A Hollow Soul, page 15
My hands stop fidgeting, I stop bouncing my legs up and down and freeze altogether. “Is that your wolf?”
“Answers. Was she the same lady?” she all but growls.
“No, Jade came in later in the memory. Did I leave that part out?” I say innocently.
“Perhaps you are more like Natasha than anyone would like,” she hedges. “So, you, your mother and your father were in front of a big grand place? What was happening? Was there a celebration?”
“I don’t know.” I shrug and answer honestly.
“What happened next?”
I shake my head. “First, why does Quintan have such high hopes for you to be able to crack me?”
“I know how to get at fear and can unbind it and move you past things. Now, what happened next?” She grows impatient.
“How could you? The only thing you could do is physical pain and that won’t help me move past things?” I ask, clearly confused about the situation.
“What happened next?” She goes deathly quiet.
“Jade came in with her goons and fought over me. I was given a gift before I was taken and a curse I am guessing was cast on Jade, it was really confusing.” I shrug, giving her more so that maybe she would do the same with her answers. “Now what can you do that would move me past this?”
“Be careful what you wish for,” she snaps.
“What are you, a fortune cookie, or are you here to help me?”
“Doug said you were feisty.” She smiles, her mouth looking more elongated and her teeth sharp. “Yes, sometimes I am like a fortune cookie.”
I go still once again, and my breaths come in short bursts. A lock clicks into place behind me, and I stare at the door. “Did that just lock?”
“I don’t think I need to give you any answers until you answer some more of my questions.” She breathes in deeply, sniffing the air and holding the smell inside her. She closes her eyes enjoying what she smells. “So good.” Her eyes stay a bright golden. “I see it, I feel it.” She gets up and stretches, kicking off her pumps to the side. “My wolf likes coming to the surface.”
“Why do you need to let your wolf come closer to the surface?” I try not to move too fast, keeping my advancement slow and calm as much as possible.
“To get at those answers, of course.” Her face elongates and fur sprouts out of her skin. Her limbs shrink as her body begins to change.
I pick up my feet and jump to the top of the couch hoping that would help. “What are you doing?” I sit on the back of the couch fully keeping my legs up.
She growls at me and falls to all fours, padding out of the dress she was wearing, shaking her fur out. She looks at me and sniffs the air.
I don’t meet her eyes this time and let the fear envelop me that I try to hide. “You don’t want to do that.” My teeth chatter, but I look down at the tattoo, hopeful and worried at the same time.
She yips at me and climbs up on the couch as if saying yes, yes, I do. I kick out my legs and keep them up blocking her. I climb over to the side and she easily keeps up, my hand reaches for the couch and finds empty air, I fall off the side not paying attention. I scramble up and rush to the door trying to open it. “Be unlocked, be unlocked,” I chant over and over again.
She lets out a growl and launches at me. I smash into the door and twist around before landing on the ground. I get an arm between us and protect my face and head. “Stop, you don’t want to do this.” I cry out.
She does another growl and I feel teeth pierce into my arm. I open my eyes wide as I see her large mouth around my arm, crushing it. “Shade?” I yell, hoping he can hear me. Is he choosing not to help because of fear of the gloves?
She twists her head this way and that as if wanting deeper into my flesh with her teeth, I scream out as it shreds my skin. I watch as Shade changes into a snake and flows down my arm, not lifting off my skin. He comes to a stop where her teeth meet my skin. He pulls up a corner of himself and raises his head, he attacks with a viper-like strike into her muzzle and easily peels off of me as the wolf rears back unlatching from my arm. Shade wraps around her muzzle encircling it, effectively muzzling her.
My heart beats out of control and tears run down my face. I sit with my back against the door to catch my breath as I see the wolf wrestle with shade trying to scratch at it with her paws. He sticks to her like glue.
“Thanks,” I breathe out and hiccup, gulping in air. I try to calm myself enough to hold my breath to stop the hiccups. “Though why did you wait? Why didn’t you help out sooner?” I wonder aloud, not expecting an answer.
