by K. C. Hamby
“Thanks, babe,” Fal breathes with a blood-dotted smile and Moves several times, each landing slicing the Poachers’ throats who dare to stand against her.
And here I thought she was a killing machine before.
I was very wrong.
Chapter 72
Ash
Eddie snaps off legs and tears off faces, her wolf’s maw dripping with red, hot blood. Poachers are trembling in her presence, but they seem to be mostly going after her, the other Lupi only an obstacle.
Breathe in.
Kick a Poacher in the face.
Breathe out.
In a flash of fire, Eddie shifts into her Fury form and pulls her sword out of its sheath at her side, eyes glowing when flames light up the steel. Blood sizzles and burns as she drives the blade through chests and throats, taking no prisoners, showing no mercy.
I squat at the last second when a Poacher runs at me with a last-ditch attempt to hurt someone now that he has been disarmed. I ram my shoulder into his stomach and flip him over me, dropping the blade of my axe on his neck as soon as he hits the ground.
Dipshit.
Eddie glides around Poachers between winking in my direction, fighting them in a deadly dance of graceful skill. Every movement is perfect, her breaths flowing through her with every slice.
I’m in my own fighting zone, making sure I don’t fuck up even one small step in this onslaught of carnage.
Breathe in.
Stab.
Breathe out.
Dodge and slice.
Breathe in.
Move on to the next Poacher.
Breathe out.
Throw the axe.
I wish I could be as graceful as Eddie. I mean, I’m fucking amazing at fighting, don’t get me wrong. I know when I hit, I do it perfectly each time. I trained my whole life for fighting, even when I wasn’t an Alpha assassin. But Eddie makes the deadly chess game of carnage seem so effortless. She is ruthless with her sword and is capable of killing everyone here with a smile on her face in perfect, measured breaths.
My eyes often drift to her as she moves efficiently over the blood-soaked battle ground, but not enough that I’m distracted. No, my head is where it should be.
Her sudden feral war cry is electric in my veins and I smile after flinging my dagger into a girl’s ear to the hilt, watching Eddie for only a second.
I got distracted.
But only for a fucking second.
One. Second.
And…pain.
It pops into my chest so many times, it’s like my sternum is made of bubble wrap and someone is stomping on it with concrete boots. The agony is blooming fire and presents itself in liquid crimson when I look down.
The breath leaves me with a rip of torture as I watch my ruined chest, holes everywhere leaking scarlet in a devastating flash flood.
I touch my shirt before I can think and my hand comes away red, hot, and sticky.
When I peer back up, my eyes meet Eddie’s as she turns around.
Everything quiets to slow motion.
The violence induced smile on Eddie’s lips quickly falls into an open mouth of panic. She’s screaming, I know, I can see it in the strain of her neck, but I don’t hear her.
I don’t hear anything until my back hits the ground.
“Ash!” It’s a frantic scream across the world and her panic shocks its way through the bond.
I try to swallow the blood creeping up my throat, but my chest hurts so fucking bad. The pain spreading through me like lightning takes the rest of my breath away.
“Ash?” It’s a question from a familiar voice.
Fal Pal?
“Ash!” Fal’s cry is brutal.
Blackness clouds around the edges of my vision as I watch Eddie’s face of horror turn into one of pure vengeance all the way across the battlefield. She cuts through Poacher after Poacher, not even giving them a second glance before their heads hit the ground.
Eddie is pissed.
And she’s heading my way.
Chapter 73
Falen
“Ash!”
The scream rips through my throat. Why am I so emotional?
He is your brother, you fucking asshat!
The voice in my head sends a shock of hot rage through my blood.
Your brother who loves you. Your brother who has never given up on you. Even when you hurt him. Even when you aimed to destroy him.
Your brother who is mortal and weak. Your brother who would stand in your way to glory.
I shake my head, confused at the warring within myself. The Monster took control when all this fighting started. Her influence is still heavy in my mind.
Rage I don’t seem to understand stings my veins as I slice through bodies of Poachers left and right. Poachers who came to my island and hurt the people I…
A head falls. I keep going, cutting a path to Ash.
People I, what?
Blood coats Ash’s chest with every shallow breath.
“Ash!”
My heart stutters a beat and I slide to a stop.
Nina.
She runs like an angel of fury, arrows flying at anyone who gets near him.
A Poacher raises a gun at her.
Move, you fucking moron! screams the Monster.
I do.
I Move right beside Nina just as the shot rings out. I grab her arm and Move before the bullet has a chance to make a devasting blow.
We land next to the Poacher and I flip my knife from my boot to my hand, slitting his throat in one swift motion.
We are Moving again before he hits his knees.
We land right beside Ash and all the blood rushes out of my face when I see how much he has lost. Every breath adds to the pool darkening the grass beneath him, its stain growing too quickly and poisoning the ground.
“Ash!” Nina screams as he coughs, blood sputtering on his lips. She drops by his side and thumbs blood from his cheeks. A pulse of energy surrounds us, and bullets bounce off an invisible wall.
She’s been using her energy so much. Too much.
“Nina...”
All I care about is Nina, the Monster whispers.
