Mercurial Ends Ch. 02

She screamed with excruciating pain but again her fury was stronger than his mental attack and the ground began to tremble beneath their bodies until they both fell through into a new world. She lay with him on top of her in a mound of colorful leaves. He quickly scrambled off of her in fear and ran into the lush forest.

Tabor huffed as she sat up on her elbows. Figures -- my nightmare would be afraid of my nightmare.

She accepted her new state of mind like it was familiar territory although not a welcomed visitor. She dusted herself off and went to search for the woman in the fire-like dress.

She walked quickly through the jungle, determined to put an end to this nightmare. She was emboldened by her victory over Daemoric and now she was eager to meet the mysterious woman to stop this nightmare as well.

The ground shook, throwing her balance off as she tripped over her steps but continued walking as sulfuric steam rose out of the earth's cracks. Tabor was coming close to finding the woman when she heard the birds take off with a noisy warning of danger. The distant sounds of drums could be heard, she began to run towards the sound, knowing the woman was very close.

She finally reached the clearing and saw the woman. The mysterious woman was enthralling and fearsome in every minute move of her body. The reds and golds of her dress indeed looked like fire swirling majestically around her body. Tabor watched the woman raise her arms high above her head and saw a globe of energy, like lightning, coming from her fingers into the ball of light that crackled in the air. This made Tabor hesitant to move forward out of the clearing, this woman was indeed powerful. The woman began to shake violently; Tabor remembered the feeling from her previous dreams. But in her dreams, she didn't feel as elegant as the woman was now. Her body moved, dance like, and the ball of electricity expanded until it burst into a blinding light dissipating across the sky.

The laughter came next and the woman that seemed sinister in her humor was more youthful and light. Tabor began to like this woman; she didn't want the tribal mob to come after her. Tabor wanted to warn the women as she felt kindred to her.

Tabor took steps towards the clearing, the drums were no longer a distant thunder, she didn't have much time but a boulder tackled her to the ground and covered her mouth to mute her scream.

"Carat, don't let them see you," the growl of a man's voice said loudly.

"Get off me."

"You can't let them see you. They'll kill you," Daemoric warned now in his human form. He removed himself from her but held her shoulder steady.

"What do you care? You left me to die anyways."

"Halfling, you don't understand. You may be the only one left."

Tabor struggled to free herself and kneed Daemoric in the crotch giving her seconds to scramble to her feet and approach, short of the edge of the forest shielding her.

She stopped wondering what Daemoric meant. She always thought this dream was a setting for ancient times.

"Don't let her see you!" Daemoric uttered. The air still not returning to his body as he moaned from her assault.

"I see you, Salome, come here my child," The woman called for her in her tribal language and Tabor stepped forward.

"Who are you?" Tabor said quickly. "Why am I dreaming about you?"

The closer Tabor came to the woman, the more beautiful she became. Her dark skin was covered in ornate black tattoos, her almond eyes were like prisms of light dancing around a spectrum of colors, and her curly long hair framed her heart shaped face making her more feminine than a fierce creature with unruly powers.

"They are here," she whispered. Her arms began to extend out from her sides. She began to mumble enchantments and her body trembled again, this time not elegantly, but jarring and violently. Tabor quickly hopped to the side as a large crack formed in the earth between her legs.

"Wait, I don't understand."

The woman stopped and looked at Tabor her prism eyes gone leaving brown caring eyes. "It's the vampire, Salome." Tabor's brows furrowed in confusion.

"He is the one. Watch out for the vampire, Salome."

Her voice undulated terrifyingly with her warning. She then wrapped her arms around Tabor in a strange psychic hug. She struggled feeling herself being pulled into the woman's body, seeing the world again through her eyes and then pulling away to return to her own body. As she struggled she saw the tribe had arrived and began to throw spears at the two of them, fighting to not merge while dodging the spears. She saw the man push his way through the tribe to the front and saw the woman in red and yellow gaze upon him with such love in her eyes, happiness and peace.

Tabor's fight to stay in her own body but was warping her in and out the woman's and her own, exhaustingly. Tabor looked to the forest edge to where Daemoric was, as she lost her battle to be herself. She felt warm strong arms embrace her as she looked off through the woman in red eyes as Daemoric. He was in his wolf form but surrounded by a pack of wolves. The wolves were not grotesque as Daemoric tried to make this form appear but beautiful and powerful.

She turned to the man embracing her. She knew immediately he was a vampire. His strong angular face and tribal insignia ran around his neck in a collar that traveled down the middle of his strong chest. He kissed her so deeply; she immediately knew the passionate love the woman had with the vampire. It touched her very core.

"Eliock tu wei," she spoke into his ear; the tribe began to yell in anger, ruining the intimate moment she was having with the vampire.

Tabor kissed him again, wanting his very essence to wrap her; she didn't care about exhibiting her love in front of the angry mob. She closed her eyes as she felt her power touch his heart, urging him to give back, returning with the gift of strength. But it was only faint; it was not as it was with Shy.

