Jackal's Pride (Seven Deadly Book 2), page 15
Unease.
My eyes widened with awareness.
Fear.
“She should be here,” I said to anyone who might be listening. “She was on her way here. Something about the climates. Why isn’t she here?”
Something’s wrong, my thought was more urgent this time. I could feel it from the tips of my toe up to the top of my head. “She said she’d be here even if her fate didn’t depend upon this world.” Whether that was true or not, I had no idea. I was spouting out anything at that point. Maureen’s family didn’t know what our previous conversation had been about, but they should listen when I told them something was wrong.
“He’s right,” the dark-headed one agreed.
“It’s here,” Grim acknowledged, eyes focused ahead.
“Oh, God,” one of the females gasped. “It’s so much faster than we anticipated.”
“Get to the town!” Grim barked. One of the women jumped into the sky, disappearing into the huge dark clouds. In the distance, another funnel formed followed by another, sweeping through the land like monsters. “Kitty.”
“Yeah?” Kitty, I assumed, hurried next to him.
“Find your sister,” Grim ordered, and she nodded.
“I’ll go with you.” I was losing my damned mind, but I didn’t care. My stomach was twisting. I had to find Maureen. She didn’t even give me a chance to explain myself, nor help me understand her. And…Why was I so worried about her?
“Stay,” Grim said.
I gawked at him, not expecting him to request anything of me.
He continued, “Kara will find her, but we could use anything you have to offer.”
The one he called Kara faded without me.
Was the Grim Reaper asking for my help? For some reason this angered me. “You want me to stay here and help, not knowing where Maureen could be?”
“Do you think I’m not worried?” His voice had a plain, jarring tone to it despite the thunder above us. “Maureen is always right where we need her—but she isn’t here.”
“We’ve got to go!” someone yelled right before Grim and his offspring started moving. Some faded while others took to the sky.
For once, I didn’t know what to do. There was nothing to prove Maureen was in danger, but I gazed ahead—these people in front of me were. None of the humans would survive in a storm like this.
Her words—It’s what we do… It’s who we are— echoed through me.
My feet moved on their own accord, then my body shifted into a giant wolf and I raced toward the town. I didn’t know what I’d do when I reached it, but restlessness and fear drove me forward. Why? I didn’t know.
She’s inside me. Along with the one hundred and thirty-seven, Maureen’s heartbeat joined the others, and they forced me to change. To adapt. To become something when I was nothing.
The storm was bad and getting worse. The small town was right in the crossfire of two rapidly forming funnels. When I arrived, a small witch stood beside the blond-haired brother.
She yelled, “I think I can stop each one, but to do that, I’ll need to channel one of you for each tornado.”
Grim moved in front of her first. “Go ahead, Isabella.” She nodded, removing the material covering her hands.
“Jackal.” I wasn’t aware Grim knew I was still here until he spoke my name. “My family is everything to me. My daughter is blessed with eternal life while these people…” He shook his head. “They only have one.”
He latched onto the witch’s hand and then fell to his knees. His body jerked and thrashed as she siphoned power from him. His essence glowed a mixture of even shades of blue and black and flowed into her.
After taking what she needed, the witch released Grim and yelled, “Sebastian.” Just as Sebastian moved near her, the witch latched onto him. His pupils disappeared and a brilliant blue took over his eyes. He held out his hands, a powerful blast of magic blasted from his palms. Somehow, the witch was channeling through him and together, the two of them were taking on the brutality of nature in this world.
“Barron!” Sebastian shouted. “We’re not going to finish with this one soon enough!”
Barron nodded and faded. He re-faded on top of a building. His gaze was on the second funnel gobbling up everything in its path.
“Get ready,” the other brother screamed over the roaring wind. “Spread out.”
I didn’t even know what they were planning to do until the cloud was upon us, shredding through the town. I watched as Barron held up small barriers—blazing red with the color of his essence—over as many buildings as he could to keep them from crumbling, then I saw nothing but the dark funnel sweeping over everything he just sheltered. The storm engulfed him.
