Falling For Dakota

Eric

This was the moment I have been hoping to get to since this war broke out. Earlier I had half the mind to let Octavia plead and surrender and half the mind to end her life quickly. By the looks of things, I believe now more than ever that she should die a slow painful death only now I am more certain that Dakota is the one who would want to do it. She has been thinking about it since she saw our enemy from afar. I honestly cannot blame her, but if it was absolutely up to me, I would rather do it on my own than to get her hands tainted with the loathsome vampire’s blood.

Storm, Amara, and Lucca have joined the others to take care of the vampire queen’s remaining army while Dakota and I squared off with her. Octavia may not be the strongest of fighters, but she is cunning. She always has something up her sleeve which is why we have to make sure to always be a step ahead. At this point, I am still on guard as she may still have a few tricks and surprises. Pulling out more vampires from out of nowhere may not be a part of her plan now, but at the back of my mind, I believe she still has a bit of a fight in her. A certain kind of leverage perhaps, so we have to be on the lookout for whatever trick she will be pulling out. She charged directly at me as soon as she lost all the vampires guarding her. When that happened, I was absolutely delighted knowing that she was not going to run away like a coward. Call it my sadistic side when it comes to wars like this. I would rather decapitate an enemy than to see them walk away even though I know we as vampires need to be as diplomatic as possible.

Dakota may seem as if she was not joining the fight any moment soon as she allowed me to take charge for a while. However, I saw the determination in her eyes that she was just waiting for the right moment to launch a deadly attack. If anything, this is the trait she and Storm have that absolutely allows them to win fights. They do not charge at enemies blindly, but they quickly assess their attacker’s movements and somehow they are able to find loopholes and the right timing to do the task with absolute precision. She watched me and Octavia exchanged scratches and blows in full focus, and as the fight went on, her stance became more grounded and lower than usual. She was getting ready to set her plan into motion, and the absolute terrifying part about her as a wolf is she is a quiet and lethal hunter.

Octavia took a swing at me several times and sprung out of the way when I countered forgetting that Dakota was somewhere within the shadows. Once Octavia landed, Dakota full-on charged at her making her crash and tumble painfully several feet away from us. Neither of us waited for her to get up, but instead, we rushed towards her faster than a speeding train before she could regain her stance. I extended my arm and grabbed her neck crashing her through several trees lined up behind her. She was trying to claw her way out, however, her attempts were futile. My fingers and nails dug deep into her skin making her hiss in anger.

“Eric, look, her ring is exactly the same as yours!” Dakota exclaimed through mind link as she caught up beside me. I took a glance and almost stopped short when I recognize what kind of ring it was. I slammed Octavia to the ground and used my foot to choke her. “Where did you get this?” I growled, my eyes turning blacker by the second out of anger. She sniggered in response as she tried to push my foot away from her neck. “Ah, you recognize this?” she taunted but did not say anything else. “Perhaps it no longer matters who you got this from. I should not have taken the time to ask because it is indeed your time to die, Octavia,” I laughed loudly and harshly. I added pressure to her neck making her whimper.

"Kill me and she dies!" She gasped pointing a finger to her left. "She has a hostage, a woman. dark-haired, tall, and slender. do you know her?" Dakota inquired when I did not even look at what she was referring to. It took me a second to process her description of the said woman and to link it to the ring Octavia was wearing. "Cornelia," I whispered as I whipped my head towards the direction of where she is. True enough it was my witch friend and a past lover. Anger rose within me when I saw her state, she was beaten up and half-unconscious as she was being held by two other vampires. Dread and guilt washed over me as I realized that Octavia must have learned about Cordelia through Ishmael and it was my fault that this happened to my friend. I never should have said anything.

Octavia released a wicked laugh when I loosened my foot. "Ah, your lover is going to die if you even try to kill me or stop me," she said and I cringed at how she said the word lover in front of Dakota who is now, by the way fuming with rage. "Lover?" she growled. "Little one, she was a lover not anymore. Now is not the time to mix our personal affair with what is in front of us," I warned. "Well, now. If she's no longer important to you then let's just go on with killing this one and figure the rest later," she dryly added. Even though it was not something I would definitely agree to, I know that it is Dakota's dry-wit humor that is talking. Either way, I still gave her an incredulous look. "I'm kidding... okay, that was half meant," she sighed.

I shook my head at her before roughly pulling Octavia to her feet, choking her from behind. "You want a standoff, Octavia? Let us see who breaks first. You will not win against me. You will be dead even before you tell your underlings what to do," I threatened as I placed my hand over her throat to let her know that I am going to rip her throat out soon. Before I could say or do anything though, Octavia cried in pain as I felt a quick rough pull. I was astonished to find that Dakota has torn off Octavia's hand. "What?" Dakota answered in such an annoyed tone when I gave her a "what was that for" look. "The sun is about to come out and the last thing we need is another vampire running free in broad daylight," she continued as she swung her head to throw the hand away.

Good point, but she is killing me right now.