Chapter 45
*Saturday, 2nd July*
"Xander!" Ara's voice screamed, worry clawing up the tunnels of her throat and she nearly fell to her knees, a blank space of dizziness hitting her mind almost immediately.
He saw her pummelling towards him, clearly not dressed readily for the pool like he would have hoped. But something else had caught his mind; the worry planted on her face. She struggled to make a run for it and that's when he noticed the blood seeping from her calf. He went through a phase of shock before sprinting towards the garden she emerged from, curiousity hitting him like a train going full speed.
"Ara! Arabella! What's happening?" He yelled, feeling the muscles in his legs clench as he forces them to run faster towards her soughtful voice. Her full name from her mate's voice was enough to motivate her to move on, but she struggled with every step she took, wounded from the torso to her leg, the blood staining the white tanktop she wore as it dripped from her hip to her leg to the grass that stood beneath her.
Ara hardly knew what was happening herself, weakness was overpowering her on a scale of bad outweighing good. But she kept herself strong and steady. She couldn't pass out at a time like this-there was far too many times where she was noticeable in weak moments. But right now she couldn't pass out. Not at all.
"Xander, please! I can't, I can't make it, I don't think I can-" She was stopped with a sore sob of cries, holding her mate close to her as he caught her in a whirlwind. The sound of his racing heart beat comforted her for just a few moments, ignoring the siezing pain that grew in her side and the other bite settling itself in the midst of her leg.
"Who did this to you, Bella? Who would do such a thing to you?" He wondered ludicrously, ashamed that he had allowed his mate to get attacked when he decided to meet her downstairs rather than walking down with her.
"I don't know!" She cried, "It's happening, Xander. They're coming soon. They're coming sooner than we thought. You have to warn everyone. You have to do this now." As if on cue, a siren rung throughout the entire estate, burning Ara's eardrums with surprise.
It was happening and she felt like throwing up in shock. The sirens were equivalent to the ones used in those World War II recreation movies, when they would play the siren throughout the city to let everyone know about the bombs being dropped all over them. Ara's biggest concern was to get to her child, whom she was too far from, watching her best friend jump of the pool, grabbing her child with them. Her heart ached in the long-going pain, but she struggled to continue her run as Xander scooped her up into his arms, saving his Damsel in Distress once again, trying to empathize her pain through the spiritual bond the two shared.
A thought clicked into Ara's head, her eyes widening in surprise, sending her heart racing into miniature bits of fear. "The Amulet." Ara whimpered, Xander hardly hearing a the soft sound escape her throat.
"The Amulet!" Ara wailed louder, coughing a fit before wriggling in Xander's full arm, feeling motivated and energized to search for the one thing that could save them all at this very moment.
"What Amulet?" Xander inquired, not choosing to let her go from his arms. He ran inside with her, following a group of servants direct his siblings towards the secret tunnels built beneath the entire mansion, a hallway dimly lit with hand-crafted torched of fire, and walls made from stones dripping from the nearby river.
"Arabella, speak to me please." Xander pleaded, letting her drop from his arms despite every ounce of sense to try put her back in there, where she could be safe and unharmed from any predators.
"I don't know...It's like there are lights flashing through my head, telling me t-to get that amulet that Charlotte wore...I mean the Great Luna...gosh I hope you know what I mean." She rambles, trying to remember the way to the Library. Xander was worried, knowing they were down in the underground, but Xander had memorized every single inch of his mansion, he knew which way was which and where they were from the stones on the wall or the corners that were coming up.
He felt an eerie silence, knowing they have been separated from the group where Ara would've been kept safe if it weren't for her infatuation with curiousity. Her weakness from before had left, this newfound motivation was messing with her head, as if blocking all the nerve cells to the brain and not allowing her to feel the sharp pain in her leg and hip wound as she walked like she always did, as if the red running down her leg was just some sort of decoration.
But when Ara led Xander down a tunnel he had no clue that existed, he felt the bottom of his stomach churn. "Where are we heading, Bella?" He asked, slowly trailing behind her, desperate to make her stop for just a moment so that he could shift into his wolf and lick her wounds away, the saliva of her mate helping her heal faster.
Shifting. Ara couldn't shift comfortably yet, and with this attack, this early starting war coming at such an earlier time than expected, worry was burning a hole into the sides of his mind.
Ara held her bare upper arms, not even noticing the clear red stain on her olive green blouse, or the goosebumps covering her legs beneath the denim material. She felt no pain at all, the determination was taking over as she turned corners and walked down paths as if she knew the place like the back of her hand.
"Amulet. Blue. Not ruby, it's blue. A very blue amulet." When Ara turned around to face Xander, he could see the luminosity glowing in her beautiful baby blue irises. Ara was oblivious to the sudden physical change that caused a thin layer, exposing her hidden aura.
"Blue? Ara, you're blue!" Xander kept his surprise calm and collected, rummaging through the dim stoned hallway.
