Chapter 4 - Cold as Ice

Author's Notes:
-YOU'RE AS COOOLD AS ICE! YOU'RE WILLIN' TO SAAACRIFICE OUR LOOVE!
-*cough* anyway, chapter four, ladies and gentlemen, as presented by the lovely Brian.
Enjoy! :D



The crow stomped into his tiny, one room apartment he had rented for his stay. It had been about four days since he had come to Moscow to search for Geldan. He had looked in every police station in the city, stolen every file about every serial killer the city had since the 1980s, and did nightly searches from the sky desperately hoping for some strange activity to go by. So far, no luck.
“It’s almost like he doesn’t exist,” he told himself as he plopped onto the bed. The sun was rising which meant it was time for him to sleep. He hoped maybe some dreams would give him ideas of where to search.
There was only one file in the entire city that was even remotely connected to him, but it didn’t list him by name. Rather it was more of a list of all the people that had been murdered in Moscow in the past four years. The numbers seemed normal. The crow had been on enough investigations through his life to know what the normal murder rate was of cities this size. However, in the past year and a half, the count jumped to above average, not to mention that the victim ratio switched to about 90% women.
Demonic’s words rang in his ears: he is a serial killer; a serial killer whose victim pool is predominately female.
Female. That was the only connection the victims all had.
No, it isn’t. They had to have something else. There was always a connection.
Their killings didn’t happen until the past year and a half. That meant that Geldan may not have been in Moscow until then.
So does he just move about the country?
That explains why there wasn’t a file about him in Moscow. Serial killers that hit spots around the country usually had their file in some centralized location, for national security purposes and all that.
That still doesn’t make my search any easier.
All the victims were young and attractive. He saw the pictures.
So he was probably looking for sex.
But there were no signs of rape.
Maybe that’s why he killed them. The ones that slept with him may still be alive. Okay, so where do beautiful women congregate where men can pick them up?

Nightclubs.
That was the answer. Every girl, at least in the victims’ range, loves going out dancing and drinking and hanging out with friends. Plus, going by the stereotype, most didn’t pay attention to the news to even know other women like them were being killed. That’s where the crow knew he would find Geldan.
The first two nights after he came to this conclusion both turned into failure as he went to the first two most popular nightclubs in the city and sat at the bar eyeing every guy, careful to watch for any new couples just hooking up. So far he had gotten seven phone numbers, two questionings from a police officer, and a punch in the face by a jealous boyfriend.
The third night, he decided to go to one lower on the list that didn’t have police watching it. Colored lights were flashing, music was pounding, drinks were being passed out, and the crow was sitting at the bar watching the crowd grind with each other. His eyes moved from guy to guy, and then finally settled on one sitting further down the bar from the crow. He had short cut hair except for the long bangs in front. His skin was light, but not pale. He wore an orange coat on top of a black shirt with black pants that had a studded belt going around them. Around his neck were some dog tags. A glow stick bracelet hung around his ankle, and there was a nice stud in his ear. Over all, typical club attire.
The man had his eye on a couple who were currently in a heated argument. The girl slapped the guy, who just walked away muttering to himself. Once he was out of sight, the girl took a seat at the bar and the man the crow was watching went to go sit next to her. The music was much too loud to hear their conversation, but it was quite obvious that the man was trying to put the moves on her. It must have been obvious to the girl’s boyfriend because before long he came back and started yelling at the guy. The boyfriend pushed him and laid a big one on his woman. The guy just sauntered back over to his spot on the bar. Amusingly, the boyfriend smiled and yelled to the bar keep for a drink. The bar tender nodded, put a bottle on the bar and, like a pro, slid it down the bar, past the stranger, and to the happily reunited couple. The boyfriend made to take a gulp, and then started yelling at the bar tender. The crow couldn’t tell what he was yelling about until the boyfriend revealed the inside of his glass for all the world to see. The drink inside was frozen solid.
…a power over ice as well…
Demonic’s words echoed in the crow’s mind.
The man at the bar!
The crow turned back to where the stranger had been sitting, but he was gone. He frantically looked around until he caught a flash of orange across the room. The man was now hitting on someone else.
He moves fast.
