Chapter 44

-Dante-

I stared at the blue, bright sky above me. I couldn’t see a single cloud anywhere. It was the only thing I could see behind the rocky edges of the ravine. I couldn’t hear a thing. The world around me was completely quiet. It was almost peaceful.

It took me a moment to understand that I couldn’t feel a thing. For a short second, I was fine with it, but something was off. It wasn’t a blissful feeling. It was… complete numbness. Like all my senses refused to work. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t blink. I couldn’t even breathe, no matter how hard I tried.

Panic overtook me. This wasn’t normal. Something was terribly wrong, and that thought cleared up a bit of the fog that had occupied my mind, and I remembered an ogre. From the corner of my eye, I could see it charging at me from behind the trees, but I never had enough time to react.

It hit me so hard I nearly lost consciousness. My head had been in such a massive pain I was sure my skull got split in half. Whatever happened after that got shrouded in the fog that was now clearing up. All I could remember was Chase yelling my name… and that I fell.

I stared up at the edge of the ravine. It was so far away… Too far away.

Was I dying…?

I saw movement above me. Flying rocks and other debris that was thrown over the edge of the ravine. Then, a familiar face peered past the edge, yelling something down at me. I couldn’t hear them, nor was I able to respond. I still couldn’t feel a thing. My body still refused to move…

I was so tired… What did it matter what happened? Who cared…? All I really wanted to do was to close my eyes…

And at that exact moment, the pain finally hit me. I wanted to scream, but nothing came out. I had never felt pain like that before, and I was used to pain. In that burning agony, I understood that my entire body was broken. I had broken everything when I fell and hit the rocky ground.

The pain was so bad I wished the fall had killed me…

But it also cleared my head.

The fog was gone, my memories were back, and I knew my time was still not up. I was not going to die in that ravine! Chase was till up there! I had to get up and help him!

I forced air into my lungs, feeling all the broken bones begging for mercy. I could suddenly smell the blood, and next, I could taste it in my mouth as the rest of my senses came back to life. I could hear the battle high above me. I could hear Chase’s anger and fear.

My body still refused to move, however. The drop down had crushed me completely. I should’ve been dead. I would’ve been dead if I still was a human. Somehow, in that agonizing pain, I moved my hand. I could feel leather against my fingers, and I smiled.

I was broken…

But he was not.

I nearly passed out, but finally, after what felt like an eternity, I could feel another kind of pain in my leg. It was so, so pathetic compared to the rest of it, but I still felt it. I relaxed, letting go of the syringe as I opened my eyes and saw the sky again.

“Your turn,” I gurgled.

The adrenalin kicked in, and my transformation began. It was odd to feel relieved when the beast started waking up. I must’ve passed out for a moment when the bones in my already mashed body started moving. It was pure, agonizing, torturous hell, but the pain suddenly subsided.

The beast pushed me out of the way when he woke up, but I could still understand something about what it was seeing. I didn’t see sky anymore; I saw a huge pile of rocks that had fallen off the cliff after the explosion. I must’ve landed on top of it, then rolled down to the shallow river I hadn’t even noticed before. That pile had most likely saved my life, preventing me from falling all the way down to the bottom.

Then, it smelled blood… The beast lifted our eyes up at the edge of the ravine, rage filling our mind. We let out a blood-chilling growl, and leaped towards the pile, our body now fully healed and thirsty for murder.

It was almost impossible for me to figure out where I ended, and where he started. We were merging together, and I had to fight to stay conscious. That bothered the beast. My thoughts were messing with his head, our head, but the instinct to kill was much stronger than any distractions I could cause.

From the top of the rocks, the beast jumped on the vertical wall, sinking our nails deep into the cracks and dirt, and started climbing. The smell of blood grew stronger by the second, and I could only hope that… that…

What was it…? The blood… so rich, so sweet… I could almost taste it.

No! Chase! He was till up there! My friends were still up there! They were in danger, and I had to stay focused in order to help them!

