In The Shadow of The Moon Ch. 07

So, I am back from outer space. Well not really. My life went to hell and back and I am back unlike Dean Winchester I can't be stoic about it. Had an uncle with a stroke, took a trip to a hospital, medical bills tried to kill me, monumental fight with my mother, and so so so much more. So I was writing during that time, but just seemed incapable of finishing anything. So when the writing bug did come back it cam back at full force. Chapter 7 is at 30 pages single spaced and still going. So my friends who read my work, convinced me to post the beginning part of it now. So big shout out to them and my editor, who was oober speedy in getting it back to me. I hope you enjoy it!

-SilentlySilly :)

******************

Victoria was a jittery wreck.

Yesterday had been slightly enjoyable. She was able to forget things. She was able to do a little living, but today her brain had had the chance to work its twisted magic. She had felt a presence in her dreams, something malicious lingering at the edges, fighting to worm its way in. She knew if she let her guard down for even a minute, it would bring with it the same tide of despair that had been haunting for these past months. So her sleep was intermittent at best. Waking up in Antony's arms was different, pleasant, but shocking. So she had ended up on the floor after a surprise good morning kiss. After throwing a pillow at him while he laughed his ass off in bed, she had swept out of his room and down to hers. She was shocked to find that everything had been moved out.

Her room was as blank a canvas. Reverted to what it had been before she had moved in. Her paintings were gone, her vanity mirror, all of it removed. She was left staring at a blank cube of space. Her heart raced. She had always been able to ground herself firmly in a sense of home. A sense of where her space had been carved out. Even when living with her father, she grounded her identity in her own space, a safe space. Here it had been removed, she felt vulnerable and exposed. The need to move was building in her; the need to run. She was revving up for a full panic and she could feel the same annoying presence pushing at her.

Victoria was beginning to get a headache and her heart was beating like a bird's, racing ahead without her. Soon it would leap out of her chest, but she just couldn't find the calm reserve she always kept. No matter where she went, she always had her space. She always had a place that was sacred and untouchable. It had kept her hinged, kept her sane. Within that space she knew all its secrets and it hers.

There didn't seem to be a way to stop it. She was spiraling out and her heart would slow down and then Antony was there, a calm, bolstering force in her mind. The pressure, lessened and her heart slowed. The headache faded away and she felt calm. Even though she knew it was him, she jumped when arms encircled her.

"It's not gone, let me show you."

He guided her back out and up the stairs. Her heart was still pounding; he kept his hands on her and his mind merged with hers. She hadn't realized just how much she relied on her space. She never thought she would feel this way to find it missing. They had walked into his suite now moved past the bedroom and in suite kitchen. He stopped in front of a closed door. He reached down and pushed the door open. It smelled like her space; a tropical fruity blend of pomegranates, papaya, mango. There was exotic looking furniture, strange shapes for chairs and couches. Her paintings hung on the wall, her comforter and pillows decorate a futon. Her sewing machine sat one table and her laptop on a desk on the opposite side of the room. There was a gorgeous floor to ceiling window that looked out onto the gardens and forest of the pack lands. It was all here.

"Your mother and grandmother moved this stuff up here last night. Your clothes are in your closet in our room, but everything else I had them move into here. Your space."

Victoria was silent. Her heart had resumed its normal pace and she was berating herself for making such a big deal out of this.

"Thank You." It was a whisper, but it was the best she could muster at this moment. Antony kissed the top of her head and moved away. She closed her eyes and listened to his footstep move down the hall. Why did she have to have all the issues? It would be lovely if he didn't always seem so perfect, so cool and collected.

She sighed, shook her head and closed the door. There was a lot happening today and this was not the way to start it off.

*********

Antony felt like he was running on nitrous oxide. Victoria was nervous and jumpy, he was dealing with a huge influx of thoughts as new packs moved in, and he was supposed to be a hospitable host. He cracked his neck. His edges were beginning to fray, so he wasn't surprised when he didn't notice Mistress Sleepwell standing next to him.

"Excited?"

