Mercurial Ends Ch. 04

"How magical is the ceremony?" Tabor asked carefully, "I mean, we have lots of ceremonies and pledges. How real is our ceremony held up?"

Hurt clouded Shy's face and she couldn't look at him; she didn't want to cause him pain. But pain quickly shifted to spite. "Tabor, I thought you would have learnt your lesson about trying to find loopholes."

"Shy, that not what I am asking!"

"It's more ironclad and real than any mortal frivolity the gross exhibition of self-importance and spending that you call a wedding."

It was a low blow and she knew he was only reacting out of fear. But now she was terrified, her history of bad luck with love now threatened her life. And Shy, trying to take a chance against his own terrible curse by loving her with everything he had left, was walking blindly into a metaphorical storm--thrashing blankets of hail pelting him until they had already unknowingly walked off of a precipice.

Shy's eyes clenched shut. He couldn't even look at Tabor, and he was so upset that he had to get out of the room. He closed the door behind him, leaving her alone with the plate of cookies and apple juice -- the tokens of his love.

***

Majestic and serene, the was world pure and perfect in this moment.

Having landed on a branch, Tabor took in the breathtaking view before her. The world was untouched by man's self-cannibalism, not yet stripped of its natural beauty by gnashing iron and steel, the bleeding of coal clouds into the air, and the greed for oil that would devour the land's soul.

A whist of wind whistled through the hollow branches hauntingly, its tendrils dragging across her skin and pebbling it with goose bumps. She didn't fully understand what frightened her--the fact that she had returned to this horrible place in her imagination, or that she had so become accustomed to this apocalyptic scene that she found she could appreciate the setting. Each time she returned to this dream it grew more mysteriously beautiful and then turned more and more terrifying.

Melancholy hollows filled the air before the tropical bird swooped down to give Tabor a spectacular show. Its large wingspan was so powerful it caused the trees to rustle weakly as the bird flew out of the lush canopy. It was always a sign of danger when animals began to flee, leaving only an unnatural silence in a wild jungle.

Sulfur burned her nose as the stilted air carried it hotly across her face. Suddenly an unnaturally hot breeze flashed-scorched her skin, forcing her legs to action before she heard the explosion ripple loudly outside of the canopy. She ran with extraordinary speed; it was the first inkling things had already gone terribly wrong--her natural fight-or-flight instinct had taken over. She sprinted through the forest, dodging tree branches and athletically bounding over fallen logs. The top of the canopy rustled like a rainstorm was fighting to make its way through the tropical barrier. It wasn't drops of water hitting the leaves above, but volcanic ash that fell like demonic fairy dust.

A one-second glance over her shoulder was all it took to grasp the magnetism of how she had narrowly eluded danger. The edge of the forest was a ledge to threatening purple mountain that was now covered with ghostly shale and red lava rivers. Her curiosity was a dangerous heartbeat of time. A blanket of fire roared across the lush green ceiling.

She was stunned to stone. Her muscles atrophied to her bones. Her mind screamed, but no notes could reach her vocal chords.

The noise of trees falling to their deaths trapped her, but there was some hope of escape. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and she knew something or someone was behind her watching from the only escape route. The smoke stuffed her lungs with toxins. Cotton-like ash burned her face. The earth groaned, and in front of her from the direction she escaped the ground separated from itself. Smoke of hell hollowed up from each opening, trees and rocks rolling into the chasm.

Tabor's heart jump-started and she sprinted away, but the earth was winning, each opening lapping at her heels. It shackled her ankles with scorching heat, but miraculously she pulled away despite her blistering skin. She ran hard, not allowing her lungs to rest.

Her mind was floating, becoming numb to the pain of searing acid in her calf muscles. Only the sense of flight and speed aided her. She had never been a particularly good runner--athletics in school meant crowded meets and games and the ruckus of fans.

