Page 54 of These Eternal Bones

The Beast of Port Clyde

Péal

My eyes flutter open at the sound of my master’s screams, the agony in my stomach nothing compared to the one that sound brings.

My mind is hazy and aching as the world catches back up.

A flash of gold, a blast of light, then nothing.

My own muffled sobs jar the broken parts of me as I fist the entryway rug, the suds from my cleaning bucket soaked into my hair.

Master bellows again, and I know that sound.

I know I failed my mistress, I failed Molly.

Something is happening outside, something terrible.

I need to find her, to take care of her, but the whipping, pulsating magic batters the castle walls.

The feeling of it is all wrong. Acidic and rotten.

Her mate needs my help now. A scream chokes me as I struggle to my feet, my body shaking as I fall back into the slick entryway.

I am sorry, mistress .

I sniffle, dragging myself to the open front doors. The sound of footsteps, of heaving breath, follows before the Cartiel steps around me, his boot crunching my hair as I tug myself out further. “What have you done?” I grunt.

His eyes are wide with fear and horror when he turns to me. “The witch is going to end this. She said she can. We’ll be free from it.”

My chest feels hot, smoldering, as my arms tremble, trying to push myself up. “If you believe that, then you are far dumber than I once thought. You killed her, didn’t you?”

His steps falter. The sound of wicked laughter sounding just out of my line of sight. “She’s not doing it. She’s not doing the spell.”

“There is no spell that can stop this!” I scream, pushing power into my voice.

The soapy water around me forms like needles, turning to him before flying, slicing into his flesh.

He doesn’t react, dropping to his knees as the chaos outside doubles.

A broken sound leaves him as he turns to me, lifting his arm, a ball of his white hot power welling in his palm. “I’m sorry.”

Elric

The world around me is loud, raging, but I can see nothing outside of the bloody copper curls underneath my hand. The pale flesh shaking and marred with lilac in the worst way. My chest is a chasm, empty and cold as I grip her, bellowing my pain.

Tien drops to all fours again, racing toward the witch. Her power erupts from her, spilling her familiar blood into the air. Her words nearly lost to me .

“Come now, Tien, after you went through all that trouble of saving me?”

My mind is a blank, throbbing wound as she lances his shoulder, pinning him to the ground with something unseen.

“I hadn’t a clue the corrupted thing you’d grow into,” he growls.

“But you did . When I returned to Port Clyde, you saw it, saw me . You knew .” She laughs again. My next bellow is cut off as I stare at my mate.

Did she move?

Her eyelids…just a little?

“Syringa?”

I listen hard, my power swelling, raging inside me with nowhere to go.

I counted the last beats of her heart; there are no more to hear.

My forehead falls to hers so I can breathe her in, trying to keep my horrid, blackened tears from marring her face.

The witch's voice grates on my ears, my tendrils lashing out, but they can’t connect; I need to focus.

I hug her tighter, smoothing her matted hair. My voice is raw, cracking as I hum.

“Will your master kill you once he learns of what I’ve done?”

My head turns toward her. It feels like another blade to my chest to take my eyes off my mate.

My domination pulses.

How had I missed it?

I fed from her. Sick pools alongside every other terrible thing in my gut.

“It’s her last death, vampire.” She laughs, her eyes wild. “There is no coming back, no next life. Your mate is gone. Your golden boy helped me; he’s been slipping the tonic for the reversal in her food since she arrived. ”

“You lie!” I roar. “That’s impossible!”

“Is it?” she laughs. “Are you willing to bet your mate on it?”

The fox rages against her, but she barely bats an eye, the entire weight of her coven's power bearing down on what I’d once considered a frail form.

Panic rears inside me, a guttural sound torn from deep in my chest as I clutch Molly tighter.

From behind me, Cartiel stumbles closer as I make another pass on her soft hair, my palm slick with her blood. “It’s not possible,” I choke out.

My dominion whips from me like a willow branch, slicing through the clearing.

Striking form after form as it lances, twists, and pulls.

My hands knot in her dress as I suffocate on my own emotion.

I can feel them, their blood, as my power delivers blow after blow.

Tien, Cartiel, the Fox, everyone. A rage, a power like this makes no distinction between friend or foe.

My thoughts are panicked, muddy, and I can’t–

My Molly.

A death that sticks…

“Please, forgive me, my love. Please, I cannot–”

“Do it vampire! Damn her alongside you!”

