Chapter 36
The wind howled down the valleys, raising up its lonesome song to the wide, Alaskan sky, its pitch rising to a demonic shriek as it scraped through the jagged mountain canyons. Along one stark cliff face a lone figure stood, unconcerned by the threat of the approaching storm. Her flame-red hair, tossed wildly by the chaotic winds, seemed a perfect complement to the dark, lashing fire in her eyes. Her full lips and delicate features did not diminish the sheer, dangerous power radiating outwards from her.
She closed her eyes and sought inside to calm her boiling emotions, knowing there was nothing that could be done at the moment to solve the conflict she faced. Davin wanted them to go to Callin. The entire team. And she knew why. He said it was just to talk, but she knew better. Davin was not a man who "talked".
Just the thought of seeing Callin again had driven her here, her mind unshielded as she considered reaching out to him, knowing it was possibly lethal for her to be outside and unprotected in the Fraying. She knew leaving the Void without a Weaver was so dangerous it was nearly insanity, but she couldn't risk anybody sensing her reaching out to Callin, if she did decide to try to contact him. And she desperately needed time alone. Time to think.
Had it been long enough since she had last seen him? Was her training advanced enough that she could face him again? Was she ready, truly ready, to see him? Just the fact that she needed this time alone, away from the Weavers, away from Davin and his manipulation, told her she wasn't ready.
She briefly considered going back into the Void and ripping Davin right out of his inner link. Taking control of her life for once. But she didn't feel ready for that, either. He was too powerful, and she doubted she could convince a Weaver to help her with her own power without his help.
She also knew he was also channeling the power of the four Weavers somehow, and doubted she could take him on with all of their power behind him. Not yet, anyway.
She turned and walked towards the cliff face, her power blazing bright in her mind as she embraced her inner link. She used that link to invert the totality of all she was, then passed through the stone like a ghost. She would go back to the team and follow Davin a bit longer, while she formed her plan. And when she was ready, she would strike. She would own herself once and for all.
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"Callin, wake up! It's 8:00 already, you going to sleep the day away?" Raina yelled.
In his bedroom, Callin sat up and blearily rubbed his eyes, scowling at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was Saturday, he had been looking forward to sleeping in till at least lunch time.
"Go very far away!" He yelled back.
Even through the thick wooden door he heard Carmen and Raina snicker at his disgruntled tone. He shook his head, wondering why they loved tormenting him so much.
"Do we need to come in there and drag you out of bed?" Carmen called.
Callin heard both girls shift their balance, heard both of their breathing patterns stutter for a moment, and knew Ahleena must have just walked into the hall. Then, a moment later, he heard her talking quietly with the girls.
He found himself leaning towards the door, his head cocked slightly, as he struggled to hear what she was saying. His powers and his senses hadn't stabilized ever since the Flayer attack, seeming to ramp up to mind-shredding levels, or drop down to nonexistent, many times a day. It was driving him crazy.
The door swung open and Ahleena strode in, arching one eyebrow at him as she saw him sitting up in bed.
"The girls seem to believe you should go eat breakfast with them." She said, standing next to his bed.
Callin looked at the soft silk wrap on her head and wondered how much of her beautiful, black hair had grown back. The Flayer attack had been almost a month ago, but he knew it took much longer than that to regrow skin and hair.
"They seem to think it's a crime if I sleep in on Saturdays."
"They said they would make you bacon, eggs, and French toast if you came down to breakfast."
Callin perked up at that. "Well, why didn't you say so!" He swung his feet out of bed and stood up, completely at ease despite wearing only his boxers.
He saw Ahleena's eyes travel up and down him, making him freeze. Their mental link was so intimate, so deeply entwined, that he hadn't even thought twice about getting out of bed in front of her. Now, though, he was suddenly once again recognizing her as a beautiful female, and he felt like his heart was racing and his lungs were full of cool air.
"You're far more relaxed around me now, Callin. You trust me." She said quietly, her dark, almond eyes seeming to swallow him and lock him in place.
Callin reached up to scratch the back of his neck, looking everywhere but at her. "Yeah, well, that's good. Right?"
Ahleena smiled at how red his cheeks were. He was relaxed around her, and she could tell he trusted her now far more than when he had first come to the mansion, but he was still a sixteen year-old boy. She was about to turn, to walk out and let him dress in peace, when she noticed something in their mental link.
