As My Sister's Keeper 1-2

TITLE: As My Sister's Keeper: 1 & 2

AUTHOR: © Claudia MelGregory (claudia.melgregory@gmail.com )

DISCLAIMER: Original fiction. All characters, location, and plot owned by Claudia MelGregory. Any similarities between real people, places, and events are unintentional ... and probably a product of your over-active imagination.

SUMMARY: Only a thin veil of ignorance, separates the world of the Normals from the Supernaturals that walk among them. But that might not last long. Not when an imprisoned Ancient bent on revenge has been released. Ariel and Uriel are determined to put down the threat. But It'll take more then the Seoul twins, to stop him. The Powers That Be devise a solution which may prove as deadly as the Ancient.

DISTRIBUTION: Hell Fire Dreams

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, what is there to note?

WARNING: Dark fiction- Horror. Sexual Content. Blood-play. May have BDSM Content Strong. GLTBH and Inter-sexed themes situations, and characters. Violence. More Violence. Brief but disturbing imagery of sexual violence.

THANK YOU: To my wonderful partner/significant other, SweetGirl who is not only patient, but who continues to unconditionally love this barbed mind, and somehow manages to keeps me grounded.

RATING: NC 17 Not suitable for reader under 18. You have been warned.

FEED BACK: Welcomed and appreciated ... but reserve the flames for hell.

As My Sister's Keeper

Book 1 of Chronicles of Armageddon

ONE

“Most of Noxxonville’s Normal residence suffered from a severe case of willful blindness. If they didn’t look they wouldn’t see and if they didn’t see they didn’t have to believe and if they did not believe then they couldn’t be harmed.
It was wrong thinkin'. But it made my life and job easier. I wouldn’t be shouting truths from rooftops anytime in the future.”

Taken from the Personal Ledger of Uriel Seoul

Uriel

The Jeep played tag with lightning bolts.

We fished-tailed down the blacktop, cutting through flood water like a river pontoon.

I rolled down the passenger window. Aimed the weapon out the opening, my upper torso following, barely fitting through the portal. Tiny fists of ice water battered my face and stung my eyes. But I put the squeeze on the trigger.

The vehicle jerked hard to the left, thrusting my ribs against the right side of the window frame. Two bullets ripped through the metal of a lamppost as my gasp of pain was swallowed by the thunder.

Oh yeah.

Scraping my offended ribs against the passenger door window, I caught the weapon before it slipped from my numbed right hand.

That’s gonna bruise.

Shard remained in sight, a dark shadow in the downpour, streaking down the sidewalk with his intended victim screaming for help, clutched in the Stynger’s grip.

I ignored the flare of agony in my right side, aiming straight ahead of the jeep, eyes narrowed on the target. My trigger finger convulsed. A clap of thunder seized my heart. My index finger squeezed in reflex and my heart flared with panic. The rounds ripped into a trash can just missing the victim’s head, exploding the can and its contents.

Too close. I closed my eyes, swallowed my horror. Hand trembling, I almost let the weapon slip from my grasp on purpose. That was too close.

Don’t shoot the girl. Don’t shoot the girl, Damn-it!

“Take the shot!” The order bounced around in my brain like a yell.

The jeep skidded into a left turn, slid sideways down the street and lucked into making a right.

“What’de hell do you think I’m tryin’ to do, Ariel? Masturbate?” Stupid bitch. “Stay outta my head, damn-it!”

I aimed once more, hand shaking like a virgin trapped in a room full of drunken of ex-cons. I frowned, lowered my weapon, tapped into what I was sensing from the rundown neighborhood and then swore.

We’d chased the bastard right into an area populated with Normals.

Lightning ripped through earth, parting the black-blue sky, too close, zapping grid lines and hurtling lampposts to the ground. The jeep shuddered as it skidded around falling obstacles.

Catching sight of the Stynger, I touched the trigger again. Shard glanced over his shoulder, placing the girl into my line of fire. So that once more panic rippled through me.

“Goddamn it!” I let off the squeeze. “Would'ya be still!" I shouted my frustration and panic at the fleeing target, "so I can shoot your ass!?” My breath quickened at having once again almost shot the Stynger’s intended victim.

"He'd probably oblige you," I flinched from my sister's disparaging tone, "if he could actually hear you over the storm." My stomach plummeted at the irritation in her voice,"Take the god-damned shot, Uri. And quit stalling.”

