Never before had Dae ever scented hate like that, so pure that it centered from the blackness in his chest where his heart used to be.
Dae stepped forward even though Koda tried to keep her behind him.
“So you’re the big man. I’m not impressed. No wonder why you sent those little girls after me. There wasn’t anybody better was there?” Dae smirked but she felt no pleasure in taunting this black hearted warped thing in front of her.
Koda stood between them, and he began backing up, pushing Dae to the doorway. The sound proof doorway. He wanted her to leave, to get help. She felt it inside but she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t leave him there to die.
Dae refused. She promised she would not to leave him again.
“I don’t want to impress you whelp, I want to kill you.” The Uktena replied, Dae guessed trying to intimidate her. Please.
Koda was torn between lunging at the foul thing before him and getting Dae out of there. He tried pushing her along but she wouldn’t move from her spot. He growled for her to go but she ignored him. He needed her to get to Raj. They wouldn’t know she was in trouble. She needed to get to safety. He couldn’t kill this thing without knowing that.
“Get in line. Better men have tried.” Dae replied, disgust evident in her tone.
“Whelp, before take your life I will teach you to respect.” The Black hearted thing stood in a fighting stance.
“Like I said better men have tried and failed miserably you fucking smelly piece of shit!” Dae stood in her own fighting stance.
The Uktena growled fiercely and the snake on his arm seemed to hiss. What the fuck? Dae was too busy trying to make Koda understand that he had to get away. He kept blocking her body with his, kept pushing her back towards the door.
The Uktena looked amused. “You mated this? Have you no loyalty to your people?”
Koda growled so menacingly he almost roared.
Dae replied incredulously, “My loyalty is to me and mine, fucktard.”
“No, your loyalty is mine by blood whelp.”
Charbroil man say what?
“So you don’t know who I am…or who you are.” He still stood in the same spot, not moving but he was smiling. It was an butt-ugly thing to see. “You are the reason my Sa’dyah escaped me.”
“Nope, I’m sure that was your winning personality, or that Eau De Carcass you insist on wearing.” Dae replied to blackheart. Koda growled for her to leave and Dae growled back, “Who the fuck is this guy?”
The Uktena face contorted into a deeper sneer. “Still confused whelp? How about you just call me daddy?” He laughed like a maniac and then continued, “You made your mother leave me and for that I will not allow you to live one more day.”
Dae was frozen in shock as blackheart spoke. Dae felt like someone punched her in the gut… No it couldn’t be true. She shook her head, as if that would make it any less true.
That thing couldn’t be her… her… father. No. It couldn’t be. The fates weren’t that cruel, were they?
“Oh yes it’s all true. You’re the pup that should have never been born. Had I known you existed you would have been dead in that traitor’s womb.”
The black hearted thing seemed to enjoy taunting her with his knowledge. Dae had trouble breathing. This had to be bullshit. “My mother…”
“Your mother was one of my toys. She ran with you and I have been waiting to pay you both back.”
What? This Cajun Fried Bastard want to kill her because of her mother?
“You charbroiled motherfucker! This shit is all about her? She doesn’t even CARE! Oh the big bad wolf got his itsy bitsy black heart broken. Boo fucking hoo! Please excuse me while I file that under ‘I don’t give a fuck’!” Dae bellowed feeling her jaw tighten.
Dae couldn’t swallow the amount of saliva in her mouth so she spat at the thing that called itself her father. He was evil; he would say anything if it benefited him.
The Uktena glared at his bastard pup as he dodged the spit. She spat at him? He was the Uktena, the eater of souls, the true leader of the true people!
“You were already going to die; now I will take your soul!”
Dae tried to get over Koda but he tossed her body back into the wall. Dammit didn’t he understand? He had to go. If he stayed, Dae wasn’t sure he would survive. Her heart ached at the thought of anything happening to him. Dae felt Koda’s rage and it gave Dae some strength.
“You can’t have her. I’ll kill you before you get near her.” Koda growled. It didn’t matter who the Uktena was to Dae. Koda didn’t care. Dae was his. HIS. She would not be anybody else’s. No one was going to hurt her.