The wind blew like hot steam through the air, dampening it with a musty-smoke smell, but the faster Tabor ran the more invigorated she felt. The world around her was crumbling and burning into itself, but she felt strengthen by the painful moans of nature, as if it were under her control. Her hands burst with flames glowing in her veins as she sprinted up the last un-burned tree with the agility of an animal. She crouched on a branch, looking over the canopy, and a stone bulged in her throat. The vast jungle was still colorful with vibrant rainbow flowers, unfazed by the large black smoke cloud that rose from the flames and the surrounding mountaintops.

Tabor should have been terrified; it was the end of the world. The giants in the core of the earth were no longer dormant and, like dominoes, the earth's furnaces exploded in each surrounding mountain range, circling her. Tabor felt immensely gratified by the cacophonous symphony of destruction. Her head tilted back and she twirled around in awe as lava and ash looked like fallen stars in the middle of day. A feral scream rose from her aura, heralding the end of the world.

She leaned over, grabbing her knees, unable to stand; her body was raked with laughter.
She truly had a vivid imagination. She no longer feared this dream, yet wondered what would happen next in the dream's attempts to make her weak.

And a haunted howl rose from below her.

"Not even the destruction of the world can scare me, so you think I'm going to be afraid of a few mangy dogs?" she called out. The howls fell silent.

Her body sparked with blue electricity that ran like a web down her arm to her fingertips. The canopy rustled like a large herd of raptors were approaching.

Gigantic wolves leaped out of the canopy with snarling teeth bared and dripping with braids of saliva. Tabor's heart fluttered to prepare herself to fight. A large grey-and-white wolf tackled her, causing her to fall from the tree and smack hard into the ground, knocking the wind from her lungs.

The wolf that nearly killed her was transformed into a man. Strangely, he looked more modern than the tribal huntsman she had dreamt about before. He wore a gold heart-shaped locket around his neck; it was tarnished green. His eyes were magnificent but she couldn't look at them for too long; she was being hauled to her feet by the others who had transformed to their human forms.

"Lycans." She pressed her lips into a tight line and dusted off her pants before folding her arms. "You could have asked me to come down from the tree instead of making fall out of it. Oh, oops, dogs have no manners unless they are taught."

"I'm Galief." The one with the mysterious eyes, who hadn't even attempted to break her fall, stepped forward.

"Like I give a shit," Tabor spat, trying to put on her best hardass persona so as not to melt to his pretty face. Or his pretty body that was so strong and chiseled, or his rising chest or his dimpled cheeks that perfectly framed his lips and square jaw.

"Daemoric wants to see you."

Tabor huffed again and rolled her eyes. "Brilliant. Well, guess what? It's my fucking dream and he can't make any demands of me. "

"Te Na'tebu, you must see him."

Tabor kicked some dirt at Galief. She only wished she could have the power to make the earth move like she did earlier in the dream. "Get the fuck away from me."

The Lycans around her began to crouch in predatory stances, some already in various grotesque forms of transformation.

Good, she thought with a clear mind. She reminded herself that she did not like lycans, even though they were beautiful in their human forms. They began to circle her but she dug her feet in.

"Go ahead, it's all a dream anyway," she challenged.

"It's not just a dream. Not when we are here."

"Yeah-yeah, you are the night, you create the shadows, blah blah blah--heard it before."

"Tabor, please listen to reason."

That did it. Tabor's eyes flashed red-hot and alarms went off. She couldn't hear her conscious anymore that usually sat at peace tables. "Listen to me, asshole, you fucking abhorrent creature. I will kill you..." The men surrounding her laughed misogynistically but it only fueled her fury. "I will hunt your nest, cave, fuck... whatever it is you live in--a hovel. And I will personally lead Shy there. He will want to quickly tear you limb from limb..."

"Stop! Don't get her angry," she heard Daemoric behind the men, approaching in his human form.

Tabor narrowed her eyes on Daemoric and charged at him but the men held her back. "You!"

"Te Na'e, stop," She heard the violent voice of the women in red and yellow travel on the wind.

"This is my fucking dream!" Tabor screamed in anguish, just trying to get some control. At least when she dreamt of the women she could feel for that minute the swelling of love for her vampire that seem to last the infinite span of time.

