Running from Shadows (In progress)

Chapter 3: Visions

I wouldn't try moving. Something bad might happen."

"Like what?" I snap, teeth sharpening. I try to suppress the change, remembering the fire that blazed across my skin the last time.

"Like this," Darius says, nonchalant. I see his hand reach across my body, the flash of metal glinting in my peripherals. A line of white hot pain slices across my abdomen. He sucks in a breath in mock pity. "Yeah, ow. That must have hurt a little."

I feel my face begin to elongate, my cheekbones sliding forward, my ears sliding up. Pain is triggering my shift.

"Stop!" I shout, half at Darius, half at myself.

"Stop what? This?" he taunts me, sliding the silver along my right arm. "Why?"

The pain of the straps begins to spread, slowly burning into my skin as I shift further, anger and pain coaxing the wolf to the surface.

Keep it together, Caia. Breath. Don't shift. I try to tell myself, even as the knife slides up my cheek, cutting through my eyebrow. Breath. Calm down. You can do it.

Slowly the fire subsides as I push the transformation in reverse, holding onto my human form.

Darius trails the knife in a long gash across my torso. I can feel the microscopic traces of silver breaking off and coursing through my veins, but, as my body settles entirely back into my human form, the pain is more managable.

Someone beyond my vision lets out a tiny gasp. Stop," she breaths.

Kasee. I guess, knowing at once that I am right, her sweet voice familiar to my mind.

Hesitantly Darius jabs the blade further into my side before withdrawing, leaving my prone body to Kasee and her tortures. A familiar face appears to my left, a perfect mixture of hatred, fear, and amazement written plainly in her expression.

"I have never seen a werewolf do that before," she states, voice soft and low.

"What are you?" I interrupt, figuring now is as good as any time to ask stupid questions.

She laughs, a charming and rich laugh, like chocolate and honey. "What am I? Oh, mutt, your daddy never taught you anything."

Her voice captures me into a sort of trance. Somewhere deep inside my own head I know I shouldn't be fooled by her antics, but I feel myself falling into another stimulated hallucination.

"No," I whisper, voice thick and cottony. "Please, don't."

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I wake up in a field, feeling out of sorts and somehow wrong. A nagging feeling in the back of my mind is telling me to run, get out of there fast, and never look back. Across the field a figure emerges, face familiar and comforting, and instantly I know everything is going to be alright.

"Dad!" I leap up, knowing now that it was the transformation again. That's why I felt out of sorts. That's why I felt like I didn't belong. But now I do. I reach up to hug him, but he looks at me coldly, rejecting my open affection.

"Dad?"

"Caia, how could you. I tell you over and over again, but you never listen. I can't believe you could do this. It's gone too far. This has to stop," he says, brown eyes cold and posture sturdy, ready for a fight.

"I'm sorry," I mutter, repentant for my crimes, even though I don't know what I've done. "It won't happen again."

"You're right. It won't," he replies frostily.

Slowly the field fades, leaving me in a metal prison, glowing in the harsh light in the corner. I squint, trying to see the presence I feel in the room with me.

"I couldn't let you do it again, Caia," Ashley says, walking out from under the light, her face twisted in anger. "I can't ever let you go."

"What?" I say, my chest aching in sorrow. I can;t believe I let everyone I care about down.

"You know what," she snaps, angrily. "I can't believe you let her do that. You of all people. You know how to keep people out of your head. You do it to me all the time. But you let her in, and now people are dead, Caia. You killed fourty three people."

Despaire floods through me, "No. No, there's no way. I would never."

Yet I do feel the tingle in the base of my skull that I feel when Ash and I are connected.

"Caia," she says, pity in her tone, "Apparently you would. You have."

Ash? What's going on? I test the bond. No reaction, not even that little tilt of her head that usually means she's listening.

"Ash? Are you in my head?"

"What? Shut up. I can't believe you! Accusing me of being in your head after all you've done! It's not enough that you've hurt people, no. Now you have to accuse me to cover up your feelings, your guilt. I can't believe you!" She yells, turning abruptly and disappearing in the light.

I rub the back of my neck. Something wierd is definately going on, if only I could figure out what.

Thelxiepeia.

I recognize the voice that calls out now, but I don't know who it is.

"Caia," an angel says, brown wings spread wide and comforting voice melting away the silver prison like wax over a flame. "Don't listen to her."

"Why?" I ask, knowing that I trust this angel, her brown eyes and soft, round face ensuring that I am safe.

"She's still trying to control you Caia. Ignore her. Block her out."

"Who is she?"

Kasee.

I shake my head, trying to shake the voice out. "Who is she talking about? Who is Kasee?"

"Ignore her. Break the bond. I know you can, Caia," the angel says gently, her voice soft and comforting, like a down blanket.

I obey, searching in my mind, concentrating on the itch, shifting that portion of my mind into my wolf.

Before the bond breaks the voice calls out desprately, It's Aislin! Don't...

And then the bond is broken. I smile at the angel, her beautiful face glowing with pride. I am happy that I pleased her. I know I will do anything for her.

But the part of me that felt the wrongness in the meadow tugs at my consciousness, recoiling from the angel in front of me. I squash it, smiling up at her.

"Good. Come with me," she becons, tucking one soft wing around me and gently guiding me into the shadows. "You may begin, Darius."

As I wonder who Darius is, pain flares down my left thigh and across my cheek. The thorns surround me, ripping into my flesh, but I can't change. My skin feels like stone, unyeilding to the hide of the wolf, constricting the larger form. The pain doubles, thornes jabbing into me from all sides. I try to run, but I can't move, the tendrils wrap around me, tightening and digging into my arms, legs, and torso.

My head begins to spin as blood drips all around me. I cry out in pain, vision darkening. And then everything is black.

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I wake to the sharp, metallic scent of blood. My body is on fire, but She's here. I recognize Her, even without Her wings. The angel will protect me. She's always there.

I beam up at her, eyes watering from the fire across my body, but knowing that She can make it stop, knowing that She will protect me.

She smiles back, voice brilliant and soft, "Now, that's better."