Hallows: Pretty Snakes & Devils

Covered In Blood

Tom Waits- Little Drop Of Poison

Carson

Phase two. I've f*****g dreaded the day she'd initiate it because it means this is all real. I mean I've never doubted it. Not even when she laughed it off the first time she said it. She looked me dead in the eyes and said she had been preparing for world domination and f*****g laughed like it was nothing and I supposed that for something as dangerous as her, it isn't.

Phase one was declaring war on anyone who wanted to keep us in the dark. Whether it was the Hunter's Chruch or the Hallows themselves. We've always known what the consequences would be and I knew the moment she had that first taste of power. Just a little would never be enough. This f*****g thing I've fallen in love with craves the power inside of us just as much as I do. I've always known that.

It was why Delilah was so afraid to let her in. Why we hid everything from her. Sweet little Belladonna Blackstone has shed what little innocence she had left and fully given in to the pain and rage inside of her. I see it in the way she walks now. The ways she speaks. How she watches every angle. How she studies and keeps all her thoughts to herself. The Fallen was never going to be enough for her. I never would have subjected her to it. Not my little monster. I knew we'd burn the world together one day from the start.

"Are you ready?" I ask her when she reaches for Eve.

"Give me a second," she nods.

"Of course," I hold my hand out so the others can step away from her. This isn't our B.B. right now. She's number one and it's hot as f**k.

"It's just you and me this time, Eve," she whispers. She's really hurt. Whatever is happening between Remy and Chance is tearing her up and I hate that I've been picking up on her mood without being able to coax it out of her. She didn't even tell Lucien this time. She doesn't trust us enough to tell us about this because of the way we all react to Chance. "You can show off for Carson this time,"

The little snake glances back at me. Her little black tongue slithers out of her mouth before she turns her attention back to B.B. I flinch when she opens her mouth and clamps down on B.B.'s neck. B.B. doesn't even acknowledge it. Usually, she comes over to me after but not this time. The snake evaporates into black smoke.

B.B. turns her head toward the smoke and inhales it. Her entire body trembles. Vic and I exchange a worried glance as we watch her closely. The skin where Eve bit her begins to turn black. I step forward to see her veins all darken. She turns to face us. Her eyes blacken, and she opens her mouth showing us her fangs. Her skin loses its color. The darkened black veins are shiny like the scales of the black mamba. They're all over her exposed skin. I've never seen them do that. I've never even seen Dante do that.

"Ready," she growls. Her black tongue peaks out when she grins and f**k me that f*****g smile is going to be the death of me.

"Jesus," Victor laughs. "This is really happening,"

"Yes, it is," Dec growls.

"Vic, you and Dylan take the rear. "B, stay behind me,"

She gives me a nod and holds out her hand for us. Team B joins hands and she takes us down to the front of the club. I tuck my AR under my arm and hold my hand out. I give her a nod so she can signal Ahsan. I walk through the front doors first and she follows just the way we practice. She hisses and the sound is answered by Stacy's terrifying screech. The mortals in the vicinity are all down. Everyone is down. I see Lucien on the other side of the dark club. The only lights are the neon strips and the lasers coming from the stage.

The butterfly materializes in the center of the room. Stacy is a completely different person now. No, not a person. B.B. has been teaching her s**t. The weird philosophy Dante has been preaching to her since she was an infant is catching up to all of us and B.B. is handing it down to the rest of us. It's giving us hope. Fueling the flames inside of us past the pain and anger we've held onto all these years. She's redirecting it to get us to do what we have to. I could never have brought us together this way. Delilah was too eager to please Dante to get us here. It was never about us or herself. B.B. doesn't have that need. She wants to be better. She wants to prove that his sacrifice wasn't for nothing. That killing Ashley meant more than just putting Ashley out of her f*****g misery.

Sure, everything that's about to happen from here on is nothing short of monstrous. The ugly things that go bump in the night are about to start conquering the light and there isn't a single thing or person on this planet that is going to be able to stop us. Not with the demon that's chosen B.B. as his champion behind us. It all starts with this. The debut of Merciful Death.

"I know you're there," Stacy growls. I've never heard her sound like that. I've never seen her wings before. They flutter behind her holding her midair as her black eyes scan the bodies for the B.B. changelings. Her teeth are all sharp. Her hands are curved into talons. "I can smell you. You shouldn't have come here, Victoria. All you've done is brought your friends to their grave,"

"You think so?" from the bathroom area, a woman steps out.

She looks just like B.B. She gets down on all fours when the light from the stage passes her, it shows a black tail. Fuzzy little kitten ears on the top of her head. Her eyes are bright green like a panther.

"Oh, that's cute," Victor growls from behind us. B.B. laughs agreeing with him.

