by Rae Foxx
Closer...
She was right there--
A burning pain blossomed over my side and under my ribs and I screamed out in agony, turning toward the shifter that I was sure had just taken a chunk out of my side. But there were no blood-soaked teeth, no ripped shirt and exposed skin. There was a knife plunged into my side, and a hand wrapped around the hilt. Nicky laughed as she pulled the knife out, which fucking hurt twice as much as her putting the damned thing in. The knife shimmered with fresh blood as she held it toward me, the sharp blade dripping everywhere as she cackled.
“Do you have any other way to fight than to fucking stab me in the same place over and over? Fuck!" I reached down and held the wound, putting as much pressure against the thing as I could. My vampire shifter blood was already working overtime, and the dripping stopped soon after.
"Get a new attack in your repertoire," I spat as Nicky spun the knife, my voice recognizably weaker.
"Why? This one seems to work just fine," Nicky laughed in her signature way, throwing her head back as though everything in this life was a big joke to her. "You’re gonna die whether I stab you in the ribs or in the face. Then once you’re gone you’ll be forgotten, like a pile of shit that someone stepped in. A little frustrating and nasty for a minute but then after a few days, nothing but a faded memory. Because that’s all you’ll ever be--nothing and no one.”
Pile of shit. That was a new one.
She lunged with the knife again, stabbing down from the top to take out my heart, but I sidestepped, leaving her stumbling.
She clearly hadn't expected me to heal so quickly.
"Is that right?" I taunted, spinning on my toes and kicking her ass, leaving the knife to clatter to the ground. I seized the thing from the dirt before she had found her feet.
I held the knife out to her, ready to take my own stab at the bitch, but she didn't seem worried. She just grinned. The two of us stood still in the middle of a battle between Fae, Vampires, and whatever Nicky had concocted. I didn't need Nicky's spark of victory to know what was going on. Her army had expected this. They had gone easy on us while they waited for the Queens' armies to arrive. Now that they were here; it was a massacre.
"It doesn't matter what you do, Ivy, this ending was decided the second you were found. Hell, it was decided the second you were born. You brought this here."
Standing there, knife in hand, facing the woman who had orchestrated all of this, I could hear every sound of death. Every squish of flesh. Every tear that poured from my mates’ eyes.
Saxon. Finn. Tommy.
'Ivy, you have to end her,' Howl cried into my mind, his voice running over my veins in that same electric rope I had felt before, the twist of energy fanning over the crowd and seeking out each of my mates.
My princes.
And me, in the middle of their power.
A queen. A queen of everything I never wanted.
I knew what to do.
The web of power tangled and knotted its way into me, I let it infect me as it grew, as all of the magic and ability that lived inside of me, all of it connected. All of turning me into a bomb.
"I may have started it. That just means I know how to end it," I taunted, looking right at her as I let all of that magic take control and flood out of me in a flash of white light the same as it had in the cave. White light seeped from each of my pores.
A scream poured from my mouth as my whole body arched and my feet left the ground, leaving me hovering as I screamed in the midst of power that rampaged out of me. Not even gravity could contain this much power. I quaked with the surge as light came from every part of me like I was a fucking supernova, an exploding star on fire ready to blast my enemies where they stood. Another convulsion of my body and the light reached its climax and detonated. Everything from sand to trees, desert to forest, mountains to the school was blanketed with an efflux of blinding and shattering light as though I were something nuclear. Bodies were thrown back regardless of which side they fought on, the flood of war flattening into a writhing pond.
Everyone but me, who stood in the middle of my hair rippling in the breeze, my skin smoking.
"You!" Nicky shrieked, her face cut up from the sand and rocks that had slammed against her in the blast, her body moving slow enough that I am sure the blast had broken more than a few bones. I wasn't even sure her foot was facing the right direction. "It was you in the caves! It was never Oberion, Ivy. It was always you.”
