Chapter 544: Rescue’s End

I won’t let it end like this!

Arc let out a scream as the monster lifted off the ground. At the last possible second, Raven appeared from the rubble on the first floor, Steven wincing and writhing as Raven finished drawing from his blood, adding her own to form an edge. The moment she had enough blood, she created a scythe and stabbed it into the monster’s leg, slicing through its protective mucus, hide, and tendons alike and pinning it to the ground.

Raven looked furious as she shouted, "You don’t get to die here, bitch! You’re mine."

At the same time, Owyn leaped down, wielding his caster rifle like a club as he roared at the abomination. He struck it so hard that its long chin slammed into the rubble while the caster rifle splintered and disintegrated. The magic pulsing through his body seemed to rip through him, leaving bleeding gashes in its wake as he pushed beyond his limits. The ferocity with which he fought was so different than when they’d sparred...

For a moment, Arc was dumbstruck before she remembered what she needed to do. Raising Smoke, she focused only on the shot. On connecting the bullet to the place it needed to go. Whenever she was fully focused on shooting, she would imagine the path of the bullet. The trail curving through the air, always an arc because of the inexorable pull of Ayther’s gravity.

She imagined it and felt sure she knew this shot would land where it needed to go. And strangely, she saw several wispy strands, so faint she wasn’t sure if she actually saw them, connect from the barrel of Smoke to the spot she needed to hit.

She pulled the trigger...

Right as Owyn, his back turned to her, stepped into the path of the bullet.

"NO!"

Time slowed as Arc saw the worst outcome play out before her imagination. The bullet, aimed right between the eyes of the monster, entering the back of Owyn’s head... the initial thud of impact, the subtle millisecond before the explosive round went off...

She’d never prayed to miss before. As far as she knew, there was no one to pray to. The nearest thing to gods in Norneau were her parents, and they refused all prayers...

But she prayed anyway. To fate, to magic, the universe...

She prayed and imagined and hoped that the path of the bullet would leave Owyn safe.

And something... shifted.

The line connecting her to her target bowed and twisted, and suddenly the bullet wasn’t about to kill Owyn, but curving around him, leaving a cut on his cheek but still striking true, dead-center between the monster’s eyes as it pierced all of the creature’s protections before detonating with a muted pop that splattered its blue blood all over Owyn.

The monster slumped, its body flopping into the rubble chest-first, its mucus layer sizzling away and somehow beginning to dissolve its own body. Everyone let out sighs of relief, and noticing there weren’t any monsters left, Arc shared a tired, victorious smile with Owyn as he turned.

Only then did she let herself pass out.

We made it...

*

Arc awoke to steady, bright light and the feeling of cool air.

She was in a hospital bed, something she recognized more from illucaster dramas than real life, since her mother, Kordia, was the best healer in the city, followed shortly by her other mother, Malzkael.

Judging by the bandage on her neck, the general soreness that permeated her, and her utter exhaustion despite waking, neither of them had been responsible for her treatment.

Slowly, she pushed herself to a seat, noticing that she could still see the unknown strings all around her. A part of her was glad this new aspect of her magic hadn’t been a dream, but she noticed there were significantly fewer lines drifting around the hospital room. In fact, the largest source of the multicolored strings was the bed next to hers.

She looked to find Raven sleeping quietly, her eyes weirdly half-lidded as she gently snored. Arc tried to whisper to her, but found her voice wasn’t quite cooperating. Her mouth felt so dry and muddy, it was like she’d gargled cement with nothing but her spit. The sight of a cup of water next to her bed gave her the remedy to her problem, and she downed the whole glass in one go before wiping her mouth.

"Raven..." she whispered, but the human girl didn’t respond. They were the only two in their room, so Arc wasn’t pressed for modesty as she rotated off the bed, setting her feet on the cool floor before giving standing a try.

She was tense and rickety as she stood, and even moreso as she made her way to the bathroom to have a look at herself in the mirror.