"Screw you!"

I leaned precariously from the vehicle window, trying to align the shot once more while ignoring the throb in my right side. But the Stynger moved in dizzying weaving patterns. The treacherous blacktop beneath the jeep’s tires loaned aid to Shard’s progress.

“Shoot! Before we lose him.”

“I can’t! I’ll hit the girl.”

“It would be a mercy. Now take the damned shot.”

"Stop pushing me!" I yelled at her, mind to mind.

I exploded in a stream of expletives, ducked my head and arm back into the jeep, dripping rain water on the upholstery. I grabbed a towel from the back seat, and dried the sub-machine gun, a Czech Republic Skorpion vz 6. I glared at Ariel’s profile, but her gaze was fixed on our pursuant.

“I ain’t gonna be responsible for shootin’ a bystander.” I'm not like you!

Ariel’s tied back hair, revealed the clenched jaw, a right narrowed eye of frost green. Sharp teeth clicked together. I flinched, but there’d been no yelling. A good sign.

“Alright then.” Her concession raised my suspicion. “We'll have better luck on foot.” The soured tone was acid. Alarms roared in my brain. Ari’s right hand left the steering wheel and grabbed the gear shift.

"Ari whatever you..."

“But first...” Her ominous words barely spoken—Scabs dashed from between buildings and cars. Scabby shadowy forms, with squid-like tentacles, headed right towards the jeep. “You might want to hold on to something, Sis.”

Ariel popped the clutch. The gun fell to my lap. My right hand pressed against the dash to brace as she whipped the jeep into a tight spin, taking out Scabs, as though they were bowling alley pins.

I held on to dinner, pressing on my belly with my left hand. The world transformed into a whirl-a-whip ride, and the jeep one of those spinning cup things at the fair.

Scabs thudded against the hood, the door, the roof giving off high pitched squeals. They broke apart, tentacles flying everywhere. Thick, green sludge coated the windshield and then washed away by the deluge of rain.

Ariel braked, hard, scraping and squealing tires. I managed not to scream. She whipped the jeep into a vacant spot against the curve.

“All clear.”

I grabbed up the antique sub-machine gun from my lap, the nickel finished glinting like blue steel under streaks of lightning. I grasped the door handle, praying the merry-go-round in my head would stop.

“Bitch,” I muttered under my breath.

“I can hear very well, you know.” Ari’s door opened and then closed with a violent slam.

Damn-it.

I dashed from the jeep, sloshed down the middle of the flooded street. Shard had covered a great distance, and was now just a speck ... but enough of one, to keep him in sight and see him tear into an old house.

My long stride came in handy. But I barely kept up with my sister's quick and agile limbs. I was winded by the time we reached the house.

There was no time to take a breath. My mind sang a sharp tune.

The girl. Get to the girl.

Two Scabs barred the way. I ducked beneath a grabbing tentacle; certain Ariel could handle the Scabs alone.

“I’m going in.”

At the foot of the steps, I felt another surge of panic. Froze. A shiver of fright rippled down my spine.

Someone’s pissin’ on my grave.

~He’s coming.~

The words, confusing. I had no idea what that meant. Except the voice was back ... not Ariel’s. His. I shivered ... unable to move.

Who's coming?

~You're not ready.~

“Uriel!” Ari snarled at me from behind, already engaging the two Scabs, keeping them from my back. “Uriel Wait!”

The sound of my sister's voice lifted my paralysis. Eyes, trained on the door, I didn’t as much as peek over a shoulder.

“I’m going in!”

TWO

“I often questioned in those early days if I’d ever get used to death’s many faces. I could kill so easily but the victims of others...”

Taken from the Personal Ledger of Uriel Seoul

Two blended voices of shrieks and wails came from within the house. I charged up the rickety porch, leaping over a broken plank.

“Shard!” I kicked the door in with a massive foot, startling the occupant as I crashed through the condemned structure. “Let her go.”

The now lifeless victim slumped to the floor, half the face missing. Shard’s dull grey eyes stabbed at me with fury.

I aimed the sub-machine at the creature, the face mostly human except for the pincers extending from the sides of the jaw. The upper torso, resembling that of a human male’s was covered with a short coat of toxic coarse black hairs, which covered his chest and the scorpion-like arms.

I stared at the corpse lying at Shard’s feet; my stomach lurched. I glared up at the Stynger, jaw clenching hard enough to ache. But Shard had disappeared into shadow. My eyes strained to see through the darkness.

