Moon Bound (Glorious Darkness Book 1) (8 page)

(13) Breaking Bonds

|Scarlet's POV|

Stilling my body in front of the metal pole, the harsh wind is biting my skin, my body as uncovered as my soul is. The Moon will see it all. Tonight.

It's been almost a week since I met them. Hunter, Jaz, David, Adam and Cole. Two weeks since I met Micah. My life has settled into a comfort I never knew before. To be with others like myself. Half-lings. Aberrations.

They accept me for what I am. They are the same. They come from the same place, their pain similar to mine if not the same.

My new pack. My brothers and sisters who never ooze bitter judgment and set my insides on fire.

Regan is a distant memory, a nightmare that lives at night, during the restless hours of sleep I can not deny my body as I deny him. He's still living, breathing and fighting his battles somewhere far away from my small paradise. He's not forgotten, neither is he forgiven.

He's just away.

Looking down at my bare flesh, seeing the first traces of the cold surfacing on my skin, it's slowly losing its color, paling under the unforgiving chill of the early evening.

The sun, dipping into the horizon, leaving purple and orange trails behind as dusk sweeps over to cover the darkening sky, the trees whispering, branches protesting under the wind caress, leaves falling to their earthly grave... It is all a reminder.

What needs to be done shall be done. Tonight. Before it's too late.

The promise is there, floating in the air as we wait for the Moon to join us and witness the thread binding me to my past being broken.

As I shall be broken.

The substantial chains are left in the past. What's left are the shackles that are hidden from the eye, chaining my soul still. What I mean to break tonight is my bond to the pack, to Alpha. It's the last obstacle I must overcome to set myself free.

I can feel him inside me, like a burning ache in the hollow of my heart, the same heart I want to rip out, to break apart, but I need it - its pain, to feed the darkness that hides under my warm gaze and honest pretense of a smile. Creeping in me like the evil of old, always there, always present in my mind, just safely at bay.

Tucked away, this is my last defense against emotion, against fate, for I may have found shelter but am far from sheltered. There's too much evil in the world for me to have faith again. Too much darkness inside me to give up my fears.

Is my comfort false? Is this all a lie I try to believe in? Day after day of tranquility that may turn to be nothing but an illusion?

I don't know and I'm not sure I care. Taking it for as long as it'd last, that's all I can do.

The chill creeps up my spine, self-consciousness flaring as I struggle not to cover my nudity. The others are watching my every move, testing my strength and determination as the fever is born with the first rays of moonlight.

She's here now. Finally making her long awaited entrance.

Stepping towards me, holding a silver chalice with his hands, "Let us begin," Cole breathes out in a hushed voice. The metal must be burning his fingertips, taste hot on the skin. Even if it is, no trace of that pain is portrayed on the moonlit face. Like a rock standing against the wind, he will stay. Never to be shaken, never to be displaced from his guarding stand at the edge of the cliff.

Taking the chalice, my hands are trembling, eyes never daring to dart low, at the liquid, I'm anticipating its poisoning invasion inside my skin form. Pressing it to my lips, expecting the burn of it any moment now, bracing for that touch of the metal that should have been felt seconds ago, the liquid is bitter and vile on my tongue, not burning.

Cool under my fingertips, the silver is just another metal as I swallow mouthfuls of poison, fighting not to gag on its passage down.

Belly full, it takes me minutes until I can feel it - warming, hot, burning, intensifying as it keeps spreading the fever until scorching hot talons are clawing their way through my insides.

I'm shaking. I'm writhing on the mossy ground. Poison is swirling inside me, bile is boiling up to my throat... I push it down, denying its way further.

Colors flickering before my eyes, my sight is blurred and hazy. I fight for lungfuls of air, none of which ever comes.

Hands are brought to my flesh, gripping my shoulders tightly, I'm moved to the pole. My arms raised, metal is clasped over my wrists, forcing me to a kneeling position. Lay down, cry out to the Moon, how can I do that when I must submit to the inevitable?

A sacrifice of the flesh. It's hers to take and mine to offer. 

"The whip," I hear Cole's voice urge in command. Steps fall on the ground, hushed voices whispering things I can't understand. I am shaking. Trembling like a juvenile facing her first punishment ever.

