Rush moved with his people against the Zehirs, and with the Sols at their side, the fight shouldn't have been taking this long. There was also a lack of corpses of the Zehirs he was sure he'd ended, and he moved to the sidelines to look out over the battlefield and see what was happening. There, he could make out Alpine as he moved inside of the swarm of vampires. Tide Cascade fought with him using water magic, and it was impossible to tear his eyes away from their prowess.

Both of them navigated the dark magic of the Zehirs with precision and practice. What was more impressive was how they didn't even flinch when the dark magic of a Sol pressed near their back or passed them by. They were calm fighting with the Sols and for them to instantly feel, assess, and decide the Sol magic was safe was something that could only have come with time. They'd spent more than the few weeks after the unity gathering with the Sols. That sort of natural acceptance to foreign magic would have taken months or longer.

Just how far back had Talamayas Sol been working with these mages?

Alpine and Tide worked with each other in a grace that translated into revulsion as he watched. They were allies now, but if they ever changed their minds, Rush wasn't sure if the vampires could fight that. The ground around them was a muck, dragging the Zehirs down into pits where they struggled until they were surrounded by vines and dragged down. More came at them, and Alpine's magic reached branches from the nearby trees to grab and crush them to the trunk where they tied around and held them.

Why weren't they killing them? The mage generals were isolating and restraining the vampires, and sweat trickled down the back of Rush's neck as he swept the battlefield again. There were still no corpses, and Rush wasn't liking what this was implying. Taking his suspicion with him, he leapt forward through the air and dropped next to Alpine and Tide. They spun on him at the ready but calmed when they recognized him.

"What is going on?" Rush asked, and Tide let out a breath on frustration.

"You must be narrow sighted," Tide growled, wiping sweat and mud off of his brow, and he whipped up a wave of mud to push their current aggressors off long enough to talk.

"They reanimate," Alpine said more kindly, light magic flushing under his feet as he stepped forward.

The hairs on Rush's neck stood on end as vines moved under a layer of mud in the ground under him. Alpine had a net of branches and vines woven in the mud under any of their allies in the immediate area, while any vampire that approached sank to their death or capture.

"We kill them, but they get back up later," Alpine continued. "Someone is controlling them, likely their house head, but we can't get to them alone. Direct us, and we will push through the ranks to take down the controller. If we do, the corpses will finally be laid to rest and we'll have a better idea of how many living are left."

"This certainly explains how the Zehirs have stood up to both the Sols and the Shades for this long," Rush said. "Give me a moment."

It was disgusting, but Rush pressed his hands into the sludge at his feet and sent his magic into it. From his fingers, shadow snakes dove and swam out through the wet ground in all directions. Where they found Zehir magic, they popped their heads up and tasted the air until they found what they were searching for. Tanya Zehir. She was off to the west well beyond the fighting lines. They didn't even need to break the surface of the ground to sense her potent magic.

Rush directed for Tide and Alpine to move with him as he advanced, blades in hand to fell any who obstructed his path. His men saw to the stragglers who managed to free themselves from the Cascade magic, and they made it to Tanya without much trouble. They came upon her in a secluded hollow, and more than a half a dozen men stood from where they'd been perched in her defense. The woman sat on a stump beyond them, her eyes open and concentrating on her magic, but she lifted them on their approach.

"Remus," Tanya said, a smile curling her plump lips as she ran a hand through her lilac curls. She and Lorenzo shared a taste in hair dye that he couldn't quite understand.

"Tanya," Rush replied, doing his best not to grimace.

The woman had always used her physical appeal to draw men in, and as a female of their kind, she was revered without it. That did not mean Rush had ever been interested in her blatant flashing of flesh, as she was doing now in another white crop top. It contrasted with the sheen of her dark skin, but Rush barely glanced down at her before he reconnected with her dark eyes.

If the woman had any class, maybe she would have gotten further in her endeavors. With her ability to change most men without fear of them perishing, she'd amasses quite an army, but the woman wasn't choosy about who joined her house. It was quantity over quality, while the Shades were the opposite. Sometimes numbers was all that mattered, but when the numbers were even as they were now, the one who hadn't taken care on who to change lost.

"Interesting turn of events with Talamayas," Tanya snapped with hatred rolling from her in waves of dark magic.

