127 | SALT AND BURN

The creature’s long-limbs and black-tipped claws are unmistakable as the thing hurls itself towards us. Smaller than the last two I faced, this one still has an oddly humanoid face that lets me know it’s neither of the two who stopped by the last time. I shove Darine towards the house, keeping my eyes locked on the greyish form of the Revenant streaking across the debris-covered yard. There’s only faint black-webbing under the ghastly shade of their skin, the telltale darkening in it’s early stages for such a stretched-out form. The creature’s aura is less intrusive as the other two, still disgusting and hair-raising, but *less*.

There’s a terrifying heartbeat where the monster changes courses to lurch towards my human friend, but then I jerk to my feet and make the creature focus back on me. Darine lets out a shriek of surprise when she finally sees the thing - now only a few feet away - and scrambles into the house. I continue to watch the Revenant, loosening my stance and preparing myself to engage. *Why is this one here and not one of the other two I’ve seen before? Why aren’t there more of them?* The burning questions keeps sizzling in the back of my head, but I have to keep them out - if I think about either now, I won’t be able to react in time.

This Revenant is clearly less experienced than the others I’ve faced, but not by much. It’s slower, just a degree less controlled in it’s sweeping motions, and the thing’s eyes are not quite right… They burn bright blue, the color for the Knight-Class of the vamp hierarchy. Not silvery, or green, like I know the Royal and Guardian Classes. I briefly wonder if that makes this one stronger or weaker as a Revenant if they’re ‘Classed’ lower than me. I don’t have to wonder long as the Revenant reaches me.

It’s a *she*. Or at least, this one *was* female in it’s…vamp-life. Her clothes are plain, just a t-shirt and some sort of stretchy-material’d pants that cling to her now too-long legs. Her torso and long silvery-white hair make me think *it*’s a *she* - *was* a she - the other two I faced were flat-chested and had shorter hair. This one has breasts on it’s stretched-out body, making it the first ‘female’ Revenant I’ve seen. All other markers of what this thing were have been stretched too thin.

All other defining angles of the face and body are the stretched-versions now that make it the monster I know as a Revenant. It shocks the shit out of me to realize this. This is what *I’d* look like if I were to become a Revenant. And maybe that’s why the King sent this one after me - to screw with my head. Because, even though this one’s a much fresher Revenant than the other two I’ve faced, she’s slower. *She*.

The pronoun makes me hesitate as I think it. Just that second of hesitation where I assign the Revenant before me a more humanoid title makes me pause. The Revenant has no such reservations, and comes at me full-force. Sharp, black-tipped talons swipe at my freshly healed side and shred through muscle and tissue.

I hiss, already off my game, as pain registers in my head, threatening to pull my focus even farther from the present moment.

*C’mon, Red!* Blue’s voice chides me. Without thinking it, I locate my mate racing to assist from the far side of Kiwina.

*You’re just gong to distract me.* I warn Blue mentally as I grit my teeth and move. The vampire-calm washes over me as I try to block out the pain and strike back at the Revenant. *The Revenant. Not* she. *It’s a monster, not something that can be saved or helped. It’s soulless. Just a killing-machine, Scar.* I remind myself.

I grab the wrist of the Revenant’s hand still embedded in my side and *squeeze*. The air fills with the snapping and crunching of bone as it breaks and mends. I grip tighter, making sure to shatter the thing completely before shoving it’s ruined wrist back. Really, though, I buy myself just a few seconds. Revenant’s heal horrifyingly fast. One moment, the writs on the Revenant’s arm is limp. The next, it twitches and jerks back into a perfect line of reformed bone.

The Revenant barely seems to notice the change as it launches itself at me, too-wide jaws gaping to expose the rows of shark-like teeth jutting from it’s maw. I jerk away, letting the long-buried instincts of my vampire side guide me. The Guardian instinct to protect and fight pulls me into a low crouch, making my body smaller while also giving me the perfect position to spring into an attack.

The Revenant follows my movement, but like a part of me guessed, the thing’s too uncoordinated to complete the motion of diving for me gracefully and practically trips over it’s too-long limbs.

I spring up and launch myself towards it, arm outstretched and fingers pointed. I ignore the slight pain as my stiff hand breaks through skin and muscle, wriggling slightly to break through bone and to the organ it seeks. The Revenant stops short, our combined forces equalizing as it realizes what I’m doing - too late.

My hand grips the un-beating organ that feels too cold to be part of a moving being. The Guardian instinct tells me to stop hesitating and do what needs to be done as my fist tightens and I pull. The almost-black maroon liquid that clings to the organ and my hand spurts to the ground between us. The Revenant makes a eardrum-shattering sound, snapping my eyes away from the heart literally in my hand, and to stare at the monster still moving without it’s heart.

*The head. I need to separate the head.* Again, that Guardian instinct tells me. Dropping the heart, I dive for the Revenant as it continues to scream and chaotically flail around. *And then it’s arms. And legs… Every limb must be separated, salted, and burned.*

Moving on the instinct, I furiously begin the task of dispatching the soulless undead before me. *Don’t think about it*. I repeat internally as my hands pull and rend, ignoring the gore bursting out like a geyser. Ignore the horrible scent and feel of the aura slowly sputtering out. *Just do it, Scarlett. Let it be done.*

Then it’s over and I’m stand over what remains of my opponent, breathing harshly in the silence as my heart pounds in my head. I feel queasy as I look at the tattered parts of the thing that a Revenant. Pieces I can’t even tell were ever a whole being, just horribly dark-red coated things. *I did this.*

Nausea bubbles in my gut, but I can’t muster up any real regret over what I’ve just done. It was this or the thing would have regenerated eventually. Maybe not any time soon, but still… And then something in the pile *shifts.*

I jerk back, eye wide in horror as two pieces slowly crawl to join together. *Salt and burn*. The Guardian instinct tells me. *Salt and burn.*

I run inside and raid the cabinets in the kitchen for the giant container of salt and even find a book of matches. I’m relieved that my friend is no where in sight as I smear the Revenant’s blood on everything I touch. I can only imagine how I look right now, coated in dirt and blood. When I run back outside and salt the pile, making sure to sift through the moving meat and coat even the bones with it, I drop a lit match on it.

Somehow, the pile magically catches the second the little flame hits the bloodied pieces. I nearly gag as the scent of burning flesh hits my nose and I jump back. The flames go from reddish-orange to a bright white, soaring a whole foot above the pile. The smell goes from rancid to oddly pleasant as white smoke billows up to the sky and dissipates into the air. I stare for a long moment, mentally filing this under the strangest experiences of my life, and turn away from the now dying blaze.

On autopilot, I walk back into the house and check on my human friend.