“I wonder what species were used to create Amane,” I blurted out. “I’ve never seen anyone like her, even among the Faulties.”
Kallisto overheard me, giving a quick look over the shoulder. “I don’t think anyone besides Ta’Zan knows,” she replied. “We all have Draenir genes at the base, which account for our skin texture and ears, for example,” she added, pointing at her elvish ears. “They also represent the core of our cognitive and physical functions. I don’t know much about the original Draenir, though. Ta’Zan kept the archives to himself, and we never really got to interact with them. Given that the plague was roaming freely and picking them off, one by one, Ta’Zan kept us away from them.”
“I understand. But did you ever ask him about Amane? About any of you?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yes, but he always changed the subject. He kept it vague, saying he used various genes from different animals. With most of us, we were able to guess. I think you, yourselves, have recognized some of our features during previous encounters.”
“Some reptilian scales, fangs, and claws here and there. Some of you have thick, almost stony skin and horns. Others have fur and claws, similar to the big turquoise felines we’ve seen by the shore,” I said. “I can definitely see some of the sample creatures he used, for sure. But they don’t explain your abilities. Like your scream, for example. Where does it come from?”
Kallisto shrugged. “I have no idea. I discovered it by accident, during my first week alive. I was cornered and bullied by other Faulties. It got so painful, I had no other choice but to scream, hoping someone might hear me and help me. It was so loud and at such a strange frequency, it made their ears bleed, and I was able to get away. They stopped bothering me after that,” she recounted, smirking.
“What about Amane’s ability to sense other Perfects? Do you think it comes from an animal or some other humanoid species, maybe?” Rose interjected.
“I think Amane is the only one who can tell you. I imagine she knows. She’s smarter than most of us. Well, both her and Amal. They’re both brilliant. I guess it’s why they worked so well with Ta’Zan, and why he wants Amane back,” Kallisto replied, then chuckled. “I’m amused by how my brethren think they can actually catch her. She’s out of their league, and they’re too desperate to succeed.”
“All this desperation, and for what?” I asked. “To get back to the guy who kicked them out?”
My question was more or less rhetorical, but Kallisto didn’t seem to notice. She exhaled as we continued to tread the soft ground of the jungle, getting closer to the mountain.
“It’s fanaticism,” she explained. “We were all raised and conditioned to love and obey him, until death. I think I was able to break free with Araquiel’s… rude awakening. But most of the Faulties never break free. They’ll continue to loiter around Ta’Zan’s colosseums. They’ll keep trying to find a way back in. We’re still in the early days, though. Today, it’s bringing Amane back to him. Yesterday, it was capturing you. Tomorrow, it’ll be something else.”
“We have to bring them over to our side,” I said. “We could use their feelings of abandonment to make them see what kind of person Ta’Zan is. Start a mutiny, like you suggested.”
Kallisto thought about it for a moment, then scratched the back of her head. “Yes. To be honest, any Faulty could experience a change of heart when they’re around you,” she replied, wearing a half-smile. “I learned more about my self-worth from tailing you and your group than I did in all my years with Ta’Zan. The way you treat and talk to each other… it befuddled me at first, until I realized that this is how you are among yourselves and with the rest of the world. You’re all kind and accepting, supportive and forgiving. Even though some of you are clearly superior, genetically speaking.”
I found myself blushing again. One quick look at Nevis, and my face nearly melted off. There was a darkness in the vast blue of his eyes as he looked at me. He seemed convinced that Kallisto was referring to me. But I was a nobody. Kailani was a powerful witch, and she was only going to get better and stronger. Hunter could tear a creature apart without even bothering to shift—once he went white wolf, however, it spelled nothing but death for his opponents. Ridan was a friggin’ dragon. Ben had come back from the dead. Rose had seen and lived through plenty—defeating the Ancients being just one item on her list—and her experience alone could put us all to shame. Vesta was one of the most impressive fae I’d ever come across, with superb command over all four elements. Zeriel, despite his playful nature, was as fierce as they came, and was practically unmatched underwater. Nevis… Well, the Dhaxanian prince had the ability to freeze anyone and everything. Granted, the Perfects and the Faulties were able to break through his ice, for some reason, but, still, he was phenomenal. And Dmitri—
“I mean, look at Dmitri,” Kallisto added, breaking my train of thought. “He’s a half-wolf but cannot turn.”
