She Awakens

by Caitlin Denman

  Starting up the slope, I turn back and can't see him behind me, my legs are on fire but as I reach the top I glance behind me again and there he is at the bottom of the hill. No time to slow down now.

  “Damn he’s fast,” I mutter to myself, pushing my legs to their limits.

  As I run into the canyon, I glance back and he’s barely cresting the hill, a huge grin plastered on his face as he catches a last glimpse of me. I reach the path through the canyon cliffs and head into the red rock valley.

  By now it’s obvious I won’t be able to outrun him. I’m going to have to fight him. I start searching for a decent place to make my stand. As I run, I notice a narrowing of the passage we’re running down coming up. It’s now or never.

  Mid run I turn around and loose an arrow in the direction I think the Fae will be which he proceeds to slap out of his way midair like it’s only an annoying fly not a deadly arrow. Throwing down my bow, I pull my sword out of its sheath, the beautifully engraved steel sparkling in the sunlight.

  My opponent stops about ten feet from me and readjusts his tunic as if it being out of place was the biggest annoyance to him out of this whole situation. Not even bothering to acknowledge my existence, like I’m not even a threat.

  Now, seeing him up close, I can see how gorgeous he is. He is the most beautiful man I have ever seen in my life. His shoulder length hair is dark, and reminds me of the color of Oak’s tail. His eyes are a beautiful purple, which look like they can see into my soul, but are also so soft and childlike at the same time. His features are bulky and masculine. He wears what I can only describe as black fighting leathers. His massive muscles draw the leather tight. The only imperfection on him is a gleaming blood stain. I can barely discern on his right shoulder where my arrow hit it’s mark. When he finally glances up, his mouth drops and he takes a step back like someone physically pushed him, then he just keeps standing there, in shock with his eyes locked on me.

  “Why have you been following me?” I shout as I pull out my sword.

  He doesn’t answer for what feels like ages. He stands there with his mouth hanging open, staring at me. Finally, he shakes his head like he’s forcing himself out of a daydream and unsheathes his sword, but he stands there so long not moving I start to get annoyed by all this lack of movement. With all this standing around he must seriously not see me as a threat at all.

  “Are we going to do this or not?” I snap at him lifting up my sword. My legs are shaking under me, but my face is stone, unflinching. I can’t show him how scared I actually am. Letting him see my weakness would be the first step to letting him beat me.

  The Fae smiles slyly like only he is privy to his own joke soaring over my stupid, slow human head.

  “We certainly can, little kitten, but I’d rather know the name of my opponent, so I know what name to write on your tombstone.” He smirks. He must be trying to goad me into charging him by insulting me so thoroughly. It won’t work, I will not give in. I will not lose my head against him.

  “Either fight or leave me alone, Fae,” I say with venom on my lips.

  “Fae?” he asks as he places his hand on his chest and takes a step back with a shocked hurt expression on his face like I’d slapped him.

  “Well, that’s what you are isn’t it?”

  “Yes, but you say it with such hatred, why would you hate us?” he asks in awe.

  “Are you serious? Your people have murdered or enslaved almost the entire human race! You hunt my people down like cattle!” I yell incredulously.

  “Your people?”

  “Yes, my people!”

  “Okay, but you're not human…at least not fully.” He beams and winks at me.

  “Yes, I am,” I say, adjusting my grip on my sword.

  “Lying is not a good look on you, little kitten,” he says with his knowing smile spreading across his face. I want to knock that grin off his gorgeous face. Who is this Fae who acts like he knows me? What makes him think he has a right to question me like this?

  “Who are you anyway?”

  “Well, little kitten—”

  “Stop calling me that!” I yell, interrupting him, which only serves to make his smile widen.

  “Well, little kitten, my name is Allister,” he says with an exaggerated bow putting his sword behind his back and bowing with a fist over his heart the flourish making him appear all the more like a gentleman. “And yes, I am Fae, I’m actually the king’s number one slayer.”

  “Was,” I growl with venom lacing my words.

