Choosing to say out of the Alliance, the Cinders are isolated in their own conflicts, and when Helia Cinder reaches to the void for answers, she inadvertently draws a creature out. Expecting to be eaten alive, she is instead left with a man with no...
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Stone dropped to the ground behind the mimic, and his copy retreated to Pyre's side to force them into another spin of blades and magic. It sought to confuse Stone in case he'd narrowed down which of them was false. Pyre highly doubted that was the case, considering all Stone knew of him was begging at his feet. The mimic would not likely allow the vampire to inspect their ankles for discrepancies.
Even so, Stone pulled two blades from his body, one from his back and the other from his hips as he darted for Pyre and his clone. They both backed a step, but the clone wouldn't flee if Pyre didn't, making it both better and worse for him to stand his ground. On the one hand, the mimic couldn't use him to get away, but on the other, Stone was not slowing as he spun his blades around his hands.
With a twist of his wrist, Stone whipped a blade straight for Pyre's face, and he was barely able to deflect it with a short knife before it impaled anything vital. The force of the toss sliced the blade across Pyre's cheek even as he knocked it away. Pyre was ready to burn the vampire to ashes as he spun around, but he recoiled as he turned into a stream of blood pouring from his mimic's throat. The thing still wore Pyre's face, and watching himself gurgling blood before he slumped into death was harrowing. A knife identical to the one Pyre had cast aside was lodged in the man's skull from below, and Stone stood up fully just as the man dropped to the ground.
That would be his fate soon if he didn't clean his house.
"I apologize for injuring you," Stone spit out immediately.
The man slowly crept back with shaky limbs as if afraid Pyre might burn his head off his shoulders. It was a fair assessment since Pyre had considered that prior to realizing Stone had felled his imposter. The more Pyre took in the boy, the more he pitied him. Just like Horus, he had scrapes along his body that for some reason had yet to heal, gashes in his clothes and flesh alike. Blood spattered and dried down half his body and face so thickly that he must have been in the arena, but it was his eyes that really gave Pyre pause.
Sincerity shined behind soft grey that Pyre had never seen within a vampire's gaze unless they were swearing to peel his skin off and feed it to him. The vampire was legitimately pained that he'd cause him harm, even something so light as glancing a blade through layers of skin. The sheer weight of the poor boy's guilt had Pyre averting his gaze to Horus and Rodney as they flanked him protectively.
Did they think he'd kill him just for that?
"I knew you would be able to defend from a lethal blow," Stone spoke, drawing Pyre back though he didn't need to. Pyre got it. Still Stone felt the need to press on. "I needed the vampire confident in his triumph so he'd drop his guard enough for me to end him. While not the strongest vampire, he was powerful enough to give me trouble. I find myself weaker than I care for of late."
The last sentence wasn't even necessary. All three of them looked like chopped liver. Horus and Stone were clearly mangled, and Rodney had himself near plastered to Horus side, fangs lengthened and his pupils larger than a baby owl seeing the moon for the first time. There was too much blood here for the man to keep completely sane. That was why the vampires had gone crazy and attacked the crowd and why Rodney had hesitated to kill them.
