Page 45 of Ravaging Red
Something stepped forward from between the trees. No, it slid from within their shadows. It was a thing made from nightmares. Its ribs were made of brittle, exposed bone that jutted from a body wreathed in twisting dark gray smoke, its limbs seemed too long, its spine bowed, straightening into a pose that may have once been human.
The blackness clung to it like a second skin, oily and thick, writhing with every breath it took. Its eyes were penetrating, they didn’t glow with hunger, but with something colder.
Jealousy. Cruelty.Loss…
The feeling suddenly struck me. It was that of hate. A hatred so ancient it had hollowed out everything soft inside it and left behind only the urge to destroy.
“I felt your bond with the Wolf,” the creature hissed, its voice like rusted nails that dragged across glass. “You woke me from my slumber, human. Your Wolf seeks his mark, I wonder what he would do when he notices I’ve taken it.”
I backed away, stumbling over roots and rocks. My heart was pounding, limbs shaking. This was what monsters were made of. Not my Wolf, but this. It was pure evil.
“What are you?” My voice shook as I bought time, searching the woods for a weapon, for anything I could use to protect myself.
The creature smiled. Teeth sharpened with jagged edges. “Once, I was like him, your Wolf. A beast with a heart. I had a mate. A bond. But she chose power over me, leaving me to rot.” Its hands became claws.
“Now I findthem. The ones who think they’ve escaped the ache, the fools who dare to love like the world won’t burn them for it. And when I do, I tear them apart limb by limb, heart from heart, before they can forget what it means to lose something so deeply it hollows you out forever.”
I shivered. “What do you want from me?”
It sniffed the air and then managed to give a cruel, evil smile. “I want your power, human. Your Wolf has left you claimed but unprotected. Shame. You would have been ideal for him.”
“He will find me.”
The creature laughed, a scraping obnoxious sound. “Only if I allow him to.”
It lunged its claws at me, and I screamed bloody murder. It hit me at full force, dragging me across the mossy ground, my back scraping stone and jagged roots. I kicked, thrashed, fought as much as I could, but it wasstrong. It pinned me down, its breath hot and foul against my cheek.
“You shouldn’t have bonded,” it spat. “You should have stayed in your world.”
And then it touched my chest, right over my heart. A deathly cold exploded through me and I screamed.
I felt the bond with Rael shudder, and I stopped breathing. The warmth I always felt, the tether to my Wolf, dimmed. I couldn’t feel him. I couldn’t feelanythingbut pain.
As my life was being drawn out of me, I heard the woods suddenly explode. Rael’s roar shattered through the trees.
His large black form slammed into the creature, claws slashing, eyes burning with rage. I’d never seen him in this savage state, and it startled me. I scooted back against a tree trunk watching as his monstrous form seethed, appearing vicious and unstoppable. He tore into the shadowed thing, ripping pieces of it free, scattering smoke and ash and screaming darkness.
But the thing was fast. It threw him back with a burst of black energy that cracked the trees. I screamed again, crawling toward him, but the creature grabbed me again.
“No!” I cried, kicking as it dragged me back.
“You must die!” It shrieked.
And then everything just stopped. Because Rael was there. No longer a Wolf but something older. Wilder.
He didn’t roar this time. Hedescended.
He was a blur of muscle and fur. His sharp claws slashed through the air as he launched at the creature. His roar split the forest like thunder, sharp teeth gleaming under the Blood Moonas he struck. The thing shrieked, not in fear, but in fury. As if itwelcomedthe fight.
Their bodies collided in a blur of blackness and dark smoke. Rael slashed at it, raking deep furrows into its chest, splitting bone from smoke. Black blood spilled, hissing like acid as it hit the ground. It burned everything in its path, and I moved my feet away before it seared me. The creature retaliated with a burst of cursed wind, its skeletal hands weaving symbols in the air, ancient and jagged, the magic unraveling quickly through the clearing.
“You should have stayed in your den, Wolf,” the creature spat, its voice twisting and echoing with every word.
“You should haveneverbrought a human here. This bond you’ve forged, it’sblasphemy. She is flesh. You are ruin. And together, you insult everything the Veil was meant to hold in.”
Rael snarled, ignoring the lash of bone that struck across his ribs, blood spilling hot down his side. He lunged again, and this time, he wasnotmerciful. His claws dug into the creature’s neck, his teeth snapping through smoke and cartilage, and he forced it to the ground with a roar that made the trees tremble.
“I don’t know what the fck you are, but you don’t get to speak of her,” he growled, voice low and shaking with fury. “You don’tlookat her. You don’tbreathenear her.”
