The Thing That Shouldn’t Exist 2

The Thing That Shouldn’t Exist 2
  Her scream tore through the café as her eyes switched to plain haunting white. She writhed violently but it did nothing to push away the fingers digging into her skull.
  Cressa’s mouth moved, repeating chants I couldn't recognize or understand. It was probably one of those things pure instinct could not teach me.
  The brunette stood ominously still even when a piece of a shadow crept from Becca’s temple to coil around her wrists.
  It lasted only five minutes and then the once proud Becca collapsed into herself as she convulsed violently with discomfort etched across her pale features.
  “What did you see?” Ethan inquired with a menacing tone finally rising from my side where he'd been brooding in silence.
  Cressa veered to face him boldly. “Vorare isn’t searching for a source of power.”
  The room went incredibly still even with the werewolves that had been assembling not so quietly and healing on the sidelines.
  “He wants something powerfully catastrophic enough to end him,” Cressa revealed, throwing the tensions to spike up higher than they did.
  Vorare wanted to end himself? That failed to be sensible in any way.
  “That's ridiculous. He wants to kill himself?” The question left my lips incredulously. “You’re saying he's been eating just to die?”
  “Not exactly.” Cressa glanced at me. “He can’t die the way we understand death. But something like you? That's a new line of possibilities. This heretic here somehow convinced him that your nature, which doesn’t obey both lycanthropy and sorcery, will unravel him. Enough to free him out of the layers Gaia sealed him into.”
  Khalid let out an exasperated breath. “Plot twist. The wizard of Oz wants to erase himself.“
  I couldn't help but frown. “I don't understand. Why would he want to die?”
  Becca, still weak, managed to croak out a bitter answer. “Because hunger becomes madness. Enough time sealed in himself and left to be repeatedly consumed by his own devices, even a force like Vorare would start clawing for relief.”
  A flicker of motion drew my gaze to Abigail. Her hands had gone slack at her sides, and her cold eyes glazed over. No one else seemed to notice but I could guess what it was.
  I tore my eyes away before anyone could pick up on it too.
  Instead, I turned to Becca. “How long until his form stabilizes?”
  Becca looked exhausted, but her response came with a hint of her usual smugness. “Stabilize? Not the word but just so you know, you wouldn't want him to grow further. The longer you let him move freely, the more real he becomes.”
  “And when he becomes real?” Khalid cut in.
  “We don't want to find out. There's a reason he was sealed using one of our most powerful relics,” Cressa spoke over Becca, and from her tone, we knew we couldn't afford to waste any more time.
  “Could the eye still be there? The Melbringers could use that while I push him back with my powers,” instinctively, I caressed my mother's necklace, knowing there wouldn't be enough for him to take out of me.
  “We're not nearly enough,” Cressa stated as a matter of fact, gesturing to the Melbringers behind. “We'll need to channel our dead sisters,” she finished, as if the words hurt to leave her tongue.
  I really didn't know much, but that sounded like it would have severe consequences for them. But I didn't argue either.
  Immediately Ethan took charge to face the others in the coffee shop. “We can’t take the werewolves through the heart of it. I suggest the Moonstones search for their dead on the west side of town, closest to Vorare, and Crescent takes the east. We’ll go in to surround him first and when they're ready, we'll cut straight to him at once.”
  “You’re both going after him directly?” Abigail asked with a skeptical contortion to her expression like she knew something we didn't.
  I wasn't sure I was okay with the way her eyes kept shifting between Ethan and me. Was she worried about something?
  He nodded. “I refuse to have her do it alone.”
  Cressa moved back to where she stood initially, already muttering orders to the other Melbringers.
  To my surprise, Abigail lingered in place, then slowly stepped closer to me. Her eyes darted down to my necklace.
  “You should put that back on,” she gestured to the necklace and I mutely did so.
  We all rushed out quietly with the warning of Higan roaming the streets at the back of our minds and the low click of walkie signals rang across.
  Ethan took place beside me as he'd always done.
  Abel and the Crescent werewolves ran east. The Moonstones with Lorcan dashed West, leaving Becca in our care. The Melbringers numbered eight trailed behind us with guarded demeanors in a loose sweep pattern.
  Right when we approached the parking lot, Vorare lingered, we spread out to leap on roofs, and in no time, we were all situated watching the still entity.
  Lorcan's voice came through the channel in my ear. “Units are approaching with the corpses.”
  “Still standing?” Ethan breathed out from behind me.
  “Exactly where we left him,” another voice crackled into my channel.
  I glanced past the rooftop ledge to the concrete below. And as expected, his feet were rooted still in the middle of the lot cloaked in the shifting black mass.
  That was the problem.
  “He should’ve tried something by now,” I murmured to myself, adjusting the comms. “He’s giving too much room for an attack.”
  “Can’t be too sure about that. What if he’s calculating,” was Ethan's speculation.
  I stepped back to where Abigail crouched behind a slab of protruding concrete. Her bright gold lit eyes flicked to me as mine did to hers, then back into the direction the Melbringers lurked.
  I was curious about a lot concerning her so I asked. “How did you get the Melbringers to stop trying to kill me?” I kept my voice muted.
  She exhaled slowly. “I didn’t.”
  I blinked in surprise glancing at the sorceresses as I pushed my eyes to catch their frames.
  She continued to clarify. “They still want to 'purify' you as they'd put it. But right now, they want something more than that.”
  I tilted my head slightly, watching her profile. “I’m still asking how you convinced them.”
  After a brief silence, “I killed someone I shouldn’t have,” she suddenly uttered and I braced myself.