His Muse

τριάντα επτά | finis

                               37 | end

The searing pain I'd felt just a few minutes ago had now subsided to a dull ache thanks to Theo's salve, so I mustered the strength and heaved my body up to the wall. As grateful as I was for the ointment, it was starting to make me feel sluggish and fatigued, weariness I didn't want to confront with an enemy lurking so close to me. Irregardless, I could still see that Theo was holding back, trying to not use all his might to smite Mason, so instead he sidestepped when Mason lunged, growled when Mason pranced towards him and kept his eyes pinned on Mason's awaiting his next attack.

I turned my head to the side as Theo roared, pinning Mason's wolf back down and growling at it as though his anger came not from being Mason's target but for the sheer audacity to attack him. But Mason counterattacked, slashing Theo on his underbelly and sinking a claw in, far enough to make Theo wriggle in distress and enough to remove tufts of white fur and he removed it. Theo panted loudly, but no yelp or cry escaped from him, though his caudal bones spasmed for a few seconds. Tension arose in his lumbar as his wolf dashed at Mason's, the small pressure of strength knocking Mason to the ground clumsily. Futilely, Mason wrestled with Theo's wolf, a foot taller than his with thick talons glued to his anterior and posterior feet and that advantage shone as Theo lashed out in anger, digging his talons into his neck and dragging him across the floor like a lifeless mammal. Mason roared, followed with an underlying of a cry.

Theo lifted his head, his acknowledgement of my presence gone as battle clogged his mind. His wolf howled, the sound clean and crisp in the deafening silence of the air, composed with the ever-present force of power that emanated from the belly of his wolf. With a swiftness that still glitches my memory, he bit down on Mason's shoulder, plunging deep into the muscles underneath as Mason writhed, howling and whimpering, his howls brittle and flat in comparison to Theo's. Theo's head swayed around for a few seconds, his fangs seemed to have snagged onto something that he was determined to tear and a final yank, spat out a chunk of Mason's skin. Mason's wolf yelped loudly, flailing on the ground and whimpering in pain.

I flinched as Theo dug his claws in the open wound again, not an ounce of remorse and reprieve in his mind and bared his teeth. This was supposed to be an easy fight but Theo seemed to be idling, waiting for something or someone.

Bile arose in my throat as a new pain raged through me, I clutched my sides, lifting up my tattered camisole to peer at the mauve bruising on my side. I prodded it gently and winced as the tenderness of the skin shifted uncomfortably but before I could stop the uncomfortable shudder of the bile coming up, I lurched forward and vomited, heaving for what may have been a few seconds but felt like an eternity.

Theo's wolf howled again, this time accompanied with a note that I could only interpret as hurt...pain. His eyes flitted at me, the whisper of a cry deep in his throat. I could feel my toes and fingertips getting cold. His eyes became glassy, distracted, as though a plethora of thoughts were racing through his mind. I wondered if he was considering the effect killing Mason in front of me will have on me, or if he was overcome with the memories of the silliness of our immaturity and if that waste of time had led to this moment. Or possibly, the frequent knock of death on my door had finally stopped and instead, all that was needed, was for me to step past the threshold of the living... because that was what I was thinking.

I was outraged, angry with myself and up in hysterics in my mind. How could I have found myself in this position? I wanted my last moments to be surrounded by the people I love, and for them to know that, I wanted to hear them acknowledge that but Theo's glassy eyes was all I could see, the barrier created by the differences in our biology and genetics meant that he would never be able to convey the emotions his eyes seemed to illustrate.