Sterling hopped into action as hooded numbers attacked from the dusk. Drawing cutter and dynamo, he engaged two assaulters while Damian battled the third. Emilia cringed behind a departed log until a brewing shape melted from the trees. Jessika stood wraith- suchlike before her, bow drawn tense. " This ends tonight, family," she whizzed. But before Jessika could loose her arrow, a cutter whipped past Emilia's observance to bed in Jessika's outstretched arm. She howled in fury. The sisters' mysterious guests had thrown the blade to disrupt the shot, now joining the wild ruckus. Though outnumbered, their skill was unequaled . In moments the fight was won, Jessika's pets lying dead or dying upon the streambed. She glowered fiercely, clinging her bleeding arm. The scarred man spoke again in grizzled tones." You need not die this night, family. Come, leave this path of pain." Jessika wrangle at his bases." noway! Not until the Black Dogs know my revenge." With that, she melted wraithlike into the night. The hooded man turned to Sterling." My name is Raven. Your fates are now bound until hers is broken." Sterling eyed the mysterious man called Raven warily." You claim to know my family, yet apply blades against her. Whose side do you stand on?" Raven removed his hood completely to reveal empty eye sockets, face twisted by ritual scarring." I was formerly of Jessika's lineage, the Ravens of the Mountain. We're a shadowpeople who deal only in revenge." Damian joined them, helping Emilia to her bases." And what price does your revenge demand of us?" Raven grasped Sterling's arm in a blood bond." Help end Jessika's torment, or her wrath will know no bounds. Come to our vill- there you may find a way to release her soul." The sisters participated a doubtful look but saw no other choice. traced still by Jessika's specter, they followed Raven into the thick timber night. After a harrowing rise up unfaithful scars beneath the moon, they surfaced onto a windswept mountain table. Gravestone hooches
blended into the rocky earth, people moving between them like ghosts. An elder saluted Raven, eyeing the beginners warily." nonnatives? Have you brought us further prey for the Goddess' hunger?" Raven shook his head." These are the Black Dog sisters. Their fate is now tied to Jessika's- and ours." What dark solemnities awaited in this abandoned vill of revenge? Sterling and Damian's final battle was only just beginning. The elder eyed Sterling and Damian appraisingly.However, also you're welcome then," If Raven vouches for you. But know that our way is the way of blood and shadow." He led them into a shack marked with Raven motifs. Outside, intricate charts covered the walls alongside sketches of barked corses
. " For generations we've honed the art of the covert kill and cerebral warfare. Jessika was our finest epigone," the elder said proudly. Damian refocused to a chart dotted with raven feathers." These marks they represent her victims?" The elder jounced." All who wronged our lineage have felt Jessika's revenge. But in her preoccupation to claim you, she lost her way." Sterling goggled grimly at images of Jessika's crippled kills." And how do your dark solemnities propose to end her reign of terror?" A wolfish smile crossed the elder's spooked lips." Through the ultimate immolation. When the blood moon rises, Jessika must face her goddess one final time." That night, as an creepy red gleam crept over the mountains, the Ravens began making medications for a minatory ritual in the scars. What horrible solemnities would be performed under the light of that unholy moon? Sterling and Damian could only watch and stay to see if it would truly quench Jessika's everlasting thirst for vengeance. As the blood red moon rose, the Ravens gathered in a proscribing gravestone circle high atop the mountain. Sterling, Damian and Emilia watched grimly from the edge. The elder began chanting in a guttural lingo as two epigones dragged a floundering figure forth- Jessika, bound and gagged. She glared murderously at the sisters through wild eyes. An balcony stood at the circle's center, sculpted with delineations of crooked revenge. The elder produced an obsidian dagger and addressed the gathering. " Jessika's thirst for blood has corrupted her soul. To release her from this mortal pen, she must offer her life to the Goddess!" He seized Jessika's hair, raising the cutter high. She bucked frenetically, muffled riots echoing across the peaks. Sterling took a step forwardbut Raven held him presto. " It's the only way," Raven rasped. The sisters watched helplessly as the elder drew the blade across Jessika's throat in one slicing stir. Her blood flowed black as essay onto the balcony monuments. As Jessika's body went slack, the elder threw back his head and let loose an unearthly howl to the moon. All at formerly, the night went deathly still. Had Jessika's soul been freed at last from its bonds of revenge? Or had the ritual