I ducked.

A broken chair whizzed over my head. I dove to the side, slammed against a cracked wall of plaster as the huge scorpion-like tail lashed out. Its stinger slashed through my coat and shirt, just grazing the skin of my back.

Sonuvabitch!

I bit down on my tongue to keep from screaming. Blood filled my mouth. Just a scratch but it stung like hell.

Shard skittered across the floor, keeping ahead of the rounds I emptied into the walls.

The Stynger disappeared once again. I stopped firing to listen. Nothing. Just the sound of my breathing. No movement, no scampering. I aimed blind at the ceiling, fired twice and then dove across the room to land belly down on the floor.

Shard shrieked and fell from his perch on the ceiling. He skittered across the floor and struck the wall, making a large hole in it. His lower torso free and upright, the eight spider-like legs pushed for leverage and freedom.

I rolled out of the way, in time for the tail to crush through the rotted flooring where I had lain. Wood shards exploded. Splinters struck my face, just missing my eyes.

I was on my feet again, back stinging like fire ants were having themselves a picnic of flesh. Green ooze seeped from the bullets holes, in the creatures back where the rounds had passed through. I took aim.

Shard rose. Spun around with whip-like precision. I leaped over the swiping tail. The Stynger lunged for me, almost drunkenly now from loss of life-fluid. My right hand rose of its own accord and with a sweeping gesture released yellow flames from the tips of its fingers. Shard's ear-piercing anger and pain fueled shrieks were like thousands of nails raking down a chalk board.

“Shard! You are under arrest for treason.”

He lunged again, face still alight with fire.

Wailing his fury, the Stynger brushed blindly at his chest with his pincer like hands. Fine black urticating hairs fluttered into the air on a direct path towards my face.

Dancing backwards, and to the right, I avoided the skin irritants and let out a yelp when a misstep sent my foot through broken flooring. My leg followed, scraping the sides of the hole. The limb was wedged in tight. Shard lurched blindly across the floor flailing his tail in every direction.

Frantic, I yanked at the boards which had trapped my leg to just above the knee. Instinct again, driving me, I dropped forward, awkwardly pressing the freed parts of my anatomy to the floor. Bits of broken board stabbed into my leg. Shard’s tail whipped frighteningly close over my back.

I righted myself, aimed at the burning head and fired twice. Shard dropped shaking the floor with the thud. I fired another round at the reflex whipping of the corpse’s tail, blowing the stinger away. It flew across the room. The rest of the tail thumped to the floor at Shard’s side.

“So much for taking you in for judgment.” Still hopped on adrenaline, I ripped the floor boards away, freeing my bloodied leg. My jeans were ripped and tattered up to the thigh. I couldn’t waste time. I hurried over to the victim’s corpse.

The face was already reforming, growing pincers. The dull grey eyes had opened. Shard’s intended mate was about to rise. I fired a single round into the brain before the woman could complete the resurrection. I fired the second shot through the heart, looking away from the body’s second death rattle.

I drug the woman’s body over to Shard’s corpse, and then grabbed a pair of tongs from my coat pocket. I found the stinger and using the tongs, tossed it onto the pile.

“Consume.” The word was but a whisper from my lips. Blue flame immediately engulfed the corpses, doing no damage to the floor beneath them but rendering Shard and his victim a pile of harmless ash.

My back was giving me a fit. A vibration shook the room as something huge hit the side of the house. And then several more somethings struck the front outer walls.

Oh shit.

Like a jolt from a small cattle prod, my spine stiffened. “Ariel!” Arms extended, gun in hand, I limped to the door, certain that I had splinters the size of daggers in my leg.

I barely had time to duck aside. I flattened my body against one side of the door frame as the broken Scab body sailed through the door. It struck the wall and exploded on impact, raining Scab pieces through the room. I pitched over, gagging from the stench.

When I righted myself, I stared at the six bodies littering the porch, none of the Scabs moving. Heads missing from all but two. And those two had gaping holes in their throats.

My stomach trembled. I leaned against the door frame, staring at my sister, standing at the bottom of the steps, not a scratch in sight. Beads of water dripped down the slick back hair. There was a frightening ferociousness in her eyes. Ariel had always been the better killer between us.

I couldn’t wrap my brain around the power she could wield. She'd been so different since she came back. Hell, even I've been different ... infected by association, it would seem. She hadn't really spoken about what had happened to her. And that frightened me, because there had been a time when there was no such thing as secrets between us.

