~~
Reece
~~
Trinity had just done something I never thought was possible. Of all the things I imagined to happen in this fight, that was definitely not one of them. I don't think I will ever cease to be surprised by her anymore.
I watched as she floated ten feet off the ground and sent thousands of arrows out in several directions at the same time. Each arrow landed with perfect accuracy. The beasts around us all began to fall instantly. It's amazing the kind of power you find yourself capable of in such dire moments.
After the initial barrage of arrows I noticed that she was calling even more to her. She was gathering so much power in that moment that I didn't know why. She had destroyed them all. Our field was clear.
But there were other fields as well.
Was that what she was doing? Was she targeting all the other creatures that were too far away for us to see?
As I watched her, I knew my answer. There were a few things different about her appearance. Her skin covered in ice, the bright, sapphire blue glow all over her body. Those things were easy to notice and had not escaped my gaze. But, as I looked closer, I saw something else.
My Little Bunny's eyes were spinning the way they had done so long ago. It almost felt like a lifetime since I had seen her eyes making those motions that reminded me of a camera lens trying to focus.
If it hadn't been for the intense look of concentration on her face I would have been worried for her. The last time I had seen her eyes do that, she had passed out in my arms immediately afterwards.
"I hope you know what you're doing Little Bunny." I whispered as I just stared at the large number of arrows she had summoned.
Just as she looked like she was about to send the arrows out to attack I saw her head whip to the side.
"Shawn!" She screamed in desperation. Did something happen to Shawn? How would she know?
The thousands and thousands of arrows were sent flying and they all went much further than before. Almost as soon as she had sent the attack she spun and seemed to run out of the tornado she had been riding inside.
Her feet touched the ground, silently, and she was off running before I could even blink. I didn't even wait to think, I just started running after her. And I nearly slipped doing it.
Everywhere Trinity stepped, the ground turned to ice. Large, thick circles of magical ice began to sprout behind her as she ran. Was it because she herself was covered in ice? I had a suspicion it was.
Watching where I stepped a little more carefully than I had thought I needed to, I ran after her. She was a few hundred feet ahead of me, but that wasn't insurmountable. I was faster than she was and had longer legs, I would catch up in no time at all.
Or so I thought.
As I watched, I saw that the purple smoke that had brought the enemies was back. This time, only five people stepped out of the swirling purple smoke. But as I looked past the haze in front of me, I noticed that it began to swirl again. This time near my mate.
The problem here was that it didn't release an enemy at all. Instead, the swirling smoke, or fog, or whatever Edmond called his magic gas, the purple cloud swirled in a circle around my single minded mate. One second she was there and the next she was gone. It had taken her away.
"TRINITY!" I screamed at the empty clearing beyond the five warlocks standing before me. "Where is she?" I yelled at the one closest to me.
"She's gone to have a family reunion." The man's sneering voice made my skin crawl with anger and nerves.
"Where did he take her?" I demanded.
"You won't live long enough to find out."
"Wanna bet?" I growled at him.
I watched as the man who spoke grinned. His long purple hair, like an amethyst, was unnatural enough, but the pure black eyes that dripped venom made things ten times worse. His complexion, which should have been a rich brown based on the undertones, looked sickly with it's pasty, pallid pallor.
The others around him were just as unnatural looking. Their hair was the same amethyst purple and their eyes were the same lifeless black. The only differences were their skin tones, but they all still looked pale and pasty. In total there were four men and one woman in the group and they all felt powerful.
I knew that I needed to fight them, and none of the others were close enough to help me. That's fine. I wasn't named the alpha king and warlock king for nothing. Nehalennia knew what she was doing when she chose me for Trinity's mate. If I wasn't up to the task then that would mean the Goddess had made a mistake. I trusted in my Goddess the same way I trusted in my wife.
"Before I rip your head from your body, you will tell me what I want to know." I snarled at the man in the lead.
"If you can manage to win, then that would mean she wouldn't need to be saved. It would mean that our master isn't strong enough to defeat a mongrel like her.
"Don't fucking talk about my mate like that you bastard." I snarled again.
"You finally grew feelings for that little slut then. Isn't that great." His condescending tone was about to make me see red. I needed to get myself under control so I could think my way through this fight.
"Enough talk." I snapped at him. "I will kill you all, and you will tell me where my wife is before you die."
"HAHAHA!" They all seemed to laugh at once and it sounded just like Edmond laughing instead of them. He was definitely controlling them.
I didn't want them getting the chance to run away just yet. It would be no fun for me if they got scared and ran away before I got to do what I wanted with them. Killing them would be just the beginning of it all.
With little effort and just a quick thought, I felt myself hovering in the air. I knew that I was flying in front of them, as a phoenix. The look of shock on their faces, the fear dripping from their eyes, that was definitely worth the shift. And thankfully, I would still have clothes afterwards since the warlock shift like this didn't destroy my clothes. If only all shifts were the same.
I used their temporary distraction to fly a little higher. Soaring in a quick circle I summoned my fire to me. I was a being tied to flames, both as the wolf and the warlock king.
My plan was to create a barrier around them all. Not to trap them so I could leave. No, it was to trap them into the fight. I didn't want them turning tail to run away when they were about to lose.
