The uniform groaned briefly and became rags as she burst from it, shattering seams and letting the torn fragments fall from her. On taloned feet she stepped forward, flexing her new body, growling softly, her fangs winking in the dull light.
Kira held her ground, fixing the woman with a dead stare, letting her senses keep location on the others as they started to siphon in their power, charging their bodies slowly, building gradually to full form in case they were needed. They were being cautious, suspicious; a vampire did not challenge a lupine unless they had an ace up their sleeve.
Kira jumped forward, accepting the plunging claws of her opponent as they stabbed for her heart. A swat of her forearm connected with Ghrethekk’s, deviating the assault, letting it lance past, taking a nick from Kira’s shoulder and cutting the leather with ease. The severity of the thrust crippled the woman’s balance, sending the lupine forward a step and into Kira’s upsweeping leg.
With a dull note her knee sank into the iron muscles of the woman’s gut, the supernatural power behind it lifting the adversary from her feet, her breath exploding forth as a shocked choke.
Setting loose a hateful hiss, Kira whirled, throwing an 216
arm up and bringing it down, keeping the fist to her chest so that the elbow skimmed the brow of the beast. There was a flesh-muffled crack of splintering bone and the woman was fired like a shot into the ground, the rock shattering beneath her.
From her supine position Ghrethekk sneered and kicked up, her foot like lightning, but Kira was ready for it, her eyes flashing with power, her blood like quicksilver in her veins. Her gloved hands caught the foot, holding it in a grapple and with a sidestep and a raging haul she tore the woman into the air and flung her at Sesharll.
The other lupine had been closing on her back and was caught by surprise, hardly expecting Kira to have the brawn to hurl the titanic form of Ghrethekk with such might. The woman slammed into her comrade, stripping her from her feet and sending them both into a twisted heap of arms and legs, fighting to disentangle themselves, their choler making their actions wild and reckless.
Tyorn sprang, leading with a spinning circle kick that whistled through the air. Kira could almost hear the woman’s thoughts in her skull as she whirled to face the new onslaught. Almost without looking she ducked into a crouch, evading the maiming swipe and throwing her arms up, catching the secondary attack, for the kick was a distraction, one to permit this homicidal riposte. Kira’s hands clamped to the upper and lower jaw of the woman, the long canine snout being caught and held dead in the air, unable to close, Kira’s sheer vigour eclipsing that of the lupine.
With a twist she thrust into the ground, dropping to one knee, slamming the woman’s crown into the stone.
With a brittle note Tyorn crumpled, fighting to regain her equilibrium, her battle frenzy leaving her oblivious to the injury.
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But before Tyorn could bring her legs to bear on Kira the vampiress launched a hand up. Tyorn’s eyes caught sight of the gloved bludgeon as it reached its highest point, the light refracting the leather and the few dribbles of blood upon it. The werewolf’s eyes widened in shock at the sight and the fist descended with meteoric force before she could even react.
The massive displacement of flesh snapped the woman’s dense vertebrae, bringing a violent throe from her form as all strength drooled from it, a gurgle seeping over her spasming lips, the flesh curling back to expose sneering fangs.
Standing up Kira kept her eyes to the slack form, the lupine twitching, fighting to move as her body started to heal the grievous trauma. Without needing to see them Kira could hear the two women regaining their feet, regarding their enemy with berserker bile.
Looking calmly up at them, Kira smiled, revealing her fangs on the grin, her eyes trailing small particles of glowing bloody motes in the air.
Unable to admit defeat, the two women charged together with ascending roars of animus. Kira did not flinch, the ancient blood of her kind was in her mind now, and it wanted to
rage
.
Ghrethekk flung her claws forward, the razor-edged swords whistling past as Kira dodged, stepping aside to have Sesharll lance past on her momentum, deprived of a target by the nimble and impossibly fast sidestep.
Like a coiled spring Kira launched her head forward, the extended face of the lupine accepting her brow. Teeth shattered against her skin, the enamel fracturing before the wicked impetus cracked Ghrethekk’s jaw as well and doubled her up, casting her head low and straight into Kira’s upsweeping knee. Pain flared through Kira’s leg, 218
her muscles straining at their limits, the joint almost breaking from the sheer velocity it imparted to the chest of the lupine.