The crow made his way through the dancers and reached the flirters. He put his arm around the guy and smiled.
“So the doctor got back to me. He says I have crabs, but don’t worry. He gave me a special shampoo for us to use,” he said.
The girl lifted her eyebrows, looked from the crow to the guy and back to the crow, then left with a very dogy sigh. The guy took the crow’s arm off and stared at him square in the eyes. The crow noticed how icy grey his eyes were.
“You better have a death wish,” the man said.
“I just needed to get you alone,” the crow pleaded. “I need to talk with you.”
“Beat it, freak.”
The stranger turned and made a beeline for the door. The crow tried to follow him, but the dancers made it nigh impossible. Finally, he managed to get outside just in time to see the man turn a corner.
It was very late. There were no people on the sidewalks and hardly any cars. By the light of the full moon the crow easily tracked down the stranger.
“Wait!” he yelled.
“Leave me alone!” he replied.
“I have to talk to you!”
“I said leave me alone!”
“GELDAN!”
The man stopped dead in his tracks as his name echoed in the night. He waited for the crow to catch up to him, then turned around very slowly.
“It is you, isn’t it,” the crow said. “Turning the drink to ice as it passed right by you; not exactly a smart thing to do to hide your identity.”
“What do you want?”
“I just want to talk.”
Geldan didn’t respond.
“My master’s name is Demonic. She sent me here to bring you back with me to the United States.”
“The states? Why?”
“I don’t know. I’m just following orders.”
“I have no interest in going to America. For all I know, you may be a spy, sent here to take me. Once I step off the plane, there’ll be a hundred FBI and CIA agents with their guns pointing at me.”
“What?”
“Or are you in cohoots with the local police? Get me to go with you right to a jail cell?”
“I’m not in cohoots with anyone…except my master.”
“I don’t even know this Demonic. Why should I trust you?”
“I… don’t know,” the crow admitted sheepishly.
“See ya’” Geldan turned to leave.
“Aw, come on! Don’t go. Can’t you just trust me?”
Geldan stared him down carefully.
“No,” he said.
“Why not?”
“Do you know anything about me?”
“Just what my master told me: your name is Geldan, you have an ice type power, and you’re a serial killer,” the brother crow explained.
“Exactly! A serial killer who has never been caught,” Geldan responded pointedly, “And I wouldn’t have gotten that reputation if I did stupid stuff like putting my trust in freaks like you. You haven’t even told me why your master wants me!”
“How should I know?” he replied, exasperated, “One day that Nemestrinus guy comes and makes an appointment to see my master, the next I’m here in Russia.”
“Did you say Nemestrinus?”
“That’s right.”
Geldan smiled.
“Alright, I know exactly what’s going on here.”
“You… You do?” the crow replied with a dumbfounded look.
“Yes, both you and your master are being fooled. About two years ago, that Nemestrinus guy came to see me. He told me my life was in danger. Somebody named Mike or Mick or something was supposedly hunting me down. Well, it’s been two years and I’m still alive.”
“My master is not one to be easily tricked-”
“Trust me. Nemestrinus is a big, fat liar. Nobody is going to try and kill me. Just go home and tell your boss to be more careful with whom she trusts.”
“Can’t you tell her yourself?”
“I’m not going with you.”
At that moment, a geyser shot out of a manhole near the crow.
“Now listen to me, you freak. If you follow me…I’ll kill you,” Geldan glared. He turned to go. The further he got from the crow, the smaller the geyser shrank. Finally, he disappeared into the night and the geyser faded away.
“Great,” the crow thought to himself. “Now what do I do?”

The streets were still empty. Geldan popped his collar both as a habit for hiding his face and as a barrier from the wind. Moscow got very cold at night.
He passed by a large store window. Like everyone else in the world, he couldn’t resist looking at his reflection. It was a nice reflection, very cool and sexy. Unfortunately these thought were interrupted by the words of that freak he ran into at the club.
“This is the second time someone has come to me claiming my life was in danger,” he said quietly. “Perhaps I’ve stayed in this country for too long. Tomorrow I’ll get a plane ticket and pass port and high tail it out of here.”
