Chapter 4

Skyler watched as Gregori laid Rika onto the spare bed, he had clothed her in jeans and a shirt, yet this close up the baggy clothes couldn't hide the frailness of her body. How could someone be so thin. She looked so peaceful as she slept, it was hard to believe that she had turned into a snarling tiger only moments ago. Skyler had watched through Dimitri's mind as vampires attacked the house where Corrine's baby was sleeping. Corrine had been out of the house and standing in a grove of the woods with Dayan, they had left the house for only a few minutes as baby Jennifer slept. Rika had been running for what she thought was her life probably, yet she had still jumped into the fire to save a child.

"Is she all right?" Skyler asked worriedly as she took a step closer to Rika, who had now curled up on her side and sleeping like a cat.

"Don't get too close Skyler, we don't know if she's dangerous." Gregori warned as he held her arm.

Skyler narrowed her gaze. "She as dangerous as anyone would be if they went through what she did, who's brilliant idea was it to scare her again by using a mind control trick and acting as the bid bad Carpathian bogeyman?"

Mikhail laughed as he patted Gregori on the back. "Look at you, Dark One, getting rebuked by your own niece."

Gregori shrugged them both off as Francesca, Gabriel, Dimitri, Jaxon and Lucian walked in to the room. There were other Carpathians waiting outside the room, ready to react at a moments noticed in case anything else unexpected happened.

"I just checked on little Jennifer and she's healthy as a baby can be. Not even a hint of smoke inhalation. Corrine wants to speak to Rika when she wakes up to thank her." Francesca says in her calm usual way.

"But what about Rika? There were no safeguards on her, she might be hurt, she might die from smoke inhalation right now as we're talking." Skyler's panicked voice made everyone in the room realise just how much of a connection the teenager felt towards the stranger.

"I will check her and heal her minor injuries, there is no need to panic Skyler, we are all here to help her, and if it wasn't for you, this child may never have received our help."

Yeah and look at how well we've done so far…Skyler thought bitterly.

"Skyler we will try to help her, it just seems our first meeting with her is an unfortunate one with unlucky events in it. We mean her well." Dimitri's voice was reassuring in her mind. Though she could she Gabriel and Lucian narrow their eyes at the Carpathian who was slowly warming her heart. Skyler averted her eyes back to Rika as Gregori reached his hand out to rest above her chest where there was smoke swirling inside of her.

He felt something sharp like a bee sting as his hand neared the strange necklace like collar Rika wore, a snap of energy popped and made his hand jerk back. "What is that?"

Curious and wary Gregori leaned forward to look at the strange necklace, Gabriel, Lucian and Dimitri tried to get a closer look,, whilst at the same blocking the prince and women.

Just as the four men were so close they could see Rika's twitching eyelids, with their eyes focused on the collar, they didn't see Rika's eyes snap open with their slit pupils. They jumped back when she hissed feral at them

My head was fuzzy, I could feel heat prickling my neck and murmured voices talking. I felt terrible, my body and bones ached, I knew the minute I woke up fully I would feel the consequences of what I'd done. I would be punished for taking of my collar, Don wouldn't be happy with me, not at all. I felt the air stir around me and immediately I felt cramped and surrounded.

My eyes opened in an instant and all I could see were dark men peering down at me. I hissed in defence. They jumped back just as I sprang to my feet and jumped to the corner of the room where I stood crouched with my spine arched, hissing and spitting at them. I needed to shift to protect myself.

My hand went to the latch on my collar, as my finger grazed to cool metal lightning shot through me and sparks erupted up my arm.

"RIKA!" Dons angry voice resonated through my mind, so loud it seemed to rattle my brain. I cried out and crumpled to the floor clutching my head. A insistent beating was pounding against my temples, as quick and persistent as a birds wings flapping, but with the force of a freight train ramming into my skull. I felt my throat close and I choked, suffocated on blood as I coughed it up. Good Lord, Don was pissed!

"I'm….sorry." I saw the people in the room try to approach me, I snarled at them, feeling the wildness raise its head and try to shift, fur ripple across my skin- I was slammed into the wall.

