Chapter 74 - Interrupted

The brewing storm inside the building was intensifying as claps of thunder rattled the windows. The blinding flashes of lightning were equally frightening. I held on to Blake's spasming body tightly.

"I will repeat myself one last time, Rosalie. Come to me, or I will melt their brains so you can watch it pour out of their ears." Josh boomed, the thunder cracking loudly.

"D-... do-... don't," Blake whimpered, grabbing my arm with one hand and squeezing it tightly.

Kiki was going berserk in my head. She was pacing and clawing at the walls, which were starting to give me a pounding headache.

*"*Could you please calm down. You are making me anxious.*."*

*"*Calm down?! I will not calm down. Girl, look around you. Everyone laying on the ground was here trying to protect you. Keeping me trapped in here is pushing them one step closer to death. Stop being cowardly and let me help you!*"* Kiki barked back at me.

I flinched at her harsh words. She was right; regardless of how strong my bloodline was, I was being very cowardly right now. Tears formed in the corner of my eyes.

"I'm running out of patience, Rosalie," Josh growled. He raised his arm and flicked his wrist.

Blake's body started to twitch aggressively, and he finally let go of the scream he was holding in.

Pain flashed across Blake's handsome features, and his piercing screams rang through my ears.

"Blakey! Blakey! What's going on?!" I yelled, cupping his face in desperation.

A fresh trail of blood poured out of Blake's nose and ran down his cheeks.

"Stop! Please stop hurting him!" I screamed, looking up at Josh.

Tears streamed down my cheeks.

"You want me to stop, then get up and come to me. NOW!" Josh roared. His glowing silver eyes burning with anger.

*"*DO NOT!*"* yelled Kiki, clawing harder against my thoughts.

I took a deep breath in and let go of Blake, slowly standing up. My wobbly legs were refusing to hold my weight.

"N-...No-... No-..." Blake groaned, trying to reach for me, but I quickly stepped away.

I gave one last look at all the crumbled bodies withering in pain. I had to do something.

My feet started to move towards Josh by themselves. My chest tightened as I took slow steps towards my doom.

What was I doing?! How could I get close to the person trying to kill me?! The crazy bastard was capable of shit that I couldn't even imagine.

But I couldn't stop my moving feet. I had to save everyone. There was no other way.

*"*There is another way! Let me out!*"* Kiki shrieked. *"*Don't make me take matters into my own hands, Rosy.*"*

"Please don't. I can't deal with this right now. Josh can have whatever he wants. I just don't want anyone dying because of me," I sobbed.

*"*Rosy-...*"* Kiki started, but I ignored her and kept walking towards Josh.

The closer I got to Josh, the calmer the storm got. The groaning and screaming behind me got quieter too. I looked over my shoulder and glanced at all the faces that weren't so distressed. At that moment, something dawned on me.

Why wasn't I lying on the floor withering in pain? Did he not want to hurt me? Max said Amon wanted me dead, so why didn't he use this chance to get rid of me?!

I took the last few steps and stood in front of Josh. His glowing eyes returned to their normal color.

"Now that's a good girl." Josh snickered.

"Leave them alone. You want me; here I am." I sneered, trying to be as confident as I could. Time to test my theory.

Josh looked behind me and smirked. "What makes you think you have the power to bargain with me?"

"From what I can see, if you wanted me dead, you could have easily done it by now. But here I am, still standing. Which tells me you want to keep me alive, don't you?"

Josh's smirk twitched a little, but he quickly composed himself.

"Funny you say that. Your mother assumed the same thing. Even as she lay on the cold asphalt covered in blood, she thought I was going to spare her life. What she didn't realize was I had to keep her alive long enough to so I could find out where you were."

"So you're admitting you killed her?" my heart pinched a little.

The image of my mother laying on the cold asphalt covered in blood flashed before my eyes. I shuddered at the thought.

She may have been a bad mother, but I still loved her. She had done the best she could for me.

How could someone be so cruel?!

"I stand by what I said earlier. I will neither agree nor deny it." Josh smirked.

I swallowed loudly, "My knowledge of the supernatural world is of no use to you. Up until five months ago, I wasn't even aware of the existence of paranormal creatures. Whatever it is you think I know or can do, you are mistaken."

Josh took a step closer and placed his fingers under my chin, pulling it up so that my face was more at his level.

"The less you know, the more valuable you are to me. That way, you won't know what I'm doing, and any attempts you make to stop me will fail." Josh snickered, his eyes changing to the silvery glow again.

"I may not be able to stop you, but someone else will." I choked out the words.

"No one is strong enough to stop me. No one. Look behind you. Your so-called strong mate and his worthless brother, incapacitated." Josh rubbed my chin with his thumb.

