Alpha Nocturne’s Contracted Mate by A E Randell
Chapter 279 In Vain
The darkness as they neared the next site was even denser than the previous ones. With five down already and moving on to the sixth, Lexi had already passed the feeling of drained. Despite their breaks between attack’s on the sites, the food and drink they had brought only went a short way towards replenishing her energy.
They came to a stop in front of the stones that had been haphazardly piled around this site, and by the looks of it, the construction of this one was far more recent than the last. There was a visible lack of lichen and moss coating the stones and Lord Brarthroroz frowned as he approached the middle of the circle.
He bent suddenly and placed his hand on the ground, the faintest flicker of surprise crossed his face before he stood suddenly and looked straight at Lexi with a complicated expression.
“This one still has faint signs of life.” Lord Brarthroroz said softly gesturing to the specialists, “Help me move these. We’ll need to be careful if we don’t want to inadvertently crush whoever lies beneath them.”
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They exchanged a look before moving forward and starting work, carefully prising the stones from the ground as they had done at each site before this. Allen squeezed Lexi’s hand before striding forward and joining them.
Lexi watched emotionlessly as stone after stone was lifted, holding her breath in apprehension as she realized that this one wasn’t going to be as simple as eradicating the anchor for the power.
She would have to go inside the person and unravel the magick that was knotted tightly around their essence. If she made even the slightest mistake then in an instant, the unfortunate soul would lose not only their life, but what little remained of their tattered soul too.
Lexi chewed the inside of her cheek nervously as her stomach flipped.
The amount of pressure that rested squarely on her shoulders was almost unbearable at this point and all she could think about was getting this over and done with so that they could find Greyson and make sure he returned home safely.
“F*uc*k…” a low growl accompanied by muttered curse words drifted towards her from where the males stood huddled over the now open tomb.
Allen looked towards Lexi with concern in his eyes and something else… sadness.
“Lexi… if you can’t do this…” he said softly, almost pleadingly as she made her way over.
She didn’t reply, casting him a long, tired look as she dragged her eyes to gaze down in the pit and her heart seemed to catch in her throat.
She narrowed her eyes furiously, both of her souls roiling furiously inside of her. A child, clutched tightly in the embrace of its dead mother, her arms wrapped almost protectively around her, as if she could shield her in death from the horrors they clearly suffered in life.
“Lexi…” Allen called softly but he stopped as she turned to glare at him furiously.
“Don’t. There is no choice here, Allen. None that should ever have to be made in the first place. Of course I’m going to try, and if I fail… we’ll pick up the pieces afterwards.” She hissed lowly as her eyes blazed furiously between the electric blue and crimson red of both of her souls, swirling together furiously.
A low chuckle in the surrounding darkness forced all of them to turn and react accordingly, shifting into defensive positions as the hell hounds and direwolves at their side snarled menacingly into the darkness.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? A Daemon Lord , a half breed and a bunch of flea bitten shifters,” a voice purred from the shadows, “It almost sounds like the start of a bad joke.” “Who’s there?!” the specialist demanded furiously, “Show yourself!” Manic laughter replied before the silken voice answered.
“You know who we are and as for showing ourselves,” the voice paused sinisterly as the four figures materialized amidst a cloud of black smoke, “that would be our pleasure.”
Lexi’s eyes h*ardened as they settled on the face of the woman at the front of the group.
“Narcissa,” She hissed dangerously as the woman dragged her eyes over them, her eyes wreathed in an unnatural light as she smirked.
“The one and only,” she smirked as she spread her arms wide, the deep scars that ran along her face and arms twisting eerily in the light from her eyes.
“You look like s*hit.” Lexi smirked as her father moved closer and bent down to her.
“Ignore her. We’ll deal with them. Focus on the child.” He murmured quietly, seeing the childlike fear of failure in her eyes, “I believe in you, daughter of mine.” He added softly as he cupped her cheek in his hand, “Whatever happens, it’s okay.”
With that he turned and faced Narcissa, blocking Lexi’s position with his large frame as Allen and the specialists formed a human shield in front of him. “I see Eromaug still delights in pain and suffering, tormenting his foolish subjects as he sees fit.” Lord Brarthroroz rumbled disdainfully.
“You have no right to speak his name.” Narcissa hissed furiously as her eyes seemed to flare dangerously. “And by the looks of it, you have no right to still be walking amongst the living, Narcissa. Tell me, was it painful when he bound your soul and took what he needed from your flesh?”
“It is an honour to give to Lord Eromaug everything he desires, you would not understand! You took his gift from me once and I will not allow you to do the same a second time!” She screamed as she surged forward, the figures accompanying her doing the same as the males leaped into action.
Lexi stood with her arms outstretched in front of her, the sounds of violence surrounding her seemnigly fading into the distance as she tried her best to follow the threads of energy tightly interwoven between the mother and child, their souls locked into the frightful magickal barrier.
With one hand she guided the destructive force that she had inherited from her father, cauterizing the threads that ran between each soul and fed into the barrier, as the ancient magick of her mother followed it’s progress with her other hand, restoring what parts of the little girl’s broken soul that she could.
She wasn’t certain, but she had a suspicion that if she could isolate the child’s soul from her mothers, then the barrier would pull only from the mothers remains of her locked soul, and free her daughter from the voracious appetite of the dark magic that bound them.
Lexi had no idea how long they had been entombed here, but judging by the little girl’s emaciated state, she had at least been held by these heartless bastards for longer than she cared to imagine.
Her anger flared and pushed her forward, the injustice of it all only fueling her resolve. When she was done with freeing this child, she would make sure that Narcissa and her cronies paid for this, for everything that they had done to this child and her mother.
With the last few threads clear of their souls, she shouted to Allen to remove the child from the makeshift tomb, as she struggled to hold her fury back.
It felt like an eternity had passed and nobody was answering her shouts to remove the child from danger. If she let her daemonic energy free to incinerate the mother’s remains, then the child would burn along with her, and the cold f*ingers of dread began to creep their way into her soul.
The pressure inside of her was immense and she cried out in pain as sweat poured from her whilst she clenched her jaw, desperate to hold the energy back. She sobbed loudly as she felt herself weaken, her frustration almost as painful as the effort it was taking to hold the energy back.
This effort couldn’t have been in vain. She refused to believe that fate would be so cruel as to allow her to free the child, only to have her die at her own hands moments later.
Then, as she felt her control slip, and the energy begin to cascade out of her as the dam broke, a blurred figure seemed to dash forward in front of her, with eyes that should have been familiar, yet in that moment… she could not recognize them.
That was all that she remembered before her final thread of restraint snapped and te darkness took her.