Fangs of Fate (Untish #1)

Chapter 67

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

TATE

It was snowing black and red flakes. They landed everywhere around me, on my skin, my hair, my eyelashes. I blinked. The sky was grey and speckled. Ash continued to accumulate on me. I didn’t move for a moment. The night air was blissfully cool. Like the fire in my veins had finally extinguished. My ears were ringing as I tried to sit up and find my balance.

I’d set off the charges. Numbly I looked around, the place where the warehouse had been, was now nothing but charred remains. I had been shot back about fifty yards to the far eastern edge of the compound and was lying in a boiling puddle of muddy water. The whole yard was moving.

Aether was holding his ground, fighting three giant seethings at once while simultaneously destroying smaller ones on four legs. Behind him Jared fought with skill, taking down smaller seethings that charged him and tried to get to Aether.

Snarling sounded from behind me.

I whipped my head and spotted three seethings on two legs stalking toward me. They toed the boiling mud and winced before immediately retreating, heading for a figure far off to my right in a dome. Vala. She was at the northern central position, about a hundred yards out, fighting several seethings who were attempting to break her shield. She fired, her shots going through the dome and hitting the small seethings on all fours. They dropped instantly. The large two-legged seethings took a hit but continued toward her. They refused to go down. Instead, they approached the shield and pounded against it. With each hit and swipe of their talons, they were projected back several feet. But they returned and struck again. The shield was fracturing. I could see it spiderwebbing in veins that shimmered. She needed help.

I stood, flexing my legs and arms. My whole body was on pins and needles, everything hurt and simultaneously tingled. I reached for my daggers, but the sheaths were empty. I’d lost them. Scanning the ground, I spotted a club. Perfect. I walked for it, losing my balance for a moment, before recovering. Sweat was dripping in my eyes.

Each movement felt like friction, my limbs swelling and my temperature once again beginning to climb. The moment my hand closed around the club’s hilt, it glowed bright gold with a pink tint. My hands lit up and I was encased in a rose gold halo. What was happening?

“Tate, you with us?” Aether’s voice came through my coms. The ringing in my ears subsided a bit.

“Tate? Make your way to Vala. I’ll be,” he grunted, “right there. We need to leave now—” The large seething he was fighting had Aether rolling and pivoting to avoid the claws swiping at him.

I could feel the tug on my power, my control slipping a bit. The bald purple figure stood across the yard, seethings’ corpses surrounding it. It locked eyes with me and smiled. Black saliva dripped from its mouth, steaming as it snarled at me. Its eyes were pools of black and its naked body was covered in muscles. Every square inch. Muscles upon muscles, all purple with angry black veins.

It raised its hand toward me and grunted, pulling at my power. I felt a gentle tug, and nothing more. It raised its head and screamed in frustration, swiping at a shimmering shield around it.

“Aether, I can’t hold him forever. Running,” Vala panted, “very low.” Her voice was strained, like she was actively holding a large weight suspended in air. It was her shield holding that thing back. Preventing it from ripping my soul, my magic, my very essence from me.

I stood with my back straight. I needed to help Vala, rid her of the seethings tearing at her shield.

The whole yard was on fire. Several buildings had been leveled, piles of black goo littered the ground along with limbs, some vampirical and some appeared human . I tried to not think about what I’d done.

Several buildings still stood, there must have been a short in the wiring or the connection between charges. Perhaps, I blew them too soon.

Vala cried out as the seethings attacked her shield in sequence. The dome flickered out for a moment, the purple monster pulled at me, but then the shield was reinforced.

I cursed myself under my breath.

Vala, I could make it to her. I could take down those beasts and help her. Power thumped through my veins, I felt cocky—invincible even. It was as if the blood high from a kill was coursing through me. A smile tugged at my lips and the left side of my mouth raised.

“Cool down there, darling. Just get to Vala.”

“I can help,” I spoke, my voice hoarse and huskier than normal.

