xxv

it doesn't have to get this far,

it can simply just be like the old days,

but that's not what you want

M A D D I E ♛

"Finn you know better than to do things for revenge."

Deep inside, I was hopeful that I would be able to reach out to him. To talk to him like old times' sake and convince him that this was not the way to go.

Maybe he could listen to me. I mean we were still a part of each other's lives. We have been together at the hardest times and there's no way he can just discard all those years right?

Maybe there's still hope for him.

Finn looked irritated now and he spat on the ground. The scent in the air changed and I suspected that he must be calling some Strays in and so I also readied myself.

"You don't know anything Maddie. They took everything away from me, I'm only doing the same. It's the rule of our kind."

"It's not the end, Finn. You can start over."

He chuckled bitterly and shook his head. I could see the army of Strays that were rising behind him.

"Quite hypocritical of you to be giving me this talk. Didn't you come here to get revenge?"

I stopped and remembered. What he said was true. I am here for revenge.

I couldn't help but smile sadly as I tied my hair up. "That's true. But I was also hoping that I could see you change."

Right after I said that, Finn was laughing as if what I said was the most comical thing I ever said.

Strays have already gathered behind him. An army of them.

I closed my eyes and focused for a moment. This was something Hannah taught me before she left and something Hazel helped me to improve while she stayed longer.

When I opened them back, I was in my warrior state. I was here as both me and Dynamí.

My skin was paler, the astral glow was there. I knew that my eyes have already changed to that of a glowing crescent.

Finn's eyes widened, but he quickly recovered.

"So it was true." he whispered, but I heard him.

I set up a barrier just around myself and grabbed my daggers that I had by my side thigh. Come to think of it, this dagger was given by Finn and now I have to use it on him. Life really is amusing.

Without warning, the unnatural rogues came at me attacking me at every side. Like the first time that I fought against them, they were mostly weak and lacked skills in the battle.

They were soulless beings programmed to fight the enemy that they were commanded to attack. The problem was that they were never ending especially I was in their turf, of course there would be no end to them.

I noticed that Finn was out of sight and with only a quick look around, I saw him casually sipping a cup from his front porch. What the--

He's really having coffee while I'm fighting for my life. But anyhow, I have to do this fast. I'm still unstable in my warrior state and I've never really tested how long I can be in this state.

I fought the Strays for quite a long time when I realized that the longer we were fighting, they seemed to be adjusting with my fighting style. Not to mention, I started to notice that most of them were the same ones designed to fight me.

I slashed my dagger endlessly and it was honestly getting tiring. I took a moment and strengthened my barrier and the Strays were uselessly trying to cut through it, but it was to no avail.

While I took a breather and formulating a plan, the Strays gathered around my barrier and some of them were even on top of it and it was getting heavy.

This isn't working. There's no use in fighting all of them because they will just keep coming. It's Finn that I had to fight.

I was panting heavily and the weight above me was getting heavier causing my barrier to shrink. I forced myself to sum up more strength. I prepared myself and held my breath and in one instant, I let my barrier disappear and I used my claws as well as my offensive aura to slash through my enemies.

They all went flew away and I wasted no time in attacking the other Strays that were coming to me. I forced myself to speed up and as I was going through the rogues, I made my way to front porch of the house and attacked Finn by landing a kick on him.

To my dismay, the kick did not connect because he dodged it quickly. However, his cup of coffee dropped and broke to pieces on the floor.

As he observed it break, I attacked him again and rapidly pummelled punches and strengthening my hands just so the punches would have more impact.

One thing I noticed while being in my warrior state was that I was definitely faster and stronger, at a certain degree I can see where my enemy will move next, but I still needed to train that part.

Using his arms, Finn crossed it and defended himself from my punches. Although it worked, my attacks were too powerful for him to dodge completely. I would have wanted to celebrate, but I couldn't because I could feel my energy depleting.

I wasted too much time with the Strays and now, they were coming at me again, Finn was using them as a shield. I saw him wiping off his clothes as if all my that my attacks had done was dirty his clothes.

But I was assured that I dealt damage when I saw blood from the side of his mouth.

