Shifting back to her fae form, Lova stumbled, shuddering with pain, holding the knife firmly inside of her. To pull it out now would mean immediate death. She backed up towards Calliope, her shifter hearing sensing only two heartbeats left, not three.
Lova faltered whether from the numbness of grief or the damage of the knife, it was obvious it took her great effort to stay upright, my own legs trembling with her. "Stay back, blood whores," she hissed, guarding what remained of her friend.
Grinning with confidence, the blood fae licked at their fangs, stepping closer and twirling their own blades in either hand. "You're going to be our sweet treat, little ancient." His accent thick with the hissing sneer in which he spoke.
Lova snarled, baring her teeth. "You'll be tastingnothing when I rip out your fangs bloodsucker. Your kind are a disgrace to everything that is fae."
The remaining blood fae laughed and their leader narrowed his red eyes. My own narrowed on the blood crystal tied around his neck, knowing first hand what it felt like to be drained by the horrifying stone from Bay’s death. "Typical shifter, overconfidence will not prevent your death this day."
She winked, seeing Bane run grimly towards her, "It's not confidence, it's a fact." Dropping low, Lova relished in the roaring sound of fire bursting into life just before it ignited several of the blood fae, killing them instantly. The heat of the blaze was searing and I attempted to rear away from it, but Lova simply stared deep into its infernal depths, full of smug triumph. There was nothing left behind, no bone, no metal, just scorched earth, the leader of the blood fae on the run, and a furious swordmaster who was closing the distance with more fire licking up and down his body.
Ignoring the blaze of heat the knife was ripping through her side, Lova rose slowly watching the deserters with Bane. "Leave them to me, swordmaster," she hissed and pointed towards where Calliope lay slain. "The babies, Bane. You must save the faelings."
Bane's blue eyes darted to the prone form of their fallen comrade, his fire snuffing out immediately, then back to us. "She is dead, you are alive," he argued, stepping closer to her, his eyes widening on the knife.
Lova shook her head, panting between her breaths. "There are two heartbeats, I can hear them."
Bane hesitated.
"Go!" Lova gritted her teeth, frustrated. "I'll take care of the rest of those blood cunts!"
Shifting back into her lynx form, Lova raced after the remaining fae, her adrenaline drowning out the fierce ache in her side, and I was suddenly overwhelmed with her thirst for vengeance—my mouth watering just as hers was, thinking about the feel of ripping their throats out with her own fangs.
Spotting a large rock jutting from the tundra, Lova launched herself from it, landing paces ahead of the blood fae’s retreat. Turning with a lunge, her claws buried deep into the blood fae’s leader, the shock in his eyes satisfying for the both of us as she landed ontop of him.
Quickly, she slashed out, cutting out his throat before shifting back to her fae form, straddling the blood fae that writhed beneath her. "I told you I'd rip these fangs out blood whore." Holding his thrashing head, Lova pried open the blood fae’s mouth, blood gurgling out the sides before she viciously ripped out the his teeth with her pure shifter strength. Dangling them in front of him, his light dimming, Lova smiled darkly, "You won’t be needing these where you’re going. May Sheol take you to its darkest depths where you will live this very moment for eternity."
He was dead before her last words cut through the frozen winds. Snapping her head up, Lova growled at the last two blood fae that stared in shock, fear shining in their eyes.
Throwing their leader’s bloody teeth at their feet, she snarled, "Leave and never return or stay and suffer his fate. I care not which you choose."
They both blinked slowly, glancing between each other before spinning back around and blurring away straight towards the plains where the bruxa were waiting. The undead vampiric females never did like the blood fae, found them quite annoying mimicking their way of life.
Shoulders sagging, her adrenaline slowing, Lova climbed off the dead blood fae, holding the knife in her side like a lifeline, she squinted out in the distance—back towards Bane. The wind slapped against her face with its own stinging vengeance, and I shivered internally. It was more than the cold that chilled her body now.
With great effort Lova dragged herself over to the swordmaster elemental, and paused when she spied the tears falling from his crystal blue eyes.
“The babes,” Lova gasped, “Are they—gone?”
Bane shook his head, "No. They are still alive…” his hands trembled over their slain friend, “I—I can’t.”
"Oh Bane," I whispered to Lova internally, understanding the swordmaster’s plight much more now. "I always knew he suffered a terrible fate in the Blood Wars. When he came back from them, he was never the same."
"We all have different sides of ourselves, forta,” Lova whispered back through our connection, “Sometimes life has a way of suppressing it, and sometimes life shows its hand without any remorse.”
My throat burned, bitterness a sour taste in my mouth as Lova reached out to grip the solid fur covered shoulder of the swordmaster. "You must do this, my friend."
Bane’s hands fisted, dropping on his kneeling legs, "I have no blades," he snorted through his tears. "What a pathetic swordmaster I have become, with not a single blade left for me to save these faelings.” He jerked his head towards the scorched tundra, “I burned those fuckers too hot, there’s not even a blade among their ashes."Shaking his head again, he reached out to palm Calliope's heavily pregnant stomach, unable to control his trembling once again. "I can feel them. If… if I use my fire, I may hurt them, especially if they move," he whispered.
I watched as Lova reached for his calloused hand that lay defeated on their friend and pulled it away to curl around the knife buried deep in her side. "My injury is fatal, Bane, but my life may still save another this day."
I inhaled sharply, tears burning my eyes.
Bane's head snapped up towards her, his eyes bloodshot from fatigue and grief. "No," he growled. "I can take you back to Jar. He can safely remove the blade and heal you."
Lova smiled weakly. "My soulmate is talented, but some damage he cannot undo. It has been too long, there is too much internal bleeding, and this blade runs deep. In the time it takes for all of us to trek back, you’ll be delivering four dead bodies to my soulmate instead of two. Take the knife, my friend, save the faelings. Do not let my death be for nothing."
Bane cursed, his hand shaking harder around the blade as Lova’s lips thinned. There was no time for his hesitation, not now.
