“My Master is going to be so pleased to see you again.” She felt like dancing. She felt like screaming this to the world.
“You do not know?” Sima looked deeper in to the woman and saw her hatred. She saw her viciousness. She saw her soul.
Elizabeth took this for what it was. The girl was going to try to change her mind about what she was going to do. She expected this from a family member of Devish. They all played games. They couldn’t help themselves.
“Let me guess. You are going to tell me some deep dark secret that will rock my world and convince me not to take you back to him. You are so much alike, your uncle and you.”
Sima felt a tear swell down her face. It made her stand up. “Do you believe me anything like him? Do you think I can be?”
Elizabeth felt the eagerness in her voice. She also felt her power. It felt like a warm heat blasting through your skull. It felt like a charge that would burn you from within your own spine. It was quite hard to explain but it was there. She felt it and with it, she felt impressed.
“You are a feisty little one are you not?” She took a step closer to her, but left it at only one. Her power, the tingling charge only grew stronger as she did, so she had to keep where she was. She couldn’t take any more of it.
Sima felt more than just pity for her—she also felt sadness for her too. She felt very sad indeed.
“It must have been difficult growing up alone as you did?” She decided to change this game in to something that she could control. It was time to play that pity against her. It was time to make this happen too. Elizabeth was her way inside to Devish. She had to use her before it was too late.
Elizabeth felt the charge grow even stronger. She felt surprised with this. She hadn’t moved an inch.
“What do you mean?”
Sima’s eyes flared. They shifted their color. They went from brown to something that looked as clear as an ocean’s breeze. It sparkled unlike anything she had ever seen before, so it was hard to explain it to herself clearly.
“It must have been hard on you not knowing who your parents were. It must have been difficult growing up with what you were.”
Elizabeth lost all of her joy right then. It had to be the girl’s power. It had to be the charge. She felt drained. It drained her so fast.
Sima watched her confidence vanish all too fast. She continued with everything she needed to say. “I know who you are Elizabeth. You are not alone. There is another like you. You have family.” She wasn’t all that sure that she wanted to tell her all of this—she didn’t know how she would change or react with such a knowledge, but she was now committed. She had to move on with it. “You can get knowledge about who you really are.”
Any thought she had about being played vanished right along with her heart. She also lost her lungs. She lost every part of who she was. All she had left was an empty hole where her core should have been. She didn’t know about any of this. She didn’t know what it meant. She had never felt this way before. She didn’t know what to think about it so she didn’t. She just stood there and took it all in, and let her mind fly with questions. Questions that she didn’t even know she had.
“And who am I? Who is my family?”
Her eyes went from the light blue to something that looked closer to a golden sunset. They even blazed from within.
“You are the daughter of Satar and Lina. You are my father’s sister.”
Elizabeth felt her mind go numb. It froze from inside itself. She suddenly saw herself as a small child, maybe three or four but with the body of a teenager, and felt what it was like when she changed the first time. She was up in the Central Mountains living in a cave. Her parents died along time before this when invaders from the north ransacked their village. Humans killed them. They slaughtered everything she loved and everything she knew. She managed to escape before they killed her too. They would have failed. She turned into a Shade, strong and overpowering, and when she realized it, she took her gifts to the north. She found Devish and other Walkers and joined them to quench her thirst against those who took her parents away from her. She never knew how she came to be what she was. It never bothered her. She never questioned it. She never cared to know. Now, standing there, listening to this, she didn’t know what to say about any of this. Again, she wasn’t even sure if she cared about it or not. She was still that cold. Knowing who she really was changed nothing. She was still the same creature she had always been.
“So what?” She took in her cold heart and swallowed it back down inside her chest. She didn’t need it before and had no intentions of needing it now.
Sima saw this and gasped. This wasn’t the response she was looking for. She expected something better than this. She should have known better but didn’t.
“You are our family Elizabeth. You are special as we are.” She still had to try. She could feel her coldness. She could feel her blazing mind.
Elizabeth truly laughed with hearing this. She laughed harder than she had in years. When she finished it, she stared at this young woman with a tilted head. She couldn’t believe what she was trying to do. She always knew that she was different. She always knew that she was special, so this only gave her what she already knew she had. She was special after all. It answered for her so much.
“I am family.” She looked down. She turned her face sad. She sent her voice lower. She then looked back up again and let the light grin over her face.
Sima understood the mocking sound in her voice. Hell, she could still see it heavily in her eyes. She blared with all of it.
“I am Devish’s family then too.” She found this idea more appealing. She now understood their connection, even though he obviously didn’t. She now knew something that he didn’t and it made her heart feel even more light. “I am his sister.” She now moved. She took several more steps to Sima and stopped only within a few feet from her. She moved with an overly slow motion. She moved with care. She didn’t know what this child could do, and even with knowing all of this now, she still didn’t want to find out. She had to stay cautious. She had to keep this in mind.
