CHAPTER 158

Back with Malia and the others, a few minutes after Tristan left, the event was going on just as smoothly and everyone was focused on it except Malia who was straining her senses, trying to focus on Tristan, but it was very hard to do as she was in the middle of a high school concert. She didn't allow the excruciating headache she was feeling to show on her face, nor did she allow her eyelids to close no matter how she wanted to pass out.

She wasn't like Tristan who could filter his senses more easily after becoming an Alpha; she couldn't just focus on sensing their blood and tone down the sounds. Her sense didn't work like that.

"Anything from him yet?" Allison asked, sensing how Malia wasn't really focused on the beautiful orchestra in front of them.

Chris looked at Malia and noticed little trembling under her eyelids but said nothing.

"Nope. Radio silence over here." She said, She was about to pull back her senses for a second to rest her head and reduce the heavy throbbing but then the whole place suddenly felt cold. "I think-"

She stood up immediately only for her legs to wobble, making her lose her balance, only for her ears to be barraged by two distinct screams.

One was the ear piercing and grating scream that made it feel as if her soul was leaving her body, banging against the skull in her head, weakening her legs as if dipping them in cold water, and the other was the discordant scream all around her and the overwhelming feelings of fear and smell of blood everywhere.

"-alia!"

"Malia, hang on!"

She had been on her last tethers when it finally stopped, allowing her to take a look around as she finally pulled herself to her feet with Boyd's help.

"Are you okay? You just fell down like that… got me scared for a minute there."

"Malia, what happened?" Chris asked.

However before Malia could respond, the earlier chill she felt swept over everyone but some were too scared and panicked to identify it as something else other than fear.

The ones who felt it the most and subjected it to something different were Chris, Malia and his daughter.

"Tristan. Something's wrong with Tristan?" She said with labored breaths.

She took a look at the stage and saw that it was crowded with adults and the smell of blood was coming from it and needed no one to tell her that someone just died but that wasn't her concern at the moment.

Chris looked at the dead teacher whose throat got slit by a piano string and the figure of Malia pushing her way through the crowds to get to Tristan.

"Allison, go with her. I'll be there soon."

"What about me?" Boyd asked, doing his best to keep himself from panicking as none of his friends were.

Chris looked at him for a brief second and said with a stern voice that left no room for argument. "Go home, kid. Now!"

…..

For Tristan, though it was only for a brief second, it felt as if he relieved every moment of it in that second.

And his reaction to it was predictable.

"Arghhhhh!"

He lashed out wildly, shattering all the windows in the classroom and the blood that had slowly been receding into his body shot out in a wild torrent, slashing and piercing through anything that moved in the room, all away from Lydia's position where she lay fainted from horror.

The truth was that, from everything he's experienced till date, Jennifer Blake's action was the thing that hurt him the most… was what he was most afraid of.

And like a wounded animal with a creeping bloodthirst, his eyes went red from feral rage.

He jumped through the window, uncaring if he was seen.

A bloodhound was let loose.

….

Derek knew immediately that something was wrong after almost losing sense of Tristan's blood that was encroaching over the whole classroom and before he could react, he heard the scream that made him feel as if his brain was turning to mud.

Shutting off his senses didn't help as the terrified soul-scream made him terrified. Luckily he wasn't entirely out of it as he caught something leaving the classroom in haste.

And then came the cold and the fog.

He didn't need anyone to tell him what was about to happen as he could feel the bubbling malice, mixed with fear and sheer rage, practically covering that area of the school.

He rushed after the person leaving and they seemed to have sensed him coming and suddenly he couldn't feel them any more. He couldn't see, smell or hear them.

"Shit!" He cursed. The druid was proving hard to get a hold of and he wasn't particularly sunny about it.

He kept running in the general direction he felt them run in, thinking of what to do, when he felt it.

The sensation of venomous fangs breathing down on his neck washed over as he felt Tristan wildly running in his direction.

Not liking the sensation he was feeling, he shifted partially and growled; his animal instincts not willing to be intimidated by another Alpha.