  “Was?” Allister says, confusion coating his words and a pout twisting his lips.

  “You were the king’s number one slayer.” Then, before I realize what I’m doing, I rush right at him with my sword cutting through the air and a guttural scream on my lips.

  Hearing the king mentioned is what did it. Even a passing mention of Henrik stirs a fiery hatred in me so much I lose control over my faculties and without thinking I attack. Father used to constantly tell me losing your head was a sure way to lose a fight. Now I will have to prove him wrong if I want to keep my head attached to my shoulders.

  As my sword slices down hard on Allister I see a flash of metallic light and his sword appears there to meet mine. He sees my shock, and a shit-eating grin crawls across his face again. How is he moving this fast? I hit him with my arrow. The blood on his clothes proves it. He should be hurt but he moves like he’s uninjured.

  “Kitten has claws.” His voice is smooth and seductive, his words slithering off his tongue and down my body like a snake marking its territory. My body begins to relax to the sound of his voice. I physically shake off that false sense of security.

  “You're damn straight kitten has claws,” I spout off seething with anger from the way my body reacts to his voice.

  He meets my each and every move with grace and perfection, but doesn’t move in for the attack, like he’s testing my skill as a swords woman more than trying to actually beat me.

  “You move faster than a human should be able to. I wonder why, since you say you’re human,” Allister says with that smirk still plastered on his face. We parry again, faster and faster. He’s obviously trying to prove a point by making me move faster than a human could dream to move to keep up with his strikes.

  “I don't know what you're saying, I'm just a human,” I lie and even I hear it for the lie it is.

  At this, he throws himself at me, flipping through the air. I take a step back and he’s flying over my head, his head mere inches from mine.

  As he is perpendicular to me he brings down his sword, giving me half a second to respond. I throw up my sword and move to the left, moving so his sword glances off mine. The blade narrowly misses me as it deflects off the edge of my sword away from my body. Then he lands directly behind me where I’d been standing seconds ago. He’s facing away from me, but as he pivots to face me, another smug smile slowly crosses his face.

  “I knew it! You're definitely Fae. There's no way you're all human after seeing that maneuver of yours. No humans can move as fast as you just did, my attack would’ve been a killing strike to any human, and low and behold, kitten, you’re still alive. So, that begs the question why lie?”

  I glare at Allister, which of course only serves to egg him on.

  “So, what do you have to hide, why would you deny being Fae? More importantly, why in the world would you despise your own people so much?” The breath is knocked out of me with his words. I fight the urge to walk over to him and spill all of my secrets to him. What the hell is happening?

  I see a split in the rock wall behind me and I stumble backwards a few steps into it. I need a place to hide from Allister just for a second. I need to gather my thoughts. My body and head are at war. My body calls to him, but my brain tells me he is Fae and can’t be trusted. My heart wants to tell him everything. Who my mother was, what my plan is, everything, but my head knows spilling everything would be like wrapping a noose around my own throat.

  The cut i
n the canyon is deep so I can crawl in and get far enough away from Allister to where he can’t reach me with his sword. I move backwards slowly, not truly paying attention to where my feet are traveling, my mind unbalanced with uncertainty, as I take my next step, I feel claws wrap around my ankle right above my boot.

  The nails dig deep into my flesh, I cry out and as I glance down to see what has a hold of me. Teeth break through my skin. Glancing down, I see blood dripping down my leg. The rotten lips pulled back to show the black, rotting gums, and attached to those gums, are brown, cracked, jagged fangs. Those incisors are now buried in my leg. The pain hits me and I scream like a rabbit in the jaws of a wolf. Then I take my sword and bury it in the disgusting thing’s head, while letting out a war cry for the life, which is now going to be taken from me.

