The Darkest night

Grabbing hold of the spear with his good hand, Dracula hissed in agony as the spear of Artemis seared his wound and burned at his hand, the blade twisting and only causing his blood to boil through his veins. The spear was a gift from their goddess of Justice to her Amazonian followers, a mighty relic that also served as a badge of office to her greatest champion. He had seen it used once, thousands of years ago when he aided the amazons against the armies of Ares, the Queen used it with ferocity against his warbands. No matter where she struck, no matter how far or how outnumbered she was, the spear would also find its mark.

But most importantly, the spear could never harm the innocent.

Many times, the minions of the God of War would use slaves or prisoners of war as human shields to shock or confuse their enemies. But no matter what, the spear would always find its mark with the guilty and spare the innocent. Leaving not a scratch.

Coughing up blood and struggling against the shaft of the spear as he was skewered to the ground, his attacker smiled sadistically.

“Ah… To see such a powerful male broken to heel by my blade once more, I so miss this sensation.”

Hoisting the vampire king up with the blade still stuck in his chest, Dracula winced as his feet left the ground, and the burning agony in his chest wound became unbearable.

“What did they call you Cain? Long ago on the battlefields of old? Ah yes, the Impaler!”

Stamping the spear on the pavement, Dracula winced out loud, steam pluming out the back of his shoulder where the spear ruptured through. By now blood poured out his fanged mouth, clutching the spear’s shaft to keep from sliding down. All the while, the Queen laughed, her eyes red and soulless and her lips a Jacko lantern grin of fangs. To see the woman he admired, both for her beauty and martial prowess, twisted into this mockery of her former self horrified the count.

“How does it feel Cain? To be penetrated by a WOMAN for a change.”

“Me thinks… My sister in arms is jealous of my own spear.”

At that moment, Dracula exploded into a swarm of bats, forcing Hippolyta to step back and guard herself with her shield as the hundreds of bats surrounded and screeched at her. Fanning her shield back and forth, the pale skinned woman was a mask of rage, before her features turned to a cruel grin.

“The undead king, the first of killers born cannot face me as a man. He would choose instead to flit about as vermin. You do not decide the terms of this fight!”

Striking down with the spear, the impact caused a shockwave that stunned the flock of bats, forcing them to coalesce back into a human shape. Getting to his feet and conjuring his armor and weapon, the vampire lord cried out in agony as the spear impaled him again, his black scale armor no match for the god-forged spear. His cries of pain making the Amazon queen laugh as she pulled her spear free and made for another strike. Trying desperately to block the spear, the act was in vain as it pierced through his arm and straight through his shoulder to exit out his back.

Prying the spear free, it remained clean and shimmering, without a drop of Dracula’s blood to mar its polished surface. While Dracula stumbled back, guarding his arm and wounded shoulder, grabbing his sword from his limp arm as it hung off him. He was NOT healing. Unlike the other injuries he had endured tonight, these injuries refused to heal or reknit. But it was not a mortal wound.

Stepping back as she raised her shield and poised her stance with the spear on the ready, but she did not strike. She was waiting for him, waiting for him to get back on his feet and show a front of defiance to her. He realised with her sadistic grin that this whole time, she was simply playing with him. She wanted their duel to last longer, to savour his pain… Because that was what her ‘Goddess’ wanted.

“Come then Count, let us see if your skills match that of a Queen.”

Rolling his bad shoulder and hissing from the pain, he looked over Hippolyta’s shoulder to see that the rest of the lycanthropes and people still frozen on the spot, where Dinah waited patiently for her executioner to come back after her fun was had. Making a step over past Bruce, his eyes went wide when he found the vampires set her sights on his wife.

“Queen Hippolyta do not make me do this! You have been bewitched by my former bride. You AND your people.” Raising his shaking hand up to offer to the woman, Dracula looked into her red eyes. “Please let me free you.”

