“
Oh my Lord!” Taverin proclaimed, shaking a little with a mixture of both excitement and fear, taking the book. “I will use them, and wisely!”
Traith was in shock, his mouth open and his eyes steady. Mistress returned all her attention to him and nodded. Her eyes turned bright blue, and a wind blew hard around them. He felt Taverin latch onto him like a lock.
And suddenly, he was in a place between darkness and light.
Chapter 59
She reached up and felt her lips; she wiped blood from her mouth. She withstood another crack, and then threw her fist out to hit something: one of the creatures that was teasing and tormenting her in the cold, wet cell. They teleported and whirled around her, scratching her, and making her bleed. Because they couldn’t kill her, the pain merely grew worse with every blow. She didn’t know what was going on, and the pain felt too overwhelming to allow thought.
Traith?
She could feel him. But she couldn’t call him. Couldn’t show him where she was. The cell she was in prevented this, but not the inexplicable phenomenon that had just occurred—receiving Ana’s thoughts.
But she could feel Traith’s longing touch, and tried desperately to disconnect the murderer that she witnessed and the man she loved.
Then she could feel him more.
There was a sudden break in her attacks, as though the creatures were tiring. Her pain numbed for a moment when she had time to look around her. Tanya was standing directly in front of her outside the cell, watching her intently with a distorted grin on her face. The vampire was enjoying her torture.
“
I’m keeping watch for Traith for you,” Tanya growled.
She attempted to get into the woman’s mind, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t shape shift. She was so weak.
“
Go ahead,” Tanya said. “Try to hurt me from in there. The angrier you get, the better the chances of your mind progression, and the faster we’ll be able to use you.”
It was supposed to be silent in the room, but the thoughts she’d recovered from Ana’s mind were fiercely reenacting in her own. She could see clearly, and there was no noise coming from anywhere.
The woman laughed, but suddenly a flash of color whizzed by her face. Rein was sinking yet ecstatic.
He was so close now.
It was Traith…and
Taverin
?
He knocked Tanya to the stone and then spun around as Rein cried his name. Taverin was frozen, eyes looking from one person to the other, not uttering a word.
“
Thank God, I found you,” he murmured shakily.
Her heart lifted with relief, but anxiety pushed it back down to the pit of her stomach.
He’d murdered his parents. He didn’t know?
And
Taverin
…
“
Why is she here, Traith?” Rein asked, her voice choked up. “She’ll die.” She was frantic, looking at him and trying to picture how on earth he could’ve done such a thing.
She grabbed her head tight. Her mind began stabbing at her. Pain, torture—he
murdered
his parents. He was feral. Wild. Uncontrollable. Frightening.
“
Ana’s thoughts…” Rein stopped in agony. “I saw everything.”
His eyes deepened. “What? Rein, what happ—” He was yanked back.
His painful grunt as Ben banged him into the floor tore her up inside. And seeing Taverin cry at the sight of her and Traith made that tear burn horribly.
And
still
Ana’s terrifying thoughts hit into her like a hammer—thoughts she was hysterical over having received
involuntarily
. Her head was so loud. She had to stop her mind; she was hearing Traith, and Ana, and…She attempted to drown out the thoughts by speaking to herself. She tried to rearrange her mind, immobilized by fear. If only she could fabricate some sort of barrier around Ana’s stolen memories, nightmares; she could think…
But then she felt another hand grab her. The disfigured creatures had reenergized in those few moments it seemed.
Rein watched her sister spin around and stare at the iron door that burst open. Ana ran in, along with a calmly walking Helena and a few mutilated creatures. She quickly found that Ana’s eyes locked to her own in a moment of pain and confusion.
Rein glanced at her fiancé, blocking out all else. He threw out his fist hard, and Ben was flung backward by its force. Then Taverin screamed out some sort of spell, and there was a screech. Flames burst and enveloped Tanya, whom had begun to charge at Taverin. The girl had a small book in her hands.
