Chapter three

Nightmare

My eyes snap open and everything is on its side. It takes me a moment to realise I am on the ground. Blades of grass tickle my nose causing it to twitch like a rabbit's. The grass is wet underneath and feels like a pillow under my head. I begin to close my eyes once more enjoying the calm.

"CATALIE!"

My name pierces the air around me. I jump up off of the floor, my heart begins to pound so hard I feel that it's gonna burst out of my chest. I am on my feet within seconds and looking all around me trying to find the shouter with no luck. I begin to think it was just my imagination playing tricks on me but then I hear it. A twig is snapped underfoot about five hundred yards away and the grass rustles underneath me from a push up in the air showing an unwanted presence. Five hundred yards may seem far away but my hearing is better than the average human and I can read the changes in the elements like a human can read a book. I crouch down into the werewolf attack position taught to me by my father, who is a werewolf.

My name is yelled through the trees again and this time I find its direction instantly. I turn my body to the west and hold my position for thirty seconds. When I am positive its not a trap I take a cautious step forward and then another. I close my eyes and focus on the wind and the sounds travelling along it. I can hear panting roughly three hundred yards in front of me. He's shaking violently and with no idea where his direction of running will lead him to. He collapses and I am instantly running towards him faster than I've ever ran before. I can't stop myself and a part of me doesn't want to stop. The air blows quickly with me as I run making me run even faster. I throw my right hand out and let it latch onto a sturdy tree, my nails dig into it's bark and I am hurled around it latching my left hand onto the other side of the tree, my feet land neatly on the tree's trunk and I end up holding onto the tree sideways. The bark feels weird under my feet and I look down to discover I am, in fact, wearing no shoes.

"What the hell is going on here?" I ask out loud hoping to hear my brother responding and giving me his warm brotherly smile. I close my eyes and wait to hear Luscious's voice, but it never comes. I open my eyes and cold tears fall down my hot face sizzling when they touch my skin. Hot face? My entire body is surprisingly hot actually, way too hot for an average human to sustain. The air wraps itself around me as if trying to shield me from danger. I close my eyes and purr like a kitten to the wind. I can feel it all around me, on my arms, my legs, my chest…my chest? I look down at my body and see that it wasn't a mistake. I can feel the wind on my chest. I am wearing my black leggings which I sometimes wear to bed in the winter and my black bra and I've got a pair of leggings tied around my left ankle and a small sports shirt tied around my right ankle.

"Will someone please tell my what's going on here!" I bark around me, the air grabs hold of my words and sends them flying across the forest as if searching for someone to answer my questions. I stay in my current position for a while longer keeping my eyes closed to better my hearing.

But its not my ears that sense something, its my nose. A wretched smell lingers up them causing me to wrinkle my nose in disgust. My eyes snap open when I hear footsteps in the distance, I turn my head to my right into the direction of the footsteps. My body begins to shake uncontrollably violently. I try to clear my mind to clam myself down but it only seems to worsen the shaking. My hands clench around the tree ripping off pieces of bark as they form into fists.

"CATALIE!"

The shaking seems to instantly stop at the sound of my name. I drop down from the tree but still retain the attack position of a werewolf. I slowly take steps forward keeping my eyes shut to better my hearing still. The air sends a gust of wind to stay at my heels like a loyal hound, I nod graciously at the air. I continue to walk forward always pausing after every step to wait for some sort of response all the time the wind stays at my heels. Leaves on the floor are fluttered upwards silently as the wind clears my path. The way the air is acting is against everything I know, I've never heard of an element acting this way, especially this way towards anything partly human.

Claws scraps down a tree not far to my left and a whine sends shivers down my back.

"Screw this!" I tell the wind "I am finding out who that was and when I do they'd better have some answers for me!" I yell to my left " But I would appreciate it if you'd stay with my air." I add talking to the element with a smile crossing my face. The wind travels up my body making me giggle like a child, it then returns to my heels waiting for me to continue. I turn my body to the left and walk forward not letting myself leave the attack position. The smell flairs up my nose and a growl escapes my throat when my nose wrinkles. A whine comes from my left and I begin to shake violently again.

"Stuff it I am running, what ever is out there, time to see if they can take me." I tell the wind at my heels. "Think you can keep up?" I ask it and to answer the air sends a shot of wind slapping me in the face.

