Page 85 of Awakened and Betrayed
The memory of Lachlan telling me that the shifters they were killing were traffickers flashes through my mind, and I’m ninety-five percent sure that I have Adriel to thank for the reappearance of this asshole in my life.
“Now put your pretty knives away, pet, and be nice and sweet with us, and we won’t slowly rip your friend into tiny little pieces.”
With that, the two shifters who are still bears move in towards Sabin and I, and we have to decide quickly if we fight or comply. I focus in my mind on the runes that represent each of the guys and feed magic into them activating the link in our heads. I’m so used to touching the runes to activate them, that I have to focus entirely too much on the process of doing it without touch and a bear gets within striking distance.
“Fuck, Sabin, do you think you can take a shifter? Or at least hold your own against one until help arrives?”
The bear steps even closer, and pink and orange magic flashes across my skin in warning.
“Be good, pet, if you fight, it will be all the more painful.”
The Big, Burly Douche licks his lips, and his meaning isn’t lost on me.
Sabin’s voice is silent in my head, and I realize that he can’t activate the runes without touching them.
“Guys we’re in trouble. We’re at Sabin’s warehouse and surrounded by bear shifters. Tell Aydin it’s the grizzlies from our first fight together, he’ll know what I mean. We’re going to fight, so don’t start screaming in my head. Just get here!”
Sabin nods his head almost imperceptibly, and I call on my Elemental magic and throw up a wall of dirt in front of us. A growl vibrates through me as a grizzly the size of a car slams into the dirt wall clawing through it to get to us. Sabin is using his Elemental magic to defend us just behind me, but I can’t focus on what he’s doing as teeth and claws come at me. I trade my short swords out for a long sword. I clap my empty hand against the hilt to create two of the weapon.
The bear roars out its challenge, and I scream in answer as I run towards it. I push magic into my limbs and take two huge strides before I leap high into the air, just missing the claws aimed for my torso. I pivot midair and slam my swords into the back of the grizzly. They slide deeply into the shifter pulling me out of the air and onto his back. He snarls in pain, and I immediately call on new swords and get to work trying to cut this fucker’s head off.
I am barely able to avoid the claws as he reaches around his back trying to dislodge me, as I stab through the thick muscle and fur protecting his throat. His bellows turn to pained yowls and just when I think he’s going to collapse to the ground and accept death, I catch another bear coming straight for me.
I make one more last-ditch effort for a kill shot on the beast beneath me and prepare myself to go toe-to-toe with another elephant-sized grizzly. What have these assholes been eating, fucking mutagen? I tense, my body preparing for a bite that’s unavoidable, I just hope the promise of a big payday will keep it from ripping me in half.
42
Out of nowhere, a massive dark gray wolf barrels into the bear, knocking it off balance, and they both go down in a tangle of teeth, paws, and snarls.
I dismiss the shock and thethank fuckthat fills me at seeing Torrez, and I call on my longsword, giving one last swipe at the injured bear’s neck. His head rolls away from his body, and I send out a silent plea that help is coming as I look up and see two bears closing in on Sabin. I run for him and unleash throwing knives at the bear closest to him, aiming for the eyes and nose. Firing one blade after another, I hope Sabin can hold off the other bear because there’s no way I can take two at a time.
My target swipes at the small knives sticking out of its face, and it rears up to protect its head. I call on my short swords and fall to my knees sliding past the legs of the bear as I slice through the muscles holding it up. My blades meet bone, and I release them calling on immediate replacements to shove up into the belly of the bear as it comes crashing down on top of me. My lungs give up all their air as the furry mass that weighs a fuck ton slams me into the unforgiving ground. I force myself to focus through the panic and hack away at the underside crushing me as much as I can.
I’m covered in blood and gore, and my hold on my knives becomes slippery as I give one last stab and feel the bear on top of me die. I gasp in need of oxygen and magically muscle my way out from underneath the massive shifter. I get up on my hands and knees as I pull myself all the way free, and I’m just in time to look up and watch as the grizzly bear Torrez was fighting rips his stomach open. I try to scream, but nothing comes out as my lungs work to inflate and serve my oxygen-deprived body. I shatter inside as Torrez yelps in pain, and the grizzly bear moves in to finish him.
Desperation and rage surge inside of me as I watch Torrez’s wolf try to crawl away through puddles of his own blood, his organs spilling out from where they’re supposed to be inside of him. My runes light up with violet fury. Sentinel magic pools inside of me and then blazes out, slamming into the bear. The shifter is engulfed in purple flames and the magic blasts him away from Torrez. I run-crawl toward my bleeding wolf, but when I get near him I don’t know where to touch or how to offer comfort, he’s so battered and covered in gouges and bites.
Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck!I cry to myself, as I scoop up Torrez’s intestines and try to press them back into his body. He’s not moving, and I’m terrified of what that might mean. A strangled sob bubbles out of my throat, as I run my eyes over his tattered chest trying to detect any movement there. I force Healing magic into him, but it won’t take to any of the injuries, and I scream out my frustration. I scramble towards his face and with blood covered hands and run my palms over the fur around his eyes.
“Stay! Please stay!” I beg, helplessly petting his face and realizing I’m a fucking idiot.
He was right, I am drawn to him, and it’s not in some mysteriouswhere is this coming fromkind of way. I like him. I want him. And now I’m going to lose him.
“Mark him, Vinna,”Bastien shouts at me in my head.
“I don’t know how!” I shout out.
The confession slamming into the trees just in front of me and bouncing back to tear at my soul.
“Weave your intention with the magic, Vinna. I read it in that stuff the readers gave you. Chosen have a connection that could save him, but you have to decide what you want.”
I call to my Sentinel magic for the second time tonight and beg it to save Torrez. I don’t weave my intention. I fucking demand obedience. My hands glow deep purple as I place one against Torrez’s head and the other on his battered body. I flood him with Sentinel power and claim him as mine. He jerks against my hands as I flood him with magic, and I watch as he starts to knit together. I seize onto the small amount of hope that swells inside of me that somehow this will work.
A snarl demands my attention, and my head snaps up as the singed bear I blasted comes barreling back towards me and Torrez. A possessive war cry sounds off inside me, and I refuse to let this fucker anywhere near my wolf again. I send one more strong pulse of magic into Torrez and hope it’s enough, as I rise from his body and square off with the shifter. I call on the runes on my toes, and two spiked maces form in my hands. The metal of the weapon is missing the blue sheen of my rune magic that it normally has, and instead is saturated with the purple of my Sentinel magic.
This piece of shit is going to bleed.
I run towards the bear, violet magic streaking in my wake, and I skid to the side as I slam both maces into the bears face in a one-two combo that sends him reeling. One mace gets stuck in the side of his skull, and I let the magic go and call on another. They’re not the most practical weapon in my arsenal; I could make this fast by slicing him up with blades instead, but I need him to suffer. I need him to know with every spike point that brings this piece of shit closer to death, that you don’t fuck with what’s mine!