I look like a mess.

Her lilac hair was matted with dirt and sweat. Her eyes looked like she hadn’t slept in a week. Someone had made a cursory effort to clean her face before putting her in a hospital gown, but there were still streaks of dirt. She turned on the sink and washed her face, grateful for the warm water as she let the act of cleaning herself clear her mind.

With a little gasp, she finished with her face and turned to the shower that took up one corner of the bathroom. The moment the hot water touched her body, she felt she understood what a riverbed must feel like. The knots of tension all through her body were like stones in the flow of heat, and she found herself massaging her own neck and shoulder as she tried to sort through everything that happened...

I guess we succeeded... she sighed. Overall, she felt that the outcome was only going to get her in trouble. Owyn and Raven were safe, but her ex-grandmothers had interfered, and she didn’t know how Veng was- Veng! She recalled his staying behind after that other vampire had thrown her aside.

No longer caring that she might be in trouble, she cut off the shower and grabbed the only towel in the bathroom, drying herself and grimacing at the grime that came off her body, along with the grime she noticed on the inside of her hospital gown when she wondered if she should wear it again.

Searching near her bed, she found nothing else to wear, but before she could resign herself to wearing the soiled robe, she noticed the closets right next to the door. Opening it, she found her uniform hanging and pulled it on. It felt a little weird as the uniform whisked the stray water from her skin, part of its self-cleaning functions, but the feeling went away by the time she’d pulled her tail through the hole in the back of her pants.

After a moment of deciding what to do, she decided it was probably best to bring Raven along, assuming she wanted to come. It had been her rescue after all...

"Raven," she approached the bed. Again, the girl didn’t respond. Arc reached up, a tentative hand landing on her shoulder. Though she looked pale and cold, Raven was actually quite warm. That was the thought Arc managed to have before Raven was suddenly on top of her, a knife made of blood forming in her right hand while her left pinned Arc by the throat to her bed.

Arc was about to cry out when Raven’s eyes fluttered, and she woke up. "Fuck!" she declared the moment she noticed the situation. "You’re awake. Why didn’t you just yell at me?"

"Didn’t want to be rude," Arc gasped as Raven loosened her grip, though she didn’t remove her hand. "I wanted to know if you’d come with me to check on the others..."

"Rude is ambushing me while I’m asleep like my dad. But since I have you here..." she lowered the knife, using it to scrape aside Arc’s loose hairs as she regarded her up close. "You weren’t there when I came to rescue you..."

"Rescue me?!" Arc couldn’t help but stare at the point of the knife, a finger’s length from her eye. "We ended up having to rescue you!"

"Which you did by nearly getting your throat cut and wasting our rivalry on, what? A mere vampire?"

"There is no rivalry! You want to kick my ass? Fine! I’m right here!"

In a flash, Raven reabsorbed her blood knife and slapped Arc across the face. Then, against all of Arc’s expectations, she bent down and pressed close. Blood rushed through Arc’s body as her heartbeat accelerated to a pounding in her ears, a throbbing in her loins. Their bodies pressed together, and Arc stifled a moan.

Raven hovered so close that Arc didn’t know if she was imagining the brush of their lips together, the light scent of her skin, and the feeling of heat radiating from her face.

"I’ll beat you in an even fight, Arcine Gale. I promise I won’t lose to you, and I certainly won’t lose to him." She let go, and the moment she sat back, Arc slapped her, leaving a pink bruise on her pale skin. All that did was make Raven bite her lip and smirk. She slipped off the bed, letting her hospital gown fall as Arc blushed and looked away. "To answer your request, I’ll go with you. But first I need a shower... and you should probably take care of that."

Her eyes landed on Arc’s crotch, and it was all Arc could do to cover herself as she glared daggers at the infuriating girl.

She wasn’t about to follow Raven’s advice. She was aroused, but angry, and confused all at once. And more troubling to her was the simple recognition... that now she was interested in just where their "rivalry" was supposed to go.