chapter19

I woke up early again and dressed in ripped jeans and an over sized gray t-shirt. After talking with Sleeping Panther, I went in my room but I didn't sleep, I just lay there, listening to Will's heartbeat in my ears. I didn't understand everything that was happening to me or us. I, we, were changing into something, something that was darker and sinister than what we were.

'You have to save the world, worry about what you and Will later.' As if by command, Will sat up, thick hair spilling over his shoulders. "What?" he breathed and looked at me as if I were alien. "Tasha?"

"Yes?" I asked. The look on his face worried me but I also felt his shock of waking up that thrummed my insides like a guitar.

"What is it?"

He breathed. Once. Twice. He looked up to match my gaze. "You were in my dream. You were..." he trailed off in mid sentence a color began to flush his pale complexion. Blinking, I shrugged, trying to appear neutral. "A wet dream is a wet dream, Will. We have to get dressed, come on." 'Push the thoughts out of your head and get on with it, Tasha,' I scolded myself and I took a deep breath. Will swung his legs over the bed and stood, muscles in his back moving with the shirt. 'And staying in here isn't helping...'

"I'll be outside," I said softly but Will's voice stopped me.

"It wasn't that kind of dream...it was...I'll tell you later."

I simply nodded and walked out. It's what kept us together as friends. We knew how far we could push one another and when one said stop, it meant stop...for now. The air outside was wet with dew and the sun was spilling its first rays over the horizon and into the clearing. My sneakers squeaked on the wet grass and I stopped to stare back at Der who matched my gaze from across the clearing.

"So it has happened," he said softly and stood, crossing the clearing in large strides.

"What?" I inquired, folding my arms. My stomach growled to tell me it was breakfast time but I ignored it; I barely at breakfast to began with.

Der stopped a few feet from me. "You two have been linked," he said, blinking slowly. "It means you're the closest WolfAngels in the last few thousand years."

"Goodie."

The dragon seemed puzzled by my expression when Taka descended from the sky and landed close to us. "You can't expect her to have the same attitude towards it as past ones have had, Der," she said folding her wings close to her sides, scales glinting in the morning light. "They were friends first, not...anything more. They might not want to change that."

"They're going to have to, sooner or later."

"Over my dead body," I put in.

Black and white dragon looked at me with amused curiosity. "And what makes you so sure, my friend, it'll take that much?" Taka said, flashing a tad too much fang for her expression not to be a smile. I simply shook my head. "I won't let it happen," I answered simply and the two dragons looked at one another with a hidden look before smiling.

"We will take your word for that much, Natasha," Der said. I was about eight seconds from just screaming in exasperation before Grandfather walked up with Will in tow behind him in a white t-shirt and old cargo pants. 'Argue with the beasties later. Right now, I have to figure out what exactly is going on. After all, you deal with fighting better than this whole love crap.'

"Pup, I know the first words out of your mouth will be 'what is going on' and therefore, I am going to just tell you," Sleeping Panther said, driving his black staff in the ground. Will came and stood next to me and I fought the urge to swallow. "Do you believe that all things are animals, even humans?"

My friend blinked then shrugged. "I don't know," he said softly but I shook my head. "Everything is an animal, humans just happen to be animals that can invent the Internet and have tabloids," I answered and Will smiled. I could still feel him in the back of my mind but I could shut him out mostly from my thoughts, which was comforting.

"Tasha is correct. Everything is an animal. Humans are smarter animals but they are still just that; an animal. Now how does be a WolfAngel complicates things?"

It was my turn to blink. "I'm not understanding where you're going, Grandfather," I said but now it was Will's turn to shine. "We're part animal, Tasha. More so that what we'd normally be. Therefore, we'd probably act more animal like...right?" My elder let a small smile creep across his face. "Very good, William. I see how you two compliment each other so well; if one doesn't know, the other one does. Interesting.

"But the point is, he is right. You have more animalistic instincts in you than normal humans. Of course, the households you were raised in helped you bear down upon them but they are still there, never the less. Tasha describes it as an ember and William agrees. It is something you both do not want to experience but you have to. It is a part of you that you must learn to embrace before you face Sayt."

Will and I looked at one another. I felt his fear, his apprehension, and his frustration in knowing that Sleeping Panther was right. "We have to do this," he said in a low voice. "If we want to defeat Sayt, we have to. We can't go in to a battle this big crippled by this." I knew he was right but...I was afraid. I hated admitting it, I hated saying anything scared me, and I hated myself more that Will could feel it flowing through his veins. Narrowing my eyes I nodded. 'I'm not going to be afraid of something that's inside me,' I thought firmly. "Let's go."

Sleeping Panther nodded the briefest of nods before saying, "Go stand at opposite ends of the clearing. Taka, Der, I would suggest that you keep out of their line of fire."

"Don't worry, I'll be safe and sound," Taka said, backing a good distance away, Der at her side. I could see that she was curious but also afraid. Afraid? Afraid of what? Us?

"Close your eyes, my children," my grandfather's voice instructed and I did, spacing my feet apart. "See the thing you fear, see it with your own eyes. Be afraid but embrace it. Dive into it. Make it apart of you..." Inside my eyelids, I could see the dark spot on my...soul? Mind? Psyche? Maybe it was all three but I didn't have time to ponder what it was. I picked it up and fire spread from where I held it, covering my body in red hot and pure instinct.

In the real world, I felt the fire as if it fire had replaced my skin and I fell to my knees, letting out a small cry of pain. It burned, reaching things that no fire should ever be able to reach, touching things that nothing should be able to touch. In the back of my mind, I heard Will scream but it all seemed so small compared to what was happening to me. Everywhere the fire touched, I grew bigger and I was able to paw out of my outer clothes before they were shredded. I could feel my bones, my organs, shifting and changing positions, the long, shaggy black hair that flew from my skin. It wasn't the graceful change of becoming a WolfAngel; it was violent, brutal, painful. I tossed my newly formed muzzle back to the morning sky and let out a howl of pain and triumph that carried for miles across the valleys of Nivta.

I was what I feared:
An animal that held my emotions in it's hands and had no boundaries.