I can remember her, my first real love. Her name was Diona. She was such a beautiful person. She was strong. She was brave. She loved me as much as I loved her. She gave me a child—I remember her, my beloved little girl, as a true and everlasting joy. We lived a good life. We lived a quiet life. I remember our home out in the woods. I remember how we lived. The pain begins because I can also remember how they both died.
I see her blood. I see her pain written all over her once and powerful face. I remember her last words to me, as she took her last deep breath. She died in my arms. She passed as I held her close to my chest. I will never forget this. I will always live with that pain they caused me all of those centuries ago.
This is how Devish convinced me to join him. He convinced me to blame the humans, and blame them I did. I hunted them down with vengeance. I hurt them as much as they hurt me. I caused them even more pain, a pain that I now live with every day up to now.
And it doesn’t end there.
I see someone else. I see another woman in my life. I see her…I feel her, and now the pain is strong again. She hurt me. She loved me. She knows the truth.
The new pain enclosed my soul. It raged in my dreams. It flared through everything I was, and because of this, I ran.
I can remember how I wandered through the world after everything ended. I ran across Europe. I ran across Africa. I ran to the Americas and beyond. I never stopped. I couldn’t. I couldn’t stop the run, but this is where my memories become foggy to me. I can remember the places. I can remember the pain. I can remember the scenes. I remember everything, but the truth as to why I did this is, is now a mystery to me somehow. Maybe it was because of everything that was flashing through my mind. Maybe it was because it was all too much to take in at once, but in the end, I’m left with one overwhelming thing. Why did I feel the need to run? Why did I run through the world? This question now rides high in my mind. I might remember—I might be able to see—but without the whys I will never truly understand the truth. Why? Why did I run?
Having my memories back again feels so strange to me now. I can remember everything, but at the same time, I remember nothing. I see the images. I can remember doing things, but as of right now, I’m having trouble in understanding why I did them. Everything feels like a giant wispy blur. It all feels jumbled and mangled. It all feels out of place. I guess it will take time for me to know more, to remember why, but with Devish now waiting for me, waiting for me to give him what he wants I now know that I’m running out of time. I can’t face him until I do know everything. I can’t end this, until I understand why. I just hope I can understand it soon. I need to know what I did before it all becomes too late.
Even with this, knowing everything that I see, I now realize why I did fear them. I see why the pain made me want to forget it. I see the fear that everything caused him—caused me, but I also now know what I have to do. It’s odd seeing what I am now, with seeing who I was. I know this sounds strange—I can understand why some wouldn’t understand it, but it’s true. Now knowing something, I know what I have to do even if I don’t understand it. Kalima, me, set up a plan. He, me, I, has pointed me in the right direction. With it, there’s so much that I have to do. There’s so much that I need everyone to do too. I just hope that I’m right. I just hope that I follow everything the way he wanted me to do it.
When I blocked my memories, the plan seemed so easy, but now, without understanding why I did what I did, it feels a thousand times worse. I see so many things that I can only hope that I’m right. The memories are there. They are deep within me, and all I have to do is to see them again. I guess only time will tell me if I’m right or not.
1
“You will give me what I want Kalima. I will destroy everything you love if you do not. I will kill her. I will destroy everything you are.” Devish moved away from the back wall, recovering from the blow to his chest. The pain was already starting to subside some. Kalima was strong—he was powerful—but he was more than he would ever be. He could never be defeated. He could never be stopped. He was more powerful than anything that has ever walked this world.
Kalima knew this too. He stood back up straight from his swing. His pawed feet gripped the dirt floor of the room, trying to keep him standing. He watched the clawed gashes across Devish’s bat-like, wolf-like chest already beginning to heal. His deep creamy colored white skin turned clear again. Seeing this, seeing his own lack of strength against him, he howled. Hearing what he did, hearing about her, he growled. He could not let this happen. He had to stop it. He had to stop him. He also knew that he had to do better than what he was now doing. Devish’s strength would not dwindle with just a clawed swipe like that.
Devish smiled, his fangs glistened within the orange glow of the torches that lined room. The white stoned walls helped. With it, he looked pale. He looked even more evil than he normally looked. “I promise you—you will give me what I want.”
They were both equal in size. Devish’s body was the same height, but the wolf matched him in every other way. They both had girth. They both looked powerful. They were more alike than Devish would ever care to admit.
Kalima roared. He bellowed. The sound bounced off the walls, sounding like thunder blasting the world.
He moved with speed, pouncing the few yards between them with a powerful blast of air. The sounds of his heavy walk shook the floor. His clawed hind paws dug in as he came at him.
Devish expected his charge. The black wolf may be strong, but he was also instinctual. He was also predictable. He knew him all too well, so with it, he charged too.
With equal speed, they came together with a resounding thunder of flesh and muscle as their bodies smashed in to each other with an outermost power that shook the world. The sound even echoed around the room, sounding like two large tree trucks smacking against each other during a resounding storm. It banged. They crashed.
Devish’s strength showed instantly as he grabbed the black wolf beneath his arms and quickly pushed him back to the wall behind him. His own hind paws, the paws of a large and massive wolf, also dug in to the floor. With them, he pushed.