I concentrated on my fire very intently. I made sure it would only burn them. Not my warriors or any ally. It wouldn't burn the ground, and it wouldn't burn me. We would all be safe, but if they tried to leave the red, all consuming fire would destroy them in an instant.
I landed just outside the fire. I wanted to walk through it, to show them I had control here. I shifted once more before I started forward.
This time, when they saw me, I would be in my lycan form. Both of these new forms I had gained in France, and both marked me as special among the shifters but it also marked me as the Warlock Queen's mate. They wouldn't be able to win if they were all too scared to move, and that's what I planned when I became the lycan just now.
Slowly, with deliberate steps, I walked into the roaring, raging flames. The flames licked and tickled harmlessly against my flesh and fur. When I finally stepped out of the flames, my pants still untouched by the fire, I saw them all take a step back. Their eyes were opened wide and their mouths were hanging in disbelief.
"This can't be." I heard the woman cry. "He can't be a phoenix and a lycan." She was shaking in fear.
"Worry not, it's all illusions. They have traitors on their side. Warlocks working with the enemies to fight against their own. They have granted him these illusions. The fire, his two forms, neither of them are real." The man who seemed to be their leader spoke again.
"Vox, attack him." The man pushed one of the other men forward, causing him to stumble with fear.
"Come at me." I spoke slowly, finding it difficult to speak with this new mouth of mine.
"Y-you're just illusioned." He yelled as he took a few more steps toward me. I watched as he raised his hand to begin casting an attack.
Faster than their eyes could follow I leapt across the circle, pinning the man to the ground. First, I closed my large jaws over his wrist, snapping his hand off with one quick bite. He screamed as his blood began to pour into my mouth.
"Ahhh! No, no, no." He pulled his arm away from my mouth and held it against his chest. I didn't give him more than a second to recoil and show his terror. He had just looked me in the eyes, locking his gaze with mine, when I leaned forward and placed a razor clawed hand against his throat. The next second I ripped his throat out with my lycan hand.
The woman among the group screamed long and loud. The fear was so intense in her eyes that it was clear she was not thinking at all. She turned tail and bolted toward the twenty foot tall wall of flames that encircled us.
She clearly thought she could pass right on through but she had underestimated me. She ran with her arms outstretched like she was going to push a door open in front of her. As soon as she touched the wall of flames she began to burn. Her entire body was instantly set ablaze and she dropped to the ground, an endless scream emitting from her now molten throat.
"They're real." One of the men in the back gasped. "We were not prepared for this." It seemed like Edmond's mind control had its limits when it came to them burning to death.
"Don't underestimate me." I growled at them.
"We will not lose to you." The man in the lead spoke. "Get him." This time the other two were pushed forward.
I didn't hesitate this time either. I summoned my whip of flames and flung it out to meet the first man. It wrapped around his middle and with a yank, the man was pulled into two pieces. He didn't even have the chance to scream. He just looked down at the whip wrapped around him and by the time he registered the weapon blood was pouring out of his mouth.
The other man tried to run away, but he would not escape me. I flung the whip out toward him and it wrapped several times around his throat. Another flick of my wrist and his head was soaring across the clearing, spraying the last man standing before me with a ruby red splatter of blood.
"Scared yet?" I taunted him with a chuckle. "Now, tell me where my wife is and I'll make your death quick. If you don't I will torture you slowly until you talk.
"You will get nothing out of me you monster."
"That's rich, calling me a monster. Have you seen what your master has done to those people?" I pointed in the direction of the battlefield that was strewn with monsters.
"That was a necessary sacrifice." His voice shook as he trembled. "He needs to rid the world of scum like you so we can all be safe."
"Sorry to burst your bubble, pal, but your leader wants us gone because we're stopping him from taking over the word and killing anyone who opposes him. He longs for a world ruled with darkness and magic. He doesn't care about anything but power."
"That's not true. That can't be true." He seemed to be wavering.
"It's true and it's why we're going to stop him."
I slowly stalked forward, closer to the man trembling before me. As I walked I shifted into full wolf form. This fight would be best won with my natural fighting style. And like Trinity, I had learned to finally talk to others in this form.
"This is your last chance to tell me where she is."
As I stalked closer to him I noticed something that seemed to be off. The ground around me was catching fire. Just like my Little Bunny's steps had turned to ice, mine were turning to molten flames, but they weren't spreading. The flames stayed in place awaiting a command from me.
Another glance told me I was now glowing bright red, not quite the flames but the ruby glow shining all throughout me. If I moved just right the red was hidden and then it would reappear just moments later as my body twisted or shifted in some way. I could also feel the power surging through me, stronger than ever before.
I leapt forward, landing on the man's chest. My large forepaws were holding him in place, and his clothing around my paws began to burn.
"No, I don't want to burn to death."
"Tell me where she is." I demanded. "Tell me and I will kill you quickly."
"He took her to the shadow plane."
"What?"
"She is here but not here. She is in the land of shadows beneath this one. She can only get back if she defeats him."
I roared. The loud sound piercing through the sky and causing the man to shiver.
"Please, please don't let me burn."
"I should." I growled at him. Then, after seeing the fear in his eyes I bent down and bit his head off, silencing his pathetic whimper.
