63. Hollow

Iosif and Kyle blocked the path of wolves. Iosif knew they were itching to rip out Dimitri's head and finish this fight for good. But it wasn't as easy. Even in his grieving state, the old knight wasn't a force to be reckoned with. The wolves would be put down before they could even reach him.

Dimitri's cold demeanor faltered when his eyes fell on Marley sitting inside jeep. His eyes bore into the girl, igniting fire inside him which burned out his remaining sense.

*Selene was alive!* His mate was alive.

"It's true." He gasped.

"I wasn't playing with you brother," Iosif said, "stop this madness and take what you were promised."

Marley got out of the jeep. Theo and Sanjay went to follow her but were stopped by Sounia's glare. She walked toward the row of bloodthirsty knights. Her walk carried a different kind of confidence and aloofness to the surrounding, a gloating smile on her lips, and a roguish glint in her eyes. The girl wasn't Marley. She was Selene.

"D," she called out as she reached near him, remembering Selene's nickname for him that Iosif told her about. "I'm here."

"Selene." Dimitri breathed out. He reached to stroke her cheek, almost afraid that she'd disappear and this would all turn out to be a beautiful nightmare. "You're here." His cold fingers touched her warm cheek. "You're really here. It's not a dream?"

"It's not," Marley whispered back. Her heart clenched at the desperation in Dimitri's voice.

Immediately she was engulfed in a warm embrace, even though the person happened to be cold blooded. He breathed in her scent, and Marley's breath hitched. It was the make or break moment. She could very well die at this very second if he found her out.

"You've lived with those mutts for too long. You're starting to smell like them."

"You forget I'm a wolf too," Marley lied.

"That you are. But this pack's scent has rubbed on you." His hoarse voice cut through her ear.

"Then maybe, you should mark me. Stake your claim." She urged, her seductive voice curtaining the urge to get away from the man's arm and end this quickly.

Dimitri's mouth watered at the thought of turning his beloved. Before she always stopped his advances to turn her, but now his mate was offering herself on a silver platter. Perhaps, separation of more than a year had turned her mad too.

Marley bared her neck. His canines were almost out when a voice interrupted them. "Maybe, we should first let our governess rest. Transition will be much easier if she's at her full strength." A young black-haired knight beside Dimitri said. "She'll also want to tell us where these wolves kept her and why."

A range of curse went on inside Marley. *She was almost there!*

"Thank you. Maybe, I'll like a few moments alone with D," she replied.

Iosif had already prepared her with the names and description of Dimitri's staff. This young knight, Aegis, happened to be second-in-command of Dimitri. He had replaced Iosif after brothers' fallout. Not many people had seen Selene. She had stayed away from the eyes of Dimitri's staff. The knight was too enraptured at the news of his mate being alive, he had lost all sense. And the staff's unawareness to actual Selene made the plan go smooth.

Without hesitating for even a second Dimitri cut through the crowd into the deeper part of woods, with his Selene in arms.

"My Selene." Dimitri smashed his lips against Marley's. He captured them in a soft kiss, feeling every curve as if it'd be his last time kissing her.

Marley, caught in surprise, tried her best to keep up the act.

"You're really here." He let go of her face, and looked at her with such passion that it made Marley almost feel guilty.

She nodded.

"My brother found you." He sounded upset. "But I couldn't get to you. Why?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It matters. It matters because you're not Selene."

Marley turned cold. Her breath hitched and only one thought came to her mind, *She's dead.*

Dimitri pulled her closer, not an inch of space between them. She didn't fight. Resistance against him was useless.

"You think you're clever."

Not a single word came out of her.

"I don't know what his plan is. Maybe, he wants you to keep tabs on me. I don't care. Soon, we'll get rid of them all." He smirked, his canine poking Marley's neck. "But I'll give you exactly what you want. You'll be Selene. I'll turn you into my Selene."

He was still too captured by her appearance, that ripped open his void and intensified his longing for Selene, and Valinor was yet to enter his nose.

"I'll consider you a gift from him." Dimitri grabbed her hair and pulled them, exposing her neck to his hungry eyes. "Too precious of a gift to go to waste."

He bit into her neck hard, causing her the most excruciating pain she had ever felt. Marley started to struggle, but his grip only tightened and fangs dug deeper. He wanted her to feel pain. *His pain*. Though he knew a single bite couldn't inflict that.

After a minute of writhing, she went limp. Still the knight continued his assault. It felt like hours had passed when he finally let go, casting her away like a used toy. She bumped into a tree before falling down.

"You're mine now." He wiped blood from his lips.

Marley sat herself against the tree. Her hand instinctively went to her neck to check for the damage. When she looked at her palm it was smudged with fresh blood. She achieved what she came here to do, didn't matter that things went a little awry.

"Time to teach my little brother a lesson. He-" Suddenly, a strange smell went through Dimitri's nose. He looked at Marley's bloody hand and immediately confusion with anger arose.

"You..."

Marley's chest was heaving with labored breaths. His furious eyes signaled her death, a painful one.

"What did you do?"

********

"Why are we sitting here? Shouldn't we get out?" Sanjay asked. Theo and he were still waiting inside the jeep. His eyes danced around looking at the different marbled faces. He so didn't want to get out.

"I think we need to wait for Dimitri to be dead." Theo whispered, his face mirroring Sanjay's.

