Incarnatio by Lynn Viehl

into a killing rage.
    “Jamys, I got it.” Chris
dragged in the fire hose he had sent her to retrieve, and turned it on,
spraying the ones he hadn’t touched with water.
    Jamys knelt in the
puddle, drew on every ounce of strength he had left, and placed his hands in
the water. The hunter inside him knew how everything was connected by water,
and the Kyn in him hoped that with the right focus it could be used as
another conduit. He imagined his talent like electricity, and sent it
crackling through the water as he shouted his final command in a clear, loud
voice. “Send her out.”
    Every human in the room
collapsed, and a thick cloud of red mist rose to join with the immense mass
hovering over them. As the last of it rose, Samantha appeared and swept her
scarred hand through it. She turned to Lucan. “The trunk.”
    Lucan strode over and
yanked off the lid, and Jamys staggered over to help him. Inside the small
space was something at first glance that looked like a child. Its wasted
limbs were curled up in a fetal position, and long white hair veiled its
body. The stench of rotting flesh was so thick that Samantha made gagging
sounds. The face, that of an incredibly ancient old woman, wrinkled as the
shriveled lips stretched into an ugly smile. The eyes, red as blood, opened
and stared up at Lucan.
    “I thought she was
supposed to be young and beautiful from all the blood baths,” Samantha
muttered, covering her nose.
    “She was,” Lucan said.
“Before she was walled away from mortals for three years.” He addressed the
old woman. “You used your own blood to escape your prison. You sent it out
through the windows and the cracks, and put it into mortals so you could
control them.”
    “Just as it once kept my
flesh sound and sweet,” her withered voice said. “I rewarded all the mortals
who came to me. I made them my children. They always want something, and
they know only I can give it to them.”
    “Get back.” Lucan shoved
Jamys away, and then thrust his hand around the monstrous thing’s scrawny
neck. “This is what they all want, old woman.”
    The trunk exploded
outward, disintegrating around the body inside as it blew apart. The cloud
above the room went still, and then came down like blood rain, soaking
everyone and everything.
    Chris turned the hose
first on the humans, washing the countess’s blood from their bodies. Then
she held the hose up so that it showered down on her, Jamys, Lucan and
Samantha like rain. The blood slowly thinned until all that remained as a
large pool of watery pink.
    Everywhere a piece of the
countess’s body landed, the flesh blackened and fell apart into the water.
Within a few minutes all that remained of her were a few puddles of wet ash.
    Jamys went to Chris,
taking the hose from her and closing the valve before pulling her into his
arms. He held her for a long time, just like that, their wet clothes
dripping between them, their arms tight.
    When he could manage it,
he held her at arm’s length. “Thank you,” he croaked.
    “You’re welcome.” She
grinned up at him. “My lord.”
    #
    Samantha took Luce
Figueroa to the best private rape treatment center in Miami, where she was
admitted for her physical and spiritual injuries. Carmen and Eduardo
accepted Sam’s explanation that their daughter had been abducted and
drugged, and with a little nudge from l’attrait , Eduardo
even forgot that Luce had attacked him and broken his arm.
    Luce, however, felt
differently about her experiences. “Don’t make me forget what happened,” she
pleaded when Sam came to see her in her room. “I know what you are, and that
you can, but please, don’t.”
    Sam felt perplexed. “Why
would you want to remember?”
    “So I don’t ever let it
happen again.”
    She couldn’t allow a
mortal to retain memories that might expose the Kyn, but she could offer her
some comfort before she removed them. “You didn’t let this