Seventeen
Seventeen
HER
Holy fucking shit, I’m going to die.
My back slams into the wall as I trip over my feet. The large claw I was dodging pierces the ground in front of me, cutting through the floor like it’s butter rather than wood and concrete. The creature looks up at me, its beady neon green eyes actually fucking hypnotizing, and I tear my gaze away before it can make me freeze.
Rolling away from the wall just as its other claw swings for me, I hear the sound of a gun being fired. The claw digs into the plaster, no doubt piercing all the way through to the outside, and a bullet grazes my arm. I twist, my feet dancing a wild beat. My knees give out, and I drop like a stone, trying to make my movements unpredictable; I roll towards the monster. My heart is in my throat, getting this close, but it has both its claws stuck, and – Fuck.
It’s claws are not stuck. It’s ripped the one in the floor free, and now it’s shooting down towards me, right in line to split my head open, to stab me like a shish kebab from one temple to the other.
Activating a rune on my side, I throw up a quick shield. I still grunt beneath the force of impact, it’s so fucking hard, but I stop the claw from reaching me. With my other hand, I aim a blast of fire at the monster’s bat-like face, its wide gaping mouth hissing in frustration – a clear shot.
But a sudden flash of black near my feet has me aiming my hand down and blasting at the floor instead. I shoot across it like a rocket, away from the shadows that were swirling at my feet, ready to suck me into the Plane of Monsters. An instant kill, and the place where this fucking gorgon-bat thing came from.
Its body is that of a gorgon – dark green scales across its serpentine body, with patches of light green. Two massive wing-like claws curve out of its upper body. Its head sort of resembles a bat on crack with a longish furry snout that has a mane like a lion, except within it are a hundred black tube-like things – like if Medusa slicked all her snakes back. So far, they haven’t moved, so I’m pretty certain they can’t, but I was also pretty certain I could kill Sau, so I’m not taking anything as fact anymore.
But fuck, I can see how she’s a named sup – basically a title for a “badass mother fucker,” one of only seven here on Earth. The Reaper of the Sired is about to add one more name to her list of kills, and as I’m dodging gun shots and stabbing claws, I wonder if this is how she killed all of Aleric’s sired children and why the fuck no one mentioned it on all the blogs that talked about her.
Because this would’ve been brilliant information to know three minutes ago when I charged her like an idiot. I knew she would try to use her shadows to suck me into the Plane of Monsters. I knew to keep an eye on the floor while I wore her out with my own magic. But what I didn’t fucking know was that she could use minimal magic, and thus, minimal life force, to open a portal to that place and call out one of the monsters living there.
So now she’s still fresh as a daisy, shooting at me from her place in front of the stairs, while I’m expending all my energy and magic just trying to stay alive.
Fuck.
My.
Life.
Arching my back, I jump to my feet, change my mind, then flip backwards just as a claw swipes the air in front of me. It catches my leg, and I find out it can cut as well as stab as pain flares up my body. Shooting my magic down my leg, I stop the bleeding. It isn’t healed, but it won’t be the first thing to kill me.
Pivoting, I land on one hand, push off, then twist onto my feet. I dart to the side immediately. Throw up a shield to catch Sau’s bullet. It pings off. The air behind me shifts, and I know a claw is coming up behind me to skewer me in half. I drop to the floor, belly down just as the whoosh of a blade-like object slices where I just was. I roll immediately in the opposite direction the claw is going, drop my shield, draw fire to my palms, and blast it into the creature’s exposed side.
It hisses in outrage as it twists back around to face me. Not trying to stab me, just trying to backhand me with full force.
My shield comes up.
Just barely in time, and as the “elbow” of the claw hits it (fuck monster anatomy), I’m thrown across the hall. My head slams into the wall. Plaster rains down on me. My vision blurs. My skull pounds.
There is a roar.
A scream.
I don’t know if it’s mine.
Can’t seem to think, to make things out anymore.
Gritting my teeth, refusing to die in a way that will mean Varius will believe I betrayed him, I raise a hand to my head and push healing magic into it. It’s not enough to heal any damage I might’ve taken, but it’s enough to reduce the pain. It’s enough to get me back on my feet, my arms up, a pale-blue shield in front of me while I take my bearings.
My eyes widen. Fuck, I got lucky. A werewolf must have tried to join the fight while I was down because they’re now pinned beneath one of the monster’s claws, and the tube-like things on the back of said monster’s head are all ripping into it, tearing fist-sized chunks out of its body. The wolf is screaming, howling in pain, throwing its arms up trying to defend itself. But it’s hopeless. The wolf is already dead; it just doesn’t know it yet.
