Anada (Book #3)

Strength

I'm was very confused when I walked into the living room to find everyone sitting there.
Elias and I had just come back from the beach. I guess when Westen saw me run out the back door he gathered everyone together.
Reina stands and quickly comes to me putting her hands on my shoulders, "You haven't spoken to any of us in days. Are you okay? You know that we're always here for you."
I sigh, "It's not that, Reina."
I pause then continue, "I... can't stand in the room knowing that I could have killed all of you. And don't say that I'm not capable of that, because you know I am."
My words quiet them from whatever they were planning to say to me.
I feel Elias's presence as he tells me, "Anada, we know that you would never purposely hurt us."
They were right, but that still didn't erase what I had done. Never before in my life did I fear the fact that I was a dragon. I was always happy that I was a shapeshifter, but was the gift beyond my control? Was I loosing my humanity?
I asked them the only thing that I could think of, "Can you explain what happened when I... sort of lost control? I don't remember much of anything that happened."
"You don't remember?" Alex questions.
I shake my head.
Alex looks over at the others. Everyone had an expression of nervousness.
"Just start from the beginning." I tell them.
Elias sits down on the recliner and waits a second before beginning, "Well, we saw you fighting with the men while we did the same. A few minutes later I ran over to see how you were doing, but I saw that something was wrong. I told Escapade to stop whatever he was doing. I became furious and started to fight him. Escapade then commanded you to stop me. I- I watched your eyes become cloudy then before I could realize what was happening you had me pinned to the ground."
I mumbled, "I remembered that part."
Elias sighs then goes on, "Alex and Westen managed to throw you off me..."
"That's the last thing I remember. I want you to tell me what happened, and don't leave out anything." I said to him.
He began slowly, "Your eyes clouded over again. I knew you had no control over your actions when you... attacked. At first we just backed away hoping you'd snap out of it. That didn't happen. Eventually, we had somehow moved inside the warehouse. That's when Leon must've commanded you to start fighting us. We mostly dodged any of your blows. Then we realized that your moves were sloppy and very much unlike how you usually fight. This strange style of fighting was mainly based upon slashing and pouncing. But we all knew that you were much better than that. And to add onto that, you neither used your fire or your heated talons."
I kept my eyes locked on him as he took a breath and said, "Westen somehow found this chain net thing. We were easily able to... restrain you. Once we knew you were well tangled we left to take the staff from Leon."
Elias seemed to wince when he said the word 'restrain'.
"So no one was hurt?" I question.
Reina sits down next to me with a broad smile, "Do we look like we're hurt, Anada? No, we aren't. Nothing bad happened."
"Except that I nearly ripped out Elias's throat." I reminded.
The one person that I had truly fallen in love with probably feared me now. Any hope of ever being more than just friends with Elias was over. I was an untamable beast. I'm not meant to ever have any sort of relationship with anyone. Forever single.
I turned my mind to something to different.
I turned to Alex, "Did you say that you kept this staff?"
He nods, "Yes."
"May I see it?"
Five minutes later I'm examining this peculiar staff. Neil is talking about it rapidly. This was his sort of thing.
He's talking a mile a minute, "The ringing you heard was created by the inner workings of the chamber inside the handle. This caused your brain to disfunction. Therefore, the person who held the staff, the source of the ringing, was able to control you, because your brain confused the command with someone with whom you would trust."
Wow, that's a lot to take in!
I'm still amazed by his research when I blurt out, "I want you to test it on me."
"What?!" Everyone asks in unison.
I shrug and stand from the couch, "Well, we have the staff. Why not see how it works? I actually just want to see if I can fight against this thing's mad science."
Elias asks, "How?"
"I have an idea. Let's go out to the beach." I start heading outside with the others trailing.
Reina decides to stay behind, because she has to start supper. I can tell she's dieing to see what we're going to do.
A few minutes later I'm standing barefoot on the beach sand. Alex, Westen, Neil, and Elias are seated on the huge petrified log that seems as old as my parents' house. I feel as if I'm about to put on a show. They sit there looking up toward me.
"Okay, turn it on." I say.
Neil fumbles with it while the others lean forward watching him.
"Oh, here you go!" Neil announces before a I am overwhelmed by the familiar ringing.
I fall to me knees holding my head. Pain erupting through my skull. Every instinct tells me to shift. My right hand falls into the sand and digs in as I fight the urge.
I barely manage to interpret what Elias is saying to Neil, "Turn it off."
"No, don't do it!" I shout.
I fight this involuntary urge to shift.
Anada, fight it! Don't let it win!
I manage to say, "Tell me to do something. See if- I do it."
Neil says, "Throw that stick."
I don't feel myself do anything. I just kneel there in pain, panting heavily.
"I... think it only works if I... shift." I finally look up at the others.
Westen looks at me surprised, "Anada, your eyes! They're slitted like dragon eyes."
I started to shake from the immense pain. My arms barely hold me up now. Finally, I fall upon the sand. I don't even care that I have a mouthful of sand.
"That's enough." I hear Elias say and then the pain finally ceases.
I feel arms wrap around me. Then I'm lifted up. There's one arm under my two legs and one under my shoulders. My head is resting on someone's chest. I immediately recognize the scent as Elias.
