Orus
I was watching Lyan, not wanting to get her out of my sight for even a second when she, along with the demon everyone called the King disappeared, leaving us all alone.
The demons didn't take long to make groups and set off, moving deeper towards the desert in search of a safe place.
We just stood there, too shocked to move.
" Who was that with Lyan just now?" Jack asked, a dangerous tone in his voice.
Jack's question soured my mood. The moment I had seen Lyan my whole body had lit up, humming content at the fact that my mate was close. When I had seen her in front of me, standing and alive I had almost collapsed to the floor. She was fine, she was fine. No matter how much I knew she wasn't dead thanks to our bond there was always a voice in the back of my mind screaming but what if she is?
" Was that her new boyfriend?" Jack asked, anger visible in his tone.
I clenched my teeth. I highly doubted Lyan would cheat on us, but if she had I was going to kill the guy and bring her back to my side, no matter what.
" That isn't important right now" I said as I pushed down my feelings and the will to gut the tall guy that had been standing besides my mate and had earned her smile. That was it, I was gutting him as soon as I got the chance. I felt my claws come out as my anger raised. My whole body was ready for a hunt, I wanted to kill something, preferably that demon, but anything with a heartbeat would do.
" That's right" Oscar said, his whole face not showing any emotion" Let's survive first. We'll kill the King later" He said, his characteristic maniac smile on his face. He was probably as eager as me, if not more, to kill that guy.
" Was that the demon the King?" Jack asked, not having caught on.
" He must've been" Oscar said, using his softest tone and talking slowly, as if he was speaking to a not so bright child, which pissed Jack off " when we reached the city the offer to be attendants and enter the castle was said to be put up by the King"
" What does Lyan have to do with him?" I asked, not understanding how our girl had gotten tangled up with that monster.
Oscar just smiled like a maniac while looking me in the eyes and took his finger to his lips. Shady bastard! He never revealed all his cards, not even when doing so would save us all.
" You'll tell us right now, or I'll kill you" I threatened him, grabbing him by the collar and lifting him up.
" Hahaha" He laughed, his smile even more derranged.
" What's so funny?" I asked, still holding him while Jack looked from the side, clearly on my side.
" The fact that you think you could ever kill me" Oscar said, smug as always.
He even offered me his neck, a perfect chance to strike.
" You better tell us at some point" I said as I threw him to the ground.
As much as I hated him he was still my brother and I wasn't going to kill him, though I wasn't above beating the shit out of him.
" He isn't dating her" Oscar said as he got up and dusted his pants.
My heart stopped and relief flooded my system. She wasn't dating him, she hadn't betrayed us. No matter how much of a psychopath Oscar was he wouldn't lie about something like that, even if he wasn't willing to say how he had gotten that information.
From my left Jack also looked relieved, the strain on his face that had been visible since he had seen Lyan talking to that guy gone from his face.
" Then what are they?" Jack asked, crossing his arms and glaring at Oscar.
" Maybe I'll tell you later" He said as he looked right ahead into the desert. " We have bigger problems right now" He said as he took out his dagger.
I looked to where he was glaring and paled. A giant worm-like creature the size of five of us piled together and three of us in width was gliding through the sand, moving towards us.
" What the fuck is that!?" Jack screamed while he tried to call on his magic to no avail.
" I don't know, but I sure as hell don't want to know" I said, adopting a fighting stance while looking at the beast coming closer to us by the second. In only a few minutes it would be right in front of us, and then we'd be fucked. Oscar could be useful and I could hold my own weight, but Jack was useless without his spells.
" What are you doing?" Jack screamed as he ran the opposite way, away from the worm beast.
" What are you doing?!" I screamed back.
" Run!! We won't stand a chance against it" Jack said as he continued running towards another sand dune.
" Oscar, do you think you can take it down?" I asked him. If he said he couldn't we were running away.
" Oh, no" Oscar said nonchalantly as he still glared at the fast approaching beast. " I just think it'd be fun to try and kill it" He said, maniac smile on his lips.
" Do you really want to kill something so badly that you'd risk your life!!?" I screamed, shaking him.
I also wanted to kill something and get rid of some of my stress, but I wasn't willing to die for it.
" Hell no. I just want to play for a while and then hide in the bunker under my feet"
" What bunker?"
" This one" Oscar crouched down and grabbed a metal thing in the middle of the sand, I didn't know how he had seen it when I could barely see Jack up ahead, and a lid opened, revealing a secret chamber.
" How did you know that was there?" I asked.
How the fuck did he always manage to know about everything?
" I saw the metal shine when there was light earlier and checked it out while you two were too busy oggling Lyan to notice" He said nonchalantly.
He knew we could hide all the time and yet kept it to himself. I clenched my teeth in an attempt to not punch Oscar in the face, I'd do that later, and turned to face the approaching beast.
" Jack, come back. There's a bunker here!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
If Jack continued running he wasn't going to make it far before the beast caught him, but if he came back he would have a chance.
I watched him as his eyes widened and he turned around, sprinting back in our direction, but by then it was too late. The beast was upon us.
" Don't you want to run?" Oscar asked just as he dodged the creature's head and jumped aside, landing on the sand, dagger ready to strike.
" I'm waiting for Jack" I said as I surveyed my sorroundings, looking for the beast underneath.
" Then wait for him. I'm going to kill this thing" Oscar said just as the beast raised from the sand and attacked me.
The beast's jaws closed over my head, ready to devour me, but in the last second Oscar pulled on my leg and I fell to the floor as the creature turned it's head to me, ready to strike again.
" Thanks" I said as I got back up.
" I wouldn't want Lyan to be sad" Was all he said as an answer.
