Broken Souls

Kay’s POV

I have never been so tired in my life, but I can’t let the wall that I built down. I know the moment that I do, Hadeon will be back in my head. I hear the door unlock for the first time since I was let in this room. The door opens and John comes stomping into the room. John grabs my arm pulling me up. He then begins to pull me out the door with him. I’m too tired to fight him. I also want to see more of this place.

John continues to pull me down the long hall wall. The paint on the walls is old and beginning to peel in places, and everything has a layer of dust. There are cobwebs hanging throughout the hall. I wonder how long this place has sat unused; clearly, it’s been a very long time. A few doors line the hall, but they are all closed. The door at the end of the hall is open, and John drags me with him through the door. I find myself in a large bedroom. It is surprisingly clean and dust free, but the paint is clearly old and faded. The large king bed is neatly made, and I can’t figure out what I’m doing here. I’m about to question John when a door opens at the other side of the room. Seth walks into the room.

“Hello daughter,” Seth says in his cool tone. “You and I are going to have some fun today.”

I can’t help but stare at him. What could he possibly have in mind? Seth’s black eyes hold something sinister in them. I know nothing he has planned would be anything good.

“You, my dear, get to be my bait. John gag her and take her. That damn Alpha will do anything to get to her and that will make him easy to kill,” Seth says smirking.

“No!” I yell, but Seth only laughs

“He really makes it too easy for me. He comes here thinking I won’t know! He thinks he can come to my land with only a few scouts with him.” Seth laughs and sounds more deranged than I have ever heard before. I think he has truly lost his mind. I start to struggle in John’s hold trying to get free of his fat hands.

Seth walks over to me still laughing. “Oh don’t be like that daughter. This will be fun.” He continues to laugh as he hits me hard in the head. I see stars and suddenly a needle is plunged into my arm. I know it’s a sedative only because it doesn’t burn. Seth’s crazed laughing is the last thing I hear as the sedative takes hold.

When I finally start to come to, everything is spinning and foggy. I can feel the cool air and a slight breeze. It doesn’t take me long to feel the rope that has my arms bound behind me. There is a tree painfully pushing into my back and stretching my arms and shoulders behind me. The rope feels like it burning my skin. It either has silver or wolfs bane laced through it. I look around, but I can’t see Seth or John. I can’t even smell any rogues. The clearing is peaceful and would have been a beautiful place if I didn’t know it so well. This was the same clearing that had been in so many of my nightmares. It has my heart pounding. I know what is about to happen: I’m about to see the people I love die at the hands of Seth.

I start trying to work my hands free of the rope. I don’t care if it feels like ripping my skin off, I have to get free. Pure panic takes complete control of me. I can feel the dark presence of Hadeon flooding through the entire clearing, and I know he must be helping hide Seth and John. They are waiting for Aaron to fall into the trap. My mouth is gagged, and I know I can’t warn anyone, so I have to get free. I keep trying to work my hands free even though the rope burns, but it hasn’t move or loosened at all. I keep at it until I hear movement in the far end of the clearing about a hundred yards away. It doesn’t take long for me to spot the flash of reddish-brown fur, and even with Diana suppressed, I can faintly feel the bond we share. I try to find the link to him in my mind, but it’s still unreachable.

I can see glimpses of his wolf, Griffin, and I know he’s searching the area. I also know he’ll never see the danger with Hadeon hiding Seth. I can see Aaron moving through the trees, and I know he’ll be at my side soon only increasing my panic. I’m pulling at the ropes and shaking my head trying to warn him not to come near me, but it does no good. I see movement in the tree line, and I think I spot Oriel’s chestnut brown wolf, Kao, moving swiftly through the trees toward me as well. I wish I could just warn them of the danger they are in, but I can’t do anything. My fear and anxiety have completely taken over my whole body, and I’m trying to scream. Within seconds, the area is buzzing. It’s the same buzzing feeling that was in my head when Hadeon attacked my mind before. This time, however, I can feel it in the air filling the entire area. Soon the area is a rush of movement as rogue wolves race out of the trees. Aaron and Oriel are pushed into the clearing with three other wolves I don’t recognize. The clearing is completely surrounded by rouges which traps my rescuers in the clearing.

Groups of rogues rush forward attaching the small group. There are only about twenty rogues, but they have Aaron and others pined in. The air buzzes louder around me, and I know it’s Hadeon. I can feel the darkness and evil of him so strongly. I feel like I can nearly see him. He is a looming figure of black like death himself. The entire time I’m fighting the rope around my wrists with everything I have watching the shadow-like figure moving like a ghost toward me.

Meanwhile, the wolves are still fighting in the clearing. I can see Aaron and Oriel are beginning to tire from the constant attack of the rogues. One group of rogues attack. They are then quickly replaced with a new group. This is wearing Aaron and Oriel out. The other three wolves are on the ground, and I’m afraid they are dead or near death. Other rogue bodies near them slowly shift back to human bodies unmoving. The once green and beautiful clearing is turning into blood-soaked nightmare. Hadeon is drifting closer to me, and I can feel his evil Aura turning my blood to ice. He is winning. Aaron and Oriel can’t hold out much longer, and that is when I hear Seth come up to whisper in my ear:

“I told you will break.” Then, for some reason, he takes the gag from my mouth.