But was there anything I could do to help them? The beast was nearly completely under control now, and my consciousness was fading. I was fighting harder than ever before, but it was taking its toll on me. The beast was much stronger than me. His urges were much stronger than mine. I could barely stay awake.

I had to… I had to… I had to…!

The beast reached the cliff with such ease even that scared me. The wall did not look like anything could climb it, but we did it like it was nothing. I forgot all about it when the battlefield opened up ahead of us.

I saw Chase right in front of us, fighting two massive ogres on his own. He didn’t notice us, but the beast noticed him.

We could smell his blood… It was such a wonderful smell… We loved his heart the most. The scent was so delicious, and always right there, right next to us, but we had always failed to get it.

No! No, no, no, no! We would never hurt him! The ogres… The ogres! Them first! They were bigger! They were a bigger threat! We had to kill them first!

The beast listened… It always went for the big ones first. Biggest threats first.

We let out another growl as we easily leaped over Chase, landing in front of him. The ogres saw no threat in us, and continued their attack, swinging their weapons as they charged at us. They were so slow… So unbelievably slow, and it cost them both their heads.

“Dante!“

We heard Chase, but we paid no attention to him. The two fallen ogres had friends, and seeing their friends lose their heads made them mad. That part became a blur to me. I saved my energy. I needed it in case the beast set his eyes on any of my friends. Or Chase. For some reason, Chase was most interesting to him. He was so… tempting… I feared it was the love I had for Chase that made the beast so fixated on him as well.

I had to stay focused in the middle of the massacre. Ogres after ogres lost their lives in the most brutal ways, but it didn’t affect me that much. These beings were the same as we: ruthless killers without even a hint of mercy. I didn’t care if they lived or died.

A few times, I saw a familiar face somewhere close by, but one by one, they were gone. I could only taste ogre blood in my mouth, and the flesh we slashed open was always hard and rough, like sandpaper. I wished with all my might that Chase and our friends were safe and well.

I wasn’t sure if it was a minute or an hour, but the beast finally stopped. There were some ogres in the distance, making a run for it. It was quiet… I could only hear a few footsteps close by, but even those were going away from us. The beast looked around in the middle of the piles of bodies, his rage finally subsiding.

But he was hungry, and ogres didn’t taste that good.

We wanted something tastier… The scent of human blood was everywhere, but we could see only ogres. Not a single human body to be seen… We were angry, disappointed, and so goddamn hungry it hurt.

The beast started moving, following the sweet scent of blood but not finding anything good to eat. I was relieved. I was so goddamn relieved we couldn’t find anyone. They were safe. They were all safe from us. I trusted they’d come get me soon and shove me into that cage where I couldn’t hurt anyone. I hated the cage with a burning passion, but I was still glad it existed.

My consciousness started fading again. I could see only short glimpses of our surroundings. The beast was searching the bodies, getting more and more agitated since the scent of human blood was all around us, but there was nothing to eat. We even climbed the hill, but there was nothing. No one.

Good…

The beast was angry at me for feeling happy, but another scent distracted it. I wanted to laugh at his hopefulness when he started following it down the hillside, heading towards the edge of the ravine. There was nothing for us down there.

By the time we got down from the hill, I was getting really sleepy. I was still scared to lose my consciousness, but I had run out of strength, and I wasn’t afraid of hurting anyone anymore, so my will to stay focused was fading as well.

The beast reached the edge and looked down into the ravine. And then it jumped. All of a sudden, I was wide awake again as we fell. I would’ve had a heart attack if I had been in control of the body, but the beast gracefully landed on top of the massive mountain of loose rocks, sending them flying in every direction, completely unaffected by the fact we just fell closer to a hundred feet straight down.

And it didn’t even hurt… This really was a body of the perfect killer. It scared me. I could tell that this time, we had grown much bigger than ever before. We were stronger too, with better senses. And this wasn’t even our final form… We needed that cure, because I doubted anyone or anything could hold me back once we were fully grown.

