CHAPTER 39 #2
He looked around, trying to find an exit, but turned to Zeke when it dawned on him that he was no longer in the world of the living. “Where are we?”
Pride swelled in Mark’s heart as the memory of himself gathered enough strength to fight back. Zeke took a breath, summoned his newfound power, and reached for Mark again, but Mark jumped back. “Stop doing that. How are you doing that?”
Zeke roared, his frustration now almost tangible. His eyes flashed amber, the demons closing in on Mark.
Panic was palpable in the way Mark stepped further away from him, gathered his strength, and summoned his wolf with a roar that matched Zeke’s in cadence and intensity.
The Alpha, as formidable as he was, stepped back when Mark let his claws through.
He held up his hands in a surrender Mark didn’t believe for a second.
“OK. I’m sorry.” His crooked smile, once a source of joy for Mark, now just gave rise to suspicion.
He kept his hands raised. “How about this? Hear me out, and if you don’t like what I have to say, I’ll let you go back to your vampire.”
He shook his head. “Really, my love? Of all I thought would replace me…”
Mark was ready to beg his former self not to believe anything Zeke said, but he didn’t need to. The warrior in Mark remained primed for a fight. It was clear even he had come to a realization that had plagued Mark from the moment he’d woken from this nightmare. It was possible he’d never known Zeke.
Pride filled his chest as he watched Mark take a step back from this person they’d both never known, remaining on guard, but curiosity overriding fear. “You were in on it? That day the witch attacked me?”
The answer had been apparent long ago, but Zeke’s confirming nod still stung. “I tried to tell you, but I feared you’d go to your brother and everything I worked for would be lost.”
Mark frowned, his guard still up. “What are you talking about?”
“Your brother’s incompetence knows no bounds.” He paced, and the demons moved with him, like they were a part of him. “He nearly sacrificed all of us during the war. Now we couldn’t hope to match vampires in numbers, and you know another war is inevitable, right?”
“Dean didn’t start the war, and he got us out of…”
Zeke scoffed, his contempt for the Prime Alpha shining through. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see the things I saw.” He shook his head. “I can do so much better and…” He reached for Mark’s arm, and Mark winced at the contact. “…I need you by my side.”
“You can’t possibly expect me to betray my brother…”
Zeke sighed, but even from his vantage point Mark could see how disingenuous he was. “I thought I’d have more time to show you how wrong your brother is for us. Your power can save us…”
Mark took a step back, and the demons growled in threat. “You’re her puppet.”
The concern Zeke was working too hard to portray dissolved into anger, and his demons followed his lead, unleashing a threatening growl.
Mark cried out and again fell to his knees as Zeke used his newfound ability to crawl into his mind.
Mark’s wolf whined its protest, and Zeke relented.
“You can do this of your own free will or under my total control.”
“Dean will not let you do this.” The truth, the conviction behind the tiny whisper was unmistakable, and again, perhaps Zeke lost control, or Mark fought back, but his Alpha influence seemed to falter.
He growled. “They can’t save you here. No one can. The only way out is through.” He smiled, and for the first time Mark sensed the real Zeke behind the fa?ade. He wanted power and was willing to do anything to get it.
The Mark on his knees sighed as Zeke’s gradual loss of control set in and pushed to his feet. “How can you control me?”
“The witch. She granted me Dean’s power.”
“How?” Mark was stalling, something Zeke didn’t seem to catch or was too conceited to realize.
Zeke waved a hand over the demons who remained silent, waiting, watching. “Them. They hold more power than anything I’ve ever known. With them she can do anything.” He reached for Mark again, and this time, Mark held in his revulsion. “She can give us the world.”
“If she is so powerful, why does she need me?”
Zeke’s smile did not bode well for them. “You give her more.” He pointed at the darkness-cloaked eyes again. “They are limited, depleting by the second. Your power will be infinite.”
Mark gasped, unsure how the memory of himself could remain so calm. Given everything he could see and sense in this dead world, it was in their best interests to keep that much power from Ethel’s grasp.
Mark feigned acquiescence and took a small step closer to Zeke. “What if I say no?”
“It’s my job to make sure you don’t.”
Mark smiled, and the memory’s potency increased as it coalesced into a reality the disembodied Mark remembered.
His claws pushed out of his nailbeds in a slow, subdued transformation that his grandfather had encouraged him to practice.
Distracted by his own power trip, Zeke failed to see Mark’s intent until the claws were in his neck.
He gasped, tried to step back, but the surprise attack had landed with considerable conviction and his frustrated growl drowned in the gurgle of his own blood.
Mark held him in place by the wound that continued to bleed, unconcerned by the demons who didn’t seem able to help their master. “Get out of my head.” His voice was low, but even in this form, Mark was shaken by the conviction, the violent intent behind it.
Zeke hesitated. Mark roared and sank the claws of his other hand into the Alpha’s chest.
It was clear now that the demons couldn’t or wouldn’t step in to help.
Had they just been a show of force? Still, it was magnificent to behold Mark’s courage in the moment.
He seemed willing to fight them all if he needed to.
He sighed, but maintained his hold on the Alpha. “Now get me out of here!” The command was explicit. Zeke started to shake his head. “I don’t want to kill you either. Don’t make me.”
Zeke whispered the same gargled chant; the demons howled in what could only be pain, and Mark’s body jerked forward. He tore his claws from Zeke as he was pushed further into the darkness. The scene morphed into nothing but total blackness, uncontainable in its intensity, terrifying in its silence.
It was clear he was no longer in that dead place.
The Underworld? A hum that turned into a rhythmic call and then a scorching scream somehow joined the eerie silence.
The memory of himself fell to his knees, the word “No” on his lips, tearing a path through the darkness to reveal a flash of light that pulled him out of the dreadful assault on his senses.
His own form jerked forward, and he was drawn back to the front lawn.
He took stock of his body, in human form.
When had he transformed back? He glanced at Caster to see the same confused relief he felt, but when he turned to Riley, ready to seek an explanation, the shocked fear on Riley’s face left his mind blank.