26. Vix

Chapter 26

Vix

V ix gasped as Gabriel's voice rattled her brain and threatened to destroy everything she'd managed to hold onto. Those words shook her so hard she fell out of that silver cage, desperately grabbing for the visions, but just like snowflakes, they melted the second she caught them.

A snarl escaped her as familiar wrath boiled her alive and frustration had her biting down on her tongue, blood filling her mouth as she muttered the words that would trap those visions inside her body, runes and glyphs lighting up across her skin like stars.

"Jesus fucking Christ."

A warm hand gripped her face and she felt blood dripping down her chin. Vix kept her eyes closed so she could finish the magic, shoving aside the tiny flicker of guilt that'd she'd bitten down so hard when she'd promised Kenji she'd be more careful about that.

Someone shoved their thumb in her mouth and it shocked her so much her eyes flew open instead of the typical urge to bite it off.

A man stood over her with bloodlust in his eyes as his fingers prodded at her tongue, and Vix found herself staring at the sharp contours of his face. It was so masculine, but somehow delicate at the same time.

Long, bright red hair was pulled back from his face in a ponytail, exposing the shaved sides of his head that had a pattern with the same brutal design as the ink on his arms. Silver around his throat and in his ears.

A bare chest.

Her heart was still pounding, but not because of the fading dream.

Woodsmoke and blackberries filled her nose, and Vix wanted to see how sharp his cheekbones were, maybe touch the softness of his lips that were such a contrast and those golden eyes…

Rune blinked, clearly surprised she wasn't protesting his exploration of her mouth. She watched as his golden eyes faded into something a little more human.

Then her heart stopped when she suddenly found herself staring into green eyes.

Not the jade-green of the alpha that reminded her of spring, but an evergreen sea drowning her in dreams and memories. Those eyes were like the ones that haunted her, a constant reminder of everything she'd lost. And now they were going to take everything she'd stolen.

Instinct took over.

Claws sliced through skin as she kicked with both feet, making those green eyes fly across the room and into the wall.

Vix didn't waste any time.

Rolling off the bed, she landed on her feet and sprinted through the open door, planting her foot on the opposite wall to adjust her trajectory. Her palm met the other wall that was too close , like she was in a prison instead of a den.

The wood under her bare feet was dead and she didn't bother with the stairs.

Leaping from the top over all thirteen of them, she rolled when she hit the bottom floor and took off, scanning this massive dwelling for that door painted with blood.

The scent of feathers, death, and glittering darkness washed over her, and Vix skidded to a stop.

On her right was a massive kitchen and a large table, but the familiar scent was on her left.

More of that horrible glass showed her it wasn't quite dawn yet and it was so tall…a dark pink sky framed the woman sitting on one of the large gray couches like she was simply enjoying the view of the snowy forest.

The panic from earlier faded as she stared at the raven twirling a familiar blade around and around, watching her with glowing red eyes as if Vix were the prey, not the hunter.

All other sounds and scents faded away when she saw there was no insignia on her shoulder.

This raven didn't have a collective.

Alpha had failed to mention that, hadn't he? Guess his precious fucking rules went right out the window then, didn't they?

Her body was moving before she'd even finished the thought and Vix was standing before the raven so fast, there was no resistance at all when she wrapped claws around that pretty throat, her other hand grabbing the wrist with the blade before twisting their bodies up and over.

Vix pinned the raven to the floor with enough force her head slammed into the wood and surprise colored her features, but then the assassin smiled as if this were just a fun little game they were playing.

Instincts overrode all common sense and decency as Vix snarled in her fucking face, ready to tear her throat out if she needed to. This raven—this assassin was not pack or pride or collective .

She wasn't even an unkindness.

No collective meant no loyalty which gave Vix free reign to do whatever the fuck she wanted with her.

The raven was fast, bringing out another blade to sink it into Vix's ribs, but she wasn't fast enough.

Rolling to the side gave Vix the leverage to knock the blade out of the raven's hand and they moved together in a dance that was almost entertaining enough she forgot why she'd even wanted to kill her.

Blades flashed as they attacked and blocked, using the furniture – the house, anything was fair game as the assassin flitted in and out of this reality. Every time stars clung to her, Vix stared at the spot she'd left, waiting until the right moment, luring her deeper and deeper into her trap.

There.

Claws dug deep before the raven could understand Vix had always known where she was, but she'd been a decent opponent so she summoned her own raven's blade and pressed it to the assassin's throat, ready to slash quickly and painlessly when a violent roar had her entire body freezing, echoing through the house and rattling her brain.

The raven stared at Vix's blade in confusion. "Where did you get that?"

"It's mine ." The fury she felt when she saw the doubt in those red eyes – doubt that Vix could belong , it overrode whatever sanity she had left and she dug the edge of the blade in deep so she could cut the head from the body.

Just in case.

Impossibly strong hands grabbed her wrists and yanked her off the raven. " Don't kill her ," the alpha snarled, his command sinking into her skin like knives. "You agreed not to."

Goodness, his command hurt , but she could still ignore it if she really wanted to bleed for her freedom.

"Drop the blade, Vix."

That stupid fucking raven smirked at her and Vix lost it.

Oh, she'd drop the fucking blade all right.

Ripping her wrist from the alpha's, she ignored the sound of bones breaking and threw that fucking blade right at the raven's pretty red eye and watched it sink in deep. To her credit, the raven just yanked it out and glared at Vix, but she didn't react to the blinding pain.

"What did I tell you about killing people in my house?" the alpha snarled, his hand suddenly around her neck.

Then he slammed her into the floor, a massive force above her that was just too fucking strong.

