Chapter 29: Alexis

Chapter 29: Alexis

This was not how my death was fated. I could feel it in my bones even as the fumes worked against me, paralyzing my body in a state of spasmodic agony. Despite the writhing and convulsing, I was unable to come to terms with the fact that my mate and I were to die like caged animals in a glass prison.

Caged animals.

It was odd how timely the analogy struck me. Weren’t we, in truth, caged animals? Didn’t each and every werewolf walk this earth with a beast caged within their human form? A beast of fearful proportions, remarkable strength?

A carnal roar escaped me as I shifted, exhaling the billowing fumes from my body and colliding against the glass walls. At first, they did not budge, but the more I collided, the more the walls began to sway. Upon my first strike, they just moved, but even that was enough to warrant worry on the faces of the three devious men standing on the other side of the glass.

Will! Shift! This glass does not stand a chance against us in our wolf forms! I called out to him in my mind, where I could see his spirit fleeing as his body tossed around in near-death convulsions. Even as I crashed against the walls, I sent out some of my strength to him through our sacred bond. My strength waned, but not before I tackled the glass one last time, sending cracks all across the surface.

Will got to his feet, shifting immediately, and then threw his wolf form into the glass with brute force, shattering it completely. Had it been my siphoned strength that had allowed him to wield such power?

I could feel myself returning to normal as the air cleared inside the little glass chamber. The foremost wall that we had shattered had provided a channel for the fumes to escape, allowing us both to breathe.

The plan, as we had devised it, had gone completely to shit, but this did not mean that there wasn’t room to improvise. For whatever it was worth, our goal was right in front of us, across the room. The three men, and in their possession, the glass vial of Wolf’s Bane.

Will growled loud enough to startle me and pounced forward, crashing through the less thick glass walls, breaking past barrier after barrier till he stood face to face with the men who had thought that they had vanquished him.

I leaped behind him, coming to his side, letting fear settle in the hearts and faces of the fickle vampire, the cowardly werewolf, and the trickster businessman.

Their expressions had contorted instantaneously from that of smug satisfaction to those of unbarred horror. Their worst fear had broken past their defenses and was now staring at them, claws unfurled, fangs snarled, eyes glaring. They were gazing at death.

It was downright comical how the three of them, strong as they might be, immediately turned on their heels and ran for the elevators. In my heart, I could feel Will’s strength returning to him, making him more agile. With his newfound speed, Will jumped in a trajectory that landed him in front of the elevators, blocking their way.

They scampered at the last minute, all three of them running for the stairwell. But this was my time to shine. I pounced just in time, hindering their passage to the stairs. They were truly trapped on this floor with two wild werewolves out for blood.

As they ran, thudding into each other, I gave them a chase, biting at their ankles, swiping my claws where their legs were a moment ago to let them know I had closed in on them and that there was nowhere to run.

Upon seeing me in such swift action, Will came running from behind and joined me as we chased Blair, Ralph, and Maurice across the laboratory.

Something happened then that neither Will nor I had anticipated. The trio broke up and headed in three different directions.

You take Ralph! Will spoke to me. I’ll see to the other two.

Will knew it was personal between Ralph and me. Had he not orchestrated that car crash that night, my parents would still be alive. He had been under orders from someone. I intended to find out who had given that order. But before I’d do that, I would rend his flesh from his bones and make sure that he’d never do something like that ever again. After tonight, Ralph would not live to drink another person’s blood.

“Stop chasing me, you manic bitch!” he yelled as he recklessly ran, breaking everything in his path, and making equipment topple over to hinder my path. I was in my wolf form, and nothing was posing a hindrance to me. Each time I leaped into the air, I covered the distance that Ralph had gained from me.

Just before he was about to jump out of the window, I dug my claws into his heel and pulled him back, drawing blood from his foot, and creating deep gashes all the way up to his calves.

“Fuck!” Ralph yelled as he crawled on his back and put his arms up in self-defense. I clamped my jaw around his arms and yanked, slashing his forearms and bloodying his entire torso.

“Stop, stop! Please, listen to me. Stop. This fight, it’s not with me. You and I don’t have any qualms, do we? I didn’t even want to poison your mate. It was never about me. I was just in for the ride. Let me go, I beg of you, and you shall never hear from me again,” Ralph begged, holding his bleeding hands in front of me, his face all grotesque with blood, tears, and strain.

I shifted back into my human form and towered over his maimed body.

