by A. M Martin
I sniff the air. Smelling lake water and Kayden. Who smells delightful, fresh-cut grass delightful.
It’s quiet for a beat as his beady eyes rove over my body. They flash, and I smile.
It’s not my fault if I hurt this man if it’s in self-defense. Right?
“I told you, Lee. Death smells heavenly.” Jack purrs from beside Jeff.
“Shut your mouth boy.” Lee the older man snaps.
“You know what they say about Death Jack? It likes to play.” I cackle as Lee moves in what seems like slow motion towards me.
My heart hammers. My hand comes up. Fingers curled into the palm of my hand. I twist my wrist. The man, Lee falls to his knees. A loud thud is echoing out. His back arches. A painful scream blankets the air. And me I laugh. Gleefully.
Avery
His agonizing screams cut off my laugh as I jerk my hand up and twist again. His thick black bows, something snaps. And yet I’m not letting go.
I’ve twisted the ribbons to my will. Making them something they're not. Controlling this man like a puppet. And I relish in it.
My head cocks as I watch the ribbons become completely black. They thicken and widen. My body craves them like nothing else.
Yeah, I am a different breed than my family. A cursed blood as the screaming guy so put it. But what that means is another question.
My fingers flutter as I call the black ribbons to me like a siren. They slither like invisible snakes through the air. Wrap around my wrist and up my arm. A gasp grabs my eyes.
The man is no longer in pain. He’s now laying on the ground like a broken doll. Harsh pants escape from his blue tinted lips. That smile.
Huh.
My body jerks as the ribbons sink into my skin. Pain and pleasure fight for dominance in my body. A deep moan pulls from my chest. My soul. I feel alive, full. They just keep coming. These ribbons are feeding my soul, heating my blood. My body trembles from the exquisiteness’ of them.
My hand comes up once again. I want more. As much as I can get from this fool on the ground.
"Avery." Kayden is in front of me. Blocking my view. Hovering but not touching.
His green eyes flash with a yellow shine, “You need to stop this."
Stop. Why should I stop? That man deserved what I did. If they could see what I can, then they would understand. Know that he’s hurt people very badly.
"Avery!"
My eyes snap back to Kayden. "Stop."
I feel a push against my barrier in my mind. My eyes narrow. He’s trying to break in. That’s not very nice.
"Stop." It’s the whispered plea that pulls me out of my head. Away from my thoughts and the filling ribbons.
My hand drops and I pull up a block inside myself. Blocking the ribbons from being seen. It’s difficult, but I do it. Something about Kayden. The fight I heard in his voice gives me the strength I need to block the ribbons.
All sounds come back to me in a flash. Growls and screams. And crying. My eyes snap around.
Jeff and Nick are holding Jack, that came with the one I’d broken, Lee. I what? What did I do to him? How could I do it? Do I care? No, not really.
My eyes flash, my head jerks to the right where Camron cries behind Aden. Wet streaks mark his usual happy face.
"Why are you crying?" I whisper at Camron. Aden lets out a growl and Kayden tenses by my side.
Cam gasps a couple of times and finally whispers, “The pain. So much pain." His eyes are glossy.
Ahh. He could feel it. Feel me ripping the hatred from the man. I guess it was painful for the guy.
I look towards the broken doll. He’s barely breathing, eyes wide and unseeing. Is he reliving all the terrible things he did?
"Why care for him? When he was going hurt me." I ask Cam, looking at him from the corner of my eye.
My only answer is a whine.
“Take her inside." Jeff barks out.
Kayden inclines his head, and I move stepping around the broken man and back onto the path.
"Kayden." Fear fills Jeff’s voice." Send Shelly and Lilly away."
I guess Jeff doesn’t want them around me, which I don’t blame him. Instead of bringing home his traumatized niece. He brought home a monster instead. A cursed blood.
I pause in front of a trembling Jack, “Do you want to play?” I whisper, and he jerks back paling.
I cackle as Kayden shoves me forward and around the bend. The house is looming a few feet in front of us.
