by Rae Foxx
It still raged in me. It screamed in me. It knew I had only given her half of what she deserved.
I could’ve tortured her all day, but I had other bitches to slay.
With a blood-stained maw, I turned toward Nicky. My mates weren’t giving in as they fought the woman. She turned at the movement, not a drop of sorrow in her eyes as she looked from me to the twisted remains of her child. If anything, she looked disappointed. It only served to fuel my anger more.
'Your turn, Nicky,' I taunted, the words coming out as a growl. I jumped at her, my paws smacking against her shoulders and taking her down as I had her daughter. This bitch would be looking right into my eyes as she died.
Even in death and the afterlife, I hoped my face haunted her.
“Oberion!” She screamed as she writhed beneath me, but there was no answer. Mama and the others must have him subdued, or dead, somewhere. If we were going to end this, now was the time.
'We need the book,' I hissed to Howl, snarling at the woman below me as Howl limped to my side.
"Where is the book, Nicky," he snarled, pushing as much menace into his voice as he could. Given the blood that was pouring from his arm, I was surprised he had managed any at all.
"I'm not going to tell--" she began, but, before she could finish her pathetic warning, I sunk my teeth into her shoulder, the taste of her blood mixing with her daughters in a beautiful bouquet.
My teeth ground against bone. It cracked at her collar and snapped more than one bone in half, but Nicky didn't so much as scream. She just laughed. She fucking laughed and stared into the black smoke funnel in the sky that Tommy had made to suck up his kin.
"I'll never tell you," she said through her psychotic laughter. "Not that it matters. It's about to be sucked away anyway."
Finn and Saxon stood across from where I held Nicky down, all our eyes lifting to the sky as Nicky laughed. She laughed, and all that rage changed to something different. Something desperate. I bit down on Nicky's other shoulder, incapacitating her before I stepped back, shifting back into my human body and leaving my mates to restrain Nicky, which they did without asking.
Tommy was zipping through the air, what looked like him and his father circling and fighting, or at least I thought they were fighting. The way the two shades of smoke moved, they looked more like angry bat wings having a slapping competition. A competition that Tommy's slightly greyer smoke was winning, with each smack he moved the demons through the circling smoke in the sky...back into the underworld that they had come from.
Taking the book with them.
"Tommy!" I screamed as the darker smoke was sucked into the hole, the spinning web of Tommy's creation moving faster. Faster. "Tommy!"
The grey smoke ripped down to the ground like a missile, the smug asshole appearing, cigarette already in his mouth. "All done, babe. Told you I was a badass."
"The book--" I managed to get out, still staring at the wisps of circling smoke that were left. "He has the book."
"No," Tommy gasped, his focus darting between me and the portal he had shoved his father into. The portal that was closing.
"Hey," Tommy said, voice cracking as his hand wrapped around mine, pulling my focus. "So much for not being all sacrificial and shit."
"What, no," I gasped, my hand tightening around his as if that would keep him here.
"Never forget what an asshole I am," he whispered, leaning in and giving me a kiss softer than he ever had before, the touch so soft, so powerful that he may have tattooed it there. Imbedded it into my heart. "I've done my job here. I know you'll be in good hands. They will take care of you.”
"Tommy?" I asked. What he was saying stabbed me like a sharp blade. I had been stabbed so many times, but this was worse, this was agony. This was ‘rip my heart open and stomp on the contents’ agony.
"I love you, always."
"Tommy!" I reached out to him with a scream on my lips, but it was too late, his smoke slid through my hands, impossible to catch.
Impossible to stop, until he did, right before he left. With one last look at me, he smiled. He smiled the way I had only seen a few times.
I would never forget that look as he left, as he slipped through the portal.
And he was gone. Tommy took all those fuckers to hell.
Only wisps of black smoke remained. As they vanished, a square of black cut against the sky, the last thing through.
The book was falling to the ground. Falling, but I didn't fucking care anymore. Let it fall. I let out a rage-filled cry that added fuel to the firepower that Tommy had soaked into me. I rode the surges of fire within me and let it all burn me alive from the inside out. I turned to the still-restrained Nicky; her laugh silenced with one glare.
“Don't think for a second you have won," I snapped, racing to her and ripping her out from underneath my mate's restraints.
Now she screamed. She screamed until my hand wrapped around her throat. My arm pulsed; my wolf snarled. I lifted her off the ground, holding by her neck into the air thanks to all the rage and raw power that Tommy had given me. I sent every negative emotion I owned into her. The rage. The defeat. The hurt. The scars. The burning. The unadulterated loathing I felt for her.
"You tormented me. You made my life a living hell. And for what? For power? For the name you would make for yourself. You fucking took my mate from me,” I snarled in her face as her legs stopped kicking and flailing and she hung there, strung like my grip was a noose. The grip she once had on my wrist lessened and she gave several slaps to my arm, a last pathetic attempt to save her own life.
She kept eye contact, but her gaze was glassy, unfocused. Her eyelids drooped from the lack of oxygen and blood. Her high heels fell off and landed in the sand as her muscles no longer kept them on.
“I hope you rot in hell.” I chuckled a little while I squeezed the last of her life from her. “And I hope Tommy is fucking waiting for you.”
