"Is that a joke? No one here can fight." Mer paused as Caelan frowned. "Maybe you, but what good will that do against a leader of a house as powerful as the Arcs? Damien's got one arm and is barely conscious, Lia has been disarmed in another manner, Neil's pretty much useless if he can't even handle you, and I'm just naturally useless."

"I can fight," Damien said as Neil crawled over to him. "And Neil can support me, but you're right, he's not a match for his father."

"I can fight as well." Lia insisted, crawling to the end of the bed opposite of them. Holding her hands out, the two remaining mages came to her and held her hands. A pulse of light magic formed Lia's lunar staff in her hands. "If I have to fight alongside vampires to keep my daughter alive, then I can pull together."

"You'll be useless in your state," Damien argued, though he said it lightly, caringly, like a brother would.

"You have one arm," Lia spat back at him, and he gave her a once over before shrugging.

"You are right. I know of a use for you." Damien didn't elaborate as they headed to the door to look out and see what was ahead of them. "I know it's not ideal, Meredith, but we don't have a choice here. If Vincent wants to destroy this place, then I will give it my everything to protect you and Natalie. I'd also rather you not come, but it's more dangerous to leave you alone."

"I can fight too," Meredith admitted, and her father smiled down at her, running his hand over her hair.

"Strangely, as I've seen. Please don't blow anything else up." Damien's sentiments followed Rush's pretty closely.

Story of her life.

After running several more corridors of vampires down with Caelan's help, they ended up in one of the training rooms. It was huge, had nothing for walls, and was empty. It was best if they wanted to fight a man of Vincent's power. No tricks here, no hiding, just four walls lined with heavy shield magic. Once inside, Vincent couldn't get out except through the door. That would leave him vulnerable, so he would have to kill them first.

It was a horrible situation, but they had to force him to fight. They also had to get him and whoever was with him into the room. Herding vicious, blood-sucking monsters into cages was not exactly her forte. Plus, locked in here, Mer would be the vulnerable one.

In the room together, Damien let out a small sigh as he walked up to Lia, and she took a step back from him.

"What do you want?" Lia demanded, and he shook his head.

"Your forgiveness for what I have to do to save your niece."

What he had to do?

Damien didn't leave a lot of room for them to ponder as he moved like lightning, sliding behind her and latching onto her neck. It startled Mer, and she had to press Caelan's chest gently and beam thoughts of 'don't' into his mind. Even though she did, it was hard to watch her father draining her aunt. In her weakened state, Lia couldn't even struggle effectively against him.

Like sludge dripping from a sewer, a gross looking black amorphous material extended down from Damien's stump as he drank from her. It wasn't until Damien pulled his fangs out of Lia that his arm had fully formed, and her aunt had passed out by then, or she was dead.

She wasn't dead, was she?

"Lia will be fine." Damien cast a small spell under her aunt, and Lia disappeared. "Stubborn and headstrong, she was insisting on a fight that she would lose. Trying to harness her power would have torn her body apart, but I can easily soak in that power from her blood."

"I'd have killed you if Meredith had not insisted that I not," Caelan spat, but Damien didn't dignify him with a retort.

"I'm still weak, but me with two arms is more helpful than Lia with all she could have offered. And all she had to offer would have killed her. The last thing we need to do is secure Meredith. If she's vulnerable I won't be able to fight well."

Well, it was a nice sentiment, time for that never materialized. The thrum of darkness weighed the room down, and they were all forced to turn to him as the vampire entered the room, his presence flooding the room with power.

Vincent Arc was terrifying on sight. There was the same cruel twist to his smile that Neil had, but clearly much more experienced and sinister. His long bone white hair put Neil's to shame, trailing down to his ankles, though it was tied tightly up at the bottom of his skull. Really, he was Neil if you put him into Photoshop and stretched him up and to the side. Vincent was of normal height for a man, but he was bulky in muscles like most vampires were. How Neil had ended up so tiny and lanky was beyond her. Vincent was a beast.

"Damien," Vincent's voice was a hiss as his smile molded to a downward grimace. "I gave you life. How dare you betray me!" His tone was deep and cruel, also a little different from Neil's whiney grating one. Aside from being carbon copies of each other's color palette, they seemed to differ greatly.

"I never betrayed you, Vincent. I conned you." Damien laughed in a horrible bluff. It made her father seem confident and powerful, neither of which he was right now. "I told a powerful man like you that I'd grovel at your feet and serve you so that'd you'd give me power. You were a fool." Damien's tone was really going to get them killed.

Could he be any more 'in your face' about this?