“Boy, I am the Uktena. That whelp is mine and there isn’t anything you can do about it.”
Dae sure hoped that someone heard this loud blowhard. Dae needed someone to hear this, to come help her get Koda safe.
“And what the fuck is that supposed to mean? I don’t give a shit what you call yourself Daisy Doom’N’Gloom. Leave while you still can.” Dae kept trying to get around Koda. To protect him, but Koda was being ridiculous.
If only Dae could have seen his face one last time, if only she could have held him again. There was so much she wanted to do yet…
Koda threw Dae unto the wall with such forced her back created a dent in it. As her body flew back she saw Koda shift while leaping at blackheart. As the wall crumbled around her she lost his view.
No! Godsdamn him! Dae climbed out of the dent to catch a still human blackheart throwing Koda off into another wall with such force that the dry wall collapsed on him exposing the steel beams behind it. Dae jumped at blackheart only to receive a kick in her ribcage that sent her back breaking through the more of the wall she just jumped away from.
Dae growled as she got on her feet again. Her legs felt funny, it hurt to breath and her left arm didn’t work right. Dae pushed through the pain as blackheart stepped towards the wall Koda still lay beneath. She lunged herself at the bastard who thought to hurt Koda again.
Koda was hers! Dae felt her hands and teeth shift but she remained human in her leap.
Blackheart grabbed her by the throat in mid air, smiling. Dae used her hand claw to rake against his face and neck. Blackheart looked at her, shocked, as her claw came down again taking his left eye and half his face in its path of destruction. He howled and tossed her into the wall, successfully breaking a hole into it with her body.
Dae was on the other side now, which she knew was the hallway.
Dae heard the growl before she could push past the pain of impact and Koda was again lunging at the surprised blackheart. Dae crawled against the pain in her body and got back from her hole. Raj would hear that. He had to. She had to get Koda. Blood dripped from her ribs and Dae yanked out the wood that was lodged inside her. Dae crawled against the pain in her body back into the room.
Dae saw Koda, bleeding on the ground as blackheart stood over him. The snake tattoo moved off of his arm like black smoke and started to encircle Koda’s wolf body.
Dae was already in the air and before blackheart could react to throw her away, she jumped him, claws raking at his other eye as she latched on his throat with her mouth. Dae tasted the blood as he tried to pry her body off him, going for her hands first. Then he went for her throat when he realized she took both his eyes out.
Dae grabbed his head in her claws as she ripped the piece of throat she had in her mouth out. The hands on her throat loosened and Dae dug into his skull ripping the head from his body.
Blood was everywhere and she couldn’t tell if it was his or hers. Dae fell back, her legs feeling disjointed. Dae turned to see large black cats jumping through the hole her body made.
The growl snarl that came out of her mouth had them stopping in their approach. Dae tossed the head away from the body underneath her to get to Koda. He was a man again and the snake was circling his unconscious bleeding form. Dae snarled as she launched at the smoke snake. The snake entered Koda’s eyes and Dae felt Koda
leaving her.
No!!!! He couldn’t leave her!
Dae landed on Koda’s body and the smoke snake jerked from its path of entering Koda’s other eye.
Dae knew that if the snake had him that was it. He would be gone. Dae tried to rip its smoke body from Koda but it had no form to latch on to. Dae tried to claw at it and it evaporated, reappearing like nothing happened.
The snake turned on her and hissed. Dae snarled back. She didn’t care that it was smoke, she would find away to kill it. For Koda she ignored the pain in her chest and limbs.
The smoke snake couldn’t have him!
The snake circled Dae’s body as the big black cats roared. Dae was swiping and pulling at the smoke snake. She had to get it away from Koda but she didn’t know how as she flipped and clawed.
Before Dae could figure out a way to save Koda, the snake entered her ear. Dae felt it sliding through her being, not just her body. It slipped in her mind and Dae felt like she was being forced out by the snake. It was cold, so cold where the snake slinked around.