It was something that he had wrapped around himself, around his every thought, weaving it into himself so tightly that she had almost overlooked it. But now that she was right in front of him, she could see how it had begun to burn brighter in his every thought. She could see how it was linked to her.
Her curiosity, and her concern for him, had her closing her eyes as she looked deeper into their link. Callin felt it, of course, and she heard him take a step away from her.
"Ah, you may not want to look inside at my thoughts too deep right now..." He mumbled.
Ahleena smiled at that, but focused her mind a bit tighter. She now could see what it was. She could see it was a hidden, lingering fear that was woven into and throughout him. A fear of what would happen if she died, a fear given life by the fact she had almost died when the Flayer had attacked her.
That attack was a month ago, and she was nearly fully healed. But the memory of seeing her so wounded was still painfully fresh and bright in his mind. He wasn't healed from seeing her so wounded. In fact, it seemed like he was even more scared now, than he had been a month ago.
"Callin. Sit down. We're going to talk. Telepathically."
Callin twitched in surprise at her mental voice, then clenched his hands as he felt the iron will behind her words. As he felt himself sit down, even though he hadn't chosen to sit. Her mind-link still had power to force him to obey her every order, if she spoke it to him telepathically.
"Why did you just do that? Are you trying to drive me crazy?!" He snarled.
Ahleena tilted her head, examining him with unreadable eyes. Callin looked away, unable to face her when she looked at him like that.
He stiffened when she slowly reached out one hand towards his face. Her fingers brushed softly under his chin, guiding him to face her, until he met her eyes. He swallowed as he saw the exotic, depthless mystery of her eyes, and faintly wondered if he might just be going insane right at the moment.
"We need to talk about the Flayers. We need to talk about what I saw in the lab. We need to talk about what happened to you, when you saw me nearly die."
"I don't want to talk about it." He said through clenched teeth.
Ahleena's soft touch under his chin turned to steel as she fiercely pulled him closer to her face.
"Yet we will! It's the only way for you to accept the idea of a world without me."
Callin flinched at the arrow-straight accuracy of her statement. She had went directly to the heart of it, as was always her way. He wondered why he even bothered trying to have private thoughts when she understood him so well, even beyond what the mind link allowed. Having his fear brought out like that, put into words, when he wasn't ready to talk about it, made him furious.
"Ok. How about I abuse this link between us like you do and just straight up ask you to explain the recurring dream image of two small child's hands, covered in blood, pressed to the faces of a dead Japanese man and woman? A woman who coincidentally looks a lot like you."
Ahleena's face dropped all color and her eyes clouded over as she slowly stood and backed away from him. He could see a tremor in her, could hear her pounding heart, could feel the chisel of ice in her breast pressing her down, impossibly heavy, threatening to crumple her to her knees.
"That is a private image, so filled with pain and guilt that I decided a long time ago to never bring it up. Unless you wanted to talk about it. But hey, just now I decided that I wanted to talk about it, so I threw any consideration for how ready you were into the garbage and just went ahead and brought it up. Just like you do to me. How does it feel, Ahleena?"
As he watched her face, a realization hit him even through his hurt anger. Even the mighty Ahleena could be wounded. And behind that realization came a new inspection of that dream image he knew haunted her almost every night. It had shaken her far more than he had imagined it would.
He looked past the visual in the forefront of it all, looking deeper, letting the pain-wracked emotions tied to it all ripple through him. Analyzing it as close as he could, even as he felt his control begin to fray. Seeking understanding. What was this image? Did this actually happen to her?
Ahleena embraced the Ninja in her mind, cool relief washing through her as her thoughts focused down into a single, cold, glittering edge. Nothing in the past had power over her. Those memories were less than nothing to her, just the waste left over from a mind too weak to survive.
Like one swift strike, she brought her shock under control, shoving the old memories down savagely, burying them under a blanket of the coldest ice. The ice of apathy. Then she looked at Callin through the clarity and purity of the Ninja, appraising him in a new light.
His mouth was slightly open, his fangs just visible, and his dark green eyes were filled with an animal fury. He was deadly beautiful, and she sensed the potential in him to be a truly perfect warrior. She had put him against a wall and in defense, he had went on the offense. She found herself smiling in appreciation.
"Well, you've been learning." She said, her voice clear and empty.
Callin blinked at her, his mind spinning. It was so confusing, trying to get his rage under control and follow conversation. And he had learned more about her by analyzing her painful emotions tied to that dream image. The girl she once was did not match the pure warrior in front of him now. And her words, so devoid of emotion, were not expected, given the level of pain his words had wrought. Once again, he found himself desperately examining their link, trying to understand her.
