Crossblood - Completed

Chapter 46

"One more try, please." Kaiien's begging convinces me to try once more, teeth gritting as he sits propped up against the platform, oblivious to the dead bodies of guards that litter the ground, the broken locks and doors of the sectors that couldn't protect them strewn about. Engulfed in smoke I concentrate on one animal and one animal only, imagining everything from its tangled mane to the curled fur that clings to my ankles.

By the time the smoke clears my paws are smaller than Kaiien's palms, black fur coating every inch of my body causing me to bark out in frustration. "How many times has this been?" His fingers dive into my fur, scratching where my neck and shoulders meet in a subtle dip, rubbing circles behind my ears until my hunches relax, head lolling in his outstretched hands.

"Fifteen."

"The only times you've been able to shift is when I was hurt and when Mikayla was hurt and we can't even be sure if that's what triggered it since we were fighting the same person."

Taking a step forward, I shift back, seating myself next to him on the broken down platform. What once was smooth and pristine is now riddled with cracks and dents, chips and fractures. The crowd stormed it the moment I raised myself from the ground, all of them coming forward at once to tear apart the stage, to rip the abuser limb from limb and break him with his own whip. The sound was a terror heard only in dreams, the screams of the guards mirroring those of the executed, their cries heard from over the gates. The human cheers were harmonious with the immortal protests, our parallel worlds combining if only for a moment.

"Maybe it was the bear. Having a reverse shifter around could have triggered something in me."

"Or maybe you just don't remember telling yourself to shift."

"Kaiien I swear to you I don't remember what happened the first time and this time I just..." His arm brushes against mine, a sense of security falling over me with the slightest of touches. There's a comfort in his flesh and scent, every part of him having a hypnotic effect over me. "something...awful happened to me. I can't tell exactly what but-"

"You don't have to try and explain it." His lips crack into a smile, the contrast of his mood and the massacre behind him is sickening, nausea seeping into my soul once he laughs, the thought of merriness in a camp is unsettling to say the least. "Would it help if I fell down? Maybe somebody needs saved for you to shift."

"I'm not a superhero, Kaiien."

His attitude changes as he places his feeble hands on either shoulder of mine, digging his fingers into my hardened flesh until I meet his eyes, their violent blue succeeding in ensnaring me into his trap. "You're a god to these people, Moon. A real god. Thomas might have given us our rights and yes, he helped us a lot, saved us even, but Arehli is to be worshipped not appreciated."

"I liked the stories better when Thomas was Arehli." I mutter under my breath, freeing myself from his traps and staring down towards the floor. My eyes widen as he jerks my head upwards, fingers wrapped around my chin and pressing against the skin tightly.

"You're the only hope we have. Thomas convinced humans that camps were wrong and that our people were his people. Look around you Moon and tell me that they haven't forgotten this message. What else will they forget? Will they start killing shifters and selling the bodies for decoration again? Or will they rape and murder your, our people by the thousands? They've proven themselves to not be above public execution." There's a fire in his eyes as he speaks, anger building on the back of his tongue until he can spit it out with malice. I rub at the prints he leaves in my skin, red marks rising to the surface, painted with his fiery blood that beats through my calm but spirited heart.

"I never said I'd sit here and do nothing it's just that I haven't heard from Faramund in weeks and I haven't mated in so long I'm getting headaches and Ezra... I don't even know about that situation."

Something in Kaiien changes, my words the water that splashes over his hot coals, the fire in his eyes extinguished with the mention of the name. "Ezra? Where did you hear that name from?"

"Where did you hear that name from?"

We both stare at each other for a moment, hair blowing gently against our reddening cheeks as he avoids my questioning gaze, bottom lip tucked in as he attempts to change the subject.

"Kaiien."

He gives up once he detects my tone, pulling his face into a pout before answering me. "He's an angel." His voice falters with each syllable, an invisible weight crushing him until his shoulders slouch forward. Soon he's seated beside me, head downcast and teeth drawn into his bottom lip as it quivers the slightest.

"When Mom died he was there with her, he stayed with her body until another man came. And when you came to live with us he stood behind you at the door, I remember his eyes... there was a sadness in them I hadn't seen since Eileen's mother miscarried. And when you carried me in the jungle I had woken up slightly and saw him leading the way for us. He cast out a light that spread across all the trees and lit up the path around him."

