Chapter 37

A sigh of immense pleasure escaped Vycandor's soft lips, unlike any sigh I'd ever heard before as he continued to kiss me. A punishing kiss that awakened a burning desire I'd tried hard to forget. A kiss that said I belonged to him, and only him, as he wrapped icy fingers around my shoulders possessively – the tips of his long, pointy nails sinking deeper and deeper into my flesh as another surge of electricity danced around the cockpit of the robot and grew in intensity, arcing and licking at the control panel like a hungry beast.

Despite the freezing rain, the skin of our bodies magnetized and we no longer shivered from the cold, or felt the burning effects of the fire on every single rain drop that fell. As the icy-hot passion between us continued to build, so did the thunderclaps accompanied by a dangerous, yet dazzling light show above our heads.

In that moment, I didn't have to wonder any longer whether or not we'd formed a permanent bond. I felt it enough for both of us. I also knew then without a shadow of a doubt, that the same bond responsible for bringing us together would ultimately tear us apart. Especially when it was so easy for us to get lost in total and utter rapture.

So easy, in fact, that I almost didn't hear the repeated guttural screams in the distance until they pierced my eardrums, making my love-drunk eyelids fling open like a cartoon window shade.

I came up for air first, flailing my arms and disoriented by the disturbing noise that traveled in wave after sickening wave through the streets of Kalamazoo like the current of a rushing river threatening to swallow the city whole. It only took a matter of seconds for the screams to turn into high-pitched howls of pain that made me want to cover my ears. The kind of pain that almost demanded not to be heard because it hurt too much to listen.

The kind of pain that I was causing.

Filled with a combination of horror mixed with debilitating curiosity, I stared transfixed as the Angels of War attempted to use their leathery bat-wings to shelter themselves, the fiery droplets of freezing rain all but consuming them in hungry flames, while reducing their once powerful wings to useless skeletal membranes that scraped and beat at the ground like twigs.

I pitied them, remembering how helpless I'd felt without my wings and tried to look on the bright side. At least this way Vycandor and I stood a much better chance of defeating them now.

If only there weren't so many.

"Chaos, what do you think you're doing?" Vycandor admonished.

"Winging it," I replied, echoing the surliness in his voice. Truth be told, the whole fire and brimstone thing just sort of happened. A convenient accident. Not that I was willing to admit that out loud.

Vycandor frowned. "It's a little much don't you think? I'd say you've officially lost your..." He paused, using his fingers to make air quotes before adding, "winging it privileges."

With the howls of pain now growing faint and weary, I turned off the rain like turning off a faucet. We both watched as only one of the creatures slowly rose to stand erect on enlarged feet, sharp talons clearly showing from beneath ruined wings, while the rest of the creatures remained crouched down low to the ground with their heads bowed in reverence.

"This must be their leader," Vycandor whispered.

"Gee, ya think?" I whispered back.

Before Vycandor could offer a rebuttal, the leader craned its muscular neck to the side, a sinister smile spreading across its hideous gargoyle face as glowing red eyes stared deep into mine. The way it continued to smile with one arm bent behind its back gave me the squeamies. Almost as if it was trying to hide something. Then, moving ever so slowly as if not to spook us, the creature carefully extended its hidden arm before bringing it forward just as slowly with the palm facing up.

I couldn't help but cringe as my gaze fell to its outstretched hand. Besides being a freakish color of dark charcoal gray, the hand appeared to have pointy horns sticking out of the wrist. But it was what the creature was holding that got my attention the most.

Something dark red and pulsating.

"Oh, my God!" I screamed. "He has your heart."

Vycandor grabbed me by the arm to stop me from bolting out of the cockpit. "Chaos, don't move."

My voice came out high and screechy. "Did you not just hear me? That thing has your heart."

"I know," he agreed. "But look."

I followed his eyes. Already impossibly tall and heavily muscled, the face and especially the skin of the leader began to stretch and contort until the very shape itself gave way in great, uncontrollable fits accompanied by a total body transformation into something that looked less humanoid and more reptilian than anything else.

"This is not good," Vycandor mumbled under his breath.

"No shit, it's not good." Even as I spoke, the rest of the Angels of War began to mutate into evil reptilian looking monsters just like their leader, each with bumpy greenish-black skin, narrow heads, mouths projecting row upon row of razor sharp teeth, pronounced horns all over their bodies, spindly-fingers with claws, and long segmented tails complete with red venomous stingers that looked suspiciously a lot like they belonged on scorpions.

Did I mention I hate scorpions?

I was so not mentally prepared to handle winged gargoyles morphing into repulsive parasitic reptiles on a Sunday. Monday afternoon maybe because...well, Mondays basically suck anyway. But this, this was just not Sunday material.

Vycandor shook his head absently back and forth. "It's the water. That must be why they changed."

"You mean to tell me the rain did all of this?"

