After a very long hiatus, Kim is back and ready for action! Enjoy!
I own nothing except some original characters I sometimes bring in. The Otherworld and all its characters belong to Kelley Armstrong.
*I want to thank SuperNatural1985 for all her help, amazing support and excellent editing skills without which this would not be possible. I encourage you all to please read her stories, especially the new and improved The Way In: Defiance, at the end of which Kim is introduced.
*This scene takes place towards the end of The Way In: Defiance by SuperNatural1985. I strongly suggest you read that before starting this story. In it you will see how Kim is found, her POV on the situation, as well as her first contact with Max and the Pack.
Prologue
The pain was excruciating. It was like having fire coursing through my veins instead of blood. Every time I tried to move my body protested loudly and painfully. My head felt like it was being weighed down by a hundred ton rock and just turning it to look at the stone wall or at the cage bars made me want to puke. The pain came and went, but it got worse, however, much worse.
I heard a sonorous bang somewhere upstairs, making me jump slightly, my body responding instantly. I groaned and quickly bit down on my lip to keep quite. I needed to listen. Max was up there, somewhere, all alone. He needed to be okay. He hadn't escaped because of me. If he died, I would never forgive myself. Well, if I lived long enough to feel guilt that was. The looks they both gave me every time they saw me… I knew I would soon be dead if Max died. He was the only one standing between us right now.
Another bang went off somewhere. My body tensed. I blinked and sat up. I tried to focus on the shouts that I could now hear, but the words and their meanings were lost to me. The pain was clouding my mind. And the thing Max had given me—the Cure—had only made concentrating harder. It had helped, though, for when she tried to take over. When that happens and the pain takes over, all I want to do is die, but instead I lose myself, lose my mind, my body, everything. I lost it all to her.
I heard another shout, but the sound was so close I couldn't help but look up through the bars. A pang rang through my head at the sudden movement but it went unnoticed as I stared in horror at the scene before me. Max, the little boy that looked no older than twelve, was now in front of me and had yanked back one of our captor's head—Bruce?—who easily doubled him in age, height and weight. Without warning, the young boy, who now had a wild and predatory look in his eyes, produced a long knife from out of nowhere and slit the man's throat, leaving a gaping bloody line behind.
Gasping, I sat up and pushed away from the cage bars, suddenly terrified. Max looked up at me with his wild blue/greens eyes, smiling at me as he licked the blood off his arm. I shuddered and a whimper threatened to escape through my dry throat. Suddenly, above the pain that absorbed my body, I felt the familiar twinge that told me she was clawing at the doors for control again. No, not now, please not now.
Suddenly a shadow moved between the bloody scene and me. I blinked hard to fight the shifting in my muscles and the growing pain, but, looking up, I saw a blonde haired young man barely older than me appear at the cage door. I stared up into his startling deep blue eyes and felt something click deep within me. My entire being seemed to come alive. But another wave of pain shattered this new feeling and had me curling into myself.
I screamed and collapsed to the floor. I heard a crash as the cage door was broken and felt as someone took me in their arms. I lashed out, trying to protect myself at the same time as I writhed in pain.
"Shh. I'm not going to hurt you, I promise," said a voice above my head. I opened my eyes to slits and saw the blonde guy again, his blue gaze giving me a moment of calm before a wave of excruciating pain ran through me once more.
"Help," I gasped in a strangled voice, feeling myself tumble to the floor as I heard my joints begin to crack. "Please." I had no idea who this guy was or why he was here, but I knew he wasn't one of them.
My gaze clouded as I hazily felt him give my arm a slight squeeze, telling me that I was going to be okay. He said something more, but I was beyond hearing, though his eyes spoke for him. His pure ocean blue eyes told me all I needed to know. He wasn't going to hurt me. His hand came down to my cheek and stroked it gently, letting me feel a spark of energy ignite between us as I fell into darkness, feeling protected and safe.