"So when you said you saw men like your mother did, you saw an angel?" I tread over soft ground as I speak, any word could be the one that causes disaster. We don't speak of his mother's schizophrenia and the subject of his own is strictly taboo. We never agreed for it to be this way but avoiding it seemed to remedy his rapidly deteriorating reality.

"I did see men like Mom did but she saw other things I could never imagine. I could see Ezra but I couldn't see the men who had told her to jump. I'd asked her once if she'd ever seen him and she had said no, that the men she saw must be of a different breed."

"Maybe she saw demons and you could only see angels."

He shrugs at my suggestion, leaning his head against my shoulder as he thinks. "I saw the Reaper who took her though and those are demons. I think only I could see him for a reason, like it was important that I and only I noticed he was watching over us. It's strange you can see him now though but I'm glad you no longer think I'm crazy." He ends his sentence with a stretched smile, waiting for me to roll my eyes with a gentle sigh, breath floating in puffs of smoke on the chill morning air.

"I've told you I believed that this man you saw was real. Was it after the exposure to immortals? Yes. Does that matter? No."

We both sit laughing for a moments time, Kaiien's chest rising and falling at rapid speeds while mine is more of an airy cough, light noises coming from the front of my throat instead of deep inside my chest. His laugh is genuine, light glowing against his pure skin, a heavenly shadow cast against him, concealing him from the gore around him. Without a word he rises, the spring in his step the only indicator of where he might be headed, the thought of Ezra on both our minds as we go separate ways, him towards Sector G and I to Sector C.

The interior isn't as nice as Sector A but no where near as run down as Sector G. White couches stretch across the wide space as you walk through the shining glass door, sun reflecting in your eyes as you swing it open. The wooden floor blends into the light brown, cafe colored walls littered with rustic frames. Among them is a photo of Thomas, the irony causing a small cough of sarcastic humor to bubble from the back of my throat.

Among the white couches I spot Mikayla, legs propped up on the arm of the couch, book held up over her chest as she uses it to shade herself from the bright lights of the room. Crossing the section, I head her way, passing a few ivy plants climbing the wall, the paint cracked to reveal bricks covered in fractures, small specks of frost hiding in its shadows.

She looks up as I approach, lifting her head to make room for me to sit. Her curls fall over my lap, surrounding me in brown and honey ringlets as I stroke her temple with the back of my hand, sweeping the stray hair away as her large eyes stare at me, brown irises examining my every movement with child-like curiosity.

I avoid the real reason I came to her, indulging in the moment a while longer before dipping my feet in the original subject. "I was surprised to see it come back yesterday."

She catches on to the reason for me being there quickly, dollish lips pulling into a slight pout as she nods to me, turning her face around to get a look at me right-side-up. "I'd thought we'd gotten rid of him the first time but I guess not."

She doesn't allow the room to fall back in silence though we are the only two inhabiting it, everyone else either asleep or away at such an early hour in the morning. I'm not sure why she's awake so early, or why she slyly holds the book to her side so I can't read its title. "I want to teach you to defend yourself, like I had mentioned before. We thought the first time was the last and it wasn't so who's to say this time is?"

Her head falls further into my lap, eyes squinting from the lights until she finally decides to throw her hands over her plain face, her worries of smearing her makeup nonexistent as of three months ago.

Three months of winter... it doesn't seem as if it's been this long.

"I guess you're right." With a groan she lifts herself off the couch, swinging her thick legs over the side of the couch and crashing her heels into the wood flooring. She's up with a start, hands beckoning me to her as she bounces from one foot to the other, smile wide as she holds her fists protectively in front of her face. "You want some or no?"

Her smile is contagious, eyes rolling as I get up to face her, grabbing hold of her slender wrist to lead her to the courtyard, the sun just now casting its full light over the somber gray yard. She leans a foot forward, body tilted inwards towards me with arms outstretched, ready for the shock of my impact. "You have to take this serious."

"Moon, lighten up a little?"

My hand reaches for her arm, twisting it and throwing her to the ground in a matter of seconds. Trapped between my body and the Earth she struggles to set herself free, each movement only worsening the pain in her twisted limb.

Allowing her to get up, she immediately rushes for me, my hands catching her around the waist as I lift and spin her, crashing her back into the concrete with a thump. Hands next to her head she's pinned once more, eyes wide as her breaths quicken, shock taking over as she realizes she's again on the floor. My body hovers over hers slightly, the flush in her cheeks giving her away as I help her up, legs shaking the slightest before she composes herself and waits for my instructions.