He chuckled, "I should be."

"Well quite the pity you aren't. I was just informing you that the magical reinforcements are working at maximum capacity. "

"Well that is one less thing to worry about."

"Also the sisterhood...all of the sisterhood will be attending the ceremony tonight. Apparently there is something quite special about that mate of yours."

Antony was left staring at her back and she left without another word. Just what he need, more to think about.

He let his mind wander, the whole sisterhood, that never happened. He let his mind travel through the history, only vaguely aware of those greeting him or his responses. The commitment of this land as a safe place had warranted a full attendance, the international treaties, the... He knew the minute she entered the main hall. She smelled sweet and hypnotic and she looked just as beautiful.

This was the first time he had ever seen her in a dress. It hugged her upper body, leaving a wide expanse of delectable cleavage he wanted to explore. He let his eyes continue down the lines of her body where the dressed gently flared out, stopping just above her knee. Leaving nothing but toned muscular leg for days. His body made his desire known. He could feel the wolf flash in his eyes; nothing was going to stop this night from happening. He dragged his eyes back up and looked at her. She stopped, twirled on the spot and smiled at him. In that moment he found his excitement for the day, he found his joy and left the rest of the worries for later.

She walked over to him, a huge smile on her face.

Her felt her slip smoothly into his mind, the stress from earlier gone. The levity from last night had returned but he could still sense her nervousness.

I take it you like the dress

Antony chuckled and pulled her into his arms. No...I love the dress. You should wear them more often

If I did you wouldn't appreciate special moments like this.

Well if I promised to appreciate everything you do, would you wear them more often?

Victoria's laughter was light as she slid out of his arms. She arched her eyebrow at him and moved to stand at his side.

Though it was difficult, he kept up their mental conversation while introducing her to the Alpha of a neighboring pack.

You seem different, dare I say...happy.

I have been talking to Bethany, she helps me work through things, never thought I would want to see a psychologist, but since yesterday everything has just gotten easier. She paused; he could see her deciding to tell him, something.

She suggested that I open up to you more. To stop fighting the pull and just see where it takes me.

Before he could say anything Riley tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, so some of the other alphas want to meet with you about..."

Antony watched Riley's eyes flick to Victoria's and then back,

"...about safety plans and stuff. They're rather insistent."

Antony nodded, kissed Victoria and left.

*******

She was more than a little confused. She had been too wrapped up in herself earlier to notice, but something was going on, even before the guest had begun to arrive, Antony had been anxious, secluded in his office doing a whole lot of calling and talking to his betas. She watched as Riley and Antony walked away. She was busy trying to get some sort of information from him, but every time she got close she met a wall and Antony's idea of "distraction." Personally Victoria considered it mental molestation. Adrift in a sea of thoughts she never noticed his approach, it wasn't until she sighed, breathing deeply, that she scented him.

It was the smell of dry dirt, barren earth that crawled up the nose and down the throat leaving it burned and scratchy. Then came the overly sweet smell, no specific flower, but she had always imagined it the way a Venus fly trap would smell. It would be irresistibly alluring if it didn't come along with cloying aroma of malice and fear. That smell on her pallet shocked her to the core. Her mind was flooded with lascivious looks and touches. As if she were back with her father. She felt phantom arms hold her still as Blyce Landic "inspected" her.

Victoria turned in horror to face one of her nightmares.

He was deceptively handsome, an extremely strong physique and confidence seeping from his pores. It was everything the Alpha was supposed to look like. Beneath the surface though...

"Now this is how I always imagined you presented to me. Wrapped up in such pretty packaging. I could always imagine it. You may not know this, but I absolutely love unwrapping presents."

Victoria's throat was sealed shut. She was immobile, unable to breath, unable to stop him, unable to fight. Blyce stepped closer and made as if to give her a hug, but his rough hands slid along her skin before settling, one behind her neck and the other at the edge of her dress. Grasping the hair at the edge of her neck firmly, he slowly curled his fingers under her dress and began to drag it up. Victoria prayed for someone to see, but Blyce had never been stupid, multiple packs were filing in and out, the entry area was as busy as it would get. She was sure from the outside they just looked like a couple.

