Page 40 of Reaper
She wasn’t wrong.I dropped my flamethrower act and called my soulblade, slashing at her throat the instant she landed.She tried to block with her claws, but I don’t know if even adamantium could stand up to pure focused magical energy, so I sliced off four claws on her left hand, along with the tip of her middle finger.She screamed and dove at me like a pissed off bloodsucking missile, abandoning all thoughts of playing to the audience and trying to just straight murder me.I dodged her rage-filled leap easily and said, “What’s wrong, Ellie?Surprised to find a real challenge?”
She turned her dive into a roll, continued forward onto her feet, spun around, and leapt at me again.I dropped my magical sword and spun sideways, catching her in the midsection with a massive kick.She let out awhoofand crumpled around my foot but was too much of a warrior to let that stop her.She bent double but wrapped both hands around my thigh and stabbed me through the meat of my leg with her remaining claws.
Now it was my turn to scream and drop to the ground, more in an effort to shake her loose than in real pain, although there was fucking plenty of that.I needed to get her off my leg before she severed my femoral artery and ended the fight with the wrong person still standing.She rolled away from me and got to her feet, grinning.
“Who’s found a challenge now, Murray?Now who’s dripping their precious lifeblood onto the sand as he stares across the sand at a true apex predator?Now who’s the one without any smartass comments, just the horrible knowledge that his death is staring him in the face?”
Yeah, that was pretty much me.But I couldn’t let go that easily.Not only because I knew I’d used my one Get Out of Hell Free card, but also because I hadn’t cracked the case yet.I didn’t know who was behind this shit, and I didn’t know how to stop them from serving up cryptids and paras to be slaughtered for the entertainment of a bunch of rich assholes.No, it wasn’t time to die yet.So I didn’t say anything, I just put my head down and charged, wrapping my left arm in a shield of pure energy and slamming into Eleanor, knocking her claws aside and throwing punch after punch at her ribs.
She just stood there, chuckling.I hammered fists into her midsection for all I was worth, and she just took a dozen of my strongest blows, then backhanded me almost out of my Docs.I flew several feet and spun to the dirt, spitting blood.Eleanor took two steps and kicked me in the ribs, sending spikes of agony through my chest and the sickening sound of snapping twigs through my ears.I couldn’t scream, because I couldn’t draw in a deep enough breath.But as I rolled over from the force of her kick, I kept rolling and staggered up to my feet.
“Stubborn,” Eleanor said, her eyes glinting with predatory glee.“I like that.The fight makes the blood taste sweeter.”She sprang into the air again, this time landing behind me, but I was ready.I knew that trick, so I spun in place and threw a punch that would have shattered her orbital socket if it connected.
Too bad it didn’t connect.She moved her head barely an inch and my fist slammed through nothing but air.My guts erupted in fire as she drove her remaining claws into my middle, tearing even more flesh as she withdrew.She nailed me with an uppercut as I looked down at the four neat round holes gushing blood out of my abdomen, and I flew back to flop on the sand again.
I wanted to lay there and just bleed.I’d given her all I had, and she was too tough for me.I’d fought Luke for years, but he’d always been holding back, assuming I’d never face a foe with all his power and speed.But I thought I had it all scouted.I thought I knew how to kick ass, how to outsmart and outfight anything.Hell, I’d gotten one over onLucifer, for fuck’s sake.But now I was about to bleed out in the sand in an underground monster fight club, and nobody I cared about even knew where I was.
Well, fuck it, I thought.Everybody dies alone.But if I was going to die, and it was looking more and more likely that I was, I wasn’t going to do it on my back.I rolled over, slowly got to my hands and knees, expecting every second for Eleanor to come rushing in and punt my skull right off my shoulders.But she hung back as I struggled to my knees, then one knee, then finally to my feet.
I turned to my right, spat blood onto the sand, and used the last of my stored energy to call up my soulblade, flickering now in my weakness.I was probably going to die, but goddammit, I was going to die on my feet.
Then with three words, everything changed.
On your left.
Becks knows thatAvengers: Endgameis one of my favorite movies, and that the moment where Falcon flies through the portal to save Captain America’s ass is one of the greatest movie moments I’ve ever seen.So when I heard those words in my head, I knew the cavalry had arrived, and it was time to tighten the straps on my shield and get the fuck back in the fight.
