The Little Star

Self-Preservation

Celeste’s POV:

“Just preform the bloody spell, witch!” A male voice cut through the darkness in my mind, the demand holding a dark threat.

“I told you I can’t, not as long as that power dampener is on her wrist. If you want me to preform the spell, then I have to take it off.” This voice was softer, though the steal it held told me the woman who possessed it was not easily controlled.

“The power dampener stays on, otherwise she will regain her Lycan spirit and abilities, and she’ll be too powerful to hold. I must keep her under my thumb until I have her convinced to choose me.” There was an accent there, though I couldn’t place it, the male was definitely someone I knew, but why could I not place his voice?

Where even was I?

The last think I remembered was walking down a hallway with a man. Then something happened and I fell. Pain sliced through my head the harder I tried to grasp at the smoke that was my last memories. I was swaying, as if we were moving but it was smoother than if we were walking. In a car perhaps? Each movement sent a shaft of agony through my shoulder and down my arm, a warm liquid was trailing along the skin of that same appendage. I’d been shot.

It all came back in one long agonizing flash.

I was with one of my mates. A mate who had kidn*pped, drugged, and locked me away in a dungeon until he was ready to retrieve me. A mate I was going to kill the moment I was able to open my eyes and my vision clear enough to see his throat.

“Leaving the dampener on is going to kill her. She’s been shot, and her body isn’t able to heal without her abilities. The wound may not be severe but add in the skull fracture and the loss of blood and you’ll be lucky if she makes it to the plane.” The witch paused for a moment, letting what she’d said sink in before continuing softer, like she was trying to convince a toddler. “We can take off the dampener, I’ll cast the spell to counteract that previous one, then we allow her to heal just enough to save her life and slap it back on.”

“It’s too much of a risk.” He muttered, though I could tell he was beginning to give in.

“Yes, do it, unleash Dria you f*****g coward.” I thought, praying he would follow the witch’s advice. This would give me the opportunity I needed to escape, and with my Lycan, we’d be able to take on the entire compound that had been holding us. “Hold on girls.”

“It’s too great a risk not to do it.” The witch argued.

The silence that followed seemed to stretch for hours, though it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. In that time, I attempted to open my eyes, trying to see anything that may help me in my escape or give me a hint as to who and what I was dealing with. But each time even the smallest sliver of light sent pain splintering through my head, to avoid them knowing I was awake I refused to make a sound, biting my tongue until I could taste my own blood in my mouth.

Finally, the male took a deep breath and answered, though it wasn’t the answer I wanted. The one I needed.

“No. I can’t risk it. Once we’re on the plane we can sedate her with human medication, remove the bracelet while you preform the spell, and she heals, then slip it back on before the meds ware off. It’s the safest option.”

“For you.” The witch sneered softly under her breath.

“Excuse me, witch, what was that?” He demanded, growing angry that someone dared to stand up to him.

“I said, for you. As in it’s the safest option for you. Not for her. You don’t deserve a mate if you’re willing to put your life before hers. What? Don’t like when someone as the guts to tell you the truth? Well get the f**k used to it, I’m not afraid of you or those fangs you love to flash.” Despite the fact that she was helping the man who’d turned my life into a nightmare all these years, I was growing to respect this woman. I almost felt bad for what was about to happen, but as far as I could fathom, it was the only way to escape the hell I’d been thrown into.

Forcing my eyes open, I looked around the small car for just seconds, long enough to register that I was in the backseat between the witch and the man who’d done this to me. In the front seat were two men, though neither were paying attention to me. I couldn’t register faces, my mind was to clouded for that, but I could see the outline of a rail guard ahead on the road, and a yellow sign that warned of a dangerous curve ahead and steep conditions. Perfect for what I had planned.

Before anyone could register that I was awake, I threw my self forward, between the front seats and straight for he wheel, yanking it out of the driver’s hand and steering the car off the cliff. The guard in the passenger seat reached over, aiming one meaty fist towards my face, but I didn’t care, the crash that was about to occur was going to hurt much worse than the punch he’d land in the confines of the car.

Arms wrapped around my waist, attempting to yank me back towards to the seat I’d leaped from, but this was life or death for me, and every bit of strength I had left went into holding on to the wheel. With one last yank the car went skidding over the edge of the cliff.

They say when you know you’re going to die, you see your life flash before your eyes. I must have known in my heart that this wasn’t the end, because instead I watched with a smile on my face as we plummeted off the side of the cliff.

Waking up I felt as if death would have been a mercy. There wasn’t a single part of my body that didn’t hurt. The smell of smoke filled the air and there was a heat close by that made me feel as if my skin were going to melt if I didn’t get away quickly. Forcing my eyes open, the first thing that registered was the I was on the ground. Rocks and pebbles were probing my delicate skin, though I barely felt them as the pain in my right leg, back, head and left arm were too distracting.

