Chapter 23 Teddy #3
An explosion of pain and fire coursed through his veins. Someone was screaming. A lot of people were screaming.
And through the final breaths he could pull into his lungs, he saw Wren pull the computer guy up by the hair on top of his head and push his face closer to a bloody muzzle before his vision blacked out and he sank into the fire.
Wren
Wren held the man’s head to the liger’s mouth with force.
“Turn it off,” he growled at him, feeling mad with rage and fear, Blu screeching in agitation at Wren’s anger and fear.
“I-I…”
“TURN IT OFF!” Wren screamed at him, and the liger echoed his anger, roaring in the man’s face and spraying it with the remnants of blood.
“Kellan!” the man cried out, as if he would help him.
“An unfortunate circumstance,” Kellan said, scanning the room for a game plan as he kept close to Teddy, his only leverage.
“If you release Teddy now, I’m sure the authorities and Nexus will be slightly more lenient on you,” Hart said.
“Fuck that,” Ash growled, holding up Betty. “If he doesn’t let go of him, I’ll smoke his ass.”
“Get in line,” Heir growled, hand tight on his axe.
“I need to complete my research,” Kellan said, voice thready and unhinged. His hair had fallen from its perfect coif and his skirt was askew. “So excuse me, won’t you?”
He reached over and smacked a button, causing all the cages to unlock at once.
Everyone backed off as venomous creatures poured out, taking their freedom while they could. Kellan held up his ring and Wren gasped, remembering it from the warehouse. The way Blu had come to him as if he were under his control.
He did it again now, every creature turning to face them instead of Kellan.
“Uhh…Wren?” Black said dubiously.
Wren let go of the man, shoving him to the floor and diving for a syringe that was lying next to an overturned metal cart.
“STOP HIM!” Kellan yelled, but before the man could react Blu had fluttered in front of his eyes, sharp little talons scratching the skin.
Wren didn’t think twice before he jabbed the needle into his thigh, feeling the now-familiar sensation of cold entering him, then heat sparking. Magic rushed in his blood, feeling like it was trying to break through his skin to escape the confines of his body.
When he opened his eyes, he could see the glow from his cursemark spilling out and lighting up the room. He met Kellan’s gaze, sensing slight fear.
“I’ll kill him,” Kellan said.
Wren stepped forward, all the creatures pausing in their march toward Wren’s family and slowly making space for him.
Kellan twisted his ring again, holding it out like that would help against Wren’s innate abilities.
Every animal in the room turned to face him, and Kellan abandoned his hold on Teddy and backed up.
“How does it feel to be stalked?” Wren sneered, his army surrounding him.
Spiders and scorpions and snakes crawled and slithered up his legs to cover every inch of him, moths settling on his shoulders, a huge Komodo dragon at his feet.
Blu perched on top of his head, wings sharp against his sides. “How does it feel to be cornered?”
The liger approached from the other side, padding slowly and boxing Kellan into a corner.
“Get back, you filthy things,” Kellan shouted at them. “I created you!”
He reached into his pocket to grab some components, trying to use magic that fizzled out with little to no effect.
He’d really never had any power.
Wren grabbed a stray syringe from the table and threw it at his feet. “Go ahead. Take it,” he taunted with all his teeth bared.
Kellan reached for it, then screamed as a spider landed on top of it, fangs and arms outstretched toward him. He scrambled back just as a bat swooped down, delivering a bite on his neck. A moth followed.
He screamed and tried to bat them away, but more kept coming.
“Please!” He curled his fingers into claws, attacking his own face and neck in a desperate attempt to save his own life. He was scratching blindly, breaking skin and drawing blood. “PLEASE!”
Wren watched.
He was sick to his stomach, but a vindication he never thought he’d feel washed over him.
This wasn’t just for himself. Or Teddy. This was for every person or animal that had ever been hurt in the name of the institution that trained them.
This was for every accusation swept under the rug, and every bruise hidden under the clothes.
This was justice. And he wasn’t sorry he was the one delivering it.
A cobra as thick as Wren’s thigh slid over and wound around Kellan’s legs, smaller taipans going for his arms. Kellan tried to brush them off but was soon overwhelmed as more and more of them covered him until there was no visible skin left.
Those fighting hands wilted under the assault, swallowed by crawling legs and writhing bodies seeking revenge.
Wren watched.
Spiders and scorpions found the gaps, entering his ears and nose and mouth to silence his screams. The pleading stopped.
