His fangs hung over his bottom lip, signaling he was prepared to kill once again. Dalton looked at him in disbelief, that the man he had a vendetta against for centuries was finally standing in front of him, ready for a one on one war. The man he had come to Hanover in search of.
“You shall take your hands off my boy now, before I rip you limb from limb, Dalton.”
“Eli?” His hands released completely from Davin’s throat as he sprung to his feet, ready to square off for the first time with Eli. Eli didn’t waste any time at all. Without warning, he charged first to start the fight, catching Dalton off guard. He assaulted Dalton's already beaten face with multiple powerful punches over and over again, before he had time to shield himself from his mighty swings. Dalton had undeniably met his match tonight.
Both men were fighting the way professional boxers would in the ring, but with a deadly force that would have killed any normal man instantly. No weapons were here to assist them, only their bare hands and teeth.
Punch after punch, bite after bite they were going to fight until the death of one of them. The two separated for a brief second, then Dalton crouched down, barreling full force towards Eli; but with his godlike speed abilities, Eli blocked Dalton's attempt of attack with a hard kick into his stomach, sending him flying into another gravestone. He didn’t shake this impact off as fast as the other ones, showing he had weakened a little.
My attention on their fight was interrupted when Xander’s body went into his familiar convulsions next to me. His skin bubbled, and his limbs popped, but he didn’t seem to be shifting like before. He was holding his fists in tight balls against his sides, squeezing them tighter and tighter, drawing blood from the palms of his hands where his claws that hadn’t retracted were digging in deeper with each squeeze. Sweat rolled down his forehead while he struggled with fighting the change that was trying to take place.
I heard a different voice inside my head that wasn’t intended for me. “I can’t fend him off much longer.
“Kill her now.”
“I can’t.”
“You don’t have a choice. You will do it now, or I will kill you too.”
Dalton and Xander’s short conversation ended as quickly as it came. Xander shakily got to his feet.
Dalton hadn’t lost full control of him; at least not yet.
He stood over me with his empty black eyes looking straight into mine. Where was the man I once knew, and had at one point started to love? Not anything near the kind of love I felt for Davin, but there was something developing between us at one time long before I moved here, or even knew that Davin existed. If I’d never come here, we probably would’ve been together.
All of our many happy memories flooded my thoughts, like a movie reel that was brought on completely unprovoked by me. Someone was placing them there for me to see in a series of flashbacks from the many times we had spent together for the past four years. Xander, Kat, and me were the three amigos of Highlands Ranch, something we would never ever be again. Was this something that happened before you die, where your life flashes before your eyes?
Tears started to stream down his cheeks. He could see everything I could. My face was already moist and sticky from my own tears that were falling. Xander held his hand closed over something he was clutching tightly in his grasp. When he turned away from me the object gleamed from the moonlight that reflected off of it for a split second.
“I have to do this Adelay. I have always loved you so much. Remember me for what I was not for what I have become.”
“No, Xander!”
It was already too late. He turned back towards me with the dagger pushed against his throat and ran it across his neck, spilling blood all over the beautiful white snow. A scream split the night air, echoing through the graveyard. Once it went silent again, I realized it was my horrified cry. Although it used every last ounce of energy I possibly had left in me, I amazingly was able to drag myself to where his body slumped to the ground and collapsed next to my best friend, who had turned back into his complete human form now that he was dead.
The Xander I knew.
I draped my arm across his chest. His body was still blazing hot against me. “I’m so sorry, Xander! So, so sorry. . .!” I closed my eyes sobbing into his side. I heard Eli’s voice close by.
“How can you have so much hatred toward your own blood? I understand the animosity toward me because of my deep connection with Samuel. But, shouldn’t you be focusing your revenge on where this originally all began? This fight should have been with Samuel.”
They were both panting, standing a few feet away from each other but still in a stance preparing to go toe to toe again. Their battle wasn’t finished yet.
“These boys are products of your infidelity, but that is your demon not theirs. Our family has been built out of love no matter what lineage we stem from or creatures we have become and I’m sorry, but I can’t let you break this family apart. Adelay is part of us now too, loved as though she is my own child; and anyone who hurts any of my children will pay with their life. You may have your centuries of stolen curses giving you power, but I have something more that you will never have.”
“And what might that be, Eli?”
A women’s arm closed in around his neck, impaling the metal dagger that had been stuck