Kalima felt his paws slash along the dirt floor, giving him an equal lack of leverage. He felt his legs dragging beneath his heavy and large frame as he moved back. He could not stop it. He could not prevent it. His arms were unable to claw. His claws were unable to dig. All he had left was his bite, so he opened his long snout and bit down on nothing but air. He was not close enough to bite him. He was not in the position to strike, and instead, he just went back until the cold stone of the wall smacked his spine with a staggering pain.
With all of his strength, Devish lifted him up the wall. He watched him with true hatred in his eyes. “You will give me what you are. I want it. I need it. I need what rightfully belongs to me.”
Kalima roared, but with his throat now clutched tightly within Devish’s right hand, the sound rolled out with a low ebbing chime. It made it sound muffled. It sounded gargled. It sounded half of what it normally was.
Devish heard it, heard his weakness, and it made his voice grow lower. He grew angrier too. “You are nothing.” He squeezed his throat tighter. He forced his throat to near collapse. “Why you possess what I do not is confounding to me. It is a waste of flesh. It is a travesty of fate.”
Kalima swung with a wild right arm.
It impacted nothing. It caused just that.
The air became hard to take in. His throat felt flattened, as all of the air flushed out of him with one giant gush of wind. It now felt like death showing itself its hideous face. The pain now felt like agony. It seemed that the time to die was nearly there.
2
“Jimmy?” Brandon moved softly to his friend’s right arm and touched his shoulder with a cool right hand. Since saying something about Scotland, he went quiet. He even seemed to go cold. He did not know what this meant but he didn’t like it. Too much was happening that he did not understand, and knowing him, knowing himse
lf, he knew that he never would. “Jimmy, dude?” And now this…now even he seems to be screwed up.
Robert saw the same thing, and like Brandon, he feared it too. “Jimmy, are you there?” He too placed a soft hand to Jimmy’s back. “Jimmy?” He did not answer him. He did not even move. “Jimmy?” He could not understand this, but then something came to him that did. He now has everything Kalima had. He has his memories. He now is him. It made sense, so he had to try something else entirely. “Kalima?”
This time, he did hear someone calling his name. Even with his eyes still open, he did open them back up to the wall. “Yes.” He saw the blood splattered writing. He saw the words, and with it, the memory of his fight with Devish faded from his thoughts just as fast. With it gone, he blinked again. “I hear you.” He turned to Brandon first, and then looked left, seeing Rochie standing there with him on his right. Seeing him, knowing what he now knew, he looked completely different to him. He saw him as just the Wanderer. He saw him as the man that came to his home. He remembered him as the man that started everything he now was. He didn’t hate him for it, but he just knew him better. He now knew who he really was.
Robert nodded, and stared in his eyes. Within them, he saw something different on his face. He saw a different look in his eyes. He remembers everything. I was right. He now is Kalima. “What did you see?” he had to ask. With Jimmy having Kalima’s memories back again, and knowing everything that he now did, he could only imagine what he was thinking. What he was seeing? With it all, he truly hoped that he had the answers that he no longer seemed to have. They had so much to do that he could only hope that he was right.
Jimmy blinked. He saw everything with a clarity that was hard to grasp all at once. “I was remembering that time—the time that everything ended.” He took a deep breath, trying hard to think straight again. It worked some, but only a little. “I remember the pain. I remember the horror of that day.”
Robert nodded, trying to understand it—trying to understand him. “What do you remember about that night?” He of course did not remember anything. He was not there for the fight in the room. He was not there to see Devish’s defeat. He was not there, but he knew that Kalima was. Now with him back again, he hoped that he would finally tell him what happened. Knowing it, knowing how things happened, they could make a plan. They could figure out what to do next.
“I saw Devish. I saw me fighting him. I saw…” He stopped, and bowed his head. The memory felt so clear. It felt like it just happened, and with it, he felt himself go cold. He felt gooseflesh flaring over his entire body, and with it, he shuddered some. He knew that all of this was going to hurt him again. He knew how much it was going to affect him, but at the same time, he was not ready for it. He truly knew that he was not ready for the pain, and now that it was here again, he just tried to swallow it back down. He had to stay calm. He had to keep it together. He did not have the choice.
Robert patted him on the back. “Do you remember everything about it? Do you remember what happened?” If he does, then we can finish this right. We can end this. He truly could not wait. It felt like seeing something for the very first time. It was a longing that was hard to explain, so he just left it at that, and just waited.
Jimmy nodded. “I remember it.” I can’t go further. I have to keep it at that. This was all that he could say. There was more there, but he could not say it and he did not know why, but at the same time, he knew that he did. His memories felt half there. His mind was worse than this, but he did feel that he had to stay quiet about a few things. In time, he hoped that it would tell him why, but for right now, he just had to keep to it. Again, he felt like he did not have the choice.
Robert nodded and dropped his arm back to his side. He was right about everything, but there were more important things to do than just standing there in the living room of Collins’ old home like this and wasting time. “Jimmy, Kalima, we have to get going. We have to plan our journey. We have to plan for the fight.” He meant this. Ever since his Rana was taken from him, the need to fight became stronger every day. He knew why. He felt for her. What happened between them, made him feel for his self.
