Apex

APEX

A Sanguine Universe short story of power and freedom

By James Golden

Kingdom of Feathers

Los Angeles, California

2:01 AM

Chimeron dropped the gargantuan weights and ripped the anchor chains from his neck. He was shifting again, instinct responding to his pounding pulse. His neck elongated as his rubbery skin rapidly mutated from scales to fur and back again as the collar around it adjusted, an ever-present reminder of captivity. A primal roar burst from between rows of serrated teeth, echoing around the open training center.

The Beast-King shuddered. A mane of dark red hair encircled his massive neck, his torso somewhere between the Great White shark and the Minotaur of Greek myth. Two enormous wings stretched to the heavens, a shark's dorsal fin squarely between them. His legs were humanoid but had a wolf's paws for feet. With beady black eyes and a muscular body riddled with scars, Chimeron was a terrifying sight.

"Can't sleep, huh?" Someone asked from the doorway ahead of him.

Chimeron stiffened, eyes narrowing at the lithe figure waiting patiently against the gym door.

"Predation," Chimeron growled.

Queen Predation was tiny by comparison to the hulking monstrosity stalking towards her, but she held herself with poise and confidence, an aura of command heavy about her. Predation had skin that glowed with the wild magic of Faerie, shifting subtly between insect and serpent traits to reptiles, mammals, and fish. Throughout, she remained shapely and deceptively small. She did not bulk and bulge like Chimeron. Predation changed by the second, her body refusing to settle, as wild as the world that made her.

Predation wore a crown of antlers and autumn leaves, her symbol of office as a queen amongst her people. About her shoulders flowed a long and beautiful red cloak, the color of freshly spilt blood. Underneath, Predation was as nude as Chimeron, a fact the two animistic individuals were keenly aware of.

"What do you want?" Chimeron asked, pacing.

His heavy muscles still shuddered with the weight of exertion, but he was cooling quickly. At nearly eight feet tall, the monster seemed huge and impossibly out of place in the modern gym.

"Interestingly enough, I came to ask you the exact same thing," Predation said, pushing from the doorframe and making eye contact. "In this moment, what do you need right now?"

The question was direct and made Chimeron uneasy and interested simultaneously. If she had come to seduce him, he vowed to break her. However, more than physical impulses or desires, a need pushed to the surface, and it pained the former champion to vocalize it.

"Freedom," Chimeron said, at last, his small shark eyes shimmering.

Before Predation could delve deeper, reading the animal in the man, Chimeron turned and continued pacing. He grabbed his gym clothes and moved to put them on, though he was more comfortable naked. Predation stopped him, stepping forward.

"Then let's go find some," Predation said, her expression sly like a fox and deceptively cute. "Freedom, I mean. Let's go find some. Together."

Chimeron didn't know what to think. He tugged at the collar around his neck, though it caused him no physical discomfort. From gladiator champion to a brutal warlord, Chimeron had never experienced kindness. It confused him.

"Fine," Chimeron said, at last, dropping the clothes. He could see hundreds of different animal aspects in her skin, blending and overlapping, battling for dominance like an ecosystem of predators. "Where are we going?"

Predation smiled.

"Just follow me," Predation said, turning and stalking away.

Whether it was the collar around his neck or Predation's seductive gait, Chimeron couldn't say, but follow he did.

An hour later, the pair stood in the parking lot of the Santa Monica pier, staring out at the Pacific Ocean and the realm Chimeron had called home not very long ago. The beach was deserted, the night air crisp and heady. Chimeron breathed in the soothing salt air, feeling the call of the water. The ocean reminded him that he was powerful, that he was a hunter in a world of prey, and that he was a God of the water beneath those waves. Unequaled. Unrivaled.

"You should not have taken me here," Chimeron growled, struggling to speak. "Even with this collar, that is my kingdom. She will answer me. I feel her call, even now."

Predation laughed and dropped her red cloak, letting the night winds carry it across the sand.

"No. This is my kingdom," Predation said, spinning in the sands like a dancer.

Naked and free, she strode down to the water, turning to beckon.

"Follow," Predation said.

Chimeron shook his head. He had been a king of his kind, but she was a queen like no other. No matter how he growled or threatened, she never buckled or backed down. She was unaffected by his roar of command and unafraid of his power. It was...strangely refreshing.

Into the water they went, the moonlight dancing on their scales as their bodies adapted to the aquatic environment. When Chimeron saw that Predation wasn't stopping, he hesitated.

"Where are we going?" Chimeron asked, the water dancing across his massive midsection.

Predation turned and smiled disarmingly, her long black hair wet and her eyes glowing in the moonlight.

"Follow me, Chimeron, King of the Beasts, Chimeron the Undefeated. I know what you need most."

Then, before he could question her, Predation's body shone with the light of Faerie, and she was transforming, shrinking and growing rapidly, her head bulging, her limbs collapsing, until a tiger shark splashed beneath the waves, speeding off.