One of the females—dark hair similar to that of Maureen’s—hovered in the sky with several portal chips. She connected them together in a round circle in the sky, big enough to open one giant gateway. The ideal was brilliant. I watched from the ground as some of the storm swept into the current of the portal. She crossed her hands over her face as the wind brought up objects from the ground toward her—cars, signs, trees. She dodged and twisted in the air, her pink essence swaying and shifting with her as she let as much of the storm inside as she could before the passage was overloaded and forced to close. She opened it again, starting the process over. Where she was sending it, I didn’t know.
Another one of Maureen’s brothers protected several vehicles with humans inside. My eyes widened. Even through the howling of the funnels, I could hear their screams, their pleas. I could hear the determined shout of the one protecting them—he braced his feet and hands as his yellow-gold power wrapped around all the vehicles. Then nothing again. They disappeared from my view as the funnel spread over them.
A chill rushed over my spine. My stomach tightened with unease. What was I doing standing here? I didn’t want to wait another second and watch as they saved people. I had to do something… No, I wanted to, but what? Where was I needed? Was I needed anywhere? I was used to disease, death—it brought upon sadness. This was a destruction of another kind that brought upon the same familiar outcome.
Stop the cycle. With blood rushing to my ears, chest on fire, I realized I was so tired of the screams, the pain, the tears. I wanted peace for all those that were crying right now.
I caught sight of one of her sister’s struggling to hold off the storm with her barrier. What was amazing was the sheer amount of her green essence plowing against the force of the funnels. She was holding it back completely, but behind her the houses were completely exposed and at risk if it broke free. Her blonde hair swayed, and her hands shook in front of her. I sprinted and threw out my own power around the houses and helped her rebuild the barrier against the storm. She turned, gave me a trembling, appreciative nod as she glanced back in the window of the house we stood in front of. I froze as I listened, taking in the five fast-beating hearts on the inside. They were humans inside the basement. They could hear the chaos outside and probably wondered why it hadn’t hit their home yet. To be mortal… how terrifying that must be in a time like this.
Not one. Not two—my eyes widened as another funnel began to form. I’d never seen so many of them together like this. The human world was ending and soon the Devil would reign. I didn’t believe it was true until now.
But that wasn’t what truly got me. It was the pain in my neck—the rapid fire burning into my veins, the very spot I had marked Maureen that sent me over the edge. The mark was being touched—messed with. Images flooded my mind of someone sinking their fangs into my mark on her neck.
More images—a collar, Maureen tied to a bed—hit me along with her anger.
Thankfully, the most important information of all came to me.
Her location.
Chapter 19
Maureen
“Feed from me and I promise, Gavin, it shall be your last.”
Gavin chuckled easily. Maybe he sensed my urgency after all. I could taste my own bruised pride in the air, and the way she tore me to pieces on the inside.
He got me. I’m weak, I’m weak. I wasn’t paying attention.
The stabbing pain in my stomach intensified with each weak thought. Pride tried to tell me I was wrong, but pride couldn’t help me right now either.
I yanked at the collar over and over. Each time I did, Gavin’s victorious laugh pierced my heart. The torment worsened when I thought of the man I collared. I took advantage of Jackal and robbed him of his free will.
No wonder he questioned me and my duty to help humans.
More than ever before, I hated Pride. Hated her. Hated me. No, I fucking loathed my curse.
An agonizing wail threatened to escape my lips, so I clamped my mouth shut and looked to the ceiling. Tears pricked my eyes, but I refused to let them spill.
I had no right to judge Jackal for his past or for emotions he didn’t understand. Deep, deep down, I knew I wasn’t a bad person, but the real me hid beneath Pride’s cloak. I thought the real me wasn’t there, but she was. Jackal and his unsullied emotions, his unchallenged heart reminded me of who I longed to be.
Pride bruised and crippled me. Unlike humans, I wasn’t oblivious to how Pride controlled me. I pitied them for not knowing. I pitied myself for knowing.