“Would you like to play?” I smile at Kayden from over my shoulder.
“Enough Avery.”
My heart sputters at the cracking in Kayden’s voice.
My thoughts wander and spin when Kayden drops me off in the front room. I curl up in a brown chair, arms wrapped around my knees looking out the big bay crystal windows.
Is that how they did it. Were they like me? To be able to slaughter my father. They’d have to be. Maybe. It takes a particular kind of person to kill another human. I wonder what they felt. How could a person live with themselves after something so hideous?
Could I still have done what I did to that man Lee if I felt? I like to think I couldn’t hurt another person like that if I was normal. I don’t know, though. All I know is what I did is monstrous, and that doesn’t bother me. I’d do it again. Just for a single taste. A little whisper of that feeling the ribbons brought me. Does that make me the real monster?
"Avery." A whisper touch runs along my cheek.
My head moves slowly. Jeff is crouched in front of me.
"We need to talk." He stands and moves back against the wall with sad eyes.
My eyes flick around. Kayden is standing the closest to me with Nick to his left. Camron is standing in the doorway, white as a ghost. Aden is right inside the doorway, leaning up against the wall, arms crossed, partly blocking Cam from view.
My gaze goes back to a stiff Jeff.
"What did he mean? Cursed blood." My voice is a quiet whisper in the tension-filled room.
Everyone looks shocked. Why I have no idea. I thought that was a rather good question considering I have no clue what a cursed blood means. And it might just explain why I’m so different.
"That’s not important right now. What you did to Alpha Lee is." Jeff says slowly like he’s talking to a missed behaved child.
"I don’t know what I did exactly." I hum looking back out the window. Shelly and Lilly are leaving. That’s good.
"Bull shit." Aden snarls.
"Aden---"
"No, Jeff. Don’t be so blind. She’s been lying to you this whole time." Aden growls.
"Is this true?" Jeff sounds hurt.
"Yes,” I answer softly, watching the squirrels dart across the yard. Do wolves eat squirrels?
"Why?" Jeff asks.
My voice turns cold, “Because you lie. You know I’m this cursed blood. You know who murdered my father. You’ve kept things from me. It’s only fair." I mock turning towards Jeff with wide eyes and a slimy smile.
He shakes his head with a sad look.
"What is a cursed blood?"
His arms cross, “A person who is a half werewolf and half empath with the Rain blood. It’s very rare. Almost all the Rain bloodline was wiped out over a thousand years ago; we haven’t heard anything about the Rain line in over a hundred. For you to have it is unheard of currently. You’re the first of your kind that’s lived past birth."
Well.
"They kill them. The babies?"
"No." His hands are up, “They never survive the birth."
"Why me?"
"I don’t know. Your father must have been from the Rain line. It’s the only thing that makes sense."
I breathe in deep and let it out. It’s only fair.
Avery
My gaze stays out the window, “I was happy. So, happy." Small smile forms on my face, “So full of life. When I came home that day. I cracked into a million pieces. Mind. Body. Soul." My head shakes, and I turn towards Jeff.
"For a child to see their parent the way I did would devastate anyone. But for me. I just had to be different." I laugh, my fingers tapping on my thigh.
Everyone’s attention was squarely on me. Eyes intently considering my face. My words.
"I think seeing dad lifeless. Just lying there in his own blood is what broke whatever lock that was holding back my empathic abilities. I didn’t notice it until the ward at Green Bier. Me being weaned off the sedatives probably helped with that. I started to get these little blips of feelings. They’d come and go like a strong wind. Pain. Anger. Lust. They were the more common ones." My cold chuckle vibrates through the room, “The more the medicine wore off, the more feelings I got. The stronger they became. To feel all of that on top of what I was already feeling, going through that alone would make a crazy person quite insane. I wanted it out. I wanted it to stop.” I look down at my arms and the pale silvery scars left by my fingernails, I sigh.