  Putting my back against the hard red rock wall, I slide down into a sitting position. The rock ripping down my back grounds me. I somehow have the presence of mind to chuck my mother’s sword down deeper into the dark crevice I’ve found myself in. As I watch it soar through the air, tears fill my eyes. I feel like my heart is being ripped out of my chest. Like everything I’ve recently learned about my mother is being cleaved out of me. One of the only things I’ve ever had of my mother’s is now lost forever. I remind myself it’s better lost than used to kill humans by a Fae.

  I turn to the right as I’m sliding, and see the monster. The Solis who has taken my life, my body just doesn’t know it yet. At one point, the Solis was a woman, but the lower half of her body is smashed like she’d fallen from the top of the canyon and broke all the bones in the lower half of her body from the plummet. Before becoming a Solis, she had flaxen brown hair and stunning green eyes, those eyes now vacant in her death. I would’ve bet my life before the flesh had started falling off her body she had been a stunning woman.

  As soon as my butt touches the ground, a breeze braces me from my left. I know that it’s Allister beside me before I even turn my head. My body instantly relaxes from his close proximity, which flusters and frustrates me. I know he wants to kill me, but at this point it would be a mercy, at least he could give me a quick end. Hopefully, he will give me the relief of sticking his sword through my brain so I won't have to turn into a Solis myself.

  “Well little kitten, you seem to have gotten yourself into a bind. Haven’t you ever heard curiosity killed the cat?”

  Before I realize it, words are pouring out of my mouth. “Finish the quote. Satisfaction brought it back.” I don’t know why, but I can’t stop myself from being a smartass to him, even now.

  “Well, aren’t you a smart cookie.”

  “Unlike you,” I snap. I take a deep intake of air, calming my temper. I need to cool it. I need his help. “Please. I beg you, warrior to warrior, please kill me so I won't turn into one of those things,” I say, pointing to the dead Solis. Allister cocks his head, and his brows draw together in confusion.

  “Now, why would I want to do such a thing?”

  “It’s the decent thing to do, and my dying wish,” I seethe.

  “But then I wouldn't be able to see what happens to you, little kitten, when you get bit by something made of Fae,” Allister bubbles out as he slides down next to me and pulls my head into his lap. I don’t fight it, I let him pull me to him, needing the comfort of another person next to me. His fighting leathers are curiously soft and his warmth is surprisingly comforting.

  I don’t understand him. He was trying to kill me a second ago and now he wants to hold me then watch as I change into a Solis? What is he getting out of this? Is he so sick and demented he truly only wants to torture me? It doesn’t matter now though, either way I’m about to die.

  “Fine then just leave me to die in peace, you nasty Fae bastard!” I snap but don’t move out of his warm embrace needing to not be alone right now.

  Allister laughs. Then he says, “Well, aren't you a dramatic kitten.”

  “Stop fucking calling me kitten!” I scream, then the pain hits me like a ton of bricks, the excruciating, mind numbing pain. It feels like my Awakening is starting all over again.

  I let out a wail like an animal being tortured and move out of Allister’s lap needing the hard earth to stabilize me. I lay down on the auburn dirt ground. The cool earth on my face is grounding me. The pain is zapping away my energy, I have no more will to argue, and then through the haze of pain, I hear Allister.

  “Well, if you don't want me to call you kitten anymore what’s your name?” I can hear something akin to worry dripping from his voice. Why in the world is this bastard Fae worried? The pain must be messing with my head. I am nothing but a mouse to him, a mouse to play with before killing.

  “Why do you care what my name is? I’m dying, it won't matter anymore.”

  “Actually, your name matters quite a great deal to me,” he says in a matter-of-fact way.

  I turn my head towards him, using my last bit of energy to send him one last gleaming glare. At this Allister throws his head back and laughs a deep, velvety, booming laugh. He almost appears like a normal human when he’s relaxed like this. If it wasn't for his gorgeous, glittering purple eyes and those pointy ears of his I might have been fooled.

  “Stop thinking about my eyes and tell me your name, beautiful kitten,” Allister purrs out.

  I have no more fight left in me anymore, so I whisper, “Attina.”

