Half-Blood Curse

Chapter 22 - an internal battle

Lucas was in a decaying forest. The trees were rotten and the foliage was foul. But under the dead leaves there were tiny sprouts of new growth; new life, finally blooming after years of rot and death and suffocation.

In this isolated corner of Lucas's mind, where his shifter instincts had been smothered nearly to death, his beast was waiting for him. He was as terrifying as always; a monster of darkness and shadow, with gleaming white fangs and madness in his eyes.

We must defeat it. The beast didn't need to open his jaws to speak to Lucas, they spoke mind to mind, as one being. Beast pointed one clawed finger and Lucas turned to see a gargantuan snake made of pure fire coiled up and ready to strike, its flame fangs dripping sparks and its eyes molten with lava and coal. The ground underneath the snake was already charred, and the char was spreading fast, killing the new growth and turning everything to ashes. But in those ashes, there were chains.

"How?" Lucas could feel the heat of the snake searing his entire body, already.

I don't know. Beast crouched, feral and ready for war, and sprang forward to take the snake head on.

"Wait!" Lucas ran after him, much slower on his human legs, already cutting his palms with his nails to get the blood he'd need for a working. "You'll burn!"

But Beast was determined, and he ran at the snake and tore into it with his claws. The snake hissed in fury and struck, snapping its jaws only inches from Beast. The dark, misty form of Lucas's monster was fast, too fast to catch even for the snake. But tearing into the scales with his claws did nothing except burn his hands. Beast retreated a few paces away, his massive black arms now smoking and cracked with glowing red burns.

Lucas sketched desperately in the air, trying to get a rune up that could contain the snake, but it turned and suddenly its flaming maw was right in front of him. It was bright enough to be blinding, large enough to block Lucas's entire vision.

He was thrown with a grunt off to the side, and Beast got bitten instead. With a howl of rage, Beast clawed at the snout of the snake. Lucas felt the agony of those fangs in his chest, as if he'd been bitten, too. It hurt, gods it hurt so much. Beast roared, and it sounded like a scream.

"No!" Lucas stood, working on instinct and needing speed. He spat the power words he knew, hitting the serpent with magic that nearly severed it in half. It hissed, dropping Beast as it flailed. The coils of its body flung themselves around, hitting the ground with thuds that sent vibrations up Lucas's legs.

Lucas ran to his animal counterpart and saw the two burns where the fangs had cut into Beast's chest. He slapped his bloody palm on the wound instinctively, pushing power into the act of healing. It felt different than when he healed Gabriel; more like he was redirecting his own energy within himself, not giving it to someone else, but it worked. Beast breathed a little easier and the gaping burns closed.

But the Beast wasn't the only one to heal. The snake belched flames onto itself like a dragon, reforming and growing even larger, healing over the wound as if it never happened.

Ashes spread underneath it with an earth shaking rumble, taking more land and turning it into char and chains and tightening its hold on Lucas's mind. The decayed trees fell into dust and snowed down around them.

What do you need? Beast demanded, his voice rough and ragged even in Lucas's mind. What do you need to win?

"I- I need time to make a rune! But it will kill you if you fight it for that long!"

Beast clawed his way back up onto his hands and feet, crouching and facing the snake. You could not kill me. This worm will not, either.

Before Lucas could protest, Beast was dashing forward yet again, claws out and fangs bared. The snake reared back, then struck, but Beast kept moving, carving his jagged nails into the serpent's coiled body on his way past and dodging the burning fangs.