▶ Touching The Wind (Roaming Alchemists/ Book Two)

Chapter Twelve.

Chapter Twelve. 

'she's not going to wake up for a while.' Sera heard distantly in the back of her mind as her head swirled with red hot burning fire.

'you can't do this here, what if she waked up?' another voice, much softer this time. Sera wanted to wake up, but she couldn't. Her head hurt, her head throbbed. Everything hurt now, there was a subtle burning in her stomach, her eyes refused to open no matter how much she tried, so she listened closer while her body refused to obey her. 

'you weren't so rebellious before, Carter.' the voice was eerily familiar, Sera could tell it was female, but who?  'She stirred, I don't want to wake her up.' 

'She's going to die anyway Carter, waking her up is the least of our problems.'  Carter growled softly, Sera recognized the voice instantly, It was Casey.

  'this is wrong.' Carter snapped, face turning cherry red, 'we shouldn't be doing this. She'd agree to it anyway...' 

'No she wouldn't.' Casey snapped right back, there was the subtle sound of whooshing, then something collapsed beside her, and her whole body sprung into motion, her eyes opened quickly and she scuttled back, her whole body now in her control. 

"Oh, the prodigal arises." Casey said, smirking, leaning to the side and giving Sera the evil eye, which she found oh-so disgusting. 

"What the hell are you doing, Casey?" Sera said, her tongue feeling heavy in her mouth. 

"I'm killing you, Sera. I thought it was obvious, hence the shackles and the magic room. Oh, and Jason in the corner about to kill himself, he's been staring at you for the past hour and a half. I think he wants to eat you." Casey chuckled to herself, Sera's eyes bore a hole into Casey's jacket, and without warning the edge caught on fire. 

Casey gasped, removed her jacket and then ran out of the room, yelling commands to people who walked around like zombies, their hands dragging below them as if they weighed more then their bodies.

  "Sera, I'm sorry--" Jason started,

"She tricked you, didn't she? What did she give you to eat?"  He nodded,

"Yeah, she tricked me. She gave me cupcakes, she said they were from you." 

Sera almost laughed, but swallowed it back, "You believed I'd cook anything? Let alone something that requires skill?" 

His voice was rough,  "I'm really sorry, Serr. I should've been smarter..." 

"OK!" a loud voice boomed into what Sera had just seen was a small cell, big enough for Sera and Jason, but not large enough for her to walk anywhere, and not large enough for him to do anything but touch her. "Jason, kiss her." 

Jason's eyes went dark and he leaned forwards, brushing his lips against hers. She leaned forwards instinctively and she could no longer control her hands, she felt good when she kissed him now. She felt powerful; not dead in the least. 

"Stop." Casey mocked into the hidden speaker, Jason instantly jumped back and breathed roughly, leaving Sera sitting there confused. She rested on the back of her hands, her head still reeling. 

"Good, it still works. Get out of there, Jason." Jason nodded, his body hunched forwards and his heavy hands dragged across the floor as he walked to the door, it opened, Sera lunged forwards to catch it, but it was already shut.

"Uh-uh, no way you're getting out now. Bring in Ethan," Her voice was low, and mockingly slow. Sera swallowed.  The door opened and Ethan came running in, straight towards her, grabbing her face and brushing across hairs on her cheeks, she just noticed she was crying.

The tears were sticky and wet, and there was nothing she could do about crying. Ethan's touch felt amazing, but she couldn't help but cry.  Ethan shot up and glared around the room,

"Have you hurt her, Casey?" He yelled, "If you have, I swear, I'll kill you." 

"Hurt her? No. You'll manage that all by yourself." 

There was a spluttering sound, Ethan looked around, yelled out. Then stopped, turning back around,

"Jesus, Sera, are you OK?" 

"Get away," She sobbed at him, he shook his head. 

"I'm not leaving you, are you OK?"  She looked up at him, and the urge to kiss him was so strong, he refused to lock eyes with her, without warning another splutter happened and Ethan slid down the cold damp wall beside her. Looking side-ways at her. 

"Are you OK?" He asked, deeply serious now.  Sera nodded, unable to wipe the tears from her eyes, which she considered unfair.  "Do you want me to get rid of the tears?" He asked, she nodded.

He brushed away the tears in her eyes with his forefinger, cleaning the rest with two fingers pressed together.

She felt stronger around him, much stronger, "You know why I'm here right?"  Sera shook her head,

"You're here because Casey sent you in?" 

"We're all a part of her plan, me too. She wants us to kiss and, you know. It'll stop your light soul, It'll kill you, she'll take your soul and use it for eternal power, then you'll rule the world, the new world." 

Sera shut her eyes and looked forwards, "Are you willing to help her?" 

"If I was would I be sitting here."  She looked at him, shaking her head, god he was attractive. 

"I suppose not." 

"She told me her plan, in a different way, I believe the words were, 'I've taken Sera, if you don't come in ten minutes. I'll cut her throat.'"  

Sera swallowed, "Why didn't you call her bluff?" 

"Isn't it obvious?" Ethan asked, his eyes downcast.

He sighed, "We're not going to do anything." 

"We don't need to, I feel different around you." 

"Then I'll sit over there," he pointed to a very unattractive corner, "So we're not close." 

"It's hard not to be close here, Ethan. We're put into a shoebox, sooner or later we're going to crack, she knows it. Even if we don't, I'll still fade into darkness in a couple of weeks." 

Ethan nodded, "I guess you're right." 

"What are we going to do, Ethan?" 

Ethan looked down, his skin started to darken, his eyes began to darken, Sera could only watch as his veins turned black, and his body trembled, his new dark eyes gazed at her with hunger. She could only try to scuttle away, he chuckled evilly. Standing up. 

"Ethan has other intentions then me," The darker black-magic Ethan said, dropping to his knees in front of her face, trapping her legs and stopping her from moving, he cupped her face in one hand, "And personally, I think you'd make a great queen." 

Then he kissed her.