Scattered Flames

Darkness.

It molests my soul and slices into my thoughts. Oh, how I’ve failed you, my beloved Sharayna. I wish to perish within the void of my despair. I wish to die. Such a pathetic human desire. How can I die when I am already dead?

Demetri made a feeble attempt to shift his limbs.

The roots binding him tightened, restricting his movements, and pulled him deeper into his grave. The wooden stake lodged in his chest released prongs that sunk deeper into his flesh.

His mind screamed as the pain increased. His will to fight slowly faded away. He fell motionless. 

As his fate circled the drain of death, his senses were keen to everything taking place above him. Wings fluttered in the distance, dried leaves crumbled under scurrying paws. A smothering heat wavered over the area as a shower from the Heavens battered the soil. 

Should I succumb to my final resting place, my prison? 

With all his mental fortitude, he struggled to keep a firm grip on his link with his beautiful Dragon Queen. Their connection was faint. There, and not there. Her despair and need for him coursed through his paralyzed body, thrashing his pride.

This was his punishment for loving her, for refusing to live his dark life without her. Suffering. It was all in the Dark Lord’s plan, to make his journey into hell that much more agonizing.

Katsumi’s voice flittered along the walls of his mind. “My Lord, are you there?” Her fear became sheer desperation. “My Lord Demetri, answer me! Please! Are you there?”

Mentally, he tried to reach out to her. He strained to see her lovely face. Nothing but an empty black abyss hovered before him. Soon, all he could hear were her cries. He’d been completely cut off from those dear to him and swallowed by the bottomless pit of extinction.

Katsumi…

Surging through the scent of the rain, a stench accosted his senses. A herd of blood thirsty feline shifters bounded in his direction. Their swift approach suggested that they were aware of his ever-fading presence. His suspicions were confirmed when their thoughts and intent to kill washed over him. Perhaps it was in spite of his brother, given that the Chalvaiz clan were considered enemies to all other shifter clans in power. However, their hunger for his death couldn’t be for mere retaliation. No. The nature of the beast demanded it. Killing him would satisfy their seething hatred for his kind. 

Vampires and shifters, forever at odds.

Paw falls pounded the earth, snarls echoed above. Seconds later, claws raked across the dirt. 

His resting place was no longer a mystery. 

Being that he was burrowed deep, they had quite a ways to dig before they reached him, but that certainly wouldn’t hinder their resolve to kill him. Not that he wanted it to.

A superior force flickered within the darkness surrounding him, bringing awareness to a new presence. The demanding figure stepped into the gathering above. Soiled dirt depressed under her boots. “Looks like we made it just in time.” A shadowy shield cloaked her jarring spiritual energy, which had concealed her approach, until now. “Here, kitty-kitty-kitties…”

Growls ascended.

The sharp bray of a blade rang out. A sudden silence fell over the plain before shrieks and yelps of pain filled the air. The sword’s continuous cry bellowed out across the tree strewn landscape as bodies hit the ground with quaking thuds.

The beginnings of a smile played on Demetri’s lips. 

She has found me.