Ribs snapped like dry kindling, her chest cavity staving in, crushing her organs as flabby grapes before her spine was dislocated. Ghrethekk’s body made a vertical ascent, a stream of red pouring from her mouth, marking her rise into the air.
With her descent Kira pirouetted like some diabolic ballerina, releasing a leg and slamming the side of her foot into the broken form, sending it skimming along the ground to smash into a raised boulder.
Tyorn turned and charged, both claws outstretched to grab her enemy, to stop her evasion, to defeat the dexterity that was ruining them.
Like air she passed through the natural blades, weaving in and locking her arms about Tyorn’s head. A violent spin pushed her neck beyond all tolerance and shattered the bone discs. The massive form spasmed and went limp in her arms. Kira released the indolent mountain of muscle and fur, letting it collapse at her feet.
Curling her leg up she kept her eyes on Ghrethekk and kicked down, stamping into Tyorn’s chest, committing similar atrocious carnage on the fallen warrior. Tyorn choked a stream of gore and spasmed into unconsciousness.
Reaching down, Kira trailed her gloved fingers through the blood and delivered it to her lips. Painting it on as a cosmetic, she then meticulously licked it off and rolled her digits across her palate. Shuddering from the frenzied eruption of energy through her anatomy, she walked towards the fallen form of Ghrethekk.
Ghrethekk had sagged, her body unable to quickly heal such mayhem, leaving her completely at Kira’s mercy.
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The vampiress closed leisurely in, her arms flickering with bloodlust as the soft rustling crunch of re-knitting bone and healing flesh trickled into the air about the fallen amazon.
Kneeling before the defeated lupine she lifted the woman’s fractured jaw so she could meet her eyes, their red gazes locking to each as Kira spoke. ‘Know this, Ghrethekk. Corin is mine. This disagreement is at an end. Next time we fight, it will be to the death… and it will be to yours.’ She arose to walk back to her captive; Corin’s eyes startled, her voice stammering randomly, unable to fathom how the things she had just seen had actually happened.
‘It’s okay, Corin,’ Kira smiled, touching the woman’s cheek as she remained on the ground, the whole sanguinary conflict having taken a few paltry seconds.
‘I’m here to take care of you.’
‘Bravo, Kira, bravo,’ applauded the queen, clapping her hands as she stood on a spire of stone, a bright smile spread across her beautiful features. ‘I knew it the first time I tasted your blood,’ she added, stepping casually off the precipice and dropping near to her servant.
‘Your majesty, I… I…’ began Kira, her thoughts running everywhere, unable to think of anything to say.
Was she in trouble, had she broken laws by almost killing the queen’s guests?
‘Who could have guessed that such a whirlwind of death could be swimming through these veins,’ the queen went on, stepping behind Kira, running her hands up Kira’s arms. The sensation made her shiver, wobbling on her heels, the touch of the most salacious of vampiress exquisite. It had been so long that she had almost forgotten it, her resentment hiding the sweet memory from her.
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‘You knew, your majesty?’ she asked softly, the hands moving in, pressing her against the form of the goddess, the queen taking hold of a leather-sheathed breast as another traced a finger down Kira’s fangs.
‘I suspected,’ she answered, embracing Kira as tenderly and lovingly as she had that first night. ‘When one reaches an age such as mine, you get to notice when there’s something different about the essence of mortal.’
‘You are not angry?’ wondered Kira.
‘Of course not. You had laid a just claim to Corin, you enforced your will as you did when attacked by that Asian pet. That was self-defence; this time you took the initiative. I’ve plans for you little Kira. You’ve exceeded my expectations, and I can assure you that it is no easy feat to impress me.’
‘Thank you, your majesty. But what of Corin, and my seneschal?’
‘Oh, I won’t deprive you of your one true love. I know how much you need her. I also won’t steal Corin away from you. You won her fair and square. Kitjana will just have to accept that, as have the Shadow-Angels. Though I wouldn’t count on any Christmas cards from them for awhile.’ She chuckled, stepping out from behind Kira and holding her shoulders.