“Aether, she’s gone full changeling ,” Vala’s voice was frail, soft even.

Had I? If so, it felt marvelous. I no longer felt nauseous, my vision had cleared, the headache I’d been sporting since we left SO had finally left and everything was transparent. My body tingled, but with aching awareness. My movements were fluid. The club balanced in my palm, shining like a beacon. Like it too had found its strength, renewed vigor. I tossed it from one hand to the other, even with its spiked steel ends, it was so light .

A shrill screech sounded as the two tall seethings charged Vala. Not today bitches—a laugh escaped my lips.

I ran, my feet practically flying across the yard. Everywhere my feet touched, the ground steamed, boiled, melted. The seethings whipped their heads at me and if they could look shocked, they did. They began to retreat but I threw the club at a cluster of them, even from the thirty yards away, and it landed with a sick smack in the skull of the big one and then knocked it back into three others. They crumpled to the ground.

A dozen other seethings turned and looked at me. They snapped their teeth and then began to attack. I had no more weapons. A large beast was closing in on me, it moved swiftly on two feet—only twenty yards away. Talons swiped at the air, black saliva dripped from its serpent-like tongue, as it jumped toward me.

Peace filled me, calming my nerves. Everything else began to move in slow motion. But this was different than before. This was a blanket of comfort that silenced all fear. This wasn’t Aether’s magic, it was mine.

I sped up, charging the thing head-on. Ten yards away, it landed in front of me, its talons swiping in slow movements. Five yards away, and then I was behind it. I grabbed its head and twisted it. Snap! The thing fell to the ground. Dead.

Delight. Apprehension. Allure.

Aether was just ahead to my right, still fighting. Even from here, I could feel the gentle caress of his presence, the assuagement of his touch.

I smiled.

“Tate!” A familiar scream echoed through the yard, breaking my stupor.

Across the field toward the west side of the compound, a familiar swatch of blue hair was being held up in the air by the largest seething I’d seen yet. It was at least fifteen feet tall, wings sprouted from its back. It had a tail that swayed on the ground with barbs coming from it. To its left was a small female, barely clothed in rags, a purple tint to her skin that clashed with her shocking red hair. Allie.

“That’s the one,” the giant spoke as it pointed at me, Allie twitching when it took a step closer.

A tall, slender female walked beside the beast. My gut clenched. Even from here, I knew it was Luina.

Anger flooded my system. How dare she threaten Shae.

The creature held Shae’s waist in one hand, squeezing her abdomen. She swatted at its grip helplessly.

“Put her down. Now,” I commanded as I stalked toward the thing. It was huge, at least three times my height. Its talons were at least two feet long and looked lethal as hell.

“No! Vala get Tate the hell out of here, now!” Aether’s voice was a distant command in my coms.

“Her? You’re sure?” Luina asked the creature.

“Oh yes, I’ll never forget what she tastes like.” The seething extended its tongue and licked its lips while its eyes devoured me.

“Seize her,” Luina commanded before turning around. “Kill the rest.” She waved a hand and stalked off toward one of the unharmed buildings.

“Tate!” Shae shouted.

A buzz in the air sounded and rapid fire began to rain down on the beasts surrounding the mega seething holding Shae. The seethings all faltered for a moment.

The creature holding her roared and then threw Shae forward, toward me. She landed in the mud and rolled, head over ass. A loud snap told me that she must’ve broken something. She lay there, limp and unconscious. I watched in horror as seethings began to assault her, surround her, teeth gnashing and spit splattering as they rushed to end her.

Time slowed as I began to move. I ran, faster than ever, and approached her. The air began to hum, buzz even. My temperature increased, and my arms were glowing brightly even underneath my leathers. Pink haloed me.

I was a walking torch.

The creatures rushing Shae were about ten feet out, but they seemed to crawl.