I grab at my arm; there are little holes from her teeth. Some are ripped and blood starts to pucker up from the wounds. I hiss in pain and hold my arm to my shirt. I look up from my arm keeping one eye on the wolf. She backs up into a light and a side table sending them careening as she backs into them trying to get Shade off of her snout.
“Keep on her, Shade,” I growl, moving forward away from the door and towards the desk, hoping she has some gauze or something to wrap my arm up.
I look in the drawers and just find papers there, there is a locked drawer, but I don’t see a key laying around. I slam the last drawer shut not seeing anything that I could use, my eyes land on a slip of a dress that hangs on a rack next to her desk.
“That could work,” I say to myself. I move around the desk toward the black dress, keeping my eyes on the wolf and Shade. She has stopped pawing at Shade and settled down on the floor, closing her eyes.
“What is she doing?” I question as I reach over to pick up the dress. I try not to jostle my arm too much.
I hear a snick of a door and shoes coming across the carpet quickly. I turn to see who it is and am grabbed from behind. Hands encircle my head, and a purple haze descends upon me.
“Quintan!” I scream.
Why would he do this? Isn’t he trying to help me? I kick, but am thrusted headfirst into a wall and darkness embraces me.
“Don’t fight me,” I hear Quintan call, as if he were very far away down a long tunnel. A large crash echoes around him.
“Alexia,” a voice hollers out from the purple mist. A sharp pain echoes through me.
“Ugh,” I groan. “What the hell happened?” I ask not seeing who called my name.
Another shout goes out. “Alexia.”
“Quintan, is that you? Why did you do this?” I sit up and rub at my temples. “That really hurt.”
“Alexia,” his voice grounds out, more incessantly.
“What?” I whine, finally looking around to see where we have landed.
I sit on a chair on top of a rock. Thunder and lightning are going on in the background and there are lit fires throughout the crowd. They are surrounding me but there are no individual people that I see, just a mass of black shadows making up a crowd.
“Are we in my mind again?” I yell, still not seeing where Quintan ended up.
“Yes, we are in your mind, once again.” He chokes off.
“What is going on?” I search for where his voice came from down below against the rocks that hold up the seat. I see a group surrounding him. I peer down, but cannot see much from this distance. I carefully rise and make my way down the rock formation. “You better be in trouble,” I groan. “How can I still be sore and in pain in my own mind?”
I peer down over them as I get closer and see him surrounded by shadows. One is holding him against the rocks, choking him, cutting off his airway. He peers up at me, gasping for air. His face turns red. “Hey, stop that,” I call out.
I’m not going to reach him in time. I look down once more judging the distance between me and them. This is in my mind; I could do what I wanted and needed, right? Right?
I let go before I give myself another chance to doubt myself. I fall back away from the rocks, scrunching into myself and ready my legs to take the brunt of the pain, I hit with a jarring thud and tumble forward into Quintan and the circle of shadows. I stumble to a standing position.
“Hey,” I yell out at the still shadowed crowd. “I said let him go.” I throw back my hair away from my face and shoot daggers at them.
They back up once I come forward. Shrinking back away from my light, I look to Quintan and shove him myself. “What the hell!” The crowd pushes in around us, circling him.
Quintan drops to his knees, coughing, and tries to breathe in deep breaths. He gasps out, “You don’t understand.” He holds a hand up asking us to wait for him to explain.
I back up and the crowd follows my movement. My eyes keep trained on them unsure of what they could or would do. “This isn’t like the last time we were in here. It was dark before and full of tunnels.” There are rocks and pitfalls all around and all of us seem to be teetering on the precipice. “Are you sure this is my mind and not yours?”
He glares at me and then points to the things behind me. I look behind me and they back up another step. “They,” he gasps again, “feed off what you are feeling or wanting.” He coughs and falls back from his knees onto his butt and leans against the cliff. “The reason why everything is different from the last time is because of Melissa.”
