The Wrath of the Chosen

by K. C. Hamby

  “Damien!” I snarl. “Leave her alone you cowardly bastard! Your fight is with me!”

  He chuckles.

  “Now now, Reaper. Let’s not be rash. Why would I leave her alone? You and I both know I’m not one to be fair.” He sneers and yanks Nina up from the floor by her upper arm. I roar and beg my limbs to move, but they remain in place. “Besides,” he coos, touching Nina’s face, “she’s just too pretty to leave alone.” He grabs a lock of her hair and rubs it against his face, sniffing in her scent. I curse, I scream, I push my body to move. My hands move forward and I keep pushing, crawling across the floor in agonizing slow motion.

  Nina glares up at him and spits in his face. I’m talking about she nails him right in the eyes. His head jerks back in disgust and he wipes his face slowly. He smirks down at her defiant stance and grabs a giant fistful of her hair, yanking her closer to him and pulling a scream from her throat; a scream that pierces through everything in the room. A high pitch noise replaces her scream, penetrating through my very being. I moan, my brain feeling like it’s going to explode. I watch in painful fascination as Invidia grabs her ears and falls to her knees. Damien’s knees buckle and he releases his grip on Nina’s hair as he sinks to the ground. Ash, who has managed to crawl closer to me, wails in torment, clawing at his ears.

  And just as suddenly, it stops and Nina’s shoulders sink in exhaustion. Damien rises to his feet, facing her with outrage pulsing around him. He rears back and slaps Nina right on her face; her beautiful face. Blood breaks through a new cut on her cheek and she slams into the wall, crumpling to the floor.

  Fire. A new fire burns through the poison in my veins, motivated by that son of a bitch putting his hands on her. My Mate. I stand, fingernails extending into claws and canines lengthening. I step in Damien’s direction, fully planning on tearing his freckles off on by one, cutting off his fingers, his ears, his tongue; planning on annihilating him.

  In an instant, something wraps around my ankle and yanks my feet out from under me. I catch myself before my head bashes into the ground and turn to find the culprit.

  Invidia has her whip in her hand, eyeing me with so much hate, Hades may want her as an apprentice. The end of the black, leather whip is embracing my ankle, digging into my laced, leather boots. I glare at her, my canines gleaming.

  “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” she yells with a laugh, pulling her whip away so quickly, and snapping it back against my upper thigh, it cuts through the leather and slashes my skin. I stand back up, roaring. I run at her, daring her to fight me. She smirks and slings her whip toward me with a flick of her wrist, but I put my forearm up and let it slap around my wrist cuff. It digs in, but I give a hard yank, causing the whip to fly out of her hands. I throw it to the ground behind me and cut eyes set to kill at her.

  Terror briefly flashes in her eyes before she hides it with an ugly sneer. “You wanna play, Reaper? Let’s play.” She shifts and lands on four paws, snapping her teeth and snarling. She’s a small, sable and white wolf, but she’s aggressive and fast. She used to play dirty in training. The funny thing is, she thinks I won’t shift. She thinks she has beaten me.

  Man, is she wrong.

  I smirk at her snapping mutt face, laughing darkly.

  “It’s on, bitch.”

  I shift. I land on four, big, black paws and crouch, snapping my jaws and exposing my teeth. I growl low in my chest and Invidia takes a step back. It’s small, but it’s enough for me to know she’s terrified. I’m twice her size with ten times her muscle.

  We circle each other, snapping and snarling, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack. Damien moves from Nina to watch and Invidia, for only a brief second, turns her gaze to him.

  I lunge, landing on top of her with saliva dripping from my exposed teeth. She yelps in surprise and falls to her back beneath me; a pose of submission. Her ears flatten to her head as she whines in surrender, but I’m not falling for that shit.

  I grab her by the scruff of her neck and toss her across the room. She lands, taking a second to right herself. She shakes her fur and charges straight for me. I crouch and leap over her, but she’s anticipated this. She reaches up with her mouth and snags the skin if my neck in her teeth. I tumble down, rolling in the dirt until I stop in a heap.

  “Fal!” Ash screams. “Get up!”

  My neck is wet with copper smelling liquid. I’m dizzy, but not as dizzy as Invidia thinks. She charges at me again, but I’m ready.