I could hear voices in the distance, possibly Aether’s or Vala’s, but I couldn’t focus on them. I could see the purple figure clawing at the shield, trying to break free, to siphon my life from me. But I paid him no focus.

Instead, I saw Shae when she was five years old sharing her teddy bear, Mr. Snuggles, with me. He was what got me through my first bad day of school.

My speed picked up, and my feet began lifting off the ground as I ran.

A pouty nose and round cheeks looked at me as we laughed together, getting over our first heartbreaks in middle school. We’d egged their homes as payback for the emotional pain. Even then, Shae stood with me.

It was high time I was there for her.

I pumped my arms as I ran, friction and energy warring in the space I occupied. My halo intensified, as the air crackled from my energy. The first creatures closest to me melted the moment my aura reached them.

I recalled Shae’s steel grey eyes as she told me she planned to leave, to join the guara. The sorrow in them was so akin to the look she gave me after my mother was killed. I would not lose another family member.

She held me when I fell apart, lost in grief, not judging when I cursed the world.

Those eyes snapped open as she awoke, screaming as she gripped her broken leg. She looked at me in awe and pain.

I would not let her down.

I will not fail.

You got this. Aether’s voice was in my mind, my head, my heart. It was as if even from dozens of yards away, I could read him, hear him in my very soul. Like his being spoke to mine, our energy connected and intricately intertwined.

I reached the perimeter of the beasts circling Shae and jumped, lunging in the center of the herd rushing her. I locked eyes with silver ones, shadowed by blue hair that was covered in mud and blood.

“I love you,” I whispered.

Planting my feet, I threw out my hands and screamed as energy poured through my fingertips. Blinding pink and white light swallowed and engulfed all the creatures surrounding me. I poured more of myself into the exertion, sending my force into the night. Firing my power, my heat, my energy. I willed it, controlled it, it was a flame ripping them apart, eating them whole, melting them on the spot. It was consuming.

They sizzled, convulsed, and collapsed instantly.

I released the force of my power and the flames and sparks stopped. The aura ended and I could see the aftermath. Total decimation of every seething within a hundred feet of me.

Every single beast in that circumference was gone except for the one monstrous seething. It was about a hundred feet out hiding behind its scaled wings. I took a step toward it and then another. Sweat was running down my face, my arms, my legs.

I could feel the cool night air on my limbs and didn’t have to look to know that my clothes had burned off and were likely gone altogether. The air around me thickened, stroking my bare skin.

Pure undiluted reverence. Fucking amazing.

Aether. I could sense his words, his emotions. I didn’t know how, but they boosted my confidence. I was fucking amazing. Perhaps it was the high I was experiencing, but I felt potent—invincible.

Careful darling.

The air around me began to poke playfully at my skin in the most sensual way.

I flipped Aether off as I stalked toward the monster, the half dragon-like seething, now unfurling its wings as it stood. I would destroy it.

“Maker, meet your creation.” It smiled at me and then lunged forward. Within a moment it had traveled twenty feet and was swiping for me, barely missing.

I ducked, rolled, and then found my footing. I glanced in Shae’s direction. She was inside a dome, Vala next to her with her weapon trained on the monster currently turning to meet me.

Energy tingled at my fingertips and demanded a release. I could feel the itch from within demanding I cave, calling for me to shift. It was greater than I’d ever felt before, raw power laced through my limbs and core, my very essence humming with unused reserves begging for release.

I braced my feet in the mud and willed some of the energy into my fingers. I wouldn’t shift, not yet. I leveled my hands at it and prepared to let loose the storm within.

One moment, dear.

A figure landed in front of me. His shirt had melted off and his tattoos were actually swirling, moving in his skin, in streaks of black and gold. Aether stood there, gloriously sweaty and covered in blood. He was shielding me from the atrocity that was currently swiping at us with unholy claws.

What are you doing?

Couldn’t let you have all the fun, now could I, darling?

Aether lifted his sword and met the beast’s talons.