Chapter 165

Chapter 165
Calla

I understand now.

The knowledge filled my mind completely as my consciousness returned, bringing with it a clarity that felt like stepping from shadow into sunlight. Everything made sense - the pain, the fear, the endless cycle of violence between our kinds. And most importantly, what I had to do to end it.

My eyes opened to find Axel sprawled on the rocky ground, his face a mess of blood and bruises. Blake stood over him like some twisted victor, his red-gold eyes gleaming with satisfaction as he wiped blood from his knuckles.

Rage exploded through me.

The emotion came from somewhere deeper than anger, more primal than fury. This was the wrath of someone watching their heart being torn apart by a monster wearing a familiar face.

Blake turned toward me, and his expression shifted from triumph to cautious confusion. "Well, well. Look who decided to wake up from her little nap."

I could see the questions in those swirling vampire-werewolf eyes. One minute I'd been unconscious from his mental attack, weak and broken. Now I stood here in Virex's coat, completely healed, looking like I'd just gotten the best sleep of my life.

He took a step toward me, his smug smile not quite hiding his wariness. "Feeling better, dear wife?"

Without warning, I lashed out with my mind.

The psychic attack hit Blake like a freight train made of silver lightning. His eyes went wide with shock as the force of it drove him backward, his feet skidding against the stones.

"What the hell?" he gasped, blood trickling from his nose as he struggled against my mental assault.

The power flowing through me was nothing like before. Where my earlier attempts had been clumsy and desperate, this felt natural and controlled. Like I'd been doing it my whole life instead of discovering these abilities just seconds ago.

Blake's face twisted with fury as he pushed back against my attack. His strength was formidable, that combination of vampire cunning and werewolf ferocity enhanced by whatever twisted science had created him.

But I had something he didn't.

Purpose.

Our psychic battle raged in the space between thoughts, silver light clashing against his red-gold power while our bodies remained locked in place. I could feel his mind pressing against mine, trying to overwhelm me with raw force.

Then I felt his emotions.

The empathic abilities I'd always struggled to control suddenly snapped into perfect focus. Blake's feelings flooded through our connection - his rage at being challenged, his satisfaction at hurting Axel, and underneath it all, his absolute intent to kill me.

He wasn't trying to capture or control me anymore. He actually wanted me dead.

That realization should have terrified me. Instead, it made me angrier.

Blake took another step forward, murder blazing in his eyes as he poured more power into his mental attack. But before he could reach me, Axel's hand shot out from where he lay broken on the ground.

My mate's fingers closed weakly around Blake's ankle.

Blake's response was instant and vicious. He kicked Axel in the face with enough force to snap a normal person's neck, sending fresh blood spraying across the rocks.

Something inside me snapped completely.

The psychic pressure I'd been holding back exploded outward like a dam bursting. Blake staggered as the full force of my awakened abilities crashed into his mind, overwhelming his defenses through sheer emotional intensity.

But as our battle reached a stalemate, with neither of us able to overpower the other, I heard a familiar voice whisper in my thoughts.

Let me help you.

Selvarra's presence flowed through me like liquid starlight. Power that had been building for millennia suddenly coursed through my consciousness, amplifying my abilities beyond anything Blake could match.

The world dissolved around us.

We were no longer standing on rocky ground surrounded by supernatural armies. Instead, we found ourselves in that white space where dreams and reality intersected - the realm where thoughts became solid and will shaped existence.

Blake looked around wildly, his smug composure finally cracking as confusion replaced his earlier confidence. "Where the fuck are we?"

His voice carried less authority here. Without his physical strength to fall back on, he seemed smaller somehow. More human despite his monstrous transformation.

I smiled at him across the white expanse. "This is where it ends, Blake."

"Where what ends?" He tried to sound dismissive, but I could hear the fear creeping into his voice.

"The fighting. The hatred. All of it." I began walking toward him, each step feeling more natural than the last in this place where consciousness ruled over flesh. "I have fate on my side now. And here, in this space between worlds, you're outmatched."

Blake laughed, but it sounded hollow in the white void. "You think you can threaten me with mystical bullshit? I've got the power of three supernatural races running through my veins!"

He launched himself at me with explosive speed, his transformed strength pushing him forward like a missile of teeth and claws and fury.

In the physical world, his attack might have succeeded. But here, in the realm of pure thought and emotion, power came from different sources.

I caught his wrists as easily as if he were moving through thick honey. My strength in this place didn't come from muscle or bone, but from certainty. From love. From the absolute knowledge that what I was doing was right.

Blake's eyes widened with shock as I held him effortlessly. "That's impossible."

"Nothing's impossible here." I tightened my grip, feeling his hybrid bones creak under the pressure. "This is the realm of the Moon Goddess. And you're not welcome."

What followed wasn't really a fight. Blake thrashed and cursed and tried to break free, but his cunning and supernatural abilities meant nothing in a place where pure intention determined strength.

I was protecting my family. My pack. The entire supernatural world from centuries more of pointless violence.

Blake was serving only himself.

The outcome was inevitable.

When he finally collapsed to his knees in the white space, panting and broken, his eyes held something I'd never seen there before.

Fear.

"You can't do this," he wheezed, blood running from his mouth even in this mental realm. "I set things in motion already. Even if you somehow beat me, the vampires and werewolves out there are going to tear each other apart. There's no way you're walking out of this unscathed."

I knelt beside him, feeling something almost like pity for the man I'd once called husband. "You're right about one thing. After this fight, I probably won't walk away unscathed."

His face twisted with vindictive satisfaction. "Good. At least we'll both lose."

I shook my head sadly. "You still don't understand. This was never about winning or losing, Blake. It was about ending a cycle of hatred that's gone on for far too long."

I placed my hand on his forehead, and he jerked backward like I'd burned him.

"After this fight," I continued, my voice carrying absolute certainty, "there won't be any more supernatural wars. No more vampires hunting werewolves. No more werewolves fearing vampire compulsion."

Blake stared at me with growing horror. "What are you saying?"

My smile was sad but determined. "After this fight, there won't be any more supernatural at all."