Chapter 260 - His Mate or His Girlfriend
“Foolish witch!” Asmodeus roared, sending Melanie’s wolf form skidding against the dirt and away from his form once they landed in the demon realm
Melanie pulled back and snarled. She was still good for a fight. Thanks to the potions she’d taken, she had a good bit of regenerative strength in her. It’s why she’d been glowing. The potions had allowed her to pull on her wolf strength. But now she needed to fight him in combat. He was too powerful with his demon powers to fight with magic.
“I will find my way back! The portal hasn’t been sealed permanently!” he crowed gleefully, rolling up the sleeves of his now ruffled crisp white collared shirt. “But first, I need to make sure you die just like that stupid witch Sybl. Summoning me and then trying to stop me,” he scoffed. “Play with fire and prepare to be burned!”
He sent a stream of fire straight to Melanie.
But Melanie was ready. She jumped from his path, using her own powers to create a storm in the skies above.
Asmodeus laughed.
“You’re in my realm now,” he smirked and with a snap of his fingers, the clouds above dispersed. “Here…I AM GOD!” he boomed and a bolt of electricity nearly struck Melanie if her wolf hadn’t instinctively jumped out of the way in time.
Melanie’s wolf eyes narrowed. She was going to go down but not without a fight. She howled before running towards him, jumping out of the way as bolts of lightning tried to strike her. Looking up, her eyes lit up as they spotted the upon the cloud Asmodeus was controlling.
Her eyes then went back to resting upon where Asmodeus stood. Melanie ran, her eyes concentrating on the ground Asmodeus stood on.
And then a bolt of lightning orignally meant to hit Melanie dead on went straight to Asmodeus, striking him before he could realize what exactly had happened. The demon fell to the ground in shock, wheezing from such an impact. That had been the shot meant to kill her. Melanie changed back into her human form, a satisfied smirk on her face as she reached for a scrap of cloth that had been tied to her leg along with the dagger meant to end her life.
“I learned how to control lightning early on,” Melanie stated, calmly throwing the tattered shirt over her form and walking over to him and pulling out the silver dagger that had been tied to her back leg. “See….all I had to do was create positive charges in the ground around you. I wasn’t one of the smartest kids in school for nothing,” Melanie explained, kneeling down next to him. “You were too busy forming the negative charges in the cloud to realize what was happening on the ground. I was forming positive charges with my powers to strike the ground you were standing on. I wasn't called a nerd for nothing," Melanie ended on a smug smile.
Asmodeus shook his head, doubling over as he coughed profusely.
“You can’t kill me,” he wheezed out, eyeing the dagger in her hand. "I'm immortal."
“I can’t,” Melanie conceded. “But that’s not what I’m here to do. A sacrifice of selfless love,” Melanie stated loudly, aiming the dagger at herself. “I just wanted to show you you’re not invincible before I did it.”
Asmodeus’s eyes widened as he realized that Melanie was about to seal him away forever.
But before anything else could happen, the dagger was shoved forcefully out of her hand as a metallic silver wolf lunged out of nowhere, taking the dagger between his teeth.
“Brad!” Melanie exclaimed aghast. He wasn't supposed to be here!
“Looks like we made it just in time,” Antonio’s voice called out.
Melanie looked up to see her father hovering a few feet behind her. He had a cloth wrapped around his waist which meant he’d entered this realm in his wolf form.
“You were amazing,” Antonio said appreciatively, pride filling his voice. “You’re a powerful Earth Witch Melanie and this is not your time to leave everyone you love.”
Brad’s wolf finally scampered over to where Antonio was. They both looked at Melanie harshly, a united front against her plan. Who would have thought to see the day Antonio and Brad worked together? Melanie looked at the two most important men in her life, disbelief written all over her face.
“You can’t be serious. We need to seal the demon realm, and you know this is the only way,” Melanie called out angrily.
Brad growled disapprovingly.
“You sacrificing yourself is out of the question,” Anotonio stated. "The minute Alpha Dylan told me the plan, I was against it. I didn't expect Brad here to follow me though."
