Bound Trilogy: Bound: A Supernatural Story (WLW)

Chapter Nine

Bastet woke in a cold cell, on a cold bed, as something even chillier trickled through her arm. She shot up, butting heads with someone who was looming over her. Good riddance.

She stood and watched as the woman... No, she watched as the giant stumbled back.

Fucking hell...

Bastet felt dizzy, but tried to push it away with a few shakes of her head. Her arm stung and she felt like one of the many birds she'd caught time and time again in one of her woodlin traps. She did a quick sweep of the room and found not just the giant was inside the jail cell with her.

There was another woman dressed in hospital garb, scrubs and a lab coat, and a man in the same apparel with a stethoscope hanging around his neck and a badge on his coat. A man who scented peaches.

Kuba!

Bastet hastily got to her feet and leapt further back onto the bed where she perched herself on her hands and knees. She crouched and a sound between a snarl and a hiss came from her. It wasn't a thing like the calls she'd been able to make thus far and caught her off guard just as much as the people who surrounded her with its animalistic, strange echo.

Her head cleared and she peeked down at the frostiness attached to and flowing through her arm. An IV? Why were they giving her an IV? And what was in it? Bastet yanked it out and little droplets of blood were sent scattering to the bed beneath her, then she took her protective stance again. Holding the needle up toward the others as a makeshift weapon, she crouched lower this time, feeling something new swelling inside of her. It was this land. Had to be. That must be why Kuba came back here.

Bastet's fox side was screaming at her with power and as much as she wanted to put it to good use, to attack Kuba right then and there, she knew getting away was more important.

"We won't hurt you." The giant spoke in a calming, somewhat comforting tone. A voice that Bastet would have gone on record saying was so damn familiar. However, she'd never seen this woman. Who...is she...? "My name is Xenia Zielinski. Can you tell us your name, please?"

Bastet didn't answer. She glanced over the other two people and let her senses carry her. The nurse appeared submissive enough as she watched her cast her eyes away and cringe behind Kuba. Bastet lifted her nose into the air, twitched it around a bit, and let the scent of their emotions fill her nostrils. The nurse was definitely frightened, but not to the point where she would run away or attack Bastet. This Xenia woman was dominant, but oddly enough, she scented so dynamic, yet patient. She must have been their leader. As much as Bastet admired the red foxes for their more progressive ideologies, they were still harboring Kuba and meant nothing to her, no matter how this land may have made her feel.

Bastet's nostrils were filled with that lingering peach stench and she rubbed at it to chase it away. It wouldn't leave and her blood began to boil.

"The hell...?" She peered up at the giant and Xenia was staring at her in shock. Then, the real pain came.

A startling ache shot through Bastet's head and jaw. She fell to the floor from the bed, but at the last moment, caught herself on her feet and scurried to stand up again, dropping the needle along the way. The taste of iron pervaded her mouth and she spit to cast it out only to see blood splash to the concrete below, sending a shiver down her spine and gooseflesh along her arms and neck. Another agonizing wave shot through her, only this time it was in her gut, and she buckled over with a loud cry.

"Kuba! Get something to help--" She heard Xenia say as she approached, but didn't let her get any closer.

"Get away!" Bastet growled as she scurried back toward the cell bars.

"It's okay, fox. We won't--"

"I'm not a fox! Get back!"

Xenia's hands flew up and she nodded toward Kuba and the nurse. All three backed away from her. Bastet seized the opportunity and the power flowing through her.

As soon as Xenia's head was turned back toward Kuba with an oddly furious glare flooding her features, Bastet spun around and banged on the bars holding her in place. She needed to get free. She needed to scent all around the woods, to hear the call of birds above head, and to run and never stop. Run as far away from this place as she possibly could.

Bastet took hold of the bars and pulled on them with all her might, ignoring the calls from behind herself to remain calm. Did they really expect her to keep calm in a situation like this? To just sit back and let them have her and do what they want with her? The cell door flew open and she took one last glance behind herself.

Again! The pain was overpowering. Immense. She fell to her knees and held up her hands as elongated claws took up their new home where her nails once laid. She could grow claws, all hybrids carried the capability, but they didn't shift. Not like this and not with claws that were looking more like talons by the second. In a panic, she fisted her hands and cried out as the claws dug into her palms. Bastet felt her face contorting in what she never imagined possible and wheezed at the agony that took her over.

"H-How...is that possible?" Kuba stuttered, grabbing her attention. His eyes were wide, tumult distorting his features.

"Hybrids can't shift." The nurse said as she moved from behind Kuba with a needle in her hand.

No! Bastet zeroed in on the syringe in the woman's hand and made up her mind. She didn't care if hybrids couldn't shift or about the fact that they never had, from what she knew of her kind. It could be left for later. Escape was of utmost importance.

A gentle scent came from behind Bastet and she felt herself rise before she even told herself to move. Whoever it was sent a jolt through her body. She needed to know them, to go to them. They were salvation. Escape! Now!

Every instinct told her they were safety. Just like the woods she adored so much. Like the seabreeze that wafted in from her days in the west. It stilled her fear and reset it with hope. None had ever given her that. None but her mother and she needed--

"Ahh!!"

Another harrowing wave of immobilizing pain hit Bastet, this time setting her spine on fire as she heard cracks and felt her body irrepressibly shudder. She spun around once more and saltwater, coconuts and summer warmth absorbed her. A woman, only a few inches shorter than herself, stood before her. Her bright red hair cascaded in ringlets over her shoulders that made her look like a cross between a temptress and an angel.

As the pain continued, Bastet's feet moved as if carried by the air around them, pulling her to the woman. Her skin glimmered each time she moved under the low lit jail hallway lights and her gaze remained steady on Bastet.

Freedom...

Bastet moved closer, hearing that relaxing voice from before calling out to the woman she approached, "Pen, don't...don't move. Keep with her like that. Her claws are retracting."

Bastet felt it. Her face wasn't in pain anymore, her jaw sedentary in its place. She knew the claws were retreating without even looking and the woman behind her was right, but the goddess in front of her still held nearly all her attention. She couldn't wrench her gaze away even if she wanted to and nothing was saying she should.

As Bastet arrived right in front of her, she felt a warmth behind her own eyes and the pain in her head was almost gone. She fell forward and the woman with red hair caught her, both of them sinking to the floor. She held her against her chest, cradling Bastet like she was the most delicate, meaningful thing in the world. Not like a possession or something she could keep for a profit as so many others had over the years, but as if she actually was significant.

Bastet was safe within this woman's arms. She burrowed into her chest and was hypnotized as the woman reached out, stroking her cheek. It sent electricity throughout Bastet's body and she surrendered to the message billowing from the woman's eyes. The way they glowed... Bastet couldn't do anything but mimic their intensity.

Then, she felt a sharp pinch at her arm and broke her stare long enough to see Kuba dispelling the contents of a syringe into her arm. However, not even the antipathy she felt toward him could take away the gentleness she found in the arms around her body. Once the sting was gone, Kuba retreated and Bastet peered back up at the woman. She was met with warmth. A warmth she carried into her sleep as a single word was called out in her mind: Ochrona.