Gifted

Chapter 22 - Sage

'Stop Sage!'   Cold fingers wrapped around my wrist. Turning, his face pressed against my ear. 'Please Sage, this isn't you... you have to stop, you need to wake up Sage.'

"Sage wake up... you're dreaming Sage. Wake up!"

Shaken awake, I was woken with force. Though my eyes were now open, my heart was pounding as my fists clenched tightly in the bedsheets.

I hadn't been dreaming. It was a nightmare.

This was the second time in two days Pearl had woken me. But today there was something different, she had a look of worry on her face, her eyebrows furrowing as she peered down at me.

"You were shouting, yelling... you worried me," she said, placing her hand on my forehead. "My God Sage, you're hot... burning up.  Do you feel okay?"

My cheeks burned as my camisole stuck to my damp skin. "I was yelling?"

"A-huh." She nodded.

What was going on with me? "Yeah, I'm fine Pearl, it was just a dream."  Dream yeah keep telling yourself that.

Along with my heartbeat—my wolf's heart thumped inside my head, something had freaked her out too.

"What in hell was you dreaming about?" she asked.

I propped myself up on my elbows as the cool air greeted the damp skin on my back. Trying to remember, it was a blur of images, flashes of trees. I was running. "I can't be too sure, but there was a wolf, and I was in the woods. He attacked me... I think... but I made him stand down. Or rather my wolf did. It was if I had no control over her."

What I didn't tell her, in my dream I had used my gift on him, he had backed off.

But I hadn't.  I had morphed back to human. Stood paralyzed, naked and cold as I watched the wolf, his black eyes pleading with me to stop. I was hurting him. He was howling and writhing around. He was afraid of me.

I felt sick, my stomach cramped.

Pearl poked me. "Hey, it's okay." She sat on the edge of my bed. "You were probably dreaming about the asshole from America—the one your gonna meet tonight." She pulled a face.

"Yeah," I said, not believing it for one second. This had felt real and I would have killed this wolf in my dream if... Sylar, hadn't stopped me.

Sylar - I had felt him there.

It had been a few nights since I had last dreamt about him, but that was different too.

I was used to him talking to me, our dream conversations often the same. He would tell me he was searching for me and would find me soon and to wait for him.

But last night, in the dream, it wasn't his usual soft tone, he was firm with me, I had felt him touch me - he had stopped me hurting the wolf.

Mon Dieu.  My Wrist!

I looked down at my wrist and there it was, a mark as if someone had been gripping it tightly.

What the hell did all this mean?   I was going crazy for sure.

I glanced at Pearl. "Sorry for waking you Pearl; you go back to bed." My cousin wasn't normally an early riser.

"Nah, it's good, I'm not working tonight." She smiled peeling a strand of hair stuck to my face. "So now you're awake. Do you want a coffee or something?"