Her smile faltering, Hippolyta looked down, appearing to lower her guard. “You misunderstand Cain Adamson… I am free.” Crying out in agony, Dracula found his hand severed at the wrist from the spear’s slice, his severed limb burning to ash before it fell to the ground. “Free to express my hatred, my lust, my desires and cruelty I’ve held back for so many centuries behind a wall of martial discipline and morals! My goddess has shown me pleasures so infinite I could never reach their depths. For so many centuries I adored you, respected you, even honoured you… Now? As I am, I see WHY cats play with their prey. I shall savour this Count, please do the same for me, I wish to drag this out as long as possible!”

*

Leaning back with a smirk to the sight of the building Dracula was slammed through collapsing after another blow, Dina was pleased to find the former queen of the amazons having fun breaking her former master and lover. She only hoped she left enough of the count left for her to appreciate. Turning her attention back to the frozen Selina Kyle, Dinah grinned as she scratched a finger under the werecat’s chin.

“To think he loved you above ALL of us, his own creations.” Plucking a whisker from Selina’s cheek, the cat woman twitched her eye from the pain but could not move a muscle. Not even to muffle out a cry of pain. “He sought you out for centuries, millennia, his conviction to find you no matter what was just so… Disgusting!”

“He sought something nobler than blind destruction.”

Stepping to the side, Dinah found Bastet standing there, unaffected by her hypnotic control. Folding her arms, the pale skinned woman retained her fanged smile.

“Ah, so the goddess of meddling decides to say a few words? You DO realize all of this is YOUR fault, right?”

“I made no direct step into any of their lives, nor yours. Everything that has happened is because of what YOU chose to do. Not I.” Bastet said sternly.

“Oooh, I like that. I should use that line one day as an excuse for wiping out a city when I get bored.” Dinah chuckled, stepping closer to the Egyptian goddess without fear. “But let’s not beat around the burning bush, you’ve been planning this whole thing from day one. Don’t tell me the Wolf King, Gaea’s daughter, and Dracula’s long lost wife all being born in the same city was just wild chance, YOU had a hand in that.”

Remaining silent, Bastet’s eyes raged back at the vampire queen, her scowl telling Dinah all she needed to know.

“You saw to it that Selina Kyle would be his reincarnated wife from the get-go, so you could be here to oversee things personally. The were-animals, the world tree, the truce, everything. ALL so you could have a nice little hiding hole that wasn’t some pile of sand in Egypt somewhere. Nice touch, personally I’d have gone with Starling city, the view is better.”

“I will NOT allow you to undo all that I have done to break this maddening cycle. You OR the fallen one’s machinations.” Narrowing her feline eyes, Bastet reached out with her hands, her hair billowing to arcane currents as she glared into the Black Canary’s eyes. “Release them!”

Rolling her eyes and tilting her shoulder in a coy posture, Dinah’s grin never left her fanged lips. “No.”

Sneering, Bastet ordered her again, leaving Dinah to smile wider as she plucked the gem of a necklace she wore up for her to see and let the red crystal roll between her fingers.

“Do you like it? It looks better under MY will than that bimbo those amazons worshipped day in and day out.”

“The EYE of Aphrodite.” Hissed Bastet, recognising it even doused in dried blood. “You have tainted it.”

“Yes… You see, I don’t like the idea of having to compete with someone who thinks they can challenge my rule, and what’s the answer to dealing with a god? Use the baubles and trinkets said gods gave to their mortal followers and use them against them.” Clutching the gem of her necklace again, Dinah’s eyes glowed with renewed intensity. “The amazons practically had a jewelry box full of those, could you believe it? Now my powers to bend wills to my own with but a whisper of my beautiful voice, have been amplified with the generous power of a goddess of love, so now, ALL shall love ME… And despair!”

“YOU WILL BE STOPPED WITCH!” Bastet snarled, the angriest she had ever appeared as she lunged for the black Canary. But Dinah never moved a muscle save to snap her fingers.

“Catch her and gag her!”

Power Girl, faster than the cat goddess could move, caught her with both arms and pulled her close with a clawed hand around her mouth. Keeping the feline woman from moving or speaking.

“Bad kitty… No catnip for you.” Dinah scolded, wagging her finger mockingly. Looking back over to her army and Oliver, Dinah stepped over to the rest of the werecat tribe who were all still stuck in a pose of mid run. “I think I need to teach you a lesson about what it means to cross your new mistress of the night… Ollie?”

