Page 93 of Crimson Soul
I didn’t have time to process anything, just act. Using my telekinesis to break the binding, the torbernite fell to the ground, and I teleported directly behind Kai at the very last second. Immeasurable, unrivaled pain seared into me three fold as the symbol hit me, and I dropped to my knees. My organs felt like they were being shredded, and blood poured from my mouth like a fucking waterfall.
Kai’s arms were around me, holding me up as Thaddeus held my hair back while I vomited blood. Aziel and Blaise blurred next to us.
“Fucking hell,” Blaise muttered.
“It’s designed to drain the body dry of blood. I’m most enthused to see how it works with you.” Her voice rang out with an edge to it. “But you were holding out on me. How did you unlock your powers? This one was for the redhead. Redheads bleed beautifully. I’ll let it pass since you are a redhead too.”
Blood continued to cascade out of my throat as my insides combusted. Tears brindled down my face as my lungs burned from not being able to take a breath.
“Show yourself so I can obliterate your disgusting ass!” Blaise shouted.
“She’s too weak to show herself,” Aziel growled, taunting her. “Mystia, big bad blood witch, so scared she’s hiding.”
“Hiding?” She laughed. “It’s strategic.”
“You’re a coward!” Thaddeus growled as I tried gasping for air but choked on the blood pouring out of me. “You can’t kill her. She won’t bloody die.”
“Stupid, foolish girl.” Mystia sighed, happiness clear as fucking day in her tone. “You made my sacrifice so easy. All I need is your blood and I can bring my sisters back from obliteration!”
Blood. Blood. Blood. Fuck. Of course. My blood’s the key.
“Key for what?” Blaise asked, but his words were beginning to get fuzzy.
Reaching forward as I retched blood, my arms covered in the thick liquid as I held my arms out, relying on Kai to hold me up. I focused my intent on neutralizing this fucking death curse.
My organs stopped searing with pain before the warmth prickled through my body, healing my body from the inside out. Blood stopped coming from my mouth, and I spat the residual metallic taste into the pool of my blood before sucking in a lungful of sweet oxygen.
“Thank you,” Kai mumbled into my ear, his hold tightening as my back sank into him, my limbs shaking.
Thaddeus kissed my forehead. “You’re going to be the death of us.”
“Nice try, Mystia.” I wheezed, still catching my breath. “I may be new to blood magic, but I’m not fucking stupid. Don’t insult me.”
Her body came into focus next to me with a twisted smile. “Insult you? I would never want to insult you. I have a new strategy now.”
The warmth of healing continued to prickle through my organs, and I narrowed my eyes at her. “Care to share?”
“I’d love to!” She clapped her bloodied hands with that damn smile on her face. “Since I can’t steal your powers, I’ll just take all of your blood for a blood magic ritual that will bring back my sisters. I don’t really care about the state of balance anymore.”
“You’ll destroy the realms.”
“Not if I do the ritual with your pure balanced blood.” She tilted her head, and a chill zipped through me.
Fuck. Hurry up, body. You need to finish healing. I’d lost too much fucking blood.
“Kai, move!” Blaise shot forward, plowing his fist into her face, and her body flew across the arid room into the wall. Pieces of clay crumbled down around her, and blood gushed from her nose. “Feed Lilith, now.”
“Never mess with a lady’s face!” she scolded him, getting to her feet and dusting herself off.
Aziel, Thaddeus, and Titan stepped forward to shield Kai and I from her. He turned me in his hold to face him, and his blue eyes searched mine. We were facing the biggest threat to our realms, and I needed to be at full power.
“Take as much as you need. We need you to have a chance at succeeding.” His hand came up and cupped the back of my head as he guided my mouth to the nape of his neck.
The chaos from the fight was behind us, and I could smell a mixture of everyone’s blood, telling me I needed to fucking hurry. My lips smashed against his neck in an open-mouth kiss before my tongue darted out to lick his salty skin, then my fangs pierced through his soft flesh and his blood rushed into my mouth and down my throat.
As I sucked his blood, the healing finished, and I brimmed with renewed energy.
I pulled back and licked my lips. “Thank you.”
