Page 4 of Jagged Souls

Knowing he will never leave Micha alone for the sins of my mother, I rush towards him to help Aleric. The Boss of the Blood Fangs phases away just as Antonio tries to grab him off his back. He appears behind the half-dead woman and stomps on one of the fetuses with a smile on his face. Antonio roars as he charges him.

I quickly scale the boardwalk behind him and unsheathe my machete. Shadows seep out of the cracks in the floor. The sound of clicking and hissing coming from it tells me it’s the reaper. He’s the only one of us who can call the monsters to the surface. He wraps around Antonio’s back left foot, but before he can start climbing up his leg, the wolf bends down and bites it off.

I lunge for the right, knowing he’s going to jump into the water. Shadows can’t form there, but even with my secret speed, he moves faster. Throwing himself off the boardwalk, he leaves part of his foot behind.

The crocodiles go for him as soon as he hits, dragging him under in a feeding frenzy. The murky water gains a tinge of red, and I place my hands on the railing as I peer over it. My eyes search the sea of scales. Aleric grabs my arm, and we’re suddenly on the other side of the swamp. I fall to my knees, the second round of phasing affecting me even more than the first. It’s a cumulative pain, but I push back to my feet just in time to see Antonio emerging from the water. Aleric clearly knows him well.

The two Bosses clash, too fast to really watch. Antonio is moving with all the power he’s recently gained from eating hybrid babies, and Aleric is phasing with the precise skill of an experienced killer. He grabs Antonio’s arm and phases a step to the left. He can’t hop far with the beast who doesn’t want to go with him, but he doesn’t need to. Phasing a step away or a mile makes no difference to the effect it has on one’s body.

I charge forward with the poison-lined machete. If I hit Aleric, it could severely wound our side, but the month we have practiced training alongside each other has helped me to learn his movements.

I dart around their blur of bodies, and every time the wolf goes to bite Aleric Zadar, I slash at him, demanding his attention. He snarls at me as he swipes. His claws rake into me but only surface level. I might not be anywhere near as fast as him, but he doesn’t want to fully lunge at me. Doing so will leave him open to be attacked by the bigger threat.

A person on our side screams in sheer agony, and I know they’re dying. I don’t turn to look to see who it is though. Rudy will defend our brothers. He’ll sacrifice his life to do so, and he can’t scream.

So I keep my focus on killing Antonio. I dart forward as he and Aleric return from another quick phase. My machete swings up, then down right over the vampires’ back. I’m using him to hide my attack, just like we trained, and he phases away right as I’m about to hit.

The blade slices into the werewolf, cutting deep. He kicks out at me, and I go flying, pain searing across my chest. But thankfully, he kicked me with his severed foot rather than the clawed monstrosity he was balancing on. A direct hit from his other leg would’ve ripped open my chest, possibly killed me.

I hit the ground hard. The air in my lungs whoosh out. Another wolf charges me, moving at a speed that nearly matches Antonio’s.

I lift the machete to swing at him. My ribs protest, and that blast of pain makes me a fraction too slow. The wolf’s mouth covers my face as he slides into me, but just as his teeth are about to close, his head flops to the side, and the rest of his body follows. I scramble to my feet to see a large silver bullet get pulled out of the werewolf’s splattered brain with telekinesis. When the bullet ‘waves’ at me, I know it’s Ezriel who saved me. Enoch might complain about doing any work ever, but he at least has the ability to stay focused.

Tightening my fingers around my machete, I turn back to continue my fight with Antonio, but I don’t see him or Aleric. Someone screams behind me. Then two more do the same in quick succession. I spin around, seeing if it’s him doing the killing.

My eyes widen at the sight in front of me. The last two of his soldiers aren’t werewolves. They’re fully grown hybrids, monstrous beasts standing over nine feet tall. Fangs drop down like they do on sabertooths. Their claws are like that of a giant sloth, and their build is as heavy as fucking tank.

Three bodies litter the ground between them. Khalid is dragging a fourth one out of the combat zone. My pulse kicks up as I realize it’s Enoch. My brother’s chest is ripped open. His head lolls to the side, unconscious.

Ezriel and Leno are fighting one, alongside two vampires. Leno is wrapping tree branches around its limbs, molding them like vines, Ezriel is wrapping silver chains, but they’re not burning it like silver should. The vampires phase like gnats around it, stabbing it here and there with blades.

The other hybrid is only fighting Rudy. It slashes him apart with its claws, tearing great big chunks out of his skin. Its teeth latch onto his shoulder, but he stabs it in the eye with the broken sword he has in his other hand. The beast howls as it releases him. Half his shoulder is missing, but Rudy moves like it isn’t. He powers forward, hacking the thing apart with both his swords, one broken in half, the other not.

He dances around the creature like a god of the dead, using his magic to keep going. He fears being trapped in a decaying body, forever alive, forever forced to suffer. He will be the sole survivor.

A sudden gasp of air has my head snapping towards the water. Aleric punches out of the surface, then he’s gone in the next second, having phased to land beside me. He’s bleeding profusely from multiple bite wounds. “The fucker dragged me in,” he rasps.

Then he’s on me in the next second, his teeth sinking into my wrist holding the machete. My first instinct is to hit him, but I rein it in. He is one of our strongest players, and I need him in the game if we’re going to finish this.

“Where is he?” I demand as my eyes search the water. All the reptiles are moving away from us, having finally clocked that we’re too dangerous of a prey, so it’s hard to pick out someone swimming beneath the surface.

“I don’t know,” he says as he lifts his head. His eyes flash blood-red as he licks his lips, and I suddenly realize what he can discern from having drank from me.

“Son,” he says with a harsh stress on the word.

My pulse spikes as my stomach drops. I rip my arm away from him. “This is not the time.”

He smiles, accepting that. Then he laughs and grabs my arm. I spotted Antonio at the same time he did, on the other side of the swamp. We appear not too far in front of him. Knowing I’m going to drop to my knees and heave, I roll into the motion to take out the werewolf’s legs. He tumbles over me, and Aleric is on him in a flash, landing on his back and ripping chunks off it with his claws.

Antonio starts to push up as I roll around to look at them. Aleric isn’t a big man, and Antonio is a werewolf. It will not be a hard endeavor. Then he’ll get away, his speed not one I can match, and I will be forced to rely on Aleric to give chase. But I want to kill him.

I want to be the one who makes him suffer.

He hurt my girl. I need to kill him for that.

Launching myself forward, I shove my machete through his calf with all my strength. He howls as the blade pierces through the concrete below him. I draw another knife I have on me. This one isn’t lined with Cara’s poison, but I don’t need her magic if I can cut off his head.

I scramble forward. Aleric clocks my intention, and he focuses his attack on one of Antonio’s shoulders. He severs the muscles and tendons. The werewolf falls to the ground as his arm can no longer take his weight. He snarls as he tries to grab Aleric off him with his other hand.