Nia.
I waited in the woods until the moon hit its apex listening for the sound of Maara's approach. The woods creaked around me in the hours of darkness and small mammals scampered about the under growth, in search of food. Five minutes went by, then ten and just when I thought she wouldn't show, two figures emerged from the gathering mist that swarmed around my ankles, somehow but rolled away and parted for Maara. One figure stopped short next to a tree, so that the gloom covered them, but Maara stepped forward to confront me.
"The time has come Nia, make your choice." I held my ground, but was shaking inside with apprehension.
"I won't join you Maara, not now not ever." A series of emotions played across her face, many too fast to make sense of; disappointment, sadness, anger and glee. It stopped on glee.
"Even though you're soul-mate is here, you still won't join me to save her?" She held out an arm and Samantha stepped away from the tree trunk to come and stand beside Maara. Her eyes were glazed over and she walked without her usual gait; like she was stiff. It was like she was operating on auto-pilot and had no emotions. Maara grinned at me knowingly.
"You like my latest pet, she's very well trained and was easier to break, than your parents were. In fact I think you'll find this one will do anything I ask her to." She put extra meaning on the word anything and I suddenly knew what she had done to Sam. I looked at her in horror, before turning to Samantha who remained impassive.
"You didn't." The nasty grin only spread wider across her face.
"Oh yes, she's very much broken. I told you to make a choice and you chose wrong." I threw myself at Maara, determined to hurt her for what she had done to my soul-mate, but Samantha stepped calmly in the way and I ended up tackling her to the ground instead. I remained unmoving as she flipped me on to my back and pinned me down, looking to Maara for her next instructions. It sickened me that she was like this, but I couldn't bring myself to fight back and hurt her, even as her fingers were grinding in to my arms; to hold me down on the ground.
"Good wolf." Maara's words sent sparks of loathing shooting through me, but I reined it in because Samantha was between us.
"Samantha?" I whispered searching her face for anything, the twitch of a muscle, or a wink telling me it was all an act; that she wasn't really lost to me; but there was nothing. I set my sights on a nearby tree and using the training Kody had given me, willing a branch to snap off. It did with an audible crack, but as Maara spun to see what was going on behind her, I willed the branch to shoot through the air; aiming directly for her neck. Decapitation was really the only way to immobilise an exile, which was then finished off with burning them with fire. Just when I thought my plan would work, she shot up a hand, in one swift motion and caught the branch centimeters from her jugular. Snapping it in half and throwing it to the ground in rage, she turned back to me and her eyes flashed lavender, as horns sprouted from the side of her head, curling up and around; until they closely resembled ram horns. The ground beneath her feet smoked, as the plants withered and the branches above her head burst in flames. I half expected smoke to bellow from her nose, as her rage had such a profound effect on the surroundings; yet another example of how deadly Exiles were in the mortal world of earth. One rage induced tantrum had the possibility of leveling a city, if left unchecked.
"It'll take a lot more than a pathetic piece of wood to kill me Azrael, I'm of Celestial blood like you." Praying for forgiveness later I kneed Sam in the gut, wrenching a cry from her throat as she fell to the side, before flipping backwards and landing to face Maara. Samantha started to rise to her feet again, coming for me but I hit her in the side of the head, wincing at my actions and knocking her out cold. Catching her as she fell, I pulled her around the thick trunk of a tree, so she was out of harm's way and then turned back to Maara.
YOU ARE READING
Heaven's Eclipse: Star-crossed Fate.
Werewolf-A secret organisation of hunters have protected humanity against creatures of the light and darkness, since civilisation first began.- Nia can't remember her past, where she came from, or who she is. Her parents are hunters and it's their legacy sh...