A savage burst of heat hits me from behind, razing and melting my clothes to my flesh, but I don’t flinch, resting my forehead on hers, peppering soft kisses on her cooling cheeks. “Forgive me, I am sorry. We were so close, my syringa. So close.”

“No!” Cartiel bellows. “Let her rest!”

The sound that leaves me is unlike one I’ve made before. A life without her…I am not ready. I am not the man she deserves. I am scared and fucking selfish. “My beautiful mate. ”

Another blinding heat hits me, my skin bubbling as I sink my fangs into her, my body trembling with the weight of my emotions as I fill my fangs. My stomach roils with each pump of my horrid venom.

I am sorry. I am so sorry. I repeat it until my bloody, shaking hand finds her wrist. Something hard impacts my side, jarring me, a stabbing, lancing blow.

But I don’t budge because there’s the faintest hint of black behind her tanned skin.

The weight of what I’ve done, of the crime I’ve committed, settles heavy on me, weighing me down and blanking my mind, that voice speaking for the first time since I left the town.

She’ll never forgive you.

You’re a monster.

Selfish.

Evil.

Cursed.

Trapped.

Forever.

I brush my tears from her face as I settle her down softly in the snow. Getting to my feet feels impossible. I stumble, the pain in my back and side second to the one in my chest, as I level my eyes on the witch.

Her smile is sick, triumphant. For as long as it lasts.

My tendrils tunnel toward her, breaking past her barrier with ease as they connect with her chest. The effect is immediate.

It spears her, lifting her graying, wrinkled form high into the air before slamming her to the earth with a crunching thud.

I stagger again before I’m slammed from the side, hard.

Knocking and ripping at the wounds on my back as I skid across the clearing away from Molly.

I snarl, leaping to my feet, but he’s on me again. The fox is savage as his fist connects with my face. “You’re killing them! ”

I blink, my eyes snapping toward Tien, my oldest friend, the one who betrayed me.

His screams cut off as I release my dominion.

His mixed form trembling, gasping, his blood matting pale, sheared fur and dark green scales.

My tendrils lash out at the fox striking him in the chest, knocking him away from me, his own face smeared with blood and dirt.

The tracks in them speak to something else, but I pay his tears no mind. I have plenty of my own.

My mind comes back to me in chunks, horror and guilt suffocating my thoughts.

My eyes cut to the Nephilim next. The picture of him shoving her over the edge as the witches’ power collided with me, locking my bones.

I’d heard her bones crunch against the unforgiving snow too late, one second too fucking late.

The sound that leaves me shakes the gods as I lash out, decimating everything in sight.

The fox rolls in enough time to escape my tendrils, darting toward Molly as he raises the earth around her, keeping her from my rage.

The selkie’s limp body is tossed backward, thrown to the opposite side of the clearing, but I pull in, knowing that would upset my Molly.

My dominion eases from the small fae creature, unsure of her soul's state, but her body is broken. Of that, I’m certain.

I lash out as Cartiel shoves his hand toward Tien, his power gathered in his palm. My tendril severs it; his scream falls on deaf ears.

I reach him in an instant, fisting his shirt as I roar. “Why?!” I demand, my chest throbbing.

“Let me tether him!”

“You killed her! You took her from me! You betrayed her!” My tendrils sink into his golden, blood covered form, over and over again, visceral coating my flesh, only for him to knit back together while his screams never stop.

“I was trying to save her from you! To end this! It’s what she wanted! You fucked it up, you fucked everything up!” He bellows back, my eyes falling to my mate, to the fox running his hands up and down her arm, tracking my venom as it takes hold of her.

Monster.

You ruined her.

She’ll hate you.

You failed.

Again.

I’m lost in my thoughts again when a bright flash takes over my vision. I rage, severing that arm just as the feverish glow took root around Tien’s body.

The Nephilim screams. His movements are slow until the sound cuts off with a cough, his blood mixing with spittle as he hacks. “Tell her I’m sorry.”

“I will do no such thing,” I growl, unblinking, as my dominion sinks in. I can feel it, the ending of his life, but a gentle heat halts me. His breath is wet and ragged as his head turns toward the selkie.

“Let me help her,” he pleads, and I watch, my chest heaving. The glow that envelops the small fae’s body suddenly roars and pulls taut, forming a line, a sparkling rope that snaps to him, making him cry out. I watch as he tethers her soul. I watch as a bastard child of god dies.

Not by my hand.

But his own.