A shot for freedom. Something that needs to be done. Can I do it?

The first lash comes like a thunder, lightning agony in its wake. My flesh torn, angry kisses are marring the pale.

Grounding my teeth, the screams suppressed by my stubbornness, the lashes are raining over my body.

Skin breaks, blood seeps out in streams. The whip comes again, its tendrils sticking into flesh and bones, it's ripping my body in unrelenting rhythm.

I have no control left. There's no mercy.

Absolution. Purifying me from him. From my sins.

All my reasons for doing this gone, my wish to be cut off from my old pack no longer, the monster is not the one holding me prisoner.

Madness. Stupidity. My own doing.

I'm stripped bare. I'm flayed alive. Nothing is holding the pieces together.

"Stop," I beg. "Please, no more." 
I can take no more.

"Break it!" Command lashing out just like the whip is, whistling in the air. "Break it and I'll stop."

Words on deaf ears, meaningless promises for a future, I'm too weak. There's too much pain. My words are gone before I can speak them aloud.

The whip falls again, weaving around my stomach... hungrier than before. He pulls it tighter around me. Screaming, pleading, there's no sound coming from me. It's all in my head as my skin tears off from my body, leaving blood-red meat behind which I'm trying not to see when my head falls to my chest.

My tears are seeping out in a constant flow, burning the flesh as I fight for life. This is how it's done. This is how a bond is being broken. The moon children have failed to find another way but through agony. I am brought to the brink of death just because of that bond I share with the pack. A means to an end, yet I can not see the end of it. I've lost my purpose as well as my will.

Hating, struggling against each breath surging inside my lungs, there's nothing but darkness eating at me, the last of the lights dying out, threads connecting me to others thinning with each lash. I want to hold onto them. Out of reach.

Their voices desperate for me to hold, his is calling me, urging me to take what he's offering. What is it that he's offering me?

Little knots unified in an unbreakable net of sparkle and shine, like a net of stars in an endless sky, can I fight falling into that sky? Can I stand on my own two feet?

The center of my own universe. No pack. No Alpha. Free.

Every whimper rasping past my lips, every burn gracing my flesh, the past and the present, merging together in an intricate thread of unimaginable agony.

I watch the darkness eating on the bond, twisting it until it snaps. Screams, cries, whimpers, and pleas are echoing in that place.

No pack. No Alpha. Free.

The net melting, the eerie silence is disrupted only by the clash of metal on metal. The bond is cut. My soul is missing its limb. It has been crippling me for so long and yet, even if I curse myself for it, I can't help but feel its loss.

I look up, noticing my shackled hands hitting the pole in an attempt to free themselves, and manage to halt the motion when I feel another set upon my skin. A key is brought to the small locks, the restraints being unclasped from my wrists with unforeseen gentleness.

"You did it, Scarlet," Cole tells me, his voice wavering with emotion. "You broke the bond."

I manage a small smile, despite the scorching ache inside my chest, despite the broken shell of a girl I have become, despite the emptiness I can feel in place of the connection to my pack.

The Moon has seen it all.

(14) Into The Fray

|Scarlet's POV|

The wounds healed. The scars faded, leaving barely visible imprints behind. Months passed since that fateful night. New wounds are now gracing my body, some to add to the marvelous carving my flesh has become, others to fade without a trace. I don't care about scarring my body, in a way I never have but now flesh seems to be of no importance to me when I can feel it so deep inside... The ache is there. The wound is still bleeding, swelling as I fight to keep up with the rest of me who is changing.

I can't let the others down. They've become my family.

Nothing is holding me back now. Nothing is stopping me from becoming what I'm meant to become.

But who am I without the pack? Who am I without him? Who am I here on this hunt?

A celebration for my early graduation, I've come here to hunt with the others, let Cole convince me that there's nothing wrong with what we are going to do, who we are going to kill.

I need to feed, to drink.

My body can't withstand the change. I can't keep fighting the instinct, the need.

Standing next to me, it's Micah who brought me out here – in no man's land where every transgression is allowed.

We can do anything, be anything we want. No matter the cost.

A white blanket is covering the frozen earth, the Moon shaded from view from the winter clouds. On the night of the lovers, she's probably engaged in a much better activity than to spy on us. I hope she is.

