Chapter 83: Kali III
No thoughts. Not anymore. Joe could feel her eyes shifting, tunnel vision kicking in, heartbeat thundering in her ears — and she squeezed the trigger.
It rang out with an incessant loud pang.
A perfect headshot might have slowed Kali down. Joe didn't get a perfect headshot. The bullet grazed Kali's cheek and left an angry red stripe, but that was it. Bitch didn't even flinch, the force of the bullet alone turning her head, but she snarled and snapped back to face Joe.
"Yellow's not a good color for you, Sefina."
Aiden struggled to hold Jimmy still, but glanced at Kali in confusion. "Shouldn't they be blue?"
"Details." Flesh already healing, Kali at least seemed to have forgotten about Jimmy. "You're a better shot than that." Teeth bared, she tilted her head, more beast than a woman. "Let me guess, you missed on purpose?"
"Kinda."
The hall exploded in loud gunfire when Joe pulled the trigger over and over again. A shower of lead tore into Kali's torso, punching bloody holes into her chest and the impact lifted her off her feet. A mist of red erupted when Joe emptied the full clip — bullet after bullet after bullet — piercing through Kali's lungs, ribs, and heart.
It wouldn't kill her. But it'd slow her down.
Joe didn't stop pulling the trigger until she was left with hollow-sounding clicks.
Aiden stood shellshocked and immobile, fighting to keep Jimmy from escaping.
Even Joe could smell the blood permeating the air as Kali stumbled back, gasping and coughing while she healed.
And if Joe could smell it, Jimmy definitely could.
The ringing silence following the gunfire broke at the sound of his dark growl. She prayed he wouldn't hold back. They couldn't afford to hold back.
He didn't.
She had never seen Jimmy shift at that speed before. The blood must have triggered it, snapping that final string of restraint. Fur erupted from his skin; muscles and bones grew and shifted into place; teeth lengthened with a snap.
In a second flat, he was the wolf-like monster Joe had last fought in the apartment.
And he slashed those long talons straight up through Aiden's chest with a strained roar.
That was all Joe registered before the world blurred as Kali attacked. Nothing but supernatural instinct had Joe dodge the first swipe, but the second one caught her. Long claws jabbed into Joe's scalp, Kali twisting her face so Joe only saw the familiar red eyes. The gun clattered to the floor, useless and forgotten.
"You'll have to do better than that," Kali snarled and threw Joe like a rag doll so she hit the opposite wall.
Something cracked — either bricks or bones or both — and Joe wheezed for breath, blood burning in her lungs, trying to get up. No more bullets, no claws, no fangs, and only the strength of a beta.
"You're still holding back!" Kali snapped, stalking closer to Joe where she pushed herself up from the dusty floor. "Your voice, your pain, who you're supposed to be!"
She kicked Joe's arms from under her, a sharp blaze flaring from where Joe's chin hit the concrete.
"Let it go!"
Another kick, another sharp hiss from bloodied lips. Joe's vision swam, growing blurry from her glowing eyes, while her head filled with the sounds of Jimmy taking on Aiden. Demi Alpha versus half of an Alpha pair. Half. Halves. But Jimmy was already wounded, and Aiden would die before he yielded. She had to get up. She had to get up and fight. She had to get up and do something.
"What was your plan here, Sefina?" Kali hissed as if she could read Joe's mind. Grabbing her by the throat, she lifted Joe bodily off the ground. Behind her, Jimmy stumbled when Aiden slashed at his hind legs. "What now? You could have put every one of those bullets in my heart, but you didn't. And now what? What are you going to do?"
Spluttering, Joe's hands automatically tried to pry loose Kali's. This was the Hale house all over again; when Peter had her pinned up against the wall, using her as leverage to hold off Derek. Parallels. Always these parallels.
Unable to close her eyes, Joe was forced to watch Aiden's claws rip through Jimmy's already bloodied fur.
"There are only two types of wolves." Kali's voice layered with something deep, guttural — animal. "Those that are strong enough to survive and those who aren't." Her breath shot Joe in the face, words mangled through her fangs. "You need to make a choice, Sefina, of which one you're gonna be."
"Not a-" Joe gabbled and kicked her feet, naked toes brushing against the dusty concrete. "Not a wolf."
A raw, angry growl rose from somewhere in Kali's chest. Her grip tightened and she spun around, slamming Joe back into the wall. Something cracked again, healing right away while stars exploded in Joe's eyes.
"Let it go! Come on. Let it out or let it go! All that pain," a sharp heel dug into Joe's chest, "all that strength," claws cut into her cheek, "all that power!"
All Joe felt was pain. No strength, no power. No claws, no fangs, no pack. Not a wolf. Not an Alpha. Nothing.