“Where did these others come from? There were only two, when I rushed the house.” I couldn’t keep the defensive tone out of my voice. I shouldn’t have charged the house alone.

“They had friends.”

Attempting to hide the fierce agony in my back, I watched weakly as the bodies were drug into the house. From where I stood in the door frame, I called on the consuming flames—the Scab bodies were taken just as the Stynger’s and his victim’s had been.

“We’ll have to go back for the others you ran down with the jeep.” It was an unpleasant thought. I wasn’t looking forward to the search and retrieval of Scab bits. But containment came with the job.

“Call it in.” I cringed from the frost in Ari’s voice.

I sat humbly on the top porch step. I removed the link from the pocket of my ruined, coat. Fat splatters beat at my face, punishing me. I tucked the link in my ear and tapped the button.

“Link one.”

“Hey H.B. It’s Uri.”

<Productive evening?> The smile in my brother’s voice was a comfort. I leaned my head against the porch column, wishing he was with me instead of Ari.

“Shard's dead. Damn Stynger refused to surrender. Contact the Monitor. Tell her to let the Cabal know their little problem has been eradicated.”

I bit off a grunt when shifting caused fire to lance up my back.

“Dog-tired and Done in. No more roaches to stomp, I hope?” And I truly did hope. I had my own priorities, pain relief, now being high on the list even as the second made its urgency known. I shifted, pressing my thighs together.

<All’s quiet for now, sissy.> His deep chuckle rumbled in my ear, a warming sound. <Ari and I got some sweepin' to do later. Nothin' the two of us can't handle.> He always made me smile. <So have fun. And get some rest.>

“You too.” I tucked the link back into my pocket.

“You were hurt.”

I whipped around and immediately regretted it. A grunt tore from my lips, face twisting with agony.

“Just a scratch.” Voice strained, I waited for some of the agony to recede. I wasn’t sure who I thought I was foolin’. Two eyes, one frost green the other ice blue, illuminated by a streak of lightening, narrowed at me. “Nothin’ aspirin won’t cure. Honest, Ari.”

“I’ll get the car.” The tone was clipped, the footsteps light as she descended the porch steps.

“I’ve got a date.” I felt a stab of cold, the moment the words left my lips.

“You can cancel it. Or delay it.”

Ari’s expression had gone from irritated to cold. And I felt the urge to crawl under something and hide.

“We need to purge that venom.”

I cringed, knowing exactly what she intended.

"And your leg’s a mess."

I nodded, miserable, understanding the rebuff in that tone, and what it was telling me without actually saying, it. I didn’t wait for her to point out I’d been reckless

I lowered my eyes. “I wuz too late to save the girl.” I held my breath, waiting for the scathing reply. She had perfected the art. Just a word. Sometimes it only took a look and I was undone.

“We ain't gods, sissy.” I released the breath I’d been holding and glanced up at the softening of her voice. “We have a lesser calling.”

A small smile graced her features. In the dark, against the backdrop of jagged lightening streaking the sky for seconds at a time, so that each seemed like moments of daylight, Ariel’s bronze skin had the fine sheen of finished wood. And in that moment she didn’t seem so intimidating—as godly.

“You mean pest control?”

Her brow arched at that, almost as sharp as an arrow’s point. Her rare laughter was genuine. “That about sums it up.”

The car ride home was long, with me stretched out in the back on my belly, well not quite stretched out; there was barely room for the position with my long frame, in spite of the special modifications to the vehicle.

The flash of a crack of lightening lit the inside of the jeep. The sound of splintering and then a loud crash, most likely a tree, was jarring.

That sounded close.

~He’s coming.~

My heart quavered as the voice whispered the warning. I knew I should tell Ariel. But I was afraid. Afraid of being locked up again.

Tension filled the confines of the jeep, touching me with a buzz at the base of my skull. I lifted my head, a paining move, peered in the rearview mirror to spy a frown marring my sister’s brow.

“What is it, Ariel?”

Please, let it be nothing we need to deal with tonight.

“Nothing that needs your concern.”

Nodding, even though the gesture could not be seen, I lay my head back down and tried not to think about the pain. Tomorrow was another day. Ari would be training me to hunt something else that needed killing, but the half devoured face of Shard’s victim would stay with me a while.

Someone else I had failed.

Chapters 3-5

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