Altered Path

“Melissa? Melissa?” a voice was whispering.

Why were they whispering?

Suddenly, I was startled by the sound of glass breaking and wood splintering.

I opened my eyes, hoping to find the source of the very loud sounds. Crashing and breaking sounds.

“There you are, girlie,” the whisperer said.

I looked up and saw Snap kneeling over me. His eyes glowed and his teeth were longer and pointier than normal. I must have looked as terrified as I suddenly felt, because he immediately covered his mouth and turned away.

“Sorry. I’m mid trans, you know. Needed to check you out,” he said, quietly, “Watch this.”

He stood and winked at me, then his body shivered, shrunk and reformed as a huge, black-haired wolf. The process seemed painful. There were crunching and snapping sounds that didn’t sound right coming from a human body. Then again, he wasn’t human.

He howled and ran into the tornado of activity that was causing the crashing and breaking sounds. He jumped on a hunched figure and tore into the shoulder with his teeth.

I was groggy and confused. I shook my head, which only made the pain throb harder in my skull.

“Stay there, dear. Do not move!” I heard Gideon’s voice say.

His voice had come from the tornado of destruction on the other side of the room and suddenly I was afraid that he was in danger.

“Gideon?” I called, but my throat was dry, and it came out as a croak.

The sensible part of my brain reassured me that Erik was no match for a vampire, so Gideon was not really at any risk.

Where is Erik? I suddenly wondered.

I was still in his apartment, still lying on the filthy floor on a pile of dirty clothes and empty liquor bottles, but when I looked over where the wall was, all I saw was starry sky and streetlights. I twisted my head this way and that way trying to make sense of it. It looked like the wall was just…

“Holy shit, the wall is gone...” I whispered in disbelief, “How the hell….”

Growling. I definitely heard growling. Vicious and angry snarling and barking.

Then, my eyes cleared, and I could see what was going on in front of me.

Erik was the hunched figure on the ground, or at least one of them. He must’ve had a couple of his men with him when Gideon found him. There were three figures, but one was sprawled awkwardly, and I could see a pool of blood growing larger around his head and neck. I couldn’t see Gideon, but I knew he was in there. Who else would have called the wolves?

I tried to sit up but that was definitely not going to happen. My legs didn’t seem to want to move. Luckily, I was numb to the pain in them.

A wolf ran over to me and sniffed me, whined, then pushed me down gently with his snout.

“Okay, okay Snap,” I grumbled, “I’ll lay back down and try to be calm while you all fight to the death over me.”

He growled softly but ran back to the fight.

Erik suddenly screamed in pain and yelled out, “Take her!! Take the bitch!”

I had no time to be hurt by his words because the next sound was an oddly wet crunching sound. Then, silence, except for the panting of the wolves.

Gideon was at my side, blocking my view of the carnage.

Had he just killed Erik?

“Melissa? Are you okay? Are you in pain? Can you hear me?” he was asking, frantically.

I tried to see around him, but he moved to keep me from seeing the end result of the fight.

“I am sorry, Melissa. Erik is dead.” Gideon said, softly, as he watched my expression, “He’s not ever going to hurt you again, dear.”-

I tried to smile but it hurt terribly since my bloody lips were scabbed over. Besides, I wasn’t sure if I should be happy that the father of my unborn child had just been slaughtered in front of me.

Gideon took me gently by the shoulders and looked at me with what I thought was anger.

“What the hell were you thinking coming here alone?” he said, and he did sound angry but also very worried.

I started to answer but my croaky voice was barely audible.

“Here,” he said, then he bit open his forearm and held it to my mouth.

I wanted to argue, but the pain was so bad, and my head was so fuzzy. So, I opened my mouth and let the drops of scarlet warm me from my head to my feet. The pounding in my skull became more of a dull pulse. My mind cleared to a point, but also started to feel relaxed and floaty. I gripped Gideon’s arm as I drank more.

I must’ve passed out from the blood drinking (again), because here I was, waking up (again). This passing out stuff was becoming an issue and if I would have to drink Gideon’s blood regularly, I needed to figure out how to stop that.

Suddenly, I remembered what had happened. I had gone to Erik’s. He had beat me unconscious. Gideon and the wolves came to save me. Erik is….

My eyes filled with tears and my hand went instinctively to my belly and the poor little life growing inside who would never know it’s father. After all, Erik had not always been the way he was. Once, he was sweet and caring and I had fallen in love with him. Now, he was….

“Dead. He is dead.”

I sat straight up at the sound of the unfamiliar voice and looked around for the source.

“Well, shit.” I said, “What fresh hell is this?”.

I was not in Erik’s apartment. I was not in Gideon’s house. I was nowhere I recognized. It was dark but I could make out the shape of trees against the sky. I felt around myself and realized I was sitting in what felt like grass.

“Hello?” I called, softly, hoping for a response but dreading one at the same time since I had no clue what was happening.

I didn’t get an answer, so I figured maybe I had imagined the voice.

“Gideon?” I called.

I wasn’t usually a fearful person. I had grown up in rough conditions and had learned that things you feared were usually all in your head. However, I had just learned that monsters were real, and I was not ready to meet a new one.

“Hello?” I called, louder.

Then, from behind me, I heard a rustling of leaves, as if the wind was blowing.

I turned and saw a silhouette in the darkness.

“Who are you? You’re going to be seriously sorry you took me.” I said, trying to sound calm even though my mind was racing with visions of whatever horror I was about to face.

Suddenly, a glowing blue orb appeared in front of the figure, casting an eerie light on the features of a woman. She was tall and statuesque. Her hair hung in long silvery sheets down her back and around her shoulders. Soft silvery light danced in her eyes.

“Hello, child.” she said, then she smiled warmly.

