CHAPTER 22

Chapter 22

“Who the fuck are you?” I asked, scrambling back until my back hits a tree.

My heart was racing, and my whole body was trembling. I felt like I couldn’t breathe as the weight of what I’d done suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks.

I know she wasn’t a good person, but she was still a person, and I had killed her. I’ve never killed before. Never hurt anyone intentionally, and now here I am, a murderer with blood on my hands.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” he answered, but for some reason, his words just don’t register in my head.

He started walking towards me, and I scrambled further back, even though there wasn’t anywhere else to go.

“Stay back. Don’t come nearer,” I shouted at him, pushing my hands in front of me in an effort to wade him off.

My gaze got caught by the blood on my hands, which was now drying. Everything in me froze as I’m unable to tear my eyes from my bloodied hands. It was proof that I was indeed a killer. A cold, heartless killer.

A sob teared its way from my lips as the whole magnitude of my actions crashes into me. I had killed someone. I’d killed another supernatural. I’d taken someone’s life.

But I was protecting myself, I was protecting my unborn pup. It was self-defense. It was either me or her. If I hadn’t done it, then she would have killed me. The way she was drinking my blood, she would have ended up draining me dry.

I tried to reason. Tried to reassure myself, but it does nothing. The guilt was there. Maybe I could have incapacitated her. I should have left her after the first blow to her head, but instead I kept going, ramming her head with the stone over and over until she died.

I’m a mess, and I can’t stop my body from shaking. I can’t stop my hands from trembling.

“Hey, it’s okay.” His face appears before me, but it’s distorted because of my tears. “You’re okay”

“I killed her. I’m a murderer.” I couldn’t breathe. Trying to get air into my lungs was difficult, and I felt like there was this crashing weight on my chest.

“Look at me. Breathe. Just breathe.”

He forced me to look at him, and guided me. At first, nothing happens, but minutes later, I start to

1/4

mimic his actions. It takes a while, but soon I start breathing again and relaxing.

When I’m calmer, he released my face and just stared at me

“First kill?” he asked, his intense brown eyes piercing my own.

I nod, unable to form words yet.

He stood up and looked at the body of the dead woman. Before I can react or anything, he takes out an axe I had not noticed and severs her head.

I’m rooted in shock just as Raven breaks through the clearing

“What the hell?” She shoutsed, dropping the firewood she’d collected.

She rushed to me, examining me all over. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

I shake my head as the strange man turns to us. “Now she’s truly dead.”

“Who are you?” Raven asked him.

*Kingsley, but you can call me King

Now that I’m calmer, my fear of him fades. I don’t know

yor how to explain it, but deep inside, I

had the feeling that he wasn’t here to hurt us. That, we weren’t his target.

“I’m Raven and this Sadie,” Rave introduced us, probably sensing the same thing I did.

She gave me a side look, and I just know. One of the other gifts that Raven has is the ability to sense whether a person is malicious or not. She could read a person’s energy, so the fact that she was willingly giving out our names meant that we could trust him.

King nodded, and we watched as he dragged the body and a distance away. Once that’s done, he picked up the firewood that Raven had dropped, arranged it, and lit the fire.

As the fire started, he faced us and asked, “So, what is your story?”

“What do you mean?” Raven retorted.

“I mean, what are two girls doing out here in an unclaimed land all by themselves instead of being in their pack and coven?”

He was good; I gotta give him that. He was able to successfully tell our species. Not many can do that. Even with vampires, who, folklore states that they look pale or some shit like that. Unless each species is in its natural state, you cannot really tell us apart from humans.

2/4

0

67112 Wed,

Chapter 22

We can sense If a person is supernatural, but we can’t easily tell which species they are exactly

“We are banished,” I simply said, gauging his reaction.

He just shrugs like it’s nothing.

“It doesn’t bother you that we are banished?” Rave asked in disbelief.

“Not really. I’m a lone wolf, and I’ve met some pretty awesome people. I know that not everyone who’s been banished is evil. Unless you’re a rogue, then there may be some good in you.”

So he’s like me, a wolf. That’s almost comforting.

We were quiet for a moment as we let his words sink in. Raven uses the opportunity to chant some spells. Seconds later, I the wound on my writs heald. I sighed in tiredness as I began to crash from the adrenalin withdrawal.

“I’ve got to thank you for making my work easy, Sadie.” King interrupts the silence. “But with her kind, you have to sever their heads or they may just come back.”

Raven turns to me with a look of surprise. “Wait, you’re the one that did all that damage?”

I nodded my head as I run my shaking hand through my hair. “Yeah. She recognized me and wanted to take me back to him. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Her eyes turned soft in understanding. Yes, I got a good feeling about Kingsley, but I couldn’t fully trust him yet. He was still a stranger.

“What did you mean about her kind?” I turned to him. “I thought she was a vampire.”

“She isn’t. She’s a hybrid, and I’ve been hunting her for a few days now,” he answered.

“That’s impossible. Hybrids don’t exist. We can only procreate with our own species,” I rushed to say.

Sure, sex is possible between all four species, but not conception. A werewolf can’t conceive with any of the other species, and the same goes for the others. What he was saying was beyond impossible. It was in the realm of dreams.

“She’s a vampire-werewolf hybrid, so it’s possible, especially with the help of something really powerful,” King calmly answered.

My world is blown away by this news. No wonder she was really strong. I don’t even know how I defeated her if that’s the case.

“Dark magic,” Raven whispered.

3.4

17:12 Wed, 10 Jul: C

Chapter 22

“No.” he simply says. “This is something more powerful than dark magic. Yes, dark magic is strong. but the magic coursing through her is different. It’s powerful and ancient. Someone is turning people into hybrids, and they’ve been popping up everywhere. I don’t know if the council knows this yet, but something tells me that this is bigger than anything anyone can imagine.”

“What could be more powerful than dark magic? It’s the reason it’s forbidden because, apart from corrupting one’s soul, no one has ever been strong enough to contain it.”

Raven had a valid point. We were told stories of one or two witches who practiced dark magic. They ended up dead because their bodies were too weak to contain it. The powers ended up destroying them from the inside out until there was nothing left in them.

“Look, it’s hard to explain it, but I just know. It’s why I’ve been hunting hybrids and killing them. Most of these hybrids are evil, but I also wanted to know what kind of magic is being used and, more importantly, why someone is turning them.”

Now more than ever, I needed to do something about my training. If King is right and going by how strong and vicious the woman was, then I needed to be able to defend me and my baby.

I sat there and listened to the crickets. Lost in my own thoughts, the question the dead hybrid asked continued to ring in my head.

What are you?

push the thought away, not really ready to probe into why two vampires asked me the same question after tasting my blood.

My focus now is on being able to protect those I love, and that means I have to accept that that may just include killing in order to survive.

17:12 Wed, 10 Jul GWO