A/N: Trigger warning for violence, gore and death
Aarrwhooo! Boom! Boom! Boom! Sssss!
Once again, the night came alive with the sounds of battle. The ground shook under Ethan's feet. His heart pounded louder than the thumping paws of a thousand wolves. Screams of pain pierced the air, mingling with ferocious barks. Green flashes of light and darkness played tricks on his eyes as they shifted to reveal pale, red-eyed monsters. The hot, ferric tang of blood wafted up from the soiled grass to merge with smoke and cinnamon that irritated his nose.
"Archers, fall back!" The High Priestess commanded, her powerful voice full and resonant in the midnight stillness. "Sisters, shields up!"
"Trackers, to the rear! Vanguards - Woof! Woof!"
"Blood Warriors! Darkness be your shield!"
Arrwhooo!
Ethan's loud barks joined the battle cry. Then, he charged the mage closest to him.
Her face contorted in a vicious snarl as she lifted her fiery shield to block him. Twisting sideways to evade the flaming circle of death, his nails ripped chunks of damp, loamy soil and grass. The heifer stepped forward, grinning as she swung down the blinding green sword toward his neck.
A black shadow whipped past her exposed back, and she jerked. Three deep scratches appeared, and blood seeped into the tattered dress, staining it red.
The white native wolf slipped under her shield and, with a ferocious snarl, chomped on her calf.
"Aaah!" The mage's smile changed into a cry of pain. She twisted, turning to stab the she-wolf.
Not on my watch! Ethan growled. He leaped up and sank his teeth in her nape. He twisted once. Crack! The green sword and shield winked out of existence.
"You fucking dog!" A bronzed skin mage with piercings yelled, turning her weapons toward the alpha.
Rr-woof! Before she could get in striking distance of the gray wolf, Simmons and four natives jumped her. Ethan turned away as the enraged canines tore her from limb to limb.
Jan was a blurred patch blitzing through the squabbling bodies. He darted here and there. Everywhere he went, women in white flinched, and blood spurted from unexplained gashes in their clothes.
A bloodied mage caught his trail. Panting, she drew her sword from the chest of a charred vampire. Then, she threw it at him like a javelin.
The inky shadow jerked to a stop, and Jan's face appeared, hissing angrily as he ducked to dodge it. Ethan growled in warning. Thankfully, the blade missed his mate. But blazing a sizzling path, it sank to the hilt in an unfortunate speckled wolf who yelped painfully before dropping to the floor.
The fire sword winked out and reappeared in the mage's hand, hungrily flaring bright as it sought its next victim.
Ethan jumped, chasing the vicious hag circling his mate. He landed on another witch fending off two natives. His weight toppled her over, but he did not spare her a backward glance. The white wolf and her colleagues pounced on her, tearing chunks out of her while she struggled to rise.
Ethan's red eyes remained on the other hag, slashing and jabbing at the blonde vampire.
She moved slower than Jan but wielded her lethal weapons with deadly experience. When he lunged from the front, she swung the smoldering shield at him. Then, her fiery sword twisted in the blink of an eye to protect her blind spot from the vampire's sharp talons. It was as if she had eyes at the back of her head as well as the front.
Ethan landed on her other side, trapping her between him and his mate.
The battle mage paused, eyeing him.
To the alpha's horror, a second sword grew out of thin air and hovered above her spine with the sharp edge pointed at him.
Fucking fire demon!
As if on a silent cue, they both lunged at the witch. The green swords swirled and slashed, chasing them when they dodged. Ethan twisted to the side as the blade came down. The blistering heat sheered a swath of hair off his flank, nearly skinning him alive.
He yelped, tripping in the grass as he backpedaled.
Then he whipped himself around, opened his mouth wide, and lunged at the hag's vulnerable thigh.
Miraculously, his jaws snapped on thin air!
Even Jan paused, blinking rapidly as his talons met nothingness.
Rawr! The battle mage tumbled sideways, rolling with the black wind that had slammed into her. The ferocious dark wolf on top of her snarled, twisting and turning. Bucking from the force, she screamed at the top of her lungs as its fangs violently ripped through her shoulder.
"What are you doing here, Brent? I told you to go with the medics!"
"I heard you howl. I'm not getting on the sick bus when everyone else is fighting!"
"Who's looking after Eri?"
A tawny wolf with a black stripe sprinted awkwardly past him, favoring a bandaged foreleg. "Worry about your own damn self!"
Eri darted into the fray and bit the struggling witch on her belly. Dumbfounded, Ethan stared at his incredibly stubborn friends.