I placed my claws at the back of her neck, right at the place where spine met skull and snapped it in half.
Nicky was dead--blood dripping from one side of her lipsticked mouth. I dropped her as a ripple went over the battle, the snarling, the yelling, the claws and fangs all falling silent.
"Give me the book," I yelled over the crowd, not looking away from Nicky lest I stare into the sky. Into the depth of loss that was trying to consume me.
Everyone had turned to face me, Scarlet, the twins and Mama pushing their way forward, Mama and Alias carrying Oberion between them like he was some kind of pig on a spit. Well, that was one way to do it.
"Here," Scarlet said, handing me the tattered book. The thing looked even more worn after its fall from the sky. I was amazed the binding was holding.
It was only then that I looked away from Nicky's broken remains, ripping the book open and flitting through the fragile pages as I searched for who knows what. I knew the page the second I smelled it. It was still stained with mine and Oberion’s blood.
“There.” I lifted the book, facing the fucker that used to be my father. I didn’t know if this spell would restore him to his former self or leave us with a shell, but, either way, it had to happen.
An exorcism spell of all things.
I closed my eyes and reached for the magic that sizzled in my veins as I recited the words, foreign words that made no sense to me, but I hoped like fuck they would work. I was sure I butchered the fuck out of them as Mama tittered from her place next to me. Judgmental, like any mom, I guess.
Once I had spoken the last of the words, Oberion stopped straining against the hold and froze like a statue.
The entire camp held their breath, waiting, tense. I was one breath away from suggesting we kill the fucker when his chest moved in and out normally, and his eyes faded from that deadly, empty black to a green that seemed a little more normal. A little more human. A little more like something I knew as a child. He gave a mighty sigh and shook his head, looking from all of us before his focus landed on Mama, and he began t
o cry.
Yep, ‘big ugly tears dripping from his nose’ crying.
“Ivory? Why am I tied up like you are all going to eat me?” he gasped, and then Mama was crying. I wanted to punch them both because I didn't want to cry. I didn't want to acknowledge the hole that had opened up in my chest.
And yet, I was being forced to.
I was trapped in it.
The cheers and high-fives echoed over everyone, but they seemed like miles away. Miles from the pain that was crippling me.
The pain that was everywhere.
All the baddies were gone. Defeated. We had won.
I should be rejoicing, but as I smiled in feigned joy at my mates, one thing was for damn sure. I needed a vacation, and we were going in the van.
But first, I really needed a cigarette.
Chapter 20
It was kind of cathartic watching the school burn, watching tongues of flame lick against stone and send bursts of ash and embers into the sky as the ancient wood was devoured.
I hadn’t expected to come back to the whole place going up in flames, but the vampires had taken my instructions to ‘cause a distraction’ seriously.
We had won the war, and everything was going down with it.
A fresh start.
"That's the last of it," Howl announced. He, Saxon and Finn raced over the grass from the far end of the school. The keep was going down in flames just like the rest of the place.
"Or the last of what wasn't already lost," Saxon added, the three of them adding stacks of clothes, books, and a box that I was sure was full of X-rated toys on top of the other things they had already rescued.
There wasn't much and judging by the soot that smeared their cheeks and chests it was a miracle they had been able to get what they did.
"Guess now is as good of a time as any for a rebirth," I mumbled, still staring at the fire as Finn wound his arm around my waist, Saxon on the other side.
“Rebirth? Is that what we are supposed to do now? Sounds disgusting,” Evan asked from his vantage point to the blaze. Scarlet silently sobbed beside him and Owen. We were just a few of the tear-stained faces that stared at the flames, all the students and teachers were horrified, and they didn't even know about the hard-fought battle we had barely won.
They stood confused on the other side of the grass, casting glances between the school and us. I guess that's what we get for standing with the Fae Queen, the Vampire Queen, Oberion, and the newly re-appointed Queen of the witches.
All that was missing now was a Queen of the Shifters. I had already passed on that title.
"We know what we are going to do," Alias announced, Galina on his arm as he walked over from where the queens were laughing over shared murder stories. Mama and Dad were loud among them.
Wait. Ew.
Dad? I didn’t really know what to call the man. It might be a while before I looked at him and didn't see the murder-monster.
"With your blessing. I would like to build a home with your mother in my kingdom," Alias continued, looking right at Howl. I could practically hear his spine zip together.
I was suddenly not the only person here struggling with dad titles.
'He is not my father, although he is clearly better than the one I had,' Howl grumbled into my mind, even as he smiled and said, "I would want nothing other than safety, security, and love for my mother. You have my blessing."
I gave him a smirk, and he growled, the sound pulling the focus of the queens and their guard, who carefully stepped through the ember-scorched grass to reach us. Yes, we were probably standing too close, but it was beautiful from here.
"Congratulations on your victory, Ivy, but it is time we take our leave,” Katarina said with no emotion whatsoever. Her eyes were two red brands that burned into my soul as she scowled at me. Talk about a power struggle. I wanted to tell her that I had no interest in challenging her, well, unless she tried to kill Saxon again. Before I could say anything, she snapped her fingers and the vamp guard filed into formation behind her and followed her in the direction of her lair.
