by Izzy Shows
"What the hell were you thinking?" His lips twisted into a snarl as he grasped me by either shoulder, giving me a rough shake.
"You can't," I said, panting. "You can't kill people."
"Like hell I can't," he said. His lips were drawn into a tight line, his eyes promised death.
I felt a thrill run up my spine. Adrenaline. He sounded like I wanted to be, like the brand was telling me to be.
"You can't." I repeated myself, giggling at the absurdity of the situation at the same time as I blocked a blow that came for my head. "One sec." I shook him off, turned, and hooked one leg behind one of my attacker's, yanking them down to the floor and then pulling back and slamming a kick into their knee. I winced at the sound that it made—it wasn't a nice way to take someone down, but I was trying not to use my magic on the other mages. I turned back to him, doing my best to smile. Because why not be absurd when given the opportunity? "Anyways, no, you can't do that. Nah uh."
"Last time I checked, we were fighting a succubus. I get to go all out."
"Mmm no, see, we're not just fighting a succubus. We're fighting a slew of mages compelled by a succubus to defend her, and that means that you have to be a good boy and not kill anyone. Got it?" I cocked my head to the side like some kind of psycho Barbie, my ironically high blonde ponytail reminding me of that when it sprang to the side with me. "Got it?" I repeated, this time through gritted teeth.
"Fine," he said, glowering at me. "Fine, I won't kill anyone."
"Good," I said with a relieved sigh. "Now, help me find Emily. We need to end this."
We moved through the crowd together, taking one person down at a time at an excruciatingly slow pace that made me want to claw my eyes out. I didn't know what else to do though, I didn't know how else to keep them safe.
And then I heard her chanting.
Emily's voice washed over me, a melody I didn't know I'd been starved for. I wanted to run to her and kiss her, but I felt my knees wobble the next moment. I looked up at Mal, confusion on my face. I wanted to sleep.
"Open your mind to me!" He said, his eyes wide.
I did as he asked, only hesitating for a moment.
As soon as I felt his presence in his mind, the drowsiness that had suddenly plagued my limbs was just as suddenly gone.
“What happened?”
“Emily is putting the crowd to sleep, love. She's doing it to protect them.”
“Oh, that's bloody genius. Why aren't you falling?”
“Because, she can't affect me that way. I'm not hers to touch. You're human, so you are.”
I blinked, shaking my head to drive away the confusion, and refocussed on what was around me. I had to leave my mind open to Mal so that I wouldn't fall down and pass out for the rest of the fight, and that had me a little antsy. Because it was a chink in my armor that the succubus could take advantage of if she knew to take the opportunity. I didn't want to give her that opportunity in the first place.
Emily reached us only moments later, her brow covered in sweat and her eyes so focussed on what she was doing that for a moment she didn't seem to recognise us.
"Emily," I said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She trembled, looking at my hand and then up at me. "Blair," she said, practically breathing my name.
I smiled. "You're doing great. We just have to get the rest of them down and then we can focus on the succubus."
She nodded without saying another word, and then her singing began again. She pushed farther into the crowd, bodies crashing down at either side of her.
The compound was eerily quiet on this side of Emily, we were surrounded by sleeping bodies. Emily's spell had not differentiated between regular mages and compelled mages, so they had all been put to sleep together.
"We should help," I said, starting to follow her, but Mal caught my wrist.
"We'll only be in her way. And besides, we have to get ready for the finale."
I lifted an eyebrow, frowning. The finale. How the hell were we supposed to prepare for that?
"Come on," I said. "She's going to make a run for it." I started running into the crowd.
Mal was right beside me. "Where are you going?" He shouted at me.
"She wants me, Mal. She said so at the party, she's attracted to my energy, she isn't going to want to leave if she thinks she can get me."
"I don't think this." I heard the danger, the warning, in his voice, like he was going to stop me.
No one could stop me once I'd made up my mind on something.
It was a lot easier to move through the crowd of fighting, almost slumbering, bodies, than I had thought it would be. When you're not trying to get involved with them, it can be surprisingly easy to just barrel your way through.
I came out the other side before Emily had made much headway, and sent up a silent prayer of thanks to anyone who was listening. Probably no one, but it never hurt.
I slammed my ass onto the ground, planting a hand on either side of me, and began chanting. I rocked back and forth as I chanted, visualising energy building all around me.
Electricity crackled.
A light flared.
The succubus' shrill voice crackled to life in the air above. "MINE."
"Get fucked, bitch." I snarled, the only break I allowed myself in my chanting. I was the only thing keeping her here right now, I was the only reason she hadn't fled yet.
It was dangerous, I could feel her getting closer to me, though when I opened my eyes I couldn't see a Gods damned thing. She wasn't anywhere to be found, if you relied just on your eyesight.
But I could feel her.
Had the others felt her like this? Had they known she was coming for them, swimming underneath the crowd and manoeuvring through the shadows until the moment that she chose to strike?
I doubted it.