Weak. Pathetic.
Alone.
Her mind flashed back to all the other times she had been in this position. Curling up on herself, attacked by someone stronger, unable to fight back.
Except she couldn't do that. Not in juvie, not with Kate, not with Kali. If you want to end a fight, you have to fight back. Except every fiber of her body screamed in pain, bruises and cuts slowly healing, but not fast enough.
"Let," Kali kicked her arms away again, "it," another firm jab to her chest, "g-"
That was as far as she got before the window shattered.
Something crashed through at large speed and Joe instinctively ducked and covered her face. Glass rained everywhere as someone threw themselves in with a loud snarl, tackling Kali so they both hit the floor with a loud boom.
In the murk and through the ringing blazes of pain, Joe only saw the shadows of the newcomer. Then two golden-yellow eyes, shining like beacons in an otherwise dark face, and bright teeth bared as he roared.
"Boyd..."
It was louder than any Beta's roar should be, penetrating through the nerve endings instead of the ears.
His roar turned into a howl. Not a wolf's howl, but a werewolf's howl. One that surpassed all the normal senses and went straight to your core. It shook the building, the foundations, twisting around Joe's spine, squeezing and binding and forcing her to react. A pack howl.
Pack.
Without replying, Boyd swooped down to yank Joe to her feet. He was solid as a brick house, so strong and sensible you could forget he was barely seventeen years old.
"Boyd, you have to get out of here."
"No." He grinned at her over his shoulder. "You don't get to order me around anymore."
"Oh, that's sweet," Kali cooed, already back on her feet, crouching down and ready to spring. Like Boyd, her claws were out, fangs elongated — growling and ready for a fight. "But two betas does not one Alpha make."
"Yeah? How about three?"
Oh no.
Erica Reyes, all five-seven of her teenage-fueled rage, sprang out from the shadows of the stairwell. Eyes aglow, claws stretched and mouth locked somewhere between a snarl and a grin. She landed almost on all fours, hackles raised and a deep grumble from her throat.
"Or four," Cora supplied, stalking out behind Erica, less theatrical, but fully wolfed out.
Kali laughed, not even sparing a glance to where Jimmy and Aiden still struggled to get the upper hand.
With a harsh sound, Jimmy kicked Aiden away, sending them sprawling to opposite sides of the hall. Jimmy's beast-like form with a lilac shine to its fur rose slowly, pink drool sliming down from his fangs while Aiden struggled up, red eyes glowing.
"Well, at least the cliches make me want to kill myself." Kali seemed positively gleeful at the prospect of a fight, gliding into a better stance while staring down the newcomers. "Really, Sefina, you're going to have these children fight your battles for you?"
"I was trying really hard to avoid it," Joe wheezed, still holding onto Boyd as she healed. She spat a glob of blood and saliva on the floor. "But here we are."
And as she should have expected, even though it made her heart collapse on itself, a pair of glowing blue eyes came from the dark now.
"Not just children."
Kali still grinned, swiveling her head in the direction of the new voice. "There you are."
Like all the other werewolves, Derek's face was more wolf than man, and he came to stand next to the others.
"Now isn't this romantic?" Kali stalked around in a circle, carefully not putting her back to any of them. Her nostrils flared. "Know what this reminds me of? When I tore my own pack to pieces."
Out of the corner of her eye, Joe saw Ethan descend the stairs too, glancing warily between his brother and Kali. No Lydia, thank God, and no Peter.
"You think I did like these two," Kali must have noticed Joe's shift of attention and jerked her head in the direction of the twins, "and went after them one by one? No. I gave them a fair chance to prove themselves. To work together to take me down. For anyone who was strong enough to take the Alpha title from me. Spoiler alert: no one was."
"What are you doing?" Joe hissed at Derek, giving Kali the chance to monologue. Like mother, like daughter after all. She tried to keep the strain out of her voice when her bones slipped back into place with agonizing snaps. "You were supposed to get them out of here!"
"You don't think I tried?" Derek murmured, bitter reality in his tone. Even as Derek only shifted his feet, Joe could see the exhaustion in his body. He still grabbed her bare arm, gritting his teeth while absorbing her pain. "I only got Peter to leave."
Erica had grabbed Jimmy's shoulder, hands digging into the fur to hold him up while his breath came out in hard puffs. "Told you we're not going anywhere."
"We die, we die together," Cora said simply.
Joe tried to breathe — this was all wrong. All, all wrong. Fucking teenagers. She glanced at Derek, not sure how to articulate anything. "Your family is seriously messed up."
Even with his wolf face on and practically falling over from fatigue, Derek gave her a look as if to say: 'My family? Really?'