There was a low whistling noise, and Vincent froze, but only for a millisecond. Caelan hit the ground so quickly that being a nothing had little effect here. So plastered on Vincent's deep, murderous, blood eyes, Mer had neglected to count Vincent's personal entourage. A few vampires, only two, and a huge man who'd taken down Caelan in a powerful crunch.

The man on top of Caelan had him pinned by the throat, wrought with as much muscle as was on Caelan's own body. They actually looked a bit similar in facial structure and the way the man's black hair ran shaggily down to his shoulders. The man had elongated canines, pointed ears, and his hand had stretched in an inhuman way to pin Caelan to the ground. This man was bigger than Caelan, which was a feat, but he was also a lycanthrope.

"How foolish do you think I am?" Vincent said with a small chuckle. "Any vampire worth half his salt has a lycanthrope on retainer. I wouldn't infiltrate the main mage outpost without something to smash a Nothing. An interesting Nothing though. I think I'll keep him when this is all over."

"I'm not here to listen to the filth that spills from your lips, Vincent. I'm here to cut a gash into you for every girl I've ever seen you force into your chambers." Damien burst with more dark energy than Mer thought he had in him.

But... forced into his chambers? The way Neil treated women so violently and callously, it was clear that what she'd thought of that sentence had not been misconstrued. Vincent really was disgusting.

"Those in power can take what they want. You could have had anything at my side, Damien, yet you chose to remain in a rat hole feeding off of the scum of the earth. What a pitiful man you must have been in human life. Though I have to give you credit, you even swayed my son to betray me."

Vincent whipped his gaze to Neil who was standing only a few feet from her. They were both backed against the wall, and Damien was in the center of the room with Vincent. The last of their party, Caelan, was pinned to the floor near one of the far walls with the lycanthrope on top of him.

"What did Damien promise to give you that I did not?" Vincent asked with a serious tone. "You could have had everything at my side, Neil."

"Damien has promised me nothing," Neil said at her side, but his eyes fell away from his father's in shame. It was clear that this was something he was torn about. Mer couldn't imagine having to fight against and kill Damien.

"So be it. I'll beat the answers out of you after I'm done with your servant. Until then, play with my guards. You know them well."

The vampires came at Neil so fast that he hardly had a chance to respond. Meredith though, had no interest in standing there and taking it. While they'd been talking, Mer had been cutting the shape of the cage spell into her palm with the tip of Shiva's power. It would be easier if she didn't have to rewrite it.

Slamming it on the ground, the vampires hit it face first and hissed as they realized they had been separated from their mark. With Vincent going after Damien at the same instant, at least the stronger vampire was not preoccupied with them. Glancing to the corner from behind her wall, she saw Caelan and the lycanthrope scuffle as he managed to free himself, but it didn't look like a promising fight for Cael.

The vampires would come for them as soon as the cage fell and, as it was, it was only three sides against the wall that she could peek out of the back of.

Shiva. A small pulse answered, and she clutched her chest. I want to fight.

Expecting it to come from her chest, she was startled when it extended from her back. Instead of a blade, it was a burst of energy that she could feel as well as arms from her own body. They stretched an unfurled like fingers that had been clenched for far too long and were ready to crush and destroy their target.

Darkness, your death, your poison.

Three blades that were much longer than Shiva, thin but curved, almost like butterfly wings, extended from the left side of her body and hovered in the air.

Light, your life, your cure.

Likewise, blades, though jagged on the edges with teeth that reminded her of pointed feathers, reached from her right side and caused Neil to back away from the bright hum of their energy.

They were heavy and difficult to stand with. Even though they didn't touch her, the energy was hers, her light, her darkness, her life, her death. The weight of such a thing almost consumed her, but she managed to remain on her feet.

'Shiva is a not a weapon you wield by holding it. You will see.' Rush had told her, and he was right. Mer was useless with a blade, but she could fight if she did not need to wield her weapon. There was a strange itch in the right side of her body, like it was clawing at her to be used. Shiva felt her desires and was responding.

The wall of her cage spell fell, and the two vampires separated, eyeing her cautiously. They had not realized she was even a thing when they'd lunged for Neil, but she had made it clear she was not so useless.

I want him dead. It was a passing thought as she eyed the vampire to the right, and the energy sparked and burst from her right side. The jagged blade to the right of her face sprouted fangs that dripped as it took the form of an asp and lunged.

The vampire screeched as the fangs sank into its neck and injected all of the light energy into its body. Like she had done to Rush that one day, though on accident and with her own fingertips, it surged into its body. It was a truly harrowing, gasping, wheeze as it crackled and sparked within the vampire's body, eventually reducing it to a sizzling corpse.

