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NATALIE
Death was sometimes beautiful because it promised a chance for peace. No matter the species, dying was often faced without fear. After enduring a tumultuous lifetime on Earth, it was good to know that we could end up someplace so much better.
After I died and came to the God Realm, I’d thought I’d know nothing but blissful days and calm nights.
I was wrong.
The arms that wrapped around me squeezed, and the sound of my bones breaking along with the agony of sharp teeth sinking into my shoulder made me howl. The white-hot pain blurred my vision before I started fighting in earnest.
"Get off me!" I growled, but the she-wolf that had me trapped within her arms tightened her hold, and I cried out when more of my ribs broke.
I couldn’t believe what was happening. A werewolf—the one now ripping into my shoulder—had obviously been infected. So far, the virus had only been seen in animals.
How was this possible?
One of the best things about this realm was that there was no violence and no disease. And yet this she-wolf, whose eyes matched the unnatural red color of the infected, had just murdered a human. And it looked like I might be next.
I took a deep breath and nearly choked. The blood of the dead human was doing nothing to mask the pungent scent coming from the wolf. It was unnerving—she smelled exactly like the infected animals I’d encountered.
I threw my head back, hitting her in the face with the back of my head, and her nose broke. She released me, and I fell to the ground, then got up swiftly and turned to face her. Clenching my teeth, I snapped my dislocated right arm back into place.
Ignoring the pain of my broken bones healing, I stepped back but kept my eyes on the werewolf while I tried to stop the bleeding from the wound on my shoulder.
My eyes darted to the human lying on the ground a few steps away, and a chill went down my spine at the sight of her flesh hanging loosely from her neck.
“Listen to me!” I tried to plead with the wolf, hoping I could get through to her. “Snap out of it!”
But she only growled at me, her lips pulling back over her teeth.
Sighing, I prepared to defend myself, allowing my claws—and fangs—to descend. When she stepped left, I moved in the opposite direction.
Running was pointless. She wasn't going to back down until I, too, was lying lifeless on the ground.
I refused to let that happen, but it wouldn’t be easy. I was facing off with a fellow werewolf, one who could shift any moment. As an Enchanted, I couldn't shift, so I needed to take care of this situation sooner rather than later. Dying wasn’t an option.
She growled at me again, my blood dripping from her elongated canines, and I growled back. She swiped her claws at the air like a cornered animal, and I backed away.
I still couldn’t believe this was happening. Shortly after I arrived in this realm, I’d noticed the wildlife acted strangely, becoming exaggeratedly aggressive. And the instances of it happening were getting more and more frequent. It was soon obvious that some sort of virus was spreading among them—and was transferable to souls—as this she-wolf’s behavior now proved.
I’d had a vision that something bad was coming, that an all-consuming danger was imminent, and I now knew what it was.
The wolf charged at me, and I pedaled backward to avoid the claws swiping at my chest. But I didn’t move fast enough, and two of her razor-sharp nails ripped my shirt and nicked my skin. I howled, and she crouched down, growling like a rabid animal.
In the vision I’d had, I'd fallen into a sea of thick crimson liquid that had latched onto my body like tentacles, and I’d felt an unstoppable urge to kill. This wolf had that same intensity in her eyes now.
I slapped her across the face, my claws digging into her flesh, but the pain didn’t appear to register. She merely staggered a second from the force, then charged again, her eyes bright with rage.
I’d tried to mind-link with an infected creature before, and I almost died in the process. The creature had been too far gone, devoured by rage and the need to kill. Its mind had been poisoned, and the same thing was happening to this wolf.
A mind-link here was out of the question.
The wolf threw herself at me, knocking us both to the ground, and I shoved my knee between us and kicked her off me. She flew through the air and landed on her back, but rose quickly, just as I did. We faced each other on our hands and knees, each waiting for the other to make the first move.
This fight would only end with death—either hers or mine. I could feel the waves of hostility coming from her. Causing my death was the only thing on her mind.
She rushed forward, and I did too. My claws dug into the concrete, my wolf howling in my mind. When we got close to each other, I moved as if to go left, and she followed. Instead, I went right, and I flipped her onto her back as my claws sunk into the flesh under her arm.
“Stop!” I pressed her head into the ground and pinned her with my body. “Stop it! I don’t want to kill you!”