‘Quite divine, and this is just the beginning, Kira,’ she stated, a secret smile blossoming upon her lips. ‘We have much more ahead of us, but that can wait for now. First, I have a little surprise in store for you, something I’ve been keeping hidden for years, waiting for this very moment. Let’s call it a coming of age present, to help you finally shut the door on an old chapter of your life before you face the new.’
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‘I don’t believe it!’ hissed Kira, a mixture of shock and long-suppressed anger spilling through her voice. Her hands clenched into fists as she beheld the sight before her.
‘The royal harem has been waiting for you Kira,’
revealed the queen, indicating the luxurious chamber, its rooms at Kira’s disposal, as were its denizens. ‘You are now monitor slave of my most prized specimens, and Corin will be introduced to your care here. You answer only to me, and will be party to the meetings of the head slaves. Thus you can wander the palace freely and attend Cassandra as you wish, providing you do not forsake your duties here.’
Staring at the three adolescent girls, chained and naked by the wall, they stared back at her with trepidation, recognising the face but unable to place it. Kira knew them though. They had not changed since the very last time she laid eyes on them, the status of ghouls keeping them perfectly preserved, resistant to the passing years.
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Walking down the musty corridors of the school, all was quiet, the students in the classrooms, neatly positioned in rows before blackboards and teachers.
Kira had asked to go to the toilet, but the relief she had to sate was a call of nature more pressing than merely urinating. Opening the door, she walked into the pristine white chamber and proceeded into one of the cubicles.
Closing the door, she threw the lock and sat down, placing her bag before her.
Her teacher had berated her for arriving late. It was a token chastisement; her exemplary record and sterling academic skill was ample compensation for this one lapse.
She had been late because of a detour, a furtive visit to a corner shop far from the normal routes she took to school. Opening her bag, she removed what she had purchased. The magazine was of a standard girlie genre, with lingerie-clad women exposing themselves lewdly for the eye of the camera. Flicking through its pages a tickle of naughtiness inspired her to misbehave further.
Delving into the bag she removed the boxed vibrator, tore open the lid and removed the albino white finger of solid plastic.
Removing a battery from her Walkman, she slid it into the toy and turned the base. It immediately started to thrum quietly to itself in her hand.
Reaching up under her skirt she opened the magazine across her lap and started to stroke herself through her 223
cotton underwear. The vibrating tip poured its oscillating kiss into her clitoris, making her panties grow humid and then damp with her desire. Her eyes locked to the glossy portraits within, dreaming of once more lapping like a dog at the sex of a nubile woman.
Turning the pages, she fixated on the images, the pleasure she was extracting turning her more towards female worship, forsaking heterosexuality, concentrating solely on her own gender. Pulling aside her underwear she started to slide the plastic rod into her tracts, thrusting it in and clamping her legs together to squeeze it. The device was alive within her, making her bite her tongue to stop herself from crying out.
The sound of the door opening made her panting breath stumble to a halt. Holding her respiration she panicked and turned the base of the instrument, bringing it to silence. With slow and silent actions she closed the magazine and put both visual and physical stimulants in her bag.
Footsteps closed in and the door suddenly erupted back as it was kicked. With a squeal of shock she jumped as the door slammed against the partition, jarring its hinges, the feeble lock falling to the floor.
The bleached blonde countenance of Sabrina was before her, the painted lips of the girl broad, her blue eyes sparkling with malevolence. The tall leader of the trio of girls that bullied her chuckled merrily and then spoke. ‘Well, well, well, if it isn’t little fucking Kira,’
she hissed as her two lieutenants emerged behind her.
‘What are you doing, bitch?’
Susan was a small vicious girl of Asian heritage, with a bob of black hair and dark penetrating eyes. Tracy had long blonde hair that was fastened back into a French plait, revealing her smiling face with eyes devoted to 224
doing exactly what Sabrina told her.
‘Nothing, I… I was,’ she began, and then reached to stop the girl as she grabbed her bag, but a stern slap skimmed her cheek, filling it with heat and dropping her back onto the toilet seat, nursing the injury, her will to rebellion trickling away.
‘We’re here to get our homework, Kira,’ Sabrina growled. ‘Have you done it, like a good little girl?’