Traith turned and yanked a panel off of some sort of machine, making it glow an amber color in his hand. It was a huge piece of metal and wires, and he was holding it with one hand, enraged. That was the first time Rein had ever seen him lift something so heavy.
He pitched it at the werewolf, and it knocked him into the ground. He was lying stiffly under it for a moment, the huge mass of machinery pressing on him. Traith teleported over to Taverin and threw her behind his back.
“
Taverin, you worry about my sister, Ana,” Traith said quickly in a single breath. “I’ll take care of the others.”
Ben lifted the debris off of himself and threw it back at Traith. It hit him directly, burning him into the floor.
Ana looked down at him in what appeared to be hesitation, but then Taverin bowled over her. Rein reached a bloody hand out toward Ben, who had tackled Traith.
If she could only reach past the bars…just past them enough…She was straining with all that she had to extend her arm. And she made it.
Mustering up the energy, she suddenly shifted Ben into a regular man, without the capabilities of a werewolf.
Traith threw the pieces of different heavy, steel structures off of himself, particularly at Ben, who now had a much lighter body. Traith lunged forward from the ground and grabbed one of Helena’s wings. Her clawed hand lashed out and grabbed Traith’s neck, wrenching him closer to her. She lashed out and, with one finger, dug her nail deep into his face, fast. As if it were a knife, her nail ran through his skin and lanced him, gashing his one eye as it dug down his face.
Rein’s heart hit her throat when she heard him shout in pain, but he still managed to light up her webbed wing, and part of it exploded. She shrieked, and he toppled to the floor. He was holding his eye on his left side. He quickly shuffled back up again, and she flinched when the next second he was directly in front of her.
His entire left side of his face was gored and bloody, starting from his forehead and reaching down his eye to nearly his lip. It was so deep. Rein knew he couldn’t see out of that eye; her stomach was wrenching at the sight of him. She had to
get out
…
He lifted his hands and clutched at the bars, trying to melt them. But they didn’t budge, and only his fists lit with the fury of eruption.
“
Rein, what’s holding you in?” he asked, wincing. “What’s—” He stopped and his expression changed into one of revolted shock.
He couldn’t speak. His voice was altering with his last words.
She turned slightly and struck a few creatures off of her. They were weakening. Or dying from her own blows.
“
How c-can you do this?” he forced out, until a strange, deep howling sound was all that remained of his voice. He immediately shut his mouth.
“
I don’t know,” she cried. “If I reached far enough…I don’t know! I’m turning you into a…” She paused when she saw him staring at himself.
Dark hair was beginning to grow from his arms and out his gloves.
“
What are you bloody doing? Rein—No, no,
don’t
…”
She was turning him into a werewolf. He would be stronger that way.
But then she was forced backward by another creature, and her eyes were torn off of him. A sharp pain hit her head. A nauseating feeling was rising within her, and it made her shiver. She gave Traith a second’s glance.
He was an animal, his hands, everything.
Not daring to finish speech, he awkwardly tried to get her attention. But he let out a yelp as he was crushed against the bars by a heavy object. Rein barely caught sight of electricity surging through him.
Tanya
.
He almost lost consciousness, but he managed to pull himself up and flip around. Tanya lunged at him, grabbing his face and tearing at it more. A surge of agony ripped through him. He staggered backward and fell.
“
Only more scars, Traith,” she hissed. “Only more to add to the collection. No one will notice a few more.”
He shook his head and leapt onto Tanya as she went to electrocute him again. She hit the ground breathless and stunned. Within an instant Traith threw himself on her, locking his animal jaws around her neck, tearing it with his new teeth. She was bleeding. But he was pulled back by Helena, whose lips curled back as she attempted to bite him. He shoved her backward and watched as Tanya’s body reacted to his werewolf’s bite. Her body convulsed and slowly split open, her cry deafening.
She was dead. The remains of her body shriveled into ash.
