Silver Claws

32. not all is wild

There wasn't even a scream.

I suppose, in the face of death, there wasn't time for that. There was no room to make a sound for for that much fear, and there wasn't a single sound that could really catch that much terror anyway. Not the realization that it was over, you were over. Your last breath was to be taken, your life is finite. No real horror could be expressed in one sound, such a thing only existed in movies.

For a few arresting seconds he was still alive, I felt every rush of my blood in my ears until his eyes glazed into a a meaningless stare beyond what sight of this world could see.

Only after I saw his body on the ground was on the matted grass did each event register like a macabre picture show.

I saw Akela leap for him with speed that was instantaneous. I saw her thin arms, so white blue veins poked through, slip around his neck with the grace of a lover, so gentle it could have been an embrace. I saw the jerk of her muscles, his knees hit the ground, his chest lumber down. I saw, still see the way his neck was turned so wrong.

I saw another person die at her feet.

More teeth for her string.

Her name slipped my mouth the way a curse flies.

"What the fuck!"

Her teeth answered first, words formed second. "Anyone willing to kill you is willing to die themselves."

"You don't... we don't... you can't go around killing anyone who does that! We have laws about-"

A snarl echoed from her throat that was not wolf. It was nothing like what I'd ever heard before, no tiger, bear, nothing natural sounded that way. It made the breath cease in my lungs, my heart was in my throat, beating and vulnerable to her.

I backed away at first, before finally turning my back. The wolf inside felt he should keep his eye on her. She was too dangerous to look away from. But she wasn't the Alpha, I was.

"Is that the way you wish to die then? By the teeth of your own pack? Is their fear of you so weak?"

I spun so fast my whole leg throbbed in pain.

"They shouldn't be afraid of me! They should respect me as their Alpha, not think I'm going to kill them if they step out of line!"

"Out of line?" Her voice was the kind of quiet that comes in the eye of a storm. "You think an attack upon their Alpha is simply out of line?"

No. I kept the thought to myself, but I knew she felt victorious.

I noticed it at last. A black haze around her, a shoud of death. The same one she wore when she killed the rogues. It was back, blacker than night. The death haze was so strong that I wondered if she could be recovered.

I turned on her again and went back to the house. I didn't stop on the way to my room, didn't pause when my name was said from more than one voice; even while I gimped my way up the stairs. I didn't stop until the door was locked. For a second I had the ridiculous urge to jam a chair under the door knob.

I breathed deeply and tried to calm down.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really tired of almost dying.

Actually, if we want to get more specific, I'm tired of people trying to kill me.

I think I need some kind of posterboard to carry around that says something like: Please don't attack. I am very small and tired. Thanks.

Alright I'm not that small, but I am tired. I think the point would get across.