I was laying on my side, my right leg twisted under me in a way that I knew it was broken. My left arm was hanging loosely at my side, and try as I might, I couldn’t get it to move. Using my right arm which was under me I tried to push myself into a sitting position, but pain split through my chest, a cry of pure agony tore from my lips.

Before I could attempt to move again, a woman was kneeling in front of me. She was as pale as I’d become after my years in the dungeons, with electric blue hair piled on her head. Bright red blood was seeping from the corner of her mouth and her hands and arms were covered in gashes, light from the fire near by glinted off the glass embedded in her skin.

“Don’t move, you were impaled in the accident. If you move it could hit vital organs it hasn’t already, and you’ll bleed out before we can get your help.” I knew that voice, she was in the car, the witch that had come to spell me.

“The…” Speaking was harder than I realized, I was barely able to get out one word and I felt incredibly winded. Taking a shaking breath, I tried again. “The bracelet.”

Her pale green eyes grew big as she shook her head in denial. “No, I can’t. He was very specific; I can’t remove it till he agrees.”

“I’ll… die.” At my shaky words, she turned to look back towards the car, the source of the fire. Beside it laid two men, though neither were moving. “Needs me… alive.” Her head snapped back to me, and I watched as the resolve centered in her eyes. She knew I was right.

“Okay.” Was all she said. She knew she couldn’t ask me to listen, to do as I was told, or to stay there. We both knew I would run the minute I was able, because what laid ahead was worse than death if I stayed. She knew what she was risking, but we both understood what would happen if she didn’t.

Closing her eyes, she waved her hand over the thin gold ring that had become like a second skin to me in the past three years. A soft click could be heard as it released my wrist and clattered to the ground.

“Celeste!” My name filled my mind in a cry of pure joy as Dria was unleashed from the prison she’d been locked away in at the back of my mind. And then the fear as she assessed the situation and realized what was happening. “Oh Goddess, Celeste! What happened? Never mind that, close your eyes. I’ll take over and heal us and get us far away from here!”

“I never thought your voice would make me cry tears of happiness, Dria, I have missed you so much.”

Power surged through me, like lightening through my blood stream. My bones began to reform, the broken healing before shifting to their new shape and size. Dria took the pain as I floated in our mind, away from it all, more than willing to give the fight to her. When Dria opened our eyes, we were standing far above the witch as she watched us with wide eyes from the ground. Behind her one of the men began to move, drawing our attention and a familiar face lifted from the ground. His once golden curls covered in thick black blood and his handsome face torn and bloodied.

“Moana, what did you do! I told you not to release her!” He was shouting, even as he stumbled to his feet, one hand slipping side the dress coat he was wearing to pull out a black handgun.

“Dria, run.” I urged her.

“No, he did this to us. He must pay.” Alexandria growled, stepping over the witch to advance on the vampire who now held the gun pointed straight at us.

“Dria, you don’t understand, others rely on us. We must go! Now!” I pushed the faces of the other women to the front of our mind, making Dria see who was relying on us. Giving her a reason to turn away.

“Fine, but he will pay for this one day.”

“I agree, but today there is too much at stake!”

With one final snarl at our would-be mate, Dria turned and darted into the forests edge. We’d barely gotten away when an explosion rocked the ground under our paws. The fire must have made it to the gas tank. Dria didn’t waste the time to look back, instead flying across the ground, running as far from William and his witch as we could get.

“The compound. We must save the other girls.” I insisted as Dria attempted to change our course in the opposite direction.

“He will know to go there first, and we will be right back where we started!” My Lycan argued. She was just trying to keep us safe, to keep me safe, and I knew she was right, but I couldn’t give up on them, I couldn’t just not go back. They were relying on me.

“Please Dria, this time there are no Unicorns to make us vulnerable, we have a fighting chance. Please, I can’t leave them behind.”

I felt her internal struggle. The fight between self-preservation and the need to help the others. I just hoped the right side won out, because I was too weak to fight her.

“Fine, but we do this my way.” She finally conceded.

We didn’t have a chance to discuss our best course when a strange sound from above drew our attention and Dria pulled us to a sliding stop. There was a clearing just ahead and above it was a massive black dragon, his wings lazily moving up and down as he descended slowly to the earth.

“I didn’t realize William had a dragon on his payroll.” Dria drawled, though I could feel her hesitation. Most creatures a Lycan could take down on their own, a full-grown dragon, while possible, would be difficult. Especially in our weakened state.

“I didn’t either, but it’s no matter. We can do this. Give him hell Dria, and if we need to go full Lycan, I’m ready.”

Something pricked at the back of my mind. A nagging feeling that I’d seen this dragon before, that I knew him. But it didn’t matter, if he was on Williams' side, he was against me.

Stepping into the clearing, Dria lifted her head to howl into the early morning light. Dropping her head to bare her fangs and growled at the colossal creature before us. With our ice magic, we might just get out of this alive.