Ara's expression was priceless, shock overcoming her more than it did before when she managed to escape an unknown attack with only two deep scratches. Lifting up her arms, she saw the glowing outline on her skin. It wasn't that she turned blue or literally was blue, but the aura surrounding her was.
"What? What on earth?" She mumbled incoherently, eyes widened with fear. Fear of what? The unknown; she was fearing all that she didn't know.
"Lets keep going...you said the Amulet was blue. I may be incorrect, but if you're glowing blue I'm assuming we'd be close to the amulet itself..." Ara was starting to believe Xander's theory. It was the only thing that seemed correctly explainable at this very moment.
They took off with a run, Ara hearing a slight buzz in her ears with every turn she made, an instinct in her stomach almost forcing her to go the correct directions, her mind turning into bliss. Xander was panting beside her, and she could feel a mix of emotions reeking off his skin. She literally could–somehow she knew she was smelling anxiety and fear from him, as if they had some sort of scent to an emotion. Must be a werewolf thing, now that she was one. That she'd always secretly somehow been one.
Ara could also hear the pounding of her heart burning through her skull. Her mind couldn't comprehend what was happening, but at the same time she knew exactly what to do. Each step felt like she was making things up as she go, knowing which way to go as soon as she's gone.
Xander swore this was a maze. He didn't recognize this part underground at all and suddenly it felt like they were in the sewers, without any sewage waters. It surely smelt like it, the stench running up both their noses, causing them to wrinkle almost every two seconds.
Ara slowed down her fast-paced running, turning into a slow jog in which Xander managed to keep up, slightly amazed at how fast she ran.
"Where are we going?" Xander asked.
"I'm not sure..." Ara replied, half-truthfully.
She suddenly heard explosions from above ground, making her heart race faster than before and her hands lift up to her ears to stop herself from hearing the sound, but she couldn't help the natural reaction her body had to every loud boom explosions would make. It's happening so soon...so amazingly soon she couldn't believe it.
Xander's arms wrap around her frail body, holding her over the ruckus above for just the short moments. After so many years of fights and wars, he knew how to handle situations like this, but Ara? This has possibly got to be the most scariest experience in her entire life. It completely funneled out the complete sanity in her body and replaced every spec of her with fear and anxiety, the sounds banging into her head like it would if she were sitting in a bar with live musicians playing.
He whispered into her ear, simple sweet pleas of silence and that things would be all right, the sounds of her whimpers silently breaking his heart.
"I don't think we have much time...we better get going. We should get going now..." Xander mumbled, placing a small kiss against her head before grabbing her small hand in his and slowly tugging her into a run she began to lead.
Ara turned left, halting herself to a stop, grabbing Xander's hand before he could rush further. Her eyes went wide and confused, looking at what she could see.
"Dead end..." Xander mumbled, staring at the blank wall he saw.
But Ara stood confused, looking at intricate designs etched in glowing gold. It looked like a masterpiece of clockworks. Double doors as high as the ceiling in the underground tunnel, the entire site amazed her and almost blinded her if she tilted her head at the wrong angle.
"We have to go in there." Ara stated, the words coming out of her mouth as a whisper.
Xander stood, dazed and confused, staring at what he thought was a blank stone wall, dark with only torches somehow lit to the side.
"How?" Xander asked.
"I don't know...there's handles, I'm sure we can just open it." Ara suggested, oblivious to what Xander could see.
"What?" Xander was completely mindblown. He looked back at the stone wall he saw, there were clearly no handles there. But when he looked back at Ara, he saw how she was flashing with blue around her, the sight of her almost blinding his eyes with the brightness of light.
"What are you seeing, Ara?" He tried to put two and two together...but he couldn't make out all the things that didn't make sense.
"Don't you see it, Xander?" She asked in response, "It's a big golden door. You can hardly miss it, it's like the size of these walls and it looks like the inside of a clock truthfully. It's big and bright." Using her arms, Ara gestured towards what she saw.
"No..." Xander mumbled, "No I don't see it...I don't see anything but a blank space. What is this?"
All the blood drained from Ara's face. "What?"
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A/N: MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS. WHAT I GOT FOR CHRISTMAS WAS A CHARGER FOR MY COMPUTER. I HAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE OVER STILL AND IT"S ALREADY A DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. THEY NEED TO GO HOME. Turns out they're all sleeping over. Twelve fucking people in this house all at once I'm gonna scream.
ANYWAYS! I updated (yay) So I want to know what you guys got for Christmas considering I got basically nothing except a new charger to replace the one I DID NOT even break. So that fucking sucked. I just wanted books. Gosh. Lol anyways I hope you all had a good christmas or are having a good christmas and this is all your christmas present's from me: A cliffhanger <3 love you all! Don't kill me!
Bye!
P.S. I have one too many cousins in my house.