Chapter 7 WARTIME
POV - Hazel
“Where are you, Hazel?” Derek shouts over the deafening rumble of flying planes, exploding bombs and shotguns.
I want to call back, but the strong hand strangling my fragile neck is preventing me from doing so.
“Die, abomination!” the man chocking me hisses, his face full of disgust.
I try to push him away with my powers, but they are not working and looking around to find some kind of weapon to use on my attacker, I find out the reason. There are two women in the room with us, they have their arms stretched towards me, palms open, a soft yellow and red glow emitting from them. They are also chanting something in a language I can’t recognize but sounds like mantra or something of the sort.
They must be witches. But what do they want with me? And how did we get here? Last thing I remember I was having hot sex with Derek, and now here I am in what looks like a war zone, nearly chocked to death by a witch, or warlock, or whatever it is called.
Not finding anything useful to use as a weapon, I try to change my hand into claw, but I don’t seem able to shift either, it must be the magic they are using on me. Which means that, even if Derek finds me, he won’t be able to shift either, putting himself at risk.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, I stabbed the guy in his throat with a small bistoury which was inside my nurse coat’s pocket. I didn’t know it was in there, and I most definitely haven’t commanded my arm to do that. It’s a strange feeling, like I am in my body but not in control of it, it has a mind of its own. It reminds me of the dream I had two nights ago, the one where Derek… this time I will not let that happen!
I watch as my body pushes the man back against his accomplices, they catch him before he can fall on the floor, crimson blood oozing from his wound, the bistoury still cut deep in his neck.
Right at this moment, Derek appears from the door on my right, his eyes darting from me to the three crouched figures and me again.
Like last time, he looks again a little different from “my Derek”, he’s still drop-dead gorgeous, but with his hair longer and unkempt and his thick beard, he looks older, more seasoned. The kaki soldier uniforms he’s wearing, though, takes his handsomeness to completely new levels; it’s a pity I can’t take advantage of him right now. I will have to buy something similar for him after I get out of this hell dream.
“Run!”, I link-shout.
Now that they are distracted and are not using their blocking spells on me anymore, I shift into my white wolf and start running at breakneck speed in the direction Derek has come from, Derek following close on my heels, he too in his wolf form.
On my way out, I direct a powerful gush of wind to the ceiling, making it crumble on their heads, and sealing the exit we have run from with debris. This should slow them down enough for us to escape from wherever we are.
At least in this dream I have powers, only I can control the wind like mom, and not the light like my actual self.
We are running through a very long corridor, with tall windows on our right and doors which take to a number of rooms on our left. The place looks like a hospital, only it is run out, the walls and ceiling are damaged, and there are debris on the floor everywhere. Adding to the sound of explosions and gunshots going on in the background, and Derek’s attire before he shifted, I am more and more convinced that we are in a warzone. I can’t really see anything through the thick grey smoke that swirls outside the windows, so I can’t even guess if we are still in the US or somewhere else. Derek’s uniform looked a little outdated, like something out of World War II, or beginning of 20th century, so maybe I am seeing something that happened in the past. Or maybe, watching Pearl Harbor for the 20th time last week finally got to me and I am just normally dreaming.
Though, those witches who attacked me looked very much like the ones I saw in the other dream, and this makes me believe that this is not just a normal dream, or maybe I am just paranoid.
We push through a pair of double doors, and we find ourselves in a huge room filled with beds and gurneys, all occupied by bleeding soldiers, some of them yelling in pain, others unconscious. Doctors and nurses are running around into a frenzy, trying to help as many injured as they can, but obviously not having much equipment to work with.
Now that I can get a good look at everything and everyone, I am pretty sure that my time guess was correct, and by the language they speak, I think we must be somewhere in the UK, or at least in some European country.
People seeing me and Derek coming, two big wolves running around this not so antiseptic chaos, start yelling in fear, and take steps back to put some distance between them and us.
We pass through quite easily, thanks to their fear of us, but as soon as we are out of the main doors, and into the war chaos that’s outside, I hesitate in my escape, I just wish I could go back on my heels and find a secluded place to hide until everything is over.
“Hurry, they are coming, I can feel them,” Derek urges me through the mind-link, and omg, he has an English posh accent! Can’t he get anymore sexy? Kill me now! Well, not literally…
I pick up speed again, following Derek’s black wolf on the battlefield. For good measure, my dream-self creates a barrier of swirling wind around us, to avoid getting hit by a bullet or by some flying objects.
We make it to the middle of the clearing, all drenched in mud and that’s when a powerful gush of wind sends us flying against a row of trees on our right. We don’t even have the time to get our bearings back, that a ball of fire is thrown at us. We jump agilely to the side, in opposite directions; I can smell burnt fur, but I don’t feel much pain, which means I shouldn’t be injured too badly.
Immediately, I try to put the wind barrier on, and when I say I, I mean myself in the dream, although we think practically alike; what she does is mainly what I would do too. This time again, my powers don’t manifest themselves, and I know for sure that it’s their magic which is stopping me.
“I can’t use my powers,” I mind-link Derek, who with a jump is again by my side.
“Follow me, there’s a river not far in that direction. See how their fireballs work there,” Derek links, before starting running through the trees behind us. I follow suit, but another fireball thrown at us, makes the nearby trees collapse, and in an attempt to avoid them crushing on me, I lose sight of him. I keep running, putting as much distance between me and those wicked witches as possible, thanks to my wolf speed, and my four legs.
I am still running, trying to find Derek, the smoke from the fire making it impossible to sniff out his scent, when I feel pain gushing through the bond, and I know that Derek is hurt and in danger.
I focus on the feeling, letting it bring me to him, and soon enough I find him, still in his wolf form, immerged in the river, unable to come out of the water to breathe, because of that heinous warlock keeping him under water with his powers.
I try my powers on him, but they are still blocked, and when I see the two witches flying toward me through the air, I know why. They must be able to control the elements like me.
I start running toward the river, the warlock is on the opposite bank, but the river is too wide for me to jump through, so I put aside the idea of striking back, and instead I jump into the river with the sole purpose of saving Derek from drowning.
I try to swim in his direction with all my might, pedaling against the waves of water the warlock is slamming on me, but before I can’t even get close enough to reach him, I feel the mate bond snapping in half, and the presence of Derek, who has his special niche in my heart and in my mind, vanishes completely, replaced by a cold void.
No, not again, I can’t bear this again, please!
The waves stop, and the water stills, Derek’s body changes back into human form, and flows to the surface, floating there, like a corpse.
I swim with purpose in his direction, if I can pull him out of the water, I can perform CPR and I can make him breathe again.
“One out, one to go!” the warlock announces amused, and the last thing I see before I regain consciousness, is the water running in circles, forming a huge tornado.