Chapter 2

TWO

Unknown

That bitch. That weak bitch. She claimed to be someone I knew, but now I can’t remember who. All I know is that I could sense a deep well of powerful magic within her, the same powerful magic that has made me stronger and more powerful than ever before.

And what did she want to do with it? Nothing. She wanted to throw that away.

Pain radiates through me for a moment, and I stagger, grasping onto a tree trunk. The magic that encases me pulls at something within me, a small point of heat and life, draining it just a little more, and my pain vanishes. I stand straight and keep going, keep running. It’s the only way I can avoid her and the rest of the Enforcers.

Although I don’t fear them. She… The power she used against me brought pain unlike anything imaginable.

I stop short as a memory nags at me. “N-no, I have felt pain like that before.”

There is an image of a man strapped to a table. Another man smiles down at me while he takes a hammer and cracks my bones. My legs. My arms. My fingers. Even my face. That man on the table is me. I’m screaming. Blood is in my mouth. Blood is everywhere. And then they insert the IVs with the black liquid. The power.

“Being mortal means pain.”

I keep going, moving faster. Trying to forget the memory of the man on the table and the pain. I don’t like memories. I like when my head is silent except for the whispers of the magic. Their instructions are simple. Their instructions make sense. They are always what I want and nothing else. That’s logical.

Caring, loving, remembering, allowing the world to break me again, that’s illogical. A fool’s mission. That mysterious woman’s mission.

I come out of the trees and find myself at some kind of farm. The sunlight hurts my flesh, just a little, enough to be uncomfortable, so I step back into the shadows. I hear the laughter of children. There’s a woman’s voice. I see cows, horses, chickens, and a dog.

Grasping my head, I gasp and bite back a scream. More memories. Of a town. Of people. This flesh suit cared for this place and these people. He wanted to protect them, but the Blood Mages and Pack Raven came. They killed, broke, burned, and kidnapped.

They hurt this flesh suit.

I roll my neck, hearing it pop and snap as the magic that oozes over my body struggles to swallow this flesh suit once more. It needs to be fed. Death and destruction are the only things that fuel it, that strengthen it, but my memories have sharpened its focus.

We shall feed on it. The family in the farm. Then, anyone else I come across. We have a goal now. A purpose to our feeding.

The girl reminded us.

We shall feed and feed until we’re stronger than ever.

Then we shall handle the girl.