Chapter 61

-Chase-

When things started calming down, the zombies were contained, Graham’s body was burned, and everyone had their tasks, I was finally able to stop for a moment and take a look around. I quickly spotted Donovan leaning against a pile of rubble. Arthyzn was with him, tending for his injuries.

“You’re alive,” I said in shock when I stopped next to them.

Arthyzn glanced at me and shook his head. I took a closer look at Donovan’s injuries and regretted it immediately. His insides weren’t where they were supposed to be.

“How are you still breathing?” I asked.

“Magic…” Donovan muttered. “Killian… I heard… What you did…”

“He deserved it,” I shrugged.

“He shouldn’t have helped… them… he betrayed his mother…” Donovan coughed up. “He… had a journal. Use the decipher… on the pictures… Reveal… Location. Lena’s body…”

His heavy gasps for air were making it hard to understand what he was saying.

“Why would I care?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“The cure,” he breathed out, looking up at me, immediately gaining my full attention. I could see his life fading from his eyes. “She found it… her body… her… journal…”

He started coughing, his blood spilling out from everywhere.

“End this… that beast… doesn’t belong… here…”

I stared at him in disbelief. The cure…? Had that bitch found it? No… Why should I trust Donovan – the man who spent half of his life murdering rassawolves. Donovan gasped a few more times, but then his body went limp.

Now the last Taylor was gone.

“The rassawolf isn’t your legacy,” Arthyzn murmured, closing Donovan’s eyes. “You may rest now.”

“Lena found the cure?” I asked him, and he shrugged. “What decipher? Where do we find it?”

“I know where it is – he was talking about Killian before you got here. Apparently, Killian had everything he needed to tame Dante.

“That thing better still be here,” I said, feeling restless. “We need to find it before this whole place goes down in flames!”

“I’m on it,” Roe informed me in a tired voice. “It’s where we found Dante, right?”

“Should be,” I said, staring at the burning building.

“Yeah – found it.”

“Good,” I breathed out, turning to speak to Arthyzn. “Killian’s journal?”

“In his office.”

“One more trip, Roe,” I told him. “You need to find Killian’s office.”

“Really…?” Roe muttered, sounding like he was about to cry from exhaustion.

“I’m sorry – we need that journal to save these beasts,” I said, turning my attention to the two rassawolves who stood close by, looking… Well, they looked a lot like breathing corpses. They just stood there without paying attention to anything. There was no life in their eyes.

The cure… Did that bitch really find it…? I was too tired to get excited. I also was unable to believe a word Donovan said. For all I knew, it was a recipe to poison rassawolves.

At least we won this battle. Everyone was doing their best to burn the zombies. There were still a lot of them left, and more kept crawling out of the burning base. Most of the necromancers were either dead or captured, but many of them had escaped the second Graham died. At least they weren’t bringing more dead soldiers back to life.

Half of my army was dealing with the zombies and humans, and the rest of our people were divided into groups. One was taking care of the victims and our injured ones. One was going down into the tunnels to make sure no one was left behind and to destroy or recover the rest of the equipment and research. One was keeping our portal secure so we could move everyone out of here.

I hadn’t seen Aaliyah, Zane or Ben in ages, and that worried me…

“I suppose I found it,” Roe said, appearing next to me. “Can we now leave?”

He had a lot of stuff in his arms. Dante’s collar, a magnifying glass, two books, a necklace, and a whole bunch of other random things.

“What is all of this?”

“Everything I could find so you won’t make me go back. I’m so tired I’m teleporting into walls now…”

He really did look like he was about to pass out.

“Take this all to Dante, and stay there,” I told him.

“I’m going to need a minute,” he said, sitting down. “Can’t teleport that far right now…”

I felt sorry for him. Even my legs were about to give up, but he’d had to teleport us both all around the facility the entire night on top of fighting.

“What should we do with the wolves?” I asked.

“I suppose I should take them to Njizrski,” Roe muttered.

