Selene's New Moon

Pots and Fire

Edwards' face pales.  He cuts the rope binding me to the table.  Before I can try standing on my own, Edwards is pulling me up. His grip on my arm is bruising, and I stumble a bit before gaining my footing.   My head spins as he drags me out of the shack and into the open, towards the car.

  He stops suddenly, causing me to run into him.  My blood runs cold.  The demons are here already.  They seem to ooze out of the tree line like something out of a bad horror film.  They are still far enough away that it is hard to make out any facial features. Edwards raises his gun. The demons stop, but I am pretty sure its just to humor him.  They certainly don't seem scared. 

  "We had a deal!"Edwards yells.

 The demons laugh in response and then begin to move in closer again.  Edwards begins shooting his gun but none of the bullets seem to be hitting their targets.  Partly because the demons were ready for him, but mostly because Edwards is shaking like a leaf.  I guess he doesn't normally see much action...   Things are not looking good for me.

  A couple of the demons are now close enough to clearly see their faces.  I recognize one of the faces.  It is one of the demons from that horrible dream!  I had thought I was terrified before, but what I feel now is a new level of fear and panic.  The object of my terror looks me full in the face and then smiles at me.  I stand frozen, trapped in his gaze.  Edwards' screams break the spell I seemed to be under. He falls to the ground.  I am not sure what happened, but there is a lot of blood and if he isn't already dead, he soon will be.

 I raise my hands as if trying to push the demons back and scream.  To my shock, all three of them are sent flying backwards.  I don't stand around to ponder how it is I am able to do something like Owen can do from just from recent mind to mind contact.  I run.

  I run to the heavily wooded area behind the shack.  I am running blind- I know nothing about this area.  I reach for Owen again.  Sensing the direction the guys are coming from, I turn to run to the right.  I don't attempt to communicate with him at all- I wouldn't be able to send anything but feelings of fear to him at the moment.   I am crashing through the trees.  The branches scratch at my face and arms, but I ignore it all.  I can hear sound of my pursuers behind me  but they don't seem to be in a rush to catch me.  They must think I am easy prey-  they aren't wrong.  I concentrate only on running towards Owen.  I am not far now.  I am helped by the fact that he seems to be closing the gap towards me as well.  

  "Selene!"  It is Aiden's voice that I hear.  Hope blooms in my chest. 

  It takes me only a moment to find him.  His expression is hard and determined.  I run to him without hesitation. He grabs my hand and I am quickly spun behind him.  My fingers twist in his t shirt and I steady myself.  I feel a rush of energy flow out of him. He is already blasting one of the demons with his fire.  Good God! They were closer than I thought!  I gasp for air, trying to catch my breath.  All I want to do is collapse, but I can't.  I reach down into the earth and then funnel more power into Aiden so that he can keep going.  I notice that it is a little more difficult to do this time than it has been recently.  My head just isn't right.  I'm afraid that I may have a concussion.  It's amazing that I didn't fall flat on my face on my way here...

  I hear the sounds of people crashing through the underbrush behind me. There is a break in power going to Aiden as I turn my head to see behind us.  It's Dwyer and Kenji!  Oh thank god, I think as I sink to the ground in relief.  I concentrate once again on sending power to Aiden.  I wrap my hand around his ankle to help me focus better.   I feel like I am stretched too thin- like I may snap soon.   My head hurts beyond belief and I am physically exhausted from the run and all the fear.  There is an endless supply of power at my fingertips, but it still takes some of my personal energy and some finesse for me to direct it correctly.   I block everything else out so that I can concentrate.  I don't want to fry poor Aiden.  All I am aware of now is energy and power.  When Owen and Felix arrive,  I only know because of their energy signatures.  I then pause in sending Aiden power here and there to send some to Owen.  These two seem to use their gifts most while in combat.  The others use only weapons and martial arts while in combat.  I can't help but be thankful for that-   I wouldn't be able to keep up... 

  Its forever-  or maybe just a moment... I don't know.  Time is strange right now.. But it's over.  Aiden picks me up from the ground and then holds me impossibly close.  I wrap my arms around his neck and bury my face in the crook of his neck.  Since my feet are now dangling in the air, I wrap my legs around his waist too.  The pounding of our hearts and our ragged breathing is loud in my ears.  Aiden has one arm wrapped around my torso and his other hand is on the back of my head.   I feel so safe right now and after all the intense fear, it is almost overwhelming.  

 " Gimme," wines Dwyer .  I allow myself to be taken from Aiden and then I am in Dwyer's crushing embrace.   A second later Kenji is hugging me from the back.  I am in a sandwich.  I don't mind though. 

  "Thank the gods you are ok Princess," Kenji whispers in my ear.   I try to turn a bit so that I can hug him back too.  Dwyer loosens his hold just enough to let me do it.

  "Let me see her.  Is she hurt?" Felix asks anxiously. 

  I am released and suddenly Felix is there.  His hands come to my face gently and turns my head this way and that.  His hands then run down my arms and torso, his eyes searching for any injuries.  He lets out a shaky breath and then I am being hugged again.  I hear something fall in the underbrush and look over to see Owen now kneeling in the leaves.  His eyes are on me  and he is still breathing hard. I step away from Felix and then take 2 shaky steps to Owen before falling into his arms.  Just like the others, he holds me tight and close.

  "Selene, how do you feel?" Felix asks.

  I actually hurt pretty much everywhere by this point,  but I will stick to the important things right now.  Owen keeps holding me as Felix places his hands on my head to do his thing.

  "Concussion , I'm afraid. I can help a little, but head injuries are always a little difficult..."

  I feel a soothing rush of power in my head.  It seems to take the edge off of the pain.  I sigh into Owen's neck.  I feel a tremor run through him  and push away just a little to check on him.

  "You ok?" I whisper. He takes a deep breath and then we are standing up.

  "We were almost too late.."he answers as he wipes tears off of my cheeks.  I had been crying at some point then....

  "But you weren't," I say and then place my right hand over his left on my cheek.  I try to convey my thankfulness to them through my eyes.  His gray eyes seem to shimmer for a moment.

 *He's coming!!*

  Bram's panicky voice breaks the moment and suddenly there is a very agitated raven flapping about around our heads.   I am not sure who 'he' is, but I have this sinking feeling that we got ourselves out of the pot only to fall into the fire.

It's finally up.  Sorry again for the delay.  Hope you like it.