“I told you to leave him alone. One would think that you of all people would have come to understand that if I say to do, or not to do something, it’s with good fucking reason.” That last part is grated out, as if Nylicia is clenching her jaw. “What? Do I have to transform into the Buddha to get you to accept that? Because I’ll have you know, I’ve been doing this a lot longer than he ever did his thing.”
I’m almost too shocked to speak. “Nylicia . . . what the hell is going on?”
Nylicia stops next to me, her eyebrow raised. “Enteax’s destiny is changing, and I plan to take full advantage of that. Do you know how much he has to care for that girl in there for it to override Vermylea’s control over him?”
Well, fuck me.
“Now, if you are ready to give up on this little quest of yours, you’re about to have bigger problems on your hands.”
“Wait. What?”
She, of course, continues onward as if I didn’t speak. “This is what you get for A, being a scared idiot, and B, allowing yourself to think with your cock all those thousands of years ago. I mean, really, if you hadn’t allowed that female to give you orgasms, you would’ve never been fooled in the first place. And I told you so. I warned you, and you didn’t listen. I specifically told you not to sleep with that female.”
My thoughts scatter. I face her fully, mouth open, ready to demand that she tell me what she means. There’s only one female I ever slept with on a somewhat consistent basis after awakening as Zeniel.
And I haven’t seen said female in centuries.
Nylicia interrupts before I can speak. Again.
“Do you realize that your pattern of not listening stretches back really, really far, and that it keeps getting you into messes?”
“What?” I wonder what the fuck she’s going on about, but Nylicia is already gone.
What. The. Fuck?
When I turn back around, Enteax is gone, too. The Gnetica he put up still remains, and if I focus hard enough, I can sense it. I can’t see it, though. It’s some powerful shit. Enteax obviously wants to keep someone out of that house.
I know who, too. I gathered as much from Enteax’s emotions.
He’s betraying his own kind for someone he loves.
He’s somehow betraying Vermylea, the goddess that owns him, because he cares more about whoever is in that house than he does anything else.
Even his own brother, Lisrn.
Shit.
Enteax was concerned. His intentions were pure.
I understand the concept of forgiveness. I helped inspire teachings on it. But it doesn’t matter because it can’t. That male hurt Evesse. The mated male within me demands retribution.
Not every part of me, however. Mavrak had taken control, and . . .
Gods fucking damn it! I couldn’t bring myself to canon-ball it across the street and rip Enteax to shreds as originally planned.
In the end, I got Evesse back stronger than ever—better. I could have never had her while she was still mortal.
And, considering I know how certain things work when it comes to destiny—how Nylicia works when it come to that—I’m damn sure that it was all meant to be.
Enteax is protecting whoever is in that house, and the very being responsible for me finding my R’ma is telling me that Enteax’s destiny is changing. That he should be left alone.
Acceptance.
I’m pretty sure I was big on acceptance once. Recently, too. Sure, I’m having a hard time swallowing it down at the moment, but surely I can figure it out once again.
Hopefully before I stop reeling about the whole having to forgive Enteax thing. Because, really, I was once a tolerant being by nature, but this is pushing it.
“Zeniel?”
I freeze at the sound of the voice behind me. It’s been over six-hundred years since I last heard it, but I remember it well.
What Nylicia just told me comes barreling back into my mind.
“Thank the Gods, Zeniel. I’ve found you!”
Illion help me, I completely forgot about the being approaching me. She sounds so happy, just as she does every time she sees me.
Meanwhile, she hasn’t crossed my mind in centuries.
Guilt hammers me. I had only used her for the release my body needed when the urge became too much. Every five or six centuries or so. I always knew that she has feelings for me. It’s in her tone, in her eyes, in the way she touched me.
Rhalira is one of the few truly pure beings in the Universe. She doesn’t deserve what I’m about to do.
I’m mated now. She so happy to see me, and I’m going to break her heart the moment I tell her.
She approaches me slowly, her steps seeming to echo as she gets nearer.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I felt your need flare up. I’ve missed you so, Zeniel.”
I swallow, feeling like the biggest asshole in history. We opened a mild-connection thousands of years ago. One that allows her to sense when my need becomes too great.
She places her hand on my shoulder, sliding it towards my neck and in the direction of my hidden mating mark. The tip of her finger touches it, making the skin blaze painfully to life as the lines begin to break through.
I flinch.
“Rhalira.” Determined to be the one to tell her, before she sees the spiraling lines bursting in vibrant colors across my neck, I turn around.
Before I can even blink, she presses herself against me, her lips on mine.
Mavrak roars to life, his bellow of indignity a perfect echo to the agony that shoots from my nerves. I fly backwards, slamming into the empty house behind me and leaving a dent in the structure. Pain hijacks my synapses, bends me over, and holds me there as I begin to cough.
First cough, nothing.
Second one is followed by a shitload of blood.
Then there’s the boiling lava in my veins, the agony unlike anything I’ve ever felt. My entire physiological structure is turning on me.
Rhalira steps towards me, sounding horrified. “No. This cannot be. You belong to me. I’ve waited so long for you to realize—”
“No. I belong to someone else.” I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, trying to hold back the urge to cough and heave.
