Chapter 34: Vengeance Is A Bitch & So Am I
[Marcus Martin POV]:
On the empty street beside a gas station, a single, bloody, bruised and beaten body crawled its way to the base of a tree. The movement was painful and took a lot of energy, but Marcus was able to reach it, propping himself against it to look at the sea of wolf corpses that littered the scene — Only, not all of them were corpses; for not all of them were dead or dying.
Prowling towards the man, amongst the sea of their dead, were the wolfen forms of wolves — and the untransformed forms of man. The wolves came in various fur colors; from white to grey, grey to black and black to brown — Some even came in red brown. But all of them had amber yellow glowing eyes, and were the size of wolves only slightly larger, slightly more robust than regular wolves.
"Who are you people?" Marcus asked, feeling weak from his earlier rampage of magic use and getting jumped by this large, unknown pack of werewolves. "I've done nothing to you. Why attack me?"
GROWL
The stalking wolves merely growled as they prowled forward. The alpha — A man dressed in all black leather — held up a hand, causing the wolves to pause, as he walked ahead of his pack. His blond hair was graying on the side, and the side of his face seemed to have a burn mark on his right cheek. He was tall, his eyes were blue and he carried himself sure and proud, as if no other power could worry him nor command him. He carried a weapon with him — A double sided axe made for battle — and, like his packmates — or at least the ones who haven't shifted quite yet — he wore a strange ring on his finger — A black piece of black kyanite, placed in an intricate silver ring. They radiated a silent magical power, but one Marcus had never felt before.
'Are they allowing them to control their shift, even without a full moon?' Marcus wondered, briefly confused, even injured and on Death's door. 'Some kind of moon… ring?'
"It is true: You have not done anything to us to warrant us killing you," the alpha's words yanked Marcus from his distracting thoughts. "Unfortunately," he stood just a few meters in front of Marcus, his double-sided axe in hand and at the ready, "your little master is gathering too much power, much too quickly. It has been worrying certain powers… As such, we've been dispatched to put him in his place… Through you."
The 17 year old teenager was horrified at those words. ''They're going to kill me to get to Maximus. Damn it. Where did it all go so wrong?'
"Don't worry too much, young'n," the alpha raised the battle axe high overhead. "You will die with more fire in your eyes and heart than most others I've faced and I respect that, which is more than I can say for most. Know that it took more than I anticipated to take you down. Find solace in that fact, and be at peace knowing that your master will soon join you."
Anger boiled within Marcus as he heard those words, but there was nothing he could do. His stone talisman was across the road, out of reach, and, even if it were in reach, he was at physiological limit. And, as the bladed end of the axe descended towards Marcus, he couldn't help but think 'Where did it all go so wrong?' as he closed his eyes, awaiting once more, the sweet release of Death…
[Moments Prior; Same Location]:
Marcus went inside the gas station, wandering the isles of the store before grabbing an iced mocha and a bag of chips alongside a warm hot dog. Then, using a slip of paper pre-enchanted with a glamour, he "paid" for his purchase.
As he exited the store, hotdog in hand, halfway to his mouth, a great and sudden force lifted him from his two feet and chucked him past the car, the station grounds and into the middle of an empty road… A road which was empty of cars, but not golden eyes. Surrounding Marcus were a horde of fully transformed werewolves… Transformed during a first quarter moon.
Though confused about this detail, Marcus was no stranger to fighting — He knew one when he saw one — And he sensed this one would be one hell of a fight.
Getting to his feet, Marcus pulled out his necklace, his hotdog and groceries forgotten and scattered on the ground around him. Grasping his triangular talisman, Marcus pointed it towards a charging wolf, its form glowing a vibrant emerald green as a blast of green light shot out from the stone, hitting the wolf in the chest mid-charge.
It was dead before it hit the ground, having had a heart attack. But Marcus continued chanting, the wolves beginning to surround him. He noticed that among them, there were a few who were untransformed, but he tried his best to ignore them, choosing to focus on his more immediate threats.
