Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 79: Bloodlust

Chapter Seventy-Nine: Bloodlust

For several long moments, tension hung in the air like a cloud.

"Did I mishear you?" Vordt finally demanded. "Did you just threaten me?"

Xaphile tilted his head to the side, yellow eyes dark with an insane amount of rage.

"You heard right," he said simply, growling like a caged tiger. "Last chance to tell me your name."

He watched as his uncle arrogantly lifted his head.

"Don't think to order me around, filth," he grunted, flicking his claws and leering at him coldly. "With that injury you have, magic or not, you'll only last so long. In the end, I will triumph."

"I just want you to know," Xaphile purred, smiling in an icy, threatening manner, "that you won't be able to take me out. I've been pushed too far this time."

"Big words," Vordt sneered, narrowing his eyes. "An untrained mortal can't hope to defeat me, for I am one of the many Kings of Calcoon. The world beneath your feet bows to my clan and my clan alone, Darkling of the Southern Provinces."

Instead of responding, Xaphile gave into instinct. There was a part of him protesting this, a part of him that said it was wrong.

But his fury.

It couldn't be soothed this time.

It was never supposed to have come to this: it was never meant to be a duel to the death.

But if this man wanted to kill him, family or not, uncle or not, he would defend himself.

He couldn't die until he found his little brother.

He couldn't die until he saw Ella Richardson one last time.

And because he couldn't, he wouldn't.

Even if, as Ella had once told him, he needed to take another life in order to protect his own.

Hair rising from the electrical currents radiating around him, he broke into a sprint, flashing toward Vordt so quickly that the world blurred in his vision.

Before the adult had time to react, he tackled him at the waist, knocking him down and pinning him against the muddy earth.

"WHAT?!" the man coughed. "How did you--?!"

Before he could finish speaking, Xaphile dug his claws into his shoulders, piercing his flesh and tearing into the underlying muscles and tissue.

Vordt yowled, thrashing madly until Xaphile leaned down close to his face. The faery stiffened beneath him, expression contorting into a savage scowl.

Watching closely, Xaphile dug his sharp nails deeper into his so-called uncle's shoulders, keeping him firmly in place and deterring him from writhing away.

Then he pulled his hand back, arm shaking with rage as he angled his claws in a precise manner.

The sharp digits on his fingers glinted dangerously as he prepared to stab the guy in the neck, but before he could strike, Vordt moved his head back and swung it forward with a snarl, bashing him in the face.

Xaphile recoiled with a yelp, but that left him wide open.

He wheezed the adult fae brought his arms up and gouged his sides, repeatedly driving his claws into his torso until he finally jerked backwards.

Seconds later, Vordt brought his legs up and kicked Xaphile clean in the chest.

He went flying into the mud on his back, but quickly righted himself, ignoring the blood running down his sides.