Tristan didn't even acknowledge Derek's presence as he caught up to the Alpha who glared at him as he ran past him, blood amalgamations growing out of his body wildly thrashing about.

All his focus was on the hastily fleeing puddle of bleached blood that was trying to escape him but it couldn't.

If he was in his normal state, she might have been able to escape his senses but not now where they were running in overdrive and was practically tuned in on her blood. In this state, nothing else mattered to him.

Seeing Tristan increasing the gap between them so fast, Derek fully shifted and went on all fours to just close the gap and he barely could.

In Tristan's point of view, all he saw was the body bag of moving blood gradually getting closer and bigger, making him drool as he salivated the finale of the wild hunt.

Caws of crows sounded in discordant rhythm all through the forest and the nearby roads, and to those normal people who happened to be driving or walking down the roads, the scene of a herd of crows like a dark cloud gave them a foreboding omen for inexplicable reasons.

Tristan's mouth widened and his jagged fangs grew out even more and became more menacing to look at.

In one sweet swoop, he barreled towards the running Jennifer whose face bore a shaken expression as she saw a monster of blood rabidly making its way towards her.

From her connection to the trees around her, she could tell that he wasn't the only one coming after her. Another Alpha was right behind him, and far from them was a werecoyote blindly rushing towards them.

If it was an Alpha, she wouldn't feel any sort of apprehension but her main pursuer was a vampire, and not just any vampire.

'A damned Primearch!'

Oh she could hold her own against a vampire no worries there, but the problem remained that this was a taboo creature of forgotten myths, and what she was feeling from the boy at this moment honestly made her a bit worried.

'It doesn't matter. I'll risk it a little.'

She turned around to face the two creatures racing towards her, winds and leaves picking up around her as nature answered her beckon for strength and protection. With the recent completion of another sacrifice, her power faced another qualitative leap.

She could take on a raging Primearch… Right?

'… What… that…'

She froze for a moment as she finally saw Tristan's appearance as he sailed towards her with wriggly blood appendages swinging about from small cuts on his body.

'The fog... the crows… the cold… even blood! Is this… a Bloodborn?!'

She felt her skin crawl and a phantom feeling of nature moving away from her presence as if in aversion as Tristan got closer.

Four tails descended on her as soon as Tristan got within range. She calmly dodged those with a series of quick footsteps and when he was barely a few meters from her she waved her hands in front of her, channeling the winds into a small swirl and palmed it in Tristan's direction.

As soon as he felt the updraft of air near him, one of his tails whipped to the sides and pinned itself into the ground and pulled him in.

As he was dodging her attack, two of his tails shot forth in parallel to both of her sides, placing her in between them and Tristan used it to close the distance between them.

"Flow." She muttered softly and used one of her hands to hit the tail on her left side and as soon as she touched it, the solidified blood immediately melted as it lost its tenacity.

Grabbing the other tail, she flung it to the side to throw Tristan off only for her eyes to widen as she felt something holding her by the waist.

Before she could react, Tristan's hands were already grabbing her face. He lifted her up as he traveled his destined path which led her to gasp in pain as he smashed her against a rock. Her unintelligible words of pain hadn't even left her mouth yet when he pulled her back with the bloody hold on her waist and smacked her against the ground.

His fangs immediately went to her throat to rip it out but the feeling of looming death she felt overwhelmed every pain she felt. She pulled on her strength and hit him in the chest, sending him tumbling back a few steps.

She hadn't even gotten her breathing in order when blood projectiles were shot at her, instincts being the only thing that enabled her to put her hands into her jacket pocket and brought out the black ash that she threw up.

The mountain ash had barely formed a circle around her midair when the blood clashed against it, dissolving the both of them to blood splatters and ash.

.

.

.

A/N: I'm exploring the abilities of the Darach(Jennifer) as a Druid, and since she could easily take on Kali and the twins(with an almost complete ritual), it makes sense that she's fairly strong. It's a challenge, but I think I can make it good without breaking a few things(both character and ability-wise).