The Predator's Loop

Chapter 7: Does it hurt when I kill you?

Adhira:

My vision seemed to tilt slightly. I firmly planted my feet on the ground and focused on my breathing. It pumped some clarity into my mind. My eyes fixed on my bane, I decided to address her presence.

Quite fuzzily my lips slurred, "Hi, what's your name?"

She just stepped towards me in a strong stance while I felt I could topple like a bag of potatoes any moment now.

"Tempest," her voice registered in my head as my vision seemed to get black spots in them.

"Adhiee. Adhirra," I garbled.

My eyelids slipped close and I pried them open immediately. I couldn't afford to fall asleep. I couldn't let myself choke again. My body seemed to tense remembering the anguish that it was put through.

She wrapped her fingers around my forearms and said, "Go to sleep."

I groaned, "Uhh no. I don't trust you. You watched me-" I couldn't complete my accusation but I knew that she watched me suffer and die. I always know when she watches me.

"Sleep." She told me sternly and just like that, I was out like a light.

Nyx:

She slept like a corpse. I just held her in my arms as I grudgingly watched her sleep. I looked up and my eyes caught Carlos's form watching the scene.

I averted my eyes from him. I didn't want him to know that I might have just taken this step to pacify his anger. He seemed so upset at my actions from the last day that he refused to eat or drink. He didn't disturb me before dawn either. He's the only companion that I have. I do not wish to lose him.

I don't intend to chase away the only jaguar who sees me for who I am, the only shifter who tends to look beyond my rough exterior.

So, I waited. I made up my mind to wait for the human to rest until the sun begins to set. But, five hours in and she was stirring. Soon, she blinked her eyes open and frowned at the way I held her. She slowly freed herself as if afraid of what I might do. She crawled away from me slowly, not taking her eyes off me.

"Thank you?" She said gruffly.

I just stared at her brown irises that caught the sunlight, dispersing them into different colors. My vision caught the way they reflected the world that she saw. It made me wonder how she really saw the world.

I heard her heartbeat pick up its pace. I saw the way she gulped her nervousness down. Her collar bones sticking out prominently from the base of her neck. It had me draw my eyes up to that tiny spot on her throat, so small that it seemed almost irrelevant to the human eye.

My hearing caught the sound of the rush of her blood through her veins. I felt my beast rise like a dark shadow, ready to conquer my senses. I growled to show him his place. It was said that a rare shifter like me cannot possibly control her beast. But, I was always that one peculiar shifter who always proved the impossible.

"Name?" I asked her to get her to speak.

"Adhira," her voice wavered.

"Be loud," I told her bitingly. Her submissiveness could rigorously signal my beast to make his presence dominant, loud and noticeable.

She cleared her throat, "My name's Adhira." She spoke lucidly in a steady voice, exciting my beast more than before. I felt a certain discomfiture at his behavior. I wondered if everything was well with him.