by Marie Hall
He was chaos and he loved it.
“Hunter?” Sable laid her hand on his shoulder.
He yanked his hand off, gripping it tight to his chest. His breathing was heavy and he had to wipe the sweat from his brow. His entire body tingled, burned. He still felt the energy roll through him. It terrified him. Not because he couldn’t harness the power, but because he wanted it too much.
“That’s it,” his voice was sharp, “definitely it.”
Slayde’s palm turned crimson seconds before he blasted off a powerful beam. Hunter had less than a second to jump out of the way before the beam took him out.
The shot went true into the heart of the vein. The mountain shook, small pebbles skidded and bounced and a menacing rumble groaned from deep within.
Hunter kept his feet glued, refusing to give in to his obsession to touch it once more. “Hurry, Sladye.”
“I’m trying,” Slayde growled. He shot off another blast, it cracked the wall, exposing more of the gold. Hunter gasped. It was beautiful. So tempting.
“Stop, Slayde.” Sable grabbed his hand. “You’ll collapse the cave in on us. Do it from outside.”
The thing needed to be destroyed. It was too much power. Too much. But Hunter wanted it. Wanted that feeling of power to engulf him again. His nostrils flared. He needed to touch it. Just once more. A little taste. A small caress.
He reached out his hand, fingers inches from it when a flood of intense fear engulfed him, ripping the breath from his lungs.
Synnergy.
“Finish the source,” he yelled, swiping open a portal. “I have to get to her!”
“Who?” Sable cried.
But he didn’t have time to answer. He stepped inside the swirling vortex and followed Synn’s energy traces. People left traces of themselves wherever they went. If you were angry, the traces were red. And if you were searching for something, they were white. But if you were hopeless, if you were lost, they were a mix of the two.
Synn’s essence was a shimmering veil of pink so thick it bathed the woods in a frothy foam.
He followed the trace; until it was so bright it almost blinded him. Hunter stepped through his portal, eyes searching frantic for her. He heard a grunt and then smelled blood. It was everywhere. Something was slithering beside her making faint wuffing sounds. Like it was licking something.
He roared. Shadow moved.
His vision blanketed. Went red. He felt his muscle ripping, felt himself growing. Getting taller. Growing bigger. Bigger. Bigger. Couldn’t stop it.
“Synn!” Her name came out slurred from a face distorted, no longer human. No longer normal.
Blood rushed hot through his veins. Pumping him full of madness. Then he couldn’t think anymore. But he could smell.
A growl ripped from his throat just as the horns tore from his skull. He howled. In pain. In madness. He no longer knew.
An answering snarl came from his left.
He leaped after it. The shadow ran. Which only made him hungrier, only increased his excitement. His legs chewed up the turf. Anything in his path was razed. He tore. He ripped things up.
Something soft crunched underfoot. For a second he thought maybe that wasn’t good. Maybe it was something he shouldn’t have done. But then he forgot that as the shadow danced away.
He ran. He jumped. Then tackled it to the ground. It snapped at him. Jaws wide, fangs extended and reaching for his throat.
A sound tore from his face. It might have been a laugh, but it was deep and hollow. He had fangs too. Bigger ones. Better ones.
They curled around the thick throat of the shadow. The shadows claws sank into his back. He grunted, but forced his teeth in deeper. The shadow shoved at him. Pushed. Rolled. Tried to get out from under him. The strength was incredible and whipped his blood into a frenzy.
Want. So much want.
The blood. It was everywhere. Smelled so good.
Hunger ripped through him. He needed it. Wanted it. He shook his head. Blood squirted hot and rich onto his tongue. He shook harder. Meat started to tear.
Hungry. So hungry. Hadn’t eaten in days. He started to eat even before it breathed its last.
Chapter 15: We fight
Slayde nodded. “It’s done.”
The rubble fall out looked like a mini nuke had been detonated. Dust floated in a constant gray sheet around her.
Sable coughed. But there was no escaping it, repeatedly forced to inhale it and then coughing to clear her lungs of it. It was amazing the sheer amount of red plasma Slayde had shot out to finally get the cave to collapse in on itself.
If Dragden somehow had some way of coming back and clearing the rubble out it might still be there. But even if he did, this was a task that would take years. If not decades. She could only hope it was enough.
“Where do you think Hunter’s gone?” she asked, taking short choppy breaths. Her lungs rattled, she felt like she was doing nothing but sucking the dust up worse.
Slayde had a hand over his nose and mouth, his eyes were blood shot. He reached for her hand, his skin was clammy and she worried that he’d drained himself too much trying to destroy the vein.
“Let’s go find them,” he said. “Get us out of here, Nix.”
That was all the prompting she needed. Sable called her fire and felt an immediate flood of relief as the flames singed the dust around them.
But the relief was short lived. When the flames died and she was her bird, she started sneezing even worse. But these sneezes were more like high-pitched whistles through the slits in her beak.
Slayde snorted.
She squawked at him. He cringed and plugged his ears with his fingers.
Sable wrapped her wings around him, drawing him into her. He gripped onto her feathers and she lifted off the ground. Her powerful wings caused a downdraft. Soaring, she was finally able to take a breath free of dust.