Kali still grinned — or at least showed her teeth, upper lip curled back in contempt. "It doesn't matter if you're one, or three, or ten, I'll rip you apart with my bare hands."
Next to her, Joe could hear Derek's labored breaths, the way he sounded when he was wolfed out, gearing up for a fight. We die, we die together. He'd die, she realized. He'd die for her, for Cora, for Erica, for anyone else without a moment's hesitation. Derek would give his own life in a heartbeat. He'd die if she did not do the right thing.
They would all die. Cora and Erica didn't get it, Boyd maybe a bit more, but Derek did. Jimmy did. They knew the stakes were high. That this was real. They understood death. They would all die if she didn't do the right thing.
What was the right thing? Murder? Sacrifice? What now, Sefina?
"It doesn't matter!"
Kali yelled again to drown out all the snarls and growls. She stepped into a fighting stance, centering her weight evenly, disturbingly pleased at getting a harder fight.
"It might even the odds a little, but not enough." Her red eyes glowed, the same ones Joe had gotten accustomed to, with the dark ridge around the crimson iris. She faced Joe head-on and smiled. "If you think you're ready, let's go!"
It had the same effect as a boxing bell. All the werewolves tore past Joe, who hesitated.
She vaguely saw the twins conjoin. Ethan was apparently not ready to just let his brother be torn apart by Jimmy and Boyd who went straight for him. The last thing she saw was Jimmy trying to physically hold the two twins from joining together.
Everyone else went for Kali.
It was impossible to tell what was happening. Kali was a dancer in the midst of a thunderstorm, fighting Derek, Erica, and Cora at the same time — and somehow winning.
Erica, growling and snarling, span around too fast for the eye to follow and slashed at Kali blow after blow with seemingly no effect. Cora swiped at Kali as well, but it was as if Kali could read her mind, as she missed more hits than she landed. Then Derek, who had held his own against Kali, sailed back through the air after she front-kicked him in the chest.
She would take down the biggest threat first, Joe realized. Without thinking, Joe opened herself for his pain just as he hit the wall.
Okay, mistake.
Joe doubled over and grunted at the impact. It had been a while since she felt that strange sensation of her own bones crunching when it wasn't her taking the hits. She hadn't missed it, but she could take it.
A harsh scream made her focus again and now Cora flew through the air, blood trailing after her. That made Joe see red. Or yellow. Whatever.
Instincts took over.
She launched herself back into the fight, with only her empty hands and feet. Before Cora could get up, she and Erica were fighting Kali in tandem. They all used the same moves, Joe noticed, all the same techniques. Kali had trained Joe who had trained Erica. The only difference was both Kali and Erica had claws — and Kali was a lot faster.
"Aaah!" Erica cried out when Kali slashed her foot across her chest. Joe used the opening to jump and hook kick Kali in the face. Her bare foot made contact, but it was not hard enough for Kali to even flinch.
"Is that all?"
With a swift hit, Kali slammed Joe into the floor belly first. Somewhere over her, Erica stumbled to the side after another devastating blow. Erica down, Cora down, Derek down. Joe down.
Get up. Get up get up get up!
"Aaarrgh!"
Joe wasn't even aware of herself making the noise — it was not a noise supposed to be made by humans, not designed for the flimsy human vocal cords. It was deep and bestial, animalistic in its nature, and like the howl emitting only pure, raw emotions. In this case: rage.
As for animalistic noises, Kali practically purred. "There you are."
Not seeing or hearing anything else, Joe went for Kali. It had not even occurred to her that everything Kali had done so far, had been to get the others away, to force Joe to face her alone again. Forcing her to fight!
Somewhere, in the background, Joe was aware of the noises — the snarls and grunts and painful cracks of hits landing — but it was just that, noise. With her feet bare, her fists locked, and her eyes fixed on Kali and Kali alone, they could have been anywhere.
It could be the vault, where Kali first taught Joe to take the pain. It could be the desert, where Kali showed her how to fight. It could be the rooftop, where Kali let her gain strength by being weak. They moved as if rehearsed, Kali parrying and meeting each of Joe's blows. No matter how fast, no matter how frantic, no matter how desperate — Kali read Joe's every move.
Biting in a scream, Joe stumbled to the side as Kali span around and left three thick cuts in her wake, slashed across Joe's chest. The blood welled up and Joe fought to remain standing, only dimly aware of Erica and Cora attacking again. Not healing, not yet. The cuts were deeper than before.
Joe wobbled to the side, searching. Instincts. Derek. Where was Derek?
Her answer came in a drawn-out snarl from him. Whatever drove him — whether it was instincts, fury, or pure hot adrenaline — he shot past her, already building speed to jump. In a perfect arc, he sailed through the air with claws out.