"Okay ouch! Let's see if your speed can match your attitude shall we?" I run to my left just as fast as I had before not giving the air another chance to wind-slap me. I am surprised that the wind can still remain at my heels running at this speed but I like it, I don't feel alone. It reminds me of me and Lusci…Someone hurls themselves at me causing me to loose my train of thought and be thrown onto the ground. My arms are instantly pined down and the figure is on top of me refusing to let me go. My head feels like its gonna explode, this creature is the source of the revolting stench and I can't seem to focus on escaping. I thrash my legs around hoping to hit the creature in the back but with no such luck, the creature, still pinning down my arms, lifts his legs and brings them crashing down on mine. Pain is all I feel, pain is all I know at this point. Screams of agony rush out of my throat whilst the creature laughs smugly.

"You bastard! I am gonna rip out your filthy heart and shove it where the sun don't fucking shine!" I scream at the creature but he seems to enjoy this as he laughs louder.

"How can you rip something out of me when I don't have it dog?" he asks cutting my screams off. That voice…I've heard it before but where?! The creature squeezes my left wrist breaking it like a twig and pain consumes my body once again and screams filter from my throat as well as words I don't think my parents know I say. He rests his now free hand on my heart and closes his eyes for a second, the pain my body leaves me and I go numb. He brushes my hair from my throat and runs his index finger down my throat over my vein. His finger is as cold as ice, his finger runs down to my chest and he digs his finger into my skin and slashes me, scarlet red blood rushes to the surface. He locks gazes with me, his eyes are as red as rubies around his iris, he smirks revealing a row of sparkling white teeth, he runs his tongue across his teeth and his fangs catch my eyes. His fangs are so long as if he's stuck kitchen knifes in their place. I struggle to find my voice once I realise what this creature is and why my nose is blazing from its scent.

"Vampire" I whisper.

"Werewolf" he replies and this time I focus specifically on his voice trying to place a name to the voice.

"Luscious?" I ask weakly, confusion whips over the vampires face and he tilts his head to the left "Oh my God it is you isn't it Luscious? God I am so stupid for not remembering your voice sooner! Luscious its me…Catalie!" at the mention of my name his head shoots back up and his right hand grasps my broken wrist, he stares into my eyes for a long moment. The numbness leaves my body just as fast as it entered and pain begins to attack me.

"Luscious could you please get off of me, you're kind of hurting me bro…well "kind of" is an understatement you're fucking wrecking me bro!" I shout at him, he waits for a second then climbs off of me waiting for me to stand up myself. "Luscious in case you forgot you kind of broke my legs AND my wrist. I can't get up by myself." I point out at him.

"Oh my God its you Catalie!" he gasps, I nod at my broken body "Oh yea, sorry 'bout that sis." he bends down and takes me in his arms, I wrap my right arm around his neck and pray to God he doesn't drop me. "Geese I thought I'd never find you in this stupid forest Catalie" he walks over to a nearby rock and gently sets me down. The air is instantly surrounding us attacking Luscious.

"What the fuck is up with the air?" he asks me while the air rips his clothes to pieces.

"Hay its okay, he's my brother, chill air!" I shout, the air dies down as soon as I stop talking. It sends a gust of wind up my back sending much needed shivers over my broken body.

"Its okay you can take a break. I won't be getting into anymore fights with Luscious now here. Thank you." I nod respectfully and the air leaves us but sends a small gust of wind to hover nearby.

"Mind tell me what's going on here Catalie?" Luscious asks turning to face me.

"How about first you fix me, I am not exactly in the best of conditions right now unless you hadn't noticed." I point down at my body with my right hand.

"Catalie you are fixed, your body has healed itself, in fact your body has been healed for about five minutes, you just didn't notice because you were a bit preoccupied is all." he shrugs his shoulders as if my body healing itself is no big deal.

"Okay, question one answer now for question two. WHY ON EARTH DID YOU ATTACK ME! ARE YOU PISSED OR SOMETHING?!" I loose my anger with question two and the wind slaps him in the face which I enjoy "Thank you wind" I nod and the wind returns to its position.

"Because of what we are Catalie. Or at least what we temporarily are. Sometimes the nightmares will be you living life as either a vampire or a werewolf whilst other nights you could simply be running from them both." Luscious wrinkles his nose at me "I've got to say you stink Catalie."

"Yea well you're no bed of roses either bloodsucker" I say. We share a laugh and it feels like this nightmare is turning into a dream. Luscious's head turns as does mine. The wind rustles around us both raising leaves into the air

"Listen it would be better to carry on this conversation in the real world Catalie so time to wake up." he orders me seriously.

"Okay…how do I do that?" I ask looking like an idiot. Suddenly the air doubles up in strength and sends all of its might into my chest winding my (kind of ironic) and I fall to the floor banking my head on the side of the rock. Everything go black and the last thing I hear is the sound of the wind at my ankles dying down and leaving.