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I shifted back to my human form, my back straightening as I stood tall.
“If you want me, you got me,” I taunted, my arms stretched out. “But don’t think I’m going to let you get away this time. You’ll have more than a burned face.”
Tristan made the first move, his poisoned claws reaching out for me as he rushed in. I skillfully avoided the slashing claws, unwilling to let that black sorcery corrupt my magic.
We had managed to avoid it before. Not a single one of my coven members or my sister infected by the witch’s dark magic. I couldn’t allow myself to be infected after all of that. Not when I had so much more to fight for this time.
The sun was still high in the sky, though the thick trees blocked my direct contact with the solar rays. I could still harness what passed through the boughs of leaves to charge my power. As a child, I had a strong connection with the sun, which directly influenced my energy levels and ability to do things. It was why I had been helpless when Madie and I went searching for the missing pups on that winter night years ago. But I wasn’t just a kid anymore. I knew more about my powers than I had back then, and I knew how to store the sun’s energy continuously to keep my powers at their best. Even on a cloudy day.
As my hands morphed into claws, fire blossomed in my palms, flickering along my nails. It was a technique I had been working on in secret for some time now. Ever since the dark witch came around and her magic threatened to infect my coven. It was a purifying fire. There was a reason behind designing the sun to be the vampire’s natural weakness. If Tristan’s claws hit their target accurately, it will hopefully prevent me from getting infected now.
“Those little candle wicks aren’t going to save you this time,” Tristan growled, though his eyes watched my flames warily.
I knew from our past that he wasn’t as strong as he had made himself out to be. It had been an unfair fight from the beginning, yet he still stood before me, confident as ever in his abilities. It was commendable, if not foolish. A worthy enemy, if you had to have an enemy at all.
I smirked at him, lifting my finger in the air. The fire grew from my fingertips, snapping in the air like a whip until it began to change colors. No more was it the yellowish orange of the sun. Its color displayed the true heat of my strength and the purity of the flames.
Blue and white flames snapped in the air. They almost resembled lightning as their embers danced around me.
“If candle wicks aren’t enough,” I sarcastically remarked, “then I think this will do just fine.”
I didn’t give him time to think then, whipping my flames out at him with the speed of light. He let out a yelp of surprise, though he somehow dodged the attack.
Dark shadows grew from the drips of his poisoned claws, my gaze locked on the wisps of smoke like magic. It grew in the same way that my flames had, my brows rising with surprise at the new development.
My flames and his smokey shadows intertwined together. The forest looked like a wildfire in the making, and I was certain any human nearby would assume as much and report it to the county officials. We would have to finish our fight quickly to avoid being found by any of them.
I dodged as he replicated my move with the dark shadows, the scent of the malice in the magic stinging my nose as it narrowly missed me. As my body rolled across the forest ground, I could feel the sharp edges of rocks and twigs piercing my exposed skin.
“Shit,” I hissed as I pulled a sharp thorned branch from my thigh. In that fleeting moment, Tristan lunged towards me, his body crashing into mine and sending us sprawling onto the ground.
As his claws lunged towards my chest, I swiftly grabbed his hand, my scorching fire singeing the hair on his arm and leaving matching burns on his wrists, mirroring the scars on his face. He let out a sharp cry of agony as I tightened my grip, my flames dancing and dispelling the darkness.
The shadows transformed from wisps of smoke into a viscous tar-like substance, only to revert back to a slow, dripping black ooze. I intensified the heat of my flames, causing his agonized screams to reverberate through the forest as I focused on completely evaporating the dark magic from his claws.
My attention was completely absorbed by the magic as I focused on his menacing claws, watching as the dark drip gradually transformed into a swirling mist. My focus was so intense that I failed to notice anything else around me. Not until his teeth sank into my neck and his arms burst with fur as he fully shifted and ripped free of his clothes.
His head shook with a violent force, his jaws locked tightly around my neck. I gasped from my pain, my concentration on the magic broke as the golden colored wolf pulled his front paws from my grip.
The fur on his paws was singed and blood oozed from the burned joints, releasing a strong smell of charred flesh into the air. However, he could still walk in his wolf form, his body partially healed from the shift. He kept his mouth tight around me, shaking again in an attempt to break my neck.
My voice filled the air with defiance as I forcefully grabbed his neck, the intense heat of the fire spreading over my entire body. It wouldn’t burn me, not so long as I held onto the control of the flames. Tristian, however, would not be immune to the fire’s hunger.
He released me with a howl of pain and panic, his body quickly catching flame as he tried to yank his body free. I wrapped myself tighter around his body, his golden fur acting as kindling to the flames. I refused to let him go. Refused to allow this fight to go on anymore. It had to end before humans came to investigate. The smoke of the dark magic had dissipated, but there was no doubt that someone had noticed it before. I could almost feel the forest’s shift as humans entered.
As Tristan’s strength dwindled, I took advantage of the opportunity to loosen my grip and swiftly cover his snout, muffling the sounds of his pain. With each passing moment, his body grew limp as the fire mercilessly devoured every tuft of fur, its crackling sounds filling the air.
As I finally released him, his body transformed back into its human shape, his eyes bulging with burst blood vessels, staining the whites a vivid shade of red. He turned to look at me, his eyes filled with a mixture of disbelief and pure hatred. His body appeared charred, with blackened skin and a faint smell of smoke lingering in the air. It was miraculous that he could even move that much.
With each cough, his lips grew tinted with blood as he desperately attempted to convey a message to me. Leaning down, I strained to catch his last words, expecting a confession of guilt. Some form of regret for his alignment with the witch and vampire.
As I leaned in, I could see his lips, blackened and twisted, forming a wicked grin. I stared in disbelief at the expression, confused as to what he could mean.
“I...,” he let out another cough, more dark blood spraying from his lips. His voice was weak and cracking, the moisture of his body evaporated thanks to my flames. “I may be dead, but you will be too, sooner than you think.”
His eyes shifted to my arm, a mixture of pride and triumph clear in his gaze before the life drained from them. I followed his lifeless gaze, my heart pounding, as my eyes widened with horror upon discovering the blackened mark on my arm. The black magic seeped out from the wound, and I finally felt the coolness of its reach beneath my skin.
I roared with anger, my body enveloping with fire as I rushed my magic through my veins to purify the darkness there. Had my body not ran hotter than a normal person, hotter than a normal witch or shifter, I would have noticed it sooner. Its reach wouldn’t have gone so deep. To anyone else, the dark magic’s infection would have burned at contact. It would have sent their blood boiling as they fought against the intruding power. However, I hadn’t noticed until Tristan’s dying declaration.