Her nose has started bleeding and it drips to her lips when she turns to me. “Fal...Ash...is he...going to..”
“He better fucking not,” I snap, my humanity shoving forward with eyes blazing fury.
Nina’s pleading brings me back to my brother dying right in front of me.
I throw off my shirt and shove it onto his chest. Basic medical training tells me it’s a sucking chest wound. Air is pushing in and out of the bullet holes with every breath and causes little bubbles in his blood.
His lungs have definitely been hit.
“Why do you care?” The Monster asks, appearing on the other side of Ash with a deep frown. She squats across from me, glaring at my brother like she’s absolutely disgusted with him.
Nina gasps when she looks up and screams at the sight of the Monster.
Shit. Others can see her now, too?
“He’s my brother!” I yell at the Monster’s stupid face.
“He is weak,” she counters, gesturing at the blood pouring out of him at a disturbingly rapid pace.
“No! You are weak!”
She pulls a knife from her boot and moves it to Ash’s throat. “Best to end his suffering, right? That way you have all the power. He’s being a very large inconvenience right now.”
“No!”
I release my hold on the shirt and lunge over Ash, tackling the Monster as she raises the blade to strike him. I’m surprised when she is solid in my hands, something I can hold on to; she’s someone I can hurt.
Someone who could kill my brother.
We roll several feet away and I can tell when we pass through the wall Nina built around Ash. It’s electric as it vibrates across my whole body and then it’s gone just as suddenly.
Nina is screaming my name behind us as we roll away.
But I
must do this.
I must end this once and for all. I must protect Ash.
“You are not my master!” I scream at her and launch my fist into her face, breaking bones beneath my knuckles as bullets whiz past. I keep going, wanting to beat her to death, to get rid of her forever. “You will not hurt him!” I grab her shirt and yank her up just to slam her head back to the ground. “You will not control me anymore.”
Although her face is bloody and every bone is broken, she laughs at me, blood staining her teeth an eerie red.
Her cackle is deep and loud, spiders of death and humiliation crawling over my soul.
“You’re a fool. You think you can get rid of me? You think you will be free by ripping me apart?” She spits blood onto the ground by turning her head. And that killer’s smile is back as soon as she glares back up at me. “Bitch, I am violence.”
My bloody fist stops in its pursuit of another blow and I stare at her.
She is violence.
She is violence.
She’s right. The Monster is the worst parts of me. She is the violence, the darkness, the murderer.
Beating her to shit would do nothing but strengthen her hold over me.
To drive my point home, her hand snakes out and wraps around my throat.
I choke as she cackles in my face, breath smelling of corpses and rotting flesh. She throws me over her head with ease and jumps on top of me before I can move.
“You’re mine. You always have been, and you always will be.”
She wraps both hands around my neck and squeezes and my trachea quivers beneath the force. It may collapse under her murderous hands.
The lights around me fade as my breaths are harder to come by until I can’t even gasp anymore.
She’s going to do it. She’s going to kill off the rest of my humanity.
Because I’m attacking her with my darkness when I should be embracing her with my light.
I stare up into her eyes, full of hate and wrath, and wrap my arms around her waist. Her grip loosens around my throat while she thrashes in my arms, but I don’t let go.
I think of everything I’ve ever loved…Mom, Ash, Nathan, Nina…
But that’s not enough. I need to love my darkness too.
“I love you,” I blurt, built up saliva from the choking spitting out of the corner of my mouth. “I love everything you do for me when I am too weak to do it myself,” I scream at her, tightening my grip on her waist. “I love your sense of duty, your ambition. Fuck, I even love your shitty insults. And I love how you would destroy the world for anyone I love.”
She roars and scratches at my face, fingernails digging in and tearing skin. Each slash burns as if her fingernails are painted with poisoned polish.
“I love that you would destroy the world to save my brother,” I continue, face blazing and blood dripping into my mouth.
“Fuck you, fuck your brother, and fuck your love,” she growls and tries to headbutt me.
She succeeds, and it could be the dizziness from the hit, but I think there is regret shining in her eyes when she pulls back.
A strong rip slices down the left side of my neck. But not from the Monster. No…
I ignore it.
“Give in to me,” I whimper to the Monster. “Please. Stop fighting and accept me. We have to get back to Ash. We have to help him.”
I cough when her hand tightens around my throat again.
“Please,” I beg, barely audible now. “You are a part of me, and I am a part of you. You know it, I know it. Separate, we are nothing.”
She stills in my arms and relaxes her hold on my throat, considering my words.
“But together, we are one mighty mother fucker.”
She does nothing but stares down at me, eyes full of amber rage. But slowly, her hands leave my neck. Slowly, so slowly, she backs away and stands.
She helps me stand too, eyes wide and rimmed with tears.
“You’ve been here for me,” I mutter, voice hoarse and throat raw from the pressure of her rage. “Now let me be here for you.”
A shuttered breath leaves her lips and her shoulders fall. But not in sadness.
In relief.
She flings herself at me and wraps her arms around my shoulders, squeezing like her life depends on it. I squeeze her waist just as hard. If not harder.