Only the glimpse of a smile on Kali's lips as she somersaulted to the side, kicking Erica away and throwing Cora to the floor. Derek landed with a thunderclap, bending backward to avoid Kali's swinging foot and spinning around to kick at her legs.
"Hey, Derek," Kali said and Joe's heart froze at her tone. "Remember this?"
In the dim light, something shone menacingly in Kali's hand.
Joe forgot to breathe. She had not even seen Kali pick up a steel pipe from the floor. She barely saw it now before it ran through Derek's chest like it was Joe's own. It skewered him with a sick meaty thunk that echoed in Joe's skull.
There was no point biting it in, Joe could not have done it if she tried, but her agonized scream drowned in Derek's excruciating roar.
Knees hitting the ground, Joe clawed against her own chest, finding nothing. It still ground against her insides, twisting, being held in place. Balanced, pain divided equally between her and Derek, and Joe bit her teeth together so hard she could hear the creaking in her own brain.
Somewhere to her side, Cora whimpered and Joe gasped in pain as Kali tore the steel pipe out of Derek's chest with a slick organic sound.
"You still don't get it, do you?" Kali asked and span the blood-coated pipe around while Derek fell forward on the floor. A morbid fountain of blood rained around the rim of the pipe.
Instincts had Joe crawl over to Cora, prepared to cover her body with her own.
Erica made a desperate dash forwards and Joe yelped when Kali smashed the pipe into Erica's face, tossing her aside like she was made of paper.
"I expected more from you, little beta," Kali tutted as the pipe span faster.
Satisfied no one was going to interrupt, her enemies laying gasping for air or bleeding out by her feet, Kali stalked ever closer to Joe. By now Joe was atop Cora and could feel more than hear her growl growing louder and Joe tried to shake her head, to make Cora stop.
Too late. Cora sprang up and got no more than two steps before Kali dug the pipe into the floor and used it as a vaulting pole to kick Cora back into the wall. Her head hit the bricks with a hard smash and she slumped forwards, not even hearing Joe's panicked cry.
"I have told you, Sefina," Kali said and snarled at Derek who was trembling with the same mindnumbing pain Joe could feel in her own body, but was still trying to get up. "The mate bond," Kali pulled her foot up, "is a," she smashed her heel into Derek's back, "power!"
Broken, Derek fell flat on the floor.
"Please," Joe whispered, scrambling backward. She tried to focus on Kali, to look her in the eyes, but she only saw Derek, whose claws still scraped across the floor. "Please stop. Kali, please."
To their side, Jimmy and the twins were fighting with equally intense roars, Boyd already knocked to the side. Too weak. They were too weak. Without Scott, they didn't stand a chance.
"Please just stop." Joe could hardly talk, her chest burned from Derek's pain. "I don't know what you want, but you can have it. Please."
"What I want?" A taunting lilt in Kali's voice. "Isn't it obvious?" The red velvet drops of Derek's blood dripped to the floor from the pipe. "I want you to fight."
Somehow, even through the thundering pulse in Joe's ears, she heard Kali's foot claws click on the floor.
"To survive," Kali twirled the pipe again, "no matter what!"
Joe rolled back to avoid the pipe bashing where her head had just been.
"Please," Joe said again not even knowing what she begged for. For Derek, for herself, for Erica, for Cora, for Jimmy, for Boyd... for the pack, for survival, for something. "Please, Kali, stop, you don't have to do this."
"I want you to realize," Kali kept coming, "that life is kill or be killed."
The hall echoed at the sound of Jimmy's roar, where he and the conjoined twins slammed into the wall.
"That this isn't a game! This isn't a fairy tale, Sefina, there is no happily ever after. No magic beans, no enchanted pumpkin, no huntsman coming to the rescue. Nothing to save you from making the hard call."
The pipe must have pierced through Derek's lungs — he pushed up on his elbows, coughing up pink frothy blood. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to think, everything hurt.
"Please, Kali."
"Nature does not allow for weakness. It doesn't care about your feelings!"
Joe shuffled backward, trying not to see Cora, Erica, and Boyd already passed out or unable to get up. Something. She had to do something.
An act of desperation made her say: "Please, Mom. Please stop."
She did not know what she expected. For Kali to tear up, or stumble back or for her expression to soften maybe, just a fraction. Kali did none of these things. If possible, her expression hardened even further.
"You throw that word around like it matters, Sefina."
"Is it wrong?" Joe spat, struggling to get up, just like Derek. The only difference was that Joe hadn't extended near all her baseline strength in healing Cora beforehand. "Catalina García, right? That's your name?"
"I didn't come here to discuss semantics," Kali hissed.