“How do you know I can’t turn?” Dmitri said, both offended and alarmed.
Kallisto smirked. “You would’ve shifted the moment you ran into the Perfects, back in the colosseum,” she replied. “I can smell the animal in you. I can almost feel it. But you’re unable to let it out.”
“Not yet,” he retorted, keeping his chin high and his jaw locked.
“In a way, you’re a Faulty,” Kallisto said. “You’re a hybrid, after all. Yet, your team loves and supports you, no matter what. You give it your best. I mean, I’ve seen you in combat. You hold your own very well. Where your wolf nature is unable to deliver, you compensate through inventiveness and physical strength.”
Dmitri was quick to let go of the offense. His cheeks blossomed pink, and his gaze darted around from one team member to another. My heart swelled to see him like this. More often than not, we all knew that he underestimated himself, feeling as though he wasn’t enough, somehow. But Dmitri was fast and strong. Yes, he was incomplete as a wolf, but he had one of the best damn noses to ever come out of The Shade, right up there with Avril and Hunter. He was determined and stubborn, and he didn’t let anyone or anything get in the way of his objective.
“I think she’s complimenting you, buddy,” Hunter muttered, slightly amused.
“I am,” Kallisto said, smiling. “Like I said, I’ve learned to at least try to be a better version of myself just by following you around. I can only imagine what you could accomplish with a few more of my siblings on your team. If you treat them half as nicely as you do your weakest,” she added, once again nodding at Dmitri, “then yes. I think you can get some Faulties on board.”
It hit me then that Kallisto didn’t pick up on social cues. She’d repeatedly pointed at Dmitri as our so-called weakest link, but it wasn’t meant in a derogatory fashion. She was just being brutally honest. Judging by Dmitri’s mixed emotions of irritation, pride, and amusement, he’d understood the same about Kallisto, as well.
“I wish this was useful, though,” Rose mumbled. She took out one of the blood vials and popped it open—only to get the same result, as the crimson liquid instantly turned to red smoke. “The moment it’s out, it’s gone. My guess is they can extract it directly from the vein, but it expires rather quickly. Perfect blood is useless unless it’s straight from the source.”
“Whoop-tee-doo,” Elonora muttered, then resumed using her True Sight as she looked ahead for Amane.
“We’ll have to make do with that,” Rose said.
Branches suddenly cracked behind us.
A split second later, we all heard a familiar voice.
“There you are!” Araquiel said.
My body bucked, tension jamming my muscles and stiffening my joints. Fear and rage instantly burned through me, making my veins swell with the rush of blood and adrenaline. I turned around, as did the rest of my team, to find Araquiel, Douma, Elyon, Oriphiel, and the other four Perfects we’d dealt with earlier, standing thirty feet away. How the hell did they keep tracking us?!
Dammit, and the vial blood doesn’t work.
r />
Moonlight breached the overhead tree crowns, casting its bluish hue on their iridescent skin. They’d fully recovered from Amane’s traps. It gave me the creeps to see them standing, in fact, after having witnessed their literal slicing in half.
For a second, I thought I was having a bad dream. But I wasn’t.
This was real. The Perfects had caught up with us.
Dmitri
I’d already gone through a whirlwind of emotions over the past few hours. I was worried sick about my brother, clinging on to the hope that he was still alive and just a prisoner of Ta’Zan—because I couldn’t deal with the idea that he might’ve died. I just couldn’t.