"RIKA! You will stop this, this instant or when I find you, you will be punished even worse!"

Hell at this rate Don was going to butcher me.

I curled up on the floor into a tight ball, I hissed and growled at whoever came close, giving off the message that I didn't want any help. They were talking, trying to say something, but I couldn't hear anything through the keening high pitched noise ringing through my ears and rattling my brain.

"Wait till I find you Rika, you lousy bitch! I'll make you learn obedience!"

Abruptly everything stopped, the noise the pain, Don's anger. He must be tired, he would regroup his strength and come looking for me, like you would look for your lost pet. Then he'd punish me with direct contact. I shivered remembering the last time I'd been punished for running away and shifting. My curled hands relaxed around my head, my chest heaved with even breaths as I calmed down my racing pulse. That's right, I was a pet. Humanity wasn't something I interacted with.

Wherever I was Don would show up soon, he would pay the people here for taking care of me, then take me back to the Cage. I just had to do what I was told, that was it. Follow rules. Cautiously I pushed myself up on my hands into a sitting position. I leaned against the wall and rested my knuckles on my jean clad knees. Huh, I was in clothes, someone had dressed me.

I looked at the people around me and was surprised to see a familiar face. "Skyler?" I tilted my head as I took in her anxious worried features.

A grin broke out on her face and she crouched in front of me, knocking of the two pairs of hands that tried to restrain her. "She's not going to hurt me." She murmured to the peoples around us. "Rika are you all right?"

I nodded my head and waited for her to tell me what to do. Instead she chewed her lip as if she was uncomfortable with my silence.

"Well, you know I'm Skyler, and I know you're called Rika. I'll introduce everyone else to you. That my mother and father, Francesca and Gabriel, my aunt and uncle over there Jaxon and Lucian. My other uncle the one you don't seem to like, though many people avoid him he's called Gregori. Tha one behind Gregori is Mikhail, and the umm other who's.. ugh his name's Dimitri." For some reason she blushed as she pointed to the last man.

I was, however puzzled over the words she'd used to describe them, their titles. I furrowed my brows in even more confusion. I wonder if I asked her something if she'd answer. Normally Don would give me a snippy remark and change topic if I asked anything, or I got a slap in the face. I could only try and find out.

"What is a mother, father, aunt or uncle?" Maybe I shouldn't have asked a question after all, because everyone's eyes widened in shock. Whether that meant good or bad I didn't know but I braced myself.

"Don't you know about family? What it is?" Skyler asked in a hushed tone.

I remembered that word. Family. I had been ten and a kid in the street had asked if I wanted to have dinner with his family, till Don came out of a shop and dragged me away. When I asked what a family was and if I had one, Don had said I had none, no one wanted me. He said he found me nearly dad in the middle of a street all alone. He was kind enough to take me in feed me and clothe me. But I still don't know what it is.

I just frowned some more.

"You don't talk much do you?" The small blonde woman called Jaxon said as she stepped forward. She stood tall with her hands on her hips, I'd seen many people like her before. She stood with the weight of the law on her shoulders, she was a cop. And not the sleazy type she was a straight up law abiding officer.

I jumped to my feet and hid my beaten knuckles behind my back. Her sharp eyes took in the movement and they narrowed.

"Who are you? Where are you from?" Her voice was blunt and to the point, she knew I wasn't your average joe. "That man you are with, Don? What is he? Is he a gang leader?" Oh yeah she was sharp, and too smart for her own good if Don caught a hold of her.

"It's best not to ask questions. He will be angry." I said in a monotone keeping my expression blank.

"Who will, Don?" Jaxon asked again stepping forward, constantly being shadowed by the twin Lucian.

Gregori, the one will with silver eyes also stepped forward reaching out at the same time. I was partially frozen in how to act in this situation, no one was telling me what to do, so what do I do?

"Why don't we take that collar off of you? It seemed to be causing you pain earlier." Gregori was nearly touching the latch on the collar before I realised what he was going to do. I jerked back till my head slammed into the wall, my eyes wide and frantic.

