The Dark Hunters

Chapter 17

Braden POV

Peter.

I can feel the bile rising in my throat.
Peter is evil. He's from the other side. The bad side.

I know he is Livy. The moment saw the tag in her hand. I knew it had to be him. The way he was acting around Livi. I KNEW I saw her flinch when she was in the coma.

It was Peter.

Then when she slapped me. Not Livy. PETER.

Her beautiful, caring, but cautious eyes are replaced with eyes of hate, and hungry for vengeance.

All I have to do now is hurt him enough that he can't run away.
I will not let her go this easy.

I swing my arm around and sock Peter in Livy's body, in the face. I have to keep him occupied otherwise....... too late.

Peter's hands fly to his/Livy's neck and he starts to choke himself.
Crap.
He's trying to banish Livy out of her own body. He's trying to squeeze her soul out, so he can be in total charge. All he has to do now is hold his hands there until he completely disappears into her body. That's the only way he can enter.

Bodies are not supposed to have two souls. So they have to battle. If Peter cannot kick Livi out, he'll still go in anyway, but they will have to battle each other. Whoever wins gets to stay, and the other will be banished from her body forever. They cannot re-enter.
I run to rip Peter's hands away, but it's too late.

Livy's eyes roll into the back of her head and her eyes close, and she slumps to the ground, as Peter enters her body.

"Noooooo!" I scream in frustration. I fall to my knees beside her. I rip at the grass.
"No." I say quietly.

I sit beside her on the grass and whisper, "Hold on." As I pull out my phone and dial Dave's number.

He picks up immediately.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" He shouts through the phone.
"Dave." I say, trying to keep my voice level as I tell him everything that just happened. Leaving out the parts about me loving her.

20 minutes later, Dave is kneeling over Livy too.
He touches his fingertips to her temples and presses lightly.

"I'll have to take this tag out. She is losing the battle against Peter." He sighs.

"But I thought," I say running my fingers through my hair, "that taking the tag out while the battle is in process is life threatening. It could kill her!" I shout the last words.

"I know." Dave's voice sounds surprisingly mellow. "But we don't have much of a choice now, do we?"

I just nod my head as he hands me a cloth to drug her with, so she won't feel as much pain. Yes, only Livy will be able to feel it because it is HER brain, and that's what the tag is attached too.

"Get ready." Dave says, holding her right hand in his left hand, and in his right, a specialized knife. A knife made especially for this kind of situation. Only few are in existence.

I nod, afraid that if I spoke, my voice would crack and give away my feelings for Livy.

"Now." He says, and I press the cloth to her lips.

Five seconds later, she's drugged, and I look away as Dave slides the knife into her palm.

Her back arches as he gently slides the knife up her arm, following the wire, and to her neck.

I use both hands now. Both to brace her body as her natural Dark Hunter reflexes try to stop Dave from hurting her.

I make the mistake of looking over, and see Dave gently pulling the wire out of her skin. He stops at the neck, and pulls out a wire lighter.

Wire lighters are used for this situation exactly. Like the specialized knife, only few are in existence. The wire lighter is very simple. You light the wire and the fire winds its way, all along the wire, and into her head, to her brain, disintegrating the whole tag and without the tag to keep Peter in her body, he gets thrown out.

I brace her body as Dave lights the wire.

I hear a horrible popping noise as the wire burns,

Okay. This is how it works. Once the wire is burned all the way into her brain, and the tag is destroyed, Peter will be thrown out of Livy's body. Peter will stay where Livy's body was, as Livy shoots backward.

Quickly, I remove the drug, and Dave jerks Livy's body in an upward position. He cuffs her hands behind her back, while I tie her ankles together. All the while, the wire still burning. Its almost reached her neck.

The popping noise is starting to lessen, so the tag must be almost gone.
Dave and I haul Livy's limp body to a somewhat standing position, and Dave wraps an arm around her waist to keep her upright.

As I step back, Dave nods. "Go."
I run a good seven feet behind Livy. I bend my knees, and hold my arms out. All my concentration on catching Livy.

In five seconds flat Livy is shot backwards, unconscious, her arm still slit, right into my arms.
The impact makes me stagger backward a bit, but I don't fall.

Livy's face is so pale and her lips are blue. I would think she is dead, if not for the light rise and fall of her stomach.

I sit down on the soft green grass, stroking her pale cheek.

"YEAH!" I hear Dave yell from across the field. "WE GOT 'EM BRADEN! WE DID IT!"

I look up from Livy's pale face to see Dave. His face glowing with pride and triumph as he holds Peter in a headlock. The sight of Peter suffering makes me feel better.

I smile a little bit and look down at Livy's. I gasp as I see she's staring back up at me. Those deep blue eyes staring into mine.

I am taken aback and she gives me a weak smile.

"I can take care of myself you know." She murmurs.
I look at her two-foot long cut doubtfully.

She winces as she tries to sit up on my lap. I quickly put my hand on her waist, and the other on the back of her head, as I help her sit up. She is now sitting sideways across my lap.

She moves her left arm over to her right. I hold her head up straight while she hovers her fingers over the cut. As she traces her fingers up her arm, to my amazement, to wound starts to mend itself!

I gasp, as I watch her skin magically sew itself together. All the cut leaves now is a pale, thin, white scar. Tracing from the palm of her hand, all the way up to her neck.

"B-but, WHAT?! How?." I stutter, staring at where her cut once was, now a scar.

"I don't know." She says and slumps onto my shoulder. Her face is flushed and she's breathing heavily.

I wrap my arms around her. She closes her eyes, slowly falling into the same breathing pattern as me, and speaks slowly and softly.

"It was when Peter invaded my body, I think. When he struck me."
My eyes go wide at the word 'struck'.
"Somehow", she continues softly, "he transferred some of his power into me. It was awful." Her body starts to shake with violent shudders, and I hold her tighter as she continues.

"I have never felt pain like that before......... And he came on me with such a force......" She shudders again.

"Does it....." I ask. "Hurt? The healing yourself, I mean."

"Yes", she breathes, "It takes a good deal of energy away from me too." She sighs deeply, her eyes still closed.

I look over and see Dave, wrangling with Peter, as he tries to shove him in the cell containment. Which would take him straight to prison. He still hasn't noticed Livy on my lap.

I look down and see the light rise and fall of her chest, as she fell asleep.
"Livy", I whisper in her ear, "The only way we can be together is if we run. I won't force you. This is a sacrifice we both will have to make if we decide to do this. Meet me here at midnight. And if you come, we'll go. But if you don't show, I'll understand and leave you alone. I love you."

Then I gently slide her off my lap, and lay her on the soft grass-still sleeping.
I run.

Straight into the woods. Towards my house.

Even though I am coming back, it feels like I'm leaving her forever.