  “Fal!” Nina shrieks from her place on the floor.

  Invidia leaps to land on top of me, but I roll on my back, sticking my paws out in front of me. Using her momentum, I throw her over me and she lands and skids on the floor to a halt, shifting involuntarily with surprise. I stand, shake, and shift back to my person, running at her. She scrambles up, trying to find a defensive stance, but I hook her with my right fist and break her nose with a snap. She grabs her nose with a moan and I axe kick her right under her chin. She soars through the air, gasping and flailing. She lands on the ground with a thud, coughing and spitting blood and broken teeth.

  I charge. I pick her worthless body up by her throat and drive her to the wall, slamming her head against the rusted metal. She chokes on sobs and has the fucking audacity to beg for her life.

  “Fal please! I’m sorry!” I slam her head into the wall again. I push myself against her, allowing my monster side to take over again. I breathe in the fear soaking her scent.

  “Do you want to know why you’re not an assassin?” I whisper seductively in her ear. She whimpers and shakes her head no as much as my choking hold will allow. I pull back and glower at her, my lips tilting up into a malicious sneer. “Because you’re a fucking coward.” I pull the trigger on my springblade and it jabs into her throat, straight through her trachea, spewing more blood on my face. I pull the blade out and watch her slide to the ground, drowning in a river of her own blood.

  “Impressive!” Damien exclaims and I whip around to glare at him. He claps his hands like he’s just watched the finale to a Broadway show. He glances at Nina behind him and she juts her chin out in defiance. Damien snorts and pulls his attention back to me. He grabs his beloved sickle from a holster on his belt and twirls it in his hands. “Now, the real party begins.”

  I yank Nathan’s dagger from my belt, ignoring the red flood flowing from my neck and onto my breastplate. I crouch and hold the dagger out protectively in front of me, it’s shiny blade aimed to the ground. The Wolfsbane is still breathing fire into my blood, but my body is working hard to fight it out. My head pounds and blood drips down from my nose, proving how hard my body is straining.

  “Aw, are you feeling okay?”

  “Better than ever,” I spit and run at him with an agonizing yell. He crouches and smiles, waiting for me. As I approach, he slices at my face, the blade whirring above my head as I duck beneath it. I slam into his stomach, knocking him to the ground with the impact. He laughs as I lunge for him, shoving his foot into my stomach and sending me flying over him. I front roll when I hit the ground and yank myself up with a kick of my legs. I fight to pull in breath from his kick, the air wheezing into my lungs with each breath. He slices at me again and the blade slides across the breastplate and through the inverted torch.

  I snarl, jabbing the dagger at his chest, but he is one step ahead of me. He steps back and roundhouse kicks the dagger from my grasp; it clatters to the ground somewhere I can’t see.

  The next thing I know, Damien’s fist is flying toward my face. Before I can even blink, his knuckles make hard contact with my jaw and I tumble to the floor, my jaw throbbing. My head bounces off the ground, nearly knocking me senseless. My vision blurs as Damien strides toward me, an evil smile on his lips. Or, at least I think.

  “Fal!” Ash screams and crawls as fast as he can in my direction. I look to him and shake my head, mouthing ‘Nina’.

  He can’t worry about me. He has to save Nina. He stops crawling and nods once with sorr
ow filling his painstricken eyes. He glances in Nina’s direction and pure terror covers his face.

  I turn back to Damien coming closer, but he stops suddenly, a blood curdling wail ripping from his throat. I scramble to a sitting position, not understanding what’s happening. Well, until I look closer.

  Nina. She found the dagger and she’s shoved it into his side, not able to sink the blade anywhere else. I growl in fury.

  “Nina! Get away from him!” I open my mouth to tell her to run, but Damien is faster than me. He slides the dagger from his flesh, grabs Nina’s shoulder, and plunges the blade up into her chest with one swift move. Nina’s mouth falls open in shock as Damien yanks the blade out and tosses the dagger to the floor in fury.

  I scream. I howl. I cry.

  Nina drops to her knees with glazed over eyes searching for me. She coughs and blood sputters from her mouth as she falls to her side.