“Good luck in your endeavors,” She called over her shoulder with no indication of who exactly she was talking to, me or Saxon. I knew she meant Saxon. No one could ever get over that brooding god of a vampire.
"With us, however, you are welcome anytime," Melusine said as she swept forward, her dress glittering without a sign of the battle we had fought. She wrapped her arms around Finn, then me, then Howl, then all of us, Saxon included.
When she pulled away, she looked right at me, her gaze the polar opposite of Katarina who looked about ready to swallow me whole.
"The bond between you all will repair. It will take time, but it will happen," She whispered, her voice more in my head than out of it. Then she leaned forward and kissed my forehead, a warm buzzing ticking at the back of my neck as her skin made contact with mine. "Let it fill you."
Her grin washed through me with as much power as she turned, Alias already having opened the portal to the Fae realm. In minutes they were gone, leaving us in the dark of night, watching the fire consume everything that my life had come to represent.
“That’s where I first met you,” Howl said, reaching out to hold my hand as the inferno swayed to the cafeteria. The popping of wood and embers filled the air as the blaze consumed the wet roof shingles.
“And there’s where we had our first...encounter,” Finn nodded his head toward the alleyway between the library and the other part of the building, now swarming with flames.
The fire engulfed section by section, sizzling and devouring while sending clouds of gray smoke into the air.
God, I still needed that cigarette.
“There used to be a song that played in the trailer park when we had those Fourth of July parties. Do you remember that one?” I turned to Tommy, realizing a second too late that he wasn't there. That he wouldn't be again. Well, unless I found a way to open a portal to hell. Not going to happen. I forced back tears and cleared my throat, trying to ignore the way my heart was trying to rip itself open again. “Anyway, back at the trailer park, we used to have these parties with too loud music and cheap hot dogs on a grill made from a tire rim. We always used to laugh because it said something like letting the motherfucker burn.”
Scarlet cackled and clapped her hands. “Dude, that was like my theme song back in the day! Wait... what are you saying here?”
"This place was supposed to teach us things about who we were, how to use our powers, how to survive as paranormals... living in the human world." I began, everyone nodding in agreement. "Instead it taught me that outside appearances don’t mean shit. They always fucked with me about my clothes, but it was those in the sleek skirts sitting behind desks and claiming they were in charge who were soulless and fucked up. I learned that life lessons are so much more important than shifter history--but don’t tell Saenger."
“Let that motherfucker burn!” Scarlet announced in a surreal agreement, fist in the air.
“It may burn now, but we will rebuild. We must. It is our legacy,” Mama said, her and Oberion standing like some sort of couple on a romance novel cover. My father's shirt was even flapping open. Gross.
“Why the fuck would you do that?” I asked.
“Because we could make this one an academy where people actually learn,” My dad remarked, a faraway look on his face. They even talked like they were in one of those old-timey romance novels.
I didn’t think I would ever look at them the same again. Yes, they would always be my parents but that idyllic version of them was long gone.
They could have the goddamned school.
The only good Bloodwood Academy ever brought me was my friends and my mates. Period.
"We don't need no water, let that mother fucker burn!" I countered them. Everyone stood together as the flames kicked up, and the entire structure groaned with the sound of a thousand old men battling gravity.
The groans deepened into a wooden scream as the beams of
the building bowed to the fire’s power, splitting in half and falling to its insatiable hunger. The entire building fell to the ground with a great smash.
In minutes the whole thing was a pile of ash and soot that rattled the ground.
“Step back, Ivy,” Howl said, his hand on my waist as the others pulled me back. The low rumble grew, shaking the earth and sending the school down in crumpled heaps, down below the ground.
“What’s happening?” Scarlet said as Evan and Owen did the same to her, making sure she and all of us were at a safe distance.
The crowds screamed and ran back as the entire school fell into an open pit--a pit the size of the crypt down below.
Well shit. I didn't see that coming.
"What were you saying about rebuilding?" I teased, laughing as my parents stared at the hole in shock.
'Well, what the fuck do we do now?' Howl mumbled, but I just smiled. I already had that part worked out.
“Serves this whole place right. I’m out, bitches. I’ve got places to see and people to do.” Scarlet announced, saluting the school before turning to me and giving me a short but hard hug like she was trying to take a piece of me with her.
"Ummm," she said as she pulled away, her hands still on my elbows before she leaned in and whispered in my ear, "That book Saxon gave you... do you think you'll still need it?"
She dug her toe into the dirt and looked from me to the twins who were now throwing rocks at the remains of the school.
Oh my god! I could have done a celebration dance right then, but instead, I smiled and pulled her to the piles of Saxon's slightly singed belongings and pulled it out of the pile.
"You better make good use of this," I teased, and she turned a shade of red so deep she nearly melted into with flames.
"Oh, I will." She gave me one last look and then she turned, sprinting past my mates who were all giving her knowing smiles.
I smacked each one of them in turn.
“You two coming?” she called to the twins as she practically fled away, holding the book against her chest.
Evan and Owen waved at us all and followed Scarlet away from the school--or where the school used to be.
