Marcus' eyes widened as he watched how the Yakuza had gotten upright like a vampire in one of those old-as-fuck movies. It was creepy watching someone get up without using their arms, seemingly aided by an invisible force that left them neatly on their feet. What the fuck is becoming the world around me?

Light exploded in the room followed by a pain-filled howl that chilled him to the marrow of his bones. The agonizing sound appeared a bit feminine to his ears. It couldn't be her, right?

His gaze landed on the source almost instantaneously and his knees shook, losing a bit of strength.

"Tara!" His chest felt too small for him, and his lungs struggled to get the much-needed air under the pressure.

His gorgeous demon witch lay upon the floor while her enemy panted on all fours not far from her crumpled form. Burns and singed skin marred her arms and legs while a thin trail of smoke lifted from the remnants of her black sleeveless dress.

The pain slowly morphed into fury as he watched her put her weight in her burnt forearms and lift her head. Their eyes met briefly before she squeezed them shut with a wince.

He saw red. The Sig Sauer's grip bit into his palm as he squeezed with all his strength, but he ignored the pain. Marcus only wished to rain down his rath upon the asshole who had hurt his beloved.

As a result, the enemy in front of him had been erased from his mind.

"Free the vampire, Marcus." His witch panted inside his head. He could literally hear the pain in her voice. "She can help you."

Indecision froze him. One side of him wanted to kill everything in his path but the other knew he couldn't go toe to toe with these creatures like he did with his human enemies. If his woman lay battered and hurt while in her supernatural form, he didn't stand a chance. Even if his anger demanded he murder the creatures with his own hands, he needed to stay rational and heed her advice.

Marcus nodded, his jaw clench, and rushed at the mutated Yakuza before him. The creature swiped its claws towards him, however, he rolled over the floor at the last second and squeezed the trigger.

Two bullets hit the monster's kidney area, making it screech and fall to its knees.

"Finish it with Hell Fire! Now!" the prisoner screamed again.

The female's voice was so similar to Mina and yet it held a growly quality that made him doubt his assessment. Could his boss' wife be the being of long black claws, corpse-like grayish skin and molten silver eyes before him?

"Is this you, Mina?" Marcus asked as he reached her, his heart beating wildly. He then pointed his gun to the chains holding her to the chair but refrained from shooting. They may be pressed for time, however, he needed confirmation before setting loose something that could potentially fuck them up more than they already were.

Her face twisted with regret. Those metallic eyes gazed back at him with the pain of her actions etched in every line of her irises. "I'm so sorry we hid this from you, but Vergil thought it was for the best."

He lowered his gaze and nodded with a locked jaw. "Let's free you first and discuss payback later."

With one bullet of the vampiric Sig Sauer each of the chains fell to the floor with a metallic thud. The sound seemed to alert the wounded monster not far from them as it turned to face them. Its milky eyes locked upon Marcus and roared.

"I'm still feeling the after effects of being toasted by the sun, however... I can take him down if you give me some of your blood," Mina's voice barged inside Marcus' mind.

He swallowed hard and glanced at her still sitting on the chair. "You want to bite me?" His mental voice quivered. "Won't that make me a vampire?"

"No. What do you think this is, Twilight?" She huffed. "To transform you, I would need to drain you to the point of death and make you drink my blood. I will only take a few pints, promise."

The mutated Yakuza's nostrils widened before he rolled his shoulders.

The gesture didn't go unnoticed by Marcus. Unbuttoning the left cuff of his black shirt, he put the inside of his wrist in Mina's line of vision. "Do it. And quickly because that asshole is going to charge at us at any minute."

She didn't give him time to reconsider.

Grabbing his forearm, the cold air from Mina's breath brushed his skin before she sank her fangs into his wrist. Pain shot up his nerves endings but only until she took the first gulp. Everything changed from that point on. Pain turned into ecstasy, making his head swim. The moment she took the second gulp, he had to bite his lip in order to keep himself from moaning.

How could he find the act of someone drinking his blood so pleasurable? Mina wasn't even touching him sexually and yet he was almost panting for her to do so. Is this a vampire thing?

Mina grabbed his arm harder and sank her fangs deeper into his flesh. He couldn't keep in the low groan that escaped his lips while his dick grew hard inside his slacks.

"Please, Mina," Marcus groaned. Was he pleading for her to stop or to do more? He wasn't sure and that sent a bolt of fear throughout his body. Mina was like a sister to him, the wife of his boss and brother by choice. Surely Vergil would kill him if he knew Marcus was fantasizing with Mina riding him like a pony?

However, his growing dilemma was cut short when the female vampire in question released him and stood up. Her molten silver eyes fell upon the Yakuza, and she charged at him.

Marcus' sight filled with black spots as his legs trembled, making him grab the chair in order not to fall. I guess she took a little more than she promised to.

"Free my nephew from the cage while I deal with this motherfucker." Mina's telepathic command pushed inside his mind. His head lifted to the ceiling where the cage with the sniffling demon baby hanged, but even that simple movement made the world spin around him.

"As soon as this fucking dizziness passes. You took too much."

"No, I didn't. You aren't unconscious."

He wanted to be angry at her comment, but the light headedness and weakness prevented him from gathering the necessary energy.

Marcus stumbled to the chair where Mina was chained earlier and sat to watch everything unfold before him. A little voice inside his mind insisted on calling him a pussy for letting women do his job, one of whom was pregnant, but after his blood donation to the cause, he needed a break. At least until his legs could hold his weight once more.

He witnessed in awe how Mina threw a gust of wind at the Yakuza, which made him stumble, and then morphed her body into a swarm of bats that began biting their enemy. The flying mammals' screeches filled the room before pain-filled howls mixed in, creating a ruckus that was surely heard outside.

