The Wolf and his Witch

Chapter 16: Attacked

Hey all,

I've been on an amazing two week holiday recently and was able to take my Laptop with me and still do a bit of work :) 

Hope you enjoy 

0yasha0

Kristoff

Kristoff ran into the infirmary both Tillie and Jacob held in his arms. They had suddenly collapsed. One second Tillie was laughing and Jacob was shooting an arrow the next they had both hit the ground.
"LUCY!" he bellowed. The petit she-wolf ran to him as she yelled orders for the nurses. She led him to a room with three beds.
"Put them on the beds, tell me everything you know"
He told her everything he knew which was exactly nothing. For some reason, she didn't seem fazed by the situation. At least one of them was able to keep a cool head. He paced down the middle of the two beds back and forth as Lucy first examined Tillie then Jacob.
A crash was heard from the front, a small commotion, then running footsteps that steadily got closer.
His wolf sensed her before he did. Kristoff had been concentrating so hard on the children that Freya's scent went unnoticed. His wolf bucking screaming that something wasn't right. Then Cal appeared in the room a limp Freya in his arms.
For some reason, Kristoff's eye's zeroed in on her feet. They were scraped raw, small cuts and grazes, with dried blood and dirt stuck to the soles of her feet.
Kristoff moved to take Freya when Lucy snapped out "Put her down" at a dazed-looking Cal.
Once Cal laid her down Kristoff saw Freya wasn't limp her whole body was shivering. Then he scented fresh blood. Lucy moved to Freya and bit out a curse, blood was leaking from her ears.
He saw Lucy's movements in a daze. She reached into her back pocket, pulling out her phone and dialed.
"Lucy this is no time to make a call" he roared. She kept dialing while explaining.
"I need to call her mother"
With that, she put her ear to the phone and waited. Being a shifter he heard everything.
One ring, two, three, on the fourth a female voice answered.
"Who is this? And how did you get this number?"
Lucy wasted no time in explaining the situation, the woman's inhaled gasp was enough for Kristoff to know what was happening was serious, her words sealed that knowledge.
"you did well in calling me child, tell me, the children, are either bleeding or shivering?"
"No, all vitals point to sleeping"
"Good, that means Freya is protecting them"
"Can you tell me how we can help her?"
"None, but her mate can help her, he needs to feed her energy through their bond"
Kristoff searched for their fledgling bond, found it flickering in his mind's eye and snarled.
He couldn't do it. He couldn't help her.
"I can't give her energy!"
The phone was now on loudspeaker. "What do you mean you can't give her energy?"
A sense of failing rang in every word he spoke. "Our bond, it's not fully formed. I can feel it... flickering".
There was a slow exhalation heard from the speaker of the phone, then the woman, Kristoff was sure was Freya's mother spoke again. "The bond may not be fully formed but, if you can see it, feel it then you can give her energy. You need to try. Sit next to her, take her hand, and keep attempting to feed her energy." Kristoff had grabbed a chair and placed it next to the hospital bed Freya was in. He took her hand. It was soft and ice cold. He ran his hand up her arm, then caressed her cheek. "Freya's skin is ice to the touch" There were slamming and ruffling sounds coming from the speaker of the phone at his words the noises stopped. A deep male voice came across the line "You must keep trying, never give up" He nodded, closed his eyes clearing his mind allowing everything around him to fall away, and concentrated. He and his wolf blended into one with the need to protect, to save their mate.

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Freya

As pain raced through her body Freya flung her senses out to reach Tillie and Jacob. A murky darkness was edging its way towards them. Malevolence oozed from the substance. Instinct took over and Freya pushed all the energy she had that wasn't currently fighting off whoever was attacking her, towards them. Blanketing them in her power. She knew it would send them into a coma-like sleep, but Freya also knew Lucy would know what to do.
The pain in her stomach intensified, she crumpled to the ground a shrill noise escaping her throat. Then suddenly she lost consciousness.
Before her attacker could infiltrate her being Freya had thrown her defenses up, sinking deeper into her own subconscious as power poured from her.
This wasn't right, there was something wrong with the magic being worked. It was as if a huge beast was tearing through her body from the inside out, one claw raking through her at a time.
This was beyond any kind of dark magic she knew of. Dark magic used from a distance attacked the aura, corrupting it, causing fear and panic. That kind of magic was more of a spiritual attack.
But this, this was different, it was physical, the searing agony was internal and unseen, yet it was still a corporeal burn.
Words of protection ran a constant loop in her mind, reinforcing her defenses. She sent wave after wave towards the children cleansing the maliciousness that had been ebbing its way into their auras.
Their attacker was definitely using dark magic. Which was a confirmation that this was the work of more than one being. Her reserves were waning, she persevered, giving up was not an option. Freya would not allow anything to dim Tillie or Jacob's light.
A comforting heat tingled in her hand, a steady warmth climbed up her arm defrosting the iciness that had seeped through her.
Kristoff.
The thought of him caused a different kind of pain to twitch in her heart. Pushing that aside she drew on the heat he gave and realized he was sending her energy.
Allowing his essence to join with her own was thrilling and torture. It was an experience she had wished for ever since childhood when she had learned about mates.
The joining of power, she had already willed her own power into him once before, but being the recipient was unlike the sensation of giving. It was more intimate, she was now the protected.
Those feelings sent more sorrow through her heart.
Freya pushed through her own despair, calling on the calm numbness she had relied on earlier that day.
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