Bound By Blood (17 page)

             
Nothing moved. Either everything
stopped dead
like her, or . . .
or
. . . there was nothing left to destroy  . . .
nothing left but
Samanthŕa
. . . .

             
Slowly
her head turned, glancing ever cautiously over her shoulder, only
to find
him
staring directly at
her
.
Her entire torso twisted. Time locked
as
the corpse
he held fell to the bloody piles below
like a feather
from the sky
. His hidden face
seemed
interlaced
to hers. From underneath the blackened hood, she saw fierce red glowing eyes.
Drawn into them, she saw the violet twists of night, the crimson flashing of lightning, and the unyielding force of the storm!
He had
her
gaze
trapped
to his!
He had her
almost
hypnotized
. Samanthŕa
was completel
y aware of everything around them except
she
lacked the emotions to care
or the will to move . . .
if
she could move
.

             
And i
n that moment, that
one
moment, his
eyes faded to something equally bright
, s
omething much
calmer
yet to
o
intense for her to withstand.
Her body trembled from the power exploding from the
feel and color of
cobalt
fire
and ice
.
T
heir radiance moved into her very soul like
electricity
. It connected her to something surreal and very
much
alive.
Instead of uncontrolled chaos and turbulence, s
he felt the lightning outside and all the energy
from the storm move within
and around
he
r as she were now a part of it and its power
. It was as if everything
in existence
moved through the
eyes,
his eyes
,
which
held her prisoner.

             
Her body began to shake
now, not tremble, as
if she might begin to have seizures from
t
his bizarre power.

             
In that moment,
everything else around them faded a
way
.
All turned to the shades of black except for what locked her up.
She was
unable to free herself from him and then, i
n that moment, everything became hazy
. . .
as if in a dream.

             
Dear Goddess, it's all right . . . I am simply dreaming
. But another bolt of power rippling through her every limb screamed brutally,
No, you are not!

             
Then, another wicked truth
. . .
dreams!

             
Panic turned her upside
down,
as this revelation slapped her back into reality. It took what was left of her breath
, if much was left at all,
while her body
fought relentlessly
against his hold
.

             
Fight him! Fight this!

             
Her soul
attacked him
with all its might until
she found the hidden strength that gave her the jolt
of will
she needed. She jerked herself away from the control of those eyes
and
their
power. She kicked the corpse back
blocking the door until she was able to thrust the thing open
,
throwing herself
forth
and
falling through
. She wasted no time crawling, but
scrambled to her feet and ran
.

             
She didn’t even try to find he
r own horse. Most of the beasts
had run off anyway. The intensity of the storm and the smell of danger and blood spooked them.
So
taking a
replacement f
or
her own, s
he grabbed the nearest
and rode like the wind. She never once looked back to see if she had been followed. She never once stopped to catch her breath.

~
Chapter 5
~

The
Lycãons

***

I am
he,
who roams the night
,

O
f fur and teeth, magic and might.

With
the
moon,
I shift and change,

For p
art my nature
remains untamed.

By two or
four,
I move about
,

Silent and deadly, smooth and stout.

My blood, it quickens and begins to change.

B
efore your
false
genesis,
it has been this way.

And it will always be . . .
.

Whether or not you mortals see.

So,

Remember this
,
for when I stand
,

I may be wolf, god
,
or man.

And in this
form,
my enemy will kneel . . .

Either by my jaws or beneath my heel.

***

             
S
he did not stop riding until
she saw the forest
marking the
glistening
edge
s
of the mountai
nous
realm
ruled by
the Lycãons
.
She probably would not have stopped then
,
either
,
knowing she still had
half
a mile to go before reaching its portal,
if
it had not been for the high pitched screams coming from somewhere in the
darkness
breeching much louder than the noise caused by the brutal currents of air
. The
horse bucked as thunder
pounded
against the blood
sodden
skies.
The wind
became damp and
burned against her skin
.
Something in its clamminess
became acidic.

             
A bad sign . . .
a shift in the storm . . . a new page turned . . . .

             
Dear Goddess!

             
She jerked the stone from her
pocket
,
finding that it
had returned to
black.
Her dim
ming
had worn off
,
which now placed her in new danger.
Her
eyes strengthened their glow as she
searched the
shadows
in desperation. A foul stench of de
ath clung to the relentless breezes
now
. The sound of hundreds of feet pounding against the earth moved with great fury towards her. The imprint of it she could not tell
,
since it had no magic about it.
Alarm
entered her heart as well as
that of
the horse she
’d
stole
n
. It
shi
ed at the horrific sounds and ran into
the woodland
,
out of control
.

             
She tried to duck
branches as the dark of night spilled all around her. She jerked
on
the reins as best she could but the horse was too spooked to
heed her
command
. Deeper into the thick
e
t
s
they
flew
until finally the horse
slammed to a stop,
bucked once more at the crash
ing
of lightning
, and screamed with terror
.
Its rearing back
knocked her into a
large branch and propelled Samanthŕa's
body to the ground.

             
She
was
slammed against
h
uge
rocks. Struggling
to her feet
, d
izzy
, h
er wind knocked out
w
ith blurry eyes
, s
he gasped
. . .
as the sounds which
had
frightened them into the forest w
ere
now coming towards them from all directions.

             
It was so dark, an unholy darkness that
caused
even
her
nocturnal
eyes
to struggle
. Whatever was coming dissolved the light like a disease.

             
Trying to calm her breath, s
he
stepped backwards trying not to panic
. S
omething moved in front of the horse itself.
She let her body fall,
as if
the dirt would somehow hide her. Holding her breath, s
he watched a shadowy figure
rip
by
as fast as wind,
and
grab the reins
of her bucking beast
. She watched an arm go up and heard a blade
lift from its sheath.
She smelt warm blood
,
which seemed
strangely
intoxicating.
The arm . . . it had been cut.
Her senses became dulled . . . high.

             
The wound
waved over the horse as if the blood were being thrown onto it.
Her keen senses heard the splash against the beast’s sweat
damp
ened flesh
,
causing her head and limbs to dance with a sensation of floating
.
She heard a slap
that jolted her awake
and
which sent the horse running. She dove
toward
s
the beast
,
or attempted to
,
when several more shadows
fell softly
from the trees
.
Was she hallucinating now? Had she been caught in a spiders web? Her eyes sprayed with its
poison.

             
She knew what
ever this was, was not
making
the
terrifying
sounds thrashing towards her.
But by pure instinct, s
he drew her dagger anyway. She forced herself to stand so that she could fight.
She drew her weapon up, positioned herself in a
stance,
but
froze as something grabbed her from behind and lifted her into the trees above.
T
he
motion
and
action w
ere
so swift and quick
that she became dizzy
. The height of the trees was more than she was used to
.
These were l
arge
and ancient towers
, which
had seen the face of TEŔAH
being born. They reached high into the skies a
nd
their
bases were
massive
,
so huge that sometimes smaller creatures
,
only
five feet or so, would build their homes inside them.
Other breeds
,
such as Phãegens
,
worship
ped
them and h
e
ld them sacred.