Chapter 87
Chapter Eighty-Seven
SEBASTIAN
I have never seen anything like it.
I knew she would be powerful when all the memories returned to her and her soul settled as it always should’ve been inside her. All the ancient texts I’ve read in my pursuit to find her and awaken her true nature pointed out that the world trembled at her feet when she was displeased. But this …
Whatever this was, it was never mentioned anywhere.
I knew she had always been fair and just, showing compassion to everyone, including those who didn’t deserve it. Practically the polar opposite from what I am witnessing at the moment.
April does not need help from any of us, the three deadly male predators in the small open space is feeling her wrath.
Her small form moves as if gravity has no hold on her, as if she exists in a time and space where none of us are allowed.
The mages stand no chance. Not even I can track her as she spins, darts, and twists around them, elegant and precise, a controlled anger she hones into a bloodthirsty killing machine.
Razor sharp claws slice through skin with swipes of her hands, which look for all the world as if she’s caressing them.
Gashes open all over the bodies of the mages, deep enough to make them bleed, but not deep enough to kill them.
April is not trying to end their lives. No.
She is making them suffer, and she is doing all that with a smile on her face that turns the blood in my veins to ice.
The shortest of the mages manages to pull himself away from the other two, and his hands start moving in front of him as he calls on the magic to retaliate.
Before he has time to release the fire building in his palms, I’m standing behind him, my hand wrapping around his neck.
The crunch of his neck breaking joins the screams and shrill bellows coming from the other two, and everything stops as if I pressed pause.
April’s head snaps in my direction, and she frowns at me, her kissable lips pouting.
“You are such a killjoy, Sebastian. Leave my toys alone,” she chastens me like a spoiled youngling.
Marcus chokes, then coughs to cover his slip up where he is standing as sentinel to protect Andrei, who is still recovering on the floor.
While my love takes the time to reprimand me for taking away her fun, the other two mages try to slip away.
They both make it a couple of steps to the entrance when April descends on them, yanking them both back by the collars of their shirts.
“Where do you think you are going?” Her tone is joyful, and it does not belong in this space where hurt and torment hang heavy over my shoulders, and where the stench is brain numbing. “The party is not over yet.”
“We should go, Tesoro,” I try again but my words fall on deaf ears.
As things stand, I am lost as to what to do. Perhaps if Eshe was here she would know how to stop this insanity, albeit no such luck at the moment. As if summoned, the ancient vampire fills the entrance, one hand wrapped over her cocked hip.
“Eshe.” The relief in my voice is palpable, and April arches an eyebrow my way.
I can’t help the twitch at the corners of my mouth.
I might not like what’s becoming of her, but there is no denying how glorious she is, all primal and bloodthirsty.
My cock hardens, pressing against the zipper of my pants, and the knowing smile on April’s face just fans the flames licking at my loins.
Tonight is a night to test my own sanity when I see the horror flicker across Eshe’s penetrating gaze, though she covers it quickly.
All the bravado drains from her posture, and she steps toward April like she’s approaching a dangerous animal.
It irks me. Yes, my mate is rage-filled and she wants nothing more than to inflict upon them what they have done to one of our own.
But she is not a monster, and I will personally kill Eshe if she makes her feel that way.
“What are you doing?” I murmur low at the ancient vampire, warning clear in my tone.
“April?” Ignoring me as if I haven’t spoken, she inches closer. “What are we still doing here, friend?”
To my surprise, the two mages are quiet, their wide, red-rimmed eyes darting to each of us while they try to blend in with the walls.
My nose wrinkles when one of them wets himself, his pants darkening around his groin and thighs from the urine.
It doesn’t escape April’s notice as she snarls at him.
“We are showing them the same kindness they showed Andrei.” The mage shrinks back, his body visibly shaking, and in disgust, she turns away from him. “Why? What did you think I was doing?”
Marcus has to drag Andrei to the side as fast as he can when April lifts one of the mages and chucks him at the broken wall like he is a rag doll. Bones crunch and break, but he is still alive when he drops to the ground writhing and screaming.
“Now, where were we?” Crouching low, she brings herself face to face with the other one—the one who wet himself. “You were about to tell me where the heart of your operations was, right?”
Blanching, the bloodied mage shakes his head vehemently but doesn’t say a word.
“Where can I find the rest of you vermin? Speak or I’ll make you.” The glow of her eyes cast shadows over the mage’s face while we stand frozen. Bewildered, I look to Marcus and Eshe, but both seem as lost as I am. “Where?” Her shout makes him jerk off the ground.
“Vi … si … sion …” he mumbles, spittle flying and dribbling down his split lip.
“I can’t hear you. Use your big-boy words now. I know you can do it,” she mocks him, but the mage is mad from fear and wets himself again.
“Vision …” He clears his throat twice before swallowing whatever was preventing him from answering her in the first place. “The old Leimert Theatre. Please …”
“See?” She smiles at him, and if not for knowing her so well,, I will think she is about to stand up and walk away. “That wasn’t hard now, was it?”
“Please kill me,” the mage begs desperately.
“Oh, you will die, don’t you worry about that.” April pats him on the cheek with harsh slaps that snap his head to the side.
Then she stares at her hand like it’s a foreign object she’s never seen before. Marcus and I look at each other.
“When did I become so strong?” she asks softly to no one in particular. “I swear I just tapped him.”
In his desperation to die, the mage fills his palm with fire magic and dumps it in April’s face, mushing the flames there.
My body jerks to kill the fucker, but she only rocks back on her heels before brushing his hand away like it’s a pesky fly.
Blisters and wrinkled, burnt flesh on her face mend before my eyes as she gazes at him like she’s looking at a strange specimen.
“You and Sebastian could’ve gotten along wonderfully if you didn’t need to die,” she tells him, shaking a finger at his horror-filled face. “Both of you are trying to kill my joy.”
The incredulousness twisting my features is wasted. All of our attention is on April like we’ve never seen her before. Tired of chatting with him, she stands on her feet, dragging him up with her.
And the screams start yet again.
We stand numbly, all of us frozen in place while she toys with both mages for what feels like hours.
No amount of coercing, pleading, or ordering can get her away from brandishing the punishment she sees fit to the two magic users.
I have no doubt we will be spending days in this smelly hole in the ground, but finally Andrei speaks.
“April, please.” His whisper stops her in her tracks, and she tears her fangs out of the mages throat, ripping it off and leaving his head hanging just by a small piece of skin. “I need help to walk, please.”
She watches him for a long moment, and slowly the bright glow of her eyes dims until it disappears completely.
She uncurls her fingers twisted in the mage’s tattered shirt, dropping him and rushing to Andrei.
It’s unbelievable the transformation from a creature of nightmares ripping human flesh like paper to the gentle way she picks him up to place him on his feet.
Then she looks around in confusion as if she can’t remember who painted the walls and floors with blood and pieces of flesh.
When her gaze lands on the only living mage—albeit broken beyond repair—she snaps her eyes to me. Her mouth opens and closes a few times before she clears her throat, wiping the blood dribbling down her chin with the back of her hand.
“Kill him.” Her tone is flat and hollow, wrenching my heart out of my chest.
With a sharp nod, I take two steps to the heap of a mage and snap his neck with a flick of my wrists. Ducking her head and not making eye contact with anyone, she guides Andrei out of the macabre space, the silence she leaves behind deafening me.
Eshe, Marcus, and I stare at each other, that one look weighing more than anything.
“Fuck me,” Marcus mouths, but he doesn’t dare say anything out loud.
We follow April home in silence all the way across the city, our heads bent and all of us lost in thought, reminding me of a funeral procession.