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  She decided to look for a place to say. Kali dug in her pocket, and she pulled out the metal she found. She had a few bars of silver, ‘Should be enough for one night’s stay,’ she thought. After nearly half an hour of walking, she came to a boarding house.

  She entered the house and approached the attendant. “How much for a room?”

  The attendant examined Kali who carried a sword across her back, a wooden case, and had blood on her knuckles. “For you an ounce A.G. an hour.”

  “An ounce an hour?” Kali said, “Have you lost your mind?”

  “We get all sorts of unsavory types in here trying to enjoy themselves for an hour, if you get my drift, but ever since the death of the Triumvir’s husband people are a little uneasy about female Seraphim who carry swords on their backs and have who know’s blood on their knuckles.”

  Kali glanced at her hands and rubbed at them before saying, “I can’t go home, and I don’t have that kind of metal.”

  “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here unless you pay.”

  “There has to be something we can work out,” Kali said.

  “There is, you pay me an ounce an hour and I’ll let you stay here.”

  “Fine,” Kali said in defeat. She turned and walked out. In the few minutes she spent in the boarding house, the wind had picked up. It whipped around her back and filled the cloth tied around her. Chills coursed through her. She wrapped the case holding the mace in her arms and pressed it against her chest.

  She continued back the way she came until she stopped in front of Smythe’s shop. The glow of the forge illuminated a silhouette of him working at his anvil. She stared for a little while, imagining the warmth of the embers. For a moment, the wind didn’t cut through her.

  She touched the door for a second then turned to walk away. She couldn’t go back in there. “What am I thinking,” Kali said out loud. She stepped away from the shop and kept walking.

  She had not seen anyone in over an hour when a cry for help rang out! She looked up from her feet, and listened for an indication where the call came from. She took a few more steps and heard it again, “Help!” She ran toward the sound.

  She gripped a lamppost and slingshot herself around a corner before she skipped over a small curb. She dashed past a small alley then skidded to a stop. She doubled back and went down the alley. She saw three people attacking someone.

  “Hey!” Kali shouted jogging down the alley. As she approached one of them turned around, and Kali said, “Leave them alone!”

  “Get lost, this doesn’t concern you.”

  As Kali got closer, she could tell three females attacked a male. Seeing this, she knew these females belonged to the gendercide. “I think it does. I am going to kill you all.” Kali said.

  The first woman who turned around spread her wings and walked toward Kali, “I am a three-thousand-year-old Seraphim, and you’re a kid. Last chance!”

  Kali dropped the case in her hand on the ground and drew her sword. She said, “I am Kali, daughter of Egil, and you are going to beg me to kill you when I am done with you.”

  The woman jumped and pushed with her wings. For a split second, she hovered down the alley toward Kali. The woman pulled back her arm and punched at Kali on her descent. Kali dodged and pushed the woman off balance.

  The assailant landed in a stumble and couldn’t block when Kali kicked her in the ribs. Knocking her further off balance Kali swung her sword at her. The blade slid across her back leaving a line of blood along its path. The woman arched her back and cried out, “You’ll pay for that!”

  Kali spun around and swung the sword low this time. She swept the legs of the woman out from under her. She fell flat on her back, and blood flowed out of her ankles. She screamed in agony.

  Kali stood on the woman’s hand and pressed the sword through her forearm. “Who started the gendercide?”

  The woman grimaced and looked at Kali, “Like I know.”

  Kali pushed the sword up the woman’s arm until she hit bone at the elbow, “Tell me!” she yelled.

  “I have nothing to tell. Just kill me already!”

  “I said you’d beg, and that doesn’t sound like begging to me!” Kali withdrew the sword. She slung the blood from the blade and then traced it along her face. “You’re pretty. It is a shame about your face,” Kali said.

  “What about my face?” the woman asked.

  “This,” Kali said, and she pressed the cutting edge into the woman’s cheek. The woman turned tearing flesh from her face. “Sit still you’re making it worse!” Kali said.

  “Please, just kill me. I don’t know what you want. You’re crazy.”

  Kali heard the sound of approaching footsteps and turned just in time to see another attacker lean down to tackle her. The woman grabbed Kali around the waist and knocked her off her feet. As she fell over, the gritty pavement of the alley stung her back and tore at her wings.

  The sword slipped from her hand and slid out of reach. Kali used her elbows to push at the collarbone of the attacker. She bucked her hips and still the woman held firm. When Kali wriggled again, the woman moved on top of her.

  She drew back a fist and punched Kali across the left side of her face. The blow caused Kali’s head to snap to the side. The mace’s case sat within reach. She grabbed the handle and brought it up as hard as she could. The case caught the woman across her shoulder and knocked her off balance.

  Kali used the advantage to unclasp the case. The top fell open, and she reached inside searching for the handle. She gripped the spiked end. She pulled the mace out and flipped it end over end. When she caught the handle, she hit the woman as hard as she could.