"All you'll find there is what I'll allow you to see." She said coldly, turning and walking out of his room.
Callin narrowed his eyes as he watched her walk away, still baffled anyone could move so silently.
"We will go for a run now. Do not speak until spoken to."
He followed her through the mansion, thinking about her reaction to him bringing up that dream image. Thinking about how she was controlling him through the mind link, and wondering why he wasn't driven mindless with rage by it. Did this mean he trusted her?
"Hey! Where are you guys going? Breakfast is almost ready." Raina called when she saw Ahleena and Callin go striding by the kitchen.
She stuck her head out into the hall after them when they neither stopped nor replied.
"You guys suddenly go deaf or something? What is this?!" She yowled at their backs.
Callin looked over his shoulder and mimed being unable to talk, shrugging apologetically, and then disappeared around a corner.
"What was that?" Carmen asked, carrying a tray heaping with bacon to the table.
"Strong, stupid, and silent. Ahleena is teaching Callin how to be Ninja, I guess." Raina said.
Callin grinned as he heard her comment, then yelped as they stepped out into the front lawn and Ahleena took off, sprinting towards the woods.
They ran through the morning, side by side, moving as silent and tireless as if they were creatures made of shadows and mist. It was both peaceful, and exhilarating, to run through the woods at Ahleena's side. He could feel the perfect link between them guiding their every movement, allowing them to run in perfect harmony. He wondered how that could be, when he felt the distance between them otherwise.
When the morning sun began to set the sky on fire, when the shadows stretched their longest fingers through the forest, they began to climb the rocky hill that led to the white sand beach around the hidden pond.
As they sat cross-legged on the sand, Callin caught her scent as it mingled with the unique scent of the hidden oasis. Her scent, combined with the scent of the oasis, flooded into him like a river, washing away the fragile grip he had on the fear of losing Ahleena.
He remembered accepting Ahleena's link. He remembered feeling profound relief once he had accepted it. As if she had wrapped her power tightly around his and quieted the killing beast inside. Quieted the beast that was so enraged it was killing him from within. These memories were so tightly coupled to both a sense of freedom, and a new sense of being tied to Ahleena, that they defied any understanding.
You don't know what to think about us, do you?" Ahleena asked, her mental voice somehow softer, more gentle, than usual.
Callin looked into her eyes and knew things were going to change yet again. He inexplicably found his mouth painfully dry and his heart writhing in his chest, as if he were facing something so great it carried both core-crushing terror, and purest freedom. Instinctually, his fangs slid down, filling his mouth with the ever profound, hooded taste of blood.
He curled his hands tight, willing his claws to stay sheathed with fierce determination. Having that fiery ache at the tips of each finger, combined with the taste of blood, seemed like more than he could bear right now. He shied away from thinking exactly how fragile that meant he really was at the moment, instead locking his gaze on Ahleena, forcing his thoughts to remain calm enough to send one clear, panicked demand.
"No! Whatever you're going to say, whatever you're going to do, do not do it!"
Ahleena's eyes were star-filled and mystic, utterly unreadable. He knew they saw straight through him, all the way to his heart of hearts, seeing his every fear and his every weakness. Try as he might, he could not break eye contact with her. He felt pinned, trapped, and he hated every minute of it. His power began to thrash and twist, starting deep inside and beginning to grow out past his walls. The beast inside was awakening.
"Callin. I am not your Weaver." She said, the purest truth giving her telepathic voice the force of a steel hammer hitting crystal.
He hardly knew what she meant, but the finality of her words, the separation they implied, crushed him completely. Her words took every hope for a normal life and unmercifully ground them into the dust of nightmares, stripping him raw and leaving him gasping. She had created a crack in his walls, weakening the walls that kept him alive and moving every day, and she had offered him so much more.
She had offered him hope. He had taken that like a lifeline, letting his walls begin to crumble as they would, and now she was telling him she couldn't be there for him. He knew he would never recover, that he had no chance of repairing his walls before the beast inside ripped him apart forever.
As he felt the last pieces of his walls begin to crumble, as the beast began to claw its way to the forefront of his mind, he spoke out loud, unable to think clear enough to speak telepathically.
"You have betrayed me. You've killed me and released the hatred inside." His words were a shaking, whispered snarl, filled with horror, hurt, and the beginning ragged edges of the onrushing unstoppable rage.