Tiger, Tiger

Tiger, Tiger: Chapter 16

A torrent of worried voices crashed into me like a wave, filling my brain with nothing but their thoughts. It was hard to hold onto anything or anyone. There was one conscience though, soft as a caress on mine, which I could pick out anywhere.

I peeled open my heavy eyes and met Alexander’s sapphire ones, burning with worry. For the first time, I let my heart jitter at the sight of his face. When I took down the flimsy wall that I had tried to put up, the space between us crackled with electricity like the air before a storm. It danced across my body and made my skin tingle. I would have been perfectly happy to fall into those eyes and never resurface.

But I had a job far more important than just us to manage first, and time was not something I had a lot of. A weak smile slipped onto my lips as I pulled out the keys from beneath me and held them just above my head, high enough for the pack to see but hidden from the view of any human eyes.  The voices in my head silenced, leaving behind an eerie calm.

‘I brought you all a souvenir,’ I sent out to each shocked mind.

Sam laughed quietly in disbelief. ‘You sly dog, Alexis,’ he murmured, ‘You are unbelievable.’  

I managed to slowly push myself into a sitting position and hid the keys back behind my back. Sally caught my eyes, her mouth slightly agape. Her gaze was distant and tears were welling in her sky blue eyes. I gave her a smile and she jolted back to life, throwing her hands to her mouth as a sob broke free.

Adrenaline sent fire through my veins. It was time to get this started. ‘We don’t have much time,’ I projected, ‘then they’ll all return and it will be our only chance to do this.’ My eyes flickered over the cubicles and judged the space between the top of each glass divide and the ceiling. ‘We should be able to throw these keys from cubical to cubical on this side. Unlock your collar so that you can’t be shocked, but leave it on enough so that they won’t realise. Tom will want to look at me first, so unlock your doors and press them to. When they’re checking me and taking notes, jump out and throw a scientist in.’ I looked around. ‘Understand everything?’

There was a moment of contemplation and then someone spoke. ‘Will we be able to contain them all on this side?’

I chewed the inside of my lip as I thought. ‘I would have thought so, we more than outnumber them. Even if there’s not, these collars are all they have to hold us back and they won’t be on anymore. We can overpower them.’ I surveyed the group again and then my eyes rested on Sally as I spoke again. ‘Then, when they’re all locked up, we’ll get the other side out.’

Sally mouthed ‘thank you’, pulling Camille close to her chest, as I turned my attention as quickly as possible to the keys. I ran my fingers across the back of the metal collar, a smooth band, until my fingertips grazed a small lock hole. I could feel the pack’s eyes on me intently as I searched through the small cluster of keys and found the very smallest one, all the others far too large to have fit in the collar.

Slightly awkwardly, I fit the tiny silver key into the lock and twisted it. It felt like a weight being lifted from my shoulders as a small pop echoed around me and the collar was open. My power was mine to control again. I let out a small sigh of relief and readjusted the pieces until it felt like there was only a small distance between each end. Then, carefully, I threw the keys up and across the divide between my cube and that of another shifter, Sophia.

Like me, she found the smallest key and set to freeing herself from the collar. She looked quickly at me to check that she had done it right, so I nodded, and then managed to find the key that unlocked her door. Just right, she pressed it to, shuffled back obediently and threw the keys over to the next shifter. My heart was going into overload in my chest. This was the only chance we were going to have and we only probably had ten minutes to do it.

I watched the next shifter unlock both his collar and door and then gave into the gaze that burned against my back. ‘Alexander,’ I whispered in no more than I sigh, turning to face him.

His eyes flickered. ‘Are you ok? Where have you been? You've been gone for so long.’

His words struck my chest. Even though he was under the illusion that I didn’t want a thing to do with him, he still cared for my health. He was a better person than I would ever be. ‘I’m so sorry, Alexander,’ I murmured, ‘I would do anything to make up for how cruel I’ve been to you. I don’t hate you, I promise. I can’t believe what it took for me to realise that.’

‘I understand,’ was all he replied, blue eyes almost smiling sadly. Another shot through my heart. I longed to reach out and run my fingers across his jaw, through his hair.

 'Please, please don’t be so forgiving. Tell me what an awful person I am, I deserve it. Tell me that it’s too late to make it up to you.’ Anything but keep being so good to me, my mind begged. It was painful to realise what a perfect person he was.

‘You think you’re an awful person?’ he asked, dark eyebrows rising, ‘How can you even think that when you’ve just brought us those keys? Everything you’ve done since we got here has been amazing.’

My heart was doing some weird flips in my chest, my pulse pounding at my wrists. But before I could respond something hit me on the back on the head. I jumped, shocked from my thoughts, and then heard the jingle of keys hitting the floor. I sighed, wishing I could explain how I felt to Alexander, and picked up the keys. Quickly, I threw them over to him and he caught them with one hand. I studied him quietly as he unlocked his collar and door, before passing the keys along. A few more shifters to go and we’d be ready.

I pulled at the hem of my shirt. ‘Alex, don't, please,’ I whispered, ‘You have to understand that I’m sorry I pushed you aside without getting to know you. I thought you’d be like him, but you’re not. You're really not.'

'Alexis,' he sighed in a way that made my heart stutter, 'I'm not blind. I can see that there are things that have happened - are happening - that have put distance between us. Things that I can't change, even if I wanted to-'

'Those things seemed so important before. Now they don't seem to mean anything to me. I tried so hard not to feel this way, but I need you.’

I felt like such an idiot, but it was the truth. Even though it hurt that he was a Sole by name, he was who I wanted. Mum said that when the time came I would make the right decision and I knew that I had. I couldn’t imagine wanting to be with anyone other than him in my entire life. He was my mate.

'You do?' he asked and I nodded. His lips twitched into a small smile and his eyes sparked. 'I guess we better get out of here then,’ he said, throwing the keys that had been passed back to him into my cube.

‘I guess so.’ My cheeks burned as I caught the keys and slid them behind my back. Footsteps echoed in the corridor, my heart beating ridiculously fast.

‘Ready?’ I asked everyone. They all nodded in reply.

This was our only chance.

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Ommmm, cliffhanger! :O Sorry :3

I just wanted to say, please can you check out 'Stolen Away' by Elethewombat. She's done a lot for me and this is my favourite story of hers. It certainly deserves a lot more reads.... Cheers :D

Please keep up the VOTES, COMMENTS and FANS! I really appreciate it, Narni xxx