IN ANOTHER LIFE , josie saltzman ✔️

58. Save My Soul

Cassius got on his booted feet and turned to me, and changed tactics.
He came running towards me and I tilted my head and closed my eyes before I ran toward him.
And just as he was about to wrap his hand around my limb, I threw myself in the air and hovered there, watching where the magic could disappear to next.
He rose to my level and he watched me watch the magic.
I let myself fall as I spotted the hovering golden sphere and speeded toward it before I was thrust back violently, as if something or rather, someone put his hand around my neck and watched as I fell to the ground, having knocked all wind out of me and I glared at him.
„Never said I'd be fair."
„No one ever said the race was a fair event." I growled and was taken aback by sound coming out of my throat.
He smiled and walked toward the magic, only a few more feet away of us, but I swiped my foot under his and watched as he fell to the ground.
„Never said I'd be fair." I shrugged as he rolled over and looked up to me with a burning hatred in his eyes.
We both looked toward the golden magic but it disappeared yet again.
„Oh, come on!" I groaned as it was right in the middle of the field, in dizzying heights.
„Just let me retrieve it and I'll be on my way!" Cassius yelled after me but I was already running, running and pushing myself off the ground, using my revilas magic to keep me in the air as I was unsure if there was a spell for keeping oneself at this kind of height without straining the focus too much.
„Over my undead body!" I yelled after him but he was already right behind me, grabbing hold of my shoulders and propelling us toward the ground.
„Let go!" I yelled but he wouldn't budge. So, I did something I would kind of regret.
I bit him in his left shoulder and drank gulps of his blood.
It was then that he let me go but it was too late.
The impact on the ground and my magic pushed us apart and I coughed up the blood out of my mouth, stood up and wiped a hand carelessly over my mouth, probably wiping the blood over the lower half of my face.
I looked up to see the magic shimmering but by the time Cassius was already in the air again, it was gone and I looked around.
„Is it supposed to move as much as it does?" I asked after speeding towards the edge of the barrier, looking at Astoria.
They simply shrugged and smiled, „No idea, this is my first race."
„You're making it nervous with all your chitter chatter." Sophia said and I halfway turned around to watch Cassius.
„Change tactics. You're never gonna best him head on." Rose told me and I looked at her.
I nodded at her and smiled, thankful for her being here.
Turning back to Cassius, I tilted my head as he looked around for the magic while ever so often glancing in my direction. He would play unfair but so could I. I went into myself and closed my eyes, the last thing I saw was the dreadful look on his face, all color fading from his skin as I began to smile widely, showing my teeth. Then I heard it. The thing I was aiming for.
The thunder.
I opened my eyes to see the sky turning a color as red as blood while it began to rain and thunder and dark clouds switch places with the blazing sun.
I walked up to him and let my eyes glow golden, the veins under my eyes popping out like slithering snakes.
Now, he almost smiled and nodded.
„I am not gonna make it so easy." I said relaxed and he nodded again.
„I know." In a short amount of time, we were drenched in the cold rain falling from the sky angrily.
I looked at the wound in his shoulder, then at the coat he discarded at the edge of the barrier. Now, he stood there in a shirt and pants and boots. He reached up to push his hair back as I went back to looking for the magic when I finally found it.
„Invisique." I whispered and sped infront of it but was met with an invisible wall around the magic as I tried to touch it. My hand would not make it through. Tilting my head again and closing my eyes, I whispered an incantation but even that made it impossible to lift the magic he placed. I turned around to him and lifted the invisibility spell on me. „YOU GODDAMN COWARD!" I yelled but he simply stood there in the rain and smiled. I abandoned my jacket on the wet grass.
„I realized I can't quite win against you, but I can put a spell around the magic, keeping you from touching it." He explained in a calm voice and I huffed out a sigh. „You have all the power in the world, yet you want mine, too." I ignored the fact that he also wanted Rose's. The dark, snaking lines on his arms continued to be there on his pale skin. He stood there, with his hands clasped behind his back, waiting for me to make my move. Waiting for me to lash out. To do anything. He was a master manipulator and an abuser. He was over a thousand years old, he's been fooling Rose and Astoria and Sophia for five hundred years. He took what he wanted with no regard for anyone but him. He had no remorse or even liking towards anyone or anything.
