🐺💣🔪 #MY_BLACK_KNIGHT 🔪💣🐺
🎴Happen 62
As Produced By Sheriff Squinty
Theme: The In-evitable
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~~~~~~~Gabriel’s POV~~~~~~~
I remained standing, in a state of complete and utter bewilderment as my br@in frantically scrambled to put the pieces together.
Cain had grown mostly still, the only detectable movement being his f!ngersthat were still wra-pped around the knife, twitching slightly. But I wasted no time in contemplating his fate, for I was torn between the girl flailing around in my arms and my mother, sprawled limply on the ground.
I knew that I nee-ded to gr-ab Raziel and f0rç£ him to save Skylar. My Wolf was snarling at me to do so. But the very dormant, long-hidden side of me that actually had feelings of affection towards my family would not let me tear my eyes away from Rebekah. Only seconds had pas-sed, but each one felt like an eternity.
Raziel had moved forward and was crouched next to Rebekah. He was shaking her shoulder, his voice escaping as a hoarse croak as he cried her name. The Angel’s eyes, however, remained resigned. He had known this would happen. In the seconds before Rebekah stabbe-d Cain, Raziel had warned me with his expression.
I took a step forward, then hesitated. Everything was coming together, along with the realization that Skylar’s time was running out.
As if on cue, her thrashing abruptly halted.
“Raziel,” I started, voice coming out much more r0ûghly than I intended. The Angel completely ignored me.
I gently lowered Skylar to the ground, resting her against the side of the tunnel. I attem-pted to get her into a sitting position but she was completely limp, head lolling to the side. Black veins still stood out in a startling contrast to her pale skin. If it weren’t for her ra-pid heartbeat, I would’ve thought I was losing her to death’s claim.
“Raziel!” I snapped, my eyes automatically landing on Rebekah’s form again as I felt a piercing guilt. She was completely still, possibly dead, and some p@rt of me wanted to go to her…but my Wolf would not let me leave Skylar’s side.
Raziel’s burning gaze fli-ckered to me and I saw evident anger. One hand rested on Rebekah’s face, cu-pping her cheek, and I knew I was interrupting what could be his last moments with his daughter.
But right now, my Wolf didn’t care.
“Skylar nee-ds your help! She’s turning!” I said, rather harshly, and fury contorted Raziel’s features. He was grieving, and I was not helping.
“And Rebekah is dying, to save your life!” He hissed in response. The Angel had never given me such a glare before. His electric blue eyes practically burned my skin. I opened my mouth to retort, losing my patience entirely, when a weak, shaky voice cut in.
“Father…” the words were faint, a mere whisper. Raziel’s head abruptly snapped around and he re-focused on Rebekah. She had stirred slightly.
“Rebekah…but you…” Confusion contorted Raziel’s features, and he glanced from Cain before peering intently at his daughter.
“Cain is not yet dead. I can feel it.” She su-cked in a sharp intake of air that rasped against her throat.
“How?”
“He is hovering on the brink, but your blood will not entirely kill him.” Her voice had grown slightly in strength. Raziel soundlessly wra-pped an arm around her shoulders and lifted her into a sitting position, moving her so she was br@ced against the wall much like Skylar was. My mother’s normally glowing countenance was a pasty white, eyes completely dull. She looked like a corpse.
I felt another bur-st of impatience as I heard a soft whine escape Skylar’sl-ips. My Wolf was almost in hysterics, and he wanted me to leap at Raziel and f0rç£ his blood down Skylar’s throat if I had to.
“But Cain-“
“Help Skylar,” Rebekah whispered, as I prepared to snap at Raziel again. My mother’s glazed eyes slowly focused on me. “She is turning, Raziel. I will be fine for a few moments.”
The Angel appeared re-ady to say no, but my Wolf and I were relentless in our efforts to save our Mate. “You heard her, Raziel. You’re the only one that can help.”
“plea-se, Father. Skylar turning is the last thing I want.”
Raziel signed heavily, resignation returning once more to the icy depths of his eyes. I, too, felt a wave of regret and sadness wash over me, but I could not allow it to control my actions. I would never forgive myself if something happened to Skylar.
He left Rebekah slumping against the wall of the tunnel, right where it opened up to the outside world. Some distant p@rt of my br@in aimlessly wondered where the others were. It had only been a few minutes since I contacted everyone, but it felt like hours.
Raziel crouched in front of Skylar, who was lightly p@n-ting, eyes still ti-ghtly shut. I was p@rtially supporting her so she wouldn’t coll@pse onto the ground. The Angel’s wrists were still coated in scarlet liquid from where he’d cut himself to ward off Cain with his blood. He glanced at me briefly, giving me a full view of the exhaustion and grief in the depths of his expression.