I turn to Sau, wondering why I haven’t been filled with bullets, and the reason is instantly understood.
The dead werewolf isn’t the only one who has joined the fight. There are two others, and they’re both attacking Sau. She doesn’t have her gun anymore – either tossed aside or smacked away, I don’t know. But she’s burning through her life now, using her magic to defend herself against the fast claws and teeth of wolves. So far, it doesn’t look like they’ve managed to touch her, the shadows swirling at her feet keeping them back as she launches balls of magic at them, but it’s only a matter of time. She can’t keep up with their speed, and she can’t use her shadows forever.
And if one of them touches her, it will only add to her ‘evidence’ against me.
Fuck.
I have to intervene.
Glancing at the monster, making sure it’s still occupied, I then drop my shield and line up a shot at one of the wolves attacking Sau. Just as I’m about to release my magic though, a blur to my right distracts me. I turn my head, but I’m not fast enough, and I’m shoved into the wall by a body thick with muscle and power. A human, not a wolf.
One of their arms is around my waist. The other hand is cupped around the back of my head. Before I even know what’s happening, hard lips come down over mine.
My eyes widening, I try to push magic into my fingers to throw him off me, but then I realize they’re behind my back, pinned under his arm. My heart jumps into my throat and pounds wildly. I could be dead right now. He moved so fast, moved me so fast. I never had a chance of surviving if he didn’t want me alive.
He’s off me in another second. I push back from the wall, trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. Sau can’t be working with him if she’s fighting his men. Which means she manipulated him into coming here, somehow letting him know the wards would be down today without actually telling him. So she could use her enemy to do her dirty work in killing me, use him to give credence to her lies. That makes sense. I get that.
What I don’t understand is why the fuck did he kiss me?
Before the next thought can form, my brain melts from what I’m seeing. Antonio jumps, still in human form, over the moat of shadows Sau’s erected up around her. He shifts in mid-air, too fucking fast and without the agonizing cries that normally accompany a werewolf’s change, his bones breaking, his skin tearing, tendons and ligaments and every other part of him being ripped to shreds before reforming into a bipedal monster with vicious teeth, knife-like claws, and long red fur. His teeth latch onto Sau’s shoulder, and white light flares around his face. They topple to the ground, sliding across the floor. Her shadows wrap around him, and he yelps as monsters from the other plane start to eat him alive, but he’s killing her faster than she can kill him, his claws ripping into her chest, her stomach, every place he can reach, just tearing chunks out left and right, no finesse to his movements, no beauty. Just raw carnage.
My jaw drops open as I watch her heal just as fast, closing holes, restitching flesh. Black magic forms on her hands, and she shoves them through his chest. He cries out, releases her. Stumbles off and back. The other two wolves jump into the fight, not giving her any time to regain her feet. To rebuild her energy. She’s burning through so much of her life, and even though I hate her for what she’s done to me, I can’t stomach watching her get torn to pieces.
She is Varius’ mother.
So I raise a hand, forming a ball of red energy. The air crackles around me. I move my hands together, building up the magic, making it the strongest it can be. In this time, in the three seconds it takes me, she’s already killed one of the wolves, and the other is screaming in agony. Antonio lunges back in just as I start to throw my spell. But it never hits him because I’m forced to twist and send it sideways as the fucking gorgon-bat thing slithers towards me, hissing in its desire to eat me.
The beast catches my attack in its mouth, and there is a moment of pain in its bright green eyes a second before its entire head is set on fire. It burns with such intensity, it turns into ash within seconds. I instinctively close my eyes so none of it flies into me, then wipe a hand across my face. By the time I can see again, though, it’s too late.
There’s nothing I can do to help Sau.
Antonio is kneeling on top of her, and he has both his hands inside her chest, stopping her magic from healing her. As I watch, helpless and exhausted, he rips open her rib cage, cracking bones and flinging blood in all directions. The shadows that were wrapped around his legs fall free, leaving behind gaping wounds.
Sau cries out for the first time, but it’s weak, fragile. A final breath of life.
And then her head flops to the side, the light in her eyes fading. She looks straight at me, and I don’t know if I feel happy that she’s dead or not.
But I’m not dumb enough to just stand here thinking about it.
