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This is it, the son of a bitch is coming for her!
Scarface leveled his red eyes, illuming Torin’s face. He cocked his head to one side unnaturally. “You!” he bellowed. “You’re the cause of all of this. The bitch was mine and you took her, marked her and left your seed to rob me of a child.”
“She was never yours!” Torin shouted, trembling with rage.
From the falling snow, Milos and Antonio attacked, but Scarface swung and sent them soaring, out of sight.
“Give me the old bitch,” Scarface bellowed, “she belongs to Zaroc. The two of them will give me a host. You’ve failed, Mancini, I’ll have everlasting life!” He took a step forward, swinging his arms, Iridescents tossed to the flames. “Before I snap you in half I want you to know that I will have Donja,” he spewed, his eyes like pits of boiling lava. “I’ll beat your child from her womb, clean her with my tongue and then, she’ll warm my bed for eternity!”
Torin growled, his anger supreme. He raced toward him like a projectile missile, sword firm in his muscled grasp. He slammed into Scarface, the impact snapping his blade. Rolling away he was a bit stunned, but not so much that he failed to notice Scarface’s shocked demeanor. Torin locked his gaze upon him and then to his surprise, watched as Scarface dug six inches of his broken sword from his chest and tossed it away.
Torin sprang to his feet. “He’s weakening! Step it up! Give him hell!”
From every direction, Affiliates attacked like a swarm of bees pummeling his body.
Scarface threw his head back and howled like a wounded animal and in that moment, amid the incessant chants of the Midewiwins, a great turbulence swept the land, bodies flying like thistles in the wind.
Torin slammed into a rocky outcropping, then scrambled to his feet, wind-laced snow, obscuring his vision. He wiped at his bloody face, winds howling as six ghostly apparitions appeared overhead, drifting toward the fire circle.
Scarface, besieged by Affiliates, was caught off guard as the spirits, void of earthly features settled upon him. Scarface wailed while flailing his muscled arms, stomping the ground so hard that it trembled.
Torin shielded his eyes, the glare from the faceless six, blinding. They seized Scarface, Midewiwin’s chanting, Affiliates shouting, the cacophony maddening, and in the blinding chaos that followed, unearthly lights breached the heavens penetrating the falling snow.
Scarface fell to the ground, frothy fluid spewing from his lips. The Midewiwin’s held their vigil, casting powder from their medicine bags which sizzled with a putrid smell on his writhing body. Suddenly he began to convulse and then in a shocking display of pulsing light, his body divided into two forms.
Torin gasped and drawing near, he saw that it was the bodies of Zaroc and Scarface. His jaw dropped as a ghostly image rose from between their unconscious bodies.
The Seventh Miigis!
Swooning, with blood trickling his face, Torin watched spellbound as the seventh billowed like rolling gas, then lurched up into the sky.
The Midewiwin’s chants turned legion, arms raised, firelight flickering. They began to dance and from the heavens, powerful winds forced Torin to his knees. He gripped the rocky ground, eyes on the sky, as the six Miigis swarmed the ghostly form of the seventh. The mass of their spiritual bodies lit the sky amid a flurry of wind-driven snow.
Gage, with Antonio at his side, crawled toward Torin. Bound tight with winds whipping they watched as the spiritual six, cordoned the seventh. They began to swirl around him like a cyclonic entity, picking up speed. Suddenly they disappeared, swallowed by the white abyss.
Torin rose, standing beside Gage and Antonio, all eyes on the sky as an eerie silence settled upon them. Suddenly, from within the celestial haze, the wail of a thousand tortured souls forced the earth to tremble. Torin stumbled then fell to a heap as the earsplitting voices reverted into what sounded like wounded animals. He cowered with hands to his ears as a fierce rumbling like chariots of fire breached the sky. Six glowing wraiths appeared, circling a single entity which cried in such a high-pitched voice that boulders shattered, and mountain tops crumbled. The six began to swirl faster and faster around the core middle, drifting out over the gorge. Lighting danced amid falling snow as the spirited bodies like a continuum of light, plummeted to the river below.
Torin jumped to his feet amid gathering Iridescents a thousand-strong. They raced for the ledge as the lights hit the river with such force that a great wall of water, rising like a tsunami, washed over the land. A great screeching echoed the gorge as the Six Miigis pulled the seventh beneath the churning waves.
Torin staggered, Gage at his side, water sheeting off their faces. The winds died down and the snowfall ceased as sunlight breached the sky.
Torin, remembering Anna, broke through the crowd and found Antonio at her side. He watched breathlessly as Antonio pulled her into his arms.
“No,” Antonio moaned, ripping the bandages from her neck. He pulled her to his chest, arms dangling, her body cold. “She has his antigens,” Antonio wailed. “He marked her!”
Torin shook Antonio. “Bite her, damn it, he’s dead and under Council law, you can take possession. Do it! Save her!”
Antonio dropped his mouth, fangs barred, eyes a golden swirl. He bit down and sinking deep, he found her carotid artery. He closed his eyes, his heart pounding as he forced his own blood into her chilled blood. He held the bite, his body temperature soaring to warm her icy skin.
Torin slumped to Antonio’s side just as Anna’s near lifeless body began to convulse. Torin exhaled dramatically, his eyes tight. She began to thrash and then her hands seized Antonio’s arms. He relinquished his bite and pulled back. Her eyes fluttered as he cradled her to his chest.
“It’s okay, Anna,” Antonio whispered, holding her tight, “it’s over. You’re safe.”
“Antonio,” she mused, confusion dancing in her eyes. Her hand found her neck. “He cut my throat. How…”
“It’s healed, I had no choice but to cross you over, and you may hate me for it, but it was the only way to save you.”
“You saved me…I’m an Iridescent?” she whispered searching his face.