Tainted Blood

Chapter 6

"Why is your brother doing all this?" Lillie questioned curiously and then she directed a suspicious look at the chain necklace around Koji's neck after seeing him putting the lock back on it. She pulled at it nearly choking him," What does this do anyway?"

Koji pulled away from her and scowled," I don't know what my brother is trying to do... He doesn't even speak to me… anymore."

"So it must be your brother that used your name to get a book from my bookstore. I guess he wanted it to lead to you in case someone looked into what happened," Stark exclaimed with a smirk continued in a nonchalant manner," The book I gave him is dangerous if an inexperienced necromancer came across it. It can call on anything to do with death, raise the dead, and all that."

Lillie smacked him across the shoulder.

"Why the hell would you sell it to his brother then? You never seem to give a crap about others," Lillie snapped at him angrily. Stark smirked at her.

"He looked like he knew what he was doing... Who knew he was so stupid. Don't act like you weren't there, Lillie," Stark said in an obnoxious tone. Lillie glared at him.

"Don't put it on me! I can't tell what book is about what half the time. You're the one that's supposed to know," Lillie retorted.

Cerberus began to nudge Koji with his nose and whimpered to get attention from his master. Koji looked down at Cerberus.

"What's wrong," Koji questioned bending down to pet Cerberus on the head. Cerberus pushed his face as if indicating he should look behind him. Koji turned to see at least a dozen zombies limping towards them and Kazu at the center with a sneer on his face.

"Kazu…" Koji breathed. Kazu smirked.

"Koji, Koji, Koji... always trying to 'protect' your little brother from getting in trouble. You don't fool anyone," Kazu sneered and then turned to the zombies," When that necklace is off your neck, we'll see if you still are liked, Koji."

Koji's eyes widened.

"If you take this off… you don't know what—"

"Shut up, brother!" Kazu snapped in irritation as he turned to look at the others with a dark expression casting over his face," Kill the others. They know about me and I can't let them tell anyone."

The zombies advanced towards them.

"Kill us?" Stark said in disbelief raising an eyebrow at Kazu and then began to smirk sardonically," You obviously don't know who you're dealing with."

In a blink of an eye, Stark had cut off the head of two zombies in succession and then in a swift movement took out their heart before they hit the floor. Then with a spin he had killed off three slashing all of them in the heart. He turned to the last one stabbing his hand into its heart as it collapsed to the ground.

Caleb had grabbed a zombie's arm, which was trying to claw at him, and pulled it off the zombie. Then he whacked it over the head with its own arm and then stabbed it straight through the heart with his other hand.

Caleb ducked out of the way of two zombies going for him and stabbed a hand in the zombies' hearts causing them to collapse to the ground. He grabbed two by the head ripping their head off and took their hearts out. Caleb turned to the last one racing at him. In a swift movement he had the heart in his hand as the zombie raced past him and then collapsed onto the ground. He gave a dark, evil chuckle.

"Is that all you got?" Caleb snarled dangerously at Kazu. Kazu seemed shocked expecting the three others with Koji would run off, but instead two of them had killed off his zombies within seconds.

Lillie slowly turned to Koji. She couldn't understand Kazu's order to the zombies directing a serious expression at Koji.

"Koji, why does he want your necklace? What does it do," Lillie questioned. Koji looked troubled not knowing how to answer. Kazu seemed to be trying to keep the building anger inside to himself but was unable to take it anymore.

Before Koji could say anything, Kazu spat venomously," It's hiding a monster. A monster, which had no remorse for killing anyone!" This caused Lillie to give Koji a conflicted look hoping he would give an explanation.

Mirielle was witnessing a fight between zombies and demons causing her to be slightly puzzled. She was staring down at two of her classmates, a demon, a werewolf, and a boy that looked like one of her classmates with zombies. That was the weirdest combination that she had ever seen. She couldn't hear their conversation, but she didn't want to jump into the fight precariously. She didn't want to give herself away as an immortal hunter. Every supernatural creature knew about the dagger and it would give her away as an immortal hunter. She didn't want anyone knowing of her identity.

After living for over a hundred years, it took a long time to realize there was a lot more to the immortal hunters and their leader. The mysteries that surrounded their leader led to question everything about becoming an immortal hunter and their duty.

