The Shadows of the Sun

Chapter Seven

            We reached the front lawn when I was suddenly slung over Felix's shoulder and he was at a dead run through the woods. I snarled angrily, throwing myself backward, and him off balance. I was still weak though, and all it did was make him look back at me in warning. I scowled at him, it held a promise of revenge for this humiliation. He just grinned at the challenge and continued to run. I sat still, plotting out my plans for life and revenge. I don't have a lot right now. But I will. I stand by the first words I spoke to them, someday. Someday they will pay. Someday I will be free. Someday, not today, maybe not this month, maybe not even this year, but someday. I did my best to connect more deeply to my senses while I was stuck there. Something told me I would need to be at my sharpest to go into the lair of my enemies. I needed to shift is what I needed to do. I would definitely be sore when I did that, my body having basically shut down due to the onyx. Especially since it targets my Atheris side more. I wonder if they would let me. I wasn't going to run. That would be pointless, I wasn't at full strength and speed, plus they would be expecting it. I would have no advantage if I took off now. I would have to wait for them to stop, I would probably have a better chance if I didn't disrupt them and they chose to stop on their own. In the meantime, however. I could work with my weapon metal. There had to be some metal in the ground I could use. I reached out, my power probing for usable material. It pulled out as much as it could and formed it. I could not see this process, but I knew it was happening. It was hard to try to explain. I allowed the cool weight of the knife to press into my palm moments later. I was still slung over Felix's shoulder, so not sure what I was going to do with it, but I had one now. Then I felt my nose drip once, twice, three drops of blood landed on the back of Felix's robes. The vampire halted abruptly, causing me to almost fly off of him, had it not been for him catching me a millisecond before I hit the ground. I managed to shove the knife up my sleeve before he saw, but I needed to get it somewhere else. I made a show of stooping down to brush myself off, all the while sliding the knife into my boot. The others stopped too and I stood up straight again.

"Why did we stop?" Jane asked sharply, she seemed to smell why a second later. For some reason I grinned at them and wiped my bleeding nose on my sleeve. "Demetri, fix your- the human."

"I'm not human, not even close." I corrected, still grinning for no reason. Jane ignored me and Demetri walked forward, yanking me roughly aside.

"Give me the knife, now." He demanded quietly. I tilted my head to the side in an animalistic fashion, feigning confusion. "Give it to me now before Jane realizes you have it and sticks  onyx on you. She still thinks you're too weak. If you want to stay onyx free for another day or so, I recommend you try to reinforce that thought." He hissed. I scowled, yanking the stupid knife out of my boot, giving it to him while he gave me a handkerchief he had pulled out of nowhere. This is stupid. Vampires are stupid. Noses are stupid. Life is stupid. I cleaned my nose the best I could, not even bothering with the blood on my teeth. Night would fall soon it appeared. It didn't seem to make any difference to the vampires. Why should it?

"I want to shift and stretch out some. It's not good for us to be without our form for a while." It wasn't a total lie I suppose. Demteri laughed.

"You have to take that up with Jane, and good luck to you." I scowled and tossed the now bloodied cloth back to him before turning a stalking to where Jane waited. Her brows lifted as I approached, but that was the only surprise she seemed to show. I halted once I was directly in front of her.

"I wish to flare, to stretch my muscles." I requested, holding eye contact.

"No." she said at once, not even giving any thought to my question. I refused to flinch at her hard blood red eyes.

"I hope you realize I'm being polite by asking. The fact is that our Atheris forms can desert us if left alone for too long. The longer I go without flaring, the less likely I am to be able to do it again. Wouldn't it be sad if you dragged me all the way back to your masters only for me to be useless and have to just kill me? You would have wasted your time on me when you could have been taking care of the cases surely piling up by now." Alright, that one may have been a lie, but I really needed to shift for some reason. I could hear the barely restrained anger as she finally snapped,

"Fine, but know this. We know of your brother, and he will be the one to pay if you try to run on us again." Ice dropped in my stomach and my heart faltered. I quickly hid my warring emotions, not wanting her to know just how binding that threat was.

"Fine." I huffed back.

"Just one more condition, Alec?" I whirled to find him suddenly materializing at my elbow. Faster than I could process the time he snapped an onyx cuff into place on my wrist. I hissed as I felt the light of my magic dim. "Just enough to keep you semi-contained. It will still allow you to shift, but you will be a little weaker, and a little slower." I stalked away before I could do something I would definitely end up regretting, like killing a vampire. I let my magic consume me as I walked, changing to lioness form mid-stride. I tried not to hiss in pain from both the onyx damper, and the overall soreness of my body. I allowed the vampires to take off first, if only so I could let myself run to catch up. Unsurprisingly they fell into an unspoken formation around me despite their threat. They blocked me on all sides, preventing any ideas, not that I had any, not with Finn on the line. My older brother, who I would protect at all costs, just as he protected me all those years. Finn who did not have the Atheris power, but still protected me with everything he had and helped me through the struggles I had. I thought about all he had done for me as I ran, doing my best to push myself despite the exhaustion pushing in on me. I was just thinking about him helping me through my first flarings when the scent hit. I stopped dead in my tracks. Crap. I lifted my head to the moon, shoot. The howling came seconds later, they had scented me. It wasn't a full moon, and that made it even worse. These weren't pure werewolves. They were the kind who held particular malice towards Atheris's, and they had just scented me. The vampires had of course stopped with me, and I was still enclosed in their circle. I paced some, snarling, trying to judge their distance by their scent. They were a minute away at best. The wind had hidden their scent until now, they had likely been tracking me for some time. I stalked toward the vampires, brushing my way past them and out of their circle. I was surprised they had let me pass, I assume the werewolves confused them. This kind usually remained hidden, until one of us crossed their path. I roared my challenge out to them, letting them know I knew they were there and I was not afraid. That could buy me a few seconds to figure out what the heck I was doing. I knew I could not run, I had to fight. Chances are they would ignore the vampires and come straight to me. There seemed to be two different scents. At normal strength that would be easy, but I was not at normal strength. Nonetheless, I had to do my best, I would probably end up dead, or at least severely injured. I braced myself as I heard their heavy steps near. The vampires seemed to sort of figure it out. They spaced out some, getting in a stance to either fight, or defend. They probably wouldn't have to do either. The wolves entered the clearing and my heart dropped. There were three of them. I was mostly alone in this fight, I was tired, I had onyx on. I suppose the vampires probably wanted me alive, but that might not be possible. It might be better that way, but that didn't mean I was going down easy. No, even as the despair weighed on my thoughts I steeled myself and roared at them. They launched themselves at me as one, and I leapt up to meet them head-on. The rest was a flurry of action, biting, twisting, clawing. I had taken down the first before the vampires started to move. They all converged on one, attempting to find the best method to kill it. I was exhausted after killing one. My body felt too heavy, I shifted to human form in an attempt to lessen the strain. I willed a sword into my hand, the exact way I liked them. Warmth trickled down my face and my head pounded so violently I feared it may burst. Nonetheless, I wielded my sword as the final one launched itself at me. I gave my body into the years of training I had used to hone my body into a weapon in itself. I didn't let myself truly think, only kept myself present enough to tell what was going on. The rest I let the instinct that came from both my gift and training take care of. Soon, I was hunched over, sword down, panting, the werewolf having sensed the losing fight and run off in a sudden sense of self-preservation. I was exhausted, still, it took effort to resist the urge to slam the pommel of my sword into the onyx cuff. There was something different about this one, it was harder to get off, and it had stayed when I shifted. Abruptly I was very dizzy, I stumbled, the support of my sword useless. I hardly remembered hitting the ground, then nothing.