If that isn’t fucked up enough, as I force myself to look up, my vision takes in her delicate but sophisticated appearance and I suddenly recognize her for what she is.
For the first time since meeting her, the truth is hollering in my face, letting me know what a fucking moron I was when it comes to her.
I always believed her to be of the C’ianye. Her eyes and the shape of her ears lent credence to that belief. Not to mention the fact that she claimed to be one, as well.
I thought she was pure of deed. That she was the kindest of beings.
Kind my motherfucking ass.
I lock eyes with her, panting from blossoming rage and hate.
She’s still as attractive as I remember. Strawberry blonde hair. Purple eyes. Elfish features. Slowly but surely, however, her features transform, the lines switching from their previously horrified state and into something totally wicked. Sick satisfaction sparks in her eyes and mixes with the bitterness already brimming over in there.
A face that is unrealistically beautiful becomes the very picture of ugliness.
Rhalira isn’t an elf. She isn’t a kind being. She’s from a deceitful species, and one of the worst.
One of Maivera’s handmaidens.
An illusion nymph created by the Goddess of Illusions herself.
I feel so nauseated I can barely breathe. She touched me and used making love to me as the means to fool me. The fact that she has enough power to deceive Mavrak, of all beings, is staggering.
And dangerous.
Mavrak roars inside my head, making the arteries leading to my brain pound.
“You lied to me,” I snarl, wishing my damn body would stop attacking me so I can attack her. Unfortunately, another female other than my R’m
a just touched me and now there will be hell to pay.
“Careful, Zeniel, one would think you liked the view better when you didn’t know who was really riding your cock.”
I bare my teeth at her and clutch my stomach. “I’m mated, you bitch.”
“I swear to you,” Rhalira says, every word trembling with her rage. “I will kill this female you belong to. I will destroy her. And I’ll do it slowly. You will feel every moment of her death as it sucks you into your own.” Her purple aura bursts to life.
She disappears before I can fling myself at her. I roar aloud this time, infuriated that she would dare swear such a thing, and that I ever cared enough for her to worry about hurting her.
Deceitful bitch.
As long as she lives now, she’ll be forced to find a way to kill Evesse. She’ll have no choice but to try to follow through, which means that my decision is simple.
Rhalira must die.
I try to stand upright, but each inhale burns like acid. My lower abs ache like someone used them as a punching bag. Clinging to the side of the house, I try my damnedest to get it together.
Suddenly, my connection with Evesse opens.
Hard. Painful. Without mercy.
Her thoughts and emotions, everything she’s experiencing in that instant, flows through me like a tsunami.
She’s in pain. She’s . . . seeing images of me and Rhalira, and not just what happened seconds ago.
No, the R’mannev is in full-on attack mode, torturing her with images from my past.
Of me sleeping with another female.
No. No. No. I know what this will do to her. No.
Not only that, but wherever she is, she’s in the middle of battle.
My mate is being attacked by our connection while in the middle of fucking battle.
CHAPTER 28
EVESSE
S pari takes off first, rounding the escalators in front of the Macy’s and running headlong towards the creatures. Cursing, Dimithinia and I run after her. Spari reaches the turn leading to the parking garage.
The closest ceFtut stops, its head veering hard in her direction.
“That’s right you bitch!” Spari slams the goggles over her eyes. They turn on, glowing with gold light as she jumps up and down and waves her arms like the lunatic she obviously is. “I’m over here. Come and get me! I know you can sense me now!”
Dimithinia and I take a second too long. Hesitate even longer. The second ceFtut is fifty-feet behind the first one.
It jumps onto an unsuspecting woman, its gigantic mouth snapping over her upper body.
A scream. The sound of snapping bones. One last gurgle before the upper half of the woman’s body is ripped off and almost swallowed by the beast.
“No!” I scream, just as the humans around start panicking, their frantic shouts deafening as they try to run.
My insides heave, disgust and sorrow for that poor woman battling within me.
The blood. Dear God, people are slipping in the growing puddle as they attempt to get away. It pools out of the ceFtut’s mouth, out of what is left of the woman’s body. So much of it. Everywhere.
Out of my peripheral vision, I see Dimithinia chasing the ceFtut that is after Spari.
I lock onto the other one, the one still chewing away at the woman it just tore apart. With a roar, I fly at it.
It moves away from me before I can get my hands on it.
I slip in the pool of blood. Skid and collide with the lower half of the woman’s body.
The legs are still twitching.
I squeeze my eyes shut, shaking my head and telling myself to keep it fucking together. I can lose it later. First, I must get at the creature. Stop it before it eats anyone else.
When I open my eyes, it’s running towards the parking lot door. It completely ignores everyone.
It’s chasing after someone.
Has to be Spari.
I shoot to my feet. Humans are scrambling, running the other way. Good. There are other exits in the mall. Dozens of them. They can escape.
Barring any more ceFtuts showing up.
I have my phone to my ear in a flash. I don’t even wait for Ismini to finish saying hello.
“We’re being attacked. ceFtuts. Queens Center Mall. They’re eating the people!”
I have no clue where my phone ends up after that. Don’t care.
