Moonlit Dangers

Chapter Twenty

        I stood completely still as Adam rushed at me, muscled arms extended and clawed hands open to attack. I side stepped him like I was a matador, causing him to barrel into the wall. As he went past, I ran to the pieces of dresser on the floor by the door. Turning on my slow motion, I worked quickly, shuffling through the debris trying to find a decent sized shard of glass.

         I hit jackpot just as he was turning around to attack again, finding a piece that was about a foot long. I quickly hid it behind my back so that Adam wouldn’t see it and then cut off my slow motion. The glass cut into my hand as I gripped it, and I hoped that my blood wouldn’t make it too slippery for me to use. Adam approached me slowly now, clearly hesitant to rush me again. He growled, a deep vibration that shook my spine.

        We were at a Mexican standoff, both of us reluctant to make the next move.  Staring at him in his Lycan form, I resolved to end this and end it quickly. I thought back to the Lycan I'd had to fight at the compound. Kory’s words that day echoed in my mind. ‘A lycan is fast, strong, and deadly. Always. Don't try to duke it out with the thing. Kill it as quickly as you can…’.

        Just like that, I knew what I was going to do. I feinted to the right, making Adam flinch. As he flinched, I switched back to slow-mo and rushed forward, ducking between his legs before he could even tell that I had moved. I knew that the most he could see of me was a dark blur. Lashing out with the shard of glass, I sliced one leg deeply, and then turned to cut into the other. Hot blood sprayed my body, and I was fiercely glad that he was so large; I didn’t have to slide under him.

         I jumped onto his back shutting off my slow-mo, not daring to use my levitation just yet, and scrambled up as fast as I could. It wasn’t fast enough; Adam reached up and behind him, grabbing my head and using it to swing me into a wall. The sound of my neck cracking from the momentum was a soundtrack for the fireworks that exploded in front of my eyes as I collided headfirst. I felt the stitches in my thigh pop open as I hit the floor.

        Swaying on my feet, I got up again, only to be kicked back into the wall by Adam. I attempted to get up again, and screamed as Adam grabbed me around the waist, his claws digging through my shirt and into my flesh. I was gasping for air, he was gripping me so hard, but as he brought me closer to him, I saw an opportunity to finish our battle. Even after being slammed into the wall multiple times, I hadn’t let go of the glass shard.

        When I could feel his hot breath buffet my face, flecks of spittle flying, I braced myself. I struck quickly and grabbed his nostrils, pulling as hard as I could. When his head was tilted toward me, I stabbed him in his outstretched throat. He howled, throwing me at the wall once again. This time I was prepared for it, and I switched on my levitation, not a hundred percent sure whether it would work.         

        Thankfully, it did, and I flew up and back toward Adam. I lashed out again, slicing across the other side of his throat. I screamed, stabbing him repeatedly and crying incoherently. When he slumped forward I stopped, and touched down on the floor, turning off my levitation. I sat down, throwing my makeshift knife away from me and drawing my knees up to my chest as I watched his lifeblood flow out of him and soak into the carpet.

        He turned his giant head and looked at me as his breaths became shallow and ragged. His eyes glistened as he observed me watching him. I swallowed past the lump in my throat. My victory tasted like ground up nails, but I had done it. Killed my own father.

         “I’m sorry.” I whispered hoarsely, my eyes streaming with tears. “I’m so sorry.” He took another breath, and then breathed no more, his body becoming limp. I began to sob, and hurting, I lay down on the floor and curled into a ball. My stitches in my arm had torn, my stitches in my leg had torn, I could feel blood trickling from my forehead, and I had new wounds on my back, hand, and stomach. My entire body throbbed in pain, but that was still no match for the pain in my soul.

        I cried until it felt like I was empty, and then I began to get cold. I knew it meant that I was losing too much blood, and that I had to get out of here and find help. I attempted to stand, my teeth clacking as I shivered violently, and promptly fell back down. I was too weak to even stand. Shaking, I returned to the fetal position.

         As I lay there, knowing that I was going to die, I thought I could hear howling and fighting beyond the room I was in. I lifted my head weakly and looked at the door. Had Kory found me? At the thought of Kory, I sighed. I loved that man. It felt strange to come to that realization when death was at the door; to know it, but not be able to do anything about it.

        I let my head flop back down on the floor, angry at myself for not being stronger. I must have passed out for a few minutes, because I woke up to the sound of the door busting open. I tried to move, to stand, knowing that I would be torn to pieces by the Lycans when they discovered their leader dead by my hand. I barely twitched.

        When Kory appeared in my line of sight, I smiled. I was hallucinating, and it wasn’t such a bad way to go.

        “Elle! My god. We tried to get to you as fast as possible.” Hallucinated Kory moaned. I grew bemused when he picked me up. He was so warm. I snuggled my head into the crook of his neck and shoulder, breathing deeply. It even smelled like Kory. I narrowed my eyes when I realized that he was hurt, and blood spattered his face. Huh. I didn’t like that.

        I tried to imagine him as he was the night before, when we had made love in the shower, smiling and teasing, but the image wouldn’t convalesce over what I was seeing. I studied him as he walked, his beautiful brown eyes worried. I realized it was really him. I tried to lift an arm to touch his face as he carried me out of the room, but couldn’t manage it.

        “She’s lost a lot of blood.” He said to someone out of my line of sight. “I need to get her to the infirmary STAT. Wrap things up for me here...No! I am going to take her myself.”

         I chuckled weakly. “You…took long…enough.” I said. He smiled down at me, and I smiled back before I passed out.

                                                                 ***

Smells bombarded me as I drifted in and out of consciousness. A faint musty odor here, a stimulating pine scent there, and repeatedly, the sharp tang of copper. There were sounds as well, little snippets of conversation that made no sense to me.

“…on the operation table…”

“….type O positive…”

“…We’re losing her damn it!...”

“...stay with me baby…”

        In between the smells and sounds, I dreamt. In my dreams I saw my mother and father, young again, in love again. My mother was as beautiful as I remembered, her shiny black hair falling in a mass of curls to her shoulders, ebony skin smooth and satiny. She wore black slacks with a gold colored shirt that made her topaz brown eyes shine. She was crying, her tears making luminescent tracks down her cheeks.

        “You’re not human.” She kept repeating. “How can I love you? How can I build a life with you, and you’re not human?” My father kept trying to hug her, but she pushed him back again and again.

        “Because I love you!” He rallied.

        “You don’t know what love is.” She whispered, holding a hand to her belly. The dream shifted, and she was driving. She wore the time that had passed on her face, faint wrinkles puckering the skin on the sides of her eyes. I screamed with her as the lycan that had been standing in the middle of the road burst through the windshield, fragments of glass flying and cutting like crystalline blades.

        The dream shifted again, and now I was old, my skin thin as tissue paper, and my body aching. I sat alone in a rocking chair on a porch and watched as the moon rose. I was content, but I was lonely. I closed my eyes, sighing softly and then breathing no more. 

****Moonlit Dangers is now #42 in Paranormal. You guys ROCK more than metal! Thank you for all of your votes and wonderful comments! I hope that you will continue to enjoy Elle's journey. Every time I get on Wattpad and find that there have been more reads, I literally dance around my computer. :-D Thank you so much for your support!****