Drowned out by wet coughs and wheezing breaths before that too quieted.
Stings found ways under the skin. Blistering it.
Turning it into one pulsing wound. As if on cue, all of the animals struck, pouring venom of his own making into him.
He was consumed, overpowered and conquered.
He writhed on the floor, magic that he couldn’t contain saturating the air.
Magic he wasn’t entitled to. Magic that didn’t belong to him that he so cruelly wanted to steal.
Wren bid the creatures to move away, leaving Kellan arching and spasming, his eyes bulging.
And he watched.
Watched as his chest rose and fell. Arrhythmic. Labored. Watched as his lips cracked and bled, his face lost color and the fingers next to his hips flexed as if trying to hold on to the life seeping out of him.
Wren walked closer, swallowing against the acid in his throat as he met those bloodshot eyes. Unfocused and hazy.
“P….pl…” Kellan tried, widening his eyes at Wren, desperate.
The part of Wren that respected life above most things faltered.
But nature wasn’t as kind.
She was righteous.
The liger roared, launching himself through the air and landing with those gigantic front paws directly onto Kellan’s heaving chest. A sickening crack reverberated through the air as the liger delivered the final blow with a swipe of one giant paw to his neck.
Blood sprayed, pooling under his head as he twitched.
His fingers flexed once more before stiffening in pain to be locked like that forever.
His head fell at an unnatural angle and Wren stepped in his line of vision. He wouldn’t allow for Teddy to be the last thing he saw.
No.
He got to die knowing he had lost.
Kellan sputtered one last time before a final breath rushed out of him, the light gone from his eyes.
He’d died with all the magic he’d ever coveted.
Wren raced to Teddy’s side, finding the others already trying to figure out the machine. Wren cupped his lolling head between his hands, searching for a pulse. “Teddy,” he whispered. “Teddy, please.”
It was there, but faint.
“Turn it off,” Wren called.
Avery jumped to look at the machine, a worried frown creasing his forehead. “I don’t know how to do it without hurting him more,” he said finally.
Wren felt a surge of the venom inside him and he cried out, trying desperately to control it. The animals around them grew agitated.
“Woah!” Ash said. “Uh, Wren?”
“Saint,” Wren called and Saint materialized at his side instantly, crouching and leaning in to hear him. “I can’t hold them much longer. You’ll have to…”
“On it,” Saint said without a moment of hesitation.
He jumped up, stood with his back to a wall, and started pulling things out of his pockets.
Wren couldn’t focus, he couldn’t pay attention to anything but Teddy’s too-softly beating heart beneath his palm and the magic pulsing inside of him, unnatural and exhausting as he used it to keep the animals still while Saint broke their curses and the rest of the guys put them carefully into cages, one by one.
Blu followed each one to their cage, gently chirping at them as if comforting them. Because he knew what it felt like.
“Gently,” he whispered to Black when he gripped a snake lying still next to Wren’s leg, and Black nodded, transferring the little one into a terrarium.
He felt some measure of relief.
He’d keep them all safe. He’d saved them all.
The floor got emptier with each passing minute. The flurry of voices around him grew, and Wren looked up to realize police were there. Nexus was there. PUMA was there, milling about as if they finally cared about the lives of the expendables.
People began rifling through drawers and boxes and files.
Trace put the last cursed animal into a cage and Saint finally told Wren he could let go. He breathed out, the last of the magic still burning through him, but he could let it run wild now. He wasn’t sure what it would do to him, but he also wasn’t sure it mattered anymore.
People took photos and taped things off. They swabbed and asked questions Wren couldn’t have answered even if he’d had the strength to. Teddy was still out and he was the one who knew the most.
Wren tuned out the questions and the mayhem around him to focus on Teddy. He didn’t know how to unhook the machine. Didn’t know if he was even allowed to. So he held him close and kissed his closed eyelids, counting each breath and fearing it would be the last.
“Show us,” someone said, and Wren looked up again to see the man from the computer being held by a Nexus instructor and a PUMA officer under each arm.
“I t-turned it off,” the man stammered. “You can j-just take it off. I’m sorry. I didn’t know… I didn’t think…”
“That much is obvious,” the PUMA officer said, then he dragged the man away, leaving the Nexus instructor to crouch next to Wren and reach for Teddy.
Wren jerked away, slapping his hand and refusing to let him touch Teddy.
“Hey,” the man said. “I’m just trying to help.”