"It'll be me again, Nicky. You said it yourself, it was my power that started all of this. Why would you think for a second that I wasn't strong enough to take you on? You can't win this. There is no way you will come out on top. Not when you are facing me--" The last word left my mouth with a gasp as something hard and calloused hit against the side of my head, bruises blossoming over my skin as blood vessels popped in my eyes and I fell to my knees, a laughing monster hovering above me.
Oberion's face swam through the splotches of blood that covered my eyes, his twisted grin burning itself into my worst nightmares.
"Die." With a growl that was nothing close to human, he reached down and lifted me up as though I weighed nothing, as though I was nothing. I kicked and punched, but it was no use. He was like a wall made of cinder blocks and my fists were feathers, dusting off the surface. Hollow laughter came from his chest as he screwed up his face, the twisted malice the last thing I saw before he swung his arm and tossed me into the air without a second thought. There was no thought in that head of his. He was simply a tool.
I flew through the air, arms and legs splayed out as I reached inside for my magic for something to stop me, to save me from collapsing against the hard stone of the precipice that was growing ever closer. There was nothing. I’d exhausted all of that glorious power down to a fizzle of its usual flame. It sputtered and backfired inside me like a broken-down truck that needs a bit of rest. Screaming, I begged it to do something before…
The last thing I remembered was my head slamming into a wall of what smelled like desert and dirt mixed together.
‘Ivy!’ Howl’s voice seemed hundreds if not thousands of miles away.
'Teach me not to monologue,' I laughed cynically as blackness took me under.
Chapter 19
Buzzing rang in my ears, a heavy gong echoed in my head as bones and what sounded like swords banged together.
Clang. Buzz. Clang. Buzz.
'Ivy!' Howls voice warbled in my head, mixing with the sounds of the medieval battle I was currently experiencing on the inside of my skull. One flutter of eyelids and a foggy image of the desert in front of me revealed that not to be the case. I squinted and tried to crawl toward them, but my body felt like it was made of Play-Doh. My hands moving like limp paws as I tried to force myself back into the never-ending battle.
They were still going at it, snarling and fighting... at least that's what I could make out. Everything was so wobbly that they could have been square dancing in pioneer dresses-with swords...
And lions in tuxedos.
Although that part was more probably with what was out there.
Clangs and screams continued to pulse as my heart did, the thing remembering how to beat as the vampire blood wore off. I thought it was with how everything was throbbing, aching. How the sounds of a battle were echoing around me.
'Ivy!' Howl yelled again, and I shook my head, being reminded once again that that was not a smart move after an impact with a stone wall.
'You think you would learn by now,' Howl mused, his voice laced with worry.
'What? Learn not to get beat up? Or drugged? Or targeted by a psycho wolf with a hundred-year vendetta? You would think these guys were trying to kill me with how often they stab and maim and kidnap me.' Damn. I knew my life was going to be crazy the second I found myself making out with a Fae in a magical forest, but who would have thought it would end in multiple murder attempts.
"Ivy!" Another voice yelled, a wobbly body and a wall of black pastels against the sky s
treaming their way toward me. Smoke looked weird when your brain was muddled. "Ivy, are you okay? Don't give up!"
"I'm fine, Tommy, chill."
I don't think he believed me, his hands were all over me, touching and pushing and prodding as he tried to move me around, but I was doing well enough with that on my own. I shoved Tommy's attempt at help away, and stubbornly pushed myself to my feet, faced the square-dancing minions who were starting to come into focus. This was the bloodiest square dance I had ever seen.
"You guys have got to stop thinking I am going to let them kill me," I snapped, half falling into Tommy as I found my feet. I slid down him the rest of the way. "Although it would help if they stopped trying to kill me."
"They don't give up either," I ground out, nodding toward the war and shaking my head. I swear I could feel my brain bounce around in there. I may have knocked everyone on their ass but it didn’t do much more than give everyone a chance to breathe.
Somewhere in there were my guys, my friends, and yes, even Mama doing their best to help me end the she-beast. They were bodies among the vampires and fae that clashed with Nicky's hybrid militia, the hybrids picking them off one by one.