“You think this is about you being a minor nuisance for Will and me? No, Ralph. This goes all the way back to when you had my parents killed. You might not even remember doing that, but you changed my life for the worse that day when you issued the order. It’s time you paid for that. It’s time you paid back for all the times you haunted this town, controlled its roads, terrorized its people, feasted on the blood of the innocent, and plotted schemes against the werewolves,” I said, closing my fists and kneeling over his body.

“I didn’t know they were your parents! I’m sorry. Just…please…don’t kill me,” Ralph stuttered.

It did not matter to me that he begged. It only served to provoke me more. How dare he beg? How many lives had he played with? How many men and women were murdered? He did not deserve mercy in the slightest.

I grabbed him by the collar and punched him across the face. He groaned as my fist met his chin. As barbaric as this act was, it gave me a beastly pleasure in inflicting violence on him. Of all the people that deserved it, Ralph was on top of the list. I punched him again and again, bruising his face and bloodying his cheeks, and with the final punch, I broke off his vampiric fangs.

At this point, he yelled in pain.

“You broke my teeth, you bitch!” he spat, throwing up blood.

“At least you’re not going to be drinking some innocent human’s blood anymore,” I said, letting go of his collar. Once on my feet, I looked at the pathetic pile of whimpering limbs and bloodied torso and delivered another kick to his side, making him yelp even more.

“Curse you!” Ralph yelled. “I’m glad I had your parents killed!”

“Oh, if you think that by angering me, you’re going to make me kill you quickly, you’re in for some bad news. My parents are dead, and nothing can change that. But I can prolong your death, extending each moment of torture into infinity, making you feel pain like you’ve never felt before,” I said, picking up a piece of glass from the floor.

“You don’t understand, little one,” Ralph said, his tone turning deeper suddenly. He sat up and coughed out more blood. “I have danced this dance a thousand times. One does not get to my age, and my age is in the hundreds, without having their fair share of brushes with death. Do you think that you’re the first person to break my bones and my teeth and rip my flesh? Think again. Think very hard about your next step. What will happen when I am no more? Where do hundreds of vampires go when their leader dies? Who will be responsible for all the unchecked chaos? Me? Oh no, I’m dead. It’s you. You who have decided to play with the scales of power as if they’re toys, not knowing that the slightest tip can cause tremors and quakes.”

“Feeling awfully chatty for someone on the brink of death, aren’t you?” I said, kicking his side again. This time he didn’t even flinch. Instead, he stared back at me, his face all maroon with blood, his mouth looking lopsided from the lack of teeth.

“Death and I are acquainted on a first-name basis by now. But you must understand that you’re messing with forces you don’t understand. And you’re not going to kill me yet. I haven’t told you who ordered your parents’ death. Ah yes, your father, the honorable alpha, and your mother, the woman who could make the seraphim envious with her voice… tsk, tsk. Such a pity. Their love was fabled all over town. If they saw you like this, so needlessly violent, do you think they would be proud?”

“Don’t talk about my parents with your filthy mouth!” I slashed the piece of glass across his face, cleaving his cheek open.

Rather than scream, he started howling with laughter. It was a deranged sight; Ralph, with his cheek split open, his teeth missing, and blood all over his body, was laughing hysterically.

“Werewolves are so primitive. You’re nothing more than a fucking bitch in heat for her mate. An animal! You’re nothing more than an animal! An animal who does not know that blood, whether his own or another’s, strengthens a vampire. Look at the bloodbath you’ve provided me!” Ralph rose from the ground so quickly that I barely registered it.

He wrapped his hands around my neck and squeezed, staring viciously into my eyes, snarling with his blood-soaked mouth.

“I would rob your body of its last droplet of blood, but I do not drink tainted dog blood, and so, I must now do unto you what you willed unto me,” he said, squeezing my neck harder, making darkness dance in front of my eyes, and making my head feel light. He pushed me to my knees and began digging his nails into my skin.

Bulbous, red pain gorged from where his nails pierced into my neck. At the last second, I shifted, reveling in the feeling of his grasp getting weaker as my body grew, as fur took the place of skin, as fang replaced tooth, as fingers shaped themselves into claws.

There it was, that immense look of terror in his eyes. I showed no reserve the second time around, digging my claws into his body, aiming for his heart. Ralph yelled as I pounced on his body, my claws piercing deeper, my mouth closing around his neck.

