Shadow Bite || WATTYS 2017

Chapter Forty-Seven

A slight stirring awakes my body slowly and gradually from a peaceful night's sleep. When I shift lightly in a groggy mid-daze, Asher moves behind me and presses me closer against his chest, instinctively wrapping a leg around mine from behind in his slumber. I fight an amused smile and give out a loud sigh, gently lifting his hand placed on my hip away and putting it on to the mattress as I roll away.

Since the situation with Killian last night, Asher somehow managed to make my parents allow him to stay, something he wouldn't even have let himself do if it had still been the full moon.

I pick up the orb from my desk and roll it around in my hands, slightly reassured by its coolness against my skin. There's no pulse, and the colours are calm - the calm before the storm. I'm about to set it down again when suddenly something fleets across its surface. I bring it closer to my face and inspect it closely, almost giving up again when the same image flashes across the surface and then disappears.

Then, I scream.

"WHAT? WHERE? WHEN?" I spin around just as Asher jolts from his sleep on the bed and falls onto the ground with a heavy thud, before standing up with disoriented eyes and messy bed hair. He looks around the room with bewilderment, body bent in a position ready for attack. When he sees no harm and me just standing there with my hands covering my mouth and the orb on the floor, he relaxes and looks at me with confusion. I'm not even slightly moved when he steps closer to me with a sculpted stone hard bare chest and stomach, with only joggers hanging deliciously low on his hips.

"Buttercup?" His voice comes out soothing, and with frozen eyes I just step into his open embrace, allowing him to soothe my trembling body when his hands rub up and down my back. "What's wrong?"

"Th-the orb, it was-" I hiccup, unable to form any coherent thoughts or words. My mind is blank by confusion and slight fear.

I'm coming for you.

Killian told me that just last night, and now I've just seen Mrs Lee face fleet across the orb's surface with a cruel and mischievous smile directed at me. 

Asher tilts his head to the side, his eyes now bright and alert with no trace of sleepiness, and gently takes my hand, setting me down onto the edge of the bed and crouching down on one knee in front of me. He traces light patterns with his fingers on my palms and I watch the action in a trance, willing his touch to chase away the explosion of fidgeting nerves in my body. I need to get out, to do something, which would be considered extremely stupid, seeing as Killian could snatch me at any time, or Mrs Lee could take control over my body again and make me kill anyone in sight. She hasn't tried anything in months since I came back to my parents' house, but her sudden reappearance in the orb just now has my mind spinning. 

When will they attack? 

Will they let another slow and torturous year go by and let us suffer in lack of knowledge or awareness before striking? 

So many questions, so few answers...

"Camilla? Look at me buttercup..." I warm hand against my cheek jolts me from my thoughts and I stare into Asher's calm eyes. 

I need to get out, I need to clear my head, I need to do something.

And there's no way that Asher will let me go anywhere if I tell him what I just saw. With no findings of Mrs Lee by the pack anyway, this news would most probably make him lock me away to keep her or Killian from me.