  The blow landed with a thud, and the woman grunted. Kali looked to her attacker’s right arm where the spikes of the mace had embedded themselves into her shoulder. Kali pushed back, and the woman fell backward. Kali scrambled to her feet.

  She pulled on the mace with both hands. When she pulled it out of the woman’s shoulder the metal tips of the mace grinded against bone and snapped free. The woman cried in pain. Kali raised the mace over her head, the woman looked up only to watch death descend upon her. When Kali brought the mace down on the woman’s face, brain matter splattered out as the woman’s skull cracked open with a grizzly crunch.

  Kali left the mace stuck in the woman’s face and walked to her sword. She picked it up and turned around. She looked at the woman whom she attacked first. “You’re next!” Kali said walking toward her.

  She held out her good arm waving her hand, “You don’t have to do this, I won’t tell anybody!”

  Kali plunged the sword into the woman’s throat, “Shut up!” Kali said and withdrew the blade. The woman gurgled on her blood as she died.

  Kali didn’t wait to watch her die. She rushed over to the last woman who attacked the male. He laid motionless only recoiling from her blows.

  “Hey,” Kali said, “while you’ve been busy beating an unconscious person your friends have died. Now it’s your turn.”

  The woman stopped beating her victim and turned to face Kali, “Oh, you’re going to pay for that.”

  “So, I’ve heard,” Kali said. She sprinted at the woman who charged in return. Just before they collided Kali leaped up and used her wings to flip over the woman. As she tumbled end over end, she watched the woman run underneath her.

  Kali gripped the sword in both hands and extended her arms. The blade of the sword sliced across the woman’s face. Kali finished her flip and turned around with her sword ready.

  “My eye!” the woman cried, “you’ve cut my eye out!” She held her hand over her eye, a river of blood flowed down her face and soaked her clothes.

  Kali pulled her sword back and then lunged toward the woman. The sword stuck into her abdomen, Kali pushed her back. She took several steps until the woman’s back pressed against a wall. Kali angled the blade up, and the sword disappeared into the woman until the blade emerged through the gap in the left side of
her collarbone.

  Kali looked into the eyes of the woman as the life faded from her eyes. She stood there holding the sword with all her might until the woman’s weight became too much to continue to support. She stepped back, and the woman slid from her sword to the ground.

  The woman’s blood warmed Kali’s cold hands, and for a moment she didn’t think about person she came to rescue. She only thought about the warmth on her hands. Then she turned to attend to their victim.

  She walked over to him and checked for a pulse. At first, she didn’t find one, she moved her fingers a little and checked again. “You’re alive,” Kali said with a sigh, “Let’s get you some help.”

  ✯ ✯ ✯

  Kali climbed out of the vehicle provided to her by the spouse of the male Seraphim she saved. She reached her bloody hand into her pocket and grabbed the silver to tip the driver.

  “That’s not necessary, I’ve been paid.” The driver said.

  “I insist,” Kali said extending her hand to the driver.

  “Thank you,” the driver said eyeing Kali’s gruesome gratuity.

  Kali winked at the driver then grabbed the wooden case which held her mace and headed inside of her family’s estate. When she arrived inside her mother waited for her.

  “Where have you been?” her mother asked, “What happened to you? Do you have any idea how worried I have been?”

  “Don’t act like you care. You couldn’t be bothered to see things from my perspective so why care now?” Kali started walking past her mother.

  Her mother stood up from the chair she sat in and blocked her path, “You have some explaining to do!”

  “I am not a kid anymore. I don’t want to live here anymore. I will be out of your hair soon enough.”

  “You’re too young to live on your own. How are you going to pay for that?”

  “I am 112 years old, I think I can manage.” Kali sidestepped her mother and walked upstairs.

  “I am not done with you!”

  “I am done with you,” Kali said.

  She walked to her room and locked the door behind her. She went to her washroom and looked in the mirror. She leaned on her left hand and examined a bruise forming on her left cheek where one of the attackers had punched her. She opened her mouth and rotated her jaw, “Ehh,” she grimaced at the tender jaw.

  Kali’s gaze drifted down to her blood-stained clothes. She looked like a butcher after the slaughter. She reached behind her back and untied the knot. She untied the matching knot behind her neck and threw the piece of cloth in the corner. She pulled her leather pants off and laid them across the counter.

  She flipped on the water to shower. After taking her hair out, she stepped into the shower. The water turned from clear to pink to red. She watched as the blood tinged water circled the drain. She rubbed her hands across her skin trying to slick the blood away.

  Images of the mace stuck into the woman’s skull flashed through her mind. She shook her head trying to shake the sight away. She backpedaled until she felt the corner of the shower against her back. She slid down the cold wall and sat in the corner. She crossed her arms on her knees and sobbed into them.

