Author's note: I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving! :) I was super fat and was in a food coma and got to watch my uncle get drunk and fall over a chair in what had to be the funniest way possible. Classic.
Enjoy.
It became still. Silent. The wind, the demons, Anala, everything had just . . . stopped. Time had become suspended. Anala lay immobile on the grass, her head turned away from them. Nolan felt his heart drop. Carus slowly straightened, looking at his hands in bewilderment. The markings that had been carved into his flesh were gone, leaving it pale and flawless. He looked up, rolling his shoulders as he breathed deeply. Nolan had stopped pushing against the barrier, finding himself just staring at Anala's body. Move. Move Anala, please!
"Why?" he murmured softly. Nolan looked to Carus. "Why?!" he demanded louder.
"You see Nolan, Anala is a weapon, just as I was," he paused and grinned. "Before I killed your father that is." Carus smiled. "Rise, Anala." She did, her body rolling up in slow, smooth movements. She stood, her back to Nolan, becoming eerily still again. Relief and anxiety warred in him. She was alive, but whatever Carus had done worked. The blonde man paced backwards a few feet before turning to her side. Anala turned as his hand touched shoulder, guiding her. As she rotated completely, Nolan burned in fury and pain and utter hate before fear speared through his chest. He wanted to scream, to call out to her as loud as he could but his sister's name instead slipped out in a horrified whisper. "Anala."
He failed her. Anala became what she had always feared to be, what she had fought so hard to avoid. Anala's eyes were no longer the vibrant emerald Nolan always knew. A milky, pale film covered her irises, as if blinded. They were vacant, the colorless orbs looked unseeing. A chill ran down his spine as the scathing fury he constantly fought heated his body. Carus touched her face, just underneath her eye. "Don't you fucking touch her!" Nolan stepped to the edge of the barrier, already feeling the painful sting on his flesh. Emmett stood about three feet ahead and to the left of him. The vampire was glaring death into Carus as he growled and hunched, still attempting to break through the barrier. His skin was burning, some areas already giving way to muscle and even bone. The vampire didn't seem to notice, cold rage and determination pouring off him.
Carus continued, unperturbed. "By herself Anala can bring the world to its knees, I included, and be opposed to none. Except you. Which is why I wanted the both of you, but I will not need you now. The powers that be were clever, dividing our familial power in two. Generation after generation, each pair of the Marked born after the last pair, each carrying a half within them. But I found a way around it." He grinned widely.
Fucking monster.
"But I have her now, one half of the whole, and the Oracle no less!" Carus laughed in slight disbelief. "Can you imagine how powerful an heir our combined power could create?"
Nolan physically recoiled, disgusted. "You sick fu—"
"No, boy. I'm not a heathen. She is my niece. But it will be of my power. Hence why I bound her body to Michael." Emmett roared, moving forward another few steps before stumbling, just barely regaining his footing under the pressure of the barrier. Nolan could see the bones in his fingertips and cheekbone and right shoulder blade now. Emmett wasn't going to stop.
"This is the part where you come in," his voice rose, inhuman eyes never leaving Nolan's. "All of you. To bear witness, to be the first of many to fall before her. It's poetic almost. I killed your parents, all those years ago, and now I control the person closest to you." Carus's fingers brushed Anala's hair. "And the last thing you will see is your sister's face as she kills you."
Emmett was being crushed. He was being charred, and torn and shredded and doused in the corporeal form of physical torment but he couldn't concentrate on that. All he knew was the roaring in his head, the uncontrollable rage and desperation. His mate was there, right in front of him and he couldn't reach her. Emmett focused on his rage, using it to distract him from the feel of the flesh literally burning from his bones. First, was going to slowly tear Newton to pieces. Starting with his hand, the right. The one that had wrapped around his mate's throat and squeezed hard and left dark bruises on her skin. Emmett pushed forward another step. Second, he was going to tear that little fuck's eyes out. He hated the way he'd always watched Anala. Hungry and infuriating. Her body was not Mike Newton's. Anala was His. Third . . . Emmett's rage momentarily subsided as those beautiful eyes met his. Anala's tearful gaze watched him. He could smell her ambrosial scent and could almost feel her warm body back in his arms. Anala's eyes were sad but she smiled at him, her lips upturning slightly.
Her lips moved silently. I love you.