As he visualized himself leaving, he saw something move in the reflection of the glass. Whatever it was, it was coming at him fast. He jumped out of the way as the object plowed into the window, shattering the glass and raining it everywhere. Geldan moved the arm he had used to shield his face from the glass. He looked across the street from the direction the object had come from. Perched on top of a street lamp was a man in black pants and a heavy over coat. He wore a strange looking hat over his obviously long, purple hair. He wasn’t exactly a figure who would blend into a crowd.
The man smiled and jumped off the pole. He landed on the ground in a way that would normally shatter a person’s knees, but he seemed completely unharmed. He stood up, brushed himself off, and started walking over to Geldan.
“Who the hell are you?” Geldan yelled as he got up.
“The name is Pike. I shall be your killer so keep my name in your head if you ever decide to come back from the dead and seek revenge.”
“Kill me? Oh my God, what is with all you freaks? Can’t you just leave me alone? And you mixed up your line. You were supposed to say you’re here to save my life and warn me about danger.”
“But I’m not.”
The man charged forward and jumped into the air, aiming a kick at Geldan’s face. Geldan ran out of the way and let the man fly into the store. Quickly, Geldan concentrated on the water manes he knew were running through the walls. As the man landed on the floor in the back of the store, the walls all began to crack. The cracks grew bigger and bigger until chuncks of the plaster fell off and water came pouring forth. It only took a minute for the water to fill the entire room from floor to ceiling, with Geldan using his power to stop it at the window. He walked over to the wall of water in front of him and put his hand against it. A mark appeared on the back of his hand. Instantly, the water froze solid.
“See?” he gloated, “no one can kill me.”
He took his hand off the ice and walked away from the store.
It’s definitely not safe for me in Russia anymore. Everyone seems to know I’m here, he thought. First things first, I’ll have to acquire a passport. The one I used to get here I destroyed after arriving, but it shouldn’t be too hard to get a new one. First I’ll-
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a wall coming. He spun around and looked at the store again. From this new angle he could see into the alley next to the building. There was a large hole in the side and the man, Pike, was walking out of it. He had a weapon this time. It appeared to be a long pole with a blade at one end and a spiked ball at the other.
“How did you…the ice…you should have…” Geldan was so shocked he couldn’t form a sentence.
Pike sneered, “It’ll take more than that to kill me.”
He picked up the weapon and charged straight for Geldan. Geldan jumped out of the way as the spiked ball end came crashing down and blew a small crater where he was standing. Geldan tried to run away, but the man was fast and chased after him through the streets, swinging his weapon with precise strokes, knocking over and breaking street lights, paper dispensers, and even a car. Geldan knew the noise would attract people, and people would call the cops, and the cops would question him. He couldn’t have that. He had to stop this mad man.
He turned and faced the attacker head-on. Pike thrust the blade of his weapon as Geldan focused his power into the water from a nearby fire hydrant. The hydrant burst and a stream of water flew in between them. Just as the blade touched the water, meaning to go through it and stab Geldan, the water froze solid and became a wall of ice. Pike was surprised his attack was stopped so easily. Geldan took that moment to send another jet into Pike’s torso, sending him several feet away.
Pike got back to his feet. He smiled menacingly. Geldan contorted his hands and formed the water into a cone. Then he propeled the cone toward his enemy. En route, the cone froze and became a giant icicle. Pike’s smile widened.
“I see you have some fight in you!” he said as he spun and swung the spiked ball into the icicle, knocking it into a phone booth, away from him. “Good!”
He ran forward, weapon at the ready. Geldan gritted his teeth and held his hand in the air. A stream of water soared over the street. The stream broke apart into individual globules. The blobs all then lengthened into long, sharp needles. One by one, the needles froze and fell to the ground, and one by one, Pike managed to avoid being hit by all of them. He came within striking distance of Geldan. A wave splashed in between them, flinging them both back in different directions.
Geldan stood up and coughed some water out of his lungs. The wave hit him too, but it was better than being hit by that spiked ball. Pike stood up and wiped off his face. He gave Geldan another sneer.
“You’ve got to do better than that,” he gloated.