"Find their weak point and use it against them, okay? Try it on me." Arms out to my sides I let her examine me, face tilted to the side as she circles around my body, pressing down on my flesh with cautious care as if I'm a piece of art she isn't allowed to touch. The first time her small fingers brush against me I jump, the limb instantly retracting at my harsh movements.

"Is it your arm? You hold it weird." She lifts up the limb, the heat leaving my body where her skin touches. I pull away at the first sight of lacing wrapping around my skin underneath her fingertips but she doesn't seem to notice the reason I do so.

"Try again. And actually try this time." Though I grind the last part between my teeth she manages to catch it, eyes lowering into a glare as she attempts to focus, her wide eyes examining every inch of me. She seems to do this a lot, she'll stop her circling and just stare, eyes lost as if in a trance of sorts before she shakes her head, moving forward with the lesson.

Each time she touches me I jerk away, her cool skin reacting with mine in a way I've never seen between the two of us. Wherever she touches leaves a light shading of lacing, the skin cooling down significantly while the rest of my body lowers a good ten degrees. Her flowery scent stays in my throat long after she leaves the close quarters of my face. She smells of tea and flowers, the scent wrapping around the air with each bounce of a curl and flick of the wrist. I'd be lying if I said the scent wasn't attractive, as both her and the fragrance are both desirable. Just not to me.

With the rising sun comes the gathering crowd, our lesson cutting short as she heads to the center, catching the middle of a fight before the smaller man is thrown, a new volunteer being called from the crowds.

Reluctantly I follow her into the crowd, the stench of sweat attacking the both of us as we squeeze through the close knit people, their dirty cloths rubbing against the two of us as we're pressed closer together, her head barely able to get air as she's trapped between a group of two people. The next name is called, a silence flying over the crowd before they come back with more energy than before. His dark hair is the first thing I see, then the bony shoulders and slim figure, body held high for the first time in forever as he climbs into the ring.

I don't bother to see who he's fighting, to let the fear of his loss creep back into me as soon as I'd managed to rid myself of it. Another man comes up, his shoulders broad and neck thick. body short but thick with muscles as he hunches himself over. I was never good at figuring out which person was which animal but Mikayla catches on quickly, hands pointing to the crowd as she notices the reliance on the front hands and tendency to keep his body at a parallel. Tiger.

Yet the snake still wins, his arm bleeding only slightly as the next man enters. Even when he's rusty, void of practice for a good one hundred years by now, he's still the best, throwing or killing the men in mere minutes of the round beginning. He doesn't hesitate, doesn't allow himself to lose his concentration as he strikes the neck of the opponent, the metallic scent of blood in the air causing me to hold my nose, the scent not one of my liking.

To my right is Mikayla, her hands covering her mouth as she turns away from the gore, eyes pressed shut tight in an attempt to let her tears cleanse her eyes of the horrors. She allows me to hold her to my body, her face burying into me though she dares to take a peek every now and again. Her body shakes each time the opponent screams, the sound of ripping flesh has her jumping in place, paranoia taking over her bones.

"Are you alright?"

She doesn't answer for a moment, breaths rapid as another man is slaughtered. "I feel like I've seen this before... but this is the first time. It's just all so real that I-I-" She can't continue, her face burying back into my side when another man lets out a grueling cry, face contorting in pain as he's taken from the ring, blood running behind where he's dragged across the ground, body too heavy to carry.

"Maybe it was a dream?" She doesn't answer me, only buries herself further until I take her by the hand, leading her back inside the empty Sector.

The lights seem dimmer than before, her face cast towards her toes as I awkwardly look around for something to focus on. We never directly look towards one another, her cheeks blazing unprovoked whenever she attempts to redirect her gaze. For the most part I ignore her, focusing on more important matters at hand than babysitting the human.

Without a word she leaves for her bedroom, my legs absentmindedly following her into the next room over so I'm not alone. She only manages to turn around once, eyes refusing to meet mine as they stare at my cheeks, teeth biting the inside of her own while her hands curl into frustrated fists. The amount of blood rushing to her face has filled the bright room with the scent of flowers, the interior of the room a silent spring as the winter exterior raises its roar.

"Moon..." She starts but looks away, hands crossing over her breast and tucking themselves under her arms as if the room were cold. Mikayla gets up from the bed, pacing the room from one side to the next while still avoiding me, a splash of coldness running the length of my body at her unnatural behavior. This isn't the bright and cheery Mikayla I used to know, her smile dampened and her personality just a watered down version of her old self. I want to ask if something has happened to her, if she's seen something that might have changed her, but the question lies on the tip of my tongue, lingering there before dissipating.