“Eventually I learned to block it out. Barricade the feelings from getting in. It just so happens I blocked my own emotions also." I sigh and turn back towards the window. The evening rays are shining through, warming my face.
"I was blissfully empty. I don’t want that to change. Then came the ribbons. The ethereal colored ribbons that floated around and through people. At first, I didn’t know what I was seeing. I thought I really was crazy. But the more I watched the people around me, the more I figured it out." I turn back towards Jeff. His face is blank as paper.
"I was seeing people’s emotions. These colored ribbons that danced and teased me are people’s emotions. And Here I thought I was a freak in till I came. Then I learned I’m just a bigger freak in a freaky world."
"Avery." It’s a soft-hearted whisper.
My head snaps towards Camron. Tears track down his cheeks.
"That man out there was not a nice person." I snap, “I could see it. I could feel it."
Camron blanches and ducks further behind a sneering Aden.
I turn back to Jeff.
"I hungered for his ribbons. His emotions. They were so dark. Filled with vile feelings. So, I took them." I laugh.
They all stare at me. I can hear the minutes and seconds tick away. Echoing from the big Grandfather clock in the corner of the room.
"I don’t know what to say." Jeff shakes his head. "They’re so much stuff we don’t know about you. How different you really are." He steps closer, “I am truly sorry Avery. For an Empath to go through their awakening is a tough time. But for you to have no idea what was going on and the place you were in." He shakes his head looking down at his feet.
"No wonder you’re so cold,” Camron mutters.
"That explains some of it. But you seeing emotions shouldn’t be possible. Nor you feeding off them." Aden barks out.
"It has to be the Rain bloodline side coming through, right?" Camron says excitedly. He starts bouncing on his toes, “I mean think about. They were the most powerful of empaths. With her DNA, it's messed it up. Her empathy and werewolf bleed into one. She craves emotions. Instead of the hunt." His eyes are wide, and he gives the nod.
Nobody says anything for a while. They all just dissect me with their different colored eyes.
"Maybe,” Jeff says.
"What’s with the Rain bloodline?" I ask, my fingers start tapping again.
"It’s awful. You’re not awful I’m… it’s the story behind the Rain line." Camron mutters, red-faced.
"It happened over four thousand years ago,” Nick says his voice very different, like in a story mode, “Rain was a very powerful empath as the story goes. He grew to want more always more. They say he tried to force a bond on the blood prince and a war broke out. The prince killed Rain and all followers along with anyone with a drop of Rain blood. For you to have his blood is really impossible."
That’s an excellent way to look at it. Me an impossible creature. I don’t know, though. I don’t know anything anymore, other than I’m drowning in this new world.
"She has to unblock her own emotions before we worry about anything else. " Kayden speaks up darkly.
My eyes snap onto Kayden. They narrow at his hard-determined look. They can’t do this to me. I won’t let them. It won’t happen. The story about Rain already forgotten with Kayden’s words.
"He’s right. “Jeff looks at me, “The backlash from unlocking your emotions isn’t going to feel good, but it must be done."
"Why?" My voice snaps out like a spiked whip.
"For one it’s not healthy." Jeff answers.
"And the other." I snap out.
"It will kill you." Aden states.
My head cocks. Kill me? How could not having any emotions kill me?
"I had a little sister." Aden’s voice strains, “She turned out to be an empath. Unlucky really. She got her heart broken by a boy. A nobody scum of a boy. Not wanting to feel the heartache, she blocked out her own emotions. It’s not normal for an empath not to feel and goes against everything an empath is." He sighs and closes his silvery eyes, “Eventually something has to give. The block exploded. Everything she blocked. Every little thing hit her and hit her hard. It overloaded her mind and body. Her heart gave out." He looks at me with hard eyes, “You will not only kill yourself but also Kay." With those parting words, he leaves the room.
"And Dean,” Camron mutters following Aden.
My head turns oh so slowly. Kay- Kayden leans up against the wall, his eyes squeezed shut.
"Dean? What happened with Dean?" Jeff growls.
