Chronicles of Araxx - Forever Broken

Jacob was here!

“You do look good, Annaleah,” Jacob purred. “Almost good enough to eat.” He laughed a little at his own joke, although no one else found it funny.

Lee hated hearing his voice. It brought back so many memories, and most of them were bad.

“Now do me a favour and make this easy for me. Come home with me?” Jacob stretched his arm out to her, offering his hand to her.

There was a time when she would have taken it, but not any more. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” she spat back at him. She looked down at her lifeless friend. “Did you organise this?”

“I didn’t mean for the girl to die, but I can’t say I’m unhappy about it, my dear.” Jacob laughed. “I wanted you back, and the vampire here helped me.” He then looked at Adz, Jay and Gray. “Are they your friends too? Maybe I should have them killed as well.”

“I don’t know them.” Lee looked at the three men. They were all beautiful, but there was something strange about the one with the orange hair. He was holding a crossbow. A crossbow. Lee realised she was in a horror film, and there was no way of getting out of it. “Don’t kill them, Jacob,” she pleaded.

“And why shouldn’t I?” He asked. “Why shouldn’t I kill these boys?”

“Because they’ve done nothing,” Lee said.

“They’re here. They’ve seen you, and me. They should be killed.” Jacob had a mad look in his eyes.

“If I go with you, will you leave them?” Lee couldn’t let anyone else get hurt because of her. She would try anything to keep the other people in the club safe.

“I might consider it.” Jacob smiled. He was winning, and he knew it.

“Might isn’t good enough,” Lee said. Just as she took a step towards Kane the entire club filled with flames.

Lee panicked instantly, but the flames were not touching her.

She looked down at the ground but she could not see Bree, she couldn’t see anyone. She didn’t want to leave her friend here, but she couldn’t see where she was.

Lee looked back and saw a clear pathway to the door, and she was going to take it. She had to save herself, and she hoped the three strangers she didn’t know would be able to get out alive too.

She bolted for the door, and soon she was outside the club in the cold.

As Lee ran from the club, the strapped heels she’d been wearing caused her to trip up. She fell to the ground, scraping her knees on the concrete as she fell. The skin on her knees ripped, as well as the skin coloured tights she’d been wearing. Her legs were a mess, and the heel on one of her shoes was broken.

Lee looked back, the doors at the front of the club were wide open but no-one was following her yet.

She got to her feet, shakily knowing she had to get out of there, and she didn’t hesitate in doing so.

She turned from the blaze and started running again, needing to get as far as possible away from Jacob, but the clothing she was wearing was restricting her. The shoes were hard to run with, especially with the one heel broken and they rubbed on her heels, the dress was tight and restricted the movement of her legs.

Lee tripped again, this time, however, she caught herself on a wall.

She heard shouting behind her but didn’t dare to look as tears started falling down her cheeks, causing her make-up to streak.

Then she realised something had changed. It was suddenly easier to run. She looked down, and to her surprise, her outfit was completely different. She was no longer wearing the figure hugging dress and broken heels, but she was now dressed in her gym gear, running shoes and all. Lee had no idea how this had happened.

While Lee was running for her life, things back at the club got interesting.

The vampires had scattered as it wasn’t their fight, leaving the werewolves, Adz, Jay and Grey in the burning building.

The warlock stunted the flames, and it disappeared at once, the heat evaporating, not leaving a single trace of fire or smoke in the club.

“Clever trick, Warlock.” Jacob snickered.

“Damn. She ran away!” Adz cursed.

Jacob laughed.

“What’s so funny werewolf?”

“Do you even know Annaleah, at all?” He laughed again at the puzzled expression on Adz face. “The one thing that scares her the most is fire, and you light the building she’s in, then question why she ran.”

Adz hated to admit the werewolf was right, but he was.

“That’s beside the point,” Adz blurted. He and the others were way out of their comfort zone. There was no way they could take on all three werewolves and live to tell the tale.

However skilled they were in combat, they had no real life experience. Adz realised how close they were to failing their mission and there was a very real chance that if they got their next moves wrong, it would be the end of all three of them.

Gray was the first to react. He lifted his arms and with that movement, the floor in front of the werewolves lit up. The flames burned bright, and Adz, Gray and Jay used this distraction to escape.

They had to move fast. Within a few seconds of leaving the area, Gray’s flames would disappear, and their cover would be gone.

As they ran away from the flames, Jacob’s angry voice filled the air.

They rounded the first corner and quickly ducked inside the nearest building through an unlocked fire door.

Jay pulled it to, careful not to close it fully. He peeked out and watched the anger on Jacob’s face as he realised both they and the girl had gone.

“Damn!” Jacob shouted as he slammed his fist against a brick wall.

“Chill out, dude,” Tom said as he put his hand on Jacob’s shoulder.

Jacob turned, grabbed the hand on his shoulder and twisted.

A sickening crack was heard by all three hiding behind the door.

“Don’t tell me to ‘chill out’,” Jacob sneered through gritted teeth. “We lost the girl and the Araxx.”

“Those kids were Araxx?” Aaron asked.

“Of course they were. We have to be quick at getting to her first especially now they know she’s here, and that we are too. More of them will come.” He slammed his fist into the wall again, causing his betas to cringe.

The one with the broken wrist held it gingerly in the palm of his hand, a small tear formed in the corner of his eye from pain, but he wasn’t going to let Jacob see.

The werewolves left the area, and after a while, Adz, Gray and Jay exited the building.

“We should get back to mine,” Gray said. “We need to work out a plan on how we’re going to be getting this girl of yours.”