Surprisingly enough, the screams didn't come from the monster Mina was attacking but from the one near his witch.

With his fear spiking a rush of adrenaline, Marcus shifted his gaze to the other end of the room, where Tara and the second mutated Yakuza stood. The creature was engulfed on flames while it moved around, desperate to put out the fire eating him whole. However, his woman lay sprawled on the floor as if she had taken a bad fall.

Fury flooded him. He stood and pointed the Sig Sauer at the flaming monster rushing at the door. However, before he could squeeze the trigger Mina's distraught voice barged inside his mind once more.

"The baby, Marcus! The bars repel demons, so I can't touch the cage."

His attention shifted towards the female vamp in time to witness the final moments of the first mutated Yakuza. Mina stood in her humanoid form behind the creature while she held a katana covered in golden light in her left hand as if she had delt her enemy a killing move and was waiting to see the results of her bloody labor. Seconds later, the top half of the monster's head slid off and fell with a sickening splat to the floor. The body then erupted in golden flames before gravity pulled it to the ground.

Mina seemed as surprised as Marcus felt.

Shouts in Japanese came from outside, returning him to Earth. His mind decided to remind him of Mina's nephew at that precise moment. He pointed the gun at the chain holding the cage to the ceiling when a familiar voice barged in. The Japanese accent held a monstrous quality that he remembered well from their first encounter.

"Well, well, well. The clown brought a girlfriend to the party and managed to kill a pair of my zombies." Akito Yamaguchi's eyes gleamed and his black lips were pulled into a psychotic smile. "I'm impressed."

A group of his monster minions entered close behind him and spread around the room, caging them in while expecting their boss' orders. There were ten goons in total: six of the mutated, black-eyed Yakuza, and four of the improved, white-eyed creatures that Akito called zombies.

Their eerie gazes fixed on Marcus' group as the tension grew heavier by the second.

"Lower your gun or I'll kill your freakish girlfriend," Akito commanded with an evil grin on his dark lips.

"Don't do it, Marcus," Tara pleaded, glancing at him before returning her eyes to the enemy. Tension showed in every line of her body, even her thin tail. "This motherfucker isn't enough to kill me."

"Neither is he enough to kill me," Akito laughed mockingly as two of his zombies neared Tara, waiting for orders. "He already shot me with his toy and I'm still alive. That gun isn't enough to put me in the ground permanently."

Marcus' jaw locked as anger swelled in his veins at the truth in such statement. His gaze drilled into the mutant mob boss, trying to come up with a way to kill the bastard once and for all.

However, before anything else was said and done, a very tousled-looking mutant Yakuza entered and whispered to its boss something that Marcus was too far to pick up. After a second, Akito's gaze landed on Tara. "Was it you the one who set my zombie on fire?"

The woman jutted her chin out defiantly. "What if I was? You can't do shit to put it out. Sooner or later this mansion will be burnt to a crisp with everything in it."

Uneasy stares and nervous tics ran through the mutated Yakuza, but the zombies appeared unbothered by the news. It made Marcus wonder if the white-eyed monsters had no will of their own or if they were simply that stupid.

"Is that so?" Akito's voice cut through his thoughts as the bastard addressed Tara once again. The Japanese's right-hand fingers elongated and twisted to create a thicker, bigger spike with a wickedly sharp point. "Then, I don't need you."

Marcus' eyes went to Tara as time seemed to slow.

Akito plunged his appendage into Tara's stomach, skewering her until the tip broke through her back. However, not a second after, he retracted the spike, reshaping his hand back to normal while screaming his lungs out.

His men looked as stunned and confused as everyone else.

Smoke and the smell of cooked meat filled the room along with the screams. Blobs of a red-hot substance that appeared to be molten rock clung to Akito's hand and forearm as he tried to shake the thing off him. The motion only succeeded in spreading it further, melting skin and eating away muscles.

"My blood is magma, asshole," Tara rasped out. A smug smirk tugged at the corner of her lips as lava poured down her torso, burning off her clothes but leaving her skin unblemished. Her knees buckled and she fell to the floor.

Not again. Not again. This can't happen again! Not when she isn't fully recuperated from before! Marcus screamed internally in anguish. He couldn't lose Tara after they finally reunited after all those years. It wasn't fair!

Flames erupted around his witch.

However, this time it wasn't because of magic, it was because her blood was devouring the wooden floor.

Marcus' gaze went to Akito and his vision tunneled. Fury burned his veins as his mind screamed for one thing only: Vengeance.

The Italian roared and his hand pointed the Sig Sauer at the source of all his grievances. He squeezed the trigger again and again in an effort to calm the fury eating him from the inside. However, not a single bullet hit his intended target.

Eyes wide with surprise and anger, Marcus watched the Yakuza messenger drop to the ground, six bullet holes bleeding profusely across his chest. The asshole had jumped before his master in the nick of time, robbing him of his prey.

As the light vanished from the man's eyes, shots rang all around Marcus. There was no time to protect himself. No way, either. Resigned, he closed his lids, expecting his death.

It never came.

Out of the blue, wind swirled around him in the form of a thunderous mini tornado. He quickly looked at his surroundings to find Tara and Mina inside the protective air current. Thank God for small favors.

"Stop shooting, idiots!" Akito yelled over the wind's roar.

"Catch the cage", Mina said to him telepathically and jumped to the ceiling to hang from it like a bat. Then she crouched on all fours and slithered out of the tornado, looking very much like a salamander or a spider from hell.

More gun shots rang followed by Akito's booming monstrous voice.

"I said stop shooting! I need the vampire bitch alive."

Moments later, a frazzled Mina appeared inside the wind vortex holding the golden cage away from her body. "Free my nephew, Marcus. I don't how much more I can hold the tornado and we need to flee."