Moon Bound

41

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Cadence
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Cadence shook herself awake and gasps for air filled the dark and dense room. It didn't take long for her to register where she was, where she lay, beneath thick and wholly covers and not icy cold and metal chains snaking around every inch of her body, securing her firmly in place like a prisoner.

Because that was what took place in her nightmare. Night after night, she was wrapped in unmoving chains that she could hardly wriggle in. Trapped in a coffin with no way out.

Turning over her, she grabbed the phone Alexene gave to her and the screen lit up. Her eyes squinted from the brightness.

A message appeared on the device and it looked to have been sent hours ago — around midnight.

Cadence wished it to be Erisa, even though she didn't necessarily want to hear from her either right now.

Alexene's name appeared brightly on the screen and Cadence wanted to ditch the phone against a nearby wall.

Madam Dumb Bitch Bloodsucker: Haven't heard from you in a while, I've been worried. I'm sure I don't need to revisit the importance of the object, Cadence. I'll do worse than choke you, remember that. If I don't receive any updates within two days, you and I will have a catch-up. Sleep well.

Cadence clutched her hand around the device and resisted the urge to fling it across the room.

Sleep well?

Cadence sat up, skin prickling with fear. Did she cause these nightmares?

She was a vampire, a compelling and manipulative thing that could not only glamour a person but do worse. What if she was the root cause of this?

Cadence bit at her nail, pulling at straws that could make sense. Alexene was secretive and cunning. An immortal with years of experience in how to warp the mind to her use. What if compelling went beyond and extended to the psyche, tearing you from the inside out?

Cadence swore she heard a voice calling for her in her dreams.

But that couldn't be true. She was her own company, only friend and one enemy in that tomb. Maybe she had been imprisoned in that place for too long that her mind had worked up an onslaught of voices to haunt her, to drown out her cries of plea.

They were extending, becoming too real for her to separate certain things. When Accalia woke her up over a day ago, something within her snapped and she couldn't shake out of it even as wakefulness had seeped into her physical form. A part of herself still felt she was there in that dreary old tomb.

Alexene must have provoked all of this.

The image of the knife meeting her cousin's throat to cut her flashed through Cadence's mind. All she needed to do was slice it across the skin and Accalia would have encountered a bloody death.

Cadence drove her fist into the bed, wishing it was glass or a brick wall she was colliding her skin into. Getting to her feet, she resisted the urge to flip the mattress over, smash the lamp she flicked on to illuminate the room into a nearby wall and create havoc because this was where the damning nightmares began.

They began in this house, in this pack and under the roof of a lycan. It seemed only fitting to burn this house down, maybe her dreams would smash into ashes as well.

Stumbling into the bathroom, Cadence slammed the door closed and clutched the sides of the sink, glaring at herself in the mirror. The jet-black eyes that stared back at her tipped her off the axel, she could not only see her reflection in the mirror but within those depths of obscurity. Reflection after reflection.