Page 43 of The Tribrid Princess and the Taste of Chaos (The Rossi Legacies #7)

Jayce

I can barely catch my breath as the last body falls. I drop to the ground, blood dripping from my teeth as I cast a cold look over the three corpses, making sure they’re dead.

Their blood is spreading across the road. My chest rises and falls as I shift back to human form – my body aching from exhaustion and anger. This shouldn’t have happened.

I shouldn’t have brought her out here. The forest is burning behind us, and the road is scorched and broken. Everything smells like blood and fire.

She stands there, staring down at the manananggal she had killed. I’m proud of her, though. She fought, and she did a fucking good job of it.

“You were fucking incredible,” I say, walking over to her. She wraps her arms around my waist, holding me tight, her heart thumping.

“I’m so sorry about your bike.”

Ouch, yeah, that’s gonna hurt. “Let’s not think about that. At least you’re safe,” I say. I wrap my arms around her. She’s still wearing my jacket, and I like how it looks on her, how my scent covers her.

Then, I hear it.

Quiet, yet measured footsteps…

But with every step, it’s like a tremor damning me. My entire body ripples with an odd energy, and my instincts are spiralling.

We need to leave. Now!

Sienna stiffens, and I know she’s heard it, too. We both turn, scanning our surroundings, but we spot no one. The road behind and ahead of us stretches into the dark, flickering from the remnants of the fire.

I catch a flicker of movement from the opposite side of the fire, emerging from the trees, and instantly, my mind is telling me to move. To put distance between us right fucking now.

It’s new. These emotions are foreign to me, but I know them both. Fear and dread.

He is tall, with a powerful build. His hair is black and tousled, falling into his shadowed eyes, and his face is masked. A long, black coat moves around him in a way that doesn’t match the wind around us.

Underneath it, he wears black cargo pants, a top and boots that strike the pavement with the sound of finality. His double belt holds a couple of weapons, but they don’t bother me as much as his cold, cruel, dark eyes.

He stops just a few feet away. I can’t sense his aura, nor any power from him.

Just a wall of silence and something else extremely dangerous pressing in behind it like a tide waiting to drown us.

Sienna lifts her hand and summons a barrier. She, too, knows he’s dangerous. The barrier shimmers, but even with it there, his eyes remain fixed on us.

Then he starts walking towards it. I tense as he approaches the barrier; he does nothing, but the barrier shatters.

Sienna gasps and stares at him, her face pale.

There was no sound or movement from him. He just got rid of it. He now tilts his head up sharply, and we are both thrown back with such force that it reminds me of being in Dante’s presence.

I break my fall, but Sienna hits the ground hard, rolling across the gravel and coming to a stop with a cry of pain. My rage explodes.

I lunge.

How dare he fucking touch her?!

I shift midair. Fur erupts through me, my growl ringing through the night sky as I ready to rip into him. The fury of my wolf is one with my own, my aura surging through the air.

Even as he inches closer, he doesn’t move. I slam into something unseen, crushing the breath from my lungs as it sends me crashing down. My body skids across the ground, and I feel nothing but rage.

I get back up, snarling as I try to get to him again and again. Each strike, each attempt is blocked before I even reach him.

From behind, Sienna’s power surges, making the man turn towards her.

NO!

I snarl as Sienna’s power clashes against his invisible shield, and he turns to look at her. He flicks his hand, and she’s thrown back, but she’s getting up again.

I growl, shaking my head, hoping she understands as I spin around and snarl at the man who is coming closer. I keep attacking, trying to force through the barrier, frustration and fear burning through me.

Trying to calm myself, I focus through the mind-link.

Can any of you hear me?!

Silence.

Fuck!

I had hoped I’d be somewhat in range.

Theo! Ares! Carter! Renji!

I shout through the mind-link as I try to cut through the barrier.

Jayce? Carter’s voice comes. Where are you?

We’ve been attacked 20 minutes out from-

I’m thrown to the ground, the impact knocking the breath from my lungs, but I’ve caught his attention, a glint of intrigue in his eyes.

The impact knocks the breath from my lungs. I shift back without meaning to, unable to sustain my wolf form anymore.

I fall to my knees.

Rage coils deep in my chest, my heart thudding rapidly.

Check my location through the Schattensicht! Send help!