  I snap up, fueled by wrath and love and everything Damien has ever taken from me. I screech and run at him, fury pushing everything in me as fast as I can go. I wrap my arms around his waist and tackle him to the ground, pounding at his face, clawing at his eyes, punching my knuckles bloody until he is unrecognizable. I grab the dagger from the floor and sink it into his chest, pulling it out and slicing his throat. He wheezes and coughs, but I throw myself off him and crawl over to Nina. My Nina.

  “Nina. Oh, Nina.” I drag her into my lap. “Nina, baby, say something. Anything.” I brush her hair from her face and rub my thumbs over her pale cheeks. Her eyes open and her lips turn into a blood-soaked smile. Her body shakes with each breath and I moan in sorrow.

  “I love you,” she whispers. I rock her in my arms and strain my neck to kiss her bloody lips.

  “Oh goddess, Nina I love you. It’s going to be okay.” I sob and I don’t know if I’m trying to convince her or me. She coughs and blood spatters from her mouth all over me. I hold her to me as tightly as I can, ignoring the hole in her chest painting her blue shirt red. “You’ll be fine.” She opens her mouth to speak, but I shush her. “Save your strength. You’ll be okay. You will because I need you.” I cry and caress her soft, freckled cheek.

  She smiles again, but it’s taken away by her body heaving. I clutch onto her for dear life, thinking that maybe if I hold her tight enough, this won’t be real. She’ll be fine.

  She coughs and wheezes and blood pours from her mouth, but I still hold her. I won’t let go. I have to keep her safe.

  She closes her pain-filled sapphire eyes and a shudder rocks through her body. I watch her lips as she takes in another ragged breath and just…..stops moving.

  “Nina. Nina Nina Nina,” I repeat, rubbing her face and begging her to wake up. Her head lulls lifelessly and I start to hyperventilate. “No. No no no, Nina. Baby, please!” I scream at her like she can hear me. “Goddammit no!” I sob and touch my forehead to hers. Her skin has already begun cooling, her heart is no longer pumping warmth through her veins.

  My cries and screams rip through the quiet warehouse, insurmountable grief gripping my entire soul.

  She’s gone. I was supposed to protect her and she’s gone. Just like Nathan, she’s been snatched away from me when I was supposed to keep her safe.

  My entire world is closing in on me, and I want it to take me too. I can’t live without her. How am I supposed to? How can I save myself from the darkness without her to fight it off?

  I’m lost and there’s no light on the porch to call me home.

  I pull Nina’s lifeless body close and rock her.

  “Fal?” Ash whispers from across the room. “Fal, we need to go.”

  “No! I will not leave her alone!” I brush hair off her still face the wind has blown into her eyes.

  Wait.

  Wind? We’re inside.

  I peer up from Nina and watch as fog surrounds us, making it difficult to breathe. It grabs Nina’s body and she’s lifted from my arms.

  I panic.

  “No! You can’t take her from me!” I wail into the fog with a cracking voice and scorching throat, not sure who I’m talking to. I grab onto her for dear life, refusing to let her be taken. Something socks me in the stomach and I’m thrown onto the hard ground, air knocked out of my lungs. A blinding light flashes throughout the warehouse and the fog evaporates. My side burns like I actually am on fire and I scream and scream and scream until my throat is raw.

  As suddenly as it came, the pain disappears and I’m left writhing on the floor with tears soaking my face. I pant, catching my breath, staring at the rusted ceiling wondering how the hell this building is still standing when I hear a thump. I roll over and look in the direction of the noise and nearly choke.

  Nina. She lies on the floor in front of me, except, she’s different. Her wavy, honey blonde hair is now stark white. It shines in the dim light of the warehouse like snow on the mountains. I crawl to her and find a skeleton key dangling from around her neck.

  Her eyes pop open and I think I nearly shit myself.

  She gasps, coughing and I scream. “Nina!” I gather her in my arms, staring down at her glacier eyes, no longer the sapphire blue I know. Her irises are icy and nearly white like Hecate’s. And, like the glaciers are melting, tears well in her eyes.

  “Faligator?” she whispers and I laugh and cry and rub her cheeks. I’ve never been so happy to hear the ridiculous nickname come from her lips. She sits up and wraps her arms around me, sobbing loudly into my shoulder.

