43. Huntyr
Chapter 43
Huntyr
I prayed to the goddess that Wolf’s aim hadn’t gotten worse since our time in Moira. He possessed the one item that would kill his father—the only thing that could save us.
We had to try.
I squeezed my eyes shut and threw as much of my magic as I could into Asmodeus. According to the rebels, we needed my powers and the blade to kill an archangel. So I pushed and pushed and pushed, forcing every ounce of power out.
I felt the impact ricochet through my entire body. The blade landed right above my shoulder, directly in the middle of Asmodeus’s chest.
A roar of pain followed.
Asmodeus’s.
Then Wolf’s.
I opened my eyes to see Luseyar pulling his own dagger out of Wolf’s back then rushing toward us.
As soon as the tight grip on my body lessened, I moved. He fell to the ground behind me as I rushed to get away from the evil archangel and half-crawled to Wolf, who fell to his knees a few feet away.
We fucking did it.
He did it.
“Wolf,” I sighed. “Wolf, we need to go. Now.”
Blood poured from his wound where Luseyar stabbed him. He pulled his hands away to show me the blood that pooled there, dripping from his fingers.
His face paled.
“No,” I sighed. “No, you’re fine, Wolf. Come on. We have to go.”
I tried to sling his arm across my shoulders so I could lift him, but he grunted in pain and collapsed even deeper into the forest floor.
Goddess above, we did not make it this fucking far to lose everything now. I did not make it this fucking far!
“It’s okay,” Wolf whispered, leaning into me. “It’s okay, Huntyr. Go.”
That pissed me off. “You’ve lost your fucking mind if you think I’m going to leave you.” I glanced over my shoulder to find Asmodeus on the ground with Luseyar leaned over his body. He pulled the blade out of Asmodeus’s chest and sheathed it at his hip.
Luseyar would kill Wolf for this. He would kill us all.
“Can you heal?” I asked, keeping my voice down. “You can heal it, right? You’re going to be fine, Wolf, but if you can heal, it needs to be now.”
But the blood poured without any sign of stopping. Luseyar’s dagger had pierced deep into Wolf’s body, and we were all exhausted. It was difficult to kill an angel, even one that was half-vampyre. But this wound was terrifying to look at.
Plus, we had been traveling and fighting without feeding. Wolf was already low on blood before this goddess-forsaken battle started. His healing had limits.
“I don’t think so, Huntress.” A soft smile fell from his lips. “You’ll be fine. You need to go. Find Jessiah, he’ll keep you safe.”
I was already shaking my head. “Don’t do this to me,” I whispered. “You’re not putting me through this, Wolf Jasper. Not again. I’m not going to lose you after all of this.”
“You’ll never lose me, I can promise you that much.” Horror filled me as I watched his eyes flutter closed—just for a moment. But when he opened them again, he looked tired.
At peace.
I held his head in my hands and pressed my forehead against his. Blood smeared. Sweat dripped. “I can’t do this without you.”
Wings pumped through the air behind me. I heard one more deep roar of pain before Luseyar threw himself into the air, taking Asmodeus and the magical sword with him. My stomach dropped. My entire body lit up with adrenaline as we watched the two of them disappear deep into the sky.
They left. They actually fucking left.
“Do you see that?” I asked, half-laughing in pure delusion. “Do you see that, Wolf? They’re gone.” My voice cracked, squeaked. “It’s just us now, okay? We can heal you and we’ll be in Scarlata in a few days.”
When his eyes fluttered closed again, they stayed that way. His head grew heavy in my hands and his entire body slumped.
The blood continued to pour.
But I wasn’t going to give up. That horror—that absolute panic—fueled my limbs. I pulled Venom from my sheath and sliced my own wrist.
There was a time when I swore that Wolf would never feed from me again, that I would never allow any vampyre to feed from me. Not after all the hurt, all the betrayal.
But watching Wolf die? That would be the deepest wound of all, the harshest betrayal. There was no coming back from that, no returning to a world he wasn’t in.
“Drink,” I whispered, pressing my bloodied wrist to his mouth. “Drink, Wolf. You need blood to heal.”
For a few painful, terrifying moments, I thought he wouldn’t drink. I thought that, maybe, I said my last words to him. That we shared our last moment, our last victory. I thought that maybe, after everything—after falling as an angel, after losing his wings, after all of it—he was finally done fighting.
But then, ever so slowly, his eyes fluttered open.
His tongue slipped out of his mouth, tenderly licking across my skin.
“It’s yours, Wolf,” I whispered. “Take it.”
My entire chest ached as I watched him push himself up, pulling my arm to his mouth. His teeth brushed against me, gently at first, before piercing my skin.
Heat pulsed through my body, but I was too terrified to give into it. Drink, Wolf. Don’t you dare fucking die right here.
And he did. He pulled a mouthful of my blood into his mouth and swallowed.
And then he stopped.
He jerked his mouth away from my arm. “I can’t do this, Huntyr.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I can’t drink your blood, not after what I did to you.”
I gripped the back of his head and practically pulled him back down to my arm. “If you die right now because you refuse to drink this blood I’m offering, I’ll never fucking forgive you, okay?”
He resisted at first, still hesitant.
So I did the only other thing I could think of. With the walls of our bond down, I pushed as much emotion through as I could. I sent him the absolute horror and fear and love I felt for him in that moment. He could not fucking die. I would never be okay again, and he had to know that.
