Leaping from the ladder with the unmistakable grace of a jungle cat, Shalimar turned to face her new surroundings. The lack of light in the dreary basement hallway didn't even threaten the feral as her fearless, yellow eyes were soon in control of the situation. Taking in the scent of the air around her she noticed how heavy with blood it was. Psionic blood to be exact. It was nearly filling the air like a thick fog and Shalimar almost had to fight her way through as she walked down the hallway.
She knew she was walking into a trap but she didn't care. No longer were her thoughts and concerns for herself, but for her friends. Friends, she repeated. What about Lara? Wasn't she her fiancé? Her clarity continued to sink in allowing her to feel her own heart and soul once again. No longer would she be driven by the undeniable pulsing desires that had taken control of her heart and mind. She was lucid now. Emma was in trouble. Her Emma. She could practically feel the psionic's pain above her very own. It broke her heart but she pressed forward. She wanted to help Lara and Brennan too, wherever they were.
Felicia grinned and turned to the doorway behind her as if sensing the coming presence of the feral. Smiling with excitement she turned back to Emma, Matthew mimicking her actions.
"Looks like the party's about to begin," Felicia said anxiously. "Don't go dying before your time now," she ordered flashing an evil glare at the psionic and Lara before rushing off and out of sight as Matthew followed her.
Emma could sense the feral now. She was close. She knew she wouldn't let her down, knew she'd come to rescue her. Despite the pain tingling all over her abused body she found the breath and strength to call out to her.
"Shalimar! Shalimar, help!" she screamed into the empty distance.
The heart-wrenching plea of the psionic further angered and broke the feral's heart and she quickly picked up her pace now running through the hallway. She turned a corner and saw the doorway up ahead and thrust herself towards it as fast as she could her feral speed in full gear as she ran. The pain in her leg begged her to stop but she refused to listen thinking only of Emma and Emma's pain and her desire to ease it.
"Shalimar! Help me!" Emma called as she caught her first glimpse of the feral in the doorway across the room. Her plea was instantly followed by uncontrollable coughing, the taste of blood making it's way up her sore throat before splattering onto the floor at her feet as she continued to cough, the pain that came along with it becoming more unbearable by the moment. She was thankful the feral had seen her as she was sure she wouldn't be able to call to her anymore.
Rushing through the doorway the worried feral froze in her place as her senses of danger were turbo charged. She could tell there were others in the room and not too far away but the sight of Emma and Lara hanging in the middle of the room was more than enough to send her rushing over to her red headed friends.
"Emma," Shalimar spoke softly as her hand cupped the psionic's face. Her eyes trailed down to the fresh wound on her stomach bringing a small tear down her cheek as she brought her eyes back to the psionic's to catch the sadness she held in them as well.
Shalimar turned to Lara and touched her face as well running her hand down her tied up body, her eyes seeming to apologize as her gentle caresses graced the woman's bruised skin. The fear in her blue eyes would have broken Shalimar's heart if it weren't already. While not physically cut she could practically feel it bleeding into her insides and choking her up.
Feral eyes turned their angry glare around the room looking for the enemy she knew was close by. She turned them up to the ledge around the top wall of the basement and finally to a small doorway off to the side of it squinting as she locked herself on the sight.
"Right on time," the familiar voice spoke in the darkness of the doorway before Felicia stepped out to reunite with the feral. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd let your little girlfriends here die, Shalimar," Felicia taunted bracing her hands on the rail at the top of the balcony. "You mean you actually care about the feelings of another girl?"
Shalimar furled her brow at the sight of the woman she'd dumped so long ago.
"Felicia?" she questioned shocked that her red headed ex had been plotting against her.
"Shalimar, I'm surprised you even remember my name how happy you were to dump me and toss me aside like yesterday's news. Did you think I forgot about that? And then you kill my friends and expect that to go unchallenged? I don't think so. You remember this church? You said you wanted to get married in it. That was before you traipsed all over my heart like candy shells on the floor of a cheap bar."
"I never said I wanted to marry you, but I see you didn't take my advice and see that shrink."
"Your little girlfriend there's more fragile than I thought. So much blood for such a little girl." Felicia said shaking her head.