  Then all I see is darkness. I hear Allister repeat my name, and his hand lovingly caresses my face. Hearing my name on his lips is like pure bliss. It sounds sensual and right. Like he’s the only person in the world who should be saying my name.

  With my last moments of consciousness, I can only think how strangely my life has turned out. I’d always known dying was a big possibility; hell, this was a suicide mission. But I never once thought I would have a Fae sitting sympathetically by my side sounding worried for me as I fade into darkness. Allister's steady breathing ushering me into the afterlife.

  23

  Attina

  “Attina!”

  “Attina!”

  “Attina, wake up! Oh god, please no!”

  I slowly blink my eyes open. My vision is so blurred at first all I can discern is the general shape of a man. His muscular biceps come into clarity first. I can feel I’m in someone's arms, but the warmth I felt when I was in Allister’s arms is gone.

  “Allister?” I whisper.

  Then I’m being squished against the canyon wall, my ribs feeling like they are about to explode from all the pressure being put on them.

  “You’re alive!”

  “Attina it's me, James.”

  “Big ears?” I croak out, confused. The haze in my vision begins to clear and I see his rounded jaw, his brown eyes and those same big ears I’d grown up making fun of. I raise my hand up to touch his ears and feel him chuckle.

  “Seriously, Attina? After what you’ve been through you want to pick on my ears right now? Well, you’re definitely the same girl I grew up with. I thought you were dead Attina, I saw you lying unconscious next to this Solis and I knew you were done for.” Tears fill his eyes as he speaks. “But look at you! You’re fine! I don't know how you are okay but thank the God’s you’re alive.”

  “James what’s going on? How did you find me?”

  “I was on a supply run with my team when we spotted a Fae. There were ten of us against one Fae. My whole team and I are being combat trained, so as a team we decided to chase after it.”

  “Allister,” I whisper to myself thinking of that beautiful bastard. So, he led James and his team to me. He helped me. Why would he do something so risky? I thought he wanted me dead. Why not just kill me? James keeps rambling on with his story, completely ignoring the fact that I’ve said another man’s name again.

  “We had him on the run. I knew we had the numbers on him, and we chased him into this canyon. Then he went down the alley we’re in now and I figured he’d made the biggest mistake of his life when I realized he ran into a dead end.

/>   I yelled to my team, “We have him dead to rights! When I turned down the alley he’d disappeared, but you were the only thing in this alley, just laying on the ground unconscious next to this dead Solis. I thought you were dead, then all of a sudden, I see your chest barely moving and I realized you were breathing! I checked you over for a bite and I saw you'd been bitten in the leg so I panicked and started screaming. I thought I was losing you all over again. I picked you up in my arms and yelled for you. You must’ve heard me somewhere, fought off the change and you came back to me!” At this point, James is crying, big creeks of tears rolling down his face like he’d seen a miracle.

  I lay there on the ground in his arms and all I can do is laugh. I cackle so loudly that James gives a start like I physically slapped him. James’ face turns from one of pure happiness to one of shock and worry and he starts shaking me and screaming, “Attina! Attina, are you okay? Are you changing? What's going on?”

  I scream back, “No, you idiot!”

  Instantly his face changes to one of fury, and he glares at me with rage flashing through his eyes. I can almost see the red blaze in his brown eyes, but after everything I’ve been through these past weeks, his anger doesn’t deter me one bit. If anything, it fuels my fire.

  “You seriously think I fought off turning into a Solis to get back to you? This isn't some fairytale,” I snap, annoyed at his ridiculous assumption.

  James stares at me incredulously. “Then what happened? You obviously got bit and you haven’t turned,” he says, pointing at my ankle.

  I pull down my pant leg, covering the bite as I take in a deep steadying breath. I knew going into this adventure at some point I would have to tell him the truth but how will he take this? He hates Fae at least as much as I did. I’ve known him my whole life, and he deserves the truth, but will this make him hate me? I swallow the lump in my throat before diving headfirst into the truth.

  “James you know my mother died a few months after giving birth to me, or at least that's what I was told.”