The Moon cannot see us like this.

"This will be so much fun." Joyous, filled with excitement whisper comes to my ears. I don't need to look at her to know she is ecstatic about what will go down tonight. I can hear it in her voice.

"Your first hunt, Scar. Can you imagine? You're gonna love it."

Nodding, I'm trying not to imagine it.

"Move," in a stern voice, Cole shouts from behind.

Turning back, I see him. No – them. My friends, my family. Leading several strangers our way. Footprints left behind in the snow.

With their hands tied and mouths gagged with fabric, the humans are still trying to scream, fighting against their captors. They can't win this fight. I know they won't.

Couples, probably gone out to celebrate their love, there are four of them, a total of eight humans. Is the extra one for me?

They stop a few feet from where Micah and I are standing. The humans are shaking in their fear, looking at us as we are monsters. Aren't we?

"Ladies and gentlemen." Shooting the words out, Cole walks to stand in front of them. "Let me explain the rules of our game tonight. We can't untie you and let you roam free but we're going to make this as fair as possible. You'll have one hour head start before we come after you so I suggest you run. As fast as your human feet can carry you. Now!"

As soon as he says it, I see my friends who have been holding the humans let go, people starting to make their way through the thick snow.

They can't run, not really. This is why Cole chose this spot. This city.

The snow is their enemy but not ours. It won't stop us from catching them.

"So, Scarlet." Turning to me, his voice is softer now, gentle. Something it hasn't been when he talked to the humans. It's reserved only for us - his family, not for the prey. "I'm glad to see you came around and joined us tonight. This has been long due."

He's smiling, looking genuinely happy to see me here. Just like the rest of them are. All except Jazmine. But even if she doesn't like my presence here, she doesn't say anything. The only indication that her feelings are different from the others' is the line stretched across her face. Displeased. Disappointed.

"And since this is your first time, I'm going to explain how this works out," he goes on, the smile slipping off, his face now all business. "You saw the humans we let loose I believe."

Nodding, I can feel myself getting nervous. Scared of what he's going to tell me. Confirm the suspicion I've had about these hunts.

"We're going to chase them when the hour is up. Each one of us will have one of them and the last one, well, first - come, first - served. Do you understand?"

"I do." My voice sounds small, as small as I'm feeling. What am I agreeing to? Is this really what I need to do? Is this who I'm supposed to be?

A predator preying on the weak? A killer?

Stilling myself for the hunt, my hands are still shaking, nervous tingles breaking through the skin side, the person fighting against nature.

"And one more thing. None of them should be left alive."

"Are we supposed to hunt as humans or are we allowed to use our wolves too?"

"It doesn't matter which of your forms you choose, Scarlet. All that matters tonight is that you to sate your hunger," Cole says.

The silence that comes after his words is eery. Consuming.

An hour of silence, minutes that tick by so fast when I need all the time in the world to decide if I'm going to be the killer I must be.

Sneaking a glance at Jazmine, her eyes are watching somewhere in the distance. Do they see the fleeing humans? Are they capturing them in? What thoughts are hidden behind? 

Eyes noticing my attention, I see tears gleaming in the moonlight. She isn't my friend, perhaps, will never be but she is the only one who feels the burden I do.

Why couldn't they?

"The hour's up, folks." Eyes alight with excitement, Micah announces. "Let's go."

Body cold, feet deep in the snow, they won't move and follow the others deep into the fray. A desert of white glittering in the night is waiting. Ours to cross. Ours to stain with drops of red as we take what isn't ours to take.

A life. A dozen.

"Scarlet, let's go!" A scream that's urging me to follow my instinct, to act like I am an animal.

I'm not ready to turn into one yet. Psyching myself up for this hasn't been enough. I won't just kill others because I can, because it is in my nature.

Refusing the hand fate has dealt me, there's only one thing I can say. "I'm sorry. You go."

Whipping around, walking towards the car parked a few miles from here, no – running towards it as fast as I can with the snow my feet keep sinking into, I'm powerless to change those humans' fate.

I can't stop my friends from doing what they've come here to do. I can't help the weak.

All I can do is pretend I know nothing of what's happening in that white desert.