Chapter 41: Extirpate

Avabella

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“Avabella!” Elias shouted, flailing aggressively.

I was falling down rapidly but I was also quick to use the earth element, creating a sandy net to break my fall. I slid down smoothly to the ground and looked over my shoulder.

“You fake witch!” Mairi was right behind me, eyes glowing with fury.

I didn’t see it coming. She released her own powers against me, binding me with invisible chain or rope that scorched my body. I groaned in pain but did my best not to scream. I wouldn’t give her that satisfaction at least.

My eyes glowed red as well, fangs bared. I hissed at her laughing face.

“You can never get Elias back, Avabella! He’s already here in the spirit realm. What’s next? Should I tell you my plan to be with your beloved Alpha?” She giggled again. Evilly. She clucked her tongue and shook her head mockingly. “I can just make us humans and live like normal beings but filled with passion!” She glided around me as she gibed.

My powers were protesting inside my body as they were suppressed by this bind the spaewife witch created. My vampire strength was barely subdued, so I knew I could escape from her, from this. I supposed Sangye’s enchantment about the diamond was working on me right now. That was a good thing.

“Oh, how I envied you, Avabella! You got to taste Elias whereas I was merely watching, hating you! Remember at the pool?”

Now that made me laugh. “So, it was you, huh? I can’t believe we had a voyeur! How was my performance, huh, Mairi?” I derided. I knew I was provoking her, but I didn’t care. She was one insane bodach! “I’m sure you got horny, but you can’t even have the chance to have such blissful release because you’re merely a ghost! Elias will never be yours no matter how much you want it, no matter where he is! I’m his mate and he’s mine! Get that into your thick head! Oh, wait. You’re merely a mist now. Now I get it. You’ll never understand what I’m saying.” I laughed, breaking the preposterous shackle she put around me. It was frozen and shattered into pieces. My skin was still scorched black, but it was starting to heal.

I didn’t give her any time to react after breaking the constraints. I swiftly retaliated by releasing hundreds of sharp spears made of ice. They didn’t bury in her body, but they pierced right through, enough to inflict pain into her body. Her eyes widened in confusion and surprise. Perhaps.

“Thanks to my upgraded ‘fake’ powers,” I taunted her. “How is it to feel something now, Mairi? You wish so hard that you were alive again, right?” I swirled my hand in her direction, picturing her in a solid body. It made me chuckle when her misty form congealed.

“H-how…?” she trailed off in astonishment.

“Oh, believe me. This is an experiment, Mairi.” I gave her a mocking grin. “Shall I continue to give you the body you want?”

She was panting, swallowing. Her eyes were still wide with this kind of magic I exhibited. I stopped when I was done, surveying my art. I got the feeling she loved this since she was starting to smile.

“I-I don’t need to possess anyone’s body now?” She was flabbergasted.

“And you don’t need Elias. He’s now a bodach, thanks to you.” My eyes were merely slits. I gave her a couple of spears, piercing in her now solid body, like a live human being.

She shrieked at the pain I inflicted in her. But she was fast to recover. A red electric-like energy struck me, weakening my entire being. It seemed to suck all my strength, as a human, a vampire, and a witch. I crumbled to the ground facedown, whimpering in agony. I tried to turn to my side, seeing Elias swinging his body to assault the Sluagh Sidhe that had him, all the while calling out my name.

Mairi looked up with an evil smile on her cherry lips. Without even transferring her eyes to me, her right-hand fingers slowly folded until it became a fist, crushing my bones in the process. I squirmed in torture.

It was not enough that she tormented me with it. She summoned the rogue werewolves, maybe a hundred of them. They howled upon seeing me, their natural nemesis. They came up to me while the Sluagh Sidhe flew away with Elias flailing and assaulting them tirelessly.

As the rogues came closer and closer, Mairi glided back and away, chortling happily and triumphantly. “I’m going to take care of Elias, Avabella. Worry not. This body…” She gestured and ran a hand on her perfect curves. “I will take care of it, thank you. It will make him go crazy with passion and desire and… I’ll make him forget you, now that he’s not imprinted on you.”

I groaned as my bones didn’t stop breaking. “What?” I said with horror at first. That only meant one thing. His wolf was separated from him. But then despite my inflicted situation, I still laughed at her. “You think Elias will forget me because his wolf is separated from him and because of you?”

I recalled what he said to me when he tried to convince me to go home with him in Jura Mountains, “I love you, my sweet Avabella. Always and forever.” And with Diego’s words “The wolf is clearly smitten with you, cousin. Imprinted or not…” I couldn’t be surer of Elias’ feelings for me. And I felt it every single time we were together, making love or not. His smoldering dark eyes said it all.

My vampire red orbs flashed at Mairi in spite of my agony. “You’re sorely wrong about that, spaewife bitch witch! It’s nothing to brag about but that man can’t live without me. He loves only me!” I laughed to goad her. It didn’t matter though I felt the splintering of the bones inside my body. But I wouldn’t go down.

I forced myself to get up, although bent awkwardly because of the broken bones of my legs. I used the small amount of strength I have left in my body and my powers surged.

“H-how could you do that with multiple fractures and the repressor bound around you so you can’t use your powers?” Mairi was confounded. Her lips parted while her eyes looked frantic.

