24 Formidable

"Marino!" She whispered, remembering him for the first time since hearing the glass, "Marino?!"

Selene was still screaming in her ears, uttering virtually zero coherent words now, and it made concentrating difficult. Still, it took little time for Juri to locate her vampire master.

Once she set her sights on him, she understood that he was impossible to miss. He stood in the very center of the room, his face a mask of fury, unlike anything Juri had ever seen.

"To the right!" He bellowed, his voice booming loud enough to cut through the pandemonium descending all around them, "to the right, goddamn you! They're unarmed! Tear them apart and do it quickly!"

The effect of his words was subtle at first, and so Juri almost missed it. As she watched, though, the chaos directly surrounding Marino slowed, then stopped completely. It was as if his voice was a sedative or at least a drug.

After a moment, she realized what he really was; he was like a general whipping his troops into shape by sheer force of will alone. The vampires, all in their Sunday best, stopped their scattering and went to work. Each found his own target as if it had been preordained and the work they did was brutal.

Juri had time to wonder why the mermen hadn't brought any weapons along there under cover of the night raid. One of them swam close enough to her for her to reach out and touch his swirling tail before he was tackled from the side by a vampire she didn't recognize.

His face was a perfect mask of horror as his mouth veritably unhinged, sinking into the flesh at the base of his enemy's throat. Juri let out a strangled scream, or else that was what it was intended to be. What it sounded like was a mewling kitten too weak to care for itself.

Except she wasn't that weak woman anymore, not after everything that had happened. She wasn't that woman, and she was never going to be again until the last breath was wrenched from her body.

She reached blindly towards the refreshment table she and Selene had been doing their chatting by, feeling for anything that might do some kind of physical damage. Her fingers first located then closed around the neck of a candlestick and brought it up to brandish just as one of the mermen bore down upon them.

"Why do you cower here in the dark?" He asked, his voice both melodious and terrible at the same time, "Why do you make yourself so much less than what you are?"

"Stand back! If you have any love for your miserable life, step away from her. You won't like what happens to you if you harm a single hair on her head."

"Marino!" Juri shouted, her voice back in full force. Her entire body trembled with elation at seeing him still safe and horror that this strange man-thing before her would do him harm. Even without a weapon, the merman was formidable.

His body was covered in a network of scars so intricate they looked like a newly discovered language. Juri got the idea that whoever had dealt those injuries had taken on far more than they had delivered. She was also almost positive that Marino and this man had met each other before.

Both sets of eyes blazed and when Marino opened his mouth next it was with his teeth bared. Only when Juri shouted his name, Marino's attention divided; it was only for a split second, but it was enough for another of the invaders to fall upon him.

With enormous power, a tale slapped Marino across his face and sent him sprawling backward, momentarily without defense. Juri shouted in protest and took a quick step forward. If Selene hadn't grabbed at her with a surprisingly iron grip, she would have run directly into the heart of the fray.

In a matter of seconds, however, she was made painfully aware that Marino did not now and probably would never need her help when it came to a brawl. He sprang back to his feet with that same frightening speed she had first witnessed in his dining room and grabbed his assailant by the end of his tale.

Marino whipped the protesting merman around so that his neck was fully exposed and plunged his teeth into the pulsing veins and taut tendons. The burst of blood that clouded the surrounding waters was enormous, and it made Juri's stomach lurch dangerously.

Then Marino was upon her, gripping her tightly and looking into her face with an intensity that was almost too much for her to take.

"Come with me," he snarled, his perfect face smeared with dark, clotted blood.

"But, Selene -!" Juri started to protest, pulling against his insistent grasp. She might as well have harnessed herself to a boulder and tried to walk a mile for all the good it did her; she may have been stronger than she used to think, but she was nowhere near a match for Marino's full strength.

"No, Juri! Come with me, right now. No questions, no arguments. You will obey my command, or you will come up against something you do not like."

She might have continued her resistance, as futile as it was, but she felt Selene's grip first loosen, then drop away completely. Without the feeling of those hot, frantic hands, there was nothing to anchor Juri to her spot, and it was simply too easy for Marino to lead her away.

For the second time in a single day, he dragged her along behind him so quickly it was almost impossible for her to keep up. He dragged her all of the way to his carriage, put his hands roughly around her waist, and hoisted her onto the seat. He did all of this without looking at her, and she realized that he was breathing far too hard.

"Marino, what the hell! Why are you acting like this?" She demanded, reaching down for his face.

If he didn't want to look at her so soon after threatening her, too bad. She would make him do it. She would make him look her in the eyes and tell her what in the holy hell was going on.

"Don't," he growled, batting her hands away like she was an annoying fly he couldn't get rid of, "don't touch me. When you arrive at the house, lock yourself in your room. Lock yourself in your room and don't dare come out again until you are summoned."

She wanted to protest, was fully prepared to do so, but she never got the chance. Marino turned on his heel and hurried away from her, so sure that she would do what she was told that he needn't bother waiting for her response.