Glad you could make it.
Sorry about the delay.Traffic was a bitch.But we hacked into the building’s system and got the collars turned off.You can stop fucking around with this bitch now and show her who she’s really messing with.
You got it.And thanks.
I love you, asshole.Now end this, so we can go home.
I locked eyes with Eleanor and did the most terrifying thing an opponent can ever do when you’re in a fight for your life.I smiled at her.I straightened up, pouring a little extra mojo into my leg to knit the flesh back together, and I smiled at her.
“Oh, I’ve found a challenge, Ellie,” I said, using magic to amplify my voice so everyone in the building could hear me.Eleanor froze, completely dumbstruck by the change in my demeanor.Where a second ago I’d been focused and dangerous, but on the back foot and bleeding, now I stood before her grinning like a psychopath.Something had shifted, and she had no idea exactly what it was.
“But you have no fuckingideawhat you’ve found.”I reached up to my throat and pulled at the collar.The metal resisted, but I poured a little extra magic into it, and it sprang open.“You see, my name isn’t Murray James.James was my brother, who died a long time ago.And Murray?That was my mother’s maiden name.Before she married my dad and took his surname.My real name is Jonathan Abraham Quincy Holmwood Harker, and I’m the son of Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray, nephew to Lucas Card, aka Vlad Tepes, aka Count Fucking Dracula.”
“But you can just call me Reaper.”
That’s when the screaming started.
32
Now, I can be pretty scary sometimes.I’m frequently grumpy, perpetually snarky, and occasionally murderous.But the screaming in the middle of the underground bloodsport arena wasn’t for me, even with my declaration of my true identity, which did have the intended effect of making Eleanor the vampire get even paler, which is a hell of a feat when your opponent doesn’t make their own blood anymore.No, the screaming was because just as I made my grand pronouncement, the doors of the arena blew open from the outside and a stream of federal agents and werewolf bikers stormed the place.
At the same time, both doors of the arena blew off their hinges and flew inward as parts of Team Harker, along with my old friend Saint (who apparently was now my friend and not just a werewolf biker gang leader who frequently wanted to gnaw on my liver) stormed in from one direction as literally every fighter in the building stormed in the other.
The cheap seats emptied quickly, as people just dropped to their knees with their hands in the air.Those were almost all humans, and they didn’t have a whole lot of interest in fighting cryptids themselves, just watching us fight each other.The luxury boxes were a little more interesting, as there were some private security guards who got overly enthusiastic for a few seconds, until the first lycanthrope ripped out the first throat.That had a chilling effect on the resistance.
None of this bled onto the arena floor, though.That chaos was all mine.Mine and Becks’ and Luke’s.My own personal Avengers stepped up beside me as I tried not to look nearly as beaten down as I felt, while a couple dozen paranormal cage fighters arrayed themselves across the sand at me, hurling insults, invectives, and threats in my direction.I let them go on for a few seconds while the cops and bikers corralled the spectators, then finally bellowed, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”at the top of my lungs.
They did.I actually froze up a little, so stunned was I that everyone actually shut up.Then I remembered that I had shit to say.“Yeah, I’m Quincy Harker.No, I was never just a hapless goofball trying to win money fighting.No, I’m not sorry I lied to you all.Yes, I’m shutting this shit down right the fuck now.No, that’s not up for debate.No, I don’t give a shit if you were having fun beating each others’ brains out.And no, they weren’t ever going to let you leave with a bag full of cash.If you won your fifth main event, they were just going to send you to a farm upstate, or to the glue factory, or whatever stupid fucking metaphor you want to use for taking you out back and murdering the fuck out of you.And if you think I’m lying, go get Pete or any of the other guards and beat on them until they tell you the truth.”
About half the fighters grumbled, but reluctantly nodded.They knew the score, even if they didn’t want to admit it.About a quarter looked like they didn’t believe a word that was coming out of my mouth, and about a quarter looked like they didn’t give a shit, they just wanted to fight somebody.But the one I was most immediately concerned with looked like she knew the score and still wanted to kill me, and that was the one who had almost managed to do just that—Eleanor.
