39. Desperate Times
39
DESPERATE TIMES
CALDER
I knew this plan would devolve into a shit show, but I had no clue how horrendously this would go.
Our beautiful, loving mate has been ripped away from us.
The sheer terror and rage that pulses within our pack makes it nearly impossible to think. Not that we have time to.
And now?
My torturer and murderer stands before me, and I can only see red.
The evil witch has the gonads to offer me a smug grin. “Miss me?”
I’m so insanely enraged I can’t even reply to the taunt.
At my side, Osen snarls. Then he swings a shadow tentacle into Minerva . What a fucking name… It’s an insult to the Roman goddess of wisdom.
My tormentor sails through the air and crashes against a tree with a loud crack, and Osen’s shadow pins her to the ground.
“Go. Kill her,” Osen says with a jerk of his chin.
I fly over, lighting my wings ablaze and towering over the witch as she comes to. After a hard blink to shake away her dizziness, she gasps as she catches sight of me. But Osen’s shadows gag her and ensnare her wrists before she’s able to unleash a spell to harm me.
I remember that fateful day when she had captured me and blocked my magic. The haunting memories fill my mind of how she tortured me and how she shattered my soul.
Thankfully, as I stand before her now, I’m whole again. More than just whole… I’m bonded to an amazingly magical woman and my powerful incubus.
My body lights up with my phoenix fire, making her eyes widen with fear. Good. I’m happy she’s witnessing her karma come to pass.
I block out the shouts of battle behind me, trusting Osen will do his best to protect me while I sort out my vengeance.
“Your disgusting plan to permanently break me has failed,” I inform her. “I’d love for your soul to experience the torture I faced. I should rip it out and tear it to shreds so you never find peace, even in the afterworld, but I’m not that cruel.”
I don’t say that it’s my mate who could destroy a soul with a thought. If anyone else overheard the nature of her abilities, that would be disastrous.
The heat from my body’s fire makes her sweat. Her skin is blistering. Osen’s shadows muffle her screams from the intense pain. Thankfully, they are immune to my flames.
I shift my fingers into talons to plow gouges in her flesh. Her eyes finally reflect the dullness of acceptance. She knows that this is her end.
Normally I don’t revel in killing, but this is a special case. I lean down and whisper, “I hope the abyss swallows you up and you’re never thought of again. That is the final death, when no one thinks of you or mourns your absence. Though I doubt anyone will truly miss you. It will be instantaneous. You’ll be snuffed out, and the realms will be better for it.”
The increasing vibration of the call of death crashes over me, and I know it’s time.
I slash my talons over her throat, and she is silenced forever.
But I cannot stop. I slice over and over until she’s a heap of meat, no longer identifiable as once having a human form.
“Calder!” Osen shouts, bringing me back from my crazed killing.
I spin to see Flint on the ground, eyes closed. Arran is stumbling in his berserker form and falls as he swipes to take out another witch.
Osen is on his knees, his shadows flailing wildly. But his magic is dwindling, since it wasn’t properly replenished for a battle like this.
He’s panting with effort but holding on.
I use my magic to open a portal behind me. Not as fast as Maxum can make, but I’m grateful to have the ability right now, although it’s draining what magic I have left.
A warlock holds out his hands over Arran’s prone form, threatening. “I’ll kill him if you step through.”
He expects me to abandon my pack, but I have no intention of leaving them behind.
Osen glances at me and reads my plan from my eyes alone.
I throw a fireball at the warlock and blast him backward.
At the same moment, Osen uses his last bit of magic to snatch up Flint and Arran and fling them through my portal.
I drop my flames and grab Osen, throwing his arm over my shoulders and dragging him through.
As I turn to close the portal door, I find I’m too late to block my enemy’s path.
I release my hold of Osen and throw fire at the five witches and warlocks who charge through, but I only take out one of them.
A warlock casts a spell at me, binding me in iron chains. I scream out in blinding pain. I’m hit with another spell, and my world goes black.
When I come to, I find Flint, Arran, and Osen are all bound in irons and passed out around me in the living room of the small house we used recently. Flint looks to be frozen in stone by a curse. Arran and Osen are bloodied and bruised, but still breathing.
This was supposed to be our place to retreat if things went sideways. Now we are fully upside down, asses up, and fucked hard.
I don’t know how long we’ve been unconscious, but it’s dark outside.
The witch, Galiana, steps in front of my line of sight and glowers at me. “Your little rat pack has been more trouble than I originally estimated.”
“Same goes for your pathetic organization,” I sneer back at her.
“Pathetic?” Galiana scoffs. “I was the one who cursed your rabid pet wolf. I gave Minerva the tools to shatter your soul. I’ve already killed your fuck buddy incubus once. And I’m going to make sure your death sticks this time, along with the rest of your pack.”
That shuts me up. She’s responsible for Arran’s berserker curse? She’s behind my soul shattering? This witch was behind almost all our trauma. Jade’s mother’s death. Osen’s. And who knows how many other supes have suffered by her hand?
My jaw tightens to the point I expect to crack a tooth.
This doesn’t look good for us. If Jade and Maxum escape whatever situation they found themselves in, they’ll come here and get caught as well.
Then it dawns on me why we are still breathing.
Jade is free.
We’re bait.
Galiana wants her prize—Jade’s unique magic.
The bit of hope that glows in my heart with the thought of Jade being free dies with the realization that she’ll risk everything to save her mates.
I have no doubt she’d rather sacrifice herself than allow us to die.
Galiana is without honor and even if Jade negotiates her surrender for our release, the witch wouldn’t hesitate to go back on her word and slaughter us all.
I must have faith that Maxum will keep Jade away and safe.
Just as I’m convincing myself he will, I sense my mate is close by. Osen and Arran stir as if they sense her too.
Goddess, no.
Run, my love.
Run and save yourself.