28. Teos
TWENTY-EIGHT
One moment, I’m reaching for Serafina as she stupidly tries to shove Adam out of the way; the next, she”s torn from my grasp as the forest around us shifts, lighting the tree with a scarlet glow that makes my heart stall in my chest.
“Bella?!” I scream, a fear I’ve never felt sinking its cold, deadly claws into my chest as I whip around, looking for my girl. There is no fucking way this is happening! Not when I’m finally wearing her down. “Serafina!” I cry out, the desperation in my voice making me sound like a man possessed.
“Adam. To me now!” Neva screams as the eerily lit trees stop spinning, leaving me feeling sick to my stomach as my eyes dart around, looking for the girl I know is no longer here. A foul-smelling smoke filters through the trees as Adam, who has ended up on the ground several feet away, pokes his head up and nods, running to Neva with wide eyes as the shadows around us start to shift, morphing into large shapes that stalk toward us.
The strong stench of sulfur hits me, along with the urge to gag as my heart races. I keep my eyes on the hulking creatures that start to appear between twisted and warped trees, slowly prowling toward us. Their paws hit the ground with a hissing noise as the heat from their bodies melts the frost that has formed on the grass and leaves behind scorched black marks as it goes.
“What the fuck?” I mutter, looking at the monsters in front of us. Their wolf-like heads snarl at us with gleaming silver fangs, yellow eyes tracking Adam’s movement as he steps next to Neva.
Black fur covers their entire body, with black spikes running down the length of their backs that glow yellow at the base, making the creatures appear like they’ve come straight from the pits of Hell itself. They have to be at least five feet tall, their heads coming to my shoulders, their spiked tails raised even higher in the air behind them.
“What is that?” I ask, taking a few stumbling steps backward as the monsters in front of us grow closer. The red glow of the forest fades, replaced with the warm yellow of the beasts with spiked tails.
“Hellhounds,” Adam rasps, his hands falling on Neva’s shoulders as he slowly pulls the girl back into his chest. His bright blue eyes are locked on the beasts with a mixture of awe and terror, whereas Neva looks like she’s two seconds from shifting into her Basilisk form and taking these monsters out. She’s holding a knife in one hand as she shakes her head, stepping toward the side and catching the closest Hell Hound’s gaze.
“Back to your room, Adam,” she demands, her words coming out more as a hiss than actual English, making it hard to understand. Adam scowls and crosses his hands over his chest as he looks at her, seeming far less scared than I feel he should be. Hell, I think I’m about to piss myself. I’m not sure if it”s because of the damn monsters in front of me or the fact that Serafina has suddenly disappeared.
“No,” he says simply before looking around the area, taking note of me, then the Hounds before he starts to panic. “Where is Serafina!?” he shouts, looking at me for the answer.
“I don”t know,” I grind out between clenched teeth as the Hounds stalk closer. There are four that I can see, and I can feel my Phoenix pressing against my skin, wanting out. I can almost feel her nearby, like a ghost haunting me, but I can’t see her!
“What?! Neva?” he asks, head whipping back to the small girl standing protectively in front of him. She actually rolls her eyes and lowers her hands like there isn”t a monster only fifty feet from us so she can argue with the nerd.
“If you teleport back to your room, I promise I will find your new friend,” she compromises. Adam purses his lips and then shakes his head.
“No. Fina wouldn’t leave me in the woods, and I’m not leaving her,” he says stubbornly, just as one of the Hounds lunges at the two arguing people.
“Shit! Watch out!” I yell, letting flames ignite in my hands as I desperately throw the yellow and red flames at the Hound attacking. This of course, makes the other three hanging out behind the first Hound snarl before they also attack. Two come at me with a speed I’m not ready for. I manage to create a wall of fire that seems only to distract them momentarily rather than cause actual harm as I jump back, trying to put distance between me and these monsters from Hell.
One glance over in Fina’s friend”s direction and I see a snake that is almost as tall as the damn trees, a Hound clutched in its mouth as venom drips from its protruding fangs. But a moment is all I can spare, then I try to shift, my Phoenix shooting to the surface, releasing a fire that heats to unnatural levels, flames bursting around me, finally seeming to make the Hounds take some notice, even if it”s minor.
