“Okay.” Taking one vial while Derek took the other, I rubbed Derek’s side with my free hand, and Melinda stood back to hold out her hands with her palms facing us. She muttered something before the familiar tickle of magic skittered across my skin, and my wings ached with the need to respond. Holding my breath, I watched her face through wide eyes until she met them to nod firmly. Carefully poising the vial to my nose, I squeezed my eyes shut as my heart thundered before inhaling sharply.
The powder burned my nostril and up the inside of my nose, so potent it made me choke. I felt my throat constrict, and my eyes rolled in their sockets, the darkness closing in. There was nothing I could do to stop it even as panic raced through my veins.
Running hard – fast, furiously try to expel the adrenaline and fear that gorged my muscles, I pushed myself as a shooting burn engulfed my spine. I didn’t dare glance behind me, and my brain forced out everything but the need to escape. Shallow, harsh pants scraped against my throat, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up from beyond the cold sweat that drenched them.
Something grabbed my wing, and I let out a blood-curdling shriek as the bones were nearly ripped from my body. Hitting the ground hard, I scrambled forward blindly as a familiar, terrifying chuckle skittered across my skin.
“You can’t outrun me, baby. I’ll always catch you.” Derek’s mocking declarations caused goosebumps to rise all over my body, and he stalked forward loudly. Twigs and dried leaves crunched under his footfall, and I sucked in a sharp breath when he grabbed me by my hair to yank viciously. “You still haven’t learned – I can always get you.”
“No! No-n-no!” My heart banged against the bars of its cage, threatening to break through, as my protest squeezed beyond the painful lump in my throat. Derek only grinned maliciously, his eyes lighting up with joy, and a pained yelp burst from my chest when he twisted his fist against my scalp.
Dropping onto his knees to pin my hips to the forest floor, Derek gripped my breast hard in his free hand. His fingernails dug into my flesh, and my panicked struggles only helped to sink them in deeper.
“Stop! G-get off! Derek!” My scream echoed through the woods, surging between the trees and rattling their leaves, and tears dripped from my eyelashes. Derek only smirked wider, his fingers creeping down my midsection, and I twisted and bucked as terror slithered up my spine to infect my mind.
The murderous bellow that met my shriek caused us both to freeze, and I reached to grip Derek’s wrist before the ground started to tremble underneath me. Breathing heavy, shallow breaths, I glanced around as much as I could, but his grip on my hair only tightened as the tremors intensified.
A shadow burst from the trees, and my blood ran cold at the vicious, blood-thirsty snarl that rattled my brain. One second, I was pinned down – the next, the body on top of me was flung across the clearing, right into a tree trunk. Gasping harshly, I curled up under the shadow of the dark hulking figure braced above me and squeezed my eyes shut.
This isn’t real…
Like so many other times, the thought popped into my head suddenly, and I forced my breaths deeper into tight lungs.
Nothing was real here.
Nothing.
Not even the angry caterwauls that caused the earth to tremble and the leaves to shrivel on their branches.
“It’s not real- it’s not real- it’s not real…” Repeating the phrase over and over again in a whisper, I stiffened as a long, rough tongue caressed my cheek. The shadow’s growls caused the fine hairs on my face to stand up, and I cracked open one eye to find familiar, hateful, blue orbs glaring back at me.
But the hate – the disgust – wasn’t directed at me, and the creature licked my face again before surging with vicious rage at the Derek of my nightmares.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Linne
My bare feet pounded hard against the forest floor, and my nostrils flared widely to hoover up air to fuel my furiously rushing blood.
There wasn’t a single speck of light anywhere, but my power thrived in the dark. Not once did I collide with a tree despite the twigs and rocks that dug and snapped underfoot. Sweat poured down my back and threatened to drip into my eyes, and I swiped my forehead harshly only to feel an ache just behind the bone.
Magic suffused my wings even as I held them tight to my back, and I searched the shadows for any sign of Melinda. Without any light, submerged in darkness, I was in my element, and now that Nightmare Derek was busy, I could focus on my goal.
