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It is yours. I forced the thought through my hands and deep into the ground. The earth did not linger on my gift. The creature thrashed, feeble attempts to break free. But more roots broke through the ground and encased it, a den of wooden vipers, dragging its feast into their lair.
I sensed the reluctance from the other bloodhounds that watched their foolish pack member disappear beneath the earth.
A warning of what would become of them all.
I lowered my gaze and snarled, baring teeth at those who gazed at me, my own growl of warning echoing around me.
Then the laughing began again, breaking the moment like glass shattering in fire. The pack of bloodhounds parted for the creature that walked between them. One step at a time, his white skin illuminated beneath the ruby glow of the moon and orange flare of the fire.
Marius.
He looked up at the castle behind me, lips twitching as he studied its destruction. “Your kind destroyed my love, my life, and now my home. I see now that you do not run from me, but merely beg for me to punish you.” A blink and he was before me, strong hands clamped around my jaw as he lifted me from the ground. “And punish you I shall.”
28
Igripped a hold of his hands, thrashing my legs out at him in panic. It felt as though my head would implode beneath the pressure, both hands pushing inward as he lifted me from the ground. All I could do was scream, unable to truly hold onto breath as I fought hard to get out of his grasp.
“You are mine.” His muffled hiss hardly registered as I kicked out at him. Marius did not flinch beneath each blow. Pain vibrated through my feet, feeling as though my bones would shatter. But I did not stop.
I clawed my nails down his hands and arms, even thrashing out at his face. All of which he hardly batted an eye towards. Not even as deep droplets of ruby blossomed beneath the cuts I left across his face. Only his tongue escaped his firmly, closed mouth to lap up the droplet that dared fall near it. Before my eyes the marks healed, fresh skin knitting together until his face was once again perfect. Untouched.
I began to beg, his large hands muffling my panicked pleading. “Marius, let me go. Please. Please, Marius.”
“Your attempts are wasted, and here I was led to believe you were prepared for this very moment.”
I could not mutter a word as his hands clamped harder on each side of my face. I felt my cheekbones scream beneath his touch.
My vision doubled. Tripled. Until the corners of darkness began to close in around me. All I could do was look into his obsidian eyes, searching to see a part of his true self. Hoping the Marius I knew would look back at me and registered what he was doing and stop.
I gave up on my fight, losing energy quickly. Just the thought of calling on my power simply slipped between my fingers. “Please…” I managed again, voice a weak croak. “You are hurting me.”
The world dropped out from beneath me in a single moment. I felt nothing as I hit the ground, his touch lingering on my cheek. My neck ached, a terrible pain that spread down my spine and up through my skull.
He had dropped me, my knees now leaking blood from the torn skin and ripped trousers.
Looking up at the looming figure above me, I willed for my vision to calm.
“I wish you had more fight left in you,” he growled. “It is a true shame that my feast is too pathetic. So… weak. Promised resistance and I am left with you. I do hope your taste is worth this embarrassment you display.”
“I… I will not fight you Marius.”
He sneered, teeth bared, “Why!”
“Because I love you. I told you I would not hurt you and I… I hold myself to that promise.”
Marius, or the creature he had now become, sucked his teeth in disappointment. “Then let us end it now. I have grown tired of waiting, which is spoiling my appetite. If you refuse me entertainment, then I give up encouraging it.”
I rocked back on my hands, slumped in a heap on the ground. All around me the prowling bloodhounds reappeared through the darkness as their leader took steps towards me.
“Marius, if you can hear me, please do not do this.” The sky above was lightening slightly, suggesting the arrival of dawn. Had it really been that long? I was tired, exhausted, my body a mess of aches and pains — mine not swiftly healing as Marius’s did. It still could be hours away, the red stain across the sky still ever-present.
“Heis not listening. This is my night, the boy you call for is not present.” Marius smirked, dark eyes flashing. “You should know this. More than I. For it is your power that created me.”
“I rebuke what they did to you,” I spat, broken slabs pinching at my palms as I scrambled away from him. “What she did to you… was wrong.”
“She, you. Does it truly matter who tightened the bowstring or who created the arrow? For the outcome is the same. And I am hungry. I admit I have never talked so much with my supper. They usually scream and give in to the hunt long before this point.” Marius stopped before me, the bloodhounds faltering to his side where they bared yellowed, serrated teeth. “Stand. Meet your fate.”
I winced as I followed his command, not from fear, but from the blast of heat as yet another window exploded from the castle. Bricks crackled and charred as the fire burned on. Marius utterly unfazed that his home was destroyed, crumbling before him with each passing moment.