"Watch out!" Jan yelled.
The three wolves ducked as bright green fire flew over them. Its heat roasted off the fine hairs on their pointed ears.
The High Priestess' snake.
It had grown!
Thicker than Ethan and four times as long, the emerald serpent burned a path through the battlefield. It opened its jaws to display foot-long curved fangs. Then, quick as a viper, it darted downwards.
"Aaah!"
One of Adam's warriors shrieked as the stench of scorched flesh filled the air. Horrified, Ethan watched the snake toss its head back and gulp. The vampire slowly traveled through the fiery serpent's gut. His mouth opened wide in a soundless scream as his skin seared off. Muscle and tendon melted next. Then, the bones disintegrated like ashes in the wind.
Ethan's belly roiled.
He crouched, heaving, but nothing came out.
"You bitch!" Adams yelled.
The High Priestess screeched, her evil cackling filling Ethan's ears.
Adams slashed his nails across the carrier he still held, creating a new bloody smile at his throat. The flimsily dressed hostage grabbed the gushing wound at his neck. Before his dead body hit the floor, the clan leader was zipping across the battlefield to the hag.
Two mages stepped in front of him, blocking his path to the priestess.
In a flurry of movement that belied his size, the vampire slashed and sliced, danced in circles around them, and stepped away, holding a steaming heart in each hand.
The women gasped, wide eyes staring at the new gaping hole in their chest. Then, they fell to their knees.
Adams carelessly flung the bloody organs away and stomped towards the High Priestess.
However, brief as it was, the two mages had protected their leader. Their intervention had given her enough time to call her creature back. Now, the snake coiled around her, slithering as it created a shield wall of fire between her and her aggressors.
Ivan's hazy form appeared next to Adams. But just like the enraged vampire, he watched the serpent warily.
"Aah ha ha aha!" the evil witch cackled. "A little scared, are we?"
Adams snarled.
Then he jumped up in the sky, higher than the slithering wall. Before he got over, a smoldering tail came out of nowhere and batted him out of the sky.
Thankfully, the portly vampire rolled midair and landed on his hands and feet. Blisters popped on his skin, and smoke curled out of his black clothes where the fire had burned through.
Frustrated, Jan hissed. His inky shadow blanketed him, and he dashed towards his brother.
"Jan!" Ethan yelled futilely.
Scrambling, he sprinted after his mate.
"Ethan!" Brent called.
The gray wolf did not turn back. He kept his red eyes on the pitch-black patch zipping through the crowd, barking as he ran. He ducked under a swinging green sword, scuttled around a pack of wolves dragging a screaming woman, and slammed into a mage who kicked a native with her booted foot. But he never stopped running.
Jan's shadows slinked towards the High Priestess and waited. Her emerald eyes remained on Ivan and Adams. When the snake darted down to strike the Russian, Jan slipped through its coils.
The hag whirled at the intruder, but it was too late. The blooded warrior was already inside her safe zone.
The snake twisted around.
Jan's talons slashed down.
She jerked.
Then, the blazing serpent struck down, inside the wall.
The world exploded!
"Jan!"
The blast yanked Ethan off his feet, throwing him back. It ripped the dangling tower off its last pillars and dropped it on another low building. Windows shattered. The nuclear flash blinded him. A thundering roar deafened his ears. Hot, torrid air whipped over him, leaving the grass steaming.
A sharp jolt tugged at Ethan's core. Jan's blue orb pulsed once. Twice. Then, the light at its center dimmed so low that it looked practically transparent against Ethan's fiery essence.
The ball started falling.
"Jan. Jan!" Frantic, the alpha tightened his tendrils, trying to stop it. But it was like grabbing onto a glass marble with oily fingers. It slipped through his swirls and rolled into the connecting gate back to Jan's space.
Ethan chased after it.
Bang!
He hit a wall of solidified air.
"Jan!"
Ethan hurled his fiery conscience at the invisible wall, banged on it with his probes, threw a fit. It did not budge.
His mate's dim orb rolled away, disappearing in the darkness.
"Jan!"
No response. Nothing but cold, eerie silence.
Terror choked him. His soul felt hollow. Incomplete. It gaped because half of him was gone.
No! No! No! Jan can't leave. He can't die. I cannot lose my mate!
Something dark and bitter shot through him. It ripped the calm shroud holding back his bloodlust. Heat burst from his chest, burning through his veins. His blood boiled.
And when it got to his flame, it sparked a fiery tornado at his core. His orange tendrils burned white-hot, feeding on the rage and vengeance of his heart.
It was the fury of his wolf.