Just as he said those words the beast's tail came up from behind us with enough strength to break my ribs and hit us in the back, sending us right into it's jaws. My whole body hurt as I saw the jaws close in on me.
I managed to stand straight just in time as the jaws began to close. As soon as he tried to close them I used all my strength to hold the upper teeth and my legs the under, making it impossible for the beast to close it's jaws.
My whole body hurt and I was tired as I kept the teeth in place. My arms hurt like a bitch and I just wanted to lay down and let it all go away, but I couldn't. I had to hold on. Luckily it didn't seem likely that the beast would go back into the sand, so something was something.
Oscar was besides me, stabbing the beast in all the soft spots he could see, making it thrash in pain and move with erratic movements, throwing me off balance and straining my muscles even more, making it more difficult to hold on.
" Could you stop doing that!?" I screamed at last when one of the beasts fangs cut my skin, making me bleed.
" I'm trying to kill it" Oscar said, teeth clenched.
" Well you're doing a shitty job at it" I growled, getting more pissed by the second.
" Really?" He asked as he thrusted his dagger into the spot where he had spent all the time attacking, softening it.
Black blood poured out as Oscar pushed the dagger deeper, straight into the beast's brain.
It thrashed even harder as Oscar poured all his strength, his arm deep into the beast's flesh.
My whole body strained even more as the creature thrashed around, trying to swallow us whole. I held on for dear life. From the corner of my eye I could see Oscar dangling from the monster's mouth, holding on only with sheer strength and determination as his whole body was held on only by his arm and the dagger.
" Get ready!" Oscar screamed as he smiled and thrusted the dagger even deeper, using his whole body to increase the pressure.
He smiled even more as his whole body got covered with blood and a pink substance started flowing out of the wound, no doubt the creature's brain.
Against my better judgement I smiled, seeing all the blood coming out of the wound was exciting me, making me want to kill. I had to contain the urge to just let go of the creature's jaw and start clawing at the creature, knowing that if I did that we would all die, but the allure was too tempting.
Despite being black the blood smelled just like normal blood, like copper and pain. I really wanted to kill something. Since we had come to the city a few days prior to look for Lyan, and until we had finally managed to get into the castle I hadn't been able to kill anything and it was really getting on my nerves and Oscar's. We both needed to kill to fill good. Me because I was a shifter and Oscar because he was an unhinged monster.
The monster thrashed once more and I lost hold of one of the fangs. Fuck! I grabbed it back as fast as I could, but not before it perforated my arm. I clenched my teeth in pain as I saw my blood running away from me.
" Why isn't it dead?" The moment I heard Oscar's dubious tone, as if he wasn't sure I shuddered. I was tired and wouldn't hold on for long, and if Oscar didn't know how to deal with this we were doomed. The worm would eat us and the acid in it's stomach would kill us.
I was getting ready for that, not really regreating anything at all except not been able to see and kiss Lyan anymore when the beast's body exploded and the force that had been trying to crush us was gone.
Oscar and I looked at the opening, right where the body used to be, with astonishment. Had Jack regained his magic? If not there was no way he could've kill the monster, but instead of Jack an unknown demon was the one standing on the exit, looking at us with curious eyes.
Before I could react Oscar was already all over the demon, slitting his throat in a fluid motion. I sighed as I pulled my arm away from the fangs and walked slowly to where they were, my whole body tired as fuck. That monster had been stronger than anything on earth. I doubted I could've held on for a few minutes longer.
When I reached them Oscar was smiling like a maniac while the demon was on the floor, black blood pooling underneath him. I stepped over him and walked out, finally seeing the moonlight again after what seemed like days, though I knew it had been an hour at most.
" I'm glad you're okay" As soon as I went outside Jack hugged me, his whole body shaking.
" Did you think I would die?" I said smugly, even though there was blood all over me and a gashing, open wound in the middle of my arm.
Jack snorted and pulled away. Even though he didn't want to show it I knew he cared about me and Oscar, we were family after all.
" You look like shit" Oscar said as soon as he came up to us. The guy really wanted to get punched in the face." Thanks for saving us" He said to Jack as a greeting, but he just looked at Oscar confused.
" I didn't do anything" He said, his eyebrows furrowed. " I was outside and couldn't do anything. My magic is still gone" He said, glaring at his hands as if they had personally offended him.
What did he just say?
Both Oscar and I looked at each other and then he smiled, looking back at the creature's corpse.
" I can see you" He said in a soft voice.
Both Jack and I looked at him confused until a shadow appeared in front of the corpse and the demon Oscar had killed came before us.
" I thought you wouldn't notice" He said, his hands on his pockets as he looked at us as if we were oddballs.
" Why did you save us?" Oscar asked, a dark tone in his voice.
He had saved us? Now that Oscar said it it did make sense. It felt weird, owing a demon.
" Someone high up wants you alive" He said as he turned away from us " and for your information the weakness of most creatures out here is on their back" He said as he waved his hand and my wound closed up. The pain from the wound dissipated at once and I watched as my skin stitched itself.
Seeing him do that without any chanting or visible magic made me shudder. Just how powerful was he?
" Stay alive" He said as a goodbye as he disappeared.
" That was weird" Jack said as he inspected my wound, checking if it was fully healed.
When he was satisfied he walked up to Oscar and checked him too, making sure he wasn't hurt.
" What now?" I muttered. That demon had helped us once, but that didn't mean he would help us again and we still didn't know who wanted us alive and why, and in my experience no one ever did anything for free. Whoever had saved us probably just wanted something in return, and not knowing what it was was going to turn against us, I knew it.
" Now we hide in the bunker" Jack said as he opened the lid and we went down.
Now we just needed to hold on for a few hours until dawn came and we'd be a step closer to saving Lyan, because we would. We were going to get my mate back, no matter what.