Chapter 18: 18__More monster than man

Time seemed to grow ten times slower as Maia watched the ball of blue flame come at her. It soared smoothly through the air with its malicious intentions to freeze her to the bone.

Bracing herself, Maia cringed, closing her eyes as the ball finally reached and slammed into her.

No.

Maia cracked open an eye. It didn’t slam into her. She blinked at the hand in front of her face. It slammed into someone’s palm.

The person stepped around Maia and she looked at him, her stunned expression matching that of all six of the other women.

Aiden flared fire up from his hand, destroying the ball of cold energy his sister had been throwing around like a toy.

“A-a... Aiden,” Zainab stuttered, her silver eyes wide in her face.

Her brother’s eyes, matching hers in color, flitted over Zainab, taking in her bleeding nose and bruised chin.

Aiden sighed. “What in the…? You know what, Zain? I’ll deal with you later.” Turning to the rest of the room, he regarded the women who stared at him with wide eyes.

Goodness. Why couldn’t Rogan have had a more decent place he frequented? To think Aiden had to step into a place like this... gosh.

Sternly, he regarded the women. “Which of you is Cassidy Germaine Philips?”

Cassie snarled, annoyed to hear him call her full name. “It’s just Cassie, you prick!”

Aiden blinked at the woman as another one jumped over to cover her mouth.

“Oh, ha-ha!” laughed Cecile awkwardly, firmly keeping Cassie’s mouth shut. “Our Cassie has such a bizarre sense of humor! W-welcome, King Aiden.”

Aiden’s gaze hadn’t left the woman whose light silver eyes were glaring at him from over her friend’s mouth. The audacity. She was lucky he was a gracious King, else...

“Uh, yes,” Aiden continued. “Where’s Rogan?”

Cassie pushed Cecile’s hand off her mouth. “Are we Rogan’s keepers? Huh?! Is the whole damn royal family so bored that you decided to step into this disgustingly immoral building today?”

“Hold your tongue, Cassidy Germaine Philips,” said Aiden with narrowed eyes.

Cassie ground her teeth in rage, glaring furiously at the king. God, she hated this man. “Fuck off, King Aiden!”

***************

Rogan kept his hands in his pockets, calmly watching as the Shifters started walking around him, all picking an angle to attack him from.

With an eye roll at their foolishness, Rogan shrugged his coat off and dropped it onto the ground. “Let’s make this quick.”

With shouts of war which Rogan found extremely unnecessary, the Shifters came at him.

Suddenly raising a hand, Rogan lifted a finger. “Wait.”

The Shifters froze.

Tilting his head, Rogan frowned as a thought suddenly occurred to him. Shifters were rather feisty creatures, weren’t they? Not as strong as Wolves, but still brutal fighters.

Rogan scratched his chin in thought. Maybe… just maybe if he let the Shifters have their way with him, they could break through Ursula’s spell and manage to kill him. Rogan was well aware that his train of thought was fit to be marked insane, but since he never did consider himself perfectly normal, the knowledge didn’t bother him.

He nodded. The idea seemed logical to him. If he let these guys kill him, he didn’t have to carry on trying to do it himself with no luck.

The Shifter leader frowned in annoyance. “You done?”

Rogan clapped his hands in conclusion and nodded. “I’ve decided.” Raising a finger, he pointed around at them. “I’ll let you kill me.”

The Shifter laughed. “You don’t have a choice, mate.”

“Just shut up and give it your best shot,” muttered Rogan tiredly. He gave the Shifter an intense look. “You'd better kill me. You'd *better*.”

The Shifter smiled. “Oh, I never disappoint.”

With only a discreet gesture from their leader’s hand, a hard kick was suddenly dealt to Rogan’s back and he dropped to his knees, resigning himself to the experiment of getting beaten to a pulp.

The came at him at once. Kicks, punches, chokes and sharp claws ripping through his flesh.

Rogan felt the pain flare up all through his body with every attack, but as usual, it faded quickly, his body healing itself. Damn, the spell was still in effect.

“More, you bastards!” Rogan yelled at them. They were barely trying!

The Shifters became hesitant, seeing how their victim was barely behaving as any self-respecting victim should. Well, what kind of victim cheered on his attackers and asked for more? The Shifters were baffled.

The continuous orders from their leader kept them going, however, and they did all they could to Rogan, using every last ounce of their strength on him.

“Someone try and slit my throat,” Rogan suggested, spitting out blood. “*Something* has to work…”

The Shifters were appalled. It had been over half an hour now! What kind of creature was he?!

They stumbled about tiredly, no longer crowding Rogan but giving each other turns to put in a punch or two.

Rogan chuckled, spitting out more blood.

“You fucking losers,” he muttered as he fell over onto his back.

A few of them started kicking him in the ribs and Rogan burst out laughing.

“Ah, you idiots!” he laughed. “You can’t even break a little spell!”

The Shifter leader, face tight with anger, pulled his men away. They stood behind him, unharmed but exhausted as they watched their leader approach Rogan.