Skidding to a stop, I dropped to my knees to dig my fingers into the soft leaf litter coating the ground, and thick welts blanketed my skin. Raising my wings high, taut, I squeezed my eyes shut in concentration as threat rolled down my spine like magma. I could see him in my inner eye – the man that had shoved me into this place – the man that threatened everything.
Bareiijnr.
His face contorted in rage as he closed the distance between us, and I beat my wings hard in preparation. Shock ripped down my sternum when I actually lifted off the ground, and I blinked furiously as I flexed my feathered appendages experimentally. Realization hit me like a brick wall – this was it. I tore up the dirt beneath me as conviction suffused my veins.
Tension tightened the muscles in my legs as I pushed off, and I reached out my arms to the black abyss above and flapped wildly. One foot didn’t hit the ground, and my throat tightened as the leaves on the trees came closer. Grunting with the effort, my misused, latent muscles throbbed painfully, but I beat past it.
Derek – my Derek – was fighting, and I would not disappoint him.
Flailing in the air, my wings shuddered, and harsh pants filled the the atmosphere even as Bareiijnr drew closer and closer. Through the shadows, I watched him, and I righted myself with some difficulty to hover just above the canopy. Narrowing my inner eye, I frowned slightly when my adversary spread his wings wide and held out his arms, palms up.
The sky opened up above me, and I peered straight up as the darkness lightened with thick, angry clouds. Rain fell, but instead of the sweet caress of water, I felt the burn of acid kissing my skin and searing through my feathers. Harder and harder the droplets fell, growing heavier and bloated in the pregnant atmosphere, and I shivered as they bit into my flesh.
My mind raced, debating the ease with which I could land on the ground, against the simple fact that Bareiijnr wanted me to. Faint caterwauls and fierce snarls reached my ears, but the sound was drowned out by a booming, blood-freezing crack of thunder. Grinding my teeth past the pain that bore holes into my body, I clenched and released my fists absently before forcing my tattering wings to send me higher.
“I know you’re up there, you slave bitch! You can’t fly if you have no feathers!” Bareiijnr’s deep, angry voice rose through the suffocating atmosphere below, and I climbed higher even as my left wing faltered.
Rolling into a sharp dive, I held my breath in tight lungs and tucked my wings to gain speed as an idea popped into my head. Following the echo of Bareiijnr’s shout, I searched the shadows for him, but he wasn’t trying to hide.
No – he couldn’t hide from me… not here.
A shriek burst from my throat as I curved to avoid the ground, and my body crashed into Bareiijnr with a brutal, sickening ‘thunk’. We hit the ground, our entangled bodies skidding across the dirt, gouging it into a crater. Pushing him off me, I managed to sit astride him to grab his head. His knee collided hard with my lower back, and another pained yelp escaped me as I arched sharply. Red seeped into my vision, and I banged his head against the edge of the crater we’d made until he regained use of his hands.
Long fingers gripped my wing and yanked hard. Getting the upper hand, Bareiijnr rolled us over to shove his fist into my face. Gasping at the almost audible tearing of the muscles in my back, I flapped my useless wings even as he wrapped his hands around my throat. Hatred and rage burned from his eyes, and spittle dribbled from his sickly smirk onto my aching, swollen face.
“Got y
ou! Got you! Finally, got you!” Bareiijnr’s voice boomed louder with each repeat of his declaration, and he laughed maniacally before leaning down. His eyes, nothing more than dark slits, widened when he realized I wasn’t fighting back, and he bared his teeth at me like an animal. Even though he would be unaffected outside this dream realm since it was my mind we were inside, the satisfaction of what was about to happen roared in my ears.
“Got you…” My whisper sent shock rippling across Bareiijnr’s face before Derek’s massive jaws wrapped around his entire head. His body went limp with a sickening, wet ‘crunch’, and relief surged through me as my mate jerked up and dragged him away. Gasping for air, I rolled on my side, struggling to fill my lungs completely. Within moments, my mate returned to my side and rubbed his furry head against me, trying to comfort me. I looked up, feeling his warm, blood-stained breath on my skin.
“You – you – m-made it…” Rasping hoarsely, I reached a trembling hand to feel Derek’s face, and he licked my wrist and palm. His whiskers tickled my extra-sensitive skin, but they disappeared when he shifted into his human form.
