Intertwined: love, fire and sacrifice

19. Bloody Hell

3rd Person's POV

Laius sighed deeply. Not doing what he wanted was a first for him. But he would do it for her. He portaled them both to the place where the battle was taking place, the edge of Hell, the drylands just beyond its gates. 

Elves, witches, and wizards were fully engaged in battling demons and vampires after they broke the protection spell to enter Hell.

Liv and Laius found themselves at the core of this battlefield. She looked for her mates among the bloody crowd. Her eyes found Avalon’s on the right side of the battlefield, fighting 3 vampires at the same time. Liv’s heart started to race in utter worry, afraid that he would get hurt. 

She ran her eyes to the other side of the combat zone and spotted Elric and Maximus. They were only meters away from each other, both were fighting a handful of demons. After seeing their mate, the 2 Kings stalked in her direction, getting closer to her and Laius. Her father followed suit. The King of Hell erected a protective energy barrier to avoid any intended or unintended attack to reach his female. 

“Elric, Avalon, ...” Liv called. 

Liv was about to call her father when the Blood Oath Spell produced its effects again and she was hit by a violent coughing fit, which made her almost curl up in pain. Laius wrapped his arms around her, giving her support. 

“I’ll burn him for that,” Laius yelled staring at Maximus with a dangerous glare. 

“No, you won’t!” Liv argued as she tried to catch her breath. 

She looked at each of her mates. “Stop this now!” She said firmly. A plead a command. 

Laius inhaled deeply, not letting go of his hold on her. “Stop, halt!” He ordered the demons and vamps. 

She gazed at each Elric and Avalon with a determined glare. 

“Stop, Elves!” Elric commanded and his troops obeyed his order immediately. 

She raised a brow at Avalon, and escaped Laius’ grasp, taking a single step towards the Wizard King. 

“Are you coming back with us?” He asked. 

“Yes, I’m.” She answered, eyes fixed on his. His metallic grey eyes changed slightly to a greener shade as he heard her words. 

“Fine... Stop, we will retreat.” Avalon commanded. 

Liv released the breath she didn’t know she was holding. She couldn’t have a war happening, her mates and her people getting hurt. 

Elric and Avalon strode in her direction, as she ran towards them.  She ran into Elric’s arms, holding him tightly, as she tried to stead her panting breath, and pressing her head against his chest. Listening to the fast beat of his heart. She looked up at him, seeing his face, his eyes made her heart clench painfully and leap in contentment at the same time. Guilt and relief overcame her senses and thoughts and she swallowed back her tiers. 

She was finally with him, with them. 

She cupped his face as he pulled her flush against his chest. He had to be impossibly close to her. He inhaled her scent deeply and let her smell, the feeling of her skin and her warmness wash over him, fill his soul with life and peace.  

“I’m so sorry…” she muttered looking intently at his eyes. Elric didn’t answer anything. He was entranced, only drinking her presence in. He leaned down and took her lips in a passionate and desperate kiss. 

That was the most possessive, scorching, and starving kiss her gentle mate has ever given her. He kissed her as if he could mend their mate bond and steal her away with his lips, teeth, and tongue. 

Avalon walked passing Liv, and towards Laius, in a matter of seconds, his fist met Laius's face. The King of Hell was enraged. His eyes were bright red and his fangs were bared. Laius and Avalon started a physical combat. They were too furious to use magic, they wanted to hurt each other in the most baser way, in a hand-to-hand confrontation. So, the two Kings used mainly brute force to fight each other. 

Their soldiers were looking at them attentively, only waiting for an order to restart their fight. Maximus also walked towards Liv and Elric, as Astoria followed him closely. She was quite concerned about her niece as well. 

The sounds of Laius and Avalon’s clash snapped Liv back from her little daze, and she finally noticed what was happening between her 2 furious mates. She pushed away from Elric’s arms immediately and ran towards her other males. 

In a reckless ´Liv move’, she threw herself between her 2 big men, as she started, “bloody hell, what are you...” 

A blow that was intended to Laius met her cheek and chin. Liv fell on her butt with the impact. She reached her hand to her injured face, trying to regain her bearings. It was quite a punch.

Laius went down on his knees and wrapped his arms around her protectively, staring at Avalon with red burning eyes, as lots of smoke escaped his body. 

“I’ll turn you into ashes for this” he bit out in a guttural voice that seemed to come directly from the 6th deepest Pit of Hell. 

“No, you won’t turn anyone into anything!” Liv countered, spinning around in his arms to cast him a pointed look. But frowning wasn’t one of her good ideas and it only made her face hurt more.  

Avalon ignored Laius’ threat and also bent down to his knees, facing his mate. 

Seeing her hurt made his deadly anger and even his dark instincts retreat a bit. 

Seeing her hurt because of him.  

Avalon was about to brush a strand of her hair behind her ear, to prevent it to fall on her wound and hurt it further, when Laius lashed out at him. “Don’t you dare to touch her, you animal!” Laius pulled his mate against his chest, as he yelled in the same scaring voice, which brought chills to all elves, wizards, and vampires, and even to most of the demons around them. 

Avalon glared at him and growled, “It was intended to you, not to her. I will ...” he hissed.

“Enough! Stop this nonsense.” Liv uttered looking intently at both of them. 

Elric also approached his mate and put 3 fingers gently on the non-affected side of her face tilting her head towards him and taking a good look at her purple bloody wound. 

“You hit her using magic as well!” The Elf King gritted out in an angry tone as his eyes threw daggers at Avalon. How Elric wanted to throw a punch at him for this. But he had to control himself, it would only exasperate his female further. 

