The sound of quick footsteps rushed by me, and I jolted back, careful to keep one hand on my pouch of poisonous herbs and other chemicals. My nose twitched from the smell around me. Melancholy Bell. But that was an impossible flower to find. It didn’t exist on earth anymore. Even if a human were to ask any of the locals, they would never have handed over the rare beauty to an outsider, especially one from an affluent region. They knew the powers it held, and they knew of our strength and
importance.
Yet, it was there. Somewhere nearby. I crouched and dug my fingers into the pouch. A layer of what felt like sand stuck to my fingers. I curled them and caught hold of the powdery mixture, ready to fling it in defense. I closed my eyes and felt the wind whip against my face. Three sharp clicking noises issued from my throat, our natural defense call and radar technique. One by one, my unique sound waves pinged off the trees. I did it once more, shifting to the left. I circled three more times, observing the soundscape of the forest. And then I saw him.
I couldn’t believe I was so foolish to miss him. Earlier, I was so lost in my head he managed to find a place to cut me off. Above me, he sat perched between two thick branches. He pounced, wielding a glowing, familiar blade. Mag’s blade. He drove it down with intent to kill, but I jumped back with immense force, throwing myself yards away from him and dropping into a denser area of forest. “So,” I whispered, “you made it this far. No worries. You seem like an easy enough kill.”
Collecting my strength, I stared back at his confident twitching stature. All of his shifty movements were absorbed by my predatory faculty. Lightly, he swayed, deciding on his next move. With stealth, I took the powder mix from my bag and cupped it, stomping my heel back against the soil, digging through and down toward the roots of the trees. I let out an incredible roar, knowing this was his death. He didn’t have to come searching for us. The fact he’d made it this far showed me he talked to the natives, even heard their stories. He broke their trust. I would consume his memories later, and he would suffer the consequence of a trial.
Today was his death day.
I barreled through the trees, sight fixated on his worthless body. Soon, it would be a corpse, and I’d make sure to keep his organs preserved enough to keep the life force strong in this realm. No, his energy would not disappear, as that could not be destroyed. Instead, it would serve to keep us alive, the darkness that binds the light. He’d stay fixed in his agony every single night.
He made an attempt to dive away, but my hand caught his shirt. Twisting, he swung that blade, slicing across my chest. The sting subdued me for a split second, but the sight of oozing blood quickly enraged me. I hit his forearm and tore his shirt before taking his leg from underneath him and whipping him effortlessly against the tree. He fell to the earth’s floor, heaving in painful gulps of air. The wind was knocked out of him, and he was debilitated enough it would take a while for him to recover.
I laughed at how easy a fight it was. He wasn’t the first man we would mutilate here, but he might have been the one I would most enjoy. I stepped through the excess of twigs and earthly soil, onto a large tree that had fallen over in the process. I looked down upon him and held my hand in front of me. The wind picked up the dust I had been holding and spread it around my person, a blue glow. I had all the power in the world to kill him, this puny man I now recognized as Zane. One look into his pupils, and I could see who he was. The boy who found a way to cheat as a man. The boy who destroyed heart after heart. He was insignificant to the grand scheme of history, but he had hurt Adeline. For that, I wanted his head.
I leaned down in full glow, running my hand over his flushed cheek, taunting his masculinity. He looked at me in horror, still unable to get in a breath big enough to satisfy. I curled my hand around his chin and squeezed, so he would know to listen to every word I said. “This is not your home.”
“I came for... for her,” he managed to grumble.
“Adeline,” I growled and started to salivate. My impassioned cock started grew and throbbed with lust. I had yet to see her, but I felt like I knew her already. In his memories, she was a saint who deserved more. She had been used, time and time again. Whether it was her parents, this sack of shit, or the system itself, she was made to fall into a life of sadness and hurt. But she heard the beating of our hearts. The insatiable curiosity took hold, and together, we yearned to fall in love.
“She’s here!” Zane shouted, ready to give her up at once. “She’s in a cabin. Nearby. Oh, God, I swear it! I can... I can lead you there.”
The sight of a grown man weeping disgusted me, but when he threw Adeline under the bus like that, I was more than disturbed. Incredible rage shook me, causing me to see red. My pupils shifted and lined to make a target out of him. He started to dig away from me, but it was no use trying to run from a beast in his own home.
Zane was more of a coward than I thought. As I jumped from the log, I walked slowly over to him, ready to cast a spell that would freeze his heart forever. Mag could do the impaling, and Cadmar would be more than happy to lead the ceremony after. “You will remain here forever,” I said. “But you will no longer have any agency over your body.”
“N-no!” he shouted. “Addie!”
“Nobody can hear you now. The time has come,” I said.
I picked up Mag’s blade and sliced his cheek. A thin stream of blood fell down his face, pooling up near his lips. At first, he simply winced, but when the pain seemed to wear off, he started to laugh. “You’ve really done it now, haven’t you?”
Across his cheek, his capillaries turned from red to dark blue. They ran through his skin like a river, branching out in infinite directions until it made a noticeable pattern. It solidified into a thick scar.
I stumbled, holding the bloody blade in front of my face. I was shocked I could have been so careless. Why didn’t I just kill him? Why the fuck was I just letting him live? But I knew why. Adeline wanted it to be this way.
At the sounds of more movement, I looked back and saw Cadmar, clearly distressed. Our eyes locked, and a sense of urgency formed. “Donovan!” he called out. “Fucking run!”
Confusion. Perplexity. And then understanding kicked in.
Zane stood up and brought his closed hand near his heart. Then, in the flash of a moment, he whipped the contents out. Melancholy Bell. Fuck. It immediately sank into my eyes, into my pores, settling inside my body. I fell and heard him usher a botched prayer, one the natives would have had to give him. But how?
“You!” I roared and writhed on the ground. Cadmar punched a chunk out of the trunk of a giant tree, screaming back with tumultuous anger.
“Stay back!” Zane yelled, voice teetering on the edge of excitement. In his hand was more of the crushed flower. He had found the weakness, and it had worked. What wasn’t there to be happy about?
I stumbled back, feeling the sudden onset of dizziness and weightlessness. I raised my arms, searching for Cadmar, but I could barely see. “No,” I groaned.
“You don’t understand what you’re doing,” Cadmar said. “The portal will shut. There is no time.”
“I came here for the girl,” Zane said. “Anything else means very little.”
“Why? What does she have that you want?” Cadmar asked. I could barely think, let alone speak. My power, instinct, and primal strength were drifting away from me. I felt such a level of loss that I fell to the ground, yearning for the worst. It was so horrible, so cold, and so wrong. But it was our entire fault. We should have known someone would exploit us again. Ever since we had been free, we grew wild and cocky.
We weren’t prepared, and he beat us for our ignorance.