Chapter 18 Thayla #2
In two strides, I tug her into my arms for the realm’s quickest hug. “I don’t know what the fuck that was, but that was amazing. Now use it to protect yourself.”
I turn my back to her and bounce on my toes as more gods walk out of the arches. They examine us, and I’m assuming Dimitri’s group, who is somewhere behind us, preparing as well.
I take as many deep breaths as I can while trying to silence my mind.
I glance out both peripherals, taking note of all the gods slinking their way closer to the center. They’re taking it slow and steady, waiting for the moment to pounce as one.
Breathe, Thay.
You can do this. They’re going to be here any second.
Listen for the giggle you know will come.
Remember what you’ve been taught.
My thigh muscle twitches with the phantom touch of Creed’s sword. His words have a long, drawn-out breath falling from my lips.
They’re unpredictable. You have to be as well.
Don’t give away your move.
One swipe. Instant kill. Don’t hesitate.
I inhale deeply, imagining it’s not the scent of blood that fills my senses but our kitchen priming with the feast of a dinner he made after working my muscles to jelly.
I peek up through my lashes at the war cry that rings out, and the pounding of feet echoes all around me.
My eyes lock with a man running straight toward me and I let my face crack into a mask of faux fear. The grip I have on my handle loosens and I add a tremble for good measure.
A premature victorious smile crosses his lips as I freeze like a startled animal.
Five feet, four, three, two…
He raises his sword above his head, and I drop to a knee.
The sharp metal in my hand glides through his stomach like butter. Blood spurts through his mouth, dripping on my forehead.
Hollowness fills my heart as I slowly stand.
I keep my gaze locked on his as realization of what just happened settles across his face.
My hand comes up as his drifts down. My fingers lace around the handle of his weapon, and his dwindling strength gives him no other option but to give up his sword.
I’m desperate to wipe away the hot trail of blood sliding through my eyebrow, but I don’t. I keep my eyes locked on his as he hits his knees, and I pull my sword free. The gush of blood hitting the sand is nearly my undoing, but I swallow down anything in me akin to guilt.
You’re not taking the life of an innocent person. He did something heinous enough to land himself here and you’re taking away his opportunity to be free and do it again.
I take a millisecond to pay attention to the five or so feet between Yemi and me. Sevryn has her tucked as close to him as possible. His eyes bounce in every direction, and his hands are stretched out.
He doesn’t drag out his kills. They’re quick. Merciful.
I shut everything down as chaos truly breaks free.
What seemed to be the initial plan of taking down ours and Dimitri’s team first has quickly shifted.
There are no longer teams as far as I can tell, aside from the three of us.
Everyone is after everyone.
Powers blast near me as I move around Yemi and Sevryn on light feet. Anyone who slips through whatever it is he’s doing, I cut down, but the circle continues to grow tighter.
“Thayla!”
A whip latches around my ankle, snatching me off my feet before I can blink. My back slams into the ground and the air in my lungs gets stuck. A foot stomps on my stomach as soon as the person with the rope drags me closer to them and Yemi continues to shriek my name.
A feral scream tears from my throat as I force myself to breathe. I wrap my arm around the calf of the massive-ass man standing on me and use his weight to pull myself into a sitting position.
One sword slices through the rope and in the same fluid motion, the other glides across the back of his ankle.
His bellow has my teeth rattling. I don’t have time to do anything other than turn my face away from his incoming fist. My cheek instantly splits on impact and my head smashes back into the ground.
He straddles my waist and my eyes widen through the black spots at the manic look in his. I cross my two swords over my face as soon as his fist comes down once again. The touch of his knuckle grazes the tip of my nose, and I jerk my arms apart.
Disgust, panic, a fucking tsunami of emotions rushes me when his severed hand drops to my chest and he falls to the side, screaming his head off. My chest heaves and torturous gags choke me up as I roll myself over, tripping numerous times until I finally stumble to my feet.
The bellowing stops as I stand and whip around, only to witness another god retracting his sword from the man’s back.
Fuck.
“V, how much longer?”
“Not long, Thayla. I swear not long.”
Guys, hurry the fuck up.
Now would be a great time to make your appearances.
A piercing wail has me spinning around on my heels and freezing in the same second. I got dragged so much farther than I thought.
Yemi’s on her knees with her hands held up over her head as if she’s holding up a falling ceiling. Sevryn is nowhere to be seen, but she keeps screaming, jerking her head over to the pile of gods fighting beside her.
Fuck.
“Yemi!”
I race toward her, and her eyes shoot up to mine. The desperation in them is the strongest I’ve ever seen.
My sword swings out wildly as beings continue to run by me, trying to get to whoever they plan to cut down next.
The shrill that continues to pour from her grows more urgent as if she’s holding on with everything she’s got. I count the feet I am away from her, but the pile of gods beside her grows faster than my legs move.
I suck in a massive gulp of air when the bubble she placed around herself explodes.
Everything stops as my vision doubles.
Bodies fly through the air, and a good ten-foot, clear circle surrounds her. Instead of her hands being above her head, they face outward toward what was once a pile of gods but is now only one single body.
My eyes burn as they land on Sevryn.
Come on, you fucking asshole. Get up.
I stumble as he takes a gasping breath and flings himself around in a panic as though he’s surprised to be alive. One look at Yemi and his body falls as still as hers.
I don’t make it another step toward them when my head is jerked backward.
I rotate around, bringing my elbow down on the forearm attached to the hand tangled in my hair. A slither of something crawls across my skin for a brief second before I’m freed.
Anger and fear fight for dominance inside of me as I jerk my head up to Dimitri’s smiling face.