On top of that, we had a very blunt Kallisto with us, who unwittingly pointed out my physical inadequacies, compared to my teammates. It was difficult to hate her for it. Despite her bull-in-a-china-shop-type statements, the Faulty actually meant well, from what I could tell. Deep down, I also knew that she was right. I was nowhere near as prodigious as, say, Elonora or Kailani, for example. I wasn’t even a full wolf like Hunter. But I could hold my own well enough with both Perfects and Faulties, especially now that we had the soul-eaters and retractable shields.
But dealing with another round of Perfects just wasn’t on my priority list right now. We needed to find Amane and figure out a way to get into Ta’Zan’s compound, wherever that was. I needed to find my friends, my grandparents, and my brother. Worst of all, these were the same jerks we’d fought before.
“Ugh, this is the encore that nobody asked for,” I grumbled, then drew my soul-eater and moved into an attack stance.
“This is the last time I’m going to ask you to willingly surrender,” Douma said as she stepped forward. Man, for someone who had been cut in half a couple of hours ago, she looked fantastic. “Despite your transgressions, we’re willing to escort you to Ta’Zan, alive and in one piece.”
Araquiel chuckled. “Right. You do that, Sister. I’d rather tear them all apart, limb by limb.”
“You know Father’s orders!” she said to him through gritted teeth. “Obey. Don’t upset him.”
“What’s he going to do?” Araquiel said, acting all innocent. Needless to say, he was a terrible actor. “He already knows they won’t go down without a fight. He won’t fault us if we bring them back in pieces. It saves you the effort of chasing them around, anyway.”
“And what are you doing with them again, you little worm?” Elyon hissed, narrowing his eyes at Kallisto.
The Faulty was afraid of them. I could almost smell it on her—the chemical change was obvious to my wolf senses. But she did her best not to show it. “I’ve decided they’re worth the trouble of helping,” she replied. “They’re better people than you ever will be.”
“Give them five minutes. They’ll be the best dead people you’ll ever meet.” Araquiel snickered.
“It took you less time to find us this time. How so?” Rose asked.
“We get better at our craft,” Douma retorted. “Once we catch your scent, it’s pretty hard to shake it. We learn your movement patterns as we go along and, well, here we are.”
“This shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. You are, after all, inferior,” Araquiel added.
“You just made the top spot on my kill list,” Elonora muttered, gripping her soul-eater sword with both hands. She’d started her swordsmanship training in Kendo as a little girl—it was still her favorite go-to in close combat. Few matched her in that style.
Araquiel blew her a kiss. “Can’t wait to wear your entrails around my neck.”
“Dude. That’s just… disturbing,” I replied, disgusted, then looked at Douma. “Is that how Ta’Zan makes you people? Psychos? Because, honey, that’s as far from ‘perfect’ as one can possibly get.”
“Oh, and by the way!” Elonora added, grinning. “This Faulty here, whom you need derogatory terms to describe like the arrogant idiots that you are, is more of a Perfect than you ever will be. Want to know why?”
Araquiel raised an eyebrow, while the others in his crew prepared to attack. “I’m intrigued,” he said.
“She’s open to becoming a better person. She’s willing to learn and better herself in any way that she can,” Elonora replied. “You, on the other hand… This is all you’ll ever be. A bunch of cruel and vindictive mouth-breathers with wings. Your only redeeming quality is your genetic design. It’s a shame Ta’Zan didn’t figure out a way to give you all brains to go with all that brawn.”
I couldn’t help but grin. “Maybe he did, but chose not to give it to them,” I said. “My guess is he likes his soldiers dumbed down, with the false impression that they’re smart, just so he can manipulate them to fit his needs.”
That annoyed Araquiel, but Douma was the one who got really pissed off. I’d hit a nerve.
She darted toward me with her claws out. The murderous look on her face told me to brace myself for the worst. As the fight broke out, I had no choice but to focus on her and her alone. I knew Elonora and Rose would need a window of opportunity to draw blood from the Perfects.
I dodged Douma’s first attack, then brought my shield arm up to protect myself from her second hit. Her hand came down hard, but the meranium alloy in the disc was able to withstand the impact. Only then did I notice the tiny swamp witch symbols etched on the inside, visible only when the shield was fully extended.