It was the slight change of energy in the air that gave her away. You don't see or feel the air around you. You know it by the touch of the breeze on your face, or the sight of a leaf fluttering to the ground. The succubus' presence in the room was much the same, I felt the aftereffects of her energy surrounding me, and I knew that she was coming closer.
Closer.
If I stopped chanting before it was time than she would leave and it would all have been for nothing.
I peeked an eye open, saw that Emily was still coming. Just a few more mages left to go and then it would be safe. Her body was trembling with the effort of the magic she was working.
My eyes widened in terror at that realisation—Emily was working magic. Did it count as magic? Was the succubus interested in her?
I started chanting louder, pulling more raw energy out of my gut and slamming it through my neural pathways until I couldn't feel anything in my arms. I had to put out more energy than Emily, had to make sure that the succubus didn't pivot her attention and focus on Emily.
I couldn't risk Emily.
I was dimly aware of Mal shouting in the background, but I couldn't quite hear him over my chanting. Maybe that was the point.
I felt the moment Emily stopped putting out energy, the same way I could feel the succubus moving throughout the room though she was invisible. My eyes snapped open and locked with hers.
She nodded.
I stopped chanting.
39
"Noooooo!"
The Grecian Goddess appeared before us again, shrieking and howling like a beautiful banshee, her hair flying wildly behind her. Once again, I had to remind myself that she was a hideous black hole of death, because bloody hell was she gorgeous.
I sucked down a breath, and then another, until I felt the heat in my blood begin to cool.
I stood slowly, eyes flashing dangerously.
"Nooo, the little mages stopped, my darlings...no fun!" She wasn't making sense, but I saw the moment she thought to run away from it all.
"Oh, no you don't." I snarled, snapping my hand up and into the air. "Oriéndum."
A wall of energy formed from everything
that I had been pouring out of me the last ten minutes, spilling into the air for precisely this moment. It trapped the succubus on one side, and as she ran it spilled after her, forming a cage around the four of us.
"You're not going anywhere," I said with a primeval grin on my face.
Oh, Gods, but it felt good to be a part of the fight. To not be limited to my fists and feet, but to be allowed the moment of using my magic. It was euphoric. I felt the eager rush for more pounding in my blood, encouraging me to take up the fight, to drive it home and destroy the succubus.
"Blair," Emily said. Just my name, that was all it took, and I stiffened.
I gripped my hands into tight fists, all too aware that I couldn't use too much magic around her, couldn't alert her to what was thrumming inside of me. Too dangerous, to fight a demon when I had my own demonic power inside of me.
We could finish her. Destroy her in two seconds, rip her limb from limb and feast on the remains.
My eyes widened in shock. Had that been me, or had it been the brand? Had it spoken to me? This had never happened before. I was losing my mind.
"Emily," I said, little more than a grunt. I nodded my head toward the succubus, who had been driven to ground at the far end of the cage I had constructed.
She stared at me for a long moment, as if trying to figure me out, doubting that I was going to allow her this. But she drew her sword at long last, a magnificent huge bastard sword that needed both her hands to wield. It's light cut through the darkness like butter, cleaving through it and leaving it permanently gone.
I quaked in my boots at her greatness, at what I would never hope to be.
She stalked towards the succubus, determination writ in her face.
I started to follow, but Mal wrenched at my arm. "Why the bloody hell did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"You were taunting her. Offering yourself up like a pig for the slaughter. You knew that she could have taken you while you were in the middle of that spell, and you did it anyway. Why would you do something that stupid?"
I shrugged him off. "It had to be done. She was going to run, and I wasn't going to let her get away. We have her, Mal. We're going to win."
"I don't want to win if it means losing you," he said, growling at me.
I glared at him. "Too bad. We all do what we have to do to ensure victory, don't we?"
He shoved me, hard. "Don't be a bloody idiot! No, we don't, no one else did anything that stupid."
I shoulder checked him, unfettered by his shove. If I were ever going to be offended by that, I wouldn't have sparred with him for so long. I knew that I could hold my own against him—or at least, I liked to think that I could—and I wasn't going to let him shit all over this.
"I'm not letting Emily go up alone against that thing, Mal, and neither are you if you give a fuck about any of this. So, get your head on straight and help me."
I stomped away from him, following Emily. She was moving slowly, surely, towards the succubus, who was looking for a way out instead of focusing on the enemy that was coming at her. I had to give it to her, there was no quit in her when it came to running away. She knew that she was out matched, else she would have fought Emily already.
"You've got this," I said to Emily, only a few feet behind her.
The succubus' eyes gleamed then, turning onto me as soon as she heard my voice. Now that I could see her better, I saw that there was almost as little life in her eyes as the mages she had compelled, her pupils were dilated and I was surprised that she could see well enough to move.
She was high.
Without waiting for a second, she launched herself at me, flying past Emily and barreling into me. I barely got my arm up in time to keep her jaws off my face, her saliva dripping down and onto my skin. Fuck, but it burned when it touched me, as if it was acid.
I hissed, backhanding her. She recoiled, snarling at me.
"I will have you, mage." She hissed, reaching for me again.
