A Hunter's Blood: The Crimson Contracts

No brother, no! Sensus thought with menacing desperation as she tried to revive Dhaajrc. He was hurt critically from the shrapnel of the explosion in the factory. He wasn’t doing well.

They made it to a lavish, larger home on the outskirts of The Life District. Only a few had the resources to even purchase a home this large in an area that had been grotesquely overcrowded for centuries. It was Sensus’ home.

Zannon kicked open the door carrying Dhjaarc. Sensus entered next, and began to guide him to a bed.

“Over here Zannon,” she motioned to a room that had a bed. Zannon didn’t hesitate; he followed her into the room. He slowly laid Dhjaarc on the bed as the rest of the brothers entered the home, and followed them.

“Dhjaarc, you can’t leave me again! Not so soon!” Zannon blurted out to him, as he leaned at his side. “Sensus, fix him!”

“I can’t,” Sensus struggled with the answer.

“Yes you can!” Zannon yelled at her.

“I can’t fix him Zannon!” she screamed back, “I can re-animate with a lot of help. I don’t have the ability to revive a soul!”

Zannon knew that if she could, she would. He looked at Dhjaarc fading. “How did you bring us back then?”

“That damned Hunter was the help I needed for you. He had the events of your death in his mind because he voluntarily committed them. Whoever that woman was, she has no clue Dhjaarc is dying. I wish there was another way to bring him back. Lord knows I do.”

Zannon soaked in this new, grim information. He had thought of himself as the protector of his family. Father made him for that job. He was proud to have that responsibility. He was just as intelligent as the rest. He was just bigger, because sometimes, you just needed to apply extreme force with vehement prejudice. Knowing his prowess made him more aggressive. He enjoyed, and respected it. Rage soaked and seeped into him as his brother slowly died. He was devastated that a loved one was dying. He never had the feeling, being the first Drakx killed. He never thought he could hate him as deep as he did, but with this tearing him down, they had to create a new word for the intensity of acrimony he was manifesting.

“Don’t worry Dhjaarc,” Zannon comforted him, “We have you in a safe place.”

Dhjaarc slowly opened his eyes for the first time since the incident. “I wasn’t supposed to be here. None of us were.”

Sensus spoke up in her defense. “We were all supposed to be here! I just corrected a terrible wrong!”

After she blurted it out, she felt deep sorrow for attacking her brother as he lay there dying.

“We... are unn-natural. When you ddie, that’s it,” he slowly spoke with tremendous effort.

Sensus was silent. She didn’t want to argue with her brother. She wanted everything to be back; everything to be alright again. She believed her father gave her the ability to help them all survive. She began to feel as if she failed as well as Zannon did. When Dhjaarc said they were ‘unnatural’, it was almost too much to bear. Watching her brother die again was horrid enough.

Dhjaarc struggled to speak again with deep long pauses. “All of us will not survive here long. I’m just the first. I Ddon’t want tto doom any of you. Just accept it as ttrue.”

Elreich spoke up. “We won’t die. I personally will see to your avenging, as well as our survival.”

They stayed quiet as Dhjaarc’s breathing began to slow. Zannon watched as Dhjaarc swallowed for the last time. He felt his hand fall lifeless into his.

“I will kill them ALL!” Zannon screamed aloud to no one. Sensus dropped her head, and began to cry at her brother’s demise. The others defied the tension of the moment by harshly cursing the situation. Dhjaarc had died.

Through the stinging tears, Sensus contemplated Dhjaarc’s last words. She didn’t know if he was a profit, or a dark omen. Why did he say those foreboding things? Was he ever happy with being brought back? It bothered her, a lot that one of her brothers wasn’t elated to be back with the ones that loved them.

“Do any of you regret being here again?” she asked them. “If that’s the case, I’ll kill you again without a problem!”

As she finished her sentence, she placed her head on Dhjaarc’s chest, and began to bang on his chest. “I thought you would want to cross realms to be with your loved ones!”

Chelys picked her up from her broken fabric, and gave her a deep, hard hug.

“We all want to be here, Sensus. We all understand the difficulty you dealt with just getting us to breathe again. Yes, we all are indescribably grateful for you.” he said to her as he held, and slowly rocked her quivering body from side to side.

Zannon was pacing in a reckless rage. He spoke up. “It’s not your fault, sis! It’s that fucking Hunter, and his whore! I don’t want to wait to kill them! Find a way to locate them so I can avenge my brother!”

“We will find them Zannon,” Chelys assured him. “We’ll all get the chance to find new, and inventive ways to prolong their pain, and death. As sure as I am, everyone else shares the same conviction.”

Yherdas nodded in agreement. “Keep all of your rage, Zannon. I want you to be as freshly destroyed as you are right now over this. When we find them, unleash your fury upon them.”

“You better do it the second you see them, Zannon,” Kaynehl warned him. “If I see them first, you better beat me over the fence, because I will, unconsciously, obliterate them!”

“Enough talking!” Chelys said, ending the threats that couldn’t be heard by their intended targets. “We need to rest, calm, and center ourselves. When we execute this, we will have sharp minds. We will be fresh tomorrow. Can you find them Sensus?”

Sensus looked up from Chelys with a grim stare through tear soaked eyes of relentless determination. “I will find them. They can’t hide from my scorned shadow. It’s not complete until we complete it, and we WILL complete this!”