I was pretty sure I had drunk too much of Gideon’s blood and was hallucinating, so I wanted to end this before it took a scary turn.

“Gideon! I’m here!” I shouted, as if that would make a difference.

The woman smiled and took a step closer and from behind her stepped a huge, white bear.

I jumped up off the ground and backed away.

“Shit! Lady, what the hell?” I said, startled.

How long would this vision last? This was the trouble with psychedelics. You never knew what was real or what to expect.

“Child, I will not harm you. I merely wished to pay you a visit.” the woman said, sitting in the grass not far from me, “I am a friend. Please, trust me.”

I laughed and said, “Trust you? You kidnapped me and brought me to be eaten by a bear. Why the hell should I trust you?”

The bear plopped down in the grass next to the woman. There was a loud thud when his huge body hit the earth.

“I did not bring you here. You have come here on your own. It shows that you are growing stronger, coming here without being called,” the woman said, smiling serenely.

I eyed that giant pile of white fur, but it seemed the bear had fallen asleep quickly.

“Do not fear the bear. She is merely my spirit animal. As you are seeing my spirit form, so you also see my living form.” she explained.

I laughed a little and then asked, “So where the hell am I? How did I get here? I was at Erik’s. Where’s Gideon?” I asked, sounding less calm with each question.

The woman sighed and stroked the white fur as she said, “Be calm, child. There is much you do not know or understand of yourself. In time, you will learn.”

“Who the hell are you, lady?” I shouted, because now I was just angry at this weird hallucination that seemed to think she knew me.

The bear growled deeply in its sleep, but the woman only laughed softly.

“I cannot tell you, and if I did you would not remember.” she said.

“Why not?” I asked, leaning closer to her because I felt like she was speaking softer with each word.

“You’re not yet ready,” she said, then smiled sadly.

“For what?” I shouted at her, because now I could hear a loud buzzing in my ears.

“To know….” she began say, but her words faded, although I could still see her mouth moving, and as I continued watching, she seemed to turn to smoke and fade into the darkness.

“Wait! Hello??” I shouted, but now even the trees and ground were gone, and I was floating.

Floating in the dark, in nothing.

“Melissa?”

That’s me, I thought. I am Melissa. Aren’t I?

“Girlie, wake up!”

Oh, I knew that voice, too!

My eyes opened and I looked around at my own bedroom in Gideon’s house.

“Oh, good. No bears.” I said.

No one seemed to hear my strange comment and I honestly couldn’t remember why I said it. There had never been a bear in my bedroom.

Gideon was beside me, along with Snap, and Tynan was standing by the door.

I rubbed my face and felt the smooth freshly healed skin under my fingers.

“How long was I out this time, Gideon?” I asked.

He smiled, but it looked forced, and said, “Only a few hours, dear. It’s not quite dawn.”

“Not too bad, huh?” I said, smiling a little.

Snap was listening to my belly with a stethoscope, which I thought was odd.

“I didn’t know you used those. Didn’t you hear with your wolfy powers before?” I asked him.

He didn’t respond. His forehead was scrunched together, and he closed his eyes, as if he was having trouble hearing.

Gideon cleared his throat and said, “Snap? What is it?”

Snap stayed quiet a few more seconds, moving the stethoscope to different parts of my stomach. Finally, he sighed and looked up at me.

“I don’t hear the baby anymore.” he said, softly.

I sat up quickly and said, “What? Is my baby okay? What do you mean?”

Gideon was rubbing his face now, clearly having already heard this new piece of information.

“Come on! Get me to a hospital!” I urged, but no one moved.

Gideon put his hand on my arm and looked at me sadly.

“I am truly sorry, Melissa. I believe this is not Erik’s fault, but my own.” he told me.

“What? What did you do? I don’t understand.” I asked, my eyes filling with tears.

Gideon was paler than I’d seen him before, and his expression was that of a man tortured.

“I had to save you, Melissa. I had to give you my blood or you would not have lived after the beating you received. I….” he stopped and looked at Snap, then back at me, “I gave you so much blood. I was only thinking of saving you, but I had no idea what it could do to the life inside you.”

I was sobbing now, because I understood what he was trying to tell me. My baby was gone. My little reason for cleaning up my life and making my way in this world was gone.

“It was not Gideon’s fault.” Tynan said.

I looked at him in shock since he’d seemed uninterested in conversation the last time we’d met.

He went on, “Gideon was trying to help. He didn’t know, but this is not the first time I have seen this. My mate, before she triggered her curse, she conceived. She was addicted to vamp blood. It’s easier for us to get than the drugs humans take. One night, she took too much. The blood attacked the child, and then her own body reabsorbed the baby, as if it were just tissue. “

Tynan looked as if sharing this story was terribly hard and I felt a sudden rush of sympathy for him. That feeling was immediately overshadowed by a dark, black cloud of sadness over the loss of my own baby.

I hadn’t planned for my baby. I hadn’t asked for it. So why did I feel like I’d lost the only thing I wanted in the world now that it was gone?

Gideon must have noticed the shift in my mood. He asked the wolves to give us time to deal with this new information.

They agreed, Snap whispered a few words of sympathy to me, and they were gone.

I sat in my bed, silently crying.

Why had this happened? Why was all of this happening? I had finally begun to think I had found my place, but without my sweet little angel to look forward to, nothing seemed right.

“I know you will need time. Please, take all that you need. I will be here, waiting, when you’re ready to talk.” Gideon said, sweetly.

“Thank you,” I said, through sobs.

Gideon left and closed my door behind him.

There was nothing for me to do but lay there alone and hurt.

Wait….

Yes, there was.

Screw this! I thought and threw off my blankets, got up and headed off to do the only thing I thought would make this nightmare end.