Chapter 132 Part 2

Chapter 132 Part 2
Darren

I took my best squad and left. Time was of the essence, and I didn’t know how much I had. I wanted to be back for Ally, but we couldn’t let my half uncle escape. I sent a message to my father and told him I was going after his half-brother. There was no saving him. Even if he had been brainwashed later, he had acted out of revenge before that. I ended my message with clear instructions. ‘Don’t come after me. Don’t send anyone else. If I’m not back by nightfall, burn the woods until you find my body or theirs.’

We headed to the mountainous region of our territory. Sharp jagged rocks and mountainous terrain made it difficult to navigate. We shifted, since our beasts were more agile. We moved in formation, silent and perfect, each step measured to keep the noise down to a whisper.

We didn’t talk. Didn’t need to. Every man here could sense what was coming, like a migraine building behind the eyes. At the front, Tim and Rodney sniffed the air, every muscle coiled. My gamma and delta were skilled warriors, and on a mission like this, it was comforting to have them with me.

The scent of my uncle was close, but there was something strange about the way he smelled. It was faint … almost hidden. We reached a mountainside where the boulders formed massive humps to the top.

At the top was a large beast … my half-uncle. I expected to see a lycan, but what I saw was something worse. He was lycan, yes, but stretched too thin, skin pulled tight over muscles that looked ready to burst. His fur was a patchwork of scars, black as an oil spill, and his teeth had overgrown to the point that they jutted from his jaw, stained and splintered. His eyes were pits. No light, no hate, just endless, hollow hunger.

He stared at us and didn’t move.

Fan out, I commanded my men. They moved like shadows, each taking a position at the edge of the circle of our group.

The beast glowered down at us, and it seemed as if a smile formed over his fangs. With a brutal bark from him, the ground exploded. Demons were bursting from holes I hadn’t even seen. They moved fast, too fast for anything with bones, and my men barely had time to react before the first wave hit. Rodney took a blade to the gut but didn’t go down, just twisted and pounded his attacker’s head into a rock until it cracked open like fruit. To my left, Tim’s front leg was severed from his body in the first second. Blood sprayed everywhere, but we kept fighting without stopping.

My uncle came at me, no banter, no warm-up, just a freight train of hate and teeth. He jumped off the boulder and came right on top of me.

We collided in the center of the ring. The impact shattered my ribs, but I barely noticed. His claws raked my chest, tearing out chunks of fur and skin. I slammed into his snout, felt bone crack, then bit down on his shoulder so hard I tasted the marrow.

He didn’t flinch. He didn’t bleed. He just howled, a sound so old it made the trees shake, and threw me into a boulder. The world went blurry for a second, my vision strobing with pain. I staggered up, spat blood, and my beast grinned.

Is that all you got? Yes, I was provoking him. I wanted to test his humanity. But there was no reaction. Instead, he just came for me again, his jaws snapping inches from my face. I twisted, using his momentum to roll us both through the dirt, then clawed at his eyes. One popped. The other kept staring.

The fighting around us was a blur. My men were outnumbered but not outmatched. Every demon that went down was replaced with three more, but my pack fought like animals, because that’s what we were.

I kept my uncle in front of me, never letting him get behind. He was strong, stronger than any lycan I’d ever met, but not because he trained or suffered or survived. It was the demons. I could smell it on him now, a stench that overpowered even the rot and blood.

He wasn’t lycan anymore. He was something else.

He bit into my arm, right through to the bone, and tried to rip it off. I countered, sinking my fangs in his neck and ripping him off me. I dove into him, clawing at his chest. I tore his side open and my eyes widened in shock. His heart was not beating. It was black and cold. This was not demon blood—this was powerful sorcery. My half-uncle was an animated puppet. He wasn’t alive … he was dead. No wonder he attacked his own daughter. It wasn’t him.

It suddenly hit me. This was a distraction! He was used to draw me away from Allissa. Fear struck my heart as panic set in. My mate, who was in labor and defenseless, was in danger.

How was I supposed to kill an undead creature? I remembered the joke I made in the underwater cave. Some you can fight and some you can’t. Let’s hope this was one I could fight.

I looked at my uncle, at the corpse he’d become. I thought of Allissa, of the child she was about to have, of the future I’d never see if I failed right here.

And then, I remembered the lightning. A jolt, a spark, a power in my veins that wasn’t just blood or fury. It was the storm itself, coiled and waiting. I focused on it. Let it build. Let it eat me from the inside out. My vision flickered, the world going blue and white. The sparks ignited around my body as my uncle prepared to launch himself at me again.

He charged. I waited, let him come, let his claws dig into my sides, let his teeth sink into my neck.

Then I let go.

Lightning ripped through my body, out my paws, out my teeth, out my rage. It hit my uncle dead in the chest, lighting him up from the inside. He screamed, a noise that didn’t sound like anything alive, and his body convulsed, muscles snapping, fur catching fire.

My uncle’s body jerked and twitched, burning from the inside out. He clawed at his own skin, tried to tear me off him, but the lightning held him fast. It arced from his body to the ground, to the trees, to every demon in the clearing. Skipping around my men to attack the enemy.

The demons shrieked. Some ran. Most fell where they stood, bodies seizing as the current tore through them.

I kept the power going until my vision went black. When I finally let go, my uncle was just a smoking heap of meat and bone. The demons were all dead or gone. My men were silent, watching me with … fear? Awe? Maybe even relief that we had won.

I looked at Tim and Rodney. Rodney had shifted back and was tending to Tim’s missing leg. Luckily, I had brought a healer with us. He was a fierce warrior but also had healing skills. He would be able to attach Tim’s leg.

I shifted back and looked over my men. “Rodney is in charge. Make the march back when you’re able. I have to hurry back—” A shadow was cast above us. Dear gods, what now?! I looked up and laughed. It was Squall, circling down above me.

“Damn, I’m glad to see you. Even if you were late to the party.”

“Eira told me to come and get you. But I’m nervous. I can’t contact her. There’s a barrier there, blocking me.”

My heart sank in my chest as I leaped onto Squall’s back. “Hurry. As fast as you can. This was a trap. Dammit … I never should have left her.”

Squall launched from the ground with such incredible speed that the surrounding trees seemed to bow in reverence, their branches swaying wildly. A swirling cloud of dust and debris erupted in his wake, billowing outward like a small storm as he catapulted into the sky with the force of a tempest.

Ally … I’m coming. Was I too far away? There was nothing. Dear gods, please let me make it on time.