Bozena and Sveta (Neuripra) Read online

  Glowing pearlescent eyes cast a beam through the gloom when he swivels to face me. “You obviously have something to get off your chest, Sveta. You're lucky I didn't retaliate in there.”

  Stepping forward into my impromptu fighting ring, I prowl closer to the bastard. “Get something off my chest? Retaliate? Are you suggesting you could whip my ass? You're a cowardly cocksucker, Jowendrhan. You fucked Zena and made her pregnant while slicing her spine open in the process! You would break a nail and your pride if you took me on like a man.”

  Anger flares his eyes into glowing LED's.

  The telltale clenching of hands into fists is all the invitation I need as I close the gap to hound his personal space.

  Suck on my aura you spineless shit!

  I'm taller and stronger, now I'll prove I'm quicker too.

  Jowendrhan mutates into an artistic mash of attack moves but I warp around each one with the ease of my rank.

  I'm fucking royalty dipshit.

  Ramming my elbow into his throat, bottoming out and felling his legs with the easiest foot-sweep in history, I double up with a triple strike to his nose.

  He goes down so fast, I'm disappointed.

  Stepping back, I wait for him to get up.

  “Taking a nap, Jo? Tired already? With stamina like that I'm surprised you had the energy to screw my girl.”

  I want to laugh when he rolls and shoves up off the gravel. Nothing gets a man coming back for more like a good insult to the testicles.

  I give him enough time to get his feet under him when I shunt my knee into his face, slamming the back of his head into it to double the impact.

  “That's for turning her into a vampyre!”

  Rage is turning the world into pure energy and it makes attacking him so much easier. Unable to restrain the punishment for his crimes a second longer, I punch up into his kidney, twist his head, and shunt the heel of my hand into the side of his nose.

  Looping over him, I power kick with a smashing foot strike, axing down on the top of his head with the hefty biker boot.

  He stumbles, crunching into the crushed stones with an undignified groan.

  “For the agony you gave her, I'm going to help you overdose on pain,” I goad.

  I'm so pissed off my voice comes out like sandpaper.

  Yanking him up, I head butt him again and again, shoving him with angry strides so I can rest his pussy ass up against the side of the dumpster.

  I continue perfecting my boxing on the vampyre punchbag.

  He pulls his leg up, connecting off-center with my groin, and it's the final straw.

  Uppercutting his jaw, I snap his neck, his skull and spine popping so loud against concrete I entertain a second of doubt.

  Unclasping my grip from the pathetic excuse for life, I watch him fold next to bulging trash bags.

  How appropriate that he's left out back with the rubbish.

  Vampyres are all rubbish! They should have shut down their rogue cells decades ago but they were too busy preying on innocent humans to give a damn.

  Leaning over him, I spit in his eye, “You forgot the neuri are here to protect humans from tyranny. Tyranny that started with vampyres. I will destroy you if you ever hurt a human again. And you go near the slakax and I will send you to the afterlife! I'm neuri, Jowendrhan! I'm capable of ending a supernatural life. Fuck with me or mine again and you won't live to regret it, because you'll be dead.”

  I know he's not dead. I know he can hear me. My neuri vision shows me life in its pure energy form and he's still got life flowing through him. But it will take him a few days to heal that spine.

  “Fucker!”

  Disgusted that I got my hands dirty I stalk across the back yard, needing the freedom of the highway and my customized Harley to blast the stench of vampyre blood off me.

  To think he honestly thought when Venix left no one would know what he was doing. I was the first to read his thoughts and discover his plans to turn a bunch of women into a vampyre harem. And the one he started with was the only one I wanted out of all the women on this entire planet. He chose Zena, and turned her while not only making her vampyre, but making her pregnant with twins at the same time.

  It was torture for her and she nearly died.

  The coward didn't even tend to her. He just abandoned her, and I was the person who kept her alive long enough to have Venix reverse the process.

  “Prick.”

  Getting on my bike and starting it up with a despising roar of dissent, I gargle the thunderous grunt with a twist of the throttle, accelerating fast to get the cold air to wash over me.