"Baby, you would have made such a cute little kitty," Lucien growls from the other side of the club.

"That's not her," B.B. says.

The sound of claws scraping against marble makes us all flinch. A low rumbling growl comes from behind the kitty B.B. A hellhound one. Her hair is pulled up into a high ponytail. Her skin is a dark gray. Her features are sharper than B.B.'s closer to a hound than a person. Her ears are pointed. her lips pulled back into a snarl. She crouches down next to the kitten and lets out a howl.

"Aww man," Natalie laughs. "That's f*****g cool,"

The howl is answered by wolves. Four of them crawling along the ceiling. One of them launches itself at Stacy. Stacy doesn't even flinch. Before it can even touch her, Shane leaps out from under a pile of bodies catching it with his claws. The changeling screeches as the tiger rips into it claws and teeth. Several growls echo in the darkness around us revealing the other six changelings. B.B. steps out from behind me.

"There you are," she says cutely and lets out a low hiss.

"What the f**k did you do to me?" the woman mirroring her steps out from behind the other creatures. "Why am I stuck like this?"

"Me?" B.B. grins. Her tongue slithers out menacingly. "I didn't do anything to you. Not yet anyway,"

"What did you do to the blood?"

"The blood? Believe me, Victoria. If it were my blood you'd all feel it. It doesn't feel good does it?" B.B. pops away. They all flinch looking around startled. "When you're out of your element," she pops up behind her and disappears again. Whatever they taught her in Reaper Camp has paid off in a way none of us expected it to. I mean come on. When she left, she was begging us not to let her go. I know Stacy had a hard time convincing her to come back. "I told you to walk away," she's keeping to the lights. Scaring them. It's scaring me a little if I'm being honest. "I told him to leave Stacy alone and he didn't f*****g listen,"

"You brought a tiger into my jungle," the woman screams in the same bratty manner B.B. does. Her voice, the way she moves. It's almost identical. Almost. She's mirroring B.B. before she was able to tame the Reaper before she overfed the snake. It's something only B.B. does. She changes every day. She takes in information and stores it in her head. Practices it until she's mastered it and this thing while it's adaptive, can never keep up with a black mamba as strong as B.B. None of us can. She's her own worst enemy. "You killed my mate,"

"I tried to help you," B.B. hisses. "Those things would have killed everything on that island. You should have thanked us. You should have been my friend,"

"You should have f*****g bowed," Stacy growls.

"Instead you attacked us the moment our backs were turned," she looks around the room. "That is who you came to fight for," she addresses the other changelings. "That's who you will all die for tonight. I am not letting any of you walk out of here with my blood stored in your system. The risk is too big. There can only be me,"

"You've killed our kind before," Natalie points at the panther and the hellhound.

"We're returning the favor," Dylan adds.

Delilah and Ro take a step forward and fire at the wolves on the ceiling. Everything happens so fast. I go for the closest one. These things have really sharp claws and they know exactly what they're for. I wave my hand over the bodies on the floor to clear the mortals on the ground. There's no need for them to get crushed because of this s**t. B.B. wants minimal damage and we're going to give her just that.

"Go low, Car," Vic shouts from behind me.

I drop down to my knees as two of them launch themselves at us. One goes over my head and I fire hitting the second in the chest. B.B. said these things have two hearts. On in their chest, on where their stomach should be. I pull the trigger six times trying to get it to back up but it just keeps coming. I wrap my hand around its throat pushing it back to keep it from biting me. Its claws easily tear through my vest just like she said they would.

My tail wraps around one of its hands and pulls hard to keep it from clawing into my skin. I lift my legs and kick as hard as I can sending it flying. Natalie pounces on it tearing into its throat. I don't hesitate to get right back up. I rush over her and fire into its torso until it stops squirming.

"Behind you," she growls and pulls me forward. She catches a wolf one and slams it down between us. I empty what's left of the clip spinning around so my back is against the wall as I reload. Natalie squats down in front of me. "Do mine too, please," she hands me her AR. I load mine up and hand it to her so I can keep hers. "Thanks,"

"Go," I push her forward.

How the f**k did B.B. and Stacy take two of these things on without any weapons, in the middle of the jungle, after having fought a den of wendigos and survived? I take a small chance and glance in B.B.'s direction to see her and Stacy together. Stacy is crawling on the ceiling while B.B. crouches low on the ground. They're both in full Hallow mode. I've never been more proud of them than I am now. It just goes to show how wrong Del and I had been to keep B.B. out of all of this. It weakened us. Took away the power we should have had all along. The girls paid for our mistakes more than the rest of us have and seeing them now is proof enough for the truth.

"Don't let her get away," Stacy shouts. B.B. pops away and appears right behind her reaching out for the changeling's dress but she misses.

