Two Halves of the Same Whole

'Well that was dramatic'. Zani said shaking himself off as the building was burning around them. Xerxes was looking around the room. There was one vampire left, and he was extremely strong. He'd attacked those under him to feed himself so he could defeat Xerxes and take his power. Hence why Xerxes did what he'd done with the explosion of fire.

Xerxes had killed all the rest, the heat was so intense and the blast powerful enough to incinerate them. However just this one had managed some kind of protective barrier at the last minute. He could see the spot on the floor where it was unburned. Xerxes raised an eyebrow, bet he didn't get away unscathed. There was the sound of movement behind him.

Xerxes turned and brought his hand up and it was a solid blow to the vampire's nose breaking it, blood gushed. To bad, he meant to get him in the neck, the vampire moved faster than he expected him to. The vampire rushed him and hit him hard around the center of his body. They flew out through the back wall and Xerxes hit the ground plowing into it.

He heard the crack and knew that his right arm broke hitting the ground at a bad angle. The vampire tore at his skin with talons. Xerxes reached up wrenching the things neck hard to the side. It didn't kill him but he howled in pain and fell off. The vampire kind of flopped oddly with the broken neck.

Xerxes stood nursing his broken arm for a moment. He moved it back into place and it healed nearly instantly. He could heal any wound, but if the bone was broken it was slow to heal having to naturally move back into place. If he aligned it then it healed instantly, kind of a handy thing in battle.

The vampire was driven to the ground by Zani who came from above and managed to snap his jaws around his arm. The vampire howled again and his arm was ripped off, but this one was resilient and unwilling to die. He was old and had amassed power over time.

"You will be a good one to add to my talents. You'd feed me for years." He said glancing at Zani who had eaten his right arm, retaliation for breaking Xerxes. Brave words for a creature that had met it's match.

"You have to kill me first. Last I checked I am still far better off than you." He said and the building was burning fast. The vampire looked at Zani and with his size now nearly twice the tiger sized he'd been before. He didn't have a hope of getting at him. He rushed Xerxes again but had to stop short as Zani's tail nearly impaled him, the large crossed spade at the end deadly.

"Appearances are deceiving." Wasn't that the fucking truth? Xerxes felt that something was off and was glancing around. Zani kept his eye on the vampire while Xerxes tried to find the other culprit.

'Zani, I think there is a demon here with this group.'

'Really, we haven't come across one of those in a while. A possessor?'

'No, feel it, I think this one has a body. There is evil here, it masks its presence from us.'

'Yes I feel it now.' Clearly evil working with evil. This group of vampires was not good. It would seem they were being aided by a demon. These wolves were lucky the two of them had come when they did.

The vampire leapt for Xerxes once more, but Zani got it right in the chest with his tail slamming it to the ground and his mouth opened dousing the vampire in a burst of blue flame. It was extremely hot and killed the vampire instantly. Movement caught Xerxes' eye.

'Zani!' Xerxes shouted but had already moved seeing the man-like figure step out with glowing eyes. It aimed something at Zani and Xerxes just had time to move. He didn't think just let instinct take him. There was a pop-like sound and pain like he'd never felt exploded in his chest.

Xerxes wouldn't have worried so much about the demon launching something at Zani as dragon scales were as hard as diamonds. Only a dragon could manage to rip through the scales on another. Unless you had a special weapon made with a dragon in mind. Or you got the lucky shot as a dragon under the front legs near the arm pit, there was soft skin there. Not protected by hard scales.

It was never exposed that spot and even then you had to have incredible aim to get enough damage to kill them. However Xerxes saw the way that Zani had turned to get the vampire, and his left leg was stretched out exposing just enough. The soft spot there would allow a weapon to pierce into the chest. This demon had aimed in the general area of his heart. The lineup was aimed at that soft spot, and if it was an explosive charge…

Xerxes flew back with the power of the hit. Blood shot all over the ground and over Zani's side as Xerxes hit the ground sliding under and to Zani's other side. A huge hole in his chest. Zani felt the severing of Xerxes mind from his. Zani was frozen for a moment and he heard the demon coming toward him. Felt its glee and lust for the power in Xerxes blood. To try and take his energy that was left.

