Page 95 of Tethered Magick

I rolled my eyes. Obviously.

Then again, he wouldn’t be a bossy alpha without issuing orders. In a way, the normality of it was nice.

Syler took my hand, and together we ran toward the last shade. If the situation wasn’t so dire, I might have laughed from the way Syler had to adjust his long strides to keep up with my short ones. As it was, my pace had already increased just to keep up with him.

The class three shade wasn’t as big as a class four, and for a minute, I was relieved, but I should have known better than to count my lucky stars before the clouds had parted, because unlike the ethereal yet solid forms of the class four shades, the class three shades were as slippery as ink. The one we fought broke apart to swirl around us, taunting us, before reforming back into a semi-solid mass of creepy smoke-like clouds.

Veil keeper, it hissed into my mind, drawing out the vowels. I shuddered, hating the shades that liked to get chatty with me.

Syler wasted no time, his green magick shooting out to slash at the shade. Its red eyes refocused on my mate, and the creature leered as hot, lava-like blood leaked from the shallow gash. The shade lunged, and Syler parried, the two of them locked in a battle of give and take.

Thrusting my arm out, I called upon my magick, feeling it rise within me easier than it had since I’d become a vampire. Maybe it recognized the trouble we were in and allowed me to reach for it more efficiently. Whatever the case, I was thrilled when my hand glowed purple, my power growing steadily until I had a nice burst of magick in the palm of my hand.

Syler led the shade away from me, giving me its back, and I took the opening to run at the creature, my feet effortlessly eating up the ruined pavement with my vampire speed. Lobbing the magick at the shade, I aimed and did my best impression of a baseball slide to home base, skidding across the dirt and gravel between the shade’s legs to stop just before Syler.

He reached down and I took his hand, letting him haul me up. One elbow was bloody, and my clothes were a little worse for wear, but it had worked, and the shade was thrashing from the direct hit I’d gotten right between its shoulder blades.

Syler beamed with pride, though there was concern around the edges for my minor injuries.

The stench from the shade’s injury almost made me gag, my sense of smell so much stronger. Chayton’s blood stirred in my stomach with the wave of nausea, but I willed it to settle as Syler and I faced the shade together.

You want a fight, little keeper?the shade snarled angrily into my mind.

I gave it a cocky smirk.Yeah, pretty sure we’re already in one.

No, we are just starting,the shade hissed.

Around us, the sounds of battle rose into the night sky, betraying its beauty for the terrifying nightmare that had spawned from hell itself.

I narrowed my eyes on the creature while Syler fended off its attack, then I closed my eyes while he had a handle on things, reaching for my center—that calm place inside of me where my power, and my primal spirit, resided. If I could just grasp it, I could rip the shades to pieces in one fell swoop just like I’d done in the past, but the spark was too elusive, the flames of a power that once burned brightly diminished to glowing embers.

Rage rose within me as the demon taunted me.

Inadequate. Worthless. Unwanted,it breathed into my mind. Those words swirled through my head, pulsing and growing until I wanted to rip at my hair as I tried to claw them out.

How many times in my life had I said those words about myself? They held a power over me I’d given them long ago, which was now being exploited and used against me.

Unloved. Abomination. Unworthy,another shade added.

I cried out as both shades taunted me, unable to break away from the hold they had somehow gained over me.

“Lorn!” Kota’s voice was growing closer, and his hands grabbed my shoulders a moment before I fell to my knees.

Every painful memory of being teased and picked on in school rose to the surface. The hurtful words, the scathing looks, the disgust on Avalon’s face every time she looked at me, the embarrassment and pain over a bad breakup I should have seen coming.

Ugly. Unintelligent. A burden.

Tears leaked from my eyes as the shade preyed on every insecurity I’d ever had.

Visions of my own self-loathing flitted behind my closed eyes, images of a young girl who thought she wasn’t good enough or believed there was something wrong with her all because her mother hated her. That fragile girl that used to stand in front of a mirror and pick apart her imperfections, hating herself a little more each day until finally, one day, she woke up and found enough inner strength to keep going, to find something she liked about herself instead of something she despised.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay,” Kota chanted. “It’s not real. Whatever’s happening, they’re just fucking with you. They thrive on lies and nightmares. Open your eyes, kitten. Open those pretty eyes for me. It’s not real.”

My fingers tugged on my hair as I bent at the waist and screamed, the agonizing sound tearing up my throat.

My body shook with the powerful howl that splintered my soul as my primal spirit surged from the cage it’d been held behind, and then power flooded my limbs.

An agonizing screech echoed through the town, reverberating off the crumbling buildings, and one of the shades left my mind as my mates ended it.

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