"When is your birthday?"
"December 2nd."
"That is when you will turn 18?"
"Yes."
"Why does the pirate call you snake?"
"I didn't realise we were playing twenty questions." I chuckle as I button up my new pants. Seeing as my previous ones were wet, sticky and just downright disgusting. I needed to wear something else and Raen offered to give me clothes of his that were too small for him. His trousers that he gave me was falling down on me to say the least I needed to double tie the strings.
"Please answer."
I look up just in time to see him throw his head around the corner. Where he was changing on the other side of the pillar, now decent. Smirking as he takes the moment to check out my exposed body. It was a lot toner since the last time he probably saw it. Giving the training , I gained some muscle but it was nothing extreme and definitely nothing compared to him. His body was sculpted and he was beautiful. I gave him a confused smile before turning around to grab his shirt on the bed. Of course I didn't need to change my shirt but Raen insisted.
"Is it a nickname?" Raen pries and I let out a sigh as I throw on the shirt, turning to the buttons.
"Uhm, I guess so. Sometimes they say it to annoy me but they mean well. I hope. I don't know. I don't really think about it, why the sudden concern?" I turn around and watch him as he folds his arms across his chest, leaning against the pillar as he watches me with curiosity.
"Didn't you say once that the elves would call you snake?"
"That was different." I clench my teeth as I turn my body around to him, buttoning up the button over my chest. The sleeves were swimming on me.
"No it's not." Raen insists and he pushes off the pillar to come in front of me, hooking his finger under my chin to tilt my head up to look at him. Making me give him my full attention. I let out a sigh.
"It's because of my eyes. I was teased for it then and I'm teased for it now. I've grown to accept them and not let people's words get to me but if they want to compare me to a snake I don't care." I shrug and Raen frowns down at me, shaking his head. I form a lopsided grin on my lips and shove his chest, making him stumble back slightly.
"Besides.." I continue. "It makes me feel dangerous I guess."
He chuckles but moves closer to me, taking up the position he was in before I pushed him away. He smiles down at me.
"Your eyes are beautiful Keylin. I'm not just saying that because they're Dry Lander eyes. I'm saying it because I love you. All of you, including your eyes. In fact, they are my favourite part of you.." His hand comes up to caress my cheeks and they redden under his intense gaze.
"If anyone thinks differently or makes you feel lowly of yourself, I'll fight them."
"You'd have to fight a lot of people." I whisper with a small smile. Raen heard this and moves closer to me so that his lips were only centimetres from mine, eyes soft.
"Then I would do it, if it means that you get to show me your beautiful dimples, I'd do it."
"Psycho." I state but can't keep the grin spreading on my lips, dimples poking out and Raen smiles in triumph before moving to the side of my face and kissing both of my dimples. I chuckle as I push him away but his hands come over my shirt as he undos my chest button, exposing my collarbone.
"Did I ever tell you that I like you in my clothes?" He whispers against my cheek.
I scoff at that and grab his hands on the exposed buttons.
"I wouldn't know, they're too big. I feel like they're wearing me instead of the other way around."
Raen chuckles before bringing his hands down and clasping me around the middle of my back, pulling me close to him as he buries his face into my neck. I hiss when he nudges against the tender spot where he had accidentally bit down on too hard. I turned my head to the side in his hold and looked into the small mirror nailed to the pillar to find a large purple mark, teeth marks etched slightly around the bruise where the skin was red and I only gasped at it before turning my head around to a proud looking Raen and smacking him in the shoulder. Frantically wondering in my head how I was going to show my face with this.
"Sorry." He mumbled with a chuckle before carefully lingering his lips over the mark to kiss it and I shudder, a small noise being made at the back of my throat.
"Raen please don't make it worse, it looks bad enough."
"It looks beautiful." I feel him smile into my neck and I roll my eyes.
"Is this your new way of saying that I'm yours to everyone now?"
He takes his head away from my neck to look at me. Eyes intense as he stares down at me.
"Everyone knows that you're mine. Whether you wish to believe it or not. When I first met you, I knew I had to have you. No one has ever made me feel the way you do Keylin. No one has ever made me want to change myself to be with you."
"But you didn't change yourself right?" I question in slight concern. "You're just..not angry all the time anymore, and nicer to me."
"I guess so.."
He mutters and I frown at that. Growing quiet. He picks up on my change of mood and sighs, turning me around to face him.
"Keylin, I don't want to fall back into old habits and start being cold to you again. I know I'll lose you. Don't give me that look, you and I both know it's true. Look what happened to us last time. Besides, I like making you laugh. I feel calm around you. I know I'll have bad days but I promise you I won't hurt you, not again."
"Just don't bottle it up from me." I sigh as I grab his hand.
"I'm here. Talk to me when you-"
I took a sharp intake of air as my face scrunched up in pain and I almost collapsed if it wasn't for Raen bringing a fast arm around my waist to keep me up. Hand in mine where he used to pull my arms around his neck where he had strung it over in his attempts to keep me up while mine flew down to cradle my rib cage as it felt like a searing pain was etching itself onto my skin.
"Keylin?" Raen questioned in worry and I let out a sudden cry when the searing pain intensified around my mark. I breathed heavily as I came to the conclusion quickly, turning to look up at Raen in fright.
"It's Baja." I manage to say before clenching my teeth and gritting out in pain.
"She's hurt badly."