"October tenth, 1988," Joe whispered, still moving back on the floor as Kali advanced with the steel pipe. "One minute past two in the morning. Montefiore Medical Center in the state of New York. Single female child, 19.5 inches and 7.2 pounds. Born to Catalina García and Robert S. Delgado. Registered name Josefina Maria Delgado. Named after her maternal grandfather. Am I right?"
"You're only making this harder," Kali nearly taunted, but something in her voice had changed. The hard edge on her face was a mask, Joe realized. There was no fire, no hatred, just coldness. Kali swallowed as she stood above Joe. "You're still not ready."
"Julia poisoned you!" Joe cried desperately now. "She fed you mistletoe for almost a year! That's why you got sick, why I was sick, why I am like I am now!"
"Your father made you like you are now."
"No! It was Ju-"
"You think you need claws?" Kali spat, something wild and furious in her eyes. "Fangs? Hearing? The huntress, did she have any of that? Did she need that to kill you?"
Joe couldn't answer, mind and body paralyzed with pain.
"You're only weak because you allow yourself to be!"
Muscle memory alone made Joe shield her face when Kali swung the pipe at her. The impact slammed against her arm, sending shockwaves up through the bone and into her core. Joe held her mouth clamped shut, not giving Kali the satisfaction of hearing her scream.
"Hmm," Kali made a noise as she peered back at Derek, who was doing everything he could to get up while the hole in his chest still dripped blood steadily. A steel glint in her eyes as she spun back to Joe. "Let it go, Sefina!"
The next blow was not as gentle as the first one and Joe could feel her bones crack at the force.
Again, Kali seemed to focus on Derek, who was still nowhere near getting up and Joe could not even look at him because if she did, if she saw the desperation in his eyes, if she saw the realization that she had failed him, she would impale herself on the steel pipe to be spared it.
"Let it go!"
"Ah!" Joe cried out as she warded another blow, her forearm now throbbing intensely and she struggled to even hold it up.
"The mate bond is a power!" Kali spat again, following Joe as she scrambled back. "The only way you can beat me, the only way you can save him," she gestured back at Derek, "is by understanding it! Let — it — go!"
"Please stop." Joe hardly heard her own voice over the snarls and roars of Kali's defeated enemies, still fighting to get up, and Jimmy still fighting the twins. "Please."
"Joe..."
The hoarse voice belonged to Derek and she found herself helpless to avoid looking at him. His eyes, now an unfamiliar cobalt blue, shone at her. "Let go."
"What?" Joe breathed, now sure she was hallucinating. Only eyes for him, she willed it to make sense, to understand. "Derek, I-"
"Let it go!" Kali repeated, but now in a roar.
An Alpha roar, directed at Joe, with such ferocity and strength Joe could not help when her eyes dimmed down. There was a message in that roar that never went through her brain, somehow lodging itself straight in another part of her body, one she did not understand, one not subject to exact sciences.
The noise alone made Joe's eyes water with pressure, but the order, the unmistakable command was almost unbearable. The acceptance in Derek's eyes even worse.
Let go.
Now when Kali swung, Joe tipped the scales and grabbed the steel pipe.
If the sensation of feeling Derek's pain on her own body was strange, the feeling of not feeling any pain was stranger. The impact jolted her, but it did not hurt. Not her.
Derek let out a harsh grunt on the floor and Joe's eyes flickered to him.
Mistake.
"You fight," Kali said and wrenched the pipe out of Joe's hands, "as two separate people!" She spun the weapon and Joe bent her head back to avoid the blow. "When you feel pain," continuing the momentum, Kali slammed the pipe into Joe's ribs and Derek again groaned, "as one!"
Unable to help it, Joe looked at Derek, the intense ache in her heart at seeing him in pain. He had managed to pull one knee up under him, hands with claws splayed out on the floor. His wolfed face formed the words: "I- I can take it."
"Question is," Kali began and with two long backward steps stood beside Derek again, raising the steel pipe while looking Joe in the eyes, "can you?"
The world roared in Joe's ears when she turned back to Kali. How dared she? How fucking dared she? This was Joe's pack, Joe's mate, Joe's friends. Hers.
Mine.
Everything breaks under enough pressure.
There were no thoughts involved with what happened next. Joe wasn't even sure if there were instincts. It could have been nothing more than fury.
The same noise from before — bestial, raw, and feral — escaped from her, louder and stronger than she thought possible. It seemed to fuel her muscles, filling her limbs with power as she surged off the floor, twisting in the air to lock her bare feet on opposite sides of the steel pipe and tore it from Kali's grasp.
It clattered to the floor, forgotten in an instant as Joe attacked Kali.
There was no taunting voice of 'There you are!', there was no time for that. If you want to end a fight, fight back.