On it! I can hear the worry in his voice, wondering how I had sounded.

I’ve never asked for help.

Sienna rises, face pale, but furious. Her magic ignites around her. Dark tendrils of shadow twist out from her fingertips, wrapping around her arms, swirling beneath her feet. Her eyes blaze red, and she whispers something I do not understand, and the ground splits beneath her.

She raises her arm, sending a wave of intense power at him. The ground burns with her power. I feel it pulse through the air, but he simply walks through it.

Her magic doesn’t touch him.

How does it not fucking touch him?! What the fuck is he?

Sienna screams, the sound laced with desperation as she releases everything she has. Her hair lifts in the wind, and her eyes glow red as power tears through her veins. She brings down his barrier, but that just creates direct contact between them.

NO!

I race towards them as he raises his hand, and faster than either of us can catch, he strikes her across the chest with one blast of his own.

She flies through the air, and I leap up, catching her, my heart pounding. Fuck!

We land hard, our bodies tumbling to the ground, and although I can hear her heart beating, her eyes flutter, and I’m forced back into human form. The pain barely registers as I look down at her in my oversized jacket. The bruises that cover her body make her look fragile, and guilt consumes me.

“Don’t move,” I whisper.

I brought her out here…

Fuck.

If I don’t do something, she could die.

Something in me shatters.

I stagger to my feet, leaving Sienna on the ground, my entire body buzzing with an energy born from the rage within me. Blood drips from my mouth, pain consumes my body, but my fury burns through the agony.

I roar in rage as I rush at him. He raises his leg to kick me, and I block with practised precision. His eyes widen ever so slightly as if not expecting my strength, but now that I’m close enough, I push forward with everything I have.

He lifts his foot, but only to grab my arm.

His fingers wrap around it, and he snaps the bone clean in two.

I snarl, but I simply spin, dislocating my shoulder and punch him in the fucking jaw.

I’ve always been better with close combat, and in that second when my fist connects, he realises, too. He’s thrown upwards before his body crashes into the earth, the impact creating a crater.

“You don’t touch her,” I snarl, feeling something tear open inside of me.

Something… powerful.

The sky seems to split open. Brilliant blue and white light flashes above us, and lightning explodes, illuminating as far as the eye can see.

Powerful energy blazes through me, humming in my fingertips, and I look down at the crackling power that now wraps around my arms and hands. I feel tingling in my back, feeling the sizzling power and light that illuminates around me.

Then, everything stills as the man gets to his feet, staring upwards.

And then thunder shatters the silence.

A light I cannot control pours out of me like fire trying to escape. The wind whips in every direction, the trees ripping up from the roots as we stand there staring at one another.

“The Deimos King has awakened.” His voice is low, deep, and cold. “To think I was here to witness it…”

I don’t reply, the clouds crackling with lightning. Each pulse of light in the sky matches the rhythm of my heart. The air hums with energy so raw it’s almost unbearable. Every step I take leaves cracks in the road, and the power is intense.

I launch forward again, the ground beneath me giving way, and I reach him faster than anticipated. I raise my fist, my bones snapping back into place as I punch him.

He raises his arms, but he’s pushed back, boots carving deep gouges into the road.

The speed and the wind whipping his hair and clothes around him.

I follow with a second punch. The shockwave sends debris exploding outward, but he doesn’t fall.

The ground cracks around his feet, and yet he stays upright, only his coat torn at the hem.

From this close, I can see that his dark eyes have widened slightly.

From the little skin I can see, he has tan skin, and there are a few small scars around his nose and eyes.

His arms tremble, but his eyes don’t move. He doesn’t blink, and he isn’t even bleeding at all. I grit my teeth and keep going.

Every punch is thunder. Every kick rips the wind apart. I twist, moving faster than the eye can see, the lightning spinning around me in blinding arcs, and still, somehow, he keeps up. Barely.

But he does.

He grunts under the pressure, the impact of my blows vibrating through the road, but then he disappears, moving so fast, so fluidly that it’s as if he vanishes from one strike only to appear behind me with no sound at all.

My body is glowing white hot, veins blazing with divine force, but still he blocks. Still, he fights. And in the moments between the cracks, I see the truth.

He’s holding back.

Not entirely.

But enough.