Running for the stairs as Antonio finishes her off, I head for the basement. A wolf darts in front of me, coming in through a hole in the wall, but it didn’t look both ways. It hasn’t seen me, its focus entirely on the basement stairs, no doubt able to smell the fear coming up from it as Khalid’s girl, a woman without magic, cowers inside.
By the time I make it to the top of the stairs, it’s already at the bottom, trying to tear its way inside. The magic in the wood is stopping it though. As long as the ward is activated, no one is getting through but Shadow blood. Which means I have to bring the ward down if I want to get inside. For a second, I hesitate – wondering if I should risk Khalid’s girl for my own safety. As long as she’s in there and the ward is up, she’ll be safe. She won’t survive with it down.
But I don’t want to die, especially not if she tells Varius I’m the one who took the ward down. If he thinks I am the traitor due to whatever lies Sau told her.
I will trade the entire fucking world to keep what I have with my mate, and so I press my palm against the wall and push my fire into the runes.
It takes everything I have, all the energy holding my legs up, all the strength keeping my arm from wavering. Sweat pours down my face, and the pounding in my skull from my earlier fall intensifies. I am giving it every last drop I have, and yet, it is not enough. My fire eats magic, but the wards protecting the safe room are powerful.
Too fucking powerful.
Gritting my teeth, pulling on the fear of death, I open myself up to my flames. Pain shoots through my kidneys, my fire turning back on me. Eating me like it’s eating the runes, and I falter, my legs giving out. I tumble down the stairs, smacking my head and every other part of me.
But there is a beautiful sound in my ears. The sound of splitting wood as the wolf tears through the door in its frenzy. I’ve broken the ward.
If I can just get to my feet and get inside, we still have a chance of surviving until the boys get here. Varius has to know something is wrong. He will have rushed back; he’s probably coming up the drive now. I just need to buy us a few more minutes, and I can do that with the arsenal of potions in the basement.
Dragging myself to my feet, I watch as the wolf shoves its arm through the door, finally breaking through. It pulls back, then places its eye against the hole, only to jerk away again on a high-pitched howl, its fur smoldering as a smell so fucking nauseating and sweet fills the air. A potion has been tossed in her face, and it’s burning through her like acid. She’ll be dead in a few seconds when the potion eats its way to her brain.
Still, I don’t think I have a few seconds to spare. I have already taken too long breaking through the ward. Antonio has to be finished with Sau already, even if she somehow managed to heal from when I last saw her. She’s a strong witch, named when he is not. It is possible she survived, is still alive, but if by some miracle she is, she can’t be for much longer. I can’t rely on her buying me anymore time.
So I place my hand on the back of the wolf’s chest, right behind her heart, and push my fire into her. Pain shoots across my kidneys, and I know my magic is eating me alive. Not for the first time, I wished our magic worked like it did on TV, where we could use it without risk, without worry. But Hollywood always lies. If we use it too much, it’ll kill us like it’s currently killing me.
I’ll recover. Eventually. Unless I push it too far, too fast.
So I need the potions. I need to get into the basement.
As I start to drag the wolf out of the way, a white arm reaches through the hole in the door. Khalid’s girl pours another vial of acidic magic onto the wolf, finally stopping its screams.
I don’t have the energy to tell her I’m coming in. I can’t figure out what words it’ll take for her to believe I’m not going to hurt her, assuming Sau told her I would. Instead, I just shove the door open as soon as she pulls her arm back and stride in.
She tries to throw a whole handful of potions at my face. Expecting something of the sort, I throw up a shield. The vials hit it and fall to the floor as she stumbles back, her eyes wide in terror. She trips over her feet, then lands on her ass just as the glass potions shatter in front of her.
I am protected from the splashes of acid due to my full-length shield. She, however, is not, and as drops of the red liquid eat through her legs, she starts to scream. Then jerk, the pain all too crippling and sending her into shock.
Turning from her, I concentrate on the open entry in front of me. She might think I’m a bitch for not helping her, but I need to prioritize my jobs, or neither of us are going to be alive long enough to argue over my choices.
Pulling on my last reserves, I throw up a ward over the door. It isn’t as strong as the one that was there before, and any sup other than a werewolf can now enter, but it’ll buy us time, and that’s all I need. Just more time. The boys are on their way. They’ll be here soon.
