Dark Impulse Ch. 13

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Naked and trembling in the cool night, David crept over the railing which separated him from the swirling water. His breath was visible as he stood at the edge, his teeth clenched in anger at fate, himself, and Grace.

How could she do this to me? When I met her, she had nothing! She was weeping over some guy, lonely and depressed. I took her away from all that and gave her everything: my love, my money and my name! And this is how she repays me, by taking the love that I feel for her and throwing it back in my face?

He clenched his fists, disturbing the cuts that grabbing the railing had created on his palms earlier. Drops of blood began to fall from his injured hands, falling to the concrete at his feet. He looked down at his hands and began to laugh, lifting his handsome face toward the dark sky.

David raised his arms in the air and let the blood flow from his hands, down his arms, until the drops splashed onto his bare chest and back. His body began to feel warm despite the low temperature of the night, and he closed his eyes to savor the sensation. It had been so long since he'd experienced the Change; he had almost forgotten how liberating it felt. Now, he would know it again.

Across his muscled back, there was a large tattoo of a black raven. The moon began to set in the sky as it made way for the dawn, its light reflecting off of the bird's midnight wings as David's blood mingled with the black ink. His back muscles rippled as he lowered his arms and began to rub the spilled blood into his skin, and he grew warmer as he reached back to touch the raven's wings and felt velvety feathers where once there was painted flesh.

It was beginning.

David addressed the dark sky, his hands lovingly caressing the blood-soaked feathers at his back.

"Oh, Great Queen, Mother of the Earth and Sky! Hear my soul cry out in rage as I stand before you! Morrigan, set me free!"

His flesh burned white-hot as soon as the words were spoken, and he closed his eyes as his body began to transform.Yes, take me into your care, my little friends. Let me join you in flight. Make me forget the pain, if only for a little while.

He cried out as he fell to the concrete. The formerly tattooed raven came alive and sprung from his back with an audible caw, followed by another and then another.

With each bird that emerged from David's back, his human body faded away until there was nothing left of his previous form. The birds were of David, and David was of the birds; it was a never-ending circle of metamorphosis and belonging, and if he was capable of tears while in raven form, he would have cried from the joy he felt.

At his unspoken command, he and the rest of his flock spread their wings and took to the sky, their caws echoing over the Thames and the approaching sunrise.