There was something there, in her eyes. Emmett couldn't fathom it. His heart swelled. Once he got her back he'd make sure she heard those words everyday no matter what. Carus caught her in his grip, forcing her to drink his blood and the rage bubbled over, fury clouding his vision. Anala was slipping from him. Her heart raced as Carus chanted and he pushed forward, trying to get to her. Her breathing was labored and the thudding of her heart was getting faster and faster and the roaring in Emmett's head was becoming more and more ferocious and the pain of the barrier was increasing. The racing of her heart was loud in his ears and his dead heart dropped when hers stuttered and skipped several beats, stopping. Anala was screaming, the painful sound resonating in his soul.
"ANALA!"
It wasn't Anala. There was long black hair like hers, caramel flesh and the scent was the same secret concoction that haunted him but it wasn't his mate that stood before him now. Not anymore. Anala's eyes were white, ghostly orbs that sent panic through Emmett. What's wrong with her? What's happening? She stood so still, silent like the night itself. Anala's heartbeat had slowed, long pauses going between each pulse. The shock that went through him caused his body to fall to its knees. The unbearable heat that burned within him lashed out swiftly and unexpectedly in response to his anguish, forcing flames over his body, around him. They spread up and out overpoweringly, forming along the barrier he knelt within, and created a dome of fire and heat high above him. The flames did not last, dispersing after a few moments. The pressure disappeared with the fire and Emmett suddenly realized the barrier was no longer forcing down on his body. It was gone. He stood, feeling his flesh repairing itself as the markings on his chest and along his back and spine seared with pain. No one moved. Emmett didn't think they could. The sudden silence in the air was terrifyingly unsettling, even the demons had gone motionless.
Emmett took a slow step forward. "Anala?"
Shadows gathered on the ground at her side. Smoke-like wisps becoming darker and darker as the congealed together. Emmett could make out something there, shifting in the black, coming out of it. The mass shifted, the form hunched on the grass. It was a body. A head, a torso, even limbs covered in flesh darker than the deepest abyss. It looked like some sort of animal. Like the wolf Anala had created from nothing the day Javan had shifted in this very field, it had no eyes, no real features. The form was small, hunched on all fours. It began to move, circled around Anala once quickly then returned to her side and angled its head up towards her oddly. It pushed up and rose on its back legs, suddenly taking on an unsettlingly humanoid form. It straightened, body stretching upwards until it towered over Anala completely. The seemingly small form was anything but. The creature stood tall, Anala just barely reached its midsection. It was thin with spindly limbs and a long body and Emmett suspected it was stronger than it looked. Though judging by its sleek physique, Emmett had to assume its power did not lie in its strength but in its speed and silence. A ribcage protruded from beneath blackened skin and long fingers adorned by long deadly claws flexed. It cooed lowly; the sound was translucent, a soft wisp of noise that made Emmett second-guess if he had actually heard it.
Emmett looked at the creature warily as he took another step toward Anala. For the first time, Emmett was truly afraid of her, something he had never before thought could ever happen, not his Anala. It was an anomaly, didn't belong in existence. Dark lips unseen among equally dark flesh parted and split into a large grin that spread from one side of its face to the other revealing two rows of many sharp, pointed teeth, the white of them a bright contrast to the rest of its shadowy, featureless body. Emmett hesitated, wanting to step away from the creature yet needing to reach his mate. The creature wailed suddenly. The sound carried incongruously, a wraithlike sound that glided over his eardrums like ice frosting crystal. It was terrifying.
Carus smiled widely. "Kill them, Anala. All of them."
Anala's arms raised slowly. Black emerged soundlessly along the forest floor, spilling out into the field like shrouded fog. The shadows moved towards Anala. Emmett looked down, no longer able to see the ground on which he stood. They gathered around Anala, beginning to rise slightly. A dark form rose a few feet from her, another tall creature, followed by another and another and another. Each was a bit different but all shared a few key traits: long, sharp nails and pitch black skin, but more noticeably, the lack of sight. All of these beings that rose from the shadows themselves had no eyes.
"Nolan you must stop her. In any way you can."
The suggestion in Azrael's urgent voice was clear. Emmett threw an icy glare in the man's direction. Nolan shook his head. "I'm not going to hurt my sister."
"That is not your sister Nolan. You do not understand the power you two wield. You created a tsunami when you were four because Zain wouldn't take you on a hunt. An accident caused by a child. If this continues this way Carus has the power to wipe out half the planet in a single night if he wishes it. You are the only one who can subdue her Nolan. Stop her first, we can worry about bringing her back when Carus doesn't hold her captive."
Nolan looked perturbed. "I can't—"
"You have to!"
Nolan was watching his sister with a tormented expression. He shook his head again. "I can't hurt her, Azrael!"
"You also can't let her live as this."
