Page 112 of The Alpha Dire Wolf
It was the same voice I had heard in my head when the tree-thing attacked. The same pounding, impossible to pinpoint sense of “needing to escape.”
“What do you want from me?” I shouted.
Bloodbound.
The word slammed into my skull in time with the drums. Bloodbound. Over. And over. I screamed, clapping my hands to my ears as they bled. More blood poured from my nostrils as my brain overloaded.
Fiery creatures from a new world continued to cascade around me, whipped into a fresh frenzy by a wind that appeared out of the dark. I shied away from them, but they followed. Always going where I went.
Beating back the dark. The fire was all I could see by.
Was it … on my side then? Somehow a part of me?
Bloodbound!
I screamed in agony as the word hit me with physical force, tossing me like a dog toy. The fire stayed with me. Lighting the way … though all it lit was more darkness.
Reaching out, I touched the fire. It didn’t burn. There was a warm tingle, a promise of comfort and strength that rushed up my arm and into my chest, banishing a cold I hadn’t known was growing in me.
Bloodbound.
Without thinking, I tried to shield myself from the word as it struck again out of the dark. The fire coiled like a chain around my wrists and sparked brightly, diluting some of the force.
I still hit the unseen ground but less hard this time.
Bloodbound. Bloodbound. Bloodbound.
The word hit in rapid-fire. My body jerked like one of the bad guys on television sprayed with bullets, and I flopped limply on my stomach. The fire dimmed, but it didn’t go out.
“Please,” I whispered, spitting blood. “Help me.”
A heavy footstep sounded nearby. The fire burned hot and bright, and out of the dark came the “hand” of the tree-thing, reaching for me, ready to plunge its fingers into my body. To kill me.
It had me. It was over.
I thrashed, driving it back, but only momentarily. The hand came back and plunged its spindly wooden tips into me.
I felt no pain, but I screamed anyway as cold spread from each entry point, numbing me like poison.
Bloodbound …
There was no warning. The last drumbeat in my head faded away with the end of the word, and then the darkness I was staring at faded, congealing into two circles.
One yellow-orange. The other cold, furious blue.
The wolf was on us. It snapped the tree-thing’s arm from its body, ripping its fingers from me. They pulled out—not with blood but dark shadow dripping from the tips. The shadow flowed back into me.
I screamed as something in my mind burned bright and clear for just a quarter second.
“Hey!”
Twin cords of steel wrapped around me, binding me tightly and holding me in place as I screamed and thrashed.
“Sylvie! Sylvie, it’s okay. It’s me. It’s Lincoln. You’re awake now.”
I cried out and flailed for another second or two while Lincoln held me tightly, not letting go.
“You were having a nightmare,” he said. “Your screaming woke me up, but it’s okay. It’s over now. I’m here. I’ve got you.”