With his magic, Marcus took out many wolves on his own — The Martin Stone utilized the essences it's captured and turned that essence into power that he used to defend himself, taking out handfuls worth of wolves simultaneously.
Unfortunately, he was still outnumbered, 100 to 1, so it wasn't a surprise when a wolf managed to sneak up on him, leaping at his back, causing him to faceplant, his stone getting flung from his hands.
HOWL
The wolf on his back howled as it bit into Marcus's back in a great, painful chunk.
"Ahh!" Marcus groaned in pain. "I-Incendia!"
A great and powerful flame burst forth, burning the wolf — And 6 of his packmates — instantaneously, licking around Marcus briefly, in a semi-circle, protectively.
The remaining wolves, however, attacked all at once — Nipping and biting at areas of Marcus's body that were unprotected — The legs, the arms, the sides, the back. And as Marcus grabbed at his arm defensively, mentally stopping himself from screaming in pain — He had no intentions of giving his attackers that satisfaction.
"Aspiro repellis!" Using most of his remaining life force as fuel, Marcus summoned a great gale wind that sent many of the nearby wolves flying multiple tens of feet in the air and away.
This move gave Marcus the space he needed to crawl his way to the base of a tree, turning around to face the 60 or so wolves still alive to face him. He noted the 10 or so untransformed wolves had walked closer to him, led by a blond man in all-black who seemed to be the alpha, given, at his raised hand, the pack stopped attacking Marcus.
"Who are you people?" Marcus asked, feeling weak from his earlier rampage of magic use and getting jumped by this large pack. "I've done nothing to you. Why attack me?"
"It is true: You have not done anything to us to warrant us killing you," the alpha's words yanked Marcus from his distracting thoughts. "Unfortunately," he stood just a few meters in front of Marcus, his double-sided axe in hand and at the ready, "your little master is gathering too much power, much too quickly. It has been worrying certain powers… As such, we've been dispatched to put him in his place… Through you."
"Don't worry too much about it, young one," the alpha said, grinning sadistically. "Know that you died with a fire most don't exhibit when they face me and, for that, you have my respect, which is more than what I can say for most. Know that your master will soon join you and take solace in this fact."
Marc braced himself for the pain he was sure would come, eyes closed in acceptance… A pain that never seemed to arrive for some reason.
Opening his eyes just a squint, Marcus expected to find his attacker ready to slice his head off… Instead, he seemed to pause mid-swing, as if time itself had stopped.
And, when he looked around himself, he noticed that everything had stopped moving — Birds mid-flap, wolves mid-charge and trees mid-blow of the wind.
'What the Hell?' Marc thought, shocked.
Step. Step. Step.
A pair of steps garnered Marcus' attention, and when he looked up, he saw…
"Maximus!" he exclaimed, relief swelling through him.
[Seconds Ago]:
[Maximus Westphall-Bennett POV]:
When Maximus appeared from the dark violet-black vortex of smoke, he immediately took stock of the situation: Marcus surrounded by wolves too big to be normal wolves, with a man who seems to be the alpha, about to execute Marcus with a double-sided battle axe.
Immediately, using a spell he's seen a certain Halliwell sister perform countless times, Maximus stopped time, walking over to his warlock ally.
"Maximus!" Marc exclaimed, relief in his eyes at seeing Max there.
But Maximus was looking at Marcus with a slight hunger in his eyes. 'He's only slightly older than me, but I still want to try something,' Max walked up to a wounded Marcus, grabbed the warlock with one hand by the back of his head and immediately crashed their two lips together in a hungry kiss, shocking the warlock.
Max kissed while Marcus remained paralyzed, but Max kissed on, his tongue demanding entry into Marcus's mouth when the other warlock instinctively began kissing back.
Marcus gave as good as he got, allowing Max entry into his mouth as two tongues fought for dominance. He grabbed Max by his hips, mentally taking note of how hard he was getting just making out with Max — and that his injuries were rapidly healing the longer they kissed.
