Ch. 138: The Switch

CHAPTER 138:
Jake~
We’re losing this. Right when I thought things were going in our favor these Soul Eaters appeared. And they are next to impossible to kill. I knock one down, and it just comes up again after some recovery time. And it just takes so dann much to get that much done. I just can’t figure out how to destroy them. They just don’t burn like other things. They don’t get hit by other things. I throw everything I can and it's barely enough.
I know if it weren’t for Rachel with me - I wouldn’t be knocking them out for this long. My team leaders report that they can't even knock them out. They just try to hold them off as much as they can and they’re barely doing that.
So we keep pulling back, closer to the packhouse. I’m trying not to panic but we’re running out of ideas. We weren’t prepared for this. Witches and vampires? Sure. Maybe a handful of Soul Eaters? Probably. But we had no idea there were maybe a hundred of them. Aamon was in the driver’s seat for most of this and even as amazing and invigorated he felt earlier - unleashing all our building anger and fire - even he was over this.
Pretty much every witch and vampire is dead now. It’s just these demons. And I know why they are so focused on Rachel and I. We are basically calling them with our level of magic and power. And while I tried to order my team to leave us since we were clearly the targets, they refused to go. They all refused. My Alpha command did nothing. They adamantly refused to leave me behind.
I can’t say I would do differently. If any one of them needed me I would be here. Even the ones that haven’t accepted Rachel yet. I wouldn’t let this be their end.
We get closer again and I try not to notice the wolves who aren’t moving out there past the new line. I try not to spend a second recognizing them and thinking of their loved ones. I can’t afford to right now. I need to stay focused. I need to keep giving it my all.
So I keep burning and hitting, clawing and roaring. And Rachel holds on and sends me strength, sends the wolves around us strength. I make my walls of hellfire hotter and denser. Trying to hold any of them back to give my packmembers more time, any extra time I can. It’s too late to get them out and I can’t think of what to do after this. There’s nowhere to go, nothing left to try.
I am totally caught off guard when I hear an explosion. I almost don’t duck in time to avoid the long arm of a Soul Eater. But I do and once I hit him enough he goes down. And I’m able to turn around and listen to the links I’m getting.
No. My heart stops. It’s Nick and Ally. They were out there.
I take off running.
Aamon is roaring and we’re flying through the fields, barely touching the ground, propelled by fire. I feel Rachel’s pain and panic.
Ev! It’s Nick! He was in the explosion with Ally!, I link Evan. Are you okay? He’s not responding!
We’re okay! Meet me there!, Evan sends back.
I don’t even care who ‘we’ is.

Rachel~
I’m getting tired. Even with all the taking of magic and power from those I’m wiping out, it’s not enough.
And so when I see Ally in trouble, I just scream. I can’t function enough to tell Jake what’s going on or where I want to go. I’m just screaming and tugging on the flames, willing them to let me go.
Ally is too far and I see Nick standing his ground between Ally and the hooded figures and demons.
I can’t lose her. I won’t lose her.
I shriek when something blows up. It’s a huge blast of light, like an atom bomb.
“NO!” I choke out.
My heart shatters.
Jake is booking it there after finally killing off one of these shadow demons. They are crazy hard to kill and while we fought three at the same time, we were stuck and unable to help anyone else while we were fighting. All my amplification had to be on Jake, leaving our pack members on their own.
We’re flying across the field, I don’t even think he’s hitting the ground.
We’re closer soon and while the battle rages on, all I can focus on is Ally and Nick. They’re there but they aren’t moving.
I push off Jake and slide down.
“Ally!” I scream out, running over to her.
She’s okay, she’s breathing. And to my relief Nick is blinking up at me in his wolf form. He army crawls over to Ally and the two lay there for a heartbeat before Ally sucks in a huge breath. She sits up, her eyes bulging and panicked until she registers Nick on her lap, and me to her side.
“Jesus! Ally!” I yell at her. “You scared the sht out of me!”
“Maxine,” she says.
I look at her confused.
“Al - it’s me, it’s Rachel. And Nick,” I try to coax her.
“Maxine,” she says again as she shakily points to the right.
My eyes narrow in on the blast and it’s a bunch of charcoal figures. Right where the four Soul Eaters and two hooded figures were. But I don’t understand. Was Maxine here? Did Ally kill her?
I look to see Jake fighting off another Soul Eater who has come to us, and I look around at everything else.
Blood, wolves, witches, lightning, Jake’s flames, our whole pack surrounded and shrinking in, blocked every direction by Soul Eaters, and at last - the moon directly up ahead. The moon was at its peak.
I swallow.
Wolves are falling back. Jake can’t fight them all.
“Nick, get her inside,” I say to him, command in my tone.
He shifts and scoops her up as she whimpers things I can’t hear.
I see everyone back in front of the packhouse. And it’s like everything's in slow motion. Jake is down. Kyle is being dragged into the packhouse by his shirt by a wolf I don’t recognize. Evan’s dad is leaning on a warrior, one of his arms limp and at a wrong angle. There’s shouting and blood and bodies littered on the ground. Nick’s dad is crying into someone’s limp form. So much pain here. And they won’t stop. The Soul Eaters won’t stop coming. They’re rising from where they’ve been knocked out.
I look up at the moon again and try not to cry. Aurora told me this could happen. And at the time I heard what she was saying without really hearing her. Without really understanding. I think part of me thought that this was purely theoretical, and while I knew then that I would do the right thing - it doesn’t make it any easier to do right now.
But it’s now. I need to save them now. I know what will happen if I don’t.
I dig down into the earth where I sank energy earlier. At the time it was too much for me to hold. But I knew I’d need it later. And later is here.
I pull on the earth, the forest, and link them - tie them to me. I look to the moon and let go of myself, of Jake, of everything. I tie it to me. I pull on everything around me. The bushes, the blood soaking the grass, all of it. Anything that’s left.
I register Jake getting hit, but I can barely feel it. There’s just me and energy. Me and everything.
The Soul Eaters converge. They feel what I am doing. They feel the power and they are hungry for it, they’re starving for it. They all focus on me. I notice when Jake sees this and he tries to run but I push sleep at him. I can’t have him interrupt. It’s too dangerous.
He slows down and trips on his own paws trying to get to me. He’ll get here but it will be too late.
I hope he knows what he means to me, what every day with him has meant to me. And when I’m gone, I know he’ll hurt, but maybe one day he’ll feel himself again.
The Soul Eaters are all around me now. There’s walls of them all around me, and I let them feast. They come to me like honey in a trap.
They are so exhilarated by this energy that they close their eyes. And I start to glow. I pull up the energy I have and glow brighter and brighter. They drink and drink. And then I am light. I am light itself. And once the light hits its limits, I pull in one go at the darkness. I pull at it with everything. To make the switch as fast and as forcefully as possible. I start to run through them all. Each one destroyed before it knows what’s happening. I fill them with way too much light, and I take all their darkness in. Killing them. Killing me.