Shit.

Looking to her hand, she hadn't realized that when she'd thought it dead, that it would instantly become so. Shiva was lethal, and at her inexperienced fingertips she could do way more damage than she'd expected. That poor underling had never had a chance, though if he were at Vincent's side, then that same underling had been powerful.

Lost in thought and a bit of horror, she appeared open and the other vampire came at her much too fast. It was only a fraction of a second, a wisp of a thought, and he too was screeching and smoldering on the ground. Gasping, she slid to the ground before she turned to Neil who was behind her.

He was horrified and he backed away from her. Was he afraid of her? Well, he likely deserved most of her spite from the way he'd smashed that poor girl's head into that table, but she wasn't going to sic her vampire eating asps on him.

Feeling light headed, she fell forward onto her hands. That was when she noticed how uneven her body was weighted. The left side of her was heavy and the right light. Glancing behind her shoulder, what had been three blades of light there was now one.

Double shit.

So, she'd had only three shots of whatever Shiva could do and she had just wasted two of the most powerful on Vincent's cronies. The last one of light energy she had to make count. The dark ones would not have the same effect as the ones she'd thrown prior. Light energy ate vampires from within; dark energy did not.

Damien was fighting Vincent, but poorly. With his scythe out, he took a blow from Vincent's claws to it and was thrown back only to crouch as a burst of dark magic hit his scythe. Damien had raised it to bat off Vincent's spell just in time, but it was easy to see that his grip was rickety.

Damien was still weak.

The two vampires she'd taken out had been surprised, but if she threw what she had left at Vincent, she doubted he'd just crumble and fall apart. The last blow had to matter, but as it was, she would not be able to immobilize Vincent long enough to keep him from protecting himself from the last bit of energy she had.

Mer needed Caelan.

She turned to where Caelan had been, and he and the lycanthrope were squaring off, though the dark colored one was huge. Standing, the man was easily a foot bigger than Caelan who was already pushing six foot. That made the man ghastly huge in height and muscles. This lycanthrope would not fit into normal society, and she was terrified to think of what that meant if he turned into his beast like form. Caelan like that was already terrifying looking.

Shiva, I can't waste the last light blade. Can I kill him with darkness?

Asking a blade seemed stupid, and sort of crazy, but she didn't know how to fight.

Shiva pulsed, but did not have an answer for her.

A lycanthrope was not a vampire, so she didn't know if her light energy would even kill it. From the lore she'd read, they reacted to the light of the moon, so it might well do the opposite despite them also being dark creatures.

Paul had said they were numbered as a species, which after seeing the way both this one and Caelan didn't fit in well, she understood. Avoiding notice was not their forte, and they were brutally powerful and dangerous. If hunted, they would find it hard to hide themselves.

Caelan ducked under a blow that would have shattered his whole arm, because when it hit the wall, it exploded, crumbled, and fell away. Hopefully, not an internal, load-bearing wall or this whole damn place would come down on their heads. The last thing she needed was a building doing her in. While vampires might survive, she doubted Shiva would be able to stop her from being buried alive.

If she couldn't take this lycanthrope down, she'd have to rely on Caelan to do it himself, but she'd be damned if she couldn't help. Fine Shiva, I can't kill him, but I can help, I'm sure. Let's give him a push.

Darkness stretched and exploded from her left side as it sprang forth toward her target. It battered into the wolf, who growled taking a hit to the arm, and as it attempted to turn back, it took another to the abdomen. A burst of his own magic, the lycanthrope tried to fend them off, but they likely weren't hurting him. In order to hit him, the blast had split into many, so the power was also split, but it was enough.

Caelan didn't waste the opportunity. When the other wolf turned to protect himself from her assault, Caelan went for him. The blow landed square in the wolf's jaw and hit his head hard. Just as Mer was getting her hopes up for this working, the wolf grabbed Caelan's head as he went down and smashed it into the ground. Mer let out a shriek as they both fell, and only one of them got up.

It wasn't Caelan.

The lycanthrope looked to her and let out a hideous growl as he moved on her. Lycanthropes were slower than vampires, but still dark creatures, and so he was on her faster than she could do much to defend herself.

This time she hadn't thought anything, but the dark energy on her left moved anyway to defend her. Forming into a bowl shape, it covered her front as she fell onto the ground. It unfortunately didn't last long as it took the blows from the beast. The room shook with each hit until the dark energy shattered, and the wolf plunged through full throttle at her.

~~~~~~~~~

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