  A knuckle hug to the face is too sweet for Jowendrhan. He should have been taken to the precipice of death the way Božena was. He should have had to fight for every breath in eternal agony the way he made her struggle to survive.

  I didn't know we could hate, but I'm pretty sure I hate him.

  Checking my watch, my heart drops when I read 3:33 a.m.

  I'm due at Zena's place before dawn and don't want to rock the boat of routine.

  I'm looking forward to indulging in a life affirming biblical moment with her.

  *

  Venix:

  Dropping the night I gathered closer to hide my presence, I shadow hop to Jowendrhan. Placing both hands on his neck I heal him, listening to the darkness whispering and noticing how light fails to penetrate certain pockets across the yard.

  Danger is manifesting physically. The revenge has started.

  I can't explain it to the neuri because they know no darkness. They've never experienced the hunger, or the soul searing stabs of need.

  Sveta is deluded. Zauran and Jowendrhan have only their pride to thank for Sveta's complete misunderstanding of what transpired before.

  It's time I put him straight.

  Closing my eyes I follow his soul, looping ahead by forty-two seconds and vanishing from my post.

  *

  Sveta:

  What the hell?

  Slamming on the brakes, the back end humps up and then curls in a sideways buck, sending me and 731 pounds of chrome and matte black paint scraping down the road.

  My shin's pinned.

  Fuck!

  Yanking at my leg, straining every muscle, my customized Gray Ghost rebuilt as a chopper sparks and squeals.

  My boot catches and I'm flipped. Sliding down E-70 Highway on leather, my gloves scrubbed by the tarmac.

  Chaffed and jarred, I skid in unavoidable acceleration right into the waiting foot. It kicks me with such force I'm sent back over the beast, my leg snapping and hip popping.

  Like opium, nerve annihilation stretches up my veins to pump incinerating anguish through my body. Howling agony, breathless and burning, I grit my teeth against the blood flooding my mouth.

  My eyes singe and I can barely breathe with the pain of careening full throttle with a broken leg and dislocated hip. It's wildfire burning up my reserves and reducing me to a pinpoint of pain.

  It's instinct to try and heal the greatest wound with immediate effect, but it means letting my guard down and releasing the neuri power right here in the middle of the highway. The bike's toast and I'm hurdling it with a close second.

  God damn! Fierce torture scorches my joints, biting through tendons and etching bone.

  The second my vision clears it's to see the almighty archangel's fist raining down from above to smash my nose into my eye sockets.

  Jesus!

  It blasts a throb detonation clubbing through my skull, my vision smudging with blood and tears while I gargle on the bile rising up to mingle with blood clots.

  “Now that I have your attention, you need to listen up boy.”

  Don't call me boy. The last man who did ended up swallowing lead.

  Chapter 4

  Sveta:

  I'm sure the asshole wants my undivided attention but all I can think about is getting the hell off the road. I don't care if it's after three in the morning, we can't risk exposing angels and neu
ri to any passerby.

  Unless... that's his plan.

  Maybe he's the real reason the vampyre uprising has begun. He comes back and all hell breaks loose. It doesn't take Einstein to put two and two together.

  Without giving him another moment to assault me, I duck and use a mammoth spurt of energy to hobble fast as a comet to the curb, collapsing on the shoulder and staring at the night sky blurring with my agony.

  “You can't outrun me in your condition.”

  “Fuck off Venix! What the fuck is your problem?”

  Shunting up to rest on my elbow, every breath I take shoots sharp bolts from my leg into my torso.

  “Do you remember when Zauran went missing?” he says, as if we're discussing the headlines.

  Dude, you're standing in the middle of a main road. Move your fucking ass!

  But I can see this guy has the ego of a fucking politician. Nothing will get him off his pedestal until his vanity's been gratified. I'll hear him out whether I want to or not, and the entire time he's getting a boner over me panicking at a human catching us. My eyes flare into the night with spitfire, and his glow with conceit.

  Fine. We'll do it your way, dickhead. For t-minus three minutes.

