Page 71 of Rhaz's Redemption
He slashed at me with his knife, and I slashed with my claws. In my shifter form, I was stronger and faster and landed every blow, while he only landed half of his. It didn’t take long before he grew tired and sloppy and I slid my claws into his side and watched blood pour out as I removed them.
He staggered and fell into the snow, looking shocked and dazed. He was so arrogant that he really thought he could win. His knife against my claws? Never.
I heard a low snarl to my left and saw Dameron holding Jax by his hair. His head was pulled back, and the Savrix had a knife to my young friend’s throat.
“No!” I shouted then ran toward them. I used my shoulder to knock my sire off my feet, which gave Jax the chance he needed to get away. He took to the sky where Zander would have his back.
“No more!” I snarled. “You will not hurt Jax or anyone ever again!”
I raised my claws but at the last moment my father shifted into his shadow form. My hand moved right through him.
Then to my horror he rematerialized with a feral grin on his face. The bone knife in his hand was pointed toward me.
I looked to the far side of the field and saw Beatrice with her hand over her mouth with a terrified expression on her face.
“Let’s see if you can survive this.” With those damming words, Dameron, my sire, shoved the knife into my heart. Beatrice screamed, and the world went black.
Beatrice
“No!” A desperate cry shot out of me. Rhaz had been stabbed in the heart.
I ran through the field, past the hunters who were fighting and fell to my knees before my mate.
“Please, please don’t leave me.” He wasn’t breathing. There was no rise or fall in his chest. He just laid there, lifeless on the cold bed of snow beneath him.
What do I do? If I take the knife out will he loose too much blood? Do I keep it in, and do CPR? What do I do?
“What do I do!” I screamed. Then I felt to strong hands lifting me up and away from my love. I’d felt those cold hands before. Dameron held me against his chest.
“He’s dead. He’s finally dead.”
“No!” I screamed and twisted out of his grasp just like Rhaz taught me to do.
Dameron was about to reach for me again, when there was another shout across the battle field.
“EVERYONE STOP!”
This time it was Holey, the acolyte and future priestess of the dekes. She stood in the middle of the field holding a knife to Kahina’s throat.
There are bodies everywhere. Many of them were still breathing, but a few were not. How had it come to this? Why did the other dekes hate the shifters so much? Was being different really so bad?
“Stop your fighting or I will slit her throat.”
Kahina looked terrified. This wasn’t some plan the two had concocted together. Holey was acting on her own.
“And if Kahina dies then I’ll NEVER perform the offering for anyone ever again.”
“You can’t do that!” Dameron shouted. Of all the things that could have scared him, this was the first time I’d seen fear on his face. This male was so desperate for validation,some miracle from the goddess, that the threat of losing his connection to her, finally made him afraid.
“Holey, let’s talk about this,” the Priestess suggested.
“Shut up!” Holey bit back. “You’ve kept everyone in the dark long enough.”
The acolyte looked out at everyone around her and gave a command. “Drop your weapons.”
Everyone on the field just looked at her in shock.
“I said drop them!” she shouted again, and the hunters from Dameron’s dekes dropped their spears and knives, and the shifters transformed back into their sirret form.