“We still need to find the witch, babe. You can’t rest yet.” Deep and coarse, Derek’s arms wrapped around me tenderly, and I nodded dully as numbness spread down either side of my spine. “This is your nightmare, right? The bitch doesn’t control what you dream about, she just makes it bad, right? So you can do whatever you want – it’s still your mind… Linne, babe – don’t go to sleep.”
Rough fingers slick with blood tapped my cheek hard, and my eyelids fluttered as energy redirected to my brain to process what Derek had said. Shallow, uneven pants scraped against my throat, but it wasn’t enough to supply my furiously beating heart with oxygen.
“Linne! Fuck, babe! Don’t – don’t… if you go to sleep you’ll fucking die! Don’t you dare fucking do that! I swear to fucking Christ, I’ll – I’ll never forgive you if you don’t get the fuck up!” Shaking me hard, Derek’s rough voice caused the fine hairs on my face to stand up, and my eyelids struggled to open. My lips moved, but no sound came out; I couldn’t tell him not to be scared. I couldn’t tell him how scared his fear made me even as the numbness slithered into my chest to encase my heart.
“Fuck! Fuck! What about… what about your magic, babe huh? I want to see you as a lioness; you said we could try to figure out how to do that.” Derek’s voice cracked harshly, like lightning, and warm, thick droplets fell onto my cheeks. “You can’t die – not now. What kind of fucked up shit is that, huh?”
Forcing my eyelids apart, I could only faintly make out the glimmer of Derek’s bright blue eyes, but they became blurred. His tear fell directly on my eyelid, and my eyeballs rolled all the way back inside their sockets as my body seized. Shaking wildly, my brain gorged on magic that pulsed from my broken, abused wings, and my ears popped explosively. Strong arms tightened around me, and magic beat against the base of my skull until it cracked where it met my spine. The sound of it was like a muffled eruption – a volcano blowing its top – and his ragged, panic-tinged breath fanned down the bridge of my nose as blood seeped from my nostrils.
“No – no – no – no – no!” He growled a broken sound, his voice seeming like it was echoing through the longest tunnel. Derek cupped the back of my head to hold my cheek to his heart. “You can’t leave me! You’re my mate, Linne.”
Rocking back and forth, Derek’s hands shook as blood bubbled up through deep slits in my skin. My slow, fogged mind churned weakly.
I didn’t know he even had the ability to cry – to feel fear so intensely.
If he can cry, then what can I do?
My throbbing wings burned as they came alive, and they flapped and twitched wildly. Gasping hoarsely as Derek sat me up fully, I flopped forward over his forearm as my axillar struck the side of his head. His grunt echoed in my ears, but his arms only tightened around me, and I somehow managed to force my heavy eyelids open.
“You’re okay. You got this, babe. Just breathe. Stay awake. It’s okay – you’re okay.” Mumbling into my bloodied, matted hair, Derek ground his forehead against my crown as feeling slowly began to return to my fingertips. “I got you. I got you.”
“W – what-t… wha – ” The single word was all I could force off my swollen, heavy tongue, and I blinked blearily into the forest. Lifting his cheek from my hair, Derek stiffened at the tiny blip of light that flickered so far away.
“Melinda… Linne, babe, you have to get up – Melinda’s found the witch. We have to follow the light.” Before Derek was even finished mumbling, he jerkily pushed himself to his feet, and I let out a sharp cry when my broken wing dragged downwards and pulled on my muscles. “Come on, I can’t do this baby. It has to be you.”
“I c-can’t… my win-n-g…” Stuttering weakly, I leaned heavily on my mate as his chest vibrated in a vicious growl. “…it’s br-broken.”
“Fuck your stupid wing.” Wrapping his arm around my front, Derek grabbed my axillar to rip my wing violently from its joint. For a heartrending, long second, all I could feel was flesh ripping, but nothing else, and my lungs refused to work as he hissed venomously over me. “You don’t need your wings to fuck this cunt up.”
The fluttering of feathers rustled loudly in my ears just below Derek’s voice, and a blood curdling scream lodged in my tight throat to choke me. Gripping my left wing, he didn’t hesitate to rip it out, and blood poured from my wounds in an unstoppable torrent. It drenched my shorts and slipped down the backs of my legs, the hot liquid burning my skin before I realized what he’d done.
