The Devils Bargain

Chapter 38

The place Zeri was taking me was a small cottage, near a slow steam in the middle of the forest, an hour from the palace.

Something didn't feel right though, as Zeri had stopped talking and no longer looked like her smiling, happy self she usually was.

My senses were telling me to stop walking, and that it was a trap, but my protective instinct regarding Zeri was to get this over with.

I was curious about Keial, and if Keial wasn't going to tell me anything... and Zeri was, that opportunity outweighs the dangers of coming here.

If Keial found out about this, there would be no saying how mad he'd get.

Not to mention Gregor, who has already sharpened his knife just to kill me with it.

"She's... inside." Zeri quietly said as we made it to the cottage.

Up close, it looked like nobody had lived here for years, the plants outside had all overgrown to weeds and once I looked through the windows of the cottage, I couldn't see any movement.

There was also a smell here, a smell that only told me to turn around and drag Zeri back with me.

I didn't like this, something was wrong.

She was acting more strange than usual, but now it felt almost like she brought me here for a reason.

"I'll wait out here... i-it's probably for the best." Zeri spoke nervously, making me oversee her as she took a step back from the cottage.

Zeri looked almost afraid of this place, which only made me more skeptical of going inside.

"I don't think we should be here." I stared at the door and then turned back around, the strange feeling in my stomach only getting worse.

"Let's go back, this was a bad idea and if Keial or Gregor hears of this, I don't want you getting in trouble."

"N-No!"

I turn around and look at Zeri, and once I see her face my eyes go wide as her blue innocent eyes have completely shifted into red, unrecognizable ones.

Red eyes?

I had never seen anyone, or anything with such eyes, looking into them it felt like I was facing a hungry monster that had only one thing on its mind.

Seeing Zeri like this, the kind, gentle, and timid girl with this face...

What was going on?

"Zeri... why did you bring me here?" I swallowed hard, as I slowly raised my hands as her blood-red eyes watched my every movement.

When I took a careful step back, Zeri also took a step forward, and as much as I wanted to believe that there was no way I could hurt Zeri, the look in her eyes gave me no choice.

It was almost like she wanted to kill m-

"I-I'm sorry Felix, I... I just need to get it out, I have to feed it." She mumbled and reached for her head and pulled her hair tightly.

"It wants you, and with you gone, the voices will stop talking to me... I will tell my brother you ran away, he'd understand, he's also a monster... he's no good, no good... no-" She mumbled, before stopping, her eyes widening at me.

"You're no good."

I opened my mouth to reason with her, but Zeri had leaped for me, her hands now unrecognizable with claws as sharp as my wolves now clawing at me, and a face so twisted I couldn't tell Zeri or a monster apart.

This wasn't Zeri anymore, the look in her eye wasn't human.

That look was familiar... too familiar, almost like I was looking into the eyes of someone I once knew, years ago.

Before the worst happened.

Once again, Zeri swipes at me and manages to catch onto my arm, where she painfully, and strongfully throws me over her small body and then pins me to the ground.

"Z-Zeri-" I scream in pain as I watch in slow motion as her mouth expands three times its normal size, with teeth so sharp, and then bites into my shoulder.

Using all my strength, I tried to push her off me, but nothing was working, she had suddenly grown too strong to even move, and I couldn't shift with her weight keeping me down.

Was I going to die, like this?

In this place?

By Zeri's hands?

When her dead eyes looked into mine, gone of all reason, flashbacks of my childhood came flooding back to me as if my life was flashing before my eyes.

Zeri, no longer there, bit down on me again but only this time I felt no pain, just like that time I went against a day walker, my body felt numb and I couldn't move my hands, or feel my tongue anymore.

If only I could speak, I could tell her that I could help her, after all, I now knew what she was, and what was her driving force to attack me, but no matter how hard I tried to get the words out, I just couldn't.

All I could do was watch as Zeri, again and again, bit, scratched, and licked her mouth free of bright red blood.

Then I noticed her golden hair, flying against the wind, and then I stared at the blue sky behind the sea of trees and their leaves, and all I could think of was how much I liked my life now, and if I died... at least I experienced happiness and love.

I didn't want to die, I wanted to live to see his face again, his pissed-off, angry... yet handsome face.

The faces of my friends, to read another book, to go hunting with Keial one day, to grow old with the people I love, and the mate I chose to spend my life with.

Yet, as Keial said, as his words ring in my head, 'all things must come to an end'.

He was right, I just didn't think my end would end here, at the hands of a friend.

I'd rather die like this, than by someone I didn't know.

My vision had gone, and I felt no pain or heard no sound, I was completely numb to everything and with one final thought, I was glad that death was this peaceful, and that in the end, the last thing I would see was the sky, and the image of Keial the first time I laid my eyes on him.

Keial, did he know what Zeri was? And if so, if only he had told me... I could have done something for her, to stop this.

But it's useless now if this was the end... I had no regrets.

I was ready if this was my time to die.

I lived my life the best way I knew how, I was one of the fortunate ones, and I know if my parents were alive today, they would be proud of me.

That was enough for me, the moment Zeri bit into me I had already forgiven her, and now there was nothing more to say.

All things must come to an end.