“This is not going to be plea-sant,” he stated dully.
“My Mate turning into a vampire would be worse,” was my short reply.
Because the knife was stuck into Cain’s torso, Raziel would not be able to create any new injuries; all we could do was hope that the slices on his wrists were still bleeding enough to burn the vampire blood out of Skylar’s system.
I gently brushed some of the sweaty, matted hair away from Skylar’s forehead, and ti-pped her head back. Raziel raised his arm, glancing at me again for confirmation. I nodded once.
“Gabriel, if it’s too late, my blood will just…”
“We have to try,” I snapped irritably. I alre-ady knew the risks, and I could not dwell on them. I could not let her turn.
Sighing heavily, the Angel reached around and gr!pp£dthe back of Skylar’s n£¢k with one hand, forcing her head forward until her open mouth connected with his bleeding wound. For a few seconds, nothing happened, and I wondered if she was even conscious enough to realize there was blood trick-ling into her mouth. Would the stench of blood repulse her, as a werewolf, or were her vampire s-en-ses alre-ady potent enough to recognize it as food?
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Hall Of Supernatural Stories
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I soon got my answer as Skylar’s blue eyes snapped open, shifting back and forth in a panic as she began to struggle. A gurgling noise escaped her throat and her hands c@m£ up, clawing at Raziel’s arm as she attem-pted to pu-ll it away from her face. Her nails left bloody furrows in the Angel’s skin, ma-king him wince.
I maneuvered myself so that I could pin one of her arms and p@rt of her b©dy, but from my angle there was only so much I could do. Skylar began to hiss ferociously, struggling ha-rder, and Raziel’s expression grew strained as he tried to keep his bleeding wrist latched to her mouth. I reached up and pressed her against the wall ha-rder, wedging her head so she couldn’t turn away from the blood.
I knew it was burning her. I could tell as her face contorted with pain and a keening wail emerged from de-ep inside her che-st. p@rt of Skylar must have known we were helping her, but her b©dy’s instinctive reaction was to escape the pain. My Wolf hurt, too, but we had to get the Angel’s blood into her system.
“It’s okay, Skylar…we’re trying to help you…” I attem-pted to speak soothingly, but my tone was strained.
Raziel was crouched at an angle where the blood could drip down into her mouth, but Skylar was stronger than he was. This left it up to me to restrain her as much as I could. As her cries of pain grew louder and her struggles more frantic, I realized this was a nearly impossible task.
Skylar abruptly wrenched her head to the side and Raziel’s grip loos£ned enough for her face to get free. Her mouth coated in crimson, she hissed ferociously, face feral and nearly unrecognizable as she glared up at the Angel. Whatever Cain had done to her, his blood was putting up a fight and contorting her world into one of delusion where we were the enemy.
“Skylar!” I gr@bb£d her chin in one hand and swung her head to face me. Her eyes were glazed and ba-rely focused, darting around the cave in a panic. Even my voice was not reaching her. I wra-pped my other arm around my Mate to contain her struggles, but she fought me valiantly.
“Skylar!” I tried again, and this time my Wolf added his voice to mine, begging our Mate to recognize us, to turn away from the demon blood inside of her.
She hesitated, eyes fl!çk!ng back to mine and a look of confusion hovering in their depths. Raziel took her momentary stillness to press his other injured wrist against her open mouth. I ra-pidly brou-ght my hand up to secure the back of her head.
The sound of the Angelic blood burning Skylar’s throat was practically audible, and my Wolf whined in recognition of her pain. I gritted my teeth and held her, and in our position I was strong enough to restrain her. Raziel was much paler than normal, his free hand squee-zing the forearm so the blood would stream out more freely.
“How much will it take?” I whispered harshly, Skylar’s pained gurgles starting to get to me. Sweat beaded on my forehead from the f0rç£d detainment of my Mate.
“I don’t know,” he f0rç£d out, and I saw his own face was damp with perspiration.
An abrupt voice resounding inside my head almost made me jump. Alpha? We dismembered these vampires but Rebekah told us to remain on guard here, should we- Eli queried, but I cut him off before he could continue.
I can’t talk right now. Sweep the perimeter for vampires then meet me at the back entrance to the tunnel. I closed my mind off without another word. He would have to figure out what to do as Beta; I was very much occu-pied.
Seconds continued to trickle by, and I noticed that her struggles were weakening. I was not sure whether to take that as a good sign. Raziel’s ra-pidly-paling face, however, was ominous enough. I felt my heartbeat increase in tempo as I worried that we weren’t fast enough. That the Angel blood could not prevent Skylar from turning into a monster…that I couldn’t even protect my own Mate.
