She was running. Behind her, the faint sounds of her pursuer seemed to match the staccato rhythm of her heartbeat, thudding against her ribs as though to pull her onwards, faster, faster. Seeing the dark outline of trees ahead, she snarled with the effort of sprinting as fast as her powerful body would allow, the breath rasping in her lungs, her ears pinned against her skull. She shot into the trees, weaving her way through their trunks, hardly daring to slacken her speed. Seeing a low enough branch up ahead, she gathered her iron-hard muscles, feeling them swell beneath her sleek coat, and pushed. Landing with graceful poise on the branch, she whipped her tail up and around beside her, her mouth open as she panted desperately.
Her ears were straining for a sound of his steps, her eyes darting around trying to find the gleam of light on his pale flesh. A branch snapped ahead of her and she froze. Below her, the albino panther stalked into the dim moonlight, his crimson eyes alight with the promise of pain and horrors unimaginable. He looked up at her, tail flicking like a taunting serpent, and she hissed in reply, baring sharp teeth. The remained there for a long moment, and then seemingly by mutual consent, they leaped for one another. They met in midair, and there was a flurry of claws and teeth and tails and fur, and it felt like her heart was going to burst with the effort, got to win, won't go there, can't go, nononono…
They landed lightly, gracefully, on their paws, but he was already moving, slamming a shoulder into her side so that she half-fell, crouching against the ground to avoid the snap of his teeth. Feeling his fetid breath on her cheek, she snarled and he gave a silent laugh, lips peeling back in savage amusement. His eyes meet hers, and she lashes out with hooked claws. Her glare is proud, fierce. 'Tonight, we finish this.'
Kai shot up in bed, gasping for breath, her body slick with cold sweat. Throwing back the covers, she hit the light switch and stumbled to the window, clawing at the catch until it parted, allowing her to feel the cool night air on her face. Closing her eyes, she fought to still her trembling, breathing deeply of the scents of Spenser Academy, grounding herself. Rubbing at her shoulders, she shuddered. The nightmare was a familiar one, but its frequency never made it less terrifying.Looking up at the moon, modestly veiled by a thin layer of clouds, she closed her eyes and smiled.
The Change was painful. Falling into herself, she let go of the present, banished memory and ignored the lingering fear of the nightmare. In that terrifying, exhilarating place where she had no name, no memory of herself, her lips moved silently. Be cat. Then came the exquisite agony of the physical transformation, her bones grinding as her limbs shortened, her spine arching, her mouth open in a silent scream. Fur exploded from beneath her nightdress, tearing the delicate garment in two as she fell to all fours, gasping for breath. Her fingers curled and hardened into claws and her eyes gleamed with green light in the darkness.
Kai shook herself, panting quietly. Her thick tail lashed the air as she stretched, her claws sinking into the carpet. Crouching back on her haunches, she leaped onto the windowsill, framed there for a moment, a sleek, graceful predator. Grateful that the school had accepted fear of heights as her reason for requesting a ground level room, she slipped out into the night, feeling the primal power in her body with every step. Heading for the forest, she enjoyed the feel of the fresh, damp air on her skin, inhaled the crisp scent of woodland and the heavier, darker smell of moist earth. Breaking into an elegant lope, she vanished into the shadows beneath the trees.
It was the pulse of something like the Power that woke Reid. He lay still in bed, holding his breath unconsciously. His bright eyes bled into black voids as he reached out warily, but there was no other stirring that darted along his magical senses. Sitting up, he padded over to the window, careful not to wake Tyler. Looking out into the night, he adjusted his vision so he could see through the darkness, just in time to watch as an enormous black shadow was swallowed by the wood. He shivered slightly as the hairs on the back of his neck rose. He hadn't seen what it was, but that was no way a native creature. Hesitating, he looked over at his sleeping brother again. Then he shrugged, went across the room and slid out into the silent hallway.
It took only a few drops of magic to get him outside; locks were easy to undo, and the security cameras were even easier to turn away. He took off towards the forest, moving quickly, his breathing quickened by adrenaline. Pausing on the edge of the trees, he looked back at the school building, suddenly wishing he'd woken Tyler or one of their other brothers. That thought made him straighten and clench his fists angrily. Reid Garwin doesn't need help to deal with one mangy animal. Clenching his teeth, he stalked into the forest.
The silence around him was unnerving. The rustle of an owl gliding home overhead made him jump, and he dug his nails into his palms. Get your act together, Garwin! It was probably just your imagination. Not feeling comforted, but not willing to admit that he was afraid even to himself, he moved deeper into the woods. It wasn't until the school building was completely out of sight that he stopped, feeling cold fingers of dread sliding over his spine. There was someone – or something – watching him. He could feel it in the icy sweat suddenly breaking out over his body.
Swinging around, he searched the darkness in vain for a more solid patch of black. Above him, perched on a thick branch, Kai watched in a mixture of anger and amusement. Anger that she had been so careless, amusement that he had dared to follow her; there weren't many teenage boys who would come out into the forest at night, whatever they dared to say when they were safe in the daylight at school. Her large, rounded ears followed his movements as he began to back away, not thinking to glance upwards. Taking the opportunity when he finally turned his back to her, she gracefully jumped to the ground, gliding back through the trees towards the school, breathing a silent sigh of relief. She berated herself all the way back to her dorm.
Reid finally, reluctantly, turned to go deeper into the forest. It was the weird tingling on the back of his neck that made him spin around again, and he briefly caught a flash of glossy black fur and a tall, feline shape before it vanished. He remained frozen there for a seemingly endless span of minutes, then that soft, faint sense of almost-Power surged again. Taking off in a sprint towards the Academy, he darted out into the open just in time to see a light flicker off in one of the ground floor windows. It could have been coincidence, but a niggling doubt at the back of his mind made him resolve to figure things out.
Early the next morning, the sun found Reid sauntering casually through the hallway of the ground level dorms. Coming towards the end of the hall which had sported that single, glowing light, he slowed even further, dropping down to tie his shoelace. The sound of a door opening up ahead made him look up sharply, in time to see a tall, slender figure coming towards him with an air of distracted inattention. He rose in time for Kai to walk straight into him, his hands gripping her waist to steady her. Ignoring the odd jump his heart made when he touched her, he smirked to himself when she looked up in surprise, lips parted on a soft, almost inaudible hiss.
Scratch that. Definitely something odd.