"What are you?" He asks me, breaking the silence. I am quite shocked by this question. Mostly because I don't even know how to answer it.
"Werewolf. I think... And you are a vampire," I state. He nods.
"You don't smell like a werewolf." He lifts his...
I use every fibre of my being to pull myself up into a sitting position. The pain is excruciating for every new movement, but luckily it doesn't take as long for my body to adjust to it. After a second of catching my breath, I rise at a speed I didn't expect. For a moment I'm too surprised to register the pain. Even though I know all facets of the vampires' powers, it's surreal to experience them for myself, so every new aspect of my life takes me aback.
I'm soaked through in sweat, so I decide to go shower. As I zoom over there, I almost crack my skull on the doorframe. I gather myself before forcing myself to take mind-numbingly slow steps towards the shower, scared I might break the glass if I move too fast.
I step in and turn on the shower, only using the most feather-light touch to turn the knob, not wanting to break it off from the wall. The water hitting my back is a violation of my senses, but I grit my teeth and fight against the pain and overstimulation following it, knowing I have to get my shit together before Dom dies.
I quickly grab the shampoo bottle, but it explodes in my hand, as I forget to adjust my grip to my new strength. I don't have time for this, so I drop the now broken bottle and use the soap residues in my hand to wash with. I have to be careful while drying off my body, as the towel feels like sandpaper against my hyper-sensitive skin. I take shallow breaths and hurry up to get it over with.
My hair still dripping wet, I exit the bathroom and carefully open the bag with the extra sets of clothes from Isobel. As I try to pull on the pants, my fingers are shaking so badly from the pain, that it's hard to focus on not ripping them to shreds. I tear up in frustration, on one hand wanting to give myself grace and give up and recover for a couple more days. On the other hand, I know I don't have time for this, as it feels like a ticking time bomb is about to go off at any second if I don't get my shit together and find Dom.
"Isobel!" I yell out, my throat sore and the call way louder and more shrieking than intended. This freaks me out, nervous that I will also have to whisper for the rest of my life, so I don't accidentally pop heads around me. Isobel enters a second after with an annoyed grimace, that she fails at hiding.
"Sorry," I start and carefully rub my hands over my face to calm down, but it just makes my face ache as well. Biting back tears of pain and frustration, I look at her with pleading eyes and just hold out the clothes towards her. She needs no further explanation as she quickly grabs the clothes and gently helps me put each item on.
"I know, I know," she coos every time the fabric shreds over my skin and silent tears embed ice spikes into my cheeks as they slowly run down them. I feel like ripping my skin off. I have a hard time enjoying that the internal pain has subsided somewhat, because now I feel all the other pain, that was drowned out before.
"Are you sure you are ready?" Isobel asks me with worry in her eyes, and I know she worries as much for me as for herself and the others, because what if I accidentally hurt them from my lack of knowledge regarding my own body and new powers? I nod, then shrug and shake my head, then let my head fall into my hands.
"No? But do I have a choice?" I sob, then look up at her. I almost laugh as I notice every single gorgeous detail of her face, and then think about how I can't even enjoy my newfound beauty of the world because of the pain I'm in. She moves in to hug me, but then stops herself and gives me a look of pity, to which I give her one back.
"By the way, what day is it?" I ask, and Isobel looks surprised at first, but then as if she remembers how she had been when she had gone through this.
"You were out for a day and a half. Thirty-two hours to be exact," she replies, and my heart stops for a second as I imagine all the things that could have happened to Dom in the meantime.
"We need to go right now," I answer, fully aware that I'm in debilitating pain on top of being like a newborn deer, barely able to walk, let alone having the faintest idea of their capabilities. Isobel looks at me with worry, gauging if I'm serious or not, which I don't have the energy to deal with right now.
"What are you waiting for?" I snap at her, but then immediately feel bad. She sees it and accepts the silent apology.
"It's just that I've never met anyone so strong as you. I've never heard of any newly turned vampires regaining some semblance of consciousness, let alone up and standing within at least three days of the initial bite." She looks at once proud and in awe at me. I have a hard time being proud of myself, however. I feel like I'm wasting time, and I will judge whether or not I should applaud myself after we find Dom. Hopefully alive.
"Get the others," I command after a pause, and then I zoom out of the house, bumping into several walls and doorframes on my way. I know it probably hurt, but honestly, I can't feel a thing through the drowning ocean of agony I'm already in. Alasdair, Farlan and Isobel meet me on the front lawn, ready to go.
"Where to?" Alasdair asks, obviously wanting to ask how I'm doing, but aware that I'm too stressed out to do anything other than focus on the task at hand.
"To Urquhart Castle. I think I saw something from there in the vision," I answer, and with nothing more than curt nods as answers, we sprint off to the castle.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
