Hunted (Gods&Monsters Book 1)

Chapter 2

The pain was the first thing that made itself known when Serena woke up. It radiated out from the center of her chest causing her to let out a whimper. She went to move a hand to her chest when memories of her fight with Thor last night flashed through her mind. A soft growl rumbled from her as she went to push herself upright when a deep masculine voice called out to her from the doorway. "Whoa there beautiful, you're supposed to be resting." Turning her gaze towards the voice she soon let out a soft growl as she met the gaze of none other than Death. In his human form, he was quite handsome, straight white-blonde hair came down just past his chin. He wore hip-hugging black leather pants and a dark purple tank-top with some kind of band logo on it. Black biker boots completed his outfit.

Though his most striking feature would have to be his eyes. They were a mercurial silver color that seemed to move the longer you stared into them. Which she was currently doing as she fought with herself on whether or not to send a ball of flame into his smug face. A throaty chuckle rumbled from him as he leaned forward in the chair that he was sitting in. Bracing his hands on his knees, he then states rather calmly. "I'm glad that you survived your fight with the big thunder bastard. Though I would have wished that you had come out of it unscathed." Her chest gave another painful throb that echoed out through her body. She then pinned him with a frigid glare and hissed out through clenched teeth. "You could have warned me that the bastard was coming after me last night!"

A sliver of guilt flashed across his face but it was gone so quick that she almost thought that she had imagined it. He then murmured softly under his breath. "You needed the practice, the more you leave the flames dormant the more likely they will control you the next time you summon them." Serena felt her anger reaching a raging boil and mentally she called for the flames. Their searing heat helped to drown out her pain that is until they started howling at her to be released so they could gorge themselves on Death's immortal flesh.  An unbearable ache started up behind her eyes when she didn't release them. Speaking of Death, he had his hands held out in front of him in a passive gesture and was saying something to her. But she couldn't hear him over the roar of the flames.

She felt her lips lift into a feral snarl as she drew back a hand and willed a ball of flame to manifest itself. Then without warning she hurled it straight at his face. Death let out a panicked yelp and disappeared before the flames could hit him. Leaving behind the scent of freshly picked roses in his wake. Chest heaving, Serena slammed her eyes shut as the flames continued to roar in her head. The chair that Death had been sitting in was now a smoldering mess and the flames were in the process of latching onto the rug. When the sound of several sets of hurried footsteps reached her ears. The door to the room soon slammed open with a bang and in stormed four handsome shirtless men.

It seemed like she was outside looking in, as the flames screeched defiantly at the men and lunged straight for them. Muscular chests heaving, they let out feral curses as they dodged away from the flames reach. Serena mentally shouted at the flames to obey her but all they did was chuckle darkly at her efforts to regain control. They had all but devoured the rug and had set their sights on the men. While she hated to admit it, Death was right, she needed to start training to control her flames to avoid situations exactly like this one. A throaty chuckle rumbled through her mind followed by a voice so deep it shook her to the bone. "You think you can control us? You? No, we are the ones in charge now mage from now until the end of time!"

In the next breath, utter agony scorched a path through Serena's body. Relaxing her throat she let out a pain-filled shriek and slammed her eyes shut. If she had thought being struck by Thor's lightning had been painful. What was happening to her now was roughly twenty times more painful than that. It felt like her insides were being burned to a crisp, her blood going up in smoke along with it. Just as she thought she would go up in flames. A male voice suddenly growled out roughly. "I am really starting to regret letting you bring this woman here Lucas, you didn't mention anything about her being a Hellfire Mage!" The man that must have been Lucas replied back sheepishly. "They're so rare and I thought we could use her to fight against our enemies." A loud smack resounded around the room followed by several foul curses.

Serena cracked one eye open and watched silently as a man with hair as red as hers growled out harshly. "You've put the whole pack at risk on a fucking gamble! We don't even know if she'll agree to fight for us yet." Biting her bottom lip hard to keep in another pained cry as the flames continued tormenting her. Some small part of her knew that they were enjoying themselves as they watched her suffer. And that really pissed her off. Having enough of this shit, Serena dug into the last reserves of her strength and growled out harshly at them. "That is enough..." They turned their attention back onto her and hissed and crackled at her in a language she couldn't fathom to understand. But she was tired of side-stepping around them. Worrying about losing control whenever she summoned them. It was high time for her to be in charge of them for once.

Like her grandmother before her. Not wanting to give them the chance to intimidate her. She held out her hands before her and began slowly channeling their power through her. The men let out soft curses but wisely they stepped back and allowed her to do her thing. Grimacing, as the flames started kicking up a fuss at being locked away again. Letting out a shaky breath Serena hissed out through clenched teeth. "I won't have you locked away for long, I promise. It's high time that I started training with you to get better control." They grumbled at that but soon started kicking up less of a fuss. It took more time than she would have liked, but Serena had finally managed to lock them away within herself. Sweat coated her skin and several drops trailed down her face. Exhaustion clouded her thoughts but she still managed a small semblance of a smile. And rasps out weakly to the men who were now crowded around the door. "This Hellfire mage would very much like to go home now, please."

She watched as the werewolves snapped into action and as a pack stalked back towards the bed. But she only had eyes for two of them. One had closely cropped white blonde hair and hazel eyes while the other had hair so dark it appeared almost blue that reached his shoulders with dark grey eyes. They both wore ripped up jeans that hugged their lean hips. It took her but a moment for her to remember that she had seen them in the Siren's Song last night playing pool. Exhaustion hit her like a freight train and shadows gathered at the edges of her sight. But before the darkness could drag her back down into it's loving embrace she rasps out softly. "I recognize you two..." Her words trailed off as she fell into a dreamless sleep.