  She pulls back and all I see is her.

  But I come to realize it’s because my sight is darkening and I have tunnel vision. Nausea sweeps over me and I sway on my knees; sweat breaks out all over my body and I fall over from lack of balance.

  “Fal!” Nina and Ash yell simultaneously. Ash scrambles over, kicking up dirt in his wake, still groaning from the poison. Nina bends over me like an angel. A halo of light surrounds her as my vision fades. I think, if I’m dying, looking into her eyes is the best way to go.

  Everything fades to black.

  ***

  I wake up with a start and sit up so fast I nearly do a front flip. Ash jerks his head up from between his knees and Nina cheers.

  “What…what the hell happened?” I ask, rubbing my head.

  “You blacked out from blood loss, you idiot,” Ash scolds. “Your neck was ripped open pretty badly.” I scrunch my face in surprise.

  “Then, how am I alive?”

  “Nina healed you with her weird witchiness,” Ash jokes and Nina blushes. The life behind her cheeks is everything I could hope for.

  “Yeah, I uh, I healed you, sort of,” she stutters. I don’t even care, I’m just glad she’s alive and I’m alive to see her be alive. I pull her to me and breathe in her wonderful scent. My side throbs in pain and I flinch. “What’s wrong?” Nina asks frantically, brushing hair out of my face and searching my eyes.

  “My side, it burns.” I pull off my armor and expose my ribs to her inspecting hands. Chills run over my skin from only being covered in a sports bra, but not because I’m cold. Nina’s hands touch me softly, something I thought I would never feel again. She gasps and prods my skin with her fingers. “What? What is it?”

  “Your Mark, it’s different,” she admits and I awkwardly bend my body to see. Hecate’s wheel is still there, but two crescent moons sit on either side of the wheel, turning the whole symbol into a goddess’s triple moon.

  “The fuck?” I ask to no one, really. What does this mean? Nina’s eye widen and she pulls up the side of her shirt to show me her ribs.

  “I remember pain on my side, too. Is it…..?” Nina asks open-ended and my heart lurches a bit. The same triple moon symbol is etched across her skin too.

  “One of Chosen worth,” I whisper at the mark.

  “Ah man,” Ash groans. “I’m a dick.”

  “Probably, but why?” I ask.

  “Explain,” Nina says with a scolding look directed at me.

  “I thought Nina was the one deceiving us,” he admit
s and Nina scoffs. “It didn’t make sense that the necklace was reacting with us all there.”

  “We thought it was you because you were acting shifty,” Nina fires back, a little offended at his accusation.

  “But, Invidia, I’m sorry. I had no idea,” he chokes out.

  “No one knew. It’s not your fault, Ash.” I grab his hand and squeeze. He glances up at me with sorrow and gratefulness. He shakes off the mood almost instantly, but I know the betrayal stings. He loved her.

  “So, Nina. You’re the secret revealed by the dagger,” Ash announces, gesturing to the bloody blade lying on the floor. “You’re of Chosen worth, but you’re not Lupi, so that makes you….?”

  “Hecate’s Prophetess.” My head jerks back to her in surprise at the revelation. “She told me when I…well..you know…”

  “When you died,” Ash finishes bluntly. I shoot him a look to make him shut up. “What? It’s true. She died. I saw it and I sure as hell know you saw it.” He points at me and I cringe, remembering Nina’s lifeless body in my arms.

  I shake it off and look at her now. Prophetess of Hecate. Pride swells in my chest, but so does worry. I pull her close again and breathe her in.

  “Fal,” Ash starts and the same look I say in his eyes earlier comes back. “I’ve never seen anyone move so fast. I didn’t even get a hold of one Poacher.” He stares at me as the words sink in. “You took all of them out yourself.”

  “I had plenty of motivation,” I murmur and squeeze Nina’s hand.

  “Okay, but goddamn. You were flying through them. It was…”

  Terrifying. Horrible. Like a monster.

  “Amazing,” Nina breathes. My head jerks to her. I nearly sob at the acceptance and love in her eyes.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I say and help Nina stand, not acknowledging what they’ve said. But, Nina’s not the wobbly one. I am.