He was heading to grab Xerxes. The demon wanted the life force that was still in Xerxes body. Zani felt a dark black rage take hold of him and he leapt. His real size taking hold as he lost concentration on everything but to protect Xerxes. He landed over Xerxes's still form and knocked several trees down, the ground trembled. He was larger than the building and in a rage. Completely animalistic at that point in time.

The demon skidded to a stop, it was a hideous looking thing, but Zani didn't care what the hell it looked like. It wasn't getting to Xerxes's life force, not so long as he was alive. Xerxes was Zani's soul, his chi. He'd kill anything that threatened it and right now that was a very serious thing.

Zani let out a roar and the buildings near by shook with the very sound of it. He was bigger than the buildings, huge. The demon was frozen for a second unsure of what to do, it clearly hadn't expected this. It just thought him some easy familiar to be killed. Not a separate entity that could function properly with Xerxes dead. Or so the demon thought him dead.

Zani swiped his tail and nearly got the demon, but it managed to dodge just enough. His tail hit the burning building. Half of it collapsed with the impact, the demon took off. Zani was fast for his size and it didn't even have a chance. It might have gotten a lucky shot, but it wasn't lucky enough to escape his jaws.

The crunch and screech were audible as his jaws snapped over it. He felt the demon try to pull from the body he'd just crushed. Here was a lesson that the demon probably didn't know. Dragons could eat things that didn't have a body, once caught in their jaws it was solid as anything else. Zani turned swallowing the thing nearly whole and shifted to a smaller size coming over Xerxes.

'You better be fucking alive.' Zani said mentally. They had an Achilles heal, Zani was their physical embodiment. If his body was destroyed like Xerxes looked at the moment. They would both die, if Xerxes life force faded into the beyond, they would die then too. So far they didn't really know what would cause that to happen but this was serious damage. He looked like he'd been hit by a small charge in the chest, but this shouldn't harm him like it would Zani.

Xerxes had moved to protect him, as this damage would have incapacitated them both if done to Zani. Even managed to kill him. Just like Xerxes life force being drained hurt them both as well, when any siphoned or tried to feed from him. They two of them were connected, life and death.

The wound was starting to close and Zani wasn't breathing. He felt the flicker in his mind, the bridge coming back and his reptilian head dropped in relief. He heard a sound and crouched low over Xerxes looking into the tree line ready to kill.

"We come in peace." Kirosho said. His hands up and looking extremely nervous but trying to hide it. Which failed a bit as the look in his eyes and the shaking hands.

"Please don't chomp us." Tiko comment hanging back.

"You need to leave, we can take him if he's…"

'He's not dead and you touch him I'll rip out your heart and eat it before the rest of you.' Zani said and the two werewolves just stood where they were. They'd seen how big he really was, and what a very pissed off dragon could do in a matter of a few seconds. There was a huge section of trees down and a building lying in ruin's smoking and on fire. Sirens had sounded and people would gather in minutes.

"You still need to leave, take him before someone comes. We can't make an excuse for a several ton dragon tromping around." Zani knew that they were right and dipped his head opening his jaws and picked up Xerxes in them like a porcelain doll. His teeth were incredibly sharp after all and he had to use his legs to take off.

'You may want to leave as well.' He said and took off through the trees to find a better spot to take flight. He was sure that the wolves wanted to be sure they were alive, and second to see if traces needed to be covered. But that was near impossible right now, and frankly he didn't care.

'I'm in so much pain.' He heard Xerxes faint voice in his mind.

'Not half as much pain as when I'm done with you. You're more stupid than a box of boulders.'

'It's rocks.' Xerxes managed weakly and Zani was so glad to hear his correction he forgot to be annoyed. He found a spot and took off into the sky.

Kirosho and Tiko had followed him to where he took off and looked up. The dragon had put on a burst of speed and was nothing but a small moving object in the sky moving off. They stood there in utter shock, nothing had prepared them for the sight of these two.

"Good god did you see the way that thing destroyed that demon? It didn't even get to leave the body."

"Yes, what scares me more is that he was hit in the chest, his heart had to have been destroyed. Yet he is alive… or so the dragon says." Kirosho looked at him. "Have you ever heard of such a thing? I've never seen anything come back with a destroyed heart."

"Well… no." Tiko said. "I think we shouldn't cross them and should do as they ask."

"That would be a smart idea." Kirosho said and took off in the direction that they needed to go.