Chapter Twenty-Seven – Alite

I stood frozen. Frozen still as the command hadn't changed anything other than Stop. I stood with a dagger implated enough for blood to bleed throughly, but not enough to touch my heart. Looking over, seeing my mate helped the agony and he then – thankfully – commanded me to drop the dagger. I had never been so glad to flow an order. Dropping the dagger, I looked at the wound, watched my blood run down my body.

But I lifted my head again to see father and son glaring at each other so heatedly that the world should have been set alite. "Why did you let Darius live if you knew of the curse?"

Darius' didn't look away from his son as he replied to my gasped out words. "Because he was already in his mid-teens. Gone. I couldn't find him until he was in his early twenties. We fought, but it was getting us nowhere. Now, stop talking and plunge that dagger into your heart."

"Don't you dare, Zarah," Darius growled. "Don't obey anything else he says."

I gasped in relief of Darius' words. It felt like a pressure was suddenly lifted. The relief of the pressure was so much that I dropped to my knees. Which was where I saw it. My blood was shimmering like the barrier. Shimmering so many colours it didn't look red anymore, and my blood was spreading like paper had touched it. It spread out as fast and as far as it could. And the more of my blood that dropped on it, the more it spread.

I jumped up in fear, making my head spin, backing away, I heard creatures not of this world cry out for more. Demand more. I had never felt so terrified in my life. I could almost touch them, see them. They were clawing for more. It was almost as though they were fighting each other for the right to be the first through the portal. Arms suddenly wrapped around my waist. I couldn't help it, I screamed in terror, thinking it to be the creatures clawing to get out.

But I was pulled out and turned around to see Darius. I jumped up and clung to him like a child. I never wanted to see them again. I never wanted to hear such horror. See such horror. Taste their vile tastes of on my tongue as their scents were so strong. Opening my eyes that I'd squeezed shut, I saw confused faces surrounding me beyond Darius' shoudler, staring at me from both parties. But I didn't care if they thought me a coward. Only a... no, not even a suicidal would want to see or die by that.

"Um... Zarah, honey?" Mum's voice reminded me that we weren't alone more than the others, that no matter what I'd seen, we had to deal with this so no one else witnessed the horror that waited to spread like a plague around the world. Looking over at her, she gestured my wound. Looking down, I saw that my blood was no longer dripping down my chest. Instead, it was floaing, it was floating in the air to return to the circle.

Wiggling out of Darius' arms, I moved away from the circle, but no matter how far I moved away, my blood still left me. Still floated to the circle. I tired covering my chest with my hands, someone gave me their shirt and I tried to stop the blood, but, like a direct line, it just went through the shirt like water but horizontal.

Someone ran over with a first aid as I looked over to see Darius' father smiling in victory. But no matter what we covered my wound with, my blood still found a way to make it to the circle.

We all knew the moment enough blood had made it to the circle, my wound became normal, trickling normally down my chest and the circle... it shimmered a bright whtie before turning a solid of so many colours they couldn't be named. The werewolf with the first aid box put a bandage on with a healing wolfsbane, and this time, no blood made it though but what would be the norm.

But it didn't matter, it was still too late. Their was a sound like an aeroplane, but such much louder as we all looked up to see the horizontal lines retreat back to the coloumn before the tips exploded like fireworks bursting out in all directions. Each spark seemed to set off a new one. Each spark hovering in the sky.

The next thing I heard was a fist meeting a face, crunching bones. Whipping my head in the direction, I saw Darius punch his father again. Like a mexican wave, those few punches, started up the fight again, even though now, you could see no one knew who to fight.

Mum and one of her friends that I'd never met before came over and helped me up. I fought them as they dragged me towards the column of horrors.

"Zarah!" mum snapped. "You see those," she pointed towards the 'fireworks'. "Each one is a mini portal for one creature. We need to stop it!"

Nodding, more scared of the creatures coming through, my mother and her friend got me to join the circle around the portal. They started speaking in a language I didn't know. Chanting. I gasped as power built within, within myself, within and around the column. Looking away from the column, I sucked in a breath. Mum had wings. Magnificent. Shadowdy wings at her back. Looking at the others showed that they all had the same. Shadowdy wings stretching out of their backs.

Hearing a the sound of a whinning engine, I looked up to see the firework lights flicker. Pause as their chant reversed the portal. I heard the screams of denial from within the portal and shoved all my energy into the chant. Because I knew, I knew that these things could not be unleased. I would die before I let them out.

The lights of the barrier flickered until they dissappeared altogether, making the beach seem dark, near pitch black. And silent, even with the fighting, it was so quiet now. With the use of energy for the chant taking it's toll, black dots danced in my vision. The last thing I heard before I fell was a howl. A howl of victory. A howl of dominance. And I could only prey that the howl was from my mate, not his father.

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