“Amazing,” Gavin murmured. “Your emotions are all over the place. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so…crestfallen.”
I hated this situation. Hated myself for letting Gavin catch me off guard. I hated Jackal for making me lose my damn mind, and then the guilt overcame me for the hatred. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on with my brain. I was drained all the way to my soul. I also felt foolish. How could I let a mere vampire make me feel this way?
Gripping beneath my jaw, Gavin lifted my neck and swiped his tongue over Jackal’s mark. Suddenly, a strange sensation—like I could taste Jackal’s anger on my tongue—fell over me, imprinting and weaving through my flesh and bones. More proof that I was indeed Jackal’s. Fangs stabbed into my neck, much smaller than Jackal’s, but the euphoria wasn’t the same. His sting left a dull throbbing between my thighs. No matter what Gavin did to my body, he wouldn’t get me hot. But the aphrodisiac in his bite—meant to calm prey—felt… Dare I say? Pleasing. Disgust took over. I didn’t want Gavin feeling victorious. Gavin groaned, and I jerked away.
“You can’t make me stop.” His eyes glazed over as he inhaled my scent. He wiped the blood from his chin before his eyes darkened. Then he lunged forward and tore into my neck. I cried out as the fiend ripped my flesh.
A shadow fell over the room. Through the pain and euphoria in Gavin’s bite, I couldn’t distinguish anything. Then the sensation hit me—menacing power bounced around me. I’d never seen Jackal draw in his essence. He always let it run rampant but not now. His power was poised and lethal—ready to lash out as his presence filled the room. His angry hot vibrations were like an invitation to me.
Gavin yanked his teeth from my neck and twisted around to see Jackal. The anger on the entity’s face was different from what I’ve seen before. His jade-colored eyes promised murder. Gavin’s eyes widened, and his gaping mouth trembled.
Deep satisfaction coursed through my mind.
“Tell him to stop!” Gavin hissed at me.
The collar defeated my will. I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly, puffing out air trying to deny its power. Finally, I squeaked out, “Stop.”
Jackal didn’t listen. He gripped the chipped and cracked collar around his neck, ripping it from his neck with a ping. There was something freakishly sexual about seeing him do it. Overcoming the collar in a few short days. Overcoming my will with his own. It earned my respect.
But I saw the murder in his eyes and hurried to untie myself from the bed. “Don’t!” I hissed. “Take this collar off my neck! He’s mine to kill!” And I meant it, my battered pride would only be satisfied if I was the one to do it. But Jackal stopped listening to me. My voice had no more power to it than the collar that used to be around his neck. Claws tore through his skin transforming his hand into an oversized paw. With one swipe, the talons stabbed Gavin’s chest and ripped out his vampire heart. In a blink of the eye, Gavin crumpled to the floor.
I sat on the bed in stunned silence as Jackal’s chest rose and fell in rapid pants. His eyes landed on me, drinking me in. It took me a moment to recover. When I did, I yanked at the collar, but it wouldn’t budge even with Gavin dead. Enraged, I stood and jabbed my finger in Jackal’s chest as I yelled, “Who gave you the right? He was mine—”
I froze. This wasn’t about anger. Pride wasn’t raising her ugly head for a change. This was a knee-jerk reaction. I lowered my hand and touched my stomach. No stabbing pain there. How could this be? I was at peace, and I didn’t settle the score or kill anyone.
Better yet, I was okay. More than okay. I stepped back. Pride had accepted Jackal’s killing Gavin on my behalf. I was so baffled. Why?
“Come here,” Jackal’s deep voice summoned me. The collar demanded I listen. My anger returned when I realized what happened—Jackal inherited the collar from Gavin. Holy shit!
“You!” I snarled.
The moment I stepped in front of Jackal, his hands clasped around the collar, and he let it fall to the floor. Then he rubbed his giant hand over my neck. Once again, I was stunned into rigid silence until his eyes glazed over and out came his canines. Without notice, his fangs flexed into my neck, sinking into the spot where Gavin’s fangs had been just minutes ago. I hissed with every intention of pushing Jackal away.