“NO!” I scream as loudly as I can, and it’s like everything freezes for just a moment. I feel a rush of heat flood my body. I can feel the pull of the power in me, and I mentally grab it and hold tight to it. My skin feels hot as this new magic takes hold, and it’s like I can see the magic swirling in the air like I can see the dark black coils of Hadeon’s magic swirling and wrapping around the fallen wolves, feeding on their death, and sucking their souls from their bodies. Seth comes to stand in front of me, and I can see the same black coils around him even stronger than the others.

Seth moves closer to me.

“NO!” I scream again, but this time I have my own power. As I scream the word no, it’s like a blue shock wave from a bomb only I was the bomb. The wave knocks Seth back from me sending him sprawling on the ground. I hear something between a hiss and a scream come from the shadow figure. The blue wave slices through him and all of his black coils of magic. His figure melts away like fog being burned off by the sun.

The blue shock wave even knock the fighting wolves to the ground. With Hadeon and his power gone, the rogues seem less willing to continue the fight. Maybe they are done after being knocked to the ground by whatever that was. Seth hasn’t moved from the ground as a few rogues flee the clearing. Orial and Aaron quickly manage to get the upper hand, but I know they are exhausted.

Seth finally starts to move. I can still see Hadeon’s magic swirling and pulling around him though not as strong as it was moment ago. I also finally manage to get one hand free of the rope. I decide to try something. I can still feel the warmth of the power coursing in my body, so I try to do what I had done with Grandma. I focus as much as I can on that warmth and Seth. I can feel the same brokenness like cold smooth glass, and I mentally try and grab the broken pieces, but there are so many. Again, as I mentally hold the pieces, I feel them warm and melt to one, but I can’t get all of them. There is so much brokenness in him.

Seth suddenly shoots up from the ground staring at me.

“What are you? What are you?” He asks almost sounding afraid of me, but then he turns angry and lunges at me. He grabs me before I can move and slams me hard into the tree.

“What did you do to me?” He hisses in my face. “I will break you! I have to!” He throws me hard to the ground and quickly shifts to the large black monster Cain.

It isn’t me that he is after. He turns his attention to Aaron. Seth is charging fast at Aaron across the clearing, and I know Aaron doesn’t see him coming. Aaron is still fighting off a few more rogues.

I do the only thing I can think of. I can’t shift since I still have the silver collar on, but I have this new power. I just wish I knew how to use it. I take a deep breath trying to focus all I can as the warmth builds again in me. I feel like I may burn up just from the heat, but I let it build until I think I may faint. Seth hits Aaron hard and the two are already trying to rip each other apart, but Aaron is clearly struggling to fight Seth off. When my vision starts to darken, I release the built-up energy in me as a bigger wave of blue shoots through the clearing. This time, I try and focus all of it at Seth. It seems to work, and the blue wave mostly crashes into him sending him fly back and hitting a tree.

I hear wolves in the distance howling, and all I can think is more rogues are coming until I see Oriel’s wolf burst back through the trees followed by a small army of wolves. Seth is already up and racing away as fast as he can. Aaron’s wolf sags as the wolves rush the clearing following Oriel. I see Aaron moving across the clearing toward me, and I can hardly believe it.

I don’t see John coming ’til it was too late. The silver blade flashes as John leaps at Aaron. He buries the knife deep into Aaron’s chest. I’m racing to them as Oriel’s wolf, Kao, grabs John by the throat quickly ending his life.

I’m by Aaron’s side kneeling on the ground. He has shifted back and the knife is buried deep in the side of his chest. Hot tears are stinging my eyes as I try and think of what to do. Oriel is suddenly by my side.

“We need to get him back to Alpha Ben’s pack fast,” she says

“Where’s the medic? I need you over here! NOW!” Oriel orders. Then it hits me: Grandma thought I might be able to heal people physically if I tried, and now is the time to try, I can feel Aaron slipping away.

“Oriel, take the knife out and put pressure on the wound. I want to try to heal it,” I tell her. She looks like she wants to argue with me, but when the medic arrives, his face looks grim.

“Pull out the knife and hold pressure when Kay tells you to,” Oriel orders the medic. He looks at me with a mix of shock and fear. I close my eyes not really sure what I’m looking for. I can still feel the faint warmth of the magic, so I let my mind follow it. I put my hands by the wound in Aaron’s chest, and I can almost see the wound in my mind. I focus on it as the warmth grows. My hands feel hot, and I pray this works. As I nod to the medic, he pulls out the blade. Before he can put anything on the wound to stop the bleeding, he gasps and just stares. The wound isn’t bleeding. I focus all I can until my vision gets dark and fussy, but I can feel the wound healing. I can see it healing. I feel like I’m going to black out any second, but I hold on as long as I can. The last part of Aaron’s skin begins to close as I faint.