“You arrogant little mutt!” Douma spat, then came at me again.
To my surprise, as well as hers, Kallisto intervened. The Faulty was faster than me and was able to cut Douma across the stomach. Blood blossomed on her white silken tunic, but it wasn’t enough to stop her. However, two were better than one, and Kallisto and I held our ground against Douma.
I caught a glimpse of Kailani and Hunter teaming up to distract Elyon. It worked, and Elonora and Rose both jumped him, sinking their teeth into his flesh. Before he could even squirm, they started to drink his blood, and Kailani cast a stunning spell. It was the same one she’d used on Toris. Their little black blockers didn’t stop Kailani from using all her magic, just her teleportation ability.
With the thought of our two vampires soon to be standing on equal ground with the Perfects, I shifted my focus back to Douma.
“You know, now would be a good time to use that soprano voice of yours,” I said to Kallisto, who gave me a quick and confused glance.
“What’s a soprano?” she asked.
“Never mind!” I said, just as Douma charged us at full speed.
We swerved left and right, avoiding her hit. I managed to nick her with my soul-eater, but I needed more than one cut to slow her down. Kallisto seemed to have read my mind, as she engaged Douma directly, trying to distract her from attacking me.
It provided me with a window of opportunity. I darted toward them and cut Douma again, this time, across the back. I managed to deliver three more cuts before Douma’s leg finally shot back and kicked me right in the gut. The force of the hit was powerful enough to send me flying backward.
I was thrown against a nearby tree. I heard the wood break, as well as a couple of ribs crack inside me. I slumped to the ground, my shield retracting as I fumbled through one of my belt pouches for a healing capsule. I only had seconds, as I watched Douma and Kallisto go at it.
Just then, my blood froze. Araquiel had just knocked Ridan down, severely wounding him, and was about to deliver a potentially fatal blow. I had to do something.
“Hey! Pipsqueak!” I shouted.
Had it not been for the life-or-death vibe of this encounter, I would’ve laughed really hard at the fact that Araquiel actually responded to my call. His head shot up and turned, his blue-and-green eyes finding mine. There was so much hate oozing out of them, I wondered if one could die from poisoning just by looking at him.
Araquiel sneered as I motioned for him to come get me. I was down and wounded.
“Easy prey, dude,” I added, grinning. “You know you want to. You like it easy, don’t you?”
 
; That was enough to set him off. “Oh, I’m going to take my sweet time with you.”
He stalked toward me, while his Perfects fought the rest of my group. I had no idea what was going to happen next, especially since they were most likely once again equipped with those disruptors, preventing Kailani from teleporting us out of here.
On top of that, Ridan was down and wounded. The others were putting up quite the fight, but I feared it wasn’t going to be enough. We had to do something, and quick, if we wanted to get out of this mess alive.
Rose and Elonora had left Elyon lying on the ground, almost fully drained of blood. Based on what Amane had told us about the Perfects, he was going to recover—just not right away. So the Perfects were one guy short, too, and had yet to figure out a way to stop vampires from feeding on their blood.
Good. Now, focus on the murderous monster headed toward you.
My blood curdled as I saw Araquiel get closer. The killer expression on his face told me everything I needed to know. I had to do whatever I could, not only to survive this, but also to take the bastard down. I managed to swallow a healing capsule to help fuse my ribs back together quickly. Without it, I’d be toast.
Araquiel extended his pure white wings in a display of sheer force. It was meant to intimidate me. I couldn’t let him see that it was working. I gripped my soul-eater firmly, ready to ram it wherever I could as soon as he reached me.
“Come on, you feathery bastard,” I muttered. “You’re almost here.”
I had one of Kailani’s smoke bombs in another belt pouch. I took it out and clutched it with my spare hand. Araquiel was just ten yards away. He wasn’t kidding. He seemed confident enough not to want to rush my demise.
“Cover your ears!” Kallisto shouted, as she straddled Douma on the ground.
I gasped, utterly surprised to see that the Faulty had managed to get one over on a Perfect.