"I didn't kill her and I dropped the blade just like you told me to," Vix snarled back, shoving him off her, but it only dislodged him for a second before he pressed her harder into the floor. "Even if I had killed her, she has no collective. She belongs to no one, which you so conveniently left out."

Furious golden eyes glared down at her and she bared her teeth at him, digging her claws into his arms when he didn't ease up.

"What would an outsider know?" Vix hissed, her entire body ready to move at a moment's notice. "You think you can command me? How dare you when you're the one who broke your precious rules first."

It was like talking to a rock, because he leaned in, nearly pressing his nose to hers as he growled a warning she couldn't be bothered to care about and her fox didn't give a flying fuck about either.

"Valentina." The alpha's attention fixed on the raven, but he still wouldn't let her up. "Explain."

Blood ran down the raven's face from her eye, but it didn't seem to bother her. "She's not wrong. I belong to my partner, but no collective."

Vix narrowed her eyes, trying to decide what that meant. "Where is your partner then, one-eyed raven?"

The one he'd called Valentina didn't verbally respond to the jab, but her hand tightened on the hilt of Vix's blade. "She's with her mate on another job. I came here to guard the witch. From you."

So, her partner wasn't the witch and that meant there was no one in this house that held Valentina's loyalty, unless…

"Are you contracted by the alpha?" It didn't really matter what for as long as she was.

"No, I'm not." Valentina smiled slightly and examined Vix's blade. "I think I'll keep this."

She was going to rip that raven's eye from her skull so it could never be healed, and then she'd steal all her blades before sinking them into flesh.

"Let go of me," she growled at Samuel. "I don't want to hurt you, but you're making a mistake. So, let go before I make you ."

They glared at each other for a long moment—centuries even.

"Even if I accidentally withheld a piece of information I couldn't possibly know as an outsider, you attacked Rune." The low growl was a threat, inviting her to try him if she didn't like that statement.

Did she attack Rune? Vix blinked as she tried to remember, but all she could think about was the fucking raven gloating.

"You attacked Rune!" The monstrous voice that came out of the tiger shocked her. It was dark and deep, echoing with the sound of a thousand voices screaming to be set free, and all she could do was stare up at him, lips parted in wonder. " Tell me why ."

The command was a thousand knives this time, digging into her body, and Vix wanted to tell him, but she didn't remember. Her eyes burned with unshed tears and her whole body bowed off the floor as she resisted that command.

Fighting alpha magic had never hurt this bad before, it had never hurt in her chest quite like this to see her mate so furious with her – so fucking mad over something he could never understand.

Vaguely, she was aware she was crying, that Mylo and Rune were somewhere nearby and arguing as their voices rose, but only the pain and the alpha above her existed as she screamed, fighting that command with every tiny piece of her that she could, down to the very last shard.

It would be simple to call one of her angel blades, or activate any number of glyphs, but Vix really didn't want to hurt him if she could help it. Her stupid winter tiger wasn't making it easy though, was he?

"You don't know anything ," she growled, tasting blood as her canines tore her lips when they descended farther than they'd ever had before. "So conceited ." Another breath to steel herself against the overwhelming pain.

This was going to hurt.

So much.

Letting out that breath, she tasted frost and summoned another raven's blade. No one had the time to react to the new threat before she sank it into her side. It was impossible not to scream when some of her magic released, shredding through her mind and body as well as the pain from the alpha's command.

It was enough to clear her mind and reset the alpha's magic. She gasped when Samuel pulled on her wrist, removing the metal from her body.

Blood bloomed on white and suddenly everything was so loud. She rolled her head to the side, her head fuzzy as she watched Rune try to reach for her, those horrible green eyes reminding her why she'd been running in the first place.

Mylo was staring at her, barely keeping the other tiger back, his mouth tight as he resisted every instinct he had not to run to her.

Somehow, she'd ruined everything just like she always did.

She was nothing but poison.

Magic coursed through her veins, it was pulsing in her head and keeping out the alpha's magic that was stronger than anything she'd ever felt before. Nothing on earth could match that power, and she looked back up at him, seeing the slight fear in his eyes as he tried to stop the bleeding.

Vix wished she didn't have to do this, but she wasn't going to waste the opportunity either when he could be so stubborn.

Kicking him off of her as hard as she could, she rolled to her feet, summoning another blade to replace the one the alpha had stolen. She pressed her hand to her side and glared at the raven.

Only the two of them could understand why any of this had happened at all.

Vix moved, placing her body between the raven and the orange tigers. Giving Mylo her back was a little bit terrifying, but she was more worried about Samuel interfering.

The raven held her gaze, neither of them moving. At the very least she wasn't attacking, but that didn't mean anything. This raven – this Valentina couldn't be trusted.

But she didn't know what to do. How could she get them to understand when they were outsiders? These three idiots were still her mates. If she left them here with this raven, she could be sentencing them to death.

"A golden-eyed raven," Valentina said, flipping Vix's blade to test the balance and weight. "An eye for an eye then?"

"You owed them a little pain for your lies. Now leave." Vix tapped her blade just under her left eye to warn the raven she could do so much worse. "Or I'll make sure you'll never use that eye again, which would be a shame, because red is such a pretty color."

"Very pretty," Rune whispered in agreement.

Vix smirked and took a step to the side, giving her the room to make an exit. "I won't ask twice, Valentina ."

"She can't leave." A husky female voice wove through the room like smoke, harsh almost with the tiny bit of fear hiding in those words. "I need her here with me."

Sliding her gaze to the newcomer standing in that cursed doorway, Vix found the source of the dark magic all over this place.

The witchling.