51. Revenge

“What are you doing?” Susan asked as I climbed onto the stage.

“I challenge the Pack Leader, Lucille.” I said, stressing her fake name.

“On what grounds?”

“On the grounds that she isn’t what she claims to be. She needs to die tonight.”

Susan laughed nervously as she glanced at Lilith, who was glaring at me. “What are you doing, Selene?” Lilith asked.

“Something that I needed to do before things went this far. Now, fight me.”

“You’ll die either way,” She said.

“I don’t mind, because I’ll be taking you with me,” I said with a smile as I continued the change. I didn’t care about anyone else. I didn’t pay attention to what the crowd was saying or what Randall was doing. Sylvea had pulled Quinn’s body aside, so the stage was clear aside from the fresh blood still on the rocks.

She sighed and began her own transformation. The moon wasn’t all the way full, and I was already weak from my previous blood loss as I struggled to force the change. She laughed as she realized my difficulty. “You’re going to beat me when you don’t have the strength to turn?"

I gritted my teeth as I tried to force Tala awake, as I tried to get her to help. I’m tapped out, Selene. There’s nothing left here for you to use. She’s taken too much.

No! We have to beat her now. It’s too late to give up. She killed Quinn, she’s going to kill others, she’s going to use them as her slaves and private buffet, I said to her in my mind.

There’s no power to fight her with. Unless you have another way of getting it…

I looked out over the crowd. There were a hundred werewolves there. Only Randall and Sylvea were Alpha, but they all still had some power within. Power that I could take in order to kill Lilith. I probably didn’t need too much, since she’d exerted so much during the fight, since it had to take a decent amount to keep her form so solid. A little bit from everyone wouldn’t hurt; maybe a little bit more than when I’d taken it for Doyle the previous full moon. Some might not even notice.

Tala helped me as I began to siphon off a little bit here and there, as I took the power of the Pack and pulled it into my body, using it to help me change.

“What are you doing?” She asked as I fell to all fours, my tail growing out behind me. She was still only half-changed, waiting on me to finish.

“I’m beating you at your own game. I’m taking their power just like you took mine, except you fed off my blood and pain. I feed off life and energy. Let’s see which one is stronger,” I finished my sentence as my face grew out to form a muzzle, teeth coming in nice and sharp.

Lilith completed her own transformation, dropping to all fours as we stared at each other, a white wolf versus a black one, yin and yang.

I didn’t stop taking the power, and people were starting notice something was different, draining them. They didn’t like it, but I didn’t really care. I wasn’t doing this for the glory or the power. I was doing it to get rid of Lilith. She was my responsibility now, since I’d allowed her to gain so much power. The air in the clearing was buzzing with energy, and it was the power of the Pack members creating that electricity around us. The best part was, Lilith couldn’t take that energy. It was all mine.

I used it to strengthen my muscles, to give myself more speed and agility. I used it to sharpen my senses, so I could react faster and notice her movements better. I used it to become more powerful than her, and she knew it. I could see it in her eyes as she stared me down.

I attacked first. I didn’t know if it would work, but I hoped that if I could wear down her power, I could break through her disguise and kill her. I lunged at her, mouth open, claws extended. She tried to move out of the way, but with my enhanced reflexes, I was able to adjust my path to anticipate where she was going. I hit her dead on as my teeth and nails dug into seemingly real flesh and fur. As I’d expected, Lilith hadn’t anticipated Quinn getting through her barrier. Even if he’d managed to land a hit on her, it would have most likely been a graze or a nick, since she was able to outmaneuver him so easily. It wasn’t solid enough to take a full-on attack.

The illusion was a thin barrier, enough power to create a solid surface, but it wasn’t thick like a real body. I tore through the power, through the black fur to reveal a large patch of her pale skin underneath. The Pack saw it too, gasps and whispers coming from the crowd.

“What’s going on?” I heard several people ask. Of course they were confused. Wounds are supposed to bleed, not disappear to reveal a human body underneath.

Lilith growled, ignoring the hole in her disguise. She ran at me at full speed, exerting a huge amount of power to move so fast. I couldn’t move out of the way fast enough and ended up with her teeth in the fur on my tail. It hurt, but it wasn’t too much to endure. She’d been going for my neck, just like she’d done with Quinn, but I’d managed to deflect her. I turned quickly and snapped at her, grazing her front leg with teeth. I came away with a mouthful of air and a hand and arm replaced the leg I’d gone for.

She moved away, but I followed, not allowing her to get any time to regroup. I pounced on her and knocked her to the ground, going for her throat with teeth, going for her heart with my claws.

“You kill me and you die,” She warned from under the slowly fading disguise.

I glared at her with yellow wolf eyes. I couldn’t speak in that form, but I knew she could see the resolution in my gaze. Lilith screamed as I dug into her chest, using the power I took from the Pack and Tala’s guidance to grow my claws, to tear through flesh and muscle. My own chest burned as I pushed myself to keep going. My breathing became more laborious as I found her heart, beating weakly to pump my blood through her veins. The fire in my heart grew as I pierced hers with my claws. She screamed louder, her cries echoing through the silent clearing, before she went silent, her eyes dead, her body still. She looked almost human, almost innocent as I stared down at her.

My vision blurred out as my own heart stopped beating, a mirror of her injury. Only this time, she wouldn’t heal, and neither would I. I heard distant voices and looked up, my world going black as I gazed up at Randall standing over me. He was touching me, trying to help me off Lilith, but I couldn’t do it anymore, trying to see if I was okay. I couldn’t get enough air. I couldn’t talk because I was still mostly wolf. I couldn’t do anything. The pain was too much.

So this is how it feels to die, I said in my head to Tala.

You did well, She said quietly, weakly.

It was the last thing I remembered before everything turned to blackness.

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A/N: Two more chapters to go, one to wrap up, and then a sort of epilogue. I hope to have the next one up in a day or so. The last one is already written. Hope everyone's enjoying the ending so far.