Chapter 19 Lazriel #3
My senses screamed at me and he brought the blade down, intending to stab me in the back.
The thickness of my wolf fur combined with my increased durability in this form would prevent it from driving too deep, especially with his limited power in his weakened state.
But depending how he angled it, it could still compromise me.
Only three quarters done, I ripped my fangs from his throat, then swung my head and slammed it into him, snapping his wrist and bones in his fingers, making him drop the knife.
I pushed off him and spun, kicking out my hindlegs and sending him careening back into the wall. He slammed against it hard and staggered unsteadily.
“You fed from me,” he growled with disgust.
“A youngling. Damn, that’s a massive insult, huh?” Sylas spoke, leaning against the kitchen doorway, something held behind his back that I couldn’t make out from the angle.
“I’ll break every bone in your body, necromancer. I’ll make you hurt for days on end until you’re begging for death.”
Sylas snorted. “I’m fucking shaking.”
“You will kneel! You will suffer!” His eyes darkened and he pulled something from his inner blazer pocket.
I tensed, remembering the last time he’d done that and brought out holy water and fucking tortured me with it.
When it came into view, it wasn’t what I’d thought at all.
It was a simple panic button, blazing red.
I reached out with my senses as a maniacal laugh escaped him.
Incoming.
I didn’t get the chance to figure out the details before a rush of power rolled over me.
Gray lightning tore through the room.
I leapt toward Sylas to cover him.
But it struck me full force, making me howl, singing my fur, and I smacked into the floor mid-leap on my side.
“Supreme entrance,” I heard Victor say.
Footsteps sounded and I managed to turn as somebody strode into my eyeline.
A preppy shithead with deep red layered hair down to his shoulders, a sports jacket and designer jeans covering him.
I’d never seen him in person, but I knew who he was from his file photos.
Sorin Tenebris.
Velra’s older brother.
The fucker who’d disowned her.
Hunted her.
Tormented her.
And killed her.
Twice.
A growl escaped me.
He grinned and fired his gray lightning into me, making me shudder and convulse, unable to even roll to try to escape it.
“Keep him alive, sadistic one,” Victor said, staggering over. “Weaken him only. I want his true pain.”
“You’re taking the fun out of it, boss.”
“Don’t fret. There is much more to come.
” Victor knelt down beside me and Sorin briefly broke his magical assault for him.
Victor roared and swiped his talons across my face, tearing open my snout, making me hiss.
He leaned in and stroked the fur on my head.
“I don’t believe a wolf can hold their form long when they are in agony.
You are using strength you don’t currently possess to maintain it.
Interesting. Could it possibly be because I am deeper in your head than you’ve let on?
That you are so terrified to allow me to see you stripped naked, to lay eyes all over that pretty body of yours, that you are causing yourself undue damage as a result? ”
A shudder rolled through me before I could stop it.
He laughed, then had me whimpering as he licked the wound in my snout.
“Delicious. Just like your fear and the fact that I most definitely do affect you.” He pushed back to his feet.
“Soon.” He stilled, then frowned deeply.
“Unfortunately, we are about to be interrupted far sooner than I intended.” He winked at me.
“No worries. I will return.” He took another step back, then gestured at Sorin to continue, telling him, “We are out of time. Knock him out. I’ll do the same to the necromancer. ”
But before Sorin could even manage to call a flicker of his power again, Sylas’ voice thundered from the kitchen, storming into the room at the same time.
“Accende!” he was bellowing, his eyes fucking black as hell, as two spinning silver orbs levitated in front of him.
Ignite? That was the Latin translation.
I felt the magic this time.
Some hefty fucking magic as the silver orbs flamed with red power.
Sorin jolted and took an uneasy step back, calling his power and sweeping a shielding wall in front of him and Victor.
Sylas’ eyes narrowed fiercely.
And then he ground out, “Ad maximum robur.”
To maximum strength.
In the next second, he thrust his hands forward, the movement, even though he couldn’t technically wield magic from within, making the orbs shoot toward Victor and Sorin in unison.
In the chaos, Sylas skidded to me, smashed what looked like a gold deformed ancient coin into the ground, which then had a crimson shield shooting up around us, sealing us both within.
Just in time, because in the next split second, the orbs exploded.
Exploded was an understatement.