Blyce continued to drag the dress up making sure she felt his claws against her thighs, he moved his lips to her ear.

"Don't think that you aren't mine. You father and I settled that up long ago. This mating will never happen. That idiot you are calling Alpha will never know what hit him. You will be gone, your traitorous bitch of a mother will be gone and his throat will be lying on the floor next to his dead corpse. Then I am going to take you back to my lands and teach you a good lesson about running away from me. You were always mine and always will be."

With those final words he licked the edge of her ear and pressed his claws deep into the top of her thigh. His words had come with painful images forcibly pushed into her mind. Her mother dead, Antony dead, her bleeding.... It was enough, gave her the energy to move, the energy to fight. The puncture wounds on her thigh were accompanied by ice sliding up her spine, a squeezing of her heart, and the return of the darkness that had attacked her mind for years. She flung herself backwards and back handed him hard enough to split his lip. His eyes flashed slate grey in his anger. Her wolf had roused from the temporary paralysis and as Victoria frantically through up barriers, every barrier she had ever had, new ones and old ones, anything to keep her safe from the onslaught of despair and pain she knew accompanied the ever creeping blackness.

Her wolf smoothly slid into her body, no need to shift, no need to cause alarm, she was just going to kill him. It would be a simple task, disembowel him and then slash deeply into the throat, render him incapable of healing. He wouldn't be given the chance to harm them again. Then they would run, before her father's madness could touch this place.

They followed as he began to walk away stepping easily into the flow of heavy traffic in the main hall. He smiled and chuckled before disappearing in the throng. They still continued to track him, until he disappeared down the hall. The human half had never stopped throwing up barriers and was retreating further and further into herself. The wolf bolstered the strength of the defenses, but reached out to their mate, before she moved behind the walls as well. There was a blackness, poison, coursing through their veins and they wouldn't be able to fight it alone.

**************

Antony cried out loud as he felt his chest compress, his heart struggled to beat and his lungs fought to expand. As it faded he felt the oily black mass Victoria's conscious had become in the back of his mind. He shifted and howled; he didn't know the threat, didn't know how it was possible, and didn't care what was going on, she was under attack. He leapt over the desk and crashed out the door.

**************

Mistress Sleepwell shivered as a ripple of magic blasted the compound. With it came the tang of charred meat. Dark magic, of massive proportions, had just been used. She shimmered out and appeared at its epicenter. There on the floor was Victoria her breathing labored and her skin clammy. She flung out a protective barrier. Not caring who it flung out of its way in the process. Someone was fucking with the delicate balance of her realm and it revolved around this child.

Sleepwell knelt next to the girl and flinched upon placing her finger tips to her forehead. The black magic bubbled beneath the surface like acid, attacking the body so her mind would give, but why was she so important. Someone or thing had chosen to play a long game, poisoning her slowly, but it didn't take. When she got away and Sleepwell had removed all traces of the dark magic in her, it seemed they had moved up their time table. The twisted magic pulsed beneath the child's skin battering at her, subtly hadn't worked now whoever was doing this had moved to brute force. There was a distant clatter and then the shield and the floor beneath them vibrated with the force of Antony's rather violent collision with her barrier, a wholly distracting and jarring experience. With a flick of her wrist and a small amount of concentration the Mistress settled a spell of calm over his body. The wolf slipped deep into his mind, still raging, but suppressed for the moment. Once he had shifted back, she conjured pants onto him and allowed him into the protected space she had created. Having an over protective mate ire filling the confined area of the shield would do nothing, but feed the magic festering inside Victoria's body. She looked down again, the girls face was tightening by the minute, her eyes flickering madly beneath their lids.

Antony was at her side in seconds.

"What's wrong with her?"

"Which is better for her, your suites or her mother's? Never mind ridiculous question..."

Mistress Sleepwell closed her eyes and the space around the three of them shimmered and when Antony blinked they were on the couch in Addyson's suite.

