Chapter 19 #2
“We can have him transferred,” I told Arabella, hating the sound of that. It was one thing if it came about naturally, but the team sounded really messed up in structure. “In fact, we may want to reorganize the team overall.”
“Okay.” Arabella nodded and looked back towards the nightmare. “Give me twenty-four hours and I will have you in a new dorm setting.”
“Thank you so much.” He offered her his hand, and I growled from where I now stood behind her. It was different when it came to touching her. No one was allowed to do that, especially not some Class B fucker, even if he was having a rough day.
“I didn’t mean it—”
My tail wrapped around her waist and I hauled her against me, the guy running out of the room after shouting ‘thank you’ before the door slammed shut. At least he had some manners.
I let her down onto the ground as she turned into me, arching a brow. “What was that?”
“Making sure he didn’t touch you,” I immediately answered.
Because no one was allowed to touch Arabella… Except us.
My memory collapsed as I suddenly heard screams, my arm wrapping around Arabella tightly. The forest was thick around us, but up ahead I could see an opening and the echo seemed to vibrate through the air, which led me to believe we were near a clearing. A scream didn’t bode well for us, though.
“Maybe we should stay back,” I offered to Arabella, wanting to keep her out of the line of fire.
“I promise, I am perfect,” she assured.
“Your perfection was never in question, cherry blossom,” I confirmed before narrowing my eyes on the clearing that we were now approaching.
Now, there were a lot of things that I had expected to see… But not this. The group of us spread out, and I immediately shifted into my nightmare form, feeling defensive about Arabella being near such strong, intense power.
The clearing was made of dark stone, and the trees that surrounded the perimeter arched over to create a dome as fog seemed to seep in from every direction. A white-haired man stood in the center of the clearing, his hand wrapped around a woman’s throat…who I had to assume was Peace.
I wouldn’t have ever even guessed that if it wasn’t for the massive peace sign she had stamped in the middle of her forehead like a bad tattoo.
In fact, it looked like it was drawn on in blood, and considering everything else about her was covered in blood and dirt, I had a feeling they may have been here for a time now.
“Hate.” Saint’s voice filled the space.
The woman dropped, crying out, trembling and curling in on herself as the man in question snapped around and offered a big smile. “Ah, if it isn’t my favorite god terror. Sainty, it’s been so long. What brings you to the area?”
Saint narrowed his eyes. “Don’t fuck around. What the hell are you doing?”
“I assure you that you are well aware of exactly what I am doing.” Hate grinned, his black eyes moving over each of us before focusing on Arabella.
“I also was made aware by my brother, when he tried to contact me, that you would be coming this way. Unfortunately, Love is as naive as ever, and I assured him that I would be waiting for you…with Peace, of course. Wasn’t she who you were looking for? ”
He snapped forward in front of Arabella, who continued to stare at him with distrust, her fingers relaxed on my tail, which was wrapped around her waist.
“Isn’t she?” Hate pressed when none of us responded.
“Yes—”
“We were looking for Peace,” Arabella interrupted Saint, “but we were also looking for you.”
“Me?” Hate grinned and leaned down closer to her. “Tell me, pretty little human, why I have such an honor of being the one you seek.”
Arabella paused for a minute, her eyes on Peace in authentic concern, before offering, “We believe Chaos is causing problems in the human world, and we needed to know if you were aware—”
“Aware?” Hate barked out a laugh and appeared next to Peace, pulling the woman up by her hair as she continued to mumble to herself, completely out of it. I had no idea what he had done to the woman in the time they had been together, but she seemed broken on several levels.
“I was the one who came up with the idea,” he clipped and then tossed Peace to the ground. “Why do you think I am getting rid of all these possible obstacles? We can’t have Peace hanging around, now can we?”
“Please don’t!” Peace whimpered before letting out a shriek, a surge of power moving through the space.
“Stop.” Arabella’s voice was a hard, sharp demand that had all the force of the world behind it, her eyes flashing almost fully pink. I hadn’t realized I had let her go until she tried to stride forward. I grasped her hip, but she broke away from it.
“Stop what?” Hate grinned as Peace screeched again.
“Stop hurting her!” Arabella snarled.
Hate offered, his hands out, “Come make me stop—”
“Do not.” Saint blocked Arabella from moving forward, his face void of any of his normal humor. Unfortunately, it seemed that was exactly what Hate was looking for.
Something surged through Saint as he let out a roar of pain, turning around and colliding directly with Hate. When he landed flat on his face, groaning, Hate appeared in front of Arabella. I tried to move forward, fast enough to close the distance of a few feet, but Ashur was faster.
“No!” Arabella grasped the wolf as Hate surged the same level of power through him, a growl making the trees shake around us as Ashur caught Arabella against the ground, fully shifted into human form. Shit.
I moved forward and around them as Hate suddenly disappeared further back, offering all of us a goading smile.
Nightmares, ones that had seemed to be shielded before, began to enter from behind him as I realized that this had clearly been a trap, down to probably the seconds and hours we wasted at Ashur’s.
Saint struggled to stand as we all moved forward in front of Ashur and Arabella.
I wanted to make sure she was okay, but my terror side was demanding I not look away from the enemy, even for a moment.
“You didn’t think this would be a fair fight, did you?” Hate flashed a smile. “After all, you are hardly playing fair yourself.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I demanded.
Hate’s smile grew dark as his power saturated the air, his words chilling my skin in realization of how much danger Arabella was truly in.
“You have a sis meta with you… And I fully intend on taking her for myself.”