Chapter 41 Dimitri #2
I listened to the stillness, to the thin threads of breath from not only my squad but also the mountain. Even beneath my feet, a heart seemed to stall beneath us.
It had gone too quiet.
The thought had barely formed in my brain when the ground shuddered like a beast waking, and the mountain struck.
Wind howled with teeth, shattering the wards in one simple wisp. I didn’t even know how that was possible.
“Wake up!” I shouted to my squad.
Rune was on her feet, pulling Slater and Zuko up with her.
Vines erupted from the soil, and the night split open from every direction at once.
Rune moved first, and I noticed that was becoming a pattern. She spun low with the dagger made of bone and glass she had enchanted in Essence Craft in her hand, flipping over a lash of several vines that split the ground open where she had been.
She twisted midair, landed on her palms, and kicked a thick root coming at her clean in half. She had agent-born precision and intense predator-like grace.
It made sense, knowing who her parents were.
My speed and strength were my main advantages as I avoided the vines and roots. One thing I loved most about being a vampire was the speed.
“Shit!” Slater roared, demon form cracking into place as his chaos magic pulsed off him.
His black snake writhed into existence. It struck fast, wrapping around and crushing vines, biting deep into wood that bled sap like blood.
Koa’s body ignited, feathers made of flames ripping through skin as his phoenix form took hold. He rose along with a column of fire, wings scorching the treetops as he flew around the clearing, dodging the sentient trees.
Roots whipped toward him, but he burned them away with one sweep.
The sound of the trees’ screams echoed horribly.
Bark peeled like flesh.
The night smelled of decaying ash.
Aura didn’t move. She curled inward from where she’d been sleeping, into the fetal position. Her imp-magic sparked out like static across her skin. Little bolts skittered into the soil, deterring anything that reached her.
Her blue eyes were wide and unfocused, as if she were somewhere else entirely.
Surprisingly, her imp magic was enough to repel the magic going haywire around her.
Hawk wasn’t so lucky. A root slammed him in the chest, crushing him against the ground. He choked on blood. Another vine snapped across his throat and yanked him sideways.
His scream cut off, then his body went limp, dragged into the dark.
“Simulation death: Hawk Moonfang.” rang out in a haunting screech just as the magic onslaught increased.
Rune cursed as she hacked up another vine with her blade.
Zuko split his human shell apart. Scales shimmered, sunset-orange bleeding into crimson and yellow as he grew. His serpentine jaws snapped at the earth itself. He tore into the ground, ripping vines free, venom slinging like molten lava.
The ground hissed as if it were in pain everywhere his venom landed.
Raze was already beside him, albino scales glinting pale in the firelight.
Two basilisk forms, mirrored in similar frenzy. They struck as if trying to tear the mountain’s flesh apart.
Then, a wolf came bolting out of the tree-line.
Lorian roared as he shifted into his grizzly bear shape, claws moving at the wolf that padded from the trees. It was much worse than any wolf I’d ever seen.
The wolf was massive. Its eyes burned with the mountain’s eerie glow. They collided with teeth and claws, but I couldn’t focus on their fight when I had one of my own.
My fist cracked through the large root that swung my way, and I barely dodged another.
Above us, Eleanor was in the form of a bird, bright feathers scattering. She flew higher, scanning, and searching for a solution to this.
A gust of wind clipped her from below. She spun, shrieked, and fell, vanishing into the dark.
The same wind that knocked her down was sharper than a blade. It clawed into me, slicing clear through my shoulder and bone. My arm hung by a tendon.
My knees hit the dirt. Pain flared white-hot, blood gushing down my arm in spurts as my magic amped up and started to heal the massive injury.
Rune grabbed my collar, yanking me away just before a sharp root speared the ground where I’d been not even a second ago.
“Focus, Dimitri!” she hissed, grabbing my arm and shoving it back into my shoulder.
Agony seized me.
Healing magic warmed as it buzzed quickly, healing faster.
My fangs dropped as I sniffed. There was blood in the air. My blood. Her blood. The smell of sap and smoke did nothing to drown her midnight orchid scent out.
It was too much.
My gums ached.
“I’m good now,” I gasped as my arm reattached and sealed shut.
“Thank Fates. I need you!” She pulled me to my feet.
The clearing convulsed.
A pulse emanated from the ground, and screams pulled from the trees. An eruption of force detonated beneath us as the mountain literally hurled us down.
The nine of us left crashed into a ravine, rocks skinning our flesh as we hit.
Dirt rained down from above, but silence followed.
