she was thinking.
"I think you remember him. He was one of your Burn Baby Buddies." Flame remarked, he was staring at the wolf in amusement. Cassia looked at the werewolf for the briefest of moments but as her eyes met those of the wolf she knew immediately it was Jonathan's eyes she was looking into.
She was furious and frustrated and absolutely pissed at these scum-sucking mother fuckers. Cassia looked back at Flame smiling serenely. "Wow alliteration. So you do have an IQ larger than your dick size." She measured with her finger about an inch.
"If you survive this sweetheart, I will show you just how good I am."
"Gee that's encouraging." Cassia said, her voiced laced with heavy sarcasm.
Flame stepped closer to her once more, and Cassia noticed that the wolf seemed to cower away from him. It was afraid of him as was the flunkies who were now a safe distance away from the rabid wolf. Cassia was livid as he patted her on the ass.
"Have fun babe." He muttered, leering at her before striding away with his flunkies.
"So you're just going to leave me tied up?" Cassia called after him.
"Yeah."
"Figures. You haven't got the balls to torture me yourself so you use one of my friends knowing it's going to be hard as shit to kill him."
"Yeah," replied Flame, nonchalant.
"Yeah. You resort to one-syllable words when you run out of-"The door slammed mid-sentence. "Brainpower," she finished, talking to the door.
Cassia would have spent more time glaring at the door but the wolf/Jonathan was approaching her. "This really sucks Jonathan. This is so not cool." She muttered, backing up toward the table holding the torture implements, she had the distinct feeling that no matter what happened in the next few minutes one of them was going to die and Cassia was going to try and make sure it wasn't her. "Can you hear me Nish?" She asked gently, trying to make eye contact. At the same time she fumbled with the implements behind her on the table trying to grasp one of the scalpels she had seen.
"Yes...Cassia...I...hear...you..."The wolf snarled, there were hints of Jonathan's regular voice in the animals words but other from that there was only the growl of the wolf.
"That's good, you know. I really wanted to thank you for saving my ass." Cassia said neutral, her hand touched something cool and she almost yelped yippee!
The animal growled again as it stalked closer, Cassia had manoeuvred one of the scalpels so that she was now sawing away at the ropes that held the hand cuffs together. "You know, one part of me is saying Cassia Edwards cold hearted bitch and fellow Inferno buddy. Quite possibly the only friend I've ever had. You know most of the time I admired you," interrupted Jonathan quietly. "And the other part of me is saying...FOOD."
As she felt the ropes slacken at her wrists she looked him straight in the eyes before she replied. "Which part are you listening to?"
"The bigger part. FOOD." He leapt at her. Cassia lunged away from him as he crashed into the table of torture tools, she still had the scalpel in her hand and she barely moved in time to miss a swipe from Jonathan. He pounced for her again. No not Jonathan. Jonathan was dead. This was something else. The wolf jumped for her as she crouched lower, it would have fallen straight on her if she hadn't fell back on her back. The wolf skidded across the pavement floor as Cassia tried to scurry to her feet. She had barely recovered when she felt the large stab of pain across her shoulders and back. Cassia spun using the flurry of pain as a motivator she kicked the wolf in the jaw just as it was about to take a bite out of her ribs. The wolf actually yelped.
"Down boy!" Cassia told him caustically, as he lunged and missed again. She turned on her heel spun with the weight of her hips and drove the scalpel into the side of the wolf's neck. It slashed at her in crazed pain, and for a second Cassia thought she could see Jonathan staring back at her betrayed. She turned away and was running for the scattered torture utensils before the wolf pounced at her once more. This time Cassia grabbed one of the intricate daggers, which from the weight and the glide of colour was a silver knife. Cassia turned the dagger out mid lunge and she aimed the dagger into the wolf's eye. If you were trying to absolve a tense situation with a shifter or werewolf and sustain minimal damage then you always went for the eyes. It was the third rule in the vampire hunter handbook.
Jonathan slashed at her now furious, she felt his claws rip down her side and across her stomach as she thrust the knife deeper into his eye. It was exactly what she had done to the bear shifter a couple of days ago, and as the handbook stated it was damn effective. The wolf growled low as its body began to convulse. Cassia pushed it off of her and rolled away trying to catch a breath.
The sound of a single applause from the doorway brought her attention back to Flame; she got to her feet even though the gashes were painful and dripping blood.
He loomed in closer to her and Cassias fist clenched automatically. "I am impressed," he purred. Leaning in and licking a trail of Jonathan's blood from her face. "You'll do the job." Flame added moving further toward her lips, Cassia smiled as he did it and that was probably why he didn't expect her to elbow him hard in the solar plexus before sweeping his legs out from under him. He fell back onto the floor smiling brilliantly. He found this all very amusing.
"Didn't know you wanted to get on the floor so fast." He commented rising to his feet fluidly.
Cassia swung for him again but he dodged and smacked her on the ass again. "You bastard." She screamed as she kicked him in the side of the head, he blocked it as he kicked back at her and she dodged. The sounds of shouts and the sudden appearance of a crowd of people she didn't recognise stopped her in her tracks. In that instant of distraction Flame swiped her legs and she watched as in a blur as he disappeared into the shadows breaking necks as he went. Cassia struggled back to her feet, groggy, tired and bleeding she turned to see ten or twelve unfamiliar faces fighting with Flames three flunkies. The whistle of a crossbow bolt warned her of what was happening.
"Get the hell down! Flame Azure is up in the wings and he's shooting at you!" Cassia screamed to them. As she did one of the dozen or so fell to the floor with a crossbow bolt pierced his heart. Cassia careered forward taking the fallen guys weapon. It was damn good luck that it too was a crossbow. She loaded it up and fired back into the wings above her from the direction Flame was shooting from.
It was minutes later when the shouting subsided two of the vampire flunkies were dead and Flame had vanished. Very good at vanishing was Flame, there was no apparent evidence of him ever being there. Cassia noticed that one of the strangers were walking toward her as the rest hung back and looked at her reluctant to come closer. Do I have the plague? She questioned. It was hard keeping her eyes open, I suppose that's blood loss for you. Maybe I should whistle for Flame I'm sure he would lick it up. Cassia thought wildly, she saw the obscure features of a brunette girl with pixie feature before she felt the world slip away and then nothingness.
