Massacre Girls (Rated M)

[Briarheart]

The door to the main cabin opened, revealing a welcoming party of several dozen greasy mercenaries. Each of them gripped longbows like their lives depended on it, the tips of their arrows dancing with fire and pointed directly at the hull of my beautiful and highly flammable airship.

My good mood immediately soured. “Put those fucking things out before I shove them up your asses,” I growled.

I could practically hear Advencia's eyes rolling around in her skull from fifty feet away.

“Nice to see you too, ya' fuckdoll,” I hissed at the succubus. I never could figure out what that bitch's problem was. Did she hang onto Lye's lingering grudges against me for the year he spent buried under the mountain, rotting in his own prison cells? Fuckin' whatever. I could waste her in a second. One hand tied behind my back. No, both hands. Blindfolded. If she so much as looked at me cross-eyed, I'd melt those shiny sapphires right out of their sockets.

As I continued down the ramp, a pair of zombified Aleraran airmen followed, paint buckets and brushes in hand, a pair of ladders hung on their shoulders, ready to rechristen the airship. They wouldn't take much longer than it would for me to collect my little Ar'Tuel friend for a girls' night out.

Speaking of which, Amari took a step closer. Despite being bare-foot in ankle-deep snow, she was looking considerably healthier than the last time I saw her. Her porcelain skin was healing up, there was a slight golden coloring in her eyes, and she didn't look so damn lost.

“Madison,” she said, her tone guarded after being dropped in on so unexpectedly.

With a smile and a grand gesture, I addressed the redhead. “Ah, yes, you. Pack your bags, grab some snacks, and get in the airship. You and I are going to have some fun.”

She exchanged an unreadable glance with Advencia. Well, I couldn't read Amari's eyes--Advencia, on the other hand, had her distrust for me plastered all over her stupid fucking pretty face.

The demoness opened her mouth to spurt something that would keep Amari locked up in the Sanctum, but I was close enough to slap her upside the head to shut her up. So I did. She didn't really appreciate that, but one quick glare silenced her for good.

“I have not been doing well,” I said, my voice low enough that the assorted rabble wouldn't hear. “I need to get away. I need to get back to my roots. I need to be me again, Amari. And I can't think of anyone better than you to help me do this.”

I slid an arm around her shoulder and persuaded her towards the gates of the Sanctum. Even through the thick fabric of the captain's coat, I could feel her corrosive aura nibbling away at my flesh. But I didn't care.

“It'll be just you and I. Best friends forever, right? Through the good times and the bad?” I licked the sharpened points of my teeth. “Good times for us, bad times for everyone else that is, yeah?"