The blue Volkswagen would not have been Octavia's first pick to ride into battle, had she been given a choice. Though to be fair, she would have rather had nothing short of a main battle tank.
Octavia spontaneously growing bat wings in the middle of persuading Fleur to give up what she knew had not done much for her self-confidence. At least it hadn’t affected her drive to finish what she had started.
While the information from Fleur’s phone led Octavia and Vinyl to Carousel Brass’ place in Chelsea, neither of them was expecting it to be so completely enormous. It looked more like a hotel than a house, and a nice hotel even for the affluent area. In fact, if it had also possessed a wall around it, one might think it was a castle.
“He’s definitely going to have security,” Vinyl observed through her pink sunglasses. “Yeah, look. Hey, are those guys human?”
Octavia looked out the window at two guards standing near what was apparently the front door as they drove by. “I suppose it makes sense he has many interlocking rings of security.”
“Are you good with this?” Vinyl asked, searching for a place to park.
“I would like to avoid killing the hired help if at all possible,” Octavia replied. “They could even be ghouls enthralled by Carousel.”
Vinyl nodded. “Sure. I guess we’ll just walk over there and…”
She glanced at Octavia. “No, wait, they’d be all like ‘what’s with the chick with wings’ and it would be awkward. Okay, I’ll walk over there. You come in from the sky.”
“I still don’t know if I can actually fly!”
Vinyl grinned. “No time like the present. You’ve got to use those wings sometime, and I know you don’t like hugs.”
They got out of the car on a dark patch of sidewalk. VInyl somehow concealed her machete up under her jacket.
Octavia tentatively stretched out her wings, wider than the span of her arms. It did feel good after being cramped in the car. She took stock, figuring out which muscles did what and tentatively began to flap. Her feet got light, but it took a moment to balance thrust so that she didn’t carry herself off to one side or the other. Vinyl watched her, grinning like a maniac. Octavia bent her knees, gaining clearance from the ground while still staying close to it while she learned.
“You good?” said Vinyl. Without waiting for a reply, she went on. “Okay, let’s go. Itchy and Scratchy ride again!”
Octavia would have commented on the inanity of the remark, but Vinyl had already started to walk down the block towards the two guards bathed under a security light. Octavia gained some altitude, mentally pushing away her reservations. She wasn’t scared of heights, but she had to reprogram her personal definition of risk, even after being a vampire assassin for two years. It just felt so strange to be hovering several meters above the ground.
She followed Vinyl, subtly adjusting the stroke of her wings to stay as quiet as possible. Though, it helped that Vinyl had her phone out and had begun to dance, playing music to the volume limit of the phone’s speakers. If nothing else, it attracted additional attention away from Octavia, and that was probably her intent.
Octavia’s night vision spotted a few cameras. They were pointed at the ground, not anticipating a threat from the air. To be fair, Octavia wouldn’t have either had she not been that threat. She carefully adjusted the nearest camera, changing it to point at a different piece of sidewalk. Flying ahead, she found another and pushed it away from the front door, too.
Below, Vinyl stopped, distracting the guards. “Pardon me, gentlemen, I was hoping you could help me find the Tower of London?”
“You’re a long way from there,” said one of them. “What’s a tourist even doing here?”
“Maybe she got lost wearing sunglasses at night,” sniped the other.
The two of them heard Octavia land behind them, but neither had time to react before her precise and strong fingers pinched the blood vessels in their necks that led to their brains.
“Holy shit, Tavi, did you get that from Star Trek?” Vinyl asked as the pair of men crumpled.
“I can’t use the force.”
Vinyl shook her head. “Nevermind.” She tried the doorknob, but it was locked. There was also an electronic box beside the door.
Octavia bound the two men with their own clothes while Vinyl bent over to the control box, popping the cover off and beginning to fiddle with the wires inside. Octavia glanced around, feeling exposed in the light. “Do hurry up.”
“Come on, this takes precision and the right steps. You of all people should know about following the queue.”
Octavia crossed her arms. “Just this once, why don’t you skip a few steps?”
Vinyl grinned. “Wow, okay. I’ll knock it out lickety-split. So fast you won’t know what hit you. Wine, dine, sixty-nine.”
“Three sexual puns, two of them double entendres for going fast.” Octavia rolled her eyes. “A new record in obscenity and you still haven’t gotten that open.”
