The Wicked Born

Chapter 14

Tabitha spun faster than human eyes could follow, ripping into the right flank of the beast with the blade of her dagger. The wound she gave the first wolf should have been enough to incapacitate any other creature, but it only seemed to infuriate that one even further. It jumped just out of her reach and opened its impossibly wide mouth to send out a screeching call that she prayed to any god that would listen wasn't a call for more reinforcements. Tabitha turned to find that the other creatures seemed to inch closer and closer, so she slashed at them to force them backward.

"It's not bleeding," she breathed to Ellias behind her as she surveyed where her knife had just landed. She spoke lowly so as not to startle the surrounding animals.

Panic surged again in the air from Ellias once he turned his head and caught sight of what Tabitha was staring at as well. From where blood should be pouring out, small trickles of dust seemed to be coming out instead. The ashen-colored dust began to pool around the impossibly large paw of the animal, but the wolf paid it no heed. It's obsidian eyes never left Tabitha's—rage hollowed out any other emotion that the witch may have seen in it before. Rage and, once again, the drive to kill. She supposed that they were the same on that level. The sickening thought almost made her laugh out loud.

This new discovery of the ash that fell from their wounds all but confirmed what she had hypothesized--that these creatures were not of this world. They did not bleed because they were incapable of it--they were called forth by some powerful being and let to roam astray in the woods. Tabitha didn't have time to consider all of the possibilities of what that meant as she continued the fight against them.

To her relief, she noticed that the wound wasn't self-healing like the Helios were able to do. They simply gaped open, dust still trickling out of it and onto the ground.

The wolf to her direct right chose that moment to leap forward again. Tabitha tried to whirl in time to parry off the attack, but the wolf was much faster than it originally let on. It was almost startling that there was a creature out there that was faster than even she. The teeth of the large creature snapped around the forearm that held her sword before she could even blink.

Tabitha let out a strangled cry, her vision blurring as a familiar burning sensation entered her bloodstream from the site of the wound and expanded quickly outward.

Felaria. Their teeth were coated in Felaria extract. Someone had sent these wolves specifically to weed out any witches or warlocks that inhabited the woods. A sickening feeling crowded her gut that told her that they were sent specifically for her.

The wolf dug his paws into the dirt, shaking his head side to side in a vain attempt to rip her arm off. She dropped the sword as the pain radiated outward, the burning nova of the sensation was where the wolf's teeth were still planted in her flesh as it tore. Tabitha's vision swam and she struggled to keep conscious. She vaguely saw Ellias gaping at her from her peripheral vision before he quickly turned to fight off the wolves that threatened him, leaving her at the whim of three others. Including the one that had her in his jaws.

Every nerve in her body screamed in pain, her senses already dulling considerably because of the Felaria extract that coated the wolves canines. The sensation was all too familiar, and bile threatened to spill from her throat as her mind swam with the memories of the times she'd endured the same feeling while still in the Demetrian coven.

The wolf dug his teeth in deeper, eliciting another cry of agony from the witch. The pain grounded her to consciousness as her mind threatened to faint. She grit her teeth and, with all willpower that hadn't yet left her body, yanked her forearm and the attached wolf toward her body. The wolf was caught off balance by the action while trying to hang on with all of his might, making him unable to predict her next move.