If I had to repeatedly go through the Strays first and then to him, it would take a lot of energy and right now I was scarce on that so I had to fight quickly in a way that I also preserved my energy.

As I quickly fought against the Strays, I was able to attack Finn again this time I was able to have a proper close combat with him. As I attacked him, he dodged, but wasn't able to completely dodge me. He also attacked me and I tried to dodge, but there was no way of avoiding his other attacks.

Even more, the Strays that attacked me while I was fighting Finn wasn't helping.

Finn knew my weaknesses and my fighting pattern well so I tried not to fight like I usually did, but that only caused me to be clumsy and made some mistakes that he didn't easily let go.

He was able to claw my legs, my arms, my sides and even almost my neck, but I quickly moved away from him.

I tried putting barrier around me as he attacked, but for some reason he kept breaking it before I could even stabilize it and it gave him an opening to land powerful attacks on me.

I was bleeding and getting tired, but I kept on fighting. I could not give up. There's no way. I'm giving up. I have to do this.

Finally, I was able to claw Finn and as I got the chance I made sure to claw him as strong and deep as I could. I tried to land it as near to his neck as possible, but he foresaw it and quickly moved his head and my attack landed on his right chest.

He cursed and although it must have hurt, he sprung quickly and jumped on me, smashing me to the ground. I winced in pain when the back of my head hit the ground so hard, I was only thankful that the ground was a plush green grass so it cushioned my head a bit.

When I opened my eyes, Finn was above me, his hand stretched back and was about to land on my face. I quickly moved my head to the side and missed his attack. During this, I locked my legs around his waist and got up and hit his head against mine.

This time, he stumbled back and although I was tired, I forced myself again to jump and claw him. However, he dodged quickly so only a part of his side was cut.

He jumped away and as I was still on the ground, Strays took the opportunity to attack me. I was panting heavily as I fought through them.

Finn was limping as he tried walking away from me, his side and his upper chest was now bleeding, the scent of his blood as well as the blood of the Strays mixed in the air and it was sickening.

I could feel myself getting slower, but I still fought against Finn's creations.

When I saw the chance and an opening, I jumped and attacked Finn who was trying to escape.

I had my canines ready and I was able to bite him from behind and I dug my claws deeper onto his sides. I was about to remove them and end him by slashing his neck, but then I hear a shrill scream.

Everyone stopped, even the Strays, and our attention turned to the little girl, Zinni who had a panicked face at the moment.

She dropped her bunny and tried running towards us as quick as she could. The strange thing that happened was that the Strays who had an offensive stance immediately stood up straight and started retreating at the sight of the little girl running towards us.

Finn used this chance to get away from me.

"Stay away Zinni!" he screamed at her causing the little girl to stop.

Tears dropped her beautiful face and she was crying for dear life. She didn't listen to Finn, instead, she ran towards me and started hitting my legs, but they didn't hurt.

"Stop hurting mister! Get away from him! You're bad!" she screamed and I was so stunned.

I was panting hard and was about to kneel in front of her, but then my vision started getting hazy.

I held my hand out to Zinni, but I suddenly dropped on the floor.

My eyes quickly moved to Finn who was getting up no matter how badly he just was injured and that's when I realized.

'His blood was poisoned, Maddie.' my wolf confirmed.

He really had to go this far.

It was the same poison that I was injected with before and had been unconscious for a long time until Hannah came for me.

Finn was walking towards me, although he was staggering and was dragging his broken lag.

I had to get out of here, I knew that, but my legs were heavy. I was exhausted from what it seemed like hours of fighting. My body was also quickly giving up on me, the poison was quickly shutting me down.

"There's no use, Maddie. I made that poison for you." Finn says. "I really hoped that you could join me, after all, you have things to get revenge for too, but you just had to be so stubborn, didn't you?"

Zinni's cries was piercing through my ears and Finn's steps were getting louder as he came nearer.

I tried to stay calm and assess my situation at the moment.

I have no strength left and if I don't move fast, Finn will surely kill me.

My eyes were dropping, my senses were disappearing and Finn was merely steps away from me.

He picked up the dagger that I dropped and just as he was about to stab me with it and I braced myself, my wolf took over.