They pull up short as my wings burst to life at my back. I can”t shift fully, not when I need to find Bella. There is no way for a damn firebird to carry a girl without hands, so a half-shift it is. I may not have a lot of hand-to-hand training like my girl does, but being a Phoenix does have its advantages. Besides the immortality that comes with the title, Phoenix Shifters are one of the only shifters in the Fae world with a large amount of magic at our disposal.
Murmuring a spell under my breath, I conjure a small shield, then thrust it out in front of me, hitting one of the Hounds and knocking it back several yards. “Hey! You need help?” a way too calm voice asks, startling me so fucking bad that I trip backward and fall on my ass.
Adam peers down at me and then smiles before he turns and casts a spell at the other Hound, which has circled the fire I threw on the ground for protection. A weird, almost portal-looking thing appears in the air just as the Hound leaps toward us. The portal engulfs the Hound, then winks out of existence. I stand up, glaring at the small punk for sneaking up on me, but can”t bitch at him since he did just help me out.
“Where did it go?” I ask, and Adam smiles.
“I can teleport. But it”s only good so far. It”s about a mile that way,” he says, pointing further into the forest.
“So it”s just going to come back?” I ask as I turn toward the Hound I hit with a shield. It”s growling at us as it climbs back to its enormous paws, the odd yellow glow appearing in its flared nostrils as it paws at the ground like a horse.
“Yep, but now we only have to fight one at a time,” he says with a smile that I wish I could punch off his face. Why the hell is this guy so happy? I quickly magic a small blade in my hand, take aim at the Hound, and throw it, then cringe as it sails right over its weird head.
Yeah, well… guess I’ll stick to defensive magic then.
Adam watches my pathetic attempt at knife-throwing with a quirked brow, and I shrug. “It’s a good thing the girls know what they”re doing,” he mutters under his breath as a Hound suddenly flies overhead, smashing through not one but three trees before sliding to a halt and doesn’t move. “Right. Hold on tight,” he instructs before slapping his hand to my chest, and suddenly, the world is spinning.
My stomach lodges itself halfway up my damn throat as my feet somehow end up in the air just as I come crashing down to the ground. I groan as my neck bends awkwardly to the side, my wings falling away as I roll over the frost-covered grass and mud of the forest.
“Ow!” I groan just as Adam curses, and my eyes widen to see that he just teleported us, but it was only about a hundred feet away from our original spot. The Hound that we were trying to get away from is now barreling toward us, and from the look in its glowing eyes, Adam and I are about to die.
“Uh-oh,” Adam rasps, hands flying up in front of him as he tries to make another portal, but we both know he’s not going to make it in time. Shoving to my feet, I reach out, snag Adam”s ankle, and yank him to the ground behind me just as the Hound lunges, teeth bared, growl echoing around us. I manage to toss Adam back and get my hands wrapped around the Hound”s neck in time to avoid the pointed, silver teeth, grunting at the effort it takes to keep it pinned so I don”t end up as hamburger meat.
“Watch out for that tail!” Adam yells, making me look in time to see the spiked appendage hurdling toward me. Cursing, I let the Hound go and jump to the side, but not fast enough. Burning pain bursts to life as one of the spikes rakes down my side, tearing my shirt from the front of my torso to the back near my spine as I try to get away from it.
“Fuck!”
My foot catches on something, pitching me forward onto the ground as warmth slowly fills my body, my magic trying to heal the wound. Groaning, I try to push myself back to my feet, but it’s like my strength has suddenly left, leaving me a dizzy mess on the ground.
Turning to face the Hound, I press myself against the trunk of a tree as the Hound roars, the sound unnatural and making the hairs on my arms stand to attention. The stench coming from the monster alone has me sick, couple that with the injury I just received that is, for some reason, not healing the way normal ones do, and I am about to pass the fuck out.
“Well, this isn”t good,” I mutter to myself, my vision darkening at the sides as Adam screams something, jumping up and down almost like he’s trying to gain the Hound”s attention.
Fuck. He needs to run.
I’m pretty sure I’ll come back from this. The only thing I can”t come back from is beheading followed by cremation and Basilisk poison. But if we’re being honest here, I’ve never heard of Hell Hounds, and since the wound on my side is only growing in pain rather than healing, I’m starting to get concerned.