Deciding “to hell with it”, I dematerialize and appear in front of the large glass doors leading outside.
The ceFtut opens its mouth to take a chunk out of me as it barrels my way.
I bare my teeth, feeling downright psychotic. I’m going to make it hurt. Before I rip its skin off, it’s going to hurt so bad. I run straight to it, jumping out of the way of its teeth. My arms snap around its muzzle, slamming its filthy, blood stained mouth shut.
It shakes its head. Lifts me off my feet.
I hold on, loving the sound of its bones breaking.
“Oh my God. Mommy, look. She’s a superhero.”
My head snaps to the side at the sound of a boy’s voice. Fucking hell, there are people cowering at the entrance to the bathroom, too scared to run to safety with me and the ceFtut wrestling mere feet away.
I need to get it outside before I kill it. I don’t want that cute little boy seeing what I’m going to do it.
With a grunt, I slam my feet back down onto the floor. The creature fights me all the way, putting the whole of its strength into loosening my grip. I tighten my hold, digging my feet inches into the tile beneath me.
I lift the ceFtut up into the air, and twirl around until I have a good momentum going. Then I let go, sending it flying like a giant discus—right through the glass doors to the concrete parking garage outside.
Its massive form takes the entire entryway with it. Glass shatters, metal twists, and wires fall in a display of sparks from the ceiling.
I follow. Launching myself onto the ceFtut once again, I dig my fingers into its rotting, leathery flesh. Red mist comes to life around it like a vortex, showing me all the beings it’s eaten in the last few weeks.
The mist also shows me the beast’s intentions, how it was ordered to go after one specific being.
It wasn’t Spari.
They were sent after Dimithinia.
With relish, I begin tearing the skin off the ceFtut’s body. It gives off one of its shrieks, and because I’m on its back, my eardrums shatter. Blood oozes from my ears as the creature writhes, trying to get me off its back.
I throw a chunk of skin behind me and go to work on its head. It rears back and shrieks again and again.
Kill. Make it suffer.
Yes. I’m going to. I’m so going to.
Digging my feet into the raw, exposed muscle on the creature’s back, I hang on. Even when it heads straight towards a parked car, I continue ripping. It still won’t be enough to kill it. I know that.
The only way to really kill ceFtuts is to penetrate the spot below their chins.
The ceFtut slips, landing on its side. I ride it like a surf-board and keep pulling at its flesh, taking satisfaction in the fact that the exposed muscle on its side is grating across the cement.
Shifting my weight, I push the beast straight into the car. I jump off right before impact, landing in a crouch and watching as pieces of crushed metal pierce the creature.
My ears begin to heal and my hearing starts to return. The thing stops shrieking. Pitiful, dog-like whimpers are all that escape it. It’s not enough. I’m hungry, thirsty, aching to impart more violence.
If this is how Mavrak feels when faced with the world’s sins, I can’t blame him for what he does.
There’s no part of me that feels wrong for what I just did. The only thing that feels wrong is the fact that I can’t continue. Spari is screaming, and behind that, I hear the grunts and growls of Dimithinia fighting the other ceFtut.
The life of the one in front of me must end.
Now.
I straighten and head towa
rds the creature. “You are unworthy of existence.” The warped, split voice I’ve been hearing in my head is now coming out of my mouth. “You deserve to suffer. You will die because I say so.”
As I get closer to the creature, I know exactly what I’m doing; what the words coming out of my mouth mean.
Justice.
Plain and simple. That thing deserves to die and I’m more than happy to deliver its fate.
The ceFtut manages to push the mangled car off, panting hard and seeming in too much pain to rise.
I remember about the new terets. I will the one that Nylicia gave me into my hand. One blast kills the creature and destroys two cars next to it.
The body of the other ceFtut flies past me, slamming into the wall behind me. Half of it, anyway. The other half—the part with the head still attached—is in Dimithinia’s hands.
That shouldn’t be enough to kill it. These creatures can reanimate and grow back any missing body parts, if you don’t destroy them completely via teret or stab them through the chin.
But Dimithinia’s standing ten feet away from me, ripping what’s left of the creature in half. The sound of muscle tearing and bone cracking fills the air. A black whirlwind of power tears at the air around her. Her eyes, completely black, flash and lock on the remainder of the creature in her hands.
“You die,” Dimithinia says, her voice guttural and split as well, “when I say you die. You die because I say you die.”
I can’t look away from what is happening to her. The air all around us is tainted and my instincts are screaming out.
Death.
I can feel it on my skin, scent it in the air. Dimi’s surrounded by death. Death and a power so massive, that I find myself frozen in awe.
My brain barely picks up on the sound of another ceFtut approaching, then Spari screams.
“Dimithinia, watch out!”
A huge mouth opens behind Dimithinia and snaps down around her head.
I dematerialize, dropping my gun. There’s no way I can fucking use it. It’ll take out Dimithinia, too.
Panicking, I reappear in front of Dimithinia—
Just as the creature separates her head from her body.
I slam into the ceFtut, but I’m too shocked to fight it. All I can see is the split-second image of Dimi’s twitching body falling to the ground without her head.
Ryze Series: Books 1 & 2 Page 47