Unbeknownst to her, a shadow was creeping up behind her and she was grabbed from behind with her mouth covered.

"I can't let you tell your friends what they are..." it had whispered into her ear.

"Koji..." she trailed off. Koji had looked away staring down at the ground with what seemed like shame written on his face.

"The monster is a part of him because of all the necromancy he has been messing with for all these years," Kazu fumed. His face was contorted with fury," I hated the fact you could possess something like that... All that power inside you! You could have done something great with it you know."

Koji gapped at the words his brother had spoken causing him to look up at Kazu. Who was this person before him? All this time he thought that his brother hated that monster and him for killing… but he wanted that monster?

"Kazu… you don't know what you want," Koji managed to say. Kazu narrowed his eyes darkly at him.

"The day you murdered our family, Koji… I realized one thing when I was in the hospital recovering from those wounds you gave me. Power is everything," Kazu cried with a maniacal laugh.

"Power isn't everything, Kazu! You don't know what I've been through!" Koji cried desperately at his brother. For his twin to understand his pain would be impossible. He'd kept it inside. They both did. However, Kazu's pain had... changed him into this person that Koji barely recognized.

"Don't act like you're the victim, Koji! I can do something great if I had the power you have in your hands," Kazu spat as he outstretched his hands in the air. Behind Kazu in the distance, an army of zombies was limping towards them. Kazu laughed as the zombies marched passed him towards them. It seemed as if he had disappeared within the army of zombies.

Stark and Caleb began to hack and slash at the zombies. The zombies attempted to bite or claw at them.

Stark roundhouse kicked four zombies nearly smashing them into pieces from the force of his kick. Then he turned to stab two more in the heart. Caleb had stabbed his hand straight through into a zombie's heart and then used it as a shield letting another zombie nearly cut it in half.

"I hate zombies. They smell disgusting," Caleb muttered sinisterly. Stark gave him a wry, cocky smirk.

"You're just more sensitive to the smell since you're a rabid mutt," Stark retorted in an obnoxious tone causing Caleb to flip him off before he leaped up and slammed his fists on the top of a zombie's head causing it to seem disoriented. Then Caleb quickly turned to kick one back into others. He turned back to the zombie he had hit over the head and dug his hand straight into its heart.

The army of zombies was slowly decreasing to less than half as Lillie and Koji stood back letting Caleb and Stark fight off the zombies. Dismembered rotting parts flew in front of them as they stepped back to avoid the falling debris.

Caleb and Stark were breathing raggedly when they finished surrounded by rotting corpses around them.

Suddenly Kazu tackled Koji onto the ground. Koji attempted to push him off but he froze seeing Kazu with his hand around the lock.

"Don't Kazu…" he began pleadingly. Kazu smirked as he pulled off the lock and quickly leaped away from Koji holding the lock and chain in his hand.

"Don't fight it! Let the monster awaken, Koji! Let it reign chaos," Kazu cried laughing insanely. Koji grabbed his head looking like he was fighting an inner battle with himself. He had his head on the pavement and his hands covered his head. Cerberus began whining looking concerned yet cautious. The wolf began to slowly take several steps back with his tail between his legs and his head down.

Lillie punched Kazu across the face causing him to nearly be knocked out as he fell to the floor.

"You're a crappy brother. Why would you do that," Lillie snapped at him. She was getting angrier the more she thought about what Kazu was doing. She needed to calm down. If her anger kept rising, not even the pocketknife she carried around could keep her demonic presence hidden.

Kazu exclaimed," It's all your guys' fault. If you hadn't been in the way… the zombies probably would have dealt with him already and I didn't have to do it myself."

"Don't blame us because you suck!" Lillie cried. Suddenly Koji appeared behind Lillie and mercilessly attempted to strike her. Stark intervened attempting to stab him in the heart with his claws," Don't kill him!"

Stark cursed as he instead punched Koji but Koji caught himself and wildly swung his arm at Stark causing him to dodge it. Koji struck the ground instead causing the pavement to be uplifted and crack. Stark clenched his teeth looking irritated.

If my powers weren't sealed… This would be easier…

Caleb appeared behind Koji hitting him in the neck but Koji didn't seem to be affected and quickly turned to kick Caleb. Caleb grabbed his leg. In a quick motion, Koji leaped and used his other leg to kick Caleb back. Caleb skid a few steps back as he ground his teeth cracking his jaw back in place looking rather frustrated.