Snapping her fingers again, Oliver quickly snapped his mindless gaze over to his mistress, turning his attention to whom she pointed to, Umbra. With a phlegmy roar of blind hunger and rage, the Strigoi leapt with wings spread, tackling the terrified werecat to the ground and biting into his neck. Forced to watch, Bastet screamed into Karen’s hand, the two horrified but unable to do anything. All while Dinah laughed at her pet’s feeding.

Looking over to the rest of her victims, Dinah sashayed her way through them like she was admiring the statues of an art gallery, ignoring Umbra’s cries as he was drained of blood. Every one of them was aware of her, some stoic, some angry, but the majority of them had looks of terror and sorrow in their eyes. The likes of which was intoxicating to the Black Canary. Bringing her attention to Clark and Lois, she giggled at their current state.

“Look at these love birds, they wouldn’t have a CLUE what to do with themselves before I shoehorned myself into their lives.” Playfully scratching Lois’s chin, the massive krypto-wolf was unable to move but could still whimper, her ears picking up Oliver snarl and tear at his victim just behind her. “I at least spiced up their relationship! Before I came along, their marriage was so ho hum… Now they’ve both gone to the dogs, how base.”

Dinah then turned and circled her new playthings, moving over to the frozen Talia, Nightwing and Starfire. Noticing a single tear run down Talia’s cheek, the pale skinned woman wiped it clean and brought he tear to her lip. “Well now, why so gloomy my former sister?”

“You… You killed my son!” Talia hissed between clenched teeth, her face a mask of pain as she was frozen on the spot.

“Oh, the Batman was Damien? Figures… Pfff! Please my former sister, you never loved him anyway, why start now?”

Going over to Bruce as he growled down at her in his prone state, Dinah chuckled to herself as she stared over to Pamela and Harleen. “And if it isn’t the famous throuple themselves. Must be nice being so loved by these blood bags, I’ve heard NOTHING but their praises on the wind… but never MY name. And all because you planted a tree in the middle of the city and slapped around my former master. Well don’t worry, I’ve got plans for you too. I made a deal, and I intend to deliver on that deal.”

Seeing her champion returned, dragging her prize behind her by the scruff of his cape, Dinah tilted her shoulder and spun at her heel in delight. Looking down at the broken man, he coughed up blood, his arms and legs missing and his torso billowing black smoke from the many wounds that perforated his body, but none of them lethal.

“Did you two have fun? I hope so because the night’s not over yet.”

“You… You will be punished for this…” Dracula never got a chance to finish his threat as Hippolyta dropped him to the ground and stamped her boot into his back, twisting her heel into one of his injuries.

“Oh I’ve yet to get started Dracula, you don’t even know what I planned for you.” Looking back to Selina, she clocked her finger at the cat woman. “Come here Selina, you’ll want to see this.”

Unable to control herself, Selina could still hear Oliver devour Umbra behind her, her eyes full of tears as she looked down at her husband’s broken and ruined form under the Amazon Queen’s foot. When she was close to Dinah, the vampiress took her hand and told her to kneel.

“I made a deal with a former business acquaintance of yours Dracula, you see, HE told me I can ger whatever I want and all I’d have to do was see to it you two never get to love each other again. And guess who I am going to mind control into stabbing his dear old wife to death.”

Looking up in horror, Hippolyta grabbed the man by the back of his cape and hung him high enough to see Selina crouched at one knee, the two sharing a look of horror just as Dinah pulled a silver blade from her dress and forced it into Dracula’s hand. Staring deep into his tear-streaked eyes while dangling the eye of Aphrodite in front of him. “Now… Listen to my voice Vladimir Tepes, do as I…”

An explosion of intense light ruptured at the heart of the festival, causing the amazons to break ranks and avert their eyes. Turning to the source of the rainbow of colours and column of white light, Dinah was surprised to find Zatanna appear before her, her hand at her top-hat and the other wielding a staff with a pommel of multi-coloured crystals. Behind her stood Constantine, alive and well and looking around him confusion. Locking eyes with the Black Canary, Zatanna smiled.

“Am I late?”