written by writingfornoone 

Vane hated Santa Cruzia. Hated the soul-crushing humidity and the sticky, slick sensation of sweat crawling down his back. Hated how his hair clung to his scalp and collected sweat like a sponge. Hated how it pooled in the crease of his elbow and along the edges of his bandage, making the raw skin underneath itch from the contact. But most of all, he hated how little Helen was affected.

Rather than wilt under the humidity, she soaked it up. Smiling, eyes closed, arms raised, head tilted towards the brutal sun, she was like a golden carnation in bloom.

Meanwhile he'd give anything to return to the miserable rains of Hythe.

"C'mon. We're burning daylight," he griped.

"What's the rush?" She asked.

"I hate sweating my ass off."

She laughed. "If you think this is bad, you'd really hate Huis."

Huis. A country of savannas and deserts, where the summers are so dry only vampires are quenched. Yeah, he'd definitely hate it.

"I still think this mission is such bullshit. Why do we have to go all the way to Santa Cruzia? Why can't a closer covenant come to this god-forsaken country?"

Helen shrugged. "Maybe they were short-handed."

"Everyone's short-handed."

He slouched against the rooftop's parapet, the shadowed clay cool to the touch. They'd been staking out the pueblo below for three hours and had yet to sense anything vampiric in nature. Personally, he thought it was a waste of time. If the Elitzi Covenant couldn't capture the cattle-killers, what made them certain the Hythe Covenant could?

He'd said as much to Mr. Pope, but the priest had still sent him and Helen anyway.

"We're being watched."

"What makes you say that?"

"That bird hasn't moved in over half an hour." She indicated a scraggly-looking bird with her chin. The bird, which had been staring at them, took off into the rainforest. As did Helen.

"Helen!" Vane cried out in exasperation. He followed, pissed but relieved that he was trading sun for shade.

Dissolving into a swarm, he spread himself throughout the canopy. As his bodies swerved and flowed around the treetops, his eyes roved the jungle for any signs that his partner or the bird had passed through. A snapped branch. A trembling leaf. A streak of ultraviolet. A spark of electricity.

Pain lanced through his swarm as one of his bodies disintegrated. Vane whirled around in time to watch the bird from before snatch one of his bodies in its beak. It ripped the body in half, eliciting another shockwave of suffering. His swarm plummeted several feet as he lost another piece of consciousness.

He struggled to remain in his Lepidoptera form; two bodies gone in the span of a minute overwhelmed his senses. Unable to shift into his human form, Vane directed his remaining bodies to fly in the opposite direction.

The bird gave chase, picking off the stragglers as if taunting him. In between bouts of pain, he realized this wasn't a mean-spirited bird but a Night Caller, someone's familiar. No wonder the Elitzi Covenant couldn't identify a killer--they'd been looking for a vampire, not a familiar.

Vane burst through the jungle into a scorched clearing. Helen stood among the blackened grass, swinging electrified punches at a flock of Callers divebombing her. He conglomerated into his human form as she clipped a familiar in the wing. It screeched then dropped to the ground as white veins of electricity sizzled across its body.

A scream tore through the clearing. The familiars abandoned their assault, settling in the trees surrounding the glade. Helen brushed against Vane's back as she eyed the Night Callers, electricity prickling where their skin touched.

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Something was coming. He felt Helen tense in anticipation.

Clouds blotted out the sun, casting the entire clearing in shadow. Instead of floating past, the clouds drew closer, thickening the darkness. Vane looked up in confusion and expletitives melted on his tongue.

A bird descended from the sky. Wings the length of a bus flapped up and down, whirlwinds shoving Vane to the ground. Ruby and opal feathers sheathed its breast while turquoise and aquamarine feathers covered its torso. Twin tails the same resplendance as its body grazed the earth. The ground shuddered as the bird landed, and plumes of dust rose around it.

Atop the god-like bird stood a girl. Her pale face was pinched in agony and streaked with tears.

"You murderers!