He swallowed hard. "I've only seen something like this happen once before. I was just a kid when Uncle Edgar brought home a pet one day to keep me company. He called it a Kurnami. I'd never seen anything quite like it before. It looked like a tiny little brown ball of fur with huge round eyes. The guy who sold it made Uncle Edgar promise to..." His voice trailed off with the memory. "Made him promise to..."

"Never get it wet," I interrupted with an eye-roll. "Lemme take a wild guess. You accidentally got the stupid thing wet and then all hell broke loose."

Vycandor sucked in his breath. "How did you know?"

I tossed him a knowing smile. "I saw the movie."

"Trust me, Chaos, this is so much worse than anything Hollywood could ever dream up. That adorable little fur ball spawned towering creatures just like these that went berserk, indiscriminately injuring, maiming and killing anything in their path."

Curious I had to ask, although I thought I already knew the answer. "What happened to these so-called, Berserkers?"

"My mom showed up and destroyed them. That's the last anyone ever saw of her. Until you."

I hate when I'm right.

"Are you trying to tell me that your mom..."

"Step-mom," he interrupted.

Irritated, I waved him off. "Whatever. My point remains the same. You think your step-mom actually planned for this to happen? That she somehow knew I would make it possible for these things to be unleashed?"

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that making terrifying and grotesque monsters was what Serenity did best. She was a little sketchier on maintaining control over them, however. Take Harry Scary for example. But, for a witch, she did have some rather interesting talents. Magic was definitely one of them.

How odd that even in death Serenity always managed to outwit me. I hadn't even seen this one coming. A chain of events I unwittingly unraveled that would inevitably come back to bite me in the ass. Big time. Maybe this is what she meant all along when she said her death did not equal a resolution.

I thought I knew real fear before. I was wrong.

"Chaos, we have to get out of here and find help," Vycandor warned, as the grisly reptilian creatures began to advance on us.

"If we take out their leader, we might still have a chance." I scoured the sea of monsters about to swarm the robot, but the leader was nowhere to be found.

Vycandor stepped into my line of sight to get my attention. "We can't fight a battle like this alone. I know because I've tried. These things know no mercy. They will eventually breach the castle, and then it will be too late."

"No. I refuse to give up," I yelled over the sounds of razor sharp claws scraping against metal. "If I had destroyed Serenity before she managed to draw on the power of the Super Blood Moon Eclipse, none of this would've happened. It's is all my fault. I'm the one who failed to stop her in time."

Vycandor grabbed both sides of my face and tipped my head back. I paused momentarily to gaze into his unusual eyes. Like pools of liquid onyx I drowned in their depths all over again, lingering between dreams and reality with monsters calling my name. I felt trapped in a moment suspended in time. So much so, that I almost forgot what we were arguing about. The harsh lines on his face melted away to make room for a gentleness I never expected, while the sound of his silky voice wrapped me up like a warm blanket against the bitter cold. "Let it go, Chaos. It's over."

Fear and despair melted away as the world around me faded to gray. I slipped out of his grasp and all I saw were blurred shapes and strange looking purple lights. The words of the Priest echoed in my mind. Trust your powers and have faith.

Slowly, very slowly, everything came into sharp focus. My rapid side-eye captured enough to let me know I had only seconds left before the monsters were on top of us. I didn't have time to figure out why Vycandor wasn't fighting back when too many creatures to count completely surrounded us, pointy red stingers raised in the air to stab us straight through the heart...uh, scratch that...stab me in the heart.

Vycandor may have thrown in the towel, but that didn't mean I did. Not even close.

"It's never over," I growled. "I'm not about to make the same mistake twice."

"You'll fail," he promised with a ruffle of feathers.

I raised my chin defiantly and decided to go Gremlin on their asses. "This is how I fail."

Flashing a trance-like stare, eyes consumed with burning energy that was mine for the calling, I poured out my wrath in blazing sheets of fire. The flames slammed into the creatures towering directly over us, the heat so intense that their brief screams died with them. I blinked to release the fire a second time and, if possible, the flames that followed became even more intense. Some of the wooden buildings nearby crackled and smoked as flames bit into the vulnerable walls. Vacant buildings began to crumble, engulfing the streets in fire. A third and final wave made the flames spawning from my eyes ravish the remaining army of deadly creatures as the entire city of Kalamazoo burned to the ground in a blazing inferno.

When the smoke and ashes cleared, only the castle remained in the far off distance with its glistening ice fortress of solitude punctuating the early morning sky as a beacon of hope.

To me, the castle was an anchor of sorts that kept my feet firmly planted on the ground, while at the same time the promise of finally saving Thomas kept my heart soaring in the clouds.

Vycandor surveyed the damage to his beloved Kalamazoo with a deep frown. "Was that really necessary?"

I feigned innocence. "Destroy an entire city with a single glance? Yeah, I can do that."