Blood Shadow by Aurora Kryan (digital e reader .TXT) 📕

before. My shoulders started to tremble under my own weight. I was too young to keep this adrenalin high going for much longer. Sooner, rather than later, I would collapse from exhaustion. Cool fingers pressed against my nose drawing my mind back to the present. There was a monster reaching for me and I had my eyes closed.

“Alice.” Staring at his blank expression I shivered under his cold touch. “Your name, your name is Alice Bell.” Mouth agape I felt my shoulders stiffen. Why do you know that? “I’ll get you out, Alice, I promise.”

And with that he pulled back and melted into the darkness around me. I was just too stunned to move. Out, I can get out? But why? He’s an enemy isn’t he?

My mind reeled as I tried to understand his meaning. He wanted me as a pet; he was going to get me out of here. But then why was he like Max, a monster that smelled like blood? Wasn’t that bad, evil in a way? But he was helping me, he couldn’t be evil.

I shook my head. There was no way I could keep up with something that complicated. Inside of me my wolf shifted, an intense feeling of dread pulling at my heart. Head bowed I felt the world crash down on me for a second. Swallowing hard I saw my mother’s face flash before my eyes. She was smiling, telling me it was ok. Breathing strangled I opened my mouth to cry out in heartache when a familiar scent drifted to me.

Eyes lifting to the small window in the cell I saw it, a sunflower growing out of the concrete. Was that even possible? Sunflowers were delicate not strong like trees. Yet there it was, a sunflower, growing out of the concrete window. Tears brimmed in my eyes. My mother smelled like sunflowers, did this mean she was really dead? Why else would there be a sunflower watching me from so far away, from so close to the sky.

Body trembling I stepped forward, towards the flower. Mother

. My legs buckled, collapsing under me before I could reach the wall. My face fell into the soft uneven comfort of an old mattress. Vision blurred with tears I rolled onto my side, pulling my legs under me tightly. An unearthly sense of loose crushed down on me. I was alone, no one left to look after me, everyone I loved was gone, had been taken, killed. I had been abandoned, orphaned.

Tears streaking down my fur I threw my head back and howled my despair to the world.

Chapter 5 - Restless

Pacing around in the confined space of the cell I huffed. I’d been confined in this dingy cage for days and it was making me edgy. I wasn’t really sure how many sun rises had passed since I was taken from my mother, but at least seven months had gone by when I stopped counting. My eyes lifted to the sun flower curled around the bars of the window.

It was so much larger then that small fragile looking plant I had first laid eyes upon on that horrifying night. Mother, are you crying for my return?

Head dropping I felt tears well in the corner of my eyes. If you’re still alive.

Clawing at the ground I shook my head. No I won’t think about that, she has to be alive. I’m getting out of here and I’m going back to her. She has to be there waiting for me.

I had to keep thinking she was alive otherwise I would lose all hope and reason to live. Pacing around the cage I shifted, pushing the ragged strands of hair back out of my face. My human body was also larger, different, and less fragile. But I was still young and feeble compared to Roan and Max. The very idea of Max being stronger than me made me shutter.

Since I had come here he had been trying to kill me. Even after Roan’s initial interest in me Max had continued to sneak down and attempt to harm me. But Roan was always there, in the shadows, protecting me. And when confronted Roan always told him the same thing.

“If you hurt her she will be useless as a tracker. Payton wants her alive. Kill her you go against him. I don’t think you want that, do you Max?”

I had no clue what a tracker, or who this Payton everyone seemed to be afraid of, was. Regardless that statement always stopped Max from advancing any further. Yet he would return a few nights later to try again. My fingers ran over the gashes in the stone I had made a week ago. Max had gotten into the cage, actually wounding me before Roan came.

I had gone mad, my wolf tearing at the walls with rage. It wanted to kill him, tear out his throat and bleed him dry like he had Linda. Those feelings of murder were so intense it scared me. I was almost as bad as he was; only I didn’t act on my thoughts. If I ever got to carried away with my feelings of rage I would look to the flower, remembering my mother. Or Roan would come.

After his last failed attempt at murder Max stopped coming, Roan didn’t. Whether it was to form a bond of trust or just to talk, he came. Every day around eight and three he would come. Small talk would be made; about the days events or his past, all one sided of course. While it was ever more apparent I could trust him I never let him see me as a human, always a wolf, always safe.

After a couple weeks of one sided conversations, and hours of waiting for a reply, Roan gave up trying to get me to answer him. He would still talk of course but he never asked my opinion of anything. When he had satisfied himself with idle chit chat he would feed me, smile, and walk off. Not once since I was thrown into this jail cell have I been let out.

It grated my nerves sometimes, restlessness setting in. But Roan continued to promise my release. I could only trust that he would set me free one day. Again my eyes traveled to the sun flower in the window. When ever I looked at it I saw my mothers smiling face, or had a memory come rushing back to me. Staring at the sun kissed petals an old memory began to float around in my mind.

It had been about a year since the accident with Miss Garrison. I was a crazy little wolf pup determined to go outside and play with the other kids. I’d convinced myself that if they didn’t see me shift I was ok. Either I was a wolf or a child, no switching. I chose wolf. One of the neighbor’s sons fainted when I ran across the street after his soccer ball. My attempt at socializing back fired, stones were thrown at me, more curse words and names tossed around.

Wolves didn’t live in cities; they certainly didn’t chase after children and live to tell about it. Thankfully my mother pulled the boys father away long enough for me to escape animal control. She flipped out but not the way I was expecting. Instead of lecturing me again she broke down and cried. She came so close to loosing me she didn’t know what to do. Are you crying over me now mother?

Tears began to roll down my cheeks as I thought of how heart broken my mother and Linda would be over me. Linda wont cry for me, she’s dead

. That thought brought more tears to my face. I began to sob, shoulders shaking as I tried not to let my cries of agony escape my lips. I would never get to see Linda’s crazy hair styles again. My mother would never pat my head affectionately as she worked on her papers.

Tilting my head back I cried, eyes focused on the sky. I stayed that way for a couple hours, crying as quietly as I could to the stars. When the tears dried out I wiped the snot from my face. There was nothing I could do, just wait and listen to my wolf. I would fight to survive but contently be submissive. Curling up on the bed I pushed in the corner I rested my head on the pillow.

Tomorrow Roan would come, he would talk, he would feed me, and I would wait for something to change.

Chapter 6 - Human, Wolf, or Other?

The door at the top of the stairs creaked. My eyes flew open, body tense as foot steps echoed down the stair way. Jumping up from the bed I balled my hands, heart racing in my chest. It could have been Roan bringing me food. My eyes drifted to the window, the sun was still down, too soon for Roan. Did that mean Max was back, had he not given up his quest for my death?

Concentrating I blocked the growing panic out, forcing my ears to ignore the heavy foot falls on the concrete steps. My body trembled, thoughts of the wolf running free through the forest filled me. The sensation of wind in my fur, claws digging into tree bark, teeth wrapping around the neck of a rabbit on hunts completed me. Skin stretched my bones molding into the smaller form of the wolf.

Shoulder joints popping out I stepped back, the bones in my face already knitting together into a muzzle. Fur spilled over my body as I went down on all fours, paws pressing to the cold stone floor. Blinking a couple seconds later my change finished. Fangs and claws replaced teeth and nails, ears had sifted from the sides to the top of my head, a tail swished behind me nervously. The light that surrounded my change disappeared leaving me alone in the cage once more.

Ears pivoting forward I listened intently on the footsteps. They had taken the stairs and crossed the floor already, a thin line of shadows keeping them hidden from me yet. I sniffed the