Page 89 of Monsters of Desire and Nightmares of Passion

The humans are foolish, stupid. They deserve everything they get. As I watch the cloud of lost Shadows tear apart the surrounding crowd, I want this to be possible and not a figment of my imagination. I need this to be real. Please, let it be real. It’s a possibility I never considered in my wildest dreams. How is this even possible? Khal is dead. How is he able to bring The Lost Shadows into our dimension and lead them? How is Ivy here?

The lost Shadows surround Ivy, following her with each step, protecting her. No human could get close to her, whether they were armed looking to take down their enemy or running away in panic. The lost Shadows tore apart anyone who got to within a few feet of her, leaving a pile of body parts on the dirt and a spray of blood in the air. They had become a cloud of death surrounding her.

I want to join the fight, to be with my mates and share in battle, but my mighty scorpion tale is wrapped in chains. I muster all the energy I can, summoning all the energy from my soul and body, but no matter how hard I pulled I could not break them. Mrez had no better luck, shaking under his efforts to free himself.

Searching through my connection, I tug at it to gain Khal’s attention. I find him in the middle of the humans, his six arms ripping and shredding people apart. Blood drips from his many claws. On set of arms would grab his intended victim, a second would rip the life from their worthless souls, while a third would fling the mangled body aside, all in a nightmarish assembly line of death. Those humans he approached either dropped to their knees and be Khal for a mercy he refused to offer or slipped into insanity before being dismembered. The sight even made me shiver.

I watch as Khal wraps his claws around the head of a man who tried to attack him with a burning torch and pulls off his head off with a sickening wet sound.

“What are you doing, my brother?” Khal roars at me, sending me a rush of dark energy that fills my weakened body. I absorb the new power. It surges through me, filling me, roaring inside my body. I focus the energy into my stinger and hands, ready to break the chains.

Before I can, I taste the cold, iron steel of a knife against my throat.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the red headed priestess asks me. Her body is wrapped around mine. She’s riding the scorpion part of the body and presses her chest against my back.

“I’m leaving this shit show, my lady.”

“No, you won’t. My Dark Lord will rise soon, and I need your blood to get him out of his grave. You’re not going anywhere.”

The scent of poison wafts into my nose. Fuck, there’s poison on the knife, the type that can paralyze me. Yet she hasn’t used it, which means she’s afraid that if she alters my blood’s chemistry, the spell won’t work or, worse, could damage the body she has picked for her Dark Lord. How ironic. She wants nothing more than to kill me but, at the same time, she can’t.

“Cut me, bitch, and see what happens.”

The priestess laughs. “I have a better idea.”

She whistles. Two large males, their faces covered in red hoods, charge toward Ivy. Even from this distance their blades smell strange, bittersweet. Each lost Shadow these blades strike immediately dissipate and slip into the Nothingness.

Ivy challenges one of them. Their blades connect so hard that sparks fly, filling the surroundings. He’s twice her size, which allows her to duck his every move and attack again. He holds back, obviously not wanting to poison her blood with his blade.

He suddenly lunges at Ivy, moving toward her rapidly, catching her off balance, and knocking the sword out if her hands. With the return swing of his sword, Ivy ducks and pulls out two daggers from her boots. Good move.

Her lost Shadows surround her, but the priestess who holds me captive perform some type of magic. Ivy is instantly surrounded by a field of poison that makes it impossible for the lost Shadows to converge around and help her. Those that do die within seconds.

The other large male removes a sidearm from its holster and shoots Ivy in her right leg. The bullet catches her between the knee and ankle, passing through flesh and muscle and fracturing the bone. A stream of blood follows the bullet, spraying the air, then flows down Ivy’s leg. I never saw the weapon until the sound of the gun firing breaks the hellish screams and nightmare images of violence. It all happens so fast. Even Ivy is not aware she’s wounded unto her leg buckles and she collapses on the battlefield.

“Fuck,” is all I can say. Ivy’s blood smells sweet in the night air. The two large makes grab her. The wound in her leg bleeds, and she still defends herself. Ivy kicks, bites, and spits at her attackers, trying to free herself. How did they even catch Ivy in the first place? Finally, they subdue her enough to bring her over to me and Mrez.

Tugging at my connection with Khal, I share with him what I’m seeing and mentally plead, “Help us, brother. Now.”

At that moment, Ashole appears beside me from out of nowhere showed up from nowhere holding the ritual dagger in his hand, ready to spill Ivy’s blood. He must have heard the plea through the connection. He leans closer to me and smirks. “How about I kill her while you watch?”

The red headed witch laughs.

Ivy’s eyes lock on to mine and she smiles.

“Noooo!” My roar is so loud the entire world freezes for a second. It seems as if even nature holds its breath.

Khal rushes toward us, running as fast as possible, followed by the army of lost Shadows that rips its way through anything standing in its way. Ivy tries to free herself, but the two men holding her are too powerful for her to fight them both at once. The pain from leg wound also weakens her. Blood gushes from it and bone fragments protrude from the skin. I can fix it if I can get close enough to my girl. I look into Ivy’s eyes. She returns my gaze.

Then Ivy’s eyes turn silver. Her body shakes, filled with an inhuman power that sends electric jolts down her arms. The world shifts and changes. What’s before me is more than my mate, my anchor, and certainly more than just a human. Lightning travels across her skin, changing color from gold to silver to dark blue. The men holding Ivy release their grip, their skin fried from the new power. She’s a sight to behold, a force of nature.

Ivy roars, a bellow as electrified as her own body is.

Ashole forgets his role as High Priest, tosses the sacrificial knife aside, and runs, stumbling over his feet trying to get away from us as quickly as possible. Ivy picks up the blade the High Priest abandoned. What occurs next happens in slow motion and is hard to grasp.

Ashole tries to find shelter in The Dark Church. Ivy stands still and focuses on the High Priest. Power slides all over her, like a goddess wrapped in electric eels. Her eyes narrow and she takes a deep breath. Raising her right hands, she aims the knife and throws it after him. The blasé sails through the air with a precision I have never seen in all my years of combat. It strikes him in the back of his neck, sticking deep into his skin. Ashole collapses, collapsing like a wet cloth.

And pump my poison into her. With everyone preoccupied with Ivy and Ashole, I use the opportunity to make my move. As the knife hits Ashole in the neck, I plunge my stinger into the heart of the red headed witch. Her body stiffens for a moment as the venom courses through her veins. After a few seconds, her muscles relax. The blade she had pressed against my neck falls from her hand, toppling into the ground, as she joins the High Priest in death.

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