"No don't, if you take it off Don will be even angrier. I will be dangerous." I rushed my words out with my rough disused voice, they heard me though.

"Will you stop crowding her? Rika we wont do nothing you don't want us to do. You helped save a friend of ours we only want to help you." Skyler said pulling Gregori back and clinging to his arm.

I had saved someone? The baby! "The baby is safe?" I asked in a guarded voice.

Skyler grinned and nodded, a slight smile flitted on everyone else's face as well.

I closed my eyes and sighed. I saved someone, but that isn't enough to ask for forgiveness. I'm so sorry I couldn't save the others…If only I-

If only what? My trail of thought ran into a blank wall, ending in just nothing. Pitch blackness. What had I been thinking? Why was my head aching?

"Rika I said are you sure you're alright?" The women called Francesca asked.

No I wasn't. I felt sadness creep up in me, absolutely no hope left. So tired and so weak. I couldn't fight any more. I didn't want to.

I slowly slumped to the floor. What the heck? How could I be feeling anything? I know I felt pain, Don made sure of that, but this other strange sensations, they weren't physical feelings. They were more internal and nothing I could see was causing them. Then it clicked. They weren't mine. This thoughts, these feelings that were foreign to me belonged to someone else. Someone else had a link to me other than Don.

"Whose thoughts are these?" I mumbled out as I felt my mind narrow. Did the room temperature just drop? It felt as though ice consumed me.

It was nearing the end now. The vampires had had their fun, even a few mages had tormented me and conduct their own little experiments. The Dragonseeker blood running through my veins practically made them jittery with excitement.

I would use my strength for one last thing, I would escape so I could tell the Prince and the Dark One what I had learned. Because it seemed Xavier's influence reached further than we thought. He had been dabbling in things he shouldn't have been. Tonight the vampires had gone out an attack against my people. I could feel the tension in the night. I had been drained of blood and energy for months now. Or was it a year already?

The mage who was sat at a sterile metal table across from me didn't even know he was about to die. I still had a tie to Lucian and Gabriel, Darius and Gregori, if I failed I could send a message to them with the last of my sense and strength. But I would try to accomplish this last task with a honour I could no longer feel, then I would greet the dawn in peace.

The mage got up to walk to a stack of ice shelves opposite me. Raising my head a bit I focused on him and made my ravaged voice come out like a song. "Come towards me."

The mage jerked and I could feel him trying to fight my compulsion, I hadn't lived centuries long for no reason. The power in my blood I had earned. Like a puppet on a string the mage walked towards me.

"Now release me from my chains."Murmuring a chant the mage hastily undid the charmed shackles that held my wrists above my head, as well as the chains that seemed to be branded to my chest.

The chains clinked to the floor and I wrapped my compulsion tightly around the young mages mind, holding him still as my fangs lowered to his neck. I knew if I waited long enough they'd make a mistake. And they had, in their rush the vampires had left this slow minded mage in charge, now his life would be my strength.

As my fangs sank in deep, I tasted the rush of fresh hot blood, the darkness in me seemed to recede and consume me all at once. The starved beast roared and raised its head in delight. MY hand clutched tighter around the mages throat as I dug my teeth in further, feeling the strength return to me. This was the closest I had got to feeling in centuries, and I was finding it damned hard to stop.

Months of being kept weak wracked my body, the trauma in my mind from the experiments had shaken my soul. Not even the thought that there were more Dragonseeker's eased my mind. It just assured me that I would not be the last of my families legacy. It would continue if I lost myself to the darkness or dawn. But with the hot liquid fire running down my throat and through parched veins, it was hard to think of the light of dawn. The darkness was crouched and ready, ready to consume me, to accept the fact that my life mate had already passed from this world and I had missed my chance of ever knowing her.

One moment of feeling, the same feeling that insignificant human were allowed to feel on a daily basis all their lives, and always took advantage of. I could feel that, all I had to do was drink for a few more moments, take the last few drops that this pathetic mages heart pumped with life, then I would feel alive. I would feel whole again.

