Tasting Darkness

Read Taming Darkness By Jessica Hall Book 3 Chapter 36 – The briefcase slipped from her hands, sc*ttering paperwork
everywhere when I am hit from the side, my magic dropping as one of her men attacked me. I hit the ground hard. From my
peripheral, I see my mother trying to scavenge the papers. My wings open when the Fae man blasted me with his fire magic, my
wings wrapped around my body protectively, shielding me.
The heat made me scream, and I forced power into them turning my wings to steel. They glowed, turning a rusty red, from the
rapid heat. Turning my head, I spot my mother rush out the door and clench my teeth as her foot soldier pins me with his fire.
Yet the moment he is close enough, I spread my wings, slicing his body in three pieces, he looks shocked and looks down before
his body slides apart and splatters on the floor. Like some gruesome puzzle pieces.
Without a second glance at the man and his grisly fate, I chased my mother out of the house and nearly stopped in my tracks at
the chaos outside. My mates were fighting alongside the recruits and destroying everyone in their path to get to me.
I scanned my surroundings looking for her, and I spotted her trying to sneak away in the midst of the battle, just the shimmer of
her shield gave off her fleeing figure. “Lidia!” I screamed out to her, and she stopped once more.
Her eyes flashed, and my mates, look in her direction. “You had your chance,” she spits at I snarl at her and shook my head,
stepping into the chaos when I noticed Kalen behind her and in the next moment, so does she.
She smirked, and her fingers come alive with magic. “It started with you, Lidia, and it will end with you.” I warn her. “If I go, I am
taking them with me,” she growled and turned toward Kalen. Darius screamed, and my heart stuttered as she lifts her hand,
glowing with her powers, a cruel smirk on her lips.
I don’t think, I just feel, letting instinct drive me. “Kalen!” Lycus screamed and Kalen lifted his head. Seeing my mother’s
outstretched hand his eyes widened when her magic left her fingertips only for me to smash into her making her drop it, I growl
furious that she would try to hurt him again.
My mother struggled under my hold and I refused to let go, instead flying high into the sky, soaring until I’m with my phoenixes.
“When I’m out of this, you’re going to regret every second of your life.
I’ll get your mates, and I’ll tear them apart, one by one, in front of you.” She really could be stup*d. Who else would threaten my
loved ones when I have them in a vice grip? My anger roared to life inside me, and my hold on her tightened.
No matter how much she fought against my hold, it merely grew tighter. The rage in me took over. The power hunters were far
away and occupied by the Harmony-Fae. My battling those that dared to try them.

Perhaps if I was a less selfish person, I’d let those that had lived under her rule be the ones to end her life. But I wasn’t letting
this go, she destroyed our family, destroyed my mates, and all for nothing, for some war we were never a part of.
I squeezed her tighter, traveling higher, and her eyes bulged in her head as she struggled against the supernatural power. I had
light in me, but right now the darkness had full control and filled me with power, surging through every molecule in my body.
My decision to end her only satisfied that dark part of me more when I screamed until my throat hurt. It was such a feral sound
that it took me back, but not as much as what I did after. My Phoenixes circled above, hearing my call, they looked up.
Hovering in the air, she fought, her magic blasting me, only for me to absorb “Goodbye mother.” I tell her before letting go. She
pinwheeled through the sky, desperately trying to catch onto something.
The phoenixes swooped in, darting in and out and making her scream as tiny ribbons of her blood filled the air around her. She
shielded her face, by holding her hands over them. My babies continued to rip her apart like a school of piranha’s in a feeding
frenzy.
WIL What was left of her when she hit the ground wasn’t much, her torso, her head, bits and pieces of her limbs that they hadn’t
plucked completely off of her. There was no emotion left in me as I stared down at her.
She blinked up at me in total shock. I hovered in the air, noting the horrified faces of her power hunters. Those that remained
were quickly killed off, it’s what happens when you are distracted in a battle like this.
Spark swooped out of the sky to land beside her, and she coughed, almost gurgled. “Spark,” she managed to whisper, though it
took most of her strength. My hand clenched, but I stayed where I was. I trusted my phoenixes.
He moved closer to her, c**king his head as he stared. Blood coated the ground from all of her wounds. The phoenixes tried to
swoop in to finish her off, but Spark screeched at them, and they wheeled a safe distance away and perched to watch.
There wasn’t much he could do anyway, she was nearly dead. Her magic was being absorbed by the earth as she bled out.
Spark hopped closer, and she smiled at him. She tried to say his name again, but she could only mouth it.
Spark leaned over and pecked at her face, and she found her voice again as a long, blood-curdling scream rang out. Spark lifted
his head, one eye hanging from the nerve he had plucked out from his beak. He pecked again, taking her other eye, throwing his
head back and Toorak swallowing it.

Her screams were a crescendo, but Spark wasn’t finished. He pecked straight through her skull, cracking it open, and her AA 11
Locat AS screams died out as he feasted on her brains. “Hmm, I guess Lycus was right, Phoenixes do eat eyes.”
I chuckled to myself. Her death was underwhelming, she was no fight against me and my Phoenixes, for all her talk, she was
powerless. What power she came by was the numbers she stood behind, not by anything she actually possessed.
Piece by piece they had ripped her apart into torn flesh and bone, making sure it was at points that would be the most painful, so
she suffered every second she had, only for Spark to finish her off at the end when she thought he was the one that would save
her.
Not wasting time looking at the mess I made, I turned away. All I needed was to be with my mates and put all of this behind us.
We would raise our baby in peace and never let it know it was related to such a heinous woman.
I would hand the vials over to the council and help salvage what was left of us. My mates were near, I could sense them fighting
to get to me. I landed next to the Phoenixes who were eating what was left of her and witnessed the last of the war. Power
hunters continued to try to subdue the Harmony-Fae as they fled the house.