“Well, it’s not exactly easy to break into a sophisticated, best-that-money-can-buy electronic lock that was specifically designed not to be tampered with.”
The lock clicked.
“I thought you said-” Octavia began.
“It wasn’t-!”
The door slammed open and something furry fired out as if shot from a cannon. Vinyl, standing to the side, got the door to the face. Octavia, a bigger target standing right in front of the door, got the werewolf to the face.
However, her hands were almost as quick and she got the muzzle of the borrowed Browning up, substituting it for her own flesh in the attacking werewolf’s mouth.
Whoever the werewolf was, they got the message pretty quickly. Maybe Octavia’s wings hanging over the scene and casting a shadow in the overhead light helped. With her gun still in their mouth, the wolf immediately dropped into the beg position.
Vinyl pushed the door off herself, rubbing her nose. Her sunglasses were battered, but held together. She waved her hand. “He attacked us first.”
Octavia’s finger tightened on the trigger, but the werewolf spoke up. “Hey, wait!” At least that’s what it sounded like with a gun in his mouth.
He partially shapeshifted his head back to speak more clearly. “Why are you doing this?”
There was no easy or direct answer to that question. Carousel was guilty of at the very least endorsing what happened to Octavia’s parents. He was likely responsible for quite a bit more than that. Nothing Octavia knew, however, just what she had been told or guessed. Carousel had cut her with a sword earlier when she’d faced him in the hall of mirrors, but in her current line of work that was practically a greeting.
But really, the first point was the most important: Carousel was the final remaining person who had participated in what had happened in Octavia’s life. He may or may not have been the most important, but he was the one who had not yet faced some punishment for it.
Assuming Octavia could be the one to carry it out. She’d beaten Fleur, but somehow that had felt personal, emotional. Fleur had manipulated Octavia, and there was revenge to be had. The revelation about her parents and the mind control had thrown Octavia for a bigger loop than when she’d first been turned into a vampire. Finishing off Carousel might not be the missing puzzle piece that would let her put her life back together, but damned if she wouldn’t try.
Octavia answered the question. “Because I have to.”
Vinyl’s head jerked up, looking towards the door. Without waiting to also sense whatever Vinyl had, Octavia twisted her body, wings providing extra thrust, and hooked her foot around the werewolf’s head. The force of her kick lifted him off the ground from his crouched position and flung him through the door where he collided with a very surprised pair of vampires.
Vinyl went through the door a fraction of a second after the pileup, swinging her machete. On impulse, Octavia followed her, but by the time she was across the threshold the only resistance she encountered was stepping over three decapitated bodies.
The inside of the house was well furnished, as one might expect from a vampire/jeweler/criminal mastermind. At the least, the ceilings were high and the hallways were wide, more than enough room for Octavia’s wings.
Also, fighting. Though, after the werewolf and two vampires from earlier, the three zombies that came at them next were less of a challenge, even though these were the kind of zombies that carried guns and shot back. The Browning in Octavia’s hands made short work of them with three precise headshots.
Forgetting that she was a much bigger target now, a couple of bullets of return fire had punched holes in the skin of Octavia’s wings, but now that she was indoors it wasn’t as if she needed them.
“One werewolf, two vampires, three zombies,” muttered Vinyl. “Is it my imagination or are they trading quality for quantity?”
“You’re seeing patterns where only coincidences exist,” said Octavia. “And don’t forget it started with two humans.”
“If you say so.”
“Trust me. I actually know something about rhythm.”
“If you’re going to keep burning me like that, we’re going to have to renegotiate the terms of this friendship.”
“I suppose I never really thought about us being friends,” said Octavia, after a moment. “We are, don’t get me wrong, I’ve just never considered what that means.”
“At the risk of sounding incredibly sappy, you don’t have to overthink about it like I know you do, instead it’s something you feel.”
Octavia’s eyebrows went up. “That’s quite out of character for you.”
“I mean, I can talk about being more than friends and upgrading this relationship to fuckbuddies if you want.”
Octavia sighed. “Now that sounds more like you.”
Vinyl tilted her head. “I could even say that seriously.”
Octavia looked at her. “Is this really the time?”
“Come on, I know you well enough to know there is no good time to offer to have sex. So I’ll just put it out there.”
“No.”
