Page 120 of Cursed to Be Mine
My shadows swirling at my feet, I pull out my cursed double scythe. I spin it as I spit out more blood. Knowing I don’t have long before my internal injury takes me out, I jump forward, my weapon twirling around me to keep the wolves at a distance.
I don’t need to cut them; I just need to buy Maddox a minute or two to study them all. I try not to think about what Antonio is doing to Scarlett and Mother during this time, but the usual calm I’m able to sink into when in a fight is being drowned out by my fear. I want to shift into my shadow and bypass the wolves entirely, but we will just have to fight them on the way out. I haven’t shared enough of my blood with her for her to travel my domain safely.
Maddox whistles, snagging my attention, and I swing my scythe at the werewolf he’s dancing with, taking his place as we trade blows, our limbs a blur. His claws rip into my side as I graze his shoulder.
Maddox drops into a pool of shadows beside me on a scream before starting to shift.
Electricity colors the air in blue cracks, keeping the other wolves occupied. But then Talon screams as one drags him to the ground.
Maddox jerks his head to our brother and with a feral growl, he shifts into the wolf I was fighting. Biting his shoulder, he rips out a chunk of flesh and drops it before leaping at the wolf on top of Talon.
I leap to where he was, tucking my shoulder as I roll and come back up on my feet, my scythe spinning in one hand while my other grasps the DNA Maddox left me.
Throwing my weapon at the third wolf trying to jump onto Maddox’s back, I pull a pin of green etherial energy from the air. Although a soul doll allows me to target my enemies from a great distance, as long as I have line of sight and DNA, I can still hurt them the same with a soul pin.
Glancing over at my brothers, making sure Maddox has begun his transformation back into himself, I then slam the pin into the strip of flesh.
A ball of fire appearing in the palm holding the DNA, I burn it to a crisp, and the wolf in front of me burns too, his limbs coated in flames that can’t be put out and won’t transfer to anything else. Dropping the strip of flesh into my shadow, I leave him to be bitten and clawed apart by the twisted monsters in that dark domain.
I turn back towards my brothers and see Maddox and Talon back on their feet, bloody and looking like shit but not dead. Maddox holds his hand across his stomach, a bit of intestines dangling between his fingers. One of his eyes hangs free of his skull. He can heal it if he shifts again, but he’ll need time we can’t yet buy him.
There are two more wolves to deal with, plus the black wolf with the white spot hanging back – Zita, Maddox’s obsession waiting for her moment to rip his head off his shoulders once we’ve been weakened.
More blood gurgles up my throat, and the numbness in my lungs is wearing off, the flower’s properties too raw and undefined to linger for long.
Both the wolves lunge for Maddox, seeing him as the weakest link, as well as the most dangerous given he can give me pieces of them to destroy. Talon and I both try to defend him, but I’m too weak, and withtheir natural resistance to magic, Talon’s electricity is doing little more than pissing them off. He’s strong against vampires and great in handling our business, but he’s not of much help when it comes to wolves. He can throw them around; he can’t kill them.
Ignoring the pain of my lung and still unhealed kidney, I draw on my magic to search for the hearts of the two wolves in front of me. Using this spell might make it impossible for me to go after Scarlett if Antonio grabs her, but at the moment I can’t even get to her when she’s still inside our house.
Focusing on keeping it contained this time, I swivel my hands around each other, and fling my power into the hearts of the two wolves, my soul magic allowing me to bypass their innate resistance.
I drop to my knees at the same time they do. More blood spurts up like a fountain, and the flower’s properties completely fade, leaving me open to the agony of the payment I gave for my spell.
My vision blurs, and my head drops to the damp earth that smells of dirt and blood and burning flesh. Of dark magic lingering in the air, searching for something to kill.
Focusing on my girl, who still needs me, I try not to think about why I haven’t been able to feel our bond. Digging my nails into the ground, I push myself to my feet just as Zita lunges for Maddox. He drops into his shadow, and I go to defend him from her, but Talon grabs my arm.
“He’ll be fine. She’s young, and he’ll come out healed.” Maddox is able to shift inside his shadow, but it costs him a great deal of energy, and he only uses it as a last resort and if he thinks the fight won’t last long. Talon’s fingers dig deep. “We need to find Momand Scarlett.”
When Maddox reappears healthy and with no wounds beneath the blood, I race into the house. Wreckage is strewn about the place from two witches having fought, and claw marks have destroyed all else. Darting for the basement, knowing that’s where Mother would’ve hidden her given it’s our safe room, I take the stairs two at a time.
A werewolf with her face burned off lies in front of the door.
My heart in my throat, I jump over her and barrel into the room.Scarlett’sin the middle of it, tied and gagged with tears running down her face. Micha stands beside her, at the righthand of Antonio. A sneer curves his lips as he nods, and a swirl of shadows open on the floor in front of them.
My brain scrambles to understand how Micha is able to control what only our family ever has, but the puzzle is forgotten as Antonio shoves my girl inside, to the realm of monsters lurking below.
Diving in after her, I just manage to catch sight of the answer to the puzzle before the darkness closes in on me.
Micha’s legs are limp. She isn’t holding her weight, and if I had the time to look up, I know I would see her face is slack with unconsciousness or death.
Which means she isn’t the traitor.
She isn’t the one who opened up the shadow.
She isn’t the one I’m going to have to kill...
Thirty-Seven
