Rejected His Miracle Luna (Dorothy and Ignatius)

Chapter 119

-Dorothy-

I ran until I was breathless, colliding with retreating shifters as I followed the shrill cries. Through the

roaring flames, inside a house that had been set alight, I saw them

A woman and a child, fighting off a monster. I wasn’t sure if the sound had come from them at all or if it

had existed only in my head, but it led me to these people and these people needed my help, so it

didn’t matter either way.

With the flames licking up the walls of the home and the chaos going on outside, nob*dy had noticed

the struggling family. Nob*dy had come to their aid.

Thauled myself through the smashed window of the dwelling, following the vampire’s route, and slicing

my hand open in the process. At the sound of my feet thumping onto the floor, and the spattering of my

blood on the window sill, the monster noticed me immediately.

The man- if you could call him a man- turned his head slowly craning his fleshy neck until red, slanted

eyes bore into mine. But his sinewy b*dy still faced the young family, ready to pounce

This was a vampire in full transformation. I knew it from the unnaturally long limbs, the pale papery

flesh, and the grotesque mutated features of his face. Pointed teeth glinted at me, protruding from

under reddened lips, curled into an uncomfortably large smile.

This was my first time witnessing such a monstrosity, but something in my subconscious told me

otherwise. My wolf, Rence. was in agreement. We had seen this hellish creature before.

The woman, not much older than me, looked terrified. But she shielded the small child behind her, fear

giving way to the kind of fierce protection that comes from a mothers love.

I knew that look, I had worn it often myself. The child clung to her calf, not much older than Elias and

Amelic.

In the instant before the vampire attacked, I was reminded of another village, another small family, and

the monsters that almost ended them. I would not let this family suffer the same fate,

I attacked the vampire head on, drawing my ferie blade and driving it deep into the creature’s shoulder.

I had been aiming for the neck, but the monster moved faster than I expected, swiping at me with long

talons

I stumbled backwards when those nails raked across my chest and a bone-chilling shriek exploded

from the creature’s

throat.

Blood pooled around me as I struggled to get to my feet, placing both palms on my chest and forcing

that glowing light to speed up the healing process. Everytime I overused these powers, I shaved off

years of my life. But if I didn’t heal myself now, I’d be done for anyway.

The woman moved to help me, but I shook my head, gesturing to the back door as I scrambled to my

feet. “No, get out of here. Both of you!”

This time I managed to dodge the vampire’s claws, rolling under those sweeping limbs and climbing to

my feet again. “T be fine, just go!”

It had been a long time since I trained with Angie, and she would be disappointed to see my bad form

now. But my b*dy remembered those combat exercises, and they kept me alive now

A book of understanding passed between the woman and me, and she nodded quietly. I kept the

vampire’s attention on me while she picked up the child and ran for the back door

The flames had grown since I arrived. They lapped up the walls, spewing black smoke that filled my

lungs and made me

Sweat had broken out on my skin, mingling with blood from a gush over my brow, The vampire seemed

unbothered by the

J

Fri Jan 26

smog, but he snapped and snarled when I danced away from his lunge again

My vision blurred as the toxic fumes of the fire did its work, filling my head with a hazy fog until my

movements were labored and sluggish. Even in my disorientated state, I refused to let this vampire

leave the room.

If he were to go after the retreating family. I would never be able to catch up. I had to bide my time,

slashing with my tiny blade whenever I saw an opening, driven by some primal instinct to protect these

people I’d never met.

Finally, I got the chance I was waiting for. I dropped to my knees, slashing my blade across the

vampire’s calf, straight through the tendon. The vampire wailed and roared, but that small wound was

all I needed to gain the upper hand.

1 bent low, kicking upwards at the same time and knocking the monster to the floor. Before he could

rise again, I threw myself onto him, jamming my blade deep into the side of his neck and twisting

There was a time when this kind of violence would have sickened me. But I was not the person I had

been three years ago.