Enough to let me know that even like this, even with the power that I now yield, he’s fucking stronger.

I roar, my throat choked with dust and fury, sounding more animal than human. All I want is for him to die. I slam both fists into the ground; the ground splits open, a crater blooms around us, wide and deep, the shockwave flattening trees around us.

I look back to see if Sienna’s ok. She’s back on her feet, slowly coming closer, but I don’t have time to stop her as he is back on his feet.

The dust clears.

His coat is torn, but he simply wipes his bloody arm on it. “Impressive.”

Then he’s gone.

No flash, no blur, just there one moment and then directly in front of me the next. I raise my hands to block, but I’m too slow. His hand wraps around my throat and lifts me off the ground like I weigh nothing.

Lightning surges in me, reacting, trying to free me, but he squeezes, crushing something. I punch with everything I fucking have, and it lands with a sickening crunch.

His head jerks to the side, his mask doesn’t move. His grip eases, but before I can let go, he slams me into the ground, causing cracks, and my body screams.

Sienna’s scream fills the air, her magic rippling in thick black threads around her. “Jayce!” And then she strikes.

Shadows surge forward like a tidal wave towards him. He turns toward her, eyes narrowing.

She throws blast after blast as I try to move, but my body is fucking useless. I can see she’s using up her stored power, but he’s still stronger.

Sienna… stop protecting me! But I can’t even string two words together. He crosses the destroyed ground straight towards her, blocking her power with a barrier, and then he’s before her. He strikes – she blocks, but he’s far stronger. He disappears and appears behind her and strikes.

She’s thrown like a rag doll, rolling across the broken earth, coughing blood, but still conscious.

I force myself to rise.

Broken. Burning. Barely breathing.

He goes to move towards her. My every instinct is screaming to shield her, to fight with everything I have left.

The masked man advances, his movements swift and predatory, but then his gaze flicks to mine. I feel the air around us thicken, heavy with malice. He’s testing me. Trying to break me.

He raises his hand, pulling a red-bladed dagger from his belt. It buzzes with an unearthly energy; it glows slightly before he turns back to Sienna.

I move. With everything I fucking have, I move.

In slow motion, I see the blade move towards her as she tries to block.

My heart is thumping loudly; each beat slow as I close the gap between us.

I step between them, creating a shield before her with my body, knocking his arm away.

The blade cuts through the air, and I feel its sharp edge slice through my nose and cheek.

Searing agony blinds me. The pain is excruciating. Blood pours from the cut, trickling down my face, and the world spins for a second.

He watches me, something flickering behind his dark eyes. He steps back for a moment, as though savouring the damage he’s done.

He flicks his hand, sending us both back. I will my wolf and powers forward, and that same crackling aura surrounds me, as I keep Sienna behind me.

And then I run at him, shoving him back. He stumbles, but he manages to spin, kicking me in the side of my head. I stagger and then I hit the ground, pain flooding me.

Fuck!

Before I can recover, he slams his foot into my chest, throwing me back to the ground, hard. My face hits the dirt, my blood mixing with the earth beneath me.

“Stay there or he dies.” He raises a finger warningly, and I hear Sienna still, then he slams his foot into my head, grinding the left side of my face into the jagged earth, and the words echo in my head as Sienna screams. He leans down, looking into my eyes.

“Tell the Adonai,” he pauses as I try to move, but it’s fucking useless, “I have arrived.” With those words, he turns and begins to walk away. “Let it begin.”

I watch, still unable to move, as he disappears into the darkness. The storm still rages within me, but I can’t move.

The darkness shifts before it clears, but only one thing remains.

The weight of the truth that I failed hammering through me.

Sienna.

I try to move.

“Jayce!” Her broken voice comes as she runs to me, but all I can see is the blood that covers her.

If he wanted to end us, he could have. She could have been killed because of me, because I wasn’t fast enough. Because I wasn’t strong enough to protect her.

That fear grips me, coldly and suffocatingly.

I was the reason she is out here.

Every instinct in me screamed to protect her, but I wasn’t able to stop him. I wasn’t able to protect her. He could’ve ripped her away from me, from everyone.

If he’d gotten to her, I would’ve been the reason she didn’t make it out. And that thought... that thought twists something deep inside me.

I failed.

I fucking lost.