An Ultra Violent Fairy Tale by Pete Bertino - HTML preview

53 AN ULTRA VIOLENT FAIRY TALE

“I’m not going to kill him.”

“I would.”

“Even if he were your brother?”

“Especially if it were my brother,” Paradine said without pause which chilled Eric a little. “so where are we going?”

“A safe house a few blocks from here, a place we can see better.”

As the chaos unfolded above, Glitterbelle made her way in the sewers below. She killed a pair of Nazghouls in a narrow tunnel, they were a vicious hairless pink vermin with flat faces about the size of a cat, they had sharp claws and teeth and are extremely territorial but that was the only resistance she came across until found herself at the special access tunnel leading to Crow’s Nest above. It was stone lined and of average size with gas powered electric lights mounted into the ceiling giving the green, dank, and moldy smelling place a pasty light.

In the tunnel were between thirty or forty soldiers, most were armed with swords and wrist mounted crossbows. A few had hand cannons, two or three had tasers which was the only weapon that could hurt her if they all got her at once. She wanted to worry about that, but her battle fires were roaring and the flames needed fed.

She came around the corner on light feet, the soldiers were ready but not ready at that exact moment.

Her quick movement was silent like a cat walking on carpet and it wasn’t until she removed the head of a soldier with her sword that she was noticed. Two soldiers came charging one with a sword over his head, the other drawing his hand cannon.

With a quick draw she unholstered her revolver and shot them both in the face. Before their bodies hit the ground a volley of cannon balls came at her from the left, she ducked and charged at the soldiers who had fired as they attempted to reload, Glitterbelle swung her sword at the trio just above their waists releasing their insides in a hot torrent. The sound they made hitting the floor was covered by their screams.

She turned right and charged a pair of soldiers swinging their blades, she shot one in the knee and kicked him backwards into another pair of soldiers behind them trying to aim their tasers. The other hit Glitterbelle just below her arm pit with his blade, the man gasped in a surprised laugh, she raised her 54 AN ULTRA VIOLENT FAIRY TALE

pistol and shot him in the face. She tossed the spent gun and grunted as she pulled the blade out and was suddenly pierced by arrows in her back and shoulders.

She whirled around with preternatural speed throwing the spare blade in a side arm at the quintet of soldiers who’d sent the arrows. Three of them lost their heads, the fourth had his jugular nicked and was squirting blood like a water balloon with a hole. Glitterbelle pulled the shot gun from her shoulder gave it a quick one armed pump and exploded the fourth mans head.

Three more soldiers tried to go around her and use their hand cannons to shoot her from behind. With another preternaturally strong one armed pump she reloaded and aimed the shot gun over the back of her shoulder and knocked them down but two of them got back up. She turned, sent her last shell into the chest of one then she bludgeoned the other with empty gun. Another shot from a hand cannon went off and caught her in the leg knocking her down.

A soldier with a knife came charging, thinking her injury was much worse than it looked. When he was close she grabbed his knife and stabbed him in the stomach as fast as she could until she was soaked in his blood. A part of his guts were sticking out before another soldier came and she promptly kicked out his feet from under him as she got up on her knees waiting for her leg to finish healing. She was on one knee and rising when she was his by a jolt of electricity and was back down again.

“I got her! I got...”

The taser was on full voltage and it was a direct hit and she had dropped. But she was rising, her wings were flapping and her orange red eyes boiled like water as she grabbed the wires that were sending electricity through her. The soldier was wide eyed with terror as she pulled him close pulling the wires connected to his taser, he finally turned around to run but before he could go any further her blade went into his back and came out his stomach. Two more shot at her with hand cannons from across the room and were reloading as another three came to her with swords high over head.

She leapt up and using her claws she attached herself to the ceiling and scurried insect like towards them, one of them fired their crossbow but missed. She scurried over their heads and swiped at the arm of the one that had his hand cannon reloaded and was aiming, she cut him bad enough for the soldier to drop it and explode killing him and the only other soldier with a working taser. Whatever soldiers were left had fled by the time she’d come down from the ceiling, possibly in fear of her or from the smoke that was beginning to fill the tunnel down here. With another obstacle gone she focused on her hunt, and tilted her head back slightly, her nostrils flared but she couldn’t sense any pheromones, the smoke was over powering down there.

She replaced her sword and found an unfired hand cannon and steps leading topside. She came out through a storm cellar door into a cool night that was filled with city commotion layered with a thick 55 AN ULTRA VIOLENT FAIRY TALE

icing of terror as not far off Crow’s Nest was burning. The flames were so bright their apricot light could be seen reflecting off the icy coated peaks of the mountains.

In the outside air she could smell him, he was close. So close she could follow the scent with her eyes closed. Though all around her was chaos and panic her focus was narrow and she hardly noticed the looting that had broken out across from the burning wreck of the speakeasy which had somehow caught fire as well.

She went through the growing crowds of people, many cheered and jeered the unfolding anarchy and Glitterbelle smiled at what she had caused. Her nose led her down an alleyway that was much quieter than the rest of the city, though the smell of fire was thick as rolling smoke went into the sky crossing over the moon like a filthy lace curtain. She walked in between a pair of great towering buildings and came out from between them and into a stone lined yard used to park auto carriages which led to a squat mundane looking building made of yellow and brown bricks lined with opaque windows.

She was so close to him she could see his pheromone trail. She could smell his fear, it was so thick on him she could also sense the massive erection the adrenaline was giving him and Glitterbelle had to fight a sudden urge to play with herself from the unexpected rush of lust that filled her. She remembered she’d wanted to save herself up for him, so instead she snuck her way over even faster.

The building Eric led them to was not really a safe room, it was an old factory that had made some technological or magical item hundreds of years ago but had held only emptiness and dust since he’d bought this property a few years back with the hope of building a second speakeasy. Or a new first one he supposed now, what brought him here though was the fact that the building was lined with windows all around. he’d see somebody coming even if he’d only see a blob of shadow through the milky glass.

Luke and Maureen sat in a dark corner while he, Paradine and the men he’d brought circled the building from the inside.

Eric kicked him self for not spreading out his men more in the club. They were all out front on the dance floor because rumors had patrons thinking Crow’s Nest wasn’t safe, so he put the majority of his crew there to show anybody, both fairy and human, that this was his kingdom and his kingdom was safe. But the winged bitch fooled them all by making them look one way while she hit from the other way. Now he was by himself and his only protection were Marshals and he didn’t trust them any more than he did his little brother.

In the distance the fire at Crow’s Nest continued to grow, from this distance even many blocks away he could see fire light reflecting off the buildings and the flurry of ashes coming down everywhere. Eric felt his heart hammer his chest and made his hands grip the handle of his knife until his fingers were white. He felt his anger teeter in the red, then he heard his brother sniveling and wondered if Paradine was so crazy for suggesting he should kill his brother.