The beast got angry at me. My consciousness was suddenly being smothered as he tried to get rid of my distracting thoughts. One by one, I lost connection with our senses, and the darkness started surrounding me. The beast continued running upstream, keeping our pace slow while following something I couldn’t smell anymore. It was clearly searching for something. It stopped a few times to take in the scents around us before continuing forward.

I didn’t really care anymore. The beast was free to take complete control over me. I was way too tired to even try to stay awake a second longer, so I let the darkness finally surround me. Only a few hazy pictures of the ravine seeped through that darkness as the beast continued its search.

And the last memory I had was about us stopping right in front of a big hole in the rock wall.

*****

“Hmm… You’re alive.”

I heard the voice, but it took a moment before my head was able to register it. It took me even longer to pry one eyelid open just enough to see Roe hovering over me in his demon form. It was really dark, wherever we were, but I could still see the deep frown on his face as he studied me with his black eyes. I was so dizzy I wasn’t sure if I was awake or dreaming.

“I thought you’d be nothing but a splatter of blood at the bottom of the ravine,” he said, snapping his fingers.

A bunch of candles appeared out of nowhere, illuminating the walls of… of what? Where were we? I had to really focus to look past him, and I saw the ceiling hanging really low… And it was curved… Like we were in a… tunnel?

“He’s over here,” Roe spoke, and at first, I thought he was talking to me, but then I heard hasty footsteps echoing in the distance.

I wished I could’ve move. My body was sore all over, but I couldn’t feel pain. I couldn’t feel the beast either, so I assumed I was back in my human form. It seemed like my bones were not dust anymore. There was no pain left, only soreness. And I was completely out of strength.

“You’ve been quite busy,” Roe turned to talk to me.

I would’ve loved to ask what he meant by that, but then Chase pushed past him and kneeled down in a hurry.

“Dante? Are you all right? Are you hurt?” he asked so fast I hardly understood the words. “Can you hear me, love?”

“He seems fine,” Roe spoke when I couldn’t. “All his injuries are gone.”

“Dante?” Chase spoke my name again, his voice still filled with worry.

“Hmmh…” was all I could muster, and I nearly passed out from the effort. I had to close my eyes and focus on my breathing so I wouldn’t fall into the darkness again.

“Dante!”

I couldn’t help it… I was so goddamn tired… I just wanted to sleep.

“Chase…” Roe’s voice was quiet and dark, and I wanted to see what was going on, but I couldn’t.

There was a short moment of silence in the tunnel. Chase stood up and I couldn’t feel his gentle hands on me anymore. That made me cold.

“Looks like he found his treasure,” Chase snorted, his voice filled with ice and anger now.

“Yes,” Roe breathed out. “What do you want to do?”

“There’s nothing we can do,” Chase said. “Gus betrayed us, found his treasure… and left.”

“Right,” Roe mumbled.

Of course… The beast must’ve followed Gus’ scent here. My own anger flared up when I thought about that man, but Chase was right: there was nothing we could do about him anymore. He was most likely long gone by now.

To think he used us like that… His selfishness nearly cost us all of our lives! We could’ve died!

“Can you take Dante?” Chase said, placing his hand on my forehead.

“I can’t teleport from here – this cave has strong wards. Old magic.”

“Carry him outside, then,” Chase said.

“I’m not your mule!”

“Roe.”

“Fine… I’ll carry your little prince… Maybe I even try not to drop him.”

“Don’t you dare!“

“Hmph…”

I could feel Roe leaning over me just before he picked me up pretty roughly. I didn’t really mind; I was just glad I was getting out of that place. It smelled… Weird… Old and weird and nasty. I hadn’t even noticed it before.

“Are you coming?” Roe asked after a few steps.

“I’ll catch up with you. I’ll… Just take him away from here – I’ll catch up with you,” Chase spoke, and I wondered what made him sound so hesitant.