Both Addyson and Estelle blinked frantically still in their exercise clothes as they appeared at the end of the couch. Sleepwell had no time for explanations, with each passing minute; bits of Victoria's body were shutting down and succumbing to the poison of the dark magic. The mistress could feel it trying, and almost succeeding, at inundating Victoria's flesh and changing her very blood.

She ignored the questions, ignored the sounds of everyone's voices and placed the tips of her index, middle, and pinky fingers on Victoria's forehead and pushed with both power and mind. The black mire of magic, it was spreading like wildfire through her body, soon there would be enough to consume her mind and spirit. She frowned as she trudged through layer after layer, it wasn't trying to taint her body, no, it wanted that pure, it just wanted to control the conscious held within. Her frowned deepened, dividing her attention a small amount she searched she analyzed the magic. Her realization came as a sudden smack to the forehead. It wasn't pure dark magic, it was a spell. A conscious spell and not even just one, but multiple layered on top of each other. Each focused on different initiatives. She continued to delve in the glue hoping to find out more about it when she ran into a titanium wall of magic, it shimmered purple rippling around in a circle before bouncing back. There was no weakness, no holes, unadulterated magic, and beyond she could see Victoria's consciousness manifested. There a girl was huddled in a ball as her wolf curled around her.

Girl was flickering, one minute she looked 6 years old, the next minute 16 years old. Her mind in a panic, couldn't settle on a form that would be most helpful and therefore she would be no help to Sleepwell. The wolf looked up and snarled as Sleepwell sent out a probing bit of her own magic. She drew back quickly, but the wolves eyes never left her, there was another shimmer and the wall of magic, between Sleepwell and Victoria thickened and became opaque.

Sleepwell wouldn't be able to help the Victoria, not without her magic driving the child insane. Thinking quickly she pulled back and opened her eyes she quickly turned to Antony.

"How did you know something was wrong with her? Even with your heightened sensibilities and the mate connection you should have only measured a small amount of discomfort, like a paper cut. How did you know?"

"What is wrong with her, what's happening?" Antony snarled, answering a question with a question.

"Mistress with all due respect, you better tell me what the hell is going on with my granddaughter."

Mistress Sleepwell looked up at Estelle's stone face and knew that she would have to answer them now and not later. Addyson, never looked away from her daughters face, her hands never stop stroking her hair and her face. Her back was rigid and she hummed lightly, but Sleepwell knew she was listening.

"Someone is trying to take over Victoria's mind, trying to control her using dark magic. She is strong, much stronger in magic than the average wolf so for the moment, and it is a very brief moment, she is safe. The problem is she has used every bit of magic she has, even magic she has never tapped into to create a shield between her and the outside world. She literally has locked herself inside her mind to keep the dark magic out. Consequently that has locked everyone else out as well, except Antony. The dark spell coursing through her body has safety net of sorts. It is supposed to minimize the shared distress of mates, but Antony acted as if someone had stabbed Victoria. I need to know why, because it may have the key to saving her." Mistress Sleepwell took a breath and looked at both of them.

"If we don't figure out a way to remove the magic, so Victoria's mind has a chance to recover and lower its defenses, she will either be taken over by the dark magic or she will remain locked within herself for the rest of her life. She has shut down her sense and already lost contact with the outside world." With that statement everyone's eyes turned to Antony.

**********

Antony's heart had dropped with each uttered word. As the eyes in the room turned to him he thought frantically to what had happened.

"I was in a meeting. I felt her there like I have always have since we met. At first it felt like a little discomfort, I assumed it was because she was mad at me blocking her from seeing the war preparations or news about the fight itself. Then it was as if someone hit me on the back of the head except it was inside. I felt it all in one big lump. The fear, the pain, the despair, and most of all the overriding anger, it smacked me in the face. I couldn't breathe and it felt like someone was squeezing my heart."

Antony looked up, Estelle looked despairingly back, as if hoping there were more, but knowing that none was coming. Antony, fearing he was no help at all looked back to the mistress, she was smiling.