Geldan glared at him. Then he noticed something interesting. That wave had knocked Pike next to a sewer drain. It was sludge, but it was still mostly water. Geldan pointed his hand at Pike. Instantly, water roared out of the drain and began to envelope Pike. He tried to fight it off by swinging his weapon madly, but every wave of water that he destroyed just rebuilt itself almost instantly. Geldan learned a long time ago that the best part of water is its reforming abilities. Once Pike was completely encased, Geldan focused his power again and the water froze solid into a pillar of ice.
Pike was clearly visible this time in a statue of green brown ice with floating debris and a rat scattered around him. He was petrified in a state of panic. Geldan breathed a sigh of relief. Just like all of his victims, freezing them was a sure way of death.
He stayed this time to make sure there wouldn’t be any unexpected surprises. He was glad he did.
tink
It was a small sound; minute, barely audible and insignificant to most people. But Geldan knew right away what it was.
tink
It was the sound of ice breaking.
tink…tink…tink…tink chink…tink chink chink tink-chink chink-chink-crack chink chink crack-chink-crack-crack chink-crack-crack-crack-crack
Geldan couldn’t believe his ears. The night was filled with the sound of the pillar of ice coming apart. At first only small pieces of ice chipped off as hairline cracks began to run over the column. But then bigger pieces fell as the fractures became bigger, distorting the image of the man trapped inside.
Finally, the ice completely shattered.
“…how…” was Geldan could managed to say.
Pike shook himself.
“Brr, that was cold,” he said as he brushed chips of ice off his shoulders.
“How…How did you do that? No one has ever broken the ice before?” Geldan yelled.
Pike looked over at him as if seeing him for the first time. He smiled, took off his coat, and held up his arm.
“This is my secret.”
The skin on his arm expanded itself. Not still connected together as one would expect to skin to be, but in plates. Four long plates detached themselves from the rest of the arm and held themselves out by the assistance of metal hinges. It wasn’t skin at all. It wasn’t a real arm.
“A prosthetic limb?” Geldan asked, dumfounded.
“That’s right. You see, I’ve been around for a while, and as a result I’ve been in many fights. Well, as a result of those fights, I’ve lost…some things. You know, appendages, organs, etc. Anyway, long story short, it is farely safe to assume that most of my body has been donated to the wonderful science of prosthetics. And I’m not talking cheap plastics, either. This here is state of the art, high endurance metal!”
At that, plates began to lift themselves off of all four of his limbs.
His arms and legs have all been replaced by prosthetic limbs!
“Ice is very strong, it really is. However, because of its composition and structure, if enough pressure is applied to the right areas, you can easily crack it. All I had to do was expand my limbs, an effortless task on my part, and I was able to obliterate your ice coffin from the inside out. Get it? Against someone like me, your powers are useless. Sure, it was easy for you to kill all those girls, there just regular humans. But that was murder not battle, and you, my good sir, are no fighter. You’re panting, you’re sweating, you’re exhausted. It’s easy to see you haven’t been in many real fights, perhaps none at all. You can’t beat me!”
With those words being said, Pike rushed forward. Geldan put up another ice wall, but this time Pike smashed right through it and kicked Geldan in the chest. Geldan went soaring and landed hard on the ground. He was barely able to move. A little bit of blood trickled from his lips. No one had ever punished his body like that before.
Pike was getting ready to come at him again. Geldan held up his hands and focused a great deal of his energy. More water sprung out of the drains and hydrants and surrounding puddles and formed cones again, this time as big as cars, that hung in the air in front of him. He fired one off. On its path to Pike it froze and formed another giant icicle.
Pike smiled. He jumped to the side and watched as the icicle flew down the street, eventually losing its momentum and landing on the pavement. Geldan growled another one. The exact same thing happened as before.
“I knew it,” Pike uttered to himself.
Geldan sent out two this time. Pike jumped on top of the first one and used its height to jump over the second. When he landed he walked briskly toward Geldan. Geldan began to panic and started sending the icicles out in random numbers and intervals. Pike laughed as he ran through them, not even bothering to hit them with his weapon. He eventually got close enough to Geldan to swing at him with the blade end of his weapon. Geldan tried to move out of the way, but was too slow. The metal pierced and sliced through the flesh on his shoulder. It wasn’t deep enough to sever anything, but it was deep enough to make him start bleeding. He fell to the ground and lay before Pike.