Rushing over to the shelf of potions, I grab a healing potion and neck it. Grab another and do the same. The icy-blue liquid slides down my throat, then expands with the warmth of a hug. The pounding in my skull starts to fade, and the cut in my leg threads itself back together. A burst of energy fills me, giving me my second wind, and I grab a few more vials of various types, then kneel down beside Khalid’s girl. I pop off the cork of a healing potion and hold it to her lips.
“Drink,” I demand. “It’ll stop the pain.”
She groans as her body jerks in utter agony. She doesn’t raise an arm to grab the vial, perhaps she can’t, but she does open her mouth, so I pour it in.
She shudders once, then her shaking stops. She opens her eyes and looks at me. But I’m already leaving her, on my feet and heading for the door. I don’t have time for niceties, don’t have time to ask her how she is. I need to build up our defense before the next wolf comes down.
“Why did you save me?” she asks.
I don’t turn to her, don’t look at her, my eyes on the only door in and out of the basement. Thumps and snarls come from above, just out of sight. Sau must still be alive if the wolves are still fighting up there. Unless the boys are back…
Hope jumps into my throat, but I squash it down. I can’t get lax until I see one of them for myself. So I place all the vials but two attack potions down on the ground beside me.
“Micha?” she asks hesitantly.
Hating that I have to even defend myself, I say, “Because we’re on the same side.”
“Then why did you take down the wards?”
“I didn’t.”
“But Sau said –”
“She was misinformed,” I snap, not wanting to get into an argument now. I need to be on my A-game. Antonio can react faster than a fucking bullet, faster than I can throw. If I’m to have any hope of getting out of here, then I need to concentrate on survival and not correcting lies. That can come later. If we’re still alive.
I will be.
Because I’m not leaving Varius before I even get to know him. I want to learn how he looks when he sleeps; he has always stayed up after me, always left before I woke. I want to hear him laugh without restriction, without that fear of happiness choking the life out of him. I want to see him dance when no one’s looking, feel the touch of his hand when it’s covered in wrinkles. I want a lifetime with him. I want the bond to be completed.
So I can’t die here today.
I have too many things I want to –
Thud!
The loud bang in the ceiling has me pivoting on my heels and looking up. I warded the door. I didn’t ward the fucking ceiling. My eyes narrow as I try to figure out where they’re going to come in from, but then they widen, and the two potions slip from my fingers. I don’t know if they shatter. Don’t know if the contents inside them get on me.
Because all my concentration is on the pain exploding in my stomach. A nest of fire ants. The impact of a bus. The tearing of a chainsaw as it digs into one’s flesh. I don’t think any of those things feel as bad as this.
My eyes roll back as my vision blurs. I’m vaguely aware of blood bubbling out of my mouth. I can taste the copper, can smell the iron.
Someone is screaming, but I don’t think it’s me. I don’t think I have the ability to do anything other than breathe, and even that is a struggle.
Dropping my chin, my head unable to hold itself up, I peer down at my stomach. A clawed fist is poking through the right side of my body. A large presence is at my back.But before I can even question what the fuck went wrong with the ward, the darkness starts to take me.
No! No, I need to fight –Varius...
“Shhh,” Antonio whispers in my ear, his words so soft I can barely hear them. “Just relax. Don’t fight it.” Spreading his claws out, he rips his hand back out of my body. Chunks of me splatter at my feet, and my knees buckle in an instant. He lowers me to the ground, his lips still by my ear. “I’m not going to kill you now,” he murmurs. “First I’m going to take the bitch in front of you.”
My eyes find her at the shelf of potions. She’s grabbing handfuls of who knows what. I want to yell at her to turn around, to not give him her back, but I can’t do anything other than gurgle up blood.
My cheek hits the floor. Antonio slides his hand down from my shoulder, where he was holding me up, to my back, below the hole he punched in me. His breath chilling my ear, he snarls, “Then I’m going to come back for the bastard in your womb.”
My eyes widen.
His hand wraps around my throat.
Get up, Micha! Get up!
“I will make you suffer like I have.”
He squeezes, and the darkness closes in on me. My brain screams at me to get up, to protect this child he’s hinting at.
But my limbs won’t work.
And my vision isn’t clearing. Isn’t coming back. It’s just falling to the darkness like I’m falling to him.
No!
No, godsdamnit! Get up!Get…up…
“I will show you what it’s like to be a parent without a child.”
My blood spikes. I want to scream, but all I can do is lie beneath his hand and bleed out.
“And only then, Shadow whore, will I kill you.”
Get...up...gods...damn...it
Get...u…