A lingering taste of acid lingers within my mouth and I hang my head, gagging around my finger as I try to rid myself of the evil coating my tongue, attempting to ease my turbulent stomach and the darkness that refuses to recede. Yet, if anything, it seems to be magnifying, heightening. Then it suddenly slams into me on a torrential current.
“That's a good girl,” a lecherous voice coos. My head instantly snaps up, leveling with the wall. “Look at you already bending over for me.”
My breath halts in my lungs, the bones in my legs lock, and my heart stutters as that same paralyzing terror from my memory smothers me.
The sound of his footsteps echo deafeningly within the alley as he moves towards me. Then he stops, hovering behind me, and I feel the heat of him pressed up against my back. “You just can't wait for me to stick my cock in that cunt of yours, can you?” Leaning away, he groans, then returns, his breath moistening my ear as he whispers, “Damn, look at that ass. Maybe I’ll fuck you there, too.”
Several males cackle as I remain frozen, staring at the gouges on the white wall beneath my hands.
Move. You have to move.
I tell myself over and over again to move. Just a finger. A toe. Fucking blink, for gods sakes, but do something! Anything! Don't just stand there and wait for them to do that to you.
Not again. Never again.
I'm not that girl anymore. Magically chained, I was unable to protect myself, but I'm no longer bound, will never be completely bound again. I have more power in my fingernail than all these males combined. They can't do anything to me that I don't want them to.
So fucking move!
But I can't. My muscles refuse to unlock. No matter what I do, no matter what I tell myself, I can't lift so much as a finger since, as it would seem, I can bind myself just as well as any magic can.
“I hate it when they don't fight back,” the male behind me mock pouts, sighing in regret. “But she is a beauty. I guess I'll have to make an exception.” A chorus of jeers rings out in the alley and my trembling becomes violent.
Willing to do anything to escape this, even if that means releasing more of my Gifts, I try to break free of my cage. But to my horror, with every strike to the bars, the door welded by my terror refuses to budge. My power rages against its prison and slams into the bars as if it’s a feral animal, clawing at the metal with a grating shriek, only to gradually slow into a frenzied panic once it realizes the metal’s indestructibility. Having no more supremacy than I do over my self-inflicted bonds, its fear and desperation echoes my own on a howl that drones within my ears.
The male flattens his palm against the middle of my back. When his fingers begin to crawl down my spine, a lone tear tracks down my cheek.
Please move. Please, please, move…
Unable to break free of my own cage, I try to prepare myself for the inevitable and burrow within that pocket in my mind to which only I have access. But I don't know how to make myself not feel. Don’t know how to separate myself and not experience every excruciating second. Not even with my years of experience erecting mental walls.
He prods his hardness against me and squeezes my ass cheeks. Groaning, he digs harder as he slowly hooks his thumb into my leathers, preparing to lower them. But as I feel the cool breeze slip between my trousers and his thumbs, I hear a low, vicious growl bounce off the walls in the darkened alley.
He’s suddenly torn away from me with a scream, and I whimper in relief. At the delicious sound of his terror, my mind releases its hold. Trembles easing and muscles unlocking, my fear morphs into a blistering rage at the ones who dared to accost me. Intending to enact my own justice, I turn to face the vile males, but stop when I find my revenge stolen from me.
Having not seen his face, I can only assume the immortal crumbled beneath the cracked wall of the building is the same one from whom I was freed. Lifting my gaze, I watch as nine others stare with horrified gazes at the furious Fire immortal blocking the only exit.
Chest heaving, his hands and jewels illuminated, merciless, glacial blue eyes burn with white fire on a face contorted in murderous rage. Darius releases a snarl so primally animalistic, it shakes the very ground upon which I stand.
The male closest to him raises his palms and takes a cautious step towards him. “Captain, we weren't going to do anything.” He laughs nervously as he takes another step. “We were just play–”
Darius’ arm streaks out so fast and snaps the male's neck, I would’ve missed it if I had blinked. He doesn't even look at the dead immortal when he hurls him toward the mouth of the alley as if he weighs no more than a feather. Instead, he glares at the remaining eight males with eyes half-crazed in blood lust.
“The Gods Wrath,” an Air immortal whispers, backing away in horror as if he's seen Desdemona, the Goddess of Death herself.