*"*He's a fool! I can take him, Rosy. Come on, let me shred him to pieces.*"* Kiki snarled.

"Why are you doing all this?" I croaked.

Max had mentioned that Amon wanted revenge. Amon and Josh wanted to wipe out the Whitlock lineage so that Josh could take the throne and pave the way for Amon to create chaos.

So why keep me alive? He had the perfect opportunity to get rid of me.

Josh's fingers traced my jawline and went up to my cheek. He gently ran his thumb across my cheek, pulling my face closer to his.

Anxiety bubbled in me as Josh's touch sent chills through my body. A wave of nausea churned my gut. My mark started to ache under Josh's touch.

I took a deep breath in, summoning all the energy and confidence I could. Before I chickened out, I pressed the palm of my hands against Josh's chest and pushed him as hard as I could.

Josh stumbled back and growled loudly. Before I could respond, he lurched at me, grabbing my arms roughly and pinning them behind my back. Josh clutched both my arms with one hand and used his free hair to fist my hair, yanking on it hard. I could feel hair get ripped out of my scalp. I cried out in pain, struggling against Josh's vice grip.

"G-… get yo-… your hands-… off-… off her," Blake groaned from the floor. He tried to sit up, but his efforts were wasted as Josh growled. Blake groaned as agony flashed across his face.

"No!" I screamed, thrashing my body around, trying to get out of Josh's hold.

"Or what?!" Josh growled. "What are you going to do, pretty boy?"

Josh's grip on my hair tightened, making my scalpel ache from the tension. I yelped in pain, struggling against his hold as hard as I could.

A loud menacing wolf howl pierced the temple's tensed ambiance. Within seconds, the atmosphere was filled with loud snarls and growls.

Josh's head whipped around to look at the six men guarding the door.

"What the fuck is going on out there?" he boomed.

"I'll go find out, sir." one of the guys replied quickly. Before he could open the door, an ear-splitting bang rattled the door.

The men started to slowly step away from the door. They hadn't gotten very far when the door burst open, the impact flinging them across the room.

Josh tossed me aside, raising his hand to us his magic. However, his attempt was ruined when a giant brown wolf sprinted into the temple and lunged for Josh's neck.

I was suddenly pulled out of the way by a set of small hands. I looked up to find Taylor standing behind me, helping me get on my feet.

"Are you okay?!" Taylor asked, her eyes scanning me for injuries.

"Yeah, I'm okay, but-..." I looked over my shoulder towards Blake and Max.

Blake was semi-propped up while Max was lying on the ground, completely still.

Without another word, I ran towards the two boys, Taylor hot on my heels.

The brown wolf lifted Josh off the ground and hurled him across the room like a ragdoll.

"Blakey-..." I knelt next to him, cupping his face.

"I'm okay. Check on Max," he mumbled between his heavy breathing.

I nodded and quickly turned towards Max. Taylor was already trying to shake his motionless body.

"Come on, Max, wake up. We need you. You have to wake up" I cupped Max's face, pushing his messy hair off his face.

Next to us, I could see Klaus get on his feet and move around, checking on the other members.

"Water. We need water" I looked around, trying to remember where I dropped the water bottle Mia had given me.

Josh's hired goons had regained consciousness and shifted into scruffy-looking wolves. They all darted for the big brown wolf that had pinned Josh down.

A loud whimper echoed through the temple, and the hired goons attacked the brown wolf.

"Rocky!" Taylor yelled.

Rocky?! The brown wolf was Rockz?!

Out of nowhere, several wolves sprinted into the temple, joining Rocky's fight.

Klaus appeared on the other side of Max, water bottle in hand. Kendyl was next to Blake with a bottle of water too.

How had the witches regained their strength so quickly?

Klaus started chanting some words as he opened the bottle and poured some water into his hand. He sprinkled the water over Max's face and waited.

There was still no movement.

"Why isn't he waking up?!" I gulped.

"Amon must have used a different spell on Max," Klaus replied, putting his wet hand over Max's chest and closing his eyes.

Klaus's lips moved silently. Benji and Elijah stood behind Klaus, their hands raised mid-air, chanting gibberish words.

"You guys keep an eye on Max. I'm going to help the rest of them." Blake grunted before pushing himself off the ground.

Before I could stop Blake, a massive black wolf was standing in front of us.

"Let him go, Rosy. He's the Alpha; he needs to stand by his people." Kendyl comforted me as she kneeled next to me.

The entire temple had now been destroyed as giant wolves were flung around the room, crashing through the beautiful temple windows and walls. The infrastructure had definitely taken the brunt of the fighting.

