Amber Silverblood: Silverpack

Chapter Forty

"Why you want get rid of me?"

My eyes shot open when I heard the mysterious voice.

"Who's there?" I asked.

I was standing in the middle of a dark forest. Trees swayed back and forth in the distance, their movements ghostlike, blown by a breeze I couldn't feel. A full moon looked down from the exact center of the night sky, shining a column of brilliant white light on me. There were no stars.

Everything was silent. I was all alone. But, then who had...

"Stupid prey. Blind prey. Open your eyes!"

There was something familiar about that voice, except it... wasn't a voice. It was more like a series of thoughts that were thinking themselves. They weren't in my head, they were all around me, echoing out of a void of nothingness that I couldn't hear or feel, but could sense nonetheless.

"My eyes are open," I told it. "I can't see—"

Before I could finish my sentence, a wolf stepped out of the shadows. My first instinct was to panic, and an icy bolt of fear shot up my spine. But then I took a closer look. I knew that wolf from somewhere. Where had I seen it before?

"You're me!" I exclaimed, realization dawning on me.

"Stupid prey."

Then a second realization dawned on me, one that I don't think I'll ever be able to explain. I wasn't just here, I was also there. I was me, but I was the wolf too. I could think with my human brain and see through my human eyes, but I could also see myself looking at me through the eyes of the wolf.

"Stupid, slow thinking prey," I thought in disgust at the weak, fleshy pink thing I was continually forced to become. In truth, I was having just as hard a time grasping this as she was, but she didn't need to know that.

I already knew, though. I was thinking with two brains simultaneously. It was indescribable. I was two completely separate beings and yet we were both the same. We knew each other's every thought, but we didn't share them.

"So, if I'm actually talking to you like this," the human me said, "then I must be dreaming. Right?"

I growled at her. The prey inside my head's voice irritated me. I should bite her. Make her bleed. Then she'd shut her mouth.

I folded my arms and looked defiantly at the wolf. "Why am I here?" I asked it. "This hasn't happened before, so you must want to talk to me about something."

I shook my head. It was a human gesture, but I had to make myself clear to the slow witted prey somehow. "No," I thought at her. In here, I could talk like a human, even if I didn't move my mouth to do it. "Not want talk. Need talk!"

I smirked a little at the wolf's antics, which only made it growl at me again. It didn't like me, but I was fine with that. I wasn't exactly fond of it, either.

"Why not... fond?" I asked, struggling to think of the right words. I'm not good with people words. They're too complicated. Animals get by just fine with the barest form of communication. A growl, a lick, a bite. That's all you need to know what someone's thinking. None of this ridiculous lip flapping and tongue twirling. "Why you want... make me gone?"

I blinked and uncrossed my arms. Right. My visit with Dex earlier. He'd had the cures, and I'd...

"Because I promised Stark I'd protect Mom and Kimberly," I answered.

"Without me?" I spat, the fur on my back rising. "You weak! No fight. Only I fight."

I frowned. "But Majestic..."