“I knew it,” Pike scoffed at him. “You can’t control the ice can you?”
Geldan glared. Pike raised the weapon above his head, ready to bring it down on his prey.
A jet of water as if from nowhere hit Pike in the side and blew him off his feet.
“I told you I wasn’t going to die!” Geldan yelled as he got up and ran away down the street. Pike shook his head, got up, and chased after him.
It turned into a race. As they ran, Geldan held his hand over the wound on his shoulder. A steady trickle of water floated through the air and packed itself onto the wound, then froze over to stop any blood from coming out. He looked up. There, at the end of the road, was a bridge.
Yes!
There was a crash behind him and a force that propelled him several feet through the air. He landed hard on the ground. When he faced behind him, he could see Pike running to go pick up his weapon and try for another distance attack. Geldan picked himself up and ran for it.
Just a little further.
Pike saw where he was going. He knew he couldn’t let Geldan reach the bridge but he also knew he wouldn’t catch up to him. He readied his weapon for another throw. Geldan was out of breath. There was an immense pain in his chest. His sides were splitting. Pike threw the weapon. Geldan reached the end of the road. He bent over and vomited. The weapon skimmed across his back. One of the spikes on the ball caught his coat. It was going so fast, he was lifted from the ground and tailed it. The weapon stuck into the railing of the bridge. Geldan’s momentum kept him going forward, over the edge and out onto the river. Pike swore. At the moment Geldan hit the water, the entire river turned to ice.

It was dark. Even after opening his eyes Geldan could tell that the only light in the room was a single candle on the bedside table.
“Wow, you’re actually alive?” the crow said beside himself. “Oh, boy! For a minute there I thought I was in trouble!”
“Oh, not you again,” Geldan groaned. His eyes flew open and he sat up in the bed. “Pike! Where is Pike!?”
“Pike? You mean that guy who was chasing you? I don’t know. I was just searching the river for you. Was I supposed to find him, too?”
“By all means, no. Wait, how did you know I was in the river?”
“I was watching your fight.”
“You followed me? After I specifically told you not to?”
“Good thing I did. Otherwise you would still be beneath that ice, probably drowned. It wasn’t easy digging you out.”
“If you saw the fight, than why did you bother asking if you were supposed to bring back a guy who was obviously trying to kill me?”
“When you work with the people I work with, you tend to learn things in fights aren’t exactly about good vs. bad.”
Geldan stared at him for a second, then rolled his eyes. “You’re an idiot.”
“I get that a lot. So, since you got your butt kicked, have you given anymore thought into coming back to the states with me? That threat doesn’t seem so fake anymore.”
“I don’t know…”
“Why not?”
“Didn’t we have this conversation before?”
“Yeah, but you never really answered it.”
“Let me think about it, ok?”
“Alright.”
There was a brief pause.
“So what happened back there, anyway?” the crow asked.
“You are really annoying, you know that?”
“Yeah, I get that a lot, too. After hearing about you killing so many people, I kind of expected you to pulverize that guy, but you lost. What happened?”
“It was different with the others. None of them ever fought back.”
“So he was right. You are definitely not a fighter.”
“Shut up!”
“That reminds me of something else he said. What did he mean when he said you couldn’t control the ice?”
Geldan starred off into space for a few seconds.
“He meant just that,” he replied. “I can’t control the ice.”
“What are you talking about? I saw you send those giant icicles his way-”
“No, you saw me send giant globs of water that froze in midair to form icicles.”
“Same thing.”
“It’s not.”
Geldan, his mood shadowed by a cloud of depression, held up his hand. On the bare skin on the back, a mark suddenly appeared.
“My original powers only allow me to control water. It was an ability I had ever since I was a child. Then one day this mark appears on my hand and I can suddenly freeze the water. Unfortunately, once the water goes from a liquid to a solid I completely lose all control over it. When I was fighting I froze the water as it flew through the air. That way it would stay on its course because of the momentum I built up in it when it was in liquid form.”
“That’s why he was able to dodge them so easily. Without your control, they were just flying on a straight path.”
“Exactly.”
“What about when you froze him?”
“He has prosthetic limbs that allow him to apply pressure on the ice when he was encased in it. That’s why it broke.”