Red energy ripped into our enemies and the entire living room, blowing out the ceiling, the walls and windows, and sending them hurtling away into the forest out front. It knocked both of them out upon impact.
I shifted back and choked at the sight of the blown out house. Only the bedroom had survived the blast, along with the kitchen, because the shield Sylas had erected was right in front of it.
Sylas hurriedly shrugged off his hooded leather coat and draped it over my naked body as I sat up wincing.
“Are you all right?” he asked, looking me over.
“I’ll heal.” I swallowed hard, trying to focus past what had just happened with Victor… touching me. “Was that your magic? Stored magic in those devices?”
“Yes. For a rainy day.”
“Tonight definitely qualified as a downpour.” I looked between him and the shield. “You can’t bring it down, can you?”
“No. I’m not in command. There’s no magic currently accessible within me. It’s the device’s will and it’s set to hold for a couple of hours.”
“Shit. How about against Immortal might?”
“Cassius will be able to breach it. With some effort.”
Purple and white magic lit up the area.
Moments later, Velra and Cassius materialized.
The first thing they noticed was us huddled under the shield in the torn away house.
And then a tremble went through Velra when she laid eyes on her unconscious brother, just a few feet from Victor.
“Hades,” Cassius uttered.
“Holy shit,” Velra followed, before hesitating over Sorin, then rushing over to us. “Oh my God, are you okay?” she asked frantically, her hands just inches from touching the shield and hurting herself.
“Careful,” I warned.
“We’re fine,” Sylas assured her.
Cassius frowned as he strode over, before his gaze snapped to Sylas. “Your power is all over the immediate area. Extremely potent.”
“Specus Relics,” Sylas explained.
Cassius looked majorly impressed. His lips lifted, then he pressed his hand to the shielding dome, his white power emanating.
His eyes flicked to Sylas again as he grunted.
“Sylas,” he uttered in a tone that was both reprimanding and full of concern.
“What is it?” Velra asked, before I could summon the words to ask the same.
“I am just not in favor of Sylas having stored such potent magic in these devices when he was struggling so severely prior to the binding. It could have eased that for him,” Cassius responded.
He grunted again, then proceeded to try to breach through the shield.
It was taking far too much effort. There had to be more to it than his answer.
But there was no time to think more on it, as now she’d made sure we were okay, Velra spun around, then stormed through the ruins of the house toward Sorin in the distance.
Cassius cursed, watching her over his shoulder, while he also tried to free us.
Victor was still down, but I jolted as I saw his fingers twitch.
Then there was also something else.
A rush of power.
Coming our way.
Specifically, Velra’s way out in the forest.
“Cassius!” I cried. “Something’s coming.”
The shield flickered wildly. “I know. I feel it.” He called out to Velra over his shoulder. “Stay your hand, Velra! Reinforcements are coming!”
I saw her tense, obviously hearing him, but she didn’t break her stride.
Oh no.
“Velra!”
The shield rippled, then shattered all around us, tiny little red fragments raining down all over.
Cassius touched my hand, his white power flaming briefly, and then I found myself back in my black tank and jeans from earlier, and Sylas with his hooded coat that had been covering me back on as well.
“Get him clear,” he told me, briefly breathing me in, then brushing his lips over my cheek in such a tender way that it sent a comforting warmth through me.
He gave me a knowing look, and I realized I was trembling from what Victor had done and Cassius had read me.
He’d really come a long way with once being emotionally stunted.
Now he was… he was incredible. Sylas winked at me, obviously seeing the awe in my eyes.
Then Cassius turned, calling his magic to either palm, heading toward Velra, even as I felt the rush of power drawing closer and closer.
I started as I sensed Victor again, his pulse picking up.
The fucker was awake, but not opening his eyes or showing it.
He was waiting.
“I can’t go,” I told Sylas. “Victor’s awake. Despite Cassius’ Immortal power, Victor’s speed could compromise him.”
Before he could get a word out, Victor’s eyes snapped open, and the psychotic fuck looked right at me, his lip curling.
With a blur of speed, he reached into his inside blazer pocket—I hated that fucking thing—and tossed something at Sorin that exploded with gray power. I heard him release a heavy breath, indicating he was still so weakened that those movements had cost him energy he currently didn’t have.
The thing he’d tossed was some kind of power boost, and in the next second, Sorin jolted awake and shot to his feet—
Just as Velra reached him.
She gasped and came to a jarring stop.