And, just like that, the two parts of me become one. I’m no longer the Monster and I am no longer just Fal.
In a snap, I am whole.
I am Falen Nyxine Thanatos. Lupi. Alpha assassin.
Shadow Reaper.
Goddess of Death.
And one mighty mother fucker.
A slice at my right eye has me blinded and I scream, slapping a hand over it while staggering to get back to Nina and Ash; Nina, whose nose and arms are bloody from holding the shirt on Ash’s chest and the shield around him. Ash, who is dying right before my eyes.
And I am rocked with all the physical pain I have ever endured as I try to reach them.
My eye. My neck. My side. My lip.
All the torture. All the Wolfsbane.
The scream burns as it comes out of my mouth and I stumble.
Give me the pain, The Monster whispers.
No, not the Monster any longer. Me.
I can endure it, she assures me.
So, I give it over to her and release my control. The pain doesn’t go away when she takes over, but I can think through it, rationally knowing it will have to end.
And with a final, raking breath, it does.
Grunting, I pick myself off the ground and Move to Ash and Nina.
“You’re back,” she whispers when I gesture for her to let me take over holding the pressure.
“I’m back,” I agree and push on Ash’s chest. He needs to heal, and he needs to heal now.
I turn to find Eddie ripping toward us with her flaming sword. Tears burn down my face.
She has to get here. She must save him. He can’t die on me. There are so many things I have to apologize for, so many things I need to thank him for…I need him to know I love him.
“Ash stay with me,” I plead.
He smiles up with dim, amber eyes, taking note of what’s sure to be my scar. “Glad you’re back, Fal Pal,” he whispers, blood dotting his lips.
The laugh that comes out of my mouth transforms into a hysterical sob. “Don’t fucking die on me, you big bastard. You won the game last, and I can’t let you die without making you flinch again. I forbid it.”
He laughs, but I can tell it hurts him so much.
“Ashy!” Eddie screams. She rips through one more Poacher and sheaths her flaming sword, about to drop on her knees beside him.
Her blood curdling scream is horrifying when I hear the gunshot.
Her left shoulder jumps forward and red blooms through the new wound.
“Eddie!” Ash screams and pushes against me to get to her, reaching his hand out to heal her, but I shove him back down.
He can’t heal her when he is barely alive himself.
Another shot and Eddie falls to her knees, blood covering her thigh. Two more shots and her stomach blooms with fresh blood. Her eyes roll in the back of her head before she collapses, convulsing.
“Eddie!” Nina wails and crawls for her, taking her shielding energy with her.
Something about these bullets is off. Eddie is a tough fucker. She would never pass out at being shot. Never.
I sniff the air and snarl. The bullets are covered in wolfsbane.
Poachers beat Nina to Eddie and drag her away from us, taking Ash’s only chance to heal away. Taking my friend away.
“No!” Nina stands, firing arrow after arrow into the descending Poachers. She runs after them, but there are so many. Too many.
And they have...stopped fighting everyone else. All of them are circling around Eddie. Every single one. Hundreds of them.
Nina shifts into her beautiful white wolf and tears into Poachers with electric violence, dropping
them on the ground, throats torn out, before moving to the next. Some fall without her touching them, no doubt succumbing to her deadly energy she can wield even in her wolf form.
Corin and Lilith join her in the fight, their wolves relentless as they tear through bodies. In seconds, their mouths are bloody, but the pile of Poachers hasn’t gotten smaller.
“Eddie…” Ash barely growls as he tries to sit up again and help, but I shove him back down.
“Ash, stop. You can’t move,” I scold, tears rolling down my cheeks like a fucking waterfall.
“But you can,” he whispers, and his eyes are full of pleas.
“I tried,” Nina rasps, breathing hard as she drops to her knees beside me. She takes my spot, back in her person, holding pressure to Ash’s chest with my blood-soaked shirt and putting the shield back around us as more blood trickles from her nose. “There are too many.”
I nod at Ash, remembering how he was willing to leave me to die because I needed him to save Nina from Damien, and stand, pulling out the rod of my scythe.
I spin it once and it reveals the sharp blade. I snarl as Poachers pick up and drop a near lifeless and bloody Eddie, chaining and dragging her back to the edge of the island with hunger in their eyes.
Eddie, my friend.
I Move.
Chapter 74
Nina
“Come on Ash. Please.”
I’m trying not to snot sob, but Ash is dying beneath my hands and there is nothing I can do about it. I even try, but my own energy shocks me back and makes me want to throw up.
“Nins. I’m fine.” Blood coats his lips even more.
“Shut up!”
His skin is getting paler by the second. His cheeks are terrifyingly colorless.
“Ash, you listen to me! You can’t die. You have to embarrass Fal with strippers. Come on, Ash!” I slap his cheek repeatedly. “If you live, you can get all the strippers for Fal. And I swear to god I won’t complain about your shitty taste in music anymore.”
He smiles a little but says nothing.
And...the air stops.
I jerk my head up, instantly noticing the change in energy around us.
The energy, what was vibrant and erratic a moment ago, just...stops moving as if it is frozen in time.