Lillie had nearly breaking his hand in order to get the chain and lock from him. She stared at it for a long moment and then directed a gaze at Koji. Koji's eyes were devoid of any emotion. Both of his eyes were glowing red and the eye that had been red had the symbol with the bird with the sun in the background in his iris. All she could see in his expression was emptiness. It was just a killing machine in front of her.

Koji moved in to attempt to strike at Stark. Stark dodged causing Koji to punch the pavement causing it to crack with the indent of his fists in the pavement.

Stark tripped Koji with his leg and punched him across the face not even holding back strength. It caused Koji to be slammed into the cement causing it to crack. Koji seemed unaffected as he directed his emotionless gaze at Stark as a black cloud began to form in front of him. The black cloud hovered over the corpses. The dead zombies began to come back together and rise again.

"Is this what you wanted Kazu? What the hell were you planning? Release the monster in him and let him rampage so it can kill everyone in the town?" Lillie interrogated glaring down at Kazu. She wanted to murder this stupid human.

"Why not? It'll for sure make my emo twin suffer. The more people he kills, the more he's reduced to nothing. He'll do all the work himself and me... I'll be the one to become heir," Kazu said with a smug smirk. Lillie's eyes flashed crimson out of anger literally causing Kazu to crawl away from her.

Stark cursed as the zombies began advancing towards him. Koji turned his attention to Caleb and raced at him at a tremendous speed attempting to tackle Caleb. However, Caleb attempted to hold him off head on as they were sent skidding back into a building.

Caleb stepped out of the hole they had created. Caleb scowled as he spat out blood onto the pavement and then wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

Stark fought off the zombies breaking them in half and then ripping off their heads. He had a rather cruel, sadistic smirk across his face as he did this.

Koji had recovered from the fall of a ceiling crumbling down on him. He pushed the debris away from him and attempted to attack Caleb.

"Why won't you just stay down," Caleb snarled in irritation as he punched Koji in the stomach sending him flying. Caleb was about to race at him but Stark raced past Caleb towards Koji when he was finished with the zombies.

He stabbed his claws into Koji's stomach with a rather wicked, small smile on his face. Lillie glared at Stark.

"You're stealing my prey, Pretty Boy," Caleb snarled darkly. Stark just smirked as he pulled his claws out roughly causing Koji to attempt to strike him. He stepped back to avoid it.

"Too bad, Mutt. You were too slow," Stark retorted with an obnoxious tone. Lillie scrunched up her nose and glared at Stark.

"I told you not to kill him," Lillie snapped.

"Well he's going to kill me if our goal is to keep knocking him back," Stark snapped in a dark, sadistic tone.

Koji attempted to punch Stark not giving up. Stark twisted his arm around but Koji didn't even seem to react to it. Stark smirked as he heard it crack. Lillie gapped.

"Just don't kill him, Stark, please! Hold him down so I can put this on him," Lillie exclaimed holding up the chain with the lock for Stark to see. Stark frowned.

"Fine." Stark knocked Koji onto the floor with his foot and held him down on the ground. Lillie advanced toward him but Koji attempted to struggle out of Stark's grip. Lillie carefully put the chain around his neck and then locked it. Koji seemed to relax as his eyes seemed to return to normal and he winced causing Stark to let go of him.

Koji slowly got up wincing in pain. When he saw Lillie wasn't injured, he literally threw himself on her.

"I didn't… kill anyone… I didn't kill… you," he managed to say in relief. Lillie patted him on the back as if to calm him.

"Yeah… I'm fine. You didn't hurt or kill me," Lillie soothed and then added," You need to relax. Your arm is broken… and you sort of have a hole in your stomach." Stark and Caleb fell to the pavement looking exhausted. Lillie had gotten up to check on them.

"Thanks for not killing him, Stark," Lillie said with a small smile. Stark smirked at her arrogantly.

"It would mean much more to me if you unsealed my powers."

"AAAAAARRRGHHHH! NOOOOO!" Kazu screamed into the night in frustration. He pointed at Koji," I'm not done yet! I'll make sure he drags you away!"

Author's Note:

Thanks for all the reviews! I deeply appreciate reading them! =)