You can see the exact moment they realize they won't be leaving this alley alive. There will be no interrogations or imprisonment. No trial or a chance for them to bribe their way out. No… Their only means of escape will be through the release of death.
Seeing their demise reflected within those manic eyes, every one of their auras darken so black, the inky tar swallows any remaining light. With jewels illuminated, a single soul releases a terror-filled battle cry that the others quickly echo before raising their shimmering hands high and charging Darius as one.
The first one to reach Darius summons a spear of water and thrusts at his chest. Turning to the side, Darius easily catches it, freezing it within orange, glittering palms before snatching the blade away to stab his attacker in the throat. Blood gushing from his neck, the male crumples to the ground while another rushes Darius from behind. Darius swivels his torso and stabs downward into the immortal’s groin, slicing upward until he retrieves the frozen blade from his chest.
One of the fae screams, holding a dagger over his head as he races forward, but he's abruptly thrown back by the frozen spear jutting out of his chest, streaking through the air until he’s impaled into the white wall beside me. A Nature immortal calls forth dozens of thorns and shoots them at Darius, but Darius sweeps them up within a whirlwind and returns them back to its sender, riddling him through the eyes.
Listening to the Cascadonians speak fantastical tales of Darius, of his viciousness as the Gods Wrath, I just couldn't believe it. Darius is powerful and can be a complete ass, but I couldn't reconcile the monster so many claim him to be with the bright soul I know Darius to have. But looking at him now as he strikes each attacker down with such skill, precision, and power, it's baffling that I could ever doubt it. Watching Darius bash one male’s head against the side of the building, caving in his skull, I realize that when the gossips spoke of the infamous Gods Wrath, they forgot to mention one crucial detail.
Of how breathtakingly beautiful Darius is when he exacts his vengeance.
A beautiful monster.
I can feel his primal need to kill these males with his bare hands. He doesn’t even twitch toward the sword strapped to his back as a Water immortal slices downward with his own. Stepping to the side, Darius evades the strike before slamming his fist through the male’s chest and ripping out his heart.
The leader of these twisted souls, the one who was seconds away from raping me, slowly regains consciousness. Horrified gaze bouncing from one body to the next, he trembles in fear when he sees a god-like Darius standing amongst the dead with a still beating heart clenched within his fist.
Darius' eyes narrow on the alert male and he throws the heart at him, smacking him in the face. The male yelps before scrambling backwards until his back hits the wall. Darius stalks forward to crouch before him.
He cowers and refuses to meet Darius' gaze until the Gods Wrath fists his hands into the male’s hair and jerks his head back, forcing him to.
“You. Touched. Her,” Darius snarls.
The male sputters and pleads as Darius’ power electrifies the air, nipping along my skin with crackling bites.
Cocking his head to the side, the Fire immortal’s lips curl into a cruel smile. “I saved something for you,” he says forebodingly. And for the first time ever, I watch true joy light up Darius’ face as he presses a single, orange, glittering finger to the terror-frozen male's lips.
Dozens of flamed threads slither into his mouth and he coughs and sputters, clawing at his throat. But when nothing more occurs, he peers up at Darius, his brows pinched in confusion. Several moments pass as Darius stares wordlessly down at him, and I find myself confused as well. Until the male suddenly slams his head against the wall with a resounding crack and the veins within his face ignite in glittering flames. His mouth gaping on a silent scream, the male convulses as flamed serpents burn through his blood vessels, blackening the skin of his cheeks as the glowing snakes slither down into his neck, spreading outward into the dozens of jagged veins throughout his body, mapping his bloodstream in fire as he burns to ash.
Crouched before him, Darius watches every second of the fire eating away at the male’s body as if he doesn't want to miss a single moment. Even after he has long passed and the body is nothing but smoking bones and ash atop scorched stone, Darius watches. He seems to find some sort of cruel pleasure in the male’s torturous end.
Blue eyes suddenly snap to mine and Darius stands from his crouch. His steps are measured, calculated, the sound of his boots meeting stone thundering within the alley at a much slower rate than the heart that beats against my chest as he walks slowly toward me. He stops in front of me where I've plastered myself against the wall. Peering down, his blue orbs bore into my amethyst ones with the same savageness he had while slaughtering the males who lie dead around me.
