Trinity (A Werewolf Novel) ✔

Chapter Twelve

The fever set in only a few days before the full moon and with it came the fatigue. Soon after that, a dull ache began to pulse from the mark on my neck. My appetite became nonexistent, which as a person who deeply appreciated food was alarming in itself.

As time moved forward, I began to feel more and more aware of my own heartbeat. It throbbed in my fingertips, rushed blood loudly in my ears, and pushed painfully through the ache that was only growing with each breath. I'd never been sick before. It was one of the few blessings I'd received in life. While my little brother would shiver and whimper in the night, I was impervious to such times of weakness, until now.

If I was uncertain of Roman's ability to empathize with my pain, the certainty came not long after I became unable to hide it myself. He looked paler each time I caught a glance of him, but also angrier. Soon, he refused to see me at all, either hiding out downstairs or at another house altogether. My only pleasure was that every heavy, painful thud of my heart echoed across my mark and to the bond connecting me to him. He would feel it to the end.

Despite trying to be brave myself, with time the fear only grew within me. My skin was damp with sweat and heated by the fever which licked at my flesh like an increasingly growing flame. Some would beg to find relief, to walk into the light or darkness that waited after this life, but I was fierce in my own fears. I didn't want to die. I hadn't wanted to die in the hunt, nor the challenge afterwards, and that sentiment only followed me through the pain the mark brought with it.

Time blurred. The sun rose and fell. The moon grew fuller among the stars.

And finally, I felt a slur in awareness. It was as if in a moment, time both went forward and back again. Sounds echoed around me before muting entirely. The pain was both intense and nonexistent. I was aware of my own heartbeat and also aware that it intended to stop.

I gasped, sitting up sharply in Roman's bed. I panted heavily, my limbs trembling from weakness. It took me a moment to take in my surroundings; the dark of the room with only the moonlight shining in from an open window. I knew if I stayed where I was, I would die here in this same room. I wanted more than anything to go home.

I pushed myself from the bed, swaying as I stood on my own two feet. I absently reached for my neck, wincing as my fingers brushed against that cursed mark. I walked unsteadily towards the opened window, the cold air doing nothing to cool the heat of my skin. I reached for the window frame, looking up to the moon which shined a bright, full glow in the cloudy night sky. My body had been correct. It was the full moon. I wouldn't last the night.

I wanted to go home.

I flung my leg over the window ledge, climbing from the room as I had done before. Only as I tried to lower myself down the side of the building, my arms shook with fatigue and my lungs burned from the strain. I made it down only halfway before my hands faltered and my world spun around me unhelpfully. I suddenly was weightless just briefly before I hit the ground roughly, landing on my back and losing my breath momentarily.

My vision spun and blurred around me. I gasped for air, closing my eyes against the confusion, and after a moment it all finally steadied until I felt I could move again. I pushed myself back to my feet, glancing around deliriously before heading in the direction I hoped the temple was. I could find my village from there.

I walked with difficulty, holding my neck with pain as though I could contain it myself. I could see my breath in front of me, fogging the cold air thickly, and yet I could only feel the fever pulsing heavily throughout me. I continued until I found myself distracted by the sound of a beat that wasn't my own heart.