Page 34 of Rhaz’s Redemption (Shifters of Valo Prime #6)

Rhaz

CW: Violence, descriptions of bloodshed, battle scenes, on page death scene

The next day, Beatrice and I slept in long after the sun had risen. We hadn’t mated again that night since my mate’s body needed time to recover, but the pleasure of having her in my arms was enough to keep me from moving. That was until I heard a knock at the door.

I leapt from the furs and stood between my mate and the door.

“You will not harm her! I won't let you,” I snarled.

“I don’t want your mate,” intoned a deep voice of a younger male.

That wasn’t a voice I’d expected to hear. I flung the door open and found Drovo’s younger brother Favalor standing there looking anxious.

“How’d you get down here?” I asked.

“I brought a ladder,” he pointed to the long rope ladder that lead directly out of the ravine.

“Thank the goddess,” I pushed past him and tested the ladder’s strength to make sure it would be safe for my mate.

“We have to go,” Favalor interrupted my inspection. Your dekes is here fighting your sire and his hunters. They need you.”

“What brought them here?” I asked.

“They came to rescue you, Beatrice, Anusha, and Fatima.” Favalor replied.

So they were still missing. It made my stomach churn knowing members of my dekes were being held hostage by vile males. I was glad my fellow shifters brought the fight to the valley. This retribution was long overdue.

“Did you know we were here the whole time?” Beatrice came out of the cabin fully dressed and with her pack secured to her back.

“No,” Favalor shook his head.

“We’ve been searching for you for days. I spotted your cabin in this ravine last night and figured that was the spot. So we made this ladder to help you get out.”

“Who’s we?” I questioned. I wanted to know who my allies were here.

“Did I say we?” Favalor awkwardly ran his hand through his hair and corrected himself. “I meant me. I found you. Just me. No one else.”

“Right,” I sighed. “Keep your secrets, just tell whoever it is thank you for me alright?”

“Well there is no one else, but if there were, I would be sure to express your gratitude,” he assured me.

“You do that,” I rolled my eyes at the young hunter and made my way back to Beatrice.

“The ladder is safe. I’ll go first, to make sure it's safe. Then you’ll go, and then Favalor will be behind you.”

“Sounds good to me,” Beatrice squeezed the straps on her pack.

“Everything will be fine,” I promised. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“What about you? You’re not invincible. What if you get hurt.”

“Umm, about that.” I had meant to explain things to Beatrice. I wanted her to know the the truth about my abilities, but it just never seemed like a good time to bring it up.

“We have to go,” Favalor interrupted, and I growled at him.

“What? Do you want the hunters in your dekes to die?”

“He’s got a point. If we can help we should,” Beatrice suggested.

“Okay, let’s get out of here,” I agreed.

The three of us climbed out of the ravine and I was more than happy to finally be away from that place. Our lives were in our own hands again, just as it should be.

Favalor led the way to a field that was just outside the village. Blood soaked the snow all around us, and as we drew closer I saw the reason for the carnage.

The other dekes had picked a fight with the wrong sirrets, and without the giant shifter on their side, they were too weak to stand a chance against us.

“They fucked around, and now they’re finding out,” Beatrice commented beside me.

“I like that human phrase,” Favalor smiled. I had to bite back a growl. We were newly mated and had yet to be around any other males, but now was not the time for such meaningless bravado. My fight was elsewhere.

“Stay here,” I commanded. “I’ll be back soon.”

Beatrice looked to me then to the battle before us. “Be careful.”

“I will be,” I promised.

I really needed to tell her I couldn’t die. Maybe one day I’d be able to, but not yet. Not today.

Favalor and I ran toward my brother shifters and tried not to look at the blood splattered snow as I ran. The hunters from the other dekes were doing their best but without Gil they couldn’t keep up.

Brexl was taking on two people at a time, slashing at the hunters with his claws. They tried to stab him back, but everything bounced off his bone plating.

A screech sent my attention upward and Jax gave me a quick nod before flying down and ripping a hunter off Axon’s back. Axon quickly recovered and got back into the fight.

Zander had also taken to the sky. I hadn’t known that he was a shifter, but it looked natural as breathing for him to fly with wings made of fire and swoop down to pick off an attacker.

In the distance stood the females of our dekes.

They watched the fight with baited breath.

Talia stood at the front in a protective stance as well as a snake shifter with long white hair.

