Random Fits of Fancy

A Witch's Debt excerpt part 1

This is the first part of a scene that appears later on, with likely many more changes to it once I get to it proper in the book, but I really wanted to write it. There will be a part 2, but I gotta go do stuff and just want to share it so yeah. 

Book 1 excerpt:

Valerie felt like she was drowning. The whispers wouldn't stop, silky smooth ties binding her to that horrible moment over and over. No matter how much she tried to stop thinking about it, it was all she could see, she didn't want to see it, she didn't want to see him. Not now, not ever again.

His pain. The torment. His agony. His final breaths...and the heart-wrenching last second of clarity before the very end.

The cuts were superficial, but the bite was not. The pack was in shock, in varying stages of anger, confusion...but the grief, that was the worst. She could feel it this time, like a dagger to the heart. She could feel everything and she wasn't supposed to, this wasn't supposed to happen, how, how was this happening...she thought she knew the answer, but then the silky fingers would clasp her in their crushing grip and begin to drown her again.

She couldn't swim when they held her limbs down like that. She couldn't breathe when she was surrounded by his dying pain. She didn't even know him, but his death was her own agony. Wave after wave crashed down on her head, she was struggling to keep awake, to stay in the moment. One second Keiren was there, then it was just the tidal wave of a violent end. Then she thought she felt hands checking her all over, Dr. Baxter's calming voice asking her questions, but she was too frozen to respond. Everytime she tried to breathe, opening her mouth to even speak, the tsunami threatened to throw her off the deep end.

Is she having a panic attack Doc?

No, she tried to say. Blood roared in her ears.

Is this the virus stuff she keeps talking about? Is that bite contagious?

Yes but no, it's complicated Cooper. Her head bobbed above water just long enough to see them staring at her in concern. The trees spun horribly above her, then the darkness came again.

Why won't she speak?

Because it's too strong Alex. The tidal wave, the grief, the pain - it was all consuming, too controlling. She was but a little wisp of a leaf in a strong, tormenting storm. One little spark of the deadly lightning would consume her. The ocean would come and swallow her whole. The clouds blocked any and all sunlight that could bring safety and clarity.

Still, she fought it off with every part of her being. This storm, this magic was unexpected to her, she didn't understand why it was here, why it had chosen her. This wasn't the Void, this wasn't pack, this wasn't Nature...what was it and why did it want to consume her entirely? Because it would, absolutely. She knew if she gave in, if she let it have her completely, she would be lost forever and never wake again.

She managed to claw her way back to the surface of that turbulent ocean, taking what felt like her first breath of clear air in an eternity, but in reality she just woke up, but for how long was anyone's guess. The doctor's tired, worried eyes met hers and he sighed, his fingers coming away from her wrist.

"Miss Winters, are you with us? Take a deep breath." She could only manage a shallow, cautious inhale, feeling the warring pull of that storm threatening to sink her once again. She was sitting up straight in the clinic, on a made bed. Keiren was not there, along with Cooper, but McCormick and Alex were there, watching her warily. There were others in the clinic as well, in varying states of injury from the festival incident.