A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 21 Armor 1

Chapter 21 Armor 1

Out on the small lake, a single duck shook its head briskly, flinging droplets of the morning dew all about. It was a slight sound, but it was still the sound of an object moving very quickly. It was a sound that reverberated in Callin's ears, so loud he felt like it was shaking his very bones, and it violently snapped him awake.

He screamed awake, instantly leaping to his feet on his bed with his fangs and claws bared, tiny bits of brilliant, blue power sparking at their tips. In the bed next to him, Carmen was equally hurtled into wakefulness, by his scream and his abrupt motion, and she howled in shock when she opened her eyes and saw him, flinging herself sideways off her bed, tumbling to the floor in a wild array of flying arms, legs, and hair.

When a terrifyingly tense few seconds passed with nothing happening, she dared to cautiously lift her head, peeking up over the edge of her bed at Callin. He stood in a dangerous half crouch, his lithe, muscular body held balanced and ready, his head swiveling constantly as his hunter eyes raked the room for an enemy.

Carmen felt the hair on her arms stand on end when she saw his eyes. They were blazing green, which she had seen before, but now they were also lit from within by some darkness, some rage-filled entity of raw power unlike anything she had ever even imagined. She could actually feel his power in the air, reminding her of the prickling, heavy sensation right before a nearby lightning strike.

Callin felt the frantic tempo of his heart begin to slow, could feel his power beginning to slide back inside, and he focused on his claws with a dark glare as they seemed reluctant to retract. He could feel there was no threat nearby, he could tell he must have been woken by a nightmare, so there was no reason to keep his claws bared and ready. For some inexplicable reason, it took an inordinate amount of willpower to make them retract.

Then, he noticed Carmen's rapid, shallow breathing. He could also sense Ahleena standing somewhere nearby, obviously watching him closely. He stood up straight as his claws and fangs finally slid back in, sighing and rubbing his eyes. This was not really how he liked to wake up.

"You can come out now. I'm fine." He said.

She stood up slowly, eying him warily. Callin didn't look at her, instead flopping back on his bed and staring up at the ceiling with distant eyes. What had snatched him up from the depths of sleep to painfully alert and purely battle-ready like that? If it had been a bad dream, he could remember nothing of it.

Ahleena appeared in the open doorway, making both Carmen and Callin twitch in shock. Carmen exasperatedly muttered something foul about ninjas, and Callin simply agreed. He hadn't sensed her approaching either. The way Ahleena could move so silently, so precisely, effortlessly evading even his keen senses, always unnerved him.

"Bad dream?" Ahleena asked, leaning against the doorjamb casually.

Callin snorted at her relaxed posture. It was supposed to represent someone who was simply there to chat, someone very relaxed and at ease. She failed at it, as Callin knew very well exactly how dangerous Ahleena was at all times, no matter how relaxed her posture and words.

"Yes." He said simply.

Ahleena moved closer to him, her eyes searching. Callin looked away, uncomfortable as always when she looked at him like that. As if she were peering past his outer appearance, as if she were instead examining his inner self.

"You're lying."

Callin turned his head to glare at her. "Ok. So if you know so much, if it wasn't a bad dream, why don't you tell me what it was?"

"I don't know what woke you. But you and I both know it was not a bad dream."

Callin sighed and looked back up at the ceiling, his thoughts back to searching what it had been. He seemed to recall a thunderously loud sound. A thumping, whistling sound of something moving back and forth very fast. It had been stunningly loud, enough so that it had woke his battle instincts even as it ripped him up from the depths of sleep.