Muscle memory alone guided Joe's hits, kicks, parries, and blows. There was a speed, an elegance, a precision to her movements she never thought possible. Her mind was not even aware of the noises, the snarls coming through human blunt teeth, feeding her with strength beyond reason.
Joe never felt any of Kali's hits. All pain redirected to Derek and this was what Kali meant in how it was a power. It had felt like a weakness for so long, but like the bite itself, it was a power — if you could control it. When one was down, the other could rise up.
For the first time in months, Joe felt the connection to Derek like it was supposed to be. For the first time in months, Joe did not use half her capacity on keeping the balance tilted. For the first time in months, Joe was Joe.
The only thing on Joe's mind was to win. She had to win. To save Derek, to protect the pack, to save Aunt Mel, to save Scott — she had to win.
With a devastating blow to Kali's head, Joe ducked down, scooped up the steel pipe, and swung it like a club towards Kali's chin. The impact shook Joe's arms, Kali's jaw snapping shut with an unnatural crunch and she flew down.
Her back hit the floor and she coughed and spluttered. Forcing herself halfway up, Kali still smiled, red hot blood coating her teeth as her jaw healed. "There you are."
Chest heaving, Joe still clutched the pipe, the force of her grip molding the metal to fit her fingers. She did not see anyone else. Did not see Jimmy and the twins stumble apart; did not see Cora and Erica crawling to each other; did not see Derek back down on the floor, overcome by their combined pain. She only saw Kali.
"Come on," Kali whispered, not wiping away the blood. Their positions reversed, she did not make any attempt to crawl away either. "Come on, Sefina! You'll only get this one chance! Take it!"
Joe's fingers tightened around the pipe, her vision hyperfocused and burning.
"Do you feel that? It's called bloodlust, mon bébé. Give into it. Let go. Be who you're supposed to be. Let the wolf-part of you take over!"
There was something in Kali's voice — an edge, a rhythm, a glimmer of something Joe recognized. It made her stumble, the rational part of her clambering back into control. "What?"
Growling, Kali pushed up further to stare Joe down. "Kill," blood mixed with spit ran from Kali's lips, "or be killed."
Just then Joe realized what she recognized. The desperation. The same kind of desperation as when Joe had begged Derek to kill her in the elevator.
What had Kali said? That she wanted Joe to fight back.
"I'm not going to kill you." The steel pipe made a ringing sound when it dropped out from Joe's hand. "And you can't kill me either, can you?"
For several long heartbeats, they just stared at each other. It was as if the whole room held its breath, even the sounds of the others muted and in the background.
"No," Kali admitted with bitterness laced in every breath. "Not you."
In three swift steps, Kali was up from the floor and grabbed the closest beta she could find. Erica whimpered, but all sound cut off when Kali tightened her grip around the girl's throat, long claws pricking through the skin.
"But I'll kill everyone else in this room if I have to! If that's what it'll take to make you realize that Mother Nature is cruel. Crueller than me!"
Joe couldn't breathe. Erica's eyes were wide-open and pleading, still half-unconscious from the fight and hanging limp from Kali's grip.
"Make the hard call, Sefina! Me or her!"
So tired. Joe was so tired she could feel her lungs almost collapsing. Wide hazel eyes stared at her, wide with fear, like they had been at the night of the full moon.
"Let her go." Joe's throat tightened as she steeled herself to fight more. "Please let her go."
Despite the tears in Kali's eyes — a mirror image of Joe's now because the red had dimmed down to dark brown — she snarled. "You're not ready."
"But I am."
The voice cut through the din of Joe's mind. A flush of tentative relief poured into her body. Sometimes, the huntsman did show up to save the day.
Except Kali was right. Life wasn't a fairytale and the big bad wolf was not dead yet.
"Dad? No, you have to-"
"Let the girl go, Callie," Special Agent Rob Delgado said, stepping through the broken doorway, gun up and aimed at Kali. "I can have you surrounded in a second, you know that. Let the girl go."
"Robert," Kali snarled, but tears mixed with blood on her face. There was no hiding the pain. There was so much of Joe in that face that Joe recognized all those twisted and confusing emotions. It hurt her to see Rob. And Joe might have had an ounce of sympathy if Kali hadn't had Erica in a death grip. "You've grown old."
"So have you, you just don't look like it," Rob countered easily. He stepped over Boyd's unconscious form, kneeling to take his pulse without lowering the gun. Apparently satisfied, he rose back up. "Let her go, Callie. It's over."
Erica clutched at Kali's hands, trying to keep the dangerous sharp claws from piercing into her skin.
"Callie. Catalina, please, let the girl go. She's not a part of this. Don't make me call for backup. Please."
To Joe's surprise, Kali shoved Erica away with a snarl. Not daring to take her eyes off Kali, Joe registered Cora crawling back to Erica, pulling her away. Safe, for now.
