Chapter 30 #2
A physical repulsion went through him. Sure, she was pretty enough. Didn’t matter. The thought of anyone else touching him, being with him, made him want to hurl. The girl batted her hazel eyes at him, waiting for a reply while his tail swished behind him.
“Magic,” he said gruffly.
“Righttt,” she said, moving to touch his arm before Felix sidestepped her, putting the punch table between them and walking away.
Still, the drunk girl’s irritating voice came through the trees. “I can’t believe he didn’t want me,” she whined.
“Don’t worry,” a familiar male voice said. The voice stopped him dead in his tracks. Felix melted into the shadows behind a tree and poked his head out. Julian fucking Ainsworth. Of course it was. “He’s fascinated by that magicless slut.”
A spark of rage lit in Felix’s chest as he gripped the cups, claws going right through them. The liquid stained his hands like the blood he was about to spill. Walk away, Felix. Walk the fuck away.
“I need to take a piss,” Julian announced.
Nope. This was just too perfect. Who was he to question the divine timing of the goddess?
Felix stalked the witch as he walked deeper into the forest next to the shimmering black lake, fog rolling off it as if it were steaming.
The sound of the party faded into the background the further they went.
The way Julian stumbled told him the idiot was drunk already.
He wouldn’t be able to kill him yet, not with everyone around to find him.
Maybe he could make him piss himself a little?
Not even the twigs snapped as Felix followed behind him like a shadow, the thrill of the hunt filling the void that had been left there for so long since he came here.
The only taste he had was his monster hunting Avery in the maze.
How he wished he could remember it. This was what he was made for.
What he lived for. At least he had, before Avery had come along.
Even the slightest picture of the little witch in his mind had him misstepping onto a branch that snapped harshly under his feet.
Luckily, Julian was far too drunk to notice as he leaned a single hand against a gnarling oak far from the party. With his other hand, Julian unzipped his pants, and the sound of a stream hitting a tree filled the air, steam rising in the cool night.
Felix moved up behind him, towering above the disgusting excuse for a man.
He reached out, claws unsheathed. So close to impaling them through his neck.
He had missed the sweet gurgling sound his victims made.
But where was the fun in that? He had barely gotten started.
All of his senses came alive, his monster sharpening his hunter senses.
The worst was the stink of Julian’s god-awful cologne and sour breath.
Felix slinked back behind the tree and sent out his shadows to pull his pants down to the ground.
Julian stumbled and caught himself against the tree. “The fuck?”
He tried to pull his pants up again to no avail. Felix’s shadows had pinned them. It was entirely immature, but Felix was only three in cat years, so it checked out. What is life without a little silly?
Without any sort of warning, Julian bent over and showed him where the sun didn’t shine. Ugh. Gross. Did that man even wash his ass? He was betting he didn’t. Time to go.
Crunching leaves made his head snap to the tree line. Quickly, he faded into the shadows as a familiar face walked out next to Julian as he zipped up his pants and jingled his belt.
What the fuck was she doing here?
Avery appeared through the trees, spotting Julian. “Oh shit, sorry,” she said, immediately averting her eyes. “I was looking for Felix.”
Ah, shit indeed, she followed the bond here.
Felix could have announced himself, but there was something that told him to hide in the shadows.
They had been practicing her magic for long enough now that she could defend herself.
She could handle Julian. He was sure of it.
Putting down a dog like him was the confidence booster that she needed.
His muscles coiled anyway, ready to move the second she needed him.
“It’s fine, nothing you haven’t seen before, sweetcakes.”
Bile rose in Felix’s throat as his lip curled, fangs lengthening. The nickname alone was enough to send a fresh hit of rage surging through his veins. Someone should recommend superglue as lip balm to him.
“Don’t call me that.” Avery’s voice came out flat. She seemed more bored with the conversation than anything.
“Why? Brings up too many memories?” Julian moved into her space, swaying slightly, but Avery didn’t even flinch. Such a feisty kitten. He liked this side of her.
“Traumatic ones, yes.”
“Oh, come on, don’t be like that, you used to like it when I—”
“When you what? Couldn’t find the clit?” Avery quipped.
Burnnnn. You got this, little witch. Once again, Felix was begging that she kick someone in the balls. Did he need to send her anger into her again? No. She needed to do this on her own.
“Did Felix come this way or not?”
Julian’s face instantly dropped, the snide smirk turning sour. “You’re wasting your time with him. He’s no one.”
These were the witches he knew. The ones that were obsessed with power and nothing else. Julian would grow up to be dangerous. Felix’s tail lashed behind him in the dirt.
Avery raised a brow. “Opposed to you being someone?”
Julian took another step toward her, and Avery backed herself up against the tree. Come on, little witch.
“I’m someone who can make you feel much better than he can.” Another step. “I know your body, sweetcakes. I know exactly what you need.”
Avery, unlike Felix, did actually gag, to which Felix had to cover his mouth to stop the laugh coming from his throat.
“You know how hard it makes me when you talk back.” Julian laughed, dipping his head before his arm shot out and gripped it around Avery, pushing her flush against the tree.
In a split second, he had his hand gripped around her breast, squeezing it and shoving his rat face into her neck while his other hand had made its way up Avery’s skirt.
“Fuck off, Julian!” Avery shouted. Shadows that weren’t his own wrapped around Julian’s body, but the witch was too drunk to notice.