“
That was it?” Helena said in horror. “A petty
bite
from a
wolf
killed her? God, that’s sickening!”
Traith stood over the remains of Tanya. Helena cursed at him and charged with hatred, her nails suddenly grown longer and her face twisted into almost an animalistic appearance. Saliva hung from her mouth, and her eyes brightened to yellow as she snarled. He jumped over and rammed her into a dirty, bloody examination table. She flung backward with the table, her left wing, damaged from Traith’s last exploit, caught on the side. It tore in half with the sound of ripping flesh. Blood shot out as the wing split. A screech of pain.
Traith turned around and looked at Taverin who was fighting hand-to-hand with Ana—a skill in which Taverin had none of and which Ana had much of. Taverin was punched over and over by Ana, and in the midst of Traith’s distraction, Ben had latched onto his ankle and was twisting. Though he was transformed into a human, his strength remained. Traith yelled and dropped to the ground, watching as Taverin fell too, holding her face.
Rein felt so helpless. She had finally managed to kill the few creatures behind her. She was so disgusted when she looked at what was left of them.
Traith stomped Ben’s face down, and as he got free he ran to the controls. He was trying to find some way to get Rein out. Before he could reach them, however, Ana knocked him down. Still a werewolf, he spun around and grabbed her, looking at her.
Rein knew how desperately awkward he felt with her in his large, clawed hands. He was an animal that couldn’t speak. What was he to do? How could he not feel awkward?
He tossed her to the ground. She looked at the remains of Tanya’s body and looked back at Traith. Then she got up, backed away, and ran through a door to her right.
“
Coward
!” Helena spat. “Your sister may not harm you, Harker, but I
will
! I am finished trying to win you—you’re
dead
!”
A pitch-black darkness enveloped them all as Helena absorbed all the light in the room. Traith looked as if he wanted to make a nasty remark, but Helena laughed. “Can’t you speak to me, Harker?”
Rein followed the spin of his head to Taverin, who was fighting blindly in the dark. Rein was trying desperately to bend or break the bars, but they still wouldn’t budge.
Please
…
Creatures swarmed in and began to hang on Traith, scratching through the fur on his sides and into his flesh. He looked at one of them, and it suddenly dropped. His eyes were ablaze with ferocity. All the creatures hanging on him suddenly dropped dead. Traith staggered a moment, the pressure on his head crushing. He fell to his knees.
He had instantly destroyed lower immortals. People.
Clones
.
He turned his eyes to Taverin. Ben was pounding on her. Her lips were bloody, and her arms were cut open by his claws. Ben had somehow regained the ability to alter into his werewolf form, allowing him to see through the darkness.
Rein was weakening. She felt it.
Traith leapt on top of Ben, claws out and ready, teeth clenched. They both slammed into the ground, screeching and howling at each other. Helena smiled and pulled a wooden stake out of her sword’s hilt. Rein watched helplessly, screaming Traith’s name, as Helena raced forward. Time felt slow when Tanya’s clawed arm rose with the stake. She impaled it into Traith’s back on his left side, where his heart lay.
He howled viciously, and it slowly altered back into a deep scream as he transformed back into himself and fell limp on the floor. Ben scrabbled up and stood beside Helena, smirking.
“
Traith! Traith, where are you?” Taverin cried as she tried to see where he was through the blackness.
Rein felt her heart nearly working, pounding. “What did you do?” She was trembling wildly. “Traith?
Traith
! Oh God—No!”
She felt anger so wild; her eyes filled with tears of fury. It felt like her heart had hit the bottom of her stomach and began to bleed. She curled back her lips and bore her teeth like a dog. She cried out desperately. Everyone grew still as light filtered into the room, as if a black fog drained out. Her scream intensified, and suddenly the bars snapped back as if they were straw, without the aid of her hands. She walked out, her eyes lit with fury and sorrow. All her scratches and bruises disappeared. Her powers had returned, and her psyche was in full control.