Shaking my head, I try to clear my vision to no avail as my lungs gasp for breath. Everything feels heavy like I’m underwater.
“Run,”I gasp out, waving at Adam to go back to Neva, who looks like she is squeezing the other Hound to death between the coils of her Basilisk.
“Over here! Over here!” Adam shouts, jumping up and down, the skinny guy having no survival sense at all! Shit! If he dies, Bella is going to kill me, and not in the fun way I would like. Before I can shout at the idiot again, the Hound is on me, his hot breath the first thing I feel as its heavy weight collides with mine. I grunt as I feel bones break, my body slammed hard against the tree. Being mauled by a Hellhound isn’t a death I would choose; way too messy and slow, but at least it will be one hell of a story.
I look up at it, wishing I could move my arms and strangle the bitch, but it”s almost like I’m paralyzed. Whatever black sticky liquid was on that spike is currently flooding my body, and the only thing I can move is my eyes and mouth. Pain the likes of which I’ve never felt before encompasses me, and I can only hope I die quickly so my Phoenix takes over and stops the pain.
But before the Hounds sharp teeth can tear my throat out, a pair of large hands grabs it by the muzzle, one hand gripping the top, the other the bottom before a roar of anger sounds next to me along with the horrifying sound of torn flesh as the hands rip the top of the Hounds head clean off. Hot, dark blood erupts over me, covering me in the scent of sulfur, and this time, I can’t stop the bile that crawls up my throat.
“Where is she?” an enraged Ryland roars, grabbing me by the collar of my shirt, not caring in the least that I’m covered in blood and vomit. “Where is Serafina?!” I shake my head as I try to breathe.
“I-I can feel her. She’s close,” I manage to say as he drops me back to the ground, golden eyes ablaze as he searches the trees for her. I send out a prayer to whatever God will listen that he finds her and she”s okay as I crumble on the ground. Damn. I should have asked him to kill me so I could help find her.
I watch, almost in a dream state, as my body begins to shut down, the pain peaking, then everything going numb. Well, shit, I’m totally dying here, but whatever just stopped working means I’m no longer a writhing ball of agony on the ground. I keep my eyes on Ryland, watching as the enormous man tilts his head to the side, his movements sharp and animalistic as the rest of his Balaur team rushes into the forest, all of them in human form since there is no room for their massive Dragons.
One moment, he”s staring at the empty forest to my right; the next he growls, and grabs two golden knives from his holster before he”s sprinting forward. With a bellow of rage he jumps and sinks his blades into nothing. Only, it”s not nothing.
I watch open-mouthed as his knives sink into the air several feet above the ground and stay there. With a pop, the air shifts, and a shield I couldn”t see, which was only yards away, suddenly glows, the red of the shield mingling with the blue magic Ryland suddenly is wielding, his golden blades shattering the illusion in front of us. With a shout, Ryland lets go of the hilt of his blades, dropping back to the ground as the shield erupts, taking everyone off their feet but the Alpha Dragon.
I wince, closing my eyes against the force of the explosion, my ears ringing as I open my eyes in time to see Serafina waging a deadly-looking battle against a man in a red cloak. Her black magic suddenly fills the clearing, spiraling around everyone before slowly drifting over to me.
“Hey, I was worried about you,” I whisper to the black shadows, trying to move my fingers toward her magic but not able to. They quickly cover the distance, and I expect the burning pain I felt before, but all I feel is a cold wisp of air as the death magic wraps around me protectively. I smile at the amount of relief I feel that my girl is safe enough that I can finally relax into the death that is coming. Keeping my attention on my girl as Ryland jumps forward, producing another blade and attacking the man who is… oh, holy mother of fucking hell! Is that a scythe? Bella holds her sword and scythe in each hand, her black cloak billowing around her lean form as she twists and ducks, evading the deadly blows of the man who is also holding a gleaming black and red scythe.
There are five other men watching their fight who jump forward as Ryland literally bursts their bubble and inserts himself into the fight. I blink several times, trying to stay conscious as I watch Ryland move with an efficiency that only comes from years of training. The moment he’s within reaching distance of Serafina, she jumps and spins, hand outstretched for him, trusting him to catch her. The next moment Ryland spins, his hand wrapped firmly around Fina’s arm, and twists her through the air, using her as a damn weapon as she slices not one but three of the men”s heads clean off their shoulders when they try to attack Ryland.
