009
1342 Words
It was as though the world blinked.
One second: shadows and streetlights.
The next: tires shrieking, the bike skidding sideways.
Blink.
Kaia hit the ground, screaming, scrambling backward. The bike toppled with a metallic screech.
I don’t remember falling. But I felt it.
Hands slamming into the pavement, sparks.
Literal. Sparks.
My blood felt… wrong. No. Different. Thicker. Hotter. Alive in a way it never had been.
I looked up, no time to waste.
The thing was fast.
Wrong fast. Like it didn’t obey gravity or time or anything that made sense.
It had no face.
Just a hollow void where a face should be.
I gagged. “Ugh, what the actual—”
My legs struggled to move, wouldn’t listen. My body was short-circuiting, too much inside.
That pressure again. Under my skin. In my bones.
Something waking. Just like in my dreams, my fingers curled.
Crack.
I heard it. Felt it. My body was shifting, and I didn’t even know what.
Then.
Boom.
Something huge from nowhere, the sky maybe, tackled the creepy figure and both vanished in a rush of fog.
Just… gone.
Fog swirled across the street like smoke from a myth.
My bike, somehow upright. Engine humming. Waiting.
A low, bone-deep howl echoed from the bushes.
Kaia groaned, dragging herself up. “What the f*ck was that?!”
I was already standing. Barely.
Heart hammering. Vision burning.
The world was too loud.
Too bright.
I smelled everything.
Hot trash.
Cheap weed.
Blood under someone’s fingernails across the street.
My palms were bleeding.
Kaia stumbled over, staring at me. “Are you okay?” She took her hairband wrapped around my palm.
I saw it then, reflected in her wide, terrified eyes as she looked up at me.
My eyes.
Gold.
Glowing.
Lit from within. Too bright. Too wrong.
And beneath that glow, red.
Like something underneath was trying to claw its way out.
“Lil…” Kaia whispered.
“I, I’m fine,” I tried. My voice cracked. “I just—”
My knees buckled.
Kaia caught me, arms shaking. “No. No, you’re not. What’s happening to you?!”
People were gathering now. Shouting. Phones out.
Nope. Nope nope nope.
I bolted for the bike. It was perfect. Like it hadn’t crashed at all.
Kaia jumped in behind me. “Lilith, are you sure?!”
I didn’t answer.
I flew down that street, engine roaring.
100.
101.
102.
180.
Trees blurred. The sky bled neon.
Kaia didn’t complain. Not once.
I couldn’t stop shaking.
Couldn’t stop feeling.
The shift had started.
And there was no turning back.
—
He got it.
Bjorn’s voice slammed into my mind like thunder cracking through the still air.
He’d caught the Creeper.
The pride that surged into my chest was… rare. A beast I didn’t let rise often. But now it clawed its way up, hot and sharp, stretching across my ribs like armor.
Of course, he caught it.
He was Gamma, yes. But more than that, he was shadow wolf, the lastborn of the bloodline that guarded kings before there were crowns. We’d met on a battlefield soaked in silver and fire, and we’d seen the same vision that night. One that bound us long before names or rank.
He was mine. Loyal. Deadly. And faster than death when he chose to be.
The thing didn’t even fight back, he added, his voice darker this time. It wasn’t here to kill. I have eyes on the girl," Bjorn said. They’re just human, Alpha.
My hands flexed against the stone armrest.
“Human,” I muttered aloud.
The hearth fire cracked, a sudden spark leaping like a warning.
What had drawn the Creeper?
That wasn’t a coincidence.
I rose from the chair, my wolf practically vibrating beneath my skin. A beat of silence passed between us, stretched taut across the distance and thought.
What do you want me to do?
I paused, eyes narrowing toward the shadows clawing at the windows. There was movement beyond the walls, the court stirring with unease.
The Seers would arrive at dawn.
And the moment they stepped into my territory, I’d know if they lied.
“Bring the being,” I said finally, the words tasting of iron and fate. “Place watchers, but they don’t touch her.”
I clenched my jaw. Every instinct in me said go. Hunt. Claim.
But instincts lie. I’d learned that the hard way.
There was a pause.
Then: Understood.
The link snapped quietly.
I exhaled slowly, trying to steady the storm in my chest. But it was too late. The tether had already tightened. The pull too strong.
The girl. Whatever she was.
She wasn’t a question anymore.
She was real.
—
When I arrived home with Alia, my daughter Lilith was gone.
The house moaned with the wind.
Outside, somewhere far off, a dog barked once and fell silent.
We tried Alia’s house. No one picked up.
That meant only one thing: our girls were together.
We huddled over the kitchen counter, silence coiled between us. Then, I moved like something had kicked in. I began locking the windows. Alia moved in step, bolting the doors.
All but the front.
We left it ajar. Just in case our daughters come home.
Even though every part of me wanted to barricade it shut.
Hours bled away.
We brewed the old herbs. Strained teas. We baked a cake we had no appetite for but had to for Lilith.
The house smelled of strawberries and something else, something beneath the surface. A scent I couldn’t name.
By the time we were stringing up decorations, it was 2:40 a.m.
And then I heard it.
The unmistakable screech of tires outside.
Lilith’s bike.
My heart seized.
We ran out front and there they were.
Dresses torn. Eyes wide.
“What happened?” I ran to her, pulling my baby into my arms.
“Where did you go?”
We dragged them both inside, ushered them to the kitchen counter. Kaia tried to explain, something about an accident. A skid. But Lilith didn’t say a word. She just sat, staring at her hands.
Something twisted in my chest.
“Whose blood is that?” I asked her.
She didn’t move.
“Lilith,” I said again, quieter. “Whose blood?”
“What?” Kaia blinked like she’d just come to. She stepped toward us, eyes locked on Lilith’s palms. Her expression collapsed.
“Your eyes… when we fell, you bruised. What—”
Alia snapped into motion, pulling Kaia aside, hand gently over her mouth.
I took a warm cloth and began cleaning Lilith’s hands in silence.
Then I offered her a cup of tea. One laced with the binding herb I was given.
I didn’t expect her to take it.
But she did.
Drank it down without a word. Without looking at me.
She drained the cup and walked away.
Kaia followed, silent. Alia came to me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders.
I stood there, frozen. A mother on the edge of everything.
And I wept.
I wasn’t ready.
Heaven knows, I wasn’t.
“I need to take my daughter away,” I said, the words like stone in my mouth. “We need to leave.”
Alia looked at me, her face stricken. “You’re my only family. I won’t ask you to stay, but…” her voice softened, “…I know Kaia wouldn’t want to be here without Lilith.”
I nodded, barely breathing.
“Don’t you need to pack?” I asked gently.
“Everything I need is here,” she murmured.
“But I can’t let you stay. Not now.”
Alia stepped forward, took my hand. “I won’t leave you alone.”
“No,” I squeezed her fingers. “You must go. Gather your valuables. Take Kaia with you.”
She looked like she might protest, but something in my voice made her pause.
“We’ll go at dawn,” she finally said. “Let me help you pack.”
- Writer