“He was still alive inside the ice? But how come when the police found the bodies of those girls they were all dead?”
“That’s because I froze the water inside their body and blood, but I can only do that when I’m touching a person. I couldn’t get near enough to this guy to touch him.”
The crow was silent for a moment.
“That mark…” he trailed off.
“This mark is the only thing that allows me to freeze the water,” Geldan said.
“I’ve seen something like it before,” the crow murmured as his memory drifted off toward a pink haired girl with a mark on her ankle.
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing. I need to go make some calls. Rest up. We’ll leave tomorrow morning.”
The crow got up from his chair walked into the adjacent room. He flipped on the light switch and pulled the cell phone out of his pocket. He dialed the numbers and listened to the ring tone.
“Hello?” the voice on the other end asked.
“Hello? This is the crow. Connect me to Demonic.”
The was a short pause.
“Hello, crow,” Demonic greeted. Her voice was no different over the phone. “How is my errand in Russia going?”
“Everything is going well. I found him.”
“I’m not surprised. You always do.”
“What of my sister? Any news from her?”
“She believes Kat may have fled to London, but I have yet to here word from her. Have you persuaded Geldan into coming back to the states?”
“It’s a little difficult. He’s just so stubborn. Even after that guy attacked him, he’s still saying he won’t go.”
“Attack? What happened?”
“A man named Pike attacked him. He nearly took Geldan’s life. Honestly, I was expecting more out of this guy. You made him sound so much more dangerous than he really is. He’s not powerful, just ill tempered.”
“Listen closely, you are not to leave his side, understand? No matter what it takes, get him on a plane back here tomorrow. Got that?”
“Understood, Master.”
She hung up.
The crow went back into the other room, planning on nagging poor Geldan until he agreed to go. Unfortunately, the empty bed said he had already left.

As Geldan walked the streets he wondered how long he had been out for. The sun was just peeking over the horizon so he guessed a couple of hours. He wasn’t alone in the world either. During his walk he saw a few people either strolling to work or stumbling home. Dawn was approaching. Geldan was running out of time. He had to find Pike and kill him before the city became alive.
I was expecting more from this guy…He’s not powerful…
The crow obviously didn’t know Geldan could hear his phone conversation. What he said sparked a fire in him so ardent he wanted to kill the freak right on the spot. But it wasn’t the crow’s fault. Pike was the one who humiliated him. The only reason Geldan couldn’t kill him was because he was caught off guard. Honestly, how many people run around with prosthetic limbs? This time, though, Geldan had a plan. A person could replace their limbs, but they couldn’t replace their vital organs. The heart, the brain, the lungs; Geldan had his pick of these. All he had to do was stab one with an icicle. And so what if he couldn’t control ice. He could control water and that was all he needed.
“Ow!” the girl yelled as she fell to the ground. Geldan had been so lost in his plans he didn’t even see her come towards him. “Watch where you’re going, you klutz.”
She’s pretty feisty.
“Sorry about that,” he said as he extended a hand to help her up.
“Whatever,” she said as she took his hand and got up.
Her touch had a warming sensation to it. She brushed her rich, orange hair away from her face, almost in a slow motion fashion. It wasn’t sickly light orange or weirdo neon orange. For lack of a better description, it was a perfect orange, able to catch the light no matter how dim out it was. Of course that wasn’t the only thing that caught Geldan’s attention. She was wearing very revealing clothing. It was a bit of a strange sight, skimpy outfits in Russia. Her boobs were practically falling out of the black blouse. The plaid cloth excuse for a mini-skirt didn’t leave much to the imagination, especially when she was down on the ground with her knees up. Her legs went all the way down to sexy high-heeled black boots.
She was a slut, yet at the same time she seemed to give off a glow that made her seem classy and beautiful. Maybe it was the morning sun reflecting off of her butterfly bellybutton ring. Maybe it was the red plaid tie she dangled around her neck and over her bosom. Maybe it was the way she clasped his hand and rubbed him with her thumb. There was something about her that made Geldan want her more than any other woman he had ever met.
No, focus! First kill Pike. Then you can have sex.
“So, uh, what’s your name?” she half said, half sighed with a seductive smile in her eyes.