"Like hell you will," I said, pulling my arm back and slugging her in the nose. Never forget the power of a good old fashioned beating. I was loath to use my magic, not just because I was afraid Emily would pick up on what I was, but also because the mark had spoken to me.
I didn't know what that meant and I didn't think now was a good time to be finding something like that out.
The succubus backed up a few feet, cradling her bleeding nose with both hands as she shrieked, the sound deafening. I fought to stay standing, wanting to crash to the ground and hold onto my ears, scrape at them to tear them off so that I could stop hearing that sound.
My legs buckled for a terrifying moment before I locked my knees, grinding my teeth together so hard my jaw hurt.
"No." The word was the only piece of sanity I could cling to.
Her incoherent eyes locked on me as best they could and she raced forward with another ear drum shattering scream, hands outstretched to scrape at my face with her nails.
I skated to the side, barely keeping my face away from her talons. I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek—somehow, someway, she had torn her way through my leather jacket and her nails were biting into the flesh of my upper arm. I yanked hard on my arm, trying to wrench it away from her, but she dug in.
My head felt light. Could she be pumping poison into my veins with just her nails? I didn't know the anatomy of a succubus beyond the swirling black vortex I'd seen before, I didn't know how they worked or what they could do.
I dropped to a knee, looking up at her. My face was a mixture of panic and outrage; I couldn't be driven down. That's not how this worked.
That's not how any of this worked.
A bolt of dark energy speared her shoulder, driving her back and away from me.
Mal. Fallen Angel to the rescue.
I picked myself back up, ran a cautious hand over the tattered sleeve of my leather jacket, and shrugged out of it. I tossed it onto the ground along with the hoodie I wore underneath it. There was no real need for it, not in the compound. It was a bitter cold day outside, but with all the screaming and fighting that had taken place, it was hot enough that I would have taken it off already if I hadn't been so preoccupied.
I rolled my shoulders back. She'd done me a favour. Nothing more.
I heard Mal's steps nearing me but held up a hand. "No," I said. "I want her." His footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
Emily jerked her head around to look at me, concern and maybe a bit of fear on her face. Of me or for me? I couldn't tell.
I gritted my teeth and debated the merits of this idea. Sparring with Mal was one thing, taking on a demon alone when I had a Fallen and a paladin on my side was potentially stupid.
The rage inside me demanded I engage.
I gave in.
Yanking out the fire wand, I aimed and fired. "Incendium!" Fire shot forth from the wand, spraying out in a haphazard pattern at the succubus, who narrowly managed to avoid the blaze.
She circled back around, her movements slow. They would have been steady, intimidating, I was sure, if it wasn't for the jerkiness that gave away her addiction. She had been too long on the magic souls, feasting when she should have been taking care of herself.
She was a glutton and she was going to die for her folly.
What about you? You give in to the brand too easily. It will be the death of you.
I shook the thought out of my head. It might be true, but it wouldn't do me any good to worry about that right now.
The succubus clapped her hands together, spreading them wide and revealing dark energy pooling between her hands, the same style that Mal used. I was only a little surprised, and didn't let it jolt me too much
I flung my right hand forward. "Aegis," I said, at the same moment as she fired out her energy. I caught most of it on the shield, but the splash ate into the same arm she had torn into just a moment before and sent me crashing to the ground behind me.
I writhed there for what felt like eternity, barely able to
keep my eyes squinting at her. She was advancing.
Idiot. You're going to die here. USE ME.
NO.
I shoved back at the incessant call of the brand, fear crashing over me at the way it spoke to me now—afraid it might be right. Hadn't I thought I would die tonight?
Had it been a premonition of what was to come?
The succubus straddled me, her greedy hands clutching onto the sides of my head and lifting it forward.
She moaned, one hand caressing my cheek. "You're going to taste so good." She all but purred the words out.
I struggled against her, terror mounting, not sure what to do. I could pull the energy from the brand and finish her here and now, but that would reveal myself to Emily.
The succubus leaned forward, her mouth opening. I felt the call to my soul to lift free and surrender to her, pain blossoming in my chest.
And then she evaporated into thin air, Emily's sword in the space where her body had been.
"You cannot interfere!" The succubus' voice echoed throughout the cage, infuriated.
"You will take no one this night, foul slave of hell!" Emily's pure voice ricocheted after her. The contrast was achingly beautiful.
My heart pounded in my chest at the sight of her standing over me, the fierce expression in her face—it was all for me, the tinge of fear around her eyes, the determination and sheer protective stance. She was protecting me and I felt tears pricking at the corners of my eyes.
She would always protect me.
The succubus appeared a safe distance away again.
"I will have the mage!" She snarled, her features twisting to an almost ugly mishmash. She crooked one hand out to me. "Her spirit calls for me. She will surrender."
"You will die," Emily said, racing forward and body checking the succubus so that she was knocked to the ground. I jumped up and ran after her, my own desire to keep Emily safe refusing to allow me the safety of the ground. I couldn't leave her any more than she could leave me.