“Okay.” Vinyl shrugged.
Octavia paused and sighed. “I didn’t mean to come off so standoffish, and having sex with you would probably be one of the least repulsive things I’ve done in the last twenty four hours. It just isn’t something I want, not a personal insult to you.”
“I said it was okay.” Vinyl grinned. “And I told you to stop overthinking things.”
It was good that the conversation was drawing to a close, because they were interrupted just then by two werewolves. This at least validated Octavia’s statement that there was no pattern, but that was not nearly as important as defending against two werewolves.
Also, the lights cut out just then, but Octavia’s gun was already pointed and she fired anyway. Something slid limply into her legs, so she presumed success. There was a moment of back-and-forth movement over where Vinyl had been, then a body hitting the floor.
“Are you well?” Octavia asked the darkness.
“Yep,” Vinyl replied.
They stood there for a moment. While Octavia’s night vision was excellent, in total blackness there was not even a small trace of light to detect.
“So…” said Vinyl. “We should probably get moving before they bring in the infrared goggles and stuff. Do you have sonar?”
“That would be ridiculous.”
“That’s what you said about flying.”
“At least I do have wings. I don’t have ears nearly large enough to sensitively echolocate things. I can only vaguely tell where you are just by talking to you, and I can’t tell anything about the surrounding area.”
“Eh, it was a thought.” Vinyl took a few steps, coming closer. Even though she expected it, Octavia was still surprised by Vinyl’s hand touching her. To Vinyl’s credit, she didn’t leave her hand on Octavia’s chest very long.
“Okay, those guys came from somewhere over here…” Vinyl said. Octavia followed her lead, the two of them gradually feeling, smelling, and using whatever senses they could to navigate deeper into the house.
“Do you hear that distinctive fifty-hertz sound?” said Vinyl. “There’s still electricity on somewhere in the building. We just have to find the switches. Or open some blinds and let some streetlight in.” She laughed. “This is kind of bullshit.”
Vinyl had the better hearing and Octavia let her guide through the dark, her hand on Octavia’s shoulder.
Up ahead, there was slight sound. Octavia could only describe it as a slither, which was not something that generally had any positive connotations.
Vinyl pulled her phone out and turned on the flashlight app, lighting up the hallway ahead but there was nothing there.
“You had that the whole time?” Octavia said, her pupils shrinking painfully in the glare. “Couldn’t you have used it earlier?”
“I was just trying to keep us stealthy,” said Vinyl. “Now, whoever’s around that corner up there knows we’re here. Where’s your phone, anyway?”
“Blown up earlier today.”
“Oh right.”
Now that there was light, the two of them separated slightly. At the least, it helped prepare for who - or what - awaited them.
As it turned out, it was both. A woman and a snake, that is. Or more appropriately, a woman/snake.
“Holy shit,” said Vinyl. “I honestly didn’t know there were any of you guys in the UK.”
Octavia thought there was some sort of Greek name for whatever the creature was, but couldn’t recall it. At any rate, it didn’t seem important. Whoever she was, apparently foreign, she either didn’t speak English or wasn’t interested in doing so. And quick as a snake, she struck.
Despite her size - her tail must have been several meters long - she still moved like a snake. And as she arched towards Octavia, her jaw unhinged like one, showing off a maw of teeth.
Octavia barely got out of the way, and aimed a strike at the scaly tail, though it didn’t do much good against the natural armor. Her opponent turned around and started back towards Octavia, but this time purposely feinted to the side, passing by again.
It took Octavia a moment too long to realize that she’d been encircled by the long tail. Fortunately, Vinyl was on the ball and ripped a handful of claws against the grain of the scales, digging enough of a hole to more than get the lamia’s attention.
Octavia leaped out of the encircling coils and aimed her fist at the lamia’s head, who snapped her mouth open wide again and made Octavia reconsider.
Vinyl, however, took it as an opportunity and seemed to willingly shove her arm directly down the lamia’s throat all the way up to the shoulder. Then, she pulled it back out along with a handful of flesh.
Internal bleeding wasn’t going to finish the lamia off that quickly, but it certainly helped. Even before she could react in pain, Vinyl’s next attack was a throat punch followed up by a side kick to the face that the lamia was too stunned to attempt to bite. As she swayed, Vinyl then decapitated her with a machete strike.