It wasn't the hybrids that were the problem, though. It was the demons.
Gorath's army flitted through everything, black and grey smothering my people and sending them to the ground in lifeless mounds. They couldn't even get a hit in seeing as punching smoke didn’t do jack shit in terms of damage.
"How do we stop them?" I asked, heaving as I tried to bring my magic or even a bit of energy to life inside of me, it sputtered like a dying engine.
“We can't," Tommy offered and stood, looking over the combat zone. His voice lowered in tone with every word. "The demons won’t give up. They have nothing to lose, babe."
"There has to be a way. If we don't, we've lost already." Tommy nodded at my assessment; his jaw tight as he stared over the battle.
"I know a way," he said after a second, his voice as tight as his jaw, as tight as his fists that were gripping his pants. Seeing all that tension in his body wound up my spine in spikes of agonizing pressure. “There’s only one place to lock up the King of the Demons, and I’m the key. Once the door is shut, it’s shut for all of us. So, I gotta lock them up is all.”
"Does this way involve some kind of self-sacrifice and redemption moment in which you show you aren't a total asshole?" The words choked coming out, tension ripping over my chest.
Tommy was a total asshole, but that didn't mean that the idea of losing him wasn't ripping me open like a motherfucker.
"I'm a demon, babe," he said, lighting up a cigarette that smelled too much like me. "I don't sacrifice myself, not even for you. But rest assured, it does involve an epic battle in which I get to show off how cool I am while I lock them in the underworld. Like hell if I'm getting locked in there with them."
"Yeah, I don't know why I thought it would be anything other than that," I sighed, the tension in my spine relaxing as my magic sparked and sputtered in my fingers, my wolf’s whimper in my chest turning to more of a growl. "I've clearly overestimated you."
"Clearly."
We stared at each other, Tommy smirking as he sucked on his cigarette, blowing the smoke right in my face. Whatever Tommy was going to do, he needed to do it fast. We weren’t going to win this fight the way we were going. There was no fucking way.
“Don’t be an idiot about it," I said, the tension flooding back into my heart. "We need you. Make them go away and then get back here before I kick your ass myself.”
"I'll always come back for that," he whispered, softer than I had ever heard. "It's just a quick in and out from the underworld. Lock them up and all that."
"In and out," I repeated the last word broke off as it all came together. The sinking feeling in my gut. That knowing feathering my brain.
"Anything to save you. That is what this was about from the beginning, Ivy." He leaned his head back as his nostrils flared, taking in my scent with a deep inhale. "From that moment I first saw you. Protecting you was my objective. You became the job, and I enjoyed every second of it, especially tormenting you, driving you nuts. This way you will be safe from my father. You can finally give Nicky the ending she deserves.”
He cupped my face with his hot hands, a million emotions I never knew he could hold pouring from him as he stared into me. His eyes devouring me before his lips crushed against mine in an almost violent caress that shook me all the way down to my toes. I reached up and tangled my fingers in his hair, stealing a kiss in the middle of a war. Stealing one last moment.
No, I couldn’t think like that.
Tommy broke free and winked at me before nipping at my bottom lip, his forehead soft against mine as his hands trailed from my face to my collar bone, to cover my heart. He pressed his palm against my chest, his eyes never leaving mine as his hand grew warm and boiling. Boiling through veins and pooling in my stomach like the worst panic attack. Panic. And Rage.
And Joy.
And Misery.
Tommy pushed his power into me, everything that made up a demon, made up him, was flooding into me like an emotional wave that I hadn't felt since puberty.
This was awful. Powerful, but awful.
His rage. His power. His hate. His greed. His determination. It all flowed through me like his smoke, gripping my organs and weaving through my veins. Tommy opened his eyes and looked down at me and I swore I saw his eyes turn from black to flaming with fire from within.
“You’re inside me,” I commented, fingers fluttering against the soft glowing outline of his hand in my skin.
