Fangs of Desire (Book II) (Completed)

Chapter XVII

Emma ran after Jes through the streets, not sure where they were heading at first. Most of the backstreets looked exactly like each other and that made it a lot harder to navigate.

"Rhiannon and Nehut should be at the border, we should get to them before we find Jean."

Emma listened with creased brows.

"Nehut wouldn't hurt her, would he?"

Jes glanced back at her.

"Nehut is an ancient, I would be glad if he doesn't take a fatal blow from Jean first."

Emma felt confused for a second but then remembered descendants are the natural predators of ancients. At least descendants that had time to nurture and get stronger. Jean was definitely in that last class.

As they ran she heard Jes starting to chant and her tattoos started glowing on her dark skin with a bright contrast. The ground shook and a bunch of tar hands broke through the asphalt, accompanying them and slamming any ferals that came across their way onto the ground or throwing them off to the walls. It was like a black wave of hands creating a protective barrier around them. Emma felt glad she wasn't at the other side of that wave. She had no surprise that Jes was one of the survivors of the carnage, although she didn't exactly know what other necromancers could do either.

It was a while before they reached a rather far place to White Heather. It had stairways going up and a bunch of supernatural guards along the way, that must have been the outer entrance to the Underworld. Emma felt something crawling on her skin as they went up, there was something, someone with an immense amount of power and authority above them. When they got closer, she saw a man standing next to Rhiannon. He was obviously a kin, but his looks were too distinct to be your everyday kin. He had definitely lost his humanity a long, long while ago, probably longer than Emma could even comprehend. He was slightly shorter compared to Rhiannon, his skin a pale gray, showing that he probably used to have a darker skin color at a time long left in the past. His eyes had an uncanny shine to them, but his outfit was oddly casual despite all of the heavy authority surrounding him. Emma had never seen or felt the presence of someone like him before, and she could easily guess he was Nehut, the anarch ancient.

"Don't make it too obvious that you're staring."

Jes's words broke her trance, she blinked but had a hard time averting her gaze from him.

"It's the first time I'm seeing an ancient, it's... a bit eerie."

"I've seen way more ancients than I'd have liked to so I'm used to it I guess. Nehut has a rather calming aura compared to some of the psychopaths I've met."

Emma was even more irked at that. She wondered what kind of an ancient Hysteria was, definitely not someone she'd like to meet.

Or have you already met her?

She ignored the random voice in her head. That wouldn't be possible.

"Emma?"

She looked up again with Jes's words, Rhiannon was looking at them and so was Nehut. His gaze was something Emma couldn't ignore even if she wanted to.

"Rhi."

Jes went up the last set of stairs and Rhiannon nodded at them. Tristan wasn't there.

"My haven was destroyed, I lost Caleb too. I need a safe space to summon him again."

Rhiannon creased her brows and sighed, her feathers moving with a soft shiver that went along her neck and hair.

"Underworld is gonna lose its reputation as a safe haven if it keeps going like this. We have to put an end to this mess quickly."