“What is this?” Octavia said, gesturing. “I didn’t know anything like this existed. She doesn’t even look like she started out as human.”
Vinyl shrugged. “Carousel likes shiny things, right? Maybe he has a collection of imported exotics.”
The two of them continued on, not pausing to dwell further. Rounding the corner, they were immediately confronted by another one of Carousel’s curiosities. She had the face of a woman, the body of a lion, and large, feathery wings.
“A fucking sphinx? Seriously?” Vinyl extended her arms and looked around, as if searching for a hidden camera.
Despite Vinyl’s incredulity, Octavia didn’t take her eyes off the new threat. If nothing else, it was still at least mostly a lion.
“Stop right there,” said the sphinx.
“Oh yeah, sure,” said Vinyl. “You’re going to ask us a riddle and stall for time or something to get backup here to keep us from killing you and everyone else on our way to kill Carousel.”
The sphinx’s tail flicked. “Imagine this. You’re given a choice to buy fruit from a man that claims his is the best and another man that claims his is the worst. Who do you believe?”
“It’s whom.” Octavia shot her in the face. The sphinx dropped.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Vinyl glanced at Octavia. “Well, I guess that was answer enough. I guess this also means these guys aren’t arranged in difficulty of fighting them, either. Let’s hope Carousel himself continues the trend.”
“There isn’t a trend,” Octavia pointed out. “We already discussed this. I would say that you had forgotten in the heat of the moment, but most of them seem to be attacking me first.”
“I noticed that too, why do they keep going after you?” Vinyl wondered. “Is it because with the wings they suddenly see you as a bigger threat, or at least a bigger target? I guess I could shift forms if that meant they would go after me.”
“You don’t have to keep shielding me.”
“I know you can handle yourself in a fight. But if you want, I’ll still act like a clown in public to draw attention away from you.”
Octavia stopped and turned to Vinyl. “This whole time, you were doing that consciously and intentionally?”
“At least partially. When we first met, Fancy told me how self-conscious you were. I had already been doing some DJ’ing but kicked it up a notch.” Vinyl grinned. “Hey, it worked out for me, too. People really seem to like this persona and record sales are up.”
“You’re welcome, I suppose.”
“Thanks, Tavi.”
Octavia shook her head. “No, wait, I should be thanking you.”
“You’re welcome, Tavi.”
This really wasn’t a good time to have a heart to heart. They stepped over the dead sphinx, towards the double doors she had been guarding. Opening them up, the pair found themselves in a large room. The walls and ceiling faded away into darkness. It was like a gymnasium.
“I kind of wonder why a vampire would need to exercise,” said Vinyl, “but also, if I had the kind of money for a house this big, I would probably have my own basketball court, too.”
“It’s for badminton, you uncultured swine,” said a voice.
The lights came up, revealing Carousel Brass standing on the other side of the room. His polished sabre was in his hand.
“Did you do that on purpose?” said Vinyl.
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” said Octavia. “The last time I met him it was in a house of mirrors. He seems to have a flair for the dramatic.”
“We should have gotten Fancypants to challenge him to a dandy-off.” Vinyl shrugged. “But I don’t think even Fancy has ever called me an uncultured swine.”
“Though you are,” said Octavia.
Vinyl shrugged, not denying it.
Carousel took a few steps forward. “I won’t pretend I don’t know why you’re here.”
“Great, because Fleur really gave us the runaround,” said Vinyl. She jerked her head at Octavia. “Tavi had to beat it out of her.”
“You did what!?” Carousel’s head snapped to Octavia.
“She was alive the last time we saw her,” said Octavia flatly. “Though not for lack of trying.”
Carousel twitched, his spine contorting strangely. “When I am finished with you, I will go to her. For your sake, hope that I will not be too late.”
“No,” said Octavia. “This ends here.”
“You know nothing about the power of love,” he sneered.
“Nothing is sacred,” Octavia shot back. “You know very well what happened to me, what you had a part in, and you think you’re special? We all try to stay close to the things we want, but life is ugly and unfair. You don’t get to love someone. Not after everything you’ve done.”
“Damn,” Vinyl muttered appreciatively.
“So you think you’re better than me?” Carousel said. “That you’re on the side of right in all this?”