Eerie silence, except for the groan of the dying wolf that followed the sound of Lorian’s jaws snapping shut around its throat.
We staggered to our feet, one by one.
It was still dark, but we had no campfire now. No protection wards. Just the ravine’s walls pressing close.
This was the reason Hunting had sent us on this simulated mission, so we could stay alive.
We’d already lost Hawk with that attack.
“We need to follow the ravine,” Lorian growled, tense.
“Good.” I nodded.
“Great plan,” Rune agreed. “We need to find Eleanor.”
“The simulator didn’t announce her death,” Aura murmured softly.
“She’ll find us,” Lorian said, mostly to himself.
My magical reserves had dropped low. I dragged behind. My shoulder’s healing had taken a lot of magical energy, not to mention the speed and strength I’d exerted during the fight.
Hunger throbbed in my veins and fangs.
Rune noticed.
She looked back and stopped walking with the group. Her golden eyes flicked down to my mouth, then back up to mine. “You’re struggling,” she whispered, too quiet for the others to hear as they moved on ahead of us.
She wasn’t wrong.
I sucked in a ragged breath, staggering a few steps forward until I was right in front of her—drowning in her scent.
“You’re usually better than this, overachiever,” she teased.
I didn’t answer.
I couldn’t.
My throat was too fucking tight. Not with just hunger, either.
She looked over her shoulder briefly, and the vein in her neck called to me.
My restraint snapped.
I moved.
It wasn’t an active thought. It was instinctual.
Need.
I pushed her back against the ravine’s rock wall before I knew I’d decided that I would. My hand had her wrists pinned above her head as I caged her in.
Our foreheads pressed together. We were close enough that I could feel the pulse in her jaw.
“Don’t move,” I growled, not caring if any of our squad had noticed us or not.
“You’re starving,” she said calmly. Like she understood.
“You smell like midnight orchid and sweet blood,” I rasped. “And you keep walking around like you don’t know what you do to me.”
Venom beaded on her fangs, bright green. “I do,” she whispered. “But you haven’t lost control yet. So don’t now.”
“What the fuck, Dimitri?” Zuko’s voice snapped from somewhere left of us.
“Hold off,” Rune said softly. “He’s fine.”
“Rune can handle this,” Slater murmured. “I have a suspicion he’ll be a brother-mate.”
“Who won’t be?” Aura snorted. “You two think quite a few men will be.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Zuko growled in warning. “Most supernaturals have multiple mates.”
“Oh, that’s right, they do,” she mumbled to herself.
I thought the wording was odd, but I didn’t care about that.
My fangs burned.
My hands shook.
My breath ghosted over her lips as I stared at the pulse of the vein in her neck.
“Let me taste you,” I begged, trying to compel her, but she wouldn’t maintain eye contact with me. I was desperate. “Just once. To ground myself. I can’t think straight.”
She tipped her chin, not baring her throat. “Give me my hands back.”
I forced myself to let go of her wrists, but I kept her caged so she couldn’t escape.
I needed blood, not just any blood, but hers.
She lifted her hand to her fang and dragged it across her wrist, opening her skin. Blood bloomed in a small line as her skin healed immediately after. But the blood that had welled up was still there.
She offered her wrist to me. “No biting. We don’t have time for you to lose control, and I have never had vampire venom before. We can’t get distracted.”
I met her eyes, and delight struck me as I noticed she let me keep eye contact with her. I bent and put my mouth to her skin. My tongue flicked over her blood, and I held back a moan. Her blood was unlike anything I’d ever had before. It was spicy, potent, and electric.
After I swallowed it, her essence flowed into my reserves. The small amount of her blood filled my reserves to the brim, clearing the static and dropping every manic note in my nerves into nothing.
I released her wrists and stepped back. “You shouldn’t have let me do that.”
“You shouldn’t need to,” she replied.
“Thank you,” I breathed.
“You’re welcome.” She turned and walked. “Let’s go.”
Zuko and Slater watched me closely.
This time, I managed to lead our squad with Rune like the co-captains we were.
We found Eleanor asleep in the ravine an hour after. Lorian had scooped her up as if she weighed nothing.
The rest of the mission was simple enough. For fourteen more hours, we avoided the terrain and found that the ravine was the only safe haven in that place.
At the twenty-four-hour mark, I hit the floor of the simulator to find that we had passed, with the only notes being Hawk’s death and my bloodlust.
Bloodlust had always been a problem for me, but with Rune’s blood, I was afraid I’d become addicted.