“I wonder if they can turn back to humans,” I muttered, and started walking to the beasts. “That would make this easier.”

Roe let out a weary sigh and got up to follow me. We stopped in front of the beasts, who gave no crap about us.

“They look so miserable…” I murmured, carefully touching the white one’s neck. “We should take these plates off.”

Mom, Dad and Frank came to help us take the armor off the beasts. It was clear they’d been wearing them for a long time now – all the fur had rubbed off where the plates and the straps had touched them.

Such sad creatures… I hated to see them like that.

“Can you turn back to human?” Roe asked.

I don’t think either of us expected it, but their transformations started. I assumed they were in a lot of pain during the transformation, but neither of them even blinked. I felt so goddamn bad for them. But now they were free. We would find the cure for them, and no one would ever be able to control them again.

“We will find the cure for you,” I promised.

They were both women, maybe around their fifties. Their clothes were only a bit better than plastic bags. Mom and Dad took their collars off and put their own jackets on them, and then helped them up.

Little by little, they both started to show signs of life. They were looking around in confusion and fear.

“Everything is all right,” Mom said reassuringly, and the woman she was holding up gave her a spooked glance. “We are here to help you.”

It probably didn’t do any good for them to see us demons, but they were taking things pretty well.

“W-Where…” the other one coughed with wild eyes.

“It’s all right – we are here to help you,” Mom said again with a friendly smile. “You are safe now.”

We decided it was for the best if my parents and Frank helped them out of this place. They clearly were not ready to see demons. I watched them wobbling to the portal. I was sad, but happy at the same time. They were going to be all right now.

“I need to go find Zane and Aaliyah,” I told Roe. “Once you’re ready, take the stuff to Dante. I’ll call you when I’m ready to leave.”

“Sure,” he said, looking grateful that he didn’t need to do more than that.

I gave my parents enough time to take the shaken women out of here before I started walking to the portal. Eru appeared next to me, pushing her massive head against my side, begging for scratches.

“Yes, you were a very good girl,” I told her. “I think we have earned a long vacation after this.”

She agreed with me.

We reached the portal a few minutes later. I still hadn’t seen a glimpse of my friends, but finally I spotted Ben helping King Gregor by the tunnels.

“Ben! You’re still alive!” I greeted him.

The old man turned to look at me, but he didn’t share my happiness. No… on the contrary… His expression was sad and miserable. I stopped, suddenly feeling something horrible in my throat.

“Ben?” I spoke quietly.

He gave me a sympathetic look, slowly walking to me.

“Come…” he said softly, patting my arm.

“What happened?” I asked.

He shook his head and just continued walking. I followed him, even though I did not want to.

A few moments later, Ben stopped between two big trees. There were a lot of bodies lying around on the forest floor. Aaliyah was there, kneeling next to Zane’s immobile, pale body. His face was covered in blood.

“No…” I whispered. “No!“

I sprung around, unable to face my dearest friend. After everything we had been through, everything we had done and witnessed, I wasn’t giving a second thought to what I was about to do.

I walked to the closest captured necromancer I could see, pushed past his guards and lifted him up from the ground by the collar of his cloak.

“Please don’t kill me! I had no choice!” he yelped.

“I don’t fucking care – if you care about your life, you do as I say!” I hissed at him.

When I returned to the bodies, Ben gave me a concerned look.

“Chase… I don’t think…”

“Shut it!” I spat at him, and a short moment later, pushed the necromancer on his knees next to Zane. “Do your job,” I ordered.

“Chase.” Aaliyah stood up, giving me a worried frown. “I don’t think that’s wise. You know the risks.”

“I don’t care,” I told her, keeping my eyes on Zane’s dead ones. “I’m not losing him.”

Her sigh was tired, but sympathetic. She nodded and stepped out of the way. “He is injured, but the pixies have fixed his body – he will be in a lot of pain, though.”

“He’ll suck it up,” I said almost coldly. “He won’t mind.”

