Chapter 104 : Nightshade

MAXINE.

Everything is happening so fast. The attacks come out of nowhere. I fight side by side with Theo, trying to keep close to him to protect him and for him to protect me.

And we are winning. He is moving like a demon, bringing down one enemy after another in an almost methodical way. He doesn’t stop, not once, even just to take a breath. He just brings down more and more of them, even when they keep coming. Even when they fight back harder. He is just better than any of them.

I am doing fine, especially when you factor in that I never fully trained before. Instincts are just kicking in, like puppeteers who know what to do before I can even think of the action.

We fight seamlessly, in complete harmony, until someone snatches me from behind with a single pull.

All at once, I feel myself getting lifted from the cloud of chaos. Plucked right out of the battle. I take a deep breath, completely disconcerted as a hand closes over my mouth. Some fumes enter my nose, straight into my lungs. Suddenly everything gets less vivid, as though a white filter just settled down and blanketed everything. The colors are muted. The sounds are muted now. I can hear Theo fighting in the distance but nothing is registering anymore.

I look up to see who’s taking me away from the scene, and I don’t even flinch when I see that it’s Draco.

My blinking is slow. My heart is slow. There’s a strange sensation rising in my chest and I’m just floating around.

“Don’t worry,” Draco croons, his voice sounding far away even though he’s just holding me very close. “It will be over very soon.”

With that, he continues to drag me away from the scene. Theo is now getting swarmed. Still winning, but now getting close to being overwhelmed. The space is much too small for him to move around and maybe shift. Worry strikes me like a punch in the gut. I want to get to where he is and just help him, but it all feels so distant now. Like a memory or a dream.

Draco lifts me in his arms, carrying me along the path like a groom. I loll around in his arms, wanting to hurt him but not having any of the strength to do so.

Even when he sets me down on the ground in some hidden area, I can’t feel the need to fight back. I don’t feel the urge to run and come back to Theo. I know what I should do and how to do it, but other than that, there’s nothing else.

A deep moaning sound echoes in the forest. I realize it’s from me. From my paralyzed mouth.

Draco smiles as he pushes my hair back from my face. “That’s cute, Maxine. Really cute. But I don’t think anyone would be able to hear you right now. Theodore is… well, occupied. And maybe, luckily, when I come back he could be permanently occupied, if you know what I mean.”

He lets out a chuckle that tells me he’s not at all there. But then again, he’s always been quite insane.

“Don’t worry, though. I don’t need to do anything much to you,” he continues to tell me as he strokes my face. “I just need one thing. One thing that would change everything.”

A groan escapes my lips again, but I’m shocked to feel that this time, I can really feel my lips. Whatever it is that he made me inhale is now starting to wear off. But maybe it’s just because I’m actively trying to fight it.

I try to lift a finger, my father’s pocketwatch still wrapped around my wrist. My finger only twitches.

Draco is still distracted, looking at my face hungrily. “So much power, and yet so much ignorance. You really don’t know what you’re capable of, what you can do to help our cause. I was thinking before, maybe I could make you fall in love with me. Maybe I could seduce you, and bring you over to my side. I thought Ajax would be able to do it, but in the end you still fell in love with that boy who has nothing to offer you.”

I want to spit at his face, but he’s fast, almost like he knows what I’m thinking. He pins me down on the ground, his knees on my arms.

And with that, he takes out an empty syringe and taps it midair.

“Just a little bit from you,” he whispers, almost to himself. “And all of this would be over. Dad would be proud of me.”

He turns my head, finding a healthy artery. He leans in, completely concentrated. The tip of the needle is dancing on my skin, and I prepare myself for the pain….

But it doesn’t come.

Draco gets dragged away from me, a big hand closing around his neck.

It’s Theo, and he’s coming in swinging.

He’s already covered in blood, and I don’t think it’s his own. I dread to think about whatever he did to the men back there, but right now all I can think is how grateful I am that he came.

Theo steps on the syringe, breaking it into pieces. Draco jumps to his feet to fight, but Theo just rams his shoulder into his abdomen and tackles him right to the ground. Draco groans, the air knocked out of his lungs. Theo doesn’t waste his time and just clambers on top of him, knee against his throat, punching him in the face over and over until all I can hear is a series of wet thumps.

One punch. Broken nose. Another punch. A busted lip. Flecks of blood are flying out of Draco’s face.

And yet he can bring himself to laugh shrilly, like a madman finding food out in the streets.

“Is this really how you think this should happen?” Draco tries to say, his voice muffled. He gets cut off by another punch but he isn’t deterred one bit. “Is this how you really want this to go? Do you think our father would approve?”

I catch it just as Theo does. Our father. Not my. Our.

Theo freezes.

Draco spits out blood. “If you knew better, you would know that Ajax is the odd one out. You should be in his place. And yet you are here. But you know, you still have a chance. I can talk to our father for you. He will take you back. After all, no matter how much you try to be good, the wickedness is still in your heart. Tell me, Theodore, how many men did you kill today?”

“Don’t,” I manage to croak. “Don’t listen to him….”

But Theo is already affected. His arms drop limply to his sides, but I can see him digging his knee against Draco’s throat like a dazed child pressing a button.

However, Draco is not out of tricks.

Slowly, he takes out another syringe from his pocket. This time, it contains a bright red liquid that I can smell from here. Dark and metallic, almost like blood. But it has a dark power, a sinister secret that can take down the most powerful wolf out there.

A single word enters my mind. I don’t know how, but I’m certain I’m right.

Nightshade.

Theo digs his knee against Draco’s throat. Draco stabs Theo at the side with the Nightshade, draining all the liquid into him.

Draco cries out, but with triumph. Theo falls off of him, his eyes wide, clawing at his throat as black veins start to sprout under his skin.