She's seconds away from reaching the exit and then suddenly she stops. A thick fog-like darkness blows through the entrance and Dante Blackstone is standing in front of the changeling. His hand goes right through her chest and comes out of her back with her heart in the palm of his hand. He rips it out and goes through her stomach in the same manner. The fighting stops when he turns his attention to the cutie covered in blood in the middle of the dance floor.

"Dad-" she starts but he cuts off.

"You're going to f*****g listen to me, young lady," he growls so loud the walls of the club shake. Some of the lights and laser blow out. He tosses the changeling aside as if it meant nothing to him and points his bloodied finger at B.B. "You are my daughter," he continues. "If I say you're not going to see your grandfather without supervision you're not going to see him! There's a f*****g reason for that, you little f*****g brat. I am getting sick and tired of your little f*****g attitude.

"Yes, I am f*****g dead. Yes, we can't be in the same f*****g room without putting the rest of the world in danger but you know what? I am here. I can give less f***s about the rest of the world. Do you understand me? Why do these f*****g things look just like you?"

"They stole my blood," she chokes out.

"Oh," he clears his throat looking around. "It felt kind of good killing something with your face on it," he shakes his hand out trying to get the blood off. "You're not ready to speak with my father. He's not like us. We still feel. We regard one another. Sure, it's violent and f*****g infuriating but it's only because no one ever taught us what love is really supposed to look like. That thing feels no love, Pinky. I am doing this for your own good. Because you're my baby. I'm not doing this to hurt you. Nothing I do is done against you. I've been trying to explain that to you all your life.

"I know you're mad. We're all f*****g angry, B.B. You're not the only one, Sweetheart. But you have to meet me halfway. I need you just as much as you need me. I can't do this without you. My mother as much as I love her is no better than him. I mean she loved that f*****g monster for all the wrong s**t he did to her and to me. We're things to them, B.B. You're not a thing to me. You and your sister are not things to me. You get that right?"

"Yeah," she wipes some of the blood on her face without meeting his gaze.

"Okay," he sighs. "That's all I need you to understand. I'm sorry I snapped. I tried talking to you at the house but you're so f*****g-" he growls rubbing his face and smearing the changeling's blood everywhere. "I have to go but we'll talk soon. Yeah?"

"Okay," she nods. He looks around the room until his hands land on Delilah. We're all covered in blood.

"Bye, baby,"

"Bye, Daddy," Delilah waves at him awkwardly.

"f*****g kids. This is a f*****g mess," he mumbles and just leaves in the same manner he walked in.

"Dude," Delilah laughs.

"I almost pissed myself," B.B. turns to face her. "He came out of f*****g nowhere,"

"Aww, man. He destroyed her," she laughs. "That was amazing. I am bleeding a lot,"

"Me too," several of the others laugh.

"You took on these things? Just you two? No weapons?" Victor asks pointing at B.B. and Stacy. "Remind me not to ever f**k with either of you,"

"Phase two," Lucien reminds us.

"Right, right," B.B. points at him. "Dec and I will start the streaming program. You guys line them up,"

"So, none of us are going to address the fact that he said it felt good killing something with your face on it?" I ask B.B.

"You saw what happened at the house," she shrugs. "I'm lucky he didn't do that to me,"

"I don't-" I scratch the back of my neck. "You're right. This is an Ash problem anyway. You guys work your s**t out with him,"

I reach for one of the changeling corpses near me and toss it over my shoulder. Lucien tosses another one over it and we head out. Dylan has twelve iron crosses pierced through the concrete sidewalk in front of the club. Where he got these f*****g things will always be a mystery to me. I am never going to ask Dylan about his toys ever again. Not after the whole Vlad the Impaler's helmet thing. He's really f*****g creepy about his collection of things. A lot creepier than B.B. It's cute when B.B. geeks out. It's sinister when Dylan does it. Especially because it's very unexpected. He's our princess second only to B.B. Stacy doesn't even compare. Especially now that she knows she's dangerous.

"Ready?" B.B. skips over to me when I finish tying one of the changelings to a cross. She's wiped the blood off her face and is holding her mask.

"Yeah," I nod slipping mine on. "Let's get this over with,"

"Yeah," Dec agrees.

"We need to get you in the pit tonight. The crows can get lost for the night," Ahsan growls. from behind me. "That little display wasn't for them,"

"No, it was not," Dec laughs.

"f*****g Devil shitwads," Lucien scoffs. "We'll give you this one, fuckers,"

"We weren't asking for permission, Big Bird," I scoff. We all laugh when he turns around and flips me off.

"Give me a second," B.B. crouches down in front of the camera. She takes a couple of deep breaths as the rest of us line up behind the twelve crosses. This is it.

Tonight marks the night when the Darkside finally prevails.