Soul eater. That’s what the snake was. And it was going to eat her soul and then go after Koda. Dae refused to give up. Dae thought of Koda and wished she could change things, she wished she could have spent the little time they had together differently. Dae ached to tell him how she felt…
“You are of him.” The snake hissed in her head. “You are of my old master.”
Dae felt the snake waiting for a reply so in her mind she answered knowing it was the truth. “Yes.”
“So I am not free.” The snake said and Dae sensed disappointment of the smoke snake.
Dae felt that there was only one way to save Koda.“You are free! Go. Take my soul but leave my mates. Don’t take his. Mine is yours.”
“I cannot go nor can I take either soul. My old master bound me to him making it so his soul was untouchable. He made it so I cannot take yours or your mates as well since they are joined. I was his servant and now I am yours.”
“No you are free–” Dae felt a burning inside like lava poured down into her chest and then there was nothing but blackness.
Iya looked at the evil smoke snake surrounding her friend’s body in horror. Raj had told her to stay behind but she couldn’t. She saw the jaguars, lions and one lone wolf snarling and growling at Dae’s floating form. The smoke snake kept her in mid air as it circled her friend’s body over and over again. Some of it already entered her head and Iya felt something in her snap.
“Nooooo!” Iya tried to jump past the jaguars but a man was on her, holding her down to the ground. Iya thought of static shock then a cut electrical wire as Raj’s body convulsed over hers.
She tried to pry his hands off her but he didn’t let go, even though she Zapped him, somehow he still had her pinned her underneath him. Iya saw Dae’s body drop lifelessly to the floor with a thump, the smoke snake now gone.
Iya began to sob uncontrollably.
The Alpha stepped into the broken hole in the wall where he scented his youngest. His second in command, Rain, was to his right and his third in command, Sky, was to his left. Both were his sons and the only ones he could trust. He saw Raj, not one of his sons but close enough to it. Raj had been raised with his pups since his parents were killed when he was a child. Raj held a wailing woman, who must be the half-and-half Rain told him about. The half and half screamed through her sobs. “Noooo! God no…”
It was then he saw his boy surrounded by jaguars. He snarled, ready to kill every cat he saw, his sons doing the same behind him. The eldest of the Jamboree shifted and spoke as a man. “It is not wise.”
“Get away from my boy!” The Jamboree approached roaring and hissing at him. The Alpha swore he would kill every single cat he saw.
“We weren’t who you should have been worried about.” The eldest roared at his Jamboree and they backed away, showing the Alpha the whole scene. His son lay, bleeding and broken on a pile of wall rubble. But he still breathed. The relief in the Alpha was enough to make him loose his composure and run to his youngest. He lifted his unconscious form and hugged him. How he wished he could have hugged him before this day.
But things…things were always easier in theory then they were in practice.
A few feet away laid his loathed enemy. The Uktena’s body lay headless, blackened as was the curse the Great Creator laid upon his line and the wolves who followed his father and grandfather before they followed him. ‘Blackened hearts exposed, your hate will destroy you.’ He remembered the scripture recorded from the end of the Great War. And so it was written, so it shall be.
The Alpha turned back to his pup and couldn’t help the tear that fell. He always thought it was his duty to die in battle. Not his pups… Next to his pup lay a young woman, as broken and bleeding as his boy. Ah. This must be the hybrid.
He lifted his hand to take hers as he heard the half-and-half wail, “No, you son of a bitch!”
Shocked, he saw Raj’s form turn rigid as the half-and-half ripped away from him. Rain was the first to get before him and Sky followed. To the Alpha’s horror, the half-and-half Zapped both of his pups like she was an electric eel.
The jaguars stayed still, not wanting to incur the wrath of the mad Nephilim who approached him. The Alpha put his pup down behind him and stood facing her growling. Her eyes were a mixture of white and black with grey in the middle. It reminded him of the yin and yang symbol apart from the milky grey at the center. She had neither iris nor pupil; only the white on the on the outside, swirling gray in the middle and black towards the center.