"You were not the only one surprised," Rush responded, sinking back into a composed stance and holding a hand back to keep Alpine and Tide from approaching. "That being said, you've lost, Tanya. All that holds your army together is you magic. Once it wanes, so too do your people that are no longer sentient. The ones remaining alive will perish after they no longer have the corpses of their friends to hide behind."

"Not before you do, Remus. Had you sided with us, this would have been a different fight." Tanya stood and the men around her prepared for a fight.

The vampires around her split, two sliding around to circle Alpine and Tide, while a few kept close to her. The mages could handle themselves against her generals. Without proper training, they were the same as the rest. Jesse Zehir was one of only a few formidable generals she had, and he was charged with leading her men. It left her open when her numbers couldn't win for her, and Rush was ready to end this woman with everything he hand. Time and again, she had threatened him and his mate, and with her fall, so would this rebellion crumble.

Light magic swallowed the vampires behind him, and Rush had to stiffen his form to keep his focus to the front. Tide and Alpine were too strong, and he couldn't combat the uneasiness as they slid back to his side and the four remaining vampires at her side growled low. Tanya had figured the weaker men with her would be enough for two mages, but they had been fodder, now wriggling behind him in vines and mud as reanimated corpses.

"Deal with them," Tanya hissed as she stood to face him. "Leave Remus Shade to me. I have a bone to pick, and I handle my grudges personally."

"We'll be fine," Tide said, patting him on the shoulder and darting back as the four remaining vampire generals moved for them.

Rush wished he doubted that while at the same time he was glad his allies wouldn't perish. Seeing mages as anything but a threat was difficult, but for now his focus was on Tanya. Her entire body channeled dark magic through her and sent it into the ground in threads that attached to each of her fallen men. It was clear by her ability to fight without focusing on them that she didn't control them as much as she gave them magic to move under an open command.

They were mindless tools or her will, and it was gruesome to inflict that on her own soldiers–her children so to speak– the one's she'd sired with her own life. How could she be so soulless about the ones who fought for her? Rush would never disrespect his fallen in such a way, and it made him itch all the more for her demise.

Unlike her weaker children, Tanya was a house head in strength just as much as any other. She was quick on her feet and darted for him, pulling out two blades from holsters on her legs. Some vampires used weapons to channel their energy as mages did; it was just not as common. Tanya was practiced with the blades as she lunged with one, parried the strike of his half-sword, and rolled around for another go. The blades were as long as her forearms and had teeth that hooked to tear through flesh wherever they hit.

Not something to play around with.

Another thrust of her blade aimed for his head hit air, and he was about to step back when something on the end of the blade swung around and hit him in the temple. Rush was forced to flush dark magic out from him blindly as he backed up and touched the crunched pieces of bone on the side of his head. As his sight returned, Tanya edged around him and he saw the chains that hung off the tail of each blade with a metal ball on the end.

How appropriate that she fought with a ball and chain when she tied them to every one of her men's ankles.

The weight on the back of the blade had been filled with her magic and it made him dizzy as he kept his spell up, creeping snakes from the ground around him to hiss as they awaited any movement. The hit had been square on the side of his head and he was having a hard time getting his bearings. It took his focus to just see her as the world around him wavered.

"An underhanded weapon for a coward," Rush grumbled as he considered calling for his men. They would come, but they wouldn't stand much of a chance against Tanya. This woman was a viperess if he'd ever met one, and she would use any underhanded tactic she could.

"There are no rules on the battlefield, Remus. The clever win more often than the strong." Tanya moved and he couldn't follow her. By the time he felt her she was at his back, and he spun around with his own blades of darkness ready for a downhill fight.

Nothing.

Dammit, she was using impressions of her power to disorient him after messing with his vision. The woman had done this before to others, he was sure, and he'd fallen into it by not assessing her weapon closely enough. An actual blade had seemed trivial to him, and he imagined many had though the same before their demise.

Her blade raked his arm, and he howled in pain, casting a dark lightning spell from his palm to push her back. Again she disappeared, and he circled despairingly. The cut down his arm had ripped and torn his muscle and left him with only one arm, just like Darius.

He wasn't going to win.

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Word Count: 1943