The White Snake and the Scarred Delta

Chapter 15

Tezy

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“Spare us your speech, Snake Goddess. You’ve lost no one in your life before, that’s why you are telling us this nonsense!” the dark-headed Biserko spat. His light green eyes regarded me with contempt.

I snorted, and with half a breath, I caught him around the neck. My eyes grew cold as I glared at him.

“You don’t know me, mortal! As a deity, I am telling you what to do with your life, to make it more productive and upright. Do you think killing more and more of your kind is fruitful and gratifying, huh? Will you feel better and be happy in the end, if you avenged that dead half-blood siren with the powers of a witch? No, Biserko. You’ll feel wretched and damned as ever!”

I let go of him. He fell to the ground, coughing. His head remained bowed, as I watched him. After a few seconds, I turned to gaze at the others, who looked sullen and lost.

“I have said my piece. Now, go away, all of you. You have no place here,” I told them coldly and turned my back on them.

“Snake Goddess!” The seventh got up from his knees to run after me and knelt in front of me to my irritation. “I, Jorgovan, will find my missing mate. But if you’ll summon me, I’ll be ready to bleed with you and die for you!”

I scoffed and shook my head, ignoring the cute blue-eyed red-headed witch in his memories. She looked so good to him, who had long curly black hair and light chocolate skin.

“You have… an interesting behavior, but I don’t want you to do that. My business is not yours. I’ll deal with it on my own. Got it?” I stepped sideward to avoid him, moving towards the house.

There were whispers in the air… I could hear their thoughts. I knew that despite what I told them, they would not listen to me lightly. After all, they were all stubborn werewolves, who had a mind and a heart of their own.

Right, mind and heart, which could not be moved so easily. It was a person’s nature.

“W-what about us… Tezy?” Dušan asked reluctantly, when the seven Serbians disappeared into the forest. “We have no one else but each other, and we have nowhere else to go.”

I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks upon hearing her. Slowly, I turned to face them, gesturing my hands helplessly.

“I don’t know, Dušan, Zorica. I’m so sorry. This place, it’s not mine. It’s⸺”

“How can you turn away these poor kids, Tezy?” Smaranda’s voice floated behind me.

My lips parted, whirling around to see her and Garridan together. “B-but Garridan⸺” I began to explain to his mother.

“What? What did I say?” He looked rather innocent.

The hateful werewolf!

“No matter who’s place this is, it doesn’t matter. You’re a deity, you should know better,” Smaranda added, scolding me. “We can never turn our backs on those who need our help, can we?”

I swallowed hard and refused to look at Garridan. I could just imagine his mocking face.

“Let’s get you fed. I think you need food so badly,” Smaranda uttered, ushering the kids to the interior of the house.

I was about to follow them when Garridan held me by the arm. “What now?”

“Because of you, I’m not with Ultima Vasile,” he began.

I gasped, remembering what had happened. “Oh, Mighty Deity! Is he okay? Are your friends all right?”

He scoffed, placing his hands on his waist, looking macho sexy. “Do you think I’d be this nonchalant right now if they were not? But the bad news is Ultima Danijel slipped away again. The good news is he suffered great losses. It’ll take time for him to get back at us again. I don’t know if it’s good for me and the pack, but I don’t think I can do anything about it. We’ll see what our enemy has in store for us. For now, he’s in hiding with his loyalists.”

I did not know what to feel either. I was relieved, yes, because it meant there would be no battles. But I knew that it would not be good in the future. I could feel it in the fibers of my being.

I shook my foot, as if I wiggled my tail when I was in my snake form. It was a mannerism that I could not just shake off.

I recalled what Jorgovan told me before they all left, so I asked Garridan, “Do you think he’s hiding those women who have powers, so that he can use them against you or your pack someday? Why does he seem to be fixated on you?”

He looked at me for a long while. “You know what? Why don’t you change your dress and not always look like that, as if you’re seducing the shifters?”

My jaw dropped. “What did you say? I do no such thing! Seducing mere mortals? Huh!”

He snorted with scornful derision. “Remember that you’re bound to me, Tezy,” he said quietly. It was laced with a silent threat, though. Something cold ran down my human spine.

He turned away, but I was quick to move in front of him, blocking him.

“What did you say? I’m bound to you? What do you mean by that?” I was worried that his words might truly bind me to him forever, and I could not return to Hebbiza. How could he tell me this? He knew very well what my purpose was!

“Isn’t it the truth? You’re in my realm, Goddess. Because of that⸺” He suddenly stopped, and he seemed to space out.

I watched his face turn sourly, more than before. There was only one conclusion I could make. He was mindlinked by his fellow pack member, if not by his ultima.

I just waited there for some minutes, while he remained quiet. I crossed my arms, giving him an impatient face.

How dare he! He makes a deity wait!

“Come with me. Alpha Kronid is badly injured. The pack doctor wouldn’t move him from Giurgiu, as it might cause him more harm. We must go there now, Tezy!” He held me by the arm.

I gritted my teeth and summoned a portal that would bring us directly to his alpha best friend. I knew he was worried. I heard from Smaranda that Alpha Kronid and Beta Stelian were close to him, like blood brothers.

***

It did not take us a minute to get to where Alpha Kronid was. It was in the middle of the forest, where a few of the pack members in their wolf forms stood guard, while one in a human form hovered and fussed about him. I gathered this was their pack doctor, who was trying to save his life by pressing his wound with herbs and cloths. The blood seeped through the bandage.

Alpha Kronid was unconscious in his human form, with a gaping hole in his chest. I could tell that he was dying. A lot of blood was already lost.

“Heal him, Tezy,” Garridan ordered me.

If I did not care for one life at all, I would not waste my energy and lose a chunk of my powers. Again. I blew air into my face. I could not say “No” to Garridan even if I wanted to. There was something deep inside me that wanted to please him, not to be indebted to me, though. It was another thing, for sure. Of course.

Wait, what? Why would I want to please him? Why for the Mighty Deity’s sake? I’m a deity. It should be the other way around. He should be the one to please me, so that I'll give him whatsoever he wants!

Nonetheless, I did as I was told. I got closer to the lying alpha, whose breathing was labored. Anytime now, he would take his last.

“Let me,” I said to the pack doctor, kneeling down at Alpha Kronid’s side. I removed the clothing and herbs. Next, I hovered my hands above his chest when the pack doctor removed his hands from the unconscious alpha.

Green and gold mists came out of my hands in a spiral, swirling motion. They moved down to Alpha Kronid’s chest, knitting and healing his tissues, his flesh, his veins.

Cold sweat began to appear on my forehead. I realized this was different from what I had accidentally done to Garridan.

“Tezy? What’s wrong?” the delta asked me with deep concern. He was hunched next to me.

“This is bad magic,” I murmured. My own breath became heavy. Still, I continued to do my task to heal Garridan’s best friend.

Garridan and the pack doctor exchanged glances.

“Yes, a powerful fae did this to him,” the pack doctor affirmed, looking at me.