Aeress

Her cheeks were flushed with heat. Her head clouded with a delightful high. The music was gentle and overwhelming to her ears. Aeress could not contain her smile as yet another person twirled her around.

Her dressed flared. Her laughs and gasps only added to the blaring melody of the crowd as it cheered the dancing on.

So many men and women took her hand, showing her a new spectacular move. She hardly had any time to process their names. All faces blurred into one joyful, friendly expression.

Her heels had somehow disappeared, and now she was dancing barefoot, holding hands with a man and woman.

The flashes of blues and reds and purple silks transformed her vision into a multi-colored pattern. Jewels bounced around necks and ears. Pearls rattled like toys.

She was offered a sip here, a bite there. So many flavors and textures. Aeress simply could not keep up, yet she was having the time of her life. The only detail which lacked was her best friend Shaya, who would have drunk any one of them into a grave.

Speaking of drunk, she had to pee...

Aeress somehow managed to slip away and find a bathroom. The place was so confusing that she feared she would never find her way back.

She was washing her hands when she looked in the mirror. Oh wow, she looked positively terrible.

She dried her hands with napkins and disposed of them.

Aeress took a moment to breathe and smiled to herself. This was definitely not what she had been planning to do: dancing with werewolves.

She stepped out of the bathroom and into an identical looking hall.

Her attention was brought to a skirmish down the hall. Two men. It couldn't have been who she thought it was?

There was a snap and one of the men stopped struggling.

Aeress felt ice cold terror invade her veins, putting her heartbeat to rest. It couldn't be him?

His brunette head turned toward her, and Aeress didn't hesitate. Turning the other way, she darted with all the speed she had.

Her suspicions were confirmed as she heard him hurling curses in her direction. It was the man she assumed dead. She spent the better of a day covered in his blood, covered in the lifelessness she believed she had caused.

She charged back into the ballroom, only to find the people in chaos. It was part two to her never-ending nightmare of violence.

Aeress flinched as liquid splattered across her face. She look down at her hands and found a crimson pattern dripping on her skin. Blood.

Fearing her tormentor was close behind, Aeress pounced into action. She ran toward the table she was seated at before with her rude passenger. If Nina was correct, their Premier was her best option which would hopefully lead to survival. With that in mind, she tried to best to maneuver between the fighting bodies.

"Help me, please!" a woman screamed. Aeress looked over to see a man attempting to hurt one of the many people who had most likely shared a dance with her.

"Don't be a hero, Aeress!" she yelled at herself, taking a tray off the nearest table. She brought out her foot and kicked it straight into the male's jaw. "Get off of her!" She slammed the object down upon his temple. She surprised herself when his eyes remained closed. The woman had already scrambled off to safety.

Aeress thought it best she did the same.

"Aeress!" a voice roared above the rest. She turned to find the asshole himself across the room, miles away, yet at that second he was the most beautiful sight. His black attire was darkened by blood, as was his lovely pale skin.

"Hey," a voice whispered from behind. Aeress turned out of instinct. She regretted it instantly as his knife pierced her stomach, plunging his blade into her body without mercy multiple times, a grin on his lips.

"No one escapes Jonah, sweetheart."

Her eyes widened and she could not believe he had lodged the weapon into her stomach until he savagely ripped it out, her skin and insides giving close to no fight. She was silent as a ringing overtook her head and felt herself drifting.

He shoved her body away, vanishing. Like mist in the night.

She expected to meet the ground, yet fell into another set of arms. Their lips connected. Her body steadily released her life force, most of it already gone, but there was also another sensation of bliss, of being complete, of being happy.

Her eyes looked up to find those pretty blues. "What's your name?" What a strange question ask when one was dying. Blood spilled from her lips. That wasn't good. Being stabbed was the worst part. Then, all she could feel was the stream of blood seeping from the gaping wounds.

There was nothing else to do. There was no saving her.

What a pitiful, painful way to die.

His eyes widened with shock. And then with despair. "Warrick." How nice his cadence was.

She reached up and laid a bloody palm in his pretty copper locks. "Fitting for-" her joke was cut off as she coughed blood onto him, "sorry about that. And the BLT too." Okay, so she was delirious at that point.

He shook his head in denial. "You talk too much. Fuck the BLT. You are going to live. Just hold on."

Aeress cried when he attempted to lift her body off the ground. "Please, don't. It hurts!" she began to cry. So she would not die bravely, not calmly. "Shaya, she's doesn't know where I am. Oh god, not here. I should be home. I don't want to die here..." She was gasping for breath, even as her vision began to fade. Everything went blank. Everything was shutting down. Her tears wouldn't stop.

