Page 62 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)

Free again, she clawed at the long grasses, their roots shearing from the earth and giving way, spraying her with dirt, its rich taste budding on my tongue from her open mouthed gasps as she crawled sideways on one arm, the still babe protected.

Then a sharp crack rented the night and she screamed through gritted teeth. The sound rattling my ears just as her upper thigh bone splintered under the force of a heavy booted foot slamming down on her—-pinning and immobilizing Talgira to the earth with one simple move.

A handsome face with sharp chiseled features, deep set red eyes, and shaggy hair cropped around his face crouched down in front of her.

At the sight of him, her loathing was my loathing, even though I had never seen this fae before.

Pulling back the sweaty matted silver hair stuck to the salted tears on Talgira’s face, his fangs flashed brightly against his dark brown skin. "Hello Talgira." Thickly accented and dark, his eyes flashed as his nail scraped down the tear stained path of her cheeks.

The touch like a cut against my own flesh.

"Melor." Tagira’s pain was unbearable and his name came out broken from her lips.

Running a black fingertip over them, he grinned, licking at his fang. "You remember me."

She glared, jerking away from him repulsively. "Even if I wanted to forget…there is no denying you are my grandson's father and my daughter’s mate."

Melor ground his boot in harder, splintering the fractured bone more beneath his powerful strength. Talgira bit down hard on her cheek, the taste of her own metallic blood strong.

I was amazed at her strength, because despite the pain Talgira experienced, she still held her precious bundle lightly—protected.

A harsh grip reared her head closer to Melor’s face, tongue licking at the saliva dripping from his fangs.

"I forget how much you look like her," he purred silkily, his other hand running up the curve of her hip forming bile Talgira’s mouth.

"Perhaps we should play before I drain you dry.

" Wrenching back her head further, soft silver strands breaking in his rough grip, he leaned in, sniffing the smooth curve of her neck, his tongue flicking over the erratic beat of her pulse.

"I can control your blood," he whispered and I could feel his cold lips smile on her skin when a throbbing started between her legs, "I can make you like it, cuming hard all over my cock while I fuck the life out of you. "

Talgira laughed through bloodied lips where the skin had broken from holding back her cries of pain. The taste welcoming to the sour bile threatening to spew from her gut. "What a fae…no game of your own so you cheat to dip your prick."

He chuckled darkly, his fangs biting at her skin. "Perhaps, but never did for that sweet sweet cunt of your daughter’s. She spread her legs anytime I told her to. I wonder..." The throbbing intensified as he controlled the blood flow straight to her core. "Do you scream like her?"

Biting her lip again to hold back her cry, she drove her fractured leg straight upwards, forcing him to shove her down even harder, the sweet pain flooding all her senses and driving away the sexual desire he manipulated through her blood.

Thank the goddess for that.

Pulling back, his red eyes flared with annoyance. "Clever," he cooed, then his eyes fell on the small bundle still wrapped in Talgira’s arm.

"Give the child to me, and I will do as promised. Fuck you into your death while you give me that sweet vitalizing blood. No one else will touch you."

On cue the other blood fae she had dispelled with her air, formed another circle around her, smiling with delight.

Talgira held tighter to the little one. "No. You will never have him alive." Blood splattered outwards across his dark brown skin from the forceful vehemence in her tone. "Necare!"

The ancient fae command to kill.

Melor had been so wrapped up in his own selfish desires, he had failed to realize this whole time that the blood had stopped flowing in the tiny babe’s body minutes ago.

"He wanted our little Ikelos for nothing but pure greed. A powerful seer blood fae hybrid to turn the war." Talgira whispered in my mind while Melor roared above her, backhanding her face into the ground.

I hissed internally at the blow.

Crying out in protest, he ripped the lifeless infant from her arms, unwrapping him in a vicious manner, ripping the soft blankets with snarls until he stilled, staring down at the pale cold form of the lifeless infant.

Snapping his eyes down at Talgira with pure malice, blood began to simmer hotly through her veins as he forced her to her feet like a puppet, her leg bent unnaturally sideways, her face only coming halfway to his chest.

If I had a voice to scream from, I would have been.

His nails pierced her skin when he snatched her head, forcing her to look deep into his burning red eyes. “You fucking cunt. You have ruined everything!"

Talgira smiled through the haze of pain laughing softly into the eyes of a true monster. "Fuck. You. Melor."

Snarling, his movement was quick when he backhanded her again, throwing her broken body to the ground. She whimpered, the pain of her blood boiling beneath the skin unbearable just like her battered body, her battered soul.

She succumbed to it. Death called her now. I could feel it just there, waiting to take her.

Kicking her over, she blinked through death’s fog as Melor evilly grinned down at her.

"You'll not die yet, bitch." Raising the small lifeless arm of the infant to his mouth, his fangs lengthened even further.

"You think you have won, but I will make you watch.

I will make you watch as I drink from your grandson's dead body and you will witness first hand what your shriveled carcass will look like when we are done with you. "

“No!” I fought against the memory, screaming at her to fight harder.

Little Ezra deserved more. So much more.

But I could do nothing, and instead of being disgusted, she smiled amusingly when Melor's fangs sunk into the little boy’s soft pale skin and he sucked hard.

His cheeks hollowing, his eyes glittering hatefully down at her.

She coughed out a deep gurgling laugh the moment Melor's eyes went wide and he spat out the blood gasping.

"Sir?" One of his followers stepped forward with concern.

"Poison!" he bellowed, dropping the faeling to the ground.

Despite her crippled form and being on the verge of death, her air reached out with the last of her life force, catching little Ezra in mid air and bringing him safely back into her arms.

"How?" I whispered through the same pain she experienced, the last vestiges of life leaving her.

Melor frantically attempted to purge the blood he had consumed while raging at his followers. "Kill her! Kill that fucking bitch!"

Talgira's pleased voice answered me back "The little boy’s illness, it is a deadly poison to the fae, much worse than any iron. It works quickly, the moment it is ingested."

She smiled into the thick black curls, breathed in the babe’s sweet innocence when a dozen of pierced needles drew out her blood.

This time the pain I had been experiencing did not come.

Talgira was already beyond, her soul already departing and before the last thready beat of her pulse ended, she stared into the unblinking red eyes of Melor, dead in the soft grasses beside us, his body shriveled just like his putrid soul, into an aged crippled male.

It was what he would have looked like if he hadn't utilized blood to sustain him.

His immortality had been prolonged by taking others and now he met his end.

Tucking her head down to the sweet innocence she held, her voice whispered brokenly. "I will meet you one day on the other side little hero, sweet Ezra, protector of all fae."

She smiled when death came and I did too, long before the remaining blood fae drained the last drop of her blood.