"Moon, we are friends right?"

I don't have the time for this. "Yeah...?"

"Good friends?" Her fingers wring each other, weight shifting from one foot to the other as she stands before me, head bent and shoulders slouched, obviously nervous about something.

"Yes. Mikayla what is this about if you have something to tell me just say it." Without thinking about it, I'm grabbing her face, lifting her chin so she's forced to look up at me. She flinches at my harsh touch, eyes wide in shock at the bluntness of my words.

"Sorry," I release her from my grip, stroking her cheeks in an empathetic manner. "the stress isn't making me a very nice person at the mome-"

"I love you."

Fuck.

Fuckity fuck fuck.

"Uhm...what?"

"I love you." This time around her voice falters, slouched shoulders trembling as she backs away from me the slightest, running her quivering fingers through her hair as she attempts a joking smile. Tears are already welling up in her eyes as she rolls her lips together, chest rising and falling at an uneven rate before she takes a seat across from me, room silent except her ragged and torn breaths.

"I love you, Moon. I've just never been able to say it until now." The wavering smile falters, tears rolling down each embarrassed cheek until I wipe them away with my thumb. She looks into my eyes for the first time today, eyes deep with meaning though I refuse to see it. I don't love this girl. I love Kaiien, I love Julius, I don't love her. She's never kept me up at night or had my heart racing or brightened my day when I saw her. They're vibrant yellows in my life while she's a muted gray.

Her tears roll onto the sides of my hand, dripping onto the floor as I cup her streaming face, unsure of what to do with her. She's in a kind of pain medicine can't fix, only sympathy, but for her I hold none. The threat of war has numbed me to this and my true feelings for those I keep near have shone through.

I've learned I'd kill those I previously thought I'd kill for when push comes to shove but she's different. She may not be the highest on the list but something inside me says to keep her safe. Its that voice that keeps me in this room with her as she cries, its the voice that made me take her with us instead of having her go with Andrew. "I don't love you Mikayla, at least not in the way you love me." With a deep breath I move on, unfelt emotion seemingly flowing through my words. "You're like a little sister, a daughter I'm supposed to protect."

Sarcasm shines through her bitter laugh, head jerking away at my words. "A daughter?"

"You're like a deer of sorts, fragile and constantly endangered, something I feel is my responsibility."

Eyes distant, she struggles to find herself, her body slowly gravitating towards my center. She doesn't speak as her hands find the bottom of my shirt, lifting it up the slightest and running a cool hand against my skin. It's no longer burning, the sensation calming as she finds the marks borne across my chest, placing one hand against the print and then the other in awe. "It wasn't a dream?"

I ignore the question as it seems more directed towards her than towards me. Lip trembling she replaces the right hand with the left, then again before drawing it to her mouth in a frenzy. "Moon, it wasn't a dream was it? The fighting? I had been there, you too, Kaiien was at a table but you were different somehow. I was very young, barely five." Her pitch increases with every sentence, every word speeding up until it's pure murmur, hands finding their way to my shoulders with wide eyes and heaving breaths.

But the strangest part is the vague recollection of what she has said, somewhere deep in my mind a child playing in the dampened pit. She looks up at me, a mixture of fear and happiness shining through her red eyes. She looks at peace there, hands outstretched towards me and as I reach down there's something different in how I move, how I carry myself, how I carry the child outstretched in my arms. I force the thoughts back, slouching away from the frenzied girl before me. "I remember too..."

"It's too foggy to remember much." Eyes squeezed shut she childishly forces herself to remember, hands balled into a fist of frustration. "If I focus maybe-"

Placing a hand on her shoulder I say,"That's not going to help you much." A smile spreading across my face as she opens her eyes, a small pout forming on her reddened lips.

"If you remember then it clearly isn't a dream...is it?"

I answer with a shrug, allowing her to come to her own conclusions as she stands to leave the room. With a start she falls, arms outstretched before a burst and a crack, the lamp that was toppling suspended on its side, lamp shade frozen midway between the dresser and the floor.

The air is quiet, the commotion of outside exterminated as we make our way to the window, one eye continually on the lamp shade anticipating its unnatural fall.

But the exterior of the room is the same as the interior, the crowd stilled, fighters paused in midair moves. The world has come to a standstill. Frozen in time, the work of the Crossblood.