He was claiming me, and I didn’t want to be claimed like some possession. I didn’t want any of this, but… so good. I moaned and became putty in his arms, submitting to Jackal’s primal wants and needs. Only when he licked the new mark did I recover. Pushing away, I gave him a guarded expression. “I had everything under control. I didn’t need you to show up!”
We both knew it was a lie. Images of what could have been done to me burned into my mind. But I couldn’t tell him that I was thankful. I didn’t know how trapped I was in my curse—and pride pushed, never pulled.
It didn’t matter that I wanted to say, ‘thanks for saving me,’ I couldn’t. So I jerked out my pride and acted like I was invincible. It didn’t feel good—especially not when I knew how good he felt.
He didn’t call me out on it nor did he correct me. He kept breathing heavy, eyes on me, unnervingly so. Like he saw me, really saw me—the bullshitter that I was. Or was well on his way to figuring me out.
Both scared the shit out of me.
Then, my Reaper senses kicked back in, and I gasped. “I have to go.”
I had to do something about the small town’s impending fate. I’d never be able to get over it if those tornadoes struck. Somehow, we needed to save everyone. Staying here with Jackal wasn’t an option.
_________
Mom and Joy were lying on the ground, fighting off spasms when I got there. Dad was rising from his knees, skeletal being that he was—his essence flickered and burst back to life as he stood. I recognized that look of utter exhaustion. Isabella must be countering the tornadoes with her magic. Above me, Prudence struggled with a portal in the air. “One more,” she breathed out, completely spent but still standing strong.
“One more,” August agreed, jaws tightening as he stared beyond.
“Maureen.” Barron found me—his voice light, glad, but exhausted.
I faked a smile. “I got delayed, but I’m here now.”
Barron nodded. “Later.” It was a promise that I’d answer what happened later. I swallowed and turned to where the tornado was forming. “Last one, but it’s the biggest.”
“Let’s get it over with once and for all,” Sebastian panted, arms holding Isabella up. The tiny witch was paler than normal and weakened, but her brows were set in a stubborn line of determination.
“Two more—gonna need two more of you, at least for this last one.”
Shit. It did not feel good when Isabella came into contact with one of us. She had a touch of death, my brother Sebastian being the only one immune since they were supposedly fated. Made for one another. Yada, yada. She siphoned the life from others—in our case, our very essence as well as our curses, with only the graze of our skin.
Barron pushed his shoulders back and moved toward the small witch. Despite his exhaustion, he was determined to be a sacrificial lamb just like our parents and Joy had done earlier. Honestly, I was a better choice. Grabbing his arm, I asked, “Will I be enough?”
Isabella lips pursed. “I don’t—”
“Take whatever you need from me,” Jackal said from behind me. I hadn’t even detected his presence thanks to the wind roaring around us masking everybody. Jackal surprised me. We exchanged a curious gaze as he stepped passed me toward Isabella and Sebastian.
Isabella nodded vehemently, then gave me a sad smile.
I sighed. My body tensed as I approached her. “Don’t ask, I’m coming.” I only said that because Mom was giving Jackal and me a peculiar expression.
I couldn’t focus on Jackal. Heat wafted from his massive body while his presence made me feel off. We stood side by side in front of Isabella waiting for her lethal touch. “I’m sorry,” she whispered while latching onto our fingers. Jackal and I fell to our knees simultaneously. I watched my orange essence flying up and into Isabella. Next to me, Jackal’s black essence did the same. The color reminded me of my father’s and Fear’s, proving to me that Jackal truly had been around since the beginning of time.
My head pounded. It literally seemed like bullets were ping-ponging around inside of my head. It was nauseating every time Isabella siphoned from me—the woman stole life from anyone mortal. There was no awareness when she latched onto you—you simply were trapped in a web of pain. I saw nothing but blackness and a blaring white flash every time the pain swelled inside my head. Holy fuck! It was like the popping going on inside my head was expanding, growing bigger. That’s it. My head was going to explode.