“Geldan,” he replied, his voice cracking.
“See ya around, Geldan,” she smiled and batted her eyes, then turned around the corner.
The light seemed to get darker once she was gone.
“Was I doing something?”
A scream pierced his head. He darted around the corner and froze when he saw what was there. Pike had that girl pinned up against the wall, the staff of his weapon pressed to her throat. He was laughing maniacally.
“Come on, let’s have some fun,” he said.
Geldan growled. He didn’t know why, but he suddenly became enraged. A ball of water formed above his head and shot right into Pike. The man flew back a couple of feet from the force of the hit. Geldan ran to the girl who was now on her knees, clutching her throat.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let him lay a finger on you.”
She looked deep into his eyes. For a few seconds, Geldan completely lost all train of thought. The reflection of himself in her eyes seemed so much more brighter than it should have. It was only her blink that brought him back.
He stood up and faced Pike. He had to defend her. There was no choice in the matter. Rather than give Pike the chance to approach the two of them, Geldan took the first sprint forward this time. He waved his hands and a cord of water broke out of a nearby pipe. It wrapped around his arm briefly, then made a beeline for Pike.
“Big deal!” Pike yelled. “I’ll just dodge it like your other ice attacks!”
He laughed as he jumped out of the way. Geldan smiled and turned his hand. The water made a u-turn. Pike met the full force of the torrent. He dug his weapon into the street to ground himself and waited for the water to stop.
He was soaked, and angry. He held his weapon up and dashed toward Geldan. Geldan made several more blobs of water come out of the pipes and fly at Pike. Pike would wait until the blob was really close, then jump out of the way as the water splashed into the ground. Water was spraying everywhere, covering nearly every inch of the street.
Perfect! Just what I wanted.
Pike was only a few feet away from Geldan now. He raised the spiked ball end of his weapon behind his head. Geldan bent down and touched the tips of his fingers to the road. At his touch the water covering street turned into slick, black ice. The ice formed under Pike’s feet. With no friction to hold him and his weight thrown off by the weapon, he slipped and fell on his @$$, skidded across the road, and hit the wall of a building. Geldan couldn’t help but smile.
Pike groaned and felt his head. There was a definite bump on it now. He got up. The field was icy, but he could manage. He glared at Geldan and pushed off against the wall. With no gravel or asphalt to stop him, he slid right for his target, blade end of his weapon outstretched.
Geldan closed his eyes in concentration. To avoid the cops over the years, he had come up with a few moves meant for moving fast. The ice around his feet began to melt and formed a film of water in between his feet and the ground. He stepped off and sped across the frozen road, away from the enemy. It was, in essence, hydroplaning.
Pike reached out with his hand, grabbed a lamppost, and swung himself around. Geldan would skate in one direction, Pike would follow. Geldan would change directions, Pike would bounce off of something and angle himself to follow again, getting bruised up in the process.
I guess I should stop him now.
Geldan bent down and slid his hand over the ice as he skated away. Wherever he touched, the ice melted back into water. He came to a halt and turned back to look at the melted spots. Giant tendrils of water rose from the ground. They whipped about in the air, their bases still connected to the street. One of them dove for Pike. Pike slid his weapon behind him and used it to stop. He spread his legs as the tendril hit the ground in between them. There was a strange sound like a mixture of water splashing and ice cracking. Pike’s eyes widened. The very tip of the tentacle of water was frozen solid. It had become a spear. Pike looked at Geldan and the other two water bodies.
“You were right,” Geldan said, “I can’t control ice. But as long as the ice is connected to the water, that doesn’t matter. I can control the body of these tentacles, and the ice tips can do the rest.”
As he said this, the tips of the other two vines of water froze over. The third one, in front of Pike, picked its tip up and held it over him. It looked reminiscent of a snake glaring at its prey. And just like a snake, it lunged its head for the kill. Pike jumped back, slipped on the ice and fell. He spun around to avoid hitting his head on a nearby mailbox. The vines raced across the ice for Pike. One struck at him and landed inside the mail box. The other came around the side and stabbed through the metal, but not quick enough to catch Pike who lifted himself off the ground and out of the way. It almost seemed like they had minds of their own. They would chase him striking whenever the chance presented itself, every so often nicking him, tearing away a piece of clothing, or cutting him and spurting a little blood.