Felix tore across the clearing. He grabbed the mop of Julian’s blonde hair and ripped him off his little witch.
Julian’s hands went up to his head as Felix gripped hard enough for him to feel the witch’s scalp trying to detach from his head.
He dragged him along the dirt as he kicked and screamed and smashed his face into the nearest tree.
It was fitting; the only wood he was getting tonight was a face full of bark.
When he pulled Julian back, blood trickled down his face. Felix almost wished the witch still had his cock out so it would experience the same pain. He stopped for a second as he saw Avery’s shadows climb up Julian’s legs and tighten around his balls. Great minds think alike.
The rage dripping from her features was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Let it out, little witch.
“What the fuck is this?” Julian screamed again. “My father is the chancellor! You and that bitch will be expelled!”
Felix’s smile went feral, eyes slitting. Finally, his shadows materialized, imbuing him with power as they slid along the ground like fog. Sweet recognition poured over the witch’s face as he realized the very thing in front of him was no student. It was a monster in a maid’s outfit.
“Shifter,” Julian breathed out.
Avery had sunk to her knees, watching the scene before her play out. Instinctively, Felix sent one of his shadows out behind him, covering her eyes so she couldn’t watch.
Before Julian could scream for help, Felix plunged his face into the bark again, again, and again, the lovely sound of crunching bones into bark like music to his ears.
Finally, he stopped making noises. Felix dropped the witch on the floor with a thud, his face more a squished peach than witch.
On the bright side, the tree had a new hollow for the owls to nest in.
“Is he dead?” Avery asked, her arms shaking a little.
“As a dodo,” Felix said. “Dodo’s deserved far better than him, though.”
Carefully Felix walked over to Avery, putting himself between her and the body so she didn’t see the carnage of what he had left behind. She didn’t flinch away from him like he expected. Instead, she leaned into him more, using his body as a means of safety.
“You didn’t have to kill him,” she said calmly, far more calm than anyone near a maimed body should be.
“I did,” Felix said simply. “There is no world where I would let anyone touch a woman like that and walk away. If I had time, I would have taken him finger by finger, limb by limb, stuffed his own cock in his face, and see how he liked it.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me for this.”
The thumping sounds of paws hitting the ground had him pushing Avery behind him before the griffin hit the ground.
It postured itself like it was going to charge, pawing at the ground.
Its claws were as big as his goddamn head.
Fuck. He had forgotten about Julian’s stupid familiar.
It let out an ear-piercing screech, loud enough to attract attention.
Felix hissed back at it, his ears flattening against his head.
“Wait!” Avery said. “Don’t attack it.”
Felix looked behind his shoulder at the little witch. “Why the fuck not?”
She stepped out from behind him. “Just trust me.”
Every part of him screamed to yank her back behind him. To protect her. How hypocritical that in mere hours, he would be leaving her anyway. He ground his teeth together. Was there another way?
Slowly, Avery approached the griffin. It ruffled its golden feathers, lowering its head as it watched her come closer. “Easy,” she said, her voice soft. The griffin dug its talons into the earth, making a snapping sound with its beak.
Felix couldn’t help the low growl that came out of him. One that the griffin matched.
“Stop,” Avery said, not turning around. “You’re scaring it.”
“It’s scaring me,” Felix muttered.
The griffin let out a low trilling sound. Avery took another step. Close enough now that Felix’s entire body tensed, ready to drag her back if the thing so much as twitched wrong.
And then Avery put her hand on its beak. Goddamit. Her and her bleeding heart. But, to his surprise, the griffin leaned into it. Letting out a soft keen, it sat on its paws and folded its wings into itself.
“It’s okay,” Avery whispered. “You can go home now.”
The griffin’s eyes fluttered shut, and its form began to shimmer. Gold light bled through its form like splintering cracks in a wall. It stood, wings spreading wide, and Avery stepped back.
The light grew brighter. Warm on Felix’s skin even from where he stood. The griffin looked at Avery one last time, something almost like gratitude in its eyes.
Then it was gone, light scattering into nothing.
Avery stood there, hand still raised. The forest settled back into silence.
“What the fuck just happened?” Felix said.
Turning, she smiled at him, not an inkling of sadness in her features. “It returned to the goddess. As all familiars do.”
“So…that was normal then?”
“Very.”
“Aren’t you sad?” Felix said, confused, considering she cried over an ant she accidentally stepped on last week.
She furrowed her brows like she didn’t understand the question.
“About Julian? No. About the familiar? Well, there’s nothing to be sad about. It’s returned to Cerituen’s plane to wait for another witch.”
He understood it now. It was kind of beautiful.
Shifters believed in something similar for their own kind.
Maybe everything he had been taught about the afterlife was true.
It was hard to doubt when a literal goddess had been fucking with him for the last week.
He should really stop cursing the gods so much.
Felix gently pulled her in for a hug. The gesture was as much for her as it was for him.
“What do we do with the body?” she mumbled into his chest as he stroked the outside of her hair.
“I don’t want you to worry about that,” he replied. While he held her, Felix’s shadows picked up the body and tossed it far into the lake. That was a later problem. By the time it washed ashore, he would be long gone.
Felix took Avery’s hand, guiding her back to the party as if nothing had happened.