“It wasn’t intended to her!” he affirmed again. 

Elric ignored his reply and scooped Liv up in his arms taking her from Laius's embrace in a fast and soft movement. Carrying her bridal style, he walked them few steps away from her other males. “Let’s take you to Sienna and the Fae healer to have a look at it” 

She nodded. “You know I can stand by my own, right?” Liv raised a brow, which made her skin ache more. Bloody magic blow.

“Yes, but you should rather use these beautiful legs for better things.” He whispered. He would say so through their mental bond, has Liv not closed it.

“Like?” She questioned. 

“Wrap them around my shoulders,” Elric murmured in her ear. 

She bit her lip “It’s not the time for that”

“It is. I’ve missed you, your taste, and how good it feels to be inside of you, little love.” He smirked. 

Liv beamed him with a small smile. She was feeling much better after seeing him, being close to him, feel him. She missed him so much. Seeing Avalon also brought a lot of comfort to her soul. Her pain and dullness weren’t there anymore, their presence mended the hole in her heart and healed her soul-ache. 

Elric flashed them to his Realm and walked to the infirmary while he mind-linked some Elves to tell the Fae healers to meet them there. 

“Elric…I” Liv muttered as she caressed his cheek with the back of her fingers and tried to hold back her tears. “Damn! I’ve missed you so much.” 

“Me too my dear.” He replied before he kissed her forehead and placed her on the bed gently. Liv let out a soft whimper involuntarily, she didn’t want to leave his arms. 

After less than a minute, Sienna and Alba arrived at the infirmary room. Sienna was quite happy to see Elric bringing Liv back. She was worried about her being away for weeks. The fact that the Elf King gave her orders to meet them in the infirmary also didn’t help her to ease her concerns. The fairy frowned when she saw her friend’s purple swollen face. The corner of Liv’s lips was also cut and bloody. 

“What happened? Was he violent towards you?” Sienna whisper-asked Liv, the fairy has wide and apprehensive eyes. By ´he´ she meant Laius, the King of Hell didn’t have the best reputation among any of the Realms. 

Laius and Avalon portaled themselves there and reached the infirmary at this moment. 

Liv chuckled. “If any of them would even dream about it, they would’ve to give up any intention of ever having an heir. Because they wouldn’t have their hanging stuff anymore.”

Sienna brought her hands to her own face and laughed a bit as well. Liv could for sure stand up for herself. The Fairy also knew that Elric wouldn’t ever let anyone psychically harm his beloved mate. 

Avalon approached Liv, while her other mates were eye-killing him. 

He looked at her wound and took her small hand in his big one. Feeling his skin on hers and the tingles that exploded at their contact felt so good and right. 

“You know that I didn’t mean to...” 

She put her other palm up in the air to stop him. “I know. By the way, you do know how to throw a good punch. You have to teach me how to do it someday.” 

Elric ran his hands through his hair warily. “Alba, Sienna, please take a look at her” 

“Yes, King Elric.” They said in unison. 

Alba, a chestnut-haired fairy, was the main responsible for any injured beings in Emeraldia. She was a healer and could cure physical and emotional wounds. While, Sienna had some healing powers, but she wasn’t a healer. Her work consisted mainly of being Liv’s and Lea’s teacher. 

Alba took a look at Liv’s wound. It was getting darker, a deeper shade of purple. It extended itself from the part of her cheek down her eye to her chin, on the left side of her face. Her bottom lip was also broken, and a thin rope of blood flowed from her swollen lips. 

The fairy hovered her hand over it and Liv could feel the warmth of Alba’s magic on her skin. The swollen reduced a bit and the cut on her lip was gone. 

“That’s all I can do,” Alba uttered in a weak voice. Her healing took a lot of her energy. “The magic that engulfed the blow is very powerful and it prevents the wound from healing properly.”

Avalon exhaled deeply in exasperation. Alba looked at him, without meeting his eyes, she didn’t want to upset the already unsettled powerful King. The realisation hit her. 

She gazed at Liv and said nervously. “The mate bond could make it better. Help to heal it faster and completely... if you could mate with the King... the Wizard King.” 

“What? He hits her and gets to mate her?? Bloody f*****g dastard! I’ll kill...” Laius lashed out. 

Liv gazed at him with a soft look and held out her hand to him. He goes to her other side, not the one where Avalon and Alba were standing, and takes her hand in his.

“It wasn’t his intention,” Liv told him, as she soothingly squeezed his hand.

“It doesn’t matter!!” Laius uttered fuming, his eyes were turning red once again. 

Liv sighed. “Just try to not aggravate me more, okay? No more fighting!” 

He tightened his lips in a thin line but nodded. 

Laius wanted to make Avalon pay for hurting his female. Send him to a deep Pit of Hell. But he knew that hurting Avalon would end up hurting Liv as well. He couldn’t hurt her even more. Only the thought of it crushed his little heart. Therefore, he controlled himself and let it go. Even though it was once again contrary to all his instincts, to his very nature. Once again, he had to do it for his Sugar. 

“Don’t ever throw yourself in the middle of a fight again, Livia,” Avalon said.

“Hey, you have no right to...” she snapped. 

“He is right, Liv. It could have been much worse, and you could have gotten severely hurt.” Elric added. 

“And let them fight like two crazed lions?” She asked, raising a brow.

“Yes, it’s better than hurt yourself Sugar,” Laius uttered. 

“I won’t promise anything... if you guys don’t go all cavemen on each other and fight, you could avoid that kind of issues.” She said smiling with the corner of her lips.