28. Finley #2
I watched as his hands shifted to claws and his teeth sharpened into points.
If either got a hold of me, I was fucked, but my faith in my abilities and knowing I was faster than him set me at ease.
Striking out with a hand, I blocked it with my blade, then used the other to swipe at his stomach.
The blade bit into his skin but not enough for it to do much damage.
He hissed, realizing they were silver and his eyes flashed with his wolf.
Before I knew what was happening, he burst out of his clothes and a giant gray wolf was standing on top of me.
A pendant of some sort was hanging from his neck and the power I felt off it told me it was the reason my magic had little effect. A witch had made him a talisman.
Grabbing for the necklace, I screamed as it burned into my flesh with a sensation I knew all too well when my hand touched it.
It was made of fucking iron. Yanking my hand back, I swung with my elbow and smashed it into his skull right below his eye, where the bone wasn’t as strong.
I heard the crack and he yelped, stumbling off me.
Using his daze, I plunged the knife into his side, knowing it wasn’t a killing blow, but it would really fucking hurt.
Blood gushed from the wound and I got my feet under me.
Just as I was going to land another strike, a body slammed into me, tossing me across the room, and crashing through a wall.
“Hello, daughter,” James spat. “So nice of you to join us tonight. Seems you might have some of me in you, after all, slaughtering all those people in one fell swoop without even batting an eye.”
I lay in the rubble of drywall, trying to get my lungs to start working again as I looked into the haunting eyes of the man who’d been trying to kill me since the day I was born.
“Aren’t I just a lucky girl,” I bit out as I slid my legs under me so I could kneel. “The poor orphan girl actually has two dads, one wanted to make her into a killer and the other just wanted to kill her himself. Lucky me, right?”
“Shut the fuck up, you demon spawn,” James snarled, spit hitting my face as he spoke.
Using my arm, I wiped the spit off and looked up at him. “What are you waiting for? Isn’t this what you wanted? To kill me, rule the Dark Ring to torture and murder even more of your kind? Out of the two of us, I’d be calling you the demon, not me.”
James pulled a small glass bottle from his jacket and tossed it at me.
I deflected it with my blade, but another slammed right into my chest. When it shattered on impact, the dust filled my nose and I realized it was iron pulverized into powder.
My mouth, throat, and lungs burned as the small particles scared my flesh, and I screamed.
“Look at you, so tough yet brought down by such an important invaluable puff of dust,” James taunted.
Rage flooded my body, and I shifted into my wolf, clothes bursting from my skin as my teeth sank into the flesh of his stomach.
James roared in pain as I thrashed my head back and forth, spilling his guts to the floor.
As a vampire, it would hurt like a son of a bitch, but it wouldn’t kill him.
He dropped to the floor and I pounced against ripping his throat out.
Again not a killing blow but fuck, it felt good to give him back some of the pain he’d put me through.
A pulse of magic slammed into me from him, but I was far stronger than he’d ever be no matter what devil he sold his soul to.
Shifting back to my human body, my own magic blocked his attack, and I shoved mine into him.
This time I put my full intention behind it and my magic was more than happy to do just as I asked, knowing it would inflict the maximum damage we could.
I watched as James’s eyes drained of the red coloring and returned to his natural brown color.
His fangs receded into his gums, and within moments, he was human once more, but none of the damage I’d done so far was healed.
“I’m going to leave you to die like this, your guts on the floor, unable to cry for help, and no magic to save you,” I rasped, my voice raw from the iron.
James gurgled his protest fear bright in his eyes before they started to dim at the blood that was pulsing out of his body.
“Oh and just because I know this will hurt you even more… mother didn’t lose her magic because of the elders.
Her magic left her because she wasn’t worthy of it because she never wanted to be queen.
I was never the one that killed her. She chose to leave you,” I divulged, watching as he gaped like a fish at me, trying to speak but couldn’t.
Standing, I looked at the man who at one point could have been a father to me but chose to turn against me instead.
“Is that true?” Eli asked, his eyes wide, the pain in them so vivid it made me flinch.
“I don’t know about the last part, but I do know the elders never did anything to cause her to lose her powers. The magic itself decides if you are worthy of it, and if it doesn’t agree, it abandons you,” I answered. “That last part I said because I knew it would hurt him the most.”
Eli looked down at James and nodded numbly before snapping out of it.
“Quickly, the battle in the other room is still going strong and I saw Gareth trying to sneak out.” He reached out to give me a hand.
When I was back on my feet, he handed me his jacket.
“Can you alter that with your magic, or can I do it for you?”
I motioned for him to go ahead, my throat burning like it was set on fire from the iron.
It seemed with how fine it was, it wasn’t going to continue to do more damage, but it fucking sucked and I would probably have damage from it permanently.
Soon with Eli’s help, I was in a simple black jumpsuit that I could easily move in.
Snatching up my knives, I smiled my thanks and took off into the other room.
It was chaos. Bodies strewed the floor, blood seeping from their bodies while vampires, werewolves, elves, and other supernaturals fought tooth and nail to survive.
I knew this fight was going to be brutal.
These people didn’t last sitting at the top without having the ability to back it up.
My people had more to lose than they did, and it showed with how viciously they fought.
Moving through the battle, I took out those I could along the way as I searched for Gareth. Then Edward appeared in front of me, his hands sparking with power. “You dare to challenge us,” he roared. “I’ll show you what it looks like to take on a warlock that’s five hundred years old.”
Before I had time to react, a hand was shoved through his chest, holding his heart.
“Child’s play for someone a thousand years old,” Derven hissed, dropping the heart and pulling his arm back the way it entered the body slumping to the floor.
My vampire looked me over before meeting my eyes. “You alright?”
“James is dead, but not before he left his mark,” I croaked, my voice harsh even to my ears.
Derven’s eyes flared with concern only to flick over my shoulder and pull me out of the way as a bobcat flew through the air, its head cocked at an angle that told me it was dead.
Derven grabbed my neck with both hands as if he could fix it with his touch alone, but I just saw sadness in his gaze.
“We will find a way to cure this.” He said, dropping his hands and leaving a bloody handprint behind if the wetness on my skin was any indication.
“Let’s end this. I need to find Gareth,” I explained.
Derven nodded, and we waded into battle, slashing, clawing, and ripping limb from limb.
I shoved out the back entrance and found Gareth and Zander locked in battle, both in wolf form.
Blood was covering Zander’s white fur, but I couldn’t tell if it was his or from his father.
Morwyn was getting yanked out of the car Tabitha was supposed to be driving her away in.
I found my friend on the ground bleeding from her head, but I could still see her chest rising and falling, albeit incredibly shallow.
Knowing I needed to ensure she was safe, I bolted over to the car and took out one of the brutes trying to take Morwyn as Derven took care of the other.
“Derven, get her the hell out of here,” I ordered as I settled Tabitha in the back seat.
I shoved enough power into her that she wasn’t going to die, but I didn’t want to drain myself being so far from my forest that held my backup magic.
“If you think I’m leaving you, you’ve lost your mind, sangele mue,” Derven answered.
I grabbed his arm and looked him dead in the eyes. “If anything happens to her before this is done, I’m dead. Saving her is saving me. Now get her the fuck out of here and to the safe house.”