Taming Darkness
Chapter 13

~Darius-

"Really, guys? You couldn't handle this without me?" Lycus says, entering the battlefield from the other side, with a wide grin. He grumbles something inaudible as he swipes a hand at his dripping-wet bangs. He scans our surroundings and sighs. "Tobias, you better still have my shorts. Those are my current favorites, and I'm not okay with losing anymore."

Only Lycus is crazy enough to join an actual battle while being completely naked and still have a sense of humor. On the bright side of the situation, he is distracting some female power hunters, who have stopped focusing on Tobias and turned their gazes to him. At one point, I caught one fanning herself while staring at my mate. I shake my head and chuckle as pride surges through me. Even in battle, women still swoon over him.

"This is a disgrace!" Aleera's mom spits over the whispers and murmurs around us.

Yet another wave of flames surges down the chain along with the electricity. I hold my breath as I notice that the chain turns dark red from all the heat flowing into it. The magic is a display of white and silver, wrapping around the chain like a serpent, zapping and charging itself. It glows brighter, turning yellow and blue, and ripples with energy as it encircles Kalen's neck.

Kalen's body jolts and goes rigid, and he grits his teeth in pain as the electricity surges through his body. His eyes are wide with terror, and sweat streams down his face as he struggles against the chain. His veins bulge in his neck and arms, and all I can do is watch helplessly while she tortures him.

"Give up, or I'll kill him!" Lydia screams again.

Perhaps giving up is a wise thing to do, but I know myself and my mates. We had no intention of surrendering, and I sure as hell didn't want to let her go. Not now, not ever. Not after she pulled my mates into this mess and hurt Kalen.

Instead of submitting, we all attack from our different positions at the same time. Chaos ensues. The fight is fierce, and I can feel the ground trembling beneath my feet. Fireballs and lightning bolts fly through the air, crashing into walls and buildings, leaving them in ruins. The sky is dark and filled with smoke and dust, obscuring my view and making it hard to see anything. I can hear Kalen screaming in the distance, and my heart lurches in my chest. I desperately want to help him, but I can't replace a way to get to him. So, I can only watch helplessly as the battle continues. My heart aches, knowing he is relying on us to save him. But how when we can barely save ourselves?

Try to see through the smoke and carnage. I see an opening and take it just as Tobias blasts and burns another group of hunters with fire and burns them to dust. Lycus blasts through another with well-timed punches and dodges while I stride forward. I keep my eyes focused on my target. The bitch must be watching my every move because I don't get much further when she speaks again.

"That's it!" she screams as we blow through all the obstacles she throws at us. And throw them she did. Buildings crash and crumble around us, fire pushing us back toward the crater as we fight along the edge. Soon as one falls, another takes their place. "It's obvious our organization can't stop you now. Hunters of this level won't be enough, but this isn't all we have. Did you really think a group that's been around as long as we would be taken out so easily?" A smug, disgusting smirk spread across her lips. She snaps her fingers and points at me. "Bring his head to me," she barks out the order as the others back away, moving to the edges.

I don't move a muscle, wondering what her next test will be.

I don't consider what a hurt ego might do, or how far it could push the person to the limit. In light of the fact that I am facing the biggest bitch in this universe, I must expect that it is her pride that ultimately drives her to the grave.

My attention jerks away from Lydia, as portals shimmer all around me, and more hunters flow through. I can't figure out how they do this. However, they surge into the area, filling it up with more hunters than I can count. It is now obvious to me that we could open portals to enter here, but not use them to get out.

F**k me sideways and call me a schoolboy because I am sure I can count at least another hundred.

These aren't the pawn-level hunters we first faced. They aren't even on the same level as Terry. No, these are strong warriors who guarantee to push us to our limits.

Finally, a real f*****g challenge for me and my mates. If those morons thought we weren't a match for them earlier, now they would see how great of a power we could be.

"Give up and let me take your head," she snarls at me again, as if repeating herself would convince me. Hasn't she understood that I refuse to give in? That I refuse to let her have her way?

She tugs on the chain wrapped tightly around her fist. Kalen's entire body is covered in sweat and burns but even now, defiance glitters in his eyes. Despite the pain and suffering she forces on him, my mate still refuses to give in. He refuses to let the bitch hear just how much damage she is causing.

His snarls and screams fuel her greed for power. She had to understand that no one was willing to give up to the one that had done so much damage.

A pillar of fire surrounds the area Tobias is trapped in. However, it is sucked away in front of my eyes by a funnel of wind coming from one of the hunters. He tries to dart through them using his speed, but a hunter grabs him by the back of his neck and throws him to the hard ground.

These aren't your typical Dark-Fae. Some remind me of those unfortunate souls experimented on when I was a child, altered by my DNA. The mutated Fae appear to be a grotesque combination of man and Elvin-Fae, an extinct creature said to exist around the time of the Seraphim and Elves. Pointed ears and beady eyes. They have sharp claws, blackened patchy skin from the t*****e of my blood poisoning them, their skin rougher like tiny scales, and fangs that drip viscous fluid. They are tall and muscular, with wings and tails made of nightmarish shadows, another thing we thought was extinct, wings. Their eyes glow with an eerie orange light, and their skin is sickly green with patches of black charred flesh. They are terrifying and captivating.