—
We both ran down the pathways between tents looking for the panther. My heart was in my throat as my eyes looked franticly around me. I had found that my senses heightening when I was alerted Baja was in danger meaning my eyes, ears and even nose abilities were intensified like an animal's.
"Keylin just wait." I could hear Raen say from behind me as he struggled to keep up with my frantic search but I was nervous. Nothing like this had ever happened before and I didn't know what to do only that I needed to get to Baja. A sickening feeling in my gut telling me I needed to hurry.
As I rounded a corner I stopped dead in my tracks when I took in Baja's black as night form lying on the grass behind one of the tents, unmoving. I felt my heart stop at the sight and my face crumbled.
"No!" I screamed as tears started to flow freely and I collapsed to my knees. Raen skidding to a halt behind me as he took in the scene before dropping behind me to take me in his arms, holding me as I cried freely. Trembling in his grip.
Through my tears, I failed to notice a woman with long curly black hair standing above Baja's form, her hands moving in a certain way that made my stomach drop.
She was a witch.
"Get away from her!" I screamed as I rip out of Raen's hold, ignoring his distressed calls for me. I marched over to the woman but when I was a meter away she turned to me with hypnotic brown eyes and olive skin. Blinking in surprise before a smirk forms on her lips.
"It took you long enough to come." She drawled out.
"I thought I was going to have to kill the beast to lure you out."
I growl at that, green eyes glowing as they turned into slits.
"Who are you?" Raen calls from behind me as he managed to make his way closer to us. His voice like ice as he directed it at the witch. Only now did I realise that maybe she was the outsider that came to the camp a few days ago. I had never met the woman but I was betting my life that this was her. Whoever she was.
Raen doesn't hesitate to reach for his dagger but with a flick of the woman's wrist, Raen is hurtling backwards through the air and smashing into a tent. My eyes widen as I turn to him with concern. The woman's laughter making me clench my teeth and turn to her.
She stood proud before me and I wanted nothing more than to rip her throat out with my teeth.
"I am shocked you don't know me, I am Victoria but you may come to know me as Vicky."
"What do you want?" I growl out in frustration. "What do you want with us?"
A dark expression seems to form on her features at my words and she chuckles darkly. Tilting her head at me.
"Oh Gods, I feel as though you have been kept in the dark about what is happening around you. Boy, everyone is looking for you. The Great War has finally begun and you're the reason for it."
She laughs madly and I blink at her in confusion. Fear overtaking me now, my sudden confidence long gone as I try to take a step back from her. Realising how dangerous she truly is as I feel the wind picking up and sky turn grey above us.
I watch as her maddening eyes wink at mine before a black bolt of electricity begins at her fingers, she points one at Baja who I had found was unconscious and by just listening, I could tell she was barely breathing.
I watch helplessly as the black electricity shoots out of her fingers and into Baja. I scream at that, the sound mixing with a panther's wail inside of me as I lunge forward.
"Keylin no!" Raen screams from behind me, recovering from the witches' assault, his fingers barely touching my shirt as I fall forward, barely holding on as my vision goes in and out of consciousness.
"Keylin!" Raen falls to his feet as he places a reassuring hand on my shoulder. He glares at the witch as she laughs at me.
"Look at him!" She exclaims making me clutch my ears as I whimper. Feeling a wet substance coming out of them. I shakily bring my hands away to see that blood was covering my fingers. The blood was coming from my ears.
What is happening?
"He's too weak!" She curls her lip in disgust. Raen brings his hands over my shaking blood covered ones. I look up at him lazily, eyes dropping as I notice tears of fear welling up in his. He brings a shaking hand down to wipe under my blood covered nose and I let him, feeling as though I was in a daze.
Feeling like a part of me was being ripped out.
"He won't even survive after I kill his animal."
"No." I manage to whimper but the witch ignores me and turns back to finish what she started, all the while I had managed to get up onto shaky legs threatening to buckle from under me at any moment, gritting my teeth at the overwhelming pain coming from everywhere. The instinct to protect my animal kicking in.
"Keylin don't!" Raen whispered urgently from behind me. Knowing exactly what I was trying to do as he reached out for me to pull me back from getting close to the witch, knowing her power but I step forward in a daze. Completely out of control of my body now, I felt numb as I took bigger steps and I was stumbling over to the woman. Letting whatever strength was left within my bond with Baja take control as my eyes glow purple and an animalistic growl takes over me.
"Get away from my panther!" I scream just as I bring a hand out and swipe at the witch, I barely hear her cry of pain at the impact. Instead, I hear the earsplitting sound of something ripping.
The blood from my ears flow down the sides of my neck along with the blood that pooled at the bottom of my nose slowly dribbles down my chin. My world goes dark as I feel myself falling.
"No!"
I hear Raen's cries but they're distant and all I can feel is a numbness. It was like I was floating. Floating into nothing, into the darkness as I let it consume me.
**
I feel like I'm more accustomed to uploading on a Sunday rather than a Monday for some reason😂 oh well!
Are you enjoying the story so far?
Also, Bulgaria's entry for esc 2018 is so fucking good😭 it was amazing last year too and they are killing it😜 definitely check out equinox - bones when you have time! The song is about a love that is beyond flesh and (bones) and more spiritual. My description sucks but I feel like it relates so much to my book😂
Hope you liked the chapter and I will post again in a few days seeing as I am finished college for Easter😘