Chapter 52: Is This me?

TERESA.

If horror had a name, it was certainly that howl. I wanted to keep my serenity, but there was something in that howl that gave me the chills.

“Bash, what was that?” I inquired in a low and scared voice.

And suddenly it was not the only one. There were several howls.

“That is our cue to leave this place. Do you think you can walk? If we stay here, we are a target. We have to get moving.” Bash’s voice was more like an order. But he was calm.

“Would it be necessary for you to fight?”

I didn’t want to ask that, but it was something that was bugging me since Bash was a beast. Outside were other beasts, and this time we were in their territory. And if they were after me again? This chasing game was getting me tired.

“Bash, look...is me they want. I don’t want to endanger you. Maybe it would be the best idea to—”

“Don’t even think about it!” he shouted, coming closer.

His woody musk scent got into my nostrils and right into my brain, providing the serenity I longed for earlier. “Don’t you ever talk like that! I will let nothing bad happen to you. Do you hear me, doll face?”

When he called me that way, he was dead serious. Cupping my cheeks, I melted into his blue-sky gaze and it was like the wolf within him spoke to me. He would not let me go. Not to those beasts.

“Being with you, I am not scared. But I am wounded and this could slow you down,”

I leaned closer to him, enhancing the last words to make him see the burden I was. But there was no stopping this wolf.

“Then I will carry you, but I am not leaving you here. I love you, Teresa, remember? You are my better half!” he said almost melodiously, blocking his gaze with mine, disarming me in front of his words.

That was the third time he would tell me that, and it sounded like an oath.

Something in me was telling me I was in danger, but Sebastian’s presence made it easier to bear all this. Helping me get up, I leaned hard, but only to find that when I put my foot on the ground, I noticed that the pain was not that sharp as it used to be.

In fact, it was almost gone. Bash’s face was relieved. So, I only helped myself with my arm and I limped just a little. I didn’t really want to find a plausible explanation for what was happening to me now. Anyway, all sorts of weird things have been happening to me lately. First, my flight was so fast, now this miraculous healing.

“Teresa, stay behind me, and for nothing in the world. Will you move away from me? I will try to reconnect with Liam,” he explained to me, opening the door and going out in the ruthless cold.

A shiver ran through my body, slightly trembling. At least I kept these other conditions. As Sebastian linked Liam, I realized I was hearing every single word. Which has never happened to me before.

Whether it was a good or a bad thing, I did not know. It was strange and revealing. I didn’t understand them, I could hear them perfectly.

“Liam, can you hear me? We need you guys right now. I am sensing beasts I have never encountered before. And this time there are many. I don’t know where they come from, but they’re on our trail. And the same smell of sulfur that drives me crazy!”

“Bash, we’re close. Less than five miles from you.”

“I will not wait for you. These devils are right behind us. I will have to find a shelter for Teresa and transform myself to fight.”

The forest used to be my light and my air, but now was terror and my eager desire to finish this as soon as possible. Those demons’ stench was so repulsive.

They seemed nocturnal ghosts approaching menacingly, howling. The path on which we came darkened before our eyes from the shadows of those hellhounds coming with every second closer to us.

No ray of sunshine passed through the thick crowns of the trees. It was as if the place became a battlefield where we were the fighters. I leaned back on a tree and waited.

Watching Bash turning always was something unique. First his sharp fangs, then his arms and arching his back. Changing his physiognomy, looking straight at me, howling with all his power, and placing himself in front of me as a shield.

He was huge, but the way those beasts howled made me think they were much bigger. I was damn right!

Breathing fire, with its fangs out and its eyes from hell, it had fixed me so penetratingly that I almost hid behind Sebastian. He, too, growled menacingly, keeping them at a considerable distance, giving me the security, I needed.

I wanted to fight with him somehow, but how could I do it being so human? For sure, I would end up dead within seconds. I could feel the tension and hear the intensity in their roars.

There was a great deal of hatred and hostility. But Sebastian did everything in his power to be my shield. The horror began when many of these demons came, and where they trampled, the earth burned.

It was a sight I couldn’t take my eyes off and whatever I did; I knew I couldn’t avoid their attack as I was too weak, vulnerable; I was human.

And suddenly one demon launched towards Bash. He was angry, pulling the fires of hell after him, pulling out his claws, almost throwing Bash to the ground.

They outnumbered him and if Liam didn’t come faster with the pack, Bash would suffer. And so, would I. And then they threw themselves on him, trying to keep them as far away as possible, but it seemed they simply bite into him.

Pieces of his flesh were flying everywhere, and his cry of pain made me furious. I felt an unseen force lifting me off the ground. There was no agony in my body, just a blind rage preparing to explode.

I couldn’t explain my reaction, but I felt like I could stand to fight every one of these beasts. I could see how the man I loved was in danger, and the mere thought I might lose him drove me mad, boiling in my own ferocity.

I didn’t recognize myself either, but I didn’t care as long as I could make the difference between life and death. A demonic energy was growing inside me as I had never felt before, and right at the moment of a fresh attack, I reacted.

“Get away from him, you demon!” I shouted so hard that I simply hit the beast from the tree in front of me with just a wave of my hand.

I didn’t know I was capable of such a thing, nor was I scared. On the contrary, the adrenaline provoked me even harder, and I felt a tremendous wave of power coming from inside me.

Fueled by my hatred and the fact that these beasts were attacking us without leaving us an alternative, the vigor in me was increasing in intensity.

In Sebastian’s agony, he shot me a confused look. I had already risen a few inches from the ground and my eyes felt hot, as if I was ready to shoot arrows of fire.

It was enough to gesture easily with my hand, and the beasts from hell fell into pain without getting up. I was breaking their pathetic bones just by twisting my hand and then ripping their throats out. And God, how I liked this massacre!

Sebastian’s pack has finally arrived. They were all already transformed. Liam was leading them. As soon as he got near me, the ray of my power distracted them and they took a step back, remaining in their wolf’s shapes, staring in awe at me.

They all had questions, but before answering them I had to find answers for myself for what just happened here.

The fight was quick. I didn’t even need more. But for Sebastian, it could have been the last. He lay wounded by the tree where I stood earlier, moaning, transformed back into his human shape and with deep wounds all over his body.

When I realized what had happened and how serious the situation was, I froze, kneeling beside him, begging him with my eyes.

“Sebastian, my love? Wake up! Open your eyes... please…” I wept, desperately caressing his every wound. “You can’t leave me...you just can’t!” and my will diminished considerably as I watched his life slipping away. But then he opened his eyes in an attempt to do or to say something. “Don’t you dare say goodbye, Sebastian Gallagher!!!”

“Teresa...love...you can...save me…”

I barely understood him, and with his last effort, we locked gazes. “Use your...blood...my Luna!”