“You’re right,” she nodded, clearly trying to avoid arguing with me.

“Do not bring him back as a zombie,” I growled at the necromancer, who nodded hastily.

He gave me one last timid look, but then took his lantern and moved it above Zane. He closed his eyes and started mumbling his spells. I just stared at my best friend. I was unable to feel anything else but anger. I was not going to lose my best friend. I just got Dante back!

Little by little, the color started returning to Zane’s face. As I watched, his chest started moving. The necromancer chanted louder now, commanding Zane’s spirit to return.

He had to return… I knew the risks. I knew his spirit could get caught halfway or even tear apart, but I wasn’t going to lose him.

The necromancer shouted the final words, and the light in his lantern got blown out. At that same moment, Zane gasped for air, jumping to sit up with a bewildered look on his face. His eyes darted from me to the necromancer to Aaliyah and then back to the necromancer.

“I… huh… What?” he spoke, and I pushed the necromancer out of the way to sit down and pull him into a hug. “Chase…?”

I couldn’t say anything. I just burst into tears, clinging onto his shoulders.

“What happened?” Zane asked in a weak voice.

“Did you get his entire soul?” I heard Aaliyah asking.

“Yes – it was right here – easy job,” the man spoke.

“Good,” Aaliyah said, sounding relieved. Then she turned to speak to her companions. “Take him back to the others.”

“You don’t get to die on me,” I told Zane as the necromancer was being taken away.

“I wasn’t going to, but… I wasn’t careful enough…”

“It’s over now,” I said, gently pushing him back. “How are you feeling?”

“It hurts, but I think I’m fine,” he said, placing his hand over his stomach.

I took a better look at his injury. There were two gunshot wounds on his lower stomach, but both of them were hastily patched and covered in healing salve – probably a desperate attempt to save his life.

“Better lay back down,” I told him, and he didn’t object.

“So, did we win?” Zane asked as I covered him with my long, shredded jacket.

“We did, yeah,” I told him with a smile, still unable to stop crying. “Now we just got to get out of here.”

“Yes, please,” he muttered.

Later, when Roe teleported me into his home, my feet were unable to carry me much longer. I dragged myself to Dante in Roe’s guestroom and collapsed on a chair next to his bed. For a long time, I just watched my love in his peaceful sleep. His wounds had started healing, though it was still very slow.

My anger peaked a little, but that was all I had left to give. We already got our revenge, after all.

Killian was gone, so were Donovan and Graham. Their base was occupied by our people as they continued searching for more information. The female rassawolves were safe at Ben’s house, where the humans would take care of them. Ben and Aaliyah were taking care of Zane. And we had a lead for the cure. I could only hope Donovan hadn’t lied to us. Arthyzn had volunteered to search for it.

My only job now was to take care of Dante.

Eru jumped in my lap in her human cat form and immediately curled up to sleep. I wanted to sleep too, but I couldn’t close my eyes. I wanted to make sure Dante was all right.

And I just wanted to watch him.

It was over.

It was finally over.

And it took about a minute for me to fall asleep too.

*****

When I woke up, I barely remembered I had fallen asleep on the chair. Now I was in the bed with Dante, and back in my human form. Roe’s doing, I assumed.

Oh, how good it felt to have my love back in my arms. He was still asleep, and his body was fully recovered. I wished there weren’t any mental scars, but it was obvious there would be. He’d been tortured again, and Killian nearly managed to tame him. Of course Dante would be shaken.

And I was worried he was mad at me for letting them capture him.

I hugged him tighter, pressing my face against his shoulder. I hadn’t had any time to start processing everything that had happened during the last twenty-four hours, and I wasn’t willing to start with it now. I just wanted to enjoy this peace.

It was short-lived. A few moments later, Dante started waking up. I held my breath as he moved around a bit, his breathing turning uneven. He frowned, and finally let out a quiet groan.

“Hey baby,” I whispered, and his eyes shot wide open.