And in that moment I was overcome with an insatiable need for vengeance, a primal fury that bubbled Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

in my chest when I attacked the creature, bringing my blade down on his chest over and over again.

I wasn’t sure how long I kept up my violent outburst, long enough at least to splatter myself in the

vampire’s blood. I wasn’t even sure that they did bleed. But after I had turned the creature into a

macabre pin cushion, blood poured from the creature’s jaws

And still he kept up that haunting, eeric grin.

I hadn’t expected the vampire to speak, and when he did, it was a rasping, chilling sound, like his throat

was filled with gravel. “I recognize your scent little runt. Have you cone looking for revenge!”

In my mind’s

I’s eye, I saw flashes of a distant life, memories long buried beneath the trauma of my youth. A

monstrous creature with its nose pressed to the glass, watching me. A terrifying smile and pointed

teeth.

I shook my head feverishly, the blade shipping from my hand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The vampire cackled, blood pouring from his maw, staining his ragged teeth a bright scarlet. “Yes you d

hatred in your eyes. And the smell of your blood… he closed his eyes, inhaling deeply like one would

ov never forget my prey.

I don’t know what came over me, but the vampire didn’t live to speak another word.

With a

a scream uncomfortably similar to the creature’s own piercing wails, I drove the blade into his heart,

pushin hill until I had sliced the unbeating organ in two. The creature continued to convulse beneath me

while I sawed his from his shoulders.

My frenzied rage ended almost as suddenly as it had begun, when the vampire’s head rolled across

the floorboards that were now catching alight around me. I tried to inhale, but there was no oxygen left,

only the billowing black smoke of the flames.

Seilvanne. He was there that night. This was one of the creatures that butchered my people, my pack

I tried to stand but my head was spinning, and black spots clouded my vision. Thick black smoke

crawled down my throat, stinging my eyes and suffocating me where I swayerl. Through the haze, I

saw a figure moving towards me.

Gentle, cold hands caught me as I fell spiraling out of consciousness and into a deep black void

-Ignatius-

Dorothy, wake up.” I held my mate’s limp b*dy in my arms, hunching over her and shaking her

shoulders, “Dorothy! Open your eyes!”

Her pale face was streaked with dirt, ash, and blood, mingling to form a gruesome mask. Luckily, she

hadn’t been burned.

But when I had pulled her from that smoldering house, staggering over the mutilated b*dy of a dead

vampire, she had already been breathing pure monoxide for too long.

G

I clung to her, desperately-listening for the sound of a heartbeat. It was then, with my ear to her chest

and my heart in my throat, that Dorothy stirred and lifted her hand groggily to run her fingers through

my hair. “Ignatius? Where did you come from?”

“Nevermind that!” I raised my head to meet her eyes, gripping her small face in my hand. “I told you to

leave! You could have died!”

She couldn’t understand the horror that turned my stomach to nots. The chilling fear that fate had finally

caught up with my mate, that destiny had come to claim the life it had been owed all those years ago.

Dorothy cupped my face in her palm, licking her tongue over a welt on her bottom lip. “But I didn’t. I’m

here. I’m not going

anywhere.”

1 didn’t have it in me to argue, to tell her how stupid it was to run off on her own. Instead I held her

tight, burying my face in her neck and biting back the tears of relief that blurred my vision.

“Ignatius! Dorothy!” Angie’s voice had us both pulling away from each other, and the thin veil that

divided us dropped back into place.

“I just got word from the next pack over. Angie was breathless and heaving her hair flying loose and

sticking out in places like she’d taken a tumble through the trees. “There’s been another attack

Stonespoke is calling for aid.”

I looked down at Dorothy in my arms. Her hollow eyes stared back, unblinking

“We have to help them,” she whispered, barely strong enough to lift her head. “If it’s anything like this,

they don’t stand at

chance.

The battle was far from over. It was going to be a long night.