She opened her eyes and was shocked to see the face so close to her own. It was no longer the tribal huntsman, but her own vampire Shy. He made her heart stop with love and feel safer. His hands roughly grabbed her neck and quickly latched his mouth to her neck and began to drink from her savagely. Her eyes widened in shock. It was painful and excruciating as he was draining her of her life. His finger squeezed her fragile neck as if to squeeze an orange of every drop of its juice. His eyes were black with death; Shy's eyes returned an uncaring stare. Satisfied that her left side was drained he nearly ripped her head from her shoulders to drain the other side of her neck. Her heart ached as if it were being pulled out of her body, each sinew, muscle and vein stretched. Her lungs became like paper as she no longer felt the moist air enter her body. A freezing numbness was taking over, quickly spreading. The last moisture of her life fell from her eyes in tears and she tried to pull her Aura together from within to fend off her attacker. But it was like glass scattered about her body, missing shards when put together would only give her enough power to take in breath not enough to raise the volcano to cover them in a warm death of lava.

Death had arrived and she saw its confirmation in the sullen look of the wolves in the forest. They seemed saddened by her death, even Daemoric huffed a howl of pain the other wolves joined in unison. Tabor was drifting above the macabre scene as Shy let her body drop hard to the ground, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and further disgraced her body as he turned away walking back, signaling the tribe to attack her dead body. Spears tenderized her body; the largest man in the tribe with a huge protruding belly and stretched ear lobes was cheered as he approached Tabor's body. He raised a large machete above his head and brought it down severing her head from her body.

Shy was ripped out of his sleep as Tabor sat up screaming, possessed. He quickly wrapped his arms around her, trying to touch her Aura, anything that would stop this night terror, but there was an iron wall of resistance that actually fought him. He didn't understand as he retreated, he felt as if his soul was being severed.

"Love, Tabor, wake up," Shy pleaded until she stopped screaming.

Tabor only stopped for a second and then upon turning her eyes on him she scrambled away from him to the other end of the room. Her body shook violently and Shy was shocked as electricity was flowing through her veins, lighting her blood with a blue glow pulling downward towards her fingers.

"Tabor!" Shy cried out in horror

"It was a dream! Just a dream."

"Stay away from me!" Her feral voice was deep with volatile determination.

"It's me, Shy! It's me baby! No one else. It was just a dream Tabor!" Shy cried.

He didn't understand what was happening to her, it was awesome and terrifying at the same time. She was incredibly dangerous; there was no doubt about it. He had to break through to her Aura least she do something they'd both regret.

"Stop!" She screamed but he was touching her Aura. He had never touched her Aura before and wasn't sure he was doing it right. It felt like his soul was connecting with hers. It was an amazing feeling without a doubt he knew they loved each other.

"Tabor, I love you so much," he pronounced as his vampire nature finally broke through Tabor's resistance.

He could literally feel her soul, it was warm and bubbly. It had her quirkiness that he so loved about her so much, it also had a dark side but her loving nature overpowered it. Tabor was this radiating heat that impacted his nature so much, made him feel whole, a sense of redemption, for all of his wanderings in sorrow. He was awash in her power and the longer he stayed tapped into her the stronger he got and the more brilliant the heat of her soul became.

Shy came out of his revelry in time as Tabor swooned. She crumbled into his arms in tears.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I love you too. I do." She wept.

"Why are you sorry?" Shy smoothed her hair away from her face. "It was just a dream. A dream, darling, nothing else."

But it seemed so real, so ominous, and so true. Why would her dream warn her of vampires, of Shy?

She felt a migraine make itself present in her right temple, spreading to her forehead. She squinted her eyes and huffed. She just wanted to rest but she didn't want to return to the macabre scene of her beheaded body or her head being victoriously hoisted above the celebrating tribe.

"What does it mean if you die in your dreams," Tabor sniffled.

"It means I wasn't there to protect you," Shy tried to joke but it made Tabor's blood run chill. "Relax, dreams really mean nothing. Trust me; I've literally heard them all try to make sense of them, from Socrates to Freud. The only ones to come close are those misguided fools online with dream dictionaries. Let's go to bed."

"Please go on without me, I'm not tired." Tabor pushed his chest with her hand and he took her once dangerous hands into his own to kiss them.

"Ok," he didn't argue and helped her to her feet and chuckled.

"Wow, did you sprout wings and land over here?" He said a little nervously remembering how charged her Aura was and all of its unbridled power was directed at him.

"I don't know," Tabor was also shocked once she realized how far she had moved from the bed."Wow, you're right. Maybe I jumped."

Shy handed her the single crutch once she was steady and she hobbled into the living room to sit down. She motioned for the computer which Shy brought over with a throw blanket and pillow. She shook her head with warning glance and he put the pillow and blanket on the coffee table within reach just in case she decided to take a nap.

"I love you," Shy cupped her chin with his hand and kissed her head before going back to bed.

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Thank you all reading and patiently waiting for this new series. This chapter I edited on my own, so please be kind - I know it's not perfect. I am looking for an editor.

I hope you enjoy this chapter and please take a second to vote, you don't even have to login for it to count. Comments are also greatly appreciated here or in a private email.

Thank you Gerri for being a beta reader.

Cheers and happy reading,

Talyis