"I fought it." I mumble with no purpose.
I'm still shaking though I'm no longer in pain. Someone pulls my eyelid open. I see Neil shining a light right into my eye.
I pull back and look around to see that we're walking through the woods to my house.
"What?" Is all I say as I look around dumfounded.
I'm still in Elias's arms when he tells me, "I think you passed out."
"Oh. Well, at least I didn't shift." I say with a sigh of relief.
Alex comes up next to us, "What do you mean?"
I explain to them that I had the strong urge to shift into a dragon. We then realized that in order for the staff to fully take over I had to shift into my animal form.
"Neil, do you think there would be any way I could resist the staff when I'm in dragon form?" I say tiredly.
He shakes his head while looking at the forest floor, "There's no way to tell."
"We need to try again then." I blurt out.
I can feel Elias's chest vibrate as he says, "No, you're not doing that again."
I stare into his dark eyes, "I have to-"
He shakes his head vigorously, "Not today. Nope."
I somehow fall asleep in his warm embrace. Only to wake with Reina questioning the guys about what had happened.
I started spitting out the sand I now realized was in my mouth from when I face planted with the beach.
It was uncomfortably gritty in between my teeth. This wasn't the first time I accidentally got sand in my mouth. I disliked the weird grittiness of the sand grinding between my molars.
Elias gently lays me down on the couch. I start to get up, but he tells me to stay put. He gives me one last concerned look before he walks into the kitchen.
Is it possible that he might still like me even though I nearly killed him? Or is this all just a put-on?
My heart wants him. It longs for him. Though an inner voice tells me that no one can be in love with a dragon.
Dragons are always the antagonist anyway.
___________________
An hour later I'm completely recovered from the effect of the staff. I'm up and around the house as usual. Mostly looking at old photos of my parents, and the countless pictures of my teammates and I after we just had a successful mission. It was nice to be able to have good memories to look back upon. I wouldn't trade any of those memories, or the people in them, for anything on this earth.
It still mortified me that I myself nearly took my friends' lives away.
Why do I even have the abilities to kill? I've never killed anyone and never ever will.
A thought ran through my head as I stared over at the photograph of my parents: I wonder what they would think of me now?
The question is left hanging unanswered. Never to be answered.
I walk downstairs and started wondering whether or not to see what my friends were doing. It still felt strange to calmly sit by them while knowing that a deadly monster lie beneath my skin.
Neil was furiously typing away at his laptop. Alex was trying to open the staff to see how it worked. Westen surprised me when I saw him looking through the bookshelf. Reina was staring at the furniture harshly.
"What are you doing?" I walk up beside her as she stares into the living room.
She turns toward me, but kept her dark eyes on the living room, "Should we move the furniture? Wait, I shouldn't have asked that. This is your house anyway, and I'm sure you'd want to keep it the same way your parents had it, even though we remodeled most of the house."
I shrug, "No, it's fine. Do whatever you want. You're practically family. Just don't light the house on fire."
She laughs at my joke and I then ask her, "Where's Elias?"
"I think he went for a walk or something. Knowing him he's probably out on the beach. Although I must say it is sort of chilly." Reina says.
She continues without a reply from me, "That boy still loves you, Anada."
I sigh and turn away slowly, "No, he doesn't. I nearly killed him. Come on, who would still want to be around someone who nearly ripped their throat out? Believe me he's never-"
Reina surprisingly places her hands on my shoulders and says while looking into my eyes, "Anada, you either haven't seen or understood how much Elias loves you. His love for you never faltered. If you did kill him, he would be smiling as he died, because his love is unconditional."
Wow, that was deep.
I am too shocked to say anything and she keeps on talking, "Go find him."
She then throws me my jacket and pushes me out the back door. Reina knows that I can find anyone with my dragon abilities. Apparently, she already guessed this and wants me to go confront Elias.
"What do you want me to say-" My sentence is cut short when she closes the door.
Nothing better than being shut out of your own house and being told to go talk to the guy who no longer cares about you.
I cross my arms and head toward the beach. I was hoping that I wouldn't run into him, and instead just jump in the ocean for a quick chilly swim.
My hopes crash when I see his form standing on the sandy beach. Currently, he is looking down at his phone. I mentally face palm myself because I realize Reina just text him saying that I was coming.
On cue, he turns to look my direction. After a minute of walking, I finally reach him.
He can probably tell that I know he no longer cares to be in a relationship. I just wait to hear him official say the words that will cut off the link between us and go back to being friends. If that's even possible.
I enjoyed it while it lasted. My life was dull until we met two years ago, but lately it has been a wonderland. I have never felt appreciated so much until the day we started to actually date.
We both stood there in silence. The ocean was loudly churning off to my left. I didn't want to speak first. I didn't want to be the one to end our relationship, because I didn't want it to.
Truthfully, I had never been happier until we became boyfriend and girlfriend. I thought life with the team could never ever be better, but that all changed when Leon forced me to attack the one person I actually fell in love with. The only person I probably would ever fall in love with. Anyone else would reject me after finding out what I was.
Elias finally spoke after a long painful moment. I readied myself to hold back any tears. I'm a dragon, and I have to be strong.
His next words surprise me.