“The thought never crossed my mind,” Octavia said. “Fancypants is right. Murder is evil, and maybe someday I’ll pay for my sins. But that doesn’t mean I don’t also know evil when I see it. Not to mention, this is personal.”
She held her weapons loosely, not confident she could attack from across the room without Carousel managing to dodge. She would close the distance, then. Better that this sort of thing was done up close and personal.
Perhaps seeing the steel in her eyes, Carousel ended the conversation. “So be it.”
His shoulders hunched, even as he seemed to grow taller. Edges appeared on his forearms. For a moment, Octavia thought that he had the same sort of arm blades as Mutton Chop, but then they unfolded to a longer length and took on a metallic sheen.
This was in addition to his legs lengthening and splitting into four, all pointed and made of the same shiny material.
“What the hell?” said Vinyl. “Is this guy some kind of cyborg or bug or something?”
Regardless, Carousel was now taller, more stable, and had built in weapons. If he and his closest associates had all developed such extensive mutations, after receiving their bite it was a wonder that Octavia had only gotten out of it with wings.
Speaking of...now would be a good time to not be stuck on the ground as Carousel scuttled forward.
“Bats eat bugs, right?” Vinyl called as she and Octavia split up to circle Carousel.
“Not that I wanted to bite him, but I want to even less now,” Octavia replied, learning how to fly sideways to always be facing Carousel.
She chanced a shot, but Carousel got his arm up quickly enough to actually deflect it somewhere into the ceiling. Vinyl jumped forward to swing her machete, but he moved his leg and kicked her back with it.
Whatever else Carousel had going on with his body, his torso at least seemed ripe for a staking. The problem would be getting close enough to do so. Octavia made a couple of tentative approaches, the compressibility of air not giving her the same kind of acceleration that pushing off the ground with her legs would have. Still, she felt that flying continued to give her the advantage, if nothing else the psychological boost of looking down on him.
She and Vinyl both made a couple more probing attacks, but even with coordination didn’t manage to make anything stick. At least Carousel’s earlier confidence was gone, but it had been replaced with wary caution. He held his sabre defensively now.
Octavia drew a little closer, testing him. Carousel played conservatively, right up until the point when he suddenly didn’t, lunging forward with his bladed, extended arms.
He smacked her head sideways, knocking Octavia for a loop. Before she could recover, he sliced straight through the skin of her wings, his hands grasping the thicker spar of bone that formed the leading edge and the blades poking through the back, negating any chance that she could get free. His body, limbs lengthened and modified as they were, held her at enough distance that she couldn’t reach back to him. And then, he began to pull.
Octavia felt muscles and tendons she didn’t even know she had begin to strain as Carousel tried to pull pieces of her body apart. She tried to kick, but he only jerked her harder. She’d lost her weapons somewhere and had no way to attack him. Carousel held her up, still with her wings in tension, pulling harder.
“Do it!” Octavia shouted.
Vinyl would later admit she thought Octavia was talking to her. Taking advantage of Carousel’s distraction, she came around behind and leaped into the air, cutting Octavia loose with a powerful strike of her machete.
Octavia fell to the floor, but got her feet under her as Carousel looked dumbly at the amputated wings in his hands. She put her whole strength into an powerful thrust up off the floor that slammed into Carousel and carried them both over backwards.
He landed on his back, legs kicking and Octavia on top. She scrambled forward, clawing at his body and ducking inside his slicing blades. He came up with his sabre, but Octavia twisted his wrist off like a twig. Bone was still bone, her fury was still overpowering.
Carousel fought Octavia as she crawled all the way up, even when she jammed her fingers up his nose and twisted his head back, tearing her fangs into his throat.
“Here!” Seeing that Octavia was otherwise occupied, Vinyl pressed the stake into her hand.
Octavia slammed it into Carousel’s chest, feeling the wood drive all the way through and splinter on the floor beneath him.
His resistance tapered away. Octavia took a breath, pushing herself up and swaying slightly. Her back wasn’t her only wound, and blood felt like it trickled from everywhere. Looking down at Carousel, he lay still. The blacked wood taken from Octavia’s house stuck up from his chest like a monument.
Vinyl touched her shoulder, just letting Octavia know she was there. The two of them stood quietly for a moment, looking at what had been wrought, and what had been ended.
“Well,” said Vinyl after a moment. “I guess we should burn the place.”