Page 47 of Poison

Panic is well and truly setting in now because I don’t hear two footfalls, I hear eight. That means he wasn’t alone and they’ve shifted. I turn left, not bothering to slow down and I nearly crash into a guy who’s walking down the street. I mutter a quick apology over my shoulder, and he grumbles something as I continue down the street. When I hear him scream, I know the shifters must have come out of the shadows of the alley.

I have to fight the urge not to look back as I run with everything I have. I really wish I had more time to train with Ajax and The Vasi, because I would most likely have been pretty much clear of my assailants by now.

A growl has me looking over my shoulder and I really wish I hadn’t because two enormous wolves are tearing down the street in my direction. They’re both bigger than the parked cars on either side of the street, but the one in front is just a fraction bigger. Their snouts are open and they both growl in unison, which has my adrenaline spiking. I face forwards… and crash into someone.Seems to be my MO lately.

We both stumble, and I try to keep myself on my feet but the person keeps a tight hold of me and pulls me down with them so we land in a heap on the floor.

“I’m so sorry,” I mumble, pushing against them to stand up when a spark of something hits my back, making me scream as darkness starts to consume me… yet again.

“You are detained and will have a trial by order of the supernatural council.”

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

Aweird pulse pulls me out of the darkness, my head is pounding as the sound of something dripping narrows my senses. The pulse gets stronger, and I try to move my arms to feel where it’s coming from but they feel like lead weights. I open my eyes, and I’m met with a dark area, the only thing separating it is the moonlight streaming through from somewhere. That’s when I notice the bars in front of me, I turn my head and see rows of them lining either side.

“Where am I?” I mutter to myself as I use all the limited strength I have to rub at my temples. The clink of metal draws my eyes to my legs where I see shackles, connecting my wrists to my ankles by a chain that has a weird blue glow pulsating around my limbs.

“Shut up, inmate,” a voice growls from beyond the bars, and a shadow moves on the solid concrete floor beneath me.

I lift my head and meet the amber glow of a man in a uniform glaring at me from the other side of the bars.

“Where am I?” I croak, my mouth feeling like there’s sandpaper in my throat from how dry it is.

“The cells below the supernatural council,” he snarls. “Now shut up, I won’t tell you again,” he booms, banging something on the metalwork.

The sound echoes through the area like the clash of a cymbal, making me cover my ears from the pain in my eardrums. I notice a weird glowing baton in his hand as he walks further into the area. Following his form, I gasp when I see a gangly figure huddled up in the corner under a thin piece of cloth. Worry fills me for the person and I put my hand on the floor to slide over when a shot of pain radiates up my arm, the damn thing on my wrist pulsing faster.

“What are these things?” I growl to myself as I pull a wrist closer to inspect the metal cuff around it.

I notice weird etchings carved into the surface, turning my wrist to follow the trail of them. Some I recognise, but others I have never seen before. I brush the tip of my finger along the carved symbols and hiss as I’m shocked with what feels like electricity.

“Ow,” I hiss again, the tip of my thumb feeling like it’s burning.

“They’re magic cuffs to cut off your power,” a nasally voice says from my right.

“Huh,” I say, listening to the scrape of metal on the floor.

I look into the cell next door, seeing a body slide along the concrete closer to the bars on my right so he can stare at me. It has to be a man from the long grey beard with speckles of white running through it, his eyebrows are the exact same, but the worrying thing is how thin he is. His eyes are dull and sunken into his head, and his cheekbones stand out in sharp points against the skin hanging there.

“The guards put the cuffs on every supernatural. The magic infused in them stops magic users and also any other supe from using their powers,” he whispers to me, his face pressing between the bars.

“But I don’t have any abilities,” I muse, confusion heavy as I try to work out what happened after I escaped the hotel room.

“You’re the one that was in the tornado in the shopping centre and killed the hunter, aren’t you?” he says, his dull eyes peering at me sharper than they should be.

“How did you?” I whisper, shame swallowing me as the face of the frightened little girl comes to mind. I really hope she’s okay and can get past everything that happened today because I will never forgive myself from damaging her.

“If you want to believe the lie that you had nothing to do with it, that’s your choice,” the man says to me, a twisted glint in his eyes. “But it won’t do you any good denying it in your trial.”

“Trial?” Panic sets in. “What trial?”

“Please don’t tell me you’re really that dense, girl?” he says, pulling himself flush to the bars. “You’re waiting for a trial. That’s the only reason you’re in the cells under the council.”

“How long have you been here?” I ask, my curiosity peaked.

I really should be freaking out that I have to have a trial, but I am also hoping my aunt may do a decent thing for me and get them to send me back to the human world and leave me alone. Ha, I know I’m kidding myself with that thought, but I need to find Kevin. Then we can search for a witch that could bind this elemental magic and I can go on about my life. So I’m keeping it cool, there’s no need to panic just yet.How weird is it though that I so desperately craved to fit into the world I knew, but now I have powers I want as far away from it as possible.

“Stand up, inmate!”The booming voice pulls my attention away from the man.

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