He utters Melissa’s name, and the darkness of the crowd pushes back in on both of us. “She bit me.” I say darkly, not moving out of their way for them to get at Quintan but not stopping them either.
“She had to.” He holds out a hand not wanting them to come any closer. “Wait, you have to understand.” He urges me. I raise an eyebrow and they all halt at once. “Yes, she is a wolf shifter, but she also has an extra power most do not. She has been an alpha for a long time, and maybe she will tell you her story someday, but for now, all you need to know is her teeth—or more importantly her bite—can destroy spells.” He doesn’t say more, letting that settle.
I hesitate. “We didn’t know if there was a spell on me though not for sure.”
“You did not at the time, but I knew once I came into your mind last time. I could easily see that it was a spell at work. Your mind would not restrict you from memories like that, it would place barriers or monsters deterring you but this is your mind you should be able to go wherever you like if you would really want to. Some other spell was keeping you and you alone out, I could have passed the barrier easily the other time but I had to hold it open so you could have a chance to look at it.”
“So, you sent me to Melissa to bite through the spell, so I could what? Access my memories now. Why couldn’t you have warned me then?” I ask.
“It is a two-step part. Melissa can call on her wolf, but she finds it easier to bite through things when her wolf has proper motivation.” His face falls uneasy. “She needed that fear to feed her wolf, I don’t always approve of her methods but they do get the job done.” He nods. “Since she does good and gets results the group lets her get away with some things that shouldn’t always happen,” he says dejectedly.
“Hence why Natasha warned me instead.” I think over my thoughts, searching for memories. “Well, whatever Melissa did,” I spit out, “didn’t work. I don’t remember anything from before.” I cross my arms over my chest, the group getting restless and pressing in on the sides.
“Natasha shouldn’t have said anything, she doesn’t understand how this is needed even if she doesn’t agree,” he says cryptically. “The memories will start to come in little spurts, they will unlock over time. We will do more sessions and work more now that you will be able to reach them without me having to hold each one at bay while you view.” He nods.
“What do you mean about Natasha?” I hang on. “I trust her a lot more than I trust any of you.”
“Her story is her own to tell and doctor patient confidentiality. Though she likes to think she is at the center of everything she isn’t, and sometimes that is on purpose.” His eyes roam around the group not being able to bite off his words.
I glare back at him and flick a loose piece of hair back over my shoulder. “Great more waiting.” I huff out.
“We will have to do something so your mind doesn’t attack me each time I try to help you. We won’t always land close together, when we get thrown into your mind. Yours likes to tear us apart.”
“Do you think maybe it is because I don’t trust you, and can’t even begin to trust you?” I look at him pointedly. “You barely tell me anything you hide more than you answer.”
“Could be.” He takes a moment and raises off the ground having caught his breath and starts to calm down. “It could be partially that and partially because of what you have been through.” He shrugs. “What do you say about getting out of here? Right now, we do not need to go exploring, it was just to make sure that the spell had time to dissipate. That is why your layout in your mind has changed from tunnels and hidden chambers to this open chaos and pits.” He hedges.
“Does that worry you?” I peer over at the closest pit.
“Yes,” he says.
“Go on.” I stand there glaring and waiting, not going to move until he starts talking.
He groans. “Your mind is literally on the edge. It could go either way, into chaos and darkness, or you could start to build again anew. It is up to you and what your next steps are.” He looks at me, leaving the choice in my hands.
“In order to grow from here and not fall into a pit, so to speak, I have to learn about my past, right?” I ask.
“Essentially, yes. It isn’t as cut and dry, but for the most part, yes. Sometimes it is okay to fall back into a pit and skid backwards in order to move forward,” he states.
“My mind is whatever I make it.”
He nods even though it wasn’t really a question. “Want to get out of here now?”
The crowd has eased back now and are not pressing in anymore.