Her heart was struggling, falling like a lump of laundry on a concrete floor. It sputtered, fluttering in her chest with the delicacy of butterflies.

He caressed her face with the most gentle touch. Warrick was warm, even when his nature was just the opposite. "You can't, goddamnit! Not now when I've found you."

Her eyelids were heavy. But not with slumber. She had slept quite well already. No, this was a door to death.

She didn't want this! But there was no more energy within her body which allowed thinking, which allowed struggle.

"No! Don't!" he shouted as she could no longer hold on. Her eyes fell closed. The last image was his face twisted with grief. How haunting and sorrowful it was.

Her eyes slammed back open. Images flashed past with sharpened blue hues. Everything was in fast forward. Never had she been so aware and disoriented at the same time.

She wasn't controlling her body, not as it came to life with a hunger which made her skin itch. It was rather like she was in a shell, watching the scene play out as she was chained to an invisible chair. "What is happening?" she demanded, but her lips did not move. Her voice was an echo inside her skull.

She was standing, towering over the Premier, Warrick. This was not the height she remembered having.

This was not the actions of a dead body. But she had passed away. She felt it happen, the loss of everything.

Only to be slammed back into a reality which was foreign to her, one which she could not control.

Warrick was trembling with amazement and fear beneath. What did he see?

Aeress sensed another presence in her body. A dominating, overflowing dominance. They were in control. It was a creature, a demon. An almighty power which gave her a shiver.

And the demon was hungry. Demanding something out of a horror story.

Aeress could do nothing but watch. She felt like a puppet controlled by the most dangerous puppet master.

They seized Warrick, and Aeress felt a replete claiming over this male. He was hers. Her to love. To fuck. To adore. To mate.

Aeress couldn't differentiate what her thoughts were and what were of the creature.

The creature sniffed down his neck, and he did not struggle. He wouldn't dare. She bit into his neck without warning. Again he did not fight.

She could taste his blood and relished in the sweet nectar it was. She held on, bruising him.

"Justice," the foreign soul whispered with Aeress's lips, "justice I will have." Her voice was as deep as a males, yet she had a feeling this spirit was feminine. It carried an ominous promise. This was an ancient power.

Aeress wanted control but found it impossible to obtain. How could she when she was still so cold?

Warrick said nothing as his own eyes began to glow. He was not angry. He appeared proud. This pleased the demon. The deity of sorts.

"Stay here," the demon commanded, putting Warrick back on his feet. How the demon managed to do this was a wonder to Aeress. She had never been able to lift more than the occasional heavy box before.

Aeress looked down at her body as the creature turned away from him. She screamed at the blue, glowing skin. It was dark, glittering with black in certain harder places. She had claws. Her body was different and the same, ceaseless when compared to even the tallest present males.

'We are beautiful' the demon whispered. 'And we will have justice."

Aeress wished she could close her eyes to the next events.

She grabbed blades, and moving as a dancer would, and she slashed through countless men and women, the terrorists. She had a knowledge like no other. She knew who to punish, who to end, quickly or slowly.

Aeress had never viewed so much carnage in her life. Movies did not prepare her for this.

Person after person. They were of no obstacle. The demon refused to grant mercy. She did not recognize it's definition. Her teeth ached to obtain her obsession with vengeance.

Her strength was boundless as was her ability to bring death upon those souls whom could not be saved.

She enjoyed it. She loved it with every fiber of her being. Bringing justice was the purpose of her entire creation.

There was screaming. There was death. An endless stream underneath the swipe of her blood. She was dripping in it, the life of her victims. Because they were reduced to what they created: victims.

There was no thought, not even impulse. It was a routine. It was as natural as breathing. She never tired. Not once did she pause.

She would not rest until her thirst was quenched, and that did not come often, not in her existence.

Not until there was silence did she stand upon the pile of bodies she created. A limb here and a limb there, it didn't matter to her. She tore them to shreds, feeling as their bones cracked and their tendons snapped. Blood sprayed and spilled.

Oh, what a beautiful sight.

"Aeress?" She snapped from her daze and focused on what was hers.

"Let me speak with Aeress." He was respectful, he must have known she expected nothing less. Aeress was silent after what she had just experienced. Whatever it was. The demon could sense her terror and did not enjoy it. That was surprising.

"I will return," she spoke to Aeress and Warrick. And then blackness.



Black Lives Matter.