"You always get your way, Robert." Kali stalked in a circle and Joe saw the barrel of her dad's gun follow her. Her growl rose in volume, and Joe unconsciously tried to shield her dad. "Once, I'd do anything for you."
"Never asked you to."
"I killed my father for you!" Kali's face twisted in a furious grimace and Joe looked between her two parents, and then to Derek, still healing slowly and grunting to get up. Kali's eyes flickered to Joe. "For both of you."
At that, Rob's aim wavered. Joe could see it and Kali could too.
"You didn't even know that, did you?" Kali taunted, and they kept circling each other, Joe unconsciously twisting to keep an eye on both of them. "So hung up on your morals you never even asked me why."
The timeline, Joe realized. It hadn't made sense. Now it did.
"Okay." Rob's voice remained calm, but his gun remained up. "Okay, I'll listen now. Just let these kids go and tell me where Mel is, and I'll listen."
Kali scoffed. "Too late for that. And don't pretend you have the guts to pull that trigger, Roberto."
"You know I will. For Joe, I'll do it."
"Oh, really? You raised her to be weak!"
"I raised her to be human."
"She's not!"
"Human enough."
"Is she? Human enough for who? Not for the hunters. Not for Duke. Not for her mate."
If this was news for Rob, he didn't let it show. Swallowing, he tried to signal to Joe to step back. "I did my best."
Joe did not step back.
"Did you?" Kali's claws dragged on the concrete, moving around again. "I've seen inside her head, Rob. I know the truth. You failed her. By turning a blind eye when the hunters took down Talia's pack, you failed your own daughter."
Rob paled, but remained still.
"The huntress will come for her again and again and again until one of them dies. So she needs to learn that it's kill or be killed, sooner rather than later. That's what the real world is like!"
"It's not that she doesn't know the dangers of the world, it's that she also knows the value of a life. I didn't teach her that, you can't unteach it. Where is Mel, Callie?"
"Kali," Joe said quietly, taking a few tentative steps towards the Alpha, holding her hand up like Derek had done so many months ago that first time in the hallway. "Please, help us. This is all Julia. We can stop her, together."
"You live in a fairytale, Sefina. Life is messy. Cruel. Sometimes you have to make the hard call."
"This doesn't have to be one of them."
"He'll make me kill you." The bitter tears in Kali's eyes shone even in the dim light and Joe froze solid. "Breaking of bonds. This is the only way. You have to see that."
Joe's voice shook. "Who? Deucalion?"
Before Kali — Callie — could answer, all the windows out to the street exploded.
Glass shattered in like a hailstorm, and Joe covered her face with her arms, the small stings healing immediately where the glass hit her bare skin.
Like a vengeful spirit, a dark figure swooped into the middle of the hall with shards of glass cascading down around it — glittering rain in a thunderstorm.
A thunderstorm was exactly what built in the night sky outside, angry purple and dark clouds swirling together in a vortex and bringing dark omens with them.
By now, Joe half expected another werewolf — she would not have been half surprised if Uncle Raf suddenly crashed the party with a set of glowing eyes and sharp claws. It was no werewolf though. Dressed in all black, the figure flung back her long dark hair and smiled at them.
It was her.
Julia Baccari in the form of Jennifer Blake straightened up. "So," she asked casually, letting her eyes trail over every form in the hall, "who wants to go first?"
The whole room that had frozen when Rob arrived now solidified. On the floor, Derek still struggled to get up and Joe could not help but notice how Julia cast him a concerned glance. Real concern. Worry. She was either in love or at least convinced she was in love with him.
No, you don't take away the choice from someone you love.
Oh, really, Delgado, what the hell are you doing then?
For a few seconds, Kali just stared at Julia, her chest already heaving with the effort. There was a strange tenderness in her eyes, masked with bitter resentment. Joe could feel the growl in Kali's throat — it came up from the soles of her feet.
"That's right, Kali," Julia said with a deranged look to her eyes. "Look at me. Look at my face. Do you know what it takes to be able to look like this? To be able to look normal?"
Kali almost whispered: "I don't care."
"It takes power." Glass shards began to rise around Julia, whose lips stretched out in what might have been an attempt to smile. "Power like this."
The pieces of glass shifted in the air, all with the pointy end facing definitely towards Kali and Joe as Julia held her arms out to the side, panting with the effort.
And for a second, Joe thought they would fight her together. At least until Kali grabbed her around the chest, using her as a human shield when backing away from Julia.
"Okay, seriously, she is not going to hold back because I'm in the way!"
Either she didn't hear her or she didn't care, as Kali only said: "I'm sorry I have to do this, Josefina."