I nod. “Yeah, I will try not to fight you this time.” I come forward and hold out my hands to his. He takes them and purple smoke emits from him as he closes his eyes. I close mine as well, so I don’t get motion sickness, and it just seemed like a good way to transition back to my body.
“There we go,” Quintan’s rough voice says to me his hands still on my head, when he came in from the door.
I open my eyes and look around the room it is a bit darker than when I first came in, and things are knocked over I see a naked Melissa and a dark black pool on the ground next to the couch. The dress only partially wrapped around my wounded arm.
Rolling it the rest of the way around, I run over to the dark pool and touch it with my toe. “What did you do?” I eye Melissa.
She snores softly. The black ink-like puddle just slides over my shoe and doesn’t move. I skim my shoe back over it. The puddle goes back to the original size.
“Are they sleeping?”
“I didn’t want Shade to attack me as I was checking on your mind, and Melissa didn’t need to fight it until we came back, so I knocked both of them out with a sleeping potion that I made.”
I step back on a piece of a broken bottle and hear it crunch.
“Careful.” Quintan motions me away from the broken glass.
I see Melissa’s pantsuit and bend down, picking up the pieces and draping it over her. “She won’t get cold, will she?” I worry. I frown, upset with how things happened.
“No, she is hot blooded in more ways than one.” He chuckles.
I nod. “Why isn’t he back in tattoo form yet? Isn’t that his hibernating form?”
Quintan picks up the glass and places them gingerly into the trash can. He steps around the area. “In case there are smaller shards that can’t be seen.” He grabs the can and sets it in the middle of the area. “I will have to get someone in here to clean that up properly.” He walks over to Shade’s puddle and kneels down with effort, poking at the pool of darkness. “It acts like a physical object, but is not.” Quintan tries to pick it up, but the shadows act more like a liquid and pour through his fingers. “We will have to test his limits as well as yours. I am wondering if it is because I knocked him out before he could change into its other form and attach to you.”
“Well, wake them up,” I urge
“They should both really sleep the potion out of their system.” Quintan struggles to stand from his knee and walks back over to the door. He opens and calls out, “Tallia, can you please get someone to help in here? We have Melissa sleeping off a spell and an inky puddle that belongs to Alexia. We will need a jar or pale of some sort, please. Also, schedule some time for Alexia to meet with me tomorrow.”
A groan emits back as Tallia answers. She does not project the answer out to me, so I just have to assume she says she will get on it. I stand there not knowing what to do, but don’t want to seem like I am in the way.
“What do you need help with? What can I do?”
Quintan gazes at me then back to Tallia and then to the sleeping forms on the ground. He looks upward for a moment. “Could you please wait out here with Tallia? I don’t want you going too far. You need to keep Shade close to you. Tallia will also print you off some directions for tomorrow so you know your schedule.” He nods in Tallia’s direction, keeping the door open.
“But I can help,” I call, taking a step back. “Don’t I have my schedule for the week?” I wave the paper, pulling it out from under my bra strap.
“Not with this. You would be in the way. We have had a lot happen for one day. Let the professionals deal with this now.” He motions for me to come forward and go into the waiting room. “Your schedule has changed some since this morning.”
I press my lips together in anger.
Quintan brushes against the front of his button-down shirt where his pocket is, searching. “I could always use one of the sleep potions on you if needed,” he threatens.
I glare at him, but do not want to test if he actually has one more or not. I stomp my way through the door and hear the door shut softly behind me. The lock turns in place so I can’t come back in.
I grumble to myself as I storm into the waiting room and sit in one of the chairs closest to the desk that Tallia is behind. “I could have helped.”
Tallia quirks her head and studies me as she clicks something on the computer. “Perhaps. But with what you have been through recently, do understand Quintans point that you need to rest and recharge. You still have a lot to go through, little one. Enjoy the calm times as you have them and learn from them. Soon, you may not have them like you do now,” she states.