"Carat, don't try to fool yourself; you know this no mere dream." Daemoric held his hand out to Tabor but she only squeezed her body to herself more. "I need to speak to you. This is the best way to talk to you without him."

"Why are you here?" she angrily screamed.

"I told you, we are creatures of the night, Tabor."

"Well, it's been a long night and daybreak is probably minutes away." Tabor looked at her wrist and sucked her teeth. "I guess you'll have to twist my mind when Shy is around; and by the way, I hope you try. He has been looking forward to finding ways to torture you."

"Tabor, Na'e, listen!" The wind hissed.

"I'll only wake up at the zenith anyways, so who cares."

"You have no reason to trust me. But I am here to give you the truth you seek. Julisa told you I wanted to meet you, so here we are."

"You left me for dead!" Tabor growled.

"Halfling, do you remember tapping into my head? Why do you think you could do that?"

"I can read Shy's thoughts to me all the time."

"Yes, but Shy is a vampire, plus you can't read the mind or history that is deep in his heart. You read my history, and I am a Lycan. Lycans do not share the same way you do with your vampire. We share only our histories and our desires. We keep the deep inner-workings of our triumphs, dreams, and failures with each other. You saw in the Institute my failure as the alpha of this pack, allowing Julisa in to enchant my wolves."

Tabor shuddered, recalling the time she entered Daemoric's mind behind bars by accident. He had nearly frightened her to death to get her out of his head. She saw his dark and vile soul, filled with selfishness. His hatred for vampires was so intense it still riled her today.

She saw Julisa in between two wolves. They both loved her, both brothers, but one would be killed, captured because of his love for her. The scientists caught him off-guard while he was spying on Julisa and the other brother. She remembered eavesdropping on the agreement that Daemoric had with the other brother, who refused to try to find his sibling because he wanted the vampire bitch to himself. He betrayed his own brother. Daemoric believed that he had not protected either wolf; they were entranced by the girl to become like her - a monster.

"You have to stop any war between us and the vampires."

"I'm not The Hague or Switzerland. I hate you."

"Because I syphoned your energy?"

Tabor rolled her eyes. "Genius."

"Tabor, why do you think it was so bad? I was only trying to survive. "

"By stealing what is mine. My energy is mine. It is not ambiguous of ownership, especially when I depend on it to live."

"How is it different from the mother who feeds her baby from teat of her own bosom?"

"What nonsense is that? If you are not going to make sense, I'm done with this conversation."

"Remember I told you, just as you are not so different from the vampires, you are also not so different from Lycans. If you allow Shy to go to war with us, you will only be killing a part of yourself."

"Well, being that I am the only power aura left in the world and have lived most of my thirty years just fine--I don't think I will miss my newfound Lycan half. Whatever that is."

"Then indeed you will be the last. We want you to join with us. We don't trust you with the vampire and we will pledge to protect you."

Tabor barked out a laugh. "Protect me? I've seen your version of protection. No thank you."

"Tabor, I can't be more serious. Beware of your vampire master; he will rule your life and your second breath."

Her aura first sieged her before her conscience realized she had become the predator on attack. She had crouched down in a fashion she had seen Shy do many times before, preparing to deliver a lethal kill. She remembered the first time she watched him really hunt; he'd said that he could make it pleasurable, but this time she deliberately decided torment would be her course of action. If it were indeed more than a dream, then she intended to make sure he felt it in the waking world.

She had never been able to touch or glimpse at her own aura, but in this dream she became her aura--it was amazing. It pooled like melted silver around the edges of her soul and blasted out with sheer light that blended into the grass, giving each a blade a shade of green. It towered up into the air, stirring the moisture till it created frothy rain clouds. She saw the world through the eyes of an aura.

Her delicate fingers dug into the ground, an acrimonious smile sliding across her face.
She glared at Daemoric and roared, and the werewolf flew into the air like she had lobbed straw to the wind. She didn't move an inch. She knew what she was doing, the moment her fingers were planted in the earth. Shewas the earth; she could move the ground like a child molded clay. The heat of the earth's core was at the tips of her fingernails; she only needed a simple twist of her wrist to turn the axis of the world in her favor.