"Why do I feel as though I want to cry for you? Please just stop it, your making me FEEL this way, I've never felt, nothing….. especially something like this, just stop it please."A soft voice that seemed so defeated yet strong rang through my mind, allowing me to pull back and blink in confusion.

"Who was that?" My only reply was a fleeting image of bared teeth. Only these teeth belonged to no animal. But a woman, who was so beautiful my mind was stunned as I let the mages dying body slump to the floor. She had night black hair, that went just below her shoulders, the tips and underneath of her hair seemed to glisten a slight orange, or red, was it blood or dye? Her light tanned skin glowed even as she hunched in on herself and curled up on a hardwood floor. Her clothing was baggy and average, jeans and blue t-shirt, yet I could see her thinness under the fabric, even if most of the flesh on her was muscle. Her hands fell down at her sides, her knuckles cracked and bleeding. I could see her perfectly in my mind. Her chest raised as she breathed in deeply, exhausted, her slim neck was crowned with a leather and metal plated collar. Her cheek bones were high on her oval face, her nose rounded and without a single break in it was tiny, her eyelashes as dark as her hair lowered over burning azure eyes. She was beautiful.

The moment I thought that and my breathing stilled. Everything went back to black and grey. But that meant nothing. She was here, in my time of need and near turning she had reached for me, or I had reached for her. And now that I knew the link I was looking for I could feel it twanging between us a strong silver line that connected our souls.

Paying no attention to the failing heart that I could hear I stalked out of the twisting cave tunnels with a clear path in my mind. I knew she was here, I had to go to her now.

I used all my strength to turn to mist and seep out of the cracks in the crusted over ice on the small entrance to the chamber I was being held in. When I was in the night sky I made the molecules form into the shape of a buzzard. The buzzards form was a simple thing, and it flew fast for what I needed. I soared above the trees, my keen eyes not locking on anything they could see below, not until the trees thinned out and expensive looking house rose before me. I swooped down feeling the probes of minds as I hastily shifted into my human form.

As my feet touched down, I inhaled deeply, there were loads of Carpathians here, and so was she. That silver cord that clung to the last piece of my sense and sanity was nearly tangible, I could practically taste and see it leading me to her. I took a step forward to the house where my salvation was waiting.

The door opened to show the Dark Twins and the Dark One. I lowered my head in slight acknowledgement, but the beast wanted nothing to do with manners, it wanted its mate. I wanted her.

"Gregori, Lucian, Gabriel it is a pleasure to see you. I have news to tell our prince, but I have other issues to attend to at the moment."

Gregori folded his arms over his chest in a hostile position. "And what would be so much more important than any news you must deliver to us?"

Before I could say my response and snarl at him, a roar came from the house. I reached for her mind, trying to fully connect so I could convince her to come to me, so we could be with each other, help each other. A second storey above the porch, a orange blur landed on the porch roof with a thud. I looked up to see a snarling tiger, teeth bared in a vicious display. I felt no fear as I stared calmly into vertical pupils surrounded by a ring of clear azure.

"My life mate." I murmured just before she hunched up and pounced off the roof, landing on the grass and running in the same instant at me. I stood waiting for her to decide our fate. Her catlike grace was beautiful, just as much as the glimpse at her human body had been to me. Just as she neared me and reared up with extended claws, I felt her mind scream and her eyes wavered between that of a cat and of a human.

The snarling roar turned into a woman's pained cry, a naked version of the lady I had seen in my mind fell into my arms as I caught her. She shook violently and reached out to the collar that was still secured around her neck.

"I felt, what you were feeling. I've never felt before…Don't ..don't at-" Her voice cut off as her eyes glazed over. I nearly panicked until I heard her soft voice again.

"Don't take off the collar, no matter what. Whoever you are, please just make sure the collar stays on."

Then she drifted into a fitful sleep, she was too aware for it to be unconsciousness.

I wrapped my arms tighter around her, snarling at the mass of Carpathian male and females alike now standing outside the front of the house staring in surprise at me and my lifemate.

A/N A BIG thanks to t42n24t2 who reviewed and let me know that this for some reason came out in bold and underlined. Thanks that was helpful, i dont know why it did that cause I didnt type it like that . XD