Just when I was prepared to howl in frustration, Skylar stilled, her eyes rolling into the back of her head. Her heart stuttered before slowing into an even pace. The dark spiderweb of veins beneath her skin was fainter now, fading back into a normal color.
Raziel re-leased her and stepped back, breathing heavily from exertion. I knew I should thank him later but all I could focus on was Skylar, silently slumped against the wall again. Unconsciously I reached forward and cu-mpped her face. My Wolf was straining against the thin walls of my consciousness, itching to emerge and curl protectively around our Mate.
Instead, I maneuvered Skylar so she was resting in my l@p. The steady heartbeat was reas-suring, but she was so oddly still…
I didn’t know what I would do if she was gone. I’d always thought myself to be strong, but I wouldn’t know how to survive without her. The vampires had known right from the start when they kidnapped her that she was my kryptonite. Even I, the wolf who had always been skeptical about the Mate concept, knew now what it meant to love someone. It had definitely been a journey, and I had put her throu-gh Hell. I wasn’t even sure I deserved her as a Mate. It seemed unfair that Skylar should be stuck with someone like me. She was perfect in every s-en-se of the word and I was….well, difficult.
I supposed love made you simultaneously strong and weak. Really, it was an inconvenience that, years ago, I never would have welcomed. It was kind of ridiculous that one person could be the center of someone’s universe, but I couldn’t argue with the feelings I had for the girl slee-ping almost peacefully on my l@p. It was both heartwarming to be with her and heart-wrenching thinking about what could happen to her.
I would never let her out of my sight again.
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~~~~~~~~Skylar’s POV~~~~~~~~
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Once again, I was tra-pped in impene-trable darkness. The darkness swirled around me, hvgging me in a ti-ght embr@ce, not letting me escape. I was aware of a dull pain that had been like fire throu-gh my veins that was now receding. In the distance, I felt a pres£nce, a welcoming entity that I was desperately trying to find. In this blackness, though, I was lost and alone. I wondered if I would forever be tra-pped here. It alre-ady felt like I’d been in this empty land for weeks.
Where was I?
I racked my br@ins for the last thing I could remember, the last flash of color I’d seen before the darkness c@m£ in. I remembered malevolence, the smell of death, and burning pain.
I tossed and turned, neither sitting nor standing in the emptiness that surrounded me. I wondered if I was tra-pped in my consciousness, if something was keeping me here. Why couldn’t I get out? Was I dead?
No, that couldn’t be it…they said when you were dead, you saw the light at the end of the tunnel. My world was completely dark. I couldn’t even feel my Wolf, and that was possibly the most terrifying thing of all. She was just…gone, or hiding, but not in this world with me. Perhaps this was just Hell, and the humans had been right after all, that death resigned you to an infinity of torture. Being alone in a dark world was torture to me. Being without him was torture.
Thinking of Gabriel seemed to snap everything into place. I couldn’t remember anything before, but my br@in was growing increasingly coherent amidst the blackness and I could now remember what I cherished most in life: my Mate. I fixated his face in my mind’s eye, hoping he could pu-ll me out from wherever I was. I pictured his regal features, the eyes and hair black as night, the perfectly sculptedl-ips that I had grown more and more acquainted with.
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As Produced By Sheriff Squinty
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As I thought about my Mate, the darkness seemed to lighten.
That’s when I heard my name being called, and the grey world around me receded. It was
him calling my name…Gabriel was here with me!
The de-ep, masculine voice called to me, and just like that, I was drawn from the empty world and my eyes snapped open.
I winced, even the very dim lighting seeming incredibly bright after where I’d been. My eyes slowly adjusted and I blinked, focusing on the werewolf hovering above me. As I saw Gabriel in all of his glory, my heart skipped a beat, fluttering in my che-st like a caged bird. He was so perfect.
And he was staring at me as if my awakening was a miracle. His dark eyes were swirling with a multitude of emotions, intensely boring into me as my Mate began to scan every inch of my face as if to make sure I was really there.
In that moment, I realized I could feel every single thing that Gabriel felt. He had lowered his mental walls and connected our minds again. The re-establishment of the connection made me feel wholly complete, like a missing piece cli-cked into place, and I realized how much I’d missed him. I tried to convey everything I felt throu-gh our mental link, but I communicated aloud.