I looked down at the motionless carbon copy of the man I loved. Blake needed support as well. He needed his brother to help him. No matter how far they had drifted, they were still brothers. Two peas of one pod, literally.

"Come on, Max. Your brother needs you. Your pack needs you. Your family needs you. Please wake up." I sobbed.

Suddenly, Max gasped and started coughing.

Relief washed over me as I watched him take deep breathes to fill his lungs up.

"Oh, thank Goddess," Klaus gushed.

"I never thought id hear Klaus be so happy about me being alive," Max coughed, laughing in between his coughs.

Klaus snickered and rubbed Max's shoulder.

"We need you to take down whatever it is Amon has planned. I know we've had some differences, but we need all the help we can get." Klaus admitted.

Max smiled at the old man before turning to me.

"Hey, why the tears? You can't get rid of me that easily" he reached over and wiped the moisture from my eyes.

"Darn, I was getting happy for no reason," I joked, earning a belly laugh from Max.

Our moment was cut short when a loud snarl and whimper echoed through the temple.

We all turned to find Josh standing over a human Rocky, his hands wrapped tightly around Rocky's neck.

"ROCKY!" Taylor screamed and bolted towards her mate.

Josh looked up, his eyes glowing a bright, fierce silver.

I got up to stop Taylor, but Max grabbed my arm and stopped me, holding me in place.

Josh growled loudly and flicked his free wrist, sending Taylor flying across the room. She crashed into a far wall. Taylor's screams filled the destroyed temple. She slid down the wall and lay unconscious on the ground.

"NO!!!" I yelled, running towards Taylor's crumpled body.

"TAYLOR!" Rocky screamed while struggling to push Josh off himself.

"Did I hit a sore spot?" Josh laughed as he pressed down hard on Rocky's neck, cutting off his air supply.

Rocky gagged and thrashed around, trying to fight Josh's attempts.

I picked up Taylor's limp body and pulled her onto my lap, shaking her to wake up.

The coven members all gathered around me, assessing Taylor's condition.

"I'll keep him alive long enough so that he can hear his lover is dead," Josh taunted, laughing as if he was doing Rocky a favor.

"Let him go, you bastard! You want me; here I am. Leave my brother alone!" I yelled, slowly moving Taylor off my lap and standing up.

"Brother?! I thought Bethany only had one child," Josh growled, looking between rocky and me.

My eyes quickly scanned the room, trying to find Blake, but the black wolf was nowhere to be seen amongst the carnage.

"She did only have one child, me. And here I am. Now let him go!" my feet were once again unknowingly taking steps towards Josh.

Josh's lips turned into an evil grin. His glowing silver eyes brightened, making them look like disco balls.

"Let me show you what will happen if you don't comply with my demands." Josh lifted his free hand and twirled it around. Slowly, small patches of fur started to pop up on the skin of his hand. I watched Josh's human hand morph into a wolf paw. Josh wiggled his paw, examining the sharp claws at the ends.

Without warning, Josh punch Rocky in the chest. My ears filled with a loud cracking noise. Rocky howled in pain as he choked out blood. Josh smirked and raised his fist, ready to deliver another blow.

"NO!" I yelled, my feet picking up speed.

"I want you to walk out of here with me, stopping anyone that stands in our way. I have a very special plan for you, and I need you alive for it. If you defy me, I will rip out every heart you hold dear and present it to you on a silver platter. To show you have serious I am, I will give you a little demonstration of what non-compliance will result in." Josh barked before he punched Rocky again, letting his sharp claws sink into Rocky's chest. His claws ripped through Rocky's skin and sunk further into the chest cavity, shattering Rocky's rib cage.

Time slowed down, and everything happening before me decelerated.

I screamed at the top of my lungs as I watched Josh's fist sink deeper into Rocky's chest cavity, blood gushing out. Rocky wailed in pain.

"Kiki, help me," I begged.

A faint voice in the back of my head growled before I felt the control I had of my body numb and be replaced by excruciating pain.

*"*This will hurt a little, sweetheart.*"* Kiki whimpered.

My entire body ached, lightning my skin on fire as it started to stretch. I could feel my bones pop out of their sockets, shooting more pain through my body. The sound of cracking bones was drowning out my screams.

Another round of pain coursed through my body as I fell on my hands and knees, screaming in agony.

I looked down at my hands that were now covered in thick gray fur, my palms and fingers morphing into paws and claws.

*"*A little longer, sweetheart. It's almost over, I promise*"* Kiki cooed, trying to comfort me.

My eyes burned, and I blinked furiously, trying to take the pain away. The clearness of my vision changed every time I blinked.

"What the fuck?!" hissed Josh, shock written all over his face. "How is this possible?!"...