Page 180 of Soulmateless
This cleansing ceremony wouldn't have happened if it weren't for her.
“Come out!” I yell. “You wanted to fucking fight! You wanted to fight when I had no fucking reason to!”
I glance around. Vasilisa’s dead as soon as I lay eyes on her.
“You wanted to fuck around! You wanted to! So do it you fucking coward! Fight me!”
There's no response, but I've already picked up her foul scent ahead. I take a deep breath, focusing myself to turn into dreamscreecher form, letting the itching of fur prickling through skin consume me. I doubt anyone will find me in these woods.
In my dreamscreecher form, I unsheathe my claws and bare my teeth. I'm no longer afraid of her. What reason is there to be? She can't take anything away from me now. She kept me away from saving Amias. She's killed my father. My friends. Taken everything from me.
I'm done with her. I'm done knowing that she still breathes after all the agony she's caused me.
Hearing the air whistle, I duck as Vasilisa jumps from behind me, only for her to tumble onto the ground in front and scramble to her feet.
I stand over her. Fuck this bitch.
I leap for her, letting my claws rip into skin. We both shriek and tussle on our back legs. I sink my teeth into her shoulder. I yank at the skin, only to get a mouth full of fur as she snaps towards my neck.
Driving my body into her, we fall onto the ground, keeping my claws in her neck and reaiming my bite to her throat. I kick her belly, making her twist away and yowl.
I leap back before she has the chance to take advantage of me laying on the ground. “You don't deserve to live!”
She snaps her teeth at me, lying at her flank with her paws up, prepared to slice me back.
It doesn't stop me from striking her head again, throwing claws and teeth her way. I leave deep wounds on her head, shoulders and belly, and she's able to return the favor, leaving me bleeding in the same spots.
With our determination to kill, the fight lasts hours. We exhaust ourselves to the point we have to rest before attacking each other again.
Now I stand at a distance, my legs shaking, about to collapse beneath me. Vasilisa is a lot harder to kill than I thought, but she's already collapsed. Her breath quivers, shuddering the longer she stays alive.
Her now red belly is marked with wounds I made every time I kicked her there. The eye I clawed at and nearly gouged, is closed. She barely lost, considering the sting from the wounds on my stomach, flanks and face. Maybe it's the fact I'm twenty years younger that I'm still able to stand.
I just need to leave and let her die in these woods. I'd kill her myself, but my legs won't hold me up long, and I don't want to be next to Vasilisa when it happens.
She's getting what she deserves. She deserves to suffer slowly alone.
Taking a heavy breath, I growl through a throbbing throat. “This is what you deserve. After everything you've done. After all, you've made me suffer through.”
She remains silent. The only thing I can hear are her heavy breaths.
“I'm glad your death isn't peaceful. I'm glad I've made you bleed to death. I can only hope the other side of life will torture you too.”
As she stares blankly at me, I snarl and turn away when she speaks pathetically, “I'm proud of you.”
I growl under my breath as I look back at her. She crackles through her short breaths. “You wouldn't have fought me back In Somnia. You're stronger than when you left Somnia.”Blood drips from her injured eye, mimicking tears.
I bare my teeth at her. “You have no right to be proud.” I've become stronger without her.
Her words only feed my drive to kill her, but my body can't take it. One wrong move being this exhausted, she could drag me to the floor and kill me too. I scoff at Vasilisa and usewhatever energy I have to walk into the forest and get away from her.
It hurts to walk. Everything aches. Every step is weak and shaky.
I just need to be away from her and hidden in the forest. I don't have the strength or focus to turn back to human. I just need a place to rest before I figure out my next plan.
I'll have to save Amias while he's trying to kill me.
After five minutes of wandering, my legs buckle beneath me. My body thuds on the ground as I glanced around me. It's a thick part of the forest, but there's nothing but bushes shielding me from sight. Maybe someone could still see me.