Felicia grinned wickedly at Shalimar causing the feral to lunge forward in preparation to pounce up on that balcony and rip her heart out where she stood. Before Shalimar could carry out the action a large metal cage like barrier was raised between the middle of the room blocking her from Felicia. The gate was clearly electrified and would prevent Shalimar from crossing it only adding to her anger as she kept her eyes on the evil woman.
"I wouldn't try taking that gate apart, Shalimar, unless you wanna end up looking like fried road kill," Felicia warned. "Now let me explain the rules of the game to you," she began as she raised her hand forward making some kind of remote visible as she pressed a button. Shalimar turned at the sound of the necklaces on both Emma and Lara began to beep and quickly turned back to Felicia.
"All you have to do is untie one of your girlfriends there and remove the collar I've attached to them and you and her get to walk out of here."
"What?" Shalimar questioned, the craziness of the woman seeming to have increased since their last meeting nearly seven years ago.
"I'm afraid one of your girls isn't gonna make it out of here, Shalimar. But I'm not totally heartless. I'm going to let you decide who lives and who dies. That's more of a decision than you ever gave me. Of course there's no guarantee you'll both live after you walk out of here but one thing at a time huh."
"I will tear your heart out-"
"You know, Shalimar, instead of threatening me you really should be working on saving one of your girls there otherwise you're gonna be bowling with redheads real soon. All you have to do is follow the instructions on the collar's keypad to deactivate it."
Shalimar leaned towards Emma and began to inspect the strange necklace knowing a bomb when she saw one. She backed off refusing to touch it any further for fear it would explode right there.
"How about this, you let both my friends go right now and I won't feed you your own liver."
"Sorry, Shal, this is the deal. But there is one little catch. As soon as you deactivate one of the collars the other will instantly detonate. Don't worry though the blast won't be enough to kill you too, only the person it's attached to. Choose carefully." Felicia grinned clearly enjoying the pain she was inflicting on the feral and the power she had at having the cat by the tail. Felicia turned to leave but turned back to Shalimar upon reentering the doorway.
"Oh, and I wouldn't think about it for too long. Both collars will detonate in five minutes. Wow, killing one of your girlfriends and killing you inside. Two birds one stone huh. Oh wait, three birds. I'll see ya later, Shal,"
Shalimar felt herself near panic as the woman fled her sight and out of the building. She wanted to chase after her but was grateful her impulsive actions were long gone and she took a deep breath trying to get a hold on the situation.
Instinctively she reached for Emma's collar and began to fiddle with it. She lifted it up slightly which quickly got a protest out of the red head.
"Shal, no," Emma's weak voice came as a shock to the feral's ears. "You can't," she protested, swallowing hard as some of the blood in her throat retreated back down to her stomach. She almost had to force the words out of her now and she could feel her body growing colder and weaker with every second. "You can't remove it." Emma paused trying to enable herself to speak again. "It'll explode."
Shalimar knew the psionic was right but the sound of her disappointing words only made matters worse. Emma began to pant slightly in an effort to keep breathing and Shalimar cursed kicking the wall out of anger. Her eyes moved back up to the psionic and they both realized the other had tears in her eyes.
"Jesse," Shalimar called desperately. "Jesse, I need you!"
With no answer Shalimar turned to Lara, now passed out from fear and light-headedness. She inspected the red head's collar for any signs of flaw but found none only found her hope and faith decreasing as it was sinking in that the chance of both of her friends walking out of here alive was extremely unlikely.
She turned back to Emma, her eyes now closed and no breath passing through her full lips. With panic in her heart Shalimar reached for her cupping her face with both hands and shaking her head softly.
"Emma? Emma!" Shalimar screamed but the psionic's head remained down, her cold cheek pressed to Shalimar's hands, as tears fell from the feral's golden eyes to pool in the blood at her feet, now as cold as the woman before her.
Unrelated Author's Note: Just thought i'd say in case anyone who's readig this is also reading any of my other stories, i had some questions emailed to me asking if i was gonna finish the other stories i have incomplete (There's Something About Shalimar and Whispers In My Soul) and i am. Whispers is actually done but not proofed and i want to type that up now but i can't find the notebook it's written in it's just disappeared :P and TSAS is amost half written and the rest of the chapter maps are in the back of that same notebook so i can't write any more of that until i find the notebook either but i'm glad you all like the story(s) and want to read more of them :) i'll post them as soon as i can:)