"It’s not what you think. Avery can feel him." Nick explains.
I guess Dean is the black wolf in the rage. Wow. This day is just awesome.
"Why would my death kill you?" I whisper, clicking my tongue.
"Kayden." I snap.
He sighs and opens his green eyes.
"I and you are life mates. My life is connected to yours and yours to mine."
He holds my cold gaze as I try to figure out what happened. When could this have happened? Me and him? I know it involves some sort of bond between the two people. But I haven’t done anything to bond to him. Have I?
Then it hits me. He did this. He did something to me while I was comatose for three days. I let my eyes say it all before I leave the room.
I take the stairs two at a time, going to the third floor.
I don’t want to unlock my emotions. I don’t want to feel again. But I also won’t let Kayden die because of me. I don’t feel. Nor do I care. But something in my mind. My heart. My soul won’t hear of his death. Of him never breathing anymore.
I walk up to my room and stop short.
“What are you doing here?”
Cammie turns and looks at me, “Waiting for you.”
Kayden
My skin ripples with tension. I’m so pissed. Upset. How could they let Avery know about our connection? Yeah, it was for a good reason, but I should have been the one to tell her, not them. Never them.
My wolf growls out, clawing at my skin. Wanting out. Wanting to get to Avery.
No longer hearing Avery’s soft steps, I explode. I lash out the wall becoming my victim.
I slam my right fist into the wall. Wood and drywall, splinter breaking apart forming a hole around my hand. My hand and knuckles are bloody, dripping onto the wood floor. A sliver of pain pluses from my hand but I barely take notice. Instead, I lean up against the wall.
My breathing is labored. My heart is beating too fast. Too many thoughts are fighting for dominance in my head.
What are they to do about Avery? Too much stuff came out all at once. Her telling of that night she lost Max. Her powers were forming. Being in a mental house. The ribbons. So much stuff that I don’t know where to start. How to process it all. My hackles raise when Dean filters into my mind. Avery is Dean's empath. I know it’s not the same thing as my connection to her but it still bothers me tremulously. I bite my lip. How could something like this happen?
"Feel better brother." Nick snorts.
"No
." I stand up, turning to face Jeff and Nick.
Both men look as lost as I feel.
"Well, that was insightful." Nick smiles.
I give a snort. Insightful my ass. This has turned into a major mess. A mess that I’m now a part of. What does this mean for her and me?
"What now?" Nick asks. His eyes are boring into Jeff.
"This is all new. We know nothing about these ribbons Avery talked about. It's unknown. She’s unknown. A whole new breed." Jeff lets out a sigh and takes a seat.
"Did you see how healthy she looked, though. Whatever she did to Lee nourished her." Nick comments sitting down across from Jeff.
I’m still standing, my left leg bouncing like crazy. I can’t sit right now, not with everything that she told us. I need to run. Feel the earth beneath my paws. Howl my frustration to the woods and sky.
My teeth grind, I noticed Avery looked healthier too. Her face filled in a bit, no longer having a hollow look. Her pale skin got some color back into it. Her energy is stronger also. She fed off Lee. I’m surprised that it didn’t disgust me, about what she did. I’m just glad that she looks alive now.
"I think Camron was right." I grunt out, “She fed off Lee."
"And Jimmy. That day out at the beach. It seemed she was doing the same thing. Taking his pain away. Feeding off it." I state looking out the window.
"It’s a possibility,” Jeff says not sounding convinced.
"What now?" Nick looks to Jeff.
"We get her to unlock her emotions. That’s where we will start." Jeff frowns. "I'll call around and see about the other stuff."
"She’s not going to like it," I grumble, my arms crossing my chest. A muscle ticks in my jaw.
I don’t want to push her. Make her do anything against her will. It rattles my nerves.
"If she goes insane?" Nick voices the very thought I didn’t want to think about.
"She won’t,” Jeff says calmly looking at me knowing my need to protect Avery is riding me hard.
"She has Kayden. And apparently, Dean to help filter her emotions if it comes to be too much."