Passion for War

Chapter 3:

Fitz:

"What do you mean you lost her?" Valerie shouts at the two men who were supposed to help her with Madeleine. Apparently, last night did not go as planned, Valerie said that the transition didn't happen but Madeleine was acting the part of a wolf.

"We need to find her, now," she says and without another word, they leave in search of her. Where could she have gone? The forests are big, she would get lost but at least she wouldn't make it to any civilization. Valerie sighs and takes a seat. How could she have let this happen? Fuck, this is affecting me more than I would like.

I notice Valerie biting her nails as her knee bounces, she's nervous. "What happened last night?" I ask as I move to the window and look into the forest where the men have gone. "We chained and the transition started, at first she said that she couldn't do it but she continued. I thought that she was going somewhere but..." she stops catching my attention. I turn as I wait for her to continue, her shift from the floor to me and back to the floor. "Continue," I urge.

"She started hurting herself, almost like she was trying to stop the process. She kept biting into her arm and screaming, telling us to leave or else," she says with a sigh.

I knew that she was nervous already, when we got back from her funeral, I heard her pacing her room and her heart beating. But this is something else, this was fear. Valerie's knee keeps bouncing, she's hiding something. "Are you sure that's all?" I ask and she nods rather too quickly. Something else happened.

Madeleine is still new to this, so the idea that she escaped two well-trained pack members and managed to rattle Valerie is concerning. I have seen the transition and the process is always the same but hers is different. Hers was never complete and yet she acted the same way a wolf would.

I run a hand through my hair as I try to figure out what is going on. Thea has left to see someone so I can't ask her for help.

I need Valerie to tell me everything, she can't hide important details especially when it comes to Madeleine's safety.

Before I can ask Valerie, I hear her heartbeat. Beating fast and her breaths are shallow. Without wasting time I rush past Valerie and make my way out of the house, but I come to a screeching halt when I see her state.

From head to toe she is drenched in blood, I can smell that it's an animal's blood but also hers. What the fuck happened out there? She leans on a tree as she tries to catch her breath, her legs are shaking and her eyes are red from crying. She looks up and her eyes instantly connect to mine, still glossy they plead for my help. I approach her slowly, not sure if she is herself. Once close enough, she collapses but I catch her in time. Her body is cold.

I hear the front door open and look back to find a crying Valerie. Looking back at Madeleine I notice the bite mark on her arm, she really did try and bite herself.

I take Madeleine inside and put her in the room to let her rest. As I place her on the bed, my arms feel a sense of emptiness from where she was. "Stay with her until she wakes up," I instruct Valerie. "Where are you going?" "To find out what she killed." I shut the door behind me and make my way back outside.

I stand surrounded by death, animal bodies lie everywhere. Madeleine did this? I sense the fear these animals had before their lives were taken. What's odd is that she killed them all in the same spot. They all couldn't have been here conveniently. I walk further until I find a ditch and a deer. She obviously passed out here after killing the deer but what I can't understand is why she didn't eat them or anything. She only killed them.

I realise then that all the animals are deer, I have never seen so many in one spot. Frowning, I go back to the one by the ditch. Skidding down I examine it, its organs lie outside its body but nothing seems to be missing. I look closer and try to think of the significance of the deer. All of their bodies lie open and nothing seems to be taken.

"I count seven," Josh shouts, eventually I found them and they have been digging holes to bury the animals. It's better to be safe than have wanderers coming across them and tracing them back to the house.

"Eight," I correct as I kneel and use a long stick to look inside the deer. "Why would she take out the organs and not eat them or anything?" Tyler asks as he continues digging. I wish I knew the answer to that question as well.

"That's strange." I hear one of them say after a while. Dropping the stick I stand and meet them by the other animals, "What is?" I ask watching him kneel in front of one of the deer. This makes no sense, they should be migrating.

"The heart is missing." I look around and realise that none of these animals have a heart amongst their other organs. Why would she take the hearts and where did she put them? She arrived at the house empty-handed.

Eventually, after burying all the animals we make our way back to the house. I make my way inside and straight to Madeleine's room. Before I enter I hear the soft whisper of Valerie's voice. "Do you remember anything from last night?" she asks but silence follows for a while before Madeleine responds. "No, I only remember you chaining me and then I blacked out." I stay by the door and listen to their conversation. "What did I do Valerie?" I hear the tremble in her voice, she's still in shock from what she saw. "You never completed the transition, you weren't yourself." "What do you mean?" Valerie sighs before continuing. "You kept hurting yourself, like you were trying to stop the process and when I tried to help you, you told me to stay back or else I would get hurt." Silence looms between them for a while and I can only imagine Madeleine trying to remember those events.

"There's something else..." Valerie takes a breath before continuing. "You kept repeating the name, Anastasia."

My stomach plummets at the name. I back away from the door as I try to collect myself. Anastasia of all names, why hers?

I wait patiently in the library for Valerie to return, which doesn't take long. Once she enters her heart hammers faster than normal. I now know why she was nervous. "Why didn't you tell me?" I ask resting my hands under my chin. "I didn't know how," she responds in almost a whisper. I chuckle at this, I have never known Valerie to shy away from stating the truth as it is. That is one of the reasons we get along, we don't shy away from the truth. "You didn't know how to tell me that Madeleine said her name." I raise my brow at her. "To be honest it caught me off guard and I wasn't sure how to handle that, she kept screaming her name saying leave and I wasn't sure what was happening." I run a hand down my face as I weigh in everything that has happened in the span of two days now.

"She killed animals, deer. It looked worse than what she came out looking," I say, staring at the fire. "That's impossible, the deer should have migrated by now." I thought the exact same but it would seem that she lured them there. "She took out their hearts and now I have no idea where she put them." I sigh as I stand to pour myself a drink. Valerie frowns at the floor as she takes in everything I have just said.

"What will you do?" she asks after a while but I shrug. I have no idea what this means and how to solve this. "Thea is still gone so I would have to wait for her until then." She nods her understanding. "Fitz, no matter what happens you need to stay with her." her eyes plead for me to agree but my mind says no. I am tangled at the moment, to others it would be easy to agree since it would be their mate but for me, I'm not considered normal and neither is this relationship Madeleine and I have.