“I’m so happy to see you’re still alive, beautiful.”
My swords come up just as his one comes down.
Where I grunt viciously at the strength it takes to hold him off, he smiles. His footwork is smooth as though we’re flowing across a ballroom floor rather than dirt covered in death.
Behind the barrier of those cells, he looked vile and unattractive.
His smile was cruel. Evil.
Now, with his power flowing around him, his eyes are captivating. Between them and the smirk on his face, it’s as though he’s a whole new man.
A far more dangerous one.
My fascination is completely unwanted. I have zero desire to observe anything about him, but I can’t help it. He’s not touching me like I was warned he’d need to, to use his power, but he’s powerful enough it seeps off him.
The wink he gives me is teasing and distracting. A warning.
Blood fills my mouth when he backhands me so hard, my feet come out from under me. Pain shoots through my arm as my shoulder takes the weight of my fall and I roll over, gripping it to my chest.
Panic ignites through every inch of me. I’m too afraid to take my eyes off him, but my fingers can’t find either of my swords. They just glide through gritty dirt.
I don’t know where they fell, but judging by the victorious grin on his face that grows as he prowls toward me, he’s closer than my weapons are.
My feet kick out and I throw a handful of dirt at him.
He laughs.
His hands wrap around my ankles, and he snatches me to him while lowering himself to his knees. I suck in a sharp breath as his hand cups my cheek and his other arm cages the other side of my head.
Something fills me.
I can’t quite call it arousal. Yet.
It’s like the cusp of it. The beginning.
Butterflies flap around in my stomach and my heart rate spikes. My breathing becomes heavier and my fingers tingle with the desire to tangle them in his shirt.
“You would have made a beautiful feeder, Thayla Godrun. The girls at Seductions would have loved to pamper and primp you up for me.” He sighs. “I truly hate this is the way we met.”
My thoughts rebel, although my heart hurts for him and the disappointment in his soft gaze.
No, no, no. Thayla, snap out of it.
You don’t fucking feel bad for this man.
It’s just his power.
I blink and my head twitches, but he cups my cheek harder and runs his thumb across my lip. “Now, now. None of that.”
“Don’t,” I mumble halfheartedly as heat spreads through my body.
“Oh, but I have to. My Mazie is waiting for me back home. I will get out of this place and return to her.”
Tears well in my eyes and my head bobs up and down in agreement, although my mind screams at me.
His hand slides down my jaw in a tender caress, then he wraps it around my throat. “Look into my eyes, beautiful, then lie there and relax. Enjoy the feeling. It’ll be over soon.”
He applies pressure to my neck, but there is no pain, just growing heat. I raise my heavy hand and lay it on his, soaking in all the power flowing through his veins. My fingers tingle from the vibrations passing through him.
Snap the fuck out of it.
If you don’t, the guys are going to find you like this.
I highly doubt there’s any healing the dead.
My vision grows blurry, and a gurgling noise travels out of my mouth.
“It’s okay.”
It’s not fucking okay, Thayla. Don’t listen to him.
You know what it’s like to be at the mercy of a man and believe it’s right. Even when you don’t want to admit it was wrong, you know it was, just like it is now…
Fight this like you should have then.
Think of those you care about.
Lambrit, Yemi, Seismet, V, Rose, Havar…your parents.
Think of your Valtrue.
Kyzen’s real smile. Amick’s tender touches. Riven’s laugh. Creed’s watchful eyes.
Pull them to you. Promise yourself you’re going to tell them how you feel when you survive. You’re going to survive.
Pull them. Harder. Fight. Do something!
Heat flares everywhere through me and my soul expels out of my chest strong enough it washes away the feelings Dimitri has coursing through me.
My sight becomes covered in a thin, cloud-like curtain of dirt, but my mind completely clears, and control of my body returns to me immediately. I choke on a strangled gasp as my throat is released, but whatever it is that I inhale has me gagging, fighting for breath.
I scream and swing out with everything I got when someone latches onto my wrist. The dust-like texture continues to fill my mouth and nose, but I don’t quit shrieking or fighting.
“Thayla, stop. It’s me, I’m here. We’re here.”
My breathing becomes ragged at that voice. I’m snatched to my feet and my hands roam all over the body pressed close to me.
“Hold on. Let me clean your face.”
The smell of freshly baked bread engulfs me when a shirt covers my face. I barely hold in the sob that tries to escape me as he cleans my eyes, nose, lips, everything he possibly can.
I blink my heavy lashes until I can actually keep my lids up. The second I can, they collide with an endless white.
“Creed…”
“You’re okay.”
His teeth are clenched so tight, I’m surprised he got the words out. His jaw muscles tense the longer I stare at him. My hands tremble uncontrollably as I lift them and lay them on his cheeks.
“You…you’re the God of Death.”
He searches.
For my fear, disgust. Rejection. Everything negative he thought he’d find when I found out, but I don’t feel any of that.
He has once again saved me.
I’ll never feel that way about him.
My soul rushes through me without my command. It slams into the tether that connects him to me, and his entire body shakes violently.
Power pulses between the two of us, and whatever invisible restraint he was fighting snaps.
I suck in a sharp gasp as my soul hums.
“Fuck.” With a feral grunt, he grips the back of my neck and slams his lips to mine.
Everything fades away.
My mind silences. My soul settles.
Every stroke of his tongue is full of passion and power. It has my body buzzing. The way he takes control of the kiss is purposeful. His firm touch is deadly, yet I know I’m in the safest hands possible right now.
Our breath mingles when he pulls back from me and lays his forehead to mine.
“That’s right, my endling. I’m the God of Death. Now, point out every fucker who dared to lay a hand on you.”