Jimmy bowed his head. He shook it just as fast. “Not yet. There’s more to do before we head there.” He looked back up. He saw the blood and looked at Brandon, but did not see him, and instead, a woman’s face flashed in his thoughts. He could see the slim lines of her cheeks. He saw her sparkling blonde hair. He saw her bright green-blue eyes as they flashed to a yellow glow. Although he did not really recognize her, as it was, he did know her name. Cassandra, I have to find Cassandra first. She is the one who can assist us. She is the one who can help. He turned to Rochie. “We have to do some things first. We need our friends.” Hearing this, he followed his own words with a shallow swallow of an overly dry mouth. He did not understand it, and now, after hearing himself, he did know it, but still did not know why. He just did, and there was also more. I can’t tell them all of this. He will see it. Devish will know of everything if I do. Again, how he knew this, he did not know and it made him have to swallow again. This time it hurt some doing it. It felt like he was someone else talking. It was his voice, but not his words, but yet, they were, and that alone made him feel odd. He felt more disjointed than ever.
Robert shook his head. “What are you talking about?” He did not understand this. He did not understand him. “We have to get over there and find him. We have to do it before it’s too late.” Why Kalima had other plans, it bothered him. It did not make sense.
Sasha listened to everything, she did not have a clue as to what was going on, but getting some of her strength back as she was, she didn’t care. As far as she was concerned about any of this was that she wanted to fight back. She owned this Devish more than that. She wanted his head. She wanted revenge. She wanted to pay him back for everything he did to her, and more importantly, for what he did to Brandon. “Robert is right Jimmy. We have to plan this. We have to get there and end this—end him.” It was time to get to it.
Jimmy heard her voice, turned to her, and smiled. Seeing her standing again, after what just happened to her made him happy. He felt more than just that. She was still alive and that was all that mattered to him now. “We have other things to do first. I have to go somewhere first.” He did smile harder. He could not help himself.
Sasha blinked with hearing this. She felt more confused than ever.
Joseph stepped to Kalima’s tannish colored hue and stopped right behind him. “What is it that you have to do Kalima?” After hearing everything, and knowing Kalima as he did, he heard something else there within his voice. He heard a plan. He also heard him hiding it. There was just something there, and he was now more sure of it than ever.
Jimmy turned to him and smiled. “I don’t know.” He meant this. His mind was only thinking of the woman with the blonde hair. The woman named Cassandra. “I just know what I have to do.”
“What?” Sharlia stepped to the arm of the Victorian sofa and took its arm into the palm of her hand. Like everyone else there, or so it seemed, she had no idea what he was talking about. Also like all of them, she wanted to begin the fight. It was time to avenge her family and everything they did to them.
Jimmy turned to her next. “I have so many things rumbling around inside of my head right now that it’s hard to explain, but what I do know is what I have to do. I have some place to go.” This was more than obvious. As for where he had to go, well, he was not that sure about that either. He was running on instinct, and because of that, he felt more like the wolf than ever before. It made him admire it too.
Sharlia was about to continue but her cellphone started ringing and it interrupted her thoughts. The sound even made her jump some. She just did not expect it. Recovering some from the startle, she took the phone out from her pants front pocket and saw the number. Seeing the name with it, she almost gasped, and in fact, she did.
“What’s wrong?” Robert was the first to ask. No one could hav
e missed the look on her face. She looked shocked, but she also looked excited too.
She could not believe it, did not understand it, but loved seeing it any way. It gave her hope. It gave her a lot more than that. With this, she answered the call. “Max?” Her hand even shook some as she brought the phone to her ear.
Maxwell was one of her oldest and most trusted friends. He was the second in command of her once and powerful family. If he was alive, like it now looked he was, than it meant that her family was still there, but more importantly, she was not alone. This made everything feel a thousand times better. It even made her feel comfortable again. It was a lot to take in at once.
“Sharlia, thank all of the goodness in the world. I thought you were gone.” His voice sounded startled, and with it, everyone there could clearly hear him coming from the phone.
“Maxwell, are you well?” Her right hand came up to her face, almost as if she was using it to keep her head from falling off her body. She felt that shocked. “Where are you?” She also felt pride. Her family was always strong. It was always powerful. It survived many things, and now, it seemed that they did it again, and she was so proud of them for it.
“I just came back to the house. What happened?”
Everyone fell silent, and with this, they all just listened to her call.
Sharlia felt like crying, and in fact, she did tear up. “You are alive.”
“I am. A few of us went out for a hunt, and when we returned, we found everyone destroyed.” He paused. “What happened?”
She wiped her eyes. “Vincent and the Gorhans have done this.” She saw Vincent’s face. She saw the grimace of his overpowering arrogance sparkling behind his eyes. Seeing his face made her heart race. It made her start to lose control. Feeling this, she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. Now was not the time for this. Her family now needed her more than ever. A time will come for the rest. I promise you Vincent. I will destroy you and make you pay for everything that you have done.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 4, 5, & 6 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 2) Page 43