“Been there. Done that. Have the t-shirt.” He winked in tease, even though his voice broke, even though his eyes were sad. His hand wrapped around mine, his palm flat against mine as we faced the war, faced the massacre that he had to end. “Kick all their fucking asses, babe. Leave none of those motherfuckers alive.”
With one flutter of a kiss, he was gone, raced into the sky and after his father and leaving me alone, fueled with pulsing anger that only grew more potent the further away he soared. The farther away that perfect happily-ever-after moved. I let all that fury and bitterness and vengeance burn me alive from the inside out, let it fuel and pulse. As Tommy had exploded into the air, I took off over the ground, into the battle and right toward the lingering smell of Nicky and my father that was serving as some kind of lure.
"I'm coming for you," I mumbled to myself, my feet picking up speed I didn’t know I had. A shifter barreled at me as I passed, the giant beast in lion’s form, his huge canines already stained with blood. I ducked at the last second, and with my claws out, cut his underbelly from throat to stomach as he passed over me.
My body was an entanglement of power as I raced through the battle, dodging and attacking and racing through blood and carnage. My quest to reach the bitch that was at the center of it all. My inherited shifter energy sizzled along with my magic, boosting me forward as it mixed with the vampire speed, with the burning coals of everything Tommy had left me with. Everything inside of me collided like bumper cars, giving me zings of energy--rage--strength, all of them pushing me forward.
I leapt into the air, toward the strips of black smoke that were circling over us like a net. Tommy's face making an appearance as I shifted into my wolf, and he pushed me forward-- right to where Nicky was. All of my mates bloodied and harried as they faced her, ready to fight, even though I could tell they didn't have much left.
They turned as I landed, relief and sorrow painted on their blood-stained faces.
'Took you long enough,' Howl mumbled in what I was sure was supposed to be funny, however, his voice caught it was anything but.
"Honey, I'm home," I taunted as I returned to my human form, squaring my shoulders to face Nicky for the last time.
"Of course, you are, will you just die already?" Nicky snarled at my appearance, wiping the blood-soaked strands of her hair out of her face as she straightened her pants.
<
br /> “No thank you, I have different plans,” I said as I lunged right at her dumb, smiling face, shifting as I jumped. One bite and she was gone, instead, I was sent sideways, another wolf ramming into my side and sending me soaring.
"I don't think so," Danvers said, shifting back to her human form as I rounded on her, digging my claws in as my wolf snarled with a rage that bounced off the battle around us.
Nicky was as chicken shit as ever. Of course, she was letting everyone else do the fighting for her.
Not dumb enough to stand and monologue anymore, I lunged and wrapped my paws around Danver’s waist and in one swift motion, I clamped my jaw over her shoulder and kicked off and throwing her into the air. Toward the black smoke that was everywhere now. The black smoke that had begun to twist and turn.
I didn't know what Tommy was doing, but that looked horrifying. Yet another reason to end Nicky and leaving her with my exhausted mates wasn't going to end well. Danvers landed hard on the ground behind me, and before she could shake it off, I pounced on top of her. My paws holding her down as I opened my mouth, my teeth dripping her own blood over her as I clamped down on her other shoulder.
Her blood flooded my system supercharging both my wolf and my now-fading powers. It wasn't the wolf and the vampire that were fueling me forward. It wasn't that which made me shake her as she screamed. It was the rage that Tommy had given me. It was the rage that I suddenly couldn't control.
"I'll never let you win. I will never fail her!" Danvers shouted through her scream as I ripped at her flesh, opening my mouth above her in a smile as I bared my blood-soaked fangs. Snarling, I pressed my magic straight into her abdomen, remembering all the pain and slashings I’d endured at the hands of this fucking bitch. Over and over I pelted her with waves of pain and despair, my teeth cutting into her again and again, letting her feel the full weight of what she’d done to me. She sagged into the earth below me before the anger that Tommy had given me had even a flicker of a chance to subside.