Pike tried his best to avoid them. If one of them missed him, he took the opportunity to smash through it with his weapon but, like always, the water would just reform itself. Pike swore under his breath.
“This has to stop,” he grunted as he ducked underneath a tendril. He glanced over at Geldan. “He’s got his concentration on these things.”
He stepped up and threw his weapon at Geldan. Geldan scowled and swung his arm. The frozen points of the vines broke off and fell to the ground. The water then zipped past the flying weapon and wrapped around Geldan. It froze solid and made a shield. The weapon hit the ice and managed to break off a chunk before falling to the ground. The ice melted and sprayed out several more tentacles of water, all with frozen tips. They launched toward Pike as he ran for his weapon. He did his best to dodge them, but one of them speared right through his arm. He winced and tugged at it. The prosthetic limb tore away from his body and he was able to get out of the way of all the other tentacles. He made it to his weapon and pulled it out of the ground with his one arm. He held it over his head and yelled a fierce cry. That’s when an icicle stuck through his chest. It was the tip of a tendril that had come around Pike and shanked him from behind.
Pike looked down at the icicle that was coming out of his chest. He looked up at Geldan. Then he keeled over and fell to the ground.
Geldan breathed a sigh of relief. As he exhaled, all the vines of water fell back to the ground in a giant splash. Silence fell back on the street.
Thank God that’s over with, Geldan thought as he panted. Now time for some heroic “I just saved your life” sex.
He turned his attention to the girl. She had been on the sidewalk the whole time, watching the fight and not uttering a sound. Geldan approached her. She starred longingly into his eyes. He grabbed her arms as she placed her hands on his waist. The simple touch that they shared somehow felt better than any sexual experience Geldan had ever had. It was truly amazing how gorgeous and sexy this woman was. She hummed a bit as her eyes closed halfway. Even the sound off her voice was driving Geldan mad with desire. He had to have her, right then!
He closed his eyes and leaned in for the kiss. He stopped when a blade popped out of his chest. It was covered in blood, his blood. The pain was so gargantuan that that part of the brain just shut down. He didn’t feel anything except his life slipping away. It was getting harder to breathe. His heart had all but stopped. Frankly, he was surprised. He turned his head to see who had stabbed him. It was Pike.
“Fair is fair,” Pike murmered. “You stabbed me, now I’ve returned the favor.”
How the hell did he survive?
Geldan thought he had spoken those words, but his mouth never actually moved. So this is what it’s like to die? It’s not so bad. Honestly, he didn’t know what all those people were complaining about. An idea came to mind that he might get to see some of his victims again in the afterlife. Although, it would be more likely he’d be going to Hell with the other murderers and heathens. He turned back around. He wanted his last sight to be the goddess he was about to screw. She was smiling.

Geldan’s body fell to the ground when Pike took the blade end of his weapon out of the chest. He looked across the pool of blood at his partner.
“Looks like you were getting your @$$ handed to you out there,” she said.
“Shut up, Tangy,” Pike fired back. “I got him in the end.”
“I could have handled it,” she pouted and stepped over Geldan’s body. She placed a hand on Pike’s one arm. “Just promise me I get the next one,” she whispered seductively.
Pike shook her hand off.
“You know that won’t work on me,” he said.
Tangy sighed and inappropriately patted his crotch. She walked across the road and picked up the arm.
“I guess these things have their pros and cons,” she called. “Just check to make sure we got the right guy.”
“Oh, we did,” Pike smiled as he hoisted the body onto his shoulders. He held up Geldan’s hand for the world to see. The mark was still visible.

The crow cursed himself the entire flight. He didn’t care anymore if anyone saw him. How could he let Geldan out of his sight like that? Idiot!
His browbeating got interrupted by a glimmering light. He flew over to the street it was coming from. The entire street was soaking wet. The light was the reflection of the morning sun off of a few patches of ice. The crow scanned the street until he saw a small pool of blood. He flew down to examine. Geldan had been here, the water and ice told him that much. But who’s blood was this?
The crow’s heart sank as he pulled a pair of dog tags out of the pool.
Damn it.



Owari

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