At first, I had no idea how they controlled them, until I noticed the collars around their necks, shock collars. These creations, once man now monsters, were part of the reason they were to be destroyed. My father and Grayson were said to be replicating Harmony- Fae when they made them. This was not long after the first wave when half the population died, leaving Dark-Fae without keepers and mates, which eventually turned them human. Those Dark-Fae willingly put their hands up to try the experiment in the hopes they would get their magic back.

They did, but they also became something else entirely. Something wicked. The genes mutated, my genes mutated them, and instead of creating something dark and light, a balanced being, they created a monster with no consciousness... They were ordered to destroy them. But then the fire happened, and I burned the place down; Grayson must have freed them before then. It is the only thing that makes sense, unless they created more.

The council was looking for anything to fix the virus that became a plague, and these creatures were just some of the extremes they went to.

I thought they were destroyed, along with any evidence of the place's existence. And though I have the proof right before my eyes, I still struggle to understand how this is possible.

I knew the bitch was crazy. She had lost her mind a long time ago, and all she knew now was an intense l**t for more power. But I had no idea she would stoop this low. Does she know what she has done, the abominations she has unleashed?

This war was all about her. It is her attempt to prove to the world that she stands above everyone and there is no superior force to her. She better step aside because no matter how aggressively she tries to push us down, we would keep fighting until our last breath. She will get what she deserves from the ones she wronged and hurt the most.

My initial shock wears off as Tobias springs back up. However, the hunter with the wind flings more magic at him, and he is forced to the ground like the elements became heavy air cuffs. One of the hunters kneels on his chest, and Tobias growls like a cornered beast, glaring up at the man.

A sharp pain spreads through my chest. It has nothing to do with the pain we shared through the bond, that bothers me. It's the view. That and the fact that I stood aside and watched my mate get hurt. She wanted it. The bitch would do anything to hurt us, no matter how far she had to go with her sick ideas.

"Damn it!" Lycus snarls as he gets to his feet. Lycus is battered and bruised by countless hunters, but now he has elites surrounding him. Lycus is covered in cuts and bruises from hunters. His face is smeared with dirt and blood. Despite the injuries, he was still standing and ready to fight, determined to fight with us. Magic sparkles all around him like they were wrapping him in a crystalline barrier while Lycus clutches his ribs, the moment he tries to escape the barrier, he is electrocuted and thrown to the ground. As powerful as these hunters might have been, they have no idea what is coming for them. The beast inside my mate is sleeping. He isn't dead yet, and as the electricity surges and zaps him, he gets to his feet. The gasps and murmurs are audible as he stands back up from a shock that should have killed him, burned hair and flesh despite the barrier filling the air. When he lifts his gaze to mine, I see the wicked gleam as he lets his Lycan side merge with him, his eyes flickering, they didn't kill him, they've unleashed him. One thing they clearly didn't realize is that Lycus is not just a We're-Fae. His father was the Lycarian King, with powerful royal bloodlines that hold the moon's magic, said to stem from the moon goddess herself. And just like the day, time, and month, fate binds us to our mates. Were-Fae got their magic from the night. And the night Lycus was born was the biggest storm ever to hit. It flattened cities and wiped out everything in its path. It's always been a theory of ours why we hold such power. Why Lyon is an electro, the only We're-Fae with such power.

All of us were born on the worst night in history, where the stars and moon lined up and rained hell on earth, created our bonds, created our magic. Just like that raging storm, we are unstoppable, all born with unique gifts this world hasn't seen. My father shared the same theory on why I was not only harmony but a demonic harmony elemental, the first of my kind, and the only one of my kind. Molly was a harmony, but she wasn't an elemental. We would have known had she been because she would have been born with power. My mother once told me that the moment I was born, I screamed and cut the power off in the hospital. Tobias' mother also has a bizarre story of his birth and Thomas'.

However, we never fully believed the theory because of Aleera. The night she was born was a new moon. But looking at Lycus now, taking a power that should have killed him, I know there must be some truth to it. Because what he unleashes next puts the world's most devastating storm to shame. Power blasts from him, so bright it makes me squint, like looking into the sun.

The loud crackling of electricity shatters the shield easily and bounces through everyone surrounding him, holding their jerking bodies in place. Volts of electricity rush from one to the next, then hit the ground, cracking the earth before sizzling out.

Lycus snarls and drops to the ground. He shifts with cracks and snaps as his bones shift and fur replaces skin. His paws and claws replace his hands, canines protruding as he morphs into the beast he truly is. An animalistic snarl leaves him as his lips pull back over his sharp teeth. However, the electricity of his magic weaves and slivers through his fur, his eyes turning into glowing beacons of power.