Chapter 40: Chapter Forty--The Goddess Within

Fire within pain.

The body I inhabited wanted to writhe. She wasn’t accustomed to the reforming of bones and muscle. Over time, she would. Frankly, so would I. Had her vocal cords worked, she would’ve screamed. If she had control over her body, she would’ve attempted to run from the shocking sensations.

She was shrouded in the darkness that not too long ago she welcomed. Now, she didn’t understand. In time, she would. I was here to see to that. To look after her. To show her.

I am wild.

I am the nature of her beast.

She spoke to me in a language I was only beginning to understand. That was fine. She didn’t comprehend mine either. Not yet. We are apart, yet together. Soon, we would become one.

Where there is darkness, a shaft of light penetrates where I have taken her.

What are you? she asked again. This time, I have language to explain. Although not much.

Animal.

Primal.

Basic and complex. I am eternal.

I am older than anything she’d ever known. For me, time never existed. Now it does. What a concept! The measure of minutes and hours that she has lived by amazed me. What wonders this world would hold for us? Her body intrigued me. Her organ functions weren’t what I’d expected. One thing became clear. I’d succeeded in separating a portion of my consciousness from hers, so I could think my own thoughts, and not to alarm her.

I am the source. The tap from where they come from, my beloved cats. Before now, I’d understood that I was a disembodied entity from which they drew their life force. The nether, where all demigods reigned. And now, I was corporeal, for the time being. On mortal earth.

All these…feelings? They tried to distract me from my changing physical form.

My cats called me their god. I was no such thing. Such older, perhaps, wiser.

However, my human? She was special. Formed of fire, cultivated by ice. To be admired, and one day, feared by those who would do her wrong. A fitting form for me to inhabit.

For her, I have chosen to come. I had handpicked her years ago, when she’d researched adolescence, when her precious soul had cried out, and I had listened. Mortals had been unkind to this bright soul, one who deserved so much better.

When I had tried to speak to her, she shut me out. She didn’t believe it. I sent her dreams, I spoke to the one she called grandmother, who did believe in me.

The pain she so hated drifted away as I reviewed the past few days. My nostrils flared. I caught a rich, spicy scent. Familiar. Mine. We would know his scent anywhere. He is worthy of my presence.

“Two weeks of this,” a male said, his deep husky voice cut into the realm of my making. Not my male. “How much longer can I keep Lola sane, without telling her what’s going on? Better yet, prevent her from slipping away and going to the police? When was the last time she moved?”

My eyes popped open.

Let there be light. Vision was a tricky thing. A sea of hazy white dominated my sight.

A ceiling, my human said.

“She is not dead. I will break every bone in your body, if you so much as suggest that again,” another male said, tight, strained. Ahh! My male finally spoke. “She breathes. Her heart beats. Even from across the room, I can hear it.”

“She doesn’t smell the same,” the first male said. Who was he?

Syber.

“Did you expect her to? Everything about her has changed over the past fourteen days.”

My human was disturbed by this measure of days. I coddled her. I cared not for her discomfort. She attempted to fight to the surface of our consciousness. Her weakened state worried me. I urged her to rest, to build strength for what would come. I had no words that would represent this activity. She does not understand.

“But she responds to nothing?” The one called Syber said. Silly, these labels. Names, my human called them.

“No.”

My male was sad. I hated that. Wait. What was sadness? Why had I thought of it? Rage, pain, possession, hunger. These were emotions I knew. My human had no explanation that made sense.

“How much longer?”

“Long as it takes, Syber. I won’t give up on her. Not today, tomorrow, or next week. She breaths, she is my mate.”

“She hasn’t claimed you,” he replied softly.

He was mine. Marked or not, he belonged to my human!

My body was covered in soft white sheets and blankets that smelled of him. The information came to me seamlessly. My human had begun to work with me. I looked around. What sort of cave was this?

A bedroom. So be it.

“And how was she supposed to do that, while unconscious? Besides, it’s too late for me now, and has been for a while. She is it, the end of me, if she dies.”

“Are you prepared for the consequences? Will you abandon us as Alpha?”

“You dare to question my integrity? I know my responsibilities.”

“That you’ve seem to have forgotten them lately.”

A rustle, followed by a growl. “Do you blame me?”

“No, cousin. I do not. Merely stating fact. The clan worries you will further withdraw and never leave this room again.”

I touched the naked skin of my arm. I expected fur. This was fine too. A t-shirt covered me. I did not like it. It chaffed. I tore the material from neck to waist. The males did not notice. I was not pleased. Neither was my human.

My male, a black-haired beast with tawny skin was covered by shorts and a t-shirt. Yet more clothes. Why? We are animals. He blocked the small opening in the door. I could not see the other male.

Another pair of blue eyes flashed in my mind’s eye, a memory that didn’t belong to me. A cat in the night. I bared my teeth and sprang out from under the sheets, landing in a crouch. A growl worked up my throat. That cat would suffer horribly for daring to harm my human. As would the other.

My male turned. The one called Syber gawked.