Page 189 of Remnants: Disruption
“The noble answer would be that I’m trying to protect the people who can’t fight for themselves,” I say, eyes drifting closed with her skin on mine. “The real answer is that I felt you die and I won’t let that happen again.”
She lets out a soft shudder, like she’d been expecting something else.
“Cass,” I whisper, knowing the werewolf can still hear us, “I can’t feel that again. It tore something open. Or, maybe, I tore something open. I don’t know. I felt you die and I told whatever being in charge that it wasn’t fucking happening.”
Though it really had felt like it was only me in there. In that void space.
She leans forward and presses her lips to mine. Soft and sensual. Like she needs to feel me as badly I need her.
Her lips work against mine, as if memorizing the contours of my flesh. She lets out a soft groan before pulling back, face a slightly deeper pink.
“We should get you fixed up,” I whisper, wanting so badly to just sink into her. Wanting to wrap myself up in that damned cloak and be directly against her.
“Indeed,” Cass says, looking down now at the werewolf. “Get him on the table.”
I nod and wrap another tendril of void stuff around his waist, moving him onto the table. The tight bundles around his waist and arms uncoil only to latch themselves to the table—pinning him in place.
“Let him speak,” Cass says, her face turning impassive.
Obliging, I release the strip around his snout.
“Fucking bitch!” he swears eloquently. Cass only grins, malevolence replacing the warmth she’d just shown me.
I get a sick satisfaction out of that, and I don’t feel bad about it.
“Xerxes,” Cass breathes out, sounding already peeved about his existence. “I do not believe I need to explain why you are here.”
“Because the whore that fucked her way to the Council went on a fucking power trip,” he lets out in a definitive growl.
I let out a snort, which gets me a brief side eye from Cass. The look does anything but quell my growing desire. Like holy shit.
“Because you betrayed your own kind, mutt,” Cass hisses, her spine rigid and her voice deepening. The way it had when she’d killed Revenant.
“You’re a weak leader who wantedpeace,” he spits, making the word out to sound like an insult. “Darkrend wants domination.”
“I am sure he thinks so,” Cass sniffs before the room begins to glow red. There’s no real source, like my vision itself is tinged in the deep hue.
She whispers a few words before red fluid gushes from the wolf’s fur and mouth. Like with Mara, the scene is downright horrific, but I can’t seem to look away. Thick, oozing Aether pours from his skin, matting his fur and destroying what was left of his human clothing.
The fluid mainlines into Cass’ outstretched palm, suffusing into her skin without leaving a mark.
He screeches out in pained whines before beginning to convulse.
Cass lets out a grunt, and I start forward.
“No,” she hisses, not looking at me.
The wolf spasms one last time, a violent thrusting of his chest to the sky before falling still.
In the blink of an eye, his corpse is fur and skeleton. Like a juice box sucked clean.
Cass stumbles forward, placing her hands flat on the raised platform.
I move to her side and wrap an arm around her waist. “I’m here,” I whisper into her hair.
She leans heavily against me, letting out what might be a whimper.
I can feel her presence now. Feel her power. The way she’s literally radiating triumph and grandiosity. Whatever she’d taken from Xerxes, it supercharged her.
