“Half-gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.”

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The child’s voice continues to call out but her words only infuriated the darkness that ruled my mind. She was weak. Her words wavering with fear and uncertainty as I revealed myself within the shadows of the overhang. She would be easy to exterminate and it had been so long since I had felt the sweet release from taking a life. The satisfaction of the darkness within me depended on her death. I needed this…

I needed this.

It is not a moment longer before I am barreling toward her with calculated ease, my jewel-toned eyes alight with anticipation before our bodies connect and her frail form tumbles to the stony ground. Her pathetic squeals only accelerate the drive that has taken over my mind as I snap furiously toward her neck with crazed excitement in my widened eyes. But the girl had skidded across the earth more so than being driven into it as I had planned, and my violent assault missed her neck by a few inches. Saliva dribbles from my jowls as I sling my head in the girl’s direction, my nares flaring as I inhaled the iron-tinged odor of blood. I felt the unmasked fright that shuddered throughout her body as she backed herself into a wall and I began to approach her in a slow stalking motion. The scent of her blood and fear sent me into a drunken rage as each step carried me closer to her demise. I was prepared for a quick ending, but I was going to savor every second.

Even so, the girl thinks it wise to scream once again and to dare to do so while I am so close. My black ears pin tightly against my skull as anger distorts my features, my lips wrinkling into a drooling snarl as a thunderous rumble reverberates from my throat. She will be silenced at last.

Yet, as with all creatures who share some sort of kinship, this whelp was not alone in her peril. A feminine voice screeches a demand from behind and as I turn to address this careless intrusion, the child makes a break for her savior. I twist my body to lunge at the pup as she scurries past, but my teeth snap maliciously at the tips of her fur again. It is now that I turn completely and see the strangely colored beast that so foolishly stands her ground against me. The child speaks again, clearly not learning her lesson thus far, and whispers to her roseate guardian. Savage eyes dart in her direction as a baritone growl permeates the momentary silence between them. The blush-hued female has done nothing but seal her fate along with the child’s.

I make a move to lunge at them both, the sight of the older female’s defensive position doing nothing to ward me off, with my jaws agape and ready to clench against the flesh and bone of one of the two before me. It is as my body is lurching toward the two females that my eyes catch the sight of another charging toward me. I had already advanced ahead of where the stranger’s intentions were initially set as my front paws plant into the stone and I attempt to swing my hindquarters away from his snapping teeth. But I had seen his approach far too late and I feel the white hot, stinging sensation of his teeth piercing the skin of my hip. I instinctively twist to grasp my own fangs at his throat and kick my hind leg to try and release his hold. The other male attempted to throw me over himself, but his grip was placed wrong and it did nothing but puncture deeper and enrage me further. A series of snarls erupted as I lost all connection with reality. The darkness that swelled within my mind overtaking all other senses and pushing me over the edge. It begged for deliverance and I could no longer keep it happily at bay.

The hoarse voice of the third female was lost in the madness of my mind as I continued through my twisting motion toward the male. My eyes were fixed on his position, never faltering, and burning with malevolence. I followed him wherever his steps took him and didn’t hold back as I let loose a barrage of strikes wherever I could manage contact. I was losing myself in this moment and was becoming something... or someone... else entirely.

Everything outside of this altercation did not exist. We were in an entirely different dimension of time and space. All that mattered was dropping his body to the ground.

But… in the furthest reaches of my mind I heard a sound. It was muffled at first, trying to fight its way through the muddied darkness that had overcome me. It was drowned out again as another snarl rolled through my throat. Yet, it came back again, louder this time… clearer. It was not washed out as her voice broke way to the forefront of my head. It ceased my growling, my movement slowed, and my drenched jaws were held agape as I breathed slowly and heavily from exertion. The thought of my attacker vanished for a moment as I turned to lay my amethyst eyes on this creature who could infiltrate and navigate the demons of my mind.

She stood resiliently at the side of the other femme, though her hackles were not up and her expression was not of animosity. Her coat held the brilliant colors of a sunset and her eyes burned brightly with orange and a purple much like my own. She had silenced the uncontainable aggression within me in this moment and caused unrest in a way that I had never known before. I did not understand it... I did not understand her. I only knew that I needed to be closer to this feeling. My eyes remained on her as I turned the rest of my body to approach slowly. I only shifted my gaze momentarily to her roseate companion to ensure that she would not attempt anything that would be ill-advised. My paws took me as close to her as I could, the creeping tenebrosity of my mind settling into a resentful calmness that normally could not be controlled. With blood seeping through the thickness of my stygian coat, I simply basked in this strangeness as my eyes pierced through her own.