Chapter 56

-Chase-

“Roe…?” I whispered in the darkness.

“I’m here,” he replied softly.

“Am I dead?”

“Yes. Your human life has now come to an end.”

“I guess I shouldn’t have charged at him without my magic,” I muttered, feeling an odd emptiness in my soul.

I was dead.

“Not the brightest idea, no,” he said. “But letting Dante back into your life still takes the cake.”

“I love him, Roe,” I said, my sadness swallowing me. I’d lost my love… They had him!

“There’s that hate,” Roe chuckled, but then he sighed. “I know you love him. I never should’ve doubted it.”

“We need to save him,” I begged him. “Help me save him.”

“I will,” he promised. “I mean, as soon as you get your ass up, that is. I’ve been sitting here for quite some time now.”

“Where are we?” I asked, still seeing nothing but pitch-black darkness around me.

“In my basement. You really are taking your sweet time.”

“Well excuse me. I’ve never died before,” I snorted at him, but I started feeling restless. “How do I wake up? We need to go after Killian!”

“We will,” he said. “You can’t really hurry your awakening. You will wake up when your body is ready.”

I wanted to do it right now, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t. I took a deep breath – if I had a body – and remembered something.

“You named me?” I asked.

“I did, as is my privilege as your master,” he said. “You needed a true Njizrski name. I decided on it a long time ago. I like the sound of it.”

“Chazar,” I spoke out loud. “I like it too.”

“My little chaos bringer,” he chuckled. “All grown up now. I knew you would make it to this side. I knew you were strong enough to survive the rebirth. But I never thought it would happen like this…”

I was silent, thinking about my death. Killian killed me. He shot me six times… I was surprised my body lasted long enough for Roe to bring me here.

“You scared me,” he whispered. “I thought I lost you too.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me,” I said. “I just… I thought I lost you both.”

“Their little trick couldn’t hold me too long.” Roe said. “But I was too late… They won’t kill Dante. They need him alive, so we will get him back.”

“Do you know what happened to Eru and Ben?” I asked.

“They’re here with us now. I’ve informed Aaliyah and Zane as well, and they are staying hidden for now.”

“Good… I can’t lose anyone else,” I told him quietly.

“You won’t lose your lover boy either,” Roe said reassuringly. “We now know better what we’re up against. And now we have you at full strength. Kind of…”

“What do you mean, kind of?”

“Does your every fifth spell still backfire?”

“…Maybe.”

“Hmm. Welp, I did name you Chaos of the World. But you might not want to use your magic when we get close to Dante. Just to be safe.”

I couldn’t wait to test my new powers on Killian. If only my stupid body would wake up already!

“Is it hard to control the powers?” I asked.

He laughed. And he wouldn’t stop. He was gasping for air by the time he managed to calm down.

“Boy, if the situation wasn’t as it is, you wouldn’t be allowed to use your power outside of Njizrski desert.”

“Huh…”

“I’ll keep you under control, don’t worry. I won’t let you hurt him, or anyone else for that matter.”

Him… My love… Dante…

“Roe, please… I need to get up. We need to save Dante. He’s with them. What if he’s scared? What if they are hurting him? What if…? What if…?”

The thought of my love tied to a table while they cut him open, poisoned him with their drugs and used him in any way possible to earn money… I was suddenly filled with anger. That anger turned into rage. I was so goddamn furious I saw red.

“We will save him,” Roe repeated.

Yes. We were going to save him. We would end this. We promised to end this!

I could see Killian laughing at me. He wasn’t going to laugh for long. I couldn’t remember if I had ever been so angry as I was at that very moment. I refused to stay still a second longer. I refused to let them hurt my baby a second longer!

I yelled at my body to get up. I fought so hard I hardly noticed what was going on around me. I didn’t realize I was actually seeing red. I saw light behind my eyelids.

And I woke up screaming out my hatred.

“Welcome, Lord Chazar,” Roe chuckled, standing in front of me. “It’s about time.”

I breathed in for the first time as an Ardrion. A demon.

I looked down at my hands, not recognizing them as my own. My skin was icy blue, the color of my eyes. My nails were black and sharp. My legs were the ones of a bull. And I had hooves.

I smiled. “Killian did us a favor,” I growled with a voice that was not quite my own.

“He really did,” Roe said, offering his hand to help me up from the altar.

“And I will make him regret it,” I hissed.

*****

Ben couldn’t stop staring at me. I did my best to ignore it – and my rage – as I stood on the balcony of Roe’s home, watching the lush forest in the distance. Roe had left to secure our home but refused to take me with him since I hardly knew how to stand. My new body… It needed getting used to. But still, I was angry at Roe for leaving me behind.

“You look… I can still recognize you, but…” Ben trailed off.

I turned to glance at myself in the window. I had a goatee that needed to be gone, but otherwise I liked my new appearance: my slim, black horns that grew on my forehead, pointing back; my white eyes and white hair; my blue skin. I even liked my tail. And I couldn’t wait to crush Killian’s skull under my hooves.

Even though I wasn’t quite as big as Roe, I was still strong. My body was strong, and I could feel my magic flowing around me with the strength of a waterfall. My old powers were nothing compared to this, but I didn’t dare to use it without Roe’s guidance.