  “What about it?” I manage to grind between clenched teeth.

  He looks behind him as if daring a car to come down the deserted road, then looks smugly at me with his silver eyes morphing to blue. “You will recall Jowendrhan was also missing at that time.”

  “I don't recall Jo as missing, Venix. I recall Jowendrhan abandoning Božena while she was pregnant with his evil babies.”

  “They're not evil, they just didn't suit her constitution,” he says.

  “Whatever dude. All I know was your golden child wasn't there to even get the woman a glass of water while they poisoned her body and pushed her to death. If Aisyx wasn't with us she would have died! No thanks to fucking Jowendrhan.”

  Insulting his protégé hits a nerve because he torpedoes out of the road to leer over me. Well at least the asshole isn't making a spectacle of himself out in the open any longer.

  A finger waggles so close to my eye it connects with eyelashes. His voice chaffs it's so deep and embroidered with rage, “Now you listen to me you little shit. Zauran and Jowendrhan were taken by the same people. They were both beaten within an inch of their lives. Do you know why?”

  “I don't give a fuck!” I sneer right back, ready to spit at him if he doesn't remove the offending finger from my cornea.

  He gets the vibe because he stands upright to stare haughtily down his nose at me, “I know you don't. The only person you give a goose about is yourself. The world revolves for your amusement, doesn't it Sveta?”

  “If you think being an angel makes you better than the rest of us, think again. You were one of the first fallen angels, kicked out of heaven for your endless fuck ups. Go preach to the ignorant Venix because I know bullshit stinks, and you fucking reek of crap.”

  It gives me immense pleasure to watch the vein in the middle of his forehead pop out and start throbbing.

  The almighty dude is stressing.

  I hide my smile when he yells loud enough to induce a state of emergency, “They broke Spirit's law by impregnating slakax women without permission! Without consent!”

  Stepping forward to impress me with angelic musculature, he leans down to glare brilliance in my face, “Sveta, they are both too proud to tell you that they suffered immeasurable pain for five days and nights at the hands of Spirit's henchmen. They are also too proud to tell you that I kept them for a further two days to explain why they were punished at all. And then I personally beat the crap out of them again. Why? Because the only language petulant pustules like you seem to comprehend, is pain!”

  Raising my chin, I give him the 'eat shit' glare, “Yeah right. You broke my leg and trashed my bike to teach me a lesson? Fuck you dickhead! The only lesson you're teaching anyone is you're a fucking psychopath on a dangerous ego trip. Keep this up and heaven's door will be slamming behind you and stripping you of your power all over again on the way out! Fuck off!”

  He pounces as if getting ready to kick the crap out of me, when he catches himself.

  Yeah asshole, it takes a while for logic to sink in. Kicking ass isn't respected in heaven, especially when I haven't fucked off the Light source. You have!

  Rubbing my nose, I unleash a smirk, “Venix, I am not violent like you. I'm not evil like you. I keep the laws on this planet, laws that your kind keep conveniently forgetting. The next time you want my attention try using reason and it'll get you a lot further. And if you threaten me again I'll be deporting you off this plane. Then where's your precious Jowendrhan going to run to when he gets his ass back in deep water? I will torch you Venix, and it's not an idle threat. Back the hell off me or I will annihilate you. Are we clear?”

  His hands clench into fists bigger than the helmet I usually wear, and he laughs pathetic scorn at me. “You'll have to walk first, Sveta.”

  “I can walk, I've been healing while you have your rant. I'm more astute than you give me credit, and this little public display of your power is going to nail your coffin shut.”

  “Now you listen here! Why do you think I went to all this effort to get your attention? I needed your focus because you're a wild card degenerate. You snapped Jowendrhan's neck for him because you think he wasn't punished for what he did to Božena. He was punished! More than you could ever imagine! In your worst nightmares nothing comes close to the agony he endured for what he did to her.”

  “Oh, so that's what this is about. You're pissed because I whipped Jo's ass. He's the one who came out back looking for a confrontation, Venix. He could have walked away but he didn't. He could have told me the truth, Zauran could have, but no, he had to send his big bad uncle to do his dirty work for him. Ha! Pathetic! The whole fucking lot of you!”