Tabor, the warrior, took deadly determined steps towards her Lycan prey. Her small frame towered strangely over the wolf. Daemoric's lips pulled back, his sharp teeth glinting.

"Don't test me, Carat; I don't want to harm you," he snarled. He was telling the truth, but Tabor didn't care if he refused to fight.

"You left me to die, left me to suffer, and now you threaten my master!"

The sky cracked and sizzled against the earth, moving Daemoric back inch by inch.
Tabor's eyes rolled back, returning with a deathly cold expression that frightened all the wolves as she toyed with their Alpha. Her hands pulled down blades of electricity, which she crafted into reverberating balls of crackling energy and hurled at Daemoric, purposefully missing.

"Mi-na Na'e! Stop! Do not hurt him," the ancient wind pleaded.

"When do you plan to attack the vampires?" Tabor demanded, her pupils lost in a dark green pool slowly filling to the edges of her almond shaped eyes. She clenched her fist and a blue ball of light rose from her palms.

"Stop this now, daughter!" The wind screamed like a banshee.

Tabor glanced at the sky and her heart sank, it had turned blood red and the moon and sun sat together side by side. The horizon was like watercolors, bleeding sunrise with the dead of night, and creeping on the opposite side of moonlight. The hot wind, painted with red and orange leaves, blew her off her feet--it was the part of the dream she dreaded. She didn't even notice the drums pounding, but this time they were still faint. She was in a different part of the forest, far from the woman and the vampire.

Tabor scrambled to her feet, gathered another arrow of lightning, and charged at
Daemoric.

Galief barked and crushed her onto the canopy floor. His jaws snapping at her face and threatened her in his language. His large paws pressed hard against her chest and she screamed, feeling her ribs yield.

"Surrender!" Galief snarled, adding more pressure to her chest, saliva dripping down his chops. Tabor's reason turned from red to white hot, and her fingers gripped the dirt at her sides. The ground beneath them evaporated into a cavern. The fall stunned the young wolf long enough for Tabor to scuttle to the surface.

Daemoric was standing in his human form, waiting for her.

"Bring it on, Na'tebu!" Daemoric's eyes flashed.

The green sea in Tabor's eyes filled and turned from brilliant green to stormy black. Her lip curled and her fists tightened, producing a black fog of tendrils that twisted and curled around her fingers.

"NO!" the ancient jungle screamed and a blast of white light became a scalding wind with a roaring tidal wave of fire directed only at her.

Tabor screamed as she fell into a pool of the worst pain ever. Her aura fought to flee her body; it pulled every muscle within her away from bone, trying to escape her bubbling flesh. She didn't know anymore if she was dying or dreaming.

Footnote:
Mi-na Na'e – Sweet, from my womb
Na'tebu – of our existence

*************************
Hello Dear Readers!!

Thank you for reading this new chapter.
I want to thank my editor, Archangel from the bottom of my heart.

I liked the contest I did in OTAP when Shy and Tabor visited the MoMA, so I am going to do it again. The winner gets to name my next character.

Can you guess:

1.) Who was the suicidal artist that Shy drank from that gave him a painting as a gift?
a. Extra points if you can name the painting.

2.) Can you find the mini-sculpture that Shy
rendered? (Attach a link to it if you can)

3.) What is the name of the artist who made the monstrosity that Shy eventually learned to like?

4.) Can you find the Pierre Bonnard painting that Tabor dislikes or the Picasso she did like?

Post below or on my blog (talyis.tumblr.com) The winner will get to pick the name of an upcoming important character. Please include both Boy and girl names please.

Other Important News! I have a blog now! Its: talyis.tumblr.com.

I will post Shy's yummy cookie recipe from this chapter, playlists and other cool things from Mercurial Ends, eBook information and upcoming character interviews -- so you can interact with Shy.

I am also working on publishingOf Thorns and Pearls andTalons.

If you have a writing blog – join my Erotica Challenge – it's a great way to promote your blog and writing.

Please don't forget to vote!

Cheers and Happy Reading!
Talyis