The onslaught of the rogues was held up as I held them all suspended in the air with one hand. Mairi looked at the hundreds of wolves that were frozen up in the air. I slowly walked toward her, with a menacing aura and broken bones fully healed.

“Release Elias this very instant, Mairi,” I said with a deathly calm voice.

“No! Elias is mine!” she yawped stubbornly. She looked around us in alarm when one by one, Maria Adriana and the others appeared. “H-how come you’re here?” she asked the Vampire Queen.

Maria Adriana gave her an exasperated sigh. “I was very worried about my great-great-grandniece. Thanks for that!” She lazily spared me a glance, as well as the wolves up in the air and Elias that was merely a dot away from us. “I think you can handle this lustful spaewife witch, Avabella.” She gave me a lopsided grin.

“Oh, yes I can!” I let go of the wolves up in the air, dropping them to the ground.

They howled and growled. Elias’ pack that just got here pounced on the rogues. I was astonished when their number tripled and quadrupled as I faced Mairi. She was worked up upon seeing my allies appear one by one. But I didn’t want to let her slip away.

Adriana fought with one of the rogues alongside the massive red Alpha King. I thought she was enjoying this, without using her powers but her vampire strength.

Sangye was nowhere. Maybe she was inside another mirror, fighting some of Mairi’s puppets or getting away from some traps. I hoped she was fine anyway.

I noticed Diego appear in the direction where I came from when I entered the mirror. He was followed by Nianzu and Kazimieras. They just smirked upon seeing me facing off the specter that was lusting for my mate. Now that was no secret, as they were no fools. Without wasting another second, they were engaged in their own battles. Meanwhile, I caught sight of Thibault in his brindle tawny coat in a bloody and fierce dogfight against an enemy. Sascha, Matthias and Andreas were in the same predicament.

Mairi screamed in so much vexation. The earth moved and its surface exploded. But none of us were afraid. But startled, yes. Nonetheless, we continued to fight with each of our enemy. I began to engage her in a power fight. I shot hails in her direction like bullets. Her forehead was punctured with a half-inch size that went through her skull, behind her head. One also got through her stomach, making her more provoked.

“That’s right, Mairi. I’m here. Face me!” I demanded, shooting more hailstones in her direction. This time, she waved them aside effortlessly. Her wounds healed and closed up. But blood already stained her forehead and clothes. She wiped the blood off her forehead with the long flaring sleeve of her sexy and flimsy white gown.

It was complete chaos all around us. Growls, hisses, whines and groans of pain, anger and combat could be perceived. The fresh metallic scent of blood and the pungent smell of torn flesh wafted through the grayscale atmosphere. The grayish ground was either flooded or stained by crimson fluid. The same shade of angry red smeared the fur of Elias’ pack members or Iago’s or the once immaculate clothing of the vampires, like Kazimieras’. Their clothing wasn’t only blotched but also torn. But nothing mattered now but the noisy and bloody fracas.

“The flock of Sluagh Sidhe is out of sight now. Huh! You can no longer get Elias back, Avabella,” Mairi informed me triumphantly.

It made my throat constrict and dry. My eyes scanned the skies, but she was right. I couldn’t see Elias and the flock of spirits that flew him away. Away from me. As I felt my heart sink, I rejected the idea of believing her. After all, she was a cunning liar. But still, there was that nagging feeling that I may have lost him forever. Who knows where the Sluagh Sidhe brought him?

But instead, I showed Mairi my cool façade and ploughed her with an invisible force, hitting her back against a huge gray bare tree. The branch shook, disturbed by the sheer force of it. Then the trunk was cracked and broken, falling to the ground with a loud crash.

With a blink of an eye, I was right in front of her, clearly showing her my livid eyes and cold smile. “I’m going to destroy you completely, spaewife bitch witch!”

She hissed, parrying my hand and kicked me in the chest. I staggered back, heaving. I could feel the burning part where she hit me. But I smiled at her. We exchanged punches and electric-like bolts of purple, green and blue. The sparks flew everywhere as we dodged and parried them. Once, I hit her in the shoulder with my green electric spark. Her body shook for a couple of seconds but she immediately counterattacked me with a blast of fire ball. I wasn’t able to dodge it just in time as it only appeared right in front of me unexpectedly. Nonetheless, an almost second-late shield protected me from it.

The blast backfired, hitting her in the face. She screamed in pain and that distracted her. But then she was ready aiming a fatal blow to me, with me planning on the same thing, which was the greatest blow I could think of, a hand raised, when someone held my hand firmly. The energy would’ve struck me, and my eyes grew wide with surprise to see Elias shielding me. I thought he was going to get a bad thwack but when I glanced back at Mairi, she was already screaming more as black fire consumed her.

“W-who…?” I trailed off, seeing Sangye’s little eyes filled with too much animosity that they darkened. She was walking toward the spaewife that was flailing in torment. The latter did all she could, using her powers to eliminate the black fire that licked her being. However, nothing could stop Sangye’s wrath and the powers she exhibited even if I wanted to.

Yes, it was only if I wanted to. But I didn’t want to… somehow. To extirpate this evil creature, I thought she deserved it. After all, she used Sangye’s body to wreck havoc on the living realm as well as in the spirit realm.

In a few more seconds, Mairi was gone. She was utterly obliterated by Sangye’s magic.

And now here, I couldn’t believe Elias was right in front of me.