The cell lights up with their magic and the sound of screams. Blood, piss, and shit coat the air as they realise they willingly walked themselves into a trap with death. A beast, one that is carelessly shredding them to pieces.
They don’t stand a chance. My bull snorts in pleasure as I split one of their stomachs open and they shriek and fall under my hooves. I smash one’s head, feeling it squelch under me. Pausing, chest heaving, and smoke curling from my nose, I look around at the bodies littering the cell. Some of them are trying to heal themselves, one of them is attempting to crawl to the door with no legs, and there is one still untouched. Her hands are still pressed to the door, her face against it as she sobs as if not looking at the monster, at me, will make me not real.
“Please, please, no, please, oh great mother, hear my pleas. Protect me with your bright, guiding light,” she begs, her voice cracking and small, like a child.
“Your prayers won’t save you,” I tell her, voice garbled, but she hears me.
She whimpers, pressing closer to the door, repeating the prayer again and again, louder and louder as she hears me drawing closer. The chain stops me before I can reach her and my bull roars in anger, wanting her blood, wanting her cries of fear. She came here to hurt us, kill us, stop us from protecting our mate. She must die.
“Oh, little witch…” I laugh, the sound like a roar and she whimpers, flattening herself against her only exit. “Come out and playyyyy.”
“Our bright mother, darkness unbound, come upon me,” she cries.
My bull recedes slightly, letting me change our mouth and face back so I can talk. “Little witch,” I rasp in a human voice, and she shivers like she fears that more than my animal, interesting. “Your great mother has deserted you. You are weak, shivering in terror. At least your coven went to death with pride, facing their fear while you whimper and hide. What would they think of you now?” I laugh, spreading my arms to encompass her dead people. Some are still sucking in stuttering breaths to try and stay alive.
“Moo-ther, please, save me from this certain death,” she whispers.
“Oh, bright mother,” I mock, stepping forward as far as I can to reach her, my arm outstretched and brushing her hood. “Save me!” I cry and then chuckle. “She didn’t save your coven, she didn’t even save your vile, fucking demented ancestors as I ripped through them and left them to choke on their blood.”
She stops talking, breathing heavily now, and I sense her fear retreat slightly, morphing to anger. Ah, yes, that’s what we want. So I carry on, throwing out barbs at her people and she turns with a cry, her hand held outright, flinging the last of her magic at me as she steps forward. We watch as the bright blue and black orb hits my chest and then seems to melt into the floor. Her mouth flops open, her eyes wide as she watches me.
“But how? That was death magic, I threw my own life into it...you couldn’t…”
I don’t care how, only that she is close enough to reach now. Close enough to kill. I grab her as she screams for mercy and tear her in two, throwing the parts to the side, then I just stand there amongst the bloodshed and death and wait for my mate.
My bull needs to let something else out now, something much, much stronger and much more deadly—lust. All that hate and blood lust is turning into pure desire, until our body flicks between animal and human as we roar in need for our mate.
Dawn.
I leave my house and the forest god there as I mount my motorcycle and pull from my drive, heading down a familiar road to the place I hate most on this Earth. I have tried so hard to gain my freedom, even though I’m their fucking pet, to have my own space and life...yet here I am, willingly riding back into their masses. To become their assassin, their servant, to do with whatever they want.
For her, always for her.
I can feel the madness clawing at the edge of my mind, brought by my need for her, my mate, and my lingering fear of going back. I haven’t stayed willingly in their presence since the night I lost everything, since I was forced to watch...no, I can’t go there. Not now, otherwise I’ll give into that madness and just go in there, kill all those fucking bastards, and rip Dawn away, which isn’t a bad plan apart from the fact we will be hunted for the rest of our lives.
No, I can’t do that to her.
She had a shitty enough human life with that piece of shit she killed and buried in the woods. She deserves a better second chance. I almost snort at that. A better second chance...with me? We both know I’m the craziest motherfucker out there, so close to losing it and giving into that blackness inside me like a poison, which seems to be out of control without her here to push it back and revel in it. She deserves better than me, I know that, but I’m not letting her go.
If they have touched her, hurt her...my mind flashes black for a moment and I look down at my hands on the handlebars to see them leaking black mist. No, I push it away. I can’t afford to lose it, not here, not with her so close. I will have to play their game, the perfect little servant, and get close to her. Find her, protect her.
She trusted me, gave her life to me...told me I would never be alone again.
It’s time I prove neither will she. I’ll always come for her. She’s the reason I keep going instead of giving in, she is the reason I’m walking into the viper’s nest, willing to take any pain, any punishment or humiliation they deem worthy. She was right, we need each other.
I need her.
She keeps me sane—well, as sane as can be—and makes me want to fight. To keep living, to feel her with me. To feel her soul wrapped around me, her body entwined with mine. I ache with the need to touch her, the pull stronger than ever before. To hold her, fuck her, claim her, and make her mine.
I didn’t have nearly enough time with her to prove I can be more than a sour, angry brute, but someone she could care about...I daren’t say love. I don’t deserve it, nor do I have it to give. My heart is blackened and cold, but she helped it beat again and now I will never go back.
What a fool I was, thinking I could resist her. She shook up my world and I miss the madness she brought. Her smiling face flashes through my mind as she squared up to me, toe to toe, unafraid even in my bitterness and hate. My mate is something, that’s for sure, and unlike the others I know she can survive whatever they throw at her, but what will she evolve into to survive it?
I became this bitter, winged monster flying above the world but never touching it, held apart...my mate, Dawn...Vasculo, will she embrace the pain and let it fuel her or will she withdraw?
I don’t want to find out, so I gun it, speeding up as I wind down the road through the forest that leads to the council and to her. My Harley purrs between my legs. It’s as close to flying as I can get without spreading my wings and taking to the sky, but they don’t appreciate it when I turn up like that. It usually ends with a lecture or a punishment, saying I’m flaunting the gifts I was given from my angel father and the horrible twistedness of my nature—not that they care when they use them for their own gain, but that’s something else altogether.
I can feel Nos in the forest, there is a link between us now, connected from Dawn. It feels strange not to be alone in my head, but not unpleasant, but I will never tell that fucking tree hugger. He’s at least better than that snobby fucking dragon, who thinks he is better than all of us. He reminds me of everything I hate, those bastards who sit on the throne and give orders. I wanted to kill him, had come very close to doing so, sneaking up behind him when he hadn’t noticed, but Nos had stopped me. One simple word on his lips was a reminder.