“Chase…?” he whispered, looking at me like he was seeing a ghost.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, but he didn’t reply to me. He turned to look at the luxurious bedroom around us, looking almost scared. “It’s okay baby – this is Roe’s home. We’re safe here.”

He turned his attention back to me. “But… You died,” he gasped. “I… I saw… You…”

“Well, as you can see, I’m alive and kicking,” I told him with a smile. “You should rest – you’ve been through a lot.”

“But…” he trailed off, and suddenly leaned in to kiss me. “Is this real? Am I dreaming?” he asked in confusion, but did lay back down. I chuckled at him and caressed his cheek as he pulled me tightly against his chest.

“This is real,” I told him, pulling the covers back over him. “A lot has happened, but don’t you want to rest first?”

“No, please tell me what’s going on! What happened? I was back at that… place…”

I already knew he wouldn’t calm down or stop asking questions if I didn’t tell him everything.

“Well, I want you to remember that it is all over now, and that we are completely safe in here, okay?” I spoke.

“Okay…?” he said slowly. “Why does that matter?”

“Because I need you to stay calm, okay? You’ve been through a lot, and your body is still weak. If you don’t stay calm–”

“I promise,” he said. “Tell me.”

I took a deep breath and began the story from the moment I died. I expected him to react badly over hearing that I was now a demon, but he didn’t seem to care that much.

“So you’re like Roe now?” he asked with a frown.

“I am yeah,” I said quietly. “But I have light-blue skin and white hair and black horns and… hooves. It’s… It’s going to take some time to get used to, to be fair,” I said with a chuckle.

“Light-blue, like your eyes?” he asked.

“Pretty much yeah.”

He was silent for a moment. “I like that color,” he then said.

I just had to kiss him. “I do look hot, if I may say so,” I smirked. “Anyway…”

I continued with the story, and he listened quietly almost the entire time. My voice was hoarse, and my mouth dry by the time I got to the part about Graham.

But when I was about to tell him what Donovan told me right before he died, I hesitated.

“What?” Dante asked.

“Donovan could be lying, but he said that Lena found the cure for you,” I said. “Arthyzn is searching for it as we speak.”

“She found it?” Dante frowned. “Sounds like…”

“Sounds like Donovan was lying, yeah,” I agreed. “We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, our people are searching the base for any clues. Even if Lena didn’t find it, someone else could have.”

Dante was silent again, and I had the feeling I knew what he was thinking.

“You will take the cure, right?” I asked.

“I mean…” he trailed off with a shrug, giving me a careful look. “Hear me out, okay? We still have ten years, right? I’m technically not in a hurry to take the cure if we find it now. You could just tame me.”

“I already told you I’m not settling for ten years.”

“We could use that ten years trying to find a way to prolong my life. Maybe we can figure out how I can live up to hundred years as a rassawolf. And if we can’t, then I’ll just take the cure,” he spoke. I stopped to think about his words, and since I wasn’t replying right away, he added, “We’re not in a hurry, right?”

I still didn’t like the idea, but since we didn’t actually have the cure, I sighed. “We can think about it, yes,” I said.

“Good,” he said, and smiled at me. He was silent for a moment, but then hugged me tightly. “I thought I lost you,” he whispered.

“You’ll never lose me,” I murmured. “And I’ll never let anyone take you away from me. And now I have the power to keep that promise.”

“It’s over now,” Dante said, and laughed lightly. Freely. “It’s actually over now.”

“And you got your revenge,” I said with a smile.

“I did,” he said, smiling as well. “I’m kind of sad I can’t remember it.”

“It was glorious,” I said. “He suffered for what he did to you.”

“Maybe it’s for the best that I can’t remember it,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “I’ve never killed anyone before…”

Not that he could remember.

“Right,” I just said, hugging him tighter. “But it’s over now.”

He let out a content breath and kissed the top of my head. “It’s over now,” he repeated with a happy tone in his voice.