Mental note. Ask Ryland to teach me how to fight so I can better protect Bella.
The man with the red cloak snarls something that I can’t quite hear as Fina’s feet hit the ground, both of them not taking even a second to hesitate before they attack like a well-oiled machine. It”s beautiful in a morbid, bloody, and terrifying way. The way the two move around each other speaks to a familiarity that I’m instantly jealous of. Red magic collides with an odd color-shifting blue. Sparks of power lighting up the forest like deadly fireworks.
In under a minute, the final two men are dead, and all that remains is the man in the red cloak. He’s standing in front of Serafina, Ryland’s hulking presence towering behind her as he wraps his hands around her tiny waist protectively.
I can hear the other members of his team as they slowly close in, and I pull my gaze away from my girl long enough to see the dead Hounds lined up a few yards away. Neva is back in her human form, standing protectively in front of Adam and not letting anyone near him as they watch Bella with wide eyes.
The guy in the red cloak shakes his head and laughs, pulling my attention back to him. For a moment, my vision blacks out, but then I hear Ryland growl and open my eyes, watching as he tries to step around my Bella. She holds a hand out, pressing it to his chest and stopping him without a single word, which earns her a scowl, but he listens without question.
I want to laugh at that. As strong and deadly as Ryland Evans is, he’s just as fucking gone on this girl as I am. She has both sets of our balls clasped firmly in her small hands, and I’m not even mad about it. I groan and close my eyes as I feel my heart slow. Fuck this hurts.
When I open my eyes next, I’m taken off guard by the weird golden light coming from the dead Hounds. Not a light. A man—with wings? What the hell?
There’s a man lording over the monsters the Balaur Patrol just took out, brilliant white feathered wings outstretched, and what looks like a golden whip clasped in his hand. One moment his lips are moving, then suddenly the Hounds burst into a golden fiery inferno, the heat so blistering I’m pretty sure it singes my eyebrows off. Which is somewhat terrifying since I’m supposed to be fireproof.
“Teos!” That voice… that damn voice. I know I’ve died and gone to heaven when I shift my gaze to see Bella crashing to her knees next to me, her eyes glowing as she cups my face and starts talking so fast I can’t understand a word. She’s covered in blood, red and black, the liquid staining her face and neck and making her hair stick to her skin as her small thumb strokes my cheek.
“What?! Don”t you fucking dare!” she screams as Ryland walks over. I squint up at him and then back at her, and if my heart could shatter, it would when I see a small tear streak down her cheek as she leans forward and presses her head to mine. “Oh my god! What do I do?” she screams, panic well and truly setting in as the small, sweet hands cradling my face start to tremble.
Well, that”s not ok. I hate it when she”s upset.
The man with the white wings steps closer to us the moment he sees me and Bella on the ground, and she looks up eyes darting to him as she asks something I can”t make out. As the man moves closer, an almost familiar face comes into view, but then my vision swims, and I can feel my body heave, twitching as it shuts down. Bella turns her watery eyes back down to me as the man shakes his head and then glares at me like he’s also mad I’ve caused her tears.
If I could apologize, I would, because his anger is not misplaced. I really need some help here so I can wake up and show Bella everything is fine. Looking up at Ryland, who has stepped between us and the winged man, I watch as he looks at Bella with the same kind of horror I feel when he sees her tears.
I nod, catching his attention and mouth. ‘Do it.’
He growls under his breath, crouching down at Bella’s side and yanking her into his arms, which immediately has her lashing out at him. The winged man yells and steps toward them, setting off a dozen angry growls from the Dragon shifters nearby. Ryland twists Bella’s tiny body against his chest, cradles her head so she can’t see me, and leans close, glaring at me.
“I swear to God. If you don’t come back from this, and she never talks to me again, I will hunt you down in the afterlife and kill you in the most painful way possible,” he threatens. I wheeze a laugh as his big hand wraps around my neck, and a loud cracking sound is the last thing I hear as I welcome the darkness of death.