There were nearly a dozen of the creatures in the field now. Smokey wisps curled around Anala's still body in an almost loving way, encasing her small, delicate form. Wails filled the air and Emmett stood for what felt like a long increment of eternity and watched violence unleash. The creature at Anala's side moved so quickly Emmett almost couldn't believe it. Rowan was suddenly there, meeting it head on as those razor sharp claws swiped out at him. Rowan was fast, Emmett often thought of how swift the blonde man was whenever he caught sight of him moving through the trees or sparring but whatever it was that Anala had summoned here was faster. Dark blood was appearing on his side as the creature disappeared into blackness and reappeared behind the blonde. At the last moment the Vayar turned, just managing to block the second attack. The demons were pushing forward from across the field and Mike Newton was stalking towards them, a huge grin on his lips. Emmett was suddenly torn. He wanted to reach Anala, to protect her against Azrael's suggestion despite the fact she was under Carus's control but he wanted to pay his due to the slimy devil spawn Carus had created. Emmett was caught in doubt. Could he even help her? Reach her in some way? How far would this go? If Azrael was truly right, Nolan was the only one who could stop her but could he do it and at what cost?
While the shadowy creatures began to attack in a flurry of movement, met with their opposing force, Anala remained fixed in place. Her pale, unseeing eyes focused on nothing and no one. A black blur leaped at him and Emmett dodged the attack as quickly as possible. Two others were suddenly there with the first and Zain and Kadus flanked Emmett's sides. An angry roar was building in his chest and the monster within him was fighting to claw its way out to the surface and as much as Emmett wanted to allow it its way, he fought it down. He needed to stay rational, in control. He wasn't just fighting for himself. He was fighting for Anala as well and Emmett wouldn't take any chances that would risk not getting her back. The stench of blood was filling the air and the demons had separated from the coverage of the trees, pushing forward with gleeful expressions but didn't attack, waiting for say-so. Carus watched intensely, taking in what he had created.
Nolan and Anala stood feet apart, the former torn between fighting against his sister to save her and to knowingly harm his flesh and blood. The dark haired man reached for her, grabbing her with blind trust he wouldn't be attacked. He was speaking lowly to her and Emmett couldn't be sure Anala could hear him. Nolan was repeating the same thing over and over as if they were the sole thing driving him.
"I won't let you fall."
Emmett wasn't exactly sure what significance those words had to the two siblings but he knew their bond was closer than any other and it seemed like he'd gotten to her, at least for a moment. Anala's stretch of immobile silence stopped as she moved. She suddenly stepped back, face contorting in pain. The dark creatures stalled, all hesitating momentarily. Their bodies paused before continuing in their advance. Emmett heard screeching and howling, catching sight of a dark form tearing into an unsuspecting demon before launching itself at another, and then another, taking it down in a blink of an eye. Anala gripped her head again. The creatures still attacked, only they had begun attacking the demons as well, whatever happened to be around them was taken down ferociously. The next measures of time were instantaneous.
Carus roared in anger. His blonde form came down on Nolan like a swooping hawk. Nolan released his sister as he was forced backwards. Emmett knew in that moment if he didn't get to Anala now she'd be gone again. Emmett moved forward, towards here Anala stood. The monochrome orbs of her eyes were staring off again and Emmett was nearly there, her scent was stronger with each step, radiating off her with each slow pulse of her heart. Emmett was a step away from her, he reached out feeling the very vibration of her presence in the air around her. It couldn't have been more than a moment, a split second of distraction, but Anala slipped through his fingers once more. The shadow creatures evaporated like smoke. The demons and Carus disappeared with Anala and Nolan was screaming in pained fury, kneeling on the ground as blood began soaking through his shirt at an alarming rate.
All that remained was his mate's lingering scent, blood, and Newton.
Mike fucking Newton.
The once-teen stood looking so goddamn smug it made Emmett sick. He smiled and took a few slow steps forward. "Well we couldn't expect perfection on the first try but I gotta say that was impressive. Can you believe it Cullen? She's mine now." Emmett was going to kill him. But first he was going to find out where Carus took Anala.
"Where are they?"
Newton dismissed his question and continued, loving the sound of his haughty voice. He laughed. "I'm not the same kid too stupid and weak to achieve anything like this. How does it make you feel knowing I'll be the only one to touch her, to fuck her? I mean I've thought about it, sure, but I only wish you could see the things I have planned for her. I've grown to love the sound of her screams."
Emmett snapped. He flashed across the field and his nails bit into the skin of Mike's throat just as he vanished. He glared at the blood on his fingertips as the painful ache in his chest increased.
