Lycanthrope

Chapter 16

The world had a hazy edge to it. My mind was blank but responsive as I wondered through the dank hallways of nowhere in particular; I was briefly aware of being in a dream, switching between being sentient and void as I passed aimlessly through endless corridors.

I heard whispers behind me so I turned. A door was ajar, letting a sick green light ooze into the hallway, my dulled mind did not remember passing by such a door before. The voices grew louder as I approached, chattering lowly like a gathering of rats. I drew closer, enough to pull the door wider and stand fully in the light. Briefly blinded, I squinted and stumbled.

The voices grew clearer, two distinctly masculine voices - one slightly accented. Before my eyes could adjust to the neon lights of the backstreet I knew my company.

"Edwick." I spat, remembering the image of him slinking into the alley ways with his tail between his legs as a flog of vampires descended on me. "Sindel." I clenched my fist, not acknowledging the lack of pain as my nails bit crescents into my palms.

"A good dog of the military." Sindel hissed, gaunt faced and red eyed.

Edwick turned to him, "A bitch will always return to her master." Sickening words releasing curled plumes of foul smelling smoke from his mouth.

"I am no simple bitch." I snarled, feeling my ire rise to a volcanic high as I scowled at their smug faces, "I only return to bite out my master's throat."

I yelled, propelling myself towards them- either one I would happily take my victim - but the war cry choked in my throat.

"Shame..." Sindel's face was an inch from my own, twisted into an ugly mess as his lips wrinkled inhumanly to reveal a mess of pointed teeth; his voice had turned low almost demonic and layered.

I looked down, spluttering a dribble of what tasted like metal. His arm was impaled through my middle, heedless of my spine as I posed, literally skewered, up to where his elbow met his forearm. A weak moan echoed around the room, it hurt, more than you would ever expect a dream to- burning like hells fire through my veins.

I spat the blood in my mouth at Sindel's face, cursing him in my head. Much to my horror his tongue, deathly pale in colour, slipped between his gnarled teeth to taste my blood on his chin. Sindel looked to me, eyes glowing venomous red as he shunted his arm from my abdomen.

I slipped to my knees, agony making my breath come out in a wheeze. I watched grinding my teeth as he rose his bloody hand to his lips and let his overly long tongue lap at my crimson blood.

His eyes crinkled and he moaned in delight, bloodied hand now resting on my head.
"Good dog."

I choked, jolted from my sleep.

Gulping a breath in panic before realising my face was still half submerged in a pillow. I calmed slowly but soon wanted to recede back into sleep, mind distracted from the dream and focusing on the way my whole being ached like it had never before.

"Cathy?" I groaned, noticing the woman soundly slumbering at my side.

When the sleeping women beside me refused to stir, I lifted myself up against the beds headboard with a grunt. I curled into myself and breathed in a shuddering gasp as a ripple of pain flowed upwards from my lower abdomen. My mind released flashes of the dream, of when Sindel had speared his arm through my abdomen. On reflex, I grabbed at my shirt and lifted the hem to let my fingers skim the smooth flesh in reassurance. I shivered as a cold flush flowed over my skin.

I heaved forward as another wave swept through me, releasing a staggered groan at its unexpected arrival.

"Lydia..." My neck twisted to Cathy, she looked at me with glassy eyes- worry evidently eating at her.
Suddenly she hugged me, grasping onto me as best she could with her, still, round belly. Another stab made me want to sink my teeth into something and scream, instead I hugged Cathy tight to me sobbing silently in her shoulder as the pain grew to new heights. "It's a horrible, terrible thing I know." Cathy cried too, "He'll be back soon, it's ok, it's ok." She stroked my back in a motherly fashion.