They were high in the sky when Slayde pointed to a muted green glow. “There,” he said.
Sable flew gently to the ground. When they landed, Slayde released her and ran to a very wounded Ari. The glow shimmered off her still form, like the gentle current of a tide drawing onto the beach. He yanked her up to his ear. There wasn’t a spot on her that wasn’t coated in blood.
She was gouged and sliced everywhere. Her neck lolled and Sable bit her lip, hoping it wasn’t snapped. What had happened here? When did she even leave them? She’d thought Ari was outside waiting on them.
“She’s alive,” he said, “barely. Her pulse is really weak.”
Where was Hunter? Why had he left her? Had he even found her? But how could he not? The sickly sweet stench of blood was everywhere.
“I don’t know what to do, Nix,” Slayde looked as helpless as she felt. She called her fire to her, and shifted, ready to go find Hunter when she sensed a presence.
She screamed into the darkness. Slayde groaned, dropping Arianna as he covered his ears. She had only seconds. Sable jumped in front of them, extending her wings and then something slammed into her and this power was unlike anything she’d ever felt in her life.
Sable had no more time to think about Slayde or Arianna. Whatever had rammed into her was turning on nimble feet. It gripped her at the base of her body squeezing with arms that felt like bands of serrated steel sawing her in half.
She pounded her beak into the hands repeatedly. Over and over she dove at the fingers that were squeezing the life from her body. Black dots swam in her vision. She had to get this thing away from them.
But the harder she fought, the harder it squeezed.
“Sable!” Slayde cried, helplessness rang in his tone.
Sable fought to free her wings and sank her talons into the meat of its thigh. Freed, she lifted off the ground. Fire ripped through her shoulder as the thing began to tear at her. She couldn’t sustain them, it was too heavy. She knew they were going to come crashing down hard. But the point was to get it away from Ari and Slayde. With every last ounce of strength she p
ossessed she threw her body a few feet over. But at the last moment the beast flipped around, its momentum tossing her like she weighed no more than a feather back to where they’d started.
She was going to die. Its hands were on her neck, squeezing and she heard voices. But they were so small. So far away. Searing pain in her lungs.
Legs wrapped around her body and clutched harder and something snapped. She would have screamed, except it had clamped her beak shut.
She could barely see. Her nose was filled with the scent of blood. Hers? Maybe. She’d wounded it. But not enough. Not enough.
Just as she thought it was over, a burst of green light exploded in the woods, lighting up the night. The light healed. The light was beautiful. And lovely. Perfect. Warm and safe.
It rolled over her, massaging, protecting, saving. She closed her eyes, it felt so good. So wonderful. Like a million tiny fingers mending and stitching her back together again.
The hands gripping her neck, stealing the life from her body, inexplicably fell away. Something thudded to the ground beside her.
Sweet air rushed into her lungs. It was delicious and cool. Wonderful.
Hands grabbed her. Caressed her.
“Nix? Nix? Can you hear me?”
She called her fire, expecting it to hurt. But it didn’t. It covered her in a blanket of flame before returning her to her alter form.
Sleepy. So sleepy.
“Nix, wake up.” Slayde slapped her hard on the cheek and the sting had her eyes flying open. His eyes were fully opaque, his hair the reddest she’d ever seen and he wrapped her in his arms. Gripping her so tight to him that she almost couldn’t breathe because her nose was pinned against his chest.
She clutched his back.
“Are you hurt? God, he looked like he was going to kill you.”
Who was he talking about? She should be injured. She knew that. She’d felt stuff break, heard the sick crunch of bone popping and snapping. Remembering vividly the rip of her flesh and the blood everywhere. But there was nothing now.
Exhaustion had her in a vice grip, but that was it. Like she’d jogged a marathon and could use twenty hours of uninterrupted sleep, but there was no pain.
“Who was that? Another Lord?” she croaked with a grit filled voice.
Slayde pointed to the spot next to her.
And her jaw dropped. It was Hunter. He was totally nude, curled in on himself. Dirt smudged him from head to toe and he was covered in what looked like blood and gore.
“Hunter?”
She tried to look for something to cover him with. But there was nothing. She touched his waist; it was hot to the touch. He was breathing softly, as if asleep. But he also wasn’t injured. She’d hurt him. She’d torn her beak through his flesh, had felt his blood on her tongue.
“What is he?” She looked at Slayde. Her heart raced. “What is he, Slayde?”
“I don’t know, Nix.”
“Where’s Ari?” she asked, looking all around for the healer. Her brain was a mass of confusion, what was going on here? Nothing was making sense.
He looked over his shoulder and pointed. “There was a green light and then she disappeared.”
Sable rubbed her nose. Her head started to pound. “What do you mean she vanished?”
“I mean the ground opened up and swallowed her, Sable.”
She waited for him to laugh, to roll his eyes, to do something other than stare at her with a helpless look in his eyes.
Hunter’s foot twitched a second before he shot to his feet. “Where is she?” he asked, panic gleamed in the crystal blue depths of his eyes. “Did I?”
