Page 69 of Darkside

Ariana laughs and I fight to remain conscious. I grab the shelf, pulling myself up. Blood drips down my face and the smell of gasoline fills the air, making me cough. Fuck! If I summon more fire, I could blow the whole place up. My thoughts start to jumble and I think I might be sick.

But I’m back on my feet and I spin around, thrusting my hand out in front of me. I send a jolt of energy at Ariana, hitting her in the chest hard enough to knock the knife out of her hand. The woman close to her springs forward, kicking it as hard as she can. It slides under one of the riding lawn mowers. Yes! Score one for the witches, bitches!

Ariana squares her shoulders and pulls her lips back in anger, reminding me of a rabid dog. She shoves the woman who falls to the ground, head hitting with a sickening thud. Everything spins again and I feel like I’m going to pass out. My ears ring and my vision blurs.

“N-no,” I groan, holding onto the shelf behind me to keep from falling. My eyes flutter shut and then I feel body heat right in front of me. Ariana punches me hard in the stomach and kicks my feet out from underneath me. I collapse hard on the ground, trying to summon a small flame, not caring if the whole place burns.

She’ll burn with it.

The small flame extinguishes when she kicks me hard in the ribs. Once. Twice. Three times. I try to curl my legs in, protecting myself as I cough up blood.

“I thought saving you for last would be more satisfying,” she grunts between kicks. “But this….this is—” She cuts off suddenly when something large and heavy flies through the air, knocking her to the ground.

Hunter.

Fuck. Yeah. Spitting out blood, I plant both hands on the ground and push myself up. Gasoline slowly spreads across the garage floor and my shoes are wet from it. Hunter shadows over to me, shifting back into dog-form. He pushes his head under me and helps me up.

Ariana scrambles back, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a syringe that’s full of some sort of paralytic—like the one her father used. She’s going to inject whoever is closest to her and I don’t know how I can stop her when I can barely keep my eyes open.

But then something else growls, and the world spins around me as I look up, gripping onto Hunter for dear life. A gray wolf stands in front of Ariana, fangs bared and fur on end. Her eyes widen in fear and the wolf lunges, knocking her to the ground. It stands over her, guarding and ready to rip her throat out.

“No!” I yell. “We…we need her alive.” If she’s alive I can force a confession out of her. The wolf turns, eyes meeting mine. A moment of understanding passes between us, and Ariana brings her arm up to stab the needle into the wolf.

“No!” I yell again, and the wolf shadows away. She nearly stabs herself in the process and then scrambles back, looking around, terrified.

“Get her,” I tell Hunter and my familiar slinks forward, a low growl coming from deep inside of him. My vision is blurry and it takes everything I have to see the syringe on the ground. Grunting I throw my hand out, telekinetically sliding it away from Ariana.

She reaches for it, madly slapping the ground as Hunter advances. He shifts into his true form and his huge, shadowy figure looms over her, red eyes glowing like coals plucked right out of the fires of Hell.

“I told you,” I say, holding onto the shelf. “I would get the last fucking laugh.” I stagger forward as Hunter shoves her down, whacking her head against the ground hard enough to knock her out. Unable to stay on my feet, I fall and end up crawling across the dirty garage floor. Fingers wrapping around the syringe, I rock back onto my feet and smile. “This ends now.”

I shove the needle into her arm, injecting the drugs into her system. Hunter comes back to me, pulling me away right before I black out again.

“Hey,” a voice says, sounding far away. “Anora!”

My eyes blink open and I see Rene standing above me. There’s no more music and the energy that surrounds us is chaotic.

“Oh, thank god. She’s awake!”

“Did someone call 911?” I hear a voice ask.

“Yeah. I did,” another answers.

Rene grips my arm and I grunt as I try to sit up, feeling like I’m going to puke. “She’s…she…”

“I know,” Rene tells me, eyes wide. “They told me. It’s going to be okay. I called Ethan. He’s on his way.”

My eyes fall shut and things move in a blur around me. People are crying. Lights flashing. I hear sirens in the distance and voices all around me.

“It was her,” someone says. “She saved us.”

“How?” another asks. I blink my eyes open and see EMTs rushing toward me, telling Rene to move back and get out of their way.

“Magic.”

ChapterThirty

“Anora.”

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