Animagus

Chapter 19: Family Rivalries

  "Oh, too stunned to speak?" Derin asked. His black eyes were glaring into mine and I felt his nails dig into my wrists.

  I didn't speak. Mainly because I was scared out of my mind and that there was pain spreading up my arms.

  "I thought so," Derin said and he brought one of his hands up to my face. His nails were now tipped with blood.

  "Now, I hate to kill you so quickly, especially since you were the one destined to kill me," Derin taunted and he brought his nails down to my neck. I kicked against him but his nails dug deeper into my wrist.

  "You're eyes, they're some of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, but also some of the most terrible ones too," Derin said and then one of his hands was on my neck while the other was holding a knife right above my eyes.

  "I distinctly remember myself trying to add your father to my organization, but unfortunately the power laid dormant in him, while it came out in you. I should have killed your father right there and then," Derin said and this time I narrowed my eyes at him.

  "If this many of your people have turned against you, I think you should have killed a lot of people right there and then," I hissed angrily and Derin smiled.

  "I suppose you're right," Derin said and then I felt the very tip of the knife touch my eyelid.

  There was a shadow and Derin was off of me. There was a brown wolf that stood over him now. Derin glared into Ashton's eye and then shifted. What replaced Derin was a black wolf. The longer I looked though I realized it wasn't a wolf. It was just a creature with a wolf like figure. It was a dog with dark black fur and teeth sticking out of it's mouth. It's eyes gleamed in the darkness and Ashton's face changed in shock which gave Derin time to flip Ashton off of him.

  Before I could rush forward to help Ashton, something slammed into me and I was thrown off my feet. I rolled across the ground and came to a stop on my stomach. I moaned and tried to lift myself up but a foot connected with my side and I fell of my stomach again.

  "Tsk tsk. Recognize me yet?" the person asked and I lifted my head off of the pavement. The voice was from the same person who had attacked me the night before. As my eyes rested on him I recognized him. He was the boy that had been the one to find me the night I had been stranded in the forest. The boy that had been at my school after the fire.

  "Of course," I grunted out. I heard a quick laugh and then the foot hit my side again. I used the adrenaline coursing through me to push myself up and spin around quickly. The boy slammed face first into the concrete and lay there, unmoving and silent.

  I jumped up and ran back to Derin and Ashton. Derin was leaning forwards, about to sink his teeth into Ashton's neck. I ran and as I jumped at Derin, shifted. I slammed into the black dog and we rolled over in a mass of teeth and claws. I slashed out blindly and connected with fur, and then flesh. I smelt blood and the heat of battle was in the air. I was about to lash out again when Derin shoved me. I felt open air and then knew I was about to roll down a steep hill. I clung onto Derin's fur and he followed after me in a rolling mass of black.

  I felt rocks all around me and the pain in my injured side was back. Finally after what felt like forever, I fell onto flat ground. I felt myself shift and heard distant yells. Again I was flat on my stomach, my cheek pressed against the cold frost laden ground.

  "You thought you could kill me. Me, the most powerful Animagus of all. You're weak for a chosen one," Derin taunted but I heard a wobble in his voice. I pushed myself up and looked at him. There was blood dripping from a scratch in his shoulder and the corner of his mouth was bloody. One of his eyes was a dark grey color and his hair was everywhere.

  "I'm not weak. You have people fight your fights for you. That's weak," I hissed and Derin glared at me.

  "Weakness is defined by attachments and sympathy. I don't have attachments to anyone. Not even our father," Derin hissed and I did a double take.

  "Yes Wren. Our father. It's funny, how he always told you that you were an only child. He never wanted to tell you that you were a twin and your twin was born with the soul of a demon," Derin said and that's when I noticed the resemblance between him, and my dad.

  "I don't blame him then. I wouldn't have said anything either," I said and then I was off the ground and had Derin pinned to a tree. I easily slid the knife out of his pocket and held it to his neck. For a moment fear crossed his face, then it was gone.

  "You wouldn't kill your own brother," Derin said, and I swear I heard a note of pleading.

  "You," I said and tightened my grip on the knife, "are no brother of mine," Derin's eyes flashed pure fear and he opened his mouth, but I'll never know what he was going to say, because his neck was pouring blood and he fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.