Call Of The Dark

Maeve tugged herself from the body in order to free herself. Lazarus had come and she knew that he had brought Gladys with him. She wanted to get out of the old host body, so she pulled herself with whatever strength she could muster, but the moment she did that the body convulsed. It had started bleeding so heavily that the stone slab it was on had turned red. Maeve only wanted to get out of it as soon as possible. She was excited to get inside Gladys.

The Shaman recited his incantations louder. The black smoke around the host body tightened further and this time when Maeve pulled herself out, she could free easily. With an eerie shrill voice, she turned to Lazarus. But what she saw in front of him, shocked her beyond words.

Ailill was standing in front of Lazarus. He was tortured and beaten heavily. His one eye was shut and swollen. There were too many bruises on his face. His hands were tied with heavy chains and there were iron balls on his ankles that were impeding his movement. "Aililll!" she screamed in her agony, but her voice came out shrilly and as if from a distance. It was so ghostly that even she couldn't recognize it.

Lazarus shoved Ailill in front of her. He kicked him on his knees and grabbed his hair to yank his head up. "Here Maeve, your host! He has been waiting for you because he hasn't accepted your rejection!" He yanked his head up. "Come on," he barked. "Say it!"

Ailill was drugged heavily. His fae magic was bound by the fae iron around his ankles. He opened one eye and looked up at Maeve. With a heavy breath he said, "I, Ailill of Vilinski, do not accept your rejection."

"Noooooo!" Maeve shrieked. The wind around them became gustier. This was not what she wanted. Ailill's body was calling his mate. Maeve didn't have much time. With a loud shriek she rushed outside to get in her maid's body, but the circles around the temple prevented her from going out. The moment she touched the magic created by the circles, electricity sizzled as if burning her. She screamed and rushed back.

Above her, she saw a large shadow gliding across the moon. It had a tail. She disregarded it. Maeve was in a hurry to possess a body. Lazarus played with her. She was going to teach him a severe lesson. She was going to punish him for sabotaging her long plans. She went back inside. This time she saw Ailill looking at her expectantly. He raised his hands for her. "Come to me mate..." he whispered. "Come to me..."

What was he doing? Maeve didn't want to possess him. He refused her rejection and that brought back more pain. They were soul mates. And his soul called her. Her soul got attracted to him. She resisted the call.

This was the time when King Viktor traced with Emma inside the temple. Shocked to see a fae in the temple, he somehow managed to go against the stormy winds and pull Emma to the courtyard. "No!" he rasped. He could hear Maeve's loud shrieks. He didn't know what was happening. But he had Emma with him and things would go as he wanted.

However, the moment he took Emma in the front, Lazarus grabbed Emma from him. He didn't even have the time to protest. Lazarus took Emma right behind Ailill.

Maeve saw Emma and was ecstatic. She was going to possess Emma. In a frenzy, she hurried to Emma and as soon as she was about to slam in Emma, Lazarus threw Emma to the side and yanked Ailill up. Maeve's soul slammed into Ailill.

"Nooooo!" An agonized, blood-curdling scream that was a warbled mixture of a man and woman sounded.

Maeve's soul was into Ailill. And as per the incantations, Ailill's soul would be cast out. However what happened next was unimaginable. A huge dragon flew from above. It perched itself on the wall of the courtyard.

Viktor and Anton were terrified. They retreated to the corridors and hid themselves. Yul and Magnus watched Nephie with awe.

Nephie flared her wings wide and roared so loudly that the walls shook and something cracked somewhere inside. She craned her neck to look at the moon. There was a menacing growl from her throat. When she opened her mouth, she breathed fire. She breathed fire on Ailill.

Hair-raising howls were heard when the fire connected with Ailill's body. "Noooo!" Maeve shouted from inside. She was still warring with Ailill's soul to find space. But when she sensed scorching fire on the skin, she snapped her eyes up and saw the dragon. Terrified, she stepped back but her efforts were wasted, because Ailill's body was tied in fae iron.

The fire from Nephie turned into crystals all around Ailill. The crystals started forming right from his feet and rapidly covered him till his waist. Maeve cried as she struggled to get free from Ailill. "You cheated me!" she shouted at Lazarus who had taken Emma to a safe place.

"No," Lazarus shouted back. "You cheated upon me. Ailill is your true mate and you must stay in his body. After all, you both are soul mates!"

Nephie continued to breathe fire. More crystals formed above his body and now he was neck deep in crystals. He looked like a mountain of various hued crystals with a head.

Maeve tried to wield her magic to shatter the crystals around her, but Nephie was a dragon. Her magic was extremely powerful and she was not going to let anything happen to Emma.

"Lazarus," Maeve shouted. "When I come back, I am going to avenge this. You deceived me. You betrayed me! This is not the end." She called upon her magic along with Ailil'sl to attempt to break the crystals, but by then more crystals formed and they covered the head too.

At the end, a mountain of crystals was standing where Ailill was.

Nephie stopped breathing fire, satisfied, and looked at Emma and Lazarus.