He glared down at him as Rogan’s laughter died off into a chuckle. Rogan didn’t know why they suddenly seemed so pathetically funny to him, but it was the first time he’d had laughed in a few years, so he’d take it.

“You think we’re done with you?” the Shifter growled furiously. He was seeing red! How dare this one man make him seem so ridiculous before his pack? He was a leader. He had to salvage his dignity!

“You’re not?” Rogan asked hopefully. “Oh, good.” With a groan, he poked his sides. “Got about… three broken ribs here. One good kick and… if you aim well, you should be able to pierce my heart or something. It’s all about… about strategy.”

The Shifter scoffed, taking in the bloody sight of the man before him. “Don’t try and educate me. There’s nothing I could possibly learn from a rejected Vampire Sorcerer.”

Letting the words pass him by, Rogan moved his tongue around, feeling for loose teeth. They were all firm. These idiots couldn’t even loosen a few teeth. Pathetic.

The Shifter frowned. “Are you ignoring me?!”

Rogan coughed, sputtering out blood. He spat it to the side and lay back to look up at the Shifter. “You know what? The longer you talk, the faster my body heals. I told you. You *better* kill me.”

“And I will!” the Shifter said loudly, making sure every member of his pack was witnessing his bravery. By the end of this battle, the boys would be worshiping him. With a cocky smirk, he set one booted foot on Rogan’s abdomen and glared down at him. “A worthless Vampire Sorcerer is no match for me.”

Rogan’s mouth curved in that wicked grin that he hadn’t shown for so long, his white teeth stained red with blood. “Aw, come on,” he told the Shifter. “We villains gotta stick together. But here you are… hurting my feelings and making me mad.”

The Shifter looked back at his pack with a laugh before turning back and lifting his foot to give Rogan a sharp kick in the side.

Rogan grunted. “Ugnn… that’s rib number four.”

The Shifter laughed, shaking his head. “Look at you,” he told Rogan, crouching to get closer so his words reached Rogan’s ears only. “You’re a fucking mess. That’s why you’re here, Rogan. Do you know that? You’re worthless, that’s why Cassius didn’t want you and that’s why Onyx didn’t want you.”

Rogan had stilled on the ground, looking at the Shifter with expressionless eyes. His unloosened teeth clenched slightly in his mouth.

“What? You disagree?” The Shifter asked with a mocking laugh. “Why’re you here then? Kicked far away from your home kingdoms like the bastard you are." He lowered his voice. "Mummy didn’t want you, daddy didn’t want you.” The Shifter sighed and shook his head. “Nobody wanted you.”

Releasing a breath as the Shifter continued his mockery, Rogan put one arm beneath his head for a more comfortable position. “You know,” he spoke, his voice low and tense. “I told you to kill me… not to open your mouth and recite my fucking résumé.”

“Well, I— ack!”

The Shifter’s eyes flew open when his throat was suddenly caught in vice-like grip.

“I told you to kill me…” Rogan repeated, laying on the ground, his voice growing deeper and heavier with rage. “I told you you’d *better* kill me! But you decided to mouth off like a little bitch instead! Now I have to kill you…”

The Shifter leader’s eyes became round little pebbles in his face when he noticed that neither of Rogan’s hands were touching him. How on earth then…? The grip tightened around his neck and the Shifter started gurgling for air, gesturing wildly to his pack as Rogan rose off the ground.

The uncertain Shifters started approaching him few at a time and Rogan, burning from the fury their leader had so foolishly awoken within him, tore any who touched him apart.

“You talk too much!” Rogan growled at the choking Shifter as he crushed the skull of one of the pack members. “Gets on my fucking nerves!”

Ripping open the throat of the last standing pack member, Rogan dropped his lifeless body on top of the pile he’d made with the others and then turned for the leader.

With a sharp flick of his fingers, Rogan pulled away the power strangling the Shifter but, before the creature could even breathe in relief, he ripped a deep jagged line across his throat.

Gasping haltingly, the Shifter clutched a hand over his bleeding neck, wide eyes staring up at a man who was far more monster than man.

Rogan stood over him, his eyes churning fiercely. “Lucky I’m not taking your fucking eyeballs for a magic spell, you bastard,” he murmured darkly.

The words rocked fear through the Shifter’s whole body, sending nausea flooding through him, but he forced it down. Instead, he forced apart his tightening lips in a gruesome attempt to smile.

“Y-you… you were never anything!” he rasped at Rogan.

Rogan looked at him with rage. “I am *everything*. I’m more powerful than your entire species put together!”

The Shifter tightened his grip on his throat, but the blood seeped out between his fingers, carrying his life with it. “You’re worth… worthless! We didn’t even come here… for you! The ghosts… us! We weren’t sent for you! Nobody cares about you that… much!!”

He gurgled violently and Rogan cringed in disgust. “Oh yeah? Then who the hell are you here for?”

The Shifter bared his teeth in a twisted smile as the last of his life bled out. “H-her! The… the girl!”