“What did you say?” He pauses and stares at me wide-eyed. I take a deep breath as the heat dissipates and look at my brother.
“I don’t know how it happened, but that’s what I’m feeling. It’s coming through the link,” I explain.
Understanding washes over him. “You’re feeling the side-effects of fighting it,” he says, nodding as I stand up and my back pops loudly.
“Yes, the heat, pain, and the stiffness,” I confirm, looking grim. We take off running down the hall after our team when he asks the question I was wondering myself.
“Then how the hell do we stop it?”
I blanche as I think of what we’ve done with other shifters that have awakened in the past.
“For shifters, there are three options. One, allow them a place to run through their awakened state naturally and hope they come back to themselves. It can range from just a few days to never, and in that case, they get locked up. Think of a human zoo. Option two, they fuck and fight it out of them. Or option three, Special Ops puts them down.”
“Fuck me,” Ryker says under his breath. “So, what are the options for Rez?”
“Since she’s not a shifter, I have no fucking clue. We’re winging this shit.”
We come back to the crossroad and immediately take the hallway that Ryker couldn’t see down earlier, almost stumbling to a halt.
Lynx and Zeke are fighting alongside each other against a handful of wrath demons, their red eyes glowing with power. But behind them is a creature even I wouldn’t attack alone—a Typhlotic chicken. The blind monstrosity’s legs are at least twice as big as me. It’s skinless, but its wings double as a shield so that its head and neck can pull inside like a turtle. Poisonous talons equip its feet, and it has a paralytic tongue that can shoot venom at its victims. That’s not even mentioning the double rows of teeth the damn thing has. Its squawk could even deafen a person if you were in their direct path, and at its feet is Rez, hacking away at it.
‘Kill…kill…kill…don’t stop. Cut him down. Kill…kill…’a sultry voice rings through my head.
‘Fuck. Now that’s hot!’Slayer purrs.
‘Is—is that coming from Rez?’I ask my animals, quickly shifting into Slayer as I spot Reaper running to Rez’s side.
‘I believe it is. But it does notsoundlike her. It has a deeper resonance,’Barons calls out.
‘She does not sound like our mate,’Fluffers whines.
‘It is another,’Dusky adds in.
‘That’s it? Nothing else to add in there?’I growl out, getting frustrated.‘Well, Slayer, you’re up. I’m trusting you to help me bring Rez back. Have any bright ideas here?’
A picture flashes in my mind of a dark beast curling his lip before licking his chops and winking at me.
‘Of course I do. It’s simple. Every baby girl needs a beast,’he says before weaving into the fray of enemies and heading toward our woman.
CHAPTER 24
Level Three- The Sweetest Darkness
Rez
‘Kill…slice…dodge…roll…slice…kill…kill…kill…kill,’the aggressive feminine voice urges.
It’s as if I’m in a trance. I’m still here; I haven’t lost myself. At least I don’t feel as if I have. I can feel my body, my movements, and my thoughts, but the fears and calculating thoughts I once had aren’t constantly hammering against me, begging for a solution. All those fears and worries have evaporated, and I feel lighter, as if there are no more reasons to worry.
I don’t know the exact moment when it happened, but something just flipped while I tried to protect Reaper. The mantra of protection I was muttering slowly morphed into kill, and I became hotter. It became the only thing I could focus on, killing those that didn’t belong. Yes, I still protect Reaper, my baby, but a small part of me takes pleasure in slicing up the enemy surrounding me.
It’s become more like a game or the law of nature, I suppose. It’s simple, really—kill, fuck, fight. That’s all I need now. See the enemy, kill the enemy. Hell, I can even smell the enemydown the halls now. Before, I was blind and relied on the little light that this place offers, but now, something inside of me just knows where to go, and for some reason, I trust the female voice to lead me.
She easily guides my body to move in ways I didn’t even know I could, bending and twisting around this new foe that’s easily four times as big as me. His deadly claws extend and dig into the ground inches away from my head as I swing my glaives around and tear through the tendons behind its ankle, rendering it useless. The fury rushing through me acts as fuel as I continue to dodge his thick wing that swoops down as a counterattack.
Voices ring out in the background as I continue to dance around the thunderous, overgrown chicken before me, but I don’t pay any attention. I have a chicken stir fry to serve. Not seeing an easy way up to his vulnerable neck and his weakness, I grind my teeth in anger and scream, throwing my arms up and releasing my frustration. Invisible needles flow out from my palms and race towards my target, piercing into his delicate belly, causing it to squawk in pain, and I quickly roll away as he stumbles to the ground. I don’t even wait to see if the needles come back. I’m sure I have an endless supply of Pissy Missy Syndrome Needles. Yep, that’s what I’m calling them—PMS Needles.
Knowing he won’t stay down long, I quickly pounce onto his flank, using my glaives to climb up onto his back. From this height, I can see the chaos and how the overgrown turkey is pecking and clawing at Reaper and a familiar dark creature below us.