I’d stopped running as I approached the battle, but Favalor had not.

He ran up to the snake shifter and gave her a quick kiss before joining the fight.

I squinted to get a better look and realized that was Vianna, Zander’s sister. Today was full of surprises, but our victory would not be one of them. We would win this fight, once and for all. No more hiding. No more being ashamed of what we are. That would end today.

I stood before Scaron and slashed at him to invite him into the fight. He scowled, and rose to the challenge. I was not the strongest fighter, but my bravery more than made up for it. I could not die, so I had no fear of death when facing down a foe. I had no fear at all.

He slashed at me with his knife, and I slashed with my claws. In my shifter form, I was stronger and faster and landed every blow, while he only landed half of his. It didn’t take long before he grew tired and sloppy and I slid my claws into his side and watched blood pour out as I removed them.

He staggered and fell into the snow, looking shocked and dazed. He was so arrogant that he really thought he could win. His knife against my claws? Never.

I heard a low snarl to my left and saw Dameron holding Jax by his hair. His head was pulled back, and the Savrix had a knife to my young friend’s throat.

“No!” I shouted then ran toward them. I used my shoulder to knock my sire off my feet, which gave Jax the chance he needed to get away. He took to the sky where Zander would have his back.

“No more!” I snarled. “You will not hurt Jax or anyone ever again!”

I raised my claws but at the last moment my father shifted into his shadow form. My hand moved right through him.

Then to my horror he rematerialized with a feral grin on his face. The bone knife in his hand was pointed toward me.

I looked to the far side of the field and saw Beatrice with her hand over her mouth with a terrified expression on her face.

“Let’s see if you can survive this.” With those damming words, Dameron, my sire, shoved the knife into my heart. Beatrice screamed, and the world went black.

Beatrice

“No!” A desperate cry shot out of me. Rhaz had been stabbed in the heart.

I ran through the field, past the hunters who were fighting and fell to my knees before my mate.

“Please, please don’t leave me.” He wasn’t breathing. There was no rise or fall in his chest. He just laid there, lifeless on the cold bed of snow beneath him.

What do I do? If I take the knife out will he loose too much blood? Do I keep it in, and do CPR? What do I do?

“What do I do!” I screamed. Then I felt to strong hands lifting me up and away from my love. I’d felt those cold hands before. Dameron held me against his chest.

“He’s dead. He’s finally dead.”

“No!” I screamed and twisted out of his grasp just like Rhaz taught me to do.

Dameron was about to reach for me again, when there was another shout across the battle field.

“EVERYONE STOP!”

This time it was Holey, the acolyte and future priestess of the dekes. She stood in the middle of the field holding a knife to Kahina’s throat.

There are bodies everywhere. Many of them were still breathing, but a few were not. How had it come to this? Why did the other dekes hate the shifters so much? Was being different really so bad?

“Stop your fighting or I will slit her throat.”

Kahina looked terrified. This wasn’t some plan the two had concocted together. Holey was acting on her own.

“And if Kahina dies then I’ll NEVER perform the offering for anyone ever again.”

“You can’t do that!” Dameron shouted. Of all the things that could have scared him, this was the first time I’d seen fear on his face. This male was so desperate for validation, some miracle from the goddess, that the threat of losing his connection to her, finally made him afraid.

“Holey, let’s talk about this,” the Priestess suggested.

“Shut up!” Holey bit back. “You’ve kept everyone in the dark long enough.”

The acolyte looked out at everyone around her and gave a command. “Drop your weapons.”

Everyone on the field just looked at her in shock.

“I said drop them!” she shouted again, and the hunters from Dameron’s dekes dropped their spears and knives, and the shifters transformed back into their sirret form.

“Dameron,” she turned her attention to the Savrix.

“If you, and those who are loyal to you, don’t leave immediately, you’ll never burn another offering for the goddess again.

She’ll never hear your prayers, and never know your voice.

You will suffer for all your days, and I’ll make sure that when you die, that you will never find your way to the city of souls. ”

“Traitor!” He cried.

“I am loyal to the goddess alone!” Holey seethed. “The same goddess who will not recognize you when you die, if you keep pushing me.”

“Where do you expect us to go?” he pressed on. “The forest? We won’t last a day!”

“Yet, you sent them out there when they were just children,” my voice carried through the snow covered field. Now everyone knew the truth. Dameron sent the shifters out into the wilderness expecting them to die.