This was bad.The battle was no longer waging on the outskirts of town, not with our lack of numbers and the witch’s arsenal of weapons.Many of the Vampire’s here weren’t hardened warriors but families without a home, desperate for somewhere safe to raise their children and watch them grow. Seeing as Asher and I refused to force anyone to fight, fearful they’d be killed and ripped away from those they loved, it left us at a huge disadvantage.Deacon had been right. That much was clear in the feverish way the witches fought, banding together in small groups as they used both magic and human weaponry to take us down. There had to be over a dozen of them, possibly more. They could’ve waited until the sun had risen and claimed this town as their own, but there was always that chance I wouldn’t be here.It was a risk they chose not to take, and probably our only advantage.The witches had silver, and plenty of it. Clutched in the hands of many were guns with plated bullets, daggers etched
I didn’t hesitate to bound into the forest, chasing the sound of Breyona’s voice, the taste of her fear ripe on my tongue.There was something wrong, something so very wrong with the way her voice coiled around my thoughts and squeezed the life out of them. It wasn’t through mind-link that I was hearing her, I was sure of it. No matter how hard I tried to dig past her wailing, to the connection that spanned between us, I just couldn’t.Thoughts refused to form, each and every one shattering under the grip of her pleas.‘It hurts, Lola! It hurts so bad—so bad.’ She sobbed and screamed.I couldn’t think, not even to figure out where the hell I was going or whether or not I should slow down.The forest cracked and trembled beneath my feet. Limbs like outstretched arms reached to grab me, tearing away bits of my fur and drawing blood. Even the pain was dull, like it too was smothered by Breyona’s voice.Suddenly, she went silent.It should’ve occurred to me that the wrongness in the air w
It was dark magic, it had to be.Invisible claws latched onto a part of me that was much deeper than mere flesh and bone, wrapping and coiling like the scaled body of a snake. The pleasure soured, and as spasm after spasm rocked my body, I tasted its foulness on my tongue.I was entangled in it’s grasp, powerless even though mere seconds ago I killed an entire group of witches with my mind.The way it split my thoughts like a deck of cards, shuffling through them before turning each one over to inspect it felt like a violation.Everything hurt. The pain was so consuming that I couldn’t tell which parts of me were still intact. My skin burned from the silver tipped arrows, stung from the slices in my flesh, and burned because every movement I made jostled the quills protruding from my back.The forest was growing darker, the shadows dancing around the edges of my vision. They thrashed and writhed, their whispers just out of reach. It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t the forest tha
“Shit.” I cursed.Breyona’s sharp gaze softened. She pursed her lips and murmured, “You didn’t even realize you did it, did you?”“No.” It came out as a whisper. “I didn’t.”“She wants to kill that one since her twin got away. Brandon actually ran into the fire witch on his way here. He’s got a nasty burn on his shoulder to prove it.” Breyona pointed out, her eyes still on the mess ahead.“Well, lets go intervene. Shall we?”Turns out, there wasn’t much I had to do to turn Dina’s attention away from Tessa. My mere presence was enough to have her hackles raising and lips pulling back to show rows of sharp teeth. Breyona situated herself in front of me, standing off to the side incase I needed her. Standing a healthy distance away, keeping a firm watch on Tessa, was Clara, Mason, Sean, along with a mixture of Vampire’s and warriors.“Dina…” I said in greeting. “You look good.”Breyona snorted but covered it up with a well-placed cough.“She’s uh, she’s trying to mind-link you, but since
The trip home was filled with silence.It wasn’t the comfortable kind that faded into the background and made your eyelids grow heavy as the purr of the car’s engine droned on and on.This one was full of tension and unspoken words that were so loud they needn’t be spoken at all.Zeke, Clara, and Mason hitched a ride with Asher and I since Tessa was currently tied up and unconscious in the back of the work van Breyona drove. Giovanni and Tristan had no choice but to sit back there as well considering they were the only windows blacked out from the rising sun.It would’ve been safer to wait until dark to move, but we didn’t have the time to waste.There was no telling if Ember would come back for her twin with more witches, and now that the location of the safe haven was compromised, we needed every spare warrior available to protect the territory.It did help that Deacon, Dina, and Spence stayed behind, but there was still the risk of the witches attacking during the day.Since my ner
I didn’t have to be linked to Zeke to feel his hurt. Even if he did hide it perfectly, it was there just beneath the surface, bubbling and festering away like an open wound. Things between Asher and I weren’t always perfect, and I knew from experience how badly it could hurt to be cast aside by your mate.Zeke didn’t dignify her with a response. He shook his head ruefully and left the room. When he emerged into the observation room, he made a beeline for the door and left without a word. The urge to storm in there and smack the hell out of her was strong, so strong that I had to take a few deep breaths to keep calm.‘Zeke interviewed Tessa. He just left, so you might run into him.’ I mind-linked Asher, giving him a heads up before he found out some other way.Asher’s disappointment trickled down the bond, mixed with his concern for Zeke.‘She didn’t tell him anything, did she?’‘No, she didn’t. She actually said that she’d prefer torture over having to talk to him.’ I scoffed, glaring
Not only did I avoid visiting Tessa for the next three days, but I also made it a point not to think of her or what she knew.I stumbled back into my routine even though everything felt off kilter. Chris made warrior training worth it, but my heart was no longer invested in my magical studies. There was only one thing I was fixated on, and that was dark magic.The one and only time I used it was almost enough for it to corrupt me. There was nothing more terrifying than feeling the sickening euphoria of ultimate power, and ultimate evil. I wanted to learn everything I could so I could make sure it never happened again.There was just one problem.Since only a handful of witches successfully pulled from that kind of power, there wasn’t exactly any information on it. There were a few vague descriptions, but nothing going into detail on how or why those witches did what they did.I voiced my frustration to Asher every spare chance I had, along with the absolute terror I felt when I looked
I was so unfathomably tired of death.The pale rider and I knew each other intimately. We were partners in a dance I no longer remembered the movements for, one I wished would end already but knew never would.There were so many fallen wolves. So many families to contact, so many devastating blows to land.Just as many, if not more, witches littered the ground.They had friends, I’m sure. Families that would wonder where they were or if they were ever coming back. They would be mourned by someone, somewhere.It had taken me months to no longer have nightmares of my father’s severed head tumbling from his shoulders, rolling across the ground in a sea of blood. Every time I escaped the pull of a nightmare, a new one sprouted in its place, brought on by all of the death and carnage.Even now, after all these months, I couldn’t even look at grass without seeing flashes of it covered in blood.I kept to Asher’s side, shifting between human and wolf as I killed in both forms. Each life I to