My wailing crackled through the dark forest like lightning – loud, high-pitched – and my throat constricted around the sound.
Derek ripped out my wings.
Derek ripped out my wings.
Derek ripped out my wings.
The phrase repeated itself in disbelief, circling furiously in my mind even as my mate started to drag me towards the tiny, blurry flicker of light. My shrieks only grew more intense with each round, and the pain that ripped through my entire body was almost unbearable. My feet scraped against the leaf litter, my legs refusing to hold me up. My muscles declined to work for any other reason but to fuel my mindless screams.
How was I supposed to find the witch if I didn’t have my wings?
“There! There, Linne!” Gripping my shoulders to push me in front of him, Derek held me up as his voiced boomed through the clearing. I hadn’t noticed how close the light was, and I automatically held up my hands palm out. “Do it!”
The rasping screech that rolled off my tongue was weak, but the familiar prickling of magic skittered across my skin. Throwing every ounce of energy I had left into my attack, I blinked hard to focus on the small candle that sat on a tree stump. Thoughts I didn’t know I had the concentration to form bombarded my mind, and I ground my teeth hard as Derek tightened his grip on my shoulders.
I needed her alive. I needed her to give me answers. I needed her to feel what I was going to do to her once she confessed.
I needed her to know – as Derek would say – how badly she fucked up…
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Derek
Gasping harshly, I jerked up to sit just as Linne came out of her nightmare to let out an ear-piercing shriek. Her wings flexed and beat wildly, powerfully, and I struggled to get my arms around her before she pushed me back with muscles gorged on panic and confusion. Falling off the couch, she scrambled onto her hands and knees as her wings knocked into the coffee table to wipe it clean. It hit the nearest wall with a sickening crack.
“Linne! Linne!” Shouting to be heard over her frantic, loud, senseless cries, I reached for her even as memories nearly blinded me. Linne whirled around with fire in her eyes and a feral snarl curling her lips, and my heart squeezed as she crouched defensively against the loveseat. “It’s okay – we’re back. We’re not in the nightmare anymore.”
My voice was steady, despite the confusion jammed between my ribs, and I swung my legs s
lowly over the side of the couch. Linne full-on growled at me with a sound I’d never heard her make before, and surprise ripped through me. Her wings clung close to her back protectively, but my gaze flew to Melinda with the hope that the old witch had any answers.
“What’s going on, Melinda? She’s acting like a fucking animal.” The urge to shift clogged my throat, and my eyes widened as they snapped back to my mate. “Fucking shit!”
Linne’s wings weren’t solid black anymore. They were dull gold and a deep onyx that shimmered blue at the edges. The same sandy gold coloring of a lioness.
My body transformed in less than the time it took to blink, and I launched myself the short distance to my mate with a nasty snarl. Linne tensed, the maelstrom in her eyes calming slightly, and confusion masked her face as I climbed on top of her. Her small oompf when I pinned her to the floor, rattled my bones.
Her wings rustled against my chest.
Time froze as I wrapped my jaws around the back of her neck, my sharp canines poised at her arteries, a warning growl ripping up my throat.
“I think the spell agitated the mate bond…” My eyes narrowed as they flickered to Melinda, and guilt crawled to nestle in her eyes and taint her thoughtful expression. “I didn’t even think of that… the spell must’ve changed your mate bond since it put you in her head. That must be how I could do it in the first place – the spell hitched a ride on the bond.”
Shifting back into my human form, I held Linne’s head down against the carpet with one hand and raked the other through my hair. Panting harshly, my chest heaved, and the hairs on my body stood up from the cold air flowing from the air conditioner.
But I couldn’t worry about my nakedness when there was something much more pressing to address.
“What the fuck did you do to us?” Linne started to struggle at my harsh snap, and I tore my eyes off the witch to subdue her with a grunt. Her wings stiffened and twitched against my thighs, but I was confident in my ability to hold her down. “What does that mean – changed the mate bond? How the fuck do you even change it?”
Finding My Mate Page 16