And here I was. A vampire not older than two hundred. A wolf with no pack and a witch with no coven. I was alone.
But I was stronger than ever! And I did not need my revilas magic. I did not need anything but my wits and my mischief to help me win this. This was no different than what I have done a thousand times before.
I had to stay calm and think, for once in my life, being angry would not help me win. Lashing out would not help me win. Not like this. Not. Like. This.
Cassius had studied me and he was now before me as I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
The wind picked up around us and he dug his nails in my shoulders, drawing blood.
I heard Raven whisper a no but it was too late. I had already made the decision, already turned in everything I liked about myself for rational thinking and a cold, direct, calculating, ruthless manner.
My eyes flew open and I extended my hand toward Cassius' chest with such force that he flew through the air back into the barrier of the field which should've killed him were he any other revilas. To my fun, he wasn't.
I disregarded the magic disappearing again as he stood up, his eyes focusing on something behind me.
Cassius charged at me and pushed his hand into my chest, holding my heart and squeezing it unnecessarily to cause further pain. I did not so much as let out a whimper. I would never do him that favor.  He pushed me back as if there would be something to push me against as his free hand held my shoulder and the other my heart.
I reached out for his hand in my chest and broke his wrist. His fingers were numb inside my chest and I pulled out the bloody hand and crushed it again for the fun of it. Then before he could scream in pain again, I let go of his hand and reached forward, twisting his head to a certain degree and watched as he fell limb to the grass.
„Did I win now?" I asked with a smile on my lips as I turned around and the magic appeared again, yet again in the dizzying heights.
„Amaya." I could hear Sophia whisper shocked. Her face was pale, paler than usual. Her lips were parted and her hands were trembling.
I pushed myself off the ground again, only for my foot to be caught on something. I turned to see Cassius grabbing hold on my leg and dragging me down. He punched me in the abdomen once, but I was certainly enough. As he flew back so violently just a moment ago, I did too. The barrier halted me abruptly and I slid down the invisible wall as it burned my back through my shirt. An inhuman growl escaped my throat and I got to my feet and looked up at him as he hovered more and more toward the magic until it disappeared. I let out a laughter and used the speed I was gifted after I turned to reach for the magic as it came to be not a few feet away from me, but he was infront of me again. This time, his hand was on my throat and he tilted his head to the side as he studied me, turning us both around. „All I have to do is reach out," he said and smirked, „and you're mine."
    I let my claws grow and raised my hand before slashing his throat wide open before I retracted my claws and held it out with my palm toward him and watched as he flew through the air.
    Turning around I could finally feel the magic pulse and vibrate in the air as it hovered before me.
    I closed my eyes and let the darkness that had taken over me vanish back to where it came from before I finally reached out and watched my hand and wrist engulfed in the golden glow that was revilar lupus.
    Then I felt as if I was on fire. First, it was my hand, then my wrist and my arm. The fire engulfed me in a way I had never felt pain before. The sizzling, stinging pain took over my body but I still found myself able to stand. But I knew it was just the first of it, so I stood there, screaming in pain as a hazy, white cloud took over my vision and I'd feared I'd gone blind. I could not pull back my hand, nor did I truly want to. Trying to save me now, trying to save my soul now would be futile and leave me with irreversible damages. The pain took over my head and I wished I'd pass out but I wouldn't, not until it was gone, I feared. Soon, my legs gave in and I was on my knees as my arm hung in mid-air, being stuck in the magic as it further engulfed me and finally, after what felt like an eternity, the pain simply subsided. I didn't notice it at first. I only noticed when I stopped screaming that I wasn't in much pain. That was when the others finally reached me and Raven threw herself at me, clinging to me like she could help me with the agony, as though she could absorb it into herself, but she couldn't. She couldn't do anything but hug me and simply be there. She could only hear me beg for it to stop as I was coming more and more undone. Every fiber of my being screamed for the pain and the agony I was under to stop, to finally rest. It was as though it would never stop. As though I would feel like this for the rest of my life. But that was when I saw tiny, black spots in my already blurred vision and felt my mind slip to an uneasy rest where I was plagued still with fires and nightmares and pain.
    But I did it. I was free now.