An hour passed before the tears finally stopped and Catherine lay on her bed empty, hollow and exhausted.
Gone. It was all gone. Her hopes, her desires, her reason for getting out of bed, gone forever.
She felt numb. Completely numb.
It was as though she had been savaged by a wild animal who had torn at her chest and clawed out her heart, and now dumb with shock she could feel nothing but the numbed throb of her pulse as she bled out. It felt like a slowing drum beat far away.
She stared at the ceiling above her, it was completely blank like her mind. She stared at it, stared at it for several hours until finally a thought like a bolt of red hot lightening broke through her numbed, foggy brain and ignited her again.
"No." it said.
"No." She spoke the word aloud, unaware that she had done so.
"No." It whispered again. "Not like this."
Her empty core filled with anger, burning and swirling like boiling water, it sloshed through her mind and scorched through her limps making her fists clench and her fingers tingle.
"Not like this!" she spat angrily to the ceiling and sat up. She raced off the bed and paced around the apartment like a tigress.
"Not like this! Not like this." She chanted the words angrily like an enchantment, the fury tightened and clenched inside and became a burning ball in her chest. It became bigger, hotter, heavier until she had to release it in an angry primal scream that made her head ache and her throat sore.
She tore open her wardrobe and threw on clothes and shoes. She left the apartment slamming the door- it closed so violently that it bounced out of the lock and stayed ajar but Catherine did not care. Her anger filled the corridor like a huge plume of black smoke and she strode with fire in her eyes, more angry than she had ever felt in her entire life.
No. Not like this. Her mind had told her. Not with this polite final kiss and a quiet mourning. If he was to leave then it should be with ferocious screams and savagery, not this numbed silence. She would end it with barbarity not with a whimper. That was more befitting what they had shared, their passion, their longing. She would demonstrate her love and hurt to him with screams, with clawed fingers and nails, not through quietly slinking away to lick her wounds. There was a fire in her now, she would not let him go so easily, she would carve her name in his flesh so that he could never forget it.
He had mentioned a ship, so she would go to the dock. He would be there…he had to be there or else she didn't know what she would do.
It is dark outside now but Catherine cared not. She flew like a vengeful spirit towards the water, toward her Lucian… but the darkness watched her, and eyes followed her angry footsteps.
The ship had been ready for an hour, packed and loaded, engines rumbling, all they had to wait for was the tide. For once things were going his way for it was possible to cast off now, much earlier than the company had expected. Lucian was grateful, he could put this island behind him. Put her behind him.
Catherine- he tried not to think of her, especially in that last moment with hurt in her eyes, a glimmer of anger still smouldering as he told her goodbye. He'd kept his secrets from her thinking he could keep her from harm and still, somehow, he had managed to injure her. Perhaps if he had not kept his past hidden then she may have understood why he had to leave. Perhaps saying nothing had hurt her worse than being honest- she was angelic after all, she could forgive anything… That thought cut him deep. It was raw, he didn't want to think about it. What was done is done, he could not change the past, but it stung to think that he could have prevented all this anguish simply by being honest with her.
He shook the thought away, boarded the vessel and gave the order. Time to leave his mess behind him. He wished with all his heart that Catherine would be well. Turning to look back to the dock to watch it disappear he wished it again, hoping above hope that someone would listen and take pity… that was when he saw her.
Even from this distance he could see the fire in her eyes. She looked magnificent. Stalking like a tigress, come to give him a piece of her mind no doubt, he couldn't help but smile. Oh, how he loved her!
An impulsive madness overcame him, as he suddenly thought of leaping from the ship back to the land, to scoop her up so he may bring her with him.
Yes! That is exactly what he should do!
She would know everything, understand everything, there would be no more secrets. She would know all, including the depth of his love for her, which he was soon discovering was as wide and deep as the ocean he currently sailed on.
She would understand, she would forgive…she could forgive anything.
