“I’m not insane,” Genblade interrupted, drawing the attention of the entire courtroom. “Not.”
Megan almost rolled her eyes, then restrained herself. She walked back to her desk and retrieved another photograph from her briefcase, holding it up to the court. It looked to have been blown up from a driver’s license photo, some of the sheen from the reflective material still visible in the copy. “Do you recognize this man, Adam?” she barked, holding up the picture for him to see.
“That’s Thomas Drake.”
Xander furrowed his brow, leaning his head to one side as he watched.
“And how do you know him?”
“He... is... a reporter. He’s a reporter with the local paper.”
“Are you aware that he was killed last night?”
Xander’s mouth twitched, and he almost stood up in his seat. Instead, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the small, dragon-handled blade he kept there, his eyes still locked on Genblade.
“No... no, I wasn’t aware of that.”
“Were you responsible for the death of Thomas Drake, Adam?”
Genblade paused, locking eyes with Xander before letting a large grin spread over his face. “Yes.”
Again, the courtroom bustled with energy as everyone in the gallery turned to the person next to them.
Megan sighed. “In my briefcase, I have screen captures from the security cameras that monitor your room from last night, one every fifteen minutes. I can personally guarantee you never left your cell last night. Care to try your answer again? If not, Your Honour, it’s reasonable to assume we can’t rely on anything this man admits - -”
“Didn’t say I killed them,” Genblade snapped, interrupting Megan and making her jump along with half the courtroom. “I said that I was responsible for it.”
Here we go, Xander frowned, looking down at the knife.
Megan stopped, taking another step toward Genblade. “How are you responsible for the deaths you’re accused of, Adam?”
Everyone in the courtroom, including Judge Pike, leaned forward on their seats. “Misdirection. I killed them with misdirection and distraction.”
Xander twitched.
“Didn’t learn anything about distraction, did we?” he screamed, bringing back his fist and slamming it into the Womb’s face. Its teeth grazed and cut his knuckles, but he barely even noticed. He hammered his fist down again, splashing the black tar onto the streets as he did.
“You stated in one of your interrogations with police that you used certain sounds to distract and elicit responses from your victims, herding them to a predetermined ‘kill zone’ you’d selected. Is that what you’re referring to, Mr. Genblade?”
“Sure,” Genblade smirked, nodding.
Megan let out a breath, finally turning away from Genblade.
“You know what your problem is?” Genblade started again, looking from Megan to lock eyes with Xander, and then back again. “You’ll never be able to figure it out all on your own. You’ll never be able to make that leap because you can’t think that way. You people hire good men to hunt killers... you can’t do that. Your brains can’t think the way theirs do,” he stopped, looking at Xander again. “But his can.”
Xander squinted at him again.
Genblade leaned in slowly, again licking those pointed teeth of his. “You still got plenty to learn, but there’s one thing you’re gonna have to learn fast... and there’s only one way I know to teach you.” Genblade drove his hand forward, shoving the Womb’s long, serrated tooth into its gut and then swiping it all the way across.
Slowly, Xander wrapped the fingers of his left hand around the blade until he could feel the cold metal begin to piece his skin.
“Well, we managed to catch you,” Megan piped up, her voice audibly annoyed with Genblade now.
“It ain’t nothin to catch a killer you were looking for,” he hissed. “Try catching one you weren’t.”
“This was absolutely pathetic,” Genblade snarled, leaning over the Womb’s broken body as the lights of Engen glared down from above. “If you’re gonna keep going with power over skill, there’s a couple of things you should be made aware of. Number one, your right side is your weak spot. It’s where your true self... the real Black Womb... resides. But you probably figured that out.”
Xander pulled the blade down, slicing a line through his palm so deep that he could see the meat of the muscle. He sucked air through his teeth at the sudden pressure, then opened his fingers and let the blood dribble down. He waited a moment, letting several drops fall to the floor. No blackness came.
The radioactive rods in front of Xander exposed themselves, their eerie green glow filling the room. He felt his flesh start to burn as the liquid surrounding his brain boiled within his skull and his teeth rattled, trying to shake themselves free of his gums. He closed his eyes as they started to bubble and crack.
SMACK!
The chuck of wood that Raine had swung at Drew from the darkness came around again, this time planting itself into his jaw. He felt splinters make their way into his mouth and gums as his neck twisted and nearly snapped, the muscle tendons in his shoulders straining then breaking. “Guh,” he said simply, forcing his aching skull back around just in time to see the wood get pushed forward again, catching him head-on between the eyes. He fell backwards, but Al caught him before
