“You? You can’t even fight me. Look at you. Broken and bleeding. Suffering from the stench of your heat. It’s made you weak. Omega or alpha. I am above such things.”
“You are below,” I snarl. “You are less. A bottom feeder, a parasite. If I don’t defeat you, someone else will.”
He laughs even louder and longer.
“That’s not how this is going to happen. I’m not going to allow you to disrespect me any longer. If I am what you say, then what are you, half-breed? Human mother who has nightmare blood running through her and a demon sire. She cried for you at the end, calling your name in the dark. I ate her eyes, like I ate yours, and she bawled like a baby. Her eyes were nothing, but yours gave me the magic. Consuming them made me this.” He stops, and the silence gets brittle. “I want the rest.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I spit at him.
He lunges at me, and I stagger out of the way, hitting him hard in the side of the head, but I’m tired and bleeding. My ribs are broken, and he’s not even injured. He’s just angry.
He comes at me again and again, whirling, darting in.
I’m going to die. Death by a thousand tiny little cuts, but with each one, I get slower and slower, until I’m panting, until my knees are weak, and I don’t think I can do this.
I can’t save them.
I don’t know how.
A rune glows, and I touch it, tracing it with one finger before he can stop me. A rip tears itself through the fabric of the world. Ocean water pours in.
Deux shouts, but I’m washed away, struggling under the water. Drown me. It closes, and the water disperses into the forest, and I’m left lying on my back, my chest heaving, a broken doll.
“Strega,” Reed whispers, his fingers tracing softly over my jaw.
No, what is he doing here? I lift my hand and find his wrist, holding it lightly.
“I’m sorry, I tried.”
Canto pulls his blade free, the metallic sound makes my ears ring. I struggle to get up, but Reed picks me up and moves me so I’m sitting against a tree.
“We’ve got this, Mei,” he says softly. “No more trying to save us.”
I feel them all in the air. My heat intensifies, and I whimper, curling in on myself.
My alpha’s scents get strong, so strong. Then I hear them move. They are silent but deadly, and I hear the collision. Each blow, I listen for what is going on, struggling to see in my head.
Except, then, I can see.
They are glowing faint outlines of teal magic.
Canto moves expertly, moving like he is made of air. Ronit attacks from behind. They dart in and out before I feel Leaf stalking towards the monster.
He must feel it, too, because he hisses, and suddenly, he’s coming for me. I try to roll out of the way, but then Leaf is there, roaring down at this creature, standing between me and him. A giant dragon in the shape of man.
“Kill him,” I whisper.
But Leaf isn’t killing him. He flings him away and then turns to me, shifting more fully to human.
“Mei? You’re dying. You need to heal yourself.”
Oh. Am I? How strange.
“Mei!” Leaf snaps. “Heal yourself now.”
I reach for him, my body is aching so badly, but it’s so hard to think. My brain is sluggish.
“I know you’re hot right now, Mei, but you need to heal yourself. Come on. One little rune,” he cajoles.
