Page 83 of Hidden Sacrifice
I laughed, my mind and body no longer feeling wound so tightly I was ready to burst. “Now, what do we do?” I said, pointing to the lifeless figure hanging limply from the chains.
“No more questions for now. Fachnan won’t be able to heal until one of the cuffs is off and the demon healing power gets turned back on. But the soul is still in there. So, for now, if you’ve had enough of the cutting, we can always go back to the left.”
I turned away from Fachnan, knowing I wouldn’t have to continue looking over my shoulder every time I walked the palace halls. “I think you are good at knowing exactly what I need.”
CHAPTER28
JUSTICE
Mor turned, her head held high, as she opened the door and headed down the hallway. The flickering light overhead cast everything in chopped motion as visibility waned in and out. The lights down here have always been affected by the spells and potions. Thankfully, I could contain the magical essence to only the basement.
One moment Mor was walking in front of me down the hall toward the other door, the next flash of darkness hit, and when the light reappeared, Mor was nowhere in sight. I pulled out of my mind and saw she was already beyond the door, waiting in the room for me.
“This side doesn’t look very dungeon-like,” she whispered into my mind beyond the plain wooden door, void of any mold.
I slowly entered the room, shutting the door behind me and turning the lock. A desk was situated near the short wall with stacks of my research upon it. I looked all around the room but couldn’t see her anywhere. As soon as I dipped partially out of my mind, Mor pushed her way in. I felt my arms and legs stiffen as she took control of them, flexing just how powerful she had become. She should have remembered how great I am with numbers. Considering her recent power expenditures, I could easily wipe her of her powers.
“I think we might need to discuss something before you do what I need you to do,”her voice boomed into my mind.
“What is it you would like to discuss, Fox?”I asked her back in my mind as I continued to visually search the room’s shadows, wondering which one was her.
“You owe me a good chase, and fight, and fuck. I got loophole fucked in Hell, and I am not about to let that happen again. I need this, Justice. I need to know I can fight and scrap and claw for my life. I need to feel the pain. Because right now, all my pain is hidden deep inside me. I don’t know how much longer I can keep walking around pretending like I’m fine,”her voice was raw as she hemorrhaged her feelings to me.“Can you give me a real chase? A real fight this time. One-on-one.”
“Oh Fox, I’m always ready for a one-on-one with you.”My eyes zeroed in on a shadow in the corner of the room.
“Catch me,”her voice trailed off as I regained control over my limbs for a fraction of a second before she left my mind entirely.
I immediately lunged for the shadow I suspected to be her but grasped nothing. Vampire shadow used power to cast; she wouldn’t be able to stay like that for much longer or risk being unable to defend herself. I looked around the room, visually checking that the door was still, in fact, locked. Patiently I waited for her to show herself as she would predictably run for the door.
“You haven’t even made it outside yet. Are you too old for a game of chase, Justice?”She let her laughter ring out in my head. I cursed to myself as I headed for the door.
I fumbled with the lock as my heart hammered in my chest. An actual chase. I’m not sure I’ve ever had one of those before. But this was my mate, made to fit together with the rest of the pack for all of eternity. I burst through the cottage’s front door, sniffing the pre-dawn air. I should have been looking for her scent all along, the one thing she never seemed able to mask.
The salty ocean breeze lightly filtered through the trees, making my little fox's tart, sweet, and smoky scent stand out like a neon sign. I weaved my way on bare feet through the trees, knowing that she wanted a real fight, using all her powers. My mind flitted carefully into the minds of the human animals while making sure my shields were fully enforced.
The winds shifted, and I noticed a change in her scent location with it. Before I could turn around, she was already on top of me. She clung to my back like she needed a ride somewhere, and I gave her one in the spirit of our game, right into a tree. I slammed myself backward; the force of the impact left the tree groaning in despair as her grip failed.
Turning quickly, before her spine could heal, I pinned her against the tree as I grabbed both of her hands and pulled them around the trunk. I pressed our bodies together as her neural connections came back online. She tugged and pulled slightly, but it was a poor attempt at an escape if that was her intent. Perhaps she didn’t want to escape. She just wanted to earn some pain and some peace with it.
“Still looking to get fucked against something, Fox. Sorry, this doesn’t happen to be a door,” I teased, dipping down to bite her lower lip. Her head flew at mine, hitting me right in the nose. Simultaneously, her arms burst into flames, causing me to release her with a slight yelp. Burns are a bitch to heal.
Using speed, she was already gone before I straightened up, but I could still smell her all around me. She hadn’t left. My eyes scanned my surroundings, trying to pinpoint her location, while my hand slowly crept into my sheath to pull out one of my daggers. I would have to force her powers to drain before I could overpower her.
I stood entirely still as I closed my eyes to look through a nearby bird. I watched over my own body, taking the aerial view while waiting for her next attack. As soon as I saw the haze of shadow creeping closer to my back, my body reacted. I spun around when her body gathered and materialized, slicing her with a shallow cut across her neck. The blade was so sharp that it looked like nothing had happened. Then the crimson cascade began. Deep red blood streamed from the wound like a flower blooming down her neck. Turning her chest into crimson petals before her body healed and the flow ceased.
Her eyes were wide with surprise, but her face split into a wide smile when she healed. She lunged at me, coating the exposed skin of my chest in her blood as we crashed to the forest floor, grappling and twisting around as we brawled. My heart hammered in my chest as my cock grew impossibly hard. No matter how rough I was with her, she kept coming back for more.
I kept the dagger in my hand as we tumbled through the trees, leaving a path of destruction in our wake. Each cut of my blade was shallow enough to watch her healing rate. When the thin steel slashed across her back and the wound failed to stitch closed, I knew she had run her power dry.
“Now the fun can begin, Fox,” I said, hopping up from the ground and disappearing into the trees while I used a bird to watch her. I watched as she inspected her clothes, torn and cut nearly ready to fall off her body.
I said waffles for breakfast, mother. Can’t you do anything right?This time it was the annoying sound of an entitled child bouncing around my mind.Shoo, little one. Children should not watch what I was about to do.
I watched as Mor zipped off into the woods; at this point, I wasn’t sure if she was trying to run away from me or after me. I remained hidden as I watched her through the eyes of the forest animals. Even without using any demon power, she was incredibly fast from her vampire side.
Her powerful muscles pushed her through the forest as her hair flew in the breeze behind her. Blood coated her from the neck down, contrasting against the white of her skin. A beautiful nightmare to guide me through eternity.
Sometimes it felt like more than one monster lurked underneath my skin, and for once, they were all in agreement on what they wanted. I jumped down just as she was rounding towards my end of the forest again. I stood silently and still as I listened for her footsteps. She was heading right for me.
