AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 56
LILY
With the last of my strength, I swallowed back the sorrow threatening to rip me apart and stood, turning to face my enemy.
Tanya flipped through the air and kicked Gunnar hard against his temple, sending him flying back against the wall. She wouldn’t expect me to interfere, and I took advantage of it by grabbing her around the neck from behind.
For a moment, she went stiff in my grip, but it didn’t last long. She quickly spun around and detached herself from me by hooking her arm and elbow underneath mine and twisting it around in one swift move.This was definitely not Tanya. No, I was facing him. The voice. The one who had spoken to me time and time again. The one who had tricked me, betrayed me and eventually killed the love of my life. For a few seconds, our eyes met, pale blue boring into milky white and he pulled Tanya’s mouth into a deranged smile. I glared right back and swung my leg up, plunging a hard kneecap into Tanya’s side.
No, he wasn’t going to get out of this. I was going to kill him. And I was going to enjoy every second of his damn misery. With a wicked grin of my own, I heard ribs cracking beneath my blow.
Haggard and seemingly worried, she stumbled back, eyes wide and breath harsh, but Mat didn’t spare her a second. He lunged and dug his teeth deep into her shoulder, tearing through flesh like a knife through butter.Strange, feral delight fizzed within me as Tanya fell to the floor, Mat’s teeth still buried in layers of meat and tissue. He was mostly human, but those teeth were unmistakably wolf. Blood poured from the open wound as she screamed and shoved him away, tearing a chunk of meat with him as he fell back. A bone-chilling scream sliced through the air and echoed off the walls; something caught between human and demon. She bucked, squirmed and clamped a hand over the gurgling wound. It wasn’t fatal.
In an instant, I shifted into my white wolf and charged. When I pounced, she was already on her feet, running away from us, but we were stronger and faster. She didn’t stand a chance against two Alpha’s, and by the looks of things, she’d realised it a little too late.
I charged full speed, and Mat followed close on my heels. Somewhere behind us, I heard Marie chanting, but my focus was solely on ending the entity’s life as it ran down the hall, busting through the doors at the end.
My paws pattered against the ground and the mark in my neck throbbed painfully, but we chased, sprinting, closing in on her. I could hear my heart thundering in my ears, pushing my limbs to go faster. Oxygen burned my lungs and adrenaline surged through my veins. This was it. This was what I’d been waiting for. Mat was also in his wolf form now, his paws pattering close behind.
When I was finally close enough to smell Tanya’s sweat, my wolf let out another threatening growl and I pushed myself off the floor, leaping into the air with claws and canines already exposed.
I braced myself for impact, but instead of claws meeting flesh, a bizarre warmth engulfed me, like someone had dumped a pot of boiling water over my skin. The next moment, my wolf retreated, pulling back to let my human side take over. As soon as she did, darkness swallowed me, and my incapacitated body slammed into a large heavy object. It hit me in the right shoulder first, my face coming down upon a hard surface with such force, I thought I’d heard my skull crack. Or was it my nose?
The impact of the collision had been immense, and although I couldn’t see, I felt my body tumbling to the ground. For a moment I had no idea which way was up or down. The floor came fast and met with my face for another hard blow. I tasted blood as fur brushed past me, but a high-pitched, monotonous screech pierced through my ears, and it didn’t stop. Even as my fingers clawed at the floor, discovering the ground beneath my chest, the sound kept shrieking.
MATHEW
I followed Lily down the hall in pursuit of the Crawler. She was gaining on it fast, but something had gone terribly wrong. Just as she was about to jump on the possessed girl, she shifted back into her human form and crashed into a decorative wooden side table standing against the wall. The force of the impact was horrendous, the way her head hit its wooden surface sickening.
My heart skipped a beat, my breath hitching in my throat as my eyes followed her body tumbling helplessly. It looked like she’d suffered a fatal injury, hitting the ground with such force, I was afraid to look back. I’d jumped over her in a split second, avoiding crashing myself, but couldn’t bear looking back to see her not moving to get back up.