Lucian smiled again as she drew closer to the edge of the dock- his avenging angel. She would save him and he could save her. After the hybrid was created they could dance in the sunlight together for all time if they wished. It was a joyous thought, a wonderful dream, one he wanted to make reality, he needed to make it happen so badly that he could taste the longing on his tongue… but it was a dream and dreams are fragile things. It was cut down in an instant as Raze yelled,
"Death dealers!"
Leather clad, the pale ones ran faster than any human could and as such Lucian was forced to watch with mounting horror as they caught up with Catherine. He doubted she had even heard them approaching. Instinctively he coiled up his strength and un-holstered his gun in order to leap from the ship back onto the dock to save her. He would empty a whole clip of UV rounds into their smirking faces before they could hurt a single hair on her head. But he soon found that his arms were held back by 4 of his lycan brethren led by Raze.
"No Lucian." He cried, "We are almost out of reach. They cannot follow."
"Release me!" Lucian roared with a fury he had not heard in his voice for many hundreds of years. Raze simply looked at him sorrowfully.
"Lucian," he said softly, "it is already too late."
"Is this your pet, lycan?" sneered the man with his hand around her throat.
It was a steely grip, unforgiving, it was choking her utterly with inhuman strength. Gasping and clawing at his hand to no avail the fringes of her sight grew foggy and stars danced before her eyes. She was going to die, that much was obvious to her, inevitable in fact, and despite the pain and the panic threatening to overwhelm her, inside there was a peace that kept her sane.
"Attempting to resume to normal life would have been like a slow death," her mind whispers, "Maybe it is better this way." That thought alone keeps her calm.
Suddenly she could breathe again and she gasps and coughs in the life giving air back into her lungs. Her body is weak from the sudden oxygen starvation and her limbs begin to fail her. On the verge of collapse she is suddenly propped up again by the same cold, pale hands that had gripped her throat in their vice like clutches.
The relief of breath lasted only seconds before a new pain explodes in her neck where iron like fingers were now replaced with teeth. Ripping, gnawing, this man was biting her savagely.
The feeling of having her blood forcibly removed from her body was the worst pain she had ever thought possible. Time slowed down and this excruciating torture seemed to last forever. She thought she could hear Lucian screaming but she must have been hallucinating as who knew where he was, sailed to the other side of the world by now and besides this scream seemed to melt into a wolf's pained howl. She must have imagined it.
Catherine didn't know what to think. There was nothing left to think of except for that immense and terrible pain that shattered her body like waves onto rocks.
A sharp and awful blow smashed into her ribs, shattering the bone she was sure and sending her flying. Her body arched into the air like a rag doll and she landed with a sickening slap into the cold black ocean.
The cold overcame her like a welcomed relief from the burning pain as she sank deeper and deeper into the waves. Her lungs burnt, but that was alright…the pain would be over soon. The cold was her friend now, it whispered to her to go to sleep, and she did feel very tired now, so very very tired.
She thought of that wonderful sleep lying next to Lucian, feeling his warmth and reassuring mass next to her. She could pretend now that he was here, arms wrapped around her, keeping her safe from the monsters, keeping her warm. So tired now. So tired. She began to drift off to sleep in that inky black abyss.
Catherine's final thought, blurred and confused, was a quote heard somewhere at some time. Who had said it? She couldn't remember. It mattered not. The words were in her mind.
Adapt to darkness and there will be no darkness within.
Who had said it? Words come from somewhere? No. Confused now. Give up. Too hard. Must sleep. Adapt to the darkness. So cold. Too dark. Lucian. No. Must. Sleep.
And she let it take her.
Lucian had watched aghast as 6 lycans now held him on board. There was nothing left of her…not so much as a ripple or a bubble on the surface of that cold, black sea. She was gone.
Gone.
Gone.
Now he had no choice, he must go on alone.
For revenge, for Sonja, for Catherine.
He watched the dock slip into the horizon as the ship drew further into the night, never for a second did his eyes waver from that spot where she had fallen. She was gone, and his fury would be terrible.
Deep in the dark, her eyes opened. She loved the night. The darkness was her ally. She was stronger now. Deadly.
Her revenge would be deadly.
THE END