  “For fuck's sake! Stop attacking and listen to what I just said!” yells Venix.

  Flipping up off the shoulder of the road, completely healed, I launch back at him, releasing the plyx which ignites my power. Power he wishes his kind had.

  “No Venix. I'm done listening. You claim you attacked me just so I can lay off the last silver-eyed vampyre. Well I'm telling you this, your kind ruined Serbia! You ruined this planet. You poisoned the spirituality of all living creatures with your hate and love of war. It's not I who has to listen through violence. Violence isn't our way, but Jo destroyed an innocent life and pushed her to death to give his ego a blow-job. And from this display of courage by his leader on a deserted highway I would say he learned his bad attitude from you. Crawl back under your rock and stay the fuck off my land!”

  He squares up, filling the night with his bulk and glowing body.

  “Cut the theatrics, Venix. You're exposing the supernatural community, and for that you will be hearing from my King and Alpha. Go home!”

  “Don't punish men for something they've already been disciplined for,” he says.

  It's his last pitch to get me to feel sorry for an ass whipping that weasel deserved.

  “Fuck off Venix, now. Before I escort you off this road permanently.”

  He glowers, pouring hatred at me in waves.

  Angel my ass. He probably lied about heaven. With this attitude I doubt very much Spirit welcomed him home.

  I give him the smile of sinister intent, “Venix, my neuri plyx is the color of fire for a reason. I burn evil... I destroy it. You're spiritually sick; it stinks like cancer eating away at the healthy love you once knew. Love doesn't attack and it doesn't hurt. You broke my bones tonight just to prove your might. That's the coward's route. Your spirit is in peril and only fire can purify it. Leave, or I will do my duty right here and let the consequences of kicking your ass in public be damned!”

  The power is so ripe at my fingertips it's itching to blast free into the angel, and he can sense it. He gives me one last flash of bright light and vanishes from the dark road... which is oddly silent
tonight.

  Expelling the anger through exhalation, I turn and stare at the skid marks and destruction.

  He tried to kill me.

  That motherfucking angel attempted murder tonight.

  Pissed off beyond measure, I unzip my jacket and withdraw my phone, checking it still works.

  Dawdling back to the broken steed, I snap when Zauran answers, “Your theory is off. Venix just took me out on the highway and risked exposure. I'm halfway home on the Banja side of E-70. Come pick me up, my bike's trashed, and we need to talk about this vampyre problem.”

  Sitting down next to my Ghost, I know it's unsalvageable. Looking over the ragged leather covering my body, I finally release the rage I was holding in by punching the gas tank.

  This situation is way worse than I thought it was. Way, way, worse.

  Chapter 5

  Zarak:

  She sashays across the dance floor, lingering her touch on the arms she walks past, pausing to smile, wink, her sexy laugh igniting libidos and interest as she maneuvers strategically from human to vampyre, sliding hands over muscles, staring lust into male and female eyes without prejudice.

  Cloaked in the deep shadows which are the hallmark of all Pravus clubs, I survey the owner of the megalithic nightclub chain seducing anyone who gets close enough to her intoxicating poison.

  The closer she hip sways to me, the taller and tenser I stand, until I'm so rigid my muscles ache.

  Her smile freezes and ice blue eyes ringed with a circle of blood-red peer into the darkness wrapped around me.

  It gives me substantial satisfaction when her nipples harden under the flimsy silk stretched across them and long platinum hair is clutched in her hand, exposing the only betraying movement of fear.

  I step into the dim sanguine light, staring down at the tall vampyre. She's 5'9, but still midget by my standards. I hold out on the smile, waiting to see if she runs, or swallows that fear and puts on the mask of bravery.

  Come closer, Ellindt. Come on... I dare you.

  Long legs polished to a sheen pause on crippling white stilettos, and then they move, taking the steps in mesmerizing deliberation, hollowing out her hips as the silk-soft skirt clings in all the right places, and cleavage bounces provocatively.