Eternal Kiss of Darkness

Then the Enforcers were flung upward before slamming down into the ground again, and again, and again. Kira was too shocked by their macabre bouncing routine, which loosed more concrete each time to notice that Mencheres now stood at her elbow.

"We must leave."

Almost numbly, she nodded, putting her arms around his neck as he held her to him.

Then Mencheres rocketed them away, the Enforcers still thumping solidly on the ground below them.

Mencheres kept one arm around Kira as he blasted them straight up into the sky. He kept half his concentration on the Enforcers below, trying to stun them as much as possible with the repeated impacts, but soon his power over them broke as the distance between them grew.

Once he felt that mental snap, Mencheres turned all of his focus on propelling them higher into the sky, farther up than he would have dared when Kira was human. After several seconds, the air chilled, and the lights below them became dimmer. Still, he did not ease up. He knew the mettle of the Enforcers. They would recover swiftly, then they would be after them.

Soon enough he felt another swell of power in the currents below them. He focused on it, sending a concentrated burst of force downward toward the source. He was rewarded by a muffled scream and the abrupt dissipation of that trailing energy. The Enforcer would probably recover before he hit the ground. If he didn't, mountains were now underneath them instead of the thousands of humans innocently gathered at an amusement park, and a hard landing wouldn't kill a vampire.

Two more sets of power rode on the air currents after them. Mencheres gave a grim shake of his head as he used more of his strength to deliver a pair of high-force impacts that sent them tumbling toward the earth. Killing them at the park would have been much easier, but Radje wanted Mencheres to kill them. Slaying even one of the Enforcers would ensure that all of the Guardians united against him. He couldn't do that, but that didn't mean he would allow them to capture him or Kira. The only surprise was that Radje hadn't come with the Enforcers to assist in their attempt to bring him in.

"Cold . . . too cold," Kira muttered.

Frost started to cover both of them, but he couldn't risk going lower. It took a great deal of his considerable power to keep them this fast and this high. Most of the Enforcers would not be able to match this height and velocity. It was their best chance of getting away without him resorting to slaying the ones who chased them.

A vast expanse of dark blue ran alongside the intermittent lights below them.

Mencheres gave it a speculative glance. Perhaps there was another way to slip the Enforcers without depleting his strength on this altitude or those blasts of power needed to deflect his pursuers.

Mencheres swung them toward that continual stretch of blue, dropping their height until ice no longer began to crystal ize on Kira's skin. At the same time, he felt the charge of three more Enforcers coming from below them. He let them get closer. Closer, closer . . .

He sent a triple blast of power that spun them back toward the mountains. A stretch around with his senses revealed that the other Enforcers were not nearby. Satisfied, Mencheres wrapped both arms around Kira and bulleted their bodies in a straight downward line toward that inviting indigo platform.

"Mencheres, no!" she screamed.

Their bodies torpedoed into the ocean a moment later.

The blast of impact shook Kira, sending sizzling pain through her body. For a few seconds, she was stunned. Then the pain dissipated, replaced instead by an inexplicable rush of panic. She had to remind herself there was nothing to be afraid of.

She didn't need to breathe anymore, but a part of her still wanted to scream as Mencheres hurtled them deeper into the ocean. He was slower underwater than he'd been in the skies, but still so fast that she felt like they were being yanked downward by a great invisible chain. The water surrounded her with an ever-tighter embrace, the pressure increasing until she felt claustrophobic. Nothing but liquid was all around her, yet it compressed against her with the force of a fist slowly closing over her body.

Then their downward momentum stopped, and she was flying sideways through the depths. Water cleaved around them with the powerful bursts Mencheres used to propel them, slicing horizontally into the deep as though their bodies had morphed into a single torpedo.

Finally, that rushing sensation stopped. Kira held tightly to Mencheres, expecting another explosion of movement any second, but he remained still. She wasn't even aware that she had her eyes squeezed shut until salt stung her gaze when she opened them. Mencheres had them suspended in the deepest shadows she'd ever seen as a vampire, only the bright emerald flash from his eyes providing a welcome form of ill umination.

Kira rubbed her eyes, but it didn't help the stinging. His grip on her loosened until only one arm held her to him. He looked upward, then back at her, and shook his head.

She supposed that meant they couldn't go to the surface anytime in the next few minutes, which, though she knew the odds were slim, still had been what she hoped would happen. The tight pressure around her added to the feeling that she was being smothered - even though she'd gone hours without a single breath every day for the past week. The murkiness also increased her unease, which made no sense. Just recently, she'd lamented that she'd never see darkness again, yet here was a decent substitute all around her, and she hated it. How quickly she'd gotten used to the ability to see everything around her with crystal-like clarity.

Kira wasn't wearing a watch, but she tapped the top of her wrist with what she hoped was a questioning look. Mencheres held up two fingers in response, almost leading her to attempt cursing while underwater. Two hours down here? If she saw a shark, she'd scream for sure, even though she had some sharp teeth now, too.

Something stroked across her back. Kira whirled with a silent shriek, but there was nothing but dark blue as far as she could see. That stroke came again, from her shoulders down to her lower back in a soothing, firm caress. She relaxed. Mencheres.

She turned back to face him, his face lit in the glow from her own gaze. His hair floated around him in a black cloud, his T-shirt edging up to reveal that taut, smoothly muscled stomach. The striking planes of his face looked almost eerily beautiful against the backdrop of that endless indigo canvas, the underwater currents gently rustling his hair.

He was so stunning . . . and the amount of power he was capable of wielding was terrifying.

He'd knocked Bones and Cat out of the park as easily as brushing lint off his shirt.

Then he'd disarmed those Enforcers. Moved people out of harm's way. Repeatedly slammed the Enforcers onto the ground as easily as a child bounced a ball  - all without touching any of them. Then he'd taken her up to the limits of the sky before plunging them into the depths of the ocean while making it look effortless. Kira couldn't even grasp the magnitude of his abilities. She was already disconcerted about how she could control any human's mind with a flash of her newly bright gaze, and that was nothing compared to what Mencheres could do.