What he didn't notice was the golden glow of Max's biokinesis healing his wounds, but he didn't need to know about that.
"Uhh…!" Marcus groaned in pleasure as Max pinned him to the tree at his back, traveling down to the warlock's neck and leaving a multitude of hickies that Maximus purposely refused to let heal, even with his biokinesis ability. "Uh… Maximus… The wolves?"
Max pulled back, grinning mischievously as he took note of the werewolves frozen in time.
"Ezillatsyrc," he commanded, and in a wave of energy, all remaining wolves were encased in layers of frozen, earthen crystals. "Rettahs."
At his command, all wolves and most unshifted wolves present — they were all torn apart into pieces of eternally frozen meat, frozen eternally in earthen crystals.
Marcus watched in awe as Max handled wolves he himself had difficulty defending against — All within just a two-part spell. 'He's so powerful,' Marcus then remembered what just happened, how he had just been kissed, the hickies still unhealed on his neck the recipe. Blushing, he thought 'He's an excellent kisser too. And kind of —', Marcus chided himself, stopping the completion of that thought, reminding himself he was straight. 'I'm straight; I shouldn't be thinking this way of another man…even if that man looks like a model out of magazine made real…?'
Meanwhile, as Marcus was having an identity crisis, Max let time resume after grasping the battle axe from the werewolf's grasp.
"EZeerf!" Max chanted, watching as ice began sneaking its way up the werewolf until the werewolf was frozen solid — Or, mostly, anyway. The head remained unfrozen and preserved, looking at Maximus in rage — Meanwhile, Maximus seemed almost bored, though his eyes were as sharp and piercing as ever. "I will only ask you once, Mutt, who sent you?"
"I'll never tell," the alpha laughed, proudly, as if Max were unworthy of answers. "You'll have to kill me."
"Boring," Max forced the wolf to stare him in the eye. Then, using an advanced form of compulsion by way of psychic magic, Maximus asked again, "Tell me: Who sent you on this suicide mission?"
"It was Qet—" but, as the empty-eyed werewolf began to answer, his eyes, nose, ears and mouth began bleeding and he was soon dead afterwards — His brain imploded.
But Maximus had already got his answer — After all, he didn't know many people whose name started with a 'Q', and the one person he did was his mentor — A paranoid mentor who's just made an enemy out him, but he tried not to think about specifics.
'Earlier in my rage, I subconsciously summoned and absorbed my 3 clones, but that's fine — I think my hypothesis is accurate, anyway,' Max thought, eyeing Marcus whose internal thoughts were showing his bi-panic at the moment. 'It seems my 9/10 charm bypasses baseline sexuality; though I reckon if there's even a hint of attraction in a straight male directed towards me, it gets amplified to astronomical levels. It's a broken ability and only seems to work on those I actually want to have it with. Everyone else just sees me as incredibly charismatic and charming.'
Maximus stared off the distance, lost in thought, before thinking back on the subject of his current problems.
'As for Qetsiyah, she'll get hers. I was already planning to betray her by resurrecting Silas but, at least I only planned to do it AFTER she passed on and found peace. But she's actively taken steps to betray me while I am still drawing breath. I honestly would've thought she'd given me the respect I was planning to give her…But, think about it, I can see why Silas preferred Amara now honestly; the alternative is a paranoid woman who has no respect for those around her… Perhaps I should enforce that respect?.'
Max paused his thoughts then, taking a deep calming voice. He felt like this situation is spiralling out of control. He didn't know why, but he felt like there was someone pulling strings — Something about this situation still didn't feel naturally occurring.
It didn't change the facts, though.
'I do sense that there are other powers at play, but vengeance, like me, is a bitch and I have no intentions of not showing how much of a bitch I can be to those that betray me…' Maximus grinned a malicious grin — One so malevolent that even Marcus felt himself take a step back instinctively.
'Qetsiyah…' Maximus thought, rage rolling off him in waves. 'I'll enjoy assimilating your power, your knowledge — And all you are… After all, vengeance is a bitch, and so am I.'
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