“Drink,” I said again, breath hitching. “Please.”
Something flashed across his features before he returned his attention to my wrist, sliding his teeth into the same puncture wounds and drinking deep.
He didn’t hold back this time. He needed blood and we both knew it; I could feel the hunger deep within him through our bond. No, it was beyond hunger now. It was survival.
“That’s it.” I relaxed against him and let him take whatever he needed. Wolf always had so much control, so much restraint.
Even now, seconds away from bleeding out entirely, his thirst did not scare me. I was not afraid that he would take too much, that he would drain my veins of every drop. The truth was, I never feared that with Wolf.
Even if he wanted to take every drop, I wouldn’t stop him. My blood was his, every damn ounce.
Not a minute later, he pulled away. The blood at his side slowed as the healing effects began to kick in.
Thank the fucking goddess.
I wasn’t sure how much more panic I could have taken in that moment. If that didn’t work…
“Thank you,” he whispered softly, voice sounding like he just woke up from a ten-year slumber. “You didn’t have to do that, Huntyr.”
I met his gaze as I answered, “Yes, I did. We both know it.”
He smiled and dropped his head. Was he blushing?
“It worked,” I said. “It fucking worked, Wolf. Asmodeus was hit.” I used my hand to lift his chin up. His tired eyes searched mine, finally showing me the lightning that came out every so often.
Beautiful. He was fucking beautiful.
“Good,” he said. “Because I don’t think my aim is good enough to do that all again.”
I shoved his shoulder lightly as I pushed myself up. “Can you walk? I’m not convinced Luseyar won’t come back and kill us both for what just happened.”
With a grunt of pain, he stood. He lifted his arm and surveyed the wound at his side.
It was ugly, but it no longer poured with blood. It was actually healing, thank the fucking goddess.
“Good as new,” he teased. “Your blood is perfect, Huntress. Fucking perfect.”
We stared at each other, locked into this magical gaze that neither of us could escape from. Everything disappeared around us—the trees, the violence, the weight of the fucking war we were about to start. All of it washed away.
There was only Wolf and me. Only the two of us, without any of this other shit that weighed us down.
Then, I was stepping closer, or maybe it was him, drawn to each other by forces we could not explain or control.
I knew I was still pushing my own emotions through the bond, the fear and horror and love and excitement, but so was he. He was showing me his own love, his pure gratitude, his overwhelming joy and light.
This was Wolf. This was the fallen angel who was sacrificed to become a vampyre. Who lost his own wings for me. Who killed his own damn father.
So much darkness followed him, but this was pure love, pure light.
We were merely inches away. Wolf’s hand came up to trace the side of my neck, my jaw, my earlobe. “You don’t have to worry about me.” His breath kissed my temple. “I’m not leaving you again in this lifetime. You’ll have to kill me yourself if you want me gone.”
I leaned against his touch. His thumb brushed my cheekbone, wiping away a tear I didn’t realize had fallen.
“Don’t tempt me. If you refuse my blood while you’re dying again, I really might have to kill you.”
I tilted my chin up, eyes flickering down to his lips.
But his brows drew together. “You know I never wanted to do that again. I never wanted to take from you, not after everything else.”
“That was before.”
“Before what?”
“Before I realized how messed up all of this was. Before I realized you didn’t have a choice.”
He tried to pull away, but I caught his wrist and stopped him. His eyes fell to the ground. “I always have a choice, Huntress. Always.”
“Then choose me now. Choose this life.”
Silence fell between us. Wolf kept his gaze on the ground for a few torturous moments before dragging his electric blue eyes up to meet mine. “Choose you?”
I waited, unable to say anything else.
He shook his head as if dumbfounded by my words. “I’ll choose you every damn day for the rest of this life. The next one, even. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Huntress, nobody I wouldn’t kill for you.” He pulled himself back to me and pressed his forehead against mine as he added, “I choose you forever.”
I pushed onto my toes and kissed him softly, testing the waters of whatever weight now hung between us.
Choose me.
Wasn’t that what I wanted all along? I wanted someone to love me. To protect me. To care for me. I didn’t want someone to simply love me out of convenience, only to turn their back on me when things got hard.
Lord never chose me. No, he chose power over me every damn time.
I didn’t think Wolf had chosen me either. There were times when I hated him more than anything in this entire fucking world.
But here? Now? I believed every single word he said. I could feel it trickling through that tether between us with hot, searing light.
He kissed me back, firmly but softly, being patient with his movements as he slid both hands up to my neck and held me there. Blood smeared across both of us. It tainted our skin and trickled down our limbs, but I didn’t care.
That was what we were, wasn’t it? Two blood-soaked vampyres, desperate and clinging onto every last shred of hope.
Wolf pulled away slightly, both of us breathing heavily, trying to process what just happened. My hands remained on his chest. I held him like I never wanted him to leave, like I couldn't comprehend life without him.
It was true, I realized. I didn’t want to live life without Wolf.
And that was fucking terrifying.
“We should get going,” I said. “It’ll take time to catch up with the others and the rebels will be worried.”
He nodded, eyes flickering down to my lips once more before he finally stepped back. “You’re right. We don’t want to be here when Luseyar comes searching for us.”
Together, we started down the thin path, clothes soaked in blood and lips swollen.
Our kingdom awaited us.