I had played it out for this long for a reason. If Ralph had the Wolf’s Bane, he would have surely used it by now, but it was evident that he did not possess it. It became clear to me that there was only one vial of the potion currently in this building, and it was with Blair.

As for Ralph, I felt that I had gotten in a good amount of slashes, cuts, gashes, and bites. Good enough for retribution for the horrors he had unleashed on the town, but not good enough for revenge for killing my parents.

I had to kill him. A life for a life.

Out of nowhere, Ralph brought up a shard of glass as I was pummeling him on the floor and stabbed it into my leg. I howled and recoiled as the glass went into my body, jutting out at a strange angle. Immediately, my focus went from torturing Ralph to taking out that glass from my body. I closed my jaw around it and tugged. A spurt of blood followed the glass as it came clean out, but by now, Ralph had taken advantage and had fled.

As my leg trembled from the pain, I waited for a little while for the gash to heal. In the meantime, I cast a look around the destroyed lab and saw that Will was still chasing the two men. But the men had gained some distance on him and were heading to the staircase.

Will! They’re headed upstairs; I called out to him.

Tend to yourself, my mate; you’re hurt. I will see to them, he said and glanced back at me, half with worry, half with love.

Don’t you worry, I’m healing up, and when I do, it’s game over for Ralph, I said. It was only after I had reassured him that he left in pursuit of Blair and Maurice.

My attention turned to my leg, which was now sealing itself up thanks to my rapid healing ability. But the downside to my downtime was that Ralph was nowhere to be found. I could not sense him amidst the hullabaloo of the blaring alarm and the flashing lights. However, his scent was still with me, and if I just put my nose to the ground and followed it, I was sure that I’d find him. He had bled a lot. Enough for me to track him. But where was he? There was no presence of him on this floor, and as far as I knew, he had not escaped via the elevators or the staircase.

Could he even use the windows? That was impossible. There was no way someone like him would use the windows to escape without falling twenty floors below and breaking every bone in his body. Part of me wished that this had already happened and that he was down on the pavement, breathing his last few breaths as death took him. That way, I would avoid having to kill him, but he would still be resigned to the fate he deserved.

However, with my nose to the ground, I could almost make out the lingering path his scent had created. A dense red pathway floated through the air, curling around the corridors, twisting as it unfolded across the laboratory. I ran after it without a doubt in my mind that it was his trail. Werewolves could track their prey for over ten miles based just on the scent. Some could even track their prey for over a hundred miles, but those talented wolves were few and far between. I was not one of them, but I had a feeling that Will certainly was one. He had never explicitly told me that he could do that, but given how he had tracked me from the commune to Beckett Pharma’s tower the first time I was kidnapped was a telling sign that he possessed the gift of tracking.

In this confined space, my gift of tracking was just as good as his. And the more I followed the trail, the more it became apparent that rather than run, Ralph had chosen to hide in plain sight. He was here somewhere amidst the false trails of his blood and the fake scent he had emanated to throw me off. He was hiding somewhere, biding his time, waiting for me to give up so he could come out. Come out when the coast was clear. Vampires were just as notorious for their tracking skills, and I knew one thing: He could track me in this lab. He could sense my presence wherever I went.

But it was not a stalemate situation, as I was the predator, and he was my prey. He could not move from where he had hidden himself, and I had all the liberty that mobility could offer.

The trail in the air stopped at the vents in the far corner of the laboratory. Just as in the rest of the laboratory, these vents were functional but had never been used, all a part of a ruse to let me and Will think that we had found the location where Wolf’s Bane had been made.

I could feel air rattling through the vents into the rest of the air ducts spread throughout the floor and the building. But within these rhythmic rattles was one unmistakable and non-rhythmic sound of someone shaking.

He knew that I had found him. He was aware that there was nowhere left to run. Those sounds he was making were quivers of fear. And possibly blood-loss-induced shivering.

I wound my claws around the vent’s entrance and tore it off, revealing Ralph cowering behind steel pipes. As the red light of blaring alarms fell on his face, he hissed at me, revealing his fangs, fangs that had miraculously regrown in the past few minutes. His eyes were reduced to slits, like a cat’s, and his nails were jutting out of his fingers like claws.

Ralph lurched at me, but I had the freedom of space, whereas he did not. He could only lunge forward. I sidestepped and avoided him but grabbed onto the back of his neck as he lunged forward. My teeth gripped him hard enough to choke him. He flailed limply as I held on to him, his hands thrashing in the air.

And it was at this moment that I knew that I had to kill him now.