Joseph and Sarah were standing aside, maintaining their distance from knights, when a new familiar scent entered their nose. *Their Alpha!* Eden had been following their trail.

Iosif, Sounia and Kyle exchanged quick glances when they noticed uneasiness settling among the knights.

"There are more wolves-" Aegis didn't get to finish when his head was ripped out by Sounia. And chaos ensued.

Iosif and Kyle followed suit and went about killing unprepared knights. Joseph and Sarah finally got to do what they were itching for. However, Dimitri's force soon recovered and fought back. They were just five supernaturals and two humans, whereas Dimitri's men were certainly more than 30.

*'We just have to hold them until Eden gets here.'* Iosif pushed himself.

"Now is your chance." Kyle shouted at Theo and Sanjay, before getting back to slaughtering his ex-allies.

"What do we do?!" Sanjay gasped. Couple of knights were coming toward them.

Theo jumped on the driver's seat from the back and started the jeep. "We kill these fuckers."

"O-oka-" Sanjay was pushed back when he jumped for passenger's as Theo smashed the accelerator.

Jeep raced crashing against the incoming knights. Their bodies crushed against its tires. Sanjay finally reached the front seat and peeked through the window. "Fuck!" He cursed when he saw one of the knights was alive. And soon the jeep started to upturn.

Sanjay and Theo looked at each other, clutching their seats. "At least, we tried our best," Theo said. They closed their eyes when jeep almost stood straight. Suddenly, it fell back down with a thud.

They opened their eyes to find Eden had gouged out the knight's head. The brown wolf looked like he was taunting them.

"I never thought I'd say this," Sanjay breathed, "thank you."

Eden growled in response. He looked agitated.

"Oh! Marley's over there." Sanjay pointed to the front toward the rows of trees. "With Dimitri." His last words emitted another growl out of the wolf.

The handful of wolves which came with him surged into the crowd of knights. Iosif thanked his lucky stars, although it wasn't going to be an easy win. These weren't ordinary knights, they were like him; powerful and clever.

All that went through Eden's mind was Marley. He needed to get to her. These vampires were a hindrance, the one he wanted to get rid of as soon as possible.

*Please, be okay Marley!*

******

"Valinor," Dimitri whispered, his eyes fixed on Marley.

She backed herself against the tree, wishing for a quick death. But looking at the bloodthirsty man in front of her even that looked impossible.

"If I'm going to die, so will you." In a flash he was only an inch away from the scared human. "And I'm going to enjoy my last kill."

Marley gasped for air as his fingers crushed her windpipe. When she started to black out, he threw her and she hit another tree. Blood started to stream out of her head. Her hands reached out to find something. *Anything!*

"Didn't think it was going to be that painless?" He tsked. "I'm going to make use of my time." Man laughed like a maniac. "Today you'll feel pain. My pain that I felt every moment since she left."

Once again he was just a breath away from her. "Such a shame. You could've been my favorite. You wouldn't fill the void but at least soothe it a little." He moved the hair from her face with a gentle touch, before grabbing her cheeks violently. "Too bad we both die."

"No," Marley breathed, "only you die."

Dimitri felt a throbbing pain in his chest. He looked down. A wooden slab was embedded against his chest. He could feel his heart touching it with every beat.

Marley pushed him away and he fell down. The strength which he possessed was now leaving him, injury acted as a catalyst to the affects of valinor. She took out the wooden slab, which she had no idea how it got in with her measly strength against this powerful knight. Maybe the rush of adrenaline and the will to live were playing their role.

She went for another stab, hopefully this time his heart, but Dimitri grabbed her elbow. For the third time she was thrown. Her body, from head to toe ached, yet she didn't let go of the only weapon she had.

"Mark my words, I'll take us both." Dimitri said, his voice coming out hoarse. He stood up and walked toward her, his movements ragged.

Dimitri clutched her neck, his nail poking into her skin. Marley gripped the wood in her hands, hiding it from Dimitri's eyes. The knight held onto his last strength, valinor should've paralyzed him minutes ago, but he refused to let it.

His other hand went up in air to finally end the pestering human.

*******

Eden threw the head of a vampire from his mouth. He was ready for another kill when he suddenly felt the hollowness in his chest, which he had been fearing.

*Marley! No!*

Hunter's wolf looked at paralyzed Eden and the vampire coming for him. He pushed away the incoming knight and again turned to his friend.

'*Go! Find her!*' Hunter screamed inside Eden's head, bringing him out of his daze. *'Thea says those knights turned by him are dead. Warriors are coming here to take care of these fucking 'Original' ones. Go! Get your mate! She did her work.'*

*'She's dea-'*

*'First fucking find her!'* Hunter gave him a light push. Eden barely got hold of himself before he ran to his mate like a rabid animal. Oakheart's Beta took care of the knights going after the Alpha.

Eden followed his mate's scent. He refused to let the horrid idea of Marley's death settle in his mind, but that numbing hollowness told him otherwise. He was told once what it felt like if your mate passed away before you. It was different for every wolf. Some felt nothing, others whole body lit with pain like fire.

He felt hollow, and somehow he knew what this meant. Perhaps that's what his life would be without Marley. *Hollow...*

After the excruciating run he finally reached to his mate, and her scent wafted in the air. He saw her lying beneath a man. Dimitri.

A whimper escaped from wolf and his steps faltered as he neared his mate lying there lifelessly, eyes closed and covered in blood.

*No...*

********