92 | FRACTURED

Not a foot away, the stretched-out atrocity that’s the Revenant has it’s pointed teeth bared in a too-wide grin. It doesn’t even look like the King anymore, grey-blue skin webbed with black veins that seem to radiate from it’s eyes. It’s taller than before, slightly bulkier - like it’s actually been feeding - and the sicle-like fingers it has are now tipped in black points.

Time has slowed to a crawl around me, jolted to slow by my touch. That horrible feeling of the Revenant’s aura is overpowered in the blink of an eye as something more terrifying hovers mere inches from my side. Once again, I’m holding the chords too tightly. I can almost hear the screaming of the ones I’m tugging on, their vibrations just shudders under my skin.

I immediately ease up, relaxing my grip just a little. The black-cloaked figure hanging out in my periphery vanishes as time picks up a little speed. My relief is short-lived, as I see the Revenant is now moving as quickly as a human on amphetamines. I jerk back to miss one of those black-tipped claws from tearing out my throat. The *wrongness* that’s it’s aura prickles along my skin in sickly waves, making my stomach churn with nausea.

The reverberations of the chords in my hands starts to make the just-healed skin there begin to ache as heat pulses against my palms. I grit my teeth against the first crackles of pain that zip up the backs of my hands and try to focus on the creature in front of me. Before I can get too far from the Revenant, it re-routes it’s swiping claws to back-hand me. My head whips to the side, the rivaling disgust at physical contact with the soulless making the nausea turn to cramping in my gut and pounding in my head making my movements even more sluggish as my body tries to heal itself.

Something hits my face- or maybe I hit something? For a moment, up is down and down is only God knows where. All I know is, one second I’m turning back to face the Revenant, and the next I’m airborne. Then my body connects with the ground. It’s all I can do to keep my grip on the still-heating chords. Faster than I can track with my own eyes, even while holding the chords of time, the Revenant zooms into my personal space. It leers over me, the insane thirst that come from a loss of control making it’s red eyes blaze with cruel intent.

I let out a hiss of pain as the chill from my vampire side flares up, as if sensing imminent danger, and the heat from the chords seems to cool once more. I grip a little tighter, rolling my battered body as the Revenant begins to slow a little. The pulse of my own blood beats loudly in my head, as I struggle to crawl out from under the creature as it opens it’s jaws impossibly wide and goes for my throat… Well…where my throat once was.

All the Revenant gets is mouthful of wet dirt and dead leaves. And then it doesn’t matter, because Zoe finally seems to realize what’s happening and springs into action. The vampire’s fast, but not as fast as the Revenant is. Zoe grabs the Revenant while it’s distracted and pulls something shiny from her belt. The blade catches the light as she raises it over her head and stabs at the creature’s neck.

Blood, so dark it’s nearly black, spurts from the wound and the Revenant throws it’s head back to snap at the vampire. Zoe narrowly dodges the Revenant’s wicked teeth, but not it’s claws. I stare in shock as it thrusts a fistful of it’s black-tipped nails into Zoe’s side. Zoe’s body seizes, stilling as her red eyes dim and bright red coats her already red-painted lips. Memories of all the people who’ve been injured last year flash in my head.

*I didn’t loose them then, and I can’t loose anyone now*. Some part of me breathes, and I’m not sure if I’ve just said it aloud or just thought it, but the words get me moving. *I can’t let my allies die*.

My grip over the chords makes the vibrations stop completely, and the dark figure appears once more. By now I know what it is, why it’s there, but I ignore it’s threat and move. I pull the chords tight to my sides and use my legs to strike out at the Revenant like I had with the Tiger shifter. I deliver a round-house to it’s exposed face and send it flying backward.

Zoe’s body crumples to the ground and the vampire lays on the slowly soaking-red earth beneath. I force myself to continue the forward momentum I’ve got, focusing on keeping the Revenant as far from Zoe as possible. She should heal. It’s not like the Revenant removed her heart or her head. It may take a few minutes, but she’s a vampire. I just need to buy her that time.

The Revenant seems much slower now, moving at the snail’s pace I’m used to seeing other move in. The chords begin vibrating in my bones when I get close to the Revenant. I know I’m pushing my luck with this, and the dark shadow that’s reappeared out of the corner of my eye is getting dangerously close to me. My bones burn with the chilling vibrations of time now, each thump of the muted strings tugging on something deep inside me. Pulling a little more with each beat of the chords.

Hot and cold patches prickle along my head, letting me know I’m getting close to the extent of my ability to hold the chords. Now the dark, hooded thing has pulled a long pole-like thing from thin air with a curved blade at one end. My heart stops beating for a second as the blade hovers close, the hooded being waiting for something.

Fear at ending up on the being’s shit-list/hit-list has me quickly relaxing my grip on the chords. Time creeps back to a trickle and I can already feel the draining pull of exertion slowing my body even more. A wave of dizziness sends a scattering cascade of black dots across my vision and I stumble, fighting to keep upright as my knees threaten to give. The pulling in me amplifies, like someone’s trying to turn me inside-out, and I temporarily loose track of the soulless thing I’m trying to fight.

The seven-foot Revenant bares it’s teeth at me and moves again, it’s limbs jerky, as it scrambles to keep up with me. By now, I’m shuffling back, keeping a few inches between us - until my back hits a tree. For a moment I think I’m done. Any second now, I know it’s going to tear into me with those horrific teeth, but it seems to hit an invisible barrier an inch from my face and falls back with a screech.

I look up to see a warded tree beside me, and I feel a relief so powerful it makes release the chords. Time bitch-slaps me, the ground around me seeming to buckle under the pressure of the power. I let out a strangled cry, my scalp burning in odd patches as something seems to stretch too-far in me. Zoe hits the ground beside me, gasping and bleeding, her red eyes burning bright as she looks me over.

The Revenant screams again, the thing not seeming to understand why we’re on this side and it’s on the other. Over and over, the creature hits the invisible barrier, and time after time it falls back. Hands grab me from behind, pulling me further away from the barrier and into the protective circle of my Pack.

“Leave.” I hiss at the Revenant, feeling my protective instincts kick in. The raging torrent of my hybrid forms rise to the surface of my being, giving me strength as I stare down the hissing beast. The Revenant’s blood-red eyes lock with mine, the barest hints of a conciousness flickering in and out of it’s pupils like a candle. ***“Go back to Colton. You are not welcomed in Kiwina or Berner Territory.”*** I sing at it, my voice becoming sickly sweet and melodic as my skin brightens and an icy chill wars with the Wolven heat in my body.

I hear echoes of the Command in my own head as I glare at the Revenant. Something in me, an instinct, has me mentally pushing the Command out towards the Revenant. Willing it to obey and leave the area. To go stay far away from Kiwina and Berner lands. To leave the people I care about in peace.

Another cascade of spots dance across my vision, but my Pack has me pressed tightly in their kill-circle. Most of them are in wolf forms, growling and snarling at the Revenant, so I can see clearly over them. The few who’ve managed to stay in human forms are literally holding me up, at least three bodies crowding me. Zoe’s close, too, though I can’t actually see her, I can smell her vampire-too-sweet scent.

The Revenant is completely still for a moment, it’s red eyes dimming just a little as my Command seems to sink in. Then it’s gone. And something in me seems to break, the world falling into darkness from one second to the next.