(Re) Zo̱ntanoús Nekroús - Chapter Four

Eleanor Blaise:
I got a chance to talk to Veronika while Carter was huddled away in a corner, embarrassed. The scrap metal was extracted from her abdomen and she took heavy, labored breaths, mumbling something under her breath. I could barely make it out but piece by peace I was able to translate.

"Cold flesh becomes spirit, bright eyes glint from shadows, lovers long parted unite, families join once more--" She paused and cracked her eyes open to look at me, as though she suddenly realized I wasn't a hunter and that we'd never even met before.

She didn't look much older than me, especially because she was a few inches taller, but the sullen gaze she delivered from the bed was somehow very childish and very familiar.

Maybe it was her face? Sharp yet wide eyes and a pointed chin, perhaps her nose, which looked like it'd been mashed in during the incident with the jaguar? No, no, it had to do with her......aura, I guess. Despite how helpless she looked as I treated her wound, she gave off an air of pride and power. Maybe it was a hunter thing?

Carter returned shortly after with the dark green Yankees shirt and I tentatively pulled it over her head, and was pleased to find it was long enough to cover her sufficiently and then lead into her silver leggings and boots. She still gripped her stomach and the bandages but nodded with her gratitude.

The room shook and Carter left, and suddenly I was torn. My team was going to get mowed judging by the size of the creature outside, especially because Allison and Trive were not the most adept of fighters, but if I left to help them something could happen to Veronika. Her eyes were downcast as the sound of Carter's AK fire filled the losed hallway outside the room.

"This happened to my team too..." Veronika mumbled, clasping her hands together and dropping to the mattress.

"Your team?" I asked. "...The hunters? The most able-bodied fighters in the world, all gone?" Veronika shook her head slowly, reaching her hands to her neck and squeezing it a few times in order to maintain consciousness.

"Not.......not exactly. Artemis split us into groups, and when the invasion began I was assigned to Ursa Major in the Manhattan area." I looked at her, trying to ignore the sounds of gunfire, silently urging her to continue.

"Our squad leader was killed in action. Rebecca Faustain, she tried.....she was saving a younger hunter and got swarmed. Both of them died." I waited for her to continue and she squeezed her neck a few more times, her breaths becoming more ragged. "Tyra Nicus, and...Bennie Oslow....fought for the leadership next. That....that was after Artemis got captured. Tyra killed her and..." This time her breath was shallow and I heard a sob building in her throat.

"Hana W-Windsor....she...she....ate the body." I covered my mouth''. ''Veronika was shaking in front of me, her eyes painfully red but without tears, and I could hear her getting progressively more choked up as she went along.

"A-and then.....oh gods, we came here after we got r-rid of Hana and....." She took a deep, labored breath, and finally I could hear her voice break and a few tears settled down her cheeks. "He was here first."

I was silent, watched her grip the edge of the bed, tears rolling down her face. She began to shake her head, trying to make them go away, but they clung to her skin and only frustrated her more. The girl who'd been so cool and collected was now a complete mess, and I was the only one there for her.

"...Who is he?" I asked below my breath. Veronika closed her eyes and attempted to calm her hasty breathing. Before she could respond I heard windows and wood splintering and smashing, and then a sharp scream.

"Carter!" I bolted off the bed, without another look at Veronika and grabbed my crossbow off the dresser, nearly braking the door off its hinges. I could feel the burn in my chest, oh gods not now, please.

It was spreading, heat from my chestand into my shoulders and hips, my arms, I sucked in a deep breath despite the blood punding in my ears as I beat feet to the end of the hallway, where the one-beautiful windows and artwork of the Luna Clareau were now a few floors below, against the ground.

I was out of breath and at my wit's end once I reached the broken wall and, peering up at me from a floors down, Carter. Blood tricked out of his mouth and his ankle was bent - not broken, sprang maybe. He was unconscious but his eyes were open, leering up at the darkening blue sky.

A few yards away, steam rose from a small body. Curled in the fetal position but visibly rotted- I could see strands of silver hair and what was left of a hutner's uniform like Veronika's. As the steam continued to rise, the former hunter seemed to dissipate with it, leaving behind scraps of clothing and a shining silver piece - a bracelet or a choker, something to that effect.

More to my attention though was Allison, hucnhed forward with the green sword in her hands. She was pale, and I couldn't tell whether or not she was going to cry, faint or vomit - maybe all three. She was breathing like she'd just launched into a panic attack and I couldn't tell why.

"Allis-!" I tried to call out for her but stopped suddenly when I saw him. Short, coal black hair and the adornings of a famous demigod - the finest armor available.

"Church." He said simply, balancing an axe dangerously against his shoulder as he waltzed forward. Allison's foot braced behind her and she tried desperately to straighten her arms, to stop herself from shaking.

"Put that thing down, I just want to talk."

Allison's arms dropped slightly and she looked away, as if contemplating, but quickly had her guard up again. She didn't say a word and I noticed her shaking had almost completely stopped. The man sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, still stepping toward her.

"Fine. If you aren't going to listen to reason, I'll make this quick." He skipped forward and readied his axe at her side, and before I realized what was happening, I was rushing above him at what seemed like a thousand miles per hour.

Nikolai Fencer did not expect to see me alive again.

And he certainly did not expect me to be on fire.