  Chapter Five

  Kali packed very little as she prepared to leave her family’s estate. She knew as she continued to provoke the gendercide she would need to move often. She didn’t want any unnecessary luggage. She packed several of her favorite halter top cloth shirts. She packed the leather pants from her father and a few pleated skirts.

  She tossed a few sheathed knives on top and zipped up the bag. She passed the handle through the handle of her shield. She grabbed her sword, and the obsidian handled sword she still thought of as her father’s and slung them over her shoulder. She picked up the case that held the mace in one hand and her bag in the other hand.

  She walked out of her room and didn’t look back. She walked to the main entrance of the estate and sat down the stuff in her hands. She turned and went to the family vault. They stored a significant amount of wealth on their property.

  She keyed in the passcode then rotated a large metal handle. She tugged on the heavy metal door. The thick door opened slow despite her considerable effort. She slipped through the narrow opening she had managed and entered the vault.

  She pressed her finger to a biometric scanner which beeped, the lock clicked open and she reached in the container and started pulling out gold bars. She grabbed handfuls and stuffed them into a sack. When the sack threatened to tear under the weight of the metal, she tied it up and opened another container with her finger.

  From this container, she piled silver into another sack. She emptied the box and filled three more sacks. She gathered the four bags and squeezed back out the vault. She pushed the heavy door closed and locked it. She walked back to her things at the main entrance.

  She unzipped her bag and heaved the bags of metal on top. She zipped the bag up and stood to leave. She picked up the mace and then the bag of clothes and metal. The weight of the bag caused her to lean and waddle. She made her way out to the vehicle she had called to pick her up.

  The driver stood outside of the vehicle leaning next to the door she would enter. She took her time limping toward the waiting driver.

  “Need any help?” He asked.

  “I’ve got it,” she said back.

  When she arrived at the vehicle, he offered to secure the bag for her, and she insisted the bag rode with her. Once she’d entered the vehicle, she gave him an address and watched out the window as they flew off. The mountains whirred by, and soon they slowed with the thick traffic of the city.

  When they arrived at her destination, she paid him and hauled her bag out. She sat it on the curb and waited for him to drive off. She looked up at the new building she would live in. A hovel in comparison to her parents’ estate, but nicer than most people could afford. She took her things up.

  When she entered her new apartment, she dropped the bag just in the door, and her momentum almost caused her to trip over the bag. ‘I am going to have to travel lighter,’ she thought to herself.

  She plopped into a chair and took a minute to catch her breath. She had opted for a furnished apartment and looked around checking out the furnishings she had agreed to use sight unseen. “I suppose this will do,” she said out loud.

  She got up and went to her bag. She unzipped it and took out the sacks of metal. One by one she hid three of the sacks around her apartment. She opened the case and took out the mace and set it aside. She put the last sack of silver in the case and walked out.

  She made her way back to Smythe’s shop. When she arrived, she walked in to find Smythe helping a customer.

  “I’ll be right with you,” Smythe said not looking away from his customer. She could hear them discussing his purchase, and she browsed around looking at the assorted devices of death. After several minutes, they completed the transaction and the male Seraphim left.

  Kali walked up to the counter and looked Smythe in the eyes, “I am going to need some supplies,” she said and hefted the case onto the counter. It hit the counter with a thud, and the metal inside clinked around. She flipped the clasps and opened the sack. She poured out the silver inside of the case and rotated it around to let him see.

  His eyes widened, and he said, “What do you plan to do with all that?”

  “Kill them all,” she said.

  The End

  Kali’s story continues in Escape Velocity, book one of The Black Star Chronicles. Get your copy today! Available exclusively in Kindle Unlimited or for $0.99 on Amazon.

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  Also By E.P. Wyck

  Have you read them all?

  The Black Star Chronicles

  Escape Velocity

  It feels like just yesterday terrorists killed Kali’s father, but now their reign of death is permeating every facet of society. She must deal with her past in order to stop catastrophic loss of life.

  Entropy Horizon – Coming Soon

  Two races against time attempt to right the wrongs of the past. Aleksandra must return her prisoners to face justice before they figure out their captors don’t have the manpower to detain them. The research crew faces more loss in a devastating accident at the research site. They must regroup in order finish their work and change the future.

  Retrograde – Coming Soon

  The research crew faces their worst case scenario while trying to refit the Dawnslayer. Ryn must protect his family as the gendercide completely grips empyreankind. Who will survive to see the future?

  Full Speed To Now – The story will continue

  After killing a black hole, the research team heads full speed to Trinity to find thousands of years have passed since their departure. In a whole new world, they’re forced to adapt in order to use their newfound resource to change the past.

  Millennium In A Minute – The story will continue

  The crew of the Aion, the first ship capable of manipulating time, is sabotaged in an attempt to circumvent their ability to predict the future. A future that includes a whole new class of planet destruction weaponry. They must repair their ship and prevent a disaster that could end 16,000 years of peace.