The Alpha had never seen eyes like that before. She grabbed the woman from before him, staring, almost daring him to stop her. She let out a high pitched sound from her mouth that made him grab his ears in pain. She backed away from him, dragging the woman with her.
He growled enraged that she Zapped his pups so easily and right in front of him as Raj jerkily crawled to his feet. Then he understood why the half-and-half was so enraged. It was true. This was the woman’s Tribe and one of the reasons his youngest pup didn’t report back. “Old one, I will not harm her.” The Alpha said to the half-and-half.
The half-and-half’s eyes did not change as she continued her retreat. She looked half crazed and the Alpha scented her grief from where he stood protecting his pup. She let out another high pitched sound that forced all the jaguars to take human form. One being should not have all that power. Raj came forward slowly. “Iya its ok, calm down.”
“Stupid boy! Get back before she kills you. She’s mad!” The Alpha yelled at Raj.
“Sorry Alpha, I cannot obey.” Raj replied. The Alpha almost fell over with surprise.
“Iya, it’s me. It’s ok. I won’t let them hurt her. Let me try to help her.” Iya looked up at Raj with tears streaming from her tricolored eyes and nodded. Raj came to Dae and began to shout, “I need bandages, tweezers, needle and thread!”
The eldest jaguar nodded at one of his cubs as he took off in search for the supplies.
“We need to treat your boy.” The eldest said and the Alpha nodded lifting his youngest pup to this chest as the others started to converge around him. Rain and Sky jerkily stood, trying to shake off the voltage from their systems. Damn half-and-half. He wanted to kill her for Zapping his pups.
They took his youngest pup out of the room as the eldest jaguar said, “Come. Here we are all friends.”
Raphael extended his hand to the Alpha and after he scrutinized it, he shook it. He followed the leader of the Jamboree out oddly enough through the door even though the huge holes in the wall were big enough to walk through. He wondered what went through the reinforced steel to make those holes. He prayed it wasn’t his son. He didn’t know if his pup could heal from that at all.
Raj worked on Dae’s broken ribs first, pulling out the splinters from the large wound in her side. Iya sat next to Dae using her healing gift with all her strength. After Raj finished wrapping Dae’s chest, left arm, legs and neck, he looked at Dae’s rig
ht arm. It was closer to Iya and he didn’t want to stop Iya from using her healing gift to help Dae. Dae was going to need all the healing Iya could give her.
He didn’t know if her body could survive this kind of damage. She was impaled with wood on her left side. The wood crushed her ribcage in, pushing her bones onto her spleen and stomach. Her left arm was broken in two places, her legs as well. She had a huge gouge missing from her collar bone. He was almost afraid to see how badly her right arm was injured. Iya was still crying with her tricolored eyes. Raj wanted to hold her and tell her it was going to be fine but he feared she would know the lie as soon as he said it.
Dae’s right arm was the only place without broken bones, bruises or bleeding but the sight of it still made Raj grimace.
Iya pleaded still crying over Dae. “What! Tell me Raj, what– Oh God no–”
Iya saw it. Wrapped around Dae’s right arm was the smoke snake, now a tribal tattoo circling her bicep.
“What does it mean Raj?? What does it mean? You have to tell me!” Raj began wrapping the arm with bandages to cover the tattoo.
For the first time since he met Iya, he felt regret as he answered one of her questions. “I don’t know Iya. I don’t know.”
Thirty-one
Somebody kill me please!
Everything hurt from Dae’s eyelids to her toes. When she tried to move it tripled her pain. Dae opened her eyes to see Koda’s ceiling. Immediately she searched for Koda. He lay next to her, bandaged and broken as a wolf. Dae’s heart clenched as the crawled over to him, shifting into her wolf. The pain was terrible but Dae got on four legs and curled up next to her mate. He was breathing. As long as he was breathing she could sleep. For a few minutes at least. Dae felt so tired her eyelids closed and she scented Koda in her dreams.
Iya looked like she hadn’t slept in days. It was true; the past week was long and hard. Raj kept her going, sitting up with her as they watched their friends, hoping they would wake up soon.
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