“Hmmh,” Roe uttered, and continued walking.

By the time we reached outside world, my head was clearing up. I still couldn’t move much, but at least keeping my eyes open wasn’t such a struggle anymore.

“Are we having fun?” Roe asked with an annoyed tone.

“Not really,” I coughed up. “Thanks.”

“Hmph…”

He turned around to look at the entrance of the cave. I took a closer look at it too. It was a big, massive hole in the wall, but there were pieces of what looked like an old door carved from stone.

“Gus knew it was here,” I muttered.

“He did,” Roe agreed. “That sneaky little weasel – even I didn’t spot the explosives he had with him.”

“You’re pissed.”

“Aren’t you? Everything was going fine until he blew up the damn ravine,” Roe spoke. “We’re lucky none of us got killed.”

“So, everyone is fine?” I asked.

“Alive,” Roe said. “Don’t know about fine…”

“What do you mean?” I asked, feeling fear and worry rise up in me.

“You don’t fight an entire clan of ogres without a scratch,” Roe sighed. “They’ll survive.”

Chase stepped out of the cave at that moment, and I was relieved to see his smile. His clothes were torn and dirty, and he had wounds and bruises, but he was moving like he wasn’t in a lot of pain.

“Dante!” he smiled at me in relief, hurrying the rest of the way to me. “Are you all right?”

“I’m good. Really tired, but good,” I told him, choosing not to tell him about the incoming headache.

“Great – let’s get the fuck away from here,” he suggested, and looked up at Roe.

The demon sighed, rolled his eyes and grabbed us both by our shoulders. The next few seconds were a horrible blur, and when the world stopped spinning around us, I wanted to throw up. I had to hold still for a moment to make sure I was fine before looking up.

We were in our bedroom in Ben’s home. The bed was right in front of me, and I wanted nothing more than to lay down and sleep for a year.

“You could’ve warned him first,” Chase scolded Roe and hurried to help me up from the ground.

Roe just rolled his eyes at him. “You’re welcome.”

“Thanks,” Chase sighed while I sat down on the bed.

“Where is everyone else?” I asked when I realized I couldn’t hear anyone in the house.

“They’re driving back home,” Chase told me. “They should arrive any minute now.”

“How long was I out?” I asked, peering at his face.

“It took us over an hour to find you. We couldn’t use magic because of the cave,” he explained. “You made us so worried…”

“Not me,” Roe snorted.

“What he means is that he’s glad you’re all right,” Chase said with a smile. “You saved us all,” he added with a proud smile.

“I don’t remember much,” I admitted.

“You really saved us. The ogres were everywhere, but then you came… You made them back off.”

“I was just trying not to let the beast come after you,” I mumbled.

“You could do that?” Chase asked with a surprised look on his face.

“Kind of. This time I didn’t lose control immediately. I was able to fight him. It… The beast,” I told him.

“Interesting,” Chase breathed out as he stared at me. “So… What do you remember?”

“Uhh… Some things about the fight. A lot of dead ogres… After they started running, we… The beast tried to find something to eat… Then he jumped off the cliff and scared the crap out of me, but we were fine… And… That’s about it. The last thing I saw was the entrance to the cave.”

“I see… And… Anything after that?” Chase asked.

I shook my head. “No, the next thing I remember was him staring at me,” I said, pointing at Roe.

“Oh, okay,” Chase nodded. “I’m so happy you’re all right,” he smiled at me.

“I’m so happy that everyone is alive,” I breathed out. “Things could’ve gone so much worse…”

“Yeah,” Chase nodded, touching my cheek. “But we did it. We found the stone! The pixies are so happy. They already promised a truckload of Chernobyl juice.”

“You mean pee,” I joked, laughing at my own words just because I was so happy everything had turned out all right in the end.

“You really need to sleep now,” Chase chuckled, hugging me tightly. “Let me take care of everything else.”

“I like the sound of that,” I told him, enjoying his hands caressing my back slowly.