“We need to focus on the plan,” I told Ben.

“Yes, of course…” he mumbled, but still continued staring at me. “Your facial features are exactly the same, but still… sharper?”

“Ben…”

“Sorry, of course…” he said. “This has been a long day…”

My Eru stopped next to me in her true form. She licked my hand slowly, being careful with her fangs. She, too, was a bit confused over my looks, but at least she knew it was me.

“Once we get our home back, we need to start moving. We can’t wait until morning. They may have taken Dante somewhere else already,” I spoke. “Every second counts now.”

Ben nodded. I turned to look over the forest again, but all I could really see was Dante. I couldn’t get rid of the image of him being dragged away from me. Through that portal…

“They were able to open a portal in a place with no magic,” I muttered. “They must’ve used charging stones…”

“Yes, Donovan spoke of it,” Ben nodded. “Can we get our hands on those?”

“They are extremely rare,” I said. “I don’t think even Roe has any.”

“If they have such rare items… What else do they have?” Ben asked in a worried voice.

“That’s what I’d like to know. I wonder if Donovan has really told us everything he knows, or if he left out important information.”

“That wouldn’t benefit him,” Ben sighed. “Unless he has other goals besides destroying his family.”

“I’m sure he does,” I said, trying not to crush the railing I was leaning against in my rage.

“I’m afraid we underestimated Killian, after all…” Ben murmured.

I glanced at him, trying to keep myself calm. “No, we did not. We knew he was coming, and we know he is more than capable of fighting us. We are at war, and he made his move first. Next we will make ours.”

Dante… I had relived the day over and over again, coming up with all the possible things we could’ve done differently. We could’ve done so many things differently. We could’ve left Ben’s home, so Killian wouldn’t have found us so easily. But it didn’t matter. Not anymore.

“The only mistake we made was to assume we had a little more time left in our hands,” I said.

“They sure did find us fast. Even with my protections, they could sneak up on us just like that…” Ben frowned.

Suddenly, the air next to us started twirling, and Roe appeared.

“How did it go?” I asked.

“The house is fine,” he said, but then sighed. “They used totems to cut us off from magic, but I destroyed them already. The area they were covering was big – several miles in every direction – which is why we didn’t notice what they were doing. I also got rid of the last of Killian’s men. Not a single soul alive in the mountains.”

“Good. So we can return home now?” I asked.

“Do you really want to return there? He knows exactly where we are,” Ben noted.

“Yes. That is our base. I’m not afraid of him,” I said. “We’re not going to stay there for long. We’ll use it to regroup and get moving.”

“Of course,” Ben said. “I suppose it can’t be helped, anyway. All our equipment is there.”

“Yes,” I nodded, and turned to look at Roe again. “Did you find anything else?”

He flashed a mischievous smile at me. “They were in such a hurry to get Dante that they forgot something…” He opened his hand, showing us a pile of small, black stones. “I believe you two were talking about these a minute ago.”

“Charging stones,” I breathed out, taking one of them. I could feel power radiating from it.

“They were in the helicopter,” Roe said. “And that’s not the only mistake they made.”

I loved the sound of that. “What did they do?”

Roe chuckled, conjuring a small file out of thin air. With another wave of his hand, a piece of paper slid out of the file.

I opened my mouth, but closed it again. I wanted to enjoy this moment. I felt content. Even happy.

“Aren’t these…?” Ben breathed out in awe as he studied the dozens of symbols on the paper.

“Their portal coordinates,” Roe said. “All of them. There’s a full list of their locations and detailed information where the portal opens.”

“Could this mean…?”

“We can open portals right inside their base,” I said. “Almost as if Killian underestimated us as well.”

Roe started laughing with a crazy gleam in his eyes. “They may have dealt with our kind before,” he said in a low voice. “But they’ve never dealt with me.”

“But where did they take Dante?” Ben asked, still reading through the list.

“They used a metallic frame to open the portal,” Roe told us. “Half of it got blown up when I was getting rid of the nets, but it was still easy to find the portal runes. We’ll just use the same ones.”

“They are probably sealing the portals away as we speak,” I said, my good mood fading a little.

“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t need portals,” Roe said. “And their little tricks can’t cut me off my powers anymore,” he added, tossing the stones in the air and catching them again.

“We need to get moving,” I said. “Take us home.”

“As you wish, little lord,” Roe said, bowing his head to me.

A moment later, we stood in the middle of Ben’s dark home. The house was still underground, but Roe conjured a few candles for us to go find the light switches. Once we had light, I turned to look around. Everything was just how we’d left them.

“They couldn’t get in,” Roe explained. “They had no time to figure out how to break in.”

“Never thought I’d have to use the safety system for this reason…” Ben muttered.

We all fell silent. None of us even moved a muscle. I stared at the kitchen. It felt like just a minute ago when we were making dinner. With Dante.

“We need to get moving,” I said, trying not to sound too harsh – I was angry again. “Dante can’t wait. He needs us.”

Then I turned to Roe. “Can you go find Aaliyah and Zane? Tell them we need our army right now.”