“Gabriel…” I choked out, my voice coming out alarmingly raspy. I began to sit up before realizing Gabriel cradled me in his l@p, the side of my b©dy pressed up against his che-st. I was molded against him, the heat of his b©dy warming my cool skin. My cheeks reddened when I realized I was completely n-ked, which was inevitable after Shifting. Gabriel had alre-ady seen everything there was to see but it was still an uncomfortable situation. He, too was unclothed and in any other circu-mtance, it would have seemed highly appropriate with others around, even though nudity was customary for werewolves in the same pack. Right now, though, there were more important things going on.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispered, f!ngersbrushing the ba-re skin of my back and s£nding tingles shooting up and down my spine. His t©uçh soothed my frayed nerves, and I realized my Wolf was still with me, that she was whining frantically in my consciousness. I was fading…I was almost gone, she whimpered with evident fear.
I attem-pted to calm her, but it was Gabriel’s t©uçh that did the trick as he pu-ll-ed me even closer, his muscular arms wra-pped around my torso.
He was so incredibly relieved that I wondered how long I’d been out. I wasn’t even sure what to say in that moment. A tiny p@rt of me urged me to tell him off for abandoning me, but I was so glad to see him that I couldn’t get the words past the lump in my throat.
I winced, my b©dy warmer than usual and aching. I felt like I had run for miles and miles. What had happened to me?
I tentatively reached a hand up and brushed it against the side of his face. I could feel the light stubble on his jaw, and I keenly noticed that beneath his ethereal beauty, Gabriel almost looked…haggard. My thoughts were interrupted when his dark eyes warmed with an emotion that practically caught my whole b©dy on fire. I could feel the heat of his emotions tenfold throu-gh our bond.
“What happened?” I rasped, echoing my train of thought. Gabriel’s brow furrowed and hisl-ips flattened into a thin line. Whatever happened, it hadn’t been good.
“Gabriel…” A voice cut in, sounding miserable and bereft. It was so contorted with pain that I could ba-rely recognize it as Raziel’s, and the sound of it made me start to struggle into a sitting position in alarm. Gabriel supported me until I could observe my surroundings. I was near the entrance to a tunnel of some sort, and scant moonlight filtered in. There was a hunched b©dy near us, and I felt my mouth open in shock as I realized it was a motionless Cain.
“Is Cain…but he….” The unformed question st©pped as my eyes fell upon Raziel and a pale Rebekah, hunched against the entrance to the tunnel and looking as lifeless as the vampire.
“Cain tried to turn you, and then he ran. Rebekah stabbe-d him, and then she just…” Gabriel, looking grim, gestured helplessly. I could see confliction on his face, and I knew he was torn between his mother and me. His Wolf wanted him to stand by his Mate, but the p@rt of Gabriel that still cared about Rebekah wanted to go to her.
I couldn’t even think about Cain trying to turn me. It was immensely disturbing, and I wasn’t sure my fragile mental state could handle it right now. All I knew was that my Wolf was still with me, so somehow they’d st©pped Cain’s malevolent plan. I hadn’t even known vampires could turn werewolves.
“Go to her, Gabriel. I’ll be fine,” I said weakly.
His sharp gaze focused on me. “I’m not letting you go.”
While the gesture was heartwarming, I still felt my insides constricting as I put the pieces together. “Rebekah…is she?”
“Not yet.”
“Is Cain dead?” I alre-ady knew the answer before Gabriel shook his head, and I realized what Rebekah had done. Somehow, she had used her blood instead of Gabriel’s. That had to be the only possible explanation. She had been willing to sacrifice herself for her son. The notion s£nt a h0t spike of pain stabbing throu-gh me, leaving me nearly breathless as I realized that Rebekah could not live, not if we wanted to rid the world of Cain.
“The blood, it worked both ways,” I said softly, staring at the woman’s near-prone figure. Rebekah’s breathing seemed to be painful, and her eyes were shut. Tendrils of dark hair were stuck to her face with perspiration.
“I didn’t know,” Gabriel replied, just as quietly, a wealth of pain in his voice and in his feelings. I felt a wave of guilt crash over me, even though I wasn’t sure why. I wished I would’ve known her plan. Surely we could’ve come up with another way.
“Gabriel, she will want to see you…” I whispered, urging him on with a pleading glance. My Mate hesitated, clearly reluctant to let me go. I did not want him to re-lease me but I knew what he had to do.
If he had been about to protest, Raziel cut him off. “Gabriel…she wants to talk to you,” the Angel said lifelessly. Yet again, I felt as if someone was gripping my heart and squee-zing it. The Angel was losing his only daughter. I turned my head away, unable to bear the sad sight as tears pricked the back of my eyes. I almost wanted to go over and crouch beside her, but did not want to interfere with their familial moment.
After a moment of still silence, Gabriel gently moved me off of his l@p, placing my back against the firm cavern wall. His hands lingered on me a bit longer than necessary, ma-king my skin prickle with heat. He gazed at me for a moment, eyes burning with a heavy emotion that had my mind reeling, before moving over to the others and crouching down by his mother.
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#Tobecontinued…..