CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

 

Damarius gently shook Aryiah again, hoping to jostle her out of her shocked state. But as he looked at her face the shock quickly became his instead.

Tears of thick silver now ran down her cheeks, leaving a glowing trail upon her skin. He shot to his feet and cried, "Goddess, please hurry! I need your help."

The Goddess appeared in a flash and quickly took in the scene: Aryiah crying silver tears on the floor, her arms wrapped tight around her middle; the cell door standing wide, the prisoner missing from within; and Damarius pacing as he worked his hand through his hair over and over. "What happened?" Diana asked as she knelt next to Aryiah's shaking form.

"The vampire somehow turned Aryiah's best friend from behind his prison cell. She was apparently drawn here to save her Sire. They just made their escape."

He stalked back and forth, itching to shift and go after the vampires, but the thought of leaving his mate in this torn state was something he could never do.

The Goddess knelt beside Aryiah and placed one hand on her forehead and the other on her heart. After several excruciating seconds, the Goddess gently guided Aryiah's back down to the floor, then rose to face Damarius. "Aradia's power is leaking out through Aryiah's emotions. I've put her in a light magickal coma until she can level out the two parts of her soul. Basically, Aryiah needs to learn how to control Aradia's magic, because right now, her emotions are getting in the way."

Damarius' anger flared as he stared at his beautiful mate now lying on the cold stone floor.

"Please take her to my room. I'll be there once I've stopped the vampires." The abrupt tone of his voice couldn't compare to the violence he was getting ready to unleash on Gage and his now-accomplice Devin. As he began to shift into his wolf, he heard his Goddess' voice once more.

"I'll take care of Aryiah, but you need to be mindful of your actions and do the same."

The feel of the cold concrete on his paws matched the cold feeling the Goddess' words caused within. He knew exactly what she meant. Aryiah just lost her best friend, and if he were to kill Devin now, before she had a chance to process everything, he'd run the risk of losing her too.

He shook the thought from his head and shaded directly to the portal, on high alert as he waited for the vamps to show themselves. Within seconds, Damarius caught sight of movement in the trees. Scanning the forest, he looked between the thick evergreen trunks, trying to pinpoint the location of the approaching threat. Suddenly, a flash of color drew his eyes to the skyline. A streak of red raced from one tree-top to the next. Damarius tracked Devin through the branches, and wasn't surprised when she and Gage landed directly in front of him.

The three began their predatory dance. Stalking each other while constantly shifting their positions in an effort to gauge which of them would make the first move. Damarius angled himself in front of the portal in an effort to block their exit.

"One wolf? You think you alone can stop us?" Gage mocked.

The low growl that resonated from Damarius' chest was the only warning he gave before launching himself directly at Gage. He may be only one wolf, but he was the Leader of the Wild Hunt, and that gave him a few special abilities Gage was fortunately unaware of.

Before the vampire could pivot out of his way, Damarius summoned the magick he used on the hunt, becoming nothing more than a ghostly apparition of his wolf form, twice his normal size.

The shocked expression on Gage's face was satisfying as Damarius sank his phantom teeth into the vampire's upper thigh, but even more satisfying was the scream that tore from Gage's throat. "Impossible!"

Damarius and his wolves were the only ones with this ability. This misted, yet solid form was the state they took when racing in the night sky beside the Goddess on every full moon. Riding the lunar beams in their non-corporeal state while ensnaring their prey was a high they all looked forward to each month. Being their leader afforded Damarius with yet another special privilege: calling on his phantom state any time he chose.

The satisfaction of having Gage in his clutches sent a shot adrenaline racing through his veins. The blows the vampire was pounding into his back had no affect as Damarius dug in and yanked him to the ground. Just as he was about to open his jaw and go for the vampire's throat, he heard Gage shout, "Run, Devin! Go back through the portal and return to my home. The Darkling will be in touch."

At Gage's words, Damarius froze. Seeing Devin's panicked expression out of the corner of his eye left him torn between ending the fight with his current prey, or stopping Aryiah's best friend from escaping and making contact with the Darklings. His mind was made up when he watched Devin's muscles tense as she prepared to make her escape.

Damarius lifted his head from Gage's leg and flew towards Devin's back. Sadly, the only thing his teeth snagged on was the hem of her leather pants as she disappeared through the silver liquid of the portal.

He came to an abrupt stop, his nose only inches from the glowing exit, then spun around to face Gage once more. Damarius maintained his position in front of the portal, the anger of losing his prey causing his ghostly form to expand and retract with heavy breaths.

His keen eyes darted to the wound on the vampire's leg left from his earlier bite. It was already starting to heal. Damarius knew Gage would be up and ready to fight again within seconds.

He quickly weighed the idea of going after Devin. But in order to use the portal or shade to Obsidian to begin his search, he'd first have to shift back into his solid form, and that would take time and energy he simply couldn't spare.

"Face it, wolf. You've lost. Devin is mine, and together we will end you and your soon to be Witch."

With Gage's words stinging his ears, Damarius launched himself through the air once more. Gage must have realized fighting him in this state was a waste of effort, because he quickly maneuvered around Damarius' incoming attack and dove through the portal without a backward glance.

As his ethereal paws touched solid ground, Damarius shifted back to his human form. The choice between tracking Gage and Devin or checking on Aryiah tugged at his brain, but it only took seconds for his heart to make up his mind.