Exhilarated, Chimeron roared into the night and willed his own transformation, his base form upon which all others had been stacked, the Great White Shark. His jaws lunged forwards as he dove, his arms shifting into pectoral fins, his feet becoming a tail. The magic rippled through him, restricted by the collar, granting just enough power to see the change through, and then he was after her, swimming into the deep blue.

Without words, they swam, conveying emotion and thought through body language, heading out into deeper waters. The two sharks swam at a downward angle, Predation in the lead with Chimeron swimming steadily behind her. She swam with purpose, and although Chimeron didn't know exactly where they were going, he knew the entrances to Faerie under the ocean, and they were nearing one.

Excited, Chimeron put on a burst of speed, catching up with Predation quickly. Side by side, the pair swam for roughly two miles into increasingly murky waters until they came upon their first destination, a sunken ship covered in pink and purple coral, surrounded by schools of silvery mackerel and occasional giant sea bass.

Predation darted down amongst the pile of steel plates that once served as a ship and vanished into a square in the hull, disappearing from sight. Chimeron eyed the hold warily, sensing vast and terrible magic not far beyond this. No matter how safe a path to Faerie may seem, that world was hell and could chew you up and swallow you whole. This was the truth all changed ones knew.

Despite this, he was powerfully curious. He'd traveled the hidden paths of Faerie before and knew of this one but had never entered. Where it led was a mystery, but Predation had already gone ahead.

For a moment, he considered swimming away, leaving Predation to her fate in Faerie, swimming back to his home and his crown of bloody bones. Then, Predation darted from the hold and circled him, body language questioning. She demanded that he follow, and this time, when she entered the shipwreck, he did too, wedging in after her carefully.

The hold was dark, and Chimeron felt ancient magic. They sped down, moving through a black tunnel that branched out endlessly into waters that Chimeron had never explored. The notion of prey he'd never tasted and new warriors to best thrilled him, but Predation sped ahead.

They were in Faerie waters now.

For hours they swam steadily, gliding past hundreds of worlds and underwater horrors. When Chimeron finally began to fatigue, and he contemplated rest, the angle of the tunnel shifted, and light from the sun far above permeated the gloom with mesmeric brilliance.

Energy surged through the two aquatic fae, and they barreled ahead, shooting from the wreckage of a different ship into crystal clear waters. Colonies of seals raced to the surface, frightened by the sudden emergence of an apex predator in their waters.

The hunt was on.

Predation slowed, taking in the underwater scenery of Baja, California. She began a languid transformation back to her humanoid form, albeit with gills and the ability to breathe underwater, and set her sights on the King of Beasts. Ahead, Chimeron reached his natural max speed of around thirty-five miles per hour and surpassed it, the supernatural beast calling on the Faerie magic within to spurn him on.

Chimeron zeroed in on a meaty-looking seal pup, larger than his siblings but exhausted. Just as the seal reached the surface, angling for a leap that would carry it to a nearby island, Chimeron was upon it, jaws rending the tail and hindquarters from the creature in a phenomenal spray of seafoam and blood.

Invigorated, Chimeron snapped up the rest of his meal, crashing back into the reddened waters. It was the first time since his resurrection that he'd been allowed out of the kingdom. His first hunt since dying. It felt good and right, and as his eyes settled on Predation, sunlight dancing across her shimmering skin, Chimeron knew he had to thank her.

Swimming closer, Predation gave the signal to surface, and Chimeron agreed, beginning to revert back. Together, the two changed ones climbed to the surface and took in air as their lungs finished adjusting.

"C'mon," Predation said, throwing her hair back out of her face. "Over there."

The waters were still dark but brightening rapidly. Above them, the sun was beginning its ascent across the sky. They had swum through the night, emerging hundreds of miles away at dawn.

Grinning, Predation swam towards the barren mountain island, ignoring the frightened barks of seals and sea lions as they approached. The pair climbed out of the water and up a large rock overlooking the ocean.

"Thank you," Chimeron said after a long pause. "I contemplated leaving you at the wreck."

Predation looked up and into Chimeron's eyes.

"Why didn't you?" She asked.

Chimeron thought about it for a long time. He wanted to speak truthfully.

"I am a weapon," Chimeron confessed. "Your people brought me back from death so that someone else would not. There is no rest for one such as I."

Predation contemplated that, then put her hand on his arm.

"You've killed hundreds because you had to, thousands because you were manipulated. You've never had a chance or a choice," She said, looking up at him. "I'm going to change that."

Before he could react, she reached up and unclipped the colossal collar around his neck. Power swelled through him, and she watched as his predator visage surged with renewed vitality.

"Predation-" Chimeron began, but she put a finger to his lips and gestured at the ocean.

"What you desire most is all around you. You can go anywhere you want, this realm or the next. There is nowhere I cannot find you. We are unique. There are no two like us in all the world," Predation said, smiling.

She tossed the collar into the ocean, and together the two apex predators watched it sink beneath the waves.

"You are free, and you are mine," Predation said, smiling to herself. She leaned into Chimeron's shoulder.

Chimeron nodded, understanding intricately what she meant.

"Yours," He agreed, knowing the words were binding. "And free."

For though he could go anywhere in the world, there was nowhere else Chimeron would rather be.