only unleashed her wrathful spirit onto the misty mountains formerly more. An creepy silence fell over the mountain as Jessika's lifeblood strained into the scars. The Ravens watched the elder expectantly. Suddenly, the monuments beneath them began to joggle. A low grumble erected until the entire mountain sounded to shake with some immense pressure stirring below. Cracks spiderwebbed out across the gravestone circle as the growling peaked into a blaring roar. With an explosive crack, the balcony resolve down the middle — and a misty figure rose shrilling from the chink. Jessika's mangled spirit surfaced, wild hair floating ethereally as her destroyed throat uttered awful noises. Her one eye burned with maddened delirium, fixated on Sterling and Damian. The Ravens fell to their knees, contending. But the revengeful specter had no cognizance for prayers or reason. With a banshee's wail, Jessika descended upon the gathering. Sterling cried and pushed through to meet her, scuffling with the wraithlike form as it swiped virulently." It's over, family! Find peace!" But Jessika's anguish and rage had consumed her wholly. With preternatural strength, she threw Sterling away and swept towards Emilia with piercing claws extended. The elder cried out one last command to the Goddess before Jessika's spirit claimed them all. Would any escape the mountain alive? Jessika's ghostly wail split the night as she bore down upon Emilia, claws outstretched to drag her victim into the misty hereafter. But before her spirit could claim its chase, a shot chimed out. Sterling had picked up a fallen rifle and fired straight through Jessika's shimmering form. She reeled with an inhuman laugh, form fluttering, but did n't dissipate. Damian charged with his family, scuffling the howling specter formerly more. " There must be a way to banish her!" cried Sterling over the noise. The elder halted over, ancient eyes glinting deliberately. " Only what spawned her curse can end it, " he rasped. " Her bones must be interfused with the source of her revenge." Sterling's eyes widened in understanding." Karimov's palace. " He turned to Damian. " Family, keep her distracted! I will return with solace for her soul." As Damian scuffled Jessika's maddened spirit, Sterling headed for the mountains, following trails only the Ravens knew. Below, the fight raged on through the sanguine night. Would Sterling find what was demanded to release Jessika before her revengeful wraith destroyed them all? Or would the sisters at last know her darkness in the realm beyond? The cataclysmal battle for the soul of the Black Mountains was nearing its intimidating end. Deep in the mountains, Sterling followed Raven's directions toward Karimov's ruined fort under the blood moon's light. The palace's blackened belts surfaced from the mists like crooked fritters. Inside, the echoing chambers still smelled of ash and decay from Jessika's cataclysmal plunge. Sterling climbed steadily, rifle at the ready for any moping wrong. At last he reached the topmost room, wind effervescing through gaps in the monuments. A single bone remained on the fine bottom- Jessika's. Sterling picked it up appreciatively. " Guide me now, family, to the source of your revenge." He followed some instinct down into the depths, coming upon a sealed vault below. " Karimov," uttered Sterling before the nameless box. With three blasts from his rifle, the gravestone lid atrophied. Inside lay not bones but a single spangling object. Feting it from Jessika's ravings, Sterling seized the point and turned for the long trip back. Dawn was breaking as he surfaced onto the mountain pass. Below, an unearthly green gleam radiated from the circle. Sterling pushed his exhausted body onward, hoping he was not too late to end the curse and set Jessika's tortured soul free at last. Sterling contended back to the gravestone circle as presto as his sick legs could carry him. As he climbed the last rise, a ghastly sight met his eyes. Jessika's wraithly form had grown more immense and monstrous, her features now a agony mix of woman and beast. She impended over Damian and the Ravens, murk writhing off her glowing form. With a sonorous howl, Jessika slashed at Damian who slightly dodged under her talons. Emilia cried out in fright from where she huddled by the Ravens. Sterling knew he was the spirit's last target. He held above Jessika's bone and the spangling object, crying her name on the wind. Jessika's head whipped around, flaming eyes fixing upon her family. She drew back a massive arm to hurl Damian off the precipice. " Jessika, please! Let revenge end and find rest!" Sterling contended one last time. An unearthly wail rent the dusk as Jessika dithered, torn between bloodlust and some moping humanity. As the first shafts of dawn crested the peaks, would her darkness be banished ever? Or would the Black Dog sisters at last know her terrible wrath in death? The final battle was about to begin.