Ethan did not fight it.
He could not.
He did not want to.
He had nothing to fight for.
And so he gave in to his wolf, allowing it to carry him away to Jan. The murderous rage blazed higher, scorching off all reason and sentiment that made him human. The joy. The love. The pain. Everything.
When the alpha opened his eyes, Ethan was gone. Only a beast remained-a crazed, savage demon hungering for blood. His aura poured off him, filled with dark, sinister intent.
He barked once. A sharp but simple command: Kill.
Woof! Woof! Woof! A mad frenzy whipped through the battlefield. Berserk wolves charged at the cinnamon-scented woman with a ferocity that overrode their instinct for self-preservation.
A gray-black warrior jumped on a bloody hag even when she lifted her shield to block him. But he was not alone. Three more ripped her calves, thighs, and back before her flames did any damage. When she fell, another set of sharp, bloody teeth awaited her vulnerable neck.
"Ack! Aa-!"
Her terrified scream was music to his ears. It was the sound of a successful hunt. It tickled the murderous rage in his heart.
The gray alpha licked his chops, eager to taste the warm, salty tang of blood again.
But he wanted a worthy prey who would give him a good fight.
His red irises found the woman screaming in the center of dead wolves. "You blood-sucking assholes! Tail-chasing son of a bitch! You dare challenge me? I'll kill you all!"
Blood drenched her white cloak from a useless arm swaying at her side. It hung by an inch of flesh and tendons. Her eyes flashed green. She opened her mouth, and fire roared out like a dragon's breath.
Yes. That was a worthy prey.
Ethan snarled, calling off the predators surrounding her. She's mine.
He prowled closer, circling her. Her eyes flicked around, but when the other wolves backed off, they narrowed back on him. Her breath came in sharp gasps. However, she flashed her dull white teeth in a defiant scowl.
Yes, that's it.
Her uninjured hand lifted high, and red-tipped nails curved into a claw. Flesh-eating fire sparked to life in her palm, and she hurled it at the gray wolf.
He watched it approach and leaned sideways at the last moment with a nonchalant flick of his bushy white tail. His legs never broke stride as he stalked the woman, drawing closer with every step.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Two more fireballs raced by, each missing the wolf by mere inches.
She growled, frustrated.
Then she opened her mouth and spewed scorching green flames at him.
Quick as a viper, the alpha dipped beneath the blaze and lunged at her legs. His sharp fangs tore through the fleshy muscles and tendons at her ankle.
"Aw!" She gasped, eyes widening.
She yanked away, but her maimed foot crumbled when she put her weight on it. She trembled. Her pulse faltered. Its rapid beat rang loud like a drum in the wolf's keen ears. Then, cinnamon-scented pheromones spiked the air.
The wolf lifted his nose and sniffed.
Ah, that smell - the sweet, wonderful scent of fear. It was the most enticing aroma of the night. His tongue flicked out and slowly brushed over sharp canines, his mouth watering at the promise of more blood.
"Help! Sisters!" The radiant emerald irises clouded with dread. She glanced around.
But no one came to her aid.
No one could.
The women left were busy fending off the ferocious fangs and claws of crazed wolves and vampires. And those who could, lifted their skirts and scrambled into the crumbling buildings with sharp teeth nipping at their heels. Their panicked cries blended into a symphony to honor the warriors who granted them death.
"Aaah!" "The High Priestess has fallen!" "Fall back! Retreat!"
She whimpered, and her eyes returned to the gray wolf stalking her.
With one leg damaged and an arm useless, his prey started crawling backward, leaving a bloody trail on the grass.
A low warning growl rumbled through the alpha's chest.
Trembling, the woman paused and drew in a deep breath. When she opened her mouth, green flames blazed down her throat. Then, the head of a fiery snake slithered out.
The wolf did not wait for the threat to form fully.
He darted in, clapped his jaws around her exposed neck, and ripped it.
She jerked.
Green flames gashed out through the unnatural gap at her throat. The snake collapsed, writhing and turning on her face. The stench of charred flesh grew strong as the toxic green fire melted off her hair and skin. The flames burned brighter. Muscles liquified, and bones dissolved.
She never once cried.
Eventually, the green fire erupted, bursting out high into the sky like a toxic, gory volcano on a sea of the dead.
A/N
Hi lovelies, thanks for reading.If you loved it don't forget to vote, comment and add to your library.
I would love to hear your feedback on the story in general and this chapter in particular.
What did you like?
And what didn't you like?
What did you think about the characters?
Next chapter is already being edited. I will post it in a couple of days.
Ciao!