Brad’s wolf had been nodding emphatically in agreement. Now Brad looked sternly at Anotonio as if to say 'I care for Melanie just as much as you do.'
Asmodeus let out a hacking cough, he was starting to recover from the lightning strike.
“I’m going to enjoy killing all three of you,” he half-laughed half-coughed.
“Good luck trying,” Antonio growled protectively. “Mel, get yourself and your mate out of here.”
Confused, Brad looked up at Antonio. This was a deviation from the plan. They were supposed to go in, get Melanie and get out. Antonio’s quick reflexes grabbed the knife from the ground where it rested under Brad’s paws. Brad yelped, Melanie let out an exclamation of protest as Antonio held the knife steady in his hands.
“I’ve lived my life Melanie. And atleast this way, I’ll be with your mother again. This is my sacrifice of selfless love….for you,” Antonio whispered and before Melanie could stop him, the silver knife was thrust straight into the retired betas heart.
Brad lunged to stop him but he was too late as Antonio fell to the ground. The realm shook as the portal to earth became permanently closed.
Asmodeus let out a roar of anguish, reaching out a hand to punish the beta. A lightning bolt struck Antonio’s lifeless body. A futile attempt on Asmodeus's part of hurt Antonio further for what he'd just done. But Antonio was dead. He couldn't feel the first or even the second lightning bolt that hit his body with such ferocity that his body twitched.
Brad was stunned. He hadn’t expected Antonio to do something like that. And Melanie was heartbroken over the loss of her father but she also knew that now was not the time to fall to pieces. She had to get Brad out of here.
Turning into her wolf, Melanie made her way to Brad, mind-linking him,
‘We need to leave,’ Melanie explained.
As Asmodeus began to stand up and prepare to fight the two remaining wolves, Brad and Melanie’s wolves ran across the barren wasteland, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the demon. Now streams of fire were being shot at them. Under-demons were converging, lusting for a taste of their blood. Asmodeus wanted revenge now. Melanie could feel it. He was livid over being denied his chance to return to Earth. She had to open a portal and get them back all while making sure no stray demons followed them through.
Looking back, Melanie saw Asmodeus gliding on air towards them. Using all her might as she ran head to head with Brad, Melanie threw a gust of wind the demon's way in an attempt to slow him down. She howled and cast open a portal infront of them to jump through. They just barely managed to jump into it just as Asmodeus reached them to grab Melanie’s hindleg. He pulled, trying to bring her upper half back to hell but Brad who'd been purposefully trailing a bit behind Melanie to ward off any attack, snarled. His teeth closed over the demon's hand. Asmodeus pulled back in pain as the two wolves disappeared from view. The portal zipped up, trapping him where he belonged.
He couldn’t pass through the portal even if he wanted because he hadn’t been summoned. He was effectively trapped until another silly witch decided to try and summon him through a ritual.
“Noooooooooooooo!” Asmodeus exclaimed in agony, pounding the ground with his fists.
****
Melanie and Brad landed back in the battle ground just in time to see their people gathered and waiting anxiously. As soon as her entire body was through, Melanie closed the portal. Asmodeus had caught her hind leg and just as she’d contemplated staying back and letting Brad through, Brad had snapped his teeth, taking one for the team and biting Asmodeus’s hand.
“He tasted like a dead rotting corpse,” Brad muttered under his breath once they changed into their human forms and someone had draped blankets over them.
Melanie looked at Brad thoroughly exhausted yet relived.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” Melanie confessed, allowing him to encompass her in the safety of his arms.
“Don’t ever think of doing something like that again,” Brad said sternly into the crown of her head.
Melanie sniffed.
“My dad….”
“He made his choice, he sacrificed himself selflessly,” Brad whispered.
“For me,” Melanie replied into his shoulder.
A voice in the back of her head suddenly spoke.
A life for a life. Ricky’s life was spared in exchange for Antonio’s.
A/N: EPILOGUE IT UP NEXT.