Byzantium

Stage 7

Ivy was standing above Elise as Elise came to. Ivy looked concerned, almost motherly. Elise groaned and sat up too quickly, bile coming up her throat. Ivy reacted quickly and turned Elise's head to the side, changing the direction of Elise's stream of vomit. Elise was thankful.

"Crap." Ivy grimaced at the pool of throw up on her living room floor. "What happened to you? Did that girl do this?"

Elise mumbled something but Ivy didn't catch it. Elise swallowed, ignoring the taste in her mouth, then tried again. "Too much."

"Too much? Too much what?"

"Just... sleep..."

"Just sleep? Just sleep... Oh! You want to sleep? Sleep? That's what you want?" Ivy helped Elise stand, having trouble getting Elise to stop shaking. Ivy managed to get Elise to her room and in bed with a lot of pushing and shoving and dragging. Ivy watched Elise immediately shut her eyes and begin to snore softly. Worried, Ivy rolled Elise onto her stomach and pushed her face to the side just in case she threw up again. Then she left to get some things done for the day, since Elise was sure to stay out for a long time. She was concerned, sure, but there was no point dwelling when Elise wasn't going to be speaking for a while.

-----

Elise dreamt of the past, of random memories, of things her subconscious wanted to share. She knew she was dreaming because her vision was outlined with stark white and things were just a tad bit blurry. Things always looked that way when she was dreaming.

The memory that replayed for her was the first time she lost control of her magic, of her wolf. She was on her first run with her parents, deep out in the deserts of Mexico. It was so hot she felt like her fur was going to burn away from her skin. Her paws stung from the heated sand. Her tongue lolled out of her jaw as she ran further and further from her parents, leaving them behind to yowl and snap.

Elise ran so hard her legs and chest ached but she wouldn't stop, couldn't stop. Not even when she ran directly into a small abandoned village did she stop. Her magic fueled her need to move and chase the wind. She knew she was powerful, her parents had said as much, but she just didn't know how much, not then. Her heart pounded painfully against her ribcage and she could feel her magic throb in her veins. Her head spun but she knew she was still running. Sand changed to cobblestones and the pads of her paws felt like they would melt away. The howl that left her was piercing. Her parents had to tackle her and hold her until she calmed, and she never did. She only passed out from a magical overdose, the byzantium in her veins becoming too potent.

Then, the next moment, as dreams tended to morph, Elise was in her room from when she was a teenager. She was lying on her bed, on her back, with her crush at the time on top of her. It was the first time she had gone so far with another person, and it made her feel strange. Elise, the watcher, the fully aware Elise that knew she was dreaming, remembered that day clearly. It was the second time she had lost control. It was the time she knew that sex was not for her, it never would be, not unless she learned to control the beast, the magic, inside. Even then, she never wanted to be so intimate.

Her crush had gone too far and pushed things thanks to the fuel of fresh hormones. Her shirt was being pushed up, her pants pushed down. The strange feeling multiplied and she gasped. Her crush thought that was a sound of encouragement. She couldn't say it wasn't, her throat had closed and her magic was pumping through her blood. She panicked and pushed her crush away, her claws extended and her teeth biting through her lips. She shrieked wildly, byzantium poisoning her from the inside out. She passed out from the pain.

The scenery changed again and she was meeting Cav for the first time. Cav was just a kitten, really, and Elise a cub. They were teens but still so immature. Their meeting was not long after Elise's second freak out. Cav was a calm in Elise's storm. Elise begun to go on runs with Cav, short ones at first, then increasing in length as time passed. Cav knew of Elise's affliction and never pushed. The best part, to Elise, was that Cav wasn't scared. A lot of people were scared of Elise's power, and that was when they didn't know about her magic being dangerous. Cav never shied away. In fact, she got closer. She flirted with Elise, helped her control what was inside, helped her function without passing out every time a good looking person winked in her direction. Soon enough, Elise could flirt back and banter, even touch and feel without her magic thickening in her veins. The wolf and its killer magic didn't run free again. Elise made sure of that. She could finally run wild, flirt, get excited, and all without losing control. She was no longer limited to soft activities. She could play sports again, she could dance, she could party. Her life was hers once more.