"Do what?!"
The next thing Joe knew was the vivid sensation of claws plunging into her neck.
Someone might have shouted her name, something probably happened, but Joe saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing but the intense pain in her mind — one that could not be shared, not even between mates.
It was hard to explain what she saw, it was a blur of colors, sights, and smells, more than a month's worth of memories downloaded at lightning speed into her brain.
It was too much to process, too much to consider all at once and when Kali's claws finally left her spinal cord, she let out an earsplitting shriek while sucking in as much air as she could.
Someone else was talking, moving, shouting, and Joe stumbled back only for someone to catch her. They held her up, but Joe only turned to look at Kali, her birth mother, her mom, who now stared back with gentle brown eyes — same as Joe's. Same full lips, same dark tan skin.
Joe's eyes were anything but gentle, rather widened in shock and hurt and something else she could not even place.
"Why?" she asked, as her brain worked overtime trying to sort out the memories taken from her and now returned. Joe touched the back of her neck, already healing, but still wet with blood. "Why would you do that?"
"I'm sorry." Kali smiled bitterly, tears of her own running down her cheeks. "Do you trust me?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
Already crying, Joe nodded. "Yes!"
The storm raged outside now and Joe blinked rapidly to focus on the scene in front of her. Part of her knew what was coming. The other part was fighting hard to accept it.
With a last nod to Joe, Kali faced Julia, snarling at her. Julia stared back evenly, eyes widened unnaturally big.
"I've never regretted anything," Kali said, her long fingers clawing at the empty air. "Except one thing."
Julia's face shifted for a second, like it was uncertain which form to take.
"I-" Kali started, voice too soft against the baleful wind. "I should've-"
The glass shards rose higher and an eery glow developed in Julia's eyes. The wind grew stronger, the storm centering above the open skylight, bathing Julia in dark shadows.
Kali screamed, voice frayed with emotion: "I should have ripped your head off!"
The scream morphed, taken over by Julia, but came to an abrupt halt when Rob fired his gun. Like Joe, he squeezed the trigger over and over again, the gunshots loud and disgustingly sharp even against the hard wind. All shots lodged into Julia's torso. One by one by one, clipping dark red holes in the black fabric.
And like Kali, Julia healed. It still hurt, it must have, because she panted hard, pumping more blood out through the closing wounds. Wild-eyed, she tore around to face Rob and Joe's heart stopped.
"You," Julia spat and as she turned, all the pieces of glass did too. "You think bullets can kill me?"
Rob faltered, gun lowering slowly. "I had hope."
Spit flew from Julia's lips. "This is all your fault!"
"No," Joe whispered, struggling against whoever held her. The glass kept turning, facing Rob now. "No."
"No," Kali snarled in a louder voice, bringing Julia's focus back to her. "It's not. Not his, not Ennis, not Deucalion."
"You never loved him."
"Wrong. I just never loved," Kali grinned and opened her arms out wide, "you."
The storm rose exponentially so that Julia's scream blended in with the harsh wind. The glass vibrated and shook, and Kali roared in defiance. Just as Julia flung her arms out, Joe saw how she turned.
She sent the hundreds pieced of glass hurling towards Rob.
"No!"
No telling whose scream rang loudest — Joe or Kali's — but both flew forwards. Kali was fastest.
At impossible speed, she leaped in the air, her long lean body a shield for Rob's. Not a human shield, but not made of steel either. Made of muscles, and flesh, and soft parts that bled when the glass hit her.
They embedded deep — in her head, her throat, her chest, her stomach, everywhere! Her breath stopped with a harsh gulp and it was like it took her body some time to remember that it should topple over. When it did, she fell sideways, eyes wide and unseeing turned away from Joe.
Dead.
Joe wasn't even aware of her own scream, morphing into a howl, eyes going yellow, flickering red, and then white as they rolled back in her head. She slumped forwards, someone holding her up as her mind slipped into... limbo.
.
.
*strolls in two hours late with a frappucino and a sunburn* "Sup?"
Sorry, guys. No excuses. I've had plenty of time to write, but I've been fighting this fight scene forever now and I wanted to make it as good as possible. The end result is... okay, I guess? Hopefully next chapter will be better.
Thank you to everyone who's sent kind messages here or on tumblr. I promise I will get to your messages ASAP. No promises when the next chapter will be up, just know that it will be up. Not abandoned. Let me know what you think of this chapter, and stay safe and healthy! Much love to all of you!
(PS: If you sent messages in the app, it doesn't show up on desktop and I've only seen them today. Will answer those too.)
Edit: Oh my god, congratulations JoyDG! Can't believe you had a whole baby while I was on my mini-break! Much love and warmth to the little one ❤❤❤