It didn’t make any sense; she hadn’t even tried swerving around it.The loud crash had caught the possessed girl off guard, and she faltered in her step for a moment, glancing over her shoulder to see what had happened. Not realising I was still chasing after her, the second she spent looking back was the second I needed to lunge my attack.Her eyes, white and hideous, widened when she saw me, but it was too late. My wolf’s teeth sunk into the soft flesh of her cheek and jaw, snapping her neck with a vicious jerk.
The crack reverberated through me, through the hall, but for some reason, my wolf kept shaking, ripping and shredding into her flesh and splattering blood everywhere. He was a savage, wild animal, enjoying how the taste of her blood warmed the inside of his mouth and trickled down his throat, filling his stomach with the satisfaction of revenge. Did he too think Lily was dead? When blood had soaked through his fur, and leaked from his muzzle, he finally let go, letting me take back control. I shifted.
There was blood everywhere. On the walls, the floor, the ceiling. My remaining clothes were soaked through; bright crimson dripped from my fingertips. For a moment, I stood over the massacre, panting and watching as blood dripped from my hair. I felt sorry for the girl, for her family, but it had been the easiest way. How many more lives would have been ruined in exchange for saving this one?
A sob came from behind me, and I spun, finally turning away from the gruesome scene my wolf had created. It was an image I was sure would haunt my dreams for the rest of my days. Lily. She moved down the hall. Hope. I almost cried and sprinted towards her, attempting to wipe my bloodied hands on some part of my body that had been left clean.
She was scrambling around on the floor in her human form, moving around on all fours as if she was searching for something. My heart clenched at the sorry sight. Her eyes were wide, her lips trembling. Broken. She had been broken before, when I met her, but this…
I swallowed and slowly crouched in front of her, holding my hand out for her to grab onto. She carried on scrambling, searching. She sobbed as her palms slid along the floor’s surface, her eyes moving right past me.
I knew it then and felt it in my chest. Straight through my heart.
Lily flinched, lifting her nose into the air and sniffed, “M-M-Mat?” she croaked, waving a hand in the air as if searching for something to grab onto. Images of the broken angel I had once met in a hospital bed flashed into my mind.
I held my hand out to her, hoping she could find me. Her hand clamped around mine tightly, and she pulled me desperately towards her. Tears streamed down her face, as she lifted her hands to my head, digging her fingers into my hair. Into the curls she knew so well.
She smiled through her tears, “you’re okay,” she said, “you ended it?”
My eyes stung as I bit back my own emotions and moved closer to her, letting her hold onto me. “I did. It’s over.”
A haggard, broken sob fell from her lips, mixing with blood and tears. I couldn’t look at her as I placed my hand over her head, stroking her hair gently where she buried her face in my chest.
“M-M-Mat,” she rasped against my skin. I knew what she was going to say, but I wasn’t ready to hear it yet. I tried to soothe her, to pull her into me, but it didn’t help, and she uttered it anyway. “I-I-I can’t see.”
And for the first time since my father died, I cried. I cried for Lily, for Raiden and for a love I knew I would never have. A mate of my own I knew was beyond my reach. Trapped in the forest of Marillia in a body of mist and shadow.
I mourned with her and wished for answers only he could have given me. I’d killed him, for her, for Lily and every other lifeform he had ever pestered. It was over. All of it.
“Give up something you love,” she whispered, “to gain something you love.” I nodded as her words hit home.
Gunnar, Carter and some of Shadow Creek’s warriors came rushing down the hall, most of them running past us to check on the dead girl. But Gunnar stopped and examined the two of us where we sat naked on the floor covered in blood and tears. We held onto each other like we had no one else left on the face of this earth and he swallowed, his eyes softening as it met with mine. Slowly, he bent down, gave me a stiff nod and covered Lily with a blanket.
None of us spoke as we made our way to the infirmary, Lily limping between us with her eyes as dull as a corpse.
