Sergius: #4 (Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas) by Madison Stevens Page A

Sergius shouted to the monster. “If you can be hit, you can be killed. And I’m going to kill you, you son of a bitch, for hurting my people and for going after my Vestal.” He roared.
    He froze at the loud, booming laughter coming from the smoke around them. The sound surrounded them. A chill rippled down his spine.
    The damn thing was laughing at him. He growled over the possibility that it’d let him hit it.
    This time the monster didn’t scream when it came out. It launched itself for him face first, and for a moment, he thought he’d seen the actual creature. But as soon as it moved, he couldn’t be certain what it was that he had seen.
    It was as if he was made to forget exactly what it looked like. The only thing he could remember were the glowing blue eyes.
    Claws raked his thigh and tore deep into the muscle. A second later, the creature tossed him into the air and against a tree like he was a doll being tossed by a child. Before he landed, the creature snatched him again and tossed him back into the air.
    Sergius finally slammed into the ground with a hard thud, blood flowing freely from his leg.
    He let out a loud groan and pushed himself off the ground. Not much longer and the damn thing would finish him off.
    That didn’t worry him. It was more that he hadn’t seemed to actually have hurt it back.
    He didn’t care if he died. He just had to figure out a way to take the damn thing with him and save Jade.
     
    Jade cried as she lay on the ground. She remained weak from the trance-like state that monster had put her in. Her head still throbbed.
    Sergius grunted as a shadowy, blurry form charged from a cloud of smoke and clawed him. As strong as he was, as large as he was, the truth was unmistakable: they were losing. It was only a matter of time before the creature finished him and then her.
    She had to do something, or she was not going to just lose her own life, but the two other lives that meant the most to her.
    She might not be as strong as Sergius, but she had at least managed to fight off the creature’s control. That gave her hope there might be something she could do. She just had to figure out how.
    Sergius collapsed on the ground next to her. A pool of blood grew around him. Unable to walk, she crawled over to him and placed a hand on his forehead.
    “Run,” he whispered to her. “Just run. I’ll distract him. I don’t care if I die as long as you get away.”
    Jade leaned over him and placed a kiss on his lips. “Never.”
    She would never leave him. He was what she needed, and she would do anything to protect him. If they were going to die, they’d die together. She wouldn’t run off if there was even the smallest chance she could help him.
    Jade couldn’t say why or how, but something spoke to her. A voice in her head. Not the monster. Not the horrible thing that screamed inside there before or was trying to kill her and her loved ones. No, something else spoke to her.
    Desperate for a miracle, she listened.
    Touch his tattoo, child. Unlock the true potential of the two who are as one.
    Jade placed her hand over the tattoo at the back of his neck. Whether this was a hallucination, vision, or something else, she couldn’t be sure, but at this point she was willing to try anything.
    A blinding light shot out from where she touched him. The tattoos grew, snaking down his neck and his back and along his arms. The longer she held onto him, the more his tattoo stretched out across his body, and the brighter the light became.
    His whole body glowed now with a blinding blue light. The intense light forced her to close her eyes.
    “What are you—” Sergius began.
    The creature let out a bloodcurdling scream
    “Kill it,” she said. “You can hurt it now, child of Atlantis. Show your true power.”
    The words came out of her mouth, but they were also someone else’s. She could feel the weight of another person speaking through her.
    Unable to keep herself upright, her hand fell away