“Of course,” my master said, and vanished.

I tried to take a few deep breaths to calm down. All I could think of was Dante, but I had to focus on how to save him.

It was Zane who arrived first. Once he stepped through the portal, he stopped to stare at me with wide eyes.

“You… You died,” were his first words right before he ran to me in the lounge and threw himself around my neck. “I never should’ve left! If I’d stayed–”

“I told you to leave,” I said sternly, pushing him back to see his face. “You had a job to do.”

“But I…” he trailed off as he took a closer look at me. “You look hot.”

“Thanks,” I smiled. “We don’t have time for this. They got Dante. I… I couldn’t do anything to stop them…”

I suddenly felt so, so weak. I’d let this happen… I failed my love.

“I’m here now,” he said just as sternly. “And I brought friends. Once the pixies realized those sick fucks could be using their products in the experiments, they grabbed their pitchforks. They’re coming, and they’re angry.”

“But we don’t know if they…”

“They most likely are – you don’t make a potion without using at least one of their ingredients, and what they gave Dante to turn him into a Rassawolf had to be a potion,” Zane said.

“Well, true… I’m just glad they’re coming for our aid,” I whispered. “We need to save Dante. I can’t… What they’re doing to him…”

“Not for long,” my best friend promised. “After this, they’ll never lay their fingers on him again.”

I tried to recollect myself. I tried to remember I was strong now. No one would ever cut me off from my powers ever again.

“Roe gave me a new name. Chazar.”

“That’s a very cool name,” he said, smiling at me. “You are now born from Njizrski. And you really are hot.”

“Not quite as hot as Killian’s base after I’ve burned it to the ground,” I said, finding my inner rage again.

“Indeed,” Zane smirked at me.

Aaliyah’s arrival caused a lot more ruckus, since she was accompanied by Roscoe and Denzel, and they all shared my anger. It warmed my heart to see them so ready to storm the base, even though I knew their hatred stemmed from the fact that Killian was using other vampires in his experiments. These proud beings couldn’t stand that idea.

“We will tear that place apart!” Aaliyah growled at the sight of me. “Let me have Killian! I would love to sink my claws into his heart!”

“I’m sorry, but that honor is reserved for Dante,” I told her.

“Look at what he did to you!” she objected, staring at my new appearance. “He killed you!”

“And gave me the strength to burn his world to the ground in the process,” I reminded her. “I don’t care that I died. I really don’t. Now I have the power to protect the ones I love, and nothing can ever take that away from me.”

She took a deep breath and then nodded. “I’m glad you made it through the rebirth,” she said quietly.

“And now I’m invincible,” I said.

“Don’t get too cocky now,” she said, but then smiled widely, her fangs showing. “You’re a real warlock now.”

“Yes – if only I knew how to use my powers,” I said.

“Minor details,” she chuckled.

I really didn’t care that I died. I didn’t give a damn that I was no longer a human. Hell, I wouldn’t even have stopped to think about it if it weren’t for my parents and Frank, who arrived only half an hour later.

“My sweetheart…” Mom sniffed when she came to hug me. “My baby boy…”

“I’m all right, Mom,” I said, feeling slightly shocked by her sadness.

“All right? How can you be all right when your life was taken from you! Now you are bound to Njizrski! You’re a… you’re an Ardrion now!”

I heard the several demons clearing their throats at her remark – she did make it sound like being a demon was a bad thing.

“That’s… kind of the whole point in becoming mridien,” I said. “We become mridira.”

“You’ve taken thirteen souls,” Mom said.

“Well, give or take…” Roe muttered. “Didn’t really count them…”

I was honestly shocked that she felt that way. But then again, she had never expressed any interest in becoming one. Neither had Dad, to be honest.

And Frank was just complicated.

“It was either them or us,” I told her. “And I still have my human form. I just need to learn how to use transformation.”

She started crying at my words and hugged me again. Kind of annoying.

“We need to save Dante,” I reminded her, gently pushing her away. “We don’t have time for this.”

She sniffed and backed away without saying a word. I turned to look at my father and Frank.

“I am all right,” I told them.

“I believe you,” Dad said, stepping closer. “And I get it that now is not the time, but I am incredibly happy that you’re still alive. Your mother is too, she’s just,” he turned to glance at her, “sentimental.”

“Just don’t forget who you are,” Frank said ominously.

“Have I ever forgotten who I am?” Roe snorted.

Frank only stared at him with a blank look on his face, then turned his back on him.

“We need to get moving,” I reminded them all. “We need to act fast. We have the portal coordinates, but I’m sure they’re not just waiting for us to strike.”

“You are right,” Mom said, and sniffed once more. “Let’s deal with that horrible person first.”

“Thank you,” I said. “You know what to do. Grab your stuff. We are leaving as soon as everyone is ready.”

With that said, I turned to my potions. I was in the middle of pouring them into small vials, but instead of continuing with my work, I looked out of the window.

Dante… I never should’ve abandoned him like that. Because I had turned my back on him, they had him now. I wasn’t strong enough…

What were they doing to him right now…?

“I will find you, my love,” I whispered, hoping he knew I was coming for him, just like I’d promised.