Sima watched her and felt the tears again erupt from both of her eyes. She now knew that this was pointless. The woman didn’t have love. She didn’t have warmth. Whatever had happened to her, whatever pain she must have felt, she was now lost within the cold of the night. She was lost to her and to her father. She was lost to everything that was ever good.
She let her eyes flare again to their overwhelming blue color. She felt heat flare to her chest, race up and into her neck and head. It warmed her like the sun.
Elizabeth saw her eyes turn. She laughed again. “You cannot harm me my dear child. I know what your gifts are.” She took another step and again stopped with a cautious move. “You have nothing that could ever harm me. What you do have, you failed with it.”
Sima felt surprised with this. She knew. She knew that she was more human than a Walker was, but how. How could she see it? She was right. She had nothing to fight her. She just hoped that she could pretend with it, and now she knew she failed.
Elizabeth saw the fear explode over her face. Her game worked. She knew nothing about this child to know her gifts, and now seeing the fear, now feeling it from her; she could only feel absolute joy with all of it.
Sima had given herself away.
Elizabeth moved at her fast. She moved with speed. She crossed the short distance between them within a blur of movement.
She didn’t reach the girl.
Malcolm awoke from his impact with the tree, turned to find Sima and saw Elizabeth standing there in front of her, and rushed to her. This was all he needed.
He jumped at her back just as she charged. His right hand was still damaged so he led the attack with his left. Because of this, he was not able to change. All he could manage was to extend his claws.
He grabbed her left shoulder and pounced.
Elizabeth shuddered from the strike. She stepped forward as he climbed to
her back.
She felt his claws dig. She felt his nails claw. They raked down her arm to her elbow. It made her scream in disgust with a high-pitched calling screech.
She spun around. She was fast. She was strong. She was better than he ever was.
She reached around her breasts with her right arm and grabbed his hand. With all of her strength she pulled.
He felt himself come off her bare back. He was naked too.
She turned and faced him as she held him in the air in front of her. She apparently was not only the black wolf’s brother, but she also shared his strength. Now she knew why.
“You sorry little boy, you are no match for me.” She looked at him with a pleased sense of wonder. She now pitied him some too. She also saw something else. Maybe Devish didn’t need Kalima after all. She must have his blood in her too. If this were true, she would be the one to stand at his side with total loyalty. She would be the one he needed. She could make his armies as strong as they ever were. She had to tell him this. She had to prove to him her worth.
Malcolm could not fight her. He felt absolutely amazed with her strength. He felt stunned by her power. He could do nothing but to hang there as a weak child. In now knowing this, he felt for Sima. Their deal was to bring her to her father, but he also felt the need to do something else and that was to protect her. With this, he failed.
Sima spoke to him in his mind. You did not fail me Malcolm. I failed you. I should have known that she was coming. Like my father, she saw me without knowing it. As I spoke to him, she must have heard it too. I should have been smarter than that.
He hated hearing this in her voice. He hated that he couldn’t stop what they obviously both knew was coming. All he had left is what he told her next. “Run!” he shouted it out. If he could not defend her with his strength, he would help her escape with his own life. He had nothing left.
She nodded. She knew he was right.
She turned, and ran through the trees and left the clearing. She ran as hard as she could. She surprised herself with her own speed. Apparently, she did get something from her father after all. She may not have the beast, but she did have his speed. She had his physical strength.
Elizabeth heard her turn. She turned in time to see her head off into the trees. She made sure she saw the direction she ran. She felt amused by seeing this. The little one would give her a run for her money, but first, she had to rid herself of this Shade.
Without another thought about it, without another breaking of a breath, she simply grabbed him by the neck with her now healed left hand and turned her wrist.
She broke his neck within that second of a second.
She then removed his head with a simple pull.
His body fell limp to her toes.
“Well that was easier than I thought it would be.” She looked from his now headless body and turned back to the trees. There was no time to gloat. The chase was on and she had to get to it.
She ran. She followed the scent of the girl, a scent that was something like flowers blooming on a magnificently golden springtime day, and headed after it. She moved fast. Within seconds, she came towards her back.
She outran her with ease.
Almost to her, almost on top of her, she brought out the eyes again at the back of her mind and pushed them forward. She brought out the bat.
Sima didn’t see her turn. She just heard her do it. It sounded like a screeching snake was chasing her. It sounded like a tiger. It sounded worse than both ever would.
Before she knew anything else, she felt two sets of claws grip her shoulders with a painful grace. She then felt her running feet leave the ground, and saw herself lifted up and off over the trees. She didn’t fight it, even if she wanted to, and just went up.
With her firmly gripped tightly, Elizabeth flew up and over the trees. She flew fast. She flew strong. She flew with the utmost pride. Not only could she give Devish her own gifts now that she knew who she really was, but she could also give him his greatest gift. The young girl was his. She was both of theirs as any family could ever be.
29
Rana heard the child’s voice through the blackness of space and time. She did her best to cover it into the void. She knew what it meant. She also knew that Kalima could not hear it, so she did her best. It wasn’t that hard.
Since Devish did whatever he did, she had felt better than ever. She didn’t know why she even felt this way. All she knew was that she had to do his bidding. Nothing else mattered but him. She felt the same way when she watched the black wolf come into her room.
He saw her and instantly felt his eyes water over some. He could see it on her face. He could see it in her eyes. He could feel it from her emotions. She had nothing for him. She felt nothing. She felt as cold as ice from a frozen pond.
She saw the tears. “What do you want black wolf?” She watched Devish step into the room behind him.
Kalima just shook his head. “You do not remember me do you?” He didn’t know why he needed to ask this, but he did. He felt hollow. He felt completely lost.
Devish loved everything he saw. “I told you that she will not greet you as you had hoped for my brother. She is not the same woman that you remembered her to be.” He truly felt bad for him. He didn’t know why, but he did. He just wished that many things had not happened as they did. But this was why he was trying so hard to change this. He wanted his brother back. He wanted everything back to the way they were before everything started to go bad. He would do, and did do, everything he could to have it that way again. Now, may be his brother would see this again too. He could only hope he would.
Rana heard this and had no idea what he was talking about. “Who am I supposed to be?” she had to ask.
Devish only continued to feel pity. He felt comfortable feeling both of these. It confused him if he didn’t.
Kalima turned back to him. “Let her come back again. Let her be the woman she was and I will rejoin you brother. I will do so willingly. I will not fight you. She will not fight you either. I wanted to leave you not her. She wanted to stay with you.” He had to plead. This was not the part he was supposed to play in this game, but seeing her like this, distant as she now was; he had to do it. He had to do something to make the pain go away.
Devish shook off the pity. He kept the feelings of joy. That always worked better for him anyway. As for what his brother was doing, it surprised him some. He had never heard him ever beg for anything before, and he found himself liking it. It made him feel, as he should have always felt—strong again. It seemed that his brother had learned his place after all. He just wished that it were as simple as that. He knew other things too.
“That is not your plan is it? You are not supposed to try to win her back. You were only here to keep me occupied for the humans to attack me.” He moved between Rana and him. He blocked her out completely the best he could. With his brother’s height, it was hard to do. He was so much taller than he was.
Kalima heard the mocking sounds oozing out of his voice. He now knew why. He knows. He knows what we had planned to do. He didn’t know how he could have, he thought Sima was blocking him well enough for him not to find out, but he didn’t doubt this now. He knew his brother so well. Apparently, his brother did the same with him.
Devish saw this blasting through him. He reeked of it. It made everything he was feeling feel ten times better. “I can see that I am correct then.” He looked at Rana and gave her a subtle wink.
She didn’t know what to think about any of this, so she said nothing. She did nothing. She just stood there and watched the show.
Kalima closed his eyes. He looked into the blackness all around him, trying hard to find one of them, especially Kenar, hoping to tell him what he had just found out, but like always, he saw nothing. He saw only his own blackened mind. He was totally alone. He felt even worse than that.
Devish continued within his own joy. “You really did not think that I was blind to the machinations of the blind
one did you? You really did not think that I would have let you go so easily without knowing the full truth of what you have planned to do. I am so much more than you will ever know.” He turned back to his brother with the largest eyes. “You did not think of me as such a fool.”
“What do you want?” Kalima kept his eyes fixated on the dark. Instead of Kenar, he searched the void for Sima. Unfortunately, like before, he saw nothing. He had hoped he was just blocked from seeing her, but now he knew better. If he was, he could understand it. If something had happened to her, he would never live it down.
Devish’s eyes grew larger yet. He could almost feel himself getting ready to burst from inside out. “You will come back home to me. You will put all of this behind you and take your place at my side. You will join me again as you did before. You will stand by my side, together with her.”
Kalima opened his eyes and saw them. He also saw something else. His brother was right about some of this, but not for the reasons he was portraying. He was in fact lying to him. He could feel it. He could see it in his eyes. It was time to point it out.
“You only guessed that I went to the humans. You knew that I went searching for her, for my child, but you did not know everything.” He stared his brother down.
Worry now filled those same eyes.
“I can see through you brother. I can see right through your very mind.” He lifted his head with a good amount of strength. Where he found it, he would never really know, but he did. Seeing the worry only helped the feeling and it was growing. “You are afraid of me.”
Hearing all of this, Devish took a step back. The worry inside him only grew. “I fear nothing or no one.”
Now he knew he was lying. He wasn’t any good at it. He knew how much he really feared him. He feared him like nothing ever did.
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 66