The man lunged at me before I was even done sizing him up, a blur of flesh that darted past me and tore through my side with sharp claws that put his sister's to shame. I staggered away from the blow, blood gushing geyser-like from the four gashes in the side of my corset, only to fall right into the path of the next as the man circled me. A growl rising in my throat, I locked on to his barely visible form with determination, and when his massive talons lashed out at me again, I caught him full-force in the throat with a punch he never could've seen coming.
He flew straight back into the side of the shelving unit I'd fallen against only moments ago, and I leaped after him, my fist already heading for his throat in anticipation of the final blow. He dropped so quickly that he seemed to vanish, and my knuckles met the metal bars of the shelf instead of the malleable flesh I'd expected. I grunted, but I could only feel the noise instead of hear it as the metal twisted beneath the strength of the attack, my fist now resting in a crater of bowed steel and the bolt that kept the nearby leg of the unit secured to the floor pulling violently from its moorings to set the whole unit swaying.
A foot in the small of my back forced me face-first into the bent bars, and the instant it fell away, I threw myself to the side to avoid the attack that was sure to come. A set of bloody claws struck the steel head-on, snapping cleanly off at the base with a low growl from the man. I straightened, a set of claws all my own springing from my fingertips, but the man ducked beneath my initial attack and tore through my stomach with a fresh collection of talons.
The old wound there ached, my still-growing liver throbbing beneath, but I didn't let it slow me down. Adopting the speed he so seemed to love, I dashed around to his back, then again when he spun to face me, and stabbed the whole of my clawed hand into the fleshy surface just to the right of his spine. Angling my nails upward upon entry, I aimed to rip through as many of the bastard's organs as I could, aiming for a quick end to this stage of the battle; but before I had the time to destroy as much tissue as I'd have liked, before I'd even had the time to savor his pained half-screams, I felt a new set of claws hurtling toward my back.
With my hand still inside the man, I whipped around and forced him in front of me. My would-be attacker tore into her own brother instead, driving her claws straight into his chest, unable to stop. I watched with sick satisfaction as a wet gurgle bubbled its way out of the man's throat and his eyes rolled back into his head, and his body went limp, hanging from the willing skewer that was my deep-reaching hand. I smiled wickedly at the woman as she withdrew her hand, but any satisfaction I'd been expecting upon seeing her face quickly dissipated. She was entirely unmoved, staring me down just as calmly as before as she shook what she could of her sibling's blood from her fingers with a hard shake.
"Your daddy wasn't kidding, was he?" I said wryly, jerking my hand unceremoniously from the man's abdomen and catching him by the hair before he had time to fall far. The scent of blood filled the air around me, and I grew giddy. "You're just the perfect little killing machine, ain't ya?" For good measure, I plunged my already gore-covered claws into the man's throat and tore haphazardly through his flesh until a hard tug at his hair was all I needed to separate his head from his body. Blood was everywhere now, a massive puddle at my feet speckled with bits and pieces of tattered flesh, and the high I'd gotten from the kill mixed with the euphoria brought about by the incense of blood in my nose until I was weak in the knees.
I tossed the body and its dejected head aside, but she remained unmoved and unspeaking, merely waiting with the utmost patience until the fight was ready to continue. Her father, however, clicked his tongue from his safe spot by the boxes, waggling a finger back and forth in rebuke. "Come now, Zerakeina. That had better not be all you have to say for your dear brother." This gentle prompting seemed to be all the woman needed, as she was suddenly all bared fangs and growing claws, and she bounded across what little space separated us to begin slashing at me with those talons anew.
YOU ARE READING
A Hand in Hell
Fantasy(Femmeslash!) Vera never expected to become the stuff of legend in this small town, but she relishes every moment of her fame. "Never go near red cars," the townsfolk will tell you -- and for good reason. She drives a red Viper, and once you go into...