Slayde nodded. “Whatever the hell you are, Hunter Gray, you’d better tell us now. Because I swear—”
Sable grabbed his wrist just as Slayde made to lunge for the still very naked Hunter. His skin was honey smooth with roped muscles of perfection except for the distended belly. A macabre reminder of what he’d been doing what they caught him.
“Fighting solves nothing. Hunter,” she looked at him hard, “I don’t know who you are, or what you are, but I think we need to talk.”
“Where’s Synn?” He turned. “I smelled her and then,” he shuddered, his back spasmed so hard she thought he might tear a muscle, “where is she?”
Sable pointed to the lump of overturned earth. “Slayde says she was swallowed.”
Relief, not the emotion she’d expected to see, overcame Hunter and his shoulders slumped. “Thank God,” he groaned, “thank God.”
“How can you say that?” Slayde snapped.
Hunter’s nostrils flared and Sable sensed he was on a knife’s edge of going completely unhinged. She pulled him into her, snuggling against his chest and felt his trembling’s immediately ease. He rubbed her back in a soothing up and down motion.
“That means she wasn’t dead. She’s healing. From the earth she was created and to the earth she will return.” His words were cryptic and not very enlightening. “She’ll come back,” he said after a moment, his conviction ringing true.
They grew silent. Each thinking their own thoughts. Each wondering about the other.
“What now?” Slayde asked after what felt like an eternity.
“We wait for Synn to come back. Then we rest.” He looked at Sable. “You need to find the location of another source.”
He was acting like nothing had happened. Ignoring their question completely. But Sable read the fear still lingering in his eyes. Hunter was haunted; they needed to get him to talk. To tell the truth finally, or they’d never be able to move past this.
Slayde snorted. “Hell no. I’m done with this crap. You almost killed her tonight.” He shook his head. “I didn’t sign up for this.” His hand continued to rub up and down her spine. The touch seemed as much for him as it was for her.
Sable was tempted to agree with him.
Hunter looked sad, his mouth turned down in a frown before he said, “I wish we could walk away. Believe me I do. But we cannot escape our destiny. Slayde, you’re bound to protect her, and Sable,” he pinned her with that eagle eye stare that saw everything, “your destiny is to find and destroy Dragden. You know that as well as I do.”
She wished she could deny it. Wish she could laugh and say it wasn’t true. Destiny be damned. She grabbed Slayde’s hand and the second their hands intertwined she knew he knew. He shook his head.
“No, Nix. Please,” he whispered, “next time he might kill you. Let’s go. Let’s leave. Please.”
She doubted he’d ever beg anyone the way he’d just done her. She knew her desire to stay would be like a betrayal to him, but Hunter was right. The Phoenix had to destroy Dragden, there was no other choice. Because if she didn’t, he would destroy her.
She ran her finger along the stubble of his jaw, tracing the lines that she knew if she closed her eyes, she’d be able to recall from memory.
“Come here,” she whispered.
His eyes were twin pools of hurt and her heart clenched at the pain she caused him. But he lowered his head and she blocked out the sounds of the night, the crickets gentle chirp, the breeze laden with pine, the hoot of hunting owls. She only saw him.
“I can’t do it without you, Slayde. You ground me, you keep me safe. But I have to fight. Hunter’s right. I can’t walk away.”
He closed his eyes and she kissed him. Kissed all her fears, all her pain, all her desire for him into his body. He trembled. They didn’t stop until he came up for breath. He rubbed his nose with hers, his hands so gentle as they gripped the sides of her face.
“Then we stay and fight.” He sighed. “Because I won’t leave you, Nix. I can’t.” The softness fled his face. “You,” he said to Hunter, “you’d better tell us what is going on right now. Starting with who are you really?”
Hunter’s jaw clicked. “You don’t understand.”
“Oh, I understand all right. I understand your lies almost killed her.” He pointed to the mound of dirt. “Almost killed Ari.”
> He shook his head. “No, that wasn’t me. That was Dragden’s beast. I came to save her. I...the blood. I...”
Sable stood. “Hunter, look at me.”
He looked, the pain written within was unending torment. Deep pits of hurt and fear. She walked to him, grabbed his hand and did not flinch, even though touching him made her tremble. He’d almost killed her. She couldn’t forget who he’d been. What he was. Which Hunter was real?
“You asked me once to trust you. Now I’m asking you to do the same.”
He hung his head. “You don’t understand. The last time you found out it very nearly killed Errol. It destroyed Synn’s faith in me.”
Her heart clenched at the utter hopelessness in his voice. “But I’m not Errol, I’m Sable. These are not the same times. We killed a Lord tonight. We can do it again. But this...this cannot happen again.”
“You want the truth?” he asked, voice challenging her to accept the dare.
“Yes.”
He threw her hand away from him and turned his back. “The truth is I’m the monster you should fear.”
Chapter 16: Not soon enough
He slept on.
But he was aware.
He was waking.
A new dawn was coming.
They might think him weak.
Asleep.
Unable to fight.
But they were wrong.
He would win.
He always won.
Chapter 17: Somewhere in time...
The End…
For now…
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Marie Hall Books
