Page 57 of Hell Kissed
Rhys
My wolf doesn’t question life. She doesn’t pause or consider the outcome.
She just fucking reacts.
She wreaks chaotic magic through my veins as her strength alone sends a shriek of pain tearing from my lips. Her snapping teeth come first. A cracking of bone and a sizzling of magic is all I remember before my body is her own. She consumes me, snarling and snapping her jaws as she turns and races in perfect rhythm with the hellhound now at my side. Bright starry eyes peer over at me for a single second, burning more brightly than the flaming fur of his fenrir, and then we’re attacking.
A beast of a man towers above us. He’s four times Torben’s size, a literal fucking giant. His bulky arm is as big as a tree and grasps a flaming branch like a weapon that arcs downward, aiming to smash us into the ashy dirt beneath my paws. I jump over his strike lithely, my wolf not only strong but graceful. Fire singes my tail, but my wolf is already taking aim. Sharp teeth rip into thick flesh. My jaws sink harder into the giant’s leg.
The putrid taste of his black blood fills my mouth, but I don’t yield.
Loki’s mewl is low and vicious as he races up and slashes at the beast with ferociously sharp claws. No longer my little ball of grey fur, his hellcat form is huge and glowing with the fires of Hell as he attacks, trying to protect me by eradicating the threat.
A blur of fire rushes past us, climbing higher, and then Latham’s fenrir catches the meaty wrist of our attacker. Growls and roars shake through the air, but it’s the abrupt earthquake below that sends me flailing to the ground with a hard kick from the giant’s bare foot.
Dirt billows around me as I hit the ground hard.
“No pass!” the enormous man booms.
Spitting fire laps up from the cracked soil. Torben stands several yards away, and once more he raises his powerful fist. It comes down like a lash of lightning, fire blazing out like an explosion of glass shattering on concrete. The warrior’s eyes blaze just as hot, searing with magic as he assesses the giant with cruel violence in his gaze.
Sparking embers surround me. The rushing river is just behind the giant and the steel metal bridge can narrowly be seen between his trunk-like legs. The heat of hellish magic burns through the air. It’s all I see, all I smell, all I feel.
Until a thrashing wind suddenly pushes down on me. A scathing sound of total destruction roars through it all, and my wolf halts in her tracks at the beastly growl hissing down from the crimson skies.
A pure black dragon with glowing symbols and lines etching all across its lengthy torso rises up. Its wide wings and even the tip of its flaming tail soars over me. It swoops down and the giant staggers, shaking the land when he crashes down on his ass with the force of an earthquake. The shadow of the creature alone envelops the giant, and it too looks up with wide, fearful eyes.
And that’s when I take my shot.
Dirt flicks into my narrowed eyes. Fire licks at my paws as I leap over the clawing flames reaching up from the shattered land. But not even the burn of a thousand embers would stop me now.
My claws sink deep before I shove off hard. The wind catches at my limbs as total weightlessness sinks in. A dragon’s talon crashes down atop the chest of the giant just as I extend my body and sink my canines into the leathery skin at the base of his neck. A strange magic warms deep inside of me and my growl emits deeper, a painful breath burning up my throat. Magic as scorching as the blaze of the sun stings from my tongue and sizzles across the giant’s throat and face.
We’ve pinned him.
I can taste his screams that linger like ash clinging to the air.
His arms flail above me, batting at the dragon’s massive talons slicing up his face. Hands fumble against the dirt.
And then flames fly overhead like a white flag meant to kill his enemies. The fiery branch the giant wields swipes down on Aric, and despite my wolf’s determination, I release my hold and watch my friend free-fall like a battered bird fumbling to the ground. I tumble down but land on readied feet. The dragon’s roar is enraged as it huffs out smoke and carefully restrained fire.
I move away, my paws treading backward from the giant as the dragon strides closer and closer with the flames of Hell held just at the back of his throat. The giant mumbles something as he kicks Latham’s hellhound off for the third time and flings Loki away like my enormous cat is a mere annoyance rather than a true threat.
Latham stands, morphing with ease into his human form. On waning steps he comes slowly forward, his blood pooling across this ashy ground. The giant beast rears back the fist that clutches the fiery branch, and stares Aric dead in the eye.
Then he throws it with the force of a hundred men.
It launches through the air like an arrow aimed perfectly at its target. It’s quicker than the wind, barely visible to the naked eye, and there’s not enough time for Aric to react.
A blaze of familiar fiery magic flickers in the air, and not a hound or even a beast catches the flaming branch.
Smoke wafts around Latham’s body as he appears from the ether. Using his impenetrable strength, he rips the branch from the air in a collision of cracking wood. He holds the enormous branch in one hand, his gaze unflinching as he looks the monstrous giant in the eye.
Latham’s fingers tighten, his knuckles turn white, and the wood splinters in his fist as he cracks it into two solid pieces. The broken branch lands with a loud thud upon impact as Latham drops the weapon like it’s a puny stick to be forgotten.
“My club!” The giant’s face twists in anger. A war scream booms across the dry lands in sound waves full of agony. Thunderous magic shakes all around me at the sound of his rage. The trembling power raises the hackles of my fur. It sways the godly splintered cracks of fiery ground.
Pain strikes deep into my sensitive ears